Low-frequency vibrations in the treatment of patients with acute maxillary sinusitis and ethmoiditis. Non-specific resistance and immunity

Effect of sodium hypochlorite disinfection of impressions on the size and quality of plaster models is studied. Twenty-minute submerging of silicone impressions in 0.5% sodium hypochlorite solution did not change their size and did not deteriorate the quality of surface and hardness of plaster models. Stomalgin impressions cannot be disinfected by sodium hypochlorite solution because of expressed destructive effect of this disinfectant on the impressions.     

Resonance in a superstrate-loaded cylindrical-rectangularmicrostrip structure

The complex resonant frequencies of the cylindrical-rectangular microstrip structure loaded with a dielectric superstrate layer is studied using a rigorous full-wave analysis, and the numerical results are obtained using the Galerkin moment method calculation. The numerical convergence for the selected sinusoidal basis functions with and without the edge singularity condition is also discussed. Numerical results for the dependence of the real and imaginary parts of the complex resonant frequencies on the superstrate permittivity and thickness are calculated and analyzed, and are compared with those obtained for the planar microstrip structure     

Impact of HIV counselling and testing on HIV seroconversion and reported STD incidence among male factory workers in Harare, Zimbabwe

OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of HIV counselling and testing on HIV seroconversion and incidence of reported sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among male factory workers in Harare, Zimbabwe. DESIGN: Prospective, observational study among men recruited to participate in a future workplace based AIDS prevention intervention. METHODS: Participants provided STD histories and blood for HIV antibody testing at enrolment and six month intervals during visits to factories. Participants received HIV test results, post test counselling, and free STD services at the project clinic. RESULTS: Between March 1993 and June 1995, 2,414 men were enrolled with 85% follow up. Overall HIV sero-incidence was 2.60 per 100 person-years; the incidence of reported STDs was 10.19 per 100 person-years. Men who obtained their HIV test results had significantly higher HIV sero-incidence and incidence of reported STDs compared to men who did not obtain their results (IRRs: 1.87, 3.47, respectively). Among men who obtained their HIV test results, a non-significant 40% decrease in HIV sero-incidence was observed after obtaining test results compared to before obtaining results (p = 0.18). The incidence of reported STDs, however, increased by 30% after obtaining HIV test results (p = 0.10). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased HIV sero-incidence in the face of increased reported STD incidence suggests that timely treatment of STDs may decrease the risk of acquiring HIV even in the absence of behaviour change. In populations with high rates of HIV and STDs, the greatest benefit of HIV counselling and testing may be achieved by simultaneously offering STD screening and treatment services.     

Measuring spontaneous deleterious mutation process

Parameters of the deleterious mutation process can be estimated using the data on genotypes, phenotypes, or fitnesses. These data can be on long-term evolution, on short-term changes, or on the properties of equilibrium populations. The two most important parameters at the genomic level, the total deleterious mutation rate U and the mutational pressure on fitness P, remain poorly known. Reliable data on the rates of presumably neutral evolution, together with less certain estimates of the functionally important fraction of the genome, suggest that in mammals U > 1. The magnitudes of inbreeding depression in populations of selfers imply U approximately 1 in flowering plants. The straightforward way to estimate P is to assay the decline of fitness in populations with relaxed selection. The relevant data are contradictory, possibly because the results of the measurement of fitness depend strongly on the environmental conditions.     

New Protocol Sequences for Random-Access Channels Without Feedback

With recent developments in ad hoc networks and sensor networks, random-access protocol without feedback is a technique that deserves a closer look. This paper is based on Massey's model on random-access channel without feedback. A central concept of this model is the idea of protocol sequences. For these sequences, it is desirable that their cross correlation should be as low as possible and that the length of their period should not be too long, even if there is a large number of active users. Another useful feature is to be able to support multirate communication. Based on these considerations, a new family of protocol sequences is proposed in this paper. These new protocol sequences are built on the concept of prime sequences. It is shown that these sequences possess properties that make them suitable candidates for designing random access protocols for certain ad hoc or sensor networks     

Inhibitions mediated by glycine and GABAA receptors shape the discharge pattern of bulbar respiratory neurons

Experiments were performed to identify the glycinergic or GABAergic nature, and the timing of discharge, of the neurons which produce chloride-dependent inhibitions on other bulbar respiratory neurons (RNs) during their silent and active phases. RNs recorded extracellularly in pentobarbital-anesthetized or decerebrate cats, were subjected to iontophoretic applications of glutamate, of the glycine antagonist strychnine, and of the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline. Both antagonists induced discharge or increased discharge frequency in restricted parts of the respiratory cycle without affecting the discharge frequency in other parts of the cycle. Strychnine most often elicited activity in late-inspiration and early-expiration, but also in early inspiration and in late expiration. Bicuculline was most often effective throughout the entire discharge period of each neuron with no effect during the silent period, although it also acted selectively during late-inspiration in inspiratory neurons, an effect attributed to GABAA receptor blockade. The convergence of glycinergic afferent inputs during late inspiration and early expiration suggests that glycinergic neurons may play an important role in the inspiratory to expiratory phase transition.     

An inverted U-shaped patch antenna for compact operation

By using a novel inverted U-shaped radiating patch in place of the conventional planar patch, compact operation of air-substrate patch antennas is presented. The inverted U-shaped patch is formed by adding two downward rims at the two radiating edges of a planar rectangular or square patch. And owing to the added rims, the excited patch's surface current paths are lengthened, which effectively lowers the antenna's resonant frequency and results in large antenna size reduction (>50%). The proposed compact design has been successfully applied to air-substrate patch antennas fed by an aperture-coupled feed. In addition to large size reduction obtained, the proposed antenna with an air-substrate thickness about 5% the wavelength of the center operating frequency can have an impedance bandwidth (10-dB return loss) greater than 9%, a peak antenna gain of about 6.4 dBi, and good broadside radiation patterns with cross-polarization levels better than 20 dB in principal planes.     

Carrier Density and Plasma Frequency of Aluminum Nanofilms

In this work, the prerequisite and mode of electromagnetic response of Al nanofilms to electromagnetic wave field was suggested.Reflectance, transmittance in infrared region and carrier density of the films was measured. With the carrier density of the films, the dependence of their plasma frequencies on the film thickness was obtained. On the other hand, the dependence of absorptance on the frequency of electromagnetic wave field was set up by using the measured reflectance and transmittance,which provided plasma frequency-film thickness relation as well. Similarity of both plasma frequency-film thickness relations proved plasma resonance as a mode of electromagnetic response in Al nanofilms.     

Soft quasi-maximum-likelihood detection for multiple-antenna wireless channels

The paper addresses soft maximum-likelihood (ML) detection for multiple-antenna wireless communication channels. We propose a soft quasi-ML detector that maximizes the log-likelihood function by deploying a semi-definite relaxation (SDR). Given perfect channel state information at the receiver, the quasi-ML SDR detector closely approximates the performance of the optimal ML detector in both coded and uncoded multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) channels with quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation and frequency-flat Rayleigh fading. The complexity of the quasi-ML SDR detector is much less than that of the optimal ML detector, thus offering more favorable performance/complexity characteristics. In contrast to the existing sphere decoder, the new quasi-ML detector enjoys guaranteed polynomial worst-case complexity. The two detectors exhibit quite comparable performance in a variety of ergodic QPSK MIMO channels, but the complexity of the quasi-ML detector scales better with increasing number of transmit and receive antennas, especially in the region of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).     

FULL-RCMA: a high utilization EPON

This paper proposes an alternate solution for Ethernet passive optical networks. Our solution uses a novel protocol named full utilization local loop request contention multiple-access protocol to efficiently provide communications in passive optical networks. We study the physical layer implementation, as well as medium access control (MAC) layer protocol performance to illustrate the feasibility and benefit of our solution. The performance studies show that the MAC protocol is capable of offering 95% channel utilization under heavy load conditions. The performance results also indicate that delivery of multimedia traffic with a high quality-of-service can be achieved with our solution.