Six month old neglected metacarpophalangeal joint volar complex dislocation: a case study

Metacarpophalanegal dislocations are rare, accounting for 3-5% of all dislocations with thumb being the most common finger affected. these dislocations can be decided into volar and dorsal and further into simple and complex, depending upon direction of dislocation and reducibility respectively. Although there is no approach superior over another, we selected volar approach for better visualization and direct reduction of dislocation and found reduction was unstable. hence a temporary fixation was attempted with K-wire which was removed 7th day postoperative and started with physiotherapy. Postoperatively patient was having near total range of motion (25-90 degree) and patient was able to do all the routine daily activities with his affected hand post operative 2 month. Complex metacarpophangeal joint dislocations needs intervention and should be combined with vigorous postoperative physiotherapy to achieve good clinical outcomes

Aircraft measurements of aerosol black carbon from a coastal location in the North-East part of peninsular India during ICARB

During the Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB) over India, high-resolution airborne measurements of the altitude profiles of the mass concentrations (MB) of aerosol black carbon (BC) were made off Bhubaneswar (BBR, 85.82°E, 20.25°N), over northwest Bay of Bengal, in the altitude region upto 3 km. Such high-resolution measurements of altitude profiles of aerosols are done for the first time over India. The profiles showed a near-steady vertical distribution of MB modulated with two small peaks, one at 800m and the other at ~2000m. High resolution GPS (Global Positioning System) sonde (Vaisala) measurements around the same region onboard the research vessel Sagar Kanya (around the same time of the aircraft sortie) revealed two convectively well mixed layers, one from ground to ~700m with an inversion at the top and the other extends from 1200m to ~2000m with a second inversion at ~2200m and a convectively stable region in the altitude range 700-1200m. The observed peaks in the MB profile are found to be associated with these temperature inversions. In addition, long-range transport from the Indo- Gangetic Plain (IGP) and deserts lying further to the west also influence the vertical profile of BC. Latitudinal variation of MB showed a remarkable land ocean contrast at the 500m altitude (within the well mixed region) with remarkably lower values over oceans, suggesting the impact of strong sources over the mainland. However, above the ABL (at 1500m), the latitudinal variations were quite weak, and this appears to be resulting from the impact of long-range transport. Comparison of the altitude profiles of MB over BoB off BBR with those obtained during the earlier occasion over the inland stations of Hyderabad and Kanpur showed similarities above ~500m, with MB remaining around a steady value of ~1 μg m-3. However, large differences are seen within the ABL. Even though the observed MB values are not unusually high, their near constancy in the vertical column will have important implications to radiative forcing

Probabilistic Neural Network based Approach for Handwritten Character Recognition

In this paper, recognition system for totally unconstrained handwritten characters for south Indian language of Kannada is proposed. The proposed feature extraction technique is based on Fourier Transform and well known Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The system trains the appropriate frequency band images followed by PCA feature extraction scheme. For subsequent classification technique, Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) is used. The proposed system is tested on large database containing Kannada characters and also tested on standard COIL-20 object database and the results were found to be better compared to standard techniques

Thermal and pressure stability of myrosinase enzymes from black mustard (Brassica nigra L. W.D.J Koch. var. nigra), brown mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern. var. juncea) and yellow mustard (Sinapsis alba L. Subsp Maire) seeds

This study investigates the effects of temperature and pressure on inactivation of myrosinase extracted from black, brown and yellow mustard seeds. Brown mustard had higher myrosinase activity (2.75 un/mL) than black (1.50 un/mL) and yellow mustard (0.63 un/mL). The extent of enzyme inactivation increased with pressure (600-800 MPa) and temperature (30-70 °C) for all the mustard seeds. However, at combinations of lower pressures (200-400 MPa) and high temperatures (60-80 °C), there was less inactivation. For example, application of 300 MPa and 70 °C for 10 minutes retained 20%, 80% and 65% activity in yellow, black and brown mustard, respectively, whereas the corresponding activity retentions when applying only heat (70 °C, 10min) were 0%, 59% and 35%. Thus, application of moderate pressures (200-400 MPa) can potentially be used to retain myrosinase activity needed for subsequent glucosinolate hydrolysis

Effect of germination on the functional and moisture sorption properties of high pressure processed foxtail millet grain flour

Foxtail millet is one of the commonly cultivated, nutritionally competitive source of protein, fibre, phytochemicals and other micronutrients, as compared to major cereals like wheat and rice. Considering the potential of these grains, the high pressure processed flours of germinated (GFMF) and non-germinated foxtail millet (NGFMF) grains were studied for its functional, moisture sorption and thermodynamic properties. Germination and high pressure processing of foxtail millet grains significantly improved the functional properties of the flour. Apart from this, the moisture sorption isotherms of both the flours were determined at 10, 25 and 40 oC and the sorption data was fitted to Guggenheim-Anderson-De Boer (GAB) sorption model. The monolayer moisture content for NGFMF and GFMF ranged between 3.235 - 2.364 g g-1 and 2.987 – 2.063 g g-1, respectively. The isosteric heat of sorption ranged between -76.35 kJ mol-1 to -38.23 kJ mol-1 for NGFMF and 172.55 kJ mol-1 to -34.02 kJ mol-1 for GFMF at a moisture range of 0 to 36%, whereas, the integral entropy of sorption for NGFMF ranged between -0.404 to -0.120 kJ mol-1 K-1 and for GFMF between -0.667 to -0.383 kJ mol-1 K-1. Along with the validation of the compensation theory, the values of spreading pressures lied in the range of 0 – 0.078 J m-2 for NGFMF and 0 – 0.124 J m-2 for GFMF, while, the glass transition temperatures ranged between 82.25 to 28.67 oC for NGFMF and from 51.11 to 11.83 oC for GFMF at all three temperatures

Prediction of a Switchable Two-Dimensional Electron Gas at Ferroelectric Oxide Interfaces

The demonstration of a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in LaAlO3=SrTiO3 heterostructures has stimulated intense research activity in recent years. The 2DEG has unique properties that are promising for applications in all-oxide electronic devices. For such applications it is desirable to have the ability to control 2DEG properties by external stimulus. Here, based on first-principles calculations we predict that all-oxide heterostructures incorporating ferroelectric constituents, such as KNbO3=ATiO3 (A = Sr, Ba, Pb), allow creating a 2DEG switchable between two conduction states by ferroelectric polarization reversal. The effect occurs due to the screening charge at the interface that counteracts the depolarizing electric field and depends on polarization orientation. The proposed concept of ferroelectrically controlled interface conductivity offers the possibility to design novel electronic devices

Cross-understanding will help complex and diverse teams achieve mutually agreeable solutions

Teams whose members have diverse backgrounds can experience differences in task knowledge, sensitivities to various aspects of the task system, as well as beliefs and preferences about how to best approach or solve a problem. How might managers deal with this? Niranjan Janardhanan, Kyle Lewis, Rhonda R. Reger, and Cynthia K. Stevens write that, rather than focusing on common ground, team leaders should emphasise cross-understanding. Understanding the bases of someone’s views will help get to the real reasons behind differences in opinion, and therefore help to achieve mutually agreeable solutions

Ferroelectric Dead Layer Driven by a Polar Interface

Based on first-principles and model calculations we investigate the effect of polar interfaces on the ferroelectric stability of thin-film ferroelectrics. As a representative model, we consider a TiO2-terminated BaTiO3 film with LaO monolayers at the two interfaces that serve as doping layers. We find that the polar interfaces create an intrinsic electric field that is screened by the electron charge leaking into the BaTiO3 layer. The amount of the leaking charge is controlled by the boundary conditions which are different for three heterostructures considered, namely Vacuum/LaO/BaTiO3/LaO, LaO/BaTiO3, and SrRuO3/LaO/BaTiO3/LaO. The intrinsic electric field forces ionic displacements in BaTiO3 to produce the electric polarization directed into the interior of the BaTiO3 layer. This creates a ferroelectric dead layer near the interfaces that is non-switchable and thus detrimental to ferroelectricity. Our first-principles and model calculations demonstrate that the effect is stronger for a larger effective ionic charge at the interface and longer screening length due to a stronger intrinsic electric field that penetrates deeper into the ferroelectric. The predicted mechanism for a ferroelectric dead layer at the interface controls the critical thickness for ferroelectricity in systems with polar interfaces.Comment: 33 Pages, 5 figure