Gossypiboma: a surgical menace

Gossypiboma is a rare yet devastating complication. It may be a sequela to any kind of surgical procedure, however intra-abdominal surgeries are commonly implicated as the cause for this entity. In chronic cases, it may even lead to severe morbidity. We report a case of gossypiboma post vaginal hysterectomy, diagnosed and treated successfully by laparoscopy

Automatic classification of eutrophication of inland lakes from spacecraft data

The author has identified the following significant results. Spacecraft data and computer techniques can be used to rapidly map and store onto digital tapes watershed land use information. Software is now available by which this land use information can be rapidly and economically extracted from the tapes and related to coliform counts and other lake contaminants (e.g. phosphorus). These tools are basic elements for determining those land use factors and sources of nutrients that accelerate eutrophication in lakes and reservoirs

Computer Mapping of Water Quality in Saginaw Bay with LANDSAT Digital Data

The author has identified the following significant results. LANDSAT digital data and ground truth measurements for Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron), Michigan, for 31 July 1975 were correlated by stepwise linear regression and the resulting equations used to estimate invisible water quality parameters in nonsampled areas. Chloride, conductivity, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus, and chlorophyll a were best correlated with the ratio of LANDSAT Band 4 to Band 5. Temperature and Secchi depth correlate best with Band 5

Optimal Timer Based Selection Schemes

Timer-based mechanisms are often used to help a given (sink) node select the best helper node among many available nodes. Specifically, a node transmits a packet when its timer expires, and the timer value is a monotone non-increasing function of its local suitability metric. The best node is selected successfully if no other node's timer expires within a 'vulnerability' window after its timer expiry, and so long as the sink can hear the available nodes. In this paper, we show that the optimal metric-to-timer mapping that (i) maximizes the probability of success or (ii) minimizes the average selection time subject to a minimum constraint on the probability of success, maps the metric into a set of discrete timer values. We specify, in closed-form, the optimal scheme as a function of the maximum selection duration, the vulnerability window, and the number of nodes. An asymptotic characterization of the optimal scheme turns out to be elegant and insightful. For any probability distribution function of the metric, the optimal scheme is scalable, distributed, and performs much better than the popular inverse metric timer mapping. It even compares favorably with splitting-based selection, when the latter's feedback overhead is accounted for.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Communications, uses stackrel.st

Sustainable valorisation of organic urban wastes : insights from African case studies

Understanding the problems and potentials of the organic waste stream is perhaps the single most important step that city authorities in Africa could take in moving towards sustainable, affordable, effective and efficient waste management. This publication presents four examples of recent attempts to manage organic waste sustainably in the African context. The participants in the ‘Nairobi organic urban waste’ project have structured this case exercise in order to use the case studies as object lessons, to harvest genuine insights into the feasibility of a variety of ways to successfully and sustainably valorise urban organic waste streams. Three contemporary case examples of compost production are presented. These include composting by a community-based organisation in the Kenyan private sector and by a public-private partnership in Malawi. In all three cases, the project and case study focus is on the relations between city waste and the agricultural supply chain. A fourth case study describes the technical and economic potential to produce and use biogas from urban organic waste

Evaluation of efficacy of submucosal tramadol after mandibular third molar surgery: a prospective pilot study

Background: Surgical extraction of mandibular third molar is one of the most commonly performed procedure in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Its removal causes swelling, trismus, and moderate to severe pain which can be treated with various NSAID’s drugs, which have numerous side effects and gastric disturbances. In order to bypass such disturbances, Tramadol may be considered as an alternative for such patients. The aim of the study was to evaluate analgesic efficacy of submucosal tramadol and its implication over swelling and mouth opening after mandibular third molar surgery.Methods: This is a prospective study where in after post-surgical extraction of mandibular third molar, efficacy of submucosal injection of tramadol is evaluated in terms of pain and its implication over swelling and mouth opening.Results: The present study suggested there was statistically significant VAS score for pain after submucosally injecting tramadol post-surgical extraction of mandibular third molar in the following visits- 4hourly, 8hourly and 24hourly. In respect to swelling, statistically significant values was noted during 24hr and 72 h our post extraction. Also in case of mouth opening, statistically significant values were found 24 hourly.Conclusions: The present pilot study concluded that submucosal tramadol post mandibular third molar extraction has been effective in reducing pain, limiting post-extraction swelling and less impacting mouth opening by inducing less complications thereby bypassing gastric disturbances

Mathematical Operations on Basic Discrete Time Signals with MATLAB Programming

This paper deals with the simulation of some of the discrete time signals using MATLAB and discusses some of their mathematical operations and properties. Basic discrete time signals with MATLAB simulation is discussed in introduction along with the time domainand frequency domain analysis of discrete time signals.The frequency domain analysis is discussed with help of two important transform technique i.e. Z-transform and Discrete Fourier transform. It is thus important to learn first how to generate signals in time domain and perform basic operations on them, which are the main objectives of this paper. A secondary objective is to learn the application of some basic MATLAB commands and its usagein solving simple digital signal processing (DSP) problems

Transient quantum evolution of 2D electrons under photoexcitation of a deep center

We have considered the ballistic propagation of the 2D electron Wigner distribution, which is excited by an ultrashort optical pulse from a short-range impurity into the first quantized subband of a selectively-doped heterostructure with high mobility. Transient ionization of a deep local state into a continuum conduction c-band state is described. Since the quantum nature of the photoexcitation, the Wigner distribution over 2D plane appears to be an alternating-sign function. Due to a negative contribution to the Wigner function, the mean values (concentration, energy, and flow) demonstrate an oscillating transient evolution in contrast to the diffusive classical regime of propagation.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, pape