Five patients with oedema: written for the Wightman Prize in Clinical Medicine, 1962

This is an account of five patients seen in :. iards 21, 23 and 24 of the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh; all the patients suffered from some form of oedema. The severity of the oedema varied greatly in the different patients, as did the factors responsible for its appearance. This account aims merely to recount the clinical histories, with special emphasis on the oedema, and to discuss the causes as revealed in each patient.In the interests of brevity and clarity, it has been necessary to omit some of the details of the history and clinical findings in each patient where they were not strictly relevant to the problem of oedema, but any details of special interest have also been included. Although this is intended primarily as a clinical account, the discussion of the pathogenesis of oedema in each patient must, as so often in medicine today, delve into mechanisms at a microscopic and even at a molecular level. At this level, the discussion runs the risk of either being too brief and dogmatic, or else too detailed and inconclusive; and at any level the discussion must inevitably be incomplete. Many of the theories of the pathogenesis of oedema are speculative and controversial, and the more complete the reading of the literature, the more confusing the picture becomes. The author has attempted, in this account, to discuss some of the more important factors in the production of oedema, but has tried to avoid confusing himself and the reader with too much detail.Oedema, which may be defined as a localised or generalised increase in the volume of the interstitial fluid, can arise in many diseases, and be the result of the interplay of a number of factors. These factors are not well understood - but the first patient suffered from oedema of a type where the simpler explanations would seem to suffice

The role of intermolecular coupling in the photophysics of disordered organic semiconductors: Aggregate emission in regioregular polythiophene

We address the role of excitonic coulping on the nature of photoexcitations in the conjugated polymer regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene). By means of temperature-dependent absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy, we show that optical emission is overwhelmingly dominated by weakly coupled H-aggregates. The relative absorbance of the 0-0 and 0-1 vibronic peaks provides a powerfully simple means to extract the magnitude of the intermolecular coupling energy, approximately 5 and 30 meV for films spun from isodurene and chloroform solutions respectively.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published in Phys. Rev. Let

Surface acoustic wave solid-state rotational micromotor

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are used to drive a 1mm diameter rotor at speeds exceeding 9000 rpm and torque of nearly 5 nNm. Unlike recent high-speed SAW rotary motors, however, the present design does not require a fluid coupling layer but interestingly exploits adhesive stiction as an internal preload, a force usually undesirable at these scales; with additional preloads, smaller rotors can be propelled to 15 000 rpm. This solid-state motor has no moving parts except for the rotor and is sufficiently simple to allow integration into miniaturized drive systems for potential use in microfluidic diagnostics, optical switching and microrobotics

Transmitting high power RF acoustic radiation via fluid couplants into superstrates for microfluidics

In this study, surface acoustic radiation is refracted from lithium niobate through a fluid coupling into a thin glass plate. We demonstrate and explain its propagation as an asymmetric Lamb wave along the glass plate with sufficient power to transport fluid droplets across the glass surface at 8 mm/s. Such technology enables the use of standard processing techniques to fabricate an inexpensive and disposable microfluidics device together with the power transmission capabilities of surface acoustic wave devices with an easily renewable coupling

Surface Acoustic Wave Driven Microchannel Flow

We demonstrate that the propagation of surface acoustic waves, arising from the excitation of the acoustic field on a piezoelectric crystal (lithium niobate) substrate, along the sidewalls of microchannels (50 μm or 280 μm wide and 200 μm deep) fabricated in the substrate, can give rise to throughflow with velocities of the order 10 mm/s. This streaming flow in the direction along which the surface acoustic wave propagates is a result of the leakage of acoustic radiation from the substrate walls into the fluid. Good agreement is obtained between these preliminary experimental results with those from numerical simulations of the classical acoustic streaming model. In any case, these results show the potential of surface acoustic wave micropumps to be an effective fluid-driving mechanism for microfluidic devices

Spectroscopy of Seven Cataclysmic Variables with Periods Above Five Hours

We present spectroscopy of seven cataclysmic variable stars with orbital periods P(orb) greater than 5 hours, all but one of which are known to be dwarf novae. Using radial velocity measurements we improve on previous orbital period determinations, or derive periods for the first time. The stars and their periods are TT Crt, 0.2683522(5) d; EZ Del, 0.2234(5) d; LL Lyr, 0.249069(4) d; UY Pup, 0.479269(7) d; RY Ser, 0.3009(4) d; CH UMa, 0.3431843(6) d; and SDSS J081321+452809, 0.2890(4) d. For each of the systems we detect the spectrum of the secondary star, estimate its spectral type, and derive a distance based on the surface brightness and Roche lobe constraints. In five systems we also measure the radial velocity curve of the secondary star, estimate orbital inclinations, and where possible estimate distances based on the MV(max) vs.P(orb) relation found by Warner. In concordance with previous studies, we find that all the secondary stars have, to varying degrees, cooler spectral types than would be expected if they were on the main sequence at the measured orbital period.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures, accepted for Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacifi

Droplet manipulation using ZnO/sapphire based saw devices

The hybrid ZnO/Sapphire material is selected to exploit the collective benefits of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and sapphire for the development of a high performance Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) device. The microfluidic applications of ZnO/Sapphire layered surface acoustic wave devices are discussed. In addition, acoustic streaming in droplets is investigated using a custom-made ZnO/Sapphire layered device. Experimental results show that a maximum acoustic streaming of ~600 µm/s is achieved when the device is operated at 158 MHz

U Geminorum: a test case for orbital parameters determination

High-resolution spectroscopy of U Gem was obtained during quiescence. We did not find a hot spot or gas stream around the outer boundaries of the accretion disk. Instead, we detected a strong narrow emission near the location of the secondary star. We measured the radial velocity curve from the wings of the double-peaked H$\alpha$ emission line, and obtained a semi-amplitude value that is in excellent agreement with the obtained from observations in the ultraviolet spectral region by Sion et al. (1998). We present also a new method to obtain K_2, which enhances the detection of absorption or emission features arising in the late-type companion. Our results are compared with published values derived from the near-infrared NaI line doublet. From a comparison of the TiO band with those of late type M stars, we find that a best fit is obtained for a M6V star, contributing 5 percent of the total light at that spectral region. Assuming that the radial velocity semi-amplitudes reflect accurately the motion of the binary components, then from our results: K_em = 107+/-2 km/s; K_abs = 310+/-5 km/s, and using the inclination angle given by Zhang & Robinson(1987); i = 69.7+/-0.7, the system parameters become: M_WD = 1.20+/-0.05 M_sun,; M_RD = 0.42+/-0.04 M_sun; and a = 1.55+/- 0.02 R_sun. Based on the separation of the double emission peaks, we calculate an outer disk radius of R_out/a ~0.61, close to the distance of the inner Lagrangian point L_1/a~0.63. Therefore we suggest that, at the time of observations, the accretion disk was filling the Roche-Lobe of the primary, and that the matter leaving the L_1 point was colliding with the disc directly, producing the hot spot at this location.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figures, ccepted for publication in A

Hydrogen migration at restructuring palladium-silver oxide boundaries dramatically enhances reduction rate of silver oxide.

Heterogeneous catalysts are complex materials with multiple interfaces. A critical proposition in exploiting bifunctionality in alloy catalysts is to achieve surface migration across interfaces separating functionally dissimilar regions. Herein, we demonstrate the enhancement of more than 104 in the rate of molecular hydrogen reduction of a silver surface oxide in the presence of palladium oxide compared to pure silver oxide resulting from the transfer of atomic hydrogen from palladium oxide islands onto the surrounding surface formed from oxidation of a palladium-silver alloy. The palladium-silver interface also dynamically restructures during reduction, resulting in silver-palladium intermixing. This study clearly demonstrates the migration of reaction intermediates and catalyst material across surface interfacial boundaries in alloys with a significant effect on surface reactivity, having broad implications for the catalytic function of bimetallic materials