Evaluation of functional outcome and patient satisfaction after arthroscopic elbow arthrolysis

Arthroscopic arthrolysis is indicated for stiffness and pain caused by intrinsic stiffness and early arthritis of the elbow joint. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits in relieving pain and improving motion, but none have reported the specific functional recovery. To understand the functional outcome and patient satisfaction, 26 patients were reviewed at a mean follow-up of 25 months. All were manual workers or strength athletes. Pre- and post-operative evaluation included the Elbow Functional Assessment score, patient satisfaction and return to work and sports. Function improved significantly in 87% and the overall Elbow Functional Assessment score raised from a preoperative 48 to a postoperative 84. Arthroscopic arthrolysis not only improved pain and the range of motion, but also restored the elbow function and returned patients to their desired level of activity

The Origins of New Industries: The Case of the Mobile Internet

This paper describes a model of new industry formation that is based on evolutionary theories of technical change. It represents the origins of new network industries as the interaction between multiple technological trajectories that are specific to a particular technology or broadly defined technological regime. The speed with which these multiple trajectories cause industry formation depends on their effective application to the most economical applications; this process occurs through the interaction between design hierarchies and market concepts. Growth in these initial applications causes sub-trajectories or sub-regimes, where competition in the new industry initially takes place, to emerge from the main trajectories. The model is applied to the mobile Internet, an industry that has just started to grow particularly in Japan and Korea.Origins, Industry, Technology, Trajectory, Design, Hierarchy, Market, Competition, Cooperation, Disruptive, Mobile, Internet

Accelerating the Globalization of America: The Role for Information Technology

Information technology (IT) was key to the superior overall macroeconomic performance of the United States in the 1990s--high productivity, high growth, low inflation, and low unemployment. But IT also played a role in increasing earnings dispersion in the labor market--greatly rewarding workers with high education and skills. This US performance did not happen in a global vacuum. Globalization of US IT firms promoted deeper integration of IT throughout the US economy, which in turn promoted more extensive globalization in other sectors of the US economy and labor market. How will the increasingly globalized IT industry affect US long-term growth, intermediate macro performance, and disparities in the US labor market? What policies are needed to ensure that the United States remains first in innovation, business transformation, and education and skills, which are prerequisites for US economic leadership in the 21st century? This book traces the globalization of the IT industry, its diffusion into the US economy, and the prospects and implications of more extensive technology-enabled globalization of products and services.

Process of Infection with Bacteriophage φX174 XXXIII. Templates for the Synthesis of Single-Stranded Deoxyribonucleic Acid

The origin of the templates for the synthesis of {varphi}X174 progeny single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid was studied by means of the mutagenic activity associated with the decay of incorporated 3H-labeled 5-cytosine. The results indicate that the single-strand synthesis occurs in an asymmetric semiconservative manner using as template the complementary strands of the pool of replicative from molecules accumulated during the eclipse period. These complementary strands are repeatedly used as templates, and there is no detectable preferential use of complementary strand templates made early in the eclipse versus those made late

L-configuration re-attachment of distal biceps tendon rupture

In distal biceps tendon ruptures, re-attachment to the radial tuberosity should ensure adequate tendon to bone contact for optimal healing

Front-End electronics configuration system for CMS

The four LHC experiments at CERN have decided to use a commercial SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) product for the supervision of their DCS (Detector Control System). The selected SCADA, which is therefore used for the CMS DCS, is PVSS II from the company ETM. This SCADA has its own database, which is suitable for storing conventional controls data such as voltages, temperatures and pressures. In addition, calibration data and FE (Front-End) electronics configuration need to be stored. The amount of these data is too large to be stored in the SCADA database [1]. Therefore an external database will be used for managing such data. However, this database should be completely integrated into the SCADA framework, it should be accessible from the SCADA and the SCADA features, e.g. alarming, logging should be benefited from. For prototyping, Oracle 8i was selected as the external database manager. The development of the control system for calibration constants and FE electronics configuration has been done in close collaboration with the CMS tracker group and JCOP (Joint COntrols Project)(1). (1)The four LHC experiments and the CERN IT/CO group has merged their efforts to build the experiments controls systems and set up the JCOP at the end of December, 1997 for this purpose.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Icaleps'01 conference PSN WEDT00

Drift of Riffle Beetles (Coleoptera: Elmidae) in a Small Illinois Stream

The daily and seasonal periodicities of drift of riffle beetles were examined in Polecat Creek. Illinois. during the spring and summer of 1978. Drift samples were collected from a single site over four 24-h periods. Dubiraphia vittata adults comprised 72% of the total numerical sample and exhibited greatest mean daily drift density in September. Macronychus glabratus adults were also common in drift collections, with highest densities re- corded during .\u27.lay and August. The drift of D. vittata and M. glabratus exhibited distinct patterns of die! periodicity with peaks occurring in the early hours of darkness. Substantial differences in drift densities between adult and larval stages were evident for D. vittata and M. glabratus. in both cases the adults were more prone to drift

TVL₁shape approximation from scattered 3D data

With the emergence in 3D sensors such as laser scanners and 3D reconstruction from cameras, large 3D point clouds can now be sampled from physical objects within a scene. The raw 3D samples delivered by these sensors however, contain only a limited degree of information about the environment the objects exist in, which means that further geometrical high-level modelling is essential. In addition, issues like sparse data measurements, noise, missing samples due to occlusion, and the inherently huge datasets involved in such representations makes this task extremely challenging. This paper addresses these issues by presenting a new 3D shape modelling framework for samples acquired from 3D sensor. Motivated by the success of nonlinear kernel-based approximation techniques in the statistics domain, existing methods using radial basis functions are applied to 3D object shape approximation. The task is framed as an optimization problem and is extended using non-smooth L1 total variation regularization. Appropriate convex energy functionals are constructed and solved by applying the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers approach, which is then extended using Gauss-Seidel iterations. This significantly lowers the computational complexity involved in generating 3D shape from 3D samples, while both numerical and qualitative analysis confirms the superior shape modelling performance of this new framework compared with existing 3D shape reconstruction techniques

Liver-specific knockout of arginase-1 leads to a profound phenotype similar to inducible whole body arginase-1 deficiency

Arginase-1 (Arg1) converts arginine to urea and ornithine in the distal step of the urea cycle in liver. We previously generated a tamoxifen-inducible Arg1 deficient mouse model (Arg1-Cre) that disrupts Arg1 expression throughout the whole body and leads to lethality ≈ 2 weeks after gene disruption. Here, we evaluate if liver-selective Arg1 loss is sufficient to recapitulate the phenotype observed in global Arg1 knockout mice, as well as to gauge the effectiveness of gene delivery or hepatocyte transplantation to rescue the phenotype. Liver-selective Arg1 deletion was induced by using an adeno-associated viral (AAV)-thyroxine binding globulin (TBG) promoter-Cre recombinase vector administered to Arg1 "floxed" mice; Arg1(fl/fl) ). An AAV vector expressing an Arg1-enhanced green fluorescent protein (Arg1-eGFP) transgene was used for gene delivery, while intrasplenic injection of wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 hepatocytes after partial hepatectomy was used for cell delivery to "rescue" tamoxifen-treated Arg1-Cre mice. The results indicate that liver-selective loss of Arg1 (> 90% deficient) leads to a phenotype resembling the whole body knockout of Arg1 with lethality ≈ 3 weeks after Cre-induced gene disruption. Delivery of Arg1-eGFP AAV rescues more than half of Arg1 global knockout male mice (survival > 4 months) but a significant proportion still succumb to the enzyme deficiency even though liver expression and enzyme activity of the fusion protein reach levels observed in WT animals. Significant Arg1 enzyme activity from engrafted WT hepatocytes into knockout livers can be achieved but not sufficient for rescuing the lethal phenotype. This raises a conundrum relating to liver-specific expression of Arg1. On the one hand, loss of expression in this organ appears to be both necessary and sufficient to explain the lethal phenotype of the genetic disorder in mice. On the other hand, gene and cell-directed therapies suggest that rescue of extra-hepatic Arg1 expression may also be necessary for disease correction. Further studies are needed in order to illuminate the detailed mechanisms for pathogenesis of Arg1-deficiency

Inducible arginase 1 deficiency in mice leads to hyperargininemia and altered amino acid metabolism

Arginase deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive disorder resulting from a loss of the liver arginase isoform, arginase 1 (ARG1), which is the final step in the urea cycle for detoxifying ammonia. ARG1 deficiency leads to hyperargininemia, characterized by progressive neurological impairment, persistent growth retardation and infrequent episodes of hyperammonemia. Using the Cre/loxP-directed conditional gene knockout system, we generated an inducible Arg1-deficient mouse model by crossing "floxed" Arg1 mice with CreER(T2) mice. The resulting mice (Arg-Cre) die about two weeks after tamoxifen administration regardless of the starting age of inducing the knockout. These treated mice were nearly devoid of Arg1 mRNA, protein and liver arginase activity, and exhibited symptoms of hyperammonemia. Plasma amino acid analysis revealed pronounced hyperargininemia and significant alterations in amino acid and guanidino compound metabolism, including increased citrulline and guanidinoacetic acid. Despite no alteration in ornithine levels, concentrations of other amino acids such as proline and the branched-chain amino acids were reduced. In summary, we have generated and characterized an inducible Arg1-deficient mouse model exhibiting several pathologic manifestations of hyperargininemia. This model should prove useful for exploring potential treatment options of ARG1 deficiency