847 research outputs found
Potential of the Cone Pressuremeter Test for obtaining stiffness degradation for offshore wind turbine monopile foundations
publishedVersio
Narrow spectrum kinase inhibitors demonstrate promise for the treatment of dry eye disease and other ocular inflammatory disorders
Effects of intraarticular IL1-Ra for acute anterior cruciate ligament knee injury: a randomized controlled pilot trial (NCT00332254)
SummaryObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical effectiveness of intraarticular IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear.MethodsEleven patients with acute ACL tear confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were randomized to receive a single intraarticular injection of IL-1Ra (anakinra 150 mg, n = 6) or equal volume of saline placebo (1 ml, n = 5). The double-blinded treatment was administered a mean 2 weeks after injury. Synovial fluid (SF) (n = 9 patients) and sera (all patients) were available at baseline (prior to injection) and immediately prior to surgery (mean 35 days later) and analyzed for SF IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-1Ra and serum hyaluronan (HA), an indicator of synovial inflammation. The primary outcome, standardized Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) questionnaire, was obtained at 0 (baseline), 4, and 14 days after injection.ResultsCompared with placebo, the IL-1Ra group had substantially greater improvement in key outcomes over 14 days (KOOS pain P = 0.001; activities of daily living P = 0.0015; KOOS sports function P = 0.0026; KOOS quality of life (QOL) P = 0.0048; and total KOOS P < 0.0001). There were no adverse reactions in either group. SF IL-1α (P = 0.05) and serum HA (P = 0.03), but not IL-1β, or IL-1Ra, decreased significantly in the IL-1Ra but not the placebo treated patients. Compared with placebo, IL-1α was borderline significantly different in the IL-1Ra treated group (P = 0.06).ConclusionsAdministered within the first month following severe knee injury, IL-1Ra reduced knee pain and improved function over a 2-week interval. This promising proof of concept study provides a new paradigm for studies of acute joint injury and suggests that a larger follow-up study is warranted
Law, politics and the governance of English and Scottish joint-stock companies 1600-1850
This article examines the impact of law on corporate governance by means of a case study of joint-stock enterprise in England and Scotland before 1850. Based on a dataset of over 450 company constitutions together with qualitative information on governance practice, it finds little evidence to support the hypothesis that common-law regimes such as England were more supportive of economic growth than civil-law jurisdictions such as Scotland: indeed, levels of shareholder protection were slightly stronger in the civil-law zone. Other factors, such as local political institutions, played a bigger role in shaping organisational forms and business practice
The second ESGAR consensus statement on CT colonography
Objective: To update quality standards for CT colonography based on consensus among opinion leaders within the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR). Material and methods: A multinational European panel of nine members of the ESGAR CT colonography Working Group (representing six EU countries) used a modified Delphi process to rate their level of agreement on a variety of statements pertaining to the acquisition, interpretation and implementation of CT colonography. Four Delphi rounds were conducted, each at 2 months interval. Results: The panel elaborated 86 statements. In the final round the panelists achieved complete consensus in 71 of 86 statements (82 %). Categories including the highest proportion of statements with excellent Cronbach's internal reliability were colon distension, scan parameters, use of intravenous contrast agents, general guidelines on patient preparation, role of CAD and lesion measurement. Lower internal reliability was achieved for the use of a rectal tube, spasmolytics, decubitus positioning and number of CT data acquisitions, faecal tagging, 2D vs. 3D reading, and reporting. Conclusion: The recommendations of the consensus should be useful for both the radiologist who is starting a CTC service and for those who have already implemented the technique but whose practice may need updating. Key Points: • Computed tomographic colonography is the optimal radiological method of assessing the colon • This article reviews ESGAR quality standards for CT colonography • This article is aimed to provide CT-colonography guidelines for practising radiologists • The recommendations should help radiologists who are starting/updating their CTC services © 2012 The Author(s)
Effects of surface roughness with two scales on light scattering by hexagonal ice crystals large compared to the wavelength : DDA results
Peer reviewe
Scaling Laws and Effective Dimension in Lattice SU(2) Yang-Mills Theory with a Compactified Extra Dimension
Monte Carlo simulations are performed in a five-dimensional lattice SU(2)
Yang-Mills theory with a compactified extra dimension, and scaling laws are
studied. Our simulations indicate that as the compactification radius
decreases, the confining phase spreads more and more to the weak coupling
regime, and the effective dimension of the theory changes gradually from five
to four. Our simulations also indicate that the limit with
kept fixed exists both in the confining and deconfining phases if is
small enough, where is the lattice spacing in the four-dimensional
direction. We argue that the color degrees of freedom in QCD are confined only
for , where a rough estimate shows that lies
in the TeV range. Comments on deconstructing extra dimensions are given.Comment: 15 pages, TeX, 5 figure
Localization of gravity in brane world with arbitrary extra dimensions
We study the induced 4-dimensional linearized Einstein field equations in an
m-dimensional bulk space by means of a confining potential. It is shown that in
this approach the mass of graviton is quantized. The cosmological constant
problem is also addressed within the context of this approach. We show that the
difference between the values of the cosmological constant in particle physics
and cosmology stems from our measurements in two different scales, small and
large.Comment: 8 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:gr-qc/0408004, arXiv:gr-qc/0607067, arXiv:0704.1035, arXiv:0707.3558,
arXiv:0710.266
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