185 research outputs found
The effects of intramuscular tenotomy on the lengthening characteristics of tibialis posterior: high versus low intramuscular tenotomy
BACKGROUND: Lengthening of soft-tissue contractures is frequently required in children with a wide variety of congenital and acquired deformities. However, little is known about the biomechanics of surgical procedures which are commonly used in contracture surgery, or if variations in technique may have a bearing on surgical outcomes. We investigated the hypothesis that the site of intramuscular tenotomy (IMT) within the muscle-tendon-unit (MTU) of the tibialis posterior (TP) would affect the lengthening characteristics. METHODS: We performed a randomized trial on paired cadaver tibialis posterior muscle-tendon-units (TP-MTUs). By random allocation, one of each pair of formalin-preserved TP-MTUs received a high IMT, and the other a low IMT. These were individually tensile-tested with an Instron(®) machine under controlled conditions. A graph of load (Newtons) versus displacement (millimetres) was generated for each pair of tests. The differences in lengthening and load at failure for each pair of TP-MTUs were noted and compared using paired t tests. RESULTS: We found 48% greater lengthening for low IMT compared to high IMT for a given load (P = 0.004, two tailed t test). Load at failure was also significantly lower for the low IMT. These findings confirm our hypothesis that the site of the tenotomy affects the amount of lengthening achieved. This may contribute to the reported variability in clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the relationship between tenotomy site and lengthening may allow surgeons to vary the site of the tenotomy in order to achieve pre-determined surgical goals. It may be possible to control the surgical "dose" by altering the position of the intramuscular tenotomy within the muscle-tendon-unit
Superextendons with a modified measure
For superstrings, the consequences of replacing the measure of integration
in the Polyakov's action by where is
a density built out of degrees of freedom independent of the metric
defined in the string are studied. As in Siegel reformulation of
the Green Schwarz formalism the Wess-Zumino term is the square of
supersymmetric currents. As opposed to the Siegel case, the compensating fields
needed for this do not enter into the action just as in a total derivative.
They instead play a crucial role to make up a consistent dynamics. The string
tension appears as an integration constant of the equations of motion. The
generalization to higher dimensional extended objects is also studied using in
this case the Bergshoeff and Sezgin formalism with the associated additional
fields, which again are dynamically relevant unlike the standard formulation.
Also unlike the standard formulation, there is no need of a cosmological term
on the world brane.Comment: typos corrected, references adde
Strings and branes with a modified measure
In string theory, the consequences of replacing the measure of integration
in the Polyakov's action by where is
a density built out of degrees of freedom independent of the metric
defined in the string are studied. The string tension appears as
an integration constant of the equations of motion. The string tension can
change in different parts of the string due to the coupling of gauge fields and
point particles living in the string. The generalization to higher dimensional
extended objects is also studied. In this case there is no need of a fine tuned
cosmological term, in sharp contrast to the standard formulation of the
generalized Polyakov action for higher dimensional branes
Covariant Quantization of d=4 Brink-Schwarz Superparticle with Lorentz Harmonics
Covariant first and second quantization of the free d=4 massless
superparticle are implemented with the introduction of purely gauge auxiliary
spinor Lorentz harmonics. It is shown that the general solution of the
condition of maslessness is a sum of two independent chiral superfields with
each of them corresponding to finite superspin. A translationally covariant, in
general bijective correspondence between harmonic and massless superfields is
constructed. By calculation of the commutation function it is shown that in the
considered approach only harmonic fields with correct connection between spin
and statistics and with integer negative homogeneity index satisfy the
microcausality condition. It is emphasized that harmonic fields that arise are
reducible at integer points. The index spinor technique is used to describe
infinite-component fields of finite spin; the equations of motion of such
fields are obtained, and for them Weinberg's theorem on the connection between
massless helicity particles and the type of nongauge field that describes them
is generalized.Comment: V2: 1 + 26 pages, published versio
World Spinors - Construction and Some Applications
The existence of a topological double-covering for the and
diffeomorphism groups is reviewed. These groups do not have finite-dimensional
faithful representations. An explicit construction and the classification of
all , unitary irreducible representations is presented.
Infinite-component spinorial and tensorial fields,
"manifields", are introduced. Particle content of the ladder manifields, as
given by the "little" group is determined. The manifields are
lifted to the corresponding world spinorial and tensorial manifields by making
use of generalized infinite-component frame fields. World manifields transform
w.r.t. corresponding representations, that are constructed
explicitly.Comment: 19 pages, Te
Homogenization of weakly coupled systems of Hamilton--Jacobi equations with fast switching rates
We consider homogenization for weakly coupled systems of Hamilton--Jacobi
equations with fast switching rates. The fast switching rate terms force the
solutions converge to the same limit, which is a solution of the effective
equation. We discover the appearance of the initial layers, which appear
naturally when we consider the systems with different initial data and analyze
them rigorously. In particular, we obtain matched asymptotic solutions of the
systems and rate of convergence. We also investigate properties of the
effective Hamiltonian of weakly coupled systems and show some examples which do
not appear in the context of single equations.Comment: final version, to appear in Arch. Ration. Mech. Ana
Crossover phenomena in spin models with medium-range interactions and self-avoiding walks with medium-range jumps
We study crossover phenomena in a model of self-avoiding walks with
medium-range jumps, that corresponds to the limit of an -vector
spin system with medium-range interactions. In particular, we consider the
critical crossover limit that interpolates between the Gaussian and the
Wilson-Fisher fixed point. The corresponding crossover functions are computed
using field-theoretical methods and an appropriate mean-field expansion. The
critical crossover limit is accurately studied by numerical Monte Carlo
simulations, which are much more efficient for walk models than for spin
systems. Monte Carlo data are compared with the field-theoretical predictions
concerning the critical crossover functions, finding a good agreement. We also
verify the predictions for the scaling behavior of the leading nonuniversal
corrections. We determine phenomenological parametrizations that are exact in
the critical crossover limit, have the correct scaling behavior for the leading
correction, and describe the nonuniversal lscrossover behavior of our data for
any finite range.Comment: 43 pages, revte
Identification of a Cytotoxic Form of Dimeric Interleukin-2 in Murine Tissues
Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is a multi-faceted cytokine, known for promoting proliferation, survival, and cell death depending on the cell type and state. For example, IL-2 facilitates cell death only in activated T cells when antigen and IL-2 are abundant. The availability of IL-2 clearly impacts this process. Our laboratory recently demonstrated that IL-2 is retained in blood vessels by heparan sulfate, and that biologically active IL-2 is released from vessel tissue by heparanase. We now demonstrate that heparanase digestion also releases a dimeric form of IL-2 that is highly cytotoxic to cells expressing the IL-2 receptor. These cells include “traditional” IL-2 receptor-bearing cells such as lymphocytes, as well as those less well known for IL-2 receptor expression, such as epithelial and smooth muscle cells. The morphologic changes and rapid cell death induced by dimeric IL-2 imply that cell death is mediated by disruption of membrane permeability and subsequent necrosis. These findings suggest that IL-2 has a direct and unexpectedly broad influence on cellular homeostatic mechanisms in both immune and non-immune systems
Critical Exponents, Hyperscaling and Universal Amplitude Ratios for Two- and Three-Dimensional Self-Avoiding Walks
We make a high-precision Monte Carlo study of two- and three-dimensional
self-avoiding walks (SAWs) of length up to 80000 steps, using the pivot
algorithm and the Karp-Luby algorithm. We study the critical exponents
and as well as several universal amplitude ratios; in
particular, we make an extremely sensitive test of the hyperscaling relation
. In two dimensions, we confirm the predicted
exponent and the hyperscaling relation; we estimate the universal
ratios , and (68\% confidence
limits). In three dimensions, we estimate with a
correction-to-scaling exponent (subjective 68\%
confidence limits). This value for agrees excellently with the
field-theoretic renormalization-group prediction, but there is some discrepancy
for . Earlier Monte Carlo estimates of , which were , are now seen to be biased by corrections to scaling. We estimate the
universal ratios and ; since , hyperscaling holds. The approach to
is from above, contrary to the prediction of the two-parameter
renormalization-group theory. We critically reexamine this theory, and explain
where the error lies.Comment: 87 pages including 12 figures, 1029558 bytes Postscript
(NYU-TH-94/09/01
Teaching and learning quality of life in urban studies:A mixed-methods approach with walking interviews
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