Preparation of SiC particles coated with alumina hydrate: Effect of reaction condition on particle coalescence

Alumina-hydrate-coated SiC particles were prepared via a homogeneous precipitation method using urea, and the conditions for uniform coating and less coalescence of the particles were investigated. Coalescence of coated particles could be said to occur by collision and agglomeration followed by deposition of alumina hydrate on the agglomerated particles. Coalescence of coated particles was suppressed by use of low reaction temperature, low concentration of aluminium sulfate, high concentration of urea, intensive stirring, and a flow reactor.     

Late onset peripheral seronegative spondyloarthropathy: report of two additional cases

Two more cases of late onset peripheral seronegative spondyloarthropathy (SpA) are reported. Like the patients reported by Dubost and Sauvezie, they had extensive pitting edema of the lower limbs, constitutional symptoms, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate and minimal involvement of the axial skeleton with marked signs of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperstosis.     

Attitudes of women of childbearing age towards prenatal diagnosis in southeastern France

The objective of this study was to explore women's attitudes towards prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 21 and to examine some of the factors possibly responsible for these attitudes before implementing in real practice serological screening of pregnant women at risk for trisomy 21. We carried out a telephone survey on a representative sample of women who had recently had a normal livebirth delivery in the Marseille district in 1990. The participation rate was 80 per cent and the average age of the mothers was 28.9 years. Among the 514 women interviewed, 78 per cent stated that they would ask for an amniocentesis for a 1 per cent risk of trisomy 21 at their next pregnancy. When adjusting for confounding factors, the decision to have or not to have an amniocentesis was found to depend not only on the women's attitude towards induced abortion, but also on their understanding of the risk involved and on the social context (knowing a handicapped child, discussion with the father). It also depended on the women's age and on what they knew about amniocentesis from the medical point of view. The risk of miscarriage can influence a woman's choice but this objection was not found to affect the women's decisions significantly in our survey. The data showed the existence of a high potential demand for fetal karyotyping.     

Large reference displacement analysis of composite plates. Part II: Computer implementation

This investigation concerns itself with the computer implementation of the dynamic formulation of thin laminated composite plates consisting of layers of orthotropic laminae that undergo large arbitrary rigid body displacements and small elastic deformations. A finite element preprocessor computer program is developed to automatically generate the invariants of the laminae, which may have arbitrary orientations. The laminae invariants are then used to obtain the invariants of the elements and the composite laminated plate. The consistent and lumped mass formulations of the invariants of motion of composite plates are compared and it is concluded that the two methods are comparable, if a fine enough finite element mesh is used. The structure of the dynamic equations of motion, based on the formulation presented in Part I of this paper, is examined. Non-linear centrifugal and Coriolis forces arising as the result of the finite rotations of the laminae are defined, and the solution schemes of the resulting non-linear differential equations of motion are discussed. Numerical examples illustrating the differences between homogeneous isotropic and laminated composite plates are presented. An RSSR (Revolute-Spherical-Spherical-Revolute) mechanism is used in the numerical examples, with the coupler modelled as a laminated plate flexible body. It is found that the inertia of the plate contributed greatly to the transverse deformation. The effects of laminae orientation is also investigated.     

Nonoperative management of secondary shoulder impingement syndrome

Shoulder pain secondary to impingement of the rotator cuff tendons underneath the coracoacromial arch is a common problem seen in athletes who perform repetitive overhead activities. Shoulder impingement has been classified into primary and secondary types. Several factors contribute to impingement, including rotator cuff weakness, posterior capsule tightness, and subacromial crowding. Recently, it has been proposed that scapulothoracic muscle weakness could be a factor that contributes to impingement. Traditional rehabilitation protocols for shoulder impingement syndrome stress individualized rotator cuff strengthening. The authors propose that individualized scapulothoracic muscle strengthening should be a part of any protocol for nonoperative treatment of secondary shoulder impingement syndrome.     

Vibration of clamped moderately thick general cross-ply plates using a generalized Navier approach

A hitherto unavailable analytical solution to the free vibration problem of general cross-ply laminated rigidly clamped rectangular plates, incorporating first-order shear deformation, and rotatory and in-plane inertias into the formulation, is presented. A recently developed boundary continuous displacement-based generalized Navier solution technique is used to solve the five highly coupled linear second-order partial differential equations with constant coefficients, and the associated geometric boundary conditions. The assumed solution functions are in the form of double Fourier series, which satisfy the rigidly clamped boundary conditions a priori in a manner similar to the conventional Navier method. Convergence characteristics of the natural frequencies of both symmetric and antisymmetric cross-ply plates are numerically established. Other numerical results presented herein include (i) comparison with the corresponding available first-order shear deformation theory-based Galerkin and classical lamination theory-based boundary-discontinuous analytical solutions, and (ii) study of the effects of thickness and aspect ratio on the natural frequencies.     

Nitric oxide synthase-immunoreactive neurons in human and porcine respiratory tract

The presence of nitric oxide synthase (NO-synthase), the enzyme responsible for the production of nitric oxide (NO) from L-arginine, is shown immunocytochemically in the intrinsic neurons of the human and porcine respiratory tract. NO-synthase immunoreactivity is demonstrated in a subpopulation of neurons of the microganglia present in the wall of the extra- and intrapulmonary bronchi as well as in the hilar region of the lung in relation to blood vessels. The immunostaining was also found in some nerve fibers of the respiratory nervous system. Human and porcine lung gave similar results. The possible involvement of NO in the nonadrenergic noncholinergic (NANC) nervous regulation of the lung is discussed.     

Bite and unconfirmed failures

Electronic BITE is poor at identifying hardware failure and in present design approaches tends to create the reviled ‘unconfirmed failure’. A different approach to BITE and unconfirmed failure could improve both operational performance and the cost of maintenance.