Evaluation of functional outcome and patient satisfaction after arthroscopic elbow arthrolysis

Arthroscopic arthrolysis is indicated for stiffness and pain caused by intrinsic stiffness and early arthritis of the elbow joint. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits in relieving pain and improving motion, but none have reported the specific functional recovery. To understand the functional outcome and patient satisfaction, 26 patients were reviewed at a mean follow-up of 25 months. All were manual workers or strength athletes. Pre- and post-operative evaluation included the Elbow Functional Assessment score, patient satisfaction and return to work and sports. Function improved significantly in 87% and the overall Elbow Functional Assessment score raised from a preoperative 48 to a postoperative 84. Arthroscopic arthrolysis not only improved pain and the range of motion, but also restored the elbow function and returned patients to their desired level of activity

A novel mechanical seal design with superior thermal characteristics

A mechanical face seal is an important component of variety of pumps used in chemical, petrochemical and process industry. The primary function of a mechanical seal is to prevent leakage of the process fluid from the pump housing and shaft to the environment. The factors that affect the performance of a mechanical seal to leak are friction, wear and its thermal characteristics. Improving upon the thermal characteristics of a mating ring in a mechanical seal would enhance its performance. Implanting a heat exchanger in the mating ring hold great promise for improving the performance of mechanical seals from the viewpoint of reducing heat at the interface and hence enhance the performance of the mechanical seal. To reveal what affect the implanted heat exchangers can have on the thermal characteristics of different seals, in this thesis, three different designs of mating rings were tested in a test rig and the results were compared to a conventional seal in this thesis. A new design of a mechanical seal with an implanted heat exchanger in its mating ring is reported. The mating ring incorporates an internal channel in which a coolant (either a gas or a liquid) flows to remove heat from the seal face. Prototypes were built and tested in a pump. Results are indicative of effective cooling and improved performance when compared to a conventional seal. A Coating on the mating ring was successfully implemented. A simplified heat transfer analysis using the results of the finite element method is also presented for all the seal designs

Program management approach for large-scale information technology development projects: a case study

This case study presents the program management approach in managing large-scale information technology projects. Using the case of ACME Solutions Ltd., a large software development company, the authors first emphasize on the need to use program management over project management when managing related multiple information technology projects. Then, they explain the program lifecycle in this company and discuss the ‘process’ and ‘people’ related challenges across the program stages. Broadly, they observe that there is a lack of coordination between the stakeholders and processes of the program. Recommendations to overcome these limitations are discussed

Security, Fraudulent transactions and Customer Loyalty: A Field Study

Security and Privacy has become a dominant issue for both consumers and corporations. In this paper, we investigate how customer behavior is affected after they have been a victim of financial fraud. Our analysis provides insights into how security concerns affect the continuation of the existing relationship of the customers depending on kind of fraudulent transactions. With the data from one of the largest banks in the US, we show that the probability of ending the relationship in the next six months increases significantly after a fraudulent transaction. We provide results with a detailed analysis including the kind of fraudulent transaction, tenure and location

From diffusive to ballistic transport in etched graphene constrictions and nanoribbons

Graphene nanoribbons and constrictions are envisaged as fundamental components of future carbon-based nanoelectronic and spintronic devices. At nanoscale, electronic effects in these devices depend heavily on the dimensions of the active channel and the nature of edges. Hence, controlling both these parameters is crucial to understand the physics in such systems. This review is about the recent progress in the fabrication of graphene nanoribbons and constrictions in terms of low temperature quantum transport. In particular, recent advancements using encapsulated graphene allowing for quantized conductance and future experiments towards exploring spin effects in these devices are presented. The influence of charge carrier inhomogeneity and the important length scales which play a crucial role for transport in high quality samples are also discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures. Will appear in Annalen der Physi

Cloning and Identification of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Genes and Proteins Upregulated Under Low Carbon Dioxide Conditions.

A mechanism that concentrates CO\sb2 in cells of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, is induced when cells are grown at low CO\sb2 conditions. This mechanism increases the CO\sb2 concentration at the site of RuBisCO, and thereby improves the efficiency of C\rm\sb{i} uptake and fixation. Cells adapting to low CO\sb2 show significant physiological changes. Few of the genes encoding proteins needed to produce these changes have been identified. A cDNA library has been constructed from C. reinhardtii to identify genes involved in these changes. The cloning and identification of several cDNAs that are upregulated under low CO\sb2 conditions are reported here. The possible roles that these cDNAs play in the CO\sb2 concentrating mechanism are also discussed. Two cDNAs induced at low CO\sb2 are carbonic anhydrases. These cDNAs show homology to $\beta$ carbonic anhydrases from higher plants. The complete sequence of another cDNA, Lci 3, does not show homology to any known proteins. Increased abundance of the Lci 3 transcript suggests that it plays an important role in the CCM. Two other clones that are upregulated in low CO\sb2 conditions have been identified as PsaE and omega 6 desaturase. Four other cDNAs upregulated under low CO\sb2 conditions code for proteins found in the light harvesting complex (LHC) family. A role in the energization of the CO\sb2 concentrating mechanism is proposed for these proteins. Lastly, a cDNA encoding a cyclophilin has been identified. Cyclophilins are a class of proteins with a cis/trans prolyl isomerase activity. This is the first report of CO\sb2 concentration affecting the expression of a cyclophilin. Based on in vitro studies a role in the proper folding of some of the newly synthesized proteins induced under low CO\sb2 conditions is proposed for the C. reinhardtii cyclophilin

Efficient Discovery of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Randomized Experiments via Anomalous Pattern Detection

In the recent literature on estimating heterogeneous treatment effects, each proposed method makes its own set of restrictive assumptions about the intervention's effects and which subpopulations to explicitly estimate. Moreover, the majority of the literature provides no mechanism to identify which subpopulations are the most affected--beyond manual inspection--and provides little guarantee on the correctness of the identified subpopulations. Therefore, we propose Treatment Effect Subset Scan (TESS), a new method for discovering which subpopulation in a randomized experiment is most significantly affected by a treatment. We frame this challenge as a pattern detection problem where we efficiently maximize a nonparametric scan statistic over subpopulations. Furthermore, we identify the subpopulation which experiences the largest distributional change as a result of the intervention, while making minimal assumptions about the intervention's effects or the underlying data generating process. In addition to the algorithm, we demonstrate that the asymptotic Type I and II error can be controlled, and provide sufficient conditions for detection consistency--i.e., exact identification of the affected subpopulation. Finally, we validate the efficacy of the method by discovering heterogeneous treatment effects in simulations and in real-world data from a well-known program evaluation study

Observation of the spin-orbit gap in bilayer graphene by one-dimensional ballistic transport

We report on measurements of quantized conductance in gate-defined quantum point contacts in bilayer graphene that allow the observation of subband splittings due to spin-orbit coupling. The size of this splitting can be tuned from 40 to 80 $\mu$eV by the displacement field. We assign this gate-tunable subband-splitting to a gap induced by spin-orbit coupling of Kane-Mele type, enhanced by proximity effects due to the substrate. We show that this spin-orbit coupling gives rise to a complex pattern in low perpendicular magnetic fields, increasing the Zeeman splitting in one valley and suppressing it in the other one. In addition, we observe the existence of a spin-polarized channel of 6 e$^2$/h at high in-plane magnetic field and of signatures of interaction effects at the crossings of spin-split subbands of opposite spins at finite magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Supplement 6 figure