Goals of this preliminary study are to better understand (1) earthquake performance of wood-frame shear walls carrying gravity loads, compared with walls without gravity load, and (2) performance of walls subjected to a sequence of earthquake motions, compared with walls subjected to a single earthquake. Tests with simulated earthquake ground motions were conducted on 2,440 by 2,440-mm (8 by 8-...

BACKGROUND Most of what is known about diastolic function in normal infants is derived from flow and pressure measurements. Little is known about regional diastolic strain and wall motion. METHODS AND RESULTS Magnetic resonance tissue tagging was performed in 11 normal infants to determine regional diastolic strain and wall motion. Tracking diastolic motion of the intersection points and fini...

Syndromic craniosynostosis is associated with a high rate of respiratory difficulty, due mainly to midfacial hypoplasia. Nasopharyngeal airway establishment has been reported as the first-line approach to airway obstruction and may obviate the need for a highly invasive tracheotomy. No previous studies have compared airway obstruction status in syndromic craniosynostosis between cases requiring...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS This study aimed to evaluate changes in obstruction site in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients according to sleep position. STUDY DESIGN Prospective case series. METHODS Eighty-five patients who had undergone level 1 sleep study and drug-induced sleep endoscopy in the supine and lateral positions were included. Obstruction sites were classified as soft palate (SP),...

A previously introduced two phase model was used to assess its capability in predicting the behavior of reinforced soil walls under working stress conditions. The two phase model is a homogenization method based on the virtual work theorem. The reinforced soil medium is considered as the superposition of two continuous phases, the reinforcement and matrix phases that interact within the medium....

BACKGROUND Postoperative analgesia after oropharyngeal carcinoma surgery remains poorly studied. This study investigates the effects of mandibular nerve block (MNB) with ropivacaine 10 mg ml(-1) in conjunction with general anaesthesia (GA) on postoperative analgesia after partial glossectomy or transmandibular lateral pharyngectomy. METHODS In a randomized double-blind study, 42 patients (21 ...

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are one of the most economical and under-utilized lateral load resisting systems currently available to structural engineers. In comparison with traditional lateral load systems, such as steel braced frames, reinforced concrete walls and moment resisting frames, SPSWs have fewer costly detailing requirements, require less stringent construction tolerances, allow ...

in this paper, based on soil plasticity and pseudo-static methods, necessary equations have been derived for determination of total active thrusts due to layered backfill on rigid retaining walls using limit equilibrium approach. for this purpose, the reaction force applied on the failed wedge due to granular backfill has been determined using kotter’s equations. the total lateral thrust and th...