Single step method to fabricate durable superliquiphobic coating on aluminum surface with self-cleaning and anti-fogging properties.

The development of self-cleaning and anti-fogging durable superliquiphobic coatings for aluminum surfaces has raised tremendous interest in materials science. In this study, a superliquiphobic coating is fabricated on an aluminum surface by a single-step dip-coating method using 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane-modified SiO2 nanoparticles. The successful implementation of the aforesaid coating in different applications requires extensive investigations of its characteristics and stability. To understand the properties of the coating, surface morphology, contact angle, self-cleaning, anti-fogging, and water repellency were investigated under perturbation conditions. Additionally, the dynamics of water and oil on the coated sample also were studied. Furthermore, the durability of the coating also was examined by performing thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability tests. It was found that the coating is superliquiphobic for water, ethylene glycol, glycerol and hexadecane, and shows thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability. Further, it exhibits self-cleaning and anti-fogging properties. This approach can be applied to any size and shape aluminum surface; thus, it has great industrial applications.

Haptoglobin phenotypes in diabetes mellitus and diabetic retinopathy.

An analysis of haptoglobin (HP) phenotypes in 81 cases of diabetes mellitus (DM) without retinopathy and 122 cases with diabetic retinopathy (DR) were studied in relation to 180 normal and healthy controls matched for age and sex. A significant decrease in HP 2-1 frequency was found, suggesting protection for heterozygotes in both DM and DR (with a relative risk of about 0.31). As an acute-phase reactant HP may be functionally involved in the etiology of DM and DR, which are associated with immunologic and inflammatory processes, respectively. No significant differences were found with respect to sex, age at onset, duration of DR, types of DM and DR, and family history.

Iron in sickle cell disease.

Iron deficiency anaemia was detected in 23% of cases with homozygous sickle cell disease. The aetiology of iron deficiency was similar to the other population in the community. High serum ferritin level was detected in 15.4% of the cases and was well correlated to the number of transfusions. Tissue haemosiderosis was not detected in any case. Patients with heterozygous sickle cell had either normal or low serum ferritin levels.

Copper metabolism in retinitis pigmentosa patients.

Serum copper, ceruloplasmin, and urinary copper were estimated in 13 normal subjects and 24 patients with primary retinitis pigmentosa. The serum copper levels in patients appeared to be higher and ceruloplasmin levels lower than in the normal subjects. The patients seem to fall into 2 categories with regard to urinary copper. About a third of them excreted 2-4 times more copper in the urine, while in the others the excretion is comparable to normal subjects. It appears possible that there exists in India a genetic isolate of retinitis pigmentosa with altered copper metabolism. The distribution of these patients may be different between the northern and southern parts of the country.

Dermal ridge configurations in retinal detachment.

An analysis of dermal ridge configuration in 95 retinal detachment patients showed characteristic association with different aetiological bases of the condition like myopia, aphakia, vitreous degeneration and idiopathic factors. The study revealed a significantly high frequency of whorls on fingers and low mean interdigital ridge counts in the patients as compared to controls. Aphakic detachments showed maximum and vitreous degeneration detachments minimum variation from controls for all characters except the main line terminations. Of all the parameters studied, main line terminations contributed maximum for the variation between the detachment types. The results are discussed in light of the contribution of dermatoglyphic characters to the aetiology of retinal detachment.