Mechanics of plain-woven fabrics for inflated structures

Pressurized fabric tubes, pressure-stabilized beams (known as air beams) and air-inflated structures are considered to be valuable technologies for lightweight, rapidly deployable structures. Design optimization of an inflated structure depends on a thorough understanding of woven fabric mechanics. In this paper the bending response of woven pressure-stabilized beams have been experimentally tested and analytically investigated. Additionally, the micromechanical effects of interacting tows have been studied through finite element models containing contact surfaces and nonlinear slip/stick conditions. Local unit cell models consisting of pairs of woven tows were created to characterize the effective constitutive relations. The material properties from the unit cell models were then used for the global continuum model subjected to 4-point flexure. An experimental set-up was designed and manufactured for testing of Vectran and PEN air beams. The air beam mid-span deflections were measured as functions of inflation pressure and bending load. Plots of the elastic and shear moduli with respect to the pressure and coefficient of friction have been generated. It was determined that the effective elastic and shear moduli were functions of inflation pressure, the material used and the geometry of the weave. It was shown that pneumatic or pressurized tube structures differ fundamentally from conventional metal structures.     

Duodenal erosions and ulcers in patients with pancreatobiliary obstruction

The authors compared in a controlled clinical study two groups of patients after a first renal transplantation treated by triple drug immunosuppressive therapy. In a group of 31 patients the triple combination comprised Sandimmune Neoral. In the control group there were 30 patients who received Sandimmune. No differences were found between the two groups as regards the effectiveness of this treatment and the authors did not confirm a lower incidence of rejections described in patients treated with Sandimmune Neoral. They confirmed, however, a lower interindividual variability of Cy-A levels assessed specifically in patients treated with Sandimmune Neoral.     

Sucralfate attenuates gastric mucosal lesions and increased vascular permeability induced by ischaemia and reperfusion in rats

Recent evidence suggests that oxygen-derived free radicals are involved in mediating gastric microvascular and parenchymal cell injuries induced by ischaemia and reperfusion. Therefore, the effect of the locally acting anti-ulcer drug, sucralfate, was studied on ischaemia and reperfusion (e.g. induced gastric lesions, intraluminal bleeding, changes in vascular permeability and non-protein sulfhydryl levels in the rat stomach). Allopurinol was used as a known standard antioxidant drug. Rats were subjected to 30 min of gastric ischaemia in the presence of 100 mmol/L hydrochloric acid and reperfusion periods of 15, 30 or 60 min duration. The gastric lesions were assessed microscopically under an inverted microscope. The vascular permeability was quantified by measuring the extravasated Evans blue in the stomach. There were significantly greater numbers of gastric lesions, intraluminal bleeding and leakage of Evans blue during all reperfusion periods as compared with those of ischaemia, with maximum effects occurring at 60 min following reperfusion. Pretreatment with sucralfate (31.25-250 mg/kg, p.o.) or allopurinol (12.5-50 mg/kg, i.p.) 30 min before the procedure, dose-dependently reduced the gastric lesions, intraluminal bleeding, and decreased the vascular permeability induced by ischaemia and reperfusion. Furthermore, sucralfate dose-dependently reverses the ischaemia and reperfusion-induced depletion of mucosal non-protein sulfhydryl levels and inhibited the superoxide radical production in both cell-free xanthine-xanthine oxidase and in the stimulated polymorphonuclear cellular systems. These results suggest that the protection produced by sucralfate against gastric injury may be due to its antioxidant effects.     

Prevalence of adrenal carcinoma among incidentally discovered adrenal masses. A retrospective study from 1989 to 1994. Gruppo Piemontese Incidentalomi Surrenalici

BACKGROUND: The incidental discovery of an adrenal mass poses the problem of distinguishing between the frequent benign masses and the infrequent malignant ones that require surgery. Univocal guidelines to approach this problem are unavailable. OBJECTIVE: To perform a survey of the clinical management of incidentally discovered adrenal masses (ie, adrenal incidentalomas). DESIGN: A multicentric retrospective analysis of hospital medical records of adrenal incidentalomas diagnosed during a 5-year period; the medical records were scrutinized for demographic data and clinical details by means of a specifically tailored questionnaire. SETTING: The major surgical and medical centers of Piedmont, a northern Italian region with approximately 4 million inhabitants. The recruitment pattern of these centers was unselected. PATIENTS: The definition of adrenal incidentaloma was limited to patients with a physical examination and a clinical history unindicative of adrenal disease. Exclusion criteria also included hypertension of suspected endocrine origin and a history of neoplasms known to metastasize frequently in the adrenal glands. Two hundred twenty-four medical records were collected, and 210 were analyzed (14 excluded a posteriori). RESULTS: Most patients were in their 50s and 60s, and women were predominantly affected. The frequency of adrenocortical cancer was 13% among patients operated on. The tumor diameter was highly correlated with the risk of cancer; a cutoff at 5 cm had a sensitivity of 93% with a specificity of 64% in discriminating between benign and malignant cortical lesions. CONCLUSIONS: The occurrence of adrenocortical carcinoma among adrenal incidentalomas is not rare. The evaluation of the mass size is a simple and effective method for selecting patients at risk for cancer. The indication for surgery of masses larger than 5 cm, or of masses of any diameter that have suspicious imaging characteristics, limits unnecessary operations and costs.     

Kinetic of CO2 absorption and carbamate formation in aqueous solutions of diethanolamine

The absorption rates of CO₂ into aqueous solutions of Diethanolamine (DEA) with varying concentrations from 0.2 to 4M and temperature range from 293 to 323 K were measured by using a laboratory stirred reactor. The CO₂ partial pressure was varied in a range that the reaction would occur in pseudo first order regime. Experimental data were analyzed and the kinetic parameters associated with the reaction were determined. The activation energy for the deprotonation of the intermediate zwitterion was estimated at about 11.4 kcal/mol. The contribution of carbamate formation to the overall absorbed CO₂ was experimentally evaluated and found to be of the order of 100%.     

Passivity‐based sliding mode control for nonlinear systems

Passivity with sliding mode control for a class of nonlinear systems with and without unknown parameters is considered in this paper. In fact, a method for deriving a nonlinear system with external disturbances to a passive system is considered. Then a passive sliding mode control is designed corresponding to a given storage function. The passivity property guarantees the system stability while sliding mode control techniques assures the robustness of the proposed controller. When the system includes unknown parameters, an appropriate updated law is obtained so that the new transformed system is passive. The passivation property of linear systems with sliding mode is also analysed. The linear and nonlinear theories are applied to a simple pendulum model and the gravity‐flow/pipeline system, respectively. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF STATE OBSERVERS IN REACTIVE DISTILLATION

This study demonstrates that state observers can be developed and applied to infer the composition profiles of reactive distillation columns from noise-contaminated temperature measurements. The design and implementation of a Kalman filter (KF) and a Luenberger observer (LO) are carried out, and their performances are quantitatively assessed. The reliability, accuracy, and robustness of the two designs method are examined and compared quantitatively. The design and implementation of a Luenberger observer are simpler and easier to carry out than those of a Kalman filter. On the other hand, a Kalman filter is found to be more robust to a noisy measurements, erroneous initial estimates, and model uncertainties. A Luenberger observer could be used for composition estimation of reactive distillation when an ideal model of the system can reasonably approximate the real system; otherwise, a Kalman filter is recommended to be applied in more practical situations.     

Luminescence from praseodymium doped AlN thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering and the effect of material structure and thermal annealing on the luminescence

Thin films of Praseodymium doped AlN are deposited on silicon (111) substrates at 77 K and 950 K by rf magnetron sputtering method. About 500–1000 nm thick films are grown at 100–200 watts RF power and 5–8 mTorr nitrogen, using a metal target of Al with Pr. X-rays diffraction results show that films deposited at 77 K are amorphous and those deposited at 950 K are crystalline. Cathodoluminescence studies are performed at room temperature and luminescence peaks are observed in a wide range from ultraviolet to infrared region. The most intense peak is obtained in green at 526 nm from amorphous films as a result from ³P₁→³H₅ transition. In crystalline films the intense peak was obtain in red at 648 nm as a result from ³P₀→³F₂ transition. Films are thermally activated at 1300 K for half an hour in a nitrogen atmosphere. Thermal activation enhances the intensity of luminescence. Two peaks at 488 nm and 505 nm merged after thermal activation, giving rise to a single peak at 495 nm.