Ideal Technique Research Articles

A TOPSIS-based thermal performance optimization of DHCTHX using MWCNT nanofluids

Double-helically coiled tube heat exchangers are employed in many different heat transfer applications because of their better heat transfer capabilities and compact construction. The double helically coiled tube heat exchanger (DHCTHX) improves turbulence and maximizes heat transfer rate compared to straight tubes. A full factorial, orthogonal array of trials is used in this study (L27) to test various volume concentrations of nanofluids. The pressure drop, de, LMTD0C, re, and F have all been attempted to be optimized using the order preference similarity to the ideal solution technique. In this case, the mass flow rate and volume concentration are the variables for the input process, while the outputs are the heat transfer rate, pressure drop, de, LMTD0C, and F. The experimental results show that a nanofluids volume concentration is 0.6% and its mass flow is 120 with a range of 1460 Dean Numbers, which is the optimal configuration for maximizing the overall heat transmission and minimizing the pressure drop. The multiple-criteria decision-making technique was used in this study to identify the ideal cooling fluids in a DHCTHX with a significant pressure drop. The multi-walled carbon nanotube nanofluids may be used instead of conventional coolants in conjunction with the DHCTHX. According to this strategy, A3B1 is the ideal value, which aligns with the experiments’ findings.

Comparison of Suture Types and Techniques in Achilles Tendon Repair: An Ex Vivo Biomechanical Animal Experiment.

The ideal suture technique and type in tendon repair remain unclear. This biomechanical study aimed to assess the biomechanical characteristics of three techniques-modified Kessler (mKE), modified Krackow (mKR), and modified tension Bunnell (mtBU)-in sheep Achilles tendon tear repair using three suture types-polypropylene, polyester, and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)-which are also compared. Sixty-three Achilles tendons harvested from sheep were transversely hacked as a replacement for rupture in a standardized measure and repaired using mKE, mKR, and mtBU techniques with No. 2 polypropylene, polyester, and UHMWPE sutures. Biomechanical parameters, such as Young's modulus, ultimate strength, and strength to the 5-mm gap, were recorded for statistical analysis. The mtBU technique with UHMWPE use resulted in increased ultimate strength, strength to 5-mm gap, Young's modulus, and quantity of specimens with low clinical failure modes compared with the other techniques with other suture materials. Furthermore, mtBU has the lowest thickness at the repair side of the tendons. This approach showed tendon failure during maximal traction testing, whereas the mKE and mKR techniques had polyethylene and polyester suture failures. The UHMWPE suture was significantly superior to the other sutures in each technique in terms of strength and durability. The mtBU technique using UHMWPE suture showed better biomechanical results, implying that this repair might be more appropriate to obtain early mobilization after tendon ruptures.

Treatment Algorithm for the Resorption of Calcific Tendinitis Using Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy: A Data Mining Study.

Although evidence indicates that extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is effective in treating calcifying shoulder tendinitis, incomplete resorption and dissatisfactory results are still reported in many cases. Data mining techniques have been applied in health care in the past decade to predict outcomes of disease and treatment. To identify the ideal data mining technique for the prediction of ESWT-induced shoulder calcification resorption and the most accurate algorithm for use in the clinical setting. Case-control study. Patients with painful calcified shoulder tendinitis treated by ESWT were enrolled. Seven clinical factors related to shoulder calcification were adopted as the input attributes: sex, age, side affected, symptom duration, pretreatment Constant-Murley score, and calcification size and type. The 5 data mining techniques assessed were multilayer perceptron (neural network), naïve Bayes, sequential minimal optimization, logistic regression, and the J48 decision tree classifier. A total of 248 patients with calcified shoulder tendinitis were enrolled in this study. Shorter symptom duration yielded the highest gain ratio (0.374), followed by smaller calcification size (0.336) and calcification type (0.253). With the J48 decision tree method, the accuracy of 3 input attributes was 89.5% by 10-fold cross-validation, indicating satisfactory accuracy. A treatment algorithm using the J48 decision tree indicated that a symptom duration of ≤10 months was the most positive indicator of calcification resorption, followed by a calcification size of ≤10.82 mm. The J48 decision tree method demonstrated the highest precision and accuracy in the prediction of shoulder calcification resorption by ESWT. A symptom duration of ≤10 months or calcification size of ≤10.82 mm represented the clinical scenarios most likely to show resorption after ESWT.

Nudging Public Health Behaviors to Prevent COVID-19: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Many countries have implemented strict preventive measures and mandatory policies to curb virus transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have adopted softer approaches, such as nudge-based intervention, to influence public health behavior. This systematic review, conducted following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines, aims to determine if the nudge-based intervention can effectively influence people’s preventive behavior during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The review indicated an overall positive outcome, but results were mixed as nudge-based interventions substantially depended on the situational context. While the review found that the nudging technique that presents and conveys decision-related information was essential to nudging people, a secondary nudge would often applied to deliver the interventions. In addition, there was no indication of an ideal nudge technique that would be effective in most situations. Conversely, our findings indicate that the nudge would likely suffer from habituation after repeated intervention or backfire due to inappropriate use of nudges. Also, the ceiling effect would inhibit any nudge influences regardless of the technique(s) used. In sum, the results and the applicability of nudge-based interventions were mixed, highlighting the need for further research to advance the theory and practical developments.

Staged Immediate Nipple Reconstruction With Tube Flap in Immediate Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator Flap Breast Reconstruction.

In the setting of immediate breast reconstruction by deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flap, the excessive DIEP flap skin is de-epithelialized and then buried under the mastectomy skin. In this study, by virtue of tube flap technique, we hypothesize that the skin supposed to be abandoned could be transferred to the apex of reconstructed breast mound for nipple reconstruction. A total of 60 female patients were recruited between January 2019 and December 2020. All these patients underwent mastectomy including nipple-areola complex and immediate DIEP flap breast reconstruction. A ladder-shaped pedicled flap was raised from the DIEP flap and rolled into a tube. The free end of tube flap was inset into the future nipple position of the reconstructed breast mound 1 week later. After revascularization for 1 month, we divided the previous pedicle and used the tube on the apex of the breast mound to recreate a new nipple. All reconstructed breasts and nipples survived well postoperatively. The average nipple projection was 12.5 ± 2.0 mm immediately after the surgery, which gradually decreased to 9.4 ± 1.5 mm at 1-year follow-up, with the projection loss from the initial measurement as 24.9% ± 1.8%. In total, 51 patients considered the overall impression of breast and nipple reconstruction to be very good or good. We provided an ideal technique that could improve the maintenance of reconstructed nipple projection and have aesthetically acceptable outcomes, without DIEP flap tissue loss, breast mound distortion, or additional scars.

Differential Diagnosis of "Foot Drop": Implications for Peripheral Nerve Surgery.

At least 128,000 patients in the United States each year suffer from foot drop. This is a debilitating condition, marked by the inability to dorsiflex and/or evert the affected ankle. Such patients are rendered to a lifetime of relying on an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) for walking and nighttime to prevent an equinovarus contracture. This narrative review explores the differential diagnosis of foot drop, with a particular focus on clinical presentation and recovery, whether spontaneously or through surgery. Contrary to popular belief, foot drop can be caused by more than just insult to the common peroneal nerve at the fibular head (fibular tunnel). It is a common endpoint for a diverse spectrum of nerve injuries, which may explain its relatively high prevalence. From proximal to distal, these conditions include lumbar spine nerve root damage, sciatic nerve palsy at the sciatic notch, and common peroneal nerve injury at the fibular head. Each nerve condition is marked by a unique clinical presentation, frequency, likelihood for spontaneous recovery, and cadre of peripheral nerve techniques. The ideal surgical technique for treating foot drop, other than neurolysis for compression, remains elusive as traditional peripheral nerve procedures have been marred by a wide spectrum of functional results. Based on a careful understanding of why past techniques have achieved limited success, we can formulate a working set of principles to help guide surgical innovation moving forward, such as fascicular nerve transfer.

One-step molten salt synthesis of high entropy oxides

High-entropy oxides (HEOs) have received widespread attention owing to their tunable properties and vast composition spaces. However, the universal synthesis of HEOs with high purity still faces challenge. In this work, a one-step molten salt method is reported for the synthesis of phase-pure rock salt-type (Mg0.2Co0.2Ni0.2Cu0.2Zn0.2)O. When used as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, (Mg0.2Co0.2Ni0.2Cu0.2Zn0.2)O exhibits high specific capacity and cycling stability, maintaining a capacity retention of 94% after 220 cycles (0.2 A g−1). The superior performance can be attributed to accelerated electron and ion transport as well as enhanced Li adsorption/coupling induced by internal defects. To further demonstrate the wide applicability of the molten salt method, single-phase spinel and pyrochlore HEOs are also successfully synthesized. The presented molten salt method, with its ease of operation, homogeneous reaction environment and low synthesis temperatures, makes it an ideal synthesis technique for the development of novel HEO powders, especially for electrode materials.

One-step synthesis and low-temperature rapid sintering of alumina-zirconia ceramics by flash sintering combined with phase transformation

High-performance alumina-zirconia ceramics are generally sintered above 1500 °C and consume lots of energy; rapid sintering at low temperature is an ideal technique due to its economy and low-energy consumption. For the first time, flash sintering combined with phase transformation-assisted sintering techniques was reported in this work. The alumina-zirconia amorphous precursor powder was used to replace the final product powder for ceramic processing, and the one-step synthesis and rapid sintering densification of alumina-zirconia ceramics at low temperature of 849 °C for 60 s were realized. The effects of electric field on the low-temperature sintering of amorphous powders are summarized into three aspects. Firstly, the electric field reduces the viscosity of the amorphous powder and promotes liquid phase sintering. Secondly, the electric field promotes the phase transition of the amorphous powder from metastable to stable phase, and accelerates the atomic migration. Thirdly, Joule heating and defect generation in the flash sintering promotes more effective material transport. Overall, this work reduces the energy for calcination of amorphous powders, reduces the sintering temperature of ceramics, well hinders the grain coarsening and shows excellent mechanical properties.

Myomerger Induces Membrane Hemifusion and Regulates Fusion Pore Expansion.

Membrane fusion is a crucial mechanism in a wide variety of important events in cell biology from viral infection to exocytosis. However, despite many efforts and much progress, cell-cell fusion has remained elusive to our understanding. Along the life of the fusion pore, large conformational changes take place from the initial lipid bilayer bending, passing through the hemifusion intermediates, and ending with the formation of the first nascent fusion pore. In this sense, computer simulations are an ideal technique for describing such complex lipid remodeling at the molecular level. In this work, we studied the role played by the muscle-specific membrane protein Myomerger during the formation of the fusion pore. We have conducted μs length atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics, together with free-energy calculations using ad hoc collective variables. Our results show that Myomerger favors the hemifusion diaphragm-stalk transition, reduces the nucleation-expansion energy difference, and promotes the formation of nonenlarging fusion pores.

Machining Surface Improvement through Electric- and Flow-Field Adjustments in Flying Electrochemical Milling of AA 2219.

Electrochemical milling is an ideal technique for machining large-scale 3D structures that consist of aerospace aluminum alloys. The distribution of the electric and flow fields are vital to the quality of the machined surface, and the structures of the inner flow channel and bottom outlet have different effects on the electric and flow fields on the machining surface. In this study, two specialized structures of a tool cathode were optimized by simulating the electric and flow fields, and a reasonable design basis for the tool cathode was obtained. Based on this, an ECM experiment was performed with the same machining parameters using different tools, and a 20 mm × 20 mm plane was machined. The experimental results showed that using an appropriate tool cathode can create ideal flow and electric fields, resulting in better processing. After optimizing, the machining plane arithmetic mean deviation decreased by 43% (from 14.050 μm to 6.045 μm), and the region elevation difference decreased by 52% (from 105.93 μm to 55.17 μm).

Grid-Free MIMO Beam Alignment Through Site-Specific Deep Learning

Beam alignment is a critical bottleneck in millimeter wave communication. An ideal beam alignment technique should achieve high beamforming gain with low latency, scale well to systems with higher carrier frequencies, larger antenna arrays and multiple user equipments, and not require hard-to-obtain context information. These qualities are collectively lacking in existing methods. We depart from the conventional codebook-based (CB) approach where the optimal beam is chosen from quantized codebooks and instead propose a grid-free beam alignment method that directly synthesizes the transmit and receive beams from the continuous search space using measurements from a few site-specific probing beams found via a deep learning pipeline. In realistic settings, the proposed method achieves a far superior signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)-latency trade-off compared to the CB baselines: it aligns near-optimal beams 100x faster or equivalently finds beams with 10-15 dB higher average SNR in the same number of searches, relative to an exhaustive search over a conventional codebook.

Protocolo diagnóstico, tratamiento y seguimiento de la infección por Helicobacter pylori recurrente/refractaria

The diagnostic tests for H. pylori detection are classified as non-invasive (C13-urea breath test, serology, and stool antigen test) and invasive (endoscopic study). The choice of the ideal technique will depend on the need to assess the gastric mucosa. The breath test is the non-invasive technique of choice in adult patients. Treatment will not be necessary in all patients in whom H. pylori infection is detected; it will only be necessary in certain situations. Treatment regimens may vary, but quadruple therapy (3 antibiotics or 2 antibiotics plus bismuth) is currently recommended, as well as proton-pump inhibitors in long regimens of 10 or 14 days. Treatment of recurrent or refractory H. pylori infection can be a clinical challenge. It is essential to adapt the protocol to each patient's clinical situation, taking into account antibiotic resistance and other individual factors.

Effect of Different Chemical Solvents on Bond Strength of Orthodontic Brackets: An In Vitro Study.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of various chemical solvents on bond strength of orthodontic brackets. One hundred healthy human premolars with undamaged buccal surfaces that were extracted for orthodontic purposes were gathered. Using 37% orthophosphoric acid, primer, and Transbond XT adhesive, ceramic 0.018" × 0.022" slot orthodontic brackets were adhered to the tooth surface. Following thermocycling, all samples were divided into four groups, with 25 samples in each group: group I: control; group II: application of ethanol; group III: application of acetone; and group IV: application of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Following the debonding tests, a double-ocular stereomicroscope was used to inspect the tooth surfaces. Additionally, adhesive remnant index (ARI) values were evaluated at 40× magnification. Data were recorded and statistically analyzed. The bond strength was lesser in acetone applied group (16.18 ± 3.64) followed by DMSO applied group (22.08 ± 2.86), ethanol applied group (24.36 ± 4.02), and control group (27.14 ± 3.68). There was a highly significant difference found between the chemical solvents group. The ARI score 3 was present in control (12%), ethanol (8%), and DMSO (4%), and it was absent in acetone applied group. The ARI score 0 was more in acetone applied group (24%). The present study concluded that the reduced debonding force was found with the application of acetone solvent followed by DMSO, ethanol, and control groups. Applying acetone can be a substitute technique to help with ceramic bracket debonding. Orthodontic bracket debonding cannot occur without shear bond strength (SBS). The need for an ideal debonding technique for ceramic brackets without negative consequences arises from the risk of enamel damage that frequently follows the process. Acetone treatment prior to ceramic bracket debonding could be an alternate clinical technique to preventing enamel damage and facilitating debonding. How to cite this article: Bhushan R, Singh S, Sam G, et al. Effect of Different Chemical Solvents on Bond Strength of Orthodontic Brackets: An In Vitro Study. J Contemp Dent Pract 2023;24(12):940-943.

A STUDY ON CLINICO-ETIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF MYCOTIC KERATITIS IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL AT GOVERNMENT MEDICAL COLLEGE, KOTA (RAJASTHAN)

Introduction: Keratitis is an inflammation of the cornea. Infective keratitis is an ocular emergency that requires prompt and appropriate management to ensure the best visual outcome for the patient. This study was planned to determine the fungal aetiological agents and predisposing risk factors causing corneal ulcer in patients. Methodology: This study was conducted in department of Microbiology at a tertiary medical facility This Analytical Cross-sectional study, was conducted for the study period of one year from May 2021 to April 2022. Total 100 patients of infective keratitis were enrolled in the study period. Cases who have received treatment previously either systemic or topical antifungal in the last six months duration were excluded from the study. Results: Trauma was found to be the most common predisposing factors present in almost two third (64%) of cases. The peak of the fungal kerartits cases were seen in September- October and Februrary- March. Sensitivity and specificity of 10% KOH wet mount was 93.75% and 98.5% respectively. Out of 31 culture positive the most common organisms isolated were Aspergillus spp in 16 samples, followed by Fusarium spp in 6 samples, and Candida spp in 6 samples. C.albicans was found 100% sensitive to Clotrimazole, Nystatin and Amphotericin-B, while 75% sensitive to Itraconazole and 50% sensitive to Fluconazole. Conclusion: Mycotic keratitis has a significant burden in corneal keratitis. The KOH preparation can be used as an ideal technique for revealing fungal elements. The awareness about the ocular hygiene and protection, from occupational hazard needs to be emphasized in case of any ocular trauma and disease.

Semi-crystalline materials for pharmaceutical fused filament fabrication: Dissolution and porosity

A better understanding of crystallization kinetics and the effect on drug product quality characteristics is needed to exploit the use of semi-crystalline polymers in pharmaceutical fused filament fabrication. Filaments were prepared from polycaprolactone or polyethylene oxide loaded with a crystallization inhibitor or inducer, which was either 10% (w/w) ibuprofen or theophylline. A design-of-experiments approach was conducted to investigate the effect of nozzle temperature, bed temperature and print speed on the printed tablets’ microstructure and dissolution kinetics. Helium pycnometry derived porosity proved an ideal technique to capture significant distortions in the tablets’ microstructure. On the other hand, terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) analysis proved valuable to investigate additional enclosed pores of the tablets’ microstructure. The surface roughness was analyzed using optical coherence tomography, showing the importance of extensional viscosity for printed drug products. Drug release occurred via erosion for tablets consisting of polyethylene oxide, which partly reduced the effect of the inner microstructure on the drug release kinetics. An initial burst release effect was noted for polycaprolactone tablets, after which drug release continued via diffusion. Both the pore and crystalline microstructure were deemed essential to steer drug release. In conclusion, this research provided guidelines for material and process choice when a specific microstructure has to be constructed from semi-crystalline materials. In addition, non-destructive tests for the characterization of printed products were evaluated.

Design of Autoconfigurable Random Access NOMA for URLLC Industrial IoT Networking

Low power devices are massively deployed to facilitate real time sensing and data transmission requested in low power wide-area network (LPWAN). However, the dominating signaling, i.e. continuous phase modulation (CPM), barely gains attention in the context of supporting massive connectivity, not to mention ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), a primary concern in industrial network automation. To this end, auto-configurable nonorthogonal multiple access (AC-NOMA) based on CPM signaling is proposed. The term auto-configuration is used since each device selects a setup from a pool of configurations whenever connecting to the access point in a random and distributive way. It is proven, using ideal power allocation and phase shaping technique, AC-NOMA offers drastically improved user load and near capacity performance even in finite blocklength regime. Moreover, to enable massive yet sporadic access, slotted ALOHA is combined with AC-NOMA. It is proven that the resultant scheme outperforms power-domain NOMA in terms of throughput even with reduced transmit power and simple forward error correction schemes such as repetition and convolutional coding. The throughput is further improved using semi AC-NOMA with slightly increased latency. It is demonstrated that both designs can support very high user load while enabling URLLC in finite blocklength regime, where the packet size is merely 256 bits while the error rate is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{-5}$</tex-math></inline-formula> , which are also desirable in a number of applications including satellite communications, visible light communications, etc.

Impact of C‐coding self‐assessment exercises on exam performance: A study in engineering education

AbstractThe Bologna process has brought about a revolution in university studies since, among other things, it encourages continuous evaluations throughout the academic period. This situation causes already depleted teaching teams to have an additional workload, so automatic tools are needed to evaluate the new assignments. In the computer science field, the ideal evaluation technique would be to use automatic code evaluators (i.e., Java, C, C++, etc.). The main objective of this work is to analyze whether the use of C‐coding self‐assessment exercises correlates with an improvement in exam performance. For this purpose, we have collected self‐assessment exercises carried out on the AulaWeb platform belonging to the Degree in Organizational Engineering and Degree in Chemical Engineering, taken in the last 5 and 3 years, respectively, in the course of Programming Fundamentals (Fundamentos de Programación) in an engineering school of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. In total, 688 students completed these assignments. The most important results are: (a) regarding the January final exam, self‐assessment exercises have influence on the final grade and (b) regarding the June final exam, there are academic years where students forget to carry out programming problem of greater complexity making a negative correlation between self‐assessment performance and final scores achieved.

Genitocrural Island Perforator Flap (GIP-Flap): An ideal surgical technique for covering uni- or bilateral vulvar loss tissue

Vulvar loss of soft tissue leads to urinary, sexual and morphological dysfunctions. Most patients affected are comorbid making it difficult to perform a flap, which is the most appropriate way to reconstruct. Our multidisciplinary plastic and gynecologic surgery team has developed a new technique using a pedicled internal pudendal island flap. Reconstruction is reliable, quick and applicable to all patients, with a highly satisfactory final appearance.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Injection Molding Process Parameters for Moderately Thick Plane Lens Based on PSO-BPNN, OMOPSO, and TOPSIS

Injection molding (IM) is an ideal technique for the low-cost mass production of moderately thick plane lenses (MTPLs). However, the optical performance of injection molded MTPL is seriously degraded by the warpage and sink marks induced during the molding process with complex historical thermal field changes. Thus, it is essential that the processing parameters utilized in the molding process are properly assigned. And the challenges are further compounded when considering the MTPL molding energy consumption. This paper presents a set of procedures for the optimization of injection molding process parameters, with warpage, sink marks reflecting the optical performance, and clamping force reflecting the molding energy consumption as the optimization objectives. First, the orthogonal experiment was carried out with the Taguchi method, and the S/N response shows that these three objectives cannot reach the optimal values simultaneously. Second, considering the experimental data scale, the back propagation neural network updated by the particle swarm optimization method (PSO-BPNN) was applied to establish the complex nonlinear mapping relationship between the process parameters and these three trade-off objectives respectively. Then, the Pareto optimal frontier of the multi-objective optimization problem was attained by multi-objective particle swarm optimization using a mutation operator and dominance coefficient algorithm (OMOPSO). And the competitive relationship between these objectives was further confirmed by the corresponding pairwise Pareto frontiers. Additionally, the TOPSIS method with equal weights was employed to achieve the best optimal solution from the Pareto optimal frontier. The simulation results yielded that the maximum values of warpage, sink marks, and clamping force could be reduced by 7.44%, 40.56%, and 5.56%, respectively, after optimization. Finally, MTPL products were successfully fabricated.

Traditional processing methods for quality enhancement of indigenous basil seeds and formulation of functional flours

The changing food habits and lifestyle led to consumption of faulty diets with increased prevalence of life style diseases in India. This has spurred health consciousness among food consumers and enhanced the demand for functional foods. The indigenous underutilised clove and sweet basil seeds being rich source of fibre (36.23, 28.85%), protein (9.16, 8.55%), polyphenols (17.28, 17.71 mg GAE/g extract) and antioxidants (266.13 and 344.63 mg TE/g extract), exhibited vast potential for formulation of functional flours. Traditional processing methods such as roasting, fermentation and germination have significantly enhanced the nutritional and antioxidant properties of both the seeds. Among them, germination was found to be ideal processing technique with relatively higher fibre, protein, total mineral, phenolic contents, antioxidant capacity and less fat content. Henceforth, processing of basil seeds in a traditional way could significantly enhance their quality and promote their utilisation as functional ingredients for designing healthy foods.