Numerical and experimental analysis of factors leading to suture dehiscence after Billroth II gastric resection

The main goal of this study was to numerically quantify risk of duodenal stump blowout after Billroth II (BII) gastric resection. Our hypothesis was that the geometry of the reconstructed tract after BII resection is one of the key factors that can lead to duodenal dehiscence. We used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with finite element (FE) simulations of various models of BII reconstructed gastrointestinal (GI) tract, as well as non-perfused, ex vivo, porcine experimental models. As main geometrical parameters for FE postoperative models we have used duodenal stump length and inclination between gastric remnant and duodenal stump. Virtual gastric resection was performed on each of 3D FE models based on multislice Computer Tomography (CT) DICOM. According to our computer simulation the difference between maximal duodenal stump pressures for models with most and least preferable geometry of reconstructed GI tract is about 30%. We compared the resulting postoperative duodenal pressure from computer simulations with duodenal stump dehiscence pressure from the experiment. Pressure at duodenal stump after BII resection obtained by computer simulation is 4–5 times lower than the dehiscence pressure according to our experiment on isolated bowel segment. Our conclusion is that if the surgery is performed technically correct, geometry variations of the reconstructed GI tract by themselves are not sufficient to cause duodenal stump blowout. Pressure that develops in the duodenal stump after BII resection using omega loop, only in the conjunction with other risk factors can cause duodenal dehiscence. Increased duodenal pressure after BII resection is risk factor. Hence we recommend the routine use of Roux en Y anastomosis as a safer solution in terms of resulting intraluminal pressure. However, if the surgeon decides to perform BII reconstruction, results obtained with this methodology can be valuable.     

Second‐order statistics of system with N‐branch microdiversity and L‐branch macrodiversity operating over gamma shadowed Nakagami‐m fading channels

The problem concerning short‐term fading and long‐term fading (shadowing) and their deleterious effects on wireless systems performance has been in focus for a long time. In this paper, motivated by the results of propagation measurements in land‐mobile and indoor‐mobile systems, and by the fact that gamma distribution can describe shadowing reliably, Nakagami‐m distribution is used to model the signal envelope and gamma distribution is used to model the average signal power. Receive diversity with maximal‐ratio combining and selection combining is implemented at the microlevel and macrolevel, respectively. The general case is explored, which assumes that microdiversity and macrodiversity are provided through arbitrary number of channels. Because shadowing has larger correlation distance than short‐term fading, correlated macrodiversity channels are studied. This paper investigates the dynamics of the received signal. A novel rapidly converging infinite‐series expression for average level crossing rate and average fade duration are obtained. Numerical results are graphically presented to examine the impact of fading severity, shadowing severity, number of diversity branches at the microlevel, number of base stations and correlation between base stations to the system's performance. Computer simulations are also performed to verify the validity and the accuracy of proposed theoretical analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NEMCA—From discovery to technology

Serious research efforts of the last decades resulted in a profound understanding of the NEMCA effect and its demonstration in many reactions and electrolyte systems. Unfortunately, NEMCA has not been commercially applied yet. Reasons for the still missing commercial application are discussed in the paper. Furthermore, potential bottlenecks for industrial applications are identified and research directions indicated, which may open long-term opportunities for NEMCA applications.     

Particle adhesion and removal in model systems—VIII: Deposition of rod-like β-FeOOH particles on steel

The adhesion of uniform rod-like β-FeOOH particles onto stainless steel was studied as a function of dispersion pH, ionic strength, and flow rate using the packed bed technique. The results showed the process to be essentially controlled by convective diffusion in the presence and in the absence of interaction forces. The behavior of particles of different shapes and sizes was compared and discussed.     

Parameter identification of the fatigue-testing rig

In this paper the dynamic parameter identification of the novel fatigue-testing rig is presented. The applied identification method assumes a priori a simple dynamical model for which parameters are identified through free and forced vibration tests. The rig is comprised of two base excited oscillators providing the dynamic excitation for a fatigue sample and two pneumatic actuators preventing a loss of contact between the oscillators and the sample. The actuators introduce strong nonlinearities. All parameters of the system apart from the pneumatic actuators identified through the free vibration tests using the linear model were in a good agreement with those obtained by the frequency analysis. Two models, a linear and the nonlinear with Coulomb friction, were dynamically interrogated by a random excitation. It was shown that the stiffness coefficient a, increases linearly with the pressure in the pneumatic cylinders, and the viscous damping coefficient b increases quadratically with the air pressure in the pneumatic cylinders. The predicted responses for the linear and nonlinear models correlate well with the experimental data.     

Hydrogen desorption properties of MgH2/LiAlH4 composites

The hydrogen desorption properties of MgH₂–LiAlH₄ composites obtained by mechanical milling for different milling times have been investigated by Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy (TDS) and correlated to the sample microstructure and morphology analysed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The MgH₂–LiAlH₄ composites show improved hydrogen desorption properties in comparison with both as-received and ball-milled MgH₂. Mixing of MgH₂ with small amount of LiAlH₄ (5 wt.%) using short mechanical milling (15 min) shifts, in fact, the hydrogen desorption peak to lower temperature than those observed with both as-received and milled MgH₂ samples. Longer mixing times of the MgH₂–LiAlH₄ composites (30 and 60 min) reduce the catalytic activity of the LiAlH₄ additive as revealed by the shift of the hydrogen desorption peak to higher temperatures.     

Automatic semigroups

The area of automatic groups has been one in which significant advances have been made in recent years. While it is clear that the definition of an automatic group can easily be extended to that of an automatic semigroup, there does not seem to have been a systematic investigation of such structures. It is the purpose of this paper to make such a study.We show that certain results from the group-theoretic situation hold in this wider context, such as the solvability of the word problem in quadratic time, although others do not, such as finite presentability. There are also situations which arise in the general theory of semigroups which do not occur when considering groups; for example, we show that a semigroup S is automatic if and only if S with a zero adjoined is automatic, and also that S is automatic if and only if S with an identity adjoined is automatic. We use this last result to show that any finitely generated subsemigroup of a free semigroup is automatic.     

The influence of talc as a nucleation agent on the nonisothermal crystallization and morphology of isotactic polypropylene: The application of the Lauritzen–Hoffmann,Avrami, and Ozawa theories

A new method is proposed, which can be used to analyze the influence of different additives and fillers on the nonisothermal crystallization of polymers. The composites of talc in isotactic polypropylene (i‐PP) were prepared using a corotating twin‐screw extruder. The compounds were subsequently dried and injection molded. PP morphology and talc dispersion were visualized using optical microscopy and computed tomography. Wide‐angle X‐ray scattering and small‐angle X‐ray scattering measurements provided an insight into the crystal structure of PP. The data obtained from nonisothermal DSC measurements were fitted to the Avrami model for the nonisothermal case. The calculated Avrami's exponent (n), which takes into account the influence of talc on the nucleation and growth of the PP crystals, was used in the combination of Lauritzen–Hoffman and Ozawa models to calculate the nucleation parameter (K_g). A good agreement was found between the model predictions and literature values. The examination shows that the developed model extension gives an expected trend in the case of i‐PP filled with talcs from the same origin but with different particle sizes. Furthermore, it is shown that delaminated talc with a higher specific surface is more efficient in nucleation of i‐PP. Thus, the introduced model extension could be a useful tool for comparing of nucleation ability of different additives in the crystallization of polymers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012