The structure of the gut of a coral fish, Chelmon rostratus cuvier

Okajimas Folia Anatomica Japonica512-363-80OFAJ

Toxicity of a herbal hypnotic drug

ASIAN J.MED.912436-437AJMD

Histochemical studies of mucus secreting cells in the gut of a coral fish, Chelmon rostratus cuvier

Okajimas Folia Anatomica Japonica512-381-90OFAJ

3D-image-guided HDR-brachytherapy versus 2D HDR - brachytherapy after external beam radiotherapy for early T-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma

10.1186/1471-2407-14-894BMC Cancer14189

Designs for improving the performance of an electro-thermal in-plane actuator

Reported presently are two designs to improve the performance of a "chevron" electro-thermal in-plane actuator. One incorporates beams with uniform cross-sections but nonuniform lengths and tilt angles to accommodate the thermally induced expansion of the "shuttle"; the other incorporates beams with non-uniform cross-sections to achieve a wider spread of the high temperature "expansion" regions of the beams. With the product of the actuation force and displacement defined as a figure-of-merit, it is verified using finite-element simulation that the incorporation of non-uniform lengths and tilt angles, and non-uniform beam cross-sections leads to respective improvement of 10 and 65% in the figure-of-merit. The effectiveness of these designs was also tested by micro-fabricating actuators occupying fixed device areas. © 2011 IEEE

Body mass index and complications following major gastrointestinal surgery: A prospective, international cohort study and meta-analysis

Aim Previous studies reported conflicting evidence on the effects of obesity on outcomes after gastrointestinal surgery. The aims of this study were to explore the relationship of obesity with major postoperative complications in an international cohort and to present a metaanalysis of all available prospective data. Methods This prospective, multicentre study included adults undergoing both elective and emergency gastrointestinal resection, reversal of stoma or formation of stoma. The primary end-point was 30-day major complications (Clavien–Dindo Grades III–V). A systematic search was undertaken for studies assessing the relationship between obesity and major complications after gastrointestinal surgery. Individual patient meta-analysis was used to analyse pooled results. Results This study included 2519 patients across 127 centres, of whom 560 (22.2%) were obese. Unadjusted major complication rates were lower in obese vs normal weight patients (13.0% vs 16.2%, respectively), but this did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.863) on multivariate analysis for patients having surgery for either malignant or benign conditions. Individual patient meta-analysis demonstrated that obese patients undergoing surgery formalignancy were at increased risk of major complications (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.49–2.96, P < 0.001), whereas obese patients undergoing surgery for benign indications were at decreased risk (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.46–0.75, P < 0.001) compared to normal weight patients. Conclusions In our international data, obesity was not found to be associated with major complications following gastrointestinal surgery. Meta-analysis of available prospective data made a novel finding of obesity being associated with different outcomes depending on whether patients were undergoing surgery for benign or malignant disease