LOPES 3D is able to measure all three components of the electric field vector of the radio emission from air showers. This allows a better comparison with emission models. The measurement of the ...vertical component increases the sensitivity to inclined showers. By measuring all three components of the electric field vector LOPES 3D demonstrates by how much the reconstruction accuracy of primary cosmic ray parameters increases. Thus LOPES 3D evaluates the usefulness of vectorial measurements for large scale applications.
Hyperostosis cranialis interna is a recently described autosomal dominant bone disorder characterised by hyperostosis and osteosclerosis confined to the skull, especially the calvarium and the skull ...base. In the affected family members, we found variable simultaneous involvement of cranial nerves I, II, VII and VIII from late childhood onwards, most likely due to nerve entrapment. Auditory and vestibular functions were followed in 3 young family members for 8 years. At the first examination, pure tone audiograms were normal in all 3 cases and case 1 showed no caloric response in the right ear. During follow-up, this ear developed severe hearing loss progressing to deafness. The left ear showed transient sensorineural hearing loss and a temporarily diminished caloric response. Similar observations were made in case 2. Both cases showed abnormal brain stem auditory-evoked responses during and after the sudden hearing loss, in which initially only wave I was preserved and later on wave V returned with significantly prolonged I-V interval. The latter phenomenon was also observed in case 3 on both sides in the presence of normal audiograms during and after transient unilateral facial nerve paralysis, which was accompanied by bilateral diminished caloric responses.
A double blind, placebo controlled trial was performed in nine sexually transmitted diseases (STD) clinics in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to investigate the efficacy of trisodium ...phosphonoformate (foscarnet) cream in treating recurrent genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. The study group comprised 145 male and 85 female patients. Men received 0.3% foscarnet cream and women 1% foscarnet cream for five days. The difference in time to healing between patients receiving foscarnet or placebo was not significant. Fewer patients treated with foscarnet had positive viral cultures after treatment, but the difference was not significant. The development of new lesions, however, was significantly less common in patients given foscarnet. Though topical foscarnet is a safe drug, no appreciable efficacy in treating recurrent genital HSV infection could be shown.
LOPES is a digital antenna array at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, for cosmic-ray air-shower measurements. Triggered by the co-located KASCADE-Grande air-shower array, LOPES detects ...the radio emission of air showers via digital radio interferometry. We summarize the status of LOPES and recent results. In particular, we present an update on the reconstruction of the primary-particle properties based on almost 500 events above 100 PeV. With LOPES, the arrival direction can be reconstructed with a precision of at least 0.65{\deg}, and the energy with a precision of at least 20 %, which, however, does not include systematic uncertainties on the absolute energy scale. For many particle and astrophysics questions the reconstruction of the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, Xmax, is important, since it yields information on the type of the primary particle and its interaction with the atmosphere. Recently, we found experimental evidence that the slope of the radio lateral distribution is indeed sensitive to the longitudinal development of the air shower, but unfortunately, the Xmax precision at LOPES is limited by the high level of anthropogenic radio background. Nevertheless, the developed methods can be transferred to next generation experiments with lower background, which should provide an Xmax precision competitive to other detection technologies.
In this paper, the design concept of an active reconfigurable reflectarray antenna has been proposed and tested. The elementary radiators are hollow patch antennas loaded with varactor-diode device ...which its reflected phase can be varied. This phase alteration is based on the variation of the diode capacitance which can be achieved by varying the biasing voltage of the active varactor device. By activating these varactor devices, the phase of each antenna element in the array configuration can be adopted dynamically and consequently its radiation beam can be reconfigured. The advantage above the MEMS switches is complexity of the integration and continues beam scanning capability. The reflectarray incorporating active elements has been built and tested at 6.0GHz. The performance of the proposed active antenna is excellent which pioneers design of arbitrarily reconfigurable antennas.
Four groups of 60 Wistar rats of each sex were exposed by inhalation to 0, 0.2, 1.0, or 6.0 mg/m3 respirable polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (polymeric MDI) aerosol (93.5% < 4.2 microns) ...for 6 hr a day, 5 days a week for up to 24 months. In addition, satellite groups of 10 rats/sex/group received the same treatment for 12 months. There was no adverse effect on general health, survival, body weight, or hematological or clinical chemistry parameters. Lung weights were increased in both males and females exposed to 6.0 mg polymeric MDI/m3 for 12 or 24 months. Gross examination at autopsy of males exposed to 6.0 mg polymeric MDI/m3 for 24 months revealed an increased incidence of spotted and discolored lungs. Increased incidences of degeneration and basal cell hyperplasia of the nasal olfactory epithelium, often accompanied by hyperplasia of Bowman's glands, were found in the 1.0 and 6.0 mg/m3 groups. Light and electron microscopic studies of the lungs revealed accumulations of alveolar macrophages containing polymeric MDI-associated refractile yellowish material at the level of the alveolar duct in all exposed groups. Alveolar duct epithelialization as well as fibrosis of tissues surrounding the macrophage accumulations occurred at the 1.0 and 6.0 mg/m3 exposure levels. In addition, increased incidences of calcareous deposits and localized alveolar bronchiolization were seen in the 6.0 mg/m3 group. Moreover, eight pulmonary adenomas (six in males and two in females) and one pulmonary adenocarcinoma (in a male) were observed in the 6.0 mg/m3 exposure group. The time sequence of the spectrum of pulmonary changes indicates that recurrent alveolar wall damage by polymeric MDI and/or polymeric MDI-containing alveolar macrophages leads to alveolar bronchiolization and ultimately to bronchioloalveolar tumors. No lung tumors were found in the lower concentration groups and in the control group. The incidence and distribution of other types of tumors were not influenced by polymeric MDI. It was concluded that in the present study, the "no-observed-adverse-effect level" of polymeric MDI was 0.2 mg/m3, and that chronic exposure to polymeric MDI at a level of 6.0 mg/m3 was related to the occurrence of pulmonary tumors. It was also concluded that exposure to polymeric MDI at concentrations not leading to recurrent lung tissue damage will not produce pulmonary tumors.
A passive phasing technique for the designing microstrip reflectarray antennas is proposed. The antenna elements in the array are identical slotted patches. The slots are loaded with a SMD capacitor ...to set the required phase shift needed for array implementation. The design procedure and critical parameters are discussed and compared to alternative phase shifting techniques. Simulations show promising results. Mounting a SMD capacitor in such a configuration can be considered as the first step in using capacitive loading on a slotted patch for active microstrip reflectarrays. It is shown that by adjusting the capacitance values it is possible to scan the beam.
Nickel allergy and orthodontics Leenen, R L J; Kuijpers-Jagtman, A M; Jagtman, B A ...
Nederlands tijdschrift voor tandheelkunde
116, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Nickel hypersensitivity is a common problem, especially among young females, with a prevalence of 5 to 10%, increasing to 30%. In comparison with the oral mucosa, skin is more sensitive to an ...allergic reaction. The oral mucosa is less sensitive to nickel due to the difference in anatomical structure and the presence of pellicle. Nickel is used in many orthodontic appliances. Due to corrosion nickel ions can be released into the oral cavity. The extent of the corrosion of the appliance depends on the pH, the composition of saliva and plaque, temperature and mechanical loading. In spite of the relatively high amount of nickel processed in orthodontic appliances nickel allergies are rare. In cases of nickel-hypersensitivity, nickel-free appliances should be used.
We observe a correlation between the slope of radio lateral distributions, and the mean muon pseudorapidity of 59 individual cosmic-ray-air-shower events. The radio lateral distributions are measured ...with LOPES, a digital radio interferometer co-located with the multi-detector-air-shower array KASCADE-Grande, which includes a muon-tracking detector. The result proves experimentally that radio measurements are sensitive to the longitudinal development of cosmic-ray air-showers. This is one of the main prerequisites for using radio arrays for ultra-high-energy particle physics and astrophysics.
A solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), based on the “sandwich” principle with use of microtiter plates, was developed for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag). ...Results could be read within one day by the naked eye or by colorimeter. The detection level was ≤5–10 ng of HBs Ag/ml. The sensitivities of ELISA and radioimmunoassay were about the same in dilution series and in a follow-up study of 19 patients with acute hepatitis B infection. In II European medical centers where >50,000 samples were tested, ELISA detected significantly more HBs Ag-positive samples than a reversed hemagglutination test. No significant difference in sensitivity between ELISA and radioimmunoassay could be demonstrated. On the average, 2.2% of readings were false-positive reactions. Falsely positive samples were identified by a confirmatory test.
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