Endoscopy-assisted removal of angle foreign body presenting as persistent localised corneal oedema

A 20-year-old man presented to us with injury to the left eye by a glass bulb 3 weeks ago. The acute injury resolved with a peculiar residual localised corneal oedema in the inferior one-third of the cornea . This localised oedema in absence of any evidence of a localised visible injury to the cornea indicated towards a possible retained foreign body. The foreign body visibility was equivocal on gonioscopy. Subsequently via a limbal incision, an endoscope was introduced into the anterior chamber. The endoscopic view revealed the glass foreign body lodged into the inferior angle of the eye which was removed with the help of an intraocular forceps. Over the next week, the corneal oedema resolved completely.

Quantitative comparisons of moth-trap catches

A simple method was used to compare the catches of seven different pairs of light-emitting moth-traps. Numbers of macro-moth individuals and species caught nightly by each member of a pair were recorded in comparisons that lasted between ten and 79 nights. A Robinson trap made significantly larger catches than a Skinner trap with an identical bulb, and a Robinson trap at ground level made significantly larger catches than an identical trap at a height of 90 cm. A 125 W MV bulb made significantly larger catches than an equivalent Wood's glass bulb or a multiple LED dome. No significant differences were found between a Robinson trap with a 125 W MV bulb and one with an 80 W MV bulb, or between two commercial brands of 125 W MV bulbs, or between two identical 125 W MV bulbs. This last comparison showed significant differences between the two sites used for these trials, apparently caused by a large flowering Buddleia at the more productive site. The findings suggest that catches may be maximised by using Robinson moth traps with 125 W MV bulbs, rather than the other traps or light sources tested here, and by placing them on the ground close to flowering Buddleia or other nectar-rich shrubs.

Experimental Studies on Discharge Characteristics of the Typical Thermally-Activated Pressure Relief Device Used for High-Pressure Hydrogen Storage Cylinder in Different Fire Conditions

Thermally-activated pressure relief devices (TPRD) with glass bulbs or fusible alloy are applied to high-pressure hydrogen storage cylinders (HHSC), in order to release hydrogen gas from the cylinder in fire accidents. In this paper, cylinders with different TPRDs were tested in two groups using different bonfire test methods. In group A, the fire was set exactly under the TPRD. While in group B, the fire was set 80 mm beside the TPRD. The result shows that TPRDs with glass bulb and fusible alloy acted in a similar way when the fire was under the cylinder and the TPRD. However, they acted in a quite different way when the fire was only under the cylinder and beside the TPRD. In group A, hydrogen was released continuously from TPRD both for glass bulb and fusible alloy. In group B, hydrogen was released continuously from the TPRD using glass bulb which was similar to the group A. However, for TPRDs using a fusible alloy, hydrogen was released in several stages taking much more time. The results are instructive for the design and selection of TPRDs on HHSC.

Nanoscale temperature mapping in operating microelectronic devices

Modern microelectronic devices have nanoscale features that dissipate power nonuniformly, but fundamental physical limits frustrate efforts to detect the resulting temperature gradients. Contact thermometers disturb the temperature of a small system, while radiation thermometers struggle to beat the diffraction limit. Exploiting the same physics as Fahrenheit’s glass-bulb thermometer, we mapped the thermal expansion of Joule-heated, 80-nanometer-thick aluminum wires by precisely measuring changes in density. With a scanning transmission electron microscope and electron energy loss spectroscopy, we quantified the local density via the energy of aluminum’s bulk plasmon. Rescaling density to temperature yields maps with a statistical precision of 3 kelvin/hertz−1/2, an accuracy of 10%, and nanometer-scale resolution. Many common metals and semiconductors have sufficiently sharp plasmon resonances to serve as their own thermometers.

Improvement of Lighting Uniformity and Phosphor Life in Field Emission Lamps Using Carbon Nanocoils

The lighting performances and phosphor degradation in field emission lamps (FELs) with two different kinds of cathode materials—multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and carbon nanocoils (CNCs)—were compared. The MWCNTs and CNCs were selectively synthesized on 304 stainless steel wire substrates dip-coated with nanosized Pd catalysts by controlling the growth temperature in thermal chemical vapor deposition, and the film uniformity can be optimized by adjusting the growth time. FELs were successfully fabricated by assembling these cathode filaments with a glass bulb-type anode. The FEL with the CNC cathode showed much higher lighting uniformity and light-spot density and a lower current at the same voltage than that with the MWCNT cathode filament, and its best luminous efficiency was as high as 75 lm/W at 8 kV. We also found that, for P22, the phosphor degradation can be effectively suppressed by replacing MWCNTs with CNCs in the cathode, due to the much larger total bright spot area and hence much lower current density loading on the anode.

Evidence for divergence in cuticular hydrocarbon sex pheromone between California and Mississippi (United States of America) populations of bark beetle parasitoid Roptrocerus xylophagorum (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

Roptrocerus xylophagorum (Ratzeburg) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) is a common Holarctic parasitoid of the larvae and pupae of bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scotytinae). In no-choice laboratory bioassays, we found that male wasps derived either from northern California or southwestern Mississippi, United States of America more frequently displayed sexual behaviours (including mounting, wing fanning, and copulation attempts) to glass bulb decoys treated with hexane cuticular washes of females derived from the same parasitoid population rather than the distant population. This result suggests that the composition of the cuticular hydrocarbon sex pheromone has diverged between eastern and western populations and is consistent with previous data indicating that R. xylophagorum may consist of more than one species.