A Rare Presentation of Crohn's Disease

Free peritoneal perforation is a rare complication of Crohn's disease with a report of only 100 cases in the literature. It needs an emergency exploration and an unaware general surgeon is confounded in intraoperative decision-making. We present our experience when this rarity struck us in a district hospital and briefly review the guidelines of optimal management of this complication of Crohn's disease

Analysis of microbial contamination and surface defects of new and used NiTi rotary endodontic files: An atomic force microscopy study

BACKGROUND: Manufacturing process leads to surface defects in endodontic files. AIM: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the microbial contamination and surface defects of new and used rotary endodontic files by atomic force microscope. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three groups of rotary endodontic file were used for the study. group1 (Protaper), group-2(M two), group-3(Wave one). Four new and used files from group-1, and group-2 were selected (GROUP-1-S1,S2,F1,F2), (GROUP-2- ISO size 10,15,20,25), one new and used file was selected from Group-3 (wave one) ISO size 25 primary file. All the files were analysed in 11 points along 6mm section of the tip. Quantitative measurement according to topographic deviation(RMS) was recorded. Data were analysed by paired sample t test. Two rotary system of files were selected for identification of microbial contamination. Twenty four files from Group-1(Protaper), and twelve files from Group-2(M two) were used. The files were incubated in BHI broth, a positive cultures were obtained. RESULTS: All the files showed surface irregularity irrespective of electro polishing. Root mean square value for finishing files were higher than shaping files. Protaper showed higher wear among the three experimental groups. Surface defects such as pits and microcracks were observed in new and used Protaper files. All the files in group-1 (Protaper) showed positive culture. Bacillus subtilis and pseudomonas were identified in the contaminated samples. CONCLUSION: Protaper showed surface defects such as pits and microcracks and underwent higher wear. RMS value of used file were higher than shaping files. Mtwo showed least wear among the three experimental groups. All the endodontic files should be sterilized before clinical use

In vitro culture of Piper attenuatum Ham. (Piperaceae): Callus induction and plant regeneration

Callus induction and plant regeneration of Piper attenuatum was achieved from stem explants in Murashige and Skoog and Gamborg's basal media supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, Kinetin, benzyladenine and palmyarh (Borassus flabelliferl endosperm extract. Root induction was obtained from stem explants in Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with a-naphthaleneacetic acid, b-naphthoxyacetic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, benzyladenine, kinetin and coconut water. Shoot development was achieved in in vitro rooted stem segments planted in Murashige and Skoog's medium supplemented with indole-3-acetic acid, benzyladenine and also in indole-3-acetic acid and kinetin. The plantlets were successfully established in soil. This is the first report of in vitro culture of P. attenuatum. &nbsp

A Computationally Efficient Framework for Modelling Energy Consumption of ICE and Electric Vehicles

This article proposes a novel framework to develop computationally efficient energy consumption models of electric and internal combustion engine vehicles. The number of calculations in a conventional energy consumption model prevents the model’s usage in applications where time is limited. As many fleet operators around the world are in the process of transitioning towards electric vehicles, a computationally efficient energy consumption model will be valuable to analyse the vehicles they trial. A vehicle’s energy consumption depends on the vehicle characteristics, drive cycles and vehicle mass. The proposed modelling framework considers these aspects, is computationally efficient, and can be run using open source software packages. The framework is validated through two use cases: an electric bus and a diesel truck. The model error’s standard deviation is less 5% and its mean is less than 2%. The proposed model’s mean computation time is less than 20 ms, which is two orders of magnitude lower than that of the baseline model. Finally, a case study was performed to illustrate the usefulness of the modelling framework for a fleet operator

Stromal Interferon-γ Signaling and Cross-Presentation Are Required to Eliminate Antigen-Loss Variants of B Cell Lymphomas in Mice

To study mechanisms of T cell-mediated rejection of B cell lymphomas, we developed a murine lymphoma model wherein three potential rejection antigens, human c-MYC, chicken ovalbumin (OVA), and GFP are expressed. After transfer into wild-type mice 60–70% of systemically growing lymphomas expressing all three antigens were rejected; lymphomas expressing only human c-MYC protein were not rejected. OVA expressing lymphomas were infiltrated by T cells, showed MHC class I and II upregulation, and lost antigen expression, indicating immune escape. In contrast to wild-type recipients, 80–100% of STAT1-, IFN-γ-, or IFN-γ receptor-deficient recipients died of lymphoma, indicating that host IFN-γ signaling is critical for rejection. Lymphomas arising in IFN-γ- and IFN-γ-receptor-deficient mice had invariably lost antigen expression, suggesting that poor overall survival of these recipients was due to inefficient elimination of antigen-negative lymphoma variants. Antigen-dependent eradication of lymphoma cells in wild-type animals was dependent on cross-presentation of antigen by cells of the tumor stroma. These findings provide first evidence for an important role of the tumor stroma in T cell-mediated control of hematologic neoplasias and highlight the importance of incorporating stroma-targeting strategies into future immunotherapeutic approaches

Effect of a Nu Vinci type CVT based Energy Efficient Cruise Control on an Electric Vehicle's Energy Consumption

This work investigated the effect of a Nu Vinci type Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT) based Energy Efficient Cruise Control (EECC) on an Electric Vehicle's (EV's) energy consumption. Unlike petrol and diesel vehicles, almost all EVs have a fixed gear ratio. Although it reduces the capital cost, it may not offer optimal energy efficiency and may increase the recharge costs. While accelerating and cruising, it may cause an EV to spend more energy than needed. While braking, it may cause underutilisation of the regenerative braking potential. In this work, an EECC was designed to operate the EV's power train close to its peak efficiency region by controlling the CVT ratio and Electric Machine (EM) torque. The EECC exploits data from the lead vehicle and employs a constrained linear Model Predictive Control (MPC) with a novel problem formulation that reduces the computational complexity. The proposed EECC was tested in a MATLAB simulation environment for different drive cycles. The results show that compared to a baseline EV with a fixed gear ratio and an Adaptive Cruise Control, the proposed system can reduce an EV's energy consumption in urban drive cycles by 16.6%

Semi-quantitative assessment of diffuse hepatic uptake seen in I-131 scans – an indicator of functioning thyroid tissue and disease burden in differentiated thyroid cancer

Abstract Background To semi-quantitatively analyze liver uptake of I-131 in diagnostic and post-therapy scans by calculating hepatic to thigh ratios (HTR) and evaluate its clinical significance in management of differentiated thyroid cancer. Method Two hundred forty-nine patients were included in the study. Hepatic to thigh ratio (HTR) of counts were calculated for 249 diagnostic and 104 post-therapy scans. Patients were divided into six study groups based on their disease status:1-Serum thyroglobulin (serum Tg) negative (serum Tg ≤ 4 ng/dl) and scan negative; 2-Thyroid remnant only; 3-Thyroid remnant and lymph node metastasis; 4- Tg positive (serum Tg > 4 ng/dl) and scan negative; 5-Bone or/and lung metastasis, and 6-Only lymph node metastasis. Comparison of HTR between these groups was done using one-way ANOVA test. Correlation of HTR with serum Tg, serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), anti-thyroglobulin antibody (ATg) titer and therapeutic dose of I-131 was also assessed. Results Comparison of HTR between different study groups (1 to 6) showed significant difference in HTR (p = .001). Study group 5 (bone or/and lung metastasis) showed significantly higher mean HTR compared to other groups (p = 0.001). There was only a weak correlation between serum Tg and HTR (r = 0.395). Dose of I-131 administered also had a weak correlation with HTR (r = 0.207). Conclusion HTR has good correlation with functional status of tumor cells, while it has weak correlation to therapeutic dose of I-131 administered and serum Tg. Increased HTR predicts significant disease burden in the form of distant bone and lung metastasis and may potentially be used as a second prognostic factor apart from serum Tg