Changes in sputum composition during sputum induction in healthy and asthmatic subjects

BACKGROUND: Home oxygen therapy improves survival and quality of life in adults with chronic obstructive airways disease. The few studies about home oxygen therapy in children show improvements in weight gain, school performance and decreases in hospitalization expenses. AIM: To report our experience in home oxygen therapy in children followed for six months to four years. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty five children, less than 15 years old, discharged from a University hospital with the diagnosis of chronic respiratory failure, were followed up at their homes. RESULTS: Discharge diagnoses were bronchopulmonary dysplasia in 36% of children, postinfectious pulmonary damage in 22%, neonatal distress in 13%, chronic aspiration in 9%, cystic fibrosis in 7% and miscellaneous in 13%. Forty six completed at least 6 months of follow up, five moved to other hospitals, three required ventilatory support and one died. Oxygen was discontinued in 33 patients, and this occurred before the ninth month of follow up in 88% of those children. Neonatal distress and bronchopulmonary dysplasia had the best prognoses, and oxygen was discontinued at 4 +/- 1 and 5.7 +/- 3 months respectively. Patients with postinfectious pulmonary disease had a higher incidence of bronchoneumoniae, and those with bronchopulmonary dysplasia a higher incidence of acute bronchiolitis, that motivated hospital admissions. Expenses due to home oxygen were lower than hospitalization costs. No adverse effects were detected. CONCLUSIONS: Infants and newborns on home oxygen therapy have a good prognosis, specially those with reversible diseases. This type of therapy allows an earlier hospital discharge with considerable cost reductions.     

Event clock message passing automata: a logical characterization and an emptiness checking algorithm

We are interested in modeling behaviors and verifying properties of systems in which time and concurrency play a crucial role. We introduce a model of distributed automata which are equipped with event clocks as in Alur et al. (Theor Comput Sci 211:253–273, 1999), which we call Event Clock Message Passing Automata (ECMPA). To describe the behaviors of such systems we use timed partial orders (modeled as message sequence charts with timing). Our first goal is to extend the classical Büchi-Elgot-Trakhtenbrot equivalence to the timed and distributed setting, by showing an equivalence between ECMPA and a timed extension of monadic second-order (MSO) logic. We obtain such a constructive equivalence in two different ways: (1) by restricting the semantics by bounding the set of timed partial orders; (2) by restricting the timed MSO logic to its existential fragment. We next consider the emptiness problem for ECMPA, which asks if a given ECMPA has some valid timed execution. In general this problem is undecidable and we show that by considering only bounded timed executions, we can obtain decidability. We do this by constructing a timed automaton which accepts all bounded timed executions of the ECMPA and checking emptiness of this timed automaton.     

Synchrotrons for hadron therapy: Part I

The treatment of cancer with accelerator beams has a long history with betatrons, linacs, cyclotrons and now synchrotrons being exploited for this purpose. Treatment techniques can be broadly divided into the use of spread-out beams and scanned ‘pencil’ beams. The Bragg-peak behaviour of hadrons makes them ideal candidates for the latter. The combination of precisely focused ‘pencil’ beams with controllable penetration (Bragg peak) and high, radio-biological efficiency (light ions) opens the way to treating the more awkward tumours that are radio-resistant, complex in shape and lodged against critical organs. To accelerate light ions (probably carbon) with pulse-to-pulse energy variation, a synchrotron is the natural choice. The beam scanning system is controlled via an on-line measurement of the particle flux entering the patient and, for this reason, the beam spill must be extended in time (seconds) by a slow-extraction scheme. The quality of the dose intensity profile ultimately depends on the uniformity of the beam spill. This is the greatest challenge for the synchrotron, since slow-extraction schemes are notoriously sensitive. This paper reviews the extraction techniques, describes methods for smoothing the beam spill and outlines the implications for the extraction line and beam delivery system     

In eigener Sache

Klassischerweise kommt der Einwilligung die Funktion eines Rechtfertigungsgrunds zu — wer in eine Verletzung seiner Rechtsgüter einwilligt, schlie?t damit die Rechtswidrigkeit dieser Verletzung aus, egal ob es um Freiheit, k?rperliche Unversehrtheit oder informationelle Selbstbestimmung geht. Gerade im Fall der informationellen Selbstbestimmung aber kommt der Einwilligung darüber hinaus zunehmend auch eine andere, neue Funktion zu, n?mlich die eines Kommerzialisierungsinstruments. Mittels Einwilligung macht sich der Einzelne den wirtschaftlichen Wert seiner personenbezogenen Daten zunutze, er willigt in eine Verarbeitung seiner personenbezogenen Daten ein, um dafür im Gegenzug auch vom Datenverarbeiter eine Leistung (Werbegeschenke, Rabatte, kostenlose Online-Dienste etc.) zu erhalten. Die Einwilligung stellt so betrachtet die Gegenleistung in einem gegenseitigen Vertragsverh?ltnis dar, es kommt zu einem Tausch „Einwilligung gegen Leistung“. Der folgende Beitrag behandelt die rechtlichen Fragestellungen, die mit einer solchen Entwicklung einhergehen.     

Non-isothermal micromixing in turbulent liquids: Theory and experiment

Partial segregation of reagents occurs when reaction rates exceed mixing rates and frequently causes product distributions to be mixing-dependent. A simultaneous temperature segregation, whereby the temperature in a reaction zone differs from that in its surroundings, has rarely been considered when mixing reagents in the liquid phase. The Prandtl number is usually sufficiently small that engulfment, not thermal conduction, determines the local temperature. The engulfment model of micromixing can then be extended by a heat balance to specify this temperature. To evaluate this model, a new pair of fast competitive reactions (neutralisation and acetal hydrolysis) has been characterised thermochemically and kinetically. A Mettler RC1 calorimeter was operated under isothermal and adiabatic conditions with various stirrer speeds and HCl was slowly added to a mixture of NaOH and 2,2-dimethoxypropane. Measured hydrolysis yields compared quite well with the extended engulfment model, although temperature segregation was of minor importance. It was also unimportant in other reaction systems (simultaneous neutralisation and ester hydrolysis; diazo coupling) employed earlier to study micromixing. Suggestions for further work are made.     

Modular tool concept and process design for micro impact extrusion

Micro impact extrusion is an appropriate mass production technology for micro structuring of sheet metal. The technology was applied to form sample geometries consisting of ten precision cavities which are intended to be collets for the form- and force-locked integration of piezo rods for later usage of the sheets as “smart sheet metal”. For reasons of flexibility, a modular tool concept was studied and applied. It allows a flexible arrangement of geometry elements but introduces new aspects which need to be considered. This study investigated the influences of tribological- and process parameters onto the microforming process. Therefore forming experiments were performed with different die coatings (titanium nitride, titanium carbon nitride, amorphous carbon), different lubricants (common oil, forming lubricant and without lubrication), as well as two die materials. In contrast to forming processes with established monolithic die configurations, phenomena like tilted structures and the appearance of unwanted burr were investigated. For creating structures with minimal tolerances, these effects need to be considered. The investigation of the influence of process parameters showed, that the lowest surface roughness was achieved without lubrication. Furthermore low-friction coatings and harder die materials improved the forming results.