Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease widespread in the world. Sardinia represents, together with Finland, the region with the highest incidence of type 1 DM (DM1), as well as a high prevalence ...of gestational DM (GDM).
Despite the improvement in obstetric surveillance, perinatal and long-term adverse outcomes are still frequent in the offspring of diabetic mothers.
During gestations complicated by DM, fetal heart is one of the most affected organ potentially undergoing structural heart defects or several degrees of fetal myocardium hypertrophy and impaired cardiac function.
The aim of our study was to evaluate, through echocardiographic examination, cardiac features and performance in a South Sardinian population of newborns of diabetic mothers comparing them to a group of control subjects.
In our sample, the E/A ratio resulted a significant marker of early diastolic dysfunction in asymptomatic neonates born by diabetic mothers, even if such result should be confirmed on larger samples.
Superhydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) surfaces with contact angles of ∼170° and high optical and X-ray transparencies have been fabricated through the use of optical lithography and plasma ...etching. The surfaces contain either a microscale pattern of micropillars or a random nanofibrillar pattern. Nanoscale asperities on top of the micropillars closely resemble Nelumbo nucifera lotus leafs. The evolution of the contact angle of water and lysozyme solution droplets during evaporation was studied on the micro- and nanopatterned surfaces, showing in particular contact-line pinning for the protein solution droplet on the nanopatterned surface. The microstructural evolution of lysozyme solution droplets was studied on both types of surfaces in situ under nearly contact-free conditions by synchrotron radiation microbeam wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering revealing the increasing protein concentration and the onset of precipitation. The solid residuals show hollow sphere morphologies. Rastermicrodiffraction of the detached residuals suggests about a 1/3 volume fraction of ≥17 nm lysozyme nanocrystalline domains and about a 2/3 short-range-order volume fraction. About 5-fold larger nanocrystalline domains were observed at the attachment points of the sphere to the substrates, which is attributed to particle growth in a shear flow. Such surfaces represent nearly contact-free sample supports for studies of inorganic and organic solution droplets, which find applications in biochips.
The aim of this paper is to expound on the rational design, fabrication and development of superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs) for the manipulation and analysis of diluted biological solutions. SHSs ...typically feature a periodic array or pattern of micropillars; here, those pillars were modified to incorporate on the head, at the smallest scales, silver nanoparticles aggregates. These metal nanoclusters guarantee superior optical properties and especially SERS (surface enhanced Raman scattering) effects, whereby a molecule, adsorbed on the surface, would reveal an increased spectroscopy signal. On account of their two scale-hybrid nature, these systems are capable of multiple functions which are (i) to concentrate a solution, (ii) to vehicle the analytes of interest to the active areas of the substrate and, therefore, (iii) to measure the analytes with exceptional sensitivity and very low detection limits. Forasmuch, combining different technologies, these devices would augment the performance of conventional SERS substrates and would offer the possibility of revealing a single molecule. In this work, similar SHSs were used to detect Rhodamine molecules in the fairly low atto molar range. The major application of this novel family of devices would be the early detection of tumors or other important pathologies, with incredible advances in medicine.
A novel electrowetting-on-dielectrics (EWOD) device in open planar geometry allows probing of droplet mixing on a superhydrophobic substrate under quasi contact-free conditions. We demonstrate a ...droplet-based microreactor with integrated convective-flow mixing for the reactive-mixing of CaCl(2)/Na(2)CO(3) solutions. The device provides unique conditions for scattering, spectroscopy and imaging probes requiring an unobstructed droplet-access.
Polymeric (PMMA) ultrahydrophobic surfaces with contact angles up to about 170° have been fabricated and used in the context of synchrotron radiation experiments on biological droplets. The different ...microfabrication processes included either an optical lithography phase followed by a plasma texturing one or a single step deep reactive ion etch attack.
The drying of several biological solution droplets has been monitored. Room temperature evaporation experiments (lysozyme, lactalbumin, cytochrome C, doxorubicin and synthesized peptides) finally result in the formation of easily detachable hollow residuals because of the low interaction between the ultrahydrophobic substrate and the aqueous droplet while pilot experiments (bovine insulin) in a sitting-drop environment bring to the formation of well defined crystals. Recent results about in situ X-ray diffraction experiments by SAXS & WAXS (Small and Wide Angle X-ray Scattering) μ-beam techniques confirm that the presence of such surfaces influences the formation of crystal or fibril structures. These substrates represent indeed a suitable support to study biological and inorganic droplets in a near contact-free environment exploiting the homogeneous evaporation rate induced by the ultrahydrophobicity of the system.
A novel electrowetting-on-dielectrics (EWOD) device in open planar geometry allows probing of droplet mixing on a superhydrophobic substrate under quasi contact-free conditions. We demonstrate a ...droplet-based microreactor with integrated convective-flow mixing for the reactive-mixing of CaCl
2
/Na
2
CO
3
solutions. The device provides unique conditions for scattering, spectroscopy and imaging probes requiring an unobstructed droplet-access.
A novel electrowetting-on-dielectrics (EWOD) device in open planar geometry allows probing of droplet mixing on a superhydrophobic substrate under quasi contact-free conditions.
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► Si micro-structured superhydrophobic surfaces by plasma etch and optical lithography. ► High water contact angles up to 168°. ► Facile Electrowetting On Dielectric platform working ...at low DC voltages. ► Potential coupling of the setup with analytical in situ techniques (X-Rays, Raman).
A simple and ready to use approach for combining silicon superhydrophobic surfaces with ElectroWetting On Dielectrics (EWOD) phenomenon is presented. The substrate is fabricated using a two-phases process, where a first optical lithography step is used to define the position of the micro-pillars and a second one exploits the characteristics of reactive ion etch Bosch technique. The fabricated substrate has been then coupled with a micro-manipulator tip to show the local changes mechanism of contact angle by applying very low DC voltages in the range from 5 to 30V. The device can be of interest for a wide variety of microfluidics applications related to the biomedical field.
