Antibiotic prophylaxis--Hobson's choice in burns management

Antibiotic prophylaxis is a routine procedure in management of burns. As such it is a safe practice, yet unusual complications can occur with the use of even safest antibiotics and their emergency management may be life saving. Here we present a case of 35% second and third degree burns who was taken for a second sitting of stamp grafting for remnant raw areas, who was administered intraoperative prophylactic antibiotic, developed a series of unusual complications sequentially, which were life threatening. Prompt recognition of signs and symptoms of adverse reactions of the drug used and timely management resulted in the successful outcome. A good team effort by surgeon, anaesthetist and the physician was mandatory.     

Pseudoexstrophy associated with congenital pouch colon

Pseudoexstrophy or covered exstrophy is a rare exstrophy variant. The authors report a case of covered exstrophy that presented as a newborn with widely separated pubic bones and rectus muscles, a low-set umbilicus, and a subcutaneous bladder. The anal opening was absent, and there was a complex malformation of the external genitalia consisting of a small, laterally displaced penis and a right-sided ectopic hemiscrotum. Micturition and urinary continence were normal. The child also had a high anorectal malformation with a coexistent type IV congenital pouch colon (CPC) malformation. Both kidneys were normal. Preliminary surgery consisted of a divided sigmoid colostomy proximal to the colonic pouch. The literature is reviewed and the embryogenesis of pseudoexstrophy and its associated malformations are discussed.     

Syntheses and Identification of Benzo[C]Chrysene Metabolites

Like other PAHs, chrysenes are thought to exert their carcinogenicity via metabolic activation of proximally carcinogenic dihydrodiols to diol epoxides as ultimate carcinogens. Benzo[c] chrysene (B[c]C) is structurally intriguing among the PAH because it features both a bay region and a fjord region. Although B[c]C is carcinogenic and mutagenic, few data are available on its metabolic activation or the nature of its metabolites.

We have synthesized the B[c]C trans-1,2-, 7,8-, and 9,10-dihydrodiols from the appropriate methoxy-substituted bisnaphthyl olefins by photochemical cyclization. B[c]C was metabolized with S9 liver fraction from phenobarbital/β-naphthoflavone-treated rats. Dihydrodiols were formed on both terminal rings as well as in the K-region. 2-, 3-, and 10-HydroxyB[c]C were also identified as metabolites. In mutagenicity studies toward S. typhimurium TA100, 1,2-dihydrodiol was more mutagenic than B[c]C at doses above 1.25 μg/plate, whereas 9,10-dihydrodiol was toxic at doses above 1.25 μg/plate.     

Determination of CLA <Emphasis Type="Italic">trans</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="Italic">trans</Emphasis> Positional Isomerism in CLA-Rich Soy Oil by GC–MS and Silver Ion HPLC

A ~20% CLA-rich soy oil with low saturated fat and no cholesterol was produced by photoisomerizing soy oil linoleic acid. The oil is predominately trans,trans CLA, with the oil containing 17% trans,trans CLA. Recent studies have shown that trans,trans CLA-rich soy oil significantly reduces heart disease and diabetes risk factors in obese rats. However, the positional isomerism of these geometrical isomers has not been identified. The objectives of the study were to determine trans,trans CLA positional isomerism of CLA fatty acids in CLA-rich soy oil and determine the resolution of trans,trans CLA positional isomers by silver ion chromatography. GC–MS studies of 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione (PTAD) derivatives of CLA-rich oil showed that 9,11 CLA and 10,12 CLA were the major positional isomers. These were hypothesized to be the trans,trans CLA isomers, which was confirmed by silver ion chromatography and subsequent GC–FID fatty acid and ATR-FTIR geometrical isomer analysis of the collected fractions. The identification of 9,11 trans,trans CLA and 10,12 trans,trans CLA as the major CLA isomers in CLA-rich oil then allowed the deduction of the synthetic mechanism of the photoisomerism of soy oil linoleic acid to trans,trans CLA.     

Optical interconnection reverse data vortex network: performance analysis

Multistage interconnection networks are employed in data centres to interchange information between the processors and memory elements. Data Vortex (DV) is a multistage minimum logic network which can be used in data centres. DV satisfies the requirements of the interconnection networks such as scalability and throughput. However, the latency is on higher side, and reduction in latency can lead to higher throughput. In the present paper, we describe the feasibility and performance analysis of DV architecture in reverse direction. The routing and the possible hardware model of the node switch have been discussed. We present the performance analysis of Reverse Data Vortex (RDV) architecture in terms of throughput, latency and latency distribution. A comparative study with DV on throughput, latency and latency distribution is also presented. The simulation result shows that the decrease in latency of RDV is about 50 % that of DV and this leads to an increase in injection rate of RDV to values more than two times that of DV.     

Miniaturization of EISCAP sensor for triglyceride detection

In this paper we discuss the fabrication and characterization of miniaturized triglyceride biosensors on crystalline silicon and porous silicon (PS) substrates. The sensors are miniaturized Electrolyte Insulator Semiconductor Capacitors (mini-EISCAPs), which primarily sense the pH variation of the electrolyte used. The lipase enzyme, which catalyses the hydrolysis of triglycerides, was immobilized on the sensor surface. Triglyceride solutions introduced into the enzyme immobilized sensor produced butyric acid which causes the change in pH of the electrolyte. Miniaturized EISCAP sensors were fabricated using bulk micromachining technique and have silicon nitride as the pH sensitive dielectric layer. The sensors are cubical pits of dimensions 1,500 microm x 1,500 microm x 100 microm which can hold an electrolyte volume of 0.1 microl. The pH changes in the solution can be sensed through the EISCAP sensors by monitoring the flatband voltage shift in the Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics taken during the course of the reaction. The reaction rate is found to be quite high in the miniature cells when compared to the sensors of bigger dimensions.     

Approximate Controllability of Impulsive Neutral Stochastic Differential Equations Driven by Poisson Jumps

This work studies the approximate controllability of a class of impulsive neutral stochastic differential equations with infinite delay and Poisson jumps involving generalized Caputo fractional derivative under the condition that the corresponding linear system is approximately controllable. Utilizing the fixed point theory and sectorial operator theory, the existence of the mild solution of the impulsive neutral stochastic equation is established imposing weaker regularity on nonlinear terms. A set of sufficient conditions establishing controllability results is derived with the help of stochastic analysis and fractional calculus. Finally, an example is provided to illustrate the obtained abstract result.     

Deformation and Recrystallization Behavior of the Cast Structure in Large Size,High Strength Steel Ingots: Experimentation and Modeling

Constitutive modeling of the ingot breakdown process of large size ingots of high strength steel was carried out through comprehensive thermomechanical processing using Gleeble 3800^® thermomechanical simulator, finite element modeling (FEM), optical and electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD). For this purpose, hot compression tests in the range of 1473 K to 1323 K (1200 °C to 1050 °C) and strain rates of 0.25 to 2 s⁻¹ were carried out. The stress-strain curves describing the deformation behavior of the dendritic microstructure of the cast ingot were analyzed in terms of the Arrhenius and Hansel-Spittel models which were implemented in Forge NxT 1.0^® FEM software. The results indicated that the Arrhenius model was more reliable in predicting microstructure evolution of the as-cast structure during ingot breakdown, particularly the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) process which was a vital parameter in estimating the optimum loads for forming of large size components. The accuracy and reliability of both models were compared in terms of correlation coefficient (R) and the average absolute relative error (ARRE).