High risk of lymphomas in children of Asian origin: ethnicity or confounding by socioeconomic status?

To examine the role of ethnic origin as a risk factor for paediatric lymphoma, a cancer registry-based analysis was undertaken in Yorkshire, UK. Children of Asian ethnic origin were found to have an odds ratio for lymphomas of 1.60 (CI 0.98-2.62), after adjusting for age and sex. After adjusting also for 'super profile group' as an indicator of socioeconomic status, the estimate became 1.99 (CI 1.08-3.68). Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas were analysed separately with similar results. Super profile group is an area-based measure and may not reflect the individual variation in living standards, especially among the Asian immigrants. Our results indicate that socioeconomic status does not confound the relationship between lymphomas and ethnic origin. However, there is a need for studies of ethnicity that include indicators of individual living standards or socioeconomic status.     

Simultaneous temperature and lateral force measurement using simple arc-shaped FBG sensor module

An arc-shaped fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensor module, containing a pair of FBGs is constructed, which enables simultaneous temperature and lateral force measurements. Experimental study of a module, with such a structure, shows good agreement with theoretical analysis     

Hashed and hierarchical timing wheels: efficient data structuresfor implementing a timer facility

The performance of timer algorithms is crucial to many network protocol implementations that use timers for failure recovery and rate control. Conventional algorithms to implement an operating system timer module take O(n) time to start or maintain a timer, where n is the number of outstanding timers: this is expensive for large n. This paper shows that by using a circular buffer or timing wheel, it takes O(1) time to start, stop, and maintain timers within the range of the wheel. Two extensions for larger values of the interval are described. In the first, the timer interval is hashed into a slot on the timing wheel. In the second, a hierarchy of timing wheels with different granularities is used to span a greater range of intervals. The performance of these two schemes and various implementation tradeoffs are discussed. We have used one of our schemes to replace the current BSD UNIX callout and timer facilities. Our new implementation can support thousands of outstanding timers without much overhead. Our timer schemes have also been implemented in other operating systems and network protocol packages     

The nonstationary strain filter in elastography: Part I. Frequency dependent attenuation

The accuracy and precision of the strain estimates in elastography depend on a myriad number of factors. A clear understanding of the various factors (noise sources) that plague strain estimation is essential to obtain quality elastograms. The nonstationary variation in the performance of the strain filter due to frequency-dependent attenuation and lateral and elevational signal decorrelation are analyzed in this and the companion paper for the cross-correlation-based strain estimator. In this paper, we focus on the role of frequency-dependent attenuation in the performance of the strain estimator. The reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNRs) in the RF signal, and the center frequency and bandwidth downshift with frequency-dependent attenuation are incorporated into the strain filter formulation. Both linear and nonlinear frequency dependence of attenuation are theoretically analyzed. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to corroborate the theoretically predicted results. Experimental results illustrate the deterioration in the precision of the strain estimates with depth in a uniformly elastic phantom. Theoretical, simulation and experimental results indicate the importance of high SNRs values in the RF signals, because the strain estimation sensitivity, elastographic SNRe and dynamic range deteriorate rapidly with a decrease in the SNRs. In addition, a shift in the strain filter toward higher strains is observed at large depths in tissue due to the center frequency downshift.     

Nanoparticle Removal Using Laser-Induced Plasma Shock Waves

Removal of sub-100 nm particles from substrates such as wafers and photo masks is an essential requirement in semiconductor, microelectronics, and nanotechnology applications. The proposed laser-induced plasma (LIP) based approach is an effective technique for removal of sub-100 nm particles, as the minimum tolerable particle on the substrates shrinks to sub-100 nm levels with each technological node. In the current study, our progress in sub-100 nm particle removal is reviewed, and the results of the kinetic theory simulations conducted to understand the dynamics of the gas molecule-nanoparticle interactions excited by the shock front are discussed. It is shown from the simulations and experiments that particles as small as sub-100 nm can be successfully detached. To explain possible mechanisms for the nanoparticle detachment in nanoscale, the concepts of rolling resistance moment and rocking motion are utilized as novel detachment mechanisms. The pressure experiments illustrate that the peak pressure levels achieved with the LIP shock wave fields are below damage thresholds of most substrate materials. The potential of the proposed approach as a practical noncontact, dry, fast, and damage-free method for removal of sub-100 nm particles is discussed.     

Catalytic reactions in transport-line reactors

The case of an irreversible first order catalytic reaction is considered in a transport-line reactor, via a model which assumes plug flow of both the solid and gas phases, to investigate reactor performance as a function of major operating variables. Under certain fluid mechanical assumptions, a detailed study is made of the effect of catalyst particle size on reactor conversion.     

Effect of sulfur dioxide on the oxidation of thin films of tin

The oxidation of thin films of tin in SO₂-air atmospheres containing 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 60% SO₂ have been investigated at room temperature. Reaction kinetics were studied by the variation in resistance of thin films and growth patterns by metallography. Addition of SO₂ causes an increase in the oxidation rate of thin films of tin. Probable reactions at lower and higher percentages of SO₂ have been discussed.     

Reliable and efficient hop-by-hop flow control

Hop-by-hop flow control can be used to fairly share the bandwidth of a network among competing flows. No data is lost even in overload conditions; yet each flow gets access to the maximum throughput when the network is lightly loaded. However, some schemes for hop-by-hop flow control require too much memory; some of them are not resilient to errors. The authors propose a scheme for making hop-by-hop flow control resilient and show that it has advantages over the first several schemes proposed by Kung . They also describe a novel method for sharing the available buffers among the flows on a link; the scheme allows to potentially reduce the memory requirement (or increase the number of flows that can be supported) by an order of magnitude. Most of the work is described in the context of an ATM network that uses credit-based flow control. However, the ideas extend to networks in which flows can be distinguished, and to rate-based flow control schemes     

Estimation of the Optimal Maximum Beam Angle and Angular Increment for Normal and Shear Strain Estimation

In the current practice of ultrasound elastography, only the axial component of the displacement vector is estimated and used to produce strain images. A method was recently proposed by our group to estimate both the axial and lateral components of a displacement vector using RF echo signal data acquired along multiple angular insonification directions of the ultrasound beam. Previous work has demonstrated that it is important to choose appropriate values for the maximum beam angle and angular increment to achieve optimal performance with this technique. In this paper, we present error propagation analysis using the least-square fitting process for the optimization of the angular increment and the maximum beam steered angle. Ultrasound simulations are performed to corroborate the theoretical prediction of the optimal values for the maximum beam angle and angular increment. Selection of the optimal parameters depends on system parameters, such as center frequency and aperture size. For typical system parameters, the optimal maximum beam angle is around 10deg for axial strain estimation and around 15deg for lateral strain estimation. The optimal angular increment is around 4deg -6deg, which indicates that only five to seven beam angles are required for this strain-tensor estimation technique.