Pelvic ring fractures: External fixation comparative numerical structural analysis

External fixation (EF) is commonly practiced for pelvic ring fractures management. Many parameters influence mechanical performances of external fixators. Our virtual 3D model of the pelvic ring introduces the advantage of differentiating the mechanical properties of cortical and cancellous bone along with the complex boundary conditions of major ligaments. We assessed stiffness variations by increasing fixator pins depth and we evaluated dislocation related to load intensity and sitting angle

Cementless total knee arthroplasty

Interest for uncemented total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has greatly increased in recent years. This technique, less used than cemented knee replacement in the last decades, sees a revival thanks an advance in prosthetic design, instrumentation and operative technique. The related literature in some cases shows conflicting data on survival and on the revision’s rate, but in most cases a success rate comparable to cemented TKA is reported. The optimal fixation in TKA is a subject of debate with the majority of surgeons favouring cemented fixation

The Role of Genetic Factors in Characterizing Extra-Intestinal Manifestations in Crohn's Disease Patients: Are Bayesian Machine Learning Methods Improving Outcome Predictions?

Abstract: (1) Background: The high heterogeneity of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) makes the study of this condition challenging. In subjects affected by Crohn’s disease (CD), extra-intestinal manifestations (EIMs) have a remarkable potential impact on health status. Increasing numbers of patient characteristics and the small size of analyzed samples make EIMs prediction very difficult. Under such constraints, Bayesian machine learning techniques (BMLTs) have been proposed as a robust alternative to classical models for outcome prediction. This study aims to determine whether BMLT could improve EIM prediction and statistical support for the decision-making process of ϊclinicians. (2) Methods: Three of the most popular BMLTs were employed in this study: Na ϊ ve Bayes (NB), Bayesian Network (BN) and Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART). They were applied to a retrospective observational Italian study of IBD genetics. (3) Results: The performance of the model is strongly affected by the features of the dataset, and BMLTs poorly classify EIM appearance. (4) Conclusions: This study shows that BMLTs perform worse than expected in classifying the presence of EIMs compared to classical statistical tools in a context where mixed genetic and clinical data are available but relevant data are also missing, as often occurs in

First BTF Measurements at the Large Hadron Collider

During the Run I in 2012, several instabilities have been observed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during the Betatron squeeze. The predictions of instability thresholds are based on the computation of the beam Landau damping by calculating the Stability Diagrams (SD). These instabilities could be explained by a deterioration of the SD due to beam-beam resonance excitation which could change the particle distributions. Beam Transfer Functions (BTF) provide a measurement of the Stability Diagram. The BTFs are sensitive to the particle detuning with amplitude as well as to the particle distributions therefore they represent a powerful tool to understand experimentally the stability of beams during the LHC operational cycle. First BTF measurements at the LHC are presented for different machine configurations and settings and compared to predictions

MD 402: Head-on limits. Separation leveling.

HL-LHC will rely on very large beam-beam head-on shift and spread. Also LHC to push for higher luminosity will go in the same direction. A clear understanding of colling high brightness beams is fundamental to guarantee the operation of such beams and to anticipate problematics linked to such configuration. We want to explore the beam dynamics of colliding beams with high brightness: intensities as high as possible close to 2e11 ppb or higher and small emittances. The goal is to monitor the beam lifetimes and emittance behavior around the machine working point for full head-on collision and for collisions with small transverse offsets. The study aims to highlight emittance growth driven by beam-beam and possible issues with instabilities due to mode coupling at injection energy

Long range beam-beam interaction and the effect on the beam and luminosity lifetimes

Identifying the minimum crossing angle achievable in the LHC is a key parameter to identify the collider luminosity reach. In this note, we summarise the observations collected during a dedicated experiment performed in 2015, where the strength of the long range beam-beam interaction is varied by reducing the crossing angle at IP1 and IP5. The crossing angle and the impact of the long range beam-beam interaction is analysed with respect to the beam and luminosity lifetimes. The effect of reducing Landau octupoles initially operating at 476 [A] and high chromaticity values (15 units) are also shown. The minimum crossing angle achievable with collisions is identified, together with the impact on beam and luminosity lifetime