Computational Fluid Dynamics Study on a Top-Blown Smelting Process with Lance Failure in an Isa Furnace

JOM - The Isa/Ausmelt smelting technology with a top submerged lance (TSL) has been extensively used in copper smelting processes. However, the TSL is extremely vulnerable to damage and failure...     

以奥林匹克精神为纲——中国运动鞋品牌运行之我见

2008年29届奥运会在北京举行，使得有关奥运的话题成为热门中的热门，与运动有关或无关的众多品牌、厂商对北京奥运年均寄予厚望，为赢取更大的收获和提升品牌知名度作最大的努力。其实早在几年前，国内外运动鞋品牌企业就已经大张旗鼓，在产品研发与广告宣传等多方面投入重金，为在这次北京奥运年带来的难得契机中处于市场制高点或明或隐地博杀着。     

含V、N无缝钢管表面外折缺陷产生原因的分析

通过对鞍钢生产的部分批号V、N微合金强化无缝钢管及生产该钢管的原料连铸坯和连轧管坯的表面缺陷进行研究，分析了含V、N钢管表面外折缺陷的成因，提出了改善钢管表面质量的方法。采用改进后工艺生产的无缝管，其表面外折废品量大幅度降低。     

Gastrointestinal autonomic nerve tumour presenting as small bowel volvulus: a rare disease with a rare presentation

A 78-year-old Chinese woman presented with recurrent postprandial abdominal pain. Computerised tomography revealed a small bowel tumour causing volvulus of a segment of the small bowel. Laparotomy confirmed an extraluminal ileal tumour with partial volvulus of the involved small bowel segment. Small bowel resection was done. Histological and ultrastructural studies confirmed a gastrointestinal autonomic nerve tumour. We review the medical literature on this rare tumour.     

Longitudinal bone mineral density changes in early rheumatoid arthritis

A prospective longitudinal study of patients with early RA was performed to examine the influence of disease duration, disease activity and physical activity on bone loss. Sixty-seven patients with non-steroid treated RA of less than 5 yr duration, including 16 patients with disease duration less than 6 months, had BMD measurements of the femoral neck and the lumbar spine over a 12-month period using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The BMD changes were compared with values from 72 control patients and were also correlated with serial measurements of disease activity (measured by the Stoke Index) and disability [measured by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score], at 3-monthly intervals over the 12-month period. No significant differences in BMD changes were found between RA patients and controls overall. Patients with disease duration of less than 6 months had significantly greater loss of BMD at the femoral neck (-3.9%, S.E.M. 1.5) than the remainder of the cohort (-0.2%, S.E.M. 0.7) (P = 0.02) and controls (-0.8%, S.E.M. 0.6). Lumbar spine BMD changes correlated with the initial Stoke Index (Rs-0.373, P = 0.01) but not mean Stoke Indices. There was no correlation of BMD changes with age or HAQ scores. These findings suggest that significant bone loss occurs within the first few months of disease in patients with RA.     

A genetic algorithm for multiple molecular sequence alignment

MOTIVATION: Multiple molecular sequence alignment is among the most important and most challenging tasks in computational biology. The currently used alignment techniques are characterized by great computational complexity, which prevents their wider use. This research is aimed at developing a new technique for efficient multiple sequence alignment. APPROACH: The new method is based on genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms are stochastic approaches for efficient and robust searching. By converting biomolecular sequence alignment into a problem of searching for optimal or near-optimal points in an 'alignment space', a genetic algorithm can be used to find good alignments very efficiently. RESULTS: Experiments on real data sets have shown that the average computing time of this technique may be two or three orders lower than that of a technique based on pairwise dynamic programming, while the alignment qualities are very similar. AVAILABILITY: A C program on UNIX has been written to implement the technique. It is available on request from the authors.