• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.283-292
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• 2022

Purpose: The prevalence of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) has been on the rise since it was first described in the 1990s. Several diseases and exogenous factors have been associated with EoE. Our aim was to investigate the epidemiology of EoE in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Methods: We identified individuals with CF from September 2014 to September 2019 within a database (IBM Explorys Solutions, Inc.). The prevalence of EoE in patients with CF was compared to the general population. Results: The database included 36,111,860 patients during the 5-year study period: 12,950 with CF (0.036%) and 28,090 with EoE (0.078%). EoE prevalence was higher in CF patients than the general population (46 in 10,000 vs. 7.8 in 10,000, p<0.001). Patients with CF and EoE were more likely to be male (50% vs. 33.5%, p<0.008), children (33.3% vs. 16.5%, p<0.001), and non-Hispanic (100% vs. 88.7%, p<0.001) than CF patients without EoE. CF with EoE patients were more likely to be children than EoE only (33.3% vs. 10.5%, p<0.001). Allergic conditions were generally more prevalent in CF with EoE than CF only (83.3% vs. 68.3%, p=0.01) and EoE only (83.3% vs. 69.3%, p=0.014). Conclusion: EoE is nearly 6-times more prevalent in CF patients. Those patients had higher incidence of other atopic conditions. EoE must be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with CF presenting with dysphagia, refractory gastroesophageal reflux, vomiting, and other esophagus-related symptoms.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2006

Purpose : To evaluate the MR imaging findings of bowel wall thickening in patients with minimal to moderate cirrhosis, and analyze their clinical significances comparing with laboratory findings. Materials and Methods : We assessed retrospectively the MRI findings of 123 patients with minimal to moderate cirrhosis, and compared these with the clinical laboratory findings. We evaluated the involved sites and MR image findings of thickened bowel wall, as well as the presence of collateral vessels, ascites, and splenic size. These were compared with serum albumin and bilirubin levels, and prothrombin time. Results : Gastrointestinal wall thickening was detected at 37 sites in 25 patients (20%), and more frequently detected in moderate cirrhosis (29%) than in minimal cirrhosis (17%). Jejunum and ascending colon were the most common sites of bowel wall thickening; each was involved at 22 and 9 sites, respectively. Ascending colonic wall thickening was more commonly detected in moderate cirrhosis than in minimal cirrhosis. The thickened bowel wall showed symmetric contour, high signal intensity on T2-weighted images, mixed iso- and low signal intensity on T1-weighted images, and homogeneous or target-like enhancement. Serum albumin level was significantly lower in patients with bowel wall thickening ($3.3{\pm}0.9$ g/dl vs. $3.9{\pm}0.7$ g/dl; p=0.0024). Serum bilirubin level was significantly higher in patients with bowel wall thickening ($1.7{\pm}1.0$ mg/dl vs. $1.4{\pm}1.2$ mg/dl; p=0.0160). Bowel wall thickening did not significantly correlate with the presence of collateral vessels, ascites, splenic size, and prolongation of prothrombin time. Conclusion : In minimal to moderate cirrhosis, the MR imaging evaluation of bowel wall thickening was useful for estimating the severity of cirrhosis and laboratory findings.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1423-1430
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• 2017

Detonation cell width is an important parameter in hydrogen explosion assessments. The experimental data on gas detonation are statistically analyzed to establish a universal method to numerically predict detonation cell widths. It is commonly understood that detonation cell width, ${\lambda}$, is highly correlated with the characteristic reaction zone width, ${\delta}$. Classical parametric regression methods were widely applied in earlier research to build an explicit semiempirical correlation for the ratio of ${\lambda}/{\delta}$. The obtained correlations formulate the dependency of the ratio ${\lambda}/{\delta}$ on a dimensionless effective chemical activation energy and a dimensionless temperature of the gas mixture. In this paper, support vector regression (SVR), which is based on nonparametric machine learning, is applied to achieve functions with better fitness to experimental data and more accurate predictions. Furthermore, a third parameter, dimensionless pressure, is considered as an additional independent variable. It is found that three-parameter SVR can significantly improve the performance of the fitting function. Meanwhile, SVR also provides better adaptability and the model functions can be easily renewed when experimental database is updated or new regression parameters are considered.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.509-536
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• 2001

The traditional typology of English poetic meters makes a binary division between strong-stress (or accentual) meters and accentual-syllabic (or syllable-stress or syllable-accent) meters. According to this typology, Old and Middle English alliterative poetry was composed in strong-stress meter; the iambic pentameter from Chaucer to Yeats and on to the present has been an accentual-syllabic meter. Intersecting with this literary typology is a linguistic typology that classifies languages of the world as stress-timed or syllable-timed or some mix of the two. English is a clear example of a stress-timed language. Whereas most descriptions of strong-stress meter focus on the counting of stresses, the present study focuses on the patterns of unstressed syllables between the stresses (possibly at isochronous intervals). The implications of this analysis suggest a new typology in which certain forms of English verse follow strict grammatical stress (mainly Old and Middle English, but for reasons different from “strong-stress” expectations) and other forms are shaped by a compromise of grammatical stress and the metrical template. Within this later group, iambic pentameter contrasts with trochaic, anapestic, and dipodic meters in lending itself more readily to modulation. Some of this modulation comes from an easy incorporation into iambic pentameter of elements associated with Old and Middle English meters.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2011

The use of headed bars as opposed to standard 90- or 180-degree hooked bars in beam ends, beam-column joints or other steel congested areas for anchorage and bond has become more favorable due to the fact that steel congestion is often created by large bend diameters or crossties. This research mainly focuses on evaluating the code provisions regarding the use of headed bars. Nine simply supported rectangular concrete beams with headed longitudinal reinforcement were tested under a four-point monotonic loading system. The design clear spacing, which varies from 1.5 to 4.25 times the bar diameter, was the only parameter for the experimental investigation. The test results showed that the closely-spaced headed bars were capable of developing to full yield strength without any severe brittle concrete breakout cone or pullout failure. Bond along the bar was not sufficient due to the early loss of concrete integrity. However, the headed bars were effective for anchorage with no excessive moment capacity reduction. This implies that the clear spacing of about 2 times the bar diameter for headed bars may be reasonable to ensure the development of specified yield strength of headed bars and corresponding member design strength.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.667-684
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• 2008

Numerous devices exist for reducing or eliminating seismic damage to structures. These include passive dampers, semi-active dampers, and active control devices. The performance of structural systems with these devices has often been evaluated using numerical simulations. Experiments on structural systems with these devices, particularly at large-scale, are lacking. This paper describes a real-time hybrid testing facility that has been developed at the Lehigh University NEES Equipment Site. The facility enables real-time large-scale experiments to be performed on structural systems with rate-dependent devices, thereby permitting a more complete evaluation of the seismic performance of the devices and their effectiveness in seismic hazard reduction. The hardware and integrated control architecture for hybrid testing developed at the facility are presented. An application involving the use of passive elastomeric dampers in a three story moment resisting frame subjected to earthquake ground motions is presented. The experiment focused on a test structure consisting of the damper and diagonal bracing, which was coupled to a nonlinear analytical model of the remaining part of the structure (i.e., the moment resisting frame). A tracking indictor is used to track the actuator ability to achieve the command displacement during a test, enabling the quality of the test results to be assessed. An extension of the testbed to the real-time hybrid testing of smart structures with semi-active dampers is described.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.273-295
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• 2018

In this study, an investigation of a damage detection methodology for global condition assessment is presented. A particular emphasis is put on the utilization of wireless sensors for more practical, less time consuming, less expensive and safer monitoring and eventually maintenance purposes. Wireless sensors are deployed with a sensor roving technique to maintain a dense sensor field yet requiring fewer sensors. The time series analysis method called ARX models (Auto-Regressive models with eXogeneous input) for different sensor clusters is implemented for the exploration of artificially induced damage and their locations. The performance of the technique is verified by making use of the data sets acquired from a 4-span bridge-type steel structure in a controlled laboratory environment. In that, the free response vibration data of the structure for a specific sensor cluster is measured by both wired and wireless sensors and the acceleration output of each sensor is used as an input to ARX model to estimate the response of the reference channel of that cluster. Using both data types, the ARX based time series analysis method is shown to be effective for damage detection and localization along with the interpretations and conclusions.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.162-179
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• 2008

We have developed a tool for annotation of electronic health record (EHR) data. Currently we are in the process of manually annotating a corpus of Norwegian general practitioners' EHRs with mainly linguistic information. The purpose of this project is to attain a linguistically annotated corpus of patient histories from general practice. This corpus will be put to future use in medical language processing and information extraction applications. The paper outlines some of our practical experiences from developing such a corpus and, in particular, the effects of semi-automated annotation. We have also done some preliminary experiments with part-of-speech tagging based on our corpus. The results indicated that relevant training data from the clinical domain gives better results for the tagging task in this domain than training the tagger on a corpus form a more general domain. We are planning to expand the corpus annotations with medical information at a later stage.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.104-113
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• 2020

Adsorptive breakthrough modelling is essential for design of a sorption packed bed. In this work, breakthrough modelling of the furfural uptake in bagasse fly ash (BFA) packed bed has been performed. Effect of various parameters like bed height (Z = 15-60 cm), flow rate (Q = 0.02-0.04 L/min) and initial furfural concentration (C_o = 50-200 mg/L) on the breakthrough curve of furfural sorption in a BFA packed bed have been studied. Enhanced breakthrough performance was observed for the higher value of Z, and lower values of C_o and Q. For C_o = 100 mg/L, packed bed operated at Q = 0.03 L/min and Z = 60 cm was found to have lowest adsorbent utilization rate of 5.61 g/L with highest breakthrough volume of 14.67 L. Bed depth service time and Thomas models well represented the experimental data points under all experimental conditions. It can be concluded that BFA can be utilized efficiently in continuous system for the removal of furfural. Overall, more than 99% of furfural was adsorbed in BFA packed bed at experimental conditions.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 1995

Jejunal and ileal atresias are the most common cause of congenital intestinal obstruction and accounts for about 1/3 of all cases of intestinal obstruction in newborns. Despite the relative frequency of this anomaly, its survival rate was less than 10% up to 1950, more recently the survival rate has risen rapidly to 90% with the introduction of modern surgical techniques and the use of total parenteral nutrition. In 1969 Thomas described a tapering jejunoplasty to manage the discrepancy in the size of the proximal dilated lumen & contracted distal lumen, and to preserve absorptive surface when the dilated jejunum involved a long length, and Grosfeld et al.(1979) facilitated this method by using GIA staplers. Author have also used GIA stapler to resect the antimesenteric portion of the dilated proximal bowel in 8 cases of jejunoileal atresias with good results. The following results were obtained ; 1. There we 3 jejunal atresias & 5 ileal atresias, and male to female sex ratio was 5 : 3. 2. The type of atresia was as follows ; type IIIa was 3 cases, type IIIb was 4 cases, type IIIb+IV was 1 case. 3. In non-complication cases(5 cases), the mean hospital day was 16 days, and oral feeding was feasible from 6.2 days after operation. 4. The complications(anastomotic leakage, pneumonia) were frequently occurred in type IIIb cases and in low birth weight cases(75%). 5. Mortality rate was 25% including DAMA(discharge against medical advice) discharge case.