Search

Halogen molecules dissociatively chemisorb on Si(1 0 0)-(2 × 1), and the bonding structures that they adopt can be elucidated with scanning tunneling microscopy. Of the Cl, Br, and I group, Cl has the highest single atom diffusion barrier, and both single and paired adatoms are observed at 295 K. The barrier is smaller for Br, and the adatoms can interrogate the surface until they form pairs, which are then immobile, or are trapped at C-type defects. The barrier is smallest for I, allowing the formation of pairs and trapped states, but the pairs are mobile at ambient temperature. Their motion is thermally activated, the events are random, and the diffusivities along and across the dimer row are ∼0.42 and ∼0.17 A 2 /s at 295 K. The respective energy barriers for pairwise diffusion are ∼0.76 and ∼0.82 eV, assuming an attempt frequency of 10 12 s −1 . Studies over long times reveal that pairwise diffusion at low coverage is ultimately quenched by the increasing density of C-type defects, i.e. the increasing amounts of dissociated H 2 O.

An optimization technique has been proposed to determine Hansen solubility parameters (HSP) and radius of interaction ( R ) of PLA and PGA; objective function to be minimized being radius of interaction ( R ), and the constraints being that the solvents should be within and nonsolvents outside the interaction sphere. The proposed method has been validated and found to be most reliable. The values of HSP ( δ d , δ p , δ h ) and R for PLA have been obtained as ((18.50, 9.70, 6.00) and 10.50) (J/cc) 0.5 at 25 °C; and those of PGA as ((17.70, 6.21, 12.50) and 1.92) (J/cc) 0.5 at 80 °C. For formulating the nonlinear inequality constraints known HSP data for 20 solvents and seven nonsolvents have been used for PLA at 25 °C; similarly HSP data for three newly found solvents (phenol, m -cresol and 4-chlorophenol), and five nonsolvents have been used for PGA at 80 °C. Established methods have been used for comparison. HSP and R have been directly compared using the 3D intrinsic viscosity and classical methods. Indirectly the total solubility parameter δ has been compared with the values obtained from the intrinsic viscosity 1D approach and group contribution method using Fedors and van Krevelen correlations. The 1D approach has led to an empirical correlation for intrinsic viscosities of PLA and PGA.

We present a case of tongue necrosis due to intraoperative pressure injury. A laryngeal mask airway with adhesive electrodes was inserted into the oropharynx, over an endotracheal tube, to facilitate glossopharyngeal nerve monitoring during craniotomy for a cerebellopontine angle tumor. The case, mechanisms of injury, and modifications to our current practice are discussed.

A newborn female baby presented to us with horizontally oval swelling involving posterior lamella of both upper eyelids and is limited by lid margin. The swelling was bright red, nontender, firm in consistency, nonreducible, blanches on pressure, and fixed to underlying structures with no rise in temperature. The size of the swelling was 2.8 cm × 1.1 cm × 1 cm in the right upper eyelid and 2.8 cm × 1.3 cm × 1 cm in the left upper eyelid. There was total occlusion of the visual axis [Fig. 1]. Magnetic resonance imaging of both orbit shows diffusely bulky and heterogeneous altered signal intensity lesions involving the posterior lamella of upper eyelid on both sides [Fig. 2]. Figure 1 Bilateral infantile hemangioma of upper eyelid Figure 2 Infantile hemangioma involving posterior lamella of upper eyelid on magnetic resonance imaging scan The patient was prescribed oral propranolol 2 mg/kg in two divided doses under the supervision of a pediatrician and responded well to the treatment within a week of the initiation of the treatment [Fig. 3] and reduce further in size within 12 weeks of the treatment with the clearing of the visual axis [Fig. 4]. Figure 3 Response of the lesion 1 week postmedication Figure 4 Response of the lesion 12 weeks postmedication

New and efficient paradigms for web-based collaborative product design in a global economy will be driven by increased outsourcing, increased competition, and pressures to reduce product development time. We have developed a three-tier (client-serverdatabase) architecture based collaborative shape design system, Computer Aided Distributed Design and Collaboration (CADDAC). CADDAC has a centralized geometry kernel and constraint solver. The server-side provides support for solid modeling, constraint solving operations, data management, and synchronization of clients. The client-side performs real-time creation, modification, and deletion of geometry over the network. In order to keep the clients thin, many computationally intensive operations are performed at the server. Only the graphics rendering pipeline operations are performed at the client-side. A key contribution of this work is a flexible architecture that decouples Application Data (Model), Controllers, Viewers, and Collaboration. This decoupling allows new feature development to be modular and easy to develop and manage. @DOI: 10.1115/1.1582882#

The laser is a less-invasive method compared with the conventional techniques because it produces little cell destruction and less bleeding due to its hemostatic properties and requires the patient a reduced number of sessions and less chairside time for the most applications.

To compare the utility of anti-nucleosome antibodies and anti-dsDNA antibodies in diagnosis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and as a marker of disease activity.This is a hospital based observational study among 40 (37 females and 3 males) selected cases of SLE (or = 4 ACR criteria) and 80 control. 40 cases of other systemic autoimmune disease (SAD) [e g. 29 cases of Rheumatoid arthritis, 4 cases of Systemic sclerosis/scleroderma, 4 cases of Sjögren syndrome, 3 cases of MCTD and 40 Healthy blood were taken as control. From each patient venous blood samples were collected and submitted for anti-nucleosome and anti-dsDNA antibodies assay by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Anti-nucleosome antibodies were positive in 19 (47.5%) SLE, 02 (05%) other SAD and none of the healthy persons. Anti dsDNA antibodies were positive in 15 (37.5%) SLE patients, 07 (17.5%) other SAD and 01(2.5%) healthy persons. For diagnosis of SLE, sensitivity of anti-ds DNA and anti-nucleosome antibody was found to be 37.5% and 47.50% respectively. The specificity of anti-nucleosome was 100% and that of anti-dsDNA was 97.50%. So, anti-nucleosome antibody test is more specific and more sensitive for diagnosis of SLE than anti-dsDNA. When SLE cases were compared with SAD, sensitivity of anti-dsDNA and anti-nucleosome antibody, for diagnosis of SLE, found to be 37.50% and 47.50% respectively but the specificity of anti-nucleosome was 95% and that of anti-dsDNA was 82.50%. Both antibodies show positive correlation with SLEDAI score .The correlation coefficient was stronger for anti-dsDNA antibodies (r = +0.550, P =.001) than anti-nucleosome antibodies (r = +0.332, P =.05) CONCLUSIONS: Anti-nucleosome antibodies show higher positivity than anti-dsDNA antibodies among SLE than other SAD and healthy population. Anti-nucleosome antibodies are more sensitive and specific for the diagnosis of SLE than anti-dsDNA antibodies. Anti-nucleosome and anti-dsDNA both show positive correlation with SLEDAI. But anti-dsDNA antibodies show stronger correlation with SLEDAI than anti-nucleosome. So, anti-nucleosome antibodies can be used as an additional marker for diagnosis of SLE and SLE disease activity.

The battery life of mobile devices is one of their most important resources. Much of the literature focuses on accurately profiling the power consumption of device components or enabling application developers to develop energy-efficient applications through fine-grained power profiling. However, there is a lack of tools to enable users to extend battery life on demand. What can users do if they need their device to last for a specific duration in order to perform a specific task? To this extent, we developed BatteryExtender, a user-guided power management tool that enables the reconfiguration of the device's resources based on the workload requirement, similar to the principle of creating virtual machines in the cloud. It predicts the battery life savings based on the new configuration, in addition to predicting the impact of running applications on the battery life. Through our experimental analysis, BatteryExtender decreased the energy consumption between 10.03% and 20.21%, and in rare cases by up to 72.83%. The accuracy rate ranged between 92.37% and 99.72%.

Any system that is able to reliably measure the aesthetic appeal of photographs would be of considerable importance to the digital imaging industry. Researchers have built automated rating systems using machine learning techniques applied to features extracted from images. In this paper, we study the effectiveness of ACQUINE, a comprehensive and publicly available rating system, using data obtained from voters in a crowd sourced manner. We analyze the effect of voting using a simple binary like/dislike rating in comparison to a numerical 10 point scale. We also show that global measures of image quality, such as contrast or colorfulness, do not correlate well with human ratings. The role of composition in determining human rating of aesthetics is discussed.

With the emergence of battery-constrained SoC devices dominated by smartphones and tablets, there is a need for very sophisticated fine-grained power profiling techniques, because one-tenth of a milliwatt of power can extend battery life by more than just a few hours. In this paper, we cover state-of-the-art power profiling devices on instrumented platforms and make the case that todays SoC devices require very fine and sophisticated power profiling tools to account for the SoCs exercised offloading mechanism of functionality to different IP blocks on the SoC.

Introduction: Carotid-cavernous fistulas (CCFs) are arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) between the carotid artery or its branches and the adjacent cavernous sinus. The purpose of this report is to present a case of recurrent indirect CCF presenting 47 years after previous operative trapping of the ICA for traumatic direct CCF, the longest reported recurrence to date. Methods: A spontaneous recurrence of indirect carotid-cavernous fistula presented 47 years following initial surgical trapping of the internal carotid artery for traumatic direct carotid-cavernous fistula. Results: The patient was successfully treated with an orbitozygomatic extended middle cranial fossa approach for direct petrous internal carotid artery clip ligation after failure of percutaneous embolization techniques. Conclusions: CCFs can be difficult entities to treat, requiring extensive knowledge and experience with both potential endovascular and surgical options. In addition, recurrences are not uncommon and may present remotely from initial treatment and with different anatomical configurations. This also represents, to our knowledge, the first case reported that required direct petrous carotid ligation to treat the fistula after all endovascular and standard approaches were attempted or not plausible. Clinicians must be aware of these possibilities and ensure close follow-up to guarantee long-term occlusion.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging technology that is penetrating the mobile phone market rapidly. Compliance to multiple NFC standards [1-3] requires designs to support wide dynamic range of field (0.15 to 12A/m), multiple data rates (1.65 to 848Kb/s), various modulation transition times (0.01 to 8usec), wide range of modulation indices (8 to 100%) and line coding techniques (Manchester, NRZ, Modified Miller and PPM). Also, support for small antenna size and very low power card emulation (tag) operation results in additional design constraints. The solution described here integrates all the NFC functions on a multi-IP connectivity SOC in 45nm CMOS.

Resolving excessive power dissipation of modern computer systems has become a substantial challenge. However, few research projects have targeted on application power analysis or application-aware power management, which becomes a rising factor in energy efficient system design. In this paper, we describe and implement an application function (subroutine call) level profiler, Safari. It can be used to generate power profiles of each function in an automatic manner. The experiment results using NPB parallel benchmark suite show that Safari is able to collect function level run-time information with overhead (16% on average) comparable to gprof. The power profiling results can be used for code optimization, power-aware scheduling, or even computing resource billing for future research.

In this paper an optimal state regulator is designed for the twin rotor multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) system. The twin rotor MIMO system (TRMS) exemplifies a high order nonlinear system with significant cross couplings. From the nonlinear model of TRMS a linearised model is obtained and a controller is designed to regulate the states. The controller gain is updated iteratively, until optimal value is reached. Finally simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller for the TRMS.

Technology clients expect with the release of a new device model that the device is more powerful and more energy efficient than its predecessor. There are many profiling tools aimed at profiling the energy efficiency of different platforms in order to provide consumers fair comparison of the energy efficiency of available platforms. Since improving the power consumption of devices is no longer the sole duty of hardware manufacturers but it is also the responsibility of software developers, we present a case study in this paper where we power profile Windows® 8 and Windows® 7 on the same hardware configuration using MobileMark® 2012 in order to compare how their efficiency compare to one another. Based on our results, we were able to show that Windows® 8 is a step forward to a better energy efficient operating system when compared to its predecessor.

Smartphones emerged as the new necessary gadget to many. A smartphone can combine some or all functionalities of several other devices such as a personal computer, phone, personal game console, music player, radio, and/or GPS. Unlike most of the above listed technologies which are switched ON on a need-to basis, a smartphone is always ON. Since a smartphone can run background tasks even during idle mode and since it is limited by its battery life, it becomes necessary to understand what really happens in the background and how it affects the battery life and consequently how to improve it. To this end, we analyzed two smartphone platforms specifically looking at how the energy consumption varies depending on the background applications and network connection type. For instance, we show that you can increase the energy efficiency of an iPhone by up to 59% when streaming music on Wi-Fi as opposed to 3G. Also, when the phone is using 3G, we show that network applications running in the background can reduce the energy efficiency of an iPhone by up to 72% when compared to real idle state. Our observation sheds light on what is eating up the battery life of a smartphone and led us to provide optimization techniques to increase the battery life.

Objective: To assess the correlation of serum C-peptide level to carotid intima media thickness (a surrogate marker of atherosclerosis) and risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in type 2 diabetes patients as determined by United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) risk engine. Materials and Methods: About 101 cases of diabetes mellitus (DM) type 2 (diagnosed according to American Diabetes Association 2007 criteria) were subjected to detail clinical examination and laboratory investigations. The intima media thickness of both carotid arteries (CIMT) was measured for each patient with color Doppler. The risk of CVD was calculated using UKPDS risk engine. Observations: Age of subjects, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), body mass index (BMI), levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-DL (LDL), homocysteine, CIMT, and the 10 years CVD risk according to the UKPDS were significantly different across the C-peptide quartiles (P for trend

Microscope integrated Near infra red Indocyanine green video angiography (NIR ICG VA) has been frequently used in cerebrovascular surgery. It is believed to be a simple and reliable method with acquisition of real time high spatial resolution images. The aim of this review article was to evaluate the efficacy of intra operative Indocyanine green video angiography (ICG VA) in Aneurysm, brain arteriovenous malformations (AVM) and extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass surgeries and also to analyze its limitations. Intra operative imaging is a very useful tool in guiding surgery; thus, avoiding surgical morbidity. Now-a-days, many cerebrovascular units are using ICG VA rather than Doppler and intra operative DSA in most of their aneurysm surgeries, and surgeons are incorporating this technique for AVM and in EC-IC bypass surgeries too. This article is an overview of the beneficial effects of ICG VA in cerebrovascular surgery and will also point out its limitations in various circumstances. Intra operative ICG VA gives high resolution, real time images of arterial, capillary, and venous flow of cerebral vasculature. Although it gives adequate information about the clipped neck, parent/branching artery and perforator involvement, it has some limitations like viewing the neck residuals located behind the aneurysm, thick walled atherosclerotic vessels, and thrombosed aneurysms. In AVM surgery, it is useful in detecting the residual nidus in diffuse type AVM, but cannot be relied in deep seated AVMs and it gives exact information about the anastomosis site in EC-IC bypass, thus, avoiding early bypass graft failure. NIR ICG VA is a simple, reliable, and quick method to pick up subtle findings in cerebrovascular procedures. But in selected cases of aneurysms, endoscopy and intra operative Digital substraction angiography (DSA) may be helpful, whereas in deep seated AVMs, navigation may be required as an adjunct to confirm intra operative findings.

In the present Web services scenario, user demands are complex in nature and cannot be answered by a single Web Service. Composite services need to be constructed to fulfill such demand. QoS is an important aspect of service composition. The overall QoS of the composite service may be decided by the QoS offered by the constituting component services. Therefore a complex service should be formed using component services with matching QoS values. In this paper, a method has been proposed to form complex service sets using component services with matching QoS values such that user’s cost requirement is also satisfied. Availability, response time and throughput are important QoS parameters. Very few number of sets are presented to the user in the form of a list such that the set with best QoS appears at the top. The proposed method thus is very useful for the user and enables him to avail the complex service with best QoS.

Android smartphones and tablets are changing peoples' daily lives. People can now perform tasks on the go that were previously impossible without a laptop or desktop system. The increasingly demanding applications combined with the mobile nature of such systems places heavy emphasis on battery life. Unfortunately, many end users are not satisfied with the battery life of their Android devices. One key challenge developer's face is to understand how their software impacts energy usage. Ideally, a resource within a device should only consume power when needed and otherwise remain inactive. In this survey, we study the aggressive power management techniques underpinning the Android operating system. To aid developer's understanding of application power consumption, we introduce system-wide, function-level power profiling tools and a methodology for energy-efficiency debugging.

A novel acoustic based moisture meter1 has been designed with the specific purpose of measuring moisture in raw cashew nuts. The meter employs pattern matching techniques to determine the moisture content. The meter applies non-invasive, non-destructive methods and the techniques are easily scalable to perform online measurements suitable in an industrial set up. For test trials, a set 15–20 cashew nuts of varying size and weight were considered for our system training and testing. The feature vectors for our training algorithm were based on the acoustic signature of shell to shell impact of cashew nuts. Algorithmic implementation and the electronic and mechanical aspects of the system prototype are discussed. By this method, we were able to distinguish between the dry and wet cashew nuts with high correlation accuracy.

Previously considered the domain of the otolaryngologists, the endoscopy is now a common part of the armamentarium of a neurosurgeon. Neuroendoscopy or endoscope-assisted microsurgery is now being used in almost all routine procedures performed in the neurosurgical operating room. Hands-on training has become essential to learn the basics of neuroendoscopy, even for neurosurgeons well accustomed to the use of microscopes. To decrease the slope of the learning curve of residents during their training and reduce complications of procedures, most neurosurgery training programs around the world have incorporated laboratory or dissection programs in their curricula. Preconference workshops held during annual meetings are also an excellent tool to aid in the transition of surgeons from being a resident under the umbrella of an attending neurosurgeon to being a neurosurgeon able to operate independently and with confidence. In this "tech-savvy era," various cadaver or synthetic models are readily available for endoscopy training in a virtually simulated environment. In accord with the results of a surveys conducted by individual groups and societies, the authors firmly believe that incorporation of endoscopy in the neurosurgical curriculum would add a new dimension to the existing protocol. There is an urgent need for dedicated endoscopy training programs similar to postresidency fellowships in addition to translational research and establishment of dedicated societies to formulate guidelines for such research and monitor its progress.

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions.There are currently 193 member states, including every internationally recognized sovereign state in the world but the Vatican City. From its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year. The organization has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (for assisting in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development); the Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United Nations Trusteeship Council (which is currently inactive). Other prominent UN System agencies include the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Program (WFP) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). One of the primary purposes of the United Nations is the maintenance of international peace and security. Since its creation, the UN has often been called upon to prevent disputes from escalating into war, to persuade opposing parties to use the conference table rather than force of arms, or to help restore peace when armed conflict does break out. Over the decades, the UN has helped to end numerous conflicts, often through actions of the Security Council — the primary organ for dealing with issues of international peace and security.The Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary-General all play major, complementary roles in fostering peace and security. . United Nations activities cover the principal areas of conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, enforcement and peace building.

Data Mining has been widely used by business organizations and data analysts for extraction of implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful information from huge data sets. Out of the large number of data mining approaches, association rule mining is the most popular. In this paper, the conventional association rule mining technique has been improved to be able to extract better data from the large pool of data. A strategy has been proposed for selection of association rules that will result into extraction of more relevant and useful data from the data set. It is observed that the proposed method gives more precise results and thus is more efficient as compared to the commonly used rule mining technique. The method is more useful since more relevant information becomes available to the analysts and businesses.

Extending the battery life by reducing the power impact of software applications is becoming increasingly important in mobile computing systems. Several power estimation tools are being developed for software applications, but a gap exists in using them to instrument software applications for better power footprint. In this paper, we analyze idle and active power management scenarios of software applications and target minimizing OS-application interaction as our goal for obtaining power savings. A timer tick varying strategy is shown to reduce power consumption by 3 Watts for multimedia playback software.

INTRODUCTION Restrictions in elective surgery and large group gatherings as well as changes in faculty and resident schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to rapid evolvement of the training curriculum for neurosurgical trainees While necessary, these changes may have significant impact on the training of neurosurgery residents METHODS A survey assessing changes to resident clinical and educational workload and their sentiment about how these changes may affect their careers was distributed electronically to neurosurgery residents in the United States and Canada RESULTS One hundred ninety-seven resident responses were collected between April 17, 2020 and April 30, 2020 The survey respondents were spread over 29 states and Canada and were evenly spread across all residency levels (P = 619) Nearly 82% reported that the inpatient and outpatient volumes were either greatly (44 0%) or moderately (37 8%) reduced Greater than 91% reported a significant reduction in work hours and a significant increase in resident didactics (P < 001) Nearly all residents surveyed (98 5%) reported that their program had converted to electronic platforms for their didactic lectures, and there was a significant increase in the time residents spent in didactic lectures Residents reported converting the majority of their time outside of neurosurgery clinical responsibilities into watching remote didactic lectures, conducting research, and preparing for board examinations, while nearly 14% of trainees spent at least a portion of that time providing COVID-19 medical care Senior residents were more likely to express concern about their educational experience as well as their future career prospects CONCLUSION Universally, residents have experienced reduced work hours and operative case volumes Programs have adapted by increasing didactic time and using electronic platforms The findings suggest that senior residents may feel the effects more than their junior counterparts This may require more acute attention from faculty with respect to preparing senior residents for moving on to fellowship or ultimate job It is possible that this remarkable time period will prompt a critical re-appraisal of the pre-COVID-19 adequacy of educational content in our training programs, and that enhanced educational efforts driven by this pandemic may be lasting

The transoral (TO) approach to the craniocervical junction provides similar access to the periclival and subaxial spine compared with the extraoral anterolateral prevascular (EAP) approach, but the additional exposure gained by the EAP approach has not been quantified. This study quantitatively compared the two surgical exposures.Ten silicon-injected fixed cadaver heads were used for the TO approach and another 5 heads (10 sides) were dissected for the EAP approach. For the TO approach, mouth opening was standardized to 5.5 cm using a Spetzler-Sonntag retractor, and the soft palate was split 1.5 cm to access the periclival area. A frameless stereotactic device was used to calculate the lengths, angles, and areas of surgical exposure for different anatomic targets.The vertical working length on the dura progressively increased 61% (336 ± 26 mm to 539 ± 16 mm [mean ± standard deviation]; P0.001), and the vertical working angle increased 23% (98 ± 3 degrees to 121 ± 5 degrees; P0.0) using the TO versus the EAP approach. In the TO approach, the bilateral average horizontal working length on the C1 arch was less on the ipsilateral side than for the EAP approach (11 ± 1 mm vs. 17 ± 1 mm, 61%; P0.01). The mean periclival and subaxial exposures were 546 ± 72 mm(2) and 932 ± 70 mm(2) with the TO approach and 874 ± 75 mm(2) and 1644 ± 107 mm(2) with the EAP approach (mean increases 62% and 77%, respectively; both P0.001).Both the TO and EAP approaches improved surgical exposure, but the EAP approach provides more significant and consistent gains to the anterolateral periclival and subaxial areas.

Background The lower cranial nerves must be identified to avoid iatrogenic injury during skull base and high cervical approaches. Prompt recognition of these structures using basic landmarks could reduce surgical time and morbidity. Methods The anterior triangle of the neck was dissected in 30 cadaveric head sides. The most superficial segments of the glossopharyngeal, vagus and its superior laryngeal nerves, accessory, and hypoglossal nerves were exposed and designated into smaller anatomic triangles. The midpoint of each nerve segment inside the triangles was correlated to the angle of the mandible (AM), mastoid tip (MT), and bifurcation of the common carotid artery. Results A triangle bounded by the styloglossus muscle, external carotid artery, and facial artery housed the glossopharyngeal nerve. This nerve segment was 0.06 ± 0.71 cm posterior to the AM and 2.50 ± 0.59 cm inferior to the MT. The vagus nerve ran inside the carotid sheath posterior to internal carotid artery and common carotid artery bifurcation in 48.3% of specimens. A triangle formed by the posterior belly of digastric muscle, sternocleidomastoid muscle, and internal jugular vein housed the accessory nerve, 1.90 ± 0.60 cm posterior to the AM and 2.30 ± 0.57 cm inferior to the MT. A triangle outlined by the posterior belly of digastric muscle, internal jugular vein, and common facial vein housed the hypoglossal nerve, which was 0.82 ± 0.84 cm posterior to the AM and 3.64 ± 0.70 cm inferior to the MT. Conclusions Comprehensible landmarks can be defined to help expose the lower cranial nerves to avoid injury to this complex region.

AComA aneurysms are most commonly found at the A1-A2 junction on the dominant side. The angle of the arteries at the bifurcation and the direction of blood flow are factors of hemodynamic stress in the apical region where these aneurysms often develop. They exist at the bifurcation of dominant A1, A2 and AComA and usually point in the direction away from the dominant A1. They are more prone to rupture and demonstrate the highest incidence of post-operative morbidity among anterior circulation aneurysms. Consideration of aneurysm morphology may be used to guide approaches in AComA aneurysms. Resection of the gyrus rectus in combination with a pterional approach was popularized by Yasargil and it became the standard for treatment or exposure of AComA aneurysms, although other skull base approaches are also widely used. Clip selection is of extreme importance and the preservation of blood flow to the perforators should be emphasized. Adequate dissection and exposure of the entire "H" complex prior to clipping is the key to a successful outcome. Separating the perforators from the neck or dome of the artery and preserving the parent vessel presents a substantial challenge to the surgeon when the aneurysm is behind the parent artery, making it difficult to achieve a good outcome.

To determine factors that help decide the side of approach for anterior communicating artery (AComA) aneurysms, based on a prospective study.Between January 2004 and January 2006, 93 cases with AComA aneurysms were treated through pterional approach. They were classified as Type I, II (IIa, IIb), III and IV, based on the various projections and size of aneurysm. The principle for the choice of operative side was designed based on the type of aneurysm and the A2 fork orientation (the interrelations between the plane of bilateral A2, AComA, and mid-saggital plane).There were 55 aneurysms of Type I, 10 of Type IIa, 14 of Type IIb, 12 of Type III, and 2 of Type IV. In Types I and IIa, the side posteriorly placed to A2 was chosen for the approach. In Type IIb, the side of the dominant A1 was selected. In Type III, the side anteriorly placed to A2 was chosen. Type IV aneurysms were difficult to handle even if approached from the dominant A1. There were 11 cases treated from the side of non-dominant A1. The overall outcome in the treatment of AComA aneurysms were considered excellent in 90.8% of cases according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale, with complete occlusion of aneurysms and complete patency of parent or perforating arteries.Applying three-dimensional computed tomography and magnetic resonance angiography, we classified AComA aneurysms as four types and undertook surgical clipping from the chosen side of approach, according to the type of aneurysm and the A2 fork orientation. The selective side of approach on the basis of individual decision-making has led to favourable outcomes.

A novel multi-pass optical cavity with partially-chaotic ray dynamics has been combined with a Quantum Cascade laser for sensing of ethanol. The 4-cm diameter cavity shows an optical path length in the mid-infrared of ?4.5-m.

We use scanning tunneling microscopy to show that Cl2 dosing of Cl-saturated Si(100)-(2x1) surfaces at elevated temperature leads to uptake beyond "saturation" and allows access to a new etching pathway. This process involves Cl insertion in Si-Si dimer bonds or backbonds, diffusion of the inserted Cl, and ultimately desorption of SiCl2. Investigations into the etch kinetics reveal that insertion occurs via a novel form of Cl2 dissociative chemisorption that is mediated by dangling bond sites. Upon dissociation, one Cl atom adsorbs at the dangling bond while the other can insert.

We present a novel chaotic cavity for in-situ trace gas sensing. The multi-pass cavity achieves ~15-m optical path length in a cavity of only 68 mL volume with little beam overlap on the mirror.

Correction for ‘Approaches for fabricating high efficiency organic light emitting diodes’ by Jwo-Huei Jou et al., J. Mater. Chem. C, 2015, DOI: 10.1039/c4tc02495h.

We use scanning tunneling microscopy to show that Cl2 dosing of Cl-saturated Si(100)-(2x1) surfaces at elevated temperature leads to uptake beyond "saturation" and allows access to a new etching pathway. This process involves Cl insertion in Si-Si dimer bonds or backbonds, diffusion of the inserted Cl, and ultimately desorption of SiCl2. Investigations into the etch kinetics reveal that insertion occurs via a novel form of Cl2 dissociative chemisorption that is mediated by dangling bond sites. Upon dissociation, one Cl atom adsorbs at the dangling bond while the other can insert.

Spontaneous desorption of Cl, Br, and I from $n$- and $p$-type $\mathrm{Si}(100)\text{\ensuremath{-}}(2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1)$ was studied with scanning tunneling microscopy at temperatures of $620--800\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ where conventional thermal bond breaking should be negligible. The activation energies and prefactors determined from Arrhenius plots indicate a novel reaction pathway that is initiated by the capture of electrons which have been excited by phonon processes into Si-halogen antibonding states. This configuration is on a repulsive potential energy surface, and it is sufficiently long lived that desorption can occur, constituting phonon-activated electron-stimulated desorption. Surprisingly, the Arrhenius plots for differently doped samples crossed and, above a critical temperature, the reaction with the largest activation energy had the highest rate. This is explained by large entropy changes associated with the multiphonon nature of the electronic excitation. For Cl desorption from $p$-type Si, these entropy changes amounted to $34{k}_{B}$. They were $19{k}_{B}$, $13{k}_{B}$, and $8{k}_{B}$ for Br desorption from $p$-type, lightly doped $n$-type, and heavily doped $n$-type Si, respectively. The desorption rates for I were nearly three orders of magnitude larger than the rates observed for Cl and Br. Here, the Si-I antibonding states overlap the conduction-band minimum, so that conduction-band electrons with this energy can be captured by the Si-I antibonding states. Together, these results reveal that a complex relationship exists between phonons and electronic excitations during chemical reactions at surfaces.

This paper proposes a new selection method for Genetic Algorithms. The motivation behind the proposed method is to investigate the effect of different selection methods on the rate of convergence. The new method Dynamic Selection Method (DSM) is based on proportionate selection. DSM functions by continuously changing the criteria for parent selection (dynamic) based on the number of generations in a run and the current generation. Results show that by using DSM to maintain diversity in a population gives slower convergence, but, their overall performance was an improvement. Relationship between slower convergences, in GA runs, leading to better solutions, has been identified.

This poster describes current work on the application of network virtualization and peer-to-peer routing techniques that overlay IP traffic and provide seamless connectivity to virtual machines in grid computing. Such IP-over-P2P virtual network - IPOP - is an overlay network that uses a virtual IP address space and allows nodes that belong to a grid to be seamlessly pooled together. The overlay network is self-configured as nodes join/leave the virtualized grid, and IP-level bi-directional connectivity among peers is provided. The decoupling provided by the overlay enables grid applications to leverage a wealth of IP-based software typically available in local-area environments. Such virtual networks, when combined to complementary resource virtualization techniques provided by O/S virtual machines [Xen, Rarham et al. (2003), VMware, Sugerman et al., (2001), User Mode Linux, Dike, J. (2000)], provide a scalable framework for dealing with a fundamental goal of grid computing: sharing resources in a secure and flexible manner by Figueiredo, Dinda and Fortes (2003)

An ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) is commonly used to help subjects with weakness of ankle dorsiflexor muscles due to peripheral or central nervous system disorders. Both these disorders are due to the weakness of the tibialis anterior muscle which results in lack of dorsiflexion assist moment. The deformity and muscle weakness of one joint in the lower extremity influences the stability of the adjacent joints, thereby requiring compensatory adaptations. We present an innovative ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) that was designed to allow two degree-of-freedom motion while serving to maintain proper foot position for subjects. The prototype AFO would introduce greater functionality over currently marketed devices by means of its inversion-eversion degree-of-freedom in addition to flexion/extension. The flexion/extension is controlled with the help of an actuator and inversion/eversion with a spring and a damper.

Three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann method based simulations of a microduct have been undertaken in this paper. The objective is to understand the different physical phenomena occurring at these small scales and to investigate when the flow can be treated as two-dimensional. Towards this end, the Knudsen number and aspect ratio (depth to width ratio) are varied for a fixed pressure ratio. The pressure in the microduct is non-linear with the non-linearity in pressure reducing with an increase in Knudsen number. The pressure and velocity behaves somewhat similar to two-dimensional microchannels even when the aspect ratio is unity. The slip velocity at the impenetrable wall has two components: along and perpendicular to the flow. Our results show that the streamwise velocity near the centerline is relatively invariant along the depth for aspect ratio more than three, suggesting that the microduct can be modeled as a two-dimensional microchannel. However, the velocity component along the depth is never identically zero, implying that the flow is not truly two-dimensional. A curious change in vector direction in a plane normal to the flow direction is observed around aspect ratio of four. These first set of three-dimensional results are significant because they will help in theoretical development and flow modeling at micro scales.

We anticipate that the motion of biped machines should be similar to human motion to achieve dynamic stability. In this paper, a novel approach to compute dynamically stable gait of a planar six degree-of-freedom biped is presented. This approach is analytical and is based on periodic property of a gait cycle. The resulting gait satisfies all dynamic stability criteria.Copyright © 2004 by ASME

For gait retraining of stroke victims, there is a need for rehabilitation devices, which can support the weight of leg during walking. Machines that gravity balances the leg are potentially useful as rehabilitation devices. This paper presents gravity balancing designs for two and three links planar chains using non-zero free length springs. Non-zero free length springs are those springs which have initial free length. These springs are cheaper, easily available and can be useful when complete weight balancing is not required. These designs are further optimized for spring connection points and parameters of the spring such as free length and stiffness to achieve greater balancing.

To enhance the ENVISION interface and facilitate user interaction, various techniques were considered for better rendering of search results with improved scalability. In this paper we discuss the challenges we encountered and our solutions to those problems.

Light-quality is extremely crucial for any light source to be used for illumination. However, a proper light-quality index is still missing although numerous electricity-driven lighting measures have been introduced since past 150 yr. We present in this communication a universal and easy-to-apply index for quantifying the quality of any given lighting source, which is based on direct comparison of its lumen spectrum with the natural light counterpart having the same color temperature. A general principle for creating high quality pseudo-natural light is accordingly derived. By using organic light-emitting diode technology, for example, daylight-style emission with a 96% natural light resemblance is obtained as a high number of organic emitters with diffused colors spanning throughout the entire visible range are employed. The same principle can be extended to other lighting technology such as light-emitting diode to generate natural light-style emission.

Aim: This in vitro study was carried out to compare the effect of two different light curing systems i.e. LED and quartz tungsten halogen on polymerization and hardness of silorane based posterior composite resin. Materials and Methods: A total of 40 samples of silorane based composite Filtek P-90 measuring 2 mm thickness and 8 mm diameter were prepared using teflon moulds. Twenty of the samples were cured by LED curing system and 20 samples were cured by quartz-tungsten-halogen (QTH) curing system. The samples were polished and tested in Knoop Hardness tester using a 50 grams load and dwell time of 15 seconds on top and bottom surfaces. The percentage depth of cure was calculated and statistical analysis was performed using 2 way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and student t - test. Results: Results showed that the LED showed higher statistically significant values for both the top and bottom surface hardness. Conclusion: LED showed greater hardness and depth of cure as compared to QTH in silorane based posterior composite resin.