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A full understanding of the sequence of processes exhibited by yield stress fluids under large amplitude oscillatory shearing is developed using multiple experimental and analytical approaches. A novel component rate Lissajous curve, where the rates at which strain is acquired unrecoverably and recoverably are plotted against each other, is introduced and its utility is demonstrated by application to the analytical responses of four simple viscoelastic models. Using the component rate space, yielding and unyielding are identified by changes in the way strain is acquired, from recoverably to unrecoverably and back again. The behaviors are investigated by comparing the experimental results with predictions from the elastic Bingham model that is constructed using the Oldroyd–Prager formalism and the recently proposed continuous model by Kamani, Donley, and Rogers in which yielding is enhanced by rapid acquisition of elastic strain. The physical interpretation gained from the transient large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) data is compared to the results from the analytical sequence of physical processes framework and a novel time-resolved Pipkin space. The component rate figures, therefore, provide an independent test of the interpretations of the sequence of physical processes analysis that can also be applied to other LAOS analysis frameworks. Each of these methods, the component rates, the sequence of physical processes analysis, and the time-resolved Pipkin diagrams, unambigiously identifies the same material physics, showing that yield stress fluids go through a sequence of physical processes that includes elastic deformation, gradual yielding, plastic flow, and gradual unyielding.

Shear banding in entangled polymer solutions is an elusive phenomenon in polymer rheology. One recently proposed mechanism for the existence of banded velocity profiles in entangled polymer solutions stems from a coupling of the flow to banded concentration profiles. Recent work [Burroughs et al., Phys. Rev. Lett . 126, 207801 (2021)] provided experimental evidence for the development of large gradients in concentration across the fluid. Here, a more systematic investigation is reported of the transient and steady-state banded velocity and concentration profiles of entangled polybutadiene in dioctyl phthalate solutions as a function of temperature [Formula: see text], number of entanglements ([Formula: see text]), and applied shear rate ([Formula: see text]), which control the susceptibility of the fluid to unstable flow-concentration coupling. The results are compared to a two-fluid model that accounts for coupling between elastic and osmotic polymer stresses, and a strong agreement is found between model predictions and measured concentration profiles. The interface locations and widths of the time-averaged, steady-state velocity profiles are quantified from high-order numerical derivatives of the data. At high levels of entanglement and large [Formula: see text], a significant wall slip is observed at both inner and outer surfaces of the flow geometry but is not a necessary criterion for a nonhomogeneous flow. Furthermore, the transient evolution of flow profiles for large Z indicate transitions from curved to “stair-stepped” and, ultimately, a banded steady state. These observed transitions provide detailed evidence for shear-induced demixing as a mechanism of shear banding in polymer solutions.

A thorough study is made of the dependences on salt concentration and polymer chain lengths of the low-frequency plateau of coacervates of poly (diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride), PDADMAC, and poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate), PSS. The reliability and reproducibility of these measurements are carefully checked by determining the frequency-dependent stress limits of the rheometer through the use of reference fluids and by repeat experiments with coacervates. Long-time frequency sweeps show that coacervates with less salt are more repeatable than those with higher salt. A low-frequency plateau reliably appears only below a critical salt concentration, and the magnitude of the plateau depends strongly on salt concentration and chain lengths of both polycation and polyanion. It is only present for the molecular weight of the polycation, PDADMAC, higher than 100 kDa, but the magnitude of the plateau is more strongly influenced by the chain length of the polyanion, PSS. Possible causes of the low-frequency plateau are discussed.

Introduction: we briey describe the purpose and indications of colostomy Cases And Discussion: we have studied six prototypical cases of postoperative stoma complications and have discussed them in light of their management. Conclusion: we highlight the importance of adequate stoma creation and care

Emerging 3D printing technologies offer an exciting opportunity to create customized 3D objects additively from a digital design file. 3D printing may be further leveraged for personalized medicine, clinical trial, and controlled release applications. A wide variety of 3D printing methods exists, and many studies focus on extrusion-based 3D printing techniques that closely resemble hot melt extrusion. In this paper, we explore different pharmaceutical-grade feedstock materials for creating tablet-like dosage forms using a binder jet 3D printing method. In this method, pharmaceutical-grade powders are repeatedly spread onto a build plate, followed by inkjet printing a liquid binder to selectively bind the powders in a predetermined pattern. The physical properties of the pharmaceutical-grade powders and binders have been characterized and a molding method has been developed to select appropriate powder and binder materials for subsequent printing experiments. There was a correlation between the breaking forces of the molded and printed samples, but no clear correlation was observed for disintegration time, which was primarily controlled by the higher porosity of the printed samples. The breaking force and disintegration properties of as-printed and post-processed samples containing indomethacin as an active pharmaceutical ingredient have been measured and compared with relevant literature data.

Materials that exhibit yielding behavior are used in many applications, from spreadable foods and cosmetics to direct write three-dimensional printing inks and filled rubbers. Their key design feature is the ability to transition behaviorally from solid to fluid under sufficient load or deformation. Despite its widespread applications, little is known about the dynamics of yielding in real processes, as the nonequilibrium nature of the transition impedes understanding. We demonstrate an iteratively punctuated rheological protocol that combines strain-controlled oscillatory shear with stress-controlled recovery tests. This technique provides an experimental decomposition of recoverable and unrecoverable strains, allowing for solid-like and fluid-like contributions to a yield stress material's behavior to be separated in a time-resolved manner. Using this protocol, we investigate the overshoot in loss modulus seen in materials that yield. We show that this phenomenon is caused by the transition from primarily solid-like, viscoelastic dissipation in the linear regime to primarily fluid-like, plastic flow at larger amplitudes. We compare and contrast this with a viscoelastic liquid with no yielding behavior, where the contribution to energy dissipation from viscous flow dominates over the entire range of amplitudes tested.

The direct measurement of cohesion under high strain and the quantitative effects of solid matrix structure on particle morphology and bulk rheology have not been explored thoroughly in literature. A Warren Springs geometry installed on an air bearing rotational rheometer capable of capturing the amount of shear stress required for powder failure at a wide range of initial consolidation states was implemented in the study to measure the cohesion trend of over-consolidated powder materials. Wheat, potato, corn starches and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC PH101) powders were analyzed. MCC PH101 powder exhibited the highest weighted cohesion strength among the powders at all consolidation stresses because of the high particle aspect ratio given the inherited crystallinity of its compositional matrix. MCC sample also had greater variation between incipient and steady state portions of the torque profile attributable to its characteristic particle stiffness, which, consequently, yielded in distinct particle deformation behavior.

Consistency and reliable flow are of great concern during the handling and processing of flour. In this study, wheat flour was consolidated by normal stress and vibration, and rheological factors including bulk solid compressibility, Warren-Spring cohesion strength, permeability, and wall friction were evaluated. Soft red winter (SRW) and hard red spring (HRS) wheat flours were vibrated for 5 and 10 minutes and compressed under 10 and 20 kPa for 12 and 24 h. After vibration, wall friction increased from 10.87° to 14.13° for SRW flour and decreased from 11.00° to 7.10° for HRS flour, and the permeability decreased for both the flours. Consolidation time and stress had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on wall friction and compressibility. The HRS Carr index increased from 25.77 to 38.48 when consolidated under 20 kPa for 24 hours, but the SRW Carr index decreased slightly from 46.60 to 44.24. The SRW flour permeability decreased significantly (P < 0.05) when compression pressure was increased from 10 to 20 kPa. while HRS permeability was less affected by consolidation. The consolidation and vibration effects on bulk flour properties differed likely due to inherent differences in the composition and hardness of HRS and SRW.

We develop a novel connection between discrepancy minimization and (quantum) communication complexity. As an application, we resolve a substantial special case of the Matrix Spencer conjecture. In particular, we show that for every collection of symmetric $n \times n$ matrices $A_1,\ldots,A_n$ with $\|A_i\| \leq 1$ and $\|A_i\|_F \leq n^{1/4}$ there exist signs $x \in \{ \pm 1\}^n$ such that the maximum eigenvalue of $\sum_{i \leq n} x_i A_i$ is at most $O(\sqrt n)$. We give a polynomial-time algorithm based on partial coloring and semidefinite programming to find such $x$. Our techniques open a new avenue to use tools from communication complexity and information theory to study discrepancy. The proof of our main result combines a simple compression scheme for transcripts of repeated (quantum) communication protocols with quantum state purification, the Holevo bound from quantum information, and tools from sketching and dimensionality reduction. Our approach also offers a promising avenue to resolve the Matrix Spencer conjecture completely -- we show it is implied by a natural conjecture in quantum communication complexity.

Recent research on tumorigenesis and progression has opened up an array of novel molecular mechanisms in the form of interactions between cellular non-coding RNAs (long non-coding RNA[lncRNA]/microRNA [miRNA]) and coding transcripts that regulate health and disease. Endometrial cancer (EC) is a prominent gynecological malignancy with a high incidence rate and poorly known etiology and prognostic factors that hinder the success of disease management. The emerging role of lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA interactions and their dysregulation in the pathophysiology of EC has been elucidated in many recent studies.A thorough literature review was conducted to explore information about lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA axes in EC.Several lncRNAs act as molecular sponges that sequester various tumor suppressor miRNAs to inhibit their function, leading to the dysregulation of their target mRNA transcripts that contribute to the EC regulation.This review summarizes these networks of molecular mechanisms and their contribution to different aspects of endometrial carcinogenesis, leading to a better conceptualization of the molecular pathways that underlie the disease and helping establish novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic intervention points to aid the curative intent of EC.

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) is conducted to measure the viscoelastic nature of a material. The commercial DMA equipment calculates the complex modulus ( E*) by assuming a constant Poisson’s ratio. In this work, a method is developed for the simultaneous measurement of Poisson’s ratio and complex modulus ( E*) for carbon fiber (CF) reinforced Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) composites using in-situ optical measurements and digital image correlation. The computation of E* includes shear deflection and relaxes the assumption of constant Poisson’s ratio to obtain accurate values. DMA was conducted on 3D printed CF-ABS composite specimens with oscillating displacement of 10 µm and static load of 1 N at 1 Hz loading frequency. The results in this work reveal that CF-ABS composite does not have a constant Poisson’s ratio over temperature. Additionally, applying the Poisson’s ratio correction results in higher values for the complex modulus. This work is beneficial for composites where the shear deflection component should not be neglected, and where variation of Poisson’s ratio with respect to temperature is important.

Introduction: MRSA peritonitis is documented in literature as being secondary to peritoneal dialysis but it is a lesser known cause of perforation peritonitis Case presentation: we report a 72 year old male with rectosigmoid cancer perforation with MRSA peritonitis and his emergency surgical management Conclusion: we conclude that though MRSA peritonitis in this patient followed a fulminant course which was exacerbated by his underlying disease process.

Introduction:Colonic Atresia is the least common type of Intestinal Atresia which occurs as a result of ischemic necrosis of a segment of large intestine.It presents with abdominal distention,bilious vomiting and failure to pass meconium.Perforation leads to peritonitis and sepsis Case Report:We describe a 3 day old male baby presenting with Colonic Atresia type IIIa and pneumoperitoneum and his surgical management Conclusion:In conclusion, Colonic Atresia is managed by either by colostomy or primary anastomosis.Terminal ileostomy,as in this case is done when there is Ascending Colon atresia with distal ileal perforation.

INTRODUCTION: Brain herniations have been labelled as 'Brain Code' to signify the emergent need for diagnosis and intervention. Traumatic Brain Injury is the most common cause of brain herniation which could be lateral, subfalcine, descending transtentorial, tonsillar, upward or transcalvarial. CASE: Three cases of descending transtentorial herniation,their imaginary and their operative intervention are discussed. DISCUSSION: The clinical features and the previous works on descending transtentorial herniation are discussed in brief. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the three cases discussed had a rapid resolution of symptoms after surgical intervention.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosis (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease of unknown cause that can affect virtually any organ of the body. Anti dsDNA antibody has been considered as a marker of renal disease. Hence elevated levels are expected in patients with Lupus Nephritis (LN). But in a subset of these patients anti dsDNA antibody is negative and this heralds the development of burned out LN (stage 5 LN) which predisposes patients to thrombosis. Prophylactic anticoagulation plays an important role in the management of such patients. We describe a case of a 19 year old female with lupus nephritis and renal vein thrombosis that had extended into the inferior vena cava. Her serology was strikingly signicant for the absence of anti dsDNA antibody. The factors that predispose to the development of venous thrombosis in patients with Lupus Nephritis are discussed. In conclusion, negative anti dsDNA antibodies heralds the development of stage ve Lupus Nephritis which predisposes to thrombosis. Guidelines for prophylactic anticoagulation as per serum albumin levels are also discussed.

We prove novel algorithmic guarantees for several online problems in the smoothed analysis model. In this model, at each time an adversary chooses an input distribution with density function bounded above by $\tfrac{1}{\sigma}$ times that of the uniform distribution; nature then samples an input from this distribution. Crucially, our results hold for {\em adaptive} adversaries that can choose an input distribution based on the decisions of the algorithm and the realizations of the inputs in the previous time steps. This paper presents a general technique for proving smoothed algorithmic guarantees against adaptive adversaries, in effect reducing the setting of adaptive adversaries to the simpler case of oblivious adversaries. We apply this technique to prove strong smoothed guarantees for three problems: -Online learning: We consider the online prediction problem, where instances are generated from an adaptive sequence of $\sigma$-smooth distributions and the hypothesis class has VC dimension $d$. We bound the regret by $\tilde{O}\big(\sqrt{T d\ln(1/\sigma)} + d\sqrt{\ln(T/\sigma)}\big)$. This answers open questions of [RST11,Hag18]. -Online discrepancy minimization: We consider the online Koml\'os problem, where the input is generated from an adaptive sequence of $\sigma$-smooth and isotropic distributions on the $\ell_2$ unit ball. We bound the $\ell_\infty$ norm of the discrepancy vector by $\tilde{O}\big(\ln^2\!\big( \frac{nT}{\sigma}\big) \big)$. -Dispersion in online optimization: We consider online optimization of piecewise Lipschitz functions where functions with $\ell$ discontinuities are chosen by a smoothed adaptive adversary and show that the resulting sequence is $\big( {\sigma}/{\sqrt{T\ell}}, \tilde O\big(\sqrt{T\ell} \big)\big)$-dispersed. This matches the parameters of [BDV18] for oblivious adversaries, up to log factors., Comment: Accepted to FOCS 2021

Obesity increases the risk of developing cancers for both males and females. This study investigated potential crosstalk between estradiol and leptin signaling pathways within the endometrium of high-fat-diet-induced obese ovariectomized mice to gain insight into possible links between obesity and endometrial cancer. We administered 17-β estradiol (0.2 μg/mouse subcutaneously) and/or recombinant mouse leptin (1 μg/g Bwt intraperitoneally.,) for 20 h to high-fat-diet-induced obese ovariectomized mice. The uterine tissues of experimental animals after treatments were studied by histological, immunohistochemical, quantitative real-time PCR (gene/miRNAs), and methylation-specific PCR analyses. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed significantly increased expression of Cyclin d1, Esr1, Igf1, Igfbp2, Vegf, Oct4, and Pgr after estradiol and leptin co-treatment. Methylation-specific PCR results indicated that the hormonal dependent transcriptional regulation of Vegf, Igf1, and Pgr is independent of promoter methylation. The decreased expression of mmu- miR-204-5p after estradiol and leptin treatments correlated with the increased expression of long non-coding RNA Neat1. Insilico analysis confirmed the interaction of Neat1 and mmu- miR-204-5p and gene targets of mmu-miR-204-5p, including Igf1 were analyzed in this study. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed subcellular localization and increased expression of ESR, VEGF, phospho-Estrogen Receptor-α (pTyr537), and LEPR proteins following estradiol and leptin exposure. Overall, the data from our in vivo studies suggest the regulation of Neat1-mmu-miR-204-5p- Igf1 axis and associated gene expression changes in uterine tissue after estradiol and leptin co-treatment. In humans, long-term exposure to estradiol and leptin can alter endometrial homeostasis through the NEAT1-miR-204-5p-Igf1 axis and favor carcinogenic pathways, which provide mechanistic insight into the obesity-associated endometrial cancer.

An object plunging into a thickening suspension can be made to sink faster by applying orthogonal perturbations., Hundreds of YouTube videos show people running on cornstarch suspensions demonstrating that dense shear thickening suspensions solidify under impact. Such processes are mimicked by impacting and pulling out a plate from the surface of a thickening cornstarch suspension. Here, using both experiments and simulations, we show that applying fast oscillatory shear transverse to the primary impact or extension directions tunes the degree of solidification. The forces acting on the impacting surface are modified by varying the dimensionless ratio of the orthogonal shear to the compression and extension flow rate. Simulations show varying this parameter changes the number of particle contacts governing solidification. To demonstrate this strategy in an untethered context, we show the sinking speed of a cylinder dropped onto the suspension varies markedly by changing this dimensionless ratio. These results suggest applying orthogonal shear while people are running on cornstarch would de-solidify the suspension and cause them to sink.

Cells feel the tension of implanted and injected silicone materials., Silicones are commonly used for lubrication of syringes, encapsulation of medical devices, and fabrication of surgical implants. While silicones are generally viewed as relatively inert to the cellular milieu, they can mediate a variety of inflammatory responses and other deleterious effects, but the mechanisms underlying the bioactivity of silicones remain unresolved. Here, we report that silicone liquids and gels have high surface stresses that can strongly resist deformation at cellular length scales. Biomedical silicones, including syringe lubricants and fillings from FDA-approved breast implants, readily adsorb matrix proteins and activate canonical rigidity sensing pathways through their surface stresses. In 3D culture models, liquid silicone droplets support robust cellular adhesion and the formation of multinucleated monocyte-derived cell masses that recapitulate phenotypic aspects of granuloma formation in the foreign body response. Together, our findings implicate surface stress as a cellular stimulant that should be considered in application of silicones for biomedical purposes.

MicroRNAs regulate gene expression, and their diverse roles in the field of biomedicine are established and progressively increasing along with advancements in molecular biology techniques. The environment affects human health via genetic and epigenetic alterations. The study of cellular or circulating biomarkers offers help in the management of environmental toxicology by predicting environmental risk factors of any nature, such as air, metals and pesticides and other chemicals. Here, we review on the relationship of microRNAs as biomarkers and the toxicology of environmental agents. Concerning the effects of toxic agents in the environment and prediction of human exposure by biomarkers are still ongoing processes. It demands further researches using advanced research tools. Moreover, the studies dealing with toxicology-related miRNA changes and biomonitoring of environmental xenobiotics with altered miRNA expression will be highlighted in this review.

Inter-particle cohesion plays an important role in various industrial unit operations. Recently, particle defluidization was identified as a bulk measurement that can be used to extract inter-particle cohesion (Liu et al., 2018). This method requires direct-coupling of experimental, “standard” defluidization curves (pressure-drop vs. gas velocity) with discrete-element-method (DEM) simulations; “standard” refers to defluidization without channeling. Hence, the method is not readily applicable to highly-cohesive (Group C) particles that exhibit channeling. In this work, we obtain standard-defluidization-curves for Group C particles using a rheometer with a rotating impeller. Then, we confirm that the measurements from the rheometer are system-size-independent, thereby ensuring the feasibility of direct-coupling of the experiments with smaller DEM simulations. Furthermore, we show that the torque required to rotate the impeller may provide an alternative to the pressure-drop to characterize particle defluidization. Finally, we show that the extracted characteristic-velocities from these experiments may provide a relative-gauge for particle-level cohesion.

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether Gemin 5, Cpeb, Xrn1, and Stau1 expression in rodent ovaries and uterine tissues is dependent on gonadotropins, steroid hormones, and leptin in the superovulation and ovariectomized mouse models of menopause. Treatment of pregnant mare serum gonadotropin-primed rats with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) significantly induced Stau1 and Gemin 5 messenger RNA expression in rat ovaries. Gemin 5 expression in ovaries was sustained at relatively high levels at 12 h and 24 h post hCG treatment compared to Stau1, suggesting its role in follicle development, ovulation, and luteogenesis in rat ovaries. Induced expression of Stau1 and Gemin 5 in the uterine tissue post hCG treatment at 12 h and 24 h—the duration between ovulation and post-ovulation—suggests their regulation by hCG and/or ovarian steroids, which are required for pregnancy establishment and maintenance. Cpeb expression was significantly higher (p

Non-Gaussian component analysis (NGCA) is a problem in multidimensional data analysis which, since its formulation in 2006, has attracted considerable attention in statistics and machine learning. In this problem, we have a random variable $X$ in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space. There is an unknown subspace $\Gamma$ of the $n$-dimensional Euclidean space such that the orthogonal projection of $X$ onto $\Gamma$ is standard multidimensional Gaussian and the orthogonal projection of $X$ onto $\Gamma^{\perp}$, the orthogonal complement of $\Gamma$, is non-Gaussian, in the sense that all its one-dimensional marginals are different from the Gaussian in a certain metric defined in terms of moments. The NGCA problem is to approximate the non-Gaussian subspace $\Gamma^{\perp}$ given samples of $X$. Vectors in $\Gamma^{\perp}$ correspond to `interesting' directions, whereas vectors in $\Gamma$ correspond to the directions where data is very noisy. The most interesting applications of the NGCA model is for the case when the magnitude of the noise is comparable to that of the true signal, a setting in which traditional noise reduction techniques such as PCA don't apply directly. NGCA is also related to dimension reduction and to other data analysis problems such as ICA. NGCA-like problems have been studied in statistics for a long time using techniques such as projection pursuit. We give an algorithm that takes polynomial time in the dimension $n$ and has an inverse polynomial dependence on the error parameter measuring the angle distance between the non-Gaussian subspace and the subspace output by the algorithm. Our algorithm is based on relative entropy as the contrast function and fits under the projection pursuit framework. The techniques we develop for analyzing our algorithm maybe of use for other related problems.

Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase H1/Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Non receptor Type 3 (PTPH1/PTPN3) is upregulated and/or mutated in glioma, ovarian, gastric, and colorectal cancers. Previous studies have documented that PTPH1-associated breast cancers exhibit enhanced sensitivity to tamoxifen and tyrosine kinase inhibitors through dephosphorylation of ER and epidermal growth factor receptor, respectively. Owing to the key role that PTPH1 plays as a biomarker in predicting the response of chemotherapeutic drugs and lack of studies on Indian breast cancer patients, the present study investigated PTPH1 protein expression and its relationship to clinical features, ER/PR/HER2/neu statuses, and methylation of promoter in breast cancer tissues (n = 67) among Indian population by immunohistochemistry and methylation specific polymerase chain reaction. PTPH1 expression was upregulated in 58.21% (39/67) and downregulated in the rest of tumor specimens, and it correlated with ER, PR, and HER2/neu statuses with p values of

We present an implementation of a search engine that searches videos based on its textual content. The system consists of four parts video processing, spell correction, indexing and searching. The video processing is done by dividing the video into frames and extracting text out of it. Lecture videos, news having some textual content in it show good results. General Terms Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Connected Components (CCs), Video Search Engine.

Contemporary molecular biology research tools have enriched numerous areas of biomedical research that address challenging diseases, including endocrine cancers (pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, testicular, ovarian, and neuroendocrine cancers). These tools have placed several intriguing clues before the scientific community. Endocrine cancers pose a major challenge in health care and research despite considerable attempts by researchers to understand their etiology. Microarray analyses have provided gene signatures from many cells, tissues, and organs that can differentiate healthy states from diseased ones, and even show patterns that correlate with stages of a disease. Microarray data can also elucidate the responses of endocrine tumors to therapeutic treatments. The rapid progress in next-generation sequencing methods has overcome many of the initial challenges of these technologies, and their advantages over microarray techniques have enabled them to emerge as valuable aids for clinical research applications (prognosis, identification of drug targets, etc.). A comprehensive review describing the recent advances in next-generation sequencing methods and their application in the evaluation of endocrine and endocrine-related cancers is lacking. The main purpose of this review is to illustrate the concepts that collectively constitute our current view of the possibilities offered by next-generation sequencing technological platforms, challenges to relevant applications, and perspectives on the future of clinical genetic testing of patients with endocrine tumors. We focus on recent discoveries in the use of next-generation sequencing methods for clinical diagnosis of endocrine tumors in patients and conclude with a discussion on persisting challenges and future objectives.

Introduction: Trauma to spine is one of the grave injuries. They cause infinite morbidity and disability to the patient. Lately consensus is evolving across the world for stabilization of unstable spines with fusion and instrumentation even though most authors agree that neurological recovery is independent of treatment modality. Objectives of this study are to evaluate effectiveness of spinal stabilization with pedicular instrumentation in the management of thoraco-lumbar fractures to restore structural stability, early ambulation and improving neurological status of the patient Material and Methods: During the period from October 2009 to September 2010, 33 cases of thoraco-lumbar spine fractures were treated operatively with posterior decompression and pedicular screw instrumentation. Of these, 3 cases were lost to follow up. Hence the results of 30 cases were evaluated. All patients were treated by posterior decompression and pedicular screw instrumentation. Neurological and radiological parameters were assessed during serial follow-ups. Observation and Results: The mean duration of follow-up was 11 months. Of the 30 patients 24 showed neurological improvement by at least 1 grade and average grade of improvement was 1.5 grades. Mean pre-operative sagittal angle (SA) was 19.9 degrees and sagittal index (SI) was 0.54. Mean post-operative SA was 9.3 degrees and SI was 0.72. Mean SA and SI during the final follow-up were 10.9 degrees and 0.69 respectively. Discussion and Conclusion: Neurological recovery and maintenance of radiological correction in our study were comparable to other studies. The results in our short series of 30 cases have been encouraging. But there is need for more cases and longer follow-ups to come to categorical conclusion.

We introduce the method of multiangle depolarized dynamic light scattering (MA-DDLS) to characterize the length and diameter of covalently functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). MA-DDLS yields simultaneous characterization of the mean translational and rotational diffusivities of dilute solutions of SWCNTs. By using an anisotropic rigid rod model, we uniquely determine the length and diameter of the SWCNTs from the independent measurements of rotational and translational diffusion. The multiangle depolarized light scattering technique is found to be a fast, noninvasive, and reproducible method for identifying the average length and diameter of SWCNTs in solution.

We apply methods of dynamic light scattering (DLS) and fluid mechanics to quantitatively establish the role of aggregation in the turbulent drag reduction of high molar mass poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) solutions. By means of DLS, we show that the dilute aqueous solutions of high molar mass PEO ( M w ∼ 4 × 10 6 g/mol) are aggregated and that this aggregate structure can be manipulated by addition of the chaotropic salt guanidine sulfate (GuS) or the divalent salt magnesium sulfate (MgSO 4 ). In aqueous solution, we find Γ ∼ q 2.8±0.1 , where Γ is the DLS correlation function relaxation rate and q is the scattering vector. This scaling is consistent with internal motions of a large coil or aggregate. Addition of salt progressively decreases the scaling to Γ ∼ q 2.0±0.1 (at 0.5 M of MgSO 4 ) consistent with center-of-mass diffusion of isolated coils. We further find that manipulating the aggregation state of PEO with MgSO 4 shifts the critical condition for onset of turbulent drag reduction at dilute concentrations in pipe flow by a factor of 2.5. Because this critical condition is inversely proportional to the viscoelastic relaxation time of the polymer solution, we conclude that the aggregation state and the turbulent drag reduction behavior of PEO are strongly correlated. This correlation definitively confirms prior speculation (Cox et al. Nature 1974;249; Vlachogiannis et al. Physics of Fluids 2003;15(12)) that the high molar mass PEO commonly used in literature studies of turbulent drag reduction is in a state of aggregation. Furthermore, the quantitative differences in quiescent DLS characterization and turbulent flow pressure drop measurements suggest that high molar mass PEO undergoes flow-induced de-aggregation in transport systems with shear stresses as low as 0.5 Pa.

Carpometacarpal (CMC) joint dislocations are uncommon injuries that account for less than 1% of hand injuries. Dorsal dislocations of the CMC joints are more frequent than volar dislocations. Palmar dislocations can be either ulnopalmar or radiopalmar. There are very few reports of isolated radiopalmar dislocations of the fifth CMC joint in the English-language literature. In our case of radiopalmar dislocation, diagnosis was delayed, and attempts at closed reduction were unsuccessful. Therefore, it was treated by open reduction and Kirschner-wire fixation. This article reports a rare type of injury and discusses its management.

Clinical descriptions of tuberculosis date back to antiquity. Extra-pulmonary involvement is noted in approximately 14% of patients, with 1% to 8% having osseous disease. In literature, some cases of bilateral traumatic dislocations have been described, but reports on bilateral pathological subluxations or dislocations of hip joints, that too in adults, are extremely rare. Tuberculosis can present in myriad ways and it can mimic any disease. The sole purpose of writing this article was to report one of the extremely rare presentations of skeletal tuberculosis.

Many infectious diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality, especially in the developing world, could be preventable through vaccination. The effort to produce safe, thermally stable, and needle-free mucosal vaccines has become increasingly important for global health considerations. We have previously demonstrated that a thermally stable nanoemulsion, a mucosal adjuvant for needle-free nasal immunization, is safe and induces protective immunity with a variety of antigens, including recombinant protein. The successful use of nanoemulsion-based vaccines, however, poses numerous challenges. Among the challenges is optimization of the formulation to maintain thermal stability and potency and another is accuracy and efficiency of dispensing the vaccines to the nasal mucosa in the anterior and turbinate region of the nasal cavity or potentially to the nasopharynx-associated lymphoid tissue.We have examined the effects of different diluents [phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and 0.9% NaCl] on the stability and potency of nanoemulsion-based vaccines. In addition, we have determined the efficiency of delivering them using commercially available nasal spray devices (Pfeiffer SAP-62602 multidose pump and the BD Hypak SCF 0.5 ml unit dose Accuspray(TM)).We report the stability and potency of PBS-diluted ovalbumin-nanomeulsion mixtures for up to 8 months and NaCl-diluted mixtures up to 6 months when stored at room temperature. Significant differences in spray characteristics including droplet size, spray angle, plume width, and ovality ratios were observed between the two pumps. Further, we have demonstrated that the nanoemulsion-based vaccines are not physically or chemically altered and retain potency following actuation with nasal spray devices. Using either device, the measured spray characteristics suggest deposition of nanoemulsion-based vaccines in inductive tissues located in the anterior region of the nasal cavity.The results of this study suggest that nanoemulsion-based vaccines do not require specially engineered delivery devices and support their potential use as nasopharyngeal vaccine adjuvants.

Background: Various treatment modalities including non-invasive methods such as chemical peels, topical retinoids, microdermabrasion, minimally invasive techniques such as microneedling, fractional lasers, microneedling radiofrequency devices and invasive procedures such as acne scar surgeries and ablative lasers are used for acne scars, each with its own unique advantages and disadvantages. This study is a retrospective assessment of efficacy and safety of microneedling fractional radiofrequency in the treatment of acne scars. Methods: Thirty one patients of skin types III-V with moderate and severe facial acne scarring received four sequential fractional radiofrequency treatments over a period of 6 months with an interval of 6 weeks between each session. Goodman & Baron's acne scar grading system was used for assessment by a side by side comparison of preoperative and post- operative photographs taken at their first visit and at the end of 3 months after the last session. Results: Estimation of improvement with Goodman and Baron's Global Acne Scarring System showed that by qualitative assessment of 31 patients with grade 3 and grade 4 acne scars, 80.64% showed improvement by 2 grades and 19.35% showed improvement by 1 grade. Quantitative assessment showed that 58% of the patients had moderate, 29% had minimal, 9% had good and 3% showed very good improvement. Adverse effects were limited to transient pain, erythema, edema and hyperpigmentation. Conclusion: Microneedling fractional radiofrequency is efficacious for the treatment of moderate and severe acne scars.

We systematically investigate droplet movement, coalescence, and splitting on an open hydrophobic surface. These processes are actuated by magnetic beads internalized in an oil-coated aqueous droplet using an external magnet. Results are organized into an 'operating diagram' that describes regions of droplet stable motion, breakage, and release from the magnet. The results are explained theoretically with a simple model that balances magnetic, friction, and capillary-induced drag forces and includes the effects of particle type, droplet size, surrounding oil layer, surface tension, and viscosity. Finally, we discuss the implications of the results for the design of magnet-actuated droplet systems for applications such as nucleic acid purification, immunoassay and drug delivery.