A comparative study of Ilizarov ring fixators and limb reconstruction system fixators in the treatment of compound tibial shaft fractures

Background: Tibia is the most commonly fractured long bone, and the prevalence of compound fractures has risen due to an increase in high-energy traumatic incidents. In addressing challenging tibial fractures with significant soft tissue damage, infected tibial nonunion, and compound tibial fractures, medical professionals have turned to specialized treatments, such as Ilizarov ring fixators and limb reconstruction system fixators. These fractures typically cannot be managed effectively with traditional internal fixation methods. To facilitate early weight-bearing, limb lengthening, and efficient wound care, two minimally invasive fixation systems have been developed: the Limb Reconstruction System and the ring fixator. Methods: The study was conducted on 40 patients with compound tibial shaft fractures treated by Ilizarov ring fixators and limb reconstruction system fixators with the aim to evaluate the functional outcome, union rate and amount of limb lengthening using Ring and ILRS fixators in compound tibial fixators. Results: In our study, a significant portion of the participants fell within the age range of 28 to 37 years, comprising 45% of the total sample. Furthermore, the majority of the study subjects were male, constituting 65% of the participant pool. The primary mode of injury reported in our study was road traffic accidents, accounting for 77.5%. Conclusions: The study concluded that LRS fixators show good and promising results like easy to apply, carry, compress, distract and clean while Ilizaro ring fixator is technically demanding, difficult to carry and cumbersome to the patient

High-Spin Doublet Band Structures in odd-odd 194−200^{194-200}Tl isotopes

The basis space in the triaxial projected shell model (TPSM) approach is generalized for odd-odd nuclei to include two-neutron and two-proton configurations on the basic one-neutron coupled to one-proton quasiparticle state. The generalization allows to investigate odd-odd nuclei beyond the band crossing region and as a first application of this development, high-spin band structures recently observed in odd-odd $^{194-200}$Tl isotopes are investigated. In some of these isotopes, the doublet band structures observed after the band crossing have been conjectured to arise from the spontaneous breaking of the chiral symmetry. The driving configuration of the chiral symmetry in these odd-odd isotopes is one-proton and three-neutrons rather than the basic one-proton and one-neutron as already observed in many other nuclei. It is demonstrated using the TPSM approach that energy differences of the doublet bands in $^{194}$Tl and $^{198}$Tl are, indeed, small. However, the differences in the calculated transition probabilities are somewhat larger than what is expected in the chiral symmetry limit. Experimental data on the transition probabilities is needed to shed light on the chiral nature of the doublet bands.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, to appear in EPJ

Simultaneous Surface Plasmon Resonance and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

We present here an experimental set-up to perform simultaneously measurements of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in a synchrotron beamline. The system allows measuring in situ and in real time the effect of X-ray irradiation on the SPR curves to explore the interaction of X-rays with matter. It is also possible to record XAS spectra while exciting SPR in order to detect the changes in the electronic configuration of thin films induced by the excitation of surface plasmons. Combined experiments recording simultaneously SPR and XAS curves while scanning different parameters can be carried out. The relative variations in the SPR and XAS spectra that can be detected with this set-up ranges from 10-3 to 10-5, depending on the particular experiment

Triaxial projected shell model approach for negative parity states in even-even nuclei

The triaxial projected shell model (TPSM) approach is generalized to investigate the negative parity band structures in even-even systems. In the earlier version of the TPSM approach, the quasiparticle excitations were restricted to one major oscillator shell and it was possible to study only positive parity states in even-even systems. In the present extension, the excited quasiparticles are allowed to occupy two major oscillator shells, which makes it possible to generate the negative parity states. As a major application of this development, the extended approach is applied to elucidate the negative parity high-spin band structures in $^{102-112}$Ru and it is shown that energies obtained with neutron excitation are slightly lower than the energies calculated with proton excitation. However, the calculated aligned angular momentum ($i_x$) clearly separates the two spectra with neutron $i_x$ in reasonable agreement with the empirically evaluated $i_x$ from the experimental data, whereas proton $i_x$ shows large deviations. Furthermore, we have also deduced the transition quadrupole moments from the TPSM wavefunctions along the negative-parity yrast- and yrare- bands and it is shown that these quantities exhibit rapid changes in the bandcrossing region.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure