No drain, autologous transfusion drain or suction drain? A randomised prospective study in total hip replacement surgery of 168 patients

We performed a prospective, randomised controlled trial to assess the differences in the use of a conventional suction drain, an Autologous Blood Transfusion (ABT) drain and no drain, in 168 patients. There was no significant difference between the drainage from ABT drains ( mean : 345 ml) and the suction drain (314 ml). Forty percent of patients receiving a suction drain had a haemoglobin level less than 10 g/dL at 24 hours, compared to 35% with no drain and 28% with an ABT drain. Patients that had no drains had wounds that were dry significantly sooner, mean 3.0 days compared to a mean of 3.9 days with an ABT drain and a mean of 4 days with a suction drain. Patients that did not have a drain inserted stayed in hospital a significantly shorter period of time, compared with drains. We feel the benefits of quicker drying wounds, shorter hospital stays and the economic savings justify the conclusion that no drain is required after hip replacement

Terahertz imaging of sub-wavelength particles with Zenneck surface waves

Impact of sub-wavelength-size dielectric particles on Zenneck surface waves on planar metallic antennas is investigated at terahertz (THz) frequencies with THz near-field probe microscopy. Perturbations of the surface waves show the particle presence, despite its sub-wavelength size. The experimental configuration, which utilizes excitation of surface waves at metallic edges, is suitable for THz imaging of dielectric sub-wavelength size objects. As a proof of concept, the effects of a small strontium titanate rectangular particle and a titanium dioxide sphere on the surface field of a bow-tie antenna are experimentally detected and verified using full-wave simulations

A Possible Indicator of Oxidative Damage in Smokers: (13Z)-Lycopene?

In vitro, the gaseous phase of cigarette smoke is known to induce both isomerization and degradation of dietary carotenoids, such as β-carotene and lycopene. However, the effects of cigarette smoke on the composition of circulating lycopene in vivo are not well understood. In this study, we examined the lycopene profiles of plasma from non-smokers and smokers. No oxidative intermediates of lycopene that have been observed previously in vitro were detected in the plasma, but evidence of isomerization of the carotenoid was seen. Four geometric forms of lycopene were detected in the plasma of both smokers and non-smokers, namely the (5Z), (9Z), (13Z) and (all-E) forms. The relative amounts of these isomers differed between the two cohorts and there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between smokers and non-smokers for the ratio of total-Z:all-E lycopene, and in the relative amounts of (13Z) and (all-E)-lycopene. The ratio of (all-E):(13Z)-lycopene was 0.84:1.00 in smokers compared to 1.04:1.00 in non-smokers. In smokers, the (13Z)-isomer was generated in preference to the more thermodynamically stable (5Z) and (9Z)-isomers. This mirrors the scenario seen in vitro, in which the formation of (13Z)-lycopene was the main isomer that accompanied the depletion of (all-E) lycopene, when exposed to cigarette smoke. The results suggest that the relative amount of (13Z)-lycopene could be used as an indicator of oxidative damage to lycopene in vivo

Monolithically integrated optical phase lock loop with 1 THz tuneability

We have demonstrated a monolithically integrated optical phase lock loop based on a foundry fabricated photonic integrated circuit. The InP chip contains PIN photodiodes integrated with a 1.5 μm DBR laser which can be phase stabilised with respect to an external optical reference tone at all wavelengths throughout its 1 THz (8 nm) tuning range. The frequency offset between the two lasers can be set to any value between 4 GHz and 12 GHz. The phase noise of the heterodyne signal is also reported. Such an OPLL, together with an optical frequency comb and broad-bandwidth photodetector, could be used for high purity, tuneable mm-wave / THz signal generation

5 Gbps wireless transmission link with an optically pumped uni-traveling carrier photodiode mixer at the receiver

We report the first demonstration of a uni-traveling carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) used as a 5 Gbps wireless receiver. In this experiment, a 35.1 GHz carrier was electrically modulated with 5 Gbps non-return with zero on-off keying (NRZ–OOK) data and transmitted wirelessly over a distance of 1.3 m. At the receiver, a UTC-PD was used as an optically pumped mixer (OPM) to down-convert the received radio frequency (RF) signal to an intermediate frequency (IF) of 11.7 GHz, before it was down-converted to the baseband using an electronic mixer. The recovered data show a clear eye diagram, and a bit error rate (BER) of less than 10 −8 was measured. The conversion loss of the UTC-PD optoelectronic mixer has been measured at 22 dB. The frequency of the local oscillator (LO) used for the UTC-PD is defined by the frequency spacing between the two optical tones, which can be broadly tuneable offering the frequency agility of this photodiode-based receiver

Antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli in wastewaters, surface waters, and oysters from an urban riverine system

antibiotic resistance (AR) patterns of 462 Escherichia coli isolates from wastewater, surface waters, and oysters were determined. Rates of AR and multiple-AR among isolates from surface water sites adjacent to wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharge sites were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those among other isolates, whereas the rate of AR among isolates from oysters exposed to WWTP discharges was low (< lKc)

Designing assisted living technologies 'in the wild' : preliminary experiences with cultural probe methodology

Background There is growing interest in assisted living technologies to support independence at home. Such technologies should ideally be designed ‘in the wild’ i.e. taking account of how real people live in real homes and communities. The ATHENE (Assistive Technologies for Healthy Living in Elders: Needs Assessment by Ethnography) project seeks to illuminate the living needs of older people and facilitate the co-production with older people of technologies and services. This paper describes the development of a cultural probe tool produced as part of the ATHENE project and how it was used to support home visit interviews with elders with a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, family circumstances, health conditions and assisted living needs. Method Thirty one people aged 60 to 98 were visited in their homes on three occasions. Following an initial interview, participants were given a set of cultural probe materials, including a digital camera and the ‘Home and Life Scrapbook’ to complete in their own time for one week. Activities within the Home and Life Scrapbook included maps (indicating their relationships to people, places and objects), lists (e.g. likes, dislikes, things they were concerned about, things they were comfortable with), wishes (things they wanted to change or improve), body outline (indicating symptoms or impairments), home plan (room layouts of their homes to indicate spaces and objects used) and a diary. After one week, the researcher and participant reviewed any digital photos taken and the content of the Home and Life Scrapbook as part of the home visit interview. Findings The cultural probe facilitated collection of visual, narrative and material data by older people, and appeared to generate high levels of engagement from some participants. However, others used the probe minimally or not at all for various reasons including limited literacy, physical problems (e.g. holding a pen), lack of time or energy, limited emotional or psychological resources, life events, and acute illness. Discussions between researchers and participants about the materials collected (and sometimes about what had prevented them completing the tasks) helped elicit further information relevant to assisted living technology design. The probe materials were particularly helpful when having conversations with non-English speaking participants through an interpreter. Conclusions Cultural probe methods can help build a rich picture of the lives and experiences of older people to facilitate the co-production of assisted living technologies. But their application may be constrained by the participant’s physical, mental and emotional capacity. They are most effective when used as a tool to facilitate communication and development of a deeper understanding of older people’s needs

Menstrual cycle phase does not predict political conservatism

Recent authors have reported a relationship between women's fertility status, as indexed by menstrual cycle phase, and conservatism in moral, social and political values. We conducted a survey to test for the existence of a relationship between menstrual cycle day and conservatism. 2213 women reporting regular menstrual cycles provided data about their political views. Of these women, 2208 provided information about their cycle date, 1260 provided additional evidence of reliability in self-reported cycle date, and of these, 750 also indicated an absence of hormonal disruptors such as recent hormonal contraception use, breastfeeding or pregnancy. Cycle day was used to estimate day-specific fertility rate (probability of conception); political conservatism was measured via direct self-report and via responses to the "Moral Foundations” questionnaire. We also recorded relationship status, which has been reported to interact with menstrual cycle phase in determining political preferences. We found no evidence of a relationship between estimated cyclical fertility changes and conservatism, and no evidence of an interaction between relationship status and cyclical fertility in determining political attitudes. Our findings were robust to multiple inclusion/exclusion criteria and to different methods of estimating fertility and measuring conservatism. In summary, the relationship between cycle-linked reproductive parameters and conservatism may be weaker or less reliable than previously thought

Near-Field Analysis of Terahertz Pulse Generation From Photo-Excited Charge Density Gradients

Excitation of photo-current transients at semiconductor surfaces by subpicosecond optical pulses gives rise to emission of electromagnetic pulses of terahertz (THz) frequency radiation. To correlate the THz emission with the photo-excited charge density distribution and the photo-current direction, we mapped near-field and far-field distributions of the generated THz waves from GaAs and Fe-doped InGaAs surfaces. The experimental results show that the charge dynamics in the plane of the surface can radiate substantially stronger THz pulses than the charge dynamics in the direction normal to the surface, which is generally regarded as the dominant origin of the emission

A scheduling theory framework for GPU tasks efficient execution

Concurrent execution of tasks in GPUs can reduce the computation time of a workload by overlapping data transfer and execution commands. However it is difficult to implement an efficient run- time scheduler that minimizes the workload makespan as many execution orderings should be evaluated. In this paper, we employ scheduling theory to build a model that takes into account the device capabili- ties, workload characteristics, constraints and objec- tive functions. In our model, GPU tasks schedul- ing is reformulated as a flow shop scheduling prob- lem, which allow us to apply and compare well known methods already developed in the operations research field. In addition we develop a new heuristic, specif- ically focused on executing GPU commands, that achieves better scheduling results than previous tech- niques. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation, showing the suitability and robustness of this new approach, is conducted in three different NVIDIA architectures (Kepler, Maxwell and Pascal).Proyecto TIN2016- 0920R, Universidad de Málaga (Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech) y programa de donación de NVIDIA Corporation