PURPOSE To compare thickness measurements of the central 6.0 mm of the cornea obtained with the Orbscan(R) II topography system and topographical ultrasound pachymetry. SETTING School of Optometry, University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. METHODS In 24 right eyes, pachymetric measurements were taken at the center and 1.2 mm and 3.0 mm on the superior and inferior hemimeridians....

Power factor correction is vital in present society. The two key benefits of power factor correction, which includes reduced power costs and higher system capacity. Implementation of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) improves the power factor, power transfer capability and voltage stability. The shunt type of FACTS controller is used to either absorb or inject VARs into the system, there...

Model atmospheres for pulsating Mira variables have been used to examine the correction factor that should be used to convert radial velocities derived from the Doppler profiles of observed infrared lines into the velocities immediately above and below the strong shock in the atmosphere. The correction factor varies by a moderate amount depending on the lines selected. Correction factors of ∼1....

BACKGROUND Random errors in measurement of a risk factor will introduce downward bias of an estimated association to a disease or a disease marker. This phenomenon is called regression dilution bias. A bias correction may be made with data from a validity study or a reliability study. AIMS AND METHODS In this article we give a non-technical description of designs of reliability studies with e...

Porous structures of shales are reconstructed using the markov chain monte carlo (MCMC) method based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of shale samples from Sichuan Basin, China. Characterization analysis of the reconstructed shales is performed, including porosity, pore size distribution, specific surface area and pore connectivity. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is adopted to s...

Serum specimens with concentrations simulating an overdose of salicylate and acetaminophen were submitted to laboratoriesparticipatingin an external quality-controlprogram, to evaluate both the magnitudeof salicylateinterference In colonmetric acetaminophen methods and the clinical significanceof the interference. The apparent acetaminophen concentrationdetermined by nitration methods was incre...

OBJECTIVES To examine the issue of accurate adherence assessment and illustrate methodologies for correcting parent-reported medication adherence. METHODS 40 children with inflammatory bowel disease provided medication adherence data using electronic monitoring. Parents provided subjective reports of medication adherence. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to examine the det...

Recently, the rapid advances in quantitative biology and polymer science have led to the atomic force microscope AFM being extensively employed for single-molecule force spectroscopy. Deflection sensitivity, a critical factor in single molecule force spectroscopy, is changed due to the change in bending shape of AFM cantilever when a single molecule is attached to the AFM cantilever tip. We qua...

The SU(3) breaking effects due to light quark masses on heavy meson masses, decay constants (FD, FDs) and the form factor for semileptonic B → Dlν̄l transitions are formulated in chiral perturbation theory, using a heavy meson effective Lagrangian and expanding in inverse powers of the heavy meson mass. To leading order in this expansion, the leading chiral logarithms and the required counterter...