Diagnostic role of liquid-based cytology of bronchial lavage fluid in addition to bronchial brushing specimens in lung cancer

Background: Liquid-based cytology (LBC) tests, including the liquid-based thin layer method, have demonstrated the highest potential for reducing false-negatives and improving sample quality. Method: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic role of LBC of bronchial brushing specimens in lung cancer. A total of 249 patients were analyzed in our study, involving 155 patients with combined bronchial brushing and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and 94 patients with BAL alone. Results: The sensitivity in the combined bronchial brushing and BAL group was 61.4% in the diagnosis of lung cancer, which is much higher than with BAL alone. Rates of positive predictive values and negative predictive values in the combined group compared with the BALF alone group were 98.6% vs 100% and 47.6% vs 37.4%, respectively. Sensitivity in the BALF alone group was 12.5% in bronchoscopically invisible pulmonary lesions and as high as 52.1% in the combined group. Conclusion: The results from our study demonstrated that LBC of brushing samples could be used as an important complement of bronchoscopy and could have the potential to be widely applied.

Numerical Analysis on the Ground Vibration Isolation of Duxseal

A new kind of vibration screening material, Duxseal, with a high damping ratio is proposed to be used as an active vibration barrier in the free field. To investigate the influence of width, thickness, and embedded depth of using Duxseal on vibration reduction, numerical studies are performed using a three-dimensional (3D) semianalytical boundary element method (BEM) combined with a thin-layer method (TLM). The isolation effectiveness of Duxseal in ground vibration is also compared with the traditional wave impeding block (WIB). The numerical results show that Duxseal performed exceedingly well in screening ground vibrations in the free field. The effectiveness of the vibration isolation increases with the increase in the width, thickness, and embedded depth of the Duxseal material, within a certain range, under harmonic vertical excitation. In addition, Duxseal is much more effective for isolating ground vibration than the traditional WIB. The performance of Duxseal in isolating ground vibration is relatively stable along the distance away from the vibration source, while the amplitude attenuation ratio bounces upward when the distance away from the vibration source increases for the WIB isolation system.

Absence of effects of an in-plane magnetic field in a quasi-two-dimensional electron system

The dynamics of a quasi-two-dimensional electron system (q2DES) in the presence of a tilted magnetic field is reconsidered employing the thin-layer method. We derive the effective equations for relativistic and nonrelativistic q2DESs. Through a perturbative expansion, we show that while the magnetic length is much greater than the confinement width, the in-plane magnetic field only affects the particle dynamics through the spin. Therefore, effects due to an in-plane magnetic vector potential reported previously in the literature for 2D quantum rings, 2D quantum dots and graphene are fictitious. In particular, the so-called pseudo chiral magnetic effect recently proposed in graphene is not realistic.

IN VITRO PENETRATION TESTS OF TRANSETHOSOME GEL PREPARATIONS CONTAINING CAPSAICIN

Objective: Capsaicin is an active compound found in chili pepper and has been shown to have analgesic, antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-obesityproperties. To improve its penetration into the skin, capsaicin was prepared in a transethosome vesicle. Importantly, transethosomes are vesicles thatconsist of phosphatidylcholine, surfactant, and ethanol. In this study, capsaicin was prepared in a transethosome vesicle using two different methods:Direct transethosome formation and thin layer hydration. The aims of this study were to determine the effects of various methods of transethosomeformation on capsaicin characteristics and to evaluate the penetration capabilities of transethosome capsaicin gel.Methods: Ultimately, transethosome formation via the thin layer method yielded more favorable characteristics; these formations had particle sizesof 174.9±2.02 nm and an entrapment efficiency of 84.85±1.15%. The transethosome suspension was then developed into a gel formulation using 1%carbomer. An in vitro penetration test was performed using a Franz diffusion cell of mice abdomen skin, and the performance of the transethosomecapsaicin gel was compared to that of the standard capsaicin gel.Results: Penetration rate of capsaicin from either the transethosome gel preparation and the standard gel substance was 1549.68±49.6 and846.05±10.1 μg/cm2, respectively.Conclusions: According to these results, it can be concluded that gel preparations containing transethosome increase capsaicin penetration into theskin.

Dynamic Interaction of Two Adjacent Foundations Embedded in a Viscoelastic Soil

This paper studies the dynamic interaction for two adjacent rigid foundations embedded in a viscoelastic soil layer. The vibrations originate from one of the rigid foundations placed in the soil layer, which are subjected to harmonic loads of translation, rocking, and torsion. The dynamic responses of the rigid surface foundations are solved from the wave equations by taking into account their interaction. The solution is formulated using the frequency domain boundary element method (BEM), in conjunction with Kausel–Peek Green’s function for a layered stratum and the thin layer method (TLM) to account for the interaction between the two foundations. This approach allows us to establish a mathematical model for determining the compliance functions of the two adjacent foundations with regard to their spacing, substratum depth, masses, shapes, embedding, load intensity, and frequencies of excitation. The soil heterogeneity was taken into account for the cases of one or two layers of soils over a rigid bedrock and semi-infinite soil. The analysis of the present study indicates that the effect of several parameters on the dynamic interaction response of two adjacent foundations is nonnegligible. In particular, the dominant influence of some parameters, such as the heterogeneity of the soil, shape of the foundations, and the load intensity, compared to the other ones is clearly revealed.