Echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular mass index and function in hypertensive patients with preserved ejection fraction

Background: The aim of the present study is to detect left ventricular (LV) mass and to find out sub clinical LV diastolic dysfunction in hypertensive patients with preserved LV ejection fraction (EF) using echocardiographic parameters.Methods: 96 patients with hypertension were randomly selected irrespective of their sex, race and risk factor and enrolled into this study. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and geometrical pattern LV structure were measured. Sub clinical diastolic dysfunction was also assessed by tissue Doppler.Results: Out of 96 patients, 24 had ECG evidence of LV hypertrophy (LVH) 66 were having increased LVMI (154±20), rest 30 had normal LVMI (108±12). They were divided by LV geometrical pattern into concentric LVH (40), eccentric LVH (26), concentric remodeling (19) and normal (11). Diastolic dysfunction in these patients were assessed by E/E´ measurement which was abnormally increased in 42 out of 66 patients with increased LVMI (20±3.4) and 16 out of 30 patients with normal LVMI.Conclusions: Echocardiographic examination help us to find out LVH precisely by calculating LVMI. It also reveals structural changes like concentric LVH, eccentric LVH, concentric remodeling. A significant number of patients with hypertension with normal LV ejection fraction has sub clinical LV diastolic dysfunction which was detected by tissue Doppler imaging (E/E′). The increase in LVMI with or without concentric LVH is an independent risk factor and prognostic marker for cardio vascular events that occur in hypertensive patients. In this study we infer that patients with increase in LVMI with concentric LVH pattern with normal ejection fraction needs more aggressive treatment and regular follow up to prevent cardiovascular complications.

Laser Microtextured Surfaces for Friction Reduction: Does the Pattern Matter?

Frictional performances of different textures, including axisymmetric and directional patterns, have been tested in the mixed and the hydrodynamic lubrication regimes. Experimental results, corroborated by numerical simulations, show that the leading parameter is the geometrical pattern void ratio since a large number of dimples offers, at low speed, a trap for debris whereas, at high speed, due to the flow expansion in each micro-hole, fosters a fluid pressure drop, the consequent insurgence of micro-cavitation and, ultimately, the reductions of the shear stresses. Furthermore, in this paper, it is shown that, by means of directional textures, equivalent hydrodynamic wedges can be built up, thus establishing different friction performances depending on the flow direction.

Geometrical Pattern Recognition for Rearranging Chairs

Currently, furniture is used by every person and all working people in their lives. In office hours, it is necessary for the people to keep the furniture organized after the completion of meeting or event. Now a day’s every student, every employee and all the working people having rush in their life. So they forget to arrange their furniture in working space which will create bad look for professional environment and also affect the psychology. The common thoughts now a day in educational institutions is that after every laboratory session is over, the students left the chair unarranged and the corresponding lab assistant’s need to arrange the chairs after session is over in order to keep laboratory ready for the upcoming sessions. For this situation, in this paper we proposed a robotic chair which move automatically and follow the tag. These tags are predefined and fixed at valve or table. Whenever program runs these chairs automatically goes to the tag nearby and will aligned at its original position.

New Trends Towards Enhanced Structural Efficiency and Aesthetic Potential in Tall Buildings: The Case of Diagrids

Due to the increasing number of people and activities within the cities, tall buildings are exploited worldwide to address the need for new living and commercial spaces, while limiting the amount of used land. In recent decades, the design of tall buildings has undergone a remarkable improvement, thanks to the development of new computational tools and technological solutions. This has led to the realization of innovative structural systems, like diagrids, which allow the achievement of high structural performances and remarkable architectural effects. In this contribution, a thorough and updated review of diagrid structural systems is provided. Simplified methodologies for the preliminary design and structural analysis are reported. Special attention is also paid to the optimization of the structural response based on the geometrical pattern. A discussion of the effect of local deformability, stability and shear-lag phenomenon is carried out. Results from nonlinear and dynamic analyses for the seismic assessment of diagrid systems are reported, and attention is also paid to the recent research on diagrid nodes. Eventually, an overview of twisted, tapered, tilted and freeform diagrid towers is carried out, with a final mention of hexagrids, another recent evolution of tubular systems for tall buildings.

New Trends Towards Enhanced Structural Efficiency and Aesthetic Potential in Tall Buildings: The Case of Diagrids

Due to the increasing number of people and activities within the cities, tall buildings are exploited worldwide to address the need for new living and commercial spaces, while limiting the amount of used land. In recent decades, the design of tall buildings has undergone a remarkable improvement, thanks to the development of new computational tools and technological solutions. This has led to the realization of innovative structural systems, like diagrids, which allow the achievement of high structural performances and remarkable architectural effects. In this paper, a thorough and updated review of diagrid structural systems is provided. Simplified methodologies for the preliminary design and structural analysis are reported. Special attention is also paid to the optimization of the structural response based on the geometrical pattern. A discussion of the effect of local deformability, stability and shear-lag phenomenon is carried out. Results from nonlinear and dynamic analyses for the seismic assessment of diagrid systems are reported, and attention is also paid to the recent research on diagrid nodes. Eventually, an overview of twisted, tapered, tilted and freeform diagrid towers is carried out, with a final mention of hexagrids, another recent evolution of tubular systems for tall buildings.

Novel fabrication of soft microactuators with morphological computing using soft lithography

A simple and cost-effective method for the patterning and fabrication of soft polymer microactuators integrated with morphological computation is presented. The microactuators combine conducting polymers to provide the actuation, with spatially designed structures for a morphologically controlled, user-defined actuation. Soft lithography is employed to pattern and fabricate polydimethylsiloxane layers with geometrical pattern, for use as a construction element in the microactuators. These microactuators could obtain multiple bending motions from a single fabrication process depending on the morphological pattern defined in the final step. Instead of fabricating via conventional photolithography route, which involves multiple steps with different chromium photomasks, this new method uses only one single design template to produce geometrically patterned layers, which are then specifically cut to obtain multiple device designs. The desired design of the actuator is decided in the final step of fabrication. The resulting microactuators generate motions such as a spiral, screw, and tube, using a single design template.