The results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were compared with those of arthroscopy in a prospective series of 244 patients. A dedicated system for MRI of limbs and peripheral joints--the 0.2-T Artoscan (Esaote, Italy)--was used for imaging knee joint lesions. T1-weighted spin-echo sagittal images, T2-weighted gradient-echo coronal images, and axial views for lesions of the femoropatellar joint were acquired. Paraxial sagittal and oblique coronal views were obtained for imaging of the cruciate ligaments. This protocol allowed excellent visualization of the cruciate ligaments and medial and lateral meniscus in almost all patients. Compared with arthroscopy performed within 48 h after imaging, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were respectively 93%, 97%, and 95% for tears of the medial meniscus; 82%, 96%, and 93% for tears of the lateral meniscus; 100%, 100%, and 100% for tears of the posterior cruciate ligament; 98%, 98%, and 97% for tears of the anterior cruciate ligament; and 72%, 100%, and 92% for full-thickness articular cartilage lesions. The examination can be performed within 30-45 min at lower cost than diagnostic arthroscopy. MRI with a 0.2-T magnet is a safe and valuable adjunct to the clinical examination of the knee and an aid to efficient preoperative planning.

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Zinc Oxysulfide (ZnOS) has demonstrated potential in the last decade to replace CdS as a buffer layer material since it is a wideband-gap semiconductor with performance advantages over CdS (E g = 2.4 eV) in the near UV-range for solar energy conversion. However, questions remain on the growth mechanisms of chemical bath deposited ZnOS. In this study, a detailed model is employed to calculate solubility diagrams that describe simple conditions for complex speciation control using only ammonium hydroxide without additional base. For these conditions, ZnOS is deposited via aqueous solution deposition on a quartz crystal microbalance in a continuous flow cell. Data is used to analyze the growth rate dependence on temperature and also to elucidate the effects of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) when used as a co-solvent. Activation energies (E A ) of ZnOS are calculated for different flow rates and solution compositions. The measured E A relationships are affected by changes in the primary growth mechanism when DMSO is included. Solution deposition of semiconductors and in particular chemical bath deposition (CBD) has gained attention in recent years due to its inexpensive, high quality films deposited at moderate temperatures. CBD is well suited for producing large-area thin films for solar cell applications.1,2 It has already demonstrated the potential to produce high efficiency thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) and modules 3 and is currently used to deposit buffer layers for various photovoltaic devices, including lab scale CdTe and commercialized copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells, which are technologies for clean, renewable, secure, and inexpensive energy production.Buffer layers in TFSCs typically serve as the first n-type layer in a heterojunction with a p-type absorber layer (CIGS, CdTe, etc.). In addition to transporting photogenerated charge, the buffer layer should allow maximum light to be transmitted to the absorber layer. Currently, most high efficiency TFSCs contain CdS buffer layers that are easy to deposit due to the low solubility product constant (K sp ) of CdS and the large difference between its K sp and competing species such as Cd(OH) 2 . However, the performance of CdS buffer layers is limited by its bandgap (E g = 2.4 eV), which absorbs blue as well as UV light. Also, the toxicity of CdS and its precursors poses risks and waste associated costs. 3 To counter these problems, alternative buffer layer materials have been researched in the last decades. One such material is ZnO x S 1-x , herein ZnOS. ZnOS is a non-toxic semiconductor, which experimentally has demonstrated a tunable bandgap between 2.6 eV and 3.6 eV. 4 Although ZnOS has been studied extensively, there is seemingly conflicting reports on its growth mechanism in CBD. Using an open bath, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) approach, Hubert et al. hypothesized that ZnOS is formed by the heterogeneous ion-by-ion process because of its similarities to the chemical reaction controlled CdS growth.3 On the other hand, kinetic studies by...

The results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were compared with those of arthroscopy in a prospective series of 276 patients. A "dedicated system" for MRI of limbs and peripheral joints--the 0,2 Tesla ARTOSCAN (ESAOTE, Italy)--was used for imaging knee joint lesions. T1-weighted spin echo sagittal images, T2-weighted gradient-echo coronal images, and axial views for lesions of bone and the femoropatellar joint were acquired. If necessary paraxial sagittal and oblique coronal views were obtained for imaging of the cruciate ligaments. This protocol allowed excellent visualization of the cruciate ligaments, medial and lateral meniscus in almost all patients. Compared with arthroscopy performed within 48 hours after imaging, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were respectively, 91, 92 and 91 per cent for tears of the medial meniscus; 80, 96, and 92 per cent for tears of the posterior meniscus; 100, 100, and 100 per cent for tears of the posterior cruciate ligament; 93, 98, and 99 per cent for tears of the anterior cruciate ligament; and 73, 100, and 92 per cent for full-thickness articular cartilage lesions. The examination can be performed within 30 to 45 minutes at a cost that is lower than that of diagnostic arthroscopy. ARTOSCAN imaging is a safe and valuable adjunct to the clinical examination of the knee and an aid to efficient preoperative planning.

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