There is disclosed a substrate with an electron donating surface, characterized in having metal particles on said surface, said metal particles comprising palladium and at least one metal selected from the group consisting of gold, ruthenium, rhodium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, wherein the amount of said metal particles is from about 0.001 to about 8 g/cm.sup.2. Examples of coated objects include contact lenses, pacemakers, pacemaker electrodes, stents, dental implants, rupture nets, rupture mesh, blood centrifuge equipment, surgical instruments, gloves, blood bags, artificial heart valves, central venous catheters, peripheral venous catheters, vascular ports, haemodialysis equipment, peritoneal dialysis equipment, plasmapheresis devices, inhalation drug delivery devices, vascular grafts, arterial grafts, cardiac assist devices, wound dressings, intermittent catheters, ECG electrodes, peripheral stents, bone replacing implants, orthopaedic implants, orthopaedic devices, tissue replacing implants, intraocular lenses, sutures, needles, drug delivery devices, endotracheal tubes, shunts, drains, suction devices, hearing aid devices, urethral medical devices, and artificial blood vessels.

Superhydrophobic materials are disclosed and described, along with devices, surfaces, and associated methods. Such materials can be coated onto device surfaces, system surfaces, structures, and the like.

The present invention provides a bio-electrode composition including a silicone bonded to a sulfonamide salt, wherein the sulfonamide salt is shown by the following general formula (1):

##STR00001##

wherein R.sup.1 represents a linear, branched, or cyclic alkylene group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms optionally having an aromatic group, an ether group, or an ester group, or an arylene group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms; Rf represents a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms and containing at least one fluorine atom; M.sup.+ is an ion selected from a lithium ion, a sodium ion, a potassium ion, and a silver ion. This can form a living body contact layer for a bio-electrode that is excellent in electric conductivity and biocompatibility, light-weight, manufacturable at low cost, and free from large lowering of the electric conductivity even though it is wetted with water or dried.

In a method for manufacturing a component containing an iron alloy material, a pulverulent pre-alloy is provided. The pre-alloy comprises, in wt. %, 0.01 to 1% C, .0.01 to 30% Mn, 6% Al, and 0.05 to 6.0% Si, the remainder being Fe and usual contaminants. The pulverulent pre-alloy is mixed with at least one of elementary Ag powder, elementary Au powder, elementary Pd powder and elementary Pt powder so as to produce a powder mixture containing 0.1 to 20% of at least one of Ag, Au, Pd and Pt. The powder mixture is applied onto a carrier (16) by means of a powder application device (14). Electromagnetic or particle radiation is selectively irradiated onto the powder mixture applied onto the carrier (16) by means of an Irradiation device (18) so as to generate a component from the powder mixture by an additive layer construction method.

Chemical sensors, devices and systems including the same, and related methods are disclosed. In an embodiment, a medical device is included having a graphene varactor including a graphene layer and a self-assembled monolayer disposed on an outer surface of the graphene layer through non-covalent interactions between the self-assembled monolayer and a -electron system of graphene. The self-assembled monolayer includes one or more pillarenes, substituted pillarenes, calixarenes, substituted calixarenes, peralkylated cyclodextrins, substituted peralkylated cyclodextrins, pyrenes, or substituted pyrenes, or derivatives of each. Other embodiments are also included.

The present invention relates to a method of preparing reduced graphene oxide, incorporation of the reduced graphene oxide into polyisoprene latex to provide a polyisoprene latex graphene composite and elastomeric articles prepared using the polyisoprene latex-graphene composite. In particular, the reduction of graphene oxide is accomplished without the use of strong reducing agents and organic solvents and incorporation of the reduced graphene oxide into polyisoprene latex is accomplished using room temperature latex mixing method or hot maturation. The resultant composite exhibits good colloid stability and polyisoprene latex films produced from the composite exhibit good mechanical properties with improved ageing resistance.

An air-permeable guard adapted to attach to a covering, the air permeable guard comprising a plurality of layers attached together to create one or more compartments. The guard further comprises at least one agent stored in the one or more compartments wherein the at least one agent may be a counteracting agent, a masking agent or a disinfectant agent. The masking agent may be coffee, oil and self encapsulated oil beadlet. The counteracting agent may be activated charcoal, sodium bicarbonate, zeolite, diatomaceous earth, silica gel and bentonite clay. The disinfectant agent may be a water based coating containing a cationic siloxane. In another embodiment of the invention the compartments may store the agents in a portion of the guard that is adapted to come in contact with the wearer's nostrils.

The invention entails metal alloy mono and poly-filament wire reinforced carbon fiber plating system for the fixation of skeletal fractures and osteotomies. Current fracture fixation plating systems are metal alloy designs that block the field of vision of the fracture during radiographic evaluation. Carbon fiber and mono and poly-filament wire plating systems reduce the weight and thickness as compared to the current plating designs while permitting direct visualization of the fracture site during the healing process. The benefits of the plating design contribute to the satisfaction of the patient and reduce disruption to the surrounding soft tissue structures. An embodiment of the plating system entails layered sheets of carbon fiber with an infrastructural framework of metal alloy mono and poly-filament wire for added strength and durability of the plate. This system can be utilized for all types of skeletal fracture and osteotomy fixation as well as fields of mechanical, aerospace, and structural engineering where durable lightweight, high strength materials are required.

The present invention relates to a resorbable implant material made of magnesium or magnesium alloy and to a process for the production thereof. A disadvantage of the known resorbable implants is that their resorption has hitherto only been trackable using x-ray or CT examinations. The invention provides a resorbable implant material comprising homogeneously distributed fluorescent nanodiamonds in a matrix of magnesium or a magnesium alloy. Fluorescent nanodiamonds are biologically nonhazardous and provide a stable emission in the near infrared range due to nitrogen-vacancy centers (NV centres). This allows detection of the implant material in the blood plasma of the patient. The resorbable implant material according to the invention is produced by a process wherein magnesium or a magnesium alloy is melted, nanodiamonds are added to the melt and the melt of magnesium or a magnesium alloy provided with nanodiamonds is subjected to an ultrasound treatment.

Implantable materials having defined patterns of affinity regions for binding endothelial cells and providing for directed endothelial cell migration across the surface of the material. The affinity regions include photochemically altered regions of a material surface and physical members patterned on the material surface that exhibit a greater affinity for endothelial cell binding and migration than the remaining regions of the material surface.