[Intraoperative magnet in removal of intracerebral metallic foreign bodies].

Background: Advisability of magnets in neurotrauma is due to pattern of patients admitted to neurosurgical departments of military hospitals with wounds accompanied by intracranial fixation of foreign metallic ferromagnetic bodies.

Objective: To study dimensions, mass and magnetic properties of fragments extracted from gunshot wounds inflicted by modern weapons; to assess the feasibility of devices and instruments for removing foreign bodies.

Material And Methods: We analyzed foreign bodies extracted after gunshot wounds.

A comprehensive review of transcranial magnetic stimulation in secondary dementia.

Although primary degenerative diseases are the main cause of dementia, a non-negligible proportion of patients is affected by a secondary and potentially treatable cognitive disorder. Therefore, diagnostic tools able to early identify and monitor them and to predict the response to treatment are needed. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive neurophysiological technique capable of evaluating and in "real time" the motor areas, the cortico-spinal tract, and the neurotransmission pathways in several neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including cognitive impairment and dementia.

Brainstem auditory pathway maturation in term neonates with congenital cytomegalovirus infection: a cohort study.

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection (cCMVi) is a leading cause of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and developmental delay. Brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) recording allows assessment of central auditory pathway maturation in neonates. We aimed to characterize the effect of cCMVi on the maturation of the brainstem auditory pathway in term neonates.

Optical Properties and Upconversion Luminescence of BaTiO Xerogel Structures Doped with Erbium and Ytterbium.

Erbium upconversion (UC) photoluminescence (PL) from sol-gel derived barium titanate (BaTiO:Er) xerogel structures fabricated on silicon, glass or fused silica substrates has been studied. Under continuous-wave excitation at 980 nm and nanosecond pulsed excitation at 980 and 1540 nm, the fabricated structures demonstrate room temperature PL with several bands at 410, 523, 546, 658, 800 and 830 nm, corresponding to the H → I, H → I, S → I, F→ I and I→ I transitions of Er ions. The intensity of erbium UC PL increases when an additional macroporous layer of strontium titanate is used beneath the BaTiO xerogel layer.

Detection of explosives in vapor phase by field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry with dopant-assisted laser ionization.

Detection of low-volatile explosives in concentrations below 10 g/cm is a great challenge for portable ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) and field asymmetric IMS (FAIMS). We study the capabilities of FAIMS detector with ultraviolet laser ionization combined with organic additives (dopants) toluene and 1-methylnaphtalene to sense nitro-explosives: trinitrotoluene (TNT) and low-volatile cyclonite (RDX) and nitropentaerythritol (PETN). Differential mobility coefficients were measured for target ion peaks of TNT, RDX and PETN.