Applications of dynamic programming tp problems of routing pipework and cables

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Comparison of analgesic effects and patient tolerability of nabilone and dihydrocodeine for chronic neuropathic pain: randomised, crossover, double blind study

<b>Objective</b>: To compare the analgesic efficacy and side effects of the synthetic cannabinoid nabilone with those of the weak opioid dihydrocodeine for chronic neuropathic pain. <b>Design</b>: Randomised, double blind, crossover trial of 14 weeks’ duration comparing dihydrocodeine and nabilone. <b>Setting</b>: Outpatient units of three hospitals in the United Kingdom. <b>Participants</b>: 96 patients with chronic neuropathic pain, aged 23-84 years. <b>Main outcome measures</b>: The primary outcome was difference between nabilone and dihydrocodeine in pain, as measured by the mean visual analogue score computed over the last 2 weeks of each treatment period. Secondary outcomes were changes in mood, quality of life, sleep, and psychometric function. Side effects were measured by a questionnaire. <b>Intervention</b>: Patients received a maximum daily dose of 240 mg dihydrocodeine or 2 mg nabilone at the end of each escalating treatment period of 6 weeks. Treatment periods were separated by a 2 week washout period. <b>Results</b>: Mean baseline visual analogue score was 69.6 mm (range 29.4-95.2) on a 0-100 mm scale. 73 patients were included in the available case analysis and 64 patients in the per protocol analysis. The mean score was 6.0 mm longer for nabilone than for dihydrocodeine (95% confidence interval 1.4 to 10.5) in the available case analysis and 5.6 mm (10.3 to 0.8) in the per protocol analysis. Side effects were more frequent with nabilone. <b>Conclusion</b>: Dihydrocodeine provided better pain relief than the synthetic cannabinoid nabilone and had slightly fewer side effects, although no major adverse events occurred for either drug

Antibody localization in horse, rabbit, and goat antilymphocyte sera

The localization of antibodies was studied in rabbit, goat, and horse ALS raised by weekly immunization with canine or human spleen cells for 4 to 12 weeks. A combination of analytic techniques was used including column chromatography, electrophoresis, immunoelectrophoresis, determination of protein concentration, and measurement of antibody titers. In the rabbit and goat ALS, virtually all of the leukoagglutinins and lymphocytotoxins were in the easily separable IgG; accidentally induced thromboagglutinins were in the same location. In the rabbit hemagglutinins were found in both the IgG and IgM, whereas in the goat these were almost exclusively in the IgM. The antiwhite cell antibodies were most widely distributed in the horse. The cytotoxins were primarily in the IgG, but the leukoagglutinins were most heavily concentrated in the T-equine globulin which consists mostly of IgA. By differential ammonium sulfate precipitation of a horse antidoglymphocyte serum, fractions were prepared that were rich in IgG and IgA. Both were able to delay the rejection of canine renal homografts, the IgA-rich preparation to a somewhat greater degree. The findings in this study have been discussed in relation to the refining techniques that have been used for the production of globulin from heterologous ALS. © 1970

Rectification by charging -- the physics of contact-induced current asymmetry in molecular conductors

We outline the qualitatively different physics behind charging-induced current asymmetries in molecular conductors operating in the weakly interacting self-consistent field (SCF) and the strongly interacting Coulomb Blockade (CB) regimes. A conductance asymmetry arises in SCF because of the unequal mean-field potentials that shift a closed-shell conducting level differently for positive and negative bias. A very different current asymmetry arises for CB due to the unequal number of open-shell excitation channels at opposite bias voltages. The CB regime, dominated by single charge effects, typically requires a computationally demanding many-electron or Fock space description. However, our analysis of molecular Coulomb Blockade measurements reveals that many novel signatures can be explained using a {{simpler}} orthodox model that involves an incoherent sum of Fock space excitations and {\it{hence treats the molecule as a metallic dot or an island}}. This also reduces the complexity of the Fock space description by just including various charge configurations only, thus partially underscoring the importance of electronic structure, while retaining the essence of the single charge nature of the transport process. We finally point out, however, that the inclusion of electronic structure and hence well-resolved Fock space excitations is crucial in some notable examples.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Successful laparoscopic assisted myomectomy of a gigantic 9.4 kg uterine parasitic myoma: a case report and review of literature

Uterine leiomyomas are the most common benign tumours of the female pelvis affecting around 25-30% women of reproductive age. A case of successful laparoscopic assisted myomectomy in a giant uterine parasitic myoma is presented. A 42-year nulliparous morbidly obese lady presented with an Ultrasound diagnosis of a large uterine mass, detected during routine health check-up. MRI revealed a giant uterine pedunculated myoma of size 35 × 28 × 18 cm arising from the fundus and a 6 × 7 cm posterior wall myoma. After counselling the patient regarding surgical and anaesthesia risk, need of hysterectomy and laparotomy, laparoscopic myomectomy was planned. Laparoscopic findings revealed an exceptionally large parasitic fundal myoma filling the whole abdominal cavity and another 7 × 6 cm subserous myoma. main technical challenge was to tackle the big feeding vessels from the omentum providing massive blood supply to the gigantic tumor. Laparoscopic myomectomy was completed successfully using harmonic ace for coagulating the giant feeding vessels from the omentum. As the size of myoma was too big to put in the morcellation bag, so specimen retrieval was done through small incision and manual morcellation. The weight of the specimen was 9.4 Kg. This case emphasizes that size does not pose a limit to removing these gigantic myomas laparoscopically when surgical expertise and good anaesthesia facility is available. This is the case of largest myoma managed laparoscopically

Comparison of soybean evapotranspirations measured by weighing lysimeter and Bowen ratio-energy balance methods

Lysimeters are considered the standard for evapotranspiration (ET) measurements. However, these units are often not replicated and are few in number at any given location. The Bowen ratio-energy balance (BREB) is a micrometeorological method often used to estimate ET because of its simplicity, robustness, and cost. In this paper, ET of irrigated soybean (Glycine max L.) was directly measured by weighing lysimeter and estimated by BREB method over a growing season in a semi-arid climate of eastern Mediterranean region. The study was conducted in Adana-Turkey du ring the summer of 2009 on a 0.12 ha area with a weighing lysimeter (2.0 × 2.0 × 2.5 m) located in the center of the field completely covered by well watered soybean where the prevailing direction of the wind and the upwind fetch was about 60 m. Cumulative evapotranspiration totals from the lysimeter and BREB methods were 354 and 405 mm, respectively. The BREB method showed a good performance for daily ET estimation when compared to values measured by lysimeter. This method, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.79 mmd-1 and a 0.96 index of agreement, over-estimates lysimetric measurements by 15%. TheBREB method also performs well compared with lysimetric measurements for hourly ET, but produces overestimation of 14% with RMSE of 0.128 mmh-1, and a 0.92 index of agreement

Rheological model for short duration response of semi-solid metals

A thorough understanding of the rheological behavior of the semi-solid metal (SSM) alloys is of utmost importance for modeling and simulation of rheocasting and thixoforming processes. Since the duration of these processes is very short-fraction of a second-the primary focus should be on fast transient flows. We present here a relatively simple engineering model for unsteady state shear stress of semi-solid metal suspensions. The time dependent character of thixotropic semi-solids is introduced through scaling by a structural parameter, which represents the degree of connectivity or aggregation of particles in the fluid. The kinetic equation for change in structural parameter as a function of time incorporates both breakage and agglomeration of suspended entities. The proposed model simulates the fast transient, tracks the evolution or healing of structure with holding time in absence of applied shear, and computes the steady state structure for a given shearing rate after long shearing time. Moreover, it explicitly incorporates the shear yield stress as well as is in agreement with important rheological characteristics of semi-solid materials, namely, shear thickening behavior under isostructural conditions and power law relationship between steady state viscosity and shear rate. The model is validated with published data for short time measurements of Sn-15%Pb thixotropic systems with near step change in shear rate and steady state shear viscosity. It could have practical utility in simulation of flow of semi-solid materials in different die cavities

A combined experimental and computational fluid dynamics analysis of the dynamics of drop formation

This article presents a complementary experimental and computational investigation of the effect of viscosity and flowrate on the dynamics of drop formation in the dripping mode. In contrast to previous studies, numerical simulations are performed with two popular commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) packages, CFX and FLOW-3D, both of which employ the volume of fluid (VOF) method. Comparison with previously published experimental and computational data and new experimental results reported here highlight the capabilities and limitations of the aforementioned packages

Flexible copper-indium-diselenide films and devices for space applications

With the ever increasing demands on space power systems, it is imperative that low cost, lightweight, reliable photovoltaics be developed. One avenue of pursuit for future space power applications is the use of low cost, lightweight flexible PV cells and arrays. Most work in this area assumes the use of flexible amorphous silicon (a-Si), despite its inherent instability and low efficiencies. However, polycrystalline thin film PV such as copper-indium-diselenide (CIS) are inherently more stable and exhibit better performance than a-Si. Furthermore, preliminary data indicate that CIS also offers exciting properties with respect to space applications. However, CIS has only heretofore only produced on rigid substrates. The implications of flexible CIS upon present and future space power platforms was explored. Results indicate that space qualified CIS can dramatically reduce the cost of PV, and in most cases, can be substituted for silicon (Si) based on end-of-life (EOL) estimations. Furthermore, where cost is a prime consideration, CIS can become cost effective than gallium arsenide (GaAs) in some applications. Second, investigations into thin film deposition on flexible substrates were made, and data from these tests indicate that fabrication of flexible CIS devices is feasible. Finally, data is also presented on preliminary TCO/CdS/CuInSe2/Mo devices

Entropy, Optimization and Counting

In this paper we study the problem of computing max-entropy distributions over a discrete set of objects subject to observed marginals. Interest in such distributions arises due to their applicability in areas such as statistical physics, economics, biology, information theory, machine learning, combinatorics and, more recently, approximation algorithms. A key difficulty in computing max-entropy distributions has been to show that they have polynomially-sized descriptions. We show that such descriptions exist under general conditions. Subsequently, we show how algorithms for (approximately) counting the underlying discrete set can be translated into efficient algorithms to (approximately) compute max-entropy distributions. In the reverse direction, we show how access to algorithms that compute max-entropy distributions can be used to count, which establishes an equivalence between counting and computing max-entropy distributions