Accelerated Life Testing to Predict Service Life and Reliability for an Appliance Door Hinge

Appliance manufacturers have traditionally performed physical testing using prototypes to assess reliability and service integrity of new product designs. However, for white goods where service lives are measured in years or decades, the use of endurance testing to analyze long time reliability is uneconomical. As accelerated life testing (ALT) is more efficient and less costly than traditional reliability testing, the methodology is finding increased usage by appliance manufacturers. In the present study, a simulation-based ALT approach was used to predict the service life of a polyacetal hinge cam from a consumer refrigerator. A predictive life stress model based on cumulative surface wear under accelerated stress conditions was developed and used to predict time to failure under consumer use. Results show that the life stress model demonstrated good agreement with performance testing data and reasonably predicts hinge life

Effect of Aquatic Exercise on Foot Pressure Balance and Posture Stability in Elderly Women

The purpose was investigate the foot pressure balance and body posture stability in elderly women. Sixteen elderly women participated in this study (mean age:72.63?~79.38?.46yrs, mean BMI: 25.03?.83~27.99?.78). They were divided into two groups (aqua exercise group, n=8, control group, n=8). Participants were tested before and after the study to measure foot pressure balance, body posture stability and advanced balance ability(limits of stability) were measured Biorescure(RM Ingenierie Co, France) which has % quarterly sector(RF, LF, RB, LB). Aqua exercise training program was performed for 50minutes per session, 3times per week for 12weeks. Data was analyzed with ANOVA for repeated measures, t-test using SPSS ver 19.0 program. Aquatic exercise considered a senior citizen fall prevention and improved quality of life

Hepatocellular Carcinoma Arising in a Huge Hepatocellular Adenoma with Bone Marrow Metaplasia

Hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) is the most common type of benign liver tumor, and its major complication is malignant transformation to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we report a case of HCC arising in HCA with bone marrow metaplasia in a 24-year-old Korean woman who presented with abdominal discomfort. A huge liver mass was found on abdominal ultrasonography. She underwent surgical hepatic resection, and the resected specimen was entirely involved by a 20-cm-sized tumor. Histological review revealed a well differentiated HCC arising from inflammatory HCA with β-catenin nuclear positivity and bone marrow metaplasia that contained hematopoietic cells. This case was unique because malignant transformation, inflammatory type HCA, β-catenin nuclear staining, and bone marrow metaplasia were simultaneously observed. Additionally, it should be noted that a large HCA with β-catenin activation can undergo malignant transformation and should be surgically resected in a timely manner

Carbon nanotube diode fabricated by contact engineering with self-assembled molecules

The authors report the construction of carbon nanotube Schottky diodes by covering a selectively exposed area of the electrode with self-assembling molecules. Two self-assembling molecules with different polarities, 2-aminoethanethiol and 3-mercaptopropionic acid, were used to modify the Fermi level lineup at the selected contact. The devices showed p -type behavior with symmetric I-V showing clear rectifying behavior after treatment of one contact with 2-aminoethanethiol. Their experiment, in conjunction with the results of ab initio electronic structure calculations, suggests that the diode action stems from the asymmetric Fermi level lineup between the bare and engineered contacts.open131

Synchronous double primary malignant tumor of the gallbladder and liver: a case report

We report a case of synchronous double primary tumor of gallbladder and liver. A 63-year-old male was admitted to the hospital complaining of abdominal discomfort. Enhanced computed tomography of the abdomen showed acute cholecystitis with tiny gallbladder stones and a 2.2 cm size enhanced nodule in the left lobe of the liver. Under the impression of acute cholecystitis with gall bladder stones and hepatocellular carcinoma of the left Liver, the patient underwent a laparotomy. At laparotomy, a mass was palpated on the surface of the neck portion of the gall bladder. Intraoperative frozen diagnosis revealed adenocarcinoma of the gall bladder. The patient was diagnosed as having gall bladder cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, so extended cholecystectomy with dissection of regional lymph nodes and left hemihepatectomy were performed. Histological examination revealed moderated differentiated adenocarcinoma of gallbladder and hepatocellular carcinoma of liver. To our knowledge, the simultaneous occurrence of primary malignant tumor of the gallbladder and liver has never been published before. The patient is doing well with no evidence of recurrence 17 months after surgery

Design and Implementation of Storage System Using Byte-index Chunking Scheme

In this paper, we present an enhanced storage system that supports Byte-index chunking algorithm. The storage system aims to provide efficient data deduplication with high performance and to be performed in rapid time. We describe the overall procedure of Byteindex chunking based storage system including read/write procedure and how the system works. The key idea of Byte-index chunking is to adapt fixed-size block chunk scheme which are distributed to “Index-table ” by chunk’s both side boundary values. We have found that Byte-index chunking in storage system provides high performance compared with other chunking schemes. Experiments result shows that the storage system with Byte-index chunking compresses overall data with high deduplication capability and reduce the speed of file processing

The clinical usefulness of initial serum procalcitonin as an aggravation predictor in a hepatobiliary tract infection at emergency department

Background and Objectives: The ability to predict future clinical deterioration early in patients who present to an emergency care center with a hepatobiliary tract infection is difficult. We studied the clinical usefulness of the initial serum levels of procalcitonin in a hepatobiliary tract infection as an indicator for predicting aggravation in the early stages.Methods: Of the patients who presented with the clinical symptoms of a hepatobiliary tract infection, 99 were diagnosed with a hepatobiliary tract infection by imaging studies and subsequently enrolled in the study. Laboratory tests were obtained in the early stage of disease after presentation to an emergency care center. We assessed and compared the serum levels of many early inflammatory markers (white blood cell [WBC] counts, C‑reactive protein and procalcitonin) between patients whose symptoms were initially stable upon arrival to an emergency care center but then deteriorated to, those whose symptoms remained consistently stable. Thus, we examined if the above serum markers are useful in predicting the possibility of future symptom aggravation.Results: Of a total of 99 patients, 27 were assigned to the symptom aggravation group. The serum levels of WBC counts and C‑reactive protein in the aggravation group were elevated. However, the median value (interquartile range) of procalcitonin was relatively increased at 2.28 (0.41–7.84 ng/ml), demonstrating a significant difference.Conclusions: In conclusion, initial serum levels of procalcitonin might be used as an indicator for aggravation in patients with hepatobiliary tract infection at the emergency department, even though there is hemodynamic stability.Key words: Hepatobiliary tract, infection, procalcitoni