Enhancement in thermal and mechanical properties of bricks

A new type of porous brick is proposed. Sawdust is initially well mixed with wet clay in order to create voids inside the brick during the firing process. The voids will enhance the total performance of the brick due to the reduction of its density and thermal conductivity and a minor reduction of its compressive stress. All these properties have been measured experimentally and good performance has been obtained. Although a minor reduction in compressive stress has been observed with increased porosity, this property has still been larger than that of the common used hollow brick. Data obtained by this work lead to a new type of effective brick having a good performance with no possibility that mortar enters inside the holes which is the case with the common used hollow bricks. The mortar has a determent effect on thermal properties of the wall since it has some higher thermal conductivity and density than that of brick which increases the wall overall density and thermal conductivity of the wall

Methylphenidate and the risk of psychotic disorders and hallucinations in children and adolescents in a large health system

Previous studies have suggested that risk of psychotic events may be increased in children exposed to methylphenidate (MPH). However, this risk has not been fully examined and the possibility of confounding factors has not been excluded. Patients aged 6-19 years who received at least one MPH prescription were identified using Hong Kong population-based electronic medical records on the Clinical Data Analysis & Reporting System (2001-2014). Using the self-controlled case series design, relative incidence of psychotic events was calculated comparing periods when patients were exposed to MPH with non-exposed periods. Of 20 586 patients prescribed MPH, 103 had an incident psychotic event; 72 (69.9%) were male and 31 (30.1%) female. The mean age at commencement of observation was 6.95 years and the mean follow-up per participant was 10.16 years. On average, each participant was exposed to MPH for 2.17 years. The overall incidence of psychotic events during the MPH exposure period was 6.14 per 10 000 patient-years. No increased risk was found during MPH exposed compared to non-exposed periods (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.02 (0.53-1.97)). However, an increased risk was found during the pre-exposure period (IRR 4.64 (2.17-9.92)). Results were consistent across all sensitivity analyses. This study does not support the hypothesis that MPH increases risk of incident psychotic events. It does indicate an increased risk of psychotic events prior to the first prescription of MPH, which may be due to an association between psychotic events and the behavioural and attentional symptoms that led to psychiatric assessment and initiation of MPH treatment

Pediatric drug safety signal detection: a new drug-event reference set for performance testing of data-mining methods and systems

BACKGROUND: Better evidence regarding drug safety in the pediatric population might be generated from existing data sources such as spontaneous reporting systems and electronic healthcare records. The Global Research in Paediatrics (GRiP)-Network of Excellence aims to develop pediatric-specific methods that can be applied to these data sources. A reference set of positive and negative drug-event associations is required. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a pediatric-specific reference set of positive and negative drug-event associations. METHODS: Considering user patterns and expert opinion, 16 drugs that are used in individuals aged 0-18 years were selected and evaluated against 16 events, regarded as important safety outcomes. A cross-table of unique drug-event pairs was created. Each pair was classified as potential positive or negative control based on information from the drug's Summary of Product Characteristics and Micromedex. If both information sources consistently listed the event as an adverse event, the combination was reviewed as potential positive control. If both did not, the combination was evaluated as potential negative control. Further evaluation was based on published literature. RESULTS: Selected drugs include ibuprofen, flucloxacillin, domperidone, methylphenidate, montelukast, quinine, and cyproterone/ethinylestradiol. Selected events include bullous eruption, aplastic anemia, ventricular arrhythmia, sudden death, acute kidney injury, psychosis, and seizure. Altogether, 256 unique combinations were reviewed, yielding 37 positive (17 with evidence from the pediatric population and 20 with evidence from adults only) and 90 negative control pairs, with the remainder being unclassifiable. CONCLUSION: We propose a drug-event reference set that can be used to compare different signal detection methods in the pediatric population

Analytical Solution of Thermal Effects in Thin Disk Laser

Abstract In this work, the analytical solution of thermal effects in thin disk laser was derived using an integral transform method. Good agreements were found between the result of this work and other solutions for the same problem. The temperature distribution and its effect on laser crystal were obtained. It was found that increasing cooling of the thin disk leads to decrease in temperature difference across the crystal, which decreases the generated stress and strain and subsequently enhance beam quality (i.e. reduce optical path difference) also it was found that as cooling is increased the allowable pumping power (before fracture could occur) is increased too. It was found also that, reduce disk thickness has the same effect of increasing cooling of the disk due to the fact that as thickness decrease the heat could dissipate more efficiently.</jats:p