BACKGROUND Occupational asthma (OA) is the most common occupational lung disease in developed countries. One of the causative agents is metal fume that may be encountered in steel industries. Screening for the OA is mainly performed by questionnaire but in our country spirometry is used more commonly. OBJECTIVE To compare the diagnostic value of the Venables standardized respiratory questionn...

We demonstrate attacks on the boot ROMs of the Nintendo 3DS in order to exfiltrate secret information from normally protected areas of memory and gain persistent early code execution on devices which have not previously been compromised. The attack utilizes flaws in the RSA signature verification implementation of one of the boot ROMs in order to overflow ASN.1 length fields and cause invalid f...

This paper empirically explores the concept of co-materialization to explain the digital innovation dynamics in offshore petroleum production. The central insight developed is that the very nature of subsurface processes and phenomena that may be monitored and controlled is transformed as offshore petroleum production is digitalized. The paper shows how digital technologies are intrinsic to thi...

The heat penetration into the solid bed of rotary drums was experimentally investigated. An indirect heated rotary drum with a diameter of D=600 mm and a length L=450 mm has been used for this purpose. Temperature profiles of the gas, the drum wall and the solid bed were measured using 16 Type K thermocouples assembled on both a rotating and a fixed rod that attached inside the drum. Hence, the...

Mechanically-driven syringes used to test peak expiratory flow (PEF) meters must produce the American Thoracic Society (ATS) standard waveforms with PEF accuracy of 2%. However, gas compression within the syringe could result in significant PEF inaccuracy when testing high resistance meters. The gas compression artefact was investigated in a mechanical syringe (PWG; MH Custom Design & Mfg L.C.,...

Corrosion behavior of Ni20Cr coatings deposited by HVOF (high velocity oxygen-fuel) process was evaluated in ZnCl2-KCl (1 : 1 mole ratio) molten salts. Electrochemical techniques employed were potentiodynamic polarization curves, open circuit potential, and linear polarization resistance (LPR) measurements. Experimental conditions included static air and temperatures of 350, 400, and 450°C. 304...

Here we describe a compact and efficient strontium oven well suited for laser-cooling experiments. Novel design solutions allowed us to produce a collimated strontium atomic beam with a flux of 1.0 × 10(13) s(-1) cm(-2) at the oven temperature of 450 °C, reached with an electrical power consumption of 36 W. The oven is based on a stainless-steel reservoir, filled with 6 g of metallic strontium,...

Photoacoustic imaging is based on the detection of generated acoustic waves through thermal expansion of tissue illuminated by short laser pulses. Fiber lasers as an excitation source for photoacoustic imaging have recently been preferred for their high repetition frequencies. Here, we report a unique fiber laser developed specifically for multiwavelength photoacoustic microscopy system. The la...

Objectives: Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is one of the significant causes of knee pain that results in reduced functional performance.Interventional foot orthotics may lead to improvement in symptoms. In this study, the effects of custom-made foot orthoses with medial heel skive technique on pain and functional performance after four weeks were evaluated.  Methods: Fourteen subject...