The assessment of seismic performance of existing structures is becoming an important problem in earthquake engineering. Some important ructures are considerably old and, therefore, their strengths and ductilities are less than strength and ductility demands because of changes in codes and design methodologies. Such structures must be strengthened to resist future earthquakes. First, a structur...

an analytical nonlinear stress-strain model and a microscopic damage index for confined and unconfined concretes together with a macroscopic damage index for reinforced concrete (rc) structures under cyclic loading are proposed. in order to eliminate the problem of scale effect, an adjustable finite element computer program was generated to simulate rc structures subjected to cyclic loading. by...

105 inTroducTion Civilian Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) has a long history in the United States. Enormous progress has been made during the past ten years in developing professional and operational standards within the field. However, to date, there still exists no standard of care within TEMS specifically, and more broadly for high threat pre-hospital trauma care. Current civilian ...

Eiman Zargaran, MD, MHSc, Lauren Adolph, Nadine Schuurman, PhD, Larissa Roux, MD, PhD, Damon Ramsey, MD, Richard Simons, MB, BChir, Richard Spence, MD, Andrew J. Nicol, MD, PhD, Pradeep Navsaria, MD, Juan Carlos Puyana, MD, Neil Parry, MD, Lynne Moore, PhD, Michel Aboutanos, MD, MPH, Natalie Yanchar, MD, Tarek Razek, MD, Chad G. Ball, MD, MSc, and S. Morad Hameed, MD, MPH, for the Trauma Associ...

Cerebral language lateralization can be assessed in several ways. In healthy subjects, functional MRI (fMRI) during performance of a language task has evolved to be the most frequently applied method. Functional transcranial Doppler (fTCD) may provide a valid alternative, but has been used rarely. Both techniques have their own strengths and weaknesses and as a result may be applied in differen...

The aim of this work is the investigation of the correlation between seismic damage measures and the sustainability of response displacement peak, deduced from novel 3-D response spectra. These spectra are produced with relatively small additional computational cost compared to their 2-D counterparts and incorporate valuable additional information concerning the sustainability of conventional s...

AIMS To establish whether the structural parameters provided by the Heidelberg retina tomograph (HRT) and the laser diagnostics glaucoma scanning system (GDx) can be used to reflect functional damage in the visual field. METHODS 62 patients with primary open angle glaucoma underwent examination with the HRT, GDx, and Humphrey field analyser. The relations between the topographic parameters, r...

Deer (Cervidae) cause considerable damage to forest plantations, crops, and protected habitats. The most common response to this damage is to implement strategies to lower population densities. However, lowering deer density may not always be desirable from hunting, recreational, or conservation perspectives. Therefore, knowledge is needed about additional factors beyond deer density that affec...

OBJECTIVE To examine associations between serum macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and disease-related variables and corticosteroid use in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS Serum MIF concentration was measured by ELISA in 90 female patients with SLE and 279 healthy controls. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to examine the associations...

Normal adults have very few circulating endothelial cells (CECs) in their blood, but increased levels have been shown in association with conditions associated with endothelial damage such as myocardial infarction and stroke. As atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with a hypercoagulable state and abnormalities of plasma indices of endothelial damage/dysfunction, we hypothesised that CECs wou...