High Resistivity Amorphous Selenium Alloy Semiconductors For Radiation Detection Applications

High resolution noninvasive tools of diagnosis has always derived and enabled scientific and medical research to probe and better understand subtleties of matter, intangible to the human eye. Radiation detection systems are highly dependent on advancements in materials and devices with front-end electronics. There are various discrete applications of these radiation detectors and each application imposes certain requirements so there is no single optimum radiation detector. Flat panel x-ray imagers have gained high demand in the past decade because of exponential improvement in readout electronics. We have synthesized and investigated stabilized amorphous selenium (a-Se) alloys suitable for high resolution flat panel x-ray imagers for medical diagnostic applications, primarily in digital mammography and chest radiography systems. Also, in our pursuit to develop high energy physics radiation detectors, we present a novel method to detect neutrons by exploring alpha detection capabilities of isotopic boron doped a-Se alloys. The synthesis of well-defined a-Se (As, Cl) alloys and boron doped a-Se alloys have been carried out using a specially designed alloying reactor. The alloy composition has been optimized to ensure good charge transport properties and opto-electronic device performance. The synthesis of a-Se (As, Cl) alloys has been carried out by thoroughly mixing zone-refined (ZR) Se (~7N) with previously synthesized Se-As and Se-Cl master alloys. These synthesized alloys were then used as precursor materials for synthesizing isotopically enriched boron doped alloys. To study and verify the desired physical, electrical, and opto-electronic properties of the synthesized alloys, they have been characterized by various characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), glow discharge mass spectroscopy (GDMS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Raman spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. We have achieved our goal, and have successfully grown stable highly-resistive a-Se alloys and fabricated single layer planar detectors which can perform under high voltage bias with low electronic noise. Results of high energy alpha particle response with a specific signature of thermal neutron detection using boron doped a-Se alloy detector has been successfully investigated and demonstrated

Comparison of Scalpel and Diode Laser in Management of Gingival Enlargement: A Case Report

Inflammatory gingival enlargement is an excessive growth of gingival tissue due to inflammation in response to plaque accumulation. Enlargement of gingiva hampers the efficiency of daily oral hygiene practices which in turn accumulates more plaque, thus causing inflammation. Phase I therapy, consisting of scaling and root planning only reduces the inflammatory component of the enlarged gingival tissues but the fibrotic gingival enlargement remaining thereafter is then removed surgically by gingivectomy. Apart from the conventional scalpel gingivectomy, many other treatment modalities such as gingivectomy by lasers and electrocautery are now being widely used in the field of surgical periodontal therapy. This case report describes the management of gingival enlargement in relation with gingivae of maxillary teeth by administering separate treatment modalities i.e. diode laser and conventional scalpel gingivectomy

Nationwide Trends in Inpatient Admissions of Pulmonary Hypertension in the United States from 2000 to 2013

Introduction: Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) is a disorder of the pulmonary vasculature with high mortality and bears a large economic burden on the healthcare system. We conducted a review of the largest inpatient database in the United States and analyzed the trends in hospitalizations due to PH from the turn of the century (2000) to 2013 to evaluate the rate of hospitalizations and determine the cost and mortality associated with PH. Material and methods: We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample Database (NIS) for all patients in which PH (Primary or Secondary) or cor pulmonale was the primary discharge diagnosis (ICD-9: 416.0, 416.8 and 416.9) from 2000 to 2013. The NIS is the largest all-payer inpatient database in the United States and contains data from approximately 8 million hospital stays each year. The statistical significance of the difference in the number of hospital discharges, lengths of stays and associated hospital costs over the study period was calculated. Results: In 2000, there were 12,066 hospital admissions with the principal discharge diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension, which increased to 13,605 admissions in 2013 (p \u3c 0.001). The mean length of stay for PH increased from 5.89 days to 6.67 days during this period (p = 0.04). During the same period, the hospital charges increase by 174.5% from US$24,973 in 2000 to US$ 68,545 in 2013 (Adjusted for inflation). The aggregate cost of hospital visits of a patient increased by 209.5% from US$301,324,218 in 2000 to US$ 932,554,725 in 2013. Conclusion: The number of inpatient discharges related to PH has increased even though the number of inpatient discharges with PAH has been reported to be lower in literature. The mean length of stay has also shown a mild increase. This increase is associated with a significant increase in the mean and aggregate cost. These inpatient costs associated with PH contribute significantly to the total healthcare burden. Further research on cost-effective evaluation and management of PH is required

Nationwide trends in inpatient admissions of pulmonary hypertension in the United States from 2000 to 2013

  INTRODUCTION: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a disorder of the pulmonary vasculature with high mortality and bears a large economic burden on the healthcare system. We conducted a review of the largest inpatient database in the United States and analyzed the trends in hospitalizations due to PH from the turn of the century (2000) to 2013 to evaluate the rate of hospitalizations and determine the cost and mortality associated with PH. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample Database (NIS) for all patients in which PH (Primary or Secondary) or cor pulmonale was the primary discharge diagnosis (ICD-9: 416.0, 416.8 and 416.9) from 2000 to 2013. The NIS is the largest all-payer inpatient database in the United States and contains data from approximately 8 million hospital stays each year. The statistical significance of the difference in the number of hospital discharges, lengths of stays and associated hospital costs over the study period was calculated. RESULTS: In 2000, there were 12,066 hospital admissions with the principal discharge diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension, which increased to 13,605 admissions in 2013 (p < 0.001). The mean length of stay for PH increased from 5.89 days to 6.67 days during this period (p = 0.04). During the same period, the hospital charges increase by 174.5% from US$24,973 in 2000 to US$ 68,545 in 2013 (Adjusted for inflation). The aggregate cost of hospital visits of a patient increased by 209.5% from US$301,324,218 in 2000 to US$ 932,554,725 in 2013. CONCLUSIONS: The number of inpatient discharges related to PH has increased even though the number of inpatient discharges with PAH has been reported to be lower in literature. The mean length of stay has also shown a mild increase. This increase is associated with a significant increase in the mean and aggregate cost. These inpatient costs associated with PH contribute significantly to the total healthcare burden. Further research on cost-effective evaluation and management of PH is required.

Secure Message Transmission In Asynchronous Directed Networks

We study the problem of information-theoretically secure message transmission (SMT) in asynchronous directed networks. In line with the literature, the distrust and failures of the network is captured via a computationally unbounded Byzantine adversary that may corrupt some subset of nodes. We give a characterization of networks over which SMT from sender S to receiver R is possible in both the well-known settings, namely perfect SMT (PSMT) and unconditional SMT (USMT). We distinguish between two variants of USMT: one in which R can output an incorrect message (with small probability) and another in which R never outputs a wrong message, but may choose to abort (with small probability). We also provide efficient protocols for an important class of networks

Unconditionally Reliable Message Transmission in Directed Neighbour Networks

The problem of unconditionally reliable message transmission (URMT) is to design a protocol which when run by players in a network enables a sender S to deliver a message to a receiver R with high probability, even when some players in the network are under the control of an unbounded adversary. Renault and Tomala [JoC2008] gave a characterization of undirected neighbour networks over which URMT tolerating Byzantine adversary is possible. In this paper, we generalize their result to the case of directed networks

Interplay between (Im)perfectness, Synchrony and Connectivity: The Case of Reliable Message Transmission

For unconditionally reliable message transmission (URMT) in synchronous directed networks of n nodes, a subset of which may be Byzantine faulty, it is well-known that the minimum connectivity requirements for zero-error (perfect) protocols to exist is strictly higher than those where a negligible yet non-zero error probability is allowed (Monte Carlo protocols). In this work, we study the minimum connectivity requirements for the existence of (a) synchronous Las Vegas protocols, (b) asynchronous Monte Carlo protocols, and (c) asynchronous Las Vegas protocols for URMT. Interestingly, we prove that in any network, synchronous Las Vegas URMT protocol exists if and only if asynchronous Monte Carlo URMT protocol exists too. We further show that asynchronous Las Vegas URMT protocols exist if and only if synchronous perfect protocols exist. We conclude with another interesting result: there exists networks where the number of critical edges for the ‘easier’ randomized variants are asymptotically higher than that for the perfect variant. Thus, our results establish an interesting interplay between (im)perfectness, synchrony and connectivity for the case of URMT