The aim is to present our new method of compression, a compression tube instead of conventional compression screw and to investigate the difference of proximal locking screw bending resistance between compression screw application (6 mm wide contact) and compression tube (two contact points with 13 mm gap) application. We formed six groups each consisting of 10 proximal locking screws. On metal...

On the basis of our personal experience in 70 cases (66 pleural effusions) observed during the period January 1984- January 1996 we are here illustrating and discussing the diagnostic role of thoracoscopy in malignant pleural mesothelioma.A histological diagnosis was achieved in 94.2% of cases. The endoscopic appearance was clearly neoplastic (masses, nodules) in 53 patients (75.7%) and simply ...

U.S. corn production was 53 million Mg annually and corn yield averaged 1518 kg ha in the 1930s, when corn hybrids were first commercially grown. Corn production grew to 76 million Mg annually in the 1950s, to 150 million Mg annually in the 1970s, and to 219 million Mg in the 1990s (USDA/NASS 2007). In 2001 corn became the highest tonnage cereal crop worldwide: 557.6 million Mg of corn, 542.4 m...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To evaluate factors affecting the diagnostic yield of flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in evaluating solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs). DESIGN Retrospective analysis of bronchoscopies performed over a 4-year period. SETTING A tertiary teaching hospital. PATIENTS One hundred seventy-seven patients with pulmonary nodules without endobronchial lesions who underwent bronchosc...

A modelling effort was made to try to predict the life of downhole tubes or casings, synthetically considering the effect of service influencing factors on corrosion rate. Based on the discussed corrosion mechanism and corrosion processes of downhole tubes, a mathematic model was established. For downhole tubes, the influencing factors are environmental parameters and stress, which vary with se...

Biodiesel, known as fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), was produced from crude cottonseed oil (triglycerides) by transesterification with methanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide. This process was optimized by applying factorial design and response surface methodology (RSM) with SAS and PSIPLOT programs. A second-order mathematical model was obtained to predict the yield as a function of metha...