APPLICATIONS IN VIBROARTHROGRAPHY: ASSESSMENTS OF INSTABILITY IN TOTAL HIP ARTHROPLASTY, CAM-POST ENGAGEMENT IN TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY, AND VISCOSUPPLEMENTATION IN OSTEOARTHRITIC KNEES

Measurement of joint sounds and vibrations for non-invasive orthopaedic diagnostic purposes has slowly advanced since the 1960s. Most work has been focused in the development of methods for screening of abnormal knees. To date the technique has not gained clinical traction as is it fraught with various obstacles and skepticism. This doctoral thesis is neither an argument in favor of nor against the clinical use of vibroarthrography for musculoskeletal diagnostics in humans, but rather an exploration of its potential in cases of orthopaedic interest. These areas include 1) instability in total hip arthroplasty, 2) cam-post engagement in posterior stabilized total knee arthroplasty, and 3) viscosupplementation in osteoarthritic knees. It was expected that each of these unique cases would be characterized by dynamic phenomena that could be measured in the form of surface vibrations at the skin.Methods previously presented in various vibroarthrography research were adopted, modified, and expounded upon to best suit the needs of each experiment. In a mechanical hip simulator, it was found that vibroarthrography could be effectively used to distinguish the difference between 1 mm and 2 mm of hip separation. In posterior stabilized total knee arthroplasty subjects, it was found that multiple vibroarthrographic features may be used to approximate the occurrence of cam-post engagement, and that vibrations measured at the joint surface may be correlated to cam-post engagement velocity. In osteoarthritic knees, the relationship between clinical evidence, viscosupplementation, and vibroarthrography varied on a case by case basis.To the knowledge of the author, all three of these experiments are the first of their kind. Ultimately, the methods and results presented within provide new foundations for vibroarthrography that may be used to further explore the clinical potential of this noninvasive diagnostic

Thinning Can Reduce Losses in Carbon Use Efficiency and Carbon Stocks in Managed Forests Under Warmer Climate

Forest carbon use efficiency (CUE, the ratio of net to gross primary productivity) represents the fraction of photosynthesis that is not used for plant respiration. Although important, it is often neglected in climate change impact analyses. Here we assess the potential impact of thinning on projected carbon cycle dynamics and implications for forest CUE and its components (i.e., gross and net primary productivity and plant respiration), as well as on forest biomass production. Using a detailed process-based forest ecosystem model forced by climate outputs of five Earth System Models under four representative climate scenarios, we investigate the sensitivity of the projected future changes in the autotrophic carbon budget of three representative European forests. We focus on changes in CUE and carbon stocks as a result of warming, rising atmospheric CO2 concentration, and forest thinning. Results show that autotrophic carbon sequestration decreases with forest development, and the decrease is faster with warming and in unthinned forests. This suggests that the combined impacts of climate change and changing CO2 concentrations lead the forests to grow faster, mature earlier, and also die younger. In addition, we show that under future climate conditions, forest thinning could mitigate the decrease in CUE, increase carbon allocation into more recalcitrant woody pools, and reduce physiological-climate-induced mortality risks. Altogether, our results show that thinning can improve the efficacy of forest-based mitigation strategies and should be carefully considered within a portfolio of mitigation options

Proteomic Analysis of <i>Sulfolobus solfataricus</i> during <i>Sulfolobus</i> Turreted Icosahedral Virus Infection

Where there is life, there are viruses. The impact of viruses on evolution, global nutrient cycling, and disease has driven research on their cellular and molecular biology. Knowledge exists for a wide range of viruses; however, a major exception are viruses with archaeal hosts. Archaeal virus–host systems are of great interest because they have similarities to both eukaryotic and bacterial systems and often live in extreme environments. Here we report the first proteomics-based experiments on archaeal host response to viral infection. <i>Sulfolobus</i> Turreted Icosahedral Virus (STIV) infection of <i>Sulfolobus solfataricus</i> P2 was studied using 1D and 2D differential gel electrophoresis (DIGE) to measure abundance and redox changes. Cysteine reactivity was measured using novel fluorescent zwitterionic chemical probes that, together with abundance changes, suggest that virus and host are both vying for control of redox status in the cells. Proteins from nearly 50% of the predicted viral open reading frames were found along with a new STIV protein with a homologue in STIV2. This study provides insight to features of viral replication novel to the archaea, makes strong connections to well-described mechanisms used by eukaryotic viruses such as ESCRT-III mediated transport, and emphasizes the complementary nature of different omics approaches

Proteomic Analysis of <i>Sulfolobus solfataricus</i> during <i>Sulfolobus</i> Turreted Icosahedral Virus Infection

Where there is life, there are viruses. The impact of viruses on evolution, global nutrient cycling, and disease has driven research on their cellular and molecular biology. Knowledge exists for a wide range of viruses; however, a major exception are viruses with archaeal hosts. Archaeal virus–host systems are of great interest because they have similarities to both eukaryotic and bacterial systems and often live in extreme environments. Here we report the first proteomics-based experiments on archaeal host response to viral infection. <i>Sulfolobus</i> Turreted Icosahedral Virus (STIV) infection of <i>Sulfolobus solfataricus</i> P2 was studied using 1D and 2D differential gel electrophoresis (DIGE) to measure abundance and redox changes. Cysteine reactivity was measured using novel fluorescent zwitterionic chemical probes that, together with abundance changes, suggest that virus and host are both vying for control of redox status in the cells. Proteins from nearly 50% of the predicted viral open reading frames were found along with a new STIV protein with a homologue in STIV2. This study provides insight to features of viral replication novel to the archaea, makes strong connections to well-described mechanisms used by eukaryotic viruses such as ESCRT-III mediated transport, and emphasizes the complementary nature of different omics approaches

The CMS Statistical Analysis and Combination Tool: COMBINE

International audienceThis paper describes the COMBINE software package used for statistical analyses by the CMS Collaboration. The package, originally designed to perform searches for a Higgs boson and the combined analysis of those searches, has evolved to become the statistical analysis tool presently used in the majority of measurements and searches performed by the CMS Collaboration. It is not specific to the CMS experiment, and this paper is intended to serve as a reference for users outside of the CMS Collaboration, providing an outline of the most salient features and capabilities. Readers are provided with the possibility to run COMBINE and reproduce examples provided in this paper using a publicly available container image. Since the package is constantly evolving to meet the demands of ever-increasing data sets and analysis sophistication, this paper cannot cover all details of COMBINE. However, the online documentation referenced within this paper provides an up-to-date and complete user guide

Observation of double J/ψ\psi meson production in pPb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 8.16 TeV

International audienceThe first observation of the concurrent production of two J/$\psi$ mesons in proton-nucleus collisions is presented. The analysis is based on a proton-lead (pPb) data sample recorded at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 174.6 nb$^{-1}$. The two J/$\psi$ mesons are reconstructed in their $\mu^+\mu^-$ decay channels with transverse momenta $p_\mathrm{T}$$\gt$ 6.5 GeV and rapidity $\lvert y \rvert$$\lt$ 2.4. Events where one of the J/$\psi$ mesons is reconstructed in the dielectron channel are also considered in the search. The pPb $\to$ J/$\psi$J/$\psi$+X process is observed with a significance of 5.3 standard deviations. The measured inclusive fiducial cross section, using the four-muon channel alone, is $\sigma$(pPb$\to$ J/$\psi$J/$\psi$+X)= 22.0 $\pm$ 8.9 (stat) $\pm$ 1.5 (syst) nb. A fit of the data to the expected rapidity separation for pairs of J/$\psi$ mesons produced in single (SPS) and double (DPS) parton scatterings yields $\sigma^{\mathrm{pPb}\to\mathrm{J}/\psi\mathrm{J}/\psi+\mathrm{X}}_\text{SPS}$ = 16.5 $\pm$ 10.8 (stat) $\pm$ 0.1 (syst) nb and $\sigma^{\mathrm{pPb}\to \mathrm{J}/\psi\mathrm{J}/\psi+\mathrm{X}}_\text{DPS}$ = 5.4 $\pm$ 6.2 (stat) $\pm$ 0.4 (syst) nb, respectively. This latter result can be transformed into a lower bound on the effective DPS cross section, closely related to the squared average interparton transverse separation in the collision, of $\sigma_\text{eff}$$\gt$ 1.0 mb at 95% confidence level