A study on anticoagulation for cardiovascular diseases using international normalized ratio (INR)

The usefulness of INR as an index for assessing anticoagulation was studied using 85 outpatients, all suffering cardiovascular diseases and receiving warfain as subjects. The thrombotest, prothrombin time and INR were measured at follow-up, monthly intervals. The correlation between the thrombotest value and the INR value were assessed retrospectively. We found a stronged correlation between them. The 10 approximately 25% range of the thrombotest value, the therapeutic range, corresponded to 2.29 approximately 3.60 of the INR value. The INR value was more accurate than the thrombotest valve in the situation of prolonged coagulation time. It is recommended to use INR as an objective index for the anticoagulation due to increase accuracy and objectivity when comparing the data among the various institutions.     

Effect of tylosin tartrate on humoral immune responses in chickens

This article examines the 50-year struggle of osteopathic physicians to gain entry into the US Military Medical Corps on the same basis as allopathic physicians. The author explores various arguments put forth by both physician groups, as well as those arguments presented by the respective surgeons general and relevant government officials.     

Conductive Fabric Garment for a Cable-Free Body Area Network

Theoretical analysis and experimentation show that a prototype body area network composed of 20 electrically conductive fabric sheets can transmit both signals and DC power sufficient for implementing a cable-free network in a garment. This wearable system has broad applications. The applications presented represent just two areas where our garment technology can be useful in the health-monitoring domain. As wearable computing matures, alternative electronic systems like ours can play a larger role in applications. Meanwhile, the DC-PLC system we've developed presents a workable model for the design of CF garments     

Photorefractive device using self-assembled monolayer coated indium-tin-oxide electrodes

Photorefractive (PR) performances of methyl-substituted poly(triarylamine) (PTAA)-based PR device were demonstrated using chemically modified electrodes (CMEs) of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) coated indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrodes. The SAM-ITO electrodes successfully suppressed dark current which blocks the formation of space-charge field and also causes the dielectric breakdown. The PR device consisted of composite of PTAA, 4-azacycloheptylbenzylidenemalononitrile (7-DCST), N-ethylcarbazole (ECz), and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) sandwiched between the SAM-ITO electrodes. The PR devices showed the PR performances: optical gain Γ, refractive index Δn, diffraction efficiency η, response time τ, sensitivity S, phase shift Φ, trap-limited field E_q, number density of traps N_T, and space-charge field E_SC. The remarkable response time of 11.3 ms was achieved at the low electric field of 20 V μm⁻¹, which was comparable to the response time of high-definition television (HDTV) quality of 16 ms. Our approach will widen the usage of higher mobility materials to photorefractive field and give us more favorable materials to achieve the best performance of photorefractivity in the future.     

Nonlinear Feedback Control of a Gravity-Assisted Underactuated Manipulator With Application to Aircraft Assembly

A nonlinear feedback scheme for a gravity-assisted underactuated manipulator with second-order nonholonomic constraints is presented in this paper. The joints of the hyper articulated arm have no dedicated actuators but are activated by gravity. By tilting the base link appropriately, the gravitational torque drives the unactuated links to a desired angular position. With simple locking mechanisms, the hyperarticulated arm can change its configuration using only one actuator at the base. This underactuated arm design was motivated by the need for a compact snake-like robot that can go into aircraft wings and perform assembly operations using heavy end-effectors. The dynamics of the unactuated links are essentially second-order nonholonomic constraints for which there are no general methods to design closed-loop control. We propose a nonlinear closed-loop control law that is guaranteed to be stable in positioning one unactuated joint at a time. We synthesize a Lyapunov function to prove the convergence of this control scheme. The Lyapunov function also generates estimates of the domain of convergence of the control law for various control gains. The control algorithm is implemented on a prototype three-link system. Finally, we provide some experimental results to demonstrate the efficacy of the control scheme.     

Improvement of light fastness of natural dyes. Part 2: Effect of functional phenyl esters on the photofading of carthamin in polymeric substrate†

The photofading behaviour of carthamin in cellulose acetate film was investigated. A contribution from singlet oxygen to that fading was suggested. Phenyl esters containing nickel sulphonate quenching groups were prepared and the protecting effect of these compounds towards the photofading of carthamin was examined in cellulose acetate film. It is proposed that nickel sulphonate derivatives of phenyl esters can be applied as effective stabilisers against the fading of natural dyes.     

Fermi surface of NbO

Studies of the dHvA effect have been made on NbO single crystals grown by a zone melting techniques and 13 separate frequency branches ranging from 5.2×10⁶ G to 1.2×10⁸G have been observed. To understand the origin of the dHvA frequencies, we have made a self-consistent band structure calculation. Most experimental frequencies are found to be assigned to the extremal orbits on the calculated Fermi surfaces. There is good qualitative agreement between experiment and calculation, but some quantitative discrepancies still exist. We also report some physical properties, i.e., electrical resistivity, superconducting transition temperature, and electronic specific heat, of this high-quality NbO crystal.