Forced expiratory spirograms were obtained before and for six hours after 25 subjects ingested ephedrine and placebo in a double-blind crossover study. Significant changes in the forced vital capacity (FVC) and the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1.0) were noted on days when ephedrine was administrated, while the mean forced expiratory flow during the middle half of the FVC (FEF25-75...

BACKGROUND The Mega Acer Kit® (MAK) is a newly designed heated and humidified breathing circuit that warms fluid passing through the circuit lumen. In this study, we investigated the system's efficacy for the perioperative prevention of hypothermia and fluid warming. METHODS Ninety patients undergoing spinal surgery were enrolled in this study and randomly assigned to 3 groups based on the fl...

A liquid forced through an orifice into an immiscible fluid ultimately breaks into drops due to surface tension. Drop formation can occur right at the orifice in a dripping process. Alternatively, the inner fluid can form a jet, which breaks into drops further downstream. The transition from dripping to jetting is not understood for coflowing fluid streams, unlike the case of drop formation in ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Of all stroke survivors, 30% to 66% are unable to use their affected arm in performing activities of daily living. Although forced use therapy appears to improve arm function in chronic stroke patients, there is no conclusive evidence. This study evaluates the effectiveness of forced use therapy. METHODS In an observer-blinded randomized clinical trial, 66 chronic strok...

This study was designed to determine whether nasal airflow resistance (Rn) which is nonlinear during tidal breathing, can be assessed by the forced oscillation (FO) technique. Rn values obtained by the FO technique and extrapolated to 0 Hz (Rn,FO) were compared to those assessed by posterior rhinomanometry at maximal tidal inspiratory flow (Rn,m), at a 0.5 L x s(-1) flow (Rn,F), and at a 1 hPa ...

In the present work, an inverse analysis of combined radiation and laminar forced convection heat transfer in a two-dimensional channel with variable cross sections is performed. The conjugate gradient method is used to find the temperature distribution over the heater surface to satisfy the prescribed temperature and heat flux distributions over the design surface. The fluid is considered to b...

The enhancement of the thermal performance of Vacuum Tube Solar Collectors (VTSC) was studied by using alumina nanofluid as working fluid. VTSC is a simple and commonly utilized type of collector. This study established the heat transfer experimental model of all glass VTSCs used in a forced-circulation solar water heating system using alumina nanofluid as base fluid. Al2O3 (with an average par...

Forced convective condensation in vertical channel is investigated numerically. The condensation boundary layers that occur due to temperature difference between the walls and saturation temperature of steam is simulated by the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The effect of variations in the hydraulic diameter, steam velocity, Re number and temperature difference between the wall and saturation te...

A new characteristic-based method is developed and used for solving the mixed and forced convection problems. The nano-fluid flow with heat transfer is simulated with a novel characteristic-based scheme in closed domains with different aspect ratios. For this purpose, a FORTRAN code has been written and developed. Water as a pure fluid and water-titanium dioxide as a nano-fluid were considered....