Trends for nanotechnology development in China, Russia, and India

China, Russia, and India are playing an increasingly important role in global nanotechnology research and development (R&D). This paper comparatively inspects the paper and patent publications by these three countries in the Thomson Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI) database and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database (1976–2007). Bibliographic, content map, and citation network analyses are used to evaluate country productivity, dominant research topics, and knowledge diffusion patterns. Significant and consistent growth in nanotechnology papers are noted in the three countries. Between 2000 and 2007, the average annual growth rate was 31.43% in China, 11.88% in Russia, and 33.51% in India. During the same time, the growth patterns were less consistent in patent publications: the corresponding average rates are 31.13, 10.41, and 5.96%. The three countries’ paper impact measured by the average number of citations has been lower than the world average. However, from 2000 to 2007, it experienced rapid increases of about 12.8 times in China, 8 times in India, and 1.6 times in Russia. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) were the most productive institutions in paper publication, with 12,334, 6,773, and 1,831 papers, respectively. The three countries emphasized some common research topics such as “Quantum dots,” “Carbon nanotubes,” “Atomic force microscopy,” and “Scanning electron microscopy,” while Russia and India reported more research on nano-devices as compared with China. CAS, RAS, and IIT played key roles in the respective domestic knowledge diffusion

Pooled analysis of WHO Surgical Safety Checklist use and mortality after emergency laparotomy

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist has fostered safe practice for 10 years, yet its place in emergency surgery has not been assessed on a global scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate reported checklist use in emergency settings and examine the relationship with perioperative mortality in patients who had emergency laparotomy. Methods In two multinational cohort studies, adults undergoing emergency laparotomy were compared with those having elective gastrointestinal surgery. Relationships between reported checklist use and mortality were determined using multivariable logistic regression and bootstrapped simulation. Results Of 12 296 patients included from 76 countries, 4843 underwent emergency laparotomy. After adjusting for patient and disease factors, checklist use before emergency laparotomy was more common in countries with a high Human Development Index (HDI) (2455 of 2741, 89.6 per cent) compared with that in countries with a middle (753 of 1242, 60.6 per cent; odds ratio (OR) 0.17, 95 per cent c.i. 0.14 to 0.21, P <0001) or low (363 of 860, 422 per cent; OR 008, 007 to 010, P <0.001) HDI. Checklist use was less common in elective surgery than for emergency laparotomy in high-HDI countries (risk difference -94 (95 per cent c.i. -11.9 to -6.9) per cent; P <0001), but the relationship was reversed in low-HDI countries (+121 (+7.0 to +173) per cent; P <0001). In multivariable models, checklist use was associated with a lower 30-day perioperative mortality (OR 0.60, 0.50 to 073; P <0.001). The greatest absolute benefit was seen for emergency surgery in low- and middle-HDI countries. Conclusion Checklist use in emergency laparotomy was associated with a significantly lower perioperative mortality rate. Checklist use in low-HDI countries was half that in high-HDI countries.Peer reviewe

Global variation in anastomosis and end colostomy formation following left-sided colorectal resection

Background End colostomy rates following colorectal resection vary across institutions in high-income settings, being influenced by patient, disease, surgeon and system factors. This study aimed to assess global variation in end colostomy rates after left-sided colorectal resection. Methods This study comprised an analysis of GlobalSurg-1 and -2 international, prospective, observational cohort studies (2014, 2016), including consecutive adult patients undergoing elective or emergency left-sided colorectal resection within discrete 2-week windows. Countries were grouped into high-, middle- and low-income tertiles according to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Factors associated with colostomy formation versus primary anastomosis were explored using a multilevel, multivariable logistic regression model. Results In total, 1635 patients from 242 hospitals in 57 countries undergoing left-sided colorectal resection were included: 113 (6·9 per cent) from low-HDI, 254 (15·5 per cent) from middle-HDI and 1268 (77·6 per cent) from high-HDI countries. There was a higher proportion of patients with perforated disease (57·5, 40·9 and 35·4 per cent; P < 0·001) and subsequent use of end colostomy (52·2, 24·8 and 18·9 per cent; P < 0·001) in low- compared with middle- and high-HDI settings. The association with colostomy use in low-HDI settings persisted (odds ratio (OR) 3·20, 95 per cent c.i. 1·35 to 7·57; P = 0·008) after risk adjustment for malignant disease (OR 2·34, 1·65 to 3·32; P < 0·001), emergency surgery (OR 4·08, 2·73 to 6·10; P < 0·001), time to operation at least 48 h (OR 1·99, 1·28 to 3·09; P = 0·002) and disease perforation (OR 4·00, 2·81 to 5·69; P < 0·001). Conclusion Global differences existed in the proportion of patients receiving end stomas after left-sided colorectal resection based on income, which went beyond case mix alone

Hydrothermally engineered enhanced hydrate formation for potential CO2 capture applications

Gas hydrate formation is regarded as the emerging technology to mitigate the effect of greenhouse gases. Now a day, the alarming situation of increased CO2 concentration of about 450 ppm is associated with elevation of earth temperature up to 2°Ϲ. Where the CO2 hydrate (CO2.6H2O) formation is of environmental and scientific interest due to carbon capture and storage (CCS) in order to condense environmental CO2 concentration. The present study is experimentally addressing the four different sample preparation procedures (method 1, 2, 3 and 4) of stirring for the CO2 hydrate (CO2.6H2O) formation correlated with the integrated gasification combine cycle (IGCC) conditions. A high-pressure volumetric analyzer (HPVA) is used to explore the rate of CO2 hydrate formation that is critically investigated using pressure-time (P-t) curves for all the prepared samples. The highest stirring (method 4) speed with 37000 rpm, had the highest moisture content of 14.8 wt% as well as at 275 K and 36 bar. By using method 4 hydrate conversion of 40.5 mol% was observed. The high stirring method (method 4) show gas uptake of about 3.9 mmol of carbon dioxide per gram of H2O and the highest rate for formation of hydrate as 0.05 mmol of carbon dioxide per gram of H2O per min. Further, comparison of promoter’s combination relative to long experiment duration resulted in the increment of 13.82 mol% of water to hydrate conversion in 2600 min at 283 K and 58 bar for T1–5 (having 5.6 mol% of THF and 0.01 mol% of SDS) as compared to the experiment that was performed in 1200 min

PneumoVolley: Pressure-based Haptic Feedback on the Head through Pneumatic Actuation

Haptic Feedback brings immersion and presence in Virtual Reality (VR) to the next level. While research proposes the usage of various tactile sensations, such as vibration or ultrasound approaches, the potential applicability of pressure feedback on the head is still underexplored. In this paper, we contribute concepts and design considerations for pressure-based feedback on the head through pneumatic actuation. As a proof-of-concept implementing our pressure-based haptics, we further present PneumoVolley: a VR experience similar to the classic Volleyball game but played with the head. In an exploratory user study with 9 participants, we evaluated our concepts and identified a significantly increased involvement compared to a no-haptics baseline along with high realism and enjoyment ratings using pressure-based feedback on the head in VR

Broadening nanotechnology's impact on development

Discussions about nanotechnology and development focus on applications that directly address the needs of the world’s poor. Nanotechnology can certainly make an impact in the fight against global poverty, but we need to broaden our imagination