Environmental and processing factors affecting the biostability of medical devices made from traditionally "stable" polymers, such as isotactic polypropylene (PP) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) , were analyzed and their undesirable degradation was related to performance of typical medical devices. Among the critical phenomena determining the biological performance of UHMW...

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of practical microfluidic valves fabricated using laser printer lithography. These optofluidic valves are opened by directing optical energy from a solid-state laser, with similar power characteristics to those used in CD/DVD drives, to a spot of printed toner where localized heating melts an orifice in the polymer layer in as little as 50...

Sulfated polysaccharides (SP) from algae are of great interest due to their manifold biological activities. Obstacles to commercial (especially medical) application include considerable variability and complex chemical composition making the analysis and the quality control challenging. The aim of this study was to evaluate a simple microplate assay for screening the quality of SP. It is based ...

Patchy polymeric particles have anisotropic surface domains that can be remarkably useful in diverse medical and industrial fields because of their ability to simultaneously present two different surface chemistries on the same construct. In this article, we report the mechanisms involved in the formation of novel lipid-polymeric hollow patchy particles during their synthesis. By cross-sectioni...

In this study the formation of water-soluble and water-insoluble complexes between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and biocompatible poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone-co-acrylic acid) (P(VP-co-AA); 2:1), anionic polymer, was studied at different protein, polymer concentrations and pH values. BSAP(VP-co-AA) complexes were studied by turbidimetric, gravimetric and chromatographic methods. Stability of the pr...

L. Angelini, 2, 3 M. De Tommaso, 4 M. Guido, K. Hu, 6 P. Ch. Ivanov, 6 D. Marinazzo, G. Nardulli, 2, 3 L. Nitti, 7, 3 M. Pellicoro, 2, 3 C. Pierro, and S. Stramaglia 2, 3 TIRES: Center of Innovative Technologies for Signal Detection and Processing, University of Bari, Italy Physics Department, University of Bari, Italy Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari Department of Neurolo...

Jan W. Kantelhardt, Yosef Ashkenazy, Plamen Ch. Ivanov, Armin Bunde, Shlomo Havlin, Thomas Penzel, Jörg-Hermann Peter, and H. Eugene Stanley 1 Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, MA 02215, USA 2 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA 3 Institut für Theoretische Physik III, Justus-Liebig-Universität, D-35392 Giesse...

to investigate the effects of drought stress and different combinations of animal manure with super absorbent polymer on yield and yield components of corn, a split plots design was conducted based on a randomized complete block design with 3 replications in fars agricultural research center in 2007. irrigation treatments were assigned as the main factor in three levels: 70, 105 and 140 mm evap...

Biofilm-associated infections are a major complication of implanted and indwelling medical devices like urological and venous catheters. They commonly persist even in the presence of an oral or intravenous antibiotic regimen, often resulting in chronic illness. We have developed a new approach to inhibiting biofilm growth on synthetic materials through controlled release of salicylic acid from ...