Tibial Plateau Fracture Following Low Energy Fall in the Rocky Mountains

Tibial plateau fractures are debilitating injuries. They can occurin younger individuals who sustain a high energy trauma or, withincreasing age, lesser degrees of trauma and underlying bone pathology such as osteoporosis, metabolic bone disease, and malignancy.1Outside these cases, tibial plateau fractures are relatively uncommon.However, these fractures can occur in healthy patients who have sustained direct trauma to the knee.Fractures of the tibial plateau often are classified according to theSchatzker or AO classification systems.2,3 These systems evaluate theinvolvement of both the medial and lateral plateaus, degree of comminution, extension into the joint, and displacement (both articularsurfaces and the relationship of the diaphysis to the metaphysis).Most tibial plateau fractures occur in the lateral aspect of the tibialplateau.1 The increased frequency of lateral fractures is due to themedial tibial plateau being able to resist higher weight-bearing loaddue to the presence of more cancellous bone. More importantly, thelateral plateau has more articular surface exposed during extensioncompared to the medial plateau, which increases likelihood of injury.4The standard of care for most displaced tibial plateau fracturesis surgical management with open reduction and internal fixation(ORIF).5 Conservative management, such as leg bracing, is an optionfor fractures that are nondisplaced or in patients too fragile for surgical intervention. In the senior population, a total knee arthroplasty(TKA) is a less common option. Tibial plateau fractures, particularlymedial tibial plateau fractures, caused by direct trauma in the elderly,non-osteoporotic population are uncommon.We present the case of an active male without overt risk for severefracture (10-year fracture risk of 10% via FRAX score) who wasworking to repair a trail in the Rocky Mountains. While other injurieswere more likely given the mechanism of injury and patient risk, thiscase highlighted the importance of considering tibial plateau fracture,even in atypical settings without significant risk. Improved awarenessof this mechanism of injury will lead to more accurate diagnosis andgreater post-injury management

An intelligent, free-flying robot

The ground based demonstration of the extensive extravehicular activity (EVA) Retriever, a voice-supervised, intelligent, free flying robot, is designed to evaluate the capability to retrieve objects (astronauts, equipment, and tools) which have accidentally separated from the Space Station. The major objective of the EVA Retriever Project is to design, develop, and evaluate an integrated robotic hardware and on-board software system which autonomously: (1) performs system activation and check-out; (2) searches for and acquires the target; (3) plans and executes a rendezvous while continuously tracking the target; (4) avoids stationary and moving obstacles; (5) reaches for and grapples the target; (6) returns to transfer the object; and (7) returns to base

Mycobacterium and the coat of many lipids

Pathogenic Mycobacterium reside inside vacuoles in their host macrophages. These vacuoles fail to fuse with lysosomes yet interact with early endosomes. Glycoconjugates released by the intracellular bacilli traffic through the host cell and are released through exocytosis. These molecules represent both antigens for immune recognition and modulators of immune function. The molecules play key roles in the induction and maintenance of the granuloma, a tissue response that limits bacterial spread yet ensures persistence of the infection

Asymptotic Normalization Coefficients for 13C+p->14N

The $^{13}C(^{14}N,^{13}C)^{14}N$ proton exchange reaction has been measured at an incident energy of 162 MeV. Angular distributions were obtained for proton transfer to the ground and low lying excited states in $^{14}N$. Elastic scattering of $^{14}N$ on $^{13}C$ also was measured out to the rainbow angle region in order to find reliable optical model potentials. Asymptotic normalization coefficients for the system $^{13}C+p\to {}^{14}N$ have been found for the ground state and the excited states at 2.313, 3.948, 5.106 and 5.834 MeV in $^{14}N$. These asymptotic normalization coefficients will be used in a determination of the S-factor for $^{7}Be(p,\gamma)^{8}B$ at solar energies from a measurement of the proton transfer reaction $^{14}N(^{7}Be,^{8}B)^{13}C$.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

High energy pion-deuteron elastic scattering

High energy pion-deuteron elastic scatterin

Expanding the parameters of academia

This paper draws on qualitative data gathered from two studies funded by the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to examine the expansion of academic identities in higher education. It builds on Whitchurch’s earlier work, which focused primarily on professional staff, to suggest that the emergence of broadly based projects such as widening participation, learning support and community partnership is also impacting on academic identities. Thus, academic as well as professional staff are increasingly likely to work in multi-professional teams across a variety of constituencies, as well as with external partners, and the binary distinction between ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’ roles and activities is no longer clear-cut. Moreover, there is evidence from the studies of an intentionality about deviations from mainstream academic career routes among respondents who could have gone either way. Consideration is therefore given to factors that influence individuals to work in more project-oriented areas, as well as to variables that affect ways in which these roles and identities develop. Finally, three models of academically oriented project activity are identified, and the implications of an expansion of academic identities are reviewed

Weighing Super-Massive Black Holes with Narrow Fe Kα\alpha Line

It has been suggested that the narrow cores of the Fe K$\alpha$ emission lines in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are likely produced in the torus, the inner radius of which can be measured by observing the lag time between the $V$ and $K$ band flux variations. In this paper we compare the virial products of the infrared time lags and the narrow Fe K$\alpha$ widths for 10 type 1 AGNs with the black hole masses from other techniques. We find the narrow Fe K$\alpha$ line width is in average 2.6$^{+0.9}_{-0.4}$ times broader than expected assuming an isotropic velocity distribution of the torus at the distance measured by the infrared lags. We propose the thick disk model of the torus could explain the observed larger line width. Another possibility is the contamination by emission from the broad line region or the outer accretion disk. Alternatively, the narrow iron line might originate from the inner most part of the obscuring torus within the sublimation radius, while the infrared emission from outer cooler part. We note the correlation between the black hole masses based on this new technique and those based on other known techniques is statistically insignificant. We argue that this could be attributed to the small sample size and the very large uncertainties in the measurements of iron K line widths. The next generation of X-ray observatories could help verify the origin of the narrow iron K$\alpha$ line and the reliability of this new technique.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, Science China G, in pres

Tests of Transfer Reaction Determinations of Astrophysical S-Factors

The ${}^{16}O ({}^{3}He,d) {}^{17}F$ reaction has been used to determine asymptotic normalization coefficients for transitions to the ground and first excited states of ${}^{17}F$. The coefficients provide the normalization for the tails of the overlap functions for ${}^{17}F \to{}^{16}O + p$ and allow us to calculate the S-factors for ${}^{16}O (p,\gamma){}^{17}F$ at astrophysical energies. The calculated S-factors are compared to measurements and found to be in very good agreement. This provides the first test of this indirect method to determine astrophysical direct capture rates using transfer reactions. In addition, our results yield S(0) for capture to the ground and first excited states in $^{17}F$, without the uncertainty associated with extrapolation from higher energies.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

A general existence principle for fixed point theorems in D

We establish two general principles for fixed point theorems in D-metric spaces, and then show that several theorems in D-metric spaces follow as corollaries of these general principles

UA3/1/4 Declaration of Principles & Aims

Report by special Kentucky Educational Association committee charged to draft a Declaration of Principles or a statement of the aims and purposes of the educational forces of the State of Kentucky. The report was adopted unanimously at the annual meeting of KEA