7,177 research outputs found
Knee adduction moment and medial contact force - facts about their correlation during gait
The external knee adduction moment is considered a surrogate measure for the medial tibiofemoral contact force and is commonly used to quantify the load reducing effect of orthopedic interventions. However, only limited and controversial data exist about the correlation between adduction moment and medial force. The objective of this study was to examine whether the adduction moment is indeed a strong predictor for the medial force by determining their correlation during gait. Instrumented knee implants with telemetric data transmission were used to measure tibiofemoral contact forces in nine subjects. Gait analyses were performed simultaneously to the joint load measurements. Skeletal kinematics, as well as the ground reaction forces and inertial parameters, were used as inputs in an inverse dynamics approach to calculate the external knee adduction moment. Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the correlation between adduction moment and medial force for the whole stance phase and separately for the early and late stance phase. Whereas only moderate correlations between adduction moment and medial force were observed throughout the whole stance phase (R(2)?=?0.56) and during the late stance phase (R(2)?=?0.51), a high correlation was observed at the early stance phase (R(2)?=?0.76). Furthermore, the adduction moment was highly correlated to the medial force ratio throughout the whole stance phase (R(2)?=?0.75). These results suggest that the adduction moment is a surrogate measure, well-suited to predicting the medial force ratio throughout the whole stance phase or medial force during the early stance phase. However, particularly during the late stance phase, moderate correlations and high inter-individual variations revealed that the predictive value of the adduction moment is limited. Further analyses are necessary to examine whether a combination of other kinematic, kinetic or neuromuscular factors may lead to a more reliable prediction of the force magnitud
Gravitational Chern-Simons and the adiabatic limit
We compute the gravitational Chern-Simons term explicitly for an adiabatic
family of metrics using standard methods in general relativity. We use the fact
that our base three-manifold is a quasi-regular K-contact manifold heavily in
this computation. Our key observation is that this geometric assumption
corresponds exactly to a Kaluza-Klein Ansatz for the metric tensor on our three
manifold, which allows us to translate our problem into the language of general
relativity. Similar computations have been performed in a paper of Guralnik,
Iorio, Jackiw and Pi (2003), although not in the adiabatic context.Comment: 17 page
Fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 single nucleotide polymorphism Gly388Arg in head and neck carcinomas
BACKGROUND Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is considered to be a progressive disease resulting from alterations in multiple genes regulating cell proliferation and differentiation like receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and members of the fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR)-family. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) Arg388 of the FGFR4 is associated with a reduced overall survival in patients with cancers of various types. We speculate that FGFR4 expression and SNP is associated with worse survival in patients with HSNCC. AIM To investigate the potential clinical significance of FGFR4 Arg388 in the context of tumors arising in HNSCC, a comprehensive analysis of FGFR4 receptor expression and genotype in tumor tissues and correlated results with patients' clinical data in a large cohort of patients with HNSCC was conducted. METHODS Surgical specimens from 284 patients with HNSCC were retrieved from the Institute of Pathology at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Germany. Specimens were analyzed using immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The expression of FGFR4 was analyzed in 284 surgical specimens of HNSCC using immunohistochemstry. FGFR4 polymorphism was detected by PCR-RFLP. Patients' clinical data with a minimum follow-up of 5 syears were statistically evaluated with a special emphasis on survival analysis employing Kaplan-Meier estimator and Cox regression analysis. RESULTS Concerning the invasive tumor areas the intensity of the FGFR4 expression was evaluated in a four-grade system: no expression, low expression, intermediate and high expression. FGFR4 expression was scored as "high" (+++) in 74 (26%), "intermediate" (++) in 103 (36.3%), and "low" (+) in 107 (36.7%) cases. Analyzing the FGFR4 mutation it was found in 96 tumors (33.8%), 84 of them (29.6%) having a heterozygous and 12 (4.2%) homozygous mutated Arg388 allele. The overall frequency concerning the mutant alleles demonstrated 65% vs 34% mutated alleles in general. FGFR4 Arg388 was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage (P < 0.004), local metastasis (P < 0.0001) and reduced disease-free survival (P < 0.01). Furthermore, increased expression of FGFR4 correlated significantly with worse overall survival (P < 0.003). CONCLUSION In conclusion, the FGFR4 Arg388 genotype and protein expression of FGFR4 impacts tumor progression in patients with HNSCC and may present a useful target within a multimodal therapeutic intervention
Metastable states, the adiabatic theorem and parity violating geometric phases II
We discuss and calculate parity conserving (PC) and parity violating (PV)
geometric phases for the metastable 2S states of hydrogen and deuterium. The
atoms are supposed to be subjected to slowly varying electric and magnetic
fields which act as external parameters for the atoms. Geometric flux density
fields are introduced which allow for an easy overview how to choose the paths
in parameter space in order to obtain only PC or only PV geometric phases. The
PV phases are calculated in the Standard Model of particle physics. Even if
numerically they come out small they have interest of principle as a new
manifestation of parity violation in atomic physics.Comment: 63 pages, 8 figures, 10 table
Standardized loads acting in knee implants
The loads acting in knee joints must be known for improving joint replacement, surgical procedures, physiotherapy, biomechanical computer simulations, and to advise patients with osteoarthritis or fractures about what activities to avoid. Such data would also allow verification of test standards for knee implants. This work analyzes data from 8 subjects with instrumented knee implants, which allowed measuring the contact forces and moments acting in the joint. The implants were powered inductively and the loads transmitted at radio frequency. The time courses of forces and moments during walking, stair climbing, and 6 more activities were averaged for subjects with I) average body weight and average load levels and II) high body weight and high load levels. During all investigated activities except jogging, the high force levels reached 3,372–4,218N. During slow jogging, they were up to 5,165N. The peak torque around the implant stem during walking was 10.5 Nm, which was higher than during all other activities including jogging. The transverse forces and the moments varied greatly between the subjects, especially during non-cyclic activities. The high load levels measured were mostly above those defined in the wear test ISO 14243. The loads defined in the ISO test standard should be adapted to the levels reported here. The new data will allow realistic investigations and improvements of joint replacement, surgical procedures for tendon repair, treatment of fractures, and others. Computer models of the load conditions in the lower extremities will become more realistic if the new data is used as a gold standard. However, due to the extreme individual variations of some load components, even the reported average load profiles can most likely not explain every failure of an implant or a surgical procedure
Cosmic String in Scalar-Tensor Gravity
The gravitational properties of a local cosmic string in the framework of
scalar-tensor gravity are examined. We find the metric in the weak-field
approximation and we show that, contrary to the General Relativity case, the
cosmic string in scalar-tensor gravitation exerces a force on non-relativistic,
neutral test particle. This force is proportional to the derivative of the
conformal factor and it is always attractive. Moreover, this
force could have played an important role at the Early Universe, although
nowadays it can be neglegible. It is also shown that the angular separation
remains unaltered for scalar-tensor cosmic strings.Comment: 15 pages, LATEX, no figure
Spin-Orbit-Induced Kondo Size Effect in Thin Films with 5/2-spin Impurities
Recently, for spin impurities quite different size dependence of the
Kondo contribution to the resistivity was found experimentally than for S=2.
Therefore previous calculation about the effect of the spin-orbit-induced
magnetic anisotropy on the Kondo amplitude of the resistivity is extended to
the case of impurity spin which differs from the integer spin case as
the ground state is degenerated. In this case the Kondo contribution remains
finite when the sample size goes to zero and the thickness dependence in the
Kondo resistivity is much weaker for Cu(Mn). The behavior of the Kondo
coefficient as a function of the thickness depends on the Kondo temperature,
that is somewhat stronger for larger . Comparing our results with a recent
experiment in thin Cu(Mn) films, we find a good agreement.Comment: 8 pages, ReVTeX + 4 figures (Postscript
Oscillations of the magnetic polarization in a Kondo impurity at finite magnetic fields
The electronic properties of a Kondo impurity are investigated in a magnetic
field using linear response theory. The distribution of electrical charge and
magnetic polarization are calculated in real space. The (small) magnetic field
does not change the charge distribution. However, it unmasks the Kondo cloud.
The (equal) weight of the d-electron components with their magnetic moment up
and down is shifted and the compensating s-electron clouds don't cancel any
longer (a requirement for an experimental detection of the Kondo cloud). In
addition to the net magnetic polarization of the conduction electrons an
oscillating magnetic polarization with a period of half the Fermi wave length
is observed. However, this oscillating magnetic polarization does not show the
long range behavior of Rudermann-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida oscillations because the
oscillations don't extend beyond the Kondo radius. They represent an internal
electronic structure of the Kondo impurity in a magnetic field. PACS: 75.20.Hr,
71.23.An, 71.27.+
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