Protein-coated microbubbles have become one of the emerging platforms in biomedical research as theranostic agents. In recent years, microbubbles have been extensively used as ultrasound contrast agents and carriers of molecular cargoes, pertaining to which several studies have focused on tuning the properties of these bubbles to achieve a higher degree of biocompatibility and extended stability. Synthesis of microbubbles has so far been traditionally carried out with pre-heated proteins like bovine serum albumin (BSA) as shell coatings, owing to the ease in making BSA crosslinked structures through disulfide bridge formation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report how the texture and stability of a nematic liquid-crystal (LC) thin film of 5CB vary as a function of UV-ozone (UVO) exposure of the underlying poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate. UVO exposure of the PMMA substrate not only increases its surface energy, making it more wettable, but also results in the generation of oxygen-containing polar functional groups on the PMMA surface due to photolysis of ester. While the stability of the 5CB films is expectedly enhanced on UVO-exposed PMMA substrates against thermally induced dewetting, the texture of the film also changes as a function of the UV exposure time ().
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPal A, Manna S, Dhara PC. Comparison between the motor function of school-aged children with normal birth weight and children with low birth weight: a cross-sectional study. Turk J Pediatr 2019; 61: 374-385.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the sixth most common malignancy worldwide and is the major public health problem in the Indian subcontinent, where it ranks among the top three types of cancer in the country. Here, we aimed to analyze the clinical and tumor characteristics which impact the survival of OSCC patients.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of clinical records of all patients who underwent treatment for OSCC at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, between January 2009 and January 2012 was analyzed.
We report thermally induced nematic to isotropic (N-I) phase transition as well as dewetting of 5CB Liquid Crystal (LC) thin films coated on flat and topographically patterned substrates with grating geometry of different line width ( ) and periodicity ( ). On a flat substrate, the nematic to isotropic (N-I) phase transition, which takes place within a temperature range between 31.1 °C and 34.
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