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Background: Cardiac microangiopathy may be involved in the development of heart failure in diabetes mellitus. Objective: To evaluate the effect of angiotensin II receptor blockade on cardiac function and fine [...]

In this paper, a simple but highly accurate analytical method to evaluate stress intensity factors based on an element overlay technique is presented. When a crack exists in a structure, we need to analyze its global deformation as well as local deformation field around the tip of the crack. This naturally leads us to a consideration on some kind of multi-scale analysis strategies. Thus, we adopt the element overlay technique (S-FEM) which is a kind of multi-scale methodologies. In this paper, we present i) numerical implementation of element overlay technique (S-FEM), ii) method to calculate stress intensity factors (virtual crack closure-integral method, VCCM), iii)accuracies of evaluated stress intensity factors and iv) some discussions.

Abstract:  The goal of the inclined conveyor method for particle shape separation is to process a large amount of feed material for recycling technology. The high feed rate has been achieved because the movement of particles is faster than for other previously introduced equipment. The separation performance of the apparatus was tested with foundry sand. A large amount of sand was treated, and various processing capacities were studied experimentally. The feed method was improved from point to line with wide troughs to process the higher feed rate. We succeeded in attaining a feed rate of 1.49 × 10−3 kg/s with a 0.3-m trough. The space filling, which was an important factor in deciding the capacity of the feed rate, was defined. This method is useful for any kind of line-feed method.

A 19‐inch diagonal UXGA TFT‐LCM with a mega wide viewing angle applied with Super‐IPS technology has been developed. A high aperture ratio which is the same as that of the current 18.1‐ inch SXGA LCM under UXGA resolution in the 19‐inch diagonal LCM was obtained by optimization of pixel structure and the development of a liquid crystal mixture with low driving voltage. Introducing a compensatory pixel structure solved the problem of non‐uniformity of the brightness caused by signal delay. Moreover, the same external dimensions as those of the current 18.1‐inch TFT‐LCM and thinner package were realized.

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Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is a cause of death in bupivacaine-induced cardiovascular toxicity. We have examined the therapeutic effects of lidocaine on the threshold for bupivacaine-induced VF in in situ beating swine hearts. Twenty-four animals were allocated to one of three groups: 0.25% bupivacaine, 1% lidocaine or 0.25% bupivacaine with 1% lidocaine were infused into the left anterior descending coronary artery in increasing doses of 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 ml h-1 for 15 min, respectively. ECG and haemodynamic variables were monitored continuously during infusion. Regional myocardial function in the area supplied by the left anterior descending coronary artery was assessed using the sonomicrometry technique. VF did not occur in the lidocaine group. VF developed at higher infusion rates in animals given bupivacaine with lidocaine (in one animal at an infusion rate of 8 ml h-1 and in seven at 16 ml h-1) compared with animals given bupivacaine alone (in one at an infusion rate of 4 and in seven at 8 ml h-1). Although regional myocardial function decreased with increases in the infusion rate in each group, the depressant effects of the bupivacaine solution (medial inhibitory infusion rate of systolic shortening: IR50 = 2.43 (0.43) ml h-1) were significantly greater than those of the lidocaine solution (IR50 = 5.83 (0.87) ml h-1), but did not differ from those of the bupivacaine with lidocaine solution (IR50 = 3.54 (0.56) ml h-1). This study indicates that a combination of lidocaine and bupivacaine increased the threshold for bupivacaine-induced VF without further depressing myocardial contractility.