Fatigue failure is normally initiated at the surface of a material. For some materials, failure can be initiated both at the surface and the interior. This twofold materials behaviour in fatigue is represented by a stepwise shape in the S–N curve. An internal failure mode is especially important for fatigue life in the gigacycle range, as this mode is predominant at low stress ranges. Materials with a hardened surface fail from the surface only at high stresses, and at low stresses from the inside, forming a fish‐eye facet on the fracture surface. Exactly the same behaviour can be observed for materials without a hard surface, even at elevated temperatures. This paper displays some of the results obtained at NRIM and discusses possible interpretations.

We fabricated an ultra-compact InP-based DP-QPSK modulator by the hybrid integration of an InP twin-IQ modulator and a PLC polarization multiplexing circuit for the first time. 112-Gb/s DP-QPSK modulation is successfully demonstrated.

These findings demonstrated that SIN-1 is a potent peroxynitrite-releasing compound and caused significant bronchoprotection against acetylcholine. The mechanism of bronchoprotection by SIN-1 appears to be mediated by peroxynitrite but also at least in part through NO regeneration, which may involve GSH and airway thiols as a consequence of exposure to peroxynitrite.

The measurement of residual urine volume by bladder catheterization causes quite some suffering to the patient and sometimes causes urinary tract infections. To evaluate the postoperative measurement of residual urine volume with a portable ultrasound bladder scanner (Bladder Scan BVI 3000) and the cost-benefit analysis as compared with postoperative catheterization we carried out a study on 30 patients with primary rectal cancer. The data were then compared with actual urine volumes. This was a prospective study dealing with the economical benefit of ultrasound scanning over catheterization during the hospital stay. The ultrasound bladder scanner was found to be a reliable method of estimating residual urine volume since its data correlated with actual volumes with a coefficient of 0.9. The results satisfied both physicians and patients. Ultrasound scanning of the bladder to measure residual urine volume reduced the frequency of catheterization by 38% as compared with the patients on intermittent catheterization, with 17.4 catheters saved for each patient. In conclusion, the ultrasound bladder scanner could protect patients from the discomfort and urethral injury which might have been caused by bladder catheters, thus decreasing medical expenses. This technique will play an important role in determining whether to conduct invasive urethral catheterization for postoperative urinary disturbance in rectal cancer.

No abstract