The use of vacuum-assisted wound closure to enhance skin graft acceptance in a horse

A 16-year-old horse was admitted to the clinic of the Department of Surgery and Anesthesiology of Domestic Animals of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Ghent University) for the treatment of a very large, non-healing wound extending over the dorsomedial and dorsolateral aspects of the left metatarsus. Surgical debridement of exuberant granulation tissue and new bone was performed under general anesthesia, followed by standard wound care under a bandage. Once a new bed of healthy granulation had formed, skin grafting was performed using the punch graft method. Due to the presence of a significant amount of wound exudate, cast immobilization was considered to be contraindicated. Instead, vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy was used as a method of securing the skin grafts to the wound bed during the first days post-operatively. After five days of VAC therapy, the wound dressing was removed and an acceptance of nearly 100% of the punch grafts was observed. Complete epithelialization of the wound was evident 42 days after skin grafting. As far as the authors know, this is the first report describing the use of VAC therapy as a method of wound management in combination with punch grafting on the distal limb of a horse

Vulcanospeleology in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has over 80,000 km2 of lava fields, locally known as harrats. However, only a few studies of lava caves in Saudi Arabia have been published internationally. This article summarizes the published and unpublished findings of all known expeditions to lava caves in the kingdom. Prior to 2001, reports of such caves were mostly limited to sightings of collapse holes by vulcanologists surveying the lava fields. Few caves were entered and no cave maps were produced. In 2001 and 2002, expeditions were organized to Harrat Kishb, located northeast of Makkah (Mecca). Three lava caves measuring 22 m, 150 m and 320 m in length were surveyed and the collapse features of a fourth cave—possibly over 3 km long—were studied. Two throwing sticks, a plant-fiber rope and the remains of stone walls were found in some of these caves. In 2003, lava tubes measuring 530 m and 208 m were surveyed in Harrat Ithnayn and Harrat Khaybar, respectively. Animal bones and coprolites were found in both caves. In 2003 and 2004, studies were carried out in Hibashi Cave, located in Harrat Nawasif/Al Buqum, 245 km southeast of Makkah. The cave was surveyed (length: 689.5 m) and found to contain two layers of burnt bat guano overlying a bed of redeposited loess up to 1.5 meters deep and up to 5800 years old. At least 19 different minerals were found, three being extremely rare organic compounds related to the guano combustion. Bones, horns, coprolites, ruins of a wall and a human skull ca. 425 years old were also found. There is evidence of many more lava caves in Saudi Arabia, particularly in Harrat Khaybar. Formal archeological and biological studies have not yet been carried out in Saudi lava caves but may produce interesting results

Different Melting Behavior in Pentane and Heptane Monolayers on Graphite; Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Molecular dynamics simulations are utilized to study the melting transition in pentane (C5H12) and heptane (C7H16), physisorbed onto the basal plane of graphite at near-monolayer coverages. Through use of the newest, optimized version of the anisotropic united-atom model (AUA4) to simulate both systems at two separate coverages, this study provides evidence that the melting transition for pentane and heptane monolayers are significantly different. Specifically, this study proposes a very rapid transition from the solid crystalline rectangular-centered (RC) phase to a fluid phase in pentane monolayers, whereas heptane monolayers exhibit a slower transition that involves a more gradual loss of RC order in the solid-fluid phase transition. Through a study of the melting behavior, encompassing variations where the formation of gauche defects in the alkyl chains are eliminated, this study proposes that this gradual melting behavior for heptane monolayers is a result of less orientational mobility of the heptane molecules in the solid RC phase, as compared to the pentane molecules. This idea is supported through a study of a nonane monolayer, which gives the gradual melting signature that heptane monolayers also seem to indicate. The results of this work are compared to previous experiment over pentane and heptane monolayers, and are found to be in good agreement

Assessing the High Temperature Performance of Refractory Metal Alloys

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Web course development with grant support: Working paper series--00-02

The process of Web course development with grant support is documented to assist faculty in future efforts to develop courses for Web presentation. The benefits of grant support from the Office of Teaching and Learning Effectiveness (OTLE) and development requirements and guidelines are documented. Some examples of an existing course that was developed by this process are present

Inhibited aluminization of an ODS FeCr alloy

Aluminide coatings are of interest for fusion energy applications both for compatibility with liquid Pb-Li and to form an alumina layer that acts as a tritium permeation barrier. Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steels are a structural material candidate for commercial reactor concepts expected to operate above 600 °C. Aluminizing was conducted in a laboratory scale chemical vapor deposition reactor using accepted conditions for coating Fe- and Ni base alloys. However, the measured mass gains on the current batch of ODS Fe-14Cr were extremely low compared to other conventional and ODS alloys. After aluminizing at two different Al activities at 900 °C and at 1100 °C, characterization showed that the ODS Fe-14Cr specimens formed a dense, primarily AlN layer that prevented Al uptake. This alloy batch contained a higher (> 5000 ppma) N content than the other alloys coated and this is the most likely reason for the inhibited aluminization. Other factors such as the high O content, small (~ 140 nm) grain size and Y-Ti oxide nano-clusters in ODS Fe-14Cr also could have contributed to the observed behavior. Examples of typical aluminide coatings formed on conventional and ODS Fe- and Ni-base alloys are shown for comparison