Sterile keratitis after corneal collagen crosslinking in a child

Corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) is a non invasive technique used in halting the progression of keratoconus. Complications with this modality are rare. We report a case of an 8-year-old child who developed sterile infiltrates in the immediate postoperative period after uneventful corneal collagen crosslinking for keratoconus. The infiltrates resolved with topical steroid therapy. There was also present coexisting vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) which was controlled with topical 2% cyclosporine A eye drops prior to crosslinking treatment. This case highlights importance of controlling VKC prior to CXL in keratoconus as it adds to the risk of developing post operative sterile keratitis.     

Mitotic Diversity in Homeostatic Human Interfollicular Epidermis

Despite decades of skin research, regulation of proliferation and homeostasis in human epidermis is still insufficiently understood. To address the role of mitoses in tissue regulation, we utilized human long-term skin equivalents and systematically assessed mitoses during early epidermal development and long-term epidermal regeneration. We now demonstrate four different orientations: (1) horizontal, i.e., parallel to the basement membrane (BM) and suggestive of symmetric divisions; (2) oblique with an angle of 45°–70°; or (3) perpendicular, suggestive of asymmetric division. In addition, we demonstrate a fourth substantial fraction of suprabasal mitoses, many of which are committed to differentiation (Keratin K10-positive). As verified also for normal human skin, this spatial mitotic organization is part of the regulatory program of human epidermal tissue homeostasis. As a potential marker for asymmetric division, we investigated for Numb and found that it was evenly spread in almost all undifferentiated keratinocytes, but indeed asymmetrically distributed in some mitoses and particularly frequent under differentiation-repressing low-calcium conditions. Numb deletion (stable knockdown by CRISPR/Cas9), however, did not affect proliferation, neither in a three-day follow up study by life cell imaging nor during a 14-day culture period, suggesting that Numb is not essential for the general control of keratinocyte division.     

Transition from ferro- to ferrimagnetic ordering via Mn-disorder in (Ni,Co)MnGa quaternary Heusler alloy

An inclusive investigation of electronic and magnetic properties of ordered and disordered (Ni,Co)MnGa quaternary Heusler alloy has been undertaken using the density functional theory-based full potential linearized augmented plane wave method within generalized gradient approximation as exchange–correlation potentials. We observe that the increasing Mn concentration in Ni_1?x CoMn_1+x Ga (x = 0, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75) lowers the ferromagnetic (FM) character of the parent (Ni,Co)MnGa alloy. This change creates two inequivalent Mn sites aligning antiparallel to each other and generates the ferrimagnetic (FiM) ordering in all resultant disordered alloys. Further, this replacement sets off a structural change from Y- to X_a-structure. The highest magnetic moment has been found to be 4.95 μ_B for ordered (Ni,Co)MnGa alloy, whereas it decreases with increase in Mn-concentration for disordered systems. The variation of half-metallicity with increasing Mn concentration is analysed. The stability of FM and FiM state for the present ordered and disordered alloys, respectively, is also examined.     

Direct three dimensional tomography of flames using maximization of entropy technique

Presently, there are numerous applications for non-destructive techniques like emission tomography, laser based methods and particle image velocimetry that are used to study flame characteristics. Reconstruction of the flame intensity field using emission tomography has the advantage over other technologies that it gives accurate results but at the same time requires relatively inexpensive equipment, and therefore, has numerous industrial applications. In the present paper, a new algorithm performing Direct-3D reconstruction using the maximization of entropy (MENT) methodology has been introduced. Through detailed studies using a mathematical object, it has been shown that the Direct-3D algorithm shows significantly reduced errors as compared to 2D slice-by-slice reconstruction algorithms. Secondly, the major features of the proposed algorithm, for e.g., effect of orientation, effect of number of views, and robustness have been discussed. Finally, a few qualitative results from actual flames have been presented using a candle and a gas fired burner, and the results match well with the actual flame geometry and intensity distribution.     

Surface roughness optimization of cold-sprayed coatings using Taguchi method

In this paper, Taguchi L 18 orthogonal array have been employed for depositing the electro-conductive coatings by varying various process parameters, i.e., substrate material, type of powder feeding arrangement, stagnation gas temperature, stagnation gas pressure, and stand-off distance. The response parameter of the coatings so produced is measured in terms of surface roughness. The optimum process parameters are predicted on the basis of analyses (ANOVA) of the raw data and signal to noise ratio. The significant process parameters in order of their decreasing percentage contribution are: stagnation pressure, stand-off distance, substrate material, stagnation temperature of the carrier gas, and feed arrangement of the powder particles, respectively.     

Soft information set for multicriteria decision making

An information source value is perceived differently by different agents. In this paper, we present a new knowledge representation structure, termed as soft information set (SIS), to provide a parameterized representation of the information values, as perceived by an agent. The properties of SIS are investigated and the notion of relations in SIS is devised. The significance of the proposed SIS in aiding multi criteria decision making is illustrated through real case-studies.