619 research outputs found
Giant enchondroma recurrence of the proximal phalanx of the fifth finger: A case report
Enchondroma (EC) is a benign and cartilage-forming tumor that causes intramedullary lesions. Moreover, EC is the most common bone tumor in the phalanges and metacarpal bones of the hand, deforming the structure and causing pain and functional limitation. The management of this neoplasia is the surgical treatment and the approach that is well-accepted consists in the curettage followed by the void augmentation with biological or synthetic fillers. The results from surgery are usually good and the recurrence rate is low (2-15%). In this article we report a case of EC recurrence of the proximal phalanx of the fifth finger of the hand after curettage and grafting. The patient was treated with the amputation of the fifth ray according to the Tsuge technique, obtaining a satisfying clinical result
Growth, carcass and meat quality of Casertana, Italian Large White and Duroc x (Landrace x Italian Large White) pigs reared outdoors
To compare growth, skeletal development,
carcass traits and meat quality of different
genotypes, 10 Casertana (CT), 10 Italian Large
White (LW) and 10 Duroc x (Landrace x Italian
Large White) (DU) crosses, barrows of 90 days
of age, were allotted to the same outdoor rearing
and feeding conditions. Live weight was
recorded and average daily gain (ADG) was
calculated. At slaughter (330-day-old) dressing
and lean percentages were determined; backfat
thickness and loin eye depth were measured.
Carcasses were dissected into commercial
cuts. Water holding capacity, pH and colour
(45 min and 24 h post-mortem) were measured.
Longissimus lumborum muscle samples
were collected for cholesterol, \u3b1-tochopherol
and intramuscular collagen (IMC) analyses.
CT compared to DU and LW had the lowest
growth rate and skeletal development.
Casertana showed higher backfat thickness,
lower lean cut/fatty cut ratio and less lean
meat (P<0.05). Loin eye depth differed among
genotypes with LW>DU>CT (P<0.05). CT
showed higher red colour of the meat than DU
and LW (P<0.05). CT compared to LW had the
highest hydroxylysylpiridinoline (HLP)
crosslink concentration and HLP/IMC ratio,
and a lower IMC amount (P<0.05). Casertana
pigs produced meat that could be tougher than
that from the improved breed, but more acceptable
from the technological point of view.
At eleven months of age bone weight, length
and diameter were clearly genetic type-related;
differently, the bone maturit
A New Technique for Finding Needles in Haystacks: A Geometric Approach to Distinguishing Between a New Source and Random Fluctuations
We propose a new test statistic based on a score process for determining the
statistical significance of a putative signal that may be a small perturbation
to a noisy experimental background. We derive the reference distribution for
this score test statistic; it has an elegant geometrical interpretation as well
as broad applicability. We illustrate the technique in the context of a model
problem from high-energy particle physics. Monte Carlo experimental results
confirm that the score test results in a significantly improved rate of signal
detection.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Scalable Scheduling Policy Design for Open Soft Real-Time Systems
Open soft real-time systems, such as mobile robots, must respond adaptively to varying operating conditions, while balancing the need to perform multiple mission specific tasks against the requirement that those tasks complete in a timely manner. Setting and enforcing a utilization target for shared resources is a key mechanism for achieving this behavior. However, because of the uncertainty and non-preemptability of some tasks, key assumptions of classical scheduling approaches do not hold. In previous work we presented foundational methods for generating task scheduling policies to enforce proportional resource utilization for open soft real-time systems with these properties. However, these methods scale exponentially in the number of tasks, limiting their practical applicability. In this paper, we present a novel parameterized scheduling policy that scales our technique to a much wider range of systems. These policies can represent geometric features of the scheduling policies produced by our earlier methods, but only require a number of parameters that is quadratic in the number of tasks. We provide empirical evidence that the best of these policies are competitive with exact solution methods in small problems, and significantly outperform heuristic methods in larger ones
Acromion Clavicular Joint Reconstruction with LARS Ligament in Acute Dislocation
Background: The acromion clavicular joint dislocations are common injuries of the shoulder. The severity is dependent upon the degree of ligamentous injury. Surgical treatment is typically performed in higher grade acromioclavicular separation with several static and dynamic operative procedures with or without primary ligament replacement.
Methods: 47 patients with acute Rockwood type III, IV, and V injuries were treated surgically with LARS reconstruction. The success of technique was evaluated by radiographic outcomes for each patient at every follow-up visit (one,three, 12 months), while to assess pain reduction and clinical evaluation Visual Analogue scale score (VAS) and Constant-Murley score (CMA) was performed, respectively. An One Way Analysis of Variance (Kruskal-Wallis test), a multiple comparison Turket test, or a t-test (Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test) were used when required.
Results: Follow-up radiographs revealed maintenance of anatomical reduction in 41 patients, and no bone erosions has been identified. In short-term joint functional recovery has been observed. Indeed, after 12 months pain on the VAS-scale in all groups decreased significantly (P < 0.05), and the CMS revealed a significant overall improvement (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: These data demonstrate that the use of the LARS allows to provide stability to the joint and especially to ensure its natural elasticity, relieving pain and improving joint function already one month post-surgery.
Level of evidence: II
Evaluation of gene expression profiles of pig skeletal muscle in response to energy content of the diets using human microarrays
The aim of the research was to compare gene transcription profiles of Musculus longissimus dorsi (MLD) between pigs fed diets with high (HED) or low (LED) energy contents. Two groups of 4 Casertana pigs were reared from 3 to 12 months of age in the same environmental conditions and fed HED or LED. In the HED, the ave rage daily gain and back fat thickness were significantly (P<0.05) higher than in LED pigs. Differential expression of genes in MLD of pigs fed diets with different energy density was assessed by a human high-density complementary DNA (cDNA) muscle microarray consisting of 4670 probes and further confirmed by quantitative real time RT-PCR analysis. Seven of the genes up-regulated in MLD of HED pigs were invo l ved in the glycolytic and ox i d a t i ve metabolism (phosphoglycerate mutase 2, glyc e ra l d e hyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, NADH dehydrogenase ubiquinone1 beta 9, muscle pyruvate kinase, enolase 3, muscle creatine kinase, isocitrate dehydrogenase 3 (NAD+) gamma) and four in the contractile apparatus (tropomyosin 1 alpha, troponin C2, fast, fast skeletal myosin light chain 2, troponin T3, skeletal, fast). Instead, HED diet reduced the level of expression of muscle proteins associated with slow fibre type (troponin T1, skeletal, slow, supervillin, myosin binding protein C, slow type, titin, myosin, heavy polypeptide 7, beta, calponin homology-associated smooth muscle) and signal transduction (SH3-binding domain protein 5-like, hypothetical protein FLJ21438, protein kinase cAMP-dependent, catalytic, rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor 15). The down-regulation of CTSB was also observed for HED group. From the results it can be assumed that high energy content of the diet influence physiological processes in the muscle tissue by switching slow fibres into fast reacting fibres and thus enhancing meat quality
UV/Optical Emission Accompanying Gamma-ray Burst
We discuss the possible simultaneously UV/optical emission accompanying
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We show that as long as the intrinsic spectrum of GRB
can extend to 10 GeV or higher, there is a large amount of relativistic
pairs generated due to the annihilation of the soft rays with
the very energetic photons, which dominates over the electrons/positrons
associated with the fireball, no matter the fireball is highly magnetized or
not (For the highly magnetized fireball, the magnetic field is ordered, the
high linear polarization of the multi-wavelength emission is expected). We find
that these pairs can power an UV flash with
magnitude, and the corresponding optical emission can be up to magnitude. Such bright UV emission can be detected by
the upcoming satellite Swift, planned for launch in early 2004. The behavior of
the optical-UV spectrum () differs significantly from
that of the reverse shock emission (, ), which is a signature of the emission accompanying with GRB. The
mild optical emission can be detected with the ROTSE-IIIa telescope system, if
the response to the GRB alert is fast enough.Comment: 5 pages, no figures. MNRAS in pres
DPP9 is a novel component of the N-end rule pathway targeting the tyrosine kinase Syk.
The aminopeptidase DPP9 removes dipeptides from N-termini of substrates having a proline or alanine in second position. Although linked to several pathways including cell survival and metabolism, the molecular mechanisms underlying these outcomes are poorly understood. We identified a novel interaction of DPP9 with Filamin A, which recruits DPP9 to Syk, a central kinase in B-cell signalling. Syk signalling can be terminated by degradation, requiring the ubiquitin E3 ligase Cbl. We show that DPP9 cleaves Syk to produce a neo N-terminus with serine in position 1. Pulse-chases combined with mutagenesis studies reveal that Ser1 strongly influences Syk stability. Furthermore, DPP9 silencing reduces Cbl interaction with Syk, suggesting that DPP9 processing is a prerequisite for Syk ubiquitination. Consistently, DPP9 inhibition stabilizes Syk, thereby modulating Syk signalling. Taken together, we demonstrate DPP9 as a negative regulator of Syk and conclude that DPP9 is a novel integral aminopeptidase of the N-end rule pathway
The very early afterglow powered by the ultra-relativistic mildly magnetized outflows
In the Poynting Flux dominated outflow (the initial ratio of the
electromagnetic energy flux to the particle energy flux ) model
for Gamma-ray bursts, nearly half of the internally dissipated magnetic energy
is converted into the prompt ray energy emission and the rest is
converted into the kinetic energy of the outflow. Consequently, at the end of
the ray burst, decreases significantly ( or
even smaller). We numerically investigate the very early reverse shock emission
powered by such mildly magnetized outflows interacting with medium--uniform
interstellar medium (ISM) or stellar wind (WIND). We show that for
and typical parameters of Gamma-ray bursts, both the
ISM-ejecta interaction and the WIND-ejecta interaction can power very strong
optical emission ( magnitude or even brighter).
Similar to the very early afterglow powered by the non-magnetized ejecta
interacting with the external medium, the main difference between the
ISM-ejecta interaction case and the WIND-ejecta interaction case is that,
before the reverse shock crosses the ejecta, the R-band emission flux increases
rapidly for the former, but for the latter it increases only slightly. (The
abstract has been shortened). We suggest that the linear polarization detection
of the early multi-wavelength afterglow is highly needed to see whether the
outflows powering GRBs are magnetized or not.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, A&A in pres
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