BACKGROUND The role of the crural diaphragm during increased intra-abdominal pressure is not exactly known. We investigated the hypothesis that the crural diaphragm undergoes reflex phasic contraction on elevation of the intra-abdominal pressure with a resulting increase of the lower esophageal pressure and prevention of gastro-esophageal reflux. METHODS The esophageal pressure and crural dia...

Two modes of plastic flow localization commonly occur in the ductile fracture of structural metals undergoing damage and failure by the mechanism involving void nucleation, growth and coalescence. The first mode consists of a macroscopic localization, usually linked to the softening effect of void nucleation and growth, in either a normal band or a shear band where the thickness of the band is ...

A series of column experiments was undertaken to explore the influence of colloid input concentration (2, 1, 0.5, and 0.25 times a reference concentration), colloid size (negatively charged 3.2 and 1.0 microm carboxyl latex), and sand grain size (360, 240, and 150 microm quartz sands) on transport and deposition. A similar mass of stable mono-dispersed colloids was added to each column. For a g...

Straining of PVA/PE and PVA/PP blends (70:30) is monitored by small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). Sheet-extruded films with different predraw ratio are investigated. The discrete SAXS of predrawn samples originates from polyolefin nanofibrils inside of polyolefin microfibrils immersed in a PVA matrix. PE nanofibrils deform less than the macroscopic strain without volume change. PP nanofibrils ...

Background. The role of the crural diaphragm during increased intra-abdominal pressure is not exactly known. We investigated the hypothesis that the crural diaphragm undergoes reflex phasic contraction on elevation of the intra-abdominal pressure with a resulting increase of the lower esophageal pressure and prevention of gastro-esophageal reflux. Methods. The esophageal pressure and crural dia...

The excess free energy of small molecules in the amorphous polymers poly~ethylene! and poly~dimethylsiloxane! was calculated, using the test-particle-insertion method. The method was applied to polymer configurations obtained from molecular dynamics simulations with differently prepared initial guess configurations. It was found that the calculated solubility coefficients strongly depend on the...

The electronics of a general biomedical device consist of energy delivery, analog-to-digital conversion, signal processing, and communication subsystems. Each of these blocks must be designed for minimum energy consumption. Specific design techniques, such as aggressive voltage scaling, dynamic power-performance management, and energy-efficient signaling, must be employed to adhere to the strin...

Two different approaches are used for evaluating two-time correlations of Fourier velocity modes in isotropic, and in rotating, homogeneous incompressible turbulence. A synthetic model is proposed and compared with the results of direct numerical simulations. This kinematic model presents the advantage to incorporate different sources of unsteadiness, from arbitrary timescales to linear dynamic...

Introduction: Internal jugular vein ectasia is a condition in which there is a dilatation of the internal jugular vein. A patient usually presents in the first decade with swelling in the neck, which aggravates in size while straining or coughing. This is a very rare condition and the chances of misdiagnosis are quite high. It is diagnosed by proper history taking, examination, and radiol...