BackgroundIn 2004, an anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance survey in Heilongjiang province, China, enrolled 1574 (79%) new and 421 (21%) retreatment patients. Multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB was detected in 7.2% of new and 30.4% of retreatment patients. All received treatment with standardized first-line drug (FLD) regimens.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe report treatment outcomes of the 2004 cohort, and long-term outcomes as assessed in the second half of 2008. The reported cure rate for MDR-TB patients was 83% (94/113) among new and 66% (85/128) among retreatment patients (P<0.001). Ten of the 241 MDR-TB patients died during treatment. Of the remaining 231, 129 (56%) could be traced in 2008. The overall recurrence rates among new and retreatment cases were 46% and 66%, respectively (P = 0.03). The overall death rates among new and retreatment cases were 25% and 46%, respectively (P = 0.02). Forty percent of the traced new cases and 24% of the retreatment cases were alive and without recurrent TB (P = 0.01). Of the 16 patients who failed or defaulted from treatment in 2004, only two patients were not re-diagnosed with TB by 2008. Of the 111 (86%) patients with an initial successful treatment outcome 63 (57%) had developed recurrent TB, 40 (36%) had died, 27 (24%) of them died of TB. The follow-up period of four years precluded follow-up of all patients. In a highly conservative sensitivity analysis in which we assumed that all non-included patients were alive and did not have recurrent TB, the recurrence and death rate were 33% and 21%.Conclusions/SignificanceDocumentation of cure based on conventional smear microscopy was a poor predictor of long term outcomes. MDR-TB patients in Heilongjiang province in China had high recurrence and death rates four years after treatment with standardized FLD regimens, reinforcing the need for early diagnosis and treatment of MDR-TB, including assessment of treatment outcomes with more sensitive laboratory methods.
In this study a number of thermal treatment schemes over a wide range of temperatures between 120˚ to 350˚ C and times (30 120 minutes) have been experimented in an effort to understand the effect of thermal treatment on tensile properties of vacuum die cast modified aluminum alloy A356. The results show that, the morphology of eutectic silicon has a sound effect on the tensile properties of the tested alloy. The content of magnesium-based intermetallic phases, their morphology and distribution throughout the matrix affect the mechanical properties of the aged alloy as well. The reduction in the strengths of the alloy treated at 350°C for two hours should be at least attributed partly to the absence of the magnesium-based intermetallic phase. However the presence of sufficient amount of magnesium intermetallic phase had played important role in strengthening the alloy thermally treated at 200°C for 90 minutes.
In this study, the experimental measurement of the pressure distribution in a cylindrical die cavity for squeeze casting of magnesium alloy AM50A was carried out. Piezo-electric quartz pressure transducers were integrated into a die cavity for real-time pressure measurements. The experimental results revealed that local cavity pressures at various locations changed with time in the duration of squeeze casting solidification and cooling. The pressure transfer rate varied considerably within the casting geometry. The distribution of local cavity pressures was inhomogeneous in the cavity.
Die casting aluminum alloy A380 were recoveredfrom high pressure die cast machining chipsunder a series of designed experiments using Taguchi Method, where flux types (FT), chips/flux ratio (CFR), holding times (Ht) and temperatures (HT) were selected as four factors. For each factor, three levels were chosen to create Taguchi orthogonal array. The recovery rate (Rr) was selected as a response to evaluate the effectiveness of the recovery process. An analysis of the mean of noise-to-signal (S/N) ratios indicates that the recovery rate is affected considerably by the levels in the Taguchi orthogonal array. The optimum combination leads to the highest recovery rate of 92.03% by using Al-clean 101 as the refining flux, 10:5 as the chips/flux ratio, 60 minutes and 760°Cas the holding time and holding temperature.
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