A simple, inexpensive, and rapid method for making metal nanoparticles ranging in size between 10 and 100 nm is demonstrated. The process can be completed in approximately 11 min by making a thin supported TiO2 film on glass for use as a photocatalyst and employing an alumina membrane as a template (see figure). The nanoparticle array formed on the TiO2 surface is nearly monodisperse and the particle surface density is uniform over large areas.

No abstract

Dehydrated hereditary stomatocytosis (DHS) is a rare congenital hemolytic anemia mapping to 16q23-q24. We showed recently that it is part of a pleiotropic syndrome likely to display pseudohyperkalemia and/or different forms of fetal and placental fluid collections. Here, we report a woman with DHS. She had two consecutive pregnancies associated with severe fetal hydrops. Hydrops would probably have been lethal in the absence of appropriate removal of ascites and excess amniotic fluid. In utero exchange transfusion, performed once, was useless, because anemia was not pronounced enough to be the cause of the hydrops. In both newborns, ascites resolved within a week following birth and never recurred. The association of hydrops and hemolytic anemia suggests the possibility of DHS. Symptomatic treatment of the hydrops assists survival until spontaneous resorption occurs.