Hepatocyte performance on different crystallographic faces of rutile.

The influence of crystallographic orientation of polished rutile single crystal surfaces of the (100), (110) and (111) orientation on hepatocyte performance was tested in cell culture over 3 days. Cell adhesion was observed on the titanium dioxide surfaces and their performance was measured by means of cell number attached (protein mass), cell viability (neutral red assays) and metabolic activity (thiazolyl tetrazolium bromide assay). Titanium dioxide displays no cytotoxic effects on hepatocytes, and shows a performance in the range of standard collagen-coated tissue culture polystyrene dish. The number of hepatocytes adhered on the different rutile surfaces were not significantly different to those on dense rutile polycrystalline ceramic. These findings suggest that hepatocytes do not recognize the specific differences of differently orientated rutile crystal surfaces.

[Injuries caused by frontal and side collisions]. / Verletzungen bei Frontal- und Seitenkollision.

The injuries of 100 passengers killed in automobile accidents and technical accident reconstruction data were recorded in a databank and analyzed according to the victim's age, survival time, extent of injuries, seat-belt protection, position of the seat, contusions, intrusions and Delta-v as a measure of passenger stress. 25 in-town, 39 rural road and 36 highway accidents were recorded, involving 74 drivers, 22 front-seat and 4 back-seat passengers as victims. The accidents were head-on in 79 cases, 17 side and 4 rear-end collisions. Fatal injuries were observed starting at Delta-v 40 km/h. Half of the victims were less than 30 years of age, 2/3 not wearing seat-belts and 1/3 of the drivers had blood alcohol concentrations of 1.0-2.5 g%. The most frequent injuries involved the arms, chest and skull. 88% of the victims died within 2 hours of the accident, and 82% were very severely poly-traumatized with 2-5 serious individual injuries and 48% with multiple injuries resulting in death. The chest was the body area subjected to the greatest biomechanical impact in the passengers wearing seat-belts.