Efficacy of surgical treatment in traumatic central cord syndrome

BACKGROUND: Controversy surrounds the treatment of traumatic central cord syndrome (TCCS), as there are strong advocates for nonsurgical treatment for most patients. However, conservative treatment has been shown to yield a longer period of discomfort from pain and weakness in certain cases. METHODS: In a retrospective review of 114 patients presenting with acute or chronic TCCS from 1988-94, four different age groups were separately observed under different treatments. Motor and sensory recovery were assessed. RESULTS: Better results were achieved in younger patients, with or without radiographic abnormalities, and in patients with clinically correlated encroaching cord lesions who received early surgical decompression. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical intervention for TCCS must be addressed with careful clinical and radiographic survey. Removal of offending lesions in the subacute period results in significant motor and sensory improvement in short-term and long-term follow-up.     

Design of optimum signals for the simultaneous estimation of timedelay and Doppler shift

The problem of joint estimation of time delay and Doppler shift is considered from the point of view of the Wigner distribution of the signal. A very efficient method of obtaining the optimum signal with minimum estimation error based on the convexity of the design region is developed. Practical applications, however, require the signal to satisfy other constraints which present complications in acquiring the optimum signal. A design approach based on the method of simulated annealing is suggested to solve for the optimum signal under constraints. The performance of the signals so obtained is evaluated and compared with that of signals obtained by synthesis     

Effects of chronic U50,488H treatment on binding and mechanical responses of the rat hearts

The effects of chronic injection of U50,488H (trans-3,4-dichloro-N-[2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)cyclohexyl]benzeacetamidel++ +), a selective kappa opioid agonist, on the properties of the binding sites of tritiated U69593 [(5 alpha,7 alpha,8 beta)-(-)-N-methyl-N-(7-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-oxaspiro (4,5)dec-8-yl)benzeneacetamide], another selective kappa opioid agonist, and mechanical responses to U50,488H of the heart were studied. Rats received injection twice a day with U50,488H for 4 days. Binding studies on the crude membrane homogenates revealed that there was no change in maximum binding, but a significant increase in Kd after the treatment, indicating that the number of kappa binding sites remained unchanged whereas the affinity of the binding sites to kappa-agonist decreased. The study on the mechanical responses to U50,488H in the isolated perfused heart preparation showed that although the agonist at 10(-6) M caused MR2266 reversible reductions in heart rate and force of contraction as well as ventricular ectopic beat in the heart of rats in the control group, its effects were absent in the U50,488H-treated group, indicating the development of tolerance to the mechanical effects of U50,488H on the heart. The results indicate that the development of tolerance to the mechanical effects of a kappa-agonist after chronic treatment with the agonist was not accompanied by down-regulation, but only a slight and significant reduction in affinity of kappa binding sites in the rat heart.     

标准串行交换技术蔚为主流 洞悉PCI Express与先进交换标准特性

背板互连特性 背板是位于机架内的互连装置,它可能具备或不具备智能功能,通常其上可以有各种插卡和电路板插在插槽上.被动式背板电路可能需要使用电阻、处理器或一些控制驱动器电路.过去,背板互连一直是附加的物理端口如插头、插座或无线端口,如发射器、接收器等装置.大部分情况下,背板上都会为交换卡保留1～2个插槽作为背板的基础架构和逻辑层.     

能消除RGB差分视频传输线上共模噪声的放大器

5类网络电缆由四对双绞线组成,并有耐用的外套,这种电缆能为分量视频信号的传输提供一种通用而有良好性价比的选择。三个线对可以承载RGB视频信号,而第四对线可以承载音频信号、同步信号和其它传输信号。不幸的是,5类电缆缺乏屏蔽,因此容易遭受共模噪声耦合     

Yield surface linearization in elastoplastic analysis

A method for the historical elastoplastic analysis of plane frames under the assumption of small deformation theory is presented. Interaction of bending moment and axial force is taken into account. A major feature of the procedure lies in the piecewise linearization of the convex nonlinear yield surface, thereby guaranteeing the satisfaction of both equilibrium and yield conditions. Local unloading can also be catered for. A computer program based on this technique has been written and three simple numerical examples are given to illustrate its capabilities.     

Retinal neurostimulator for a multifocal vision prosthesis.

A neurostimulator application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) with scalable circuitry that can stimulate 14 channels, has been developed for an epi-retinal vision prosthesis. This ASIC was designed to allow seven identical units to be connected to control up to 98 channels, with the ability to stimulate 14 electrodes simultaneously. The neurostimulator forms part of a vision prosthesis, designed to restore vision to patients who have lost their sight due to retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. For charge balance, the neurostimulator was designed to stimulate with current sources and sinks operating together, and with the ability to drive a hexagonal mosaic of electrodes to reduce the electrical crosstalk that occurs when multiple bipolar stimulation sites are active simultaneously. A hexagonal mosaic of electrodes surrounds each stimulation site and has been shown to effectively isolate each site, increasing the ability to inject localized independent charge into multiple regions simultaneously.     

Nanoindentation mapping of mechanical properties of cement paste and natural rocks

This paper reports a study to assess nanoindentation mapping of mechanical properties of cement paste and natural rocks. Initial work seems to show that mechanical property mapping by nanoindentation is feasible and can be related to microscopic information. Further work is however required on the effect of indent size and spacing. Such a testing technique can be very useful for materials with different phases to study the intrinsic properties of each component, and also the interaction and properties of the interfacial regions of different phases. The values of Young's modulus and hardness of the individual mineral phases were also determined by statistically analysing a large number of experimental data.