UHF RFID Antennas for Printer-Encoders- Part 1: System Requirements

T his series of articles reviews UHF transmission line antennas developed for RFID Printer-Encoders. It explains the basic operating principles of antennas, their effect on the printer's encoding function as well as how the antennas influence the design of labels with embedded transponders (Smart Labels). The survey of antennas is preceded by the evaluation of antenna-transponder mutual coupling in reactive near-field and by the analysis of the Printer-Encoder environment, which yields four comparison criteria of the antennas' performance. After discussing system requirements, the article covers two novel ultra-compact UHF antennas based on the tapered stripline transmission line, developed for the mobile RFID Printer-Encoders. These antennas enable the printers to encode short Smart Labels on a short pitch. The paper presents the development of the antennas, HFSS modeling, and an empirical study of their geometries, characteristic impedance and bandwidth. This type of UHF antennas used for stationary and portable RFID Printer-Encoders may be utilized by numerous item-level close proximity RFID applications

Pain interventions for organ transplant patients undergoing incisional hernia repair: Is epidural or transversus abdominus plane block a better option?

Background Postoperative pain management in transplant recipients undergoing incisional herniorraphy is challenging. Historically limited to intravenous or oral opioids, alternatives including transversus abdominus plane (TAP) block catheters and thoracic epidural catheters have been introduced. The aim of this study was to determine whether TAP catheters and thoracic epidural analgesia significantly impacted on postoperative pain and opioid usage in transplant recipients undergoing incisional hernia repair. Methods This single‐center retrospective study included 154 patients undergoing incisional hernia repair from January 2011 to June 2015. Of these, 56 received epidurals, 51 received TAP catheters, and 47 received no intervention. Results Demographic profiles were comparable among the three groups including type of previous transplant and type of hernia surgery. Thoracic epidural analgesia was associated with lower median, mean, and maximum pain scores (P < 0.001) and less opioid requirement (P < 0.001). There was no difference in pain scores and opioid usage among the TAP catheter and no intervention groups. There was no difference in time to first flatus or first bowel movement, length of hospital stay, individual opioid‐related side effects, and adverse reactions among the three groups. Conclusion This study supports the use of thoracic epidural analgesia in patients undergoing hernia repair after transplant surgery

Automatic perceptual color map generation for realistic volume visualization

AbstractAdvances in computed tomography imaging technology and inexpensive high performance computer graphics hardware are making high-resolution, full color (24-bit) volume visualizations commonplace. However, many of the color maps used in volume rendering provide questionable value in knowledge representation and are non-perceptual thus biasing data analysis or even obscuring information. These drawbacks, coupled with our need for realistic anatomical volume rendering for teaching and surgical planning, has motivated us to explore the auto-generation of color maps that combine natural colorization with the perceptual discriminating capacity of grayscale. As evidenced by the examples shown that have been created by the algorithm described, the merging of perceptually accurate and realistically colorized virtual anatomy appears to insightfully interpret and impartially enhance volume rendered patient data