Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor of the cervical vagus nerve in a neurofibromatosis type 1 patient - An unusual presentation

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST’S) of the head and neck comprise 2% to 6% of head and neck sarcomas. These tumors may arise as sporadic variants or in patients with neurofibromatosis (NF). Development of these MPNST’s is one of the serious complications of neurofibromatosis type 1(NF1). To our knowledge there are only two reported cases of MPNST’s arising in the cervical vagal nerve, occurring in NF1 patients. We present here an NF1 patient who developed an MPNST of the cervical vagus nerve and presented only with a cervical swelling and hoarseness

Stability of Viscous Flow between Two Concentric Rotating Porous Cylinders

The stability of a viscous flow between two concentric rotating porous cylinders has been examined when the difference in radii of the cylinders is small in comparison with their mean radius. Critical Taylor numbers have been calculated for various wave numbers and velocity ratios of the cylinders. Theroetical results show that injection at the outer cylinder improves the stability of the flow whereas suction has an opposite effect

Bound electron nonlinearity beyond the ionization threshold

Although high field laser-induced ionization is a fundamental process underlying many applications, there have been no absolute measurements of the nonlinear polarizability of atoms and molecules in the presence of ionization. Such information is crucial, for example, for understanding the propagation of high intensity ultrashort pulses in matter. Here, we present absolute space- and time-resolved measurements of the ultrafast laser-driven nonlinear polarizability in argon, krypton, xenon, nitrogen, and oxygen up to an ionization fraction of a few percent. These measurements enable determination of the non-perturbative bound electron nonlinearity well beyond the ionization threshold, where it is found to be approximately linear in intensity

Public Expenditure Decentralization in Developing Countries

The objective of this paper is to investigate the extent of public expenditure decentralization among developing countries, and to identify its determinants. Using data compiled from international agency sources, and from primary sources, it is shown that fiscal decentralization has gone significantly farther in developed than in developing countries. The use of factor analysis and regression analysis indicates three general explanations for the wide variation in fiscal decentralization among countries. The public expenditure share of subnational governments appears to be greater where the level of economic development is higher, in countries with larger populations, and in countries whose central government budgets carry less of a defense burden. The results also suggest that where central governments mobilize more resources through the revenue system, the subnational government\u27s share of expenditures may be lower—taxes are more likely to stick where they hit than to be passed through as grants to local governments

Techniques of Technological Forecasting

Technological forecasts can improve decisions through clearer delineation of future technological opportunities and threats. A review of the various methods applicable in thc area of technology is presented.The limitations of a particular technique must be clearly understood before it is applied. Some defence applications have also been discussed

Dynamic rotor mode in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

We present experimental, numerical, and theoretical evidence for a new mode of antiferromagnetic dynamics in nanoparticles. Elastic neutron scattering experiments on 8 nm particles of hematite display a loss of diffraction intensity with temperature, the intensity vanishing around 150 K. However, the signal from inelastic neutron scattering remains above that temperature, indicating a magnetic system in constant motion. In addition, the precession frequency of the inelastic magnetic signal shows an increase above 100 K. Numerical Langevin simulations of spin dynamics reproduce all measured neutron data and reveal that thermally activated spin canting gives rise to a new type of coherent magnetic precession mode. This "rotor" mode can be seen as a high-temperature version of superparamagnetism and is driven by exchange interactions between the two magnetic sublattices. The frequency of the rotor mode behaves in fair agreement with a simple analytical model, based on a high temperature approximation of the generally accepted Hamiltonian of the system. The extracted model parameters, as the magnetic interaction and the axial anisotropy, are in excellent agreement with results from Mossbauer spectroscopy

Surgical Outcomes for Esotropia in Children with High AC/A ratio

PURPOSE: To assess if high accommodative convergence/accommodation (AC/A) ratio impacts surgical outcomes in children with esotropia (ET). METHODS: A retrospective chart review identified patients who underwent primary bilateral medial rectus (BMR) recessions for ET. Patients were excluded if follow up was ≤2 months. Basic demographic information, visual acuity, stereopsis, alignment, and target angle for surgery was collected. High AC/A was defined as ≥10 prism diopter (Δ) deviation at near compared to distance. Outcome parameters were near and distance deviations ≤10Δ within orthophoria, and/or stereopsis postoperatively. Yates’ continuity correction, unpaired t-test, regression analysis, and one-way ANOVA were used. RESULTS: We identified 103 patients, 23 with high AC/A and 80 with normal AC/A, preoperatively. Mean age was 4.0 ± 2.5 years. Surgical success measured by postoperative alignment was 48% and 45% in the high AC/A and normal AC/A groups, respectively (p=1.0). There was a statistically significant difference in preoperative near deviation between high AC/A and normal AC/A groups (p=0.0015), however there was no significant difference in preoperative distance deviation (p=0.061). Additionally, there was not a significant difference in preoperative or postoperative stereopsis between high AC/A and normal AC/A groups (p=0.88 and p=0.44, respectively). There was a significant difference in the normal AC/A and high AC/A groups when target angle was directed towards preoperative near deviation as determined by one-way ANOVA (F=170.88, p CONCLUSIONS: In the setting of ET treated with BMR recession, the presence of high AC/A does not affect surgical success as measured by alignment and stereopsis

Milkweed blended fabrics and their thermal insulation and UV protection properties

Two sets of milkweed blended weft knitted fabrics have been produced and then tested for their constructional properties like courses/wales per inch, thickness, weight and tightness factor. These fabrics are also evaluated for thermal insulation (TI), water vapour permeability, air permeability and ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) properties and then compared with the only cotton and polyester knitted fabrics. The UPF and TI data of various blends of milkweed fibre with cotton or polyester have beed evaluated using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results reveal that the thermal insulation and ultraviolet protection factor of the milkweed blended fabric are higher than the corresponding properties of cotton and polyester fabrics, while the air permeability and water permeability properties are lower than the corresponding properties of cotton and polyester knitted fabrics.