(C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The focus of this work was to synthesize bio-based polyurethane (PU) foams from soybean oil (SO). Different polyols from SO were produced as follows: soybean oil monoglyceride (SOMG), hydroxylated

soybean oil (HSO), and soybean oil methanol polyol (SOMP). The SOMG was a mixture of 90.1% of monoglyceride, 1.3% of diglyceride, Fludarabine in vivo and 8.6% of glycerol. The effect of various variables (polyol reactivity, water content curing temperature, type of catalyst, isocyanate, and surfactant) on the foam structure and properties were analyzed. SOMG had the highest reactivity because it was the only polyol-containing primary hydroxyl (-OH) groups in addition to a secondary -OH group. PU foams made with SOMG LY411575 and synthetic polyol contained small uniform cells, whereas the other SO polyols produced foams with a mixture of larger and less uniform cells. The type of isocyanate also had an influence on the morphology,

especially on the type of cells produced. The foam structure was found to be affected by the water and catalyst content, which controlled the foam density and the cure rate of the PU polymer. We observed that the glass transition (T(g)) increased with the OH value and the type of diisocyanate. Also, we found that the degree of solvent swelling (IDS) decreased as T(g) increased with crosslink density. These results are consistent with the Twinkling Fractal Theory of T(g). (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Selleck S63845 Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 112: 2567-2578, 2009″
“Background: Diseases of the vulva often cause

severe impairment and long-term problems for the affected women. Adequate treatment requires expert knowledge on the part of treating dermatologists and gynecologists. This was the reason for the initiation of an interdisciplinary consultation service for vulvar diseases at the University Hospital of Lubeck. Patients and methods: Over a period of 2(1/2) years, 208 patients were seen in the new consultation service. Cases were classified as inflammatory diseases, neoplastic diseases, infectious diseases, vulvodynia, or genodermatoses. The effectiveness of treatment was documented by photography, biopsy and whenever applicable a quality of life assessment using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). Results: Inflammatory dermatoses were diagnosed in 133 patients and neoplas-tic diseases in 32 patients. Infection was diagnosed in 25 patients, vulvodynia in 8, genodermatoses in 3 and other diseases in 7. The DLQI was assessed in 140 patients. Of these, 55 patients had a DLQI > 10 (030), indicating severe or extreme impairment of quality of life. A follow-up DLQI was collected in 81 patients, showing a significant improvement. Conclusions: The patients and both hospital facilities benefitted from the interdisciplinary consultation service. The initial high costs in terms of medical staff and time was compensated by the development of diagnostic and treatment algorithms.