Locking plate fixation with and without inferomedial screws for proximal humeral fractures: a biomechanical study.

PURPOSE. To compare the efficacy of locking plate fixation with and without inferomedial screws in maintaining the reduction of a proximal humeral fracture. METHODS. 22 synthetic humerus models were used. A standardised 3-part proximal humeral fracture with a 4-mm wedge segment was created and fixed with a locking plate and screws with (n=11) and without (n=11) inferomedial screws. The intrafragmentary motion of the construct at 250, 500, 750, and 1000 cycles of 532 N loading, and the load to failure of the 2 groups were compared. RESULTS. Locking plate fixation with inferomedial screws reduced the mean intrafragmentary motion in all cycles (

Truncation of POC1A associated with short stature and extreme insulin resistance

We describe a female proband with primordial dwarfism, skeletal dysplasia, facial dysmorphism, extreme dyslipidaemic insulin resistance and fatty liver associated with a novel homozygous frameshift mutation in POC1A, predicted to affect two of the three protein products of the gene. POC1A encodes a protein associated with centrioles throughout the cell cycle and implicated in both mitotic spindle and primary ciliary function. Three homozygous mutations affecting all isoforms of POC1A have recently been implicated in a similar syndrome of primordial dwarfism, although no detailed metabolic phenotypes were described. Primary cells from the proband we describe exhibited increased centrosome amplification and multipolar spindle formation during mitosis, but showed normal DNA content, arguing against mitotic skipping, cleavage failure or cell fusion. Despite evidence of increased DNA damage in cells with supernumerary centrosomes, no aneuploidy was detected. Extensive centrosome clustering both at mitotic spindles and in primary cilia mitigated the consequences of centrosome amplification, and primary ciliary formation was normal. Although further metabolic studies of patients with POC1A mutations are warranted, we suggest that POC1A may be added to ALMS1 and PCNT as examples of centrosomal or pericentriolar proteins whose dysfunction leads to extreme dyslipidaemic insulin resistance. Further investigation of links between these molecular defects and adipose tissue dysfunction is likely to yield insights into mechanisms of adipose tissue maintenance and regeneration that are critical to metabolic health

Stylistic analysis of stone arrangements supports regional cultural interactions along the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

Stone arrangements are frequently encountered on the Australian mainland and islands. They have high significance values to Indigenous Australians and are usually associated with the material expression and emplacement of socio-religious beliefs and associated ceremonial/ritual activities. Despite their ubiquity, stone arrangements are an understudied site type with their distribution and morphological variability remaining poorly documented and their functional variability poorly understood. Although in most parts of Australia the authorship of stone arrangements is unambiguously Aboriginal, for far north Queensland this is less clear for places where Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, and more recently South Sea Islanders, all with documented traditions of stone arrangement construction and use, are known to have operated. A comparative stylistic analysis of stone arrangements constructed by Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Islanders and Island Melanesians of the southwest Pacific reveals that although Lizard Island Group stone arrangements are predominately of Aboriginal authorship, some arrangements exhibit cultural influences from neighbouring areas. In this respect, Lizard Island Group stone arrangements appear to be a further material expression of the Torres Strait Cultural Complex and Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere

Are some teat disinfectant formulations more effective against specific bacteria isolated on teat skin than others?

peer-reviewedThe use of pre- and post-milking teat disinfectants can reduce teat bacterial load and aid in the collection of high-quality milk. The objective of this study was to compare the reduction in bacteria populations on teat skin after the application of different commercial teat disinfectant products. Ten teat disinfectant products were applied to the teats of 10 Holstein–Friesian cows. One cow received one teat disinfectant product at each sampling point before cluster application for milking. A composite swab sample was taken of the 4 teats of each cow before and after teat disinfectant application. Swab samples were placed on three different selective agars to enumerate bacterial counts of staphylococcal, streptococcal and coliforms isolates on teat skin. Staphylococcal isolates were the most prominent bacterial group recovered on teat swabs (49%), followed by streptococcal (36%) and coliform (15%) isolates before the application of disinfectant. The average bacterial reductions on teat skin were shown to be 76%, 73% and 60% for staphylococcal, streptococcal and coliform isolates, respectively. All of the teat disinfectant products tested reduced teat bacterial load for all three bacterial groups. Product 4 containing 0.6% w/w diamine was the most effective against bacterial populations of staphylococcal and streptococcal isolates on teat skin with a reduction of 90% and 94%, respectively. Whereas product 10, which contained 0.5% w/w iodine, resulted in the highest reduction in coliforms on teat skin with a reduction of 91%. Results from this study suggest that specific bacterial population loads on teats can be reduced using different teat disinfectant formulations

Write Amplification Reduction in Flash-Based SSDs Through Extent-Based Temperature Identification

Abstract We apply an extent-based clustering technique to the problem of identifying "hot" or frequently-written data in an SSD, allowing such data to be segregated for improved cleaning performance. We implement and evaluate this technology in simulation, using a page-mapped FTL with Greedy cleaning and separate hot and cold write frontiers. We compare it with two recently proposed hot data identification algorithms, Multiple Hash Functions and Multiple Bloom Filters, keeping the remainder of the FTL / cleaning algorithm unchanged. In almost all cases write amplification was lower with the extent-based algorithm; although in some cases the improvement was modest, in others it was as much as 20%. These gains are achieved with very small amounts of memory, e.g. roughly 10 KB for the implementation tested, an important factor for SSDs where most DRAM is dedicated to address maps and data buffers

Screening commercial teat disinfectants against bacteria isolated from bovine milk using disk diffusion

peer-reviewedBackground and Aim: Teat disinfection is an important tool in reducing the incidence of bovine mastitis. Identifying the potential mastitis-causing bacterial species in milk can be the first step in choosing the correct teat disinfectant product. The objective of this study was to screen commercial teat disinfectants for inhibition against mastitis-associated bacteria isolated from various types of milk samples. Materials and Methods: Twelve commercially available teat disinfectant products were tested, against 12 mastitis-associated bacteria strains isolated from bulk tank milk samples and bacterial strains isolated from clinical (n=2) and subclinical (n=3) quarter foremilk samples using the disk diffusion method. Results: There was a significant variation (7-30 mm) in bacterial inhibition between teat disinfection products, with products containing a lactic acid combination (with chlorhexidine or salicylic acid) resulting in the greatest levels of bacterial inhibition against all tested bacteria (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study, combined ingredients in teat disinfection products had greater levels of bacterial inhibition than when the ingredients were used individually. The disk diffusion assay is a suitable screening method to effectively differentiate the bacterial inhibition of different teat disinfectant products

X-linked primary ciliary dyskinesia due to mutations in the cytoplasmic axonemal dynein assembly factor PIH1D3

By moving essential body fluids and molecules, motile cilia and flagella govern respiratory mucociliary clearance, laterality determination and the transport of gametes and cerebrospinal fluid. Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder frequently caused by non-assembly of dynein arm motors into cilia and flagella axonemes. Before their import into cilia and flagella, multi-subunit axonemal dynein arms are thought to be stabilized and pre-assembled in the cytoplasm through a DNAAF2–DNAAF4–HSP90 complex akin to the HSP90 co-chaperone R2TP complex. Here, we demonstrate that large genomic deletions as well as point mutations involving PIH1D3 are responsible for an X-linked form of PCD causing disruption of early axonemal dynein assembly. We propose that PIH1D3, a protein that emerges as a new player of the cytoplasmic pre-assembly pathway, is part of a complementary conserved R2TP-like HSP90 co-chaperone complex, the loss of which affects assembly of a subset of inner arm dyneins

The effect of disinfectant ingredients on teat skin bacteria associated with mastitis in Irish dairy herds

peer-reviewedBackground Teat disinfection is an important step in the control of mastitis within a dairy herd. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 96 commercially available teat disinfectant products in Ireland against bacterial isolates on teat skin. Teat disinfection products were applied to the teats of seventeen Holstein–Friesian cows. A split-udder model was used where one cow received two different teat disinfection products on each day. A composite swab sample was taken of the left teats and the right teats before and after teat disinfectant application. Swab samples were plated onto 3 different selective agars to enumerate bacterial counts of streptococcal, staphylococcal and coliform isolates. Results Streptococcal isolates were the most prominent bacterial group recovered on teat swabs taken before the application of a teat disinfection product (55.0%), followed by staphylococcal isolates (41.3%) and coliform isolates (3.7%). Products were reclassified by active ingredients (n = 9) for analysis. These ingredient groups included; chlorhexidine, chlorine dioxide, diamine, iodine, iodine and lactic acid, lactic acid, lactic acid and chlorhexidine, lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide, and lactic acid and salicylic acid. The ingredient group, chlorine dioxide, resulted in comparable reductions to the iodine group for streptococcal isolates. The ingredient group, iodine combined with lactic acid, resulted in the greatest reduction of staphylococcal isolates. When observing products individually, a product containing 1.6% w/w lactic acid combined with hydrogen peroxide was the most effective at reducing streptococcal isolates on the teat skin, whereas a product containing lactic acid combined with 0.6% w/w chlorhexidine was the most effective against staphylococcal isolates. Minor differences were observed regarding the relationship between effectiveness and active ingredient concentration between products. Conclusions This study suggests that some teat disinfectant products achieve a higher reduction in bacterial levels against different specific bacterial groups on teat skin than other products. Therefore, when choosing a teat disinfectant product, the bacteria in the dairy herds’ environment should be considered. Further studies are necessary to evaluate products efficacy against new IMIs and any possible effects on teat skin condition

Remanufacture of hot forging tools and dies using Laser Metal Deposition with powder and a hard-facing alloy Stellite 21®

Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) processes are attracting interest in the forging industry due to their potential suitability for remanufacturing and repair of tools and dies. The ALM process known as Laser Metal Deposition with powder (LMD-p) can be used to provide a hard-facing alloy repair to hot forging tools. This is particularly important on complex tool geometries due their superior wear resistance. The Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) has established a low cost standard test method to evaluate abrasive and adhesive wear on hot forging H13 tool steel dies on an industrial scale 160kJ Schuler screw press. The bespoke tool design allows researchers to benchmark new and novel coatings, lubricants and additive layers against a known standard. Furthermore, AFRC metrology standard methods ensure repeatability and reproducibility of benchmark results. To evaluate the performance of LMD-p for remanufacturing of hot forging tools and dies, a cobalt based alloy (Stellite 21®) was selected. Stellite 21® is widely used as a hard-facing alloy as it provides excellent machinability coupled with superior wear characteristics. AFRC standard dies were coated with LMD-p Stellite 21®. The LMD-p coating was then machined to final geometry and then subjected to hot forging under AFRC standard conditions to compare to benchmark wear characteristics. Adhesive and abrasive wear was evaluated. It was shown that the Stellite 21® LMD-p additive layer performed better in both adhesive and abrasive conditions than standard H13 tools steel dies