702 research outputs found
The use of honey in healing a recalcitrant wound following surgical treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa
Ancient civilizations used honey to heal wounds. Despite the rediscovery of honey by modern physicians1 its use in conventional medicine, unlike in complementary medicine, remains limited. Much anecdotal evidence, some clinical observations, some animal models and some randomised controlled trials support the efficacy of honey in managing wounds2,3 , but few detailed descriptions of the use of honey in healing difficult surgical wounds have previously been published
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Application of Solid Freeform Fabrication Processes for Injection Molding Low Production Quantities: Process Parameters and Ejection Force Requirements for SLS Inserts
Studies are underway for the application of solid freeform fabrication processes for mold
inserts to be used in thermoplastic injection molding of low quantities of parts. This work
initially compares a laser sintered insert (LaserForm™ ST-100) with a steel insert. Models and
experiments determine process parameters, including molding latitude, and ejection force
requirements. Ejection force predictions are based on work by Menges, using values for elastic
modulus determined from tensile tests at ejection temperatures. Similar studies are planned for
stereolithography inserts (SL 5170).Mechanical Engineerin
Continuity theorems for the queueing system
In this paper continuity theorems are established for the number of losses
during a busy period of the queue. We consider an queueing
system where the service time probability distribution, slightly different in a
certain sense from the exponential distribution, is approximated by that
exponential distribution. Continuity theorems are obtained in the form of one
or two-sided stochastic inequalities. The paper shows how the bounds of these
inequalities are changed if further assumptions, associated with specific
properties of the service time distribution (precisely described in the paper),
are made. Specifically, some parametric families of service time distributions
are discussed, and the paper establishes uniform estimates (given for all
possible values of the parameter) and local estimates (where the parameter is
fixed and takes only the given value). The analysis of the paper is based on
the level crossing approach and some characterization properties of the
exponential distribution.Comment: Final revision; will be published as i
Thermal analysis of production of resonances in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
Production of resonances is considered in the framework of the
single-freeze-out model of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. The
formalism involves the virial expansion, where the probability to form a
resonance in a two-body channel is proportional to the derivative of the
phase-shift with respect to the invariant mass. The thermal model incorporates
longitudinal and transverse flow, as well as kinematic cuts of the STAR
experiment at RHIC. We find that the shape of the pi+ pi- spectral line
qualitatively reproduces the preliminary experimental data when the position of
the rho peak is lowered. This confirms the need to include the medium effects
in the description of the RHIC data. We also analyze the transverse-momentum
spectra of rho, K*(892), and f_0(980), and find that the slopes agree with the
observed values. Predictions are made for eta, eta', omega, phi, Lambda(1520),
and Sigma(1385).Comment: minor modifications, a reference adde
Radiative β decay of the free neutron
The theory of quantum electrodynamics predicts that the β decay of the neutron into a proton, electron, and antineutrino is accompanied by a continuous spectrum of emitted photons described as inner bremsstrahlung. While this phenomenon has been observed in nuclear β decay and electron-capture decay for many years, it has only been recently observed in free-neutron decay. We present a detailed discussion of an experiment in which the radiative decay mode of the free neutron was observed. In this experiment, the branching ratio for this rare decay was determined by recording photons that were correlated with both the electron and proton emitted in neutron decay. We determined the branching ratio for photons with energy between 15 and 340 keV to be (3.09±0.32)×10-3 (68% level of confidence), where the uncertainty is dominated by systematic effects. This value for the branching ratio is consistent with theoretical predictions. The characteristic energy spectrum of the radiated photons, which differs from the uncorrelated background spectrum, is also consistent with the theoretical spectrum
Recommendations for The Conduct of Economic Evaluations in Osteoporosis: Outcomes of An Experts’ Consensus Meeting Organized by The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) And the US Branch of The International Osteoporosis Foundation
Summary
Economic evaluations are increasingly used to assess the value of health interventions, but variable quality and heterogeneity limit the use of these evaluations by decision-makers. These recommendations provide guidance for the design, conduct, and reporting of economic evaluations in osteoporosis to improve their transparency, comparability, and methodologic standards. Introduction
This paper aims to provide recommendations for the conduct of economic evaluations in osteoporosis in order to improve their transparency, comparability, and methodologic standards. Methods
A working group was convened by the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis to make recommendations for the design, conduct, and reporting of economic evaluations in osteoporosis, to define an osteoporosis-specific reference case to serve a minimum standard for all economic analyses in osteoporosis, to discuss methodologic challenges and initiate a call for research. A literature review, a face-to-face meeting in New York City (including 11 experts), and a review/approval by a larger group of experts worldwide (including 23 experts in total) were conducted. Results
Recommendations on the type of economic evaluation, methods for economic evaluation, modeling aspects, base-case analysis and population, excess mortality, fracture costs and disutility, treatment characteristics, and model validation were provided. Recommendations for reporting economic evaluations in osteoporosis were also made and an osteoporosis-specific checklist was designed that includes items to report when performing an economic evaluation in osteoporosis. Further, 12 minimum criteria for economic evaluations in osteoporosis were identified and 12 methodologic challenges and need for further research were discussed. Conclusion
While the working group acknowledges challenges and the need for further research, these recommendations are intended to supplement general and national guidelines for economic evaluations, improve transparency, quality, and comparability of economic evaluations in osteoporosis, and maintain methodologic standards to increase their use by decision-makers
QCD Corrections to QED Vacuum Polarization
We compute QCD corrections to QED calculations for vacuum polarization in
background magnetic fields. Formally, the diagram for virtual loops
is identical to the one for virtual loops. However due to
confinement, or to the growth of as decreases, a direct
calculation of the diagram is not allowed. At large we consider the
virtual diagram, in the intermediate region we discuss the role of
the contribution of quark condensates \left and at the
low-energy limit we consider the , as well as charged pion
loops. Although these effects seem to be out of the measurement accuracy of
photon-photon laboratory experiments they may be relevant for -ray
burst propagation. In particular, for emissions from the center of the galaxy
(8.5 kpc), we show that the mixing between the neutral pseudo-scalar pion
and photons renders a deviation from the power-law spectrum in the
range. As for scalar quark condensates \left and
virtual loops are relevant only for very high radiation density
and very strong magnetic fields of order .Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; Final versio
Stress corrosion cracking in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloys in saline environments
Copyright 2013 ASM International. This paper was published in Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 44A(3), 1230 - 1253, and is made
available as an electronic reprint with the permission of ASM International. One print or electronic copy may
be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via
electronic or other means, duplications of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or
modification of the content of this paper are prohibited.Stress corrosion cracking of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu (AA7xxx) aluminum alloys exposed to saline environments at temperatures ranging from 293 K to 353 K (20 °C to 80 °C) has been reviewed with particular attention to the influences of alloy composition and temper, and bulk and local environmental conditions. Stress corrosion crack (SCC) growth rates at room temperature for peak- and over-aged tempers in saline environments are minimized for Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys containing less than ~8 wt pct Zn when Zn/Mg ratios are ranging from 2 to 3, excess magnesium levels are less than 1 wt pct, and copper content is either less than ~0.2 wt pct or ranging from 1.3 to 2 wt pct. A minimum chloride ion concentration of ~0.01 M is required for crack growth rates to exceed those in distilled water, which insures that the local solution pH in crack-tip regions can be maintained at less than 4. Crack growth rates in saline solution without other additions gradually increase with bulk chloride ion concentrations up to around 0.6 M NaCl, whereas in solutions with sufficiently low dichromate (or chromate), inhibitor additions are insensitive to the bulk chloride concentration and are typically at least double those observed without the additions. DCB specimens, fatigue pre-cracked in air before immersion in a saline environment, show an initial period with no detectible crack growth, followed by crack growth at the distilled water rate, and then transition to a higher crack growth rate typical of region 2 crack growth in the saline environment. Time spent in each stage depends on the type of pre-crack (“pop-in” vs fatigue), applied stress intensity factor, alloy chemistry, bulk environment, and, if applied, the external polarization. Apparent activation energies (E a) for SCC growth in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys exposed to 0.6 M NaCl over the temperatures ranging from 293 K to 353 K (20 °C to 80 °C) for under-, peak-, and over-aged low-copper-containing alloys (~0.8 wt pct), they are typically ranging from 20 to 40 kJ/mol for under- and peak-aged alloys, and based on limited data, around 85 kJ/mol for over-aged tempers. This means that crack propagation in saline environments is most likely to occur by a hydrogen-related process for low-copper-containing Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys in under-, peak- and over-aged tempers, and for high-copper alloys in under- and peak-aged tempers. For over-aged high-copper-containing alloys, cracking is most probably under anodic dissolution control. Future stress corrosion studies should focus on understanding the factors that control crack initiation, and insuring that the next generation of higher performance Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys has similar longer crack initiation times and crack propagation rates to those of the incumbent alloys in an over-aged condition where crack rates are less than 1 mm/month at a high stress intensity factor
Nonequilibrium Quantum Dynamics Of Disoriented Chiral Condensates
The nonequilibrium dynamics of the chiral phase transition expected during
the expansion of the quark-qluon plasma produced in a high energy hadron or
heavy ion collision is studied in the O(4) linear sigma model to leading order
in a large expansion. Starting from an approximate equilibrium
configuration at an initial proper time in the disordered phase we study
the transition to the ordered broken symmetry phase as the system expands and
cools. We give results for the proper time evolution of the effective pion
mass, the order parameter as well as for the pion two point
correlation function expressed in terms of a time dependent phase space number
density and pair correlation density. We determine the phase space of initial
conditions that lead to instabilities (exponentially growing long wave length
modes) as the system evolves in time. These instabilities are what eventually
lead to disoriented chiral condensates. In our simulations,we found that
instabilities that are formed during the initial phases of the expansion exist
for proper times that are at most and lead to condensate regions that
do not contain large numbers of particles. The damping of instabilities is a
consequence of strong coupling.Comment: 49 pages, figures available by reques
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