BACKGROUND Previous cross-sectional studies demonstrated the close relationship between visceral obesity and the increased prevalence of proteinuria. But, little is known about the role of changes in visceral fat mass (∆VFM) over several years in the development of proteinuria. In this longitudinal cohort study with the general population, the changes in ∆VFM as well as baseline VFM on proteinu...

BACKGROUND The accuracy of vector flow mapping (VFM) was investigated in comparison to stereo particle image velocimetry (stereo-PIV) measurements using a left ventricular phantom. VFM is an echocardiographic approach to visualizing two-dimensional flow dynamics by estimating the azimuthal component of flow from the mass-conservation equation. VFM provides means of visualizing cardiac flow, but...

ABSTRACT A novel method, called a posteriori "VFM accuracy estimation" (VAE), for resolving an intrinsic VFM problem is proposed. The problem is that VFM uncertainty can easily vary according to blood flows through an echocardiographic imaged plane (i.e., "through-plane" flows), and it is unknown. Knowing the VFM uncertainty for each patient will make it possible to refine the quality of VFM-ba...

OBJECTIVE This study aims to clarify the role of the maculae flavae (MFe) during growth and development of the human vocal fold mucosa (VFM). METHODS Our current results concerning the MFe in the human newborn, infant, and child VFM are summarized. RESULTS Newborns already had immature MFe at the same sites as adults. They were composed of dense masses of vocal fold stellate cells (VFSCs), ...

The concept of value for money (VFM) is the fundamental reason for most PFI projects to be attractive in many developed and developing countries. The concept encourages governments to deliver Mega projects by using PFI procurement method. The aims of this paper are to investigate the notion of VFM for PFI projects by different countries (i.e. UK, Australia and Japan) and to discover the detaile...

Because adipose tissue has high electric resistance, the amount of body fat influences ECG voltage. In this study, body fat weight of patients with essential hypertension was measured by means of the impedance method and was used to correct mean ECG voltage. Then the relation between body fat-corrected mean ECG voltage (Vfm) and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) was investigated. The subjects were...

In the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) industry, integrated circuit (IC) dies are attached onto the printed circuit board (PCB) with epoxy. The die pads are first connected to the PCB tracks with gold or aluminium wires, utilising an ultrasonic wire-bonding machine. The dies are then coated with thermally cured epoxy. The chip-on-board (COB) is finally placed in an electrical oven for bak...

OBJECTIVE This study aims to clarify the role of the maculae flavae (MFe) in the human adult vocal fold mucosa (VFM). METHODS Our current results concerning MFe in the human adult VFM are summarized. RESULTS MFe were found to be composed of dense masses of vocal fold stellate cells (VFSCs) and extracellular matrices (EM), such as fibrous proteins and glycosaminoglycans, which are essential ...