BACKGROUND Aspiration of colonized oropharyngeal secretions is a major factor in the pathogenesis of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). A tapered-cuff endotracheal tube (ETT) has been demonstrated to reduce aspiration around the cuff. Whether these properties are efficacious in reducing VAP is not known. METHODS This 2-period, investigator-initiated observational study was designed to ass...

In this paper, a tapered tip optical fiber probe sensor for localized refractive index (RI) measurements is presented. This sensor’s interaction with analytes is confined to a few micro-meters which makes it a promising candidate for in-vivo or even intra-cellular RI monitoring. This tapered tip was simply fabricated by etching optical fiber with hydrofluoric acid to a conic shape with a sub-m...

deep beams are type of beams which their behavior is different from conventional beams because of their particular type of geometry. in this paper, the retrofitting of these beams is considered and 10 deep beams are tested experimentally and discussed about retrofitting methods. experimental studies indicate that the use of cfrp bands in the direction perpendicular to diagonal cracks in compari...

OBJECTIVE Sperm morphology plays an important role in infertility, especially in cases of defects in the heads of spermatozoa. Tapered-head or elongated-head spermatozoa are examples of morphological abnormalities. The aim of this study was to compare the semen parameters, levels of protamine deficiency, and frequency of apoptosis between patients with normozoospermia and those with teratozoosp...

A novel idea of conformal corrugated edges (CCE) is put forward in this paper for tapered slot antennas to obtain improved low-frequency characteristics. The CCE is realized using conformal slots whose two longitudinal boundary lines are modelled using curvilinear function of the curves that form the tapered slots. So the conformal slots can sufficiently corrugate edges of the tapered slot ante...

Tapered metallic grooves have been shown to support plasmons - electromagnetically coupled oscillations of free electrons at metal-dielectric interfaces - across a variety of configurations and V-like profiles. Such plasmons may be divided into two categories: gap-surface plasmons (GSPs) that are confined laterally between the tapered groove sidewalls and propagate either along the groove axis ...

This thesis sought to examine the influence of the vascular bed on the tissue response to endovascular stent implantation. Closed form analytic solutions were obtained for the different beds studied. Ideal arteries were considered of normal, tapered, curved, or eccentric morphology. The application of the stent boundary conditions in the appropriate defining equations produced the desired strai...

In this paper, a tapered slot antenna capable of ultra-wideband communication was designed. In the proposed antenna, rectangular slits were inserted to enhance the bandwidth and reduce the area of the antenna. The rectangular slit-inserted tapered slot antenna operated at a bandwidth of 8.45 GHz, and the bandwidth improved upon the basic tapered slot antenna by 4.72 GHz. The radiation pattern o...

The performance of particulate-laden SO(2) scrubbing in a modified tapered bubble column with internals is reported in this article. The presence of particles improved the particulate-laden SO(2) removal efficiency to about 15% that was elucidated by the facilitated adsorptive mass transport. Experimentation revealed that nearly 100% removal efficiency of particulate-laden SO(2) was achievable ...

We report a novel approach to study cell migration under physical stresses by utilizing established growth factor chemotaxis. This was achieved by studying cell migration in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF) chemoattraction in a gradually tapered space, imposing mechanical stresses. The device consisted of two 5-mm-diameter chambers connected by ten 600 μm-long and 10 μm-high tapered mi...