Changes in pulmonary function in patients with ulcerative colitis

SummaryObjectivesInformation on the occurrence and frequency of pulmonary involvement in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) is inconsistent. Some authors reported pulmonary impairment with UC by standard pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and documented a reduced diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) especially in patients with active disease, whereas others could not detect differences in routine PFTs between UC patients and controls.AimThe aim of this prospective study was to determine the frequency and type of pulmonary dysfunction in patients with UC with respect to disease activity. Furthermore, to evaluate the influence of smoking, nutritional status, sputum cytology and sulphasalazine therapy on PFT parameters.Patients and methodsTwenty-six patients with UC (20 with active disease, 6 inactive) and 16 age and sex matched healthy controls were investigated with respect to the following pulmonary function tests, forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in the 1s (FEV1%) and their ratio (FEV1/FVC) and forced expiratory flow 25–75% (FEF25–75%) as well as oxygen saturation. For UC patients, colonoscopy and biopsy were done. Disease activity was assessed by Truelove index for UC. Induced sputum was sampled for cytology. Smoking habit, body mass index (BMI) and medications were recorded.ResultsFifteen out of 26 patients with UC (57.6%) exhibited at least one pathological pulmonary function test (<80% of predicted value). Small airway obstruction was reported in the 15 patients, restrictive dysfunction in 30.7% and obstructive dysfunction in 11.5%. The impairment of PFTs was significant and more pronounced in patients with active disease, FVC (−14% of predicted), FEV1 (−9% of predicted) and FEF25–75% (−32% of predicted), P<0.01, 0.05 and 0.01, respectively. There was no significant influence of smoking and medications on PFTs.ConclusionsUC patients show significantly decreased lung function tests in comparison to healthy controls. The impairment in active disease exceeded that during the remission. Early recognition is important, as they can be strikingly steroid responsive

System Identification and LMI Based Robust PID Control of a Two-Link Flexible Manipulator

This paper presents investigations into the development of a linear matrix inequalities (LMI) based robust PID control of a nonlinear Two-Link Flexible Manipulator (TLFM) incorporating payload. A set of linear models of a TLFM is obtained by using system identification method in which the linear model represents the operating ranges of the dynamic system. Thus, the LMI constraints permit to robustly guarantee a certain perturbation rejection level and a region of pole location.  To study the effectiveness of the controller, initially a PID control is developed for TLFM with varying payloads. The performances of the controllers are assessed in terms of the input tracking controller capability of the system as compared to the response with PID control. Moreover, the robustness of the LMI based robust PID control schemes is discussed. Finally, a comparative assessment of the control strategies is presented

A Review On Carbon Nanotubes Production Via Catalytic Methane Decomposition.

Methane decomposition is a promising approach to produce high purity, high yield and perfect orientation of carbon nanotubes and is viable for scaling up its production at a relatively low cost

Real Time Suppression of Howling Noise in Public Address System

AbstractHowling noise is a common phenomenon in a public address system. It is built up due to the acoustic coupling between the speaker system and the microphone when it creates a positive feedback. Real time implementation of howling noise detection and suppression was implemented using TMS320C6713 DSK starter kit. The whole implementation was done based on direct memory access (DMA) feature of the DSP processor. The method uses the properties of howling noise for efficient detection and has the advantage of suppressing the noise. Howling detection is performed based on spectral flatness measure (SFM) of each input speech frame. For frames without howling, the input is passed as such to the output. Howling suppression is performed by making output samples as zero if the presence of howling noise is detected

Review Of Carbon Nanotubes Growth And Synthesis.

Carbon nanotubes are tubular nanostructures derived from rolled graphene planes. Carbon nanotubes are fullerenes related structures but a fullerenes's carbon form a sphere; while a nanotubes are cylindrical. The growth mechanism of carbon nanotubes depend on the synthesis method

Synthesis of graphene flakes over recovered copper etched in ammonium persulfate solution

The synthesis of high quality graphene via economic way is highly desirable for practical applications. In this study, graphene flake was successfully synthesized on Cu/MgO catalyst derived from recovered Cu via etching in ammonium persulfate solution. Recovered Cu acted as efficient active metal in Cu/MgO catalyst with good crystal structure and composition according to XRD and XRF results. FESEM, EDX, HRTEM, Raman spectroscopy and SAED analysis were carried out on the synthesized graphene. The formation of single, bilayer and few layer of graphene from Cu/MgO catalyst derived from recovered Cu was feasible

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) essential oil as affected by drying methods

AbstractThe leaves of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) were dried using three different drying methods (sun-drying for 36h, shade-drying for 48h and oven-drying at 45°C for 7h). The essential oil was obtained by hydro-distillation of the leaves dried by every treatment, and was analyzed by capillary GC and GC/mass instruments. Statistical analysis showed significant differences in the essential oil content of leaves dried by different drying methods. Oven drying gave the highest essential oil percentage (2.45%) compared to shade-drying (2.12%) and sun-drying methods (2.10%). Eighteen components were identified in the essential oil of fresh and dried C. citratus leaves obtained by different drying methods, including geranial (citral-a), neral (citral-b) and myrcene as main components. The drying methods had a marked effect on the proportion of the various components

Mesoporous Inorganic Membrane Reactor for Oxidative Coupling of Methane

The mesoporous inorganic membrane has been developed and characterized for oxidative coupling of methane reactions. In this research, g-alumina membrane was modified with Lanthanum. The membrane has shown thermal stability in prolonged exposure to the high-temperature application of 600-900°C. The results were confirmed by TGA and OCM experimentations. TGA results showed only 2-3% loss from an initial weight that is mainly due to evaporation of water and release of the nitrate compound. The membrane was also found stable for at least a month of operation while the catalyst was being regenerated to regain its activity. The SEM cross-sections show successful deposition of Lanthanum in spite of its non-uniform deposition layer and crack formation

High performance supercapacitor based on laser induced graphene for wearable devices

To ensure maximum comfort for the wearer, electronic components that include energy harvesters need to be mechanically conformable. In this context, we demonstrate a versatile, cost-effective and efficient method for fabricating graphene supercapacitor electrodes using Laser Induced Graphene (LIG). A CO2 laser beam instantly transforms the irradiated polyethersulfone polymer (PES) into a highly porous carbon structure. The LIG method was used to deposit graphene layers on graphite sheets to produce the supercapacitor electrodes. Graphene formation and morphology were examined and confirmed using several techniques including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Moreover, the electrochemical characterization was performed in different electrolytes (NaOH and KOH). At 5 mV s-1, the LIG electrode achieved 165 mF cm-2 and 250 mF cm-2 in NaOH and KOH electrolytes, respectively. Consequently, we show that a wearable symmetric supercapacitor device with LIG electrodes achieved 98.5 mF cm-2 at 5 mV s-1 in KOH electrolyte. The device demonstrated an energy density of 11.3 μWh.cm-2 with power density of 0.33 mWcm-2 at 0.5 mA cm-2. The retention of capacitance was 75% after 2000 cycles, with outstanding performance for the comparable graphene-based electrodes. These results further validate the use of LIG for developing flexible energy harvesters for wearable applications

Psychometric assessment of the short-form Child Perceptions Questionnaire: an international collaborative study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the factor structure and other psychometric characteristics of the most commonly used child oral-health-related quality-of-life (OHRQoL) measure (the 16-item short-form CPQ11-14 ) in a large number of children (N = 5804) from different settings and who had a range of caries experience and associated impacts. METHODS: Secondary data analyses used subnational epidemiological samples of 11- to 14-year-olds in Australia (N = 372), New Zealand (three samples: 352, 202, 429), Brunei (423), Cambodia (244), Hong Kong (542), Malaysia (439), Thailand (220, 325), England (88, 374), Germany (1055), Mexico (335) and Brazil (404). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the CPQ11-14 across the combined sample and within four regions (Australia/NZ, Asia, UK/Europe and Latin America). Item impact and internal reliability analysis were also conducted. RESULTS: Caries experience varied, with mean DMFT scores ranging from 0.5 in the Malaysian sample to 3.4 in one New Zealand sample. Even more variation was noted in the proportion reporting only fair or poor oral health; this was highest in the Cambodian and Mexican samples and lowest in the German sample and one New Zealand sample. One in 10 reported that their oral health had a marked impact on their life overall. The CFA across all samples revealed two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. The first involved all items in the oral symptoms and functional limitations subscales; the second involved all emotional well-being and social well-being items. The first was designated the 'symptoms/function' subscale, and the second was designated the 'well-being' subscale. Cronbach's alpha scores were 0.72 and 0.84, respectively. The symptoms/function subscale contained more of the items with greater impact, with the item 'Food stuck in between your teeth' having greatest impact; in the well-being subscale, the 'Felt shy or embarrassed' item had the greatest impact. Repeating the analyses by world region gave similar findings. CONCLUSION: The CPQ11-14 performed well cross-sectionally in the largest analysis of the scale in the literature to date, with robust and mostly consistent psychometric characteristics, albeit with two underlying factors (rather than the originally hypothesized four-factor structure). It appears to be a sound, robust measure which should be useful for research, practice and policy