OBJECTIVES To describe the diagnostic value of selective extended cervical mediastinoscopy (ECM) in combination with video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy (VAMLA) in mediastinal staging of potentially resectable left-sided lung carcinoma. METHODS Institutional report on 110 ECM procedures indicated for enlarged lymph nodes within the aorto-pulmonary (AP) zone on computed tomography....

PURPOSE The validity of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for T1 or T2, clinically N0, oral cancer was tested by correlation of sentinel node pathologic status with that of nodes within the completion neck dissection. METHODS This prospective, cooperative group trial involved 25 institutions over a 3-year period. One hundred forty patients with invasive oral cancers, stage T1 and T2, N0 inclu...

BACKGROUND Müllerian anomalies are associated with infertility. Hysteroscopy as the gold standard for evaluating Müllerian anomalies is an invasive, expensive and risky procedure which requires enough experience. Transvaginal sonography (TVS) and hysterosalpingography (HSG) are less invasive procedures, but there is little known about the accuracy of these tests. The aim of this study was to ev...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To determine the test performance characteristics of transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA), transthoracic needle aspiration (TTNA), endoscopic ultrasound-guided needle aspiration (EUS-NA), and mediastinoscopy in staging non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Systematic search of MEDLINE, HealthStar, and Cochrane Library databases to July 2001 ...

In this paper, a novel nonlinear model predictive controller (MPC) is proposed based on an identified nonlinear parameter varying (NPV) model. First, an NPV model scheme is present for process identification, which is featured by its nonlinear hybrid Hammerstein model structure and varying model parameters. The hybrid Hammerstein model combines a normalized static artificial neural network with...

Marine stratocumulus clouds often become decoupled from the vertical layer immediately above the ocean surface. This study contrasts cloud chemical composition between coupled and decoupled marine stratocumulus clouds for dissolved nonwater substances. Cloud water and droplet residual particle composition were measured in clouds off the California coast during three airborne experiments in July...

Multiple model approach is a powerful tool for modelling nonlinear systems. Two structures of multiple models can be distinguished. The first structure is characterised by decoupled submodels, i.e. with no common state (decoupled multiple model), in opposition to the second one where the submodels share the same state (Takagi-Sugeno multiple model). A wide number of research works investigate t...

Decoupled State Space Search is a recent approach to exploiting problem structure in classical planning. The particular structure needed is a star topology, with a single center component interacting with multiple leaf components. All interaction of the leaves with the rest of the problem has to be via the center. Given this kind of problem decomposition, we have showed that search on this refo...

Five different combinations of fluorescent tubes (UV-B/UV-B, UV-B/UV-A, UV-A/ UV-A, UV-B/White, White/White) were used to determine relative effects of UV and visible light on the nucleopolyhedroviruses (NPV) of Helicoverpa zea and Spodoptera exigua. For both viruses, the greatest inactivation occurred with exposure to UV-B radiation. Both virus concentration and radiation exposure time influen...

Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is a syndrome characterized by gait disturbance, cognitive deterioration and urinary incontinence in elderly individuals. These symptoms can be improved by shunt operation in some but not all patients. Therefore, discovering predictive factors for the surgical outcome is of great clinical importance. We used normalized power variance (NPV) of elec...