Nephroureterectomy with removal of a bladder cuff was performed successfully on a 47-year-old man for transitional cell carcinoma of the right renal pelvis using hand-assisted laparoscopy. The results showed that hand-assisted laparoscopic nephroureterectomy is an efficacious altemative to open surgery and provides the urologist new to laparoscopy a shorter learning curve compared with standard laparoscopy.

This paper reports results of study on self-Q-switched Cr⁴⁺, Nd³⁺: YAG microchip lasers at 1.064 μm using a quasi-monolithic setup. Pulses with 6 to 60 ns wide (FWHM) and TEM00 mode produced under cw pumping with repetition rates ranging from 1.5 kHz to 23 kHz. Pulsed pumping yielded output puls es with repetition rates from 1 Hz to several kHz and excellent pulse stability. A pulsed pumped microchip os cillator and flash lamp pumped amplifiers were used to set up a MOPA(Master Oscillator and Power Amplifier) system generating 225 kW pulses with 8 ns width.

Comparison of MMA polymerization results with samarocene chloride, titanocene chloride and the title heterodinuclear (Sm-Ti) catalyst, respectively, showed synergism in the Sm-Ligand-Ti system, which obviously influenced the polymerization behaviors, for example, of yielding higher activity and higher molecular weight polymer. Kinetic studies on polymerization of MMA with ethylene bridged samarocene and titanocene chloride/M(i-Bu)₃ showed that the polymerization rate was first-order on the catalyst concentration, and 1.9-order on the monomer. The overall activation energy measured was 52.8 kJ/mol.

Bundles of pure carbon nanofibers were prepared by catalytic decomposition of acetylene on foam Ni. The morphological and structural characteristics of the carbon nanostructures, in the as-prepared state, were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HTEM). A special conformation of carbon nanofibers composed of segmented structures was found among the products by both SEM and TEM observations. Further HTEM examination indicated that the segments were stacked with well ordered graphite platelets arranged perpendicular to the axis of the filaments.

This new type nanocomposite powder was prepared with electroless plating enhanced by ultrasonic wave. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) showed that As-plated particles have nano meter scale average size. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed the presence of a noncrystalline structure in the plating layer on the nano-Al₂O₃ matrix. The content of the plating layer was analyzed by energy disper sive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) technology. The plating layer content was adjustable by changing the solution concentration.

A new aluminum thin film percolation system, deposited on glass and silicon wafer surfaces by a vapor deposition method, was investigated. By using the expansive and mobile behaviors of the silicone oil, the Al films are quenched gradually by the silicone oil during the deposition process, The R-I behavior of the film system was studied, and the anomalous conductivity indicated that, at very low current, the hopping and tunneling effects in the films are much stronger than those of the normal film systems.

The surface morphology and growth mechanism of an aluminum film system deposited on silicone oil surfaces by a vapor depositing method was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the perpendicular fluctuation of the film\'s bottom surface was more remarkable than that of the film\'s top surface. Near the joint between the film on the silicone oil substrate and the film on the silicon wafer surface on which the silicone oil substrate rested, was a naturally formed anomalous wedge-shaped wrinkly structure with slopes of 10^-4 - 10^-5 rad, whose growth mechanism could be interpretod under the assumption of the thermal expansion behavior of the liquid substrates.

This paper describes an effective method of obstacle detection by ALV (Autonomous Land Vehicle) equipped with two 2D laser range finders (LRF) installed at different locations of the ALV to obtain comprehensive information on the environment. The data processing includes two main steps: (1) data-processing of the current sample; (2) fusion of the former range data and the current one. The rough description of the ALV\'s environnent via the four sub-steps (Data Filter, Obstacle Extraction, Obstacle Merging, Distinguishing Obstacle from Road-Edge) was not reliable enough for our control system. To overcome the shortcoming of the 2D LRF and the motion noise of the ALV, a Kalman filter was used to estimate the position of the obstacles; then the data of the two LRFs were collated to obtain the height and width of the obstacles. Experiment results attested the feasibility of the detection system.

This paper explains and summarizes a new attempt to derive a general mathematical model [GMM] to simulate surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters, using the superposition principle and delta function model. GMM can be used to simulate One-to-One, One-to-Multi and Multi-to-Multi SAW filter devices. The simulation program was written using MATLAB (the language of technical computing). Four-design structures (One-to-One, One-to-Two, One-to-Three and Ten-to-Ten) are selected to test the correctness of GMM. The frequency response of the simulation and test results are similar in center frequency and 3-dB bandwidth, but the insertion loss is different, because of some second order effects (Issa Haitham, 1999).

This paper discusses the properties of a novel boost converter with auxiliary anti-phase winding approach resulting in low conducted common code noise level. A simplified equivalent circuit of the proposed boost converter is modeled to analyze its performance and to show the influence of the parasitic winding capacitance, as well as the stray capacitances of the switching waveform nodes into the earth plane. Simulation and experimental results are shown to verify the concept.

In this paper a fully Bayesian PET reconstruction method is presented for combining a segmented anatomical membrane a priori. The prior distributions are based on the fact that the radiopharmaceutical activity is similar throughout each region and the anatomical information is obtained from other imaging modalities such as CT or MRI. The prior parameters in prior distribution are considered drawn from hyperpriors for fully Bayesian reconstruction. Dynamic Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are used on the Hoffman brain phantom to gain estimates of the posterior mean. The reconstruction result is compared to those obtained by ML, MAP. Our results showed that the segmented anatomical membrane a priori exhibit improved the noise and resolution properties.

In software engineering, an architecture description language (ADL) is intended to aid designers in defining software architectures in terms of abstractions that they find useful, and in making a smooth transition to code. Based on ADL, the concept and models of the Virtual instrunent system Software architecture Description Language (VSDL) is provided in this paper. The VSDL put forward provides a new method for virtual instrunent system\'s application design and development by describing the virtual instrument system software architecture effectively. In this paper, the model description, component description and line description are analyzed in detail, and the structure language based on the model is also provided. VSDL provides a smooth interface to graphic software platform, and has been applied to many virtual instrument systems\' integration and already yielded good results both in technology and economy.

This paper introduces the design and implementation of a predictable multi-threaded main-memory storage manager (CS20), and emphasizes the database service mediator(DSM), an operation prediction model using exponential averaging. The memory manager, indexing, as well as lock manager in CS20 are also presented briefly. CS20 has been embedded in a mobile telecommunication service system. Practice showed, DSM effectively controls system load and hence improves the real-time characteristics of data accessing.

This paper reports results of research on the stability of a hydraulic servo position system using generalization pulse code modulation (GPCM) and common on/off valves for hydraulic servo control. The describing function was first used to analyze the system\'s stability, and based on the nonlinear theory, an equation calculating the minimum orifice area of GPCM valves was derived by applying results of analysis on the stability of the GPCM control system. In the end, aimed at developing a hydraulic servo position system to be used in a paint robot, simulation and experiment were carried out. The results show that the theoretical conclusions accorded with practical results.

Semi-open heat pipes were studied experimentally in this work. A new kind of semi-open heat pipe with fluid swirl backflow was developed on the basis of the traditional semi-open heat pipe. Heat transfer characteristics during operation and start-up of closed heat pipe, traditional semi-open heat pipe and swirl flow semi-open heat pipe were investigated. The swirl orifice\'s backflow effect on enhancing the working limitation was obtained. Heat exchangers or waste heat boilers made of swirl flow semi-open heat pipes and semi-open heat pipes have been successfully used in high or variable gas temperature engineering applications.

In the present study, eight combinations of restriction enzymes and oligonucleotide probes were tested for detecting VNTR polymorphism. More than a hundred loci were detected by all enzyme-probe combi nations. The influences of breed, enzyme and probe as well as their interactions were analysed, and the mean value of DNA fingerprint data was calculated for the enzymes and probes. The results will provide some valuable information for studying the genetic relationship of individuals or populations using DNA fingerprinting.

Studies were conducted to investigate the effects of pH value, extraction time, extraction temperature, ratio of material to extraction medium and salt concentration on the solubility of yellow mealworm larvae protein, Tne results showed that pH value greatly influenced the solubility, minimum solubility was found at pH 5.8 and a maximum at pH 10 - 12. Salt ion could increase the solubility at the iso-electric point pH and slightly decreased the solubility at the pH value higher than that of the iso-electric point. Other factors did not significantly affect the solubility of the protein.

Objective: In addition to pH regulation, Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger (NIE) has been shown to facilitate cell growth and proliferation. However, the effects of long-term inhibition of Na⁺/H⁺ exchange on cardiac structural and functional remodeling post myocardial infarction (MI) are still controversial. The present study was therefore carried ont to further investigate the effects of long-term treatment with cariporide, a specific inhibitor of NHE-1, on cardiac remodeling after MI in rots; Methods: Male Wistar rots that underwent coronary ligation were randomly selected for cariporide treatment starting 6 h after induction of MI or no treatment. Treatment was continued up to 6 weeks post MI, after which, the arterial, venous and left ventricular catheters were chronically implanted. Twenty-four h later, after hemodynamic signals were recorded in conscious rats, they were sacrificed and hearts were taken out for morphological examinations; Results: Cariporide treatment decreased the heart weight and heart weight to body weight ratio (both P<0.05), decreased left ventricular end-diastohc pressure (P<0.001), improved myocardial contractility (dP/dt_max) (P<0.05) and tended to increase the survival of treated rots compared to that of untreated infarct rats; Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that the long-term inhibition of NHE with cariporide can attenuate cardiac structural re-modeling and improve left ventricular dysfunction in infarcted rats, and suggest that Na⁺/H⁺ exchange inhibition could be an effective therapeutic strategy for myocardial infarction-induced heart failure.

To construct and identify further a recombinant of Adeno-associated virus and interferon-gamma for gene therapy, the full-length IFN-γcDNA containing signal peptide was amplified by PCR, and then cloned into the pUC18. After screening, the fragment from the positive clone was then subcloned into pwpl9. After the correct recombinant was identified by digestion with SacI and BamHI, it was transfected into lymphocyte cell line H9 mediated by calcium phosphate, and the expression of IFN-γ was detected by RT-PCR and ELISA. The result showed that the IFN-γ were expressed in the H9 cells transfected with pwp/IFN-γ. The so constructed recombinant plasmid pwpl9/IFN-γ containing the full-length IFN-γ gene was expressed in mammalian cells.

Objective: To study the changes of oxidative metabolism and lipoperoxidative metabolism in patients with acnte viral myocarditis (AVM), and to research pathological chain reactions of a series of free radicals, and oxidative damage and lipoperoxidative damage in AVM patients\' bodies. Methods: A random paired control design was used to investigate 70 cases of AVM patients and 70 cases of healthy adult volunteers (HAV) on the basis of contents of nitric oxide (NO), lipoperoxide (LPO) in plasma, and LPO in red blood cell (RBC) as well as activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in RBC as revealed by spectrophotometric assays. Results: Compared with the average values (AV) of the above biochemical parameters (BP) in the HAV group, the AV of NO in plasma, and LPO in plasma and in RBC in the AVM group were significantly increased (P=0.0001), while the AV of SOD, CAT and GSH-Px in the AVM group were significantly decreased (P=0.0001). Conclusion: The findings in this study suggested that in the AVM patients bodies the metabolism of NO was disturbed, and the pathological chain reactions of a series of free radicals were so severely aggravated, as to cause the oxidative damage and lipoperoxidative damage in the AVM patients\' bodies.

To study the relationship between gastrointestinal dysfunction and motilin in patients with hypot- hyroidism. The plasma motilin concentration was measured by radiommunoassay(RIA) in 30 patients with hypothyroidism and also in 30 controls. At the same time, the electrogastroenterogram was also taken. Among the hypothyroidism patients, 56.6% had decreased gastric motility, especially in gastric body and greater gastric curvature; 86.6 % had decreased colonic motility, especially in the left half of the colon. There were no significant differences of plasma motilin concentration between patients with hypothyroidism and controls (P>0.05). There were also no differences between pre-treatment and pest-treatment individuals, but significant differences were observed in the electrogastroenterogram. We conclude that the plasma motilin eoncertration in hypothyroidism patients was the same as that in normal patients, and that electrogastmenterogram studies in patients with gastrointestinal dysfunction may be valuable.

Banking regulation has been one of the key issues affecting the financial and economic stability around the world. The worldwide economic crisis in the 1930s and the constant financial turmoil since the 1990s have aroused the world\'s attention towards how to prevent and handle the negative linancial effects smoothly. The accelerating and deepening of financial globalization extends the perspectives of financial regulation to the cross-border scope. This thesis focuses on the latest development of banking regulation after the Asian financial turmoil and the challenges of intemational banking regulation. The outlook and challenges of financial regulation after China\'s accession to WTO are discussed.

With the emergence of Knowledge Economy, venture capital is playing a more and more important role in the high and new technology industry in China. The situation and problems of venture investment in China are analyzed in this paper which pointed out some problems that hinder the process of venture investment, and also, gave some suggestions to promote the development of venture capital.

This article tries to explain the wage differentials across industries and firms by the human capital theory, the compensating wage differential theory or other reasons and also the empirical evidences.

The incorrectness of function grading in value engineering has been an essential problem for decades. This paper proposes a new method, where the functions under consideration are ranked in queue according to their importance and then graded quantitatively. By using this method, the reviewers are more aware of the degrees of importance, and therefore will have an easier time grasping the standard and reducing the erroneous grading. In the first step, the sign test is used to discard incorrect data, to count the grading result and to arrange in queue according to the degrees of functional importance. In the second step the queued up functions undergo quantitative grading, where the \"average value of fluctuation coefficient\" is proposed to determine the control levels and to delete unreasonable data outside the controlled region so as to get more satisfactory grading value. The proposed method solves the problem of the incorrectness of function grading in value engineering. It has been proved that the correctness has been raised from the original 70% to over 95% . This new method is not only contributive to the discipline of value engineering but also suitable in the evaluation of technical economy.

This paper explores the new possibilities of the novel in the context of technologies of computer hypertext. One of the central arguments of the paper is that the operational logic of the novel can be made to approximate that of a web of hypertext links. The author also argues that the hope of the renaissance of the novel lies in the technologically enhanced speed of the traffic in models between smooth space and striated space.