We compared semiquantitative central venous catheter tip cultures plated at the bedside with those cultured in the laboratory, to determine if bedside plating provides a significantly better yield. Paired segments of 197 catheter tips from 92 surgical and medical ICU patients were evaluated prospectively. A total of 31 catheter tip cultures were positive for > or = 15 organisms per agar plate, ...

Due to the high uniformity demands, nickel deposition processes for producing reflector coatings often make use of dedicated plating cell configurations. Computer simulations can drastically speed up the trial and error stage for optimizing the plating cell design. In this paper, the nickel deposition distribution for a reflector application is simulated using the Elsyca PlatingMaster software ...

PURPOSE Complications in metacarpal fracture treatment increase in proportion to the severity of the initial injury and the invasiveness of the surgical fixation technique. This manuscript evaluates the feasibility of minimizing internal fixation construct size and soft tissue dissection, while preserving the advantages of stable internal fixation in a biomechanical model. We hypothesized that ...

astewaters from all processes w are collected by gravity flow into acid-alkali (rinses), chromate, cyanide, spenttstripping acids, and cleaner sumps. The acid concentrates and cleaner concentrates are gradually fed into chromate and acid-alkali (rinse) sumps, respectively. Cyanide destruction is achieved by oxidation with sodium hypochlorite whereas hexavalent chrome is reduced to trivalent chr...

Microtubes, are a basic component for a myriad of potential products. They are very small tubes (hundreds can fit ina human hair) that can be made from practically any material. Tubes larger than 1 micron diameter can be made withany cross-sectional shape desired. The significance of microtubes and microtnbe composites is that they provide theopportunity to miniaturize (even to the ...

Since the early ideas of internal fixation, many different concepts and techniques have been developed for the use in fracture surgery. Each technique has been welcomed by many with excitement while others have suggested caution, locked plating is no exception. Since its advent over 15 years ago many have viewed this as a violation of the strict AO principles of anatomic reduction and rigid fix...

PURPOSE To evaluate the neurological recovery and fusion rate of patients with myelopathy who were treated with anterior corpectomy and anterior cervical plating. METHODS The results of 17 cervical myelopathy patients who underwent decompression and anterior cervical plating were retrospectively reviewed at a mean follow-up of 2 years. RESULTS By Kurokawa score, 82.4% of patients showed exc...

Advanced hybrid microelectronics require high performance packaging materials and components. Alumina, the most widely used ceramic material in microelectronics, is being replaced by new high performance materials such as aluminum nitride (AlN) and beryllia (BeO). AlN's thermal conductivity is an order of magnitude greater than alumina and it has a thermal expansion coefficient very close to si...