Outcome of moderate carotid artery stenosis in patients who are asymptomatic

PURPOSE: The incidence rate of disease progression and stroke after the diagnosis of a moderate (50% to 79%) carotid stenosis was determined by means of color-flow duplex scanning. METHODS: During a 4-year period, 344 male veterans with moderate internal carotid artery stenoses, on one or both sides, were examined at regular intervals for a mean period of 25 months. Carotid color-flow scans were obtained semiannually. Clinical follow-up was performed to determine the incidence rate of amaurosis fugax, transient ischemic attacks, nonhemispheric symptoms, and strokes. RESULTS: New neurologic symptoms developed in 75 patients (21.8%). Fifty-one (14.8%) had ipsilateral symptoms during follow-up: 18 amaurosis fugax (5.2%), 14 transient ischemic attacks (4%), 5 nonhemispheric symptoms (1.4%), and 14 strokes (4%). Twenty-four patients (6.9%) had contralateral symptoms: 20 strokes (5.8%) and 4 transient ischemic attacks (1.2%). Life-table analysis showed that the annual rate of ipsilateral neurologic events was 8.1%, and the annual rate of stroke was 2.1%. Seventy-five patients (22%) died in the follow-up period. Disease progression to 80% to 99% stenosis or occlusion occurred in 71 of 458 vessels (15.5%). The internal carotid arteries that showed evidence of disease progression had a significantly higher initial peak systolic velocity (251 vs 190 cm/s; P <.0001) and end diastolic velocity (74 vs 52 cm/s; P < 0.0001). Black patients and patients with ischemic heart disease were at a higher risk for disease progression. We could not identify any atherosclerotic risk factors that reliably predicted patients in whom future ipsilateral neurologic symptoms were more likely to develop. However, there was an increased risk of stroke associated with progression of disease. CONCLUSION: Patients who are asymptomatic and who have moderate carotid stenoses are at significant risk for neurologic symptoms and death, but have a relatively low incidence rate of ipsilateral events. The initial flow characteristics in the stenotic vessel are predictive of future disease progression, but they are not helpful in identifying patients in whom symptoms will develop.     

Evaluation of basidiomycetous fungi for pretreatment of contaminated soil

BACKGROUND: For most dioxin‐contaminated sawmill soils, combustion is recommended. However, the process may be inefficient if the soil has a high organic matter content. The use of saprotrophic basidiomycetous fungi is an alternative for pretreatment of this kind of soil. A total of 147 fungi were evaluated for their ability to grow in sawmill soil. From this screening, the best soil colonizing fungi were selected to study their enzyme activities and degradation of soil organic matter. Pine (Pinus sylvestris) bark was used as a co‐substrate to propagate the fungi into the soil. The activities of manganese peroxidase (MnP), laccase, endo‐1,4‐β‐glucanase, endo‐1,4‐β‐xylanase, and endo‐1,4‐β‐mannanase were analysed from the inocula and fungal treated soil. RESULTS: The screening revealed that 56 out of 147 fungi were able to grow in non‐sterile soil, and most of them were litter‐decomposing fungi (LDF). In pine bark cultures, the highest enzyme activities were observed with Phanerochaete velutina, which produced 5 U g^?1 of MnP. The activity of endo‐1,4‐β‐glucanase was generally higher than that of other hydrolytic enzymes. The highest carbon loss from soil with a high organic matter content was achieved by P. velutina (3.4%) and Stropharia rugosoannulata (2.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Many LDF, and in addition the white‐rot fungus P. velutina, are potential degraders of soil organic matter since they showed good growth and respiratory activity. Pine bark was a suitable lignocellulosic co‐substrate and a good promoter of MnP activity. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

On the correctness of upper layers of automotive systems

Formal verification of software systems is a challenge that is particularly important in the area of safety-critical automotive systems. Here, approaches like direct code verification are far too complicated, unless the verification is restricted to small textbook examples. Furthermore, the verification of application logic is of limited use in industrial context, unless the underlying operating system and the hardware are verified, too. This paper introduces a generic model stack, allowing the verification of all system layers as well as the concrete application models being used in the upper layers. The presented models and proofs close the gap between the correctness proof for the lower layers of car electronics developed at the Saarland University and the verification procedure for distributed applications developed at the Technische Universität München.     

Horn equational theories and paramodulation

A language of equational programs together with an inference system, based on paramodulation is defined. The semantics of the language is given with respect to least models, least fixpoints and success sets and its soundness and completeness is proven using fixpoint theory. The necessity of the functional reflexive axioms is investigated in detail. Finally, the application of these ideas to term rewriting systems is outlined by discussing directed paramodulation and narrowing.     

Metrological traceability chain for pH measurement results

The extent to which technical barriers to international trade caused by non-acceptance of chemical measurement results can be removed, largely depends on the success in building up national and international traceability structures also in metrology in chemistry. Achieving metrological comparability of measurement results requires the definition of metrological calibration hierarchies providing metrological traceability chains which enable the establishment of metrological traceability of measured quantity values to a common metrological reference [1]. For pH, over the last decade, work has been carried out in a number of countries to build up meteorological calibration hierarchies within a national framework. An overview on the metrological traceability chain for pH is given with focus on the primary measurement procedure of pH.     

Influence of processing parameters on quality factors of one-shot hybrid structures made by RTM

This paper is dealing with the influence of processing parameters for manufacturing of steel–carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastic (CFRP) hybrid plates by using the one-shot-hybrid resin-transfer-moulding (OSH-RTM) process. A design of experiments study was carried out. The quality of the manufactured parts was quantified by the bending modulus, the apparent interlaminar shear strength (ILSS), the maximum deflection and the density of the CFRP. The following changeable processing parameters were chosen: mould temperature, resin temperature, change in mass flow and maximum injection pressure. It is shown that the mould temperature and the change in mass flow show significant impact on the flexural modulus, density and maximum deflection of the plate while there is no significant impact on the apparent ILSS. Furthermore, the interaction between the mould temperature and resin temperature is having an influence on the flexural modulus and density.