Intravascular lymphomatosis: a case presenting with encephalomyelitis and reactive haemophagocytic syndrome diagnosed by renal biopsy

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of characteristics associated with unprotected heterosexual intercourse in HIV infected adults in an urban area. DESIGN: Retrospective comparison of sexual risk transmission behaviour between HIV infected men and women from a drug treatment site and between women from the drug site and HIV infected women from an urban medical centre. METHODS: HIV infected women and men were asked questions on sexual behaviour for a 1 year period before enrollment. The outcome variable was heterosexual risk behaviour (HRB) defined as having vaginal sex at least once in the previous year and not always using condoms. RESULTS: 73% of the drug clinic females, 72% of the drug clinic males, and 42% of the medical centre female engaged in HRB. Using logistic regression analysis, women and men in drug treatment engaged in similar rates of HRB; however, women in drug treatment were four times (95% CI = 2.0-8.3) more likely to engage in HRB risk behaviour than women from the medical centre. CONCLUSION: The data suggest that a surprisingly large portion of HIV infected patients under treatment engaged in HRB, especially former drug users. Without specifically targeted interventions, the heterosexual spread of HIV in urban areas will continue to be a serious problem.     

Elastic properties of human cortical and trabecular lamellar bone measured by nanoindentation

An experimental investigation was undertaken to measure the intrinsic elastic properties of several of the microstructural components of human vertebral trabecular bone and tibial cortical bone by the nanoindentation method. Specimens from two thoracic vertebrae (T-12) and two tibiae were obtained from frozen, unembalmed human male cadavers aged 57 and 61 years. After drying and mounting in epoxy resin nanoindentation tests were conducted to measure Young's modulus and the hardness of individual trabeculae in the vertebrae and single osteons, and interstitial lamellae in the tibiae. Measurements on the vertebral trabeculae were made in the transverse direction, and the average Young's modulus was found to be 13.5 +/- 2.0 GPa. The tibial specimens were tested in the longitudinal direction, yielding moduli of 22.5 +/- 1.3 GPa for the osteons and 25.8 +/- 0.7 GPa for the interstitial lamellae. Analysis of variance showed that the differences in the measured moduli are statistically significant. Hardness differences among the various microstructural components were also observed.     

On the solution to the state failure detection problem

Studies the problem formulated by Ge and Feng (Int. J. Contr., vol.47, p.581-600 (1988)), which is to design a set of observers which can detect and locate unknown system failure to any first-order state component. The present paper proposes a much simpler solution to this problem with less restrictions. Based on this solution, an extended study of the required number of observers and their orders is also provided     

Simple, polarisation-independent, and dispersion-insensitive SCMsignal extraction technique for optical switching systems applications

A dispersion- and polarisation-insensitive all-optical method for transmitting and extracting a subcarrier multiplexed (SCM) signal using a fibre Bragg grating filter without a conventional SCM circuitry is demonstrated. Fibre transmission experiments conducted on standard singlemode fibres of varying lengths up to 80 km showed excellent sensitivity with no apparent fading effects     

A two-stage empirical Bayes method for identifying differentially expressed genes

Due to the high dimensionality of microarray gene expression data and complicated correlations in gene expression levels, statistical methods for analyzing these data often are computationally intensive, requiring special expertise for their implementation. Biologists without such expertise will benefit from a computationally efficient and easy-to-implement analytic method. In this article, we develop such a method: a two-stage empirical Bayes method for identifying differentially expressed genes. We use a special technique to reduce the dimension of the parameter space in the preliminary stage, and construct a Bayesian model in the second stage. The computation of our method is efficient and requires little calibration for real microarray gene expression data. Specifically, we employ statistical tools, including the empirical Bayes estimation and a distribution approximation approach, to speed up computation and at the same time to preserve precision. We develop a score for evaluating the magnitude of the overall differential gene expression levels based on our Bayesian model, and declare differential expression according to the posterior probabilities that their scores exceed some threshold value. The number of declarations is determined by a false discovery rate procedure.     

A complete analytical solution to the equationTA - FT = LCand its applications

In this note, a complete, analytical, and restriction-free solution with complete and explicit freedom of the matrix equationTA - FT = LCis proposed. Here(A, C)is given and is observable, andFis in the Jordan form with arbitrary given eigenvalues. This solution appears to be new because it can be applied directly to obtain significantly better solutions to the following three basic design problems: 1) 2-D system eigenvalue assignment; 2) function observer design; and 3) state feedback eigenstructure design, as shown in this note.     

Frozen-in birefringence and anisotropic shrinkage in optical moldings: II. Comparison of simulations with experiments on light-guide plates

The thermally-, flow-induced and total birefringence components and anisotropic shrinkages in LGP moldings were simulated by using a combination of a CV/FEM/FDM technique nonlinear viscoelastic and photoviscoelastic constitutive equations and orientation functions, as described in Part I of this study. The simulated results were compared with measurements on LGP moldings of a polystyrene (PS) and two optical grade polycarbonates (PCs) OQ1030 and OQ3820 having low and high molecular weights. The thermally-induced birefringence was simulated by a combination of constrained and free cooling during molding. In LGP moldings of PS, the simulated thermally-induced birefringence indicated a minor variation with location in the mold plane, a parabolic shape in the core region and an increase towards the wall. Compared to the flow-induced birefringence, the thermal birefringence provided a minor contribution to the total transverse birefringence Δn₁₂. In LGP moldings of PCs, the simulated thermally-induced birefringence showed a significant variation with location in the mold plane, nearly constant value in the core region and high value in the wall region. In LGP moldings of both PCs, the contributions of the thermally- and flow-induced birefringence to the total transverse birefringence Δn₁₂ were significant. The effect of processing conditions on the development of the normal birefringence in LGP moldings of PCs was ranked from most to least: the packing pressure, mold temperature, melt temperature, injection speed and packing time. However, in LGP moldings of PS the packing time effect was significant due to a longer gate freezing time. Simulated and measured normal birefringence along the flow direction was in fair agreement, but simulations were unable to describe the observed birefringence maximum arising near the gate. The averaged luminance of LGP moldings exhibited some correlation with the averaged normal birefringence. LGP moldings of PC OQ1030 indicated a pronounced maximum in the simulated transverse flow birefringence in the core but a low value near the wall. In contrast, the LGP molding of PC OQ3820 showed a high simulated birefringence near the wall and a low value of maximum in the core. The simulated and measured total transverse birefringence in LGP moldings was in fair agreement. LGP molding of both PCs showed similar tendency in shrinkage variation with processing conditions. However, the thickness shrinkage was higher in LGP moldings of PC OQ3820. The effect of processing conditions on the development of shrinkage in LGP moldings of both PCs was ranked from most to least: the packing pressure, melt temperature, mold temperature, injection speed and packing time. In LGP moldings of PS, the thickness shrinkage slightly increased with increasing melt temperature and significantly increased with reducing packing time. A good agreement between the simulated and measured anisotropic shrinkages in LGP moldings at various processing conditions was observed.     

A/I Net: a network that integrates ATM and IP

Future networks need both connectionless and connection-oriented services. IP and ATM are major examples of the two types. Connectionless IP is more efficient for browsing, e-mail, and other non-real-time services; but for services demanding quality and real-time delivery, connection-oriented ATM is a much better candidate. Given the popularity of the Internet and the established status of ATM as the broadband transport standard, it is unlikely that one can replace the other. Therefore, the challenge we face lies in finding an efficient way to integrate the two. This article describes a research project reflecting this trend. The project aims at efficient integration of the two to eliminate the deficiencies of a standalone ATM or IP network