Results of isolated posterolateral corner reconstruction

BACKGROUND: Isolated posterolateral corner (PLC) tears are relatively rare events. Various surgical techniques to treat posterolateral knee instability have been described; because surgical results are linked to cruciate reconstructions it has been difficult to date to define whether one surgical procedure has better prognosis than another. The goal of this study is to determine the clinical outcome of PLC reconstruction following fibular-based technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated a case series of patients who received isolated PLC reconstruction between March 2005 and January 2007. Ten patients were surgically treated for isolated injuries and were available for follow-up; average patient age was 27.4 years (range 16-47 years). All patients were treated following the fibular-based technique: double femoral tunnel was performed in six patients, while in the remaining four patients, the reconstruction of the PLC was performed with a single femoral tunnel. Six patients had semitendinosus allograft and four had semitendinosus autograft. All patients had the same evaluation and the same rehabilitation protocol. RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 27.5 months (range 18-40 months). Mean range of motion (ROM) was 143.5 degrees for flexion (range 135-150 degrees) and 0.5 degrees for extension (range 0-3 degrees). Three patients showed 1+ on varus stress test, while on Dial test another three patients showed 10 degrees reduction of external rotation compared with contralateral knee. The average Lysholm score was 94 points (range 83-100), and the mean International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) subjective result was 88.48 (range 74-96.5). Based on Lysholm score, the results were excellent in eight knees and good in two knees. On IKDC evaluation, two patients were grade A and eight were grade B. No significant difference in clinical results was observed between single and double femoral tunnel. CONCLUSION: Fibular-based technique showed good results in terms of clinical outcome, restoring varus and rotation stability of knees in treatment of chronic isolated PLC injury

Biodistribution of gold nanoparticles in mouse lung following intratracheal instillation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The fate of gold nanoparticles, 2, 40 and 100 nm, administered intratracheally to adult female mice was examined. The nanoparticles were traced by autometallography (AMG) at both ultrastructural and light microscopic levels. Also, the gold content was quantified by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and neutron activation analysis (NAA). The liver is the major site of deposition of circulating gold nanoparticles. Therefore the degree of translocation was determined by the hepatic deposition of gold. Mice were instilled with 5 intratracheal doses of gold nanoparticles distributed over a period of 3 weeks and were killed 24 h after the last dose. One group of mice were given a single intratracheal dose and were killed after 1 h.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The instilled nanoparticles were found in lung macrophages already 1 h after a single instillation. In mice instilled treated repeatedly during 3 weeks, the load was substantial. Ultrastructurally, AMG silver enhanced gold nanoparticles were found in lysosome-/endosome-like organelles of the macrophages and analysis with AMG, ICP-MS and NAA of the liver revealed an almost total lack of translocation of nanoparticles. In mice given repeated instillations of 2 nm gold nanoparticles, 1.4‰ (by ICP-MS) to 1.9‰ (by NAA) of the instilled gold was detected in the liver. With the 40 nm gold, no gold was detected in the liver (detection level 2 ng, 0.1‰) except for one mouse in which 3‰ of the instilled gold was found in the liver. No gold was detected in any liver of mice instilled with 100 nm gold (detection level 2 ng, 0.1‰) except in a single animal with 0.39‰ of the dose in the liver.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found that that: (1) inert gold nanoparticles, administered intratracheally are phagocytosed by lung macrophages; (2) only a tiny fraction of the gold particles is translocated into systemic circulation. (3) The translocation rate was greatest with the 2 nm gold particles.</p

Evaluating the Effects of Cutoffs and Treatment of Long-range Electrostatics in Protein Folding Simulations

The use of molecular dynamics simulations to provide atomic-level descriptions of biological processes tends to be computationally demanding, and a number of approximations are thus commonly employed to improve computational efficiency. In the past, the effect of these approximations on macromolecular structure and stability has been evaluated mostly through quantitative studies of small-molecule systems or qualitative observations of short-timescale simulations of biological macromolecules. Here we present a quantitative evaluation of two commonly employed approximations, using a test system that has been the subject of a number of previous protein folding studies–the villin headpiece. In particular, we examined the effect of (i) the use of a cutoff-based force-shifting technique rather than an Ewald summation for the treatment of electrostatic interactions, and (ii) the length of the cutoff used to determine how many pairwise interactions are included in the calculation of both electrostatic and van der Waals forces. Our results show that the free energy of folding is relatively insensitive to the choice of cutoff beyond 9 Å, and to whether an Ewald method is used to account for long-range electrostatic interactions. In contrast, we find that the structural properties of the unfolded state depend more strongly on the two approximations examined here

Identification of Class I HLA T Cell Control Epitopes for West Nile Virus

The recent West Nile virus (WNV) outbreak in the United States underscores the importance of understanding human immune responses to this pathogen. Via the presentation of viral peptide ligands at the cell surface, class I HLA mediate the T cell recognition and killing of WNV infected cells. At this time, there are two key unknowns in regards to understanding protective T cell immunity: 1) the number of viral ligands presented by the HLA of infected cells, and 2) the distribution of T cell responses to these available HLA/viral complexes. Here, comparative mass spectroscopy was applied to determine the number of WNV peptides presented by the HLA-A*11:01 of infected cells after which T cell responses to these HLA/WNV complexes were assessed. Six viral peptides derived from capsid, NS3, NS4b, and NS5 were presented. When T cells from infected individuals were tested for reactivity to these six viral ligands, polyfunctional T cells were focused on the GTL9 WNV capsid peptide, ligands from NS3, NS4b, and NS5 were less immunogenic, and two ligands were largely inert, demonstrating that class I HLA reduce the WNV polyprotein to a handful of immune targets and that polyfunctional T cells recognize infections by zeroing in on particular HLA/WNV epitopes. Such dominant HLA/peptide epitopes are poised to drive the development of WNV vaccines that elicit protective T cells as well as providing key antigens for immunoassays that establish correlates of viral immunity. © 2013 Kaabinejadian et al

Learning deterministic probabilistic automata from a model checking perspective

Probabilistic automata models play an important role in the formal design and analysis of hard- and software systems. In this area of applications, one is often interested in formal model-checking procedures for verifying critical system properties. Since adequate system models are often difficult to design manually, we are interested in learning models from observed system behaviors. To this end we adopt techniques for learning finite probabilistic automata, notably the Alergia algorithm. In this paper we show how to extend the basic algorithm to also learn automata models for both reactive and timed systems. A key question of our investigation is to what extent one can expect a learned model to be a good approximation for the kind of probabilistic properties one wants to verify by model checking. We establish theoretical convergence properties for the learning algorithm as well as for probability estimates of system properties expressed in linear time temporal logic and linear continuous stochastic logic. We empirically compare the learning algorithm with statistical model checking and demonstrate the feasibility of the approach for practical system verification

Influence of Reoperations on Long-Term Quality of Life After Restrictive Procedures: A Prospective Study

Quality of life improves after bariatric surgery. However, long-term results and the influence of reoperations are not well known. A prospective quality of life assessment before, 1 and 7 years after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) and vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) was performed in order to determine the influence of reoperations during follow-up. One hundred patients were included in the study. Fifty patients underwent VBG and 50 LAGB. Patients completed the quality of life questionnaires prior to surgery and two times during follow-up. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaires included the Nottingham Health Profile I and II and the Sickness Impact Profile 68. Follow-up was 84% with a mean duration of 84 months (7 years). During follow-up, 65% of VBG patients underwent conversion to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass while 44% of LAGB patients underwent a reoperation or conversion. One year after the procedure, nearly all quality-of-life parameters significantly improved. After 7 years, the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP)-I domain “physical ability”, the NHP-II and the SIP-68 domains “mobility control”, “social behavior”, and “mobility range” were still significantly improved in both groups. The domains “emotional reaction”, “social isolation” (NHP-I), and “emotional stability” (SIP-68) remained significantly improved in the VBG group while this was true for the domain “energy level” (NHP-I) in the LAGB group. Both the type of procedure and reoperations during follow-up were not of significant influence on the HRQoL results. Weight loss and decrease in comorbidities were the only significant factors influencing quality of life. Restrictive bariatric surgery improves quality of life. Although results are most impressive 1 year after surgery, the improvement remains significant after long-term follow-up. Postoperative quality of life is mainly dependent on weight loss and decrease in comorbidities and not on the type of procedure or surgical complications

Evidence for Positive Selection on the Osteogenin (BMP3) Gene in Human Populations

BACKGROUND: Human skeletal system has evolved rapidly since the dispersal of modern humans from Africa, potentially driven by selection and adaptation. Osteogenin (BMP3) plays an important role in skeletal development and bone osteogenesis as an antagonist of the osteogenic bone morphogenetic proteins, and negatively regulates bone mineral density. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we resequenced the BMP3 gene from individuals in four geographically separated modern human populations. Features supportive of positive selection in the BMP3 gene were found including the presence of an excess of nonsynonymous mutations in modern humans, and a significantly lower genetic diversity that deviates from neutrality. The prevalent haplotypes of the first exon region in Europeans demonstrated features of long-range haplotype homogeneity. In contrast with findings in European, the derived allele SNP Arg192Gln shows higher extended haplotype homozygosity in East Asian. The worldwide allele frequency distribution of SNP shows not only a high-derived allele frequency in Asians, but also in Americans, which is suggestive of functional adaptation. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion, we provide evidence for recent positive selection operating upon a crucial gene in skeletal development, which may provide new insight into the evolution of the skeletal system and bone development

The evolution of galaxies from primeval irregulars to present-day ellipticals

The current understanding of galaxy formation is that it proceeds in a 'bottom up' way, with the formation of small clumps of gas and stars that merge hierarchically until giant galaxies are built up. The baryonic gas loses the thermal energy by radiative cooling and falls towards the centres of the new galaxies, while supernovae (SNe) blow gas out. Any realistic model therefore requires a proper treatment of these processes, but hitherto this has been far from satisfactory. Here we report an ultra-high-resolution simulation that follows evolution from the earliest stages of galaxy formation through the period of dynamical relaxation. The bubble structures of gas revealed in our simulation ($< 3\times10^8$ years) resemble closely the high-redshift Lyman $\alpha$ emitters (LAEs). After $10^9$ years these bodies are dominated by stellar continuum radiation and look like the Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) known as the high-redshift star-forming galaxies at which point the abundance of elements heavier than helium ("metallicity") appears to be solar. After $1.3\times10^{10}$ years, these galaxies resemble present-day ellipticals.Comment: 27 pages and 4 figures, Supplementary Information included, movie available on http://www.isc.senshu-u.ac.jp/~thj0613/natur

Head Exposure to Cold during Whole-Body Cryostimulation: Influence on Thermal Response and Autonomic Modulation

Recent research on whole-body cryotherapy has hypothesized a major responsibility of head cooling in the physiological changes classically reported after a cryostimulation session. The aim of this experiment was to verify this hypothesis by studying the influence of exposing the head to cold during whole-body cryostimulation sessions, on the thermal response and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Over five consecutive days, two groups of 10 participants performed one whole-body cryostimulation session daily, in one of two different systems; one exposing the whole-body to cold (whole-body cryostimulation, WBC), and the other exposing the whole-body except the head (partial-body cryostimulation, PBC).10 participants constituted a control group (CON) not receiving any cryostimulation. In order to isolate the head-cooling effect on recorded variables, it was ensured that the WBC and PBC systems induced the same decrease in skin temperature for all body regions (mean decrease over the 5 exposures: -8.6°C±1.3°C and -8.3±0.7°C for WBC and PBC, respectively), which persisted up to 20-min after the sessions (P20). The WBC sessions caused an almost certain decrease in tympanic temperature from Pre to P20 (-0.28 ±0.11°C), while it only decreased at P20 (-0.14±0.05°C) after PBC sessions. Heart rate almost certainly decreased after PBC (-8.6%) and WBC (-12.3%) sessions. Resting vagal-related heart rate variability indices (the root-mean square difference of successive normal R-R intervals, RMSSD, and high frequency band, HF) were very likely to almost certainly increased after PBC (RMSSD:+49.1%, HF: +123.3%) and WBC (RMSSD: +38.8%, HF:+70.3%). Plasma norepinephrine concentration was likely increased in similar proportions after PBC and WBC, but only after the first session. Both cryostimulation techniques stimulated the ANS with a predominance of parasympathetic tone activation from the first to the fifth session and in slightly greater proportion with WBC than PBC. The main result of this study indicates that the head exposure to cold during whole-body cryostimulation may not be the main factor responsible for the effects of cryostimulation on the ANS