The Missing Link: Early Methane ("T") Dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

We report the discovery of three cool brown dwarfs that fall in the effective temperature gap between the latest L dwarfs currently known, with no methane absorption bands in the 1-2.5 µm range, and the previously known methane (T) dwarfs, whose spectra are dominated by methane and water. The newly discovered objects were detected as very red objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data and have JHK colors between the red L dwarfs and the blue Gl 229B-like T dwarfs.

Osteoma of the internal auditory canal presenting with sudden unilateral hearing loss.

A case of an unilateral sensorineural hearing loss of sudden onset, due to an osteoma in the internal auditory canal is presented. As far as the authors are aware an osteoma at this site associated with a hearing loss occurring within a few hours has not previously been reported.

Preoperative CT scanning for endoscopic sinus surgery: a rational approach.

Recent research on inflammatory sinus disease has implicated a central role for the ethmoid labyrinth, which may influence changes in the maxillary and frontal sinuses. CT can provide excellent definition of the paranasal sinuses and particularly the ethmoids, which is a prerequisite for endoscopic surgery. We describe a prospective series of 110 coronal CT scans performed on patients with a clinical diagnosis of sinusitis who had undergone diagnostic nasal endoscopies and medical treatment prior to surgery.

Imaging for cochlear implants.

Insertion of a sound amplification device into the round window niche (extracochlear implant) or into the coils of the cochlea (intracochlear implant) can give significant benefits to some carefully selected, severely deaf patients. Imaging has an essential role in selective and pre-operative assessment. Severe otosclerosis and post-meningitic labyrinthitis ossificans are common causes of deafness in these patients and can be demonstrated by computed tomography (CT).

A review of cervical-spine radiographs in casualty patients.

This study reviews the radiographs and clinical case notes of 897 patients who attended the Accident and Emergency (A & E) Department of Leicester Royal Infirmary, over an 8-month period, for whom radiographs of the cervical spine were requested. The radiological interpretations by the casualty officers and junior radiologists in training were compared with those by a consultant radiologist and large discrepancies were observed. There was a predominance of fractures and subluxations at the levels of C1 and C2, and at C7 and T1.

Adsorption of plasma proteins on hydrophobic surfaces. IV. Contact angle studies on implanted polymers.

Contact angle studies have been carried out on plasma protein layers adsorbed on selected polymer surfaces under buffered saline at 37 degrees, in an attempt to demonstrate directly a recent suggestion that the interfacial free energy between such protein layers and surrounding liquid phase should be zero at equilibrium. Although an initial contact angle of 180 degrees was always obtained, the angle decayed slowly to a stationary value which varied for any one drop on each polymer surface. The stationary values could be reasonably correlated with the reversible work of adhesion predicted for each polymer/protein combination, suggesting that protein desorption from the solid surface is a dominant event in the contact angle decay process.

A novel technique for studying the adsorption of plasma proteins on hydrophobic surfaces.

A method is shown for deducing the surface area of a pendant drop from the same profile photograph as is normally used to determine interfacial tension. Manipulation of such drops by a micrometer syringe then enables the pendant drop to be used as a surface balance for studying adsorption from bulk solutions. Results are given for the compression of films from solutions of albumin, gamma-globulin, fibrinogen, albumin-gamma-globulin mixture and albumin-gamma-globulin-fibrinogen mixture, and from serum, plasma, and blood at the isooctane-buffer interface.

Double contrast preparations: an in vitro study of some antifoaming agents.

An apparatus is described for the study of foam formation in double contrast preparations in vitro. Antifoaming agents are shown to be of considerable benefit to the double contrast technique, silicone and silicone-free antifoamers being equally effective. Silicone antifoamers are preferred because of their wide clinical acceptability.