The soluble receptor for advanced glycation end-products (sRAGE) shows a close relationship with atherosclerosis. The goal of this study was to compare the levels of sRAGE in patients with and without aortic valve calcification and to investigate the relationship between them. After transthoracic echocardiographic examination, 120 male patients with aortic valve calcification and 120 age-matche...

An easy to implement, thermally-actuated, noninvasive method for flow control in microfluidic devices is described. This technique takes advantage of the phase change of the working liquid itself-the freezing and melting of a portion of a liquid slug-to noninvasively close and open flow passages (referred to as a phase change valve). The valve was designed for use in a miniature diagnostic syst...

A novel Modified PID (MPID) controller is developed to control and minimize the effect of hysteresis in Pneumatic proportional valves. It consists of four parts: a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller, a Feedforward term, an Anti-Windup mechanism, and a Bang-Bang controller. The result is a unique Modified PID (MPID) control scheme that demonstrates better command following and dis...

OBJECTIVE Valvular tissue and aorta calcify at different rates when placed as fresh homografts or cryopreserved allografts. Furthermore, differences between valvular endothelial cells and aortic endothelial cells are not well appreciated. We established primary cultures of valve and aortic endothelial cells derived from swine and tested transcriptional and proliferative differences on various e...

OBJECTIVE The non-O alleles of the ABO genotype have been associated with an increased risk of thrombosis. We aimed to assess the association between blood group status and prosthetic valve thrombosis. METHODS The association between AB0 blood group status and prosthetic valve thrombosis was assessed in this retrospective study. Transesophageal echocardiography was performed in 149 patients w...

This paper identifies mechanical vibrations occurring in the operating environment of hydraulic systems used marine engineering. Particular attention was paid to influence periodic on changes amplitude-frequency spectrum a system. For case analysing effect vibration pressure pulsation with proportional directional valve, modified mathematical model used. Experimental results were presented and ...

Abstract Based on the structural principle of existing two-position anti-skid valve for urban rail vehicles, has been modified to increase pressure maintaining position based original only brake and release position, so as upgrade three-position valve. As pressure-maintaining is added, maximum braking force shall be kept far possible under premise control train, shorten distance ensure driving ...

Precise control of fluid flow becomes increasingly challenging as systems and instruments are scaled down. Smaller dimensions allow smaller flow ranges, but also leave smaller margins for error in performance. Reliable and effective fabrication and assembly procedures are therefore a primary requirement for any microfluidic system, if it is to be successful in real-world applications. This thes...