637 research outputs found
Одномоментная коррекция врожденной брахиметатарзии у подростков и пациентов молодого возраста
Introduction. Brachymetatarsia is a relatively rare abnormal shortening of metatarsal bone with female predominance. No consensus exists about the ideal surgical treatment for this condition while the two common strategies are gradual lengthening using external fixation and acute one stage lengthening. We describe the surgical technique of acute lengthening using iliac bone graft and report our results. Materials and Methods. Twelve patients (11 females, one male) with 14 short metatarsals were treated in our hospital over a 12-year period. The mean age was 17.4 years (range 14-28 years). Treatment protocol included metatarsal osteotomy, lengthening of extensor tendon and percutaneous tenotomy of the flexor tendon at the level of affected MP joint. Autologous iliac bone graft was inserted after elongation of the metatarsal by distraction through the osteotomy site and fixed using Kirshner wire. Results. Average metatarsal shortening was 13mm (range, 11-18 mm). The metatarsal length gained was an average of 12mm (range, 11-15 mm). Uneventful bone union was achieved in all cases after six weeks. At the end of treatment, the normal cascade of the metatarsal heads (metatarsal parabola) had been restored in 11 of the 14 metatarsals treated. There were no wound complications or pin tract infections around the wire. All but one patient were satisfied with the cosmetic appearance of the foot. Conclusion. Based on our experience, acute metatarsal lengthening using an iliac autugraft is a reliable and effective treatment method for congenital brachymetatarsia in adolescents and young adults.Level of Evidence: Level IV Case series.Введение. Брахиметатарзия является относительно редкой патологией аномального укорочения плюсневых костей, наиболее часто встречающейся у женщин. В настоящее время отсутствует консенсус в отношении идеального хирургического метода лечения данной деформации, и существуют две общепризнанные стратегии лечения: постепенное удлинение с использованием чрескостного остеосинтеза и одномоментное удлинение с применением аутотрансплантата. Авторы описывают хирургическую технику и приводят свои результаты выполнения одномоментной процедуры удлинения с использованием аутотрансплантата из гребня подвздошной кости. Материал и методы. За 12-летний период в клинике были прооперированы 12 пациентов (11 женщин, 1 мужчина) с укорочениями 14 плюсневых костей. Средний возраст пациентов — 17,4 лет (от 14 до 28 лет). Протокол лечения включал остеотомию плюсневых костей, удлинение сухожилия разгибателя и чрезкожную тенотомию сухожилия сгибателя на уровне деформированного пястно-фалангового сустава. Аутотрансплантат из гребня подвздошной кости помещали в область остеотомии после дистракции плюсневой кости и фиксировали спицами Киршнера. Результаты. Средняя величина укорочения плюсневых костей составляла 13 мм (в диапазоне от 11 до 18 мм). Средняя величина достигнутого удлинения составила 12 мм (в диапазоне от 11 до 15 мм). Костное сращение без осложнений у всех пациентов наблюдали через шесть недель. В результате лечения было восстановлено нормальное анатомическое соотношение головок плюсневых костей (плюсневая парабола) у 11 из 14 плюсневых костей. Авторы не наблюдали случаев осложнения заживления хирургической раны или инфекции в области введения спиц. За исключением одного все пациенты были удовлетворены эстетическим внешним видом стопы. Заключение. Исходя из опыта авторов, одноэтапное удлинение плюсневых костей с применением аутотрансплантата из подвздошной кости является надежным и эффективным методом лечения врожденной брахиметатарзии у подростков и пациентов молодого возраста. Уровень доказательности: IV, серия клинических наблюдений
Correlations and Pair Formation in a Repulsively Interacting Fermi Gas
A degenerate Fermi gas is rapidly quenched into the regime of strong
effective repulsion near a Feshbach resonance. The spin fluctuations are
monitored using speckle imaging and, contrary to several theoretical
predictions, the samples remain in the paramagnetic phase for arbitrarily large
scattering length. Over a wide range of interaction strengths a rapid decay
into bound pairs is observed over times on the order of 10\hbar/E_F, preventing
the study of equilibrium phases of strongly repulsive fermions. Our work
suggests that a Fermi gas with strong short-range repulsive interactions does
not undergo a ferromagnetic phase transition
Survival Probabilities of History-Dependent Random Walks
We analyze the dynamics of random walks with long-term memory (binary chains
with long-range correlations) in the presence of an absorbing boundary. An
analytically solvable model is presented, in which a dynamical phase-transition
occurs when the correlation strength parameter \mu reaches a critical value
\mu_c. For strong positive correlations, \mu > \mu_c, the survival probability
is asymptotically finite, whereas for \mu < \mu_c it decays as a power-law in
time (chain length).Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
A coupled bulk-surface model for cell polarisation
Several cellular activities, such as directed cell migration, are coordinated by an intricate network of biochemical reactions which lead to a polarised state of the cell, in which cellular symmetry is broken, causing the cell to have a well defined front and back. Recent work on balancing biological complexity with mathematical tractability resulted in the proposal and formulation of a famous minimal model for cell polarisation, known as the wave pinning model. In this study, we present a three-dimensional generalisation of this mathematical framework through the maturing theory of coupled bulk-surface semilinear partial differential equations in which protein compartmentalisation becomes natural. We show how a local perturbation over the surface can trigger propagating reactions, eventually stopped in a stable profile by the interplay with the bulk component. We describe the behaviour of the model through asymptotic and local perturbation analysis, in which the role of the geometry is investigated. The bulk-surface finite element method is used to generate numerical simulations over simple and complex geometries, which confirm our analysis, showing pattern formation due to propagation and pinning dynamics. The generality of our mathematical and computational framework allows to study more complex biochemical reactions and biomechanical properties associated with cell polarisation in multi-dimensions
Selection Rules for Black-Hole Quantum Transitions
We suggest that quantum transitions of black holes comply with selection
rules, analogous to those of atomic spectroscopy. In order to identify such
rules, we apply Bohr's correspondence principle to the quasinormal ringing
frequencies of black holes. In this context, classical ringing frequencies with
an asymptotically vanishing real part \omega_R correspond to virtual quanta,
and may thus be interpreted as forbidden quantum transitions. With this
motivation, we calculate the quasinormal spectrum of neutrino fields in
spherically symmetric black-hole spacetimes. It is shown that \omega_R->0 for
these resonances, suggesting that the corresponding fermionic transitions are
quantum mechanically forbidden.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Suppression of Density Fluctuations in a Quantum Degenerate Fermi Gas
We study density profiles of an ideal Fermi gas and observe Pauli suppression
of density fluctuations (atom shot noise) for cold clouds deep in the quantum
degenerate regime. Strong suppression is observed for probe volumes containing
more than 10,000 atoms. Measuring the level of suppression provides sensitive
thermometry at low temperatures. After this method of sensitive noise
measurements has been validated with an ideal Fermi gas, it can now be applied
to characterize phase transitions in strongly correlated many-body systems.Comment: minor edit: fixed technical problem with arxiv's processing of .eps
figur
Distribution of Lentiviral Vector Integration Sites in Mice Following Therapeutic Gene Transfer to Treat β-thalassemia
Phase-Transition in Binary Sequences with Long-Range Correlations
Motivated by novel results in the theory of correlated sequences, we analyze
the dynamics of random walks with long-term memory (binary chains with
long-range correlations). In our model, the probability for a unit bit in a
binary string depends on the fraction of unities preceding it. We show that the
system undergoes a dynamical phase-transition from normal diffusion, in which
the variance D_L scales as the string's length L, into a super-diffusion phase
(D_L ~ L^{1+|alpha|}), when the correlation strength exceeds a critical value.
We demonstrate the generality of our results with respect to alternative
models, and discuss their applicability to various data, such as coarse-grained
DNA sequences, written texts, and financial data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Asymptotic Spectroscopy of Rotating Black Holes
We calculate analytically the transmission and reflection amplitudes for
waves incident on a rotating black hole in d=4, analytically continued to
asymptotically large, nearly imaginary frequency. These amplitudes determine
the asymptotic resonant frequencies of the black hole, including quasinormal
modes, total-transmission modes and total-reflection modes. We identify these
modes with semiclassical bound states of a one-dimensional Schrodinger
equation, localized along contours in the complexified r-plane which connect
turning points of corresponding null geodesics. Each family of modes has a
characteristic temperature and chemical potential. The relations between them
provide hints about the microscopic description of the black hole in this
asymptotic regime.Comment: References adde
Novel type of phase transition in a system of self-driven particles
A simple model with a novel type of dynamics is introduced in order to
investigate the emergence of self-ordered motion in systems of particles with
biologically motivated interaction. In our model particles are driven with a
constant absolute velocity and at each time step assume the average direction
of motion of the particles in their neighborhood with some random perturbation
() added. We present numerical evidence that this model results in a
kinetic phase transition from no transport (zero average velocity, ) to finite net transport through spontaneous symmetry breaking of the
rotational symmetry. The transition is continuous since is
found to scale as with
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