Childhood fibrous dysplasia presenting as blindness: a skull base approach for resection and immediate reconstruction

Fibrous dysplasia is an abnormal fibroosseous process of bone of unknown cause. The incidence of skull involvement varies, painless enlargement being the most common presenting symptom. Change in vision is a rare but recognized finding. We report a 3-year-old boy with extreme fibrous dysplasia involving the skull base, who presented with blindness. He underwent exposure osteotomies of the frontal bones and orbits to provide access for skull base tumor removal. The orbital roofs were reconstructed with microplate-fixed cranial grafts. One and one half years after tumor excision followed by immediate reconstruction, the boy retains facial symmetry, and his ocular function has not deteriorated.     

Using bald eagles to indicate the health of the Great Lakes' environment

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is one of the most studied birds of North America, and a great amount of natural life‐history information, including the response of various stressors on the eagles' ability to reproduce, are well known. In Michigan, the eagle has been chosen to track the trends of bioaccumulative compounds of concern across watersheds in the state. The state has been divided into major watersheds, and 20% of these are surveyed each year. A control area in northern Minnesota, Voyageurs National Park, is also sampled annually. We report here on the methods used, the preliminary results of the 1999 field season, and how differences in mercury concentrations varied over a 10‐year period. Mercury in feathers of nestling eagles declined over time only in Lakes Michigan and Huron, but have not decreased among other subpopulations in Michigan. Concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and 4,4′‐DDE in blood plasma from nestling eagles have declined over time for most subpopulations; however, they remain greater for breeding areas associated with the Great Lakes' food web. Sea eagles of the genus Haliaeetus are a good sentinel species to track trends in bioaccumulative compounds in aquatic systems.     

Transport of K in PVC matrix membranes containing valinomycin

We report impedance measurements on PVC matrix membranes which contain KBPh₄ with varying proportions of valinomycin. In agreement with our earlier measurements the value of the bulk membrane resistance (R_b) is much larger in the presence of valinomycin, indicating that the mobility of K⁺ is greatly reduced by the valinomycin. R_b shows a linear variation with valinomycin/K⁺ ratio between 0 and 1, but it is invariant at higher valinomycin/K⁺ ratios. Thus there is no evidence for a special transport mechanism for K⁺ in these membranes.     

汽车电子系统要求低静态电流

如今的汽车电子系统越来越复杂。同时，汽车环境对任何电子产品来说都是很大的挑战，因为汽车电子系统要求运行电压很宽，并且有很大的瞬态电压和温度变化。另外，性能要求也越来越高，需要多个供应电压以满足系统的不同要求。典型的     

单片同步降压型转换器LTC3416

许多微处理器和数字信号处理器(DSP)需要一个核心电源和一个在启动期间必须进行排序的输入／输出(I／O)电源。如果未经过适当的电源排序，可能发生闭锁或过流，从而损害微处理器的I／O端口或诸如存储器、逻辑电路、现场可编程门阵列(FPGA)或数据转换器之类支持设备的I／O端口。为了确保在主电源电压未被适当偏置之前I／O负载不被驱动，对核心电源电压和I／O电源电压进行跟踪是必要的。