Diazepam-ketamine anaesthesia for open heart surgery "micro-mini" drip administration technique

Two hundred open heart cases anaesthetized with a combination of diazepam-ketamine using "Micro-Mini" drip administration technique were presented. The results were eminently desirable, and in the opinion of the authors are a notable improvement over other methods for all types of cardiovascular surgery including most advanced heart diseases. The advantages of this anaesthetic method for cardiovascular surgery are as follows: 1. Effects on cardiovascular system are minimal.--2. Respiratory depression is negligible.--3. There is no increase in salivation or muscle tone.--4. Induction and maintenance of anaesthesia are simple and smooth.--5. Anaesthesia can be maintained, using a high concentration of oxygen alone, by a slight increase in rate of ketamine administration whenever necessary.--6. Post-anaesthetic psychotomimetic effects are negligible.--7. Nearly 100% of patients have excellent amnesia.--8. It has a wide margin of safety.--9. This technique has proved highly acceptable to patients and surgeons. We feel ketamine should be used in small dosages continuously administered with either "Micro-Mini" drip infusion or infusion pump. Ketamine given in this fashion should be regarded as an analgesic.     

Diazepam-ketamine anaesthesia for open heart surgery a "micro-mini" drip administration technique

Two hundred open-heart cases were anaesthetized with a diazepam-ketamine combination. The results were excellent. A "Micro-Mini" drip technique insured low, even, but adequate dose levels of ketamine and less drug was used. Induction and maintenance are simple and smooth. Effects on the cardiovascular system and respiratory system are minimal. The margin of safety is wide and 100% oxygen can be used whenever needed.     

A miniature UWB planar monopole antenna with 5-GHz band-rejection filter and the time-domain characteristics

A planar monopole antenna with a staircase shape and small volume (25/spl times/26/spl times/1 mm/sup 3/) is proposed in this paper. With the use of a half-bowtie radiating element, the staircase-shape, and a modified ground plane structure, the proposed antenna has a very wide impedance bandwidth measured at about 11.6 GHz (2.9-14.5 GHz, bandwidth ratio about 1:5) below VSWR 2 including the WLAN band notched in the vicinity of 5 GHz. An omnidirectional radiation pattern is obtained. The group delay which is an indication of linearity between two proposed antennas is less than 1 ns. The electrical characteristics in terms of frequency and time domains and physical ones of the proposed antenna make it attractive for use in ultrawideband (UWB) systems.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Nanocapsules of a-Fe(NiCoAl) Solid-solution

α-Fe(NiCoAl) solid-solution nanocapsules were prepared with pure powders of Fe, Ni, Co and Al by the plasma arc-discharging using a copper crucible. The shapes of the nanocapsules are in polyhedrons with the core/shell structure. The body centered cubic (BCC) phase is formed in the core. The size of the nanocapsules is in the range of 10~120 nm and the thickness of the shell is 4~11 nm. Saturation magnetization Js=150 Am2/kg and coercivity iHC=24.3 kA/m are achieved for the nanocapsules.     

Comments on “Quadratic stabilization of continuous timesystems with state-delay and norm-bounded time-varyinguncertainties”

In the above mentioned paper by Mahmoud-Muthairi (ibid. vol.39 (1994)) a sufficient condition for memoryless stabilization of a class of uncertain linear systems with a variable-state delay and norm-bounded time-varying uncertainties is derived in terms of an algebraic Riccati equation. This Riccati equation depends on several free matrix variables, and a subsequent result in the paper, Theorem 2, states that failure or success of the stabilization algorithm is independent of the selection of these matrix variables. In this paper, we give a counterexample to this Theorem 2 as well as providing a fix     

Structural and electrochemical properties of vanadium oxide thin films grown by d.c. and r.f. reactive sputtering at room temperature

Vanadium oxide thin films were grown at room temperature by direct current and radio-frequency reactive sputtering systems to compare the structural and electrochemical properties. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared measurements reveal that the composition of the as-deposited films consists of the V₂O₅ phase regardless of the deposition methods. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction measurements show that the crystallinity of the as-deposited V₂O₅ films is different depending on the deposition method. Films deposited by direct current reactive sputtering were amorphous, whereas films deposited by radio-frequency reactive sputtering were crystalline. Scanning electron microscopy measurements show that the V₂O₅ films grown by radio-frequency reactive sputtering had a large grain size but the films grown by direct current reactive sputtering were amorphous. Charge–discharge measurements taken at room temperature with a constant current clearly indicate that the films grown by direct current sputtering demonstrated typical amorphous behavior, whereas the V₂O₅ films grown by radio-frequency sputtering demonstrated the discharge behavior of crystalline V₂O₅. The origin of the structural and electrochemical properties of film grown by radio-frequency reactive sputtering is a self-bias effect. The self-bias effect induces ion bombardment during the growth of vanadium oxide thin film. These results suggest that direct current reactive sputtering is more desirable for growing amorphous V₂O₅ thin film than radio-frequency reactive sputtering.     

Biomimetic micropatterning of silica by surface-initiated polymerization and microcontact printing

Micropatterns of silica on a gold substrate were generated by a biomimetic approach, namely, the biosilicification of silicic acids. The procedure consists of three simple steps: pattern generation of a polymerization initiator, (BrC(CH(3))(2)COO(CH(2))(11)S)(2), by microcontact printing; surface-initiated, atom-transfer radical polymerization of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) from the patterned area; and polycondensation of silicic acids. The tertiary amine-containing polymer, pDMAEMA, aided in the spatially controlled polycondensation of silicic acids on surfaces in the presence of phosphate ions, and micropatterns of silica on a gold substrate were successfully generated in combination with the technique of microcontact printing. The procedure could be extended to the controlled fabrication of silica patterns with any size, shape, or thickness.     

Effect of surface structure on biomechanical properties and osseointegration

The purpose of this study is to improve the bone-bonding ability between titanium implants and living bone through the control of geometric design and chemical compositions of an implant surface. We compared the tissue healing response and resulting implant stability for three surface designs by characterizing the histological and mechanical properties of the healing tissue around smooth-surfaced Ti–6Al–4V (SS), CP-Ti plasma-spray-coated (PSC), alkali- and heat-treated (AHT) implants. The implants were transversely inserted into a dog thighbone and evaluated at 4, 8, and 12 weeks. Histological examination indicated that initial matrix mineralization leading to osseointegration occurred more rapidly with the AHT implant. During the 4, 8, and 12 week healing periods, new bone on the surface of AHT implant showed denser growth than that on the SS and PSC implants. The more extensive tissue integration and more rapid matrix mineralization with the AHT implant were reflected in the mechanical test data, which demonstrated superior attachment strength and interfacial stiffness for the AHT implant after healing for 4, 8 and 12 weeks of healing because of the mechanical interlocking in the micrometer sized rough surface and the large bonding area between bone and implant caused by the nanosized porous surface structure. Histological and mechanical data demonstrate that with the appropriate surface design selection, bone bone-bonding ability can be improved and can induce acceleration of the healing response, thereby improving the potential for implant osseointegration.     

A study on the factors that affect the adoption of Smart Water Grid

Due to recent climate changes that accompany drastic changes in water recycle process, extreme floods and droughts are occurring frequently throughout the world. In response to these events, Smart Water Management that refers to implement intelligent water information systems by IT convergence is considered as a new paradigm. In this study, we seek to explore the Smart Water Management, especially the adoption of Smart Water Grid Technology. We aim to review previous studies to identify factors that influence the adoption of the Smart Water Grid and to analyze the importance and priority of the factors affecting Smart Water Grid adoption, thereby presenting the successful adoption measures for Smart Water Grid in Korea. This study set a research model with the influencing factors in relation to the adoption of new IT technologies that were identified through the literature reviews of previous studies based on the TOE framework. This study also conducted empirical analysis of the findings and found out that the issue of privacy protection and security due to hacker’s attack would be emerged as a significant risk factor.