RATIONALE Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have shorter inspiratory muscles and higher motor unit firing rates during quiet breathing than do age-matched healthy subjects. Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease improves lung function, exercise capacity, and quality of life. OBJECTIVES We studied the effect of LVRS on leng...

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) due to inhalation of fume/smoke from heating or burning of synthetic polymers has not been reported previously. A fish farm worker developed ILD after cutting rope (polypropylene and nylon) for about 2 hours per day over an extended period using an electrically heated 'knife'. This process produced fume/smoke that entered the workers breathing zone. No other like...

Different notations of graphene irreducible representations and optical modes could be found in the literature. The goals of this paper are to identify the correspondence between available notations, to calculate the optical modes of graphene in different points of the Brillouin zone, and to compare them with experimental data obtained by Raman and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) s...

Hartree-Fock ~HF! and density functional theory calculations indicate that a ~4,0! carbon nanotube ~CNT! of sub-0.4-nm diameter is stable and its heat of formation is close to that of the stable C36 (D6h). Semiempirical molecular-orbital calculation shows that such narrow tubular structure is more stable than the corresponding opened fragment in the innermost zone of a large CNT. Simulated TEM ...

A sampling device based on a telephone headset was developed and used to support a sampler close to the mouth during personal exposure monitoring of solder fume. In a field trial, it was compared with the established method of mounting the sampler on the arm of a pair of spectacles, and a linear correlation was evident between the two positions (slope 1.56 +/- 0.05, r(2) = 0.98). Although the h...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) investigators compared methods for collecting personal breathing zone (PBZ) air samples for particulates during abrasive blasting at a shipyard. Abrasive blasting is the cleaning or finishing of surfaces by the use of an abrasive carried in a strong current of air. The U.S. government has provided regulatory requirements and guid...

In a prototype of a new personal dust sampling system (PDS) the speed of air sampling in the breathing zone is related to the pulmonary ventilation rate of the wearer, using the correlation between pulmonary ventilation and pulse rate that is monitored by electrodes fastened on the sampler wearer's chest. The method of calibration and the results of dust chamber and field measurements are prese...