Background Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was involved in the pathogenetic mechanisms responsible for ischemic stroke (IS). Population-based sample have revealed gene-gender interaction ...in blood pressure which is major risk for IS. We sought to evaluate whether ICAM-1 K469E polymorphism was involved in the causation of IS and whether it was different between female and male. Methods A 1:1 case-control study was conducted. The K469E polymorphism of ICAM-1 gene were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction enzyme analysis in Chinese patients with IS (n = 309) and elderly subjects without IS (n = 309). Results ICAM-1 K469E polymorphism was significantly associated with IS. Interestingly, a further analysis stratified by sex found that there was significance between 469E genotypes and IS in female, but not in male. Multiple regression analysis revealed that ICAM-1 K469E polymorphism was still significantly associated with IS, compared with ICAM-1 KK genotype in all population (OR = 1.60, P = 0.030). Stratified by sex, EE combined EK was contributory factor to IS in female (OR = 3.03, P = 0.004), but not in male. After adjustment for confounding factors, the interaction between female and ICAM-1 EK/EE genotypes was found (OR = 3.54, P = 0.001). Conclusions It is suggested that the ICAM-1 469E allele may be important in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke, especially in female but not in male.
The concept of ductile-phase toughening was explored in a metallic-intermetallic laminate (MIL) composite comprising alternating layers of Ti^sub 3^Al and TiB^sub w^/Ti. The laminates, in which the ...TiB^sub w^/Ti layers were intended to impart toughness to the brittle Ti^sub 3^Al, were fabricated in situ by hot pressing and reaction annealing. Compared with monolithic Ti^sub 3^Al, the MIL composite exhibited marked increases in both fracture toughness and tensile elongation because of stress redistribution and strain delocalization by in situ interfaces.
A Charge Pump Circuit by using Voltage-Doubler as Clock Scheme Huang, Wen Chang; Cheng, Jin Chang; Liou, Po Chih
International journal of design, analysis and tools for integrated circuits and systems,
06/2011, Letnik:
1, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A new charge pump circuit with a clock that shows an increased clock voltage as its stage is increased is proposed in the paper. The charge pump circuit utilizes the cross-connected NMOS, voltage ...doubler, as a pumping stage. Each stage of the voltage-doubler provides a pair of complementary clock voltages. The clock voltage also increases as the stage of voltage doubler is increased. It shows that a voltage up to 37.85V was obtained after eight-stage's pumping of the circuit, through the simulation of HSpice under 0.35 urn process with 2V of supply voltage and clock voltage. Index Terms - Charge pump, high voltage clock generator, voltage doubler.
Many localization algorithms and systems have been developed by means of wireless sensor networks for both indoor and outdoor environments. To achieve higher localization accuracy, extra hardware ...equipments are utilized by most of the existing localization algorithms, which increase the cost and greatly limit the range of location-based applications. In this paper we present a method which can effectively meet different localization accuracy requirements of most indoor and outdoor location services in realistic applications. Our algorithm is composed of two phases: partition phase, in which the target region is split into small grids and localization refinement phase in which a higher accuracy location can be generated by applying a trick algorithm. A realistic demo system using our algorithm has been developed to illustrate its feasibility and availability. The results show that our algorithm can improve the localization accuracy.
The interface between hexagonal ZnO films and cubic MgO (001) substrates, fabricated through molecular beam epitaxy, are thoroughly investigated. X-ray diffraction and (scanning) transmission ...electron microscopy reveal that, at the substrate temperature above 200 degree C, the growth follows the single 0001 direction; while at the substrate below 150 degree C, the growth is initially along 0001 and then mainly changes to 0-332 variants beyond the thickness of about 10 nm. Interestingly, a double-domain feature with a rotational angle of 30 degree appears for the growth along 0001 regardless of the growth temperature, experimentally demonstrated the theoretical predictions for occurrence of double rotational domains in such a heteroepitaxy Grundmann et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 146102 (2010). It is also found that, the optical transmissivity of the ZnO film is greatly influenced by the mutation of growth directions, stimulated by the bond-length modulations, as further determined by X-ray absorption Spectra (XAS) at Zn K edge. The XAS results also show the evolution of 4pxy and 4pz states in the conduction band as the growth temperature increases. The results obtained from this work can hopefully promote the applications of ZnO in advanced optoelectronics for which its integration with other materials of different phases is desirable.
A novel cell equilibrium algorithm which is used for battery state of charge equilibrium of battery pack is proposed in this paper. Cell equilibrium algorithm is a key technology for lithium-ion ...battery pack in the energy storage systems. In order to eliminate the imbalance of battery state of charge, it’s generally controlled by adjusting the charging current. The artificial potential field can construct a virtual force function, which provides the mapping between state of charge deviation and charging current. Therefore, an artificial potential field-based equilibrium method to balance battery state of charge was proposed in this paper. By reasonably distributing the charging current of the battery, the equilibrium of the battery state of charge can be achieved. A laboratory testbed has been built to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method compared with conventional method. Experiment results analyzed the energy consumption and the convergence speed of state of charge deviation under artificial potential field control with different parameters.
Capsazepine is thought to be a selective antagonist of vanilloid type 1 receptors; however, its other in vitro effect on different cell types is unclear. In human MG63 osteosarcoma cells, the effect ...of capsazepine on intracellular Ca(2+) concentrations (Ca(2+)(i)) and cytotoxicity was explored by using fura-2 and tetrazolium, respectively. Capsazepine caused a rapid rise in Ca(2+)(i) in a concentration-dependent manner with an EC(50) value of 100 microM. Capsazepine-induced Ca(2+)(i) rise was partly reduced by removal of extracellular Ca(2+), suggesting that the capsazepine-induced Ca(2+)(i) rise was composed of extracellular Ca(2+) influx and intracellular Ca(2+). In Ca(2+)-free medium, thapsigargin, an inhibitor of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase, caused a monophasic Ca(2+)(i) rise, after which the increasing effect of capsazepine on Ca(2+)(i) was inhibited by 75%. Conversely, pretreatment with capsazepine to deplete intracellular Ca(2+) stores totally prevented thapsigargin from releasing more Ca(2+). U73122, an inhibitor of phospholipase C, abolished histamine (an inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate-dependent Ca(2+) mobilizer)-induced, but not capsazepine-induced, Ca(2+)(i) rise. Overnight treatment with 1-100 microM capsazepine inhibited cell proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner. These findings suggest that in human MG63 osteosarcoma cells, capsazepine increases Ca(2+)(i) by stimulating extracellular Ca(2+) influx and also by causing intracellular Ca(2+) release from the endoplasmic reticulum via a phospholiase C-independent manner. Capsazepine may be mildly cytotoxic.
Background: The intact gallbladder after endoscopic sphincterotomy is thought to be a potential risk factor for recurrent biliary complications. The aim of this non-randomized prospective study was ...to investigate whether cholecystectomy soon after endoscopic sphincterotomy could prevent the recurrence of biliary complications.
Methods: From January 1991 to October 1995, 140 patients with intact gallbladder underwent endoscopic sphincterotomy for clearance of stones in the bile duct. Of the 140 patients, 46 underwent elective cholecystectomy soon after sphincterotomy (group A) and 94 did not (group B). All 140 patients had quantitative cholescintigraphy after normalization of liver function and were followed on a regular basis with liver biochemistry, sonography, and/or computed tomography. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography was also performed if a recurrent biliary problem was suspected.
Results: After a median 43 months (range 23 to 80) of follow-up, 5 patients in group A developed bile duct stones whereas 12 patients in group B had recurrent stones; 4 patients in group A versus 6 patients in group B had recurrent biliary symptoms. One patient in group A and 5 patients in group B with recurrent biliary stones were without symptoms. In group B, the age, gender, diameter of the bile duct, preexisting cholelithiasis, abnormal filling of the gallbladder on quantitative cholescintigraphy, and presence of juxtapapillary diverticulum were not found to be the significant factors affecting the recurrence of biliary symptoms or stones. Endoscopic removal of recurrent biliary stones was successful in all patients. Three patients in group B underwent cholecystectomy after abatement of symptoms.
Conclusion: Elective cholecystectomy after endoscopic sphincterotomy does not reduce the incidence of recurrent biliary complications. (Gastrointest Endosc 1999;49:483-7.)
License Plate Recognition System is the core component of the modern intelligent traffic management system. According to the principle of license plate recognition, we designed a license plate ...recognition method based on machine vision technology. It was through computer vision system to capture license plate images. We used morphological processing and blob analysis algorithms of machine vision software HALCON to process image and extract features. Then a trained classifier was used for feature matching and plate identification.
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