Noble Metals

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Noble Metals

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Ni, Pd, Pt

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Ni, Pd, Pt

n/a

Ex vivo diagnosis of lung cancer using a Raman miniprobe.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death. The conventional method of confirming the diagnosis is bronchoscopy, inspecting the airways of the patient with a fiber optic endoscope. A number of studies have shown that Raman spectroscopy can diagnose lung cancer in vitro. In this study, Raman spectra were obtained from ex vivo normal and malignant lung tissue using a minifiber optic Raman probe suitable for insertion into the working channel of a bronchoscope. Shifted subtracted Raman spectroscopy was used to reduce the fluorescence from the lung tissue. Using principal component analysis with a leave-one-out analysis, the tissues were classified accurately. This novel technique has the potential to obtain Raman spectra from tumors from patients with lung cancer in vivo.

In vitro testing of chitosan in gentamicin-loaded bone cement No antimicrobial effect and reduced mechanical performance

Background and purpose Efforts to prevent infection of arthroplasties, including the use of antibiotic-loaded bone cement, are not always successful. We investigated whether the incorporation of chitosan in gentamicin-loaded bone cement increases antibiotic release, and prevents bacterial adherence and biofilm formation by clinical isolates of Staphylococcus spp. In addition, we performed mechanical and degradation tests.

Influence of multiwall carbon nanotube functionality and loading on mechanical properties of PMMA/MWCNT bone cements

Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement—multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposites with weight loadings ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 wt% were prepared. The MWCNTs investigated were unfunctionalised, carboxyl and amine functionalised MWCNTs. Mechanical properties of the resultant nanocomposite cements were characterised as per international standards for acrylic resin cements. These mechanical properties were influenced by the type and wt% loading of MWCNT used. The morphology and degree of dispersion of the MWCNTs in the PMMA matrix at different length scales were examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy. Improvements in mechanical properties were attributed to the MWCNTs arresting/retarding crack propagation through the cement by providing a bridging effect and hindering crack propagation. MWCNTs agglomerations were evident within the cement microstructure, the degree of these agglomerations was dependent on the weight fraction and functionality of MWCNTs incorporated into the cement.

Real time monitoring of the polymerisation of PMMA bone cement using Raman spectroscopy

In this investigation Raman spectroscopy was shown to be a method that could be used to monitor the polymerisation of PMMA bone cement. Presently there is no objective method that orthopaedic surgeons can use to quantify the curing process of cement during surgery. Raman spectroscopy is a non-invasive, non-destructive technique that could offer such an option. Two commercially available bone cements (Palacos® R and SmartSet® HV) and different storage conditions (4 and 22°C) were used to validate the technique. Raman spectroscopy was found to be repeatable across all conditions with the completion of the polymerisation process particularly easy to establish. All tests were benchmarked against current temperature monitoring methods outlined in ISO and ASTM standards. There was found to be close agreement with the standard methods and the Raman spectroscopy used in this study.

Devotional Culture in Late Medieval England and Europe: Diverse Imaginations of Christ’s Life

Christ’s life, as related through the Gospel narratives and early Apocrypha, was subject to a riot of literary-devotional adaptation in the medieval period. This collection provides a series of groundbreaking studies centring on the devotional and cultural significance of Christianity’s pivotal story during the Middle Ages.

The collection represents an important milestone in terms of mapping the meditative modes of piety that characterize a number of Christological traditions, including the Meditationes vitae Christi and the numerous versions it spawned in both Latin and the vernacular. A number of chapters in the volume track how and why meditative piety grew in popularity to become a mode of spiritual activity advised not only to recluses and cenobites as in the writings of Aelred of Rievaulx, but also reached out to diverse lay audiences through the pastoral regimens prescribed by devotional authors such as the Carthusian prior Nicholas Love in England and the Parisian theologian and chancellor of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson.

Through exploring these texts from a variety of perspectives — theoretical, codicological, theological — and through tracing their complex lines of dissemination in ideological and material terms, this collection promises to be invaluable to students and scholars of medieval religious and literary culture.