UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Arthritic toe pathologies frequently lead to the development of painful apical pressure skin lesions that can compromise gait and affect quality of life. Historically conservative treatments involve the use of a toe prop with the intended aim of reducing plantar pressure from the apex of the digit. However, the effect of toe prop treatment on plantar digital pressure ha...

Many strategies have been developed to improve the fouling release (FR) performance of silicone coatings. However, biofilms inevitably build on these surfaces over time. Previous studies have shown that intentional deformation of silicone elastomers can be employed to detach biofouling species. In this study, inspired by the methods used in soft-robotic systems, controlled deformation of silico...

Filamentous hyphae of the human pathogen, Candida albicans, invade mucosal layers and medical silicones. In vitro, hyphal tips reorient thigmotropically on contact with small obstacles. It is not known how surface topography is sensed but hyphae lacking the cortical marker, Rsr1/Bud1, are unresponsive. We show that, on surfaces, the morphology of hyphal tips and the position of internal polarit...

The widespread prevalence of commercial products made from microgels illustrates the immense practical value of harnessing the jamming transition; there are countless ways to use soft, solid materials that fluidize and become solid again with small variations in applied stress. The traditional routes of microgel synthesis produce materials that predominantly swell in aqueous solvents or, less o...

Cells must exert traction forces onto the substratum for continuous migration. Molecular dynamics such as actin polymerization at the front of the cell and myosin II accumulation at the rear should play important roles in the exertion of forces required for migration. Therefore, it is important to reveal the relationships between the traction forces and molecular dynamics. Traction forces can b...

Silicone resins, filled with phosphates and other oxide fillers, have been recently proposed as feedstock for the manufacturing of scaffolds a composition resembling that commercial Biosilicate® glass-ceramics. Silicones engineered fillers enable preparation novel carbon-containing Biosilicate-based composites and, fundamentally, easy application additive technologies. After successful demonstr...

Technical sil icones have been applied in many fields of science and industry because of their chemical stability and their unique combina t ion of useful properties [1,2] , In the fol lowing the densit ies p and self diffusion coefficients D for a small series of low molecular weight sil icones have been measured in a wide temperature and pressure range. The aim of this study is to compare the...

Craniofacial prostheses, also known as epistheses, are artificial substitutes for facial defects. The breakthrough for rehabilitation of facial defects with implant-retained prostheses came with the development of the modern silicones and bone anchorage. Following the discovery of the osseointegration of titanium in the 1950s, dental implants have been made of titanium in the 1960s. In 1977, th...

Aim The propagation of HIV-1 infection represents a major problem of public health, notably in sub-Saharan Africa where about six out of ten infected adults are women. Among the new options of preventive therapy, antiretroviral drugs used as microbicides distributed via an intravaginal ring (IVR) constitutes an original solution. IVR is an interesting mode of drug delivery because it is a coit-...