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Background: Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC) is a novel technique for sampling lung tissue for interstitial lung disease (ILD) diagnosis. Despite its increasing use, the diagnostic accuracy of TBLC compared to surgical lung biopsy (SLB) remains unclear. Methods: We conducted a prospective, multicentre study investigating diagnostic agreement between TBLC and SLB. After screening at a centralised multi-disciplinary discussion (MDD), ILD patients referred for lung biopsy underwent sequential TBLC and SLB under one anaesthetic. Blinded analysis of biopsy samples was conducted by 3 pathologists, individually and by consensus. At subsequent MDD, deidentified cases were discussed twice with either TBLC or SLB along with clinical and radiological data, in random non-consecutive order. Primary endpoints were: 1) agreement of histopathological features in TBLC and SLB for patterns of "definite/probable usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP)", "indeterminate for UIP" and "alternative diagnosis"; and for 2) agreement of consensus clinical diagnosis using TBLC and SLB at MDD. Concordance and kappa values were calculated. Findings: 65 patients (31 males; age 66·1±9·3yrs; FVC 84·7±14·2%; DLCO 63·4±13·8%) were enrolled. TBLC (7·1±1·9mm) and SLB samples (46·5±14·9mm) were each taken from two separate ipsilateral lobes. Histopathological agreement between TBLC and SLB was 70·8%, weighted κ 0·70 (95%CI 0·55-0·86); diagnostic agreement at MDD was 76·9%, κ 0·62 (95%CI 0·47-0·78). For TBLC with high/definite diagnostic confidence at MDD (39/65, 60% cases), 37 (94·9%) were concordant with SLB diagnoses. In the 26/65 (40.0%) with low-confidence/unclassifiable TBLC diagnoses, SLB reclassified only 6 (23.1%) to alternative high/definite MDD diagnoses. Mild-moderate airway bleeding occurred in 14 (21.5%) patients due to TBLC. Interpretation: High agreement between TBLC and SLB for histopathological patterns and MDD diagnoses support the clinical utility of TBLC in ILD diagnostic algorithms. Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry http://www.anzctr.org.au/ study ID ACTRN12615000718549. Funding Statement: University of Sydney, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH, Medtronic, Cook Medical, Rymed, Karl-Storz, Zeiss and Olympus. Declaration of Interests: LKT received study-related unrestricted educational grants or inkind support from the aforementioned commercial entities, on behalf of the COLDICE Investigator Team. TJC reports grants, personal fees and non-financial support from Boehringer Ingelheim, grants and personal fees from Roche, grants from Galapagos, grants from Actelion, grants from Bayer, outside the submitted work. MPV sits on the advisory boards of Medtronic and Edwards Lifesciences, and consults for Edwards Lifesciences and Abbott. GR provides consultation for Bellerophon, Biogen, BMS, FibroGen, Gilead, Nitto, Revistan, Promedior, Sanofi, Veracyte, Roche-Genentech, Avalyn and Boehringer Ingelheim. JM is an unpaid collaborator in the Veracyte BRAVE Trial. Ethics Approval Statement: Ethics approval of the trial protocol was provided by an independent ethics committee at each participating site. Both the steering committee and data and safety monitoring board provided trial oversight, including contemporaneous review of all safety events. Participants gave fully informed consent.

Background For Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, adherence to a regular PD medication schedule is important in achieving optimal symptom control. There are few published studies quantifying PD medication administrations in hospitalized PD patients. Methods Hospitalization records for 100 veterans with idiopathic PD and admitted to our center were reviewed to determine the on time rate and contraindicated medication doses. A barcode based computerized medication administration system within the electronic medical record provided information of the exact time the medication was given to a patient. Results Eighty-nine idiopathic PD patients met study inclusion criteria. Among them, 87 were on levodopa monotherapy or in combination with other PD medications. Two patients were on dopamine agonists only. A total of 3873 doses of PD medications were prescribed during hospitalization. Among 675 incorrect medication administrations, 322 doses were omitted, 300 doses late by ≥30 min, and 53 doses given early by ≥30 min. Contraindicated medications were prescribed for 19 patients. The correct administration percentage was lower during the first 2 days post-admission compared to subsequent days (mean 74.6% vs. 82.8%) and higher for patients who had neurological consultations (mean 85.5% vs. 76.5%). Correct administration rates were better for patient-based medication schedules (85.6%) than with hospital-based schedules (77.5%), but did not achieve statistical significance. Conclusion Adherence to regular PD medication dosing schedules during hospitalization is problematic, but improves with specialist consultation. Staff involved in the admission process for PD patients should work to safeguard against disruption of the prescribed home dosing schedule.

Motor overflow is an unintentional muscle contraction which accompanies, but is anatomically distinct from the primary dystonic movement. This phenomenological nosology has not been systematically studied in focal hand dystonia (FHD). We conducted a prospective, case-control study to characterize motor overflow and mirror dystonia in patients with FHD. We compared the performance of 30 patients with FHD and 40 healthy controls on a variety of motor tasks, such as writing, drawing a spiral, straight line and a sine wave, repetitive wrist flexion-extension, finger tapping, hand grasping, hand pronation-supination, and a finger-to-nose task with each hand. The assessments were videotaped, the edited video segments were randomized, and an independent investigator who was "blind" to the subject's diagnosis rated the ipsilateral and contralateral overflow and mirror dystonia twice, 6 months apart. Using the mean of the two ratings, ipsilateral overflow was identified in 8.5 +/- 2.1 (28%) patients and in 1.5 +/- 0.7 (4%) controls (p0.001), contralateral overflow in 2.5 +/- 0.7 (8%) patients and in 1.5 +/- 0.7 (4%) of controls (p = 0.138), and mirror movement in 20.0 +/- 0.0 (67%) of patients and in 15.5 +/- 4.9 (39%) of controls (p = 0.001). There was a statistically significant correlation of dystonia and overflow score (Pearson's r 0.713, p0.001). The relatively high frequency of ipsilateral overflow and mirror dystonia in patients with FHD has both pathophysiological and therapeutic implications. In this study, the severity of dystonia was significantly correlated with motor overflow in multiple tasks.

This paper describes an axiomatic functional and object-oriented design framework for co-design and co-analysis of product functions, physical structures, and their mapping relations. This design framework consists of function model, object model, information flow model, and axiomatic design model. These models are constructed level-by-level and side-by-side to form a concurrent and coordinated design paradigm. The components of the resulting design are reviewed by the design team, summarized in a task assignment table, and allocated to respective disciplinary engineers for detail design. This methodology enables mechanical, electronic, and software engineers to collaborate and develop mechatronic products in a concurrent and integrated fashion.

In this work, a stable de-aggregated solvent-swollen organic modified clay, ALA–MMT, suspension is prepared by an efficient solvent swelling process using a home-made shaking mixer. It is found that the estimated average size of the as-prepared organoclay particles in the suspension is reduced to about 155 nm, which has not been reported before. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirm that the d -spacing of the silicate layers of the solvent-swollen ALA–MMT expands from 1.4 nm to about 2.1 nm. The de-aggregated solvent-swollen ALA–MMT suspension is then used with polyurethane (PU) to prepare a series of highly exfoliated and high-organoclay-loading nanocomposites, PU/ALA–MMT. Both the XRD patterns and the TEM photographs of the as-prepared PU/ALA–MMT nanocomposites indicate that the organoclay is uniformly dispersed in the PU matrix with a highly exfoliated morphology structure of up to 7 wt% loading. Meanwhile, the TEM photographs give the first report for PU/clay nanocomposites which are almost completely exfoliated, and ∼1-nm thin silicate nanolayers are homogeneously dispersed in the polymer matrix with a high aspect ratio of 30–100. The thermal, mechanical, and anti-corrosion properties are all tremendously enhanced for the as-prepared nanocomposites. The results obtained for the PU nanocomposite with 7 wt% ALA–MMT loading (PUC7) reveal a 19 °C increment in T g , a 48 °C increment in T 5% , a 248% increase in the tensile strength, and a 123% increase in the elongation. The stainless steel disk (SSD) coated with PUC7 shows the lowest corrosion rate of 2.01 × 10 −6 mm/year, which is 469% lower than that of the SSD coated with pure PU. The reinforcements are much greater than the previously reported PU/clay nanocomposites with comparable clay loadings ascribed to the exceptional homogeneity of as-prepared nanocomposites, which are accredited largely to the stable de-aggregated solvent-swollen organoclay suspension generated by the efficient solvent swelling process.

It was presented the in situ observation of growth behavior and morphology of delta-ferrite as a function of solidification rate in an AISI304 stainless steel. The specimens have been solidified and observed using confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM). The δ-phase always appears like cells on the sample surface when critical supercooling occurs, during which the L→δ transformation starts. The solid-liquid (S-L) interface is found to be finger shaped and has no faceted shape. γ phase appears among δ grains due to partitioning of Ni into the melt during solidification, when solidification rate is higher. The mergence of observed δ cells is possible for the steel sample cooled at 7.5°C/min. The formation of dendrites can be observed on the free surface of the steel sample cooled at 150°C/min. The size of solidified delta grains decreases from 120 to 20–80μm, and the volume fraction of solidified austenite increases with increase in solidification rate from 7.5 to 150°C/min. The relation between the tip radius of δ cell and its growth rate is deduced, and the results agree with the experimental values.

Molecular structures of 43 azobenzene derivatives were calculated by DFT-B3LYP//cc-pVDZ method. The absorption spectrum and the electron transition of each studied molecule were obtained through the analyses of 10 excited states by the ZINDO/S//B3LYP/cc-pVDZ, CIS//B3LYP/cc-pVDZ, and TD//B3LYP/cc-pVDZ methods. For the symmetric molecules, the electron transitions are π–π * transition. Not all the transitions are the HOMO, LUMO transition. In order to compare the theoretical results of the absorption maxima with the experimental ones, multivariable linear regression methods were selected, considering numerous variables. Correlation equations were given at the 95% predictive interval.

Reversible and irreversible magnetization processes of the single-domain elliptical permalloy dot are studied by simulation. The magnetization curve of the reversible process obtained by applying the field along the hard axis of the elliptical dot is almost linear, as is the case in the single-domain ellipsoidal particle. Due to the occurrence of the non uniform reversal, the switching field is reduced significantly compared to that predicted by the Stoner–Wohlfarth model. The nucleation fields of elliptical dots are calculated as a function of ellipse's aspect ratio, and the function reveals a step-like behavior.

Micromagnetic states are strongly related to sizes of nano-dots. The quasiuniform state becomes unstable and transforms to a new nonuniform state as the diameter of the permalloy circular dot exceeds some critical size. The magnetization curvature increases gradually as the diameter increases. Finally, when the diameter is larger than another critical size, the new nonuniform state becomes unstable and a vortex enters the particle. Hence the new nonuniform state plays an intermediate role in the evolution from the quasiuniform state to the vortex state as the diameter increases.

The magnetization switching behavior of permalloy ring elements as a function of ring diameter and film thickness by magnetoresistance measurement is presented. The permalloy ring elements, with diameters of 2–5 μm and a thickness of 14–66 nm, were fabricated by electron beam lithography through a lift-off process. The switching field for the transition from the vortex state to the onion state increases with decreasing size. Furthermore, the switching field increases with increasing thickness up to a critical value of about 53–65 nm, over which the switching field tends to decrease with increasing thickness.

The micro-strips with patterned magnetic domains using electron beam lithography have been made to study the geometric shape dependence of coercivity. The size of the micro-strip is 10 μm×30 μm with 0.5 μm periods hole arrays pattern. Arrays with different types of geometry, such as square-, circle-, and ellipse-shapes have been made. Amorphous rear-earth transition-metal (RE-TM) thin films with magnetic perpendicular anisotropy were deposited on the micro-strips. The extraordinary Hall effect has been employed to measure the hysteresis loop and the coercivity of the sample. We have found that for the same deposited material, the magnitude of coercivity for various shapes are dissimilar. For example, the coercivity of the ellipse-shaped hole arrays is much larger than the coercivity of the square-shaped hole arrays. In addition, we observed that the coercivity of the patterned sites was larger than the sites without patterns for RE-dominated compounds and the coercivity of the patterned sites was smaller than the sites without patterns for TM-dominated compounds. The magnetic moments canting between RE and TM subnetworks will be used to explain the observed phenomena.

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and magnetic domain structure were studied in epitaxial (Co(t C0 )/Pt(10 As )) 30 (t C0 "2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 and 10 As ) multilayers prepared on Al 2 O 3 (1 1 -2 0) substrate via Mo or Pt seed layer. The best perpendicular magnetic e!ect occurred for t C0 & 3A s. At remnant state the domain size tends to increase as t C0 decreases, and the domain structure depends strongly on the seed layer. For (Co(3 As )/Pt(10 As )) 30 multilayers grown on gold grid made hole arrays, the polar coercivity inside the holes is di!erent from those on the gold land and unpatterned area. ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

We have shown in previous papers that the magnetic domains could be pinned inside the artificially patterned hole arrays under suitable geometry aspect ratio. Nevertheless, we have found that if we reverse the magnetization directions through domain wall motion, the confined domains expand from smaller territory into larger territory for some samples. In addition, the pinned domains maintained the same moment's orientation after the domain expansion. The possible reason for the pinned domains to retain the same moment's orientation maybe those pinning holes that act as high anisotropy defects. Thus, domain wall motion was around the high anisotropy sites and only peeled away the domain in the land area while the enclosed domain of the hole area maintained the same orientation. Moreover, the feasible reason for the expansion domains is the coercive force, which is perpendicular to the side-walls and pinning the domains inside the holes, are relaxed and thus causing the domains growth. This phenomenon is called the relaxation of pinning domains.

A method for pinning magnetic domains with prescribed shapes has been developed for the magneto-optical thin "lm material Dy x (FeCo) 1~x . The pinning array of holes on the substrate was fabricated using electron beam lithography. The thin "lm of Dy x (FeCo) 1~x sandwiched between SiN layers was deposited onto a patterned polymethyl methacrylate layer. The pinned domains acquire the shape of the holes, while the sharpness of their boundaries depends on the size of the holes. The stability of the pinned domains is a!ected by the sample’s magnetization. In our experiments, the minimum stable domain size pinned within the hole array was found to be around 50 nm in diameter. ( 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A novel method for pinning magnetic domains on pre-formatted pinning sites has been developed for perpendicular magnetic anisotropy magneto-optical (MO) thin film media. The pinning sites were artificial lattices made by patterning a layer of gold grid on the substrate using electron beam lithography. Compared with the work proposed using photo- lithography, our method showed the ability of making smaller pinning domains. Moreover, compared with our previous work using the same electron beam lithography method and creating hole arrays on polymethyl methacrylate, this new method could stand higher film deposition temperatures and avoid the MO films rapid deterioration on a PMMA substrate. In order to investigate the domain pinning behavior we did several different procedures and observed their corresponding domain pinning layouts. Magnetic domains were found to be pinned inside the lattice and resembled the geometric shapes of the lattice. The pinned domains acquired the shape of the lattice. In this article, the star-shaped type of geometry of grid arrays is presented.

The Duffing oscillator is a useful model for the non-linear behavior of structural systems. This paper studies the applications of two control strategies to Duffing oscillators; namely, an optimal polynomial control and robust sliding mode control. An advantage of the polynomial controller investigated is that, for a given appropriate weighting matrices, the gain matrices for different orders of the controller can be computed easily by solving Riccati and Lyapunov equations. It is demonstrated through numerical simulation results that the stability region of the softening Duffing system can be expanded rapidly by the optimal polynomial controller and the entire state space of the closed-loop system becomes asymptotically stable when the gain matrix reaches a certain level. On the other hand, the closed-loop softening system is always asymptotically stable in the entire state space for the robust sliding-mode controller. The performances of both controllers, in terms of the system response reduction and the required control effort, have been studied through numerical simulations. Simulation results indicate that the performance of the optimal polynomial controller presented in this paper in reducing the response of the Duffing systems is comparable to a polynomial controller proposed recently in the literature. In comparison with polynomial controllers, the performance of robust sliding-mode control is quite remarkable.

This study investigates the stability control of a rider-motorcycle system based on fuzzy control in conjunction with both genetic algorithm (GA) and an auto-tuning method. The autotuning method, which entails tuning rules, is employed to on-line adjust output gains of fuzzy control. Although a GA has been used for fuzzy control in the literature, it has been confined to aiding membership functions' enaction. By contrast, this study employs a GA to determine optimal parameters in control rules for fuzzy control and in tuning rules for the auto-tuning method. Both computer simulation and experiment with regard to an inverted pendulum hinged to a rotating disk are carried out to represent the circular motion of the rider-motorcycle system, in which the inverted pendulum represents a rider's body in banking motion. The relation between riding speeds of the motorcycle and leaning angles of the rider is examined based on speed variations and Bode plots. Simulation and experimental results show the significant effect of the rider's banking angle on stability control.

A three-point backward finite-difference method has been derived for a system of mixed hyperbolic—parabolic (convection—diffusion) partial differential equations (mixed PDEs). The method resorts to the three-point backward differencing to approximate the first-order temporal and spatial derivatives, thereby leading to second-order temporal and spatial accuracy and a substantial reduction in numerical oscillations and diffusion. The resultant finite-difference equations are solved with the tridiagonal matrix method at each time step. For a system of mixed PDEs with coupled nonlinear reaction terms, a two-step expansion technique has been derived to linearize the finite-difference equations and uncouple the PDEs. The accuracy of the expansion is of third-order. Consequently, each PDE can be solved independently with the tridiagonal matrix method. Moreover, the present method can be extended to a system of mixed PDEs coupled with ordinary differential equations and/or algebraic equations.

Materials and Methods: 40 SCLC patients treated with Gamma Knife from 2004 to 2011 were identified (15 males and 25 females with a median age of 61.3 years (range 36-79)). Thirty-seven patients had previous WBRT or prophylactic cranial irradiation. Three metastases (range 1-18) were treated per patient with 12Gy to 20Gy prescribed to the 45%-55% isodose line. Local and regional recurrence were identified using MRI. Local recurrence required pathologic evidence or MR SPECT changes consistent with tumor.

Objetivo Evaluar el riesgo de ulceracion peptica tras la erradicacion del Helicobacter pylori en pacientes que comienzan un tratamiento con farmacos antiinflamatorios no esteroides (AINE). Diseno Ensayo clinico aleatorio, doble ciego controlado con placebo, de 6 meses de duracion. Periodo de ejecucion: de marzo 1999 a mayo 2000. Emplazamiento Clinicas de medicina general/familia (Hong Kong). Poblacion de estudio Criterios de inclusion: pacientes con artritis que precisasen terapia larga duracion con AINE con test del aliento urea positivo, y dispepsia moderada o antecedentes endoscopicos probados de ulcera peptica. Criterios de exclusion: exposicion a AINE durante mas de un mes en las 8 semanas previas (excepto dosis ??325 mg de aspirina), terapia concomitante con esteroides, anticoagulantes o antiulcerosos, insuficiencia renal significativa, tratamiento previo erradicador frente a Helicobacter pylori, o historia de cirugia gastrica o complicaciones ulcerosas (hemorragia o perforacion). Intervencion Distribucion aleatoria en un grupo erradicador (omeprazol 20 mg; amoxicilina 1 g, y claritromicina 500 mg, cada 12 h durante una semana) y otro placebo (omeprazol 20 mg y antibioticos placebo, dos veces dia durante una semana). Intervencion antiinflamatoria con diclofenaco de liberacion retardada, 100 mg una vez al dia durante 6 meses. Se admitia tratamiento con antiacidos para mejoria sintomatica de clinica dispeptica. De 210 sujetos con artritis potencialmente elegibles, 128 (61%) tenian test aliento positivo y 26 rechazaron entrar en el estudio. De 102 pacientes incluidos, 51 recibieron tratamiento erradicador y 49 fueron al grupo placebo (dos rechazos del consentimiento). Los grupos eran similares. Medicion Evaluacion de la presencia de ulcera gastrica/duodenal demostrada endoscopicamente (variable principal), y de las complicaciones ulcerosas (sintomaticas y sangrantes). Se realizaba endoscopia a los 6 meses o si presentaba dispepsia severa o signos de posible hemorragia gastrointestinal. Analisis por intencion de tratar en el conjunto del estudio. Analisis de riesgos proporcionales de Cox para posibles factores de confusion. Resultados En el grupo de erradicacion se obtuvo una tasa de erradicacion del 90%, y se observaron 5 pacientes con ulcera confirmada (2 sintomaticas, 0 con hemorragia). En el grupo placebo, se observaron 15 ulceras (9 sintomaticas y 3 con hemorragia). La probabilidad a 6 meses de desarrollar ulcera fue del 12,1% (intervalo de confianza [IC] del 95%: 3,1-21,1) en el grupo de erradicacion, y del 34,4% (IC del 95%: 14,7-47,7) en el grupo placebo (p = 0,0085). La probabilidad de ulceras complicadas a 6 meses fue del 4,2% (1,3-9,7) en el grupo de erradicacion y del 27,1 (14,7-39,5) en el grupo placebo (p = 0,0026). Conclusion En los pacientes H. pylori positivos con dispepsia o historia de enfermedad ulcerosa, que inician terapia de larga duracion con AINE, la erradicacion del H. pylori reduce el riesgo de ulceracion gastroduodenal y sus complicaciones. Conflicto de intereses Ninguno declarado.

X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to study the phase transitions in graphite-halogens (Br 2 , ICl). In graphite-Br 2 , a reversible transition associated with the melting of the ordered intercalate layers into liquidlike layers was observed at 373.7 K, and a transition corresponding to the change of streaks to spots in the (0001) zone electron diffraction pattern on cooling was observed at 226 K. Moreover, a transition at 277 K has been tentatively interpreted as being due to a phase transition associated with the stacking order of the intercalate layers. In addition, in graphite-Br 2 , the first observation was made of a phase transition involving the shifting of various X-ray diffraction peaks in various directions at ∼340 K. This transition is tentatively interpreted as being due to a commensurate-incommensurate phase transition. In graphite-ICl, reversible transitions were observed at 307 and 314 K. The 314 K peak is associated with the melting of the ordered intercalate layers into liquidlike layers; the 307 K peak is due to a phase transition associated with the stacking order of the intercalate layers.

A numerical method for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations is developed using an integro-differential formulation of the equations. The method permits the actual computation to be confined to the viscous region of the flow and offers a drastic reduction in the number of data points required in the numerical procedure. The integro-differential formulation is presented along with discussion of the kinetic and kinematic aspects of the problem and the interplay between the two aspects. Results for several parallel flow problems and for the flow past a circular cyliner are presented. For the circular cylinder, it is shown that the introductions of a splitter plate behind the cylinder suppresses vortex shedding.