A prospective, randomized, double blind, comparative study of intramuscular nalbuphine hydrochloride, butorphanol tartrate and pentazocine lactate for post-operative pain relief following abdominal hysterectomy

Background: This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of intramuscularly administered nalbuphine, butorphanol and pentazocine for post-operative pain relief after abdominal hysterectomy.Methods: Seventy-five adult female patients, aged between 20-50 years, belonging to American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) class 1 and 2, posted for abdominal hysterectomy under spinal anesthesia were included in the study. The subjects were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=25 each) and given – Group A: pentazocine lactate (30 mg, 1mL), Group B: butorphanol tartarate (2 mg, 1 ml) and Group C: nalbuphine hydrochloride (10 mg, 1 mL) when post-operative pain intensity reached ≥4 mm on the Visual analogue scale (VAS). The onset, duration, time to peak effect and adverse events were recorded at regular intervals for 24 hours, postoperatively.Results: The mean time to onset of anesthesia was significantly faster (P<0.05 each) in the nalbuphine (10.2±2.2 minutes) and butorphanol (11.3±2 minutes) groups when compared to the pentazocine group (14±2.7 minutes). Duration of analgesic action was significantly longer (P<0.05 each) in the nalbuphine (236.4±75.1 minutes) and butorphanol (202±59.2 minutes) groups when compared to the pentazocine group (177.4±55.3 minutes). No significant differences in respiratory and cardiovascular parameters were noted between the groups. Nausea and vomiting was seen significantly higher in the pentazocine group (36%) when compared to butorphanol (20%) and nalbuphine (8%) groups (p<0.05 each).Conclusions: Intramuscular nalbuphine and butorphanol provided effective analgesia with rapid onset and longer duration of action, with lower incidence of nausea and vomiting when compared to pentazocine. In particular, nalbuphine can be a suitable agent to provide post-operative pain relief in gynecologic lower abdominal surgery

Expression of the legume symbiotic lectin genes psl and gs52 promotes rhizobial colonization of roots in rice

Transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Murasaki) carrying genes encoding pea (Pisum sativum) lectin (PSL) or wild-soybean (Glycine soja) lectin-nucleotide phosphohydrolase (GS52) were inoculated with Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae or Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA110, respectively, as well as with Rhizobium sp. NGR234, and root colonization was assessed in comparison to comparably inoculated control plants. The data showed that expression of PSL and GS52 significantly promoted rhizobial colonization of root epidermal cells including root hairs in rice. In addition, in the case of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae and B. japonicum USDA110 colonization of the psl and gs52 transgenic rice plants, respectively, the bacterial cells were found to preferentially home towards and aggregate maximally at the root hair tip regions rather than on the root hair "stalks". The above data suggest that the lectins PSL and GS52, which participate in rhizobial recognition by root epidermal cells in pea and soybean, respectively, are also able to facilitate rhizobial attachment and colonization of the epidermal cells in rice roots. Moreover, aggregation of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae and B. japonicum USDA110 cells preferentially at root hair tip regions suggest that similar to legumes, the PSL and GS52 lectins are targeted to the root hair tips in transgenic rice, enabling higher bacterial attachment/colonization at the tip region. Rhizobial colonization at root hair tips in the psl and gs52 rice plants frequently led to the localized dissolution of the cell wall creating perforations at the tip region. It is likely that the presence of lectins, such as PSL and GS52 leads to structural modifications in cell wall organization of the root hair/epidermal cells, making them prone to localized dissolution by the hydrolytic activity of compatible rhizobia to permit invasion of the root cells. © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Virus shapes and buckling transitions in spherical shells

We show that the icosahedral packings of protein capsomeres proposed by Caspar and Klug for spherical viruses become unstable to faceting for sufficiently large virus size, in analogy with the buckling instability of disclinations in two-dimensional crystals. Our model, based on the nonlinear physics of thin elastic shells, produces excellent one parameter fits in real space to the full three-dimensional shape of large spherical viruses. The faceted shape depends only on the dimensionless Foppl-von Karman number \gamma=YR^2/\kappa, where Y is the two-dimensional Young's modulus of the protein shell, \kappa is its bending rigidity and R is the mean virus radius. The shape can be parameterized more quantitatively in terms of a spherical harmonic expansion. We also investigate elastic shell theory for extremely large \gamma, 10^3 < \gamma < 10^8, and find results applicable to icosahedral shapes of large vesicles studied with freeze fracture and electron microscopy.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure

Design and simulation of a SOI based mems differential accelerometer

In this paper, the design and analysis of a differential MEMS capacitive accelerometer is presented. The device is designed to be compatible for SOI based fabrication process. The outstanding mechanical and electrical properties of silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers make it popular for high-performance MEMS sensors such as accelerometers. The operating range of the designed device is 0-10g with its sense axis in the in-plane direction. The movable comb fingers attached to the proof mass form capacitors with the fixed electrode fingers. The movable and fixed fingers are spaced with unequal gaps to form the differential capacitive sensing configuration. The base capacitance of this configuration is about 0.77pF and the sensitivity in response to acceleration input is about 0.776 fF/g. The resonance frequency of the structure in the sensing mode is found to be 7.138 kHz.The work was partially funded by the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science

Charge-conjugation violating neutrino interactions in supernovae

The well known charge conjugation violating interactions in the Standard Model increase neutrino- and decrease anti-neutrino- nucleon cross sections. This impacts neutrino transport in core collapse supernovae through "recoil" corrections of order the neutrino energy $k$ over the nucleon mass $M$. All $k/M$ corrections to neutrino transport deep inside a protoneutron star are calculated from angular integrals of the Boltzmann equation. We find these corrections significantly modify neutrino currents at high temperatures. This produces a large mu and tau number for the protoneutron star and can change the ratio of neutrons to protons. In addition, the relative size of neutrino mean free paths changes. At high temperatures, the electron anti-neutrino mean free path becomes {\it longer} than that for mu or tau neutrinos.Comment: 14 pages, 2 included ps figures, subm. to Phys. Rev.

Variability in stratification and flushing times of the Gautami–Godavari estuary, India

In order to examine the influence of forcing (river flow and tides) and anthropogenic activities (dredging and dam regulation) on stratification, a study was conducted over a period of 19 months (June 2008–December 2009) in the Gautami–Godavari estuary (G–GE) during spring and neap tide periods covering entire spectrum of discharge over a distance of 36 km from the mouth. The bathymetry of the estuary was recently changed due to dredging of &#8764;20 km of the estuary from the mouth for transportation of barges. This significantly changed the mean depth and salinity of the estuary from its earlier state. The variations in the distribution of salinity in the Godavari estuary are driven by river discharge during wet period (June–November) and tides during dry period (December–May). The weak stratification was observed during high discharge (July–August) and no discharge (January–June) periods associated with dominant fresh water and marine water respectively. The strong stratification was developed associated with decrease in discharge during moderate discharge period (October–December). Relatively stronger stratification was noticed during neap than spring tides. The 15 psu isohaline was observed to have migrated &#8764;2–3 km more towards upper estuary during spring than neap tide suggesting more salt enters during former than latter period. Total salt content was inversely correlated with river discharge and higher salt of about 400×106 m3 psu was observed during spring than neap tide. Flushing times varied between less than a day and more than a month during peak and no discharge periods respectively with lower times during spring than neap tide. The flushing times are controlled by river discharge during high discharge period, tides during dry period and both (river discharge and tides) under moderate discharge period. This study suggests that modification of discharge, either natural due to weak monsoon or artificial such as dam constructions and re-routing the river flow, may have significant impact on the stratification and biogeochemistry of the Godavari estuary

Scintillation Counters for the D0 Muon Upgrade

We present the results of an upgrade to the D0 muon system. Scintillating counters have been added to the existing central D0 muon system to provide rejection for cosmic ray muons and out-of-time background, and to provide additional fast timing information for muons in an upgraded Tevatron. Performance and results from the 1994-1996 Tevatron run are presented.Comment: 30 pages, 25 postscript figure