215 research outputs found
Recurrent intra-articular osteoid osteoma of the hip after radiofrequency ablation: a case report and review of the literature
We present a case of a 53-year-old woman with recurrent intra-articular osteoid osteoma of the hip 6 months after initial treatment with percutaneous radiofrequency ablation. En bloc surgical excision of the osteoid osteoma and prophylactic internal fixation for impending stress fracture was performed. The patient is pain free, has returned to normal function and there is no sign of recurrence at the one-year follow-up. Intraarticular osteoid osteoma, present a diagnostic challenge and often they are misdiagnosed. Minimally invasive ablation techniques can fail in significant percentage and then surgical excision with histological confirmation remains the definitive treatment of choice
Cultivars to face climate change effects on crops and weeds: a review
International audienceAbstractClimate change is caused by the release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Climate change will impact many activities, but its effects on agricultural production could be acute. Estimates of annual damages in agriculture due to temperature increase or extended periods of drought will be more costly than damages in other activities. Yield losses are caused both by direct effects of climate change on crops and by indirect effects such as increased inputs in crop production for weed control. One possible solution to counteract the effects of climate change is to seek crop cultivars that are adapted to highly variable, extreme climatic conditions and pest changes. Here we review the effects of climate change on crop cultivars and weeds. Biomass increase will augment marketable yield by 8â70Â % for C3 cereals, by 20â144Â % for cash and vegetable crops, and by 6â35Â % for flowers. Such positive effects could however be reduced by decreasing water and nutrient availability. Rising temperature will decrease yields of temperature-sensitive crops such as maize, soybean, wheat, and cotton or specialty crops such as almonds, grapes, berries, citrus, or stone fruits. Rice, which is expected to yield better under increased CO2, will suffer serious yield losses under high temperatures. Drought stress should decrease the production of tomato, soybean, maize, and cotton. Nevertheless, reviews on C4 photosynthesis response to water stress in interaction with CO2 concentration reveal that elevated CO2 concentration lessens the deleterious effect of drought on plant productivity. C3 weeds respond more strongly than C4 types to CO2 increases through biomass and leaf area increases. The positive response of C3 crops to elevated CO2 may make C4 weeds less competitive for C3 crops, whereas C3 weeds in C4 or C3 crops could become a problem, particularly in tropical regions. Temperature increases will mainly affect the distribution of weeds, particularly C4 type, by expanding their geographical range. This will enhance further yield losses and will affect weed management systems negatively. In addition, the expansion of invasive weed species such as itchgrass, cogongrass, and witchweed facilitated by temperature increases will increase the cost for their control. Under water or nutrient shortage scenarios, an r-strategist with characteristics in the order S-C-R, such as Palmer amaranth, large crabgrass, johnsongrass, and spurges, will most probably prevail. Selection of cultivars that secure high yields under climate change but also by competing weeds is of major importance. Traits related with (a) increased root/shoot ratio, (b) vernalization periods, (c) maturity, (d) regulation of node formation and/or internode distance, (e) harvest index variations, and (f) allelopathy merit further investigation. The cumulative effects of selecting a suitable stress tolerator-competitor cultivar will be reflected in reductions of environmental pollution, lower production costs, and sustainable food production
Surface softening in metal-ceramic sliding contacts: An experimental and numerical investigation
This study investigates the tribolayer properties at the interface of ceramic/metal (i.e., WC/W) sliding contacts using various experimental approaches and classical atomistic simulations. Experimentally, nanoindentation and micropillar compression tests, as well as adhesion mapping by means of atomic force microscopy, are used to evaluate the strength of tungsten?carbon tribolayers. To capture the influence of environmental conditions, a detailed chemical and structural analysis is performed on the worn surfaces by means of XPS mapping and depth profiling along with transmission electron microscopy of the debris particles. Experimentally, the results indicate a decrease in hardness and modulus of the worn surface compared to the unworn one. Atomistic simulations of nanoindentation on deformed and undeformed specimens are used to probe the strength of the WC tribolayer and despite the fact that the simulations do not include oxygen, the simulations correlate well with the experiments on deformed and undeformed surfaces, where the difference in behavior is attributed to the bonding and structural differences of amorphous and crystalline W-C. Adhesion mapping indicates a decrease in surface adhesion, which based on chemical analysis is attributed to surface passivation
The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins
Background: Regime shifts are abrupt changes encompassing a multitude of physical properties and ecosystem variables,
which lead to new regime conditions. Recent investigations focus on the changes in ecosystem diversity and functioning
associated to such shifts. Of particular interest, because of the implication on climate drivers, are shifts that occur
synchronously in separated basins.
Principal Findings: In this work we analyze and review long-term records of Mediterranean ecological and hydro-climate variables and find that all point to a synchronous change in the late 1980s. A quantitative synthesis of the literature (including observed oceanic data, models and satellite analyses) shows that these years mark a major change in Mediterranean hydrographic properties, surface circulation, and deep water convection (the Eastern Mediterranean Transient). We provide novel analyses that link local, regional and basin scale hydrological properties with two major indicators of large scale climate, the North Atlantic Oscillation index and the Northern Hemisphere Temperature index, suggesting that the Mediterranean shift is part of a large scale change in the Northern Hemisphere. We provide a simplified scheme of the different effects of climate vs. temperature on pelagic ecosystems.
Conclusions: Our results show that the Mediterranean Sea underwent a major change at the end of the 1980s that
encompassed atmospheric, hydrological, and ecological systems, for which it can be considered a regime shift. We further provide evidence that the local hydrography is linked to the larger scale, northern hemisphere climate. These results suggest that the shifts that affected the North, Baltic, Black and Mediterranean (this work) Seas at the end of the 1980s, that have been so far only partly associated, are likely linked as part a northern hemisphere change. These findings bear wide implications for the development of climate change scenarios, as synchronous shifts may provide the key for distinguishing local (i.e., basin) anthropogenic drivers, such as eutrophication or fishing, from larger scale (hemispheric) climate drivers
An integrated open-coastal biogeochemistry, ecosystem and biodiversity observatory of the eastern Mediterranean â the Cretan Sea component of the POSEIDON system
There is a general scarcity of oceanic observations that
concurrently examine airâsea interactions, coastalâopen-ocean processes and
physicalâbiogeochemical processes, in appropriate spatiotemporal
scales and under continuous, long-term data acquisition schemes. In the
Mediterranean Sea, the resulting knowledge gaps and observing challenges
increase due to its oligotrophic character, especially in the eastern part
of the basin. The oligotrophic open Cretan Sea's biogeochemistry is
considered to be representative of a greater Mediterranean area up to
106 km2, and understanding its features may be useful on even
larger oceanic scales, since the Mediterranean Sea has been considered a
miniature model of the global ocean. The spatiotemporal coverage of biogeochemical (BGC)
observations in the Cretan Sea has progressively increased over the last
decades, especially since the creation of the POSEIDON observing system,
which has adopted a multiplatform, multivariable approach, supporting BGC
data acquisition. The current POSEIDON system's status includes open and
coastal sea fixed platforms, a Ferrybox (FB) system and Bio-Argo autonomous
floats that remotely deliver fluorescence as a proxy of chlorophyll-a
(Chl-a), O2, pH and pCO2 data, as well as BGC-related physical
variables. Since 2010, the list has been further expanded to other BGC
(nutrients, vertical particulate matter fluxes), ecosystem and biodiversity
(from viruses up to zooplankton) variables, thanks to the addition of
sediment traps, frequent research vessel (R/V) visits for seawaterâplankton
sampling and an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) delivering
information on macrozooplanktonâmicronekton vertical migration (in the
epipelagic to mesopelagic layer). Gliders and drifters are the new (currently under
integration to the existing system) platforms, supporting BGC monitoring.
Land-based facilities, such as data centres, technical support
infrastructure, calibration laboratory and mesocosms, support and give added
value to the observatory. The data gathered from these platforms are used to
improve the quality of the BGC-ecosystem model predictions, which have
recently incorporated atmospheric nutrient deposition processes and
assimilation of satellite Chl-a data. Besides addressing open scientific
questions at regional and international levels, examples of which are
presented, the observatory provides user-oriented services to marine
policy makers and the society, and is a technological test bed for new
and/or cost-efficient BGC sensor technology and marine equipment. It is part
of European and international observing programs, playing a key role in
regional data handling and participating in harmonization and best practices
procedures. Future expansion plans consider the evolving scientific and
society priorities, balanced with sustainable management.</p
- âŚ