Attaining tibiofibular union using an inter-tibiofibular autograft. A series of 43 cases

SummaryIntroductionThis study consisted of a series of 43 patients with lower leg non-union that were treated with an inter-tibiofibular autograft (ITFG).Material and methodsAfter reviewing the surgical technique, the overall theory behind the treatment is described, including stabilization, soft tissue repair, infection control if necessary and then performing a procedure to help achieve bone union.ResultsAfter an average follow-up of 2years, all the patients achieved union, but some required additional procedures. Only one patient had a delayed reactivation of the infection, which was successfully treated.ConclusionA broad set of indications for ITFG are proposed for lower leg non-union cases, in particular non-infected cases.Level of evidenceLevel IV. Retrospective study

Room Temperature Organic Superconductor?

The electron--phonon coupling in fullerene C28 has been calculated from first principles. The value of the associated coupling constant lambda/N(0) is found to be a factor three larger than that associated with C60. Assuming similar values of the density of levels at the Fermi surface N(0) and of the Coulomb pseudopotential for C28-based solids as those associated with alkali-doped fullerides A3C60, one obtains Tc(C28) \approx 8 Tc(C60).Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Особенности попередельного способа калькуляции себестоимости продукции в перерабатывающем производстве

We are interested in the asymptotic stability of equilibria of structured populations modelled in terms of systems of Volterra functional equations coupled with delay differential equations. The standard approach based on studying the characteristic equation of the linearized system is often involved or even unattainable. Therefore, we propose and investigate a numerical method to compute the eigenvalues of the associated infinitesimal generator. The latter is discretized by using a pseudospectral approach, and the eigenvalues of the resulting matrix are the sought approximations. An algorithm is presented to explicitly construct the matrix from the model coefficients and parameters. The method is tested first on academic examples, showing its suitability also for a class of mathematical models much larger than that mentioned above, including neutral- and mixed-type equations. Applications to cannibalism and consumer\u2013resource models are then provided in order to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed technique, especially for studying bifurcations

Collocation of Next-Generation Operators for Computing the Basic Reproduction Number of Structured Populations

We contribute a full analysis of theoretical and numerical aspects of the collocation approach recently proposed by some of the authors to compute the basic reproduction number of structured population dynamics as spectral radius of certain infinite-dimensional operators. On the one hand, we prove under mild regularity assumptions on the models coefficients that the concerned operators are compact, so that the problem can be properly recast as an eigenvalue problem thus allowing for numerical discretization. On the other hand, we prove through detailed and rigorous error and convergence analyses that the method performs the expected spectral accuracy. Several numerical tests validate the proposed analysis by highlighting diverse peculiarities of the investigated approach

Effects of climate change on Romanian mountain tourism: Are they positive or mostly negative?

Climate change represents a real threat for the winter sport resorts, especially those situated at low altitudes and without any diversification of the tourism product. Mountain tourism represents a real attraction for the holidays and for short weekends being mostly visited by tourists in summer and winter season, which make them more vulnerable to the lack of snow in the cold season, floods, storms or even heat waves. This paper has two main objectives, firstly to measure the impact of the climate change on tourism demand for Romanian mountain tourism, and secondly to identify sustainable solutions for adaptation of vulnerable mountain resorts, such as Sinaia, one of the most known winter sport resorts in Romania. First, the authors will identify the impacts of climate change on Romanian mountain tourism, starting with the effect of the temperature increase, snow depth variation and the extreme weather events occurring in mountain resorts on tourist flows. Positive and negative effects of climate change will be identified, and starting from the results, the authors will present necessary measures to transform the Romanian mountain tourism in an adaptive destination.CNCSIS-UEFISCU - PN II-RU 94/2010, Contract no. 30/28.07.201

Resting state connectivity and cognitive performance in adults with cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy

Cognitive impairment is an inevitable feature of cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), affecting executive function, attention and processing speed from an early stage. Impairment is associated with structural markers such as lacunes, but associations with functional connectivity have not yet been reported. Twenty-two adults with genetically-confirmed CADASIL (11 male; aged 49.8 ± 11.2 years) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at rest. Intrinsic attentional/executive networks were identified using group independent components analysis. A linear regression model tested voxel-wise associations between cognitive measures and component spatial maps, and Pearson correlations were performed with mean intra-component connectivity z-scores. Two frontoparietal components were associated with cognitive performance. Voxel-wise analyses showed an association between one component cluster and processing speed (left middle temporal gyrus; peak −48, −18, −14; ZE = 5.65, pFWEcorr = 0.001). Mean connectivity in both components correlated with processing speed (r = 0.45, p = 0.043; r = 0.56, p = 0.008). Mean connectivity in one component correlated with faster Trailmaking B minus A time (r = −0.77, p < 0.001) and better executive performance (r = 0.56, p = 0.011). This preliminary study provides evidence for associations between cognitive performance and attentional network connectivity in CADASIL. Functional connectivity may be a useful biomarker of cognitive performance in this population