Objective: To estimate the effectiveness of a new high‐performance Australian medical sheepskin (meeting Australian Standard 4480.1‐1998) in preventing pressure ulcers in a general hospital population at low to moderate risk of these ulcers. Design: Open‐label randomised controlled clinical trial. Setting: A large metropolitan teaching hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, in 2000. Participants: 441 patients aged over 18 years admitted between 12 June and 30 November 2000, with expected length of stay over 2 days and assessed as at low to moderate risk of developing pressure ulcers. Intervention: Patients were randomly allocated to receive a sheepskin mattress overlay for the duration of their hospital stay (218 patients) or usual treatment, as determined by ward staff (referent group, 223 patients). Main outcome measures: Incidence rate and cumulative incidence of pressure ulcers, assessed daily throughout hospital stay. Results: 58 patients developed pressure ulcers (sheepskin group, 21; referent group, 37). Cumulative incidence risk was 9.6% in the sheepskin group (95% CI, 6.1%–14.3%) versus 16.6% in the referent group (95% CI, 12.0%–22.1%). Patients in the sheepskin group developed new pressure ulcers at a rate less than half that of referent patients (rate ratio, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.26–0.67). Conclusions: The Australian Medical Sheepskin is effective in reducing the incidence of pressure ulcers in general hospital inpatients at low to moderate risk of these ulcers.

Tissue adhesives and sealants are commonly used in surgery either as an adjunct to, or replacement for, sutures. Previously, we have shown that fibrinogen can be crosslinked rapidly to give a high-strength bond in the presence of a ruthenium(II) complex, a persulfate and irradiation with visible light, and that the crosslinked fibrinogen is nontoxic to cells in vitro. This approach addresses limitations to current fibrin sealants that typically have relatively slow curing times and low bond strengths. In the present study, we have evaluated the efficacy and safety of this new biological scaffold sealant in various animal models. When placed as solid implants into rats, the crosslinked fibrinogen persisted for at least 8 weeks but was fully resorbed by 18 weeks with minimal inflammatory responses. When used as a tissue adhesive for repair of skin incisions in rats or as an arterial haemostat in pig, the photo-crosslinked fibrinogen sealed tissue or arrested bleeding within 20 s of application. For the skin incisions, the fibrinogen sealant promoted rapid tissue vascularization and cellular infiltration with no adverse foreign body cell generation. New collagen deposition occurred and with time the matrix had remodelled to acquire large mature collagen fiber bundles which were accompanied by maximum regenerated tensile strength. This biomaterial system may find useful applications in surgical procedures where rapid curing and/or high strength tissue sealing is required.

and drying. CNT webs mainly comprise highly pure and wellaligned CNT, with some occasional cross fi bers (mean diameter ≈ 10 nm), and they are electrically conductive. [ 24 , 25 ] In this communication we report a new and simple method that has potential for the mass production of highly electroactive sensors using CNT webs without the need for binders. These electrodes show very good electrical conductivities comparable to other forms of CNT-based electrodes, such as CNT networks, [ 26 ] with improved chemical and mechanical properties. The properties of the CNT-web-based electrodes were characterized and tested for their suitability for some analytical applications.The high degree of fl exibility of CNT webs enables the design of electrodes with different geometries such as planar, yarn, ring, and ribbon, as shown in Figure 1 . The simplest confi guration is the planar or disc electrode. This design can be readily adapted for the mass production of electrodes using the setup shown in Figure S1A (Supporting Information) and was used throughout this study. The amount of CNT can be controlled either by controlling the number of CNT web layers or by the electrode electroactive surface area. It is clear from Figure 1 A,B that CNT webs maintain a high degree of alignment with occasional cross CNT fi bers in between. Each single CNT within the web is made of an average of seven inner walls (multiwalled) (Figure 1 B, inset), about 450-μ m-long and around 10-nm in diameter . The second possible design using CNT webs is the yarn, which is prepared by twisting the CNT web during the spinning process as shown in Figure 1 C. CNT web yarns or fi bers are highly electrically conductive ( ≈ 300 S cm − 1 for 10-μ m-diameter) with strengths greater than 460 MPa. Yarns with different diameters can be prepared by adjusting the width of the CNT web and by combining more fi bers together to form larger bundles. CNT web yarns are very useful in fabricating nano-and microelectrodes. The third geometry is the ring electrode (Figure 1 D) that is prepared by wrapping the CNT web continuously around a cylindrical support such as a glass or Tefl on rod. This kind of design is very useful for preparing a multielectrode system confi guration, for electrode miniaturization, and for applications involving rotating ring electrodes. CNT web ring electrodes are very useful for energy storage applications due to their high fl exibility, mechanical stability, and electrical conductivity. The fourth possible geometry for CNT webs is the ribbon design (Figure 1 E). This can be described as a free-standing CNT web that comprises a large number of CNT web layers (usually > 50 layers) to maintain the needed mechanical stability in order to remain intact. Preparation of the CNT web ribbon is similar to the procedure for planar electrodes and is followed by the removal of the thick CNT web layers from the support. The CNT web ribbon is very

In this mini review, recent trends and challenges in developing carbon nanotube-based extraction and electrochemical detection of heavy metals in water are reviewed. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have electrical, mechanical, chemical, and structural properties superior to those of conventional materials, for example graphite and activated carbon. CNT-based procedures are also more efficient than traditional techniques and methods, for example liquid-liquid extraction, atomicabsorption spectroscopy, flame photometry, and inductively coupled plasma, because they can enable rapid, sensitive, simple, and low-cost on-site detection. Different forms of CNT, including as-grown, oxidised, and functionalised CNT, can be well suited to metal adsorption. The measurement procedure relies on adsorbing the metal on the CNT surface after reasonable contact time, either by applying an electrical potential or under open-circuit conditions, and subsequent quantification. Different types of CNT-based electrode, including composite, paste, and binderfree, can be fabricated and used for metal detection. Application of CNT and their novel properties to the adsorption and detection of heavy metals is discussed in detail.