The effect of a pressure garment on post-surgical drainage and seroma formation in breast cancer patients

BACKGROUND: The treatment of choice for cancer of the breast are mastectomy and axillary clearance or wide excision with axillary clearance. The most common complication following such a procedure is seroma formation. Various methods have been used to prevent it. However, the use of a pressure garment in this context has not been fully evaluated in the current literature. RESULTS: In a randomised trial comparing patients with a pressure garment with those without one, we have found no improvement in post-operative drainage with the use of a pressure garment. There were more complications in the group without the pressure garment (19%) compared with those with the garment (15.7%). The only seroma occurred in those patients not using the garment. The use of the pressure garment appeared to increase the duration of use of the drain (6.8 vs 6.1 days), these differences in the two groups was not significant. One of the patients in the pressure garment group was unable to tolerate the warmth and discontinued wearing the garment in the third post-operative day. This gave a rejection rate of 5%. CONCLUSION: The use of a pressure garment does not reduce the post-operative drainage, however, the complication rate appears to be higher when the pressure garment is not being used.     

Response in the late phase to a radiological emergency

This paper looks at the key issues that need to be addressed during the transition from the emergency phase to the late phase of a radioactive release, and the development of the initial late phase strategy. It discusses the extent to which current national plans and international advice address the needs of decision makers following contamination of inhabited areas and food production systems. Based on this the following recommendations are made: (1) the issues that will arise at the start of the late phase response to a radioactive release require preparation work in advance of any release; (2) this preparation should consider the adequacy of legislation, technical data and modelling, options for waste storage and disposal, resources for monitoring and implementing clean up; (3) late phase preparedness requires regular exercising and (4) the possibility of terrorist releases adds further emphasis to the need for preparedness for the late phase.     

Unified Elastoplastic–Viscoplastic Bounding Surface Model of Geosynthetics and Its Applications to Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil-Retaining Wall Analysis

The static and dynamic behaviors of reinforced soil structures are possibly subjected to the effects of creep or stress relaxation due to the time-dependent behavior of geosynthetic inclusions and backfill. To simulate the time-dependent monotonic and cyclic behavior of geosynthetics, an isothermal constitutive model is formulated within the framework of elastoplasticity–viscoplasticity. The concept of bounding surface plasticity is first utilized to formulate a time-independent cyclic model of geosynthetics. In order to capture the hardening stiffness of some polyester geosynthetics, an exponential bounding curve is used in simulating the primary loading. The time-independent version of the model was extended into an elastoplastic–viscoplastic model using overstress viscoplasticity with reference to available experimental data. The model was evaluated using creep, stress relaxation, monotonic, and cyclic loading test results obtained for different geosynthetics. It was then incorporated into a finite-element code and the static and dynamic behavior of a geosynthetic reinforced soil wall was analyzed. The analyzed results, with and without consideration to the time-dependent behavior of the reinforcements, were compared. It was demonstrated that although the end-of-construction behavior of the reinforced soil wall was less influenced by the time-dependent properties of geogrids, the long-term performance was considerably affected. The seismic response was also affected to some extent by the rate-dependent behavior of geogrids. The effects were more significant for short and/or large vertical spacing reinforcement layout.     

In-Plane Coupling of Light From InP-Based Photonic Crystal Band-Edge Lasers Into Single-Mode Waveguides

In this paper, we analyze the coupling of light from photonic-crystal band-edge lasers into single-mode waveguides. Both active and passive devices lie in the same plane and coupling of light is achieved by using parabolic and nanotapers in InP based epitaxial structures. Two- and three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain methods are employed to analyze these devices. Coupling efficiencies higher than 80% can be obtained with parabolic couplers. We also present laser configurations that can reduce multiwavelength coupling of light into single-mode waveguides, using structures that are similar to coupled cavity Fabry-Peacuterot lasers     

Spatially Probed Plasmonic Photothermic Nanoheater Enhanced Hybrid Polymeric–Metallic PVDF‐Ag Nanogenerator

Surface plasmon‐based photonics offers exciting opportunities to enable fine control of the site, span, and extent of mechanical harvesting. However, the interaction between plasmonic photothermic and piezoresponse still remains underexplored. Here, spatially localized and controllable piezoresponse of a hybrid self‐polarized polymeric‐metallic system that correlates to plasmonic light‐to‐heat modulation of the local strain is demonstrated. The piezoresponse is associated to the localized plasmons that serve as efficient nanoheaters leading to self‐regulated strain via thermal expansion of the electroactive polymer. Moreover, the finite‐difference time‐domain simulation and linear thermal model also deduce the local strain to the surface plasmon heat absorption. The distinct plasmonic photothermic–piezoelectric phenomenon mediates not only localized external stimulus light response but also enhances dynamic piezoelectric energy harvesting. The present work highlights a promising surface plasmon coordinated piezoelectric response which underpins energy localization and transfer for diversified design of unique photothermic–piezotronic technology.     

Ge-Rich (70%) SiGe Nanowire MOSFET Fabricated Using Pattern-Dependent Ge-Condensation Technique

A top-down approach of forming SiGe-nanowire (SGNW) MOSFET, with Ge concentration modulated along the source/drain (Si_0.7Ge_0.3) to channel (Si_0.3Ge_0.7) regions, is presented. Fabricated by utilizing a pattern-size-dependent Ge-condensation technique, the SGNW heterostructure PMOS device exhibits 4.5times enhancement in the drive current and transconductance (G_m) as compared to the homojunction planar device (Si_0.7Ge_0.3). This large enhancement can be attributed to several factors including Omega-gated nanowire structure, enhanced hole injection efficiency (due to valence band offset), and improved hole mobility (due to compressive strain and Ge enrichment in the nanowire channel).     

Anisotropic Elastoplastic Bounding Surface Model for Cohesive Soils

The initial stresses existing in the natural ground are anisotropic in the sense that the vertical stress is typically larger than the lateral stresses. The construction activities, such as embankments and excavation, induce anisotropy in the stress system. The stress-deformation behavior and excess pore water pressure response of soils are affected by the inherent and induced stress anisotropy. This paper presents an improved soil model based on the anisotropic critical state theory and bounding surface plasticity. The anisotropic critical state theory of Dafalias was extended into three-dimensional stress space. In addition to the isotropic hardening rule, rotational and distortional hardening rules were incorporated into the bounding surface formulation with an associated flow rule. The projection center that is used to map the actual stress point to the imaginary stress point was specified along the K0 line instead of the hydrostatic line or at the origin of the stress space. A simplified form of plastic modulus was used and the proposed model requires a total of 12 material parameters, the same number as that of the single-ellipse time-independent version of the Kaliakin–Dafalias model. The model was validated against the undrained isotropic and anisotropic triaxial test results under compression and extension shearing modes for Kaolin Clay, San Francisco Bay Mud, and Boston Blue Clay. The effects of stress anisotropy and overconsolidation were well captured by the model. The time effect was not included in the formulations presented in this paper.     

Mechanism of nitrogen-enhanced negative bias temperature instability in pMOSFET

From the detailed analysis of the dependence of threshold voltage shift and positive fixed charge/interface state generation on the stress time/temperature of negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) for various nitrogen concentrations at the oxide/Si interface, the mechanism of nitrogen-enhanced NBTI effect has been studied experimentally. The experimental results can be understood in terms of the reaction energies of the hydrogen trapping reactions at the interface, which are obtained from first-principles calculations. The calculations show that the nitrogen's lone-pair electrons can trap dissociated hydrogen species more easily than oxygen. From the experimental and theoretical studies, one can conclude that the roles of nitrogen in the NBTI are two folds, i.e., it provides more reaction sites, and it can also enhance the NBTI reaction by reducing the reaction energy.     

盐分对广式高盐稀态酱油发酵微生物菌群结构的影响

随着健康中国计划的推进,酱油的减盐成为一种趋势,然而广式高盐稀态酱油发酵过程中盐分对不同发酵阶段的群落结构影响的基础研究仍较薄弱,难以支撑减盐酱油产品的普及。该研究基于Illumina HiSeq高通量基因序列分析及理化指标监测,研究不同盐分条件下不同发酵阶段微生物群落结构及理化指标变化规律。结果表明,低盐组(120 g/L)pH值最低,发酵后快速积累总酸、氨基酸态氮和还原糖;在细菌菌群结构方面,随着盐浓度降低,葡萄球菌属(Staphylococcus)、乳球菌属(Lactococcus)、乳杆菌属(Lactobacillus)均在低盐酱醪中持续增长;在真菌群落构成方面,假丝酵母属(Candida)和米勒氏酵母属(Millerozyma)含量在低盐组酱醪中明显较高。低盐(120 g/L)酱醪发酵中乳酸菌含量及总酸明显比中盐(150 g/L)及高盐(170 g/L)组较高,并在发酵初期快速形成了更加适合酵母菌目生长的酸性环境,促进酵母菌目在发酵中期形成了明显的优势菌群。该研究结果为减盐发酵提供了理论基础,为进一步开发酱油低盐发酵微生物调控技术提供参考依据。