Visual, cognitive, and neurodevelopmental outcome at 51/2 years in children with perinatal haemorrhagic-ischaemic brain lesions

To determine predictive values of early visual and neurocognitive assessment in children with perinatally acquired haemorrhagic or ischaemic brain lesions selected on the basis of ultrasound, 63 children (37 boys, 26 girls), who had been followed and examined until the age of 18 months, were reexamined at 5 1/2 years. Good correlations between visual and neurodevelopmental assessments at 18 months and at 5 1/2 years were found. When ultrasound abnormalities were combined with early visual and neurocognitive assessment data, good predictive values, especially for the group of children who had grade 2 to 4 leukomalacia, were found for visual acuity and neurodevelopment.     

UV curable lens production using molecular weight controlled PEEK based acrylic oligomer (Ac-PEEK)

We produced UV curable lenses with properties blocking short wave UV light. In the UV-curable formulations, we used an oligomer (Ac-PEEK) with another urethan oligomer (Mw = 2000). Radically active, molecular weight controlled Ac-PEEK was obtained by reacting 2-hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate with molecular- weight- controlled and isocyanate terminated PEEK (Mn = 4500). We characterized all synthesized monomer, oligomer and optical materials with UV/Vis spectrophotometer with interferogram, elemental analyser, mass spectrophotometer, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analyzer, differential scanning calorimeter, scanning electron microscopy and gas chromatography. Results suggested that newly synthesized oligomer with the structure of PEEK absorbs short wave UV-light. Ageing tests [ISO 11979-5, Ophthalmic implants—intraocular lenses (IOL)—Part 5: Biocompatibility] performed on the IOL materials were successful. High contact angle of the obtained lenses suggests that all lenses were hydrophobic and SEM results revealed that lenses are morphologically homogeneous. Based on all positive properties just mentioned, we safely conclude that the lenses produced in this study are very promising for IOL production.     

Spontaneous electromyographic activity in adult rat soleus muscle

Single-motor-unit and gross electromyograms (EMG) were recorded from the soleus muscle in six unrestrained rats. The median firing frequencies of nine motor units were in the 16-25 Hz range, in agreement with previous studies. One additional motor unit had a median firing frequency of 47 Hz. This unit and one of the lower-frequency units regularly fired doublets. Motor-unit firing frequency was well correlated to whole-muscle EMG during locomotion. Integrated rectified gross EMG revealed periods of continuous modulation, phasic high-amplitude events, and tonic low-amplitude segments. The tonic segments typically were caused by a small number of motor units firing at stable high frequencies (20-30 Hz) for extended periods of time without detectable activity in other units. This long-lasting firing in single motor units typically was initiated by transient mass activity, which recruited many units. However, only one or a few units continued firing at a stable high frequency. The tonic firing terminated spontaneously or in conjunction with an episode of mass activity. Different units were active in different tonic segments. Thus there was an apparent dissociation between activity in different single motor units and consequently between single-motor-unit activity and whole-muscle EMG. It is proposed that the maintained tonic motor-unit activity is caused by intrinsic motoneuron properties in the form of depolarizing plateau potentials.     

A field evaluation of real-life motor vehicle accidents: Presence of unrestrained objects and their association with distribution and severity of patient injuries

Moving objects may pose an added threat to car occupants in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). However, to our knowledge, there have only been two case studies published on the subject. For the present study, accident reports and photo documentation from MVAs were collected on-scene by dedicated paramedics. Emergency medical service personnel on-scene were interviewed as necessary. Potentially harmful unrestrained objects in the involved motor vehicles (MVs) were identified and categorised by type, weight and hardness. Seatback offset by unrestrained objects was noted. The patient injury distribution (Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) body regions) and severity (AIS severity scores and New Injury Severity Score (NISS) scores) were retrospectively determined from hospital and autopsy records, and their potential relationship to unrestrained objects was explored. A total of 190 accidents involving 338 MVs and 618 individuals were included. In total, 327 individuals (53%) were injured, and 61 (10%) died. 37 of 61 were not autopsied. The mean NISS was 17 (median 8, interquartile range (IQR) 1–27). Unrestrained objects were reported for 133 motor vehicles (39%) involving 293 individuals. 35% of the unrestrained objects found in the passenger compartment weighed >2 kg. In the boot, 32% of objects weighed >20 kg. Seatback offset associated with unrestrained objects was found for 45 individuals (15%). Unrestrained objects originally located in the boot (heavy luggage, groceries and tyres were the most frequently reported) had moved into the passenger compartment on impact in 27 cases, 24 of which were associated with seatback offset. An in-depth analysis was performed on 24 patients whose injuries were highly likely to be associated with unrestrained objects, as indicated by accident reports and medical documentation. Nineteen (79%) were involved in frontal collisions, and 12 (50%) died on-scene. The mean NISS was 51.7 (median 51, IQR 27–75) in the 17 (71%) patients with seatback offset and 37.2 (median 41, IQR 22.5–50) in the 7 (29%) without seatback offset. Seatback offset was associated with more severe head and thoracic injuries and an increased incidence of abdominal and pelvic injuries. Patients injured by unrestrained objects while sitting in unharmed car seats predominantly suffered head, cervical spine and thoracic injuries. Our results indicate a need for public information campaigns. The development of car backseats that can better sustain hits from heavy objects in the cargo boot is an important area for the motor vehicle production industry to explore.     

Polysulfone-based amphiphilic copolymers: Effect of hydrophilic content on morphology and performance of ultrafiltration membranes

A series of polysulfone (PSf)-based amphiphilic graft copolymers were synthesized to investigate the effects of copolymer composition on membrane morphology and performance. PSf-based ultrafiltration membranes were prepared by phase inversion method using the blends of PSf and PSf-g-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA) copolymers. Membranes were evaluated in terms of pure water permeability, flux recovery ratio (FRR), protein rejection, and contact angle. The morphology of the membranes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Contact angle of membranes was decreased from 85.7° to 51.6°, while the FRR was greatly increased from 55 to 95% upon increasing the PEGMA content of copolymers from 20 to 70 wt %. Results indicated that the ratio of hydrophilic/hydrophobic segments in amphiphilic structures is one the key parameters that control the phase inversion process by altering miscibility, viscosity, and wettability of casting solutions. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48306.     

Anti-adhesive effects of Budesonide combined with spraygel in a cecal abrasion model: an experimental study

Many methods have been described for preventing or reducing postoperative adhesions. In this work, we evaluated the effectiveness of Budesonide in combination with SprayGel in a reducing postoperative adhesion in rats as the model. Cecal abrasion was achieved in 60 male Sprague-Dawley rats, by brushing and by applying 70% alcohol. The rats were separated into six groups and treated with six solutions (Group I – saline; II – Budesonide 50?μg; III – Budesonide 250?μg; IV – SprayGel; V and VI – SprayGel?+?Budesonide 50 and 250?μg). Serum Budesonide, glucose, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and blood urea nitrogen levels were measured at postoperative day (POD) 2 and 14. The rats were killed on POD 14, and intra-abdominal adhesion formation was scored. Histopathological samples were obtained from the cecum and terminal ileum to evaluate microscopic adhesion formation. Our results showed that Group VI had both the minimum macroscopic adhesion score and the minimum microscopic score. All other groups had significantly lower microscopic adhesion scores than Group I. However, there was no statistical significance among any other groups. Serum AST levels of Group III were significantly higher than in Groups I, II, IV, and V (p?<?0.046). Serum AST levels of Group III on POD 14 were also significantly higher than that of all other groups (p?<?0.02). On POD 14, there was no Budesonide in the sera of Groups II and V. However, Groups III and VI had trace amounts of Budesonide (0.009 and 0.007?μg, respectively). In conclusion, we have showed that the effect of Budesonide is dosedependent. Both anti-adhesive and hepatotoxic side effects of Budesonide increased as the dose increased. Combining Budesonide with SprayGel synergistically increased the anti-adhesive benefits and prevented hepatotoxicity from the slower release of Budesonide.     

A 5.9-GHz voltage-controlled ring oscillator in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS

This paper presents the design of three- and nine-stage voltage-controlled ring oscillators that were fabricated in TSMC 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology with oscillation frequencies up to 5.9 GHz. The circuits use a multiple-pass loop architecture and delay stages with cross-coupled FETs to aid in the switching speed and to improve the noise parameters. Measurements show that the oscillators have linear frequency-voltage characteristics over a wide tuning range, with the three- and nine-stage rings resulting in frequency ranges of 5.16-5.93 GHz and 1.1-1.86 GHz, respectively. The measured phase noise of the nine-stage ring oscillator was -105.5 dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz offset from a 1.81-GHz center frequency, whereas the value for the three-stage ring oscillator was simulated to be -99.5 dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz offset from a 5.79-GHz center frequency.     

An empirical study on the effect of community smells on bug prediction

Software Quality Journal - Community-aware metrics through socio-technical developer networks or organizational structures have already been studied in the&nbsp;software bug prediction field....     

An introduction to vague complemented ordered sets

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a theory of fuzzily defined complement operations on nonempty sets equipped with fuzzily defined ordering relations. Many-valued equivalence relation-based fuzzy ordering relations (also called vague ordering relations) provide a powerful and a comprehensive mathematical modelling of fuzzily defined partial ordering relations. For this reason, starting with a nonempty set X equipped with a many-valued equivalence relation and a vague ordering relation, a fuzzily defined complement operation (called a vague complement operation) on X will be formulated by means of the underling many-valued equivalence relation and vague ordering relation. Because of the fact that the practical implementations of vague complement operations basically depend on their representation properties, a considerable part of this paper is devoted to the representations of vague complement operations. In addition to this, the present paper provides various nontrivial examples for vague complements, and introduces a many-valued logical interpretation of quantum logic as a real application of vague complements.