A reliable technique for characterizing the hygroscopic swelling of materials has been developed and used to characterize a number of packaging materials. Using these data, hygroscopic stress modeling were performed. The hygroscopic stress induced through moisture conditioning was found to be significant compared to the thermal stress during solder reflow. Hygroscopic stress in over-molded wire bond PBGA and molded Flip Chip PBGA was found to be 1.3 times to 1.5 times that of thermal stress. Hygroscopic swelling of the underfill in FCPBGA was found to be the main failure driver during autoclave test. Autoclave performance of FCPBGA package assembled with different underfills and chips were analyzed. Excellent correlation was found between autoclave performance and the hygroscopic swelling characteristics of the underfills.

This study provides evidence that preoperative serum levels of haptoglobin could serve as an independent prognostic factor in patients presenting with epithelial ovarian cancer.

Coagulation and fibrinolysis were determined in 67 Indonesian women admitted to the University Hospitals for delivery in Medan. They were diagnosed to be at term gestation (mean 39.3 +/- 1.1 weeks) with moderate and severe preeclampsia (n=32) and in labor, and 8 had preterm labor (gestation mean 33.5 +/- 2.6 weeks). Twenty-seven normal pregnant women in labor (gestation mean 39.7 +/- 1.0 weeks) served as controls. Cord blood from 23 neonates from normal pregnancy and 31 neonates from preeclampsia was also evaluated. Preeclamptic women in labor showed further enhanced coagulation activation (F(1+2)) with raised urokinase-like plasminogen activator (u-PA) activity and reduced plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2) levels. In preterm preeclampsia, significantly reduced antithrombin III (ATIII) and PAI-2 levels with further elevated tissue-type PA (t-PA) antigen and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen were seen compared to normal pregnancy. These would suggest a state of enhanced thrombin generation with elevated fibrinolytic/inhibitor proteins in preterm preeclampsia. The reduced PAI-2 levels seen in preeclampsia have been suggested to be associated with reduced placental function. Neonates born to mothers of either normal pregnancy or preeclampsia at term showed similar hemostatic changes with reduced fibrinogen, ATIII, t-PA, u-PA antigen, PAI-1 levels, and coagulation activation compared to their respective maternal plasma levels. No significant differences in hemostatic parameters studied between the neonates of both cohorts were seen, and this would suggest that the neonates were protected from the adverse effects of preeclampsia and their hemostatic system was physiologically balanced.