Immune-Complex Allergic Vasculitis in Association with the Immune-Complex Allergic Vasculitis in Association with the Development of Transverse Myelitis: A Case Report

A severe vasculitis, probably therapy related, in a sixty-four-year-old man being treated for possible subacute bacterial endocarditis, was associated with the development of transverse myelitis. It is hypothesized that the vasculitis affected the small vessels to the spinal cord in the same way that systemic vasculitis can also cause a transverse myelitis

Possible canted antiferromagnetism in UCu9_9Sn4_4

We report on the new compound UCu${}_9$Sn${}_4$ which crystallizes in the tetragonal structure \emph{I}4/\emph{mcm} with lattice parameters $a = 8.600{\rm\AA}$ and $c = 12.359{\rm\AA}$. This compound is isotyp to the ferromagnetic systems RECu${}_9$Sn${}_4$ (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd) with Curie temperatures $T{}\rm_C$ = 5.5 K, 10.5 K and 15 K, respectively. UCu${}_9$Sn${}_4$ exhibits an uncommon magnetic behavior resulting in three different electronic phase transitions. Below 105 K the sample undergoes a valence transition accompanied by an entropy change of 0.5 Rln2. At 32 K a small hump in the specific heat and a flattening out in the susceptibility curve probably indicate the onset of helical spin order. To lower temperatures a second transition to antiferromagnetic ordering occurs which develops a small ferromagnetic contribution on lowering the temperature further. These results are strongly hinting for canted antiferromagnetism in UCu${}_9$Sn${}_4$.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, SCES0

Are There Options to Prevent Early Occurring Deaths in Acute Myocardial Infarction: Prospective Evaluation of All < 24 h In-Hospital Deaths, 2004-2006-The MONICA/KORA Augsburg Infarction Registry

Objectives: To provide valid clinical data of early in-hospital deaths with presumed acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who are often not included in clinical trials or registries. Methods: From August 2004 to August 2006 all patients (age 25-84 years) dying within 24 h after hospitalization in a large tertiary care academic teaching hospital were screened regarding an underlying cardiovascular cause of death. Results: After validation, 79 out of 1,352 patients remained with a final diagnosis of AMI. Sixty-six percent of these experienced prehospital cardiac arrest or shock. In 37% no resuscitation attempts were performed in-hospital, the most common reason being multimorbidity. Only 23% could be transferred to coronary angiography for revascularisation attempts. An independent panel of clinicians judged that only in one patient would another management strategy have been promising. Of interest, 33% of the deceased patients had typical or atypical chest pain the days before the lethal event. Conclusion: A large percentage of AMI patients who died soon after hospitalization were in critical circulatory state directly before hospitalization. In 37%, in-hospital resuscitation attempts were omitted for understandable reasons. Options for improvement in acute care in the investigated setting were not found. However, in one third of the cases earlier preventive measures might have been reasonable. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base

High order sensitivity analysis of a mistuned blisk including intentional mistuning

Small deviations between turbine blades exist due to manufacturing tolerances or material inhomogeneities. This effect is called mistuning and usually causes increased vibration amplitudes and also a lower service life expectancy of bladed disks or so called blisks (bladed integrated disk). The major resulting problem is to estimate the maximum amplitude with respect to these deviations. Due to the probability distribution of these deviations, statistical methods are used to predict the maximum amplitude. State of the art is the Monte-Carlo simulation which is based on a high number of randomly re-arranged input parameters. The aim of this paper is to introduce a useful method to calculate the probability distribution of the maximum amplitude of a mistuned blisk with respect to the random input parameters. First, the applied reduction method is presented to initiate the sensitivity analysis. This reduction method enables the calculation of the frequency response function (FRF) of a Finite Element Model (FEM) in a reasonable calculation time. Based on the Taylor series approximation, the sensitivity of the vibration amplitude depending on normally distributed input parameters is calculated and therewith, it is possible to estimate the maximum amplitude. Calculating only a single frequency response function shows a good agreement with the results of over 1000 Monte-Carlo simulations

Orbital Freezing in FeCr2S4 Studied by Dielectric Spectroscopy

Broadband dielectric spectroscopy has been performed on single-crystalline FeCr2S4 revealing a transition into a low-temperature orbital glass phase and on polycrystalline FeCr2S4 where long-range orbital order is established via a cooperative Jahn-Teller transition. The freezing of the orbital moments is revealed by a clear relaxational behavior of the dielectric permittivity, which allows a unique characterization of the orbital glass transition. The orbital relaxation dynamics continuously slows down over six decades in time, before at the lowest temperatures the glass transition becomes suppressed by quantum tunneling.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Introduction and evaluation of a damping determination method based on the short-term fourier transform and resampling (stfr)

In the present paper, a frequency domain method for damping determination is presented. The described method is especially developed for low damped systems with well separated eigenfrequencies. Using the Short-Term Fourier transform and Resampling (STFR) of the signal, decay curves of several mode shapes can be identified and amplitude-dependent damping values can be calculated. Additionally, two common methods for damping determination are explained briefly. Finally, the quality of the introduced method is evaluated comparing the variances of the identified damping values by means of different methods. In this context, the damping for beams clamped in a suspended way is analyzed. Stainless steel is used as the specimen material

Modelling friction characteristics in turbine blade vibrations using a fourier series expansion of a real friction hysteresis

A new contact model is proposed to simulate the forced response of a two degree of freedom mechanical model which resembles the simplest form of a friction damped turbine blade. The model scales a measured friction hysteresis to the current state of the mechanical model to obtain the contact force. The equations of motion are solved iteratively with a Newton-Raphson method using an analytical Jacobian. Furthermore the nonlinear system is linearised by using the Monoharmonic Balance Method. Based on experiments functions are found that scale a single hysteresis in such a way that a wide range of contact states can be predicted sufficiently well. The forced response of the mechanical model using the proposed contact model shows good agreement with the forced response using an Elastic Coulomb Friction Model

Alloimmunity and nonimmunologic risk factors in cardiac allograft vasculopathy

Graft vasculopathy is an accelerated form of coronary artery disease that occurs in transplanted hearts. Despite major advances in immunosuppression, the prevalence of the disease has remained substantially unchanged during the last two decades. According to the ‘response to injury' paradigm, graft vasculopathy is the result of a continuous inflammatory response to tissue injury initiated by both alloantigen-dependent and independent stress responses. Experimental evidence suggests that these responses may become self-sustaining, as allograft re-transplantation into the donor strain at a later stage fails to prevent disease progression. Histological evidence of endothelitis and arteritis, in association with intima fibrosis and atherosclerosis, reflects the central role of alloimmunity and inflammation in the development of arterial lesions. Experimental results in gene-targeted mouse models indicate that cellular and humoral immune responses are both involved in the pathogenesis of graft vasculopathy. Circulating antibodies against donor endothelium are found in a significant number of patients, but their pathogenic role is still controversial. Alloantigen-independent factors include donor-transmitted coronary artery disease, surgical trauma, ischaemia-reperfusion injury, viral infections, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, and glucose intolerance. Recent therapeutic advances include the use of novel immunosuppressive agents such as sirolimus (rapamycin), HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors. Optimal treatment of cardiovascular risk factors remains of paramount importanc

Aerodynamical and Structural Analysis of Operationally Used Turbine Blades

This paper presents an integrated methodology for the analysis of operationally-used turbine blades, incorporating aerodynamic and multiple structural simulations. In jet engines, blade rubbing and erosion lead to deviations of the blade geometry. The presented functional simulations are conducted in order to predict the influence of wear on the performance of turbine blades based on these geometric variations. A numerical simulation of the investigated turbine blades using CFD show the change of aerodynamic performance and the flow field due to wear. Additionally, the deviations of the blade geometry lead to a different pressure and temperature distribution on the blade surface, which is used as input for the structural simulations. The change in geometry, surface pressure and temperature lead to a change in vibration behavior of the blade. Particularly the eigenfrequencies and excitation are affected. This is incorporated into the analysis by performing a structural vibration simulation of a complete bladed disk, using component mode synthesis and wave base substructuring. The mistuning effects are analyzed statistically using the Monte Carlo method. The change in vibration amplitudes influences crack opening and closing for a single blade under thermo-mechanical load. These processes, including thermal expansion, are investigated using the extended finite element method. Two real turbine blades are used to compare the characteristics of a new and a used blade.DFG/SFB/87

Analysis of an experimental setup for structural damping identification

In the present paper, an experimental setup for structural damping determination arising from energy dissipations within the material is presented. The experimental setup is developed in such a way that all unintended damping sources are eliminated. In this connection, priority is also given to the reproducibility of the experimental data. In addition, a vacuum chamber is developed to reduce the damping arising from the interaction with the surrounding medium. Furthermore, beam-shaped specimens are clamped in a suspended way, using screws with an apex to fix the specimens in their nodes of vibration. Then, the influence of test rig specific parameters on the damping value is analyzed. In this context, an ideal setup of the test rig is identified to measure structural damping values arising from dissipations within the material. Finally, a common model for material damping description is parameterized using the experimental data