H∞ control versus disturbance-observer-basedcontrol

In the motion control field, a disturbance observer-based disturbance canceling control is often used as a robust control methodology. However, this method is nothing more than an alternative design of an integral controller, and the robust stability issue cannot be directly accounted for. In this paper, an extended H_∞ control scheme is proposed as a new robust motion control method which achieves the disturbance cancellation ability and guarantees robust stability automatically     

Temporary antibiotic-loaded cemented prosthesis for two-stage septic hip arthroplasty

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Myofascial pain is the leading cause of chronic low back pain and in most cases can be successfully resolved with trigger point injections of local anesthetics. This type of pain can exist during pregnancy and exceed the analgesia provided by an epidural for labor. METHODS: A 31-year-old primiparous woman received an epidural infusion for labor analgesia. Despite complete resolution of labor pain and a solid, bilateral T10 block, the patient reported discomfort at two discrete locations in her right lumbar paraspinous muscle. RESULTS: The administration of local anesthetic via trigger point injections resulted in successful palliation of the myofascial pain. CONCLUSIONS: Myofascial pain can be an etiology of back pain in the parturient. Trigger point injections, even when used concomitantly with a functioning epidural infusion, can be a valuable aid for the provision of complete analgesia.     

Noninvasive assessment of hepatobiliary and renal elimination of cysteinyl leukotrienes by positron emission tomography

N-Acetyl-leukotriene E4 has been identified as an endogenous, biologically less active cysteinyl leukotriene metabolite in rodents and humans. To evaluate the ratio of hepatobiliary to renal elimination of leukotrienes noninvasively by positron emission tomography (PET), we synthesized N-[11C]acetyl-leukotriene E4 by chemical N-acetylation of leukotriene E4. After the intravenous injection of N-[11C]acetyl-leukotriene E4 in normal rats and monkey, uptake by the liver and subsequent excretion into bile were largely responsible for its rapid elimination from blood. In the Cynomolgus monkey, renal excretion of the leukotriene into urine was of additional quantitative importance. Kinetic modeling indicated a mean transit time through the liver of 17 minutes and 34 minutes in rat and monkey, respectively; the corresponding hepatic excretion half-times amounted to 8.5 minutes and 16 minutes. In a mutant rat strain deficient in the hepatobiliary excretion of cysteinyl leukotrienes across the canalicular membrane, the apparent mean liver transit time was 54 minutes, and the hepatic excretion half-time was 29 minutes, indicating prolonged organ storage and metabolism. After transport from the liver back into the circulating blood of omega-oxidized and beta-oxidized metabolites of N-[11C]acetyl-leukotriene E4, renal excretion compensated for the impairment of hepatobiliary elimination in the transport mutant. Metabolite analyses in urine after intravenous injection of N-[3H]acetyl-leukotriene E4 indicated the extensive inactivation of N-acetyl-leukotriene E4 by beta-oxidation from the omega-end in the mutants. A similar shift from hepatobiliary to renal cysteinyl leukotriene elimination was monitored in rats with cholestasis due to bile duct obstruction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Analysis of proliferative activity using anti-proliferating cell nuclear antigen antibody in gastric cancer tissue specimens obtained by endoscopic biopsy

BACKGROUND: Proliferative activities of tumors are thought to be prognostic features of malignant tumors, but their value as measured by proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) labeling remains unclear in gastric cancer. METHODS: PCNA labeling rates (LR) were quantified in 121 paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens from primary tumors by immunocytochemistry. RESULTS: Immunohistochemical analyses have demonstrated that PCNA presents an intense staining in the nuclei of tumor cells and mucous neck cells of gastric glands. The PCNA LR ranged from 12% to 79% (mean +/- standard deviation), and a significant correlation was found between bromodeoxyuridine labeling indices and PCNA LR: PCNA LR were closely associated with tumor size, serosal invasion, and nodal involvement. The patients with tumors with high PCNA LR (greater than 40%) were dead significantly earlier than were those with tumors with low PCNA LR: When the PCNA LR and all the clinicopathologic parameters were entered into a Cox regression model, PCNA LR emerged as an independent prognostic factor. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that PCNA LR may be a potentially useful prognostic factor for gastric cancer.     

Neurotrophins and their receptors in the adult hypo- and hyperthyroid rat after kainic acid injection: an in situ hybridization study

Thyroid hormone plays a key role in trophic events during development of the central nervous system. In spite of neurological and psychiatric symptoms associated with adult hypothyroidism, the role of thyroid hormone in mature brain function is less clear. In this paper we investigated the effect of thyroid status on kainic acid-induced up-regulation of mRNAs for members of the nerve growth factor family and related receptors in adult male rats by means of in situ hybridization. We found that in hypothyroid rats there is a dramatic attenuation of the kainic acid-induced up-regulation of mRNA levels for nerve growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and tyrosine kinase trkB in euthyroid rats. A trend to reduced c-fos mRNA up-regulation, which did not reach significance, was also found, whereas the increase in c-jun mRNA after kainic acid was similar in eu-, hypo- and hyperthyroid rats. These data indicate a severe impairment of the regulation of neurotrophin synthesis after excitotoxin administration in the hippocampus during adult hypothyroidism. Possible roles of thyroid hormone in molecular, biochemical and metabolic mechanisms of this defect are discussed.     

Asthma mortality in New Jersey residents

We report an 11-year-old boy with active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection who developed acute aphonia and had signs and symptoms of recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy. The association of isolated recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy and EBV infection has not previously been reported. This case report expands the spectrum of neurologic complications of EBV infection, and suggests that infectious mononucleosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of acute aphonia in children.     

Colour image detection and matching using modified generalisedHough transform

A new approach to 2-dimensional (2D) colour-image detection and matching using a modified version of the generalised Hough transform (GHT) is proposed. In the conventional GHT, the useful colour information existing in the input image and the relationship between each pixel and its neighbourhood are not used. Furthermore, lighting changes in the image are not usually considered. Therefore, the conventional GHT is seldom applied to colour images. In the proposed approach, lighting are removed using normalised colour values. Next, certain critical pixels of an input colour image whose neighbourhoods have larger variances of normalised colour values are extracted. For each critical pixel, a feature vector, which includes the normalised colour values of the pixel as well as those of the pixel's neighbours, is then constructed. A modified voting rule for the GHT is therefore proposed which is based on a similarity-measure function of the feature vectors. High maximum peaks in the cell array are searched finally as the result. The proposed method is robust for colour-image detection and matching in noisy, occlusive, and lighting-change environments, as demonstrated by experimental results     

Reduction of loading effect by tungsten etchback in a magneticallyenhanced reactive ion etcher

The plug loading effect occurring during the etchback of tungsten was investigated in a magnetically enhanced reactive ion etcher using SF ₆/Ar mixtures. It was found that while the plug loading effect is independent of varying SF₆/Ar flow rate ratio and magnetic field intensity, it is reduced under the condition of high selectivity of tungsten relative to TiN which was achieved at high chamber pressure and low RF power. It is proposed that when TiN is used as a glue layer, the W etch rate enhancement in the plug is mainly controlled by a local loading effect. Under the optimized etchback conditions the plug loss was successfully controlled without the tungsten residue left on severe topology