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To study the lineage polymorphism of TCR Vα complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) in the peripheral blood of uveitis patients.Thirty-four subfamilies of TCR Vα CDR3 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of uveitis patients were amplified by RT-PCR, and then TCR Vα CDR3 lineage polymorphism was analyzed by immunoscope spectratyping.Most spectral type of the 34 subfamilies in 5 normal controls showed Gauss distribution. TCR Vα CDR3 scanning spectrum of 4 uveitis patients showed abnormal distribution peak, including monoclonal, oligoclonal/oligoclonal trend, skewing peak and irregular abnormal peak. The frequencies of abnormal peak type varied in the 34 TCR Vα subfamilies. A higher frequency of abnormal peak type was found in Vα13 and Vα17 subfamilies, while no abnormal peak type was found in Vα1.1, Vα10, Vα20 and Vα28 subfamilies. Abnormal peak was shown in Vα7 subfamily in the HLA-B27-negative patient (U2) , but no abnormal peak was shown in Vα7 subfamily in the 3 HLA-B27-positive patients (U1, U3, U4); Conversely, abnormal peak type of TCR Vα13 was found in all the 3 HLA-B27-positive patients, but normal in HLA-B27-negative patients.TCR Vα CDR3 lineage has significant characteristic polymorphism in the peripheral blood of uveitis patients. Monoclonal/oligoclonal expansion of T cells may be autoreactive T cells in nature and they may be involved in pathogenesis of uveitis.

Purpose: Although local oncolytic viral therapy (OVT) may enhance tumor lysis, antigen release, and adaptive immune responses, systemic antitumor responses post-therapy are limited. Adoptive immunotherapy with autologous dendritic cells (DC) and cytokine-induced killer cells (DC–CIK) synergizes with systemic therapies. We hypothesized that OVT with Herpes Simplex Virus-granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (HSV-GM-CSF) would induce adaptive T cell responses that could be expanded systemically with sequential DC–CIK therapy. Patients and Methods: We performed a pilot study of intratumoral HSV-GM-CSF OVT followed by autologous DC–CIK cell therapy. In addition to safety and clinical endpoints, we monitored adaptive T cell responses by quantifying T cell receptor (TCR) populations in pre-oncolytic therapy, post-oncolytic therapy, and after DC–CIK therapy. Results: Nine patients with advanced malignancy were treated with OVT (OrienX010), of whom seven experienced stable disease (SD). Five of the OVT treated patients underwent leukapheresis, generation, and delivery of DC–CIKs, and two had SD, whereas three progressed. T cell receptor sequencing of TCR β sequences one month after OVT therapy demonstrates a dynamic TCR repertoire in response to OVT therapy in the majority of patients with the systematic expansion of multiple T cell clone populations following DC–CIK therapy. This treatment was well tolerated and long-term event free and overall survival was observed in six of the nine patients. Conclusions: Strategies inducing the local activation of tumor-specific immune responses can be combined with adoptive cellular therapies to expand the adaptive T cell responses systemically and further studies are warranted.

The effect of radial position of gas holes in the distributor on the performance of cylindrical Hall thruster was investigated. A series of gas distributors with different radial positions (Rg) of holes were designed in the experiment. The results show that the larger Rg leads to the higher ion current and electron current; meanwhile, the beam angle in plume is narrowed. Nevertheless, the peak energy in ion energy distribution function increases, together with the narrowing of ion energy distribution function. As a result, the overall performance is enhanced. It is suggested that the growing of Rg could lead to the movement of the main ionization region towards anode, which could promote ion velocity and the clearer separation of acceleration region from ionization region. This work can provide some optimal design ideas to improve the performance of the thruster.

The performance characteristics of a cylindrical Hall thruster depending on the magnetic field near the anode were investigated. The magnetic shielding rings were designed to adjust the magnetic field near the anode in different levels. The experiment results show that decreasing the magnetic field near the anode contributes to the enhancement of propellant utilization and the narrowing of ion energy distribution. It is suggested that the ionization region extends towards the anode, meanwhile, the angular distribution of ion beam is narrower, which could be attributed to the growing azimuthal current. As a result, the thrust and efficiency are enhanced significantly. This work can provide some optimal design ideas of the magnetic field to improve the performance of the thruster.

Objective The present study investigated the effect of controlled hypotension (CH) levels regulated by nitroprusside on hippocampal CA1 neurons. Materials and methods All experimental rabbits were randomly divided into five groups to perform CH for recording their vital signs and survived for a certain time. The arterial blood was collected to measure the serum levels of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor α and then the brain tissues were perfused and sectioned to carry out hematoxylin–eosin staining, TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling fluorescence, c-fos immunohistochemistry, and ultrastructural observation of hippocampal neuronal mitochondria. All data were analyzed with SPSS13.0 software, and P < 0.05 was indicated as statistically significant. Results Heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and the dosage of sodium nitroprusside were not statistically significant between groups, but at T2, heart rate levels in groups II–IV were lower than those in groups I and V. Simultaneously, interleukin 6 was remarkably overexpressed in group II than in other groups at T2, whereas tumor necrosis factor α was higher in groups I–III than in groups IV and V. At the light and electronic microscopic levels, the CA1 regional neurons of group IV were more seriously damaged and deranged compared with other groups so was the expression of c-fos. However, fluorescence from TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling assay was more intensive in groups II–IV than that in other groups. Results further showed that Flameng scores of mitochondria were the highest in group IV, but they were not statistically significant among the other groups. Conclusions The different levels of CH remarkably affected the functional activities of hippocampal CA1 neurons; with the decrease of mean arterial pressure, neuronal apoptosis, and c-fos expression was gradually increased and reached the peak in 45% of basic values of blood pressure.

The ANSYS-CFX software is used to simulate NASA-Mark II high pressure air-cooled gas turbine. The work condition is Run 5411 which have transition flow characteristics. The different turbulence models are adopted to solve conjugate heat transfer problem of this three-dimensional turbine blade. Comparing to the experimental results, k-ω-SST-γ-θ turbulence model results are more accurate and can simulate accurately the flow and heat transfer characteristics of turbine with transition flow characteristics. But k-ω-SST-γ-θ turbulence model overestimates the turbulence kinetic energy of blade local region and makes the heat transfer coefficient higher. It causes that local region temperature of suction side is higher. In this paper, the compiled code adopts the B-L algebra model and simulates the same computation model. The results show that the results of B-L model are accurate besides it has 4% temperature error in the suction side transition region. In addition, different turbulence characteristic boundary conditions of turbine inner-cooling passages are given and K-ω-SST-γ-θ turbulence model is adopted in order to obtain the effect of turbulence characteristic boundary conditions for the conjugate heat transfer computation results. The results show that the turbulence characteristic boundary conditions of turbine inner-cooling passages have a great effect on the conjugate heat transfer results of high pressure gas turbine. ANSYS is applied to analysis the thermal stress of Mark II blade which has ten radial cooled passages and the results of Von Mises stress show that the temperature gradient results have a great effect on the results of blade thermal stress.Copyright © 2010 by ASME

The different turbulence models are adopted to simulate NASA-MarkII high pressure air-cooled gas turbine. The experimental work condition is Run 5411. The paper researches that the effect of different turbulence models for the flow and heat transfer characteristics of turbine. The turbulence models include: the laminar turbulence model, high Reynolds number k-ε turbulence model, low Reynolds number turbulence model (k-ω standard format, k-ω-SST and k-ω-SST-γ-θ) and B-L algebra turbulence model which is adopted by the compiled code. The results show that the different turbulence models can give good flow characteristics results of turbine, but the heat transfer characteristics results are different. Comparing to the experimental results, k-ω-SST-θ-γ turbulence model results are more accurate and can simulate accurately the flow and heat transfer characteristics of turbine with transition flow characteristics. But k-ω-SST-γ-θ turbulence model overestimates the turbulence kinetic energy of blade local region and makes the heat transfer coefficient higher. It causes that local region temperature is higher. The results of B-L algebra turbulence model show that the results of B-L model are accurate besides it has 4% temperature error in the transition region. As to the other turbulence models, the results show that all turbulence models can simulate the temperature distribution on the blade pressure surface except the laminar turbulence model underestimates the heat transfer coefficient of turbulence flow region. On the blade suction surface with transition flow characteristics, high Reynolds number k-ε turbulence model overestimates the heat transfer coefficient and causes the blade surface temperature is high about 90K than the experimental result. Low Reynolds number k-ω standard format and k-ω-SST turbulence models also overestimate the blade surface temperature value. So it can draw a conclusion that the unreasonable choice of turbulence models can cause biggish errors for conjugate heat transfer problem of turbine. The combination of k-ω-SST-γ-θ model and B-L algebra model can get more accurate turbine thermal environment results. In addition, in order to obtain the affect of different turbulence models for gas turbine conjugate heat transfer problem. The different turbulence models are adopted to simulate the different computation mesh domains (First case and Second case). As to each cooling passages, the first case gives the wall heat transfer coefficient of each cooling passages and the second case considers the conjugate heat transfer course between the cooling passages and blade. It can draw a conclusion that the application of heat transfer coefficient on the wall of each cooling passages avoids the accumulative error. So, for the turbine vane geometry models with complex cooling passages or holes, the choice of turbulence models and the analysis of different mesh domains are important. At last, different turbulence characteristic boundary conditions of turbine inner-cooling passages are given and K-ω-SST-γ-θ turbulence model is adopted in order to obtain the effect of turbulence characteristic boundary conditions for the conjugate heat transfer computation results. The results show that the turbulence characteristic boundary conditions of turbine inner-cooling passages have a great effect on the conjugate heat transfer results of high pressure gas turbine.

Increasing the output power of the fast axial flow CO 2 laser requires a proportional growth of the mass flow with the laser power for convective cooling of the active laser medium. The previous research on high power CO 2 laser was mostly focused on gas discharge. However, little attention was focused on the gas circulation system, which is also an essential technology to ensure the long time stable work of the high power fast axial flow CO 2 laser. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of the 7 KW fast axial flow CO 2 laser, expounded the important role of the gas circulation system, and then analyzed the parameters, the structure and the design of the system. After that, this paper compared various types of blowers and heat exchangers, chose magnetic levitation radial turbine blower and rectangle finned heat exchanger, in light of the prominent performance and compact structure. Further more, this paper also supplied the methods of the blower and heat exchanger selection and design. The results indicate that the magnetic levitation radial turbine blower and rectangle finned heat exchanger which have been chosen are suitable to the 7 kW fast axial flow CO 2 laser.

A coupled boundary element method (BEM) and finite difference method (FDM) are applied to solve conjugate heat transfer problem of a three-dimensional air-cooled turbine blade. A loosely coupled strategy is adopted, in which each set of field equations is solved to provide boundary conditions for the other. In the fluid region, computation code (HIT-NS CODE) adopts the FDM to solve the Navier-Stokes equations. In the solid region, the BEM is adopted to resolve the conduction heat transfer equations. An iterated convergence criterion is the continuity of temperature and heat flux at the fluid-solid interface. The solid heat transfer computation code (3D-BEM CODE) is validated by comparing with the results of an analytic solution and the results of commercial code, the results from 3D-BEM CODE have a good agreement with the analytic solution and commercial code results. The BEM uses a weighted residual method to make the Laplace equation convert into a surface integral equation and the surface integral equation is discretized. The BEM avoids the complicated mesh needed in other computation methods and saves the computation time. In addition, the BEM has the characteristic of a combination of an analytic and a discrete solution. So the BEM solutions of heat conduction problems are more accurate. The results of the coupling computation code (HIT-NS-3DBEM CODE) have a good agreement with the experimental results. The adiabatic condition result is different from the results of experiment and code calculation. So the results from conjugate heat transfer analysis are more accurate and they are closer to realistic thermal environment of turbines. Four turbulence models are applied: K-epsilon model, K-omega model, K-omega (SST-Gamma Theta) model, and B-L model adopted by computation code. Different turbulence models gives different the results of vane wall temperature. Comparing the four turbulence models, the different turbulence models can exactly simulate the flow field, but they can not give exact values for the heat conduction simulation in the boundary layer. The result of K-Omega (SST-Gamma Theta) turbulence model is closer to the experimental data.Copyright © 2009 by ASME

A three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been applied on a fast-axial-flow CO 2 laser. Using a control volume method, a set of governing equations of the model is dispersed and numerically solved. These equations describe the flowing and heat-conducting processes in the discharge tube of the laser. A model, method of solution and computational and experimental results are described and presented in this paper. The parameters of gas pressure, velocity, temperature, density and turbulence energy are obtained by theoretical modeling. The computational results are in very good agreement with the experimental data within a broad range of parameters.

PURPOSE: This study explores the relationship among preschool attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), injury-risk-taking behavior, and unintentional injury. METHOD: An emergency department (ED) casecontrol study of parent-reported child behavior was conducted. FINDINGS: Children with ODD and ADHD had significantly more injury-risk-taking behaviors (odds ratio [OR] = 7.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.25-26.25; OR = 4.87, 95% CI 1.17--20.28, respectively), and injured children had a 17-fold increase in high-risk-taking behaviors (OR 17.2, 95% CI 2.14--138.0). No significant association existed between ODD or ADHD and ED-treated unintentional injury. IMPLICATIONS: Disruptive behavior disorders are not major contributors to ED-treated unintentional injury in preschool children. Language: en

Objective To determine the 5-year prospective stability of population-based and DSM-IV subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as to explore predictors of stability. Method A total of 708 twins ages 7 to 19 years who were identified from birth records of the state of Missouri and had participated in a study of ADHD were reassessed 5 years later in a blinded fashion. Stabilities of DSM-IV and population-based ADHD subtypes were compared using percentage of agreement with significance tested by the κ statistic. Predictors of stability of subtype diagnosis were determined using multivariate logistic regression. Results In general, 5-year ADHD subtype stability was poor to modest and ranged from 11.1% to 24.0% for DSM-IV for subtypes and from 14.3% to 35.3% for clinically significant population-derived subtypes. There were no predictors of diagnostic stability that applied across subtypes. There were subtype-specific predictors including a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder for DSM-IV primarily inattentive ADHD; lower verbal IQ for DSM-IV combined type ADHD; and younger age, oppositional defiant disorder, and medication use for population-defined severe combined ADHD. Conclusions Population-defined ADHD subtype criteria demonstrated modestly improved diagnostic stability over 5 years compared to DSM-IV subtypes. Few correlates or predictors of stability were identified.

Background Previous research examining the amygdala volumes in major depressive disorder (MDD) has found conflicting evidence for association. Furthermore, few of these studies have examined differences in individuals with an onset during childhood or adolescence. This study examined amygdala volume and its potential association with early onset major depression. Methods A community-based sample of 47 right-handed young adult female monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs was examined. For 29 twin pairs, one twin per pair had a lifetime history of MDD, while 18 age-matched control twin pairs had no lifetime history of MDD or other Axis I disorder. Core, noncore, and total amygdala volumes were estimated based on a combination of manual tracing, automated segmentation, and expert rater regional boundary definitions. Results No significant differences were found in amygdala volumes between depressed, high-risk, or control subjects. However, analyses comparing control monozygotic twins to randomly created control subject pairs suggest that there are familial, perhaps genetic, influences on core and total amygdala volumes. Conclusions Findings suggest that although there were no significant differences in amygdala volumes between groups, familial factors influence amygdala volumes. Discrepancies between studies measuring amygdala volume in MDD may be due to differences in amygdala boundary definitions.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, Statin intake has been reported to reduce the risk of several malignancies beyond its cholesterol-lowering effects. However, little is known regarding the survival benefit of statins for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). We conducted a systematic literature search of multiple databases for studies published before November 2014, which investigated associations between statin intake and CRC prognosis. Meta-analysis was performed using random-effects model. The primary outcomes of interest were all-cause mortality (ACM) and cancer-specific mortality (CSM). Ten studies involving 76,851 patients were eligible for this meta-analysis, with 7 studies investigating prediagnosis statin use and 5 studies reporting postdiagnosis statin use. Prediagnosis statin use was associated with reduced ACM (hazard ratio [HR] 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.61–0.88, P = 0.001) and CSM (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.77–0.84, P

The engulfment of live cells may represent a mechanism of cell death. We reported that E-cadherin (epithelial cadherin) expression in human cancer cells favors the formation of cell-in-cell structures through the mechanism known as entosis, and that entosis contributes to a form of cellular competition in heterogeneous cancer cell populations.

Analyze morphological character of nucleus in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma with Automatic Image Cytometry, discuss the relation between morphological parameters and tumor clinic.We discussed morphological character of nucleus from 83 cytology specimens which included 21 laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas and 20 benign diseases with Automatic Image Cytometry.Nucleus from laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas had bigger nuclear area nuclear radius, nuclear perimeter and more DNA content per nuclear area than from laryngeal benign diseases, furthermore, these parameters showed distinct difference in different anatomic positions and different pathologic types. We concluded that nuclear areas of nucleus in S phase from laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas are more than 77 microm, Second Order Regression Equation(Y =aX2+bX+c) described scattered diagrams between mean nuclear radius and nuclear area of laryngeal cytology specimens with different larynx pathology and different cell phase in cell cycle. The more the value of coefficient "c"(c1.82) and the less the value of coefficient "b" (b0.045), the more the probability of malignant tumor diagnosis.Morphologic quantitative analysis parameters, such as nuclear area, mean nuclear radius, nuclear perimeter and DNA content per nuclear area, are suitable for diagnosing laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas. They could offer valuable morphologic quantitative criterion in assisting cytology diagnose and evaluating tumor clinical characters when these parameters associated with nuclear area of nucleus in S-phase and the coefficients of Second Order Regression Equation.

The paper describes a new optimization strategy for computationally expensive design optimization problems of turbomachinery, combined with design of experiment (DOE), response surface models (RSM), genetic algorithm (GA) and a 3-D Navier-Stokes solver. Data points for response evaluations were selected by Latin hypercube design (LHD) and 3-dimensional Navier-Stokes analysis was carried out at these sample points. The quadratic response surface model was used to approximate the relationships between the design variables and flow parameters. The genetic algorithm was applied to the response surface model to perform global optimization to obtain the optimum design. The above method was applied to the optimization design of NASA rotor37. The object was to maximize the adiabatic efficiency. An optimum leading edge line was found which produced a new 3-dimensional blade combined with sweep and composite bowing. As a result of this optimization, the adiabatic efficiency was successfully increased by 1.58%. It was found that the strategy of this paper provides a reliable design optimization method for turbomachinery blades at reasonable computing cost.

This research discussed the diagnostic value of cellular quantitative analysis in head and neck tumor.We analysis quantitative parameters of 23 malignant tumors and 20 benign diseases with automated DNA image cytometry, they are the DNA Index (DI), S-phase Fraction (SPF), Proliferation Index (PI) and 5c Exceeding (5c Ex).The masculine rate of cellular quantitative analysis and conventional method are 76.92% and 50.00%. The value of SPF, PI and 5c Ex are 14.05%, 19.59% and 1.59% in malignant tumor, respectively. The parameters of SPF and PI showed distinct difference in the area of malignant tumor than the 1 cm sideward area of tumor and the edge of tumor.Automatic DNA image cytometry has higher masculine rate of malignant tumor than conventional method in early detection of tumor. The cellular quantitative parameters, such as SPF, PI and 5c Ex, are able to guide clinical work, specially in diagnosing of head and neck tumor, estimating biological character of malignant tumor and evaluating the area of excision.

In a screen of signal peptide-containing proteins from a mouse hypothetical protein library, we identified the mouse UDP-GlcNAc:lysosomal enzyme N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphotransferase-gamma chain (GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase-gamma) (GenBank accession no. , HYP36 in this study). The mouse GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase-gamma was localized in the Golgi complex in cells and was expressed ubiquitously in mouse tissues, as shown by fluorescence microscope analysis and a semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay, respectively. Domain analysis showed that the mouse GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase-gamma had a conserved mannose-6-phosphate (M-6-P)-binding domain. Interestingly, we found that overexpression of the mouse GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase-gamma in fibroblast cell line NIH-3T3 induced accumulation of macromolecules, formation of large cytoplasmic vacuoles and decrease of lysosomal enzymes in cells. This phenotype was reminiscent of inclusion cells (I-cells) that were reported in mucolipidosis diseases caused by abnormal sorting of lysosomal proteins. Transient ectopic expression of GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase-gamma in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) induced lowered lysosomal enzyme activity in cells. These results suggested on one hand that GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase-gamma is an essential subunit of the GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase, and on the other hand, the molecule might not only recognize the substrates of GlcNAc-1-phosphotransferase, but also the lysosomal proteins with M-6-P residuals.

Turbomachines have inherently unsteady flow fields because of relative motion between rotor and stator airfoils. The important part of the unsteady effects results from the rotor-stator interaction. The main sources of unsteadiness in the rotor-stator interaction are potential flow interaction and wake interaction. Since the distribution of the potential flow and wake in the flow passage depends much on the relative position of blade row, variation in the relative circumferential position (clocking effect) of stator or rotor will change the distribution and consequently result in different multistage performance. The current study presents the experimental result of stator clocking effect in low-speed axial compressor, and performs numerical simulation to investigate the effects of fully (stator & rotor) clocking. In the test, time averaged data were collected. The result of time accurate flow calculation for stator clocking was in good qualitative agreement with experimental data. During the clocking of rotor, the stator was indexed to a position corresponding to maximum efficiency, and 8 clocking positions are compared for each clocking.

Girls with large body size have a 15-30% reduced risk of developing breast cancer independent of both birth weight and adult body mass index (BMI). The mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood, especially since large body size at young age is correlated with earlier pubertal timing, a known risk factor for breast cancer. Self-reported childhood body size, a phenotype which is described in the literature as “childhood body fatness”, has an estimated heritability of 70-80% compared to 40-70% for adult BMI and the correlation between childhood body fatness and adult BMI is only modest (r=0.24-0.30). Still, the literature on genetic associations in pediatric body size-related phenotypes is very sparse. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of childhood body fatness in 10,560 individuals within the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professional Follow-up Study (HPFS). All subjects were imputed using the 1000 Genomes Phase I v3 reference panel. Analysis was adjusted for top principal components and study/gender. We observed three regions with p Citation Format: Sara Lindstrom, Jingmei Li, Hongyan Huang, Constance Chen, David J. Hunter, Per Hall, Peter Kraft, Rulla Tamimi. Genome-wide association study of childhood body fatness as a risk factor of breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3275. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3275

Long-chain ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3-PUFAs), including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (20:5ω-3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) (22:5ω-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (22:6ω-3), have been shown to reduce cardiovascular risk, but effects on cause-specific and total mortality and potential dose-responses remain controversial. Most observational studies have assessed self-reported dietary intake and most randomized trials have tested effects of adding supplements to dietary intake and evaluated secondary prevention, thus limiting inference for dietary ω3-PUFAs or primary prevention.To investigate associations of plasma phospholipid EPA, DPA, DHA, and total ω3-PUFA levels with total and cause-specific mortality among healthy older adults not receiving supplements.Prospective cohort study.4 U.S. communities.2692 U.S. adults aged 74 years (±5 years) without prevalent coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, or heart failure at baseline.Phospholipid fatty acid levels and cardiovascular risk factors were measured in 1992. Relationships with total and cause-specific mortality and incident fatal or nonfatal CHD and stroke through 2008 were assessed.During 30 829 person-years, 1625 deaths (including 570 cardiovascular deaths), 359 fatal and 371 nonfatal CHD events, and 130 fatal and 276 nonfatal strokes occurred. After adjustment, higher plasma levels of ω3-PUFA biomarkers were associated with lower total mortality, with extreme-quintile hazard ratios of 0.83 for EPA (95% CI, 0.71 to 0.98; P for trend = 0.005), 0.77 for DPA (CI, 0.66 to 0.90; P for trend = 0.008), 0.80 for DHA (CI, 0.67 to 0.94; P for trend = 0.006), and 0.73 for total ω3-PUFAs (CI, 0.61 to 0.86; P for trend0.001). Lower risk was largely attributable to fewer cardiovascular than noncardiovascular deaths. Individuals in the highest quintile of phospholipid ω3-PUFA level lived an average of 2.22 more years (CI, 0.75 to 3.13 years) after age 65 years than did those in the lowest quintile.Temporal changes in fatty acid levels and misclassification of causes of death may have resulted in underestimated associations, and unmeasured or imperfectly measured covariates may have caused residual confounding.Higher circulating individual and total ω3-PUFA levels are associated with lower total mortality, especially CHD death, in older adults.National Institutes of Health.

A picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is an electronic and ideally filmless information system for acquiring, sorting, transporting, storing, and electronically displaying medical images. PACS h ave developed rapidly and are in operation in a number of hospitals. Before widespread adoption of PACSs can occur, however, their cost-effectiveness must be proven. This article introduces the basic components of a PACS. The current PACS cost-analysis literature is reviewed. Some authors conclude that the PACS would pay for itself, while others find the PACS much more expensive. Explanations for these differences are explored. Almost all of these studies focus on direct costs and ignore indirect costs and benefits. The literature characterizing the indirect costs of PACSs is reviewed. The authors conclude that there is a need for uniform, well-defined criteria for the calculation of the costs and savings of PACSs. J Am Med Informatics Assoc. 1994;1:361-371.

The performance of a high-power fast-axial-flow CO2 laser is directly determined by the characteristics of the turbulent flow of the active medium in the discharge region. To research the influence of the discharge tube structure on the internal gas flow field and determine the optimum design of the discharge tube, we use the computational fluid dynamics method and a set of governing equations to predict and com- pare the internal gas flow field of various sizes of discharge tubes. The influence of the tube diameter and gas inflow opening size on the gas flow velocity and turbulence intensity is discussed. There is good agreement between the theoretical prediction and the experimental results. The re- sults obtained provide a basis for the optimum design of a high-power industrial fast-axial-flow CO2 laser. C 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation