Muscle decomposition and recruitment criteria influence muscle force estimates

It has recently been pointed out that muscle decomposition influence muscle force estimates in musculoskeletal simulations. We show analytically and with numerical simulations that this influence depends on the recruitment criteria. Moreover, we also show that the proper choices of force normalization factors may overcome the issue. Such factors for the minmax and the polynomial criteria are presented.     

Load-bearing Capacity of Nailed Joints Exposed to Fire

Nailed joints with wood members were exposed simultaneously to standard fire and constant load. Different loads were applied in the range of 0.1 to 0.6 of the estimated failure load at normal temperature. Measurements of the rate of charring and the temperature were used to determine the temperature profiles and further to estimate the reduction in the strength properties. The test results are compared with calculations based on the theory of K. W. Johansen. Three different relations between the reduction of embedding strength and the temperature were investigated. For one of these relations, the theory agrees well with the results obtained in the fire tests. The results of the calculations also show that there is a considerable reduction of the embedding strength during the first period of fire.     

Outcome of pregnancy after clomiphene therapy

Of 159 pregnancies conceived after clomiphene therapy, 141 ended in childbirth, including seven sets of twins. There was a probable increase in the number of infants born with major malformations. These were exclusively to women who had not previously borne a normal infant. The incidence of malformed infants compares well with that published after gonadotropin therapy. The possibly higher incidence of malformations seen after drug-induced ovulation would therefore seem to be due to the underlying subfertility state and thus not a direct drug effect.     

Cerebral angiography with iohexol. A multicentre clinical trial

An open multicentre clinical trial with the new non-ionic contrast medium iohexol is reported. A total of 38 adult patients were included in the series. No serious side effects or complications occurred. The impression was that subjective reactions were less marked with iohexol than what is usually observed with conventional ionic contrast media.     

Central venous oxygen saturation and thoracic admittance during dialysis: new approaches to hemodynamic monitoring

Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is one of the most important short-term complications to hemodialysis (HD). Inadequate cardiac filling due to a reduction in the central blood volume is believed to be a major etiological factor. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether these pathophysiologic events are reflected in the central venous oxygen saturation (ScO(2)) and thoracic admittance (TA) during dialysis. Twenty ambulatory HD patients, 11 hypotension prone (HP) and 9 hypotension resistant, with central vascular access, were monitored during 3 HD sessions each. ScO(2), TA, finger blood pressure (BP), and relative change in blood volume (DeltaBV) were measured and sampled continuously. The relative TA decrease and DeltaBV were both largest in the HP group (p<0.05 for both), whereas ScO(2) decreased only in HP patients (p<0.001). Baseline TA was lower in the HP group (p<0.01). Changes in ScO(2) and TA correlated much closer than did changes in ScO(2) and DeltaBV (r=0.43 and 0.18, respectively). Our results suggest that an intradialytic decrease in cardiac output, as reflected by a fall in ScO(2), is a common feature to HD patients prone to IDH. In patients using a central vascular access, ScO(2) and TA measurements may be more specific to the pathophysiologic events preceding IDH than DeltaBV-the current standard monitoring method.     

Processing of Soot by Controlled Sulphuric Acid and Water Condensation—Mass and Mobility Relationship

The effects of atmospheric processing on soot particle morphology were studied in the laboratory using the Differential Mobility Analyzer-Aerosol Particle Mass Analyzer (DMA-APM) and the DMA-DMA (Tandem DMA) techniques. To simulate atmospheric processing, combustion soot agglomerates were altered by sulphuric acid vapor condensation, relative humidity (RH) cycling, and evaporation of the sulphuric acid and water by heating. Primary investigated properties were particle mobility size and mass. Secondary properties, derived from these, include effective density, fractal dimension, dynamic shape factor, and the mass fraction of condensed material. A transformation of the soot particles to more compact forms occurs as sulphuric acid and water condense onto fresh soot. The particle mass increases and initially the mobility diameter decreases, indicating restructuring of the soot core, likely due to surface tension forces. For a given soot source and condensing liquid, the degree of compaction depends strongly on the mass (or volume) fraction of condensed material. For water and sulphuric acid condensing on combustion soot, a mass increase of 2–3 times is needed for a transformation to spherical particles. In the limit of spherical particles without voids, the effective density then approaches the inherent material density, the fractal dimension approaches 3 and the dynamic shape factor approaches 1. Our results indicate that under typical atmospheric conditions, soot particles will be fully transformed to spherical droplets on a time scale of several hours. It is expected that the morphology changes and addition of soluble material to soot strongly affect the optical and hygroscopic properties of soot.     

Molecular-beam epitaxial growth of HgCdTe infrared focal-plane arrays on silicon substrates for midwave infrared applications

Molecular beam epitaxy has been employed to deposit HgCdTe infrared detector structures on Si(112) substrates with performance at 125K that is equivalent to detectors grown on conventional CdZnTe substrates. The detector structures are grown on Si via CdTe(112)B buffer layers, whose structural properties include x-ray rocking curve full width at half maximum of 63 arc-sec and near-surface etch pit density of 3–5 × 10⁵ cm⁻² for 9 μm thick CdTe films. HgCdTe p⁺-on-n device structures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on both bulk CdZnTe and Si with 125K cutoff wavelengths ranging from 3.5 to 5 μm. External quantum efficiencies of 70%, limited only by reflection loss at the uncoated Si-vacuum interface, were achieved for detectors on Si. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of MBE-grown detectors on CdZnTe and Si were found to be equivalent, with reverse breakdown voltages well in excess of 700 mV. The temperature dependences of the I-V characteristics of MBE-grown diodes on CdZnTe and Si were found to be essentially identical and in agreement with a diffusion-limited current model for temperatures down to 110K. The performance of MBE-grown diodes on Si is also equivalent to that of typical liquid phase epitaxy-grown devices on CdZnTe with R₀A products in the 10⁶–10⁷ Θ-cm² range for 3.6 μm cutoff at 125K and R₀A products in the 10⁴–10⁵ Θ-cm² range for 4.7 μm cutoff at 125K.