Torsional stability of interference screws derived from bovine bone - a biomechanical study

Introduction: It has been proposed that individual genetic variation contributes to the course of severe infections and sepsis. Recent studies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the endotoxin receptor and its signaling system showed an association with the risk of disease development. This study aims to examine the response associated with genetic variations of TLR4, the receptor for bacterial LPS, and a central intracellular signal transducer (TIRAP/Mal) on cytokine release and for susceptibility and course of severe hospital acquired infections in distinct patient populations. Methods: Three intensive care units in tertiary care university hospitals in Greece and Germany participated. 375 and 415 postoperative patients and 159 patients with ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) were included. TLR4 and TIRAP/Mal polymorphisms in 375 general surgical patients were associated with risk of infection, clinical course and outcome. In two prospective studies, 415 patients following cardiac surgery and 159 patients with newly diagnosed VAP predominantly caused by Gram-negative bacteria were studied for cytokine levels in-vivo and after ex-vivo monocyte stimulation and clinical course. Results: Patients simultaneously carrying polymorphisms in TIRAP/Mal and TLR4 and patients homozygous for the TIRAP/Mal SNP had a significantly higher risk of severe infections after surgery (odds ratio (OR) 5.5; confidence interval (CI): 1.34 - 22.64; P = 0.02 and OR: 7.3; CI: 1.89 - 28.50; P < 0.01 respectively). Additionally we found significantly lower circulating cytokine levels in double-mutant individuals with ventilator associated pneumonia and reduced cytokine production in an ex-vivo monocyte stimulation assay, but this difference was not apparent in TIRAP/Mal-homozygous patients. In cardiac surgery patients without infection, the cytokine release profiles were not changed when comparing different genotypes. Conclusions: Carriers of mutations in sequential components of the TLR signaling system may have an increased risk for severe infections. Patients with this genotype showed a decrease in cytokine release when infected which was not apparent in patients with sterile inflammation following cardiac surgery

Feasibility studies for the measurement of time-like proton electromagnetic form factors from p¯ p→ μ+μ- at P ¯ ANDA at FAIR

This paper reports on Monte Carlo simulation results for future measurements of the moduli of time-like proton electromagnetic form factors, | GE| and | GM| , using the p¯ p→ μ+μ- reaction at P ¯ ANDA (FAIR). The electromagnetic form factors are fundamental quantities parameterizing the electric and magnetic structure of hadrons. This work estimates the statistical and total accuracy with which the form factors can be measured at P ¯ ANDA , using an analysis of simulated data within the PandaRoot software framework. The most crucial background channel is p¯ p→ π+π-, due to the very similar behavior of muons and pions in the detector. The suppression factors are evaluated for this and all other relevant background channels at different values of antiproton beam momentum. The signal/background separation is based on a multivariate analysis, using the Boosted Decision Trees method. An expected background subtraction is included in this study, based on realistic angular distributions of the background contribution. Systematic uncertainties are considered and the relative total uncertainties of the form factor measurements are presented

Nanoscale Thermal AFM of Polymers: Transient Heat Flow Effects

Thermal transport around the nanoscale contact area between the heated atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe tip and the specimen under investigation is a central issue in scanning thermal microscopy (SThM). Polarized light microscopy and AFM imaging of the temperature-induced crystallization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films in the region near the tip were used in this study to unveil the lateral heat transport. The radius of the observed lateral surface isotherm at 133 °C ranged from 2.2 ± 0.5 to 18.7 ± 0.5 μm for tip−polymer interface temperatures between 200 and 300 °C with contact times varying from 20 to 120 s, respectively. In addition, the heat transport into polymer films was assessed by measurements of the thermal expansion of poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) films with variable thickness on silicon supports. Our data showed that heat transport in the specimen normal (z) direction occurred to depths exceeding 1000 μm using representative non-steady-state SThM conditions (i.e., heating from 40 to 180 °C at a rate of 10 °C s−1). On the basis of the experimental results, a 1D steady-state model for heat transport was developed, which shows the temperature profile close to the tip−polymer contact. The model also indicates that ≤1% of the total power generated in the heater area, which is embedded in the cantilever end, is transported into the polymer through the tip−polymer contact interface. Our results complement recent efforts in the evaluation and improvement of existing theoretical models for thermal AFM, as well as advance further developments of SThM for nanoscale thermal materials characterization and/or manipulation via scanning thermal lithography (SThL)