Reattachment of the Multifidus Tendon in Lumbar Surgery to Decrease Postoperative Back Pain: A Technical Note.

The posterior midline approach to the lumbar spine requires significant manipulation of the paraspinal muscles. Muscle detachment and retraction results in iatrogenic damage such as crush injury, devascularization, and denervation, all of which have been associated with postoperative pain. The muscle most directly affected by the posterior approach is the lumbar multifidus (LM), the largest and most medial of the deep lumbar paraspinal muscles. The effects of the posterior approach on the integrity of the LM is concerning, as multiple studies have demonstrated that intraoperative injuries sustained by the LM lead to postoperative muscle atrophy and potentially worsening low back pain. Given the inevitability of intraoperative paraspinal muscle manipulation when using the posterior approach, this technical note describes methods by which surgeons may minimize LM tissue disruption and restore the anatomical position of the LM to ultimately expedite recovery, minimize postoperative pain, and improve patient satisfaction

Riociguat: Mode of action and clinical development in pulmonary hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) are progressive and debilitating diseases characterized by gradual obstruction of the pulmonary vasculature, leading to elevated pulmonary artery pressure and increased pulmonary vascular resistance. If untreated, they can result in death due to right heart failure. Riociguat is a novel soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator that is approved for the treatment of PAH and CTEPH. Here we describe in detail the role of the nitric oxide-sGC-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling pathway in the pathogenesis of PAH and CTEPH, and the mode of action of riociguat. We also review the preclinical data associated with the development of riociguat, along with the efficacy and safety data of riociguat from initial clinical trials and the pivotal Phase III randomized clinical trials in PAH and CTEPH

Curvature invariants in type N spacetimes

Scalar curvature invariants are studied in type N solutions of vacuum Einstein's equations with in general non-vanishing cosmological constant Lambda. Zero-order invariants which include only the metric and Weyl (Riemann) tensor either vanish, or are constants depending on Lambda. Even all higher-order invariants containing covariant derivatives of the Weyl (Riemann) tensor are shown to be trivial if a type N spacetime admits a non-expanding and non-twisting null geodesic congruence. However, in the case of expanding type N spacetimes we discover a non-vanishing scalar invariant which is quartic in the second derivatives of the Riemann tensor. We use this invariant to demonstrate that both linearized and the third order type N twisting solutions recently discussed in literature contain singularities at large distances and thus cannot describe radiation fields outside bounded sources.Comment: 17 pages, to appear in Class. Quantum Gra

Identification of histone modifications in biomedical text for supporting epigenomic research

Corinna K, Klinger R, Hofmann-Apitius M. Identification of Histone Modifications in Biomedical Text for Supporting Epigenomic Research. BMC Bioinformatics. 2009;10(Suppl 1):S28

Physical Origin of the Boson Peak Deduced from a Two-Order-Parameter Model of Liquid

We propose that the boson peak originates from the (quasi-) localized vibrational modes associated with long-lived locally favored structures, which are intrinsic to a liquid state and are randomly distributed in a sea of normal-liquid structures. This tells us that the number density of locally favored structures is an important physical factor determining the intensity of the boson peak. In our two-order-parameter model of the liquid-glass transition, the locally favored structures act as impurities disturbing crystallization and thus lead to vitrification. This naturally explains the dependence of the intensity of the boson peak on temperature, pressure, and fragility, and also the close correlation between the boson peak and the first sharp diffraction peak (or prepeak).Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, An error in the reference (Ref. 7) was correcte

Photoinduced IR absorption in (La(1-x)Sr(x)Mn)(1-\delta)O3: changes of the anti-Jahn-Teller polaron binding energy with doping

Photoinduced IR absorption was measured in (La(1-x)Sr(x)Mn)(1-\delta)O3. A midinfrared peak centered at ~ 5000 cm$^{-1}$ was observed in the x=0 antiferromagnetic sample. The peak diminishes and softens as hole doping is increased. The origin of the photoinduced absorption peak is atributted to the photon assisted hopping of anti-Jahn-Teller polarons formed by photoexcited charge carriers, whose binding energy decreases with increasing hole doping. The shape of the peak indicates that the polarons are small.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Can muon-induced backgrounds explain the DAMA data?

We present an accurate simulation of the muon-induced background in the DAMA/LIBRA experiment. Muon sampling underground has been performed using the MUSIC/MUSUN codes and subsequent interactions in the rock around the DAMA/LIBRA detector cavern and the experimental setup including shielding, have been simulated with GEANT4.9.6. In total we simulate the equivalent of 20 years of muon data. We have calculated the total muon-induced neutron flux in the DAMA/LIBRA detector cavern as Φμn = 1.0 ×10-9 cm-2s-1, which is consistent with other simulations. After selecting events which satisfy the DAMA/LIBRA signal criteria, our simulation predicts 3.49 ×10-5 cpd/kg/keV which accounts for less than 0.3% of the DAMA/LIBRA modulation amplitude. We conclude from our work that muon-induced backgrounds are unable to contribute to the observed signal modulation