Stability and dynamics of rotating dielectrophoretic equilibria

Design of dielectrophoretic liquid orientation and expulsion systems for zero gravity environments with maximum electromechanical effects of imposed electric fiel

A Last Kiss

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1947/thumbnail.jp

Application of Design of Experiments to Extrusion Freeform Fabrication (EFF) of Functional Ceramic Prototypes

Extrusion Freeform Fabrication (EFF) is an adaptation of the Stratasys Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process for the Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) of functional ceramic prototypes. It is a complex process involving many process variables, including parameters that are operation, machine, materials, and geometry specific. A Taguchi factorial Design of Experiments (DOE) technique was utilized to study the effects of machine specific process parameters as well as their interactions based on the mechanical and physical properties of sintered ceramics specimens. Post-processing software was developed to control and modify these parameters. This software interface wasdesigned to mimic the Quickslice™ interface for setting motion parameters based upon the material and the operation. The results of this investigation provided useful information for the experimental analysis of the machine specific process parameters. Suitable parameters were selected for the EFF process for fabricating representative ceramic prototypes. With the optimized parameters, complicated parts were successfully fabricated using both Kyocera SN282 and Starck M-11 silicon nitride powders.Mechanical Engineerin

Ultrasonic locating devices for central venous cannulation: meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES: To assess the evidence for the clinical effectiveness of ultrasound guided central venous cannulation. DATA SOURCES: 15 electronic bibliographic databases, covering biomedical, science, social science, health economics, and grey literature. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. POPULATIONS: Patients scheduled for central venous access. INTERVENTION REVIEWED: Guidance using real time two dimensional ultrasonography or Doppler needles and probes compared with the anatomical landmark method of cannulation. DATA EXTRACTION: Risk of failed catheter placement (primary outcome), risk of complications from placement, risk of failure on first attempt at placement, number of attempts to successful catheterisation, and time (seconds) to successful catheterisation. DATA SYNTHESIS: 18 trials (1646 participants) were identified. Compared with the landmark method, real time two dimensional ultrasound guidance for cannulating the internal jugular vein in adults was associated with a significantly lower failure rate both overall (relative risk 0.14, 95% confidence interval 0.06 to 0.33) and on the first attempt (0.59, 0.39 to 0.88). Limited evidence favoured two dimensional ultrasound guidance for subclavian vein and femoral vein procedures in adults (0.14, 0.04 to 0.57 and 0.29, 0.07 to 1.21, respectively). Three studies in infants confirmed a higher success rate with two dimensional ultrasonography for internal jugular procedures (0.15, 0.03 to 0.64). Doppler guided cannulation of the internal jugular vein in adults was more successful than the landmark method (0.39, 0.17 to 0.92), but the landmark method was more successful for subclavian vein procedures (1.48, 1.03 to 2.14). No significant difference was found between these techniques for cannulation of the internal jugular vein in infants. An indirect comparison of relative risks suggested that two dimensional ultrasonography would be more successful than Doppler guidance for subclavian vein procedures in adults (0.09, 0.02 to 0.38). CONCLUSIONS: Evidence supports the use of two dimensional ultrasonography for central venous cannulation

The Inherent Disadvantage of the Presidential Party in Midterm Congressional Elections

The almost inevitable midterm election loss suffered by the president's congressional party still lacks a complete explanation. It is argued here that the policy positions of the president help shape voters' perceptions of the positions of congressional candidates. Because the president implements policies before the midterm campaign begins, and because he has goals apart from winning seats in Congress, his party's candidates are at a disadvantage, relative to their opponents, in communicating the most favorable positions possible to their voters. This model of the midterm campaign not only explains midterm losses, but also accounts for rare failures of this phenomenon, as occurred in 1934

Stability of the dystrophin rod domain fold: evidence for nested repeating units

An examination of fragments of the human dystrophin rod domain, corresponding to a single structural repeating unit, showed that a critical chain length, defined with a precision of one residue at the C-terminal end, is required for formation of the native tertiary fold. We report here that extending the chain by six residues beyond this minimum results in a large increase in conformational stability. This is not related to a change in association state of the polypeptide. The results support the conjecture that successive repeating units in the rod domain of the spectrinlike proteins form a nested structure, in which the N-terminal part of the three-helix bundle of one repeat packs into the overlapping structure of the preceding repeat. This would be expected to affect functional characteristics related to flexibility of the dystrophin rod domain

The prevalence of medical reasons for non-participation in the Scottish breast and bowel cancer screening programmes

Objective: Increasing uptake of cancer screening is a priority for health systems internationally, however, some patients may not attend because they are undergoing active treatment for the cancer of interest or have other medical reasons that mean participation would be inappropriate. This study aims to quantify the proportion of non-participants who have a medical reason for not attending cancer screening.<p></p> Methods: Medical reasons for not participating in breast and bowel screening were defined a priori on the basis of a literature review and expert opinion. The notes of 700 patients at two GP practices in Scotland were reviewed, to ascertain the prevalence of medical reasons amongst non-participants. Simple proportions and confidence intervals were calculated.<p></p> Results: 17.4% of breast and 2.3% of bowel screening non-participants had a medical reason to not participate. The two most common reasons were previous breast cancer follow up (8.86%) and recent mammogram (6.57%).<p></p> Conclusion: These patients may not benefit from screening while also being distressed by receiving an invitation. This issue also makes accurate monitoring and target-setting for improving uptake difficult. Further work is needed to estimate robustly the extent to which medical reasons account for screening non-participation in a larger population.<p></p&gt