The “floating forearm” injury in a child: a case report

The case of a eleven-year-old girl who had a fracture dislocation of the left elbow with entrapment of the ulnar nerve into the dislocated ulnar epicondyle anlage and unstable forearm fracture of the ipslateral upper extremity is described. This severe injury to the elbow and the ipsilateral forearm is termed “floating forearm” injury. The forearm was stabilized percutaneously and the elbow fracture dislocation, remaining unstable after internal fixation was treated with a pediatric elbow fixator with motion capacity

Efficacy of the A-V Impulse System versus cryotherapy in the reduction of postoperative oedema of the hand: a prospective randomised trial

In a prospective randomised trial, the effects of an intermittent compression hand pump vs. cryotherapy were compared on reduction of postoperative hand swelling and gain in finger movement after distal radius fractures. Although intermittent compression as a physical method for thromboprophylaxis and swelling reduction in orthopaedic and trauma patients of the lower leg are established, a prospective randomised trial for an objective evaluation of the effects of intermittent compression in the upper extremity has not been previously performed. Forty-three subjects (63±33 years, 32 women, 11 men) with a unilateral distal radius fracture treated with transarticular external fixation were randomised into two treatment groups. In group A 21 patients were treated with cryotherapy. In group B 22 patients were treated with an intermittent compression hand pump. Reduction in swelling of the treated hand and MP and PIP joint movement were recorded with computerised assessment software (EVAL Hand Evaluation System) in comparison to the uninjured contralateral side. Reduction of swelling in group A was not statistically significant (28.5% of total swelling or 0.61 cm, SD 0.39, p=0.42), but in group B it was significant (92% of total swelling, 3.62 cm, SD 1.48, p<0.001). Comparison of increases in MP and PIP joint movement (p<0.0016) showed statistically significant differences in favour of the intermittent compression pump. This study demonstrates that intermittent compression is more effective in the reduction of postoperative oedema and gain of finger movement of the hand than cryotherapy

Counterflow Extension for the F.A.S.T.-Model

The F.A.S.T. (Floor field and Agent based Simulation Tool) model is a microscopic model of pedestrian dynamics, which is discrete in space and time. It was developed in a number of more or less consecutive steps from a simple CA model. This contribution is a summary of a study on an extension of the F.A.S.T-model for counterflow situations. The extensions will be explained and it will be shown that the extended F.A.S.T.-model is capable of handling various counterflow situations and to reproduce the well known lane formation effect.Comment: Contribution to Crowds and Cellular Automata Workshop 2008. Accepted for publication in "Cellular Automata -- 8th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry, ACRI 2008, Yokohama, Japan, September 23-26, Springer 2008, Proceedings

High-precision measurement of the half-life of 62^{62}Ga

The beta-decay half-life of 62Ga has been studied with high precision using on-line mass separated samples. The decay of 62Ga which is dominated by a 0+ to 0+ transition to the ground state of 62Zn yields a half-life of T_{1/2} = 116.19(4) ms. This result is more precise than any previous measurement by about a factor of four or more. The present value is in agreement with older literature values, but slightly disagrees with a recent measurement. We determine an error weighted average value of all experimental half-lives of 116.18(4) ms.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in PR

A new approach to spherically symmetric junction surfaces and the matching of FLRW regions

We investigate timelike junctions (with surface layer) between spherically symmetric solutions of the Einstein-field equation. In contrast to previous investigations this is done in a coordinate system in which the junction surface motion is absorbed in the metric, while all coordinates are continuous at the junction surface. The evolution equations for all relevant quantities are derived. We discuss the no-surface layer case (boundary surface) and study the behaviour for small surface energies. It is shown that one should expect cases in which the speed of light is reached within a finite proper time. We carefully discuss necessary and sufficient conditions for a possible matching of spherically symmetric sections. For timelike junctions between spherically symmetric space-time sections we show explicitly that the time component of the Lanczos equation always reduces to an identity (independently of the surface equation of state). The results are applied to the matching of FLRW models. We discuss `vacuum bubbles' and closed-open junctions in detail. As illustrations several numerical integration results are presented, some of them indicate that the junction surface can reach the speed of light within a finite time.Comment: new version - corrected boundary surface discussion, improved presentation, and corrected reference 22 pages, many figure

Nonlinear thermoelectric response of quantum dots: renormalized dual fermions out of equilibrium

The thermoelectric transport properties of nanostructured devices continue to attract attention from theorists and experimentalist alike as the spatial confinement allows for a controlled approach to transport properties of correlated matter. Most of the existing work, however, focuses on thermoelectric transport in the linear regime despite the fact that the nonlinear conductance of correlated quantum dots has been studied in some detail throughout the last decade. Here, we review our recent work on the effect of particle-hole asymmetry on the nonlinear transport properties in the vicinity of the strong coupling limit of Kondo-correlated quantum dots and extend the underlying method, a renormalized superperturbation theory on the Keldysh contour, to the thermal conductance in the nonlinear regime. We determine the charge, energy, and heat current through the nanostructure and study the nonlinear transport coefficients, the entropy production, and the fate of the Wiedemann-Franz law in the non-thermal steady-state. Our approach is based on a renormalized perturbation theory in terms of dual fermions around the particle-hole symmetric strong-coupling limit.Comment: chapter contributed to 'New Materials for Thermoelectric Applications: Theory and Experiment' Springer Series: NATO Science for Peace and Security Series - B: Physics and Biophysics, Veljko Zlatic (Editor), Alex Hewson (Editor). ISBN: 978-9400749863 (2012

The rp-process and new measurements of beta-delayed proton decay of light Ag and Cd isotopes

Recent network calculations suggest that a high temperature rp-process could explain the abundances of light Mo and Ru isotopes, which have long challenged models of p-process nuclide production. Important ingredients to network calculations involving unstable nuclei near and at the proton drip line are $\beta$-halflives and decay modes, i.e., whether or not $\beta$-delayed proton decay takes place. Of particular importance to these network calculation are the proton-rich isotopes $^{96}$Ag, $^{98}$Ag, $^{96}$Cd and $^{98}$Cd. We report on recent measurements of $\beta$-delayed proton branching ratios for $^{96}$Ag, $^{98}$Ag, and $^{98}$Cd at the on-line mass separator at GSI.Comment: 4 pages, uses espcrc1.sty. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium Nuclei in the Cosmos, June 1996, Notre Dame/IN, USA, Ed. M. Wiescher, to be published in Nucl.Phys.A. Also available at ftp://ftp.physics.ohio-state.edu/pub/nucex/nic96-gs

Conserving Diagrammatic Approximations for Quantum Impurity Models: NCA and CTMA

Self-consistent diagrammatic approximations to the Anderson or Kondo impurity model, using an exact pseudoparticle representation of the impurity states, are reviewed. We first discuss the infrared exponents of the pseudoparticle propagators as indicators of Fermi liquid behavior through their dependence on the impurity occupation and on magnetic field. Then we discuss the Non-Crossing Approximation (NCA), identifying its strengths, but also its fundamental shortcomings. Physical arguments as well as a perturbative renormalization group analysis suggest that an infinite parquet-type resummation of two-particle vertex diagrams, the Conserving T-Matrix Approximation (CTMA) will cure the deficiencies of NCA. We review results on the pseudoparticle spectral functions, the spin susceptibility and the impurity electron spectral function, supporting that the CTMA provides qualitatively correct results, both in the high-temperature regime and in the strong coupling Fermi liquid regime at low temperatures.Comment: 10 pages, invited article, to appear in a special edition of JPSJ "Kondo Effect - 40 Years after the Discovery", published version, some minor typos correcte

The Fundamental Diagram of Pedestrian Movement Revisited

The empirical relation between density and velocity of pedestrian movement is not completely analyzed, particularly with regard to the `microscopic' causes which determine the relation at medium and high densities. The simplest system for the investigation of this dependency is the normal movement of pedestrians along a line (single-file movement). This article presents experimental results for this system under laboratory conditions and discusses the following observations: The data show a linear relation between the velocity and the inverse of the density, which can be regarded as the required length of one pedestrian to move. Furthermore we compare the results for the single-file movement with literature data for the movement in a plane. This comparison shows an unexpected conformance between the fundamental diagrams, indicating that lateral interference has negligible influence on the velocity-density relation at the density domain $1 m^{-2}<\rho<5 m^{-2}$. In addition we test a procedure for automatic recording of pedestrian flow characteristics. We present preliminary results on measurement range and accuracy of this method.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure