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The effect of SrTiO3 addition on the microstructure and magnetic properties of yttrium iron garnet prepared by a conventional ceramic method was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, vibrating sample magnetometry, and ferrimagnetic resonance experiments. A YIG specimen sintered at 1693 K with 0.2 mol% SrTiO3 addition showed above 98% densification of theoretical density without changing in magnetic properties of YIG. A YIG specimen sintered at 1693 K with 0.2 mol% SrTiO3 showed ferrimagnetic resonance linewidth ΔH of about 80 Oe.

Background The sensitivity of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) in the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection could be affected by conditions of immune dysregulation. For this reason, diabetes mellitus (DM) may increase the frequency of indeterminate results of IGRAs. However, there have been inconsistent reports of role of DM on indeterminate IGRA results. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all patients who underwent QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube testing (QFT-GIT) at Chonnam National University Hospital. We collected the clinical and laboratory data of these patients. Results Of all 3,391 subjects, 1,265 (37.3%) had a positive QFT-GIT result, 266 (7.8%) had an indeterminate result, and 1,860 (54.9%) had a negative result. The mean age was 54.8 ± 18.1 years and 55.0% of the patients were male. There were 512 (15.1%) patients with DM. Multivariable analysis revealed that systemic corticosteroid use, tuberculosis, lymphocytopenia, low serum albumin, and high serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were significantly associated with indeterminate QFT-GIT results. However, DM was not associated with indeterminate QFT-GIT results (adjusted odds ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.69-1.41; P = 0.939). After propensity score matching, DM was not associated with indeterminate results of QFT-GIT. Conclusion In this large cohort study, DM does not affect the incidence of indeterminate results of QFT-GIT.

We provide a simple mathematical model of IEEE 802.15.4 unslotted CSMA/CA by busy cycle of M/G/l queueing system to obtain several performance measures. Our performance measures can be used for determining the optimal number of devices while supporting the required QoS constraints on the average packet delay and the packet loss probability, and also for calculating battery lifetime.

Trichloro modified polyester polyols were synthesized by two-step condensation reactions. An intermediate compound was synthesized by the esterification of trichloroacetic acid with trimethylolpropane in the first step. In the next step, polycondensation of the intermediate, 1,4-butanediol and trimethylolpropane with adipic acid was carried out. Two-component flame-retardant polyurethane coatings were prepared by blending these modified polyester polyols and polyisocyanate. The physical properties of these new coatings were comparable to non-flame-retardant coatings. They showed a drying time of 3-4 h and a pot life time of 10-13 h, which could belong to the flame-retardant coatings with long pot life times. Coating with 20 wt % trichloroacetic acid showed a self-extinguishing property in the vertical burning test.

Process fault monitoring, detection and diagnosis, and fire detection and isolation technologies have many common characteristics between them, and the amount of technological overlapping is being increased. This paper compares and discusses our works in the areas of conventional abnormal situation management (ASM) as well as fire alarm generation management, as a try to show how the ASM technologies would contribute in developing next-generation fire detection and management technologies and improve the safety of process plants and the public. And the lessons from the fire detection research that could be applied for better monitoring, detection and diagnosis of processes are also discussed.

Temozolomide is an oral alkylating agent with clinical activity against glioblastoma multiforme (GM). It is generally well-tolerated and has few pulmonary side effects. We report a case of temozolomide-associated brochiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) requiring very high-dose corticosteroid treatment. A 56-yr-old woman presented with a 2-week history of exertional dyspnea. For the treatment of GM diagnosed 4 months previously, she had undergone surgery followed by chemoradiotherapy, and then planned adjuvant chemotherapy with temozolomide. After the 1st cycle, progressive dyspnea was gradually developed. Chest radiograph showed diffuse patchy peribronchovascular ground-glass opacities in both lungs. Conventional dose of methylprednisolone (1 mg/kg/day) was begun for the possibility of BOOP. Although transbronchial lung biopsy findings were compatible with BOOP, the patient's clinical course was more aggravated until hospital day 5. After the dose of methylprednisolone was increased (500 mg/day for 5 days) radiologic findings were improved dramatically.

A reduction in diaphragm mobility has been identified in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and has been associated with a decline in pulmonary function parameters. However, little information exists regarding the potential role of diaphragm mobility on hypercapnia in COPD. A new method of assessing the mobility of the diaphragm, using ultrasound, has recently been validated. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between diaphragm mobility and pulmonary function parameters, as well as that between arterial blood gas values and diaphragm mobility, in COPD patients. Thirty seven COPD patients were recruited for pulmonary function test, arterial blood gas analysis and diaphragm mobility using ultrasound to measure the craniocaudal displacement of the left branch of the portal vein. There were significant negative correlations between diaphragmatic mobility and P(a)CO(2) (r = -0.373, P = 0.030). Diaphragmatic mobility correlated with airway obstruction (FEV(1), r = 0.415, P = 0.011) and with ventilatory capacity (FVC, r = 0.302, P = 0.029; MVV, r = 0.481, P = 0.003). Diaphragmatic mobility also correlated significantly with pulmonary hyperinflation. No relationship was observed between diaphragm mobility and P(a)O(2) (r = -0.028, P = 0.873). These findings support a possibility that the reduction in diaphragm mobility relates to hypercapnia in COPD patients.

We analyze the MAC performance of the IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPAN with non-beacon mode and non-saturated condition in a star topology. Our approach is to model stochastic behavior of one device with both uplink and downlink traffic as a discrete time Markov chain. First, we propose an analytical model of a device with only downlink traffic. Then, by combining the model of a device with only uplink traffic in and one with downlink traffic in this paper, we obtain the performance measures such as throughput, packet delay, energy consumption and packet loss probability of a device with both uplink and downlink traffic. Our results can be used to find the optimal number of devices so as to satisfy QoS (quality of service) on delay and loss probability.

We deal with the split-channel MAC where total bandwidth splits into one control channel for RTS/CTS dialogue and several data sub-channels for data packet transmission. We consider the with-reservation scheme which allows successful RTS/CTS dialogue to be stored in a virtual queue for future transmission when all of the data sub-channels are occupied. We obtain the throughput of the split-channel MAC, when the control channel adopts p-persistent CSMA and has with-reservation scheme, by modeling the stochastic behavior of the sum of the number of occupied data sub-channels and the number of successful RTS/CTS dialogues in the virtual queue, and the state of control channel as a two-dimensional discrete time Markov Chain (DTMC). The numerical results show that throughput of with-reservation scheme outperforms that of without-reservation scheme in particular when the data packet size is large. Also, from the numerical results, we obtain the optimal value of p to maximize throughput as the number of stations and average packet size vary.

Low speed and high load operating conditions of large diesel engines can cause structural damage which results in frictional heat. When the frictional heat increases in the crank case of a diesel engine it causes the lubricants to evaporate and thus the oil mist density increases. Flames from a damaged structure or heat from the engine starts ignites easily under a high density condition of the oil mist. The resultant explosion due to a heavy oil mist causes not only engine fracture but can also cause casualties. The oil-mist-detector (OMD) is used to prevent engine explosions by checking the density of the oil mist in the diesel engine. Current OMDs use the light scatter method and an absorption method. The first detects the oil mist by checking the quantity of light scattered due to oil mist and the absorption method detects the density by sensing the quantity of light penetrated through oil mist from a transmitter to a receiver. However, these two methods are not conducive to long-term use because the transmitter and receiver become polluted by cohesion or electrification of the oil mist. In this study, the OMD equipped with a capacitance sensor is proposed to detect the oil mist density and the performance is investigated. The capacitance sensor is proposed and designed for effective detection of oil mist and the experiments are conducted under various oil mist size and density conditions. The results show the capacitance sensor detects the oil mist density effectively and the OMD with a capacitance sensor shows the linear response according to density changes even in polluted conditions.

We analyze the MAC performance of the IEEE 802.15.4 LRWPAN non-beacon mode with the piggyback method in nonsaturated condition. Our approach is to model a stochastic behavior of one device as a discrete time Markov chain. We propose an analytical model describing the download behavior of a device using piggyback method. We obtain the performance measures such as throughput, packet delay, energy consumption and packet loss probability of a device. Numerical results and simulation results show that the piggyback method which removes a backoff procedure in the backoff method can reduce the delay, loss probability and energy consumption compared with backoff method. Our results can be used to find the optimal number of devices with some constraints on packet delay and packet loss probability.

We propose a new method to determine the optimal TXOP duration (TD) of scheduling algorithm for VBR traffics that guarantees delay and loss probability in IEEE 802.11e HCCA. In this algorithm, the TXOP Duration for each Traffic Stream (TS) is determined by the number (N) of packets to be transmitted during a TXOP duration, which is found by analyzing M/DN/1/N×l queueing system where the delay bound of the TS is l times the Service Interval having D length. Numerical results show that the number of admitted TSs with guaranteed loss probability by new method is greater than the number of admitted TSs by other known schemes.

Background: This study evaluates the bacterial pathogens of Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in a tertiary referral hospital. Methods: A total of 109 bacterial pathogens from 91 adult patients with VAP, who were admitted to the medical intensive care unit from January 2008 to December 2009, were examined. Clinical characteristics, bacterial pathogens, and resistance profiles were analyzed. Results: Staphylococcus aureus (44%) was the most frequently isolated. Acinetobacter baumanii (30%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12%), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (6%), and Serratia marcescens (2%) were isolated from the transtracheal aspirates or bronchoalveolar lavage in patients with VAP. There was no significant difference of bacterial pathogens between early and late onset VAP. All isolated S. aureus were methicillin resistant S. aureus; the imipenem resistance rate of A. baumanii was 69%. Conclusion: The two most frequent pathogens of VAP were S. aureus and A. baumanii. There were no pathogenic differences between early and late onset VAP.

Paclitaxel has been widely used for treating many solid tumors. Although colonic toxicity is an unusual complication of paclitaxel-based chemotherapy, the reported toxicities include pseudomembranous colitis, neutropenic enterocolitis and on rare occasions ischemic colitis. , which is a recently developed cremophor-free, polymeric micelle-formulated paclitaxel, has shown a more potent antitumor effect because it can increase the usual dose of paclitaxel due to that does not include the toxic cremophor compound. We report here on a case of a 57-year-old man with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and who developed ischemic colitis after chemotherapy with and cisplatin. He complained of hematochezia with abdominal pain on the left lower quadrant. Colonoscopy revealed diffuse mucosal hemorrhage and edema from the sigmoid colon to the splenic flexure. After bowel rest, he recovered from his symptoms and the follow-up colonoscopic findings showed that the mucosa was healing. Since then, he was treated with pemetrexed monotherapy instead of a paclitaxel compound and platinum.

Background: Glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) which is an extracellular secretory protein is down regulated in patients with early stage lung cancer. We examined the usefulness of serum GPx3 as a biomarker for monitoring of relapse after surgery. Methods: We prospectively collected serial serum samples at baseline, 3 months (3m), 6 months (6m), and 12 months (12m) after operation from the patients who underwent surgery during the year 2013. GPx3 levels were measured three times per sample using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the mean values were analyzed by t-test and paired t-test. Results: A total of 170 (100 adenocarcinoma, 41 squamous cell carcinoma, 29 others) patients were analyzed in this study. Mean age was 64.1 years old (range, 39-80) and 27 (15.9%) out of 165 lung cancer patients were confirmed relapse during the median follow-up period of 597.5 days (range, 5-938). The mean GPx3 value at postoperative 6m was significantly elevated in relapsed group than control group (7.90 ± 2.44 mg/mL vs. 6.99 ± 1.79 mg/mL, p1⁄40.047). The mean GPx3 differences were significantly higher in relapsed group than control group at 3m (-0.38 ± 0.39 mg/mL vs. -0.21 ± 0.36 mg/mL, p1⁄40.044), 6m (-0.37 ± 0.42 mg/mL vs. -0.19 ± 0.30 mg/mL, p1⁄40.024), and 12m (-0.38 ± 0.42 mg/mL vs. -0.19 ± 0.28 mg/mL, p1⁄40.012). The mean time to relapse was significantly shorter in high level of GPx3 group at postoperative 3m (694.83 ± 31.86 days vs. 839.05 ± 24.31 days, p1⁄40.007). The mean time to relapse was significantly shorter in high GPx3 difference group between baseline and postoperative 3m (729.76 ± 34.89 days vs. 838.18 ± 24.03 days, p1⁄40.002). Conclusion: Serum mean GPx3 value at postoperative 6m and the mean GPx3 difference were significantly elevated in relapsed lung cancer. The mean time to relapse was significantly shorter in high level of GPx3 group at postoperative 3m. More large scaled validation studies are warranted.