A co-operating solver approach to building simulation

This paper describes the co-operating solver approach to building simulation as encapsulated within the ESP-r system. Possible adaptations are then considered to accommodate new functional requirements

Beating heart coronary surgery and renal function: a prospective randomised study (Presented at 18th Spring Meeting of the Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthetists: Selected abstracts, Cambridge, UK. 22 June 2001)

Introduction Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is widely regarded as an important contributor to renal failure, a well recognised complication, following coronary artery surgery (CABG). Off-pump coronary surgery (OPCAB) is intuitively considered renoprotective. We examine the extent of renal glomerular and tubular injury in low-risk patients undergoing either OPCAB or on-pump coronary artery bypass (ONCAB).Methods Forty patients awaiting elective CABG were prospectively randomized into those undergoing OPCAB (n = 20) and ONCAB (n = 20). Table 1 illustrates the exclusion criteria. Glomerular and tubular injury were assessed, respectively, by urinary excretion of microalbumin and retinol binding protein (RBP) indexed to urinary creatinine [1]. Daily measurements were made from admission to postoperative day 5. Fluid balance, serum creati-nine and blood urea were also monitored. Results No mortality or renal complication was observed. Both groups had similar demographic make-up. The OPCAB group received fewer coronary grafts than their counterparts (1.8 versus 2.8; P = 0.002). Serum creatinine and blood urea remained normal in both groups throughout the study. A dramatic and similar rise in mean ± 2SD urinary RBP:creatinine ratio occurred in both groups peaking on day 1 (3183 ± 2534 versus 4035 ± 4078; P = 0.43) before returning to baseline levels. These trends were also observed with the urinary microalbumin:creatinine ratio (5.05 ± 2.66 versus 6.77 ± 5.76; P = 0.22). ONCAB patients had a significantly more negative fluid balance on postoperative day 2 (-183 ± 1118 versus 637 ± 847 ml; P < 0.05). Conclusions Although renal dysfunction did not clinically occur in any patient, sensitive indicators revealed significant and similar injury to both renal tubules and glomeruli following either OPCAB or ONCAB. These suggest that avoidance of CPB per se does not offer additional renoprotection to patients at low risk of perioperative renal insult during CABG

Electrospray synthesis of PLGA TIPS microspheres

We successfully demonstrate the synthesis of polymer microspheres using a single electrospray source, and show their physical characterisation. Electrospray has proven to be a versatile method to manufacture particles, giving tight control over size with quasi-monodisperse size distributions. It is a liquid atomisation technique that generates a monodisperse population of highly charged liquid droplets over a broad size range (nanometres to tens of microns). The droplets contain liquid precursors for the in-flight synthesis of particles, and control over the trajectory of these droplets can be precisely manipulated with the use of electric fields to drive them to a grounded substrate. This study reports a method to synthesize poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) microspheres using the electrospray and thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) techniques, followed by subsequent freeze-drying, for particle production. These microspheres are of interest as vehicles for controlled drug release systems

Representation of SO(3) Group by a Maximally Entangled State

A representation of the SO(3) group is mapped into a maximally entangled two qubit state according to literatures. To show the evolution of the entangled state, a model is set up on an maximally entangled electron pair, two electrons of which pass independently through a rotating magnetic field. It is found that the evolution path of the entangled state in the SO(3) sphere breaks an odd or even number of times, corresponding to the double connectedness of the SO(3) group. An odd number of breaks leads to an additional $\pi$ phase to the entangled state, but an even number of breaks does not. A scheme to trace the evolution of the entangled state is proposed by means of entangled photon pairs and Kerr medium, allowing observation of the additional $\pi$ phase.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Dynamic communicability predicts infectiousness

Using real, time-dependent social interaction data, we look at correlations between some recently proposed dynamic centrality measures and summaries from large-scale epidemic simulations. The evolving network arises from email exchanges. The centrality measures, which are relatively inexpensive to compute, assign rankings to individual nodes based on their ability to broadcast information over the dynamic topology. We compare these with node rankings based on infectiousness that arise when a full stochastic SI simulation is performed over the dynamic network. More precisely, we look at the proportion of the network that a node is able to infect over a fixed time period, and the length of time that it takes for a node to infect half the network.We find that the dynamic centrality measures are an excellent, and inexpensive, proxy for the full simulation-based measures

Phase glass and zero-temperature phase transition in a randomly frustrated two-dimensional quantum rotor model

The ground state of the quantum rotor model in two dimensions with random phase frustration is investigated. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations are performed on the corresponding (2+1)-dimensional classical model under the entropic sampling scheme. For weak quantum fluctuation, the system is found to be in a phase glass phase characterized by a finite compressibility and a finite value for the Edwards-Anderson order parameter, signifying long-ranged phase rigidity in both spatial and imaginary time directions. Scaling properties of the model near the transition to the gapped, Mott insulator state with vanishing compressibility are analyzed. At the quantum critical point, the dynamic exponent $z_{\rm dyn}\simeq 1.17$ is greater than one. Correlation length exponents in the spatial and imaginary time directions are given by $\nu\simeq 0.73$ and $\nu_z\simeq 0.85$, respectively, both assume values greater than 0.6723 of the pure case. We speculate that the phase glass phase is superconducting rather than metallic in the zero current limit.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, to appear in JSTA