Skin, Burns and Skin Donation (a boon to burn victims)

What's the biggest organ in your body?

You might be surprised to find out it's the skin, which you might not think of as an organ. No matter how you think of it, your skin is very important. It covers and protects everything inside your body. Without skin, people's muscles, bones, and organs would be hanging out all over the place.

It also:
1) protects our bodies.
2) helps keep our bodies at just the right temperature.
3) allows us to have the sense of touch.

Components of skin:

The skin is made of 3 layers. The layer on the outside is called the epidermis. It is the one which you can see. Look down at your hands for a minute. Even though you can't see anything happening, your epidermis is hard at work. At the bottom of the epidermis, new skin cells are forming.

When the cells are ready, they start moving toward the top of your epidermis. This trip takes about 2 weeks to a month. As newer cells continue to move up, older cells near the top die and rise to the surface of your skin. What you see on your hands (and everywhere else on your body) are really dead skin cells.

These old cells are tough and strong, just right for covering your body and protecting it. But they only stick around for a little while. Soon, they'll flake off. Though you can't see it happening, every minute of the day we lose about 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells off the surface of our skin.

So just in the time it took you to read this far, you've probably lost about 40,000 cells. That's almost 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of cells every year! But don't think your skin might wear out someday. Your epidermis is always making new skin cells that rise to the top to replace the old ones. Most of the cells in your epidermis (95%) work to make new skin cells.

And what about the other 5%? They make a substance called melanin . Melanin gives skin its color. The darker your skin is, the more melanin you have. When you go out into the sun, these cells make extra melanin to protect you from getting burned by the sun's ultraviolet, or UV, rays.

That's why your skin gets tan if you spend a lot of time in the sun. But even though melanin is mighty, it can't shield you all by itself. You'll want to wear sunscreen and protective clothing, such as a hat, to prevent painful sunburns. Protecting your skin now also can help prevent skin cancer when you get older.

The Dermis Is Under the Epidermis
The next layer down is the dermis . You can't see your dermis because it's hidden under your epidermis. The dermis contains nerve endings, blood vessels, oil glands, and sweat glands. It also contains collagen and elastin, which are tough and stretchy. dermis is also full of tiny blood vessels. These keep your skin cells healthy by bringing them the oxygen and nutrients they need and by taking away waste. The dermis is also home to the sebacious glands and sweat glands.

The Third Layer Is Subcutaneous Fat
The third and bottom layer of the skin is called the subcutaneous layer. It is made mostly of fat and helps your body stay warm and absorb shocks, like if you bang into something or fall down. The subcutaneous layer also helps hold your skin to all the tissues underneath it.

Skin Burn:

Burns are often categorized as first, second or third-degree burns, depending on how badly the skin is damaged. Each of the injuries above can cause any of these three types of burn. But both the type of burn and its cause will determine how the burn is treated. All burns should be treated quickly to reduce the temperature of the burned area and reduce damage to the skin and underlying tissue (if the burn is severe).

Skin Donation:

The development of skin banking, has been a godsend for burn victims. Skin is the best dressing to use on serious burns making the patient much more comfortable. It reduces the growth of bacteria and loss of critical fluid, and also improves a patient's morale and immunological state. Donated skin can make the difference between life and death, promoting healing of the wound bed while the patient's own skin is cultured for grafting. Without the donated skin used in the interim, many burns patients would die waiting for their own skin to be cultured for transplantation.

The skin is retrieved by a technique called a 'split-thickness allograft'. This means that each piece of skin taken consists of the epidermis and a small portion of the underlying dermis. The pieces of skin are only 0.016 inches (0.40mm) thick.
The age restrictions on skin donation are as follows:
Males & Females - 18 to 70 years.
Skin pieces are packaged as individual grafts and are stored in the vapour phase of liquid nitrogen (-130ºC to -196ºC) for up to 5 years.

Q: Why is donated skin important?

A: Donated skin can be used as a temporary covering for severely burned patients awaiting grafting procedures. The donated skin functions as the burned patient’s own skin for a short time, reducing pain and decreasing the risk of infection. In many cases, the availability of donated skin can help save the lives of burned patients.Advances in medicine and tissue preservation now make it possible to use skin in other procedures. In addition to use as a temporary skin covering, donated dermal grafts can now be used to replace lost dermis and can significantly reduce scarring, restore mobility and minimize the use of the patient’s own skin. Dermal grafts are also used to fill soft tissue defects as a result of cancer or trauma, to restore bladder control in the treatment of incontinence, in periodontal surgery to correct gingival defects and to faciliate abdominal wall repair for hernias or other injuries.

Q: How is donated skin recovered?

A: Skin is obtained by a surgical procedure. Skin grafts are typically recovered from the back, abdomen and legs and may vary in thickness from .005” to .035”. In most instances, the procedure takes one to two hours.

Q: How is donated skin prepared for transplantation?

A: Donated skin is prepared for transplantation in one of two ways. The tissue can be prepared by traditional methods of cell preservation which include maintaining cell viability via tissue culture techniques or cryopreservation. More recently, donated skin grafts can be preserved by utilizing advanced technologies to remove the cellular components of the grafts while maintaining the biochemical and structural characteristics. As a result, these donated skin grafts can be transplanted successfully without rejection. This technology greatly expands the clinical applications of donated skin.

The Bermuda Mystery

What is it? Where is it located?

The Bermuda Triangle could be considered the most baffling mystery in our supposedly well understood world. It is the region of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Miami, Florida, San Juan and Puerto Rico where dissaperance of ships and planes still continue with no possible explanation.

Some Disappearances:

January 8 1962:

A 4 engine KB 50 aerial tanker was enroute from the east coast to Lajes in Azores. The captain, Major Bob Tawney, reported in at the expected time. All was normal, routine. But he, his 8 crew and big tanker, never made the Azores. FLASH! the media broadcast issued press statement, that a large oil slick was sighted 300 miles off Norfolk, Virginia, in the plane’s proposed route. But that was the only clue. It was obvious, the tanker and its qualified crew met a horrid and sudden death by crashing headlong into the sea. However, the report which finished months later-- confirmed no such thing. Tawney had been clearly overheard by a Navy transport hours after his last message. This placed him north of Bermuda, hundreds of miles past the spot of the oil slick. There is no evidence, therefore, that the plane and its crew ever met any known fate.

The Witchcraft (Dec 22 1967):

On this beautiful evening, hotelier, Dan Burack, in company of Father Patrick Horgan left Miami’s yacht marina in Burack’s 23-foot cabin cruiser Witchcraft. They were only going to cruise out a short way and then stop and, in the silence of a dark sea, take in the panorama of Miami’s lit skyline. Burack went to the area of Buoy no. 7 in Miami’s Harbor, less than a mile from the shore. Exactly 9 p.m. that night Burack sent a message to RCC Miami that he had hit something below. There was no emergency. However, he would need a tow back into the marina. Since Burack felt there was no emergency, it is logical to assume whatever he hit (if he knew) had damaged his propeller or rudder but not his hull. The Coast Guard responded immediately. At 9:19 p.m. only nineteen minutes after Burack signaled them— their searchlight beams were streaming the ocean in that vicinity. However, there was no sign of the Witchcraft, of debris, life jackets, bodies or any flotsam. In that interim and short 19 minutes Burack had never sent another message to Miami’s RCC to indicate the situation had become critical, nor had he fired flares. The most unusual part, however, is the total lack of the cabin cruiser. Despite the Coast Guard expanding the search by 1,200 square miles that night, including requesting all private vessels as far as Bimini to be on the look out (50 miles distant), no trace was found. Burack was big on safety. He had plenty of life saving gear aboard (all very floatable, like seat cushions, jackets, etc), and had even spent extra, naturally, to have floatation built in.

Theories of disappearance:

Countless theories attempting to explain the many disappearances have been offered throughout the history of the area called Bermuda Triangle. The most practical seem to be environmental and those citing human error. However, the most attractive to the public are supernatural explanations. Some of the common reasons could be:
1. Bad Weather
2. Sea Pirates: Thieves who make a living by stealing goods from after killing the onboard sailors.
3. Methane Hydrates: Some of the disappearances focuses on the presence of vast fields of methane hydrates on the continental shelves. Periodic methane eruptions may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. Laboratory experiments have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water. Methane gas might also be involved in airplane crashes, as it is not as dense as normal air and thus would not generate the amount of lift required to keep the airplane flying. Methane can cut out an aircraft engine with very little levels of it in the atmosphere.

4. Tidal Waves: Research has shown that tidal, freak, or rogue waves can reach up to 30 m (100 feet) in height and are capable of sinking large ships within moments. Although these are very rare, in some areas ocean currents mean happen more often than the normal. Such waves have now been hypothesized as a cause for many unexplained shipping losses over the years. Some research suggests that some of these waves are caused by giant bubbles of methane rising to the surface. These giant bubbles are created when methane vents at the ocean bottom become clogged; then pressure builds up and eventually the gas bursts out and rises rapidly to the surface thus generating the wave. Research has shown that such bubbles are able to sink scale sized ships with great ease and speed.

Oil Exploration / Hydrocarbon Exploration

Oil Drilling:
Oil is a fossil fuel that can be found in many countries around the world. Oil is formed from the remains of tiny plants and animals (plankton) that died in ancient seas between 10 million and 600 million years ago. After the organisms died, they sank into the sand and mud at the bottom of the sea. Over the years, the organisms decayed in the sedimentary layers. In these layers, there was little or no oxygen present. So microorganisms broke the remains into carbon-rich compounds that formed organic layers. The organic material mixed with the sediments, forming fine-grained shale, or source rock. As new sedimentary layers were deposited, they exerted intense pressure and heat on the source rock. The heat and pressure distilled the organic material into crude oil and natural gas. The oil flowed from the source rock and accumulated in thicker, more porous limestone or sandstone, called reservoir rock. Movements in the Earth trapped the oil and natural gas in the reservoir rocks between layers of impermeable rock, or cap rock, such as granite or marble.

Visible surface features such as oil seeps, natural gas seeps, pockmarks (underwater craters caused by escaping gas) provide basic evidence of hydrocarbon generation (be it shallow or deep in the Earth). However, most exploration depends on highly sophisticated technology to detect and determine the extent of these deposits using geophysics. Oil Exploration is a very expensive high risk operation usually undertaken only by large corporations and Governments. There are onshore hydrocarbon deposits worldwide and cost 100 to 1000 million dollars or more. A prospect is a potential trap which contains the hydrocarbons.

Potential petroleum prospects could be a source rock, a reservoir or a trap.

A source rock :- When organic-rich rock such as oil shale or coal is subjected to high pressure and temperature over an extended period of time, hydrocarbons form which could be extracted.

Reservoir:- This could be a porous sandstone or limestone. The oil collects in the pore within these rocks. The hydrocarbons must flow to the surface during exploration. For this it needs to be permeable.

Trap:- Since hydrocarbons are buyoant they could be trapped within a structural fault.

Petroleum resources are owned by governments of the host country and also some private corporations who are able to to afford the huge cost of investment and also pay the exhorbitant taxes. Companies would also pay royalty on oil produced together with profit tax, bonuses and other ground rents. A PSA or a production sharing contract is a system wherein the company bids on the percentage of the production that the host government receives. A company can also act as a contractor to the company and is paid only for their manufacturing capablities.

Oil Reserves could be of 3 types:

Proven Reserves, Probable Reserves and Possible Reserves.

Reserve booking
Oil and gas reserves are the main asset of an oil company - booking is the process by which they are added to the Balance sheet. This is done according to a set of rules developed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

Modern concepts on Running vehicles on alternative fuels

Alternative fuel vehicles are basically those that run on fuels other than petroleum and are are aimed at increasing the mileage and also to conserve the natural reservoir of the precious fuel in the long run. Some of the common fuels available at present include.

Alcohols - ethanol and methanol.

Compressed natural gas (CNG) - natural gas under high pressure.

Electricity - stored in batteries.

Hydrogen - a very special type of gas.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) - natural gas that is very, very cold.

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (also called propane) - hydrocarbon gases under low pressure.

Liquids made from coal - gasoline and diesel fuel that doesn't come from petroleum.

Biodiesel - a lot like diesel fuel, but made from plant, oil or animal fat.

The basic concern for using these alternative fuels stems also from the fact that the pollution from the traditional fuels has been very high and hence these alternative fuels are also deemed to be more environmental friendly. Also increasing the alternative fuel usage gives a broad variety of choices to the consumers thus broadening the supply base and reducing the environmental impacts.

The futuristic Fuel (Hydrogen):

Since Hydrogen burns nearly pollution free it has been touted as very good alternative. It is also very abundantly available in the environment. As of now only a few experimental vehicles are used so as to test the potential of hydrogen. Hydrogen is the lightest element on the earth as seen on the periodic table. A simple electrolysis procedure releases hydrogen from water components (H2O). But nowadays most of the hydrogen is produced from natural gas. In an internal combustion engine, the burning of hydrogen produces a small amount of other gases which are mostly oxides of Nitrogen because the combustion takes place place in an environment of air.

Though hydrogen could be compressed and stored in cylinders, it contains less energy per volume as compared to traditional fuels like gasoline or ethanol. Liquid Hydrogen by way of cooling of hydrogen could also be used as a fuel but is much more costly. Hydrogen has also been used in fuel cells which could be utilized for many other purposes. Hydrogen Vehicles have almost zero Green house gas emissions thus making it environmental friendly.

Hybrid Vehicles:

Hybrid means something that is mixed together with 2 things. Avery new innovative vehicle that has hit our roads are the hybrid vehicles. Two cars worth a mention is the Toyota Plus and Honda Insight. The Honda Insight can go up to 68 miles per gallon on a freeway. The primary power comes from the gasoline engine, but uses the electric motor to climb hills and while accelerating and climbing hills. The electric motor batteries are charged by regenerative breaking i.e energy from forward momentum is captured during breaking. Ford Escape is another hybrid utility vehicle that has been under production since 2003. It gives 40 miles per gallon. To own these these vehicles is a little expensive in the beginning, but incentives if given by the government can very well promote the cause of development of these vehicles.

Fuel Cell Vehicle (Zero Emission Vehicles):

Fuel cells though it looks like a new concept is not so. It has been used in spacecrafts for many years to power the electric equipment. These electric equipments are fueled with hydrogen from the rockets fuel tanks. Fuel cell vehicles turn hydrogen fuel and oxygen into electricity. This generated energy powers an electric motor of the vehicle. Fuel cells combine oxygen from the air with hydrogen from the vehicles fuel tank to produce electricity. When oxygen and hydrogen are combined they give off energy and water(H2O). There is no combustion or burning in this case.
A simple animation below would help to understand the working of the cell.

There are number of ways by which hydrogen could be supplied to the fuel cell. One way is to put hydrogen gas into the fuel cell along with air. Hydrogen gas can come from gaseous or liquid hydrogen stored on the vehicle. In order to carry gaseous hydrogen on a vehicle it must be compressed up to a pressure of about 3000 pounds per square inch and needs to be stored in high pressure containers.

The hydrogen could also be stored in liquid form in the vehicle, which is very cold indeed i.e 423.2 degree Fahrenheit below zero. The containers are able to hold pressure and are also insulated to keep the hydrogen from warming up. Warming the liquid or lowering the pressure can releases gas which can go to the fuel cell.

A 'reformer' is a type of device that removes hydrogen from hydrocarbon fuels like methanol or gasoline. But it changes from a zero emission vehicle to a low emission vehicle because a fuel other than hydrogen has been used.

A "Direct Methanol fuel cell" can be fueled from methanol directly. This does not require a reformer. The fuel cell removes the hydrogen from the methanol. Many people into manufacturing cars believe that fuel cell vehicles may be the technology of the future. As of now only prototype vehicles have been developed and research is underway to build more cost efficient vehicles.

Surge of Oil prices and the auto makers plight in US

It is a known fact that for 2 years the auto makers have told investors, creditors and workers to remain patient. They did feel that a turnaround was around the corner and an industrywide restructuring was posiible anytime. But the surging oil prices, have made the auto industry in US bumping at a decade lower.

Many US citizens have deviated from buying new sports utility vehicles (SUV's ) and trucks in view of the price crisis. This has also meant a dark future for many of the leading auto makers of the US. Auto Makers in US have been running on a negative profitability since this crisis had started. It has become a full blown problem in the months.

The future seems to be slipping out of control for many of the auto makers. The Economic pressure on the auto industry has been so big that auto giants like "FORD MOTORS" have already said that it would miss its target of returning to profitability by 2009.

Companies like Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have the cash and credit to sustain in such demanding situations, while they play for time and keep looking for opportunities lurking. There is definetly some time to pull out of the crisis. But if the US auto markets fail to bottom out in 2008, the threat of failure in the industry grows proportionately.

As the average prices crossed $3.50 Gallon this month, Ford sees signs of trouble ahead. The Japanese car makers, Nissan and Toyota both remain profitable because neither of these companies rely heavily on truck sales. While Toyota overtook Ford as the number two player in 2007, Honda is close on heels to unseat Chrysler as number three. This is mainly due to the leading fuel economy provided by the auto giant.

How to combat the fuel price hike? This mainly lies in looking for the fuel alternatives. What happens in a decade from now and the steps that are taken determine the future. Now a point has reached where significant response is emerging from consumers alike. An example would be T.Boone who make billions betting on the oil price hike has decided to spend many billion dollars building a wind farm. Due to subsidies and initiatives taken by the US ethanol comprises 5-7 % of the of the US gasoline pool. Americans have also started buying more fuel efficient vehicles rather than the gass guzzling Suv's.