While shape memory alloys such as NiTi have strong potential as active materials in many small-scale applications, much is still unknown about their shape memory and deformation behavior as size scale is reduced. This paper reports on two sets of experiments which shed light onto an inconsistent body of research regarding the behavior of NiTi at the nanoto microscale. In situ SEM pillar bending...

Background: The diagnosis of toxocariasis heavily depends on immunological tests because the number of parasites is usually few in infected tissues, unless they migrate into an organ such as eye. In general, patients with ocular toxocariasis have serum anti- T canis antibody titres that are significantly lower than those with visceral toxocariasis. Objective: To diagnose the asymptomatic toxoca...

AIMS Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) and two-dimensional transoesophageal echocardiography (2D TEE) are used in most centres for guiding transcatheter atrial septal defect (ASD) closure. ASDs have complex shapes that are not well characterized with 2D imaging. Real-time 3D TEE (RT3D TEE) provides en-face visualization of the ASD, allowing precise assessment of ASD dimensions. Accordingly, o...

BACKGROUND The shape of right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) has been assumed to be circular. The aim of this study was to assess RVOT morphology using 3-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3D TEE). METHODS AND RESULTS This prospective study included 114 patients who underwent 3D TEE. Two-dimensional (2D) TEE measured maximum and minimum RVOT diameters (RVOTD max and min) during a...

Routine walking and running, by increasing daily total energy expenditure (TEE), can play a significant role in reducing the likelihood of obesity. The objective of this field study was to compare TEE estimated using foot-ground contact time (Tc)-pedometry (TEE(PEDO)) with that measured by the criterion doubly labeled water (DLW) method. Eight male U.S. Marine test volunteers [27 +/- 4 years of...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the accuracy of working length (WL) determination of four electronic apex locators (EALs), namely, Root ZX (RZX), Elements diagnostic unit and apex locator (ELE), SybronEndo Mini Apex locator (MINI) and Propex pixi (PIXI) using Stainless steel (SS) and nickel-titanium (NiTi) hand files. The null hypothesis was that there was no diffe...

OBJECTIVES To compare aortic annulus diameters obtained by 3D transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) with 2D-TEE and the impact on prosthesis size selection in transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). BACKGROUND In TAVI the aortic annulus diameter determines prosthesis size. The ideal modality for annulus assessment has not been defined yet. METHODS Annulus diameters in 2D-TEE (long-...

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles synthesized via microwave irradiation. Polypyrrole (PPy)/HAp nanocomposite was obtained using electropolymerization on nitinol (Ni) titanium (Ti) substrates. Fourier transform infrared was employed to characterize the nanocomposite formation. Electrochemical properties of the nanocomposite were investigated using polarization and electrochemical impedance spec...

First-principles calculations are presented for parent B2 phase and martensitic B19 and B190 phases in NiTi. The results indicate that both B19 and B190 are energetically more stable than the parent B2 phase. By means of ab initio density functional theory, the complete distortion–shuffle energy landscape associated with B2? B19 transformation in NiTi is then determined. In addition to accounti...