Epoxy-silica/clay nanocomposite for silver-based antibacterial thin coatings: structure and ionic mobility

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - A novel material was developed using sol-gel chemistry and an environmental-friendly grafting process of clay nanoparticles. In a previous work of our...     

Implementation of an integrated glucose POCT system

In response to a change of the Belgian National Directives whereby hospital laboratories became responsible for all point-of-care testing (POCT) performed within hospital walls a standardized and automated POC glucose-testing system was implemented in our hospital. The system consists of 50 AccuCheck Inform instruments (Roche Diagnostics, Vilvoorde, Belgium), 50 docking stations, a DataCare Server, and connections to the medical laboratory information system (MOLIS, Sysmex, Barchon, Belgium) and to the hospital information system. Implementation involved many parties and extensive preparation and communication. Key issues were bar-coded patient and user identification, training, and responsibilities. One year after the hospital wide implementation of this system the quality of POC glucose testing has significantly increased, thereby improving patient safety. This study describes a stepwise change over involving the medical laboratory and with a focus on hands-on quality.Presented at the ninth conference on Quality in the Spotlight, 18–19 March 2004, Antwerp, Belgium.     

Common Tangents to Spheres in ℝ3

We prove that four spheres in ℝ³ have infinitely many real common tangents if and only if they have aligned centers and at least one real common tangent.     

Superferromagnetic state of α-Fe in Fe implanted Co6Ag94 studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy

After having introduced by ion implantation ⁵⁷Fe to a local concentration of 7 at% into Co₆Ag₉₄, we observed it by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy in the as-prepared state and after isochronal annealing. A superferromagnetic state is inferred, which is correlated with the ordering of the magnetic moments on the Fe clusters through chain-like or dendritic Co/Fe linear structures. The magnetic moment disordering temperature lies above 473 K.     

Sparse pseudorandom distributions

The existence of sparse pseudorandom distributions is proved. These are probability distributions concentrated in a very small set of strings, yet it is infeasible for any polynomial-time algorithm to distinguish between truly random coins and coins selected according to these distributions. It is shown that such distributions can be generated by (nonpolynomial) probabilistic algorithms, while probabilistic polynomial-time algorithms cannot even approximate all the pseudorandom distributions. Moreover, we show the existence of evasive pseudorandom distributions which are not only sparse, but also have the property that no polynomial-time algorithm may find an element in their support, except for a negligible probability. All these results are proved independently of any intractability assumption.     

On the performance of peeling algorithms

The peeling of a d-dimensional set of points is usually performed with successive calls to a convex hull algorithm; the optimal worst-case convex hull algorithm, known to have an O(n^˙ Log (n)) execution time, may give an O(n^˙n^˙ Log (n)) to peel all the set; an O(n^˙n) convex hull algorithm, m being the number of extremal points, is shown to peel every set with an O(n-n) time, and proved to be optimal; an implementation of this algorithm is given for planar sets and spatial sets, but the latter give only an approximate O(n^˙n) performance.     

Die Trennung von Amin- und S?urefunktion mittels Formaldehyds

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Glutathione Response after UVA Irradiation in Mitotic and Postmitotic Human Skin Fibroblasts and Keratinocytes

Abstract— Since Hayflick's pioneering work in the early sixties, human diploid fibroblasts have become a widely accepted in vitro model system. Recently, Bayreuther and co-workers extended this experimental approach showing that fibroblasts in culture resemble, in their design, the hemopoietic stem-cell differentiation system. They found that the chemical agent mitomycin C accelerates the differentiation pathway from mitotic to postmitotic fibroblasts. We measured the response of endogenous glutathione levels after UVA irradiation (320-400 nm) in mitotic and mitomycin C-induced postmitotic human skin fibroblasts and foreskin-derived keratinocytes. The initial levels in mitotic foreskin derived human fibroblasts were 14.4 nmol glutathione per mg protein, whereas a 30% higher value was obtained in matching foreskin-derived keratinocytes. Similiar elevated levels of this important intracellular free radical scavenging system were found in fibroblasts of a donor suffering from xeroderma pigmentosum. Furthermore, three to four times higher levels of glutathione in mitomycin C-treated mitotic fibroblasts have been determined. In mitotic skin fibroblasts, UVA irradiation resulted in a depletion of glutathione up to 90% following a fluence of 1.0 MJ/m²UVA radiation. Higher initial glutathione levels were found in keratinocytes and mitomycin C-treated skin fibroblasts. In these fibroblasts a 70% depletion was detected and a much lower depletion (10-20%) was seen in some keratinocyte cell lines following fluences up to 1.0 MJ/m². The depletion in skin fibroblasts was retained after 24 h following a fluence of 0.75 MJ/m²UVA light. In view of the fact that glutathione has been shown to be involved in a variety of metabolic processes and plays a role in cellular protection against UVA radiation, our results imply that the fibroblast differentiation system is a very useful tool to unravel the complex mechanism of UVA-induced oxidative stress.