A United Kingdom survey of surgical technique and handling practice of inguinal canal structures during hernia surgery

Background: Recent trials have assessed the impact of elective nerve division on patient outcome after inguinal herniorrhaphy. The aim of this study was to establish UK surgical practice of handling of structures in the inguinal canal during herniorrhaphy. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of all Fellows (n = 1113) of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) was performed. The main outcomes were to determine method of inguinal hernia repair and routine practice for intra-operative handling of structures in the inguinal canal. Results: A total of 852 (77%) questionnaires were returned, of which 784 (92%) surgeons performed inguinal herniorrhaphy. Approximately two-thirds (63%) of responding surgeons performed less than 50 procedures per annum and 37% conducted more than 50 procedures annually. Mesh was the preferred method used by 90% of surgeons; 6% used non-mesh, and 4% used other (laparoscopic) methods. Routine practice in relation to the inguinal structures varied by volume of hernia surgery; surgeons who conducted more than 50 procedures annually were more likely to visualize and preserve inguinal nerve structures. However, inconsistency in the answers suggested confusion over anatomy. Conclusion: This is the first UK survey to investigate method of hernia repair and usual handling practice of inguinal canal structures. There was wide acceptance of the use of mesh in inguinal hernia repair, with the majority of UK surgeons favoring an open approach. Surgeons performing high volumes of herniorrhaphy were more likely to preserve, rather than transect, inguinal nerve structures. This variation in practice may confound assessment of long-term neuralgia and other post-herniorrhaphy pain syndromes

Anisotropic Dark Energy and the Generalized Second Law of Thermodynamics

We consider a Bianchi type $I$ model in which anisotropic dark energy is interacting with dark matter and anisotropic radiation. With this scenario, we investigate the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics. It is concluded that the validity of this law depends on different parameters like shear, skewness and equation of state.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Scr. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1008.0692 and arXiv:1106.241

Compression Properties of Polyester Needlepunched Fabric

In the present paper, a study of the effects of fabricweight, fiber cross-sectional shapes (round, hollowand trilobal) and presence of reinforcing materialon the compression properties (initial thickness,percentage compression, percentage thickness lossand percentage compression resilience) of polyesterneedle punched industrial nonwoven fabrics ispresented. It was found that for fabrics with noreinforcing material, the initial thickness,compression, and thickness loss were higher thanfabrics with reinforcing material, irrespectiveoffiber cross-section. Compression resilience datashowed the reverse trend. Initial thickness fortrilobal cross-sectional fabric sample was highestfollowed by round and hollow cross-sectionedpolyester needle punched fabrics. The polyesterfabric made from hollow cross-sectioned fibersshowed the least percentage compression at everylevel of fabric weights. The trilobal cross-sectionedpolyester fabric sample showed higher thicknessloss followed by round and hollow cross-sectionedpolyester fabric samples respectively. The hollowcross-sectioned polyester fabric samples showedmaximum compression resilience followed byround and trilobal cross-sectioned polyestersamples irrespective of fabric weights. The initialthickness increases, but percentage compression,thickness loss and compression resilience decreaseswith the increase in fabric weight irrespective offiber cross-sectional shapes

Origin of the anomalous magnetic circular dichroism spectral shape in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As: Impurity bands inside the band gap

The electronic structure of a prototype dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS), Ga1-xMnxAs, is studied by magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy. We prove that the optical transitions originated from impurity bands cause the strong positive MCD background. The MCD signal due to the E0 transition from the valence band to the conduction band is negative indicating that the p-d exchange interactions between the p-carriers and d-spin is antiferromagnetic. The negative E0 MCD signal also indicates that the hole-doping of the valence band is not so large as previously assumed. The impurity bands seem to play important roles for the ferromagnetism of Ga1-xMnxAs.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Gravitational collapse due to dark matter and dark energy in the brane world scenario

Gravitational collapse of FRW brane world embedded in a conformaly flat bulk is considered for matter cloud consists of dark matter and dark energy with equation of state $p=\epsilon \rho$ $(\epsilon<-{1/3})$. The effect of dark matter and dark energy is being considered first separately and then a combination of them both with and without interaction. In some cases the collapse leads to black hole in some other cases naked singularity appears.Comment: 10 Latex Pages, RevTex style, 4 figure