Desmoid tumour: a rare etiology of intestinal obstruction

Intestinal obstruction is a frequently encountered entity in surgical practice. The signs & symptoms, many a times, are suggestive of the level of obstruction, making the diagnosis of obstruction evident. There are  various causes of intestinal obstruction which diversify to an enormous extent, stamping on the famous  paradigm for the mysterious nature of the abdomen being referred to as the Pandora's Box. In accordance with the above saying, we report a rare case of a desmoid tumour, presenting as intestinal obstruction, which entices us to strongly believe the same.Key words: Intestinal obstruction, pandora´s box, desmoid tumou

Photophysics of charge-transfer excitons in thin films of \pi-conjugated polymers

We develop a theory of the electronic structure and photophysics of interacting chains of \pi- conjugated polymers to understand the differences between solutions and films. While photoexcitation generates only the intrachain exciton in solutions, the optical exciton as well as weakly allowed charge-transfer excitons are generated in films. We extend existing theories of the lowest polaronpair and charge-transfer excitons to obtain descriptions of the excited states of these interchain species, and show that a significant fraction of ultrafast photoinduced absorptions in films originate from the lowest charge-transfer exciton. Our proposed mechanism explains the simultaneous observation of polaronlike induced absorption features peculiar to films in ultrafast spectroscopy and the absence of mobile charge carriers as deduced from other experiments. We also show that there is a 1:1 correspondence between the essential states that describe the photophysics of single chains and of interacting chains that constitute thin films.Comment: 10 pages,4 figures, submitted to Phys Rev

Complexity of Scheduling in Synthesizing Hardware from Concurrent Action Oriented Specifications

Concurrent Action Oriented Specifications (CAOS) formalism such as Bluespec Inc.\u27s Bluespec System Verilog (BSV) has been recently shown to be effective for hardware modeling and synthesis. This formalism offers the benefits of automatic handling of concurrency issues in highly concurrent system descriptions, and the associated synthesis algorithms have been shown to produce efficient hardware comparable to those generated from hand-written Verilog/VHDL. These benefits which are inherent in such a synthesis process also aid in faster architectural exploration. This is because CAOS allows a high-level description (above RTL) of a design in terms of atomic transactions, where each transaction corresponds to a collection of operations. Optimal scheduling of such actions in CAOS-based synthesis process is crucial in order to generate hardware that is efficient in terms of area, latency and power. In this paper, we analyze the complexity of the scheduling problems associated with CAOS-based synthesis and discuss several heuristics for meeting the peak power goals of designs generated from CAOS. We also discuss approximability of these problems as appropriate

A Rare Case of Primary Mucinous Cystadenoma of Spleen

Mucinous cystadenomas are relatively uncommon benign cystic tumors. Most of them are found in the ovary, pancreas, and appendix. Primary mucinous cystadenoma of spleen is extremely rare and only countable cases have been recorded. These are assumed to arise from heterotopic pancreatic tissue or invaginated spleenic capsular mesothelium. We present a rare case of primary mucinous cystadenoma of spleen without pancreatic tissue in it. Exact tissue of origin could not be determined

Acute fulminant necrotizing amoebic colitis: a rare and fatal complication of amoebiasis: a case report

Acute Fulminant Necrotizing Amoebic Colitis is a rare complication of amoebiasis that is associated with high mortality. Only one to four such cases are seen per year in large hospitals of India, and only few such cases have been reported in the literature. The condition requires early diagnosis and surgical intervention. We recently cared for a patient who presented with acute abdomen with history of intermittent abdominal pain and diarrhea. Before presenting to our institution he was misdiagnosed as a case of inflammatory bowel disease and had been treated with steroids. On emergency exploration, extensive necrosis and multiple perforations in retroperitoneum involving entire colon were seen. Total colectomy with ileostomy was performed. Postoperative course was marked by septicaemia and multi-organ failure followed by death. This case report emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of acute FAC, and associated high mortality