The analysis of functional and radiographic outcomes of conservative treatment in patients with low lumbar burst fractures

Introduction: Burst fractures of the low lumbar spine constitute approximately one percent of all lumbar fractures. There is still no consensus on the optimal treatment of low lumbar burst factures. We aimed to evaluate the functional and radiographic outcomes of conservative treatment in patients with low lumbar burst fracture. Methods: 15 patients (11 males, 4 females; mean age 32 +/- 8) who had low lumbar spine burst fracture treated with a custom-moulded thoracolumbosacral orthosis (TLSO) with a thigh extension were enrolled. The mean follow-up period was 22 +/- 6 months. 14 patients were neurologically intact and one had isolated nerve root injury. There were 24% type A fractures and 76% type B fractures according to the Denis classification system. Functional outcomes were evaluated by using Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Short-Form 36 (SF-36) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Radiographic outcome was analyzed by measuring anterior vertebral height loss, kyphosis angle, amount of canal retropulsion. Functional and radiographic outcomes were reviewed initially and at 1, 3, 6, 12 months, and at the latest follow-up. Functional and radiographic improvements were analyzed statistically. Results: The mean bracing period was 11.9 +/- 1.7 weeks. The mean initial ODI, SF- 36, and VAS score of the patients was 78.3 +/- 9.6, 23.7 +/- 8.9, and 8.7 +/- 0.7, respectively. The mean ODI, SF- 36, and VAS score of the patients at the final follow-up was 26.4 +/- 6.5, 68.1 +/- 11.2, and 2.8 +/- 1.7, respectively. The improvement in functional outcomes was measured to be significant (p < 0.05 for ODI, SF-36 and VAS). The mean initial anterior vertebral height loss, kyphosis angle, amount of canal retropulsion was found to be 27.2% +/- 9.6%, -6.8 degrees +/- 3.28, 37.4% +/- 10.2%, respectively. The mean anterior vertebral height loss, kyphosis angle, and amount of canal retropulsion at the final follow-up was 23.1% +/- .6.7%, 4.2 degrees +/- 2.48, 19.6% +/- 7.7%, respectively. Among the radiographic outcomes, only the amount of canal retropulsion improved statistically (p = 0.042). Conclusion: Conservative treatment using a custom-moulded thoracolumbosacral orthosis with a thigh extension is a safe and effective method in patients with low lumbar spine burst fractures and can improve functional and radiographic outcomes. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Enhanced biocompatibility of GPC by ion implantation and deposition

Biocompatible Glassy Polymeric Carbon (GPC) is used for artificial heart valves and in other biomedical applications. Although it is ideally suited for implants in the blood stream, tissue that normally forms around the moving parts of a GPC heart valve sometimes loses adhesion and creates embolisms downstream. We have previously shown that oxygen ion implantation slightly enhances cell adhesion to GPC. Here we compare silver ion implantation and silver deposition, each of which strongly inhibits cell attachment on GPC. Inhibition of cell adhesion is the more desirable improvement to current GPC cardiac implants. In vitro biocompatibility tests have been carried out with model cell lines to demonstrate that traces of silver can favorably influence the surface of GPC for biomedical applications. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V

A REVIEW ON COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS SIMULATION METHODS FOR DIFFERENT CONVECTIVE DRYING APPLICATIONS

This paper focuses on the CFD studies on one of the commonly used drying pro-cesses for different applications. First, a brief information about drying is given with determining important properties that effect drying characteristics. Next, ba-sic principles of CFD modelling are explained while capabilities of computational processing are presented. A detailed literature survey about CFD studies in con-vective drying process is then conducted. Finally, some sound concluding remarks are listed. It may be concluded that the CFD is a powerful and flexible tool that can be adopted to many different physical situations including complex scenarios, results of CFD simulations represent good predictions for fluid-flow, heat and mass transfer of various drying methods and those numerical studies can be used for validation and controlling of applicability of new drying systems

Coralligenous assemblages along their geographical distribution: Testing of concepts and implications for management

The coralligenous habitat was studied at the large Mediterranean scale, by applying a standardized, non-destructive photo-sampling protocol, developed in the framework of the CIGESMED project. The results provided evidence to support the following statements: (a) the assemblage pattern is not homogeneously distributed across the four Mediterranean ecoregions studied (biotic gradients hypothesis); and (b) the assemblage pattern does not change significantly when the information is aggregated to higher taxonomic levels (taxonomic sufficiency hypothesis). Surrogate taxonomic categories higher than species, such as genus and family, can be used to reveal the multivariate pattern of the coralligenous assemblages. Although preliminary at the pan-Mediterranean scale, these outcomes set the scene for future comparisons as more data sets become available but also for comparisons between taxonomic and functional patterns. 1.2.3.4

Investigation of the non-linear vibration behaviour and 3:1 internal resonance of the multi supported nanobeam

In this present work, linear and non-linear vibration of multi-supported nanobeams, which are a fundamental part of the nano-electromechanical systems, is examined. To the best of the researchers' knowledge, there is no study performed into multi-supported nanobeam in the literature. The governing equations of the system are obtained by dint of the Hamilton principle and solved via the perturbation technique which is divided linear and non-linear parts of the main equations. The natural frequencies and mode shapes are calculated from the linear problem. The non-linear natural frequencies and amplitude-phase modulation graphs are obtained from the non-linear equation. All equations are written in generalized form, and 3, 4 and 5 supported nanobeams are investigated in detail. The nonlocal coefficient, support number and position and end condition types are focused on. The three to one internal resonance cases are also investigated. It is occurred that the clamped-end conditions shift right in the hardening behaviour graphs more than the simply supported condition. Moreover, it is shown that the supported numbers play a significant role in natural frequency

Effects of some Environmental Conditions on Biomass and Antimicrobial Metabolite Production by Streptomyces Sp., KGG32

The purpose of the present study was concerned with the taxonomy and influences of some cultural conditions on growth and antimicrobial metabolite production of a strain of Streptomyces, designated KGG32, which is a highly stable antimicrobial metabolite producer against the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria under in-vitro growth conditions. In order to optimize the culture conditions for the production of antimicrobial metabolite, such as the effect of different temperatures, nature of carbon and nitrogen sources, pH value and time incubation were determined. Effects of nutritional compounds on production of antimicrobial compounds showed that the highest antimicrobial activities were obtained when sucrose at 1.0% (w/v) level was used as sole carbon source, under aerobic conditions at temperature 30 degrees C, pH at 7.5. Bacteriological peptone was identified as nitrogen source that significantly affected antibiotic production followed by meat extract. Phenotypic characters of the strain strongly suggested that this strain belongs to the genus Streptomyces. The strain was grey colored with rectiflexibiles spore chains, exhibited resistance to neomycin, vancomycin and penicillin. It had the ability to produce enzymes such as caseinase amylase and xylanase. The results showed that strain KGG32 was a potential soil microorganism with antimicrobial activity and may be used for biotechnological purposes. (C) 2011 Friends Science Publisher

Diffusion-weighted MR imaging of the breast: comparison of apparent diffusion coefficient values of normal breast tissue with benign and malignant breast lesions

INTRODUCTION The specificity of conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is lower than its high sensitivity. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), based on alterations in the microscopic motion of water molecules, promises improved specificity for breast MR imaging. In this study, we aimed to determine the diagnostic potential of DWI to differentiate between benign and malignant breast lesions and normal breast tissue. METHODS Dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MR imaging and DWI were applied to 108 women. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were obtained for normal breast tissue (n = 183), benign lesions (n = 66) and malignant lesions (n = 58). The results were compared with the patients' final diagnoses. RESULTS Mean ADC values for benign and malignant breast lesions were 1.04 x 10(-3) +/- 0.29 x 10(-3) mm(2)/s and 2.00 x 10(-3) +/- 0.55 x 10(-3) mm(2)/s, respectively (p = 0.001, Student's t-test), while that for normal breast tissue was 1.78 x 10(-3) +/- 0.33 x 10(-3) mm(2)/s. With a cut-off value of 1.46 x 10(-3) mm(2)/s for ADC in receiver operating characteristic analysis, 95% sensitivity and 85% specificity were achieved for differentiating between benign and malignant lesions. CONCLUSION DWI of the breast can help differentiate benign and malignant breast lesions from normal breast tissue. DWI, which can be easily introduced into standard breast MR imaging protocols without increasing imaging times, promises to increase the accuracy of breast MR imaging without contrast media. However, its clinical value will depend on the standardisation of b-values and other technical parameters in larger future study series

RESPONSE OF CROCUS L. (IRIDACEAE) TO ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Three subspecies of Crocus specious (subsp. speciosus, subsp. ilgazensis, subsp. xantholaimos) two of them being endemics Blacksea region) were investigated for ecological characteristics. It has been observed that these subspecies usually prefer the soil which is acidic and has no salt in it. No statistical difference in per cent N and P was observed in all the three subspecies except in per cent K

Exergy and reliability analysis of wind turbine systems: A case study

The present study undertakes an exergy and reliability analysis of wind turbine systems and applies to a local one in Turkey: the exergy performance and reliability of the small wind turbine generator have been evaluated in a demonstration (1.5 kW) in Solar Energy Institute of Ege University (latitude 38.24 N, longitude 27.50 E), Izmir, Turkey. In order to extract the maximum possible power, it is important that the blades of small wind turbines start rotating at the lowest possible wind speed. The starting performance of a three-bladed, 3 m diameter horizontal axis wind turbine was measured in field tests. The average technical availability, real availability, capacity factor and exergy efficiency value have been analyzed from September 2002 to November 2003 and they are found to be 94.20%, 51.67%, 11.58%, and 0-48.72%, respectively. The reliability analysis has also been done for the small wind turbine generator. The failure rate is high to an extent of 2.28 x 10(-4) h(-1) and the factor of reliability is found to be 0.37 at 4380h. If failure rate can be decreased, not only this system but also other wind turbine systems of real availability, capacity factor and exergy efficiency will be improved. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved