Blunt abdominal trauma: the experience in rural India and review of literature

Background: Blunt Abdominal trauma is one of the most common injuries caused due to road traffic accidents. The rapid increase in number of motor vehicles and its aftermath has caused rapid increase in number of victims due to blunt abdominal trauma. As the care of patients with blunt abdominal injuries is largely a surgical responsibility and abdominal injuries involving major hemorrhage from solid viscera constitute surgical emergencies. Abdominal blunt traumas represent a real diagnostic and therapeutic challenge to even a most experienced surgeon, thereby representing importance of its study. Early diagnosis and effective management help in decreasing mortality in blunt abdominal trauma.Methods: Prospective study of 50 patients admitted to the institute with history of Blunt Abdominal Trauma. After initial resuscitation of the patients, thorough assessments for injuries were carried out in all the patients. Documentation of patients, which included identification, history, clinical findings, diagnostic test, operative findings, operative procedures and complications during the stay in the hospital were all recorded on a Performa specially prepared. The management was decided depending upon history, clinical examination and investigations.Results: Males were predominantly affected, and most cases were between the age group of 21-40 years (76%). Majority of the patients (90%) presented with the complaint of abdominal pain followed by abdominal distension (56%). 36(60%) patients were managed conservatively while operative interventions were required in 24(40%) patients. The common surgeries performed in the patients included splenectomy, primary closure of perforation and resection and anastomosis of bowel. Majority of the patients (80%) were discharged within 20 days of admission. The mortality in present study was 13.3%.Conclusions: Blunt Abdominal Trauma is one of the important causes of morbidity and mortality in young adults. Immediate resuscitative measures, management of associated injuries and appropriate operative intervention are important parts of management of such cases

Floating tablets of hydralazine hydrochloride: optimization and evaluation

Hydralazine hydrochloride has a half-life of 2 to 4 hours with an oral bioavailability of 26-50%. Since hydralazine has a demethylating effect on various suppressor genes, it can be used in various types of cancer to support chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to optimize and evaluate floating tablets of hydralazine hydrochloride designed to prolong the gastric residence time and to provide controlled release of the drug for 14 h. The floating tablets of hydralazine hydrochloride were prepared by the wet granulation method. Semi-synthetic polymers of hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC K100M) and ethyl cellulose were used as the release retarding agents. A 2² factorial design was applied to systematically optimize the drug release profile. The concentrations of HPMC K100M and ethyl cellulose were optimized to provide controlled release of hydralazine for 14h. Non-Fickian diffusion release transport was confirmed as the release mechanism for the optimized formulation and the predicted values agreed well with the experimental values. Drug excipient compatibility studies were investigated by FTIR, DSC and XRD. These data indicate that there were no chemical interactions between the drug and the polymer. In vivo X-ray imaging showed floating tablet performance in rabbits

Penetrating chest injury: A miraculous life salvage

An unusual penetrating chest injury was caused by high velocity road traffic accident. An 18-year-old had a four wheeler accident and was brought in emergency department with a ′bamboo′ stick on the left side chest exiting through back. After the stabilization of vital parameters, an inter-costal tube drainage was done on the left side. Except the minor brochopleural fistula which healed by 10 th day, his recovery was uneventful. The outcome was consistent with current aggressive management of penetrating chest injuries. Management of penetrating chest injury involving pulmonary trauma is based on three principles. One is stabilization of hemodynamics of patient with proper clinical evaluation. Second, a mere intercostal tube drainage sufficient for majority of the cases. Third, post-operative active as well as passive physiotherapy is necessary for speedy recovery

A Critical Review of Multi-hole Drilling Path Optimization

Hole drilling is one of the major basic operations in part manufacturing. It follows without surprise then that the optimization of this process is of great importance when trying to minimize the total financial and environmental cost of part manufacturing. In multi-hole drilling, 70 % of the total process time is spent in tool movement and tool switching. Therefore, toolpath optimization in particular has attracted significant attention in cost minimization. This paper critically reviews research publications on drilling path optimization. In particular, this review focuses on three aspects; problem modeling, objective functions, and optimization algorithms. We conclude that most papers being published on hole drilling are simply basic Traveling Salesman Problems (TSP) for which extremely powerful heuristics exist and for which source code is readily available. Therefore, it is remarkable that many researchers continue developing “novel” metaheuristics for hole drilling without properly situating those approaches in the larger TSP literature. Consequently, more challenging hole drilling applications that are modeled by the Precedence Constrained TSP or hole drilling with sequence dependent drilling times do not much research focus. Sadly, these many low quality hole drilling research publications drown out the occasional high quality papers that describe specific problematic problem constraints or objective functions. It is our hope through this review paper that researchers’ efforts can be refocused on these problem aspects in order to minimize production costs in the general sense

Generation of Cathode Passivation Films via Oxidation of Lithium Bis(oxalato) Borate on High Voltage Spinel (LiNi 0.5

The reactions of lithium ion battery electrolyte (LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate/ethyl methyl, EC/EMC, 3:7 v/v) with and without added lithium bis(oxalato) borate (LiBOB) on the surface of high voltage LiNi 0.5Mn1.5O4 cathodes has been investigated via a combination of electrochemical measurements, in situ gas analysis, and ex situ surface analysis. The oxidation of LiBOB on the cathode results in the generation of CO2 and a cathode passivation film containing borate oxalates. The cathode passivation film inhibits oxidation of the bulk electrolyte at high potential (\u3e4.8 V vs Li/Li+). © 2014 American Chemical Society

Electrochromism of non-stoichiometric NiO thin film: as single layer and in full device

Electrochromic properties, known as a reversible modulation of the optical properties under an applied voltage, of NiO thin films are discussed in respect of the film stoichiometry. Using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, non-stoichiometric "NiO" thin films of good crystallinity were grown at room temperature from low oxygen partial pressure [i.e., above 2 % P(O2/Ar + O2)]. A further increase in oxygen partial pressure leads to conductive brownish films containing a large amount of Ni3+. 2 %-Ni1- x O thin films exhibit significant EC performance in lithium-based electrolyte with a transmittance modulation of 25 %. If it is generally accepted that this optical modulation is due to an insertion of small cations, the presence of additional surface phenomena is also shown. The cycling of full device, based on the association of WO3 and "NiO" in temperature up to 60 °C and down to -35 °C confirms expected increase and decrease in capacity while surprisingly the optical switch from a transparent to a neutral gray color appears slightly modified

High Capacity, Stable Silicon/Carbon Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries Prepared Using Emulsion-Templated Directed Assembly

Silicon (Si) is a promising candidate for lithium ion battery anodes because of its high theoretical capacity. However, the large volume changes during lithiation/delithiation cycles result in pulverization of Si, leading to rapid fading of capacity. Here, we report a simple fabrication technique that is designed to overcome many of the limitations that deter more widespread adoption of Si based anodes. We confine Si nanoparticles in the oil phase of an oil-in-water emulsion stabilized by carbon black (CB). These CB nanoparticles are both oil- and water-wettable. The hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance for the CB nanoparticles also causes them to form a network in the continuous aqueous phase. Upon drying this emulsion on a current collector, the CB particles located at the surfaces of the emulsion droplets form mesoporous cages that loosely encapsulate the Si particles that were in the oil. The CB particles that were in the aqueous phase form a conducting network connected to the CB cages. The space within the cages allows for Si particle expansion without transmitting stresses to the surrounding carbon network. Half-cell experiments using this Si/CB anode architecture show a specific capacity of ∼1300 mAh/g Si + C and a Coulombic efficiency of 97.4% after 50 cycles. Emulsion-templating is a simple, inexpensive processing strategy that directs Si and conducts CB particles to desired spatial locations for superior performance of anodes in lithium ion batteries. © 2014 American Chemical Society