Topical use of aprotinin in open heart operations

Among various pharmacological agents used to reduce bleeding after open-heart operations, high-dose aprotinin therapy seems most promising. However, its long-term effects are still obscure; there is almost always possibility of bypass graft occlusions produced by the hypercoagulable state induced by aprotinin in coronary bypass operations. Topical application of aprotinin into the pericardial cavity could prevent the adverse effects. Fifty patients were prospectively studied to evaluate the effects of topical aprotinin. One million KIU of aprotinin was poured into the pericardial cavity before closure of the sternotomy in group 1 (n = 25). Patients in group 2 (n = 25) served as controls. Total postoperative bleeding was significantly reduced in group 1 when compared with that of group 2 (722.7 +/- 230.8 versus 1,282.6 +/- 225.7 mL; p < 0.01). The use of banked donor blood products was significantly less in group 1 than in group 2 (0.33 +/- 0.67 versus 1.36 +/- 0.86 units; p < 0.01). These results show that topical use of aprotinin reduces post-operative blood loss and need for transfusion. It seems promising and warrants further studies to be done.     

Polarisation insensitive semiconductor optical amplifier withintegrated electroabsorption modulators

The authors demonstrate a 1.55 μm wavelength multiquantum well semiconductor optical amplifier, integrated with bulk layer electroabsorption modulators and passive waveguide beam expanders at the input and output ports. The device has a fibre to fibre gain of 9 dB, an extinction ratio of 15 dB per modulator, a spectral range >35 nm, and polarisation sensitivity <1 dB     

Irritancy testing in occupational dermatology: comparison between two quick tests and the acute irritation induced by sodium lauryl sulphate

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of exploratory vitrectomy for certain traumatized eyes with no light perception (NLP) and dense vitreous hemorrhage. METHOD: We performed vitrectomy on 10 patients with NLP eyes after ocular trauma. Of them, eight had open globe injuries and two had closed blunt ocular trauma. RESULTS: Postoperatively, six had visual acuities of light perception to 0.25 and four remained NLP. In most eyes, a potentially functional posterior retina and optic disc were observed during surgery. CONCLUSION: Dense vitreous hemorrhage could be the most important factor for NLP after severe ocular trauma. Therefore, NLP does not always mean permanent loss of vision. Proper primary repair of the wound and timely vitrectomy may give a chance of visual recovery in selected traumatized eyes.     

Wavelet packet based channel equalization

Recently, considerable amount of attention is being given to the field of wavelets and wavelet packets. It has found numerous applications in signal representation, image compression and applied mathematics. In this paper, we present a channel equalization method based on wavelet packets. The proposed equalizer structure is based on the fact that for sufficiently narrowband sequences, a non-ideal channel can be modelled as an attenuation and delay. If the data sequence is used to modulate a set of narrowband wavelet packets, then no equalization is required at the receiver end. The equalization problem reduces to that of determining the delay introduced by the channel for each of the wavelet packets. A minimum square variance algorithm for adaptively choosing the delay has been proposed. This algorithm has been shown to perform as desired analytically in a simple delay channel case. Simulations have been used to study its performance in the non-ideal channel’s case and the results corroborate theoretical predictions.     

Large purely refractive nonlinear index of single crystal P-toluenesulphonate (PTS) at 1600 nm

Z-scan measurements at 1600 nm on single-crystal PTS (p-toluene sulfonate) with single, 65 ps pulses gave a complex nonlinear refractive index coefficient of n₂=2.2(±0.3)×10^-12 cm²/W at 1 GW/cm² and α₂<0.5 cm/GW. This is the first highly nonlinear, organic material to satisfy the conditions imposed by the figures of merit     

Three Methods for Determining Nonheme Iron in Turkey Meat

The ferrozine, the Schricker and modified Schricker methods were used to measure the non-heme iron in raw and cooked turkey meat. The ferrozine method gave the lowest non-heme iron values, while results from the Schricker and modified Schricker were not different (p<0.05). When hemoglobin (Hb) was added to breast meat, how-ever, differences (p<0.05) between the Schricker and modified Schricker, and Schricker and ferrozine methods were observed in cooked meat with NaCl. Cooking and addition of NaCl caused increase in measured nonheme iron content and had a synergistic effect on the release of nonheme iron in meat.     

Thermally excited silicon oxide beam and bridge resonators in CMOStechnology

The design, fabrication, and characterization of thermally excited silicon oxide beam and bridge resonators by a modern industrial CMOS process combined with one additional maskless etching step is reported. The resonant frequencies, vibration amplitudes, and mode shapes of the devices are measured using a laser heterodyne interferometer. The acoustic transmitting and receiving sensitivities of the resonant structures in air are investigated in order to test their possible application as ultrasound transducers for proximity sensing. The experimental results are compared with finite element simulations using ANSYS