The Fate Of A Non-Resident Personal Representative: In re Estate of Greenberg

In re Estate of Greenberg\u27 addresses the constitutionality of Florida\u27s laws on administration of estates. The central issue is whether a nonresident, unrelated to the testator, can act as personal representative of the decedent\u27s estate

The dynamics of cracks in torn thin sheets

Motivated by recent experiments, we present a study of the dynamics of cracks in thin sheets. While the equations of elasticity for thin plates are well known, there remains the question of path selection for a propagating crack. We invoke a generalization of the principle of local symmetry to provide a criterion for path selection and demonstrate qualitative agreement with the experimental findings. The nature of the singularity at the crack tip is studied with and without the interference of nonlinear terms.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figure

Age- and Lesion-Related Comorbidity Burden Among US Adults With Congenital Heart Disease: A Population-Based Study.

Background As patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) are living longer, understanding the comorbidities they develop as they age is increasingly important. However, there are no published population-based estimates of the comorbidity burden among the US adult patients with CHD. Methods and Results Using the IBM MarketScan commercial claims database from 2010 to 2016, we identified adults aged ≥18 years with CHD and 2 full years of continuous enrollment. These were frequency matched with adults without CHD within categories jointly defined by age, sex, and dates of enrollment in the database. A total of 40 127 patients with CHD met the inclusion criteria (mean [SD] age, 36.8 [14.6] years; and 48.2% were women). Adults with CHD were nearly twice as likely to have any comorbidity than those without CHD (P<0.001). After adjusting for covariates, patients with CHD had a higher prevalence risk ratio for "previously recognized to be common in CHD" (risk ratio, 9.41; 95% CI, 7.99-11.1), "other cardiovascular" (risk ratio, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.66-1.80), and "noncardiovascular" (risk ratio, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.41-1.52) comorbidities. After adjusting for covariates and considering interaction with age, patients with severe CHD had higher risks of previously recognized to be common in CHD and lower risks of other cardiovascular comorbidities than age-stratified patients with nonsevere CHD. For noncardiovascular comorbidities, the risk was higher among patients with severe than nonsevere CHD before, but not after, the age of 40 years. Conclusions Our data underscore the unique clinical needs of adults with CHD compared with their peers. Clinicians caring for CHD may want to use a multidisciplinary approach, including building close collaborations with internists and specialists, to help provide appropriate care for the highly prevalent noncardiovascular comorbidities

Long-term lead elimination from plasma and whole blood after poisoning

OBJECTIVE: Blood lead (B-Pb), one of the most used toxicological biomarker all kind, has serious limitations. Thus, the objective is to evaluate whether plasma lead (P-Pb) is more adequate. METHODS: A long-term follow-up study of five cases of lead poisoning. P-Pb was analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Kinetics after end of exposure was modelled. RESULTS: P-Pb at severe poisoning was about 20 μg/L; haematological effects at about 5 μg/L. Biological half-time of P-Pb was about 1 month; B-Pb decay was much slower. CONCLUSION: P-Pb is a valuable biomarker of exposure to and risk, particularly at high exposure

Frictional sliding without geometrical reflection symmetry

The dynamics of frictional interfaces play an important role in many physical systems spanning a broad range of scales. It is well-known that frictional interfaces separating two dissimilar materials couple interfacial slip and normal stress variations, a coupling that has major implications on their stability, failure mechanism and rupture directionality. In contrast, interfaces separating identical materials are traditionally assumed not to feature such a coupling due to symmetry considerations. We show, combining theory and experiments, that interfaces which separate bodies made of macroscopically identical materials, but lack geometrical reflection symmetry, generically feature such a coupling. We discuss two applications of this novel feature. First, we show that it accounts for a distinct, and previously unexplained, experimentally observed weakening effect in frictional cracks. Second, we demonstrate that it can destabilize frictional sliding which is otherwise stable. The emerging framework is expected to find applications in a broad range of systems.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures + Supplementary Material. Minor change in the title, extended analysis in the second par

Evaluating the Biomechanical, Functional, and Clinical Outcomes of Bicruciate Stabilized Total Knee Arthroplasty

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the only solution for treating arthritis of the knee joint. Although it is successful at reducing pain and returning function to affected joints, one in five patients still report dissatisfaction following their operation. Bicruciate stabilized (BCS) TKA was developed to improve outcomes by replicating normal knee structure and function. The biomechanical, functional, and clinical outcomes for the BCS design were investigated in this thesis through radiographic imaging techniques, wearable sensor systems, and questionnaires in a cohort of TKA patients. A stereo x-ray technique, called radiostereometric analysis (RSA), assesses implant fixation by tracking micromotion of TKA devices relative to the bone. Risk of implant loosening can be predicted based on the magnitude of these micromotions. This thesis found micromotion of the BCS TKA was within safe thresholds for both the gap balancing and measured resection techniques, indicating sufficient fixation to the bone occurs and the BCS TKA is not expected to have elevated revision risks due to implant loosening. The exact cause of patient dissatisfaction after TKA is unknown. This thesis sought to find any differences in objective data between satisfied and dissatisfied patients with a BCS TKA. RSA was used to measure implant micromotion and tibiofemoral contact kinematics. A sensor system tracked measures of patient function during a timed-up-and-go functional test, and patient-reported outcomes were collected. We found no difference in implant micromotions or patient function between satisfied and dissatisfied patients. However, dissatisfied patients had more anterior contact on the lateral condyle of the knee in early flexion, and more pain and unmet expectations. Finally, correlations were found between implant micromotion and tibiofemoral contact kinematics. Contact patterns indicating reduced posterior femoral rollback in the lateral compartment correlated with greater implant micromotion. Since BCS TKA aims to replicate normal knee kinematics and guide posterior rollback, it was concluded that undesired kinematics resulted in greater micromotions, and a greater risk of implant loosening. Overall, the restoration of kinematics—particularly in the lateral compartment—in BCS TKA appears to be important for reducing implant migrations, improving pain and feeling in the knee, and ultimately, enhancing patient satisfaction

Cloudbus Toolkit for Market-Oriented Cloud Computing

This keynote paper: (1) presents the 21st century vision of computing and identifies various IT paradigms promising to deliver computing as a utility; (2) defines the architecture for creating market-oriented Clouds and computing atmosphere by leveraging technologies such as virtual machines; (3) provides thoughts on market-based resource management strategies that encompass both customer-driven service management and computational risk management to sustain SLA-oriented resource allocation; (4) presents the work carried out as part of our new Cloud Computing initiative, called Cloudbus: (i) Aneka, a Platform as a Service software system containing SDK (Software Development Kit) for construction of Cloud applications and deployment on private or public Clouds, in addition to supporting market-oriented resource management; (ii) internetworking of Clouds for dynamic creation of federated computing environments for scaling of elastic applications; (iii) creation of 3rd party Cloud brokering services for building content delivery networks and e-Science applications and their deployment on capabilities of IaaS providers such as Amazon along with Grid mashups; (iv) CloudSim supporting modelling and simulation of Clouds for performance studies; (v) Energy Efficient Resource Allocation Mechanisms and Techniques for creation and management of Green Clouds; and (vi) pathways for future research.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, Conference pape

Calcium efflux systems in stress signaling and adaptation in plants

Transient cytosolic calcium ([Ca(2+)](cyt)) elevation is an ubiquitous denominator of the signaling network when plants are exposed to literally every known abiotic and biotic stress. These stress-induced [Ca(2+)](cyt) elevations vary in magnitude, frequency, and shape, depending on the severity of the stress as well the type of stress experienced. This creates a unique stress-specific calcium “signature” that is then decoded by signal transduction networks. While most published papers have been focused predominantly on the role of Ca(2+) influx mechanisms to shaping [Ca(2+)](cyt) signatures, restoration of the basal [Ca(2+)](cyt) levels is impossible without both cytosolic Ca(2+) buffering and efficient Ca(2+) efflux mechanisms removing excess Ca(2+) from cytosol, to reload Ca(2+) stores and to terminate Ca(2+) signaling. This is the topic of the current review. The molecular identity of two major types of Ca(2+) efflux systems, Ca(2+)-ATPase pumps and Ca(2+)/H(+) exchangers, is described, and their regulatory modes are analyzed in detail. The spatial and temporal organization of calcium signaling networks is described, and the importance of existence of intracellular calcium microdomains is discussed. Experimental evidence for the role of Ca(2+) efflux systems in plant responses to a range of abiotic and biotic factors is summarized. Contribution of Ca(2+)-ATPase pumps and Ca(2+)/H(+) exchangers in shaping [Ca(2+)](cyt) signatures is then modeled by using a four-component model (plasma- and endo-membrane-based Ca(2+)-permeable channels and efflux systems) taking into account the cytosolic Ca(2+) buffering. It is concluded that physiologically relevant variations in the activity of Ca(2+)-ATPase pumps and Ca(2+)/H(+) exchangers are sufficient to fully describe all the reported experimental evidence and determine the shape of [Ca(2+)](cyt) signatures in response to environmental stimuli, emphasizing the crucial role these active efflux systems play in plant adaptive responses to environment

Comparison of Contact Kinematics in Posterior-Stabilized and Cruciate-Retaining Total Knee Arthroplasty at Long-Term Follow-Up

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. Background: There is controversy regarding the superiority of posterior-stabilizing (PS) total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and cruciate-retaining (CR) TKA. Substantial work has made comparisons between PS and CR TKA at follow-ups of less than 5 years. It was the goal of the present study to compare the kinematics at greater than 5 years postoperatively between CR and PS TKA, with a secondary goal of comparing patient function. Methods: A total of 42 knees were investigated, with equal representation in the PS and CR TKA groups. Patients underwent radiostereometric analysis imaging at 0°, 20°, 40°, 60° 80°, and 100° of flexion. Contact position, magnitude of excursion, and condylar separation on each condyle were measured. A Timed-Up-and-Go functional test was also performed by patients, with the total test time being measured. Preoperative and postoperative clinical outcome scores were also collected. Results: There were differences in contact position on both the medial and lateral condyles at multiple angles of flexion (P \u3c .05). There was no difference (P = .89) in medial excursion; however, PS TKA had greater lateral excursion than CR TKA (P \u3c .01). No difference (P \u3e .99) was found in frequency of condylar separation. PS TKA was associated with faster (P = .03) total Timed-Up-and-Go test times. There were no differences in clinical outcome scores between the groups preoperatively or postoperatively. Conclusion: We found kinematic and functional differences that favor PS TKA. Our results suggest posterior cruciate ligament insufficiency in CR TKA, indicating that perhaps the cam/post systems in PS TKA better maintain knee kinematics and function long term