Confronting the opioid crisis: Practical pain management and strategies: AOA 2018 critical issues symposium

The United States is in the midst of an opioid crisis. Clinicians have been part of the problem because of overprescribing of narcotics for perioperative pain management. Clinicians need to understand the pathophysiology and science of addiction to improve perioperative management of pain for their patients. Multiple modalities for pain management exist that decrease the use of narcotics. Physical strategies, cognitive strategies, and multimodal medication can all provide improved pain relief and decrease the use of narcotics. National medical societies are developing clinical practice guidelines for pain management that incorporate multimodal strategies and multimodal medication. Changes to policy that improve provider education, access to naloxone, and treatment for addiction can decrease narcotic misuse and the risk of addiction

Method of numerical simulation of stable structures of fluid membranes and vesicles.

In this paper we study a methodology for the numerical simulation of stable structures of fluid membranes and vesicles in biological organisms. In particular, we discuss the effects of spontaneous curvature on vesicle cell membranes under the bending energy for given volume and surface area. The geometric modeling of the vesicle shapes are undertaken by means of surfaces generated as Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). We combine PDE based geometric modeling with numerical optimization in order to study the stable shapes adopted by the vesicle membranes. Thus, through the PDE method we generate a generic template of a vesicle membrane which is then efficiently parameterized. The parameterization is taken as a basis to set up a numerical optimization procedure which enables us to predict a series of vesicle shapes subject to given surface area and volume

Theory of low transitions in CO discharge lasers

A self consistent theoretical model which couples the electron and heavy particle finite rate kinetics with the optical and fluid dynamic processes has been employed to identify the various parameters and explain the mechanism responsible for producing low lying transitions in slow flowing CO lasers. It is found that lasing on low lying transitions can be achieved at low temperatures for low pressures (or low flow rates) together with high partial pressures of the He and N2. The role of N2 has been identified as an additive responsible for reducing the electron temperature to a range where the transfer of electrical power to the lower vibrational modes of CO is optimum

Theoretical study of isolated dangling bonds, dangling bond wires and dangling bond clusters on H:Si(100)-(2×\times1) surface

We theoretically study the electronic band structure of isolated unpaired and paired dangling bonds (DB), DB wires and DB clusters on H:Si(100)-(2$\times$1) surface using Extended H\"uckel Theory (EHT) and report their effect on the Si band gap. An isolated unpaired DB introduces a near-midgap state, whereas a paired DB leads to $\pi$ and $\pi^*$ states, similar to those introduced by an unpassivated asymmetric dimer (AD) Si(100)-(2$\times$1) surface. Such induced states have very small dispersion due to their isolation from the other states, which reside in conduction and valence band. On the other hand, the surface state induced due to an unpaired DB wire in the direction along the dimer row (referred to as $[\bar{1}10]$), has large dispersion due to the strong coupling between the adjacent DBs, being 3.84$\AA$ apart. However, in the direction perpendicular to the dimer row (referred to as [110]), due to the reduced coupling between the DBs being 7.68$\AA$ apart, the dispersion in the surface state is similar to that of an isolated unpaired DB. Apart from this, a paired DB wire in $[\bar{1}10]$ direction introduces $\pi$ and $\pi^*$ states similar to those of an AD surface and a paired DB wire in [110] direction exhibits surface states similar to those of an isolated paired DB, as expected. Besides this, we report the electronic structure of different DB clusters, which exhibit states inside the band gap that can be interpreted as superpositions of states due to unpaired and paired DBs.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure, 1 tabl

Theory of Insulator Metal Transition and Colossal Magnetoresistance in Doped Manganites

The persistent proximity of insulating and metallic phases, a puzzling characterestic of manganites, is argued to arise from the self organization of the twofold degenerate e_g orbitals of Mn into localized Jahn-Teller(JT) polaronic levels and broad band states due to the large electron - JT phonon coupling present in them. We describe a new two band model with strong correlations and a dynamical mean-field theory calculation of equilibrium and transport properties. These explain the insulator metal transition and colossal magnetoresistance quantitatively, as well as other consequences of two state coexistence

Reclaimed asphalt test specimen preparation assisted by image analysis

This paper presents a laboratory investigation aimed at establishing a protocol for the production of homogeneous asphalt mixtures test specimens, incorporating reclaimed asphalt by using a gyratory compactor with coring and trimming works. Stone mastic asphalt specimens were compacted at the previously identified target densities with the final aim of obtaining specimens with a fixed and homogeneous air void distribution. A microstructural study was conducted to characterize the homogeneity in the air void distribution using X-ray computed tomography (CT) combined with image analysis techniques. The study concluded that the gyratory compactor is suitable for producing homogeneous test specimens for the specified mixtures and a set of detailed procedures has been proposed for the production of the compacted specimens and to perform the microstructural study