Occupational injury and illness in the semiconductor manufacturing industry

Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-four reports of OSHA-reportable occupational injury or illness cases in 1984 from member companies of a national trade association of semiconductor manufacturing firms were analyzed. The 37 participating manufacturing facilities represented 16 companies employing over 95,000 persons, or approximately one-third of the U.S. work force for this industry in 1984. The annual incidence rate for all reportable injuries and illnesses was 2.7 per 100 full-time employees (FTE) for men and 3.7 per 100 FTE for women. Strains, sprains, or dislocations were the most frequently reported incidents (N = 956 [31.9%]), followed by cuts, lacerations, punctures, scratches, and abrasions (N = 445 [14.9%]), and chemical burns (N = 401 [13.4%]). Increased work-loss days per case were associated with manufacturing sites that did not have an employee health clinic on the premises, with custodial occupations, and with female gender.     

ITERATIVE DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING FOR MINIMUM ENERGY CONTROL PROBLEMS WITH TIME DELAY

This paper presents the use of iterative dynamic programming employing exact penalty functions for minimum energy control problems. We show that exact continuously non-differentiable penalty functions are superior to continuously differentiable penalty functions in terms of satisfying final state constraints. We also demonstrate that the choice of an appropriate penalty function factor depends on the relative size of the time delay with respect to the final time and on the expected value of the energy consumption. A quadratic approximation (QA) of the delayed variables is much better than a linear approximation (LA) of the same for relatively large time delays. The QA improves the rate of convergence and avoids the formation of ‘kinks‘. A more general way of selecting appropriate penalty function factors is given and the results obtained using four illustrative examples of varying complexity corroborate the efficacy of the method.     

Codeine-induced histamine release in intact human skin monitored by skin microdialysis technique: comparison ofintradermal injections with an atraumatic intraprobe drug delivery system

Background The skin microdiallysis technique makes it possible to measure histamine release in intact human skin in vivo directly. In this study we have used the microdialysis technique to characterize histamine release by codeine after intracutaneous injectioin and following skin challenge by a novel atraumatic delivery technique. Objective The purpose of the study was to compare histamine release in human skin by codeine. delivered by an intraprobe drug delivery system (IPD) and intracutaneous injections (ICT), with respect to dose-response relations, kinetics of histamine appearance and decay, corelations between histamine release and skin respones, and reproducibility. Methods Hollow dialysis fibres were inserted intradermally in 12 healthy subjects. Twelve fibres were inserted in each subjects, six fibres in each arm. Each fibre was perfused at a rate of 3 μL/min, and samples were collected in 2 min fractions. By the IPD technique, codeine was administrered to the skin by adding codeine to the perfusion medium. Sequential IPD challenges were performed in one arm. and ICTs were done on the other arm. Results Sixfold serial dilutions of codeine (0.01-3 mg/mL) caused a significant doserelated histamine release by ICT and IPD. Peak histamine release was found within the first 4 min after skin challenge by ICT and IPD, followed by a fast decline with a dialysate histamine half life of approximately 2-3 min. Peak hisamine release was linearly correlates with cumulative release of the 20 min sampling period, and histamine release correlated with weal soze. The coefficient of variation on peak histamine releae was 18.9% and 4.8% for codeine ICT and IPD, respectively. Conclusioin We have described in detail codeine-induced histamine release in intact human skin in vivo by the microdialysis technique. It was possible to administer codeine atraumaticallyl to the skin by intraprobe delivery. The skin microdialysis codeine atraumaticallly to the skin by intraprobe delivery. The skin microdialysis technique opens up possibilities for measurement of infllammatory mediators release in normal and diseases skin, and it will be possible to deliver immunopharmacologically active drugsto the skin by intraprobe delivery.     

LightCycler实时监测PCR定量分析血清HBV DNA

目的 检验LightCycler实时监测PCR（real-time detection PCR,RTD-PCR)对血清中HBV DNA定量检测的灵敏性和可重复性，探讨HBV血清标志物与HBV DNA定量的关系。方法 HBV定量按深圳匹基公司乙肝PCR荧光检测试剂盒使用说明，对乙肝标志物已明确的773例血清中HBV DNA定量结果进行统计分析。结果 实时监测PCR对血清中HBV DNA定量检测的灵敏性高，可检测低至1000拷贝／ml血清；可重复性好，批间误差＜20％；各种标志物类型的血清HBV DNA含量分布情况表明，HBV血清标志物中HBeAg与HBV DNA含量有明显的关系，一般HBeAg阳性血清HBV DNA含量较高，但也有相当一部分例外。结论 LightCycler实时监测PCR对血清中HBV DNA定量检测灵敏性高可重复性好；仅根据HBV血清标志物往往不能确定乙肝患者HBV DNA复制水平的高低，HBV DNA定量检测具有十分重要的临床意义。     

新时期戏剧艺术探索的成就与困顿

八十年代初中期 ,中国戏剧积极拓展我国传统戏剧的时空观、写意性特征 ,大胆借鉴西方现代戏剧的荒诞化、意象性技巧 ,出现了探索创新、多元发展的崭新局面。其中对“三一律、一堵墙”戏剧观的突破 ,运用意识形象外显人物的内心世界 ,嫁接多种艺术手段将现实时空转化为艺术时空 ,是新时期戏剧艺术探索最突出的三项成就。而过分强调形式技巧 ,脱离观众欣赏习惯 ,致使演出市场萎缩 ,观众锐减 ,无疑是新时期戏剧艺术探索中面临的最大困顿。     

Inter- and intra-individual variability of non-invasive tear break-up time in Hong Kong Chinese

Non-invasive tear break-up time (NITBUT) has been proposed as a measure of tear film integrity which is superior to the more commonly used tear break-up time (TBUT), since it does not alter the volume or the physicochemical properties of the tear layer by the addition of fluorescein. We measured NITBUT by measuring the time taken for distortions or discontinuities to appear in the reflected image of a grid pattern which covered about 80 per cent of the corneal surface. NITBUT measures were made 100 times on seven Hong Kong Chinese subjects with up to 20 consecutive measures being made on a single day. We also measured NITBUT on one occasion on an unselected population of 52 Hong Kong Chinese subjects. NITBUT shows a skewed distribution in all subjects, with many shorter values and some extremely long values. There are statistically significant variations in NITBUT from day to day, and from subject to subject. The group of 52 subjects also had a skewed NITBUT distribution with many short values and some very long values. The arithmetic mean does not adequately represent NITBUT data, either for individual subjects or for this group of subjects. As many as five to eight measures may be necessary to gain a stable estimate of the NITBUT and stability of the measure is improved if extreme values are omitted. We recommend the use of nonparametric statistics to compare NITBUT values from day to day in or between subjects.     

Effects of exposure to air pollution on blood coagulation

BACKGROUND: Consistent evidence has indicated that air pollution increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The underlying mechanisms linking air pollutants to increased cardiovascular risk are unclear. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the association between the pollution levels and changes in such global coagulation tests as the prothrombin time (PT) and the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) in 1218 normal subjects from the Lombardia Region, Italy. Plasma fibrinogen and naturally occurring anticoagulant proteins were also evaluated. METHODS: Hourly concentrations of particulate (PM10) and gaseous pollutants (CO, NO2, SO2, and O3) were obtained from 53 monitoring sites covering the study area. Generalized additive models were applied to compute standardized regression coefficients controlled for age, gender, body mass index, smoking, alcohol, hormone use, temperature, day of the year, and long-term trends. RESULTS: The PT became shorter with higher ambient air concentrations at the time of the study of PM10 (coefficient = -0.06; P < 0.05), CO (coefficient = -0.11; P < 0.001) and NO2 (coefficient =-0.06; P < 0.05). In the 30 days before blood sampling, the PT was also negatively associated with the average PM(10) (coefficient = -0.08; P < 0.05) and NO2 (coefficient = -0.08; P < 0.05). No association was found between the APTT and air pollutant levels. In addition, no consistent relations with air pollution were found for fibrinogen, antithrombin, protein C and protein S. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation shows that air pollution is associated with changes in the global coagulation function, suggesting a tendency towards hypercoagulability after short-term exposure to air pollution. Whether these changes contribute to trigger cardiovascular events remains to be established.     

非霍奇金淋巴瘤85例临床及预后分析

目的：分析多种因素对非霍奇金淋巴瘤(NHL)预后的影响。方法：通过SABC法进行免疫分型，采用Kaplan—Meier法分析患者治疗后的生存期，采用Cox比例风险模型分析影响预后的因素。结果：B细胞来源-NHL(B-NHL)发病率为63．3％。T细胞来源-NHL(T—NHL)为36．7％；低度恶性占17．6％，中、高度恶性占74．1％。1、2、3、5年生存率：低度恶性患者为92．1％、84．5％、65．1％、45．1％；中、高度恶性患者为84．9％、67．5％、47．6％、28．4％。I、Ⅱ期患者为98．8％、91.5％、87．5％、70．3％；Ⅲ期、Ⅳ期患者为62．1％、55．5％、40．1％、23．8％。T—NHL为70．8％、53．5％、47．7％、30．2％；B-NHL为82．1％、70．5％、61．1％、50．1％。结论：年龄、乳酸脱氢酶水平、恶性程度、临床分期、免疫分型、身体状况评分(PS)是影响NHL预后的重要因素。