Failure of the surgical treatment in 115 infected hip arthroplasties-­analysis of a 12-­year prosthetic joint cohort study (1999-­2010)

Background:¦Infection after total or partial hip arthroplasty (HA) leads to significant long-­term morbidity and high healthcare cost. We evaluated reasons for treatment failure of different surgical modalities in a 12-­year prosthetic hip joint infection cohort study.¦Method:¦All patients hospitalized at our institution with infected HA were included either retrospectively (1999-­‐2007) or prospectively¦(2008-­‐2010). HA infection was defined as growth of the same microorganism in ≥2 tissues or synovialfluid culture, visible purulence, sinus tract or acute inflammation on tissue histopathology. Outcome analysis was performed at outpatient visits, followed by contacting patients, their relatives and/or treating physicians afterwards.¦Results:¦During the study period, 117 patients with infected HA were identified. We excluded 2 patients due to missing data. The average age was 69 years (range, 33-­‐102 years); 42% were female. HA was mainly performed for osteoarthritis (n=84), followed by trauma (n=22), necrosis (n=4), dysplasia(n=2), rheumatoid arthritis (n=1), osteosarcoma (n=1) and tuberculosis (n=1). 28 infections occurred early(≤3 months), 25 delayed (3-­‐24 months) and 63 late (≥24 months after surgery). Infected HA were¦treated with (i) two-­‐stage exchange in 59 patients (51%, cure rate: 93%), (ii) one-­‐stage exchange in 5 (4.3%, cure rate: 100%), (iii) debridement with change of mobile parts in 18 (17%, cure rate: 83%), (iv) debridement without change of mobile¦parts in 17 (14%, cure rate : 53% ), (v) Girdlestone in 13 (11%, cure rate: 100%), and (vi) two-­‐stage exchange followed by¦removal in 3 (2.6%). Patients were followed for an average of 3.9 years (range, 0.1 to 9 years), 7 patients died unrelated to the infected HA. 15 patients (13%) needed additional operations, 1 for mechanical reasons(dislocation of spacer) and 14 for persistent infection: 11 treated with debridement and retention (8 without change; and 3 with change of mobile parts) and 3 with two-­‐stage exchange. The average number of surgery was 2.2 (range, 1 to 5). The infection was finally eradicated in all patients, but the functional outcome remained unsatisfactory in 20% (persistent pain or impaired mobility due to spacer or Girdlestone situation).¦Conclusions:¦Non-­‐respect of current treatment concept leads to treatment failure with subsequent operations. Precise analysis of each treatment failure can be used for improving the treatment algorithm leading to better results

On the Generalized Einstein-Cartan Action with Fermions

From the freedom exhibited by the generalized Einstein action proposed in [1], we show that we can construct the standard effective Einstein-Cartan action coupled to the fermionic matter without the usual current-current interaction and therefore an effective action which does not depend neither on the Immirzi parameter nor on the torsion. This establishes the equivalence between the Einstein-Cartan theory and the theory of the general relativity minimally coupled to the fermionic matter.Comment: 8 pages, Added references, Corrected typos, Accepted in Class. Quant. Gra

Can verbal suggestions strengthen the effects of a relaxation intervention?

Short stress management interventions such as relaxation therapy have demonstrated preliminary effectiveness in reducing stress-related problems. A promising tool to strengthen the effectiveness of relaxation-based interventions is the use of verbal suggestions, as previous research provided evidence that verbal suggestions can induce positive outcome expectancies, facilitate adaptive responses to stress and improve health outcomes. The present experimental proof-of-concept study aimed to investigate the effects of a brief relaxation intervention and specifically the role of verbal suggestions on stress-related outcomes assessed by self-report questionnaires and psychophysiological data. 120 participants (mean age = 22.1 years) were randomized to one of four intervention conditions: a brief relaxation intervention plus verbal suggestions condition, a brief relaxation intervention only condition, a verbal suggestions only condition, and a control condition. Afterwards, participants were subjected to a psychosocial stress challenge to assess reactivity to a stressful event. Immediately after both relaxation interventions (with and without verbal suggestions), lower self-reported state anxiety was found compared to the control condition, but no differences were observed in response to the stressor. The verbal suggestions only condition did not impact state anxiety. No significant effects were found for verbal suggestion interventions on cortisol, alpha amylase, heart rate and skin conductance. This is the first study investigating the role of verbal suggestions in the effectiveness of a brief relaxation intervention. Although this experimental proof-of-concept study provides support for the effectiveness of a brief relaxation intervention in lowering state anxiety directly after the intervention, the effects did not impact the response to a subsequent stressor and we did not observe any evidence for the add-on effectiveness of verbal suggestions. The effectiveness of brief relaxation interventions on stress responses should be investigated further in future research by incorporating interventions that are tailored to the specific stress challenge and various types of verbal suggestions

Étude protéomique des partenaires d`interaction de XPA en présence et en absence de dommage à l`ADN

La réparation par excision de nucléotides (NER) permet l'élimination des lésions provoquant une distorsion de la double hélice de l’ADN. Ces lésions sont induites par plusieurs agents environnementaux comme les rayons UV, ainsi que par certaines drogues chimio- thérapeutiques tel que le cisplatine. Des défauts dans la NER conduisent à de rares maladies autosomiques héréditaires : La xérodermie pigmentaire (XP), le syndrome de Cockayne (CS), le syndrome de sensibilité aux UVSS et la trichothiodystrophie (TTD). Ces maladies sont associées soit à une prédisposition élevée au cancer de la peau et / ou à de graves anomalies du développement neurologique. Le groupe de patients XP-A représente le deuxième groupe (XP) le plus fréquent, et possède la forme la plus sévère combinant cancer de la peau avec un haut risque de dégénérescence neurologique. À date, aucune explication n`a été proposée pour les symptômes neurologiques observés chez ces patients. Nous avions suggéré ainsi que la protéine XPA possède d`autres fonctions dans d`autres processus cellulaires, ceci en interagissant avec des partenaires protéiques différents de ceux déjà connus. Afin de confirmer cette hypothèse nous avions réalisé une étude protéomique à grande échelle en combinant la spectrométrie de masse à une immunoprécipitation en Tandem d`affinité (TAP), afin d`identifier de nouvelles protéines interagissant directement avec XPA. Nous avions montré que XPA peut interagir avec MRE11, la protéine clé de la réparation par recombinaison homologue. Des études additionnelles sont requises pour confirmer cette interaction et comprendre sa fonctionTo maintain genome integrity and ensure the continuation of transcription, helix distorting DNA lesions induced by UV and other environmental mutagens are eliminated through a highly-versatile DNA repair pathway: nucleotide excision repair (NER). Mutations in 11 genes (XPC, XPE, XPB, XPD, XPG, XPA, XPG, TTD-A, CSA, CSB and UVSSA), among the 30 genes directly involved in NER, have been associated with the human genetic disorders: xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), cockayne syndrome (CS), trichothiodystrophy (TTD), and UV-sensitive syndrome (UVSS). Patients of these syndromes display a wide variety of clinical features that range from normal development with extreme predisposition to cancer, to neurodevelopmental defects associated with premature aging abnormalities. The connection between DNA damage and neurodegeneration remains unclear, i.e. cannot be explained by a DNA-repair deficiency alone, implying that various repair factors perform other functions beyond the repair process. XP-A is the second most common form of XP. XP-A cells have very low levels of NER activity and are sensitive to killing by UV light. It is one of the most severely affected XP groups, with the onset of cutaneous features, skin cancer, ocular features, and severe early onset neurological disease. Therefore we hypothesize that XPA interacts with cellular proteins that regulate its functions either in UV damage repair or in neurological development. To test this, our major aim was to carry out a large-scale proteomics investigation to identify novel interacting partners for XPA in the absence or presence of genotoxic stress, thus providing clues on the origins of neurodegeneration observed in many XP-A patients. We provide evidence that XPA can interact with MRE11, the key factor in repair of double strand breraks by homologous Recombination. Future experiments will be aimed at determining the impact of the XPA/MRE11 interaction functions in cells

PENGARUH HARGA DIRI DAN KELOMPOK TEMAN SEBAYA TERHADAP PERILAKU KONSUMTIF PADA MAHASISWA GENERASI Z

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of self-esteem and peer groups on consumptive behavior among generation Z students in Medan City. This study uses quantitative research methods with the help of the SPSS for windows 17.00 program. This study uses three scales, namely the consumptive behavior scale which is arranged based on the consumptive behavior indicator according to Summartono (2002), the self-esteem scale which is based on the self-esteem aspect according to Coopersmith (1998), and the peer group scale which is arranged based on the characteristics of the peer group according to Santrock (2007). The subjects in this study were active students aged 18-25 years from 4 public and private universities in Medan, namely the University of North Sumatra (USU), Medan State University (UNIMED), University of HKBP Nommensen Medan (UHN), and the University of Muhammadyah North Sumatra (UMSU) Based on the hypothesis test, it is known that there is no effect of self-esteem and peer groups on consumptive behavior in generation Z students in Medan City with a significance value of 0.622

PENGARUH HARGA DIRI DAN KELOMPOK TEMAN SEBAYA TERHADAP PERILAKU KONSUMTIF PADA MAHASISWA GENERASI Z

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of self-esteem and peer groups on consumptive behavior among generation Z students in Medan City. This study uses quantitative research methods with the help of the SPSS for windows 17.00 program. This study uses three scales, namely the consumptive behavior scale which is arranged based on the consumptive behavior indicator according to Summartono (2002), the self-esteem scale which is based on the self-esteem aspect according to Coopersmith (1998), and the peer group scale which is arranged based on the characteristics of the peer group according to Santrock (2007). The subjects in this study were active students aged 18-25 years from 4 public and private universities in Medan, namely the University of North Sumatra (USU), Medan State University (UNIMED), University of HKBP Nommensen Medan (UHN), and the University of Muhammadyah North Sumatra (UMSU) Based on the hypothesis test, it is known that there is no effect of self-esteem and peer groups on consumptive behavior in generation Z students in Medan City with a significance value of 0.622

A Multiple-Sensor Fault-Tolerant Control of a Single-Phase Pulse-Width Modulated Rectifier Based on MRAS and GPI Observers

Due to their advantages in ensuring low harmonic distortion and high power factors, single-phase Pulse-Width Modulated (PWM) rectifiers are widely employed in several industrial applications. Generally, the conventional control loop of a single-phase PWM rectifier uses both voltage and current sensors. Hence, in case of sensor fault, the performance and the availability of the converter can be seriously compromised. Therefore, diagnosis approaches and fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategies are mandatory to monitor these systems. Accordingly, this paper introduces a novel multiple-sensor FTC scheme for a single-phase PWM rectifier. The proposed fault diagnosis approach relies on joining several Generalized Proportional Integral (GPI) and Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) observers with a residual generation technique to detect and isolate sensor faults in a simple and reliable manner. While conventional sensor FTC methods dedicated to PWM rectifiers can only deal with single faults, the suggested approach guarantees a very good effectiveness level of sensor fault detection, isolation (FDI) and FTC of multiple-sensor fault occurrence scenarios. Consequently, the single-phase PWM rectifier can work with only the survivable single sensor with the guarantee of very good performance as in healthy operation mode. The effectiveness of the proposed sensor FDI approach and its control reconfiguration performance are demonstrated through both extensive simulation and experimental results

Objective quality assessment of medical images and videos : review and challenges

Quality assessment is a key element for the evaluation of hardware and software involved inimage and video acquisition, processing, and visualization. In the medical field, user-basedquality assessment is still considered more reliable than objective methods, which allow theimplementation of automated and more efficient solutions. Regardless of increasing researchon this topic in the last decade, defining quality standards for medical content remains a nontrivial task, as the focus should be on the diagnostic value assessed by expert viewers ratherthan the perceived quality from naïve viewers, and objective quality metrics should aim atestimating the first rather than the latter. In this paper, we present a survey of methodologiesused for the objective quality assessment of medical images and videos, dividing them intovisual quality-based and task-based approaches. Visual quality-based methods compute aquality index directly from visual attributes, while task-based methods, being increasinglyexplored, measure the impact of quality impairments on the performance of a specific task. Adiscussion on the limitations of state-of-the-art research on this topic is also provided, alongwith future challenges to be addressed

Stock status and potential yield of deep water rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris, Lucas 1846) in the south-central Mediterranean Sea

This document summarises the data used, methods adopted and the results of the joint stock assessment carried out during the MedSudMed and CopeMed II Working Groups on Parapenaeus longirostris and related fisheries held in 2009 and 2010 in Malta and Italy respectively. The aim of this document is to describe the state of the stock of P. longirostris in the south-central Mediterranean Sea using data from Italy, Tunisia and Malta. The long term objective of this study is to provide the baseline for the establishment of a harmonised management regime for the deep water rose shrimp fishery in the south-central Mediterranean Sea. Overall, fishery dependent data from Italy, Malta and Tunisia for the first time were pooled together and jointly processed. The assessment was performed using length cohort analysis (LCA) and biomass and yield per recruits analyses as implemented in VIT4Win. Current mean fishing mortality and exploitation pattern were assessed using the steady state LCA on length frequency distributions (LFD) of 2007, 2008 and 2009 as well as the average 2007-2009 catches, raised to the total landings. Analyses were performed separately by keeping sex and fleet segments separate (i.e. Italy 12-24; Italy > 24; Tunisia; Malta) as first step. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out as implemented in VIT. The results are discussed in the view of providing robust technical advice for the management of national fisheries exploiting P. longirostris in the MedSudMed area taking into account the possible evolution of national fisheries. Some perspective for future joint activities to be carried out within the cooperative framework established by the FAO Projects are also presented.peer-reviewe

Reproductive Outcomes and Endocrine Profile in Artificially Inseminated versus Embryo Transferred Cows

[EN] The increasing use of in vitro embryo production (IVP) followed by embryo transfer (ET), alongside with cryopreservation of embryos, has risen concerns regarding the possible altered pregnancy rates, calving or even neonatal mortality. One of the hypotheses for these alterations is the current culture conditions of the IVP. In an attempt to better mimic the physiological milieu, embryos were produced with female reproductive fluids (RF) as supplements to culture medium, and another group of embryos were supplemented with bovine serum albumin (BSA) as in vitro control. Embryos were cryopreserved and transferred while, in parallel, an in vivo control (artificial insemination, AI) with the same bull used for IVP was included. An overview on pregnancy rates, recipients’ hormonal levels, parturition, and resulting calves were recorded. Results show much similarity between groups in terms of pregnancy rates, gestation length and calves’ weight. Nonetheless, several differences on hormonal levels were noted between recipients carrying AI embryos especially when compared to BSA. Some calving issues and neonatal mortality were observed in both IVP groups. In conclusion, most of the parameters studied were similar between both types of IVP derived embryos and the in vivo-derived embryos, suggesting that the IVP technology used was efficient enough for the safe production of calvesSIThis research was funded by European Union, Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action, grant number REPBIOTECH675526 and as well as by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain), grants number AGL2015-66341-R & AGL2015-70140-R MINECO-FEDER and Fundación Séneca, grant number 20040/GERM/1