In this study, two different compositions of submicrometre copper and chromium powders were mixed and the Cr50Cu50 alloys were fabricated via the powder metallurgy technique. The research imposed various hot pressing pressures, while the temperature was maintained at 1050°C for 1 h, respectively. The experimental results showed that the Saint Venant's effect obviously appeared in 1050°C, 48 MPa, 1 h hot pressing Cr50Cu50 alloys, which led to differences in the surface and internal hardness of the specimens. As a result, the optimal parameters of hot pressing of Cr50Cu50 alloys were 1050°C, 36 MPa for 1 h possessing the highest transverse rupture strength value (921.69 MPa). Moreover, the surface hardness increased to HV 0.2 221.78 (HRB 95.4), the relative density reached 97.15% and apparent porosity decreased to 0.10%, respectively. Furthermore, the resistivity decreased to 5.28 × 10 −6 Ω cm, and ICAS was enhanced to 32.65% after the optimal procedure.

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Objective: There are still controversies about the surgical benefits for elderly lung cancer. The aims of this study were to assess impacts of aging for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following pulmonary resection. Methods: A retrospective study was undertaken for patients operated at a curative intent from January 1998 to October 2008. Patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 consisted of patients aged at least 75 years old, and group 2 were patients less than 75 years old. Perioperative characteristics and details, hospital courses, surgery-related morbidities, surgical mortality, and survival were compared between groups. Results: Of 442 eligible patients, 73 patients (16.5%) were in group 1 (mean age 78.3 years) and 369 (83.5%) patients were in group 2 (mean age 62.5 years). The following data were compared with statistical significance: hospital stay (17.8 vs. 8.9 days), mortality rate (8.2 vs. 2.2%), morbidity rate (26.0 vs. 13.3%), and length in intensive care unit (5.7 vs. 3.2 days). The main causes for morbidities in group 1 showed cardiopulmonaryrelated. Tumor stage without considering age had statistically significant influence on survival. Survivals of two groups were comparative. (p = 0.10) Intriguingly, the disease-related survival (28.3 months; p = 0.008) and progression-free survival (25.0 months; p <0.001) in group 1 were significantly better than group 2 (20.2 and 12.2 months). Conclusions: Although operation for NSCLC in the elderly patients causes more complications, especially in the cardiopulmonary system, their outcome showed better than their younger counterparts. Pulmonary resection for elderly patients may get longer disease control. Elderly patients with physical fit for surgery should not be considered as a contraindication to pulmonary resection based on age alone.

Due to its widely tunable mechanical property and incompatibility with most solders, Ni-Mn alloy can become a viable candidate in the fabrication of testing probe for microelectronic devices. In this study, the electrodeposition of Ni-Mn alloy in nickel sulphamate electrolyte with the addition of manganese sulphate was investigated under direct current (DC) power source. The effects of current density and Mn2+concentration in the electrolyte on the coating composition, cathodic efficiency, microstructure and mechanical properties were explored. The results showed that the raise of the Mn2+concentration in the electrolyte alone did not effectively increase the Mn content in the coating but reduce the cathodic efficiency. On the other hand, increasing the current density facilitated the codeposition of the Mn and rendered the crystallite from coarse columnar grain to the refined one. Thus, both hardness and internal stress of the coating increased. The fabrication of testing probes at 1 A/dm2was shown to satisfy the high hardness, low internal stress, reasonable fatigue life, and nonsticking requirements for this microelectronic application.

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