Mass spectrometry (MS), particularly electrospray-MS, is the key tool in modern lipidomics. However, as even a modest scale experiment produces a great amount of data, data processing often becomes limiting. Notably, the software provided with MS instruments are not well suited for quantitative analysis of lipidomes because of the great variety of species present and complexities in response calibration. Here we describe the use of two recently introduced software tools: lipid mass spectrum analysis (LIMSA) and spectrum extraction from chromatographic data (SECD), which significantly increase the speed and reliability of mass spectrometric analysis of complex lipidomes. LIMSA is a Microsoft Excel add-on that (1) finds and integrates the peaks in an imported spectrum, (2) identifies the peaks, (3) corrects the peak areas for overlap by isotopic peaks of other species and (4) quantifies the identified species using included internal standards. LIMSA is instrument-independent because it processes text-format MS spectra. Typically, the analysis of one spectrum takes only a few seconds.The SECD software allows one to display MS chromatograms as two-dimensional maps, which is useful for visual inspection of the data. More importantly, however, SECD allows one to extract mass spectra from user-defined regions of the map for further analysis with, e.g., LIMSA. The use of select regions rather than simple time-range averaging significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio as signals outside the region of interest are more efficiently excluded. LIMSA and SECD have proven to be robust and convenient tools and are available free of charge from the authors.

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Bidirectional power transfer can be achieved in DC/AC systems by using cascaded converters. The topology of Dual Active Bridge Cascaded with Inverter (DABCI) is used in this paper. A closed-loop control scheme is implemented for the Six Pulse Modulation (SPM) technique for pulses to the inverter. This SPM technique can increase the DC bus utilization and also reduces the switching frequency of the inverter to 33% when compared to normal PWM techniques. The Fuzzy logic controller is used for reducing Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and dc-link utilization is improved. Comparison between the PI controller and the fuzzy logic controller is analyzed.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pain gives rise to various physiological and psychological phenomenons. Epidural analgesia with combination of local anesthetics and opioids provides better pain relief than local anesthetics alone in the postoperative period. Epidural opioids acting through the spinal cord receptors improve the quality and duration of analgesia along with dose-sparing effect with the local anesthetics. AIMS: The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of addition of opioids to local anesthetics for postoperative pain relief. METHODS: Fifty patients of American society of anesthesiology grade and physical status undergoing lower abdominal surgeries & lower limb surgeries in narayana general hospital, Nellore, were divided into two groups B and BB. Group B was given 0.125% bupivacaine alone and Group BB was given 0.125% bupivacaine plus 2mg of butorphanol postoperatively when the patients first complained of pain. Onset of Analgesia, duration of analgesia, visual analog scores and side effects were compared. RESULTS: The onset of analgesia in group B patients (10ml of 0.125% Bupivacaine) was varied from 4-8 minutes (mean 5.2 minutes) and duration of analgesia lasted for 2-4 hours (mean 2.98)(p<0.0001) where as in group BB patients (2mg butorphanol + 0.125% bupivacaine) the onset was 2-4 minutes (mean 2.69) and duration of analgesia lasted for 6-8 hours (mean 6.98) (p<0.0001).The Visual Analog Scores of Group B were in the range of 7 to 9 and Group BB were in the range of 5 to 6 (P<0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study concludes that addition of butorphanol (2mg) to bupivacaine (0.125%) gives more effective and prolonged duration of postoperative pain relief when administered epidurally, without significant side effects.

Bidirectional power transfer can be achieved in DC/AC systems by using cascaded converters. The topology of Dual Active Bridge Cascaded with Inverter (DABCI) is used in this paper. A closed-loop control scheme is implemented for the Six Pulse Modulation (SPM) technique for pulses to the inverter. This SPM technique can increase the DC bus utilization and also reduces the switching frequency of the inverter to 33% when compared to normal PWM techniques. The Fuzzy logic controller is used for reducing Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and dc-link utilization is improved. Comparison between the PI controller and the fuzzy logic controller is analyzed.