Car sunshade-induced craniofacial injury: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>We report the case of a man who sustained a craniofacial injury after spontaneous lateral airbag deployment resulting in his face being struck by a car sunshade. This highlights the potential damage that can be caused by any object placed between a lateral airbag and a car occupant.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 33-year-old Caucasian man who was the driver in a frontal collision. He had opened the car sunshade and turned it 90° towards the left. As he was driving, he struck a bus, causing the driver's lateral airbag to spontaneously deploy. The airbag pushed the sunshade against his face and injured him.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Car sunshades can cause significant craniofacial injury. We suggest that sunshade design must be improved to reduce the risk of potential injuries to car occupants. We recommend a new, safer sunshade design.</p

A New Approach to Solve N-Queen Problem with Parallel Genetic Algorithm

Over the past few decades great efforts were made to solve uncertain hybrid optimization problems. The n-Queen problem is one of such problems that many solutions have been proposed for. The traditional methods to solve this problem are exponential in terms of runtime and are not acceptable in terms of space and memory complexity. In this study, parallel genetic algorithms are proposed to solve the n-Queen problem. Parallelizing island genetic algorithm and Cellular genetic algorithm was implemented and run. The results show that these algorithms have the ability to find related solutions to this problem. The algorithms are not only faster but also they lead to better performance even without the use of parallel hardware and just running on one core processor. Good comparisons were made between the proposed method and serial genetic algorithms in order to measure the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the algorithm has high efficiency for large-size problems in comparison with genetic algorithms, and in some cases it can achieve super linear speedup. The proposed method in the present study can be easily developed to solve other optimization problems

Estimating the Mode Shapes of a Bridge Using Short Time Transmissibility Measurement from a Passing Vehicle

This paper reports on the analysis of the signals sent by accelerometers fixed on the axles of a vehicle which passes over a bridge. The length of the bridge is divided into some parts and the transmissibility measurement is applied to the signals recorded by two following instrumented axles. As the transmissibility procedure is performed on the divided signals, the method is called Short Time Transmissibility Measurement. Afterwards, a rescaling process is accomplished in order to estimate the bridge mode shapes. The numerical results indicate that the method can calculate the mode shapes of the bridge accurately. It is demonstrated that short time transmissibility method does not depend on the excitation characteristics contrary to the other related methods which assume that the excitation should be white noise. Generally, the bridge mode shapes may be invisible due to the excitation exerted by the road profile. This issue is also resolved by subtracting the signals from the successive axles. Finally, the signals are contaminated with noise and the robustness of the method is investigated

Engineering Parameters in Bioreactor’s Design: A Critical Aspect in Tissue Engineering

Bioreactors are important inevitable part of any tissue engineering (TE) strategy as they aid the construction of three-dimensional functional tissues. Since the ultimate aim of a bioreactor is to create a biological product, the engineering parameters, for example, internal and external mass transfer, fluid velocity, shear stress, electrical current distribution, and so forth, are worth to be thoroughly investigated. The effects of such engineering parameters on biological cultures have been addressed in only a few preceding studies. Furthermore, it would be highly inefficient to determine the optimal engineering parameters by trial and error method. A solution is provided by emerging modeling and computational tools and by analyzing oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nutrient and metabolism waste material transports, which can simulate and predict the experimental results. Discovering the optimal engineering parameters is crucial not only to reduce the cost and time of experiments, but also to enhance efficacy and functionality of the tissue construct. This review intends to provide an inclusive package of the engineering parameters together with their calculation procedure in addition to the modeling techniques in TE bioreactors

Dose-dependent biphasic leptin-induced proliferation is caused by non-specific IL-6/NF-κB pathway activation in human myometrial cells

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Leptin, an adipokine synthesized by the placenta during pregnancy, has been proposed for the management of preterm labour (PTL), as it is able to prevent in vitro uterine contractility and remodelling associated with labour onset. Another common feature of labour onset is the phenotypic switch of myometrial smooth muscle cells from a proliferative to a hypertrophic state. As proliferative effects have been demonstrated for leptin in other tissues, we aimed to investigate its ability to induce myometrial proliferation and thus to maintain uterine quiescence. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: We stimulated human primary myometrial smooth muscle cells with leptin in the presence or absence of receptor antagonists or signalling pathway inhibitors. KEY RESULTS: Leptin induced myometrial cell proliferation in a biphasic manner. At 6.25 ng·mL(−1), leptin-induced proliferation was mediated by the leptin receptor and required the early activation of ERK1/2. At a concentration above 25 ng·mL(−1), leptin induced direct non-specific stimulation of the IL-6 receptor, leading to NF-κB activation, and exerted anti-proliferative effects. However, at 50 ng·mL(−1), leptin re-induces proliferation via IL-6 receptor stimulation that requires STAT3 and delayed ERK1/2 activation. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: These data bring new insights into leptin signalling-induced myometrial proliferation and its interrelationship with the IL-6/IL-6 receptor axis. In the light of our previous work, the present study emphasizes the potential value of leptin in the pharmacological management of PTL and it also strengthens the hypothesis that leptin might be a contributory factor in the parturition-related disorders observed in obese women