Role of Transition Zone Index in Assessing Bladder Outflow Obstruction due to Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a pathological process which contributes to, but is not the sole cause of lower urinary tract symptoms. The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of transition zone index in assessing bladder outflow obstruction due to benign prostatic hyperplasia. The secondary objective was to determine correlation of transition zone index with IPSS score, Abrams-Griffith number and urinary flow rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study of 50 men with lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia was done between August 2011 and February 2012.The IPSS score, peak flow rate, residual urine and pressure flow studies was estimated. All patients underwent transrectal ultrasound of prostate with calculation of prostate and transition zone volume. The transition zone index was computed as TZV/TPV. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 63.78 years and mean IPSS score was 14.98. There were 22 patients in the obstructed group (AG > 40) and 28 patients had an AG number 40 (p-value < 0.001) and had 100% sensitivity, 75% specificity,76% positive predictive value for diagnosing bladder outlet obstruction. CONCLUSION: Transition zone index is a good non invasive tool to assess bladder outlet obstruction in men with BPH. Using a Transition Zone index cut off of > 0.45, can identify outlet obstruction with 100% sensitivity, 75% specificity and 76% positive predictive value

Efforts of coating and testing high aspect ratio microfabricated nickel gas chromatography columns

Gas chromatography (GC) is a widely used analytical technique, with applications in the chemical process industry, oil exploration, environmental monitoring, purification of substances, and general organic compound analysis. Although traditional GC’s are widely used they have their own disadvantages like high power consumption and long times for analysis. Several laboratories are working on the miniaturization of GC’s for rapid and onsite chemical analysis. Many researchers are currently working on the development of microfabricated columns for realizing a hand held GC sensor. Microfabricated nickel columns have been manufactured by Center for Advanced Microstructures & devices (CAMD), Baton Rouge. The columns are attractive due to their small size, low thermal mass and high thermal conductivity allowing for rapid temperature programming with relatively low power consumption and parallel manufacturing which results in low manufacturing costs, and robustness when compared to silicon columns. Using the LiGA process nickel columns with width dimensions of 50 microns, height dimensions of 500 microns and 1 meter of channel length are microfabricated with integrated on chip injection and detection connections. Connecting these column chips to the HP 5890 GC test bed is described. A commercial fused silica capillary column of 1 meter length, 100 microns i.d was tested to check the instrument set up and for providing background performance data. The microfabricated nickel column chips were tested with the same conditions after the PMMA (Poly methyl methacrylate) removed, after deactivation, and after coating. The test mixtures were methane, hexane and mixture of hexane and decane. Different methods of deactivation and coating these metal columns have been described. Columns were coated with dimethyl polysiloxane stationary phase (OV-1). Separation of methane and hexane was performed in less than 4 seconds. The preliminary experimental results on these coated high aspect ratio metal gas chromatography columns displayed promising results and future research is mainly focused on coating methods to achieve more uniform coatings without any pooling of the solution in the column’s corners and for separation of different chemical compounds

Experimental Test of Quantum No-Hiding Theorem

Linearity and unitarity are two fundamental tenets of quantum theory. Any consequence that follows from these must be respected in the quantum world. The no-cloning theorem and the no-deleting theorem are the consequences of the linearity and the unitarity. Together with the stronger no-cloning theorem they provide permanence to quantum information, thus, suggesting that in the quantum world information can neither be created nor be destroyed. In this sense quantum information is robust, but at the same time it is also fragile because any interaction with the environment may lead to loss of information. Recently, another fundamental theorem was proved, namely, the no-hiding theorem that addresses precisely the issue of information loss. It says that if any physical process leads to bleaching of quantum information from the original system, then it must reside in the rest of the universe with no information being hidden in the correlation between these two subsystems. This has applications in quantum teleportation, state randomization, private quantum channels, thermalization and black hole evaporation. Here, we report experimental test of the no-hiding theorem with the technique of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). We use the quantum state randomization of a qubit as one example of the bleaching process and show that the missing information can be fully recovered up to local unitary transformations in the ancilla qubits. Since NMR offers a way to test fundamental predictions of quantum theory using coherent control of quantum mechanical nuclear spin states, our experiment is a step forward in this direction.Comment: 12 pages, 6 Figs. Jharana Rani Samal, Deceased on her 27th birthday 12th Nov. 2009. The experimental work of this paper was completely carried out by the first author. We dedicate this paper to the memory of the brilliant soul of Ms. Jharana Rani Samal