A new dosage regimen for topical application of ciprofloxacin in the management of chronic suppurative otitis media

The clinical and bacteriologic efficacy of topically applied ciprofloxacin was studied in 60 patients with chronic suppurative otitis media. Two hundred fifty and 125 microg/ml concentrations of ciprofloxacin solutions were given to two groups of patients. The duration of therapy was determined according to the clinical cure at follow-up. More than 21 days of therapy was not needed in any patient. The clinical cure rate with 250 microg/ml ciprofloxacin was 78.1% at 14 days and with 125 microg/ml it was 83.3%. However, a 100% clinical cure rate and complete bacteriologic eradication was obtained in 21 days in both groups. In each group only one patient had otomycosis by the fourteenth day of therapy, although ear discharge had ceased. It was concluded that 125 microg/ml ciprofloxacin could be applied as successfully as 250 microg/ml, and the duration of therapy had to be at least 14 days. This new dosage regimen can be adopted as an optimal dosage for ototopical application of ciprofloxacin in chronic suppurative otitis media. It will also obviously decrease the expense of therapy.     

Normalized Efficient Routing Protocol for WSN

WSNs （wireless sensor networks） consist of thousands of tiny nodes having the capability of sensing, computation, and wireless communications. Unfortunately these devices are limited energy devices, that is means we must save energy as much as possible, to increase network life time as long as possible. In this paper we introduce NEER--normalized energy efficient routing protocol that increases network life time through switching between AODV protocol that depends on request-reply routing, and MRPC that depends on residual battery in routing.     

Multiplierless Realization of Linear DSP Transforms by Using Common Two-Term Expressions

Recently, most DSP systems have used multirate signal processing techniques or transforms for reducing computational complexity without compromising the system quality. In these techniques, realizing each constant separately is a redundant process as some constants appear more than once, and increases area and power consumption of the system. This paper introduces the concept of handling all coefficients in the system at the same time. To do this, the two-term expressions of constants in a system for adder and shifter minimization is presented.     

Hierarchical finite state machines for autonomous mobile systems

This paper proposes a system architecture, related design approaches for autonomous mobile systems and guidelines for self-sufficient autonomy. Development of a tiered layout for a hybrid-state control in a series of stages as well as the integration of such a controller in the overall autonomy structure are proposed and demonstrated as part of multiple examples, including The Ohio State University participation in DARPA Urban Challenge 2007. The hierarchical layout and the iterative design methodology enable a certain level of design flexibility for the overall system and preparation for various contingencies, as illustrated on specific development cycles.     

Complementary techniques for the characterization of thin film Ti/Nb multilayers

An aberration corrector on the probe-forming lens of a scanning TEM (STEM) equipped with an electron energy-loss spectrometer (EELS) and X-ray energy-dispersive spectrometer (XEDS) has been employed to investigate the compositional variations as a function of length scale in nanoscale Ti/Nb metallic multilayers. The composition profiles of EELS and XEDS were compared with the profiles obtained from the complementary technique of 3D atom probe tomography. At large layer widths (h≥7 nm, where h is the layer width) of Ti and Nb, XEDS composition profiles of Ti/Nb metallic multilayers are in good agreement with the EELS results. However, at reduced layer widths (h≈2 nm), profiles of EELS and atom probe exhibited similar compositional variations, whereas XEDS results have shown a marked difference. This difference in the composition profiling of the layers has been addressed with reference to the effects of beam broadening and the origin of the signals collected in these techniques. The advantage of using EELS over XEDS for these nanoscaled multilayered materials is demonstrated.     

Numerical simulation of solidification kinetics in A356/SiCp composites for assessment of as-cast particle distribution

The present work is aimed at studying the effect of solidification rate on reinforcement clustering in particle reinforced metal matrix composites (PMMCs) through numerical simulations and experimental studies. A macrotransport-solidification kinetics (MTSK) model was used to simulate the solidification kinetics of the PMMCs. The experimental validation of the numerical model was achieved through the Newtonian and Fourier thermal analysis methods. Results reveal that the MTSK model can be successfully used to predict the local microstructural scales and to evaluate the risk of cluster formation in cast particle reinforced composites.     

Purification and Characterization of Organic Solvent and Detergent Tolerant Lipase from Thermotolerant Bacillus sp. RN2

The aim of this study was to characterize the organic solvent and detergent tolerant properties of recombinant lipase isolated from thermotolerant Bacillus sp. RN2 (Lip-SBRN2). The isolation of the lipase-coding gene was achieved by the use of inverse and direct PCR. The complete DNA sequencing of the gene revealed that the lip-SBRN2 gene contains 576 nucleotides which corresponded to 192 deduced amino acids. The purified enzyme was homogeneous with the estimated molecular mass of 19 kDa as determined by SDS-PAGE and gel filtration. The Lip-SBRN2 was stable in a pH range of 9-11 and temperature range of 45-60 °C. The enzyme was a non metallo-monomeric protein and was active against pNP-caprylate (C8) and pNP-laurate (C12) and coconut oil. The Lip-SBRN2 exhibited a high level of activity in the presence of 108% benzene, 102.4% diethylether and 112% SDS. It is anticipated that the organic solvent and detergent tolerant enzyme secreted by Bacillus sp. RN2 will be applicable as catalysts for reaction in the presence of organic solvents and detergents.     

An uncertainty quantification method for nanomaterial prediction models

This paper presents a new method for quantifying uncertainty in the predictions of a nanomaterial computational model to account for variability in the constituent nanostructure properties and characterization measurements. The stiffness of a buckypaper–polymer composite is predicted using a micromechanics model. The model requires from the user as inputs the nanostructure properties, including the diameter, length, and curvature distribution of the carbon nanotubes which shows large variability. The current characterization techniques used to describe these dimensions are subject to considerable measurement error. We propose a constrained nonlinear programming approach for quantification of raw material variability and its impact on the property prediction of buckypaper–polymer composites. The uncertainty quantification method is useful for decision making to predict probability that the quality characteristic of the final part will satisfy design constraints. A case study based on data from a real buckypaper manufacturing process was used to illustrate the approach. It is shown that modeling the correlation between nanostructure properties using a multivariate distribution rather than independent univariate distributions is important to accurately quantify the effect of these properties on the final-part property.