Analysis of clinical trial data: The problem of outcome overlap.

The immediate goal of any clinical trial is to determine to which of a specified set of treatments future patients are to be assigned, particularly when analyzing data from clinical trials. When the outcome distributions of Experimental (E) and Control (C) treatments overlap, differences between treatment group means are not conclusive and may not be very informative, so a display of the overlapped frequency distributions and a summary measure of the probability of a random patient in E doing better than a random patient in C are needed. When outcome distributions overlap, the question of statistical model becomes crucial even when there are very significant differences between group means and very large effect sizes. Determining what patient variables interact with treatments is the route to optimal assignment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resonant converter topologies with three and four energy storageelements

Generalized half-bridge and full-bridge resonant converter topologies with two, three and four energy storage elements are presented. All possible circuit topologies for such converters under voltage/current driven and voltage/current sinks are discussed. Many of these topologies have not been investigated in open literature. Based on their circuit element connections and source and load excitation types, these topologies are classified into resonant and nonresonant topologies and on their physical realizability. Comparison based on exact steady state analysis are given for typical second- and third-order series resonant converters whereas the fourth-order topology is based on the approximate analysis     

Growth trends in wide-area TCP connections

A recently completed single-site study has yielded information about how Internet traffic will evolve, as new users discover the Internet and existing users find new ways to incorporate the Internet into their work patterns. The author reviews existing statistics and studies of network growth, which show that network traffic generally grows exponentially with time, at least until the network carrying capacity is reached. He then describes how he captured and reduced the data used in this study. The following points are also addressed: the overall growth in the site's wide-area traffic; the appearance of periodic traffic; the growth in network use by individual computers or users; and the changing geographic profile of the traffic. The implications and limitations of the results are also summarizes     

Measurement techniques for monolithic microwave integrated circuits

Introduces the basic technologies that are associated with measurements of monolithic microwave integrated circuits. The use of test fixtures and wafer probe stations at ambient room temperature is reviewed and their role at thermal and cryogenic temperatures is discussed. With the increasing need for performing non-invasive measurements, advances in experimental field probing techniques are explored     

Uniplanar techniques for monolithic microwave integrated circuits

`Uniplanar' techniques have recently been introduced for the design of monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). The aim of these techniques is to achieve a higher level of integration of circuitry and to overcome the need for through-substrate via holes and the related back-face processing steps. This is achieved by using coplanar waveguide (CPW), slotline, and miniature `thin-film microstrip' transmission-line media as opposed to conventional microstrip. The design and performance of a number of uniplanar MMIC couplers, amplifiers, and other test circuits fabricated using the GEC-Marconi (Caswell) foundry are described     

Calculation and design of inlet devices and evaluation of their effect on turbocompressor operation

Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftyanoe Mashinostroenie, No. 8, pp. 14–16, August, 1993.     

What decides: high mortality in paediatric acute renal failure?

Forty paediatric cases of A.R.F. (Acute Renal Failure) of various aetiology were included in the study. 60% of patients were less than 4 years of age with male predominance. 80% cases reported to us very late with oligoanuria of more than 24 hours (2-7 days). Diarrhoea, vomiting and fever were other dominant symptoms. Maximum cases were severely anaemic (87.5%) with mean Hb 7.73 +/- 1.9 gm%. 40% cases were of underweight while only one case (2.5%) was of over weight, inspite of volume excess in 40% cases. All 24 cases, who were estimated for serum albumin, found to have marked hypoalbuminemia. Mortality was found to be as high as 65% inspite of effective peritoneal dialysis in all cases. High mortality seems to be due to profound anuria of many days (because of marked delay in reaching the hospital), fever and malnutrition besides other factors as aetiology.     

Lipoprotein(a) in patients with carotid atherosclerosis and ischemic cerebrovascular disorders

Two novel peptides, named PACAP (pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide) containing 38 (PACAP38) and 27 residues (PACAP27) were recently isolated from ovine hypothalami. In order to investigate the pituitary cell type(s) that bear a receptor for PACAP, PACAP38 was biotinylated and used for cytochemical examination of binding. The cells were also identified by immunocytochemical methods using the antisera against each of the rat anterior pituitary hormones or an antiserum against S-100 protein, a marker for pituitary folliculo-stellate (FS) cells. Biotinylated PACAP38 (biot-PACAP) exhibited adenylate cyclase stimulating activity (ACSA) comparable to PACAP38 in rat pituitary cell cultures, and displaced the bound 125I-PACAP27 to the rat pituitary membrane preparation to the same extent as PACAP38. After 2-4 days of culture, dispersed rat pituitary cells were incubated with varying concentrations of biot-PACAP at room temperature or 4 degrees C. The bound biot-PACAP38 was visualized by avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) method with nickel intensification. Biot-PACAP-positive and pituitary hormone or S-100-positive cells were counted. More than 90% of S-100-positive cells bound biot-PACAP38. A considerable number of GH and PRL cells and a lesser number of ACTH cells also bound biot-PACAP38, whereas only a few identified LH, FSH, or TSH cells bound biot-PACAP38. These results suggest that FS cells are a major target cell type for PACAP. A recent study from our laboratory demonstrated that PACAP stimulated the release of interleukin (IL)-6 in rat pituitary cell cultures. FS cells are known to produce IL-6.