Heart transplantation in Finland 1985-1995

BACKGROUND: Clearance of large molecules from the interstitial space is an important function of lymphatics and is affected by local pathologic changes. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the clearance rate of interstitially injected albumin is correlated to tumour characteristics and outcome in women with invasive breast cancer. METHOD: In a consecutive series of women coming to biopsy for suspected breast cancer, technetium-tagged albumin was injected into the tissue adjacent to the palpable mass. The isotope disappearance rate was measured over two hours. Also assessed were the maximum vessel density (MVD-using Factor VIII polyclonal antisera), the proliferation rate (using Ki-67 antisera), node status, tumour size, histologic and nuclear grade, mitotic rate, and p53 and c-erbB-2 oncoproteins. All patients were followed until relapse and for a minimum of 10 years. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, an association between relapse-free survival and isotope clearance rate was suggested (p = 0.024). The best outcome was seen in patients with the least isotope clearance. Node status, size, histologic and nuclear grade, and mitotic rate correlated with survival. MVD did not correlate with survival and was inversely related to the isotope clearance rate. Tumour proliferation rate, and the c-erbB-2 and p53 oncoproteins did not relate to outcome. CONCLUSION: The role of lymphatics in breast cancer is difficult to study. Measurement of interstitial clearance may be a useful technique and could be a prognostic factor.     

Heat and Mass Transfer Analogy Studies of Binary Liquid Mixture in Comparison with Eteanol-n-Heptane Evaporating to Air

An expenmental and theoretical study of heat and mass transfer analogy and a comparison of that to a binary liquid mixture evaporation is presented. Common organic solvents, ethanol and n-heptane, were used to form an alcohol - hydrocarbon mixture. Studies were carried out in a horizontal rectangular channel having air flow velocities of 0.2 - 0.9 m/s. Heat transfer coefficients were measured with a copper plate resistor and mass transfer coefficients with a square pool. The heat and mass transfer analogy is presented for a system having two evaporating compounds with a fixed value of air flow and verified by measuring and comparing mass transfer coefficients for distilled water with air flow velocities of 0.2 - 0.9 mls. An illustrative example of the use of the theory for industrial ventilation is presented.     

Estimating areal means and variances of forest attributes using the k-Nearest Neighbors technique and satellite imagery

The k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) technique has become extremely popular for a variety of forest inventory mapping and estimation applications. Much of this popularity may be attributed to the non-parametric, multivariate features of the technique, its intuitiveness, and its ease of use. When used with satellite imagery and forest inventory plot data, the technique has been shown to produce useful estimates of many forest attributes including forest/non-forest, volume, and basal area. However, variance estimators for quantifying the uncertainty of means or sums of k-NN pixel-level predictions for areas of interest (AOI) consisting of multiple pixels have not been reported. The primary objectives of the study were to derive variance estimators for AOI estimates obtained from k-NN predictions and to compare precision estimates resulting from different approaches to k-NN prediction and different interpretations of those predictions. The approaches were illustrated by estimating proportion forest area, tree volume per unit area, tree basal area per unit area, and tree density per unit area for 10-km AOIs. Estimates obtained using k-NN approaches and traditional inventory approaches were compared and found to be similar. Further, variance estimates based on different interpretations of k-NN predictions were similar. The results facilitate small area estimation and simultaneous and consistent mapping and estimation of multiple forest attributes.     

NMR imaging and differential scanning calorimetry study on drying of pine,birch, and reed pulps and their mixtures

Drying, water fractions, and water distribution were investigated for pine, birch, and reed pulps and pine–birch, pine–reed, and pine–birch–reed pulp mixtures. Gravimetrically determined drying times showed that the drying rates of the pulps decreased at two to four inflection points. Characterizations of the dried pulps by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed a faster removal of free water than freezing and nonfreezing bound waters; all decreased simultaneously, however. DSC also revealed the critical water contents at which the free water and freezing bound water disappeared. The gravimetrically determined inflection points of the drying curves corresponded with the critical points determined by DSC. NMR line widths and images produced by ¹H‐NMR imaging revealed the nature and regions of the pulp drying. The constant growth rate of the NMR line widths with decreasing water content appeared to change at two inflection points, which fell approximately in the same water content regions as the inflection points of the drying curves. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 937–945, 2006     

Usability study of ME2.0

Mobile context-aware applications execute in the background of hosts mobile devices. The applications source process and aggregate hosts’ contextual and personal information. This information is disclosed to ubiquitously pervasive services that adapt their offerings to individual preferences. Unfortunately, many developers continue to ignore the user perspective in context-aware application designs as they complicate their overall task and generate exponential requirements. The additional incorporation of privacy mechanisms in context-aware applications to safeguard context and personal information disclosures also complicates users’ tasks resulting to misconfigured or completely abandoned applications. Misconfigured applications give end-users a false assurance of privacy exposing them to comprising services. We present a usability study on Mobile Electronic Personality Version 2 a privacy enhanced context-aware mobile application for personalising ubiquitous services and adapting pervasive smart-spaces. We draw conclusions on key issues related to user needs, based on user interviews, surveys, prototypes and field evaluations. Users’ needs are evaluated against five themes, learn-ability, efficiency, memorability, errors, satisfaction and privacy contention. In addition, design layout preferences, privacy manageability and consensus design comprehension are also evaluated. Clarity of priorities in context-aware mobile applications shaped by usability studies effectively increases the acceptance of levels of potential users.     

Concerted utility review of VVER-440 safety research needs (VERSAFE)

There are twelve operating VVER-440/213 reactors in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The plant owners have carried out extensive safety enhancement programmes, which have included measures to improve prevention, mitigation and control of design basis accidents. Recently, there have been a number of projects to study the Severe Accident Management aspects of these plants. The plant owners have also initiated Plant Life Management programmes. The objective of the VERSAFE Concerted Action is to create a network of the VVER-440/213 plant owners and operators, which aims at definition of the further research needs of severe accidents and plant ageing from the utilities’ viewpoint. The starting point is to formulate a general approach to severe accident management and plant life management and then proceed to define the needs for the additional information expected from the safety research. The role of national research institutes and organisations of the partner countries is of crucial importance in performing such research and, thus, creating and maintaining the expertise on the national level. The successful completion of the project will assist in establishing well-defined research projects that are oriented to the needs of the end-users and provide information that can be used to facilitate and support the negotiations of the EU applicant countries operating VVER-440 reactors.     

Changes in soil carbon stock after cropland conversion to grassland in Russian temperate zone: measurements versus model simulation

The collapse of Soviet Union in early 1990s led to abandonment of large area of arable land which is assumed to act as a carbon (C) sink. We studied the ability of two dynamic soil C models (Yasso07 and RothC) to predict changes in soil C content after cropland abandonment. The performance of the models was compared using the results of a long-term experiment in Pushchino, Moscow region (54°50′N, 37°35′E) in Russia. The experiment was divided in four combinations of fertilizer or mowing treatments on former cropland soil. The soil C content was determined in the year of establishment (1980) and thereafter in 1999 and 2004. The soil C stocks increased by about 1.5- to 1.8-fold during the study period. Both models predicted the overall change in soil C relatively well (modelling efficiency of Yasso07 and RothC were 0.60 and 0.73, respectively). According to the models, the soil gained on average 140–150 g C m^?2 year^?1 during the first 5 years after conversion of cropland to grassland. The C sequestration rate decreased to 40–50 g C m^?2 year^?1 after 20 years of land use change. The sequestration rates estimated in this study are comparable to the rates observed in other studies.