Effect of preoperative supplementation with alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid on myocardial injury in patients undergoing cardiac operations

Augmentation of antioxidant defenses may help protect tissues against ischemia-reperfusion injury associated with operations involving cardiopulmonary bypass. In this study we examined the effect of pretreating patients with alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or placebo on injury to the myocardium. Seventy-six subjects undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting participated in a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial, receiving either placebo or both 750 IU dl-alpha-tocopherol per day for 7 to 10 days and 1 gm ascorbic acid 12 hours before the operation. Plasma alpha-tocopherol concentrations, raised fourfold by supplementation, fell by 70% after the operation in the supplemented group and to negligible levels in the placebo group. There were no significant differences between the groups with respect to release of creatine kinase MB isoenzyme over 72 hours, nor in the reduction of the myocardial perfusion defect determined by thallium 201 uptake. Electrocardiography provided no evidence of a benefit from antioxidant supplementation. Thus the supplementation regimen prevented the depletion of the primary lipid soluble antioxidant in plasma, but provided no measurable reduction in myocardial injury after the operation.     

Ensuring primary realization of pressure unit in the vacuum range without typically utilized static expansion system

After the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993 the primary metrological standards authority almost fully remained in Slovakia. So we had to build our primary vacuum metrology anew. But we could do it using uptodate techniques that are more effective and they enable us to fulfil our task more effectively and in a shorter time.The steady demand to widen the lower pressure range and a steady demand for maximal accuracy collide with the financial possibilities open to a small country. So it is impossible to follow the classical pattern for the vacuum standards: liquid columns, static expansion system and dynamic expansion system. But it is possible to utilize contemporary progress in construction of piston manometers. This enables us to discard liquid column and static expansion techniques in favour of piston technique [Tesar J, Prazak D. Vacuum 2002; 67: 311, Tesar J, Prazak D, Krajicek Z. In:Proceedings of international symposium on Pressure and Vacuum, 2003. p. 169, Tesar J, Repa P, Prazak D, Krajicek Z, Peksa L. Vacuum 2004; 76: 491.]. Such system fulfils all the needs of a little industrial country and is economically acceptable.     

Implementations of a four-level mechanical architecture for fault-tolerant robots

This paper describes a fault tolerant mechanical architecture with four levels devised and implemented in concert with NASA (Tesar, D. & Sreevijayan, D., Four-level fault tolerance in manipulator design for space operations. In First Int. Symp. Measurement and Control in Robotics (ISMCR '90), Houston, Texas, 20–22 June 1990.) Subsequent work has clarified and revised the architecture. The four levels proceed from fault tolerance at the actuator level, to fault tolerance via in-parallel chains, to fault tolerance using serial kinematic redundancy, and finally to the fault tolerance multiple arm systems provide. This is a subsumptive architecture because each successive layer can incorporate the fault tolerance provided by all layers beneath. For instance a serially-redundant robot can incorporate dual fault-tolerant actuators. Redundant systems provide the fault tolerance, but the guiding principle of this architecture is that functional redundancies actively increase the performance of the system. Redundancies do not simply remain dormant until needed. This paper includes specific examples of hardware and/or software implementation at all four levels.     

Change in Refractive Index of a Borosilicate Glass Fiber Annealed Below the Glass Transformation Temperature

Glass fibers pulled from multihole bushings can have a slight difference in thermal history that causes a distribution in the refractive index that can be narrowed by annealing the fibers. The kinetics for the initial stage change in refractive index for fiber annealed between 300° and 500°C are best described by a second-order reaction with an activation energy of 120° 17 kj/mol. The improved uniformity in refractive index for annealed fibers is indicated by a decrease in the half-height width of the optical transmission versus temperature curve for glass fiber immersed in a liquid. The standard deviation in the refractive index of glass fibers with a bimodal distribution in diameter decreases from 8 × 10^-4≤0.0002 to 4 × 10^-4 0.0002 after the fibers are annealed at 400°C for 1 h.     

Glass Formation and Properties in the System Calcia-Gallia-Silica

The glass-formation region of the calcia-gallia-silica system was determined. The glasses within this region were measured to have a density of 3 to 4 g/cm³, a refractive index of 1.6 to 1.73, an Abbe number between 35 and 58, a thermal expansion coefficient of 6.5 × 10⁻⁷/°C to 11.5 × 10⁻⁷/°C, softening temperatures between 730° and 790°C, and a Vickers microhardness of 5.2 to 7.3 GPa. Crystalline phases were identified along the glass-formation boundary. Infrared transmission spectra were used to explain glass structures and their effect on glass properties. The results suggest that the role of calcia in the glass structure is similar to that for calcia in calcium aluminosilicate glasses.     

Color and Selected Properties of PbO─BiO1.5─GaO1.5 Glasses

The density; molar volume; thermal expansion coefficient; dissolution rate in water, HC1, and NaOH; glass transition and crystallization temperatures; and the absorption edge in the ultraviolet-visible and infrared were measured for PbO─BiO1.5─GaO1.5 glasses. The range of compositions investigated was x PbO (100 − (x + y) )BiO_1.5. yGaO_1.5 for x between 20 and 60 cat% and y of 20, 25, 30, and 35 cat%. The glass-forming tendency increased with increased GaO_1.5 and decreased with increased PbO or BiO_1.5. The compositional dependence of these properties was consistent with the weight, size, charge, and bond strength of the cations. The Ga^{3 +} ions in these glasses are believed to act primarily as network-forming cations, whereas the majority of the Bi³⁺ and Pb²⁺ ions behave as network-modifying cations. It is suggested that a small friction of the lead ions are present as Pb⁴⁺. Depending upon melting conditions, these glasses ranged in color from brown to yellow. Various attempts, including containerless melting, were made to obtain colorless glasses, but no conditions were found which totally eliminated the color. The least color (pale yellow) was obtained when the glasses were melted in an air or nitrogen atmosphere in an alumina or gold crucible.     

The new method of traceability of a force-balanced piston gauge used as primary vacuum standard

The force-balanced piston gauge is a primary vacuum standard developed in the 1990s. The general principle of the instrument was first presented in Ooiwa A (Metrologia 30 (1994) 607). Non-rotating piston is connected to an electronic dynamometer and centered by means of transient gas flow in a double tapered gap between piston and cylinder. More details about it can be found in Delajoud, Girard(NCSL International Workshop and Symposium 2002; Vakuum Forschung Praxis 15 (2003) 24) and Tesar, Prazak(Vacuum 67 (2002) 307).Czech Metrology Institute developed its own method of the primary traceability of this instrument through the determination of its effective area. In this paper, there will be described experimental setup of this comparison as well as the experimental results from the traceability calibrations of the effective area in gauge and absolute mode using experimental method of hydrostatic comparison with the classical rotating piston balances and a digital non-rotating piston balance. It will, of course, include the uncertainty budget of this way of traceability and the final uncertainty of the pressure generation of the instrument.