General concepts on health economic evaluations.

Health economics is an area of study that has critical tools for evidence-based healthcare decision making, among which are economic evaluations. These tools allow us to weigh the costs incurred for a given intervention in relation to its health outcomes. The main utility of these studies lies in accomplishing decision-making in healthcare and the formulation of public policies.

Patchy colloidal gels under the influence of gravity.

In this contribution, gravitational effects in gel-forming patchy colloidal systems are studied. We focus on how the gel structure is modified by gravity. Through Monte Carlo computer simulations of gel-like states recently identified by the rigidity percolation criterion [J.

Location of the gel-like boundary in patchy colloidal dispersions: Rigidity percolation, structure, and particle dynamics.

During the past decade, there has been a hot debate about the physical mechanisms that determine when a colloidal dispersion approaches the gel transition. However, there is still no consensus on a possible unique route that leads to the conditions for the formation of a gel-like state. Based on gel states identified in experiments, Valadez-Pérez et al.

Thermodynamics, static properties and transport behaviour of fluids with competing interactions.

Competing interaction fluids have become ideal model systems to study a large number of phenomena, for example, the formation of intermediate range order structures, condensed phases not seen in fluids driven by purely attractive or repulsive forces, the onset of particle aggregation under in- and out-of-equilibrium conditions, which results in the birth of reversible and irreversible aggregates or clusters whose topology and morphology depend additionally on the thermodynamic constrictions, and a particle dynamics that has a strong influence on the transport behaviour and rheological properties of the fluid. In this contribution, we study a system of particles interacting through a potential composed by a continuous succession of a short-ranged square-well (SW), an intermediate-ranged square-shoulder and a long-ranged SW. This potential model is chosen to systematically analyse the contribution of every component of the interaction potential on the phase behaviour, the microstructure, the morphology of the resulting aggregates and the transport phenomena of fluids described by competing interactions.

Convergence of fractional adaptive systems using gradient approach.

Conditions for boundedness and convergence of the output error and the parameter error for various Caputo's fractional order adaptive schemes based on the steepest descent method are derived in this paper. To this aim, the concept of sufficiently exciting signals is introduced, characterized and related to the concept of persistently exciting signals used in the integer order case. An application is designed in adaptive indirect control of integer order systems using fractional equations to adjust parameters.

Postoperative Complications and Short-Term Outcome Following Single-Session Bilateral Corrective Surgery for Medial Patellar Luxation in Dogs Weighing <15 kg: 50 Cases (2009-2014).

Objective: To assess complication rates and short-term outcome in small dogs with bilateral medial patellar luxation (MPL) undergoing single-session bilateral corrective surgery.

Study Design: Retrospective case series.

Animals: Dogs weighing <15 kg with congenital bilateral MPL that underwent single-session bilateral corrective surgery (n = 50).

Sufficient condition on the fractional integral for the convergence of a function.

A sufficient condition on the fractional integral of the absolute value of a function is given in this paper, which allows to assure the convergence of the function to zero. This result can be useful to assure the convergence of a function when it is hard to know its exact evolution, but conditions on its fractional integral can be stated.

Massive midline occipitotemporal resection of the skull for treatment of multilobular osteochondrosarcoma in two dogs.

Case Description: Two 6-year-old male dogs were evaluated for removal of midline occipito-temporal multilobular osteochondrosarcomas.

Clinical Findings: Physical examination revealed mild ataxia in 1 dog and large masses of the central occipitotemporal portion of the skull in both dogs. Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or both revealed large bone-origin occipitotemporal masses with impingement of the brain and the sagittal and transverse venous sinuses.

Cosmetic rostral nasal reconstruction after nasal planum and premaxilla resection: technique and results in two dogs.

Objective: To describe a novel reconstructive technique after nasal planum and premaxilla resection.

Study Design: Case report.

Animals: Dogs (n=2) with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the nasal planum.

Intraduodenal serotonin elicits non-propagating spike potentials in the small intestine of the rat.

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is an endogenous signalling molecule capable of altering small intestinal motility. Serotonin is normally present in the intestinal lumen and released by enterochromaffin cells of the mucosal epithelium. We found that intraduodenal infusion of exogenous serotonin causes a dose-dependent myoelectric response in the smooth muscle of the small intestine in the conscious rat.