COACHING AND CONCUSSIONS: PREVENTION, EDUCATION, AND PERSPECTIVE

The large participation of players and coaches in football has made it one of the most popular sports in America. Concussions have specifically gained national attention in football due to frequent, high impact collisions. A concussion injury poses a unique threat in high school football because of the developing adolescent brain and high participation numbers. Additionally, lack of medical personnel to diagnose concussions at the high school level imposes a legal duty on the coaches. The thesis develops a recommended plan of action for directors of Iowa high school football to assist in preserving the future of the sport. A survey of Iowa high school football coaches in 2014 served as the foundation for the recommendation. An analysis of the physiology of concussions and prevention methods are also discussed, because regardless of one’s love for a sport, no victory is worth a young athlete’s life

Function and quality of life following medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in patients 60years of age or younger

SummaryIntroductionUKA is an appropriate bone-sparing solution for focal advanced knee osteoarthritis in young patients. As the expectations of patients younger than 60 years of age are different from those in an older population, we aimed to evaluate quality of life and the quality of sports activity after UKA in this population.Patients and methodsSixty-five UKAs in 62 patients younger than 60 (mean age: 54.7 years; mean BMI: 28kg/m2) performed between 1989 and 2006 were included. At last follow-up (minimum 2 years), before the objective evaluation, patients were asked to fill in a KOOS questionnaire and a specific sports questionnaire including the UCLA score and questions from the Mohtadi score.ResultsWith a mean follow-up of 11.2±5 years (range, 2–19 years), the KOOS score was higher than 75 points in 90% of the patients for the quality-of-life categories but also for the score's four other categories: 83.4% of the patients had resumed their sports activities and the mean UCLA score was 6.8 (range, 4–9); 90% of the patients reported no or slight limitation during sports activities. The function KSS improved from 52±4 to 95±3 points postoperatively and the Knee KSS from 50±4 to 94±4 points. With three patients undergoing revision for an isolated insert exchange, one for septic loosening and three for osteoarthritis in the external compartment, the 12-year Kaplan-Meier survivorship was 94%.Discussion and conclusionThese results confirmed that UKA can provide good patient-rated outcomes, which is very important in this demanding population. As for TKA, wear remains a problem in this active population.Level of evidenceTherapeutic study, level IV

Indirect Recruitment of a CD40 Signaling Pathway in Dendritic Cells by B7-DC Cross-Linking Antibody Modulates T Cell Functions

The human IgM B7-DC XAb protects mice from tumors in both therapeutic and prophylactic settings. Its mechanism of action is mediated by its binding to B7-DC/PD-L2 molecules on the surface of dendritic cells (DCs) to induce a multimolecular cap and subsequent activation of signaling cascades that determine a unique combination of DC phenotypes. One such phenotype, the B7-DC XAb-induced antigen accumulation in mTLR-matured DCs, has been linked to signaling through TREM-2, but the signals required for other DC phenotypes critical for the therapeutic effects in animal models remain unclear. Here, FRET and co-immunoprecipitation studies show that CD40 is recruited to the multi-molecular complex by B7-DC XAb. Signals emanating from CD40 are important, as CD40−/− DCs treated with B7-DC XAb (DCXAb) activated DAP12, but failed to activate NFκB, and were not protected from cell death upon cytokine withdrawal or treatment with Vitamin D3. CD40−/− DCXAb also failed to secrete IL-6 and were unable to support the conversion of T regulatory cells into IL-17+ effector T cells in vitro. Importantly, the expression of CD40 was required for the overall ability of B7-DC XAb to induce anti-tumor CTL, to provide protection from a number of tumor types, and for DCXAb to be effective anti-tumor vaccines in vivo. These results indicate that B7-DC XAb modulation of DC phenotypes is through its ability to indirectly recruit common signaling molecules and elements of their endogenous signaling pathways through targeted binding to a cell-specific surface determinant

A Review on Mechanics and Mechanical Properties of 2D Materials - Graphene and Beyond

Since the first successful synthesis of graphene just over a decade ago, a variety of two-dimensional (2D) materials (e.g., transition metal-dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron-nitride, etc.) have been discovered. Among the many unique and attractive properties of 2D materials, mechanical properties play important roles in manufacturing, integration and performance for their potential applications. Mechanics is indispensable in the study of mechanical properties, both experimentally and theoretically. The coupling between the mechanical and other physical properties (thermal, electronic, optical) is also of great interest in exploring novel applications, where mechanics has to be combined with condensed matter physics to establish a scalable theoretical framework. Moreover, mechanical interactions between 2D materials and various substrate materials are essential for integrated device applications of 2D materials, for which the mechanics of interfaces (adhesion and friction) has to be developed for the 2D materials. Here we review recent theoretical and experimental works related to mechanics and mechanical properties of 2D materials. While graphene is the most studied 2D material to date, we expect continual growth of interest in the mechanics of other 2D materials beyond graphene