Analysis of displaced supracondylar fractures in children treated with closed reduction and percutaneous pinning

Background: Closed reduction is difficult not only to achieve but also to maintain because of the thinness of bone of the distal humerus between the coronoid and olecranon where most supracondylar fractures occurs. For this reason percutaneous pinning techniques have become the treatment of choice for most supracondylar fractures. By this procedure even the displaced and rotated fracture can be treated successfully with minimal incidence of complications. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of management of displaced supracondylar fractures using closed reduction with percutaneous K-wire pinning and to analyze the results, loss of carrying angle, and loss of motion with incidence of complications.Methods: 35 Cases of displaced supracondylar fractures in children aged between 3 and 13 years were treated by closed reduction and percutaneous pinning and were studied prospectively for functional outcome.30 cases were treated with crossed pinning. 5 cases were treated with lateral pinning.Results: 31(88.6%) of the patients observed satisfactory results. 4 (11.4%) of the patients observed poor results. Of the cases treated by crossed pinning 26 (86.5%) had good results and 4 (13.3%) had poor results. All the patients treated with lateral pinning had excellent results. The difference in the functional outcome between the two groups were statistically significant.Conclusion: The results obtained in this study shows that anatomical reduction by closed method and stabilization with K-wire fixation is the first treatment of choice for displaced supracondylar fractures.

Optimal Control of Class of Non-Linear Plants using Artificial Immune Systems: Application of the Clonal Selection Algorithm

The function of natural immune system is to protect the living organisms against invaders/pathogens. Artificial Immune System (AIS) is a computational intelligence paradigm inspired by the natural immune system. Diverse engineering problems have been solved in the recent past using AIS. Clonal selection is one of the few algorithms that belong to the family of AIS techniques. Clonal selection algorithm is the computational implementation of the clonal selection principle. The process of affinity maturation of the immune system is explicitly incorporated in this algorithm. This paper presents the application of AIS for the optimal control of a class of non-linear plants which are affine in control. The clonal selection algorithm is adapted for optimal control. A new mutation operator that operates on real values and one that aids in fast convergence is developed in this paper. AIS is used to obtain constant coefficient Kalman gain matrices. The validation and evaluation of the results thus obtained are carried out by comparing with standard and the widely used State Dependent Algebraic Riccati Equation (SDARE) method for the non-linear plants. In case of non-linear systems with hard state constraints, the SDARE formulation requires the use of mathematically involved expressions to incorporate these state constraints. However, the modified clonal selection algorithm developed in this paper has been used with hardly any changes to incorporate the hard state constraints and obtain the Kalman gain matrix

Gold substrate-induced single-mode lasing of GaN nanowires

We demonstrate a method for mode-selection by coupling a GaN nanowire laser to an underlying gold substrate. Multimode lasing of GaN nanowires is converted to single-mode behavior following placement onto a gold film. A mode-dependent loss is generated by the absorbing substrate to suppress multiple transverse-mode operation with a concomitant increase in lasing threshold of only ∼13%. This method provides greater flexibility in realizing practical single-mode nanowire lasers and offers insight into the design of metal-contacted nanoscale optoelectronics

Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: A Mighty Pioneering Diagnostic Tool But Is It Really Safe for Carcinoma and Neurodegenerative Diseases?

Iron oxide nanoparticles have been used in medicine for around 90 years, and this time has demonstrated their versatility, therapeutic efficacy, and safety. The primary constituents of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONs) are either magnetite (FeO Fe2O3) or maghemite (-Fe2O3). The most major clinical application of IONs is based on MRI. To detect cancers and age-related diseases, IONs are being used in medical diagnostic imaging. The two IONs with the best clinical repute are Resovist and Feridex IV. In addition to being used to detect cancers, IONs are also adapted as gastrointestinal negative contrast agents and as slow-release iron supplements to treat iron deficiency anemia. With IONs exposed to alternating magnetic fields, targeted imaging and thermal energy production are both feasible. Radiation therapy, immunotherapy, or chemotherapy be facilitated by the effects of heat. A growing number of IONs are being studied in therapeutic settings as nanotechnology develops swiftly. How IONs are used in biomedicine is determined by their interaction with the human immune system

Polarization control in GaN nanowire lasers

We demonstrate polarization control in optically-pumped single GaN nanowire lasers fabricated by a top-down method. By placing the GaN nanowires onto gold substrates, the naturally occurring randomly orientated elliptical polarization of nanowire lasers is converted to a linear polarization that is oriented parallel to the substrate surface. Confirmed by simulation results, this polarization control is attributed to a polarization-dependent loss induced by the gold substrate, which breaks the mode degeneracy of the nanowire and forms two orthogonally polarized modes with largely different cavity losses