Some features of the diagnosis and clinical manifestations of pathological fractures of the spine in Bekhterev's disease (а clinical case)

Background: A prolonged course of the autoimmune inflammatory process in Bekhterev's disease is accompanied by calcification of the vertebral column’s ligaments, damage to the costovertebral and true joints of the spine, and their ankylosis, that ultimately leads to a decrease in the support capacity of the spine, so that even a minor injury can lead to a fracture. Spinal fractures in ankylosing spondylitis often have an unstable character and a high risk of the spinal cord injury. The main methods for diagnosing the spinal instability in Bekhterev's disease are multispiral computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, since the informative significance of survey radiography is not high. An early surgical treatment is the method of choice for unstable fractures in ankylosing spondylitis, despite the comorbid pathology and age, which significantly burden the prognosis. Сlinical case description: Patient K., born in 1969, injured on October 07, 2021 as a result of falling on his back from a height of 2 meters. An MSCT study of the thoracolumbar spine revealed a fracture of the ThXII–LI vertebrae, rupture of the anterior longitudinal ligament, and instability of the ThXII–LI vertebral-motor segment. The following diagnosis was established: closed uncomplicated injury of the thoracolumbar spine; grade I unstable compression fracture of the ThXII, LI vertebrae with a damage to the posterior support complex against the background of ankylosing spondylitis; grade I kyphotic deformity of the thoracolumbar spine; bilateral vertebrogenic lumboishialgia syndrome; pronounced persistent pain and muscle-tonic syndromes. A surgical treatment was applied which included correction of the spinal deformity and stabilization of the thoracolumbar spine using a transpedicular fixation system. The pain vertebrogenic syndrome and clinical neurological disorders regressed. The MSCT control was carried out in 6 months with the detected completed fusion at the ThXII–LI level. Conclusion: A timely diagnosis using multispiral computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging data allows us to assess the full picture of traumatic changes in the spinal column and choose the most effective type of surgical intervention, using, if necessary, stabilizing systems

The charge-assisted hydrogen-bonded organic framework (CAHOF) self-assembled from the conjugated acid of tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane and 2,6-naphthalenedisulfonate as a new class of recyclable Brønsted acid catalysts

The acid–base neutralization reaction of commercially available disodium 2,6-naphthalenedisulfonate (NDS, 2 equivalents) and the tetrahydrochloride salt of tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane (TAPM, 1 equivalent) in water gave a novel three-dimensional charge-assisted hydrogen-bonded framework (CAHOF, F-1). The framework F-1 was characterized by X-ray diffraction, TGA, elemental analysis, and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The framework was supported by hydrogen bonds between the sulfonate anions and the ammonium cations of NDS and protonated TAPM moieties, respectively. The CAHOF material functioned as a new type of catalytically active Brønsted acid in a series of reactions, including the ring opening of epoxides by water and alcohols. A Diels–Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and methyl vinyl ketone was also catalyzed by F-1 in heptane. Depending on the polarity of the solvent mixture, the CAHOF F-1 could function as a purely heterogeneous catalyst or partly dissociate, providing some dissolved F-1 as the real catalyst. In all cases, the catalyst could easily be recovered and recycled

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson