Acute Interstitial Pneumonia in Siblings: A Case Report

Acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) is a rapidly progressive condition of unknown cause that occurs in a previously healthy individual and produces the histologic findings of diffuse alveolar damage. Since the term AIP was first introduced in 1986, there have been very few case reports of AIP in children. Here we present a case of AIP in a 3-yr-old girl whose other two siblings showed similar radiologic findings. The patient was confirmed to have AIP from autopsy showing histological findings of diffuse alveolar damage and proliferation of fibroblasts. Her 3-yr-old brother was also clinically and radiologically highly suspected as having AIP, and the other asymptomatic 8-yr-old sister was radiologically suspected as having AIP

Towards Optimal Decoding for Polar Codes

In the conventional successive cancellation (SC) decoder for polar codes, all the future bits to be estimated later are treated as random variables. However, polar codes inevitably involve frozen bits, and their concatenated coding schemes also include parity bits causally generated from the past bits estimated earlier. We refer to the frozen and parity bits located behind a target decoding bit as its future constraints (FCs). Although the values of FCs are deterministic given the past estimates, they have not been exploited in the conventional SC-based decoders, not leading to optimality. In this paper, we propose SC-check (SCC) and belief-propagation SCC (BP-SCC) decoding algorithms in order to leverage FCs in decoding.We further devise a tree search technique based on stack-based backjumping (SBJ) to solve dynamic constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) formulated by FCs. Over the binary erasure channel (BEC), numerical results show that a combination of the BP-SCC algorithm and the SBJ tree search technique achieves the erasure recovery performance close to the dependence testing (DT) bound, a bound of achievable finite-length performance

Comparative study on multibody vehicle dynamics models based on subsystem synthesis method using Cartesian and joint coordinates

AbstractThe subsystem synthesis method has been developed in order to improve computational efficiency for a multibody vehicle dynamics model. Using the subsystem synthesis method, equations of motion of the base body and each subsystem can be solved separately. In the subsystem synthesis method, various coordinate systems can be used and various integration methods can be applied in each subsystem, as long as the effective mass matrix and the effective force vector are properly produced. In this paper, comparative study has been carried out for the subsystem synthesis method with Cartesian coordinates and with joint relative coordinates. Two different integration methods such as an explicit integrator and an explicit implicit integrator are employed. In order to see the accuracy and computational efficiency from the different models based on the different coordinate systems and different integration methods, a rough terrain run simulations has been carried out with a 6 × 6 off-road multibody vehicle model

Collective resonance modes of Josephson vortices in sandwiched stack of Bi2_{2}Sr2_{2}CaCu2_{2}O8+x_{8+x} intrinsic Josephson junctions

We observed splitting of the low-bias vortex-flow branch in a dense-Josephson-vortex state into multiple sub-branches in current-voltage characteristics of intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) of Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+x}$ single crystals in the long-junction limit. Each sub-branch corresponds to a plasma mode in serially coupled Josephson junctions. Splitting into low-bias linear sub-branches with a spread in the slopes and the inter-sub-branch mode-switching character are in good quantitative agreement with the prediction of the weak but finite inter-junction capacitive-coupling model incorporated with the inductive coupling. This suggests the importance of the role of the capacitive coupling in accurately describing the vortex dynamics in serially stacked IJJs.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Embedded arrays of vertically aligned carbon nanotube carpets and methods for making them

According to some embodiments, the present invention provides a system and method for supporting a carbon nanotube array that involve an entangled carbon nanotube mat integral with the array, where the mat is embedded in an embedding material. The embedding material may be depositable on a carbon nanotube. A depositable material may be metallic or nonmetallic. The embedding material may be an adhesive material. The adhesive material may optionally be mixed with a metal powder. The embedding material may be supported by a substrate or self-supportive. The embedding material may be conductive or nonconductive. The system and method provide superior mechanical and, when applicable, electrical, contact between the carbon nanotubes in the array and the embedding material. The optional use of a conductive material for the embedding material provides a mechanism useful for integration of carbon nanotube arrays into electronic devices