OBJECTIVE To compare the cost-effectiveness of fine-needle aspiration biopsy, iodine 131 scintigraphy, and ultrasonography for the initial diagnostic workup of a solitary palpable thyroid nodule. DESIGN A deterministic cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted using a decision tree to model the diagnostic strategies. SETTING A single, mid-Atlantic academic medical center. MAIN OUTCOME MEA...

Background and Objectives Wideband tympanometry (WBT) provides information additional to what can be provided by the relms of traditional tympanometry, such as absorbance, resonance frequency, peak pressure. We investigated characteristics WBT in various middle ear disorders, especially for chronic otitis media (COM), otosclerosis, patulous eustachian-tube disorder (ETD). Subjects Method recrui...

Since the discovery of the high Tc superconductors, many researches have been carried out on the different properties of these materials, especially on the transition temperature into the superconducting state. The rutheno-cuprates belong to a new class of composites, which were synthesized for the first time by Bauernfeind in 1995. Bernhard and collaborators discovered, in 1999, the coexistenc...

Since the discovery of the high Tc superconductors, many researches have been carried out on the different properties of these materials, especially on the transition temperature into the superconducting state. The rutheno-cuprates belong to a new class of composites, which were synthesized for the first time by Bauernfeind in 1995. Bernhard and collaborators discovered, in 1999, the coexistenc...

Using intravital fluorescence microscopy in the ears of hairless mice, we determined skin microvascular adaptations during the process of aging from juvenile to adult and senescent life (6-78 wk). Despite an increase of ear area within the first 36 wk, the number and branching pattern of both arteriolar and venular microvessels remained constant during the whole life period. Both arterioles and...

We propose to design a small-size transmission-coupled antenna array, and corresponding radiation pattern, having high performance inspired by the female Ormia ochracea's coupled ears. For reproduction purposes, the female Ormia is able to locate male crickets' call accurately despite the small distance between its ears compared with the incoming wavelength. This phenomenon has been explained b...

OBJECTIVE To explore treatments for postirradiation otitis media with effusion (OME) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. STUDY DESIGN This study is a prospective quasi-randomized clinical trial. METHODS Ninety-six patients (135 ears) with OME after the first course of radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma were divided into three groups: simple auripuncture plus aspiration, tympan...

The superconducting transition temperature T, and its pressure dependence dT,IdP of HgBazCaCuz06+8 (Hg-1212) and HgBa,[email protected]+8 (Hg-1223) were measured up to 17 kbar. T, increases with pressure approximately linearly for both compounds before oxidation. However, the nonlinearity in the T,-P correlation shows up after oxidation in both compounds. For Hg-1212, the average dT,ldP decreases as oxy...

Examination of the 1,679-nucleotide (nt) unit-length hepatitis delta virus (HDV) RNAs in the livers of two HDV-infected woodchucks showed that 96% of the antigenomic RNA but only 50% of the genomic RNA was circular. We subsequently found that at least half of the linear unit-length genomic RNA was open at a unique location. Using a modified form of RNA ligation-mediated amplification of cDNA en...