Oxygen content of the fixative is important in the interpretation of the ultrastructure of ischaemic myocardium

Isolated rat hearts were subjected to 15, 45, or 60 minutes of global ischaemia and then fixed by perfusion at 37°C with glutaraldehyde containing various amounts of oxygen. This either had been bubbled with 100% oxygen (PO₂ 620 mm Hg) or with 100% nitrogen (PO₂ 40 mm Hg) immediately before use, or it had been routinely prepared and stored exposed to atmospheric oxygen (PO₂ 245 mm Hg). The ultrastructure of myocytes and endothelial cells subjected to 15 minutes of ischaemia was not affected by the treatment of the fixative. However, when the tissue subjected to longer periods of ischaemia was fixed with routinely prepared or oxygen-bubbled glutaraldehyde, ultrastructural changes characteristic of reoxygenation damage were uniformly evident in both the microvasculature and myocytes. These qualitatively distinct changes included mitochondrial swelling, cell swelling, endothelial bleb formation, and narrowing of capillary lumina. These abnormalities were not observed in tissue fixed with nitrogen-bubbled glutaraldehyde. These findings indicate that deliberate steps should be taken to reduce or eliminate dissolved oxygen from the fixatives used to study ischaemic tissues. Otherwise artefactual reoxygenation damage in vitro may occur and make valid ultrastructural interpretation difficult or impossible.     

Performance characteristics of a therapeutic ultrasound wire waveguide apparatus

Therapeutic ultrasound angioplasty has been investigated, clinically, by a number of researchers and represents a potentially promising therapy for the treatment of atherosclerotic lesions. To date, there has been no detailed analysis of the effect of mechanical design parameters, such as wire geometry or damping characteristics, on wire waveguide performance. An apparatus capable of delivering therapeutic ultrasound down small diameter nickel–titanium (NiTi) wire waveguides is described. The output peak-to-peak (p–p) displacements at the distal tip of a 1.0 mm diameter waveguide were measured experimentally, by means of an optical microscope and image analysis software. The output was measured for a range of waveguide lengths from 118 to 303 mm. Wire waveguide distal tip displacements as high as 98 μm (p–p) at 23.5 kHz were measured. For the range of lengths tested, the experimental measurements show the critical relationship between the length of the waveguide and the output distal tip displacements. A finite element model that can predict the resonant frequencies and distal tip displacements of various wire waveguide geometries and configurations, including the effect of damping, is presented. This numerical model has been validated against the experimental displacement data obtained. This will be a valuable design tool for ensuring the safety and effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound angioplasty procedures.     

Propane conversion over zeolite catalysts: Comments on the role of Ga

The activation of propane using zeolite H-Y and Ga³⁺ exchanged zeolite Y indicates that in the presence of Ga³⁺ the mechanism of propane activation is changed from a cracking pathway to a dehydrogenation pathway. The presence of both Ga³⁺ and H⁺ are required to achieve this effect.     

EXTENSION OF THE RELATIONAL DATABASE AND ITS ALGEBRA WITH ROUGH SET TECHNIQUES

This paper describes a database model based on the original rough sets theory. Its rough relations permit the representation of a rough set of tuples not definable in terms of the elementary classes, except through use of lower and upper approximations. The rough relational database model also incorporates indiscernibility in the representation and in all the operators of the rough relational algebra. This indiscernibility is based strictly on equivalence classes which must be defined for every attribute domain. There are several obvious applications for which the rough relational database model can more accurately model an enterprise than does the standard relational model. These include systems involving ambiguous, imprecise, or uncertain data. Retrieval over mismatched domains caused by the merging of one or more applications can be facilitated by the use of indiscernibility, and naive system users can achieve greater recall with the rough relational database. In addition, applications inherently “rough” could be more easily implemented and maintained in the rough relational database.     

Numerical and experimental study of a nonisothermal turbulent jet with a heavy impurity

Temperature and momentum distributions of the carrier phase are determined experimentally and compared to results of numerical calculations using the (k–) model.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 735–743, May, 1986.     

Distribution of disperse impurity in turbulent jet

The concentration fields of disperse impurity are calculated on the basis of a k- model of turbulence in a wide range of Stokes numbers.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 548–555, October, 1985.     

Copper Assisted Inverted Pyramids Texturization of Monocrystalline Silicon in a Nitrogen Bubbling Bath for Highly Efficient Light Trapping

Silicon - Inverted pyramid (IP) texturization on silicon wafers has recently attracted attention for the structure’s light trapping ability and low specific surface area. The later property...