CMTF is a novel, reproducible technique for obtaining epithelial and corneal thickness measurements during clinical in vivo confocal microscopy of the cornea. More importantly, this methodology provides the first objective, quantitative approach for measurement and analysis of depth and thickness of corneal sub-layers which may prove uniquely valuable in temporally assessing corneal function.

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MRI measurements of coronary flow and flow reserve were in good agreement with US measurements. In addition, MRI measurements of coronary flow reserve successfully discriminated stenotic from normal vessels. These results indicate that MRI is a useful method for the noninvasive assessment of coronary flow and stenosis.

Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) can be used to produce multiframe cine flow images of the coronary arteries. Accurate coronary flow measurement requires the elimination of respiratory motion artifacts using k-space segmentation to acquire the data in a single breath-hold. However, the duration of the breath-hold is proportional to the number of cine frames. In the present study, the number of cine frames was varied and the accuracies of the coronary flow measurements were assessed using perivascular US. For the range of flows studied (2 ml/min to 147 ml/min), the correlation coefficients for PC-MRI and US increased (.70-.98) and the limits of agreement improved (+/-45 ml.min-1 to +/-10 ml.min-1) as the number of cine frames increased from one to six. The results suggest that the accuracy of breath-hold cine PC-MRI measurements of coronary artery flow improves as the number of cine frames increases.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of cancer cells with stem cell properties that sustain cancers, which may be responsible for cancer metastasis or recurrence. Lipid rafts are cholesterol- and sphingolipid-enriched microdomains in the plasma membrane that mediate various intracellular signaling. The occurrence and progression of cancer are closely related to lipid rafts. Emerging evidence indicates that lipid raft levels are significantly enriched in CSCs compared to cancer cells and that most CSC markers such as CD24, CD44, and CD133 are located in lipid rafts. Furthermore, lipid rafts play an essential role in CSCs, specifically in CSC self-renewal, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, drug resistance, and CSC niche. Therefore, lipid rafts are critical regulatory platforms for CSCs and promising therapeutic targets for cancer therapy.

In this paper, the properties of CF (carbon fiber) reinforced HPC (high performance concrete) containing LP (limestone powder) have been studied including its compressive strength, flexural strength, chloride ion permeation resistance, wearability and acid rain resistance. The results show that flexural strength, acid rain resistance and wearability of CF reinforced HPC containing LP are all better than those of LP HPC without CF, moreover, its flexural strength at 7days and 28days are both larger than 10MPa. While the short-term compressive strength and resistance to chloride ion permeation are decreased by introducing CF. Also the results indicate that CF reinforced HPC containing LP suits to be used as road pavement materials in abundant acid rain area.

Tensile behavior of C fiber reinforced amorphous SiCN ceramic matrix composites (C/SiCN ) were investigated by tensile machine. The microstructure morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscope. The results indicate that the tensile stress-strain curves of C/SiCN composites dispaly typical elastic deformation and cracks propagation stages. The 1500°C pre-sabilization treatment of C/SiCN in vacuum facilitates room temperature tensile stress growth. The higher treated temperature such as 1900°C is yet opposite. The reasons were attributed to thermal stress relaxation of C/SiCN after pre-stabilization treatment in vacuum.

The purpose of present paper is to study the flexural behaviors of concrete T-beams prestressed with external carbon fiber reinforced polymer(CFRP) tendons. Tests were carried out on 5 beams under four-point load, of which four beams were reinforced with hybrid both external CFRP tendons and internal steel rebars and another one only reinforced with internal steel rebars. Such parameters as the different initial loading states at external CFRP tendon jacking and different jacking stress in tendon were considered in experiment. A program was developed to predict the behaviors of those beams prestressed with externally prestressed tendons and the parametric study was conducted using the program. The predicted results from the program were in good agreement with the test results. Such parameters as jacking stress, elastic modulus of external tendons, configuration of deviators and ratio of span to effective depth of beam were chosen as primary analytical factors for the study on the flexural behaviors of beams prestressed with external tendons. The initial loading state on the beam before tendon jacking has no significant influence on the ultimate loading capacity and deflection.