A prospective study on geriatric abdominal surgical emergencies

Background: Geriatric population is a special subgroup of population undergoing emergency abdominal surgeries. Both higher age group and emergency surgical procedure are considered as high risk factors. In this study, we study the most common cause for geriatric population to undergo an emergency abdominal surgery and the therapeutic outcomes.Methods: All the patients aged more than 60 years coming to surgical department, BLDEU’s hospital with acute abdominal conditions. Study period was from Jan 2010 to Jan 2013. All patients aged more than 60 years old admitted with abdominal emergency conditions in department of surgery. Geriatric patients coming with blunt trauma of abdomen also included. Exclusion criteria were immunocompromised patients.Results:128 patients aged 60 years or more who presented with abdominal emergency surgical conditions were studied. Most common cause for emergency abdominal surgery was perforated peptic ulcer (38%) followed by intestinal obstruction (17%). The most common post-operative complication was surgical site infection (29%). Mortality rate was 17%. Most common cause of death was septic shock with multi organ dysfunction.Conclusion:Geriatric population is an important subgroup of population undergoing emergency abdominal surgeries. Most common cause is peptic ulcer perforation followed by intestinal obstruction due to adhesions. More than the age per say, the delay in presentation may be the cause for mortality in this age group. The therapeutic outcome in patients with co morbid factors like hypertension and diabetes mellitus in control, were similar to other patients.

Changes in non-enzymatic glycation and its association with altered mechanical properties following 1-year treatment with risedronate or alendronate

Summary One year of high-dose bisphosphonate (BPs) therapy in dogs allowed the increased accumulation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and reduced postyield work-to-fracture of the cortical bone matrix. The increased accumulation of AGEs in these tissues may help explain altered bone matrix quality due to the administration of BPs in animal models Introduction Non-enzymatic glycation (NEG) is a posttranslational modification of the organic matrix that results in the formation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). In bone, the accumulation of AGEs play an important role in determining fracture resistance, and elevated levels of AGEs have been shown to adversely affect the bone’s propensity to brittle fracture. It was thus hypothesized that the suppression of tissue turnover in cortical bone due to the administration of bisphosphonates would cause increased accumulation of AGEs and result in a more brittle bone matrix. Methods Using a canine animal model (n = 12), we administered daily doses of a saline vehicle (VEH), alendronate (ALN 0.20, 1.00 mg/kg) or risedronate (RIS 0.10, 0.50 mg/kg). After a 1-year treatment, the mechanical properties, intracortical bone turnover, and the degree of nonenzymatic cross-linking of the organic matrix were measured from the tibial cortical bone tissue of these animals. Results There was a significant accumulation of AGEs at high treatment doses (+49 to + 86%; p < 0.001), but not at doses equivalent to those used for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis, compared to vehicle. Likewise, postyield work-to-fracture of the tissue was significantly reduced at these high doses (−28% to −51%; p < 0.001) compared to VEH. AGE accumulation inversely correlated with postyield work-to-fracture (r 2 = 0.45; p < 0.001), suggesting that increased AGEs may contribute to a more brittle bone matrix. Conclusion High doses of bisphosphonates result in the accumulation of AGEs and a reduction in energy absorption of cortical bone. The increased accumulation of AGEs in these tissues may help explain altered bone matrix quality due to the administration of BPs in animal models

Global Integration and Rupee Depreciation: Are Times Good Forward?

The S&amp;P BSE Sensex has plunged over 1,000 points so far in August, weighed by a host of factors, including weakness in the currency, possible tapering of US Fed's bond-buying program and threats of ratings downgrade. The Indian rupee has depreciated by over ten per cent since May 2, 2013 against the US dollar, and eleven per cent against the Euro. Depreciating currency will adversely impact capital-intensive sectors and firms with foreign borrowings and those who import raw materials heavily. Automobiles, capital goods, petroleum, power and telecom companies will bear the brunt of a weak rupee. But sectors such as software services and pharma, with major export revenues, will benefit. The rupee's decline in the last six months has deep consequences for the Indian economy and various asset classes. Thus in the study, we examined the impact of rupee depreciation on broad and sectoral indices of BSE and NSE markets. Sample T-tests for means and variances were conducted on both the price returns and volume changes to understand the behavior of stock market in unison. The study finds conclusive evidence of impact of rupee depreciation on indices considered

High-Activity Perturbation Expansion for the Hard Square Lattice Gas

We study a system of particles with nearest and next-nearest-neighbour exclusion on the square lattice (hard squares). This system undergoes a transition from a fluid phase at low density to a columnar ordered phase at high density. We develop a systematic high-activity perturbation expansion for the free energy per site about a state with perfect columnar order. We show that the different terms of the series can be regrouped to get a Mayer-like series for a polydisperse system of interacting vertical rods in which the $n$-th term is of order $z^{-(n+1)/2}$, where $z$ is the fugacity associated with each particle. We sum this series to get the exact expansion to order $1/z^{3/2}$.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Scaling relation for determining the critical threshold for continuum percolation of overlapping discs of two sizes

We study continuum percolation of overlapping circular discs of two sizes. We propose a phenomenological scaling equation for the increase in the effective size of the larger discs due to the presence of the smaller discs. The critical percolation threshold as a function of the ratio of sizes of discs, for different values of the relative areal densities of two discs, can be described in terms of a scaling function of only one variable. The recent accurate Monte Carlo estimates of critical threshold by Quintanilla and Ziff [Phys. Rev. E, 76 051115 (2007)] are in very good agreement with the proposed scaling relation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Processing and Testing of Epoxy Polymer Composites using Tender Palm Shoot Fiber and Aluminium Particles as Hybrid Reinforcements

Every year tons of plant and animal wastes are produced in the world. Some of these waste products may find some potential application in our day-to-day life. Also pure polymers are non-biodegradable and usually don’t possess requisite mechanical strength. For the first time, tender palm shoots are used as fiber reinforcement in the epoxy resin. The main objective is to compare and fabricate natural fiber reinforced hybrid epoxy composites with tender palm shoots, palymra fiber, as natural reinforcements which are generally leftovers and Aluminium powder as conductive filler by hand lay-up process at various weight percentages. Different mechanical properties, water absorption characteristics, flammability and electrical conductivity are evaluated as per ASTM standards. The test results show that these composites can be used as alternative materials for low tensile and high impact applications

Planck Scale Physics of the Single Particle Schr\"{o}dinger Equation with Gravitational Self-Interaction

We consider the modification of a single particle Schr\"{o}dinger equation by the inclusion of an additional gravitational self-potential term which follows from the prescription that the' mass-density'that enters this term is given by $m |\psi (\vec {r},t)|^2$, where $\psi (\vec {r}, t)$ is the wavefunction and $m$ is the mass of the particle. This leads to a nonlinear equation, the ' Newton Schrodinger' equation, which has been found to possess stationary self-bound solutions, whose energy can be determined exactly using an asymptotic method. We find that such a particle strongly violates superposition and becomes a black hole as its mass approaches the Planck mass.Comment: 16 pages, Revtex, No figure, Submitted to Physics Letters

V2O5 encapsulated MWCNTs in 2D surface architecture : complete solid-state bendable highly stabilized energy efficient supercapacitor device

A simple and scalable approach has been reported for O encapsulation over interconnected multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) network using chemical bath deposition method. Chemically synthesized O/MWCNTs electrode exhibited excellent charge-discharge capability with extraordinary cycling retention of 93% over 4000 cycles in liquid-electrolyte. Electrochemical investigations have been performed to evaluate the origin of capacitive behavior from dual contribution of surface-controlled and diffusion-controlled charge components. Furthermore, a complete flexible solid-state, flexible symmetric supercapacitor (FSS-SSC) device was assembled with O/MWCNTs electrodes which yield remarkable values of specific power and energy densities along with enhanced cyclic stability over liquid configuration. As a practical demonstration, the constructed device was used to lit the 'VNIT' acronym assembled using 21 LED's