BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of AIDS-related complicated cryptococcal meningitis. The outcome was complicated cryptococcal meningitis: prolonged (>/= 14 days) altered mental status, persistent (>/= 14 days) focal neurologic findings, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt placement or death. Predictor variable operating characteristics were estimated using rece...

When the sensory block level (SBL) is ≥T5 or T4, a high incidence of hypotension occurs in parturients after spinal anesthesia. A rapidly ascending SBL is another risk factor for spinal anesthesia-induced hypotension. However, the relationship between the ascension rate of the SBL and spinal anesthesia-induced hypotension remains unclear.After placement in the left lateral position, combined ep...

Generalized RAKE (G-RAKE) reception reduces the total amount of interference and provides enhanced diversity by comprising extra fingers to collect information about interference and further using channel and impairment correlation estimates for fingers allocation. However, the hardware complexity and the excessive computational requirements of GRAKE receivers may restrict their application in ...

Wireless sensor networks consist of energy constrained sensor nodes. The main challenge of the researchers is to utilize the energy of the wireless sensor network in an efficient manner. By minimizing the energy usage, the network lifetime can be improved. Energy efficiency can be obtained by using various techniques. Optimal base station placement is one of the techniques used to minimize the ...

Dampers can reduce structural response under dynamic loads. Since dampers are costly, the design of structures equipped with dampers should make their application economically justifiable. Among the effective cost reduction factors is optimal damper placement. Hence, this study intended to find the optimal viscous damper placement using efficient optimization methods. Taking into account the no...

recently, the s receiver function method has been successfully developed to identify upper mantle interfaces. s receiver functions have the advantage of being free of s-wave multiple reflections and can be more suitable than p receiver function for studying mantle lithosphere. however, because of specific ray geometry of the s-to-p converted waves, the s receiver function method has some techni...

System aspects of an anti-intruder multistatic radar based on impulse radio ultrawideband (UWB) technology are addressed. The investigated system is composed of one transmitting node and at least three receiving nodes, positioned in the surveillance area with the aim of detecting and locating a human intruder (target) that moves inside the area. Such systems, referred to also as UWB radar senso...