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Cavities in the hippocampus are morphological variants of uncertain significance. Aberrant neurodevelopment along with vascular and inflammatory etiologies have been proposed. We sought to characterize these cavities and their potential risk factors in a marginally housed population, with high rates of viral infection, addiction, and mental illness. (1) The volume of hippocampal cavities (HCavs) is greater in this highly multimorbid population compared to the general population. (2) Conventional vascular risk factors such as greater age and systolic blood pressure are associated with higher HCav volume. (3) Nonprescribed substance-related risk factors such as stimulant use or dependence, and smoking are associated with increased HCav volume independent of vascular risk factors. This is a retrospective analysis of an ongoing prospective study. We analyzed baseline data, including medical history, physical exam, psychiatric diagnosis, and MRI from a total of 375 participants. Hippocampal cavities were defined as spaces isointense to CSF on T1 MRI sequences, bounded on all sides by hippocampal tissue, with a volume of at least 1 mm

Purpose: This pre-pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessed a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI, “REMIND1.0”) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Twenty mental health service users were allocated to either 8 weekly mixed-mode MBI ( n = 10) or treatment-as-usual (TAU) ( n = 10). Results: There were significant interactions between group and time (baseline T0, post-intervention T1, and 1-month follow-up T2) across all quantitative outcomes (personal recovery, trait mindfulness, self-compassion, resilience, moods, quality of life, and general health). The main themes that emerged from qualitative interviews at T1 are previous experience with MBIs, features of current MBI, and benefits of personal recovery and at T2 are recollection of MBI content, maintaining regular practice after MBI, and retained benefits of personal recovery. Conclusions: The current MBI is acceptable, feasible, and potentially effective in facilitating personal recovery.

Scattered sunlight from the interplanetary dust (IPD) cloud in our solar system presents a serious foreground challenge for spectrophotometric measurements of the extragalactic background light (EBL). In this work, we report on inferred measurements of the absolute intensity of the zodiacal light (ZL) using the novel technique of Fraunhofer line spectroscopy on the deepest 8542 Å line of the near-infrared Ca ii absorption triplet. The measurements are performed with the narrow band spectrometer (NBS) on board the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment sounding rocket instrument. We use the NBS data to test the accuracy of two ZL models widely cited in the literature, the Kelsall and Wright models, which have been used in foreground removal analyses that produce high and low EBL results respectively. We find a mean reduced χ 2 = 3.5 for the Kelsall model and χ 2 = 2.0 for the Wright model. The best description of our data is provided by a simple modification to the Kelsall model, which includes a free ZL offset parameter. This adjusted model describes the data with a reduced χ 2 = 1.5 and yields an inferred offset amplitude of 46 ± 19 nW m−2 sr−1 extrapolated to 12500 Å. These measurements elude to the potential existence of a dust cloud component in the inner solar system whose intensity does not strongly modulate with the Earth’s motion around the Sun.

To observe the effect of long non-coding ribonucleic acid metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (lncRNA MALAT1) on the myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats and to explore its potential mechanism, to provide certain references for clinical prevention and treatment of myocardial I/R injury.A total of 60 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into the Control group (n=20), I/R group (n=20) and I/R + MALAT1 small-interfering RNA (siRNA) group (n=20) using a random number table. The I/R model was established through recanalization after ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD), and the MALAT1 knockdown model was established via tail intravenous injection of MALAT1 siRNA in the I/R + MALAT1 siRNA group. The ejection fraction (EF%) and fractional shortening (FS%) of rats in each group were detected via echocardiography and the infarction area in each group was detected using 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) assay. Moreover, the morphological changes in myocardial cells in each group were detected via hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, and the myocardial apoptosis level was detected via terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining. At the same time, the expression levels of the anti-apoptotic protein B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and pro-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax) in myocardial tissues in each group were determined via Western blotting. Finally, the effect of MALAT1 knockdown on the phosphatidylinositol 3-hydroxy kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) protein expression was detected via Western blotting.The expression level of lncRNA MALAT1 in myocardial tissues was significantly higher in the I/R group than that in the Control group (p0.05). The MALAT1 knockdown could significantly improve the cardiac insufficiency caused by I/R injury, and increase both EF% and FS% in rats (p0.05). In addition, the MALAT1 knockdown could markedly inhibit myocardial infarction caused by I/R injury and reduce the infarction area from (62.12 ± 1.29) to (27.66 ± 3.58; p0.05). The results of the HE staining showed that the myofilaments were arranged more orderly, the degrees of degradation and necrosis were lower and the cellular edema was significantly alleviated in the I/R + MALAT1 siRNA group compared with those in the I/R group. According to the results of TUNEL staining, the rats in I/R + MALAT1 siRNA group had a markedly lower level of myocardial apoptosis than the I/R group (p0.05), and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio also remarkably declined in the I/R + MALAT1 siRNA group (p0.05). Furthermore, the results of Western blotting revealed that MALAT1 siRNA could significantly reverse the I/R injury-induced inhibition on the AKT phosphorylation (p0.05).The MALAT1 knockdown can markedly improve the I/R-induced myocardial injury and promote the cardiac function of rats, whose mechanism may be related to the activation of the AKT signaling pathway by MALAT1 siRNA. Therefore, lncRNA MALAT1 is expected to be a new therapeutic target for myocardial I/R injury.

Objectives: This study aimed to find the optimal radiotherapy VMAT plans, that achieved high conformity and homogeneity to the planned target volume (PTV), and minimize the dose to nearby organs at risk including the non-PTV lung, heart and oesophagus for patients with centrally located non-small Cell Lung Cancer. Methods: A total of 18 patients who were treated for stage III centrally located non-small Cell Lung Cancer were selected retrospectively for this study. Identical CT datasets, 4D CT and structure dataset were used for radiotherapy planning based on single-planar VMAT (SP-VMAT), dual-planar VMAT (DP-VMAT) and Hybrid VMAT (H-VMAT). For SP-VMAT, one full arc and two half arcs were created on single-plane with couch at 0°. For DP-VMAT, one full arc was created with couch at 0°, and two half arcs with couch rotation of 330° or 30°. For H-VMAT, anterior-posterior opposing fixed beam and two half arcs were planned at couch at 0°. Dose constraints were adhered to the RTOG0617. Dose volumetric parameters were collected for statistical analysis. Results: There were no significant differences for the PTV, HI, CI between the SP-VMAT, DP-VMAT and H-VMAT. For the non-PTV lungs, Dmean, V20, V10, V5, D1500 and D1000 were significantly lower (2.05 Gy, 6.47%, 15.89%, 11.66% 4.17 Gy and 5.47 Gy respectively) in H-VMAT than that of SP-VMAT (all p < 0.001). For the oesophagus, Dmax, Dmean, V30 and V18.8 of H-VMAT were 0.08 Gy, 1.73 Gy, 5.54% and 7.17% lower than that of the SP-VMAT plan. For the heart, Dmean, V34, V28, V20 and V10 of DP-VMAT were lower than that of SP-VMAT by 1.45 Gy, 0.65%, 1.74%, 4.8% and 7.11% respectively. Conclusion: The proposed H-VMAT showed more favourable plan quality than the SP-VMAT for centrally located stage III NSCLC, in particular for non-PTV lungs and the oesophagus. It will benefit patients, especially those who planned for immunotherapy (Durvalumab) after standard chemo-irradiation. The proposed DP-VMAT plan showed significant dose reduction to the heart when compared to the H-VMAT plan.

By in situ depositing Y2O3 on a pristine p-In0.53Ga0.47As surface under ultra-high vacuum, we have attained a low interfacial trap density (Dit) of (2–5) × 1011 eV−1cm−2 from the mid-gap to the valence band edge. The Dit values were extracted from the conductance contours measured from 300 K to 77 K. The small frequency dispersions of 1.2%/dec (300 K) and 0.28%/dec (77 K) in the accumulation region of the capacitance–voltage (CV) characteristics and very small frequency-dependent flatband voltage shifts of 0.021 V/dec (300 K) and 0.011 V/dec (77 K) indicate low border trap densities and low Dit's; these experimental results have not been achieved in previous reports of oxide/p-In0.53Ga0.47As. The Y2O3/p-In0.53Ga0.47As heterostructure also exhibited a high thermal stability of 800 °C, as observed by the low Dit values, small CV frequency dispersions, and an abrupt interface without inter-diffusion in cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscopy images. Our work has demonstrated a long-sought remedy for the effective passivation of p-type In0.53Ga0.47As, paving the way to high-performance electronic and optoelectronic In0.53Ga0.47As devices.

Nickel micro-electroforming was integrated with 355-nm wavelength ultraviolet laser process to fabricate the through silicon via (TSV) for 4G communication device packaging. This technology was applied to package the high-frequency solidly mounted resonator (SMR). Different parameters including laser power, focus length, frequency, and termination diameter were explored to characterize the quality of TSV for laser drilling. The thickness of silicon sample of 550 μm was drilled. The diameter of the silicon by laser drilling was 100–110 μm, where the taper was about 1.6° and the aspect ratio was about 5. The relationship between micro-electroforming deposition thickness and time were obtained. The deposition thickness was carried out by various current densities under 0.5 Amps per square decimeter (ASD), 1 ASD, 2 ASD, and 4 ASD, respectively, to analyze the electroplating quality. In addition, nanoindenter, energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to analyze the material characteristics of micro-electroforming samples. Laser drilling and micro-electroforming were integrated to package the high-frequency SMR. The result shows that the S 11 parameter was − 3.5 dB under the frequency of 2.5 GHz. This TSV with micro-electroforming process shows potential use for 4G packaging application.

The Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) is a third-generation, 3-GeV storage ring with a design current of 500 mA. To monitor the photon beam stability, blade-type X-ray beam position monitors (XBPMs) are installed to record and monitor the photon beam position. The beam position coordinates involve both the X- and Y-axes, and we must consider coupling effects in the XBPM, which have to be reduced for reliability and optimum precision. This study focuses on the front-end (FE) XBPM calibration via four-blade normalization and suppression matrix compensation. The calibration results show that in the optimal measurement range of ± 200 μ m , the coupling effect between the X and Y position is suppressed to less than a 1- μ m drift, which satisfies the high-accuracy beam position requirements for user operation. The reliability and precision of the XBPM system improved after applying the serial calibration process developed in this study, and the detailed derivation of each calibration step will be discussed in this paper.

The in-situ deposited high κ gate dielectrics, Ga 2 O 3 (Gd 2 O 3 )[GGO], Y 2 O 3 , HfO 2 , and Al 2 O 3 , on freshly molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As (InGaAs) have perfected the interfacial electronic (chemical) characteristics, thus achieving low interfacial trap densities (D it ) and high-temperature thermal stability. These enable fabrication of self-aligned inversion- channel InGaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect- transistors (MOSFETs) using a CMOS compatible process, giving very high drain currents (I d ) of 1.05-1.8 mA/μm and transconductances (G m ) of 0.714-0.98 mS/μm in 1μm gate length (L g ) devices; Synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy (SRPES) reveals no AsO x residue at the in-situ atomic layer deposited (ALD)-Al 2 O 3 /InGaAs interface, while some AsO x remains using the ex-situ method. The in-situ 1μm L g GGO/Ge pMOSFETs have given I d of 0.496 mA/μm, G m of 0.178 mS/ μm, and effective hole mobility of 389 cm2/V s. On the formation of Schottky barrier height (SBH) of Ag/GaAs, SRPES core-level data show that Ag adatoms effectively passivate the surface As-As dimers in the initial Ag deposition. A SBH of 0.38 eV is secured at Ag 0.25 A thick prior to the formation of an Ag metal. The final SBH is similar to the measured value at the initial Ag deposition.

Aims. This work aims to explore the possibilities of determining the long-period part of the precession-nutation of the Earth with techniques other than very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). Lunar laser ranging (LLR) is chosen for its relatively high accuracy and long period. Results of previous studies could be updated using the latest data with generally higher quality, which would also add ten years to the total time span. Historical optical data are also analyzed for their rather long time-coverage to determine whether it is possible to improve the current Earth precession-nutation model. Methods. Celestial pole offsets (CPO) series were obtained from LLR and optical observations and were analyzed separately by weighted least-square fits of three empirical models, including a quadratic model, a linear term plus an 18.6-year nutation term, and a linear term plus two nutation terms with 18.6-year and 9.3-year periods. Joint analyses of VLBI and LLR data is also presented for further discussion. Results. We improved th determination of the nutation terms with both VLBI and LLR data. The VLBI data present a most reliable feature of the CPO series with the highest accuracy, and they are most important for determining the precession-nutation of the Earth. The standard errors of CPO obtained from the LLR technique have reached a level of several tens of microarcseconds after 2007, but they are probably underestimated because the models used in the calculation procedure are not perfect. Nevertheless, the poor time resolution of LLR CPO series is also a disadvantage. However, this indicates that LLR has the potential to determine celestial pole offsets with a comparably high accuracy with VLBI in the future and to serve as an independent check for the VLBI results. The current situation of LLR observations is also analyzed to provide suggestions of future improvement. The typical standard error of CPO series from historic optical observations is about two hundred times larger than that of the VLBI series and can therefore hardly contribute to the contemporary precession-nutation theory.

To investigate the influence of leptin receptor (LEPR) gene K109R polymorphism on the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its interaction with PNPLA3 I148M polymorphism in the Han Chinese population in Qingdao, China.Blood samples were collected from 296 NAFLD patients and 321 healthy controls, and the genotypes of these patients were determined by PCR and genotyping. Related statistical analyses were performed to compare genotypes, alleles, and clinical data between the two groups. Generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) was used to investigate the interaction between LEPR K109R and PNPLA3 I148M genes.The distribution of LEPR K109R genotypes and alleles showed no significant differences between the NAFLD group and the control group (P0.05). PNPLA3 I148M gene polymorphisms were closely associated with the risk of NAFLD, and the risk of NAFLD in G mutant gene carriers was 2.07 times that in patients who did not carry this gene (OR = 2.07, 95% CI 1.423-3.013, P0.001). The joint action of LEPR K109R and PNPLA3 I148M significantly increased the risk of NAFL (OR = 3.393, 95% CI 1.856-6.201, P0.001).In the Han Chinese population in Qingdao, LEPR K109R gene polymorphism is not associated with the risk of NAFLD, but its interaction with PNPLA3 I148M polymorphism can significantly increase the risk of NAFLD.

This study utilizes 355 nm ultraviolet (UV) laser' micro electroforming process with supercritical fluid to package 4G solidly mounted resonator (SMR) wafer. The diameter of drilling hole was 100–150 μm with the wafer thickness of 550 μm' and the component was packaged by the embedded circuit and through silicon via (TSV) technology. Experiment results show the aspect ratio was around 5 and the sidewall slope was about 2 degrees. Micro-Ni electroforming was used to form the conductive channel' reduced the process time within four hours. This process and analysis technology obtained the minimum package area' increased the intensity' gained the electrical and thermal properties' and was able to pre-judge the impact of the package components before packaging.

This paper introduces a method combining a general electrothermal network π-model in system level and the associated mathematical technique, Green's theorem, in terms of the adopted materials and system geometries to build up an equivalent electrothermal circuit model (EETCM) for efficient thermal analysis and behavior prediction in a thermal system. Heat conduction and convection equations in integral forms are derived using the theorem and successfully applied for the thermal analysis of a 3-D optical stack, vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) on a silicon optical bench. The complex stack structure in conventional simulators can be greatly simplified using the method by well-predicting probable heat flow paths, and the simplification can eventually achieve the goal of CPU time saving without having complicated mesh designing or scaling. By comparing the data from the measurement, the finite-element simulation, and the method calculation shows that an excellent temperature match within ±~0.5 °C and 90% CPU time saving can be realized.

Summary Background Patients with peptic ulcer bleeding and uraemia are prone to re-bleeding. Aim To compare the efficacy of an intravenous proton pump inhibitor in treating peptic ulcer bleeding in patients with uraemia and those without uraemia. Methods High-risk peptic ulcer bleeding patients received endoscopic therapy with epinephrine (adrenaline) injection plus intravenous omeprazole (40 mg bolus followed by 40 mg infusion every 12 h) for 3 days. Re-bleeding, volume of blood transfusion, hospital stay, need for surgery, and mortality were analysed. Results The uraemic group had similar 7-day re-bleeding rate (6/42, 14.29% vs. 6/46, 13.04%, P = 0.865) to that of non-uraemic patients, but more re-bleeding episodes beyond 7 days (4/42, 9.52% vs. 0/46, 0%, P = 0.032, OR [95% CI] = 1.105 [1.002–1.219]) and all-cause mortality (4/42 vs. 0/46 P = 0.032, OR [95% CI] = 1.105 [1.002–1.219]). The uraemic group also had more units of blood transfusion after endoscopic therapy (mean ± s.d. 4.33 ± 3.35 units vs. 2.15 ± 1.65 units, P

Summary Background The role of Helicobacter pylori in the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer disease in patients with uraemia remains unclear. Aim To evaluate the long-term effect of H. pylori eradication in these patients. Methods Uraemic and non-uraemic patients with peptic ulcer were enrolled in this study. Patients having history of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use or cardiovascular disease that need aspirin use were excluded. After confirmation of H. pylori infection, they received a triple therapy and were followed up for 2 years. Results Between September 1999 and December 2005, 34 patients (41%) of the end-stage renal disease [H. pylori (+) group] and 67 (84%) of the non-uraemic patients with peptic ulcer disease (PU group) received anti-H. pylori therapy. After triple therapy, 32 (94%) from the end-stage renal disease group and 64 (96%) from the peptic ulcer group obtained successful eradication. During the 2-year follow-up, three patients in the end-stage renal disease group were excluded because of the presence of cardiovascular disease and aspirin use in two cases and died of heart failure in one case; two patients in peptic ulcer group refused follow-up. Finally, 29 uraemic and 62 non-uraemic patients had achieved the follow-up. Recurrence of peptic ulcer was more in the end-stage renal disease group than in the peptic ulcer group with intention-to-treat analysis (eight of 32, 25% vs. two of 64, 3%, P = 0.001, OR: 10.0, 95% CI: 1.979–50.540) or per-protocol analysis (eight of 29, 28% vs. two of 62, 3%, P

A double-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted on a group of Hong Kong hospital clinicians. The objective was to test if a three-hour educational workshop (with supervised hands-on practice) is more effective (than no training) to improve clinical question formulation, information-seeking skills, knowledge, attitudes, and search outcomes. The design was a post-test-only control group; recruitment by stratified randomization (by profession), blocked at 800. End-user training was more effective than no training in improving clinical question formulation, in raising awareness, knowledge, confidence and use of databases, but had made no impact on preference for secondary databases. It changed the attitude of clinicians to become more positive towards the use of electronic information services (EIS). Participants had higher search performance and outcomes (satisfaction with information obtained (NNT = 3), EIS satisfaction (NNT = 3) and success in problem solving (NNT = 4)). The workshop improved knowledge and skills in evidence-based searching, but this effect gradually eroded with time. Search logs confirmed that follow-up is required if effects are to be sustained. Longer effects on search behaviours appear to be positive. A randomised controlled trial is valuable in identifying cause-and-effect relations and to quantify the magnitude of the effects for management decision-making.

Using room-temperature surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS) we have characterized four GaAlAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) structures with varied quantum well compositional profiles fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy. Signals have been observed from every region of the samples. The normalized first derivative of the surface photovoltage (SPV) signal with respect to photon energy from the InGaAs quantum well channel can be accounted for by a line shape function which is the first derivative of a step-like two-dimensional density of states and a Fermi level filling factor. A detailed line shape fit makes it possible to evaluate the Fermi energy, and hence the concentration of two-dimensional electron gas in addition to the energies of the intersubband transitions. The differences of intersubband transition energies are attributed to the surface segregation effects of indium atoms. In addition, other important parameters of the system such as the Al composition and the properties of the GaAs/GaAlAs superlattice (SL) buffer layer also are obtained from the SPV spectra. The results demonstrate the considerable potential of SPS for the contactless and nondestructive characterization of pHEMT structures at room temperature.

The explosive growth and overwhelming use of World Wide Web resources have led to the often misguided, but understandable belief that one can find any information on the Web. In businesses, direct marketing on the Web produced big success stories in sales and marketing. This led to the conclusion that the process of “dis‐intermediation” has begun. Do we need intermediaries such as libraries (especially small special (medical) libraries) anyway? As librarians, how should we position ourselves for this change? The author draws a parallel analogy from knowledge management literature and highlights the importance of adding value to the process of the transformation of data to information, and from information to knowledge. The trend towards supporting evidence‐based practice in health care is a good example of how librarians could use their skills and knowledge to give better support and added value to the health care process. In participating in knowledge building and application in the local environment, the traditional role of a library in being a repository and a provider of information is no longer adequate. New roles in publishing, marketing, teaching, researching, collaborating and building up the knowledge emerge. Continuous education and training in new skills will better equip librarians with the new roles, while at the same time, librarians should preserve the traditional and professional value of providing quality information to those in need.

We present a two-step method for a high-resolution neutron area detector in which a metal foil with a high absorption cross section acts as a neutron to charged particle converter. After the foil is activated, the neutron field information is transferred from the converter foil to an imaging device by autoradiography. This two-step process using a storage photostimulable phosphor avoids interferences from non-neutron radiation found in the radiation field.

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements have been performed on long-flight-path pinhole-collimation SANS instruments using, as a two-dimensional position-sensitive detector, both a neutron imaging plate, incorporating gadolinium, and a two-step transfer method, with dysprosium foil as the image transfer medium. The measurements are compared with corresponding data taken using conventional position-sensitive gas proportional counters on the SANS instruments in order to assess the viability of the imaging techniques. The imaging plates have pixel sizes of about two orders of magnitude smaller than those of the gas proportional counter. The reduced pixel size provides definite advantages over the gas counter in certain specific situations, namely when limited space necessitates a short sample-to-detector distance, when only small samples (comparable in size to the detector pixels) are available, or when used in conjunction with focusing beam optics.

The focusing of a cold neutron beam by multiple biconcave lenses has recently been proposed as a practical means of extending the lower limit of Q in conventional, long flight-path small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) instruments. To test the feasibility of this approach, we have carried out extensive measurements on one of the 30 m SANS instruments at NIST of the focusing characteristics of a set of 28 biconcave MgF2 lenses. The focused beam profile has been measured over several orders of magnitude using high resolution neutron auto-radiography. The focusing lens configuration outperforms the pinhole collimation at Q min lower than 0.004 Å−1. At Q min = 0.001 Å−1, the intensity gain of the lens configuration over the pinhole collimation is greater than one order of magnitude.

This paper presents a numerical and experimental study concerning cooling characteristics of a pulsating heated vertical plate sandwiched between a substrate of phase change material (PCM) and an enclosure of water, forming a composite vertical rectangular enclosure. The vertical plate is assumed to have a uniform pulsating (on/off) volumetric heat source. The PCM considered in the present study is n-Octadecane. In the finite-difference simulation, the two-dimensional buoyancy-driven fluid flows developed in both the water-filled subenclosure and the molten PCM region of the PCM-filled subenclosure were modeled as laminar Newtonian fluid flow adhering to the Boussinesq approximation. Meanwhile, two-dimensional conduction is accounted for the plate heater as well as the solid PCM zone. Numerical results are presented to unveil the cooling behavior of the pulsating heat-generating plate through the PCM substrate and water-filled enclosure. Results of the parametric simulations reveal that the water layer has the better capability of heat dissipation than the PCM substrate. Heat dissipation from the plate through the PCM substrate is mainly via the latent heat absorption as associated with melting phenomenon. Moreover, numerical results obtained are compared with the corresponding experiments.

A glass polycapillary lens that both bends and focuses a cold neutron beam has been designed and constructed. The bender focuser guides part of the incident beam away from its line of sight and focuses it to a spot of width 0.65 mm at a distance 95 mm from the lens exit and 20 mm below the bottom edge of the beam path, with a gain of 20 in neutron current density. The neutron transmission characteristics of the lens have been determined with two types of position-sensitive detectors, a charge injection device, and an imaging plate. The lens has been tested with prompt gamma measurements on a gadolinium shard and titanium foil.

A patient with end stage breast cancer was admitted to hospital due to fever, chills, multiply eroded discharging wounds, and sudden onset of left hemiparesis. Clostridium septicum bacteremia and brain abscess were diagnosed. The patient was treated successfully with intravenous penicillin and clindamycin and stereotactic aspiration of the abscess. Eleven cases of C. septicum central nervous system infection are reviewed. They showed an extremely fulminant course and high fatality. Nevertheless, some relationship seems to exist between outcome and type of brain lesion. Hemolytic-uremic syndrome associated with central nervous system infection is also discussed, because all these cases in the literature were due to this organism. Early diagnosis and aggressive treatment, including surgical drainage and appropriate antibiotics, are the key to improving the prognosis. A long-term prophylactic oral antimicrobial agent is suggested for patients who survive this infection.

Using room-temperature surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS), we have characterized a GaAlAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) structure. Signals have been observed from every region of the sample. From a line shape fit to the normalized first derivative of the surface photovoltage signal with respect to photon energy, the two-dimensional electron gas density (Ns) was obtained and found to be in good agreement with Hall measurement. The Al composition and the properties of the GaAs/GaAlAs superlattice buffer layer also were obtained from the SPS spectrum. The results demonstrate the considerable potential of SPS for the contactless and nondestructive characterization of pHEMT structures at room temperature.

Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) is under construction at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC). This 518 m circumference synchrotron accelerator will generate 3 GeV and 500 mA high-energy X-rays. Absorbers in the storage ring will receive relatively high power densities (at a distance of 2.2 m from the dipole source). Three types of crotch absorbers for B1–B3 storage chambers were designed and prototyped. An end absorber in B3 is also designed and implemented to protect the downstream components in the chamber from being heated by the synchrotron radiation. Intensive vacuum brazing between Oxygen Free High Conductivity copper (OFHC) and stainless steel was carried out while fabricating the absorber assembly. The analysis, design and construction of several absorbers are reported in this paper.