Randomised trial comparing hysterectomy with endometrial ablation for dysfunctional uterine bleeding: psychiatric and psychosocial aspects

OBJECTIVE: To compare in psychiatric and psychosocial terms the outcome of hysterectomy and endometrial ablation for the treatment of dysfunctional uterine bleeding. DESIGN: Prospective randomised controlled trial. SETTING--Obstetrics and gynaecology department of a large teaching hospital. SUBJECTS: 204 women with dysfunctional bleeding for whom hysterectomy would have been the preferred treatment were recruited over 24 months and randomly allocated to hysterectomy (99 women) or to hysteroscopic surgery (transcervical resection (52 women) or laser ablation (53 women). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mental state, martial relationship, psychosocial and sexual adjustment in assessments conducted before the operation and one month, six months, and 12 months later. RESULTS: Both treatments significantly reduced the anxiety and depression present before the operation, and there were no differences in mental health between the groups at 12 months. Hysterectomy did not lead to postoperative psychiatric illness. Sexual interest after the operation did not vary with treatment. Overall, 46 out of 185 (25%) women reported a loss sexual interest and 50 out of 185 (27%) reported increased sexual interest. Marital relationships were unaffected by surgery. Personality and duration of dysfunctional uterine bleeding played no significant part in determining outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Hysteroscopic surgery and hysterectomy have a similar effect on psychiatric and psychosocial outcomes. There is no evidence that hysterectomy leads to postoperative psychiatric illness.     

Densification kinetics of coatings being sinter-bonded in a model of viscous flow of a porous solid

Conclusions A theory of sinter-bonding of a powder layer in a model of a linear viscous porous medium is proposed in which the structural transformation of the layer during sinter-bonding is allowed for by introducing two kinetic parameters characterizing sinter-bonding in its initial and final stages; it is shown that there is good agreement between theoretical and experimental data for the isothermal sinter-bonding of PG-SR4 powder in the temperature range 1023–1173°K and the pressure range 10–50 MPa. A study was made of the effect of temperature on the kinetic parameters and of the kinetics of densification of PG-SR4 powder during heating at a constant rate in the range 1100–1250°K; satisfactory agreement is noted between theory and experiment, and the conclusion is arrived at that there exists a lower temperature limit of active sintering.Translated from Poroshkovaya Metallurgiya, No. 8(284), pp. 25–29, August, 1986.     

DOA estimation for noninteger linear antenna arrays with moreuncorrelated sources than sensors

We investigate direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation involving nonuniform linear arrays, where the sensor positions may be noninteger values expressed in half-wavelength units, with some number of uncorrelated Gaussian sources that is greater than or equal to the number of sensors. We introduce an approach whereby the (noninteger) co-array is treated as the most appropriate virtual array when considering an augmented covariance matrix. Since such virtual arrays have an incomplete set of covariance lags, we discuss various completion philosophies to fill in the missing elements of the associated partially specified Hermitian covariance matrix. This process is followed by the application of an algorithm that searches for a specific number of plane wavefronts, yielding the minimum fitting error for the specified covariance lags in the neighborhood of the completion-initialized DOA estimates. In this way, we are able to resolve possible ambiguity and to achieve asymptotically optimal estimation accuracy. Numerical simulations of DOA estimation demonstrate a close proximity to the Cramer-Rao bound     

Dynamic stiffness analysis of laminated beams using a first order shear deformation theory

In this paper the exact vibration frequencies of generally laminated beams are found using a new method, including the effect of rotary inertia and shear deformations. The effect of shear in laminated beams is more significant than in homogenous beams, due to the fact that the ratio of extensional stiffness to the transverse shear stiffness is high. The exact dynamic stiffness matrix is derived, and then any set of boundary conditions including elastic connections, and assembly of members, can be solved as in the classical direct stiffness method for framed structures. The natural frequencies of vibration of a structure are those values of frequency that cause the dynamic stiffness matrix to become singular, and one can find as many frequencies as needed from the same matrix. In the paper several examples are given, and compared with results from the literature.     

GLRT-Based Threshold Detection-Estimation Performance Improvement and Application to Uniform Circular Antenna Arrays

The problem of estimating the number of independent Gaussian sources and their parameters impinging upon an antenna array is addressed for scenarios that are problematic for standard techniques, namely, under "threshold conditions" (where subspace techniques such as MUSIC experience an abrupt and dramatic performance breakdown). We propose an antenna geometry-invariant method that adopts the generalized-likelihood-ratio test (GLRT) methodology, supported by a maximum-likelihood-ratio lower-bound analysis that allows erroneous solutions ("outliers") to be found and rectified. Detection-estimation performance in both uniform circular and linear antenna arrays is shown to be significantly improved compared with conventional techniques but limited by the performance-breakdown phenomenon that is intrinsic to all such maximum-likelihood (ML) techniques     

Hormonal and metabolic changes in oncology patients subjected to general hyperthermia and ways for their correction

Hormonal-metabolic changes in oncology patients subjected to general hyperthermia (GHT) result in enhancement of free-radical oxidation and accumulation of endotoxins under the conditions of violation of their targeted transport to detoxication. A pathogenesis-matched stress-limiting program is developed that allows optimization of the GHT treatment. Scientific Research Institute of Oncology and Medical Radiology of the Ministry of Public Health of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 69, No. 3, pp. 443–450, May–June, 1996.     

Detection-estimation of more uncorrelated Gaussian sources than sensors in nonuniform linear antenna arrays - part III: detection-estimation nonidentifiability

For pt.II see ibid., vol.51, no.6, p.1492-507 (2003). We investigate nonidentifiability conditions for the detection-estimation problem with multiple uncorrelated plane waves incident upon a nonuniform (sparse) linear antenna array. Specifically, we define conditions under which a given Hermitian covariance matrix has a nonunique (multiple) decomposition into an admissible number of dyads weighted by the source powers and a white-noise identity matrix. Our method is based on the Proukakis-Manikas technique of generating ambiguity generator sets (AGSs) and allows ambiguous sets of sources associated with a given sparse antenna geometry to be determined.