Dynamic three-dimensional shoulder MRI during active motion for investigation of rotator cuff diseases

Background MRI is the standard methodology in diagnosis of rotator cuff diseases. However, many patients continue to have pain despite treatment, and MRI of a static unloaded shoulder seems insufficient for best diagnosis and treatment. This study evaluated if Dynamic MRI provides novel kinematic data that can be used to improve the understanding, diagnosis and best treatment of rotator cuff diseases. Methods Dynamic MRI provided real-time 3D image series and was used to measure changes in the width of subacromial space, superior-inferior translation and anterior-posterior translation of the humeral head relative to the glenoid during active abduction. These measures were investigated for consistency with the rotator cuff diseases classifications from standard MRI. Results The study included: 4 shoulders with massive rotator cuff tears, 5 shoulders with an isolated full-thickness supraspinatus tear, 5 shoulders with tendinopathy and 6 normal shoulders. A change in the width of subacromial space greater than 4mm differentiated between rotator cuff diseases with tendon tears (massive cuff tears and supraspinatus tear) and without tears (tendinopathy) (p = 0.012). The range of the superior-inferior translation was higher in the massive cuff tears group (6.4mm) than in normals (3.4mm) (p = 0.02). The range of the anterior-posterior translation was higher in the massive cuff tears (9.2 mm) and supraspinatus tear (9.3 mm) shoulders compared to normals (3.5mm) and tendinopathy (4.8mm) shoulders (p = 0.05). Conclusion The Dynamic MRI enabled a novel measure; ‘Looseness’, i.e. the translation of the humeral head on the glenoid during an abduction cycle. Looseness was better able at differentiating different forms of rotator cuff disease than a simple static measure of relative glenohumeral position

On the predictive behaviour of the Indian monsoon in June 2009

Francis and Gadgil1 have made many interesting correlations of meteorological variables and events, and have proposed that unfavourable SST (sea surface temperature)gradient between the Bay of Bengal and EEIO (eastern equatorial Indian ocean) led to the large deficit of monsoon rainfall in 2009. In their own words, ‘. . . a drought was not expected from the predictions generated by the leading centres in the world using complex models of the coupled ocean–atmosphere system. Models had generally predicted above average rainfall for June–July–August (JJA) over most of the Indian region, which is almost the opposite to what was observed’

Open Access/Open Research/Open Government: The Full Cycle of Access to Government Information

Stephanie Braunstein, Head Government Documents Librarian at Louisiana State University, and Maggie Kauffman, Senior Librarian and Housing Resource Coordinator at the California Department of Housing and Community Development, will describe the who, what, why, and how of current initiatives that promote the sharing of government-funded research--at both the federal and state levels. Emphasis will be placed on recent legislative efforts (such as the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act [FASTR]) and on the recommendations of various professional library organizations that support academic research (such as the Association of Research Libraries [ARL]). While much of the current discussion surrounding this issue takes place at the federal level, open access to information at the state level is vital in order to insure an educated and informed local population. After the informational portion of the presentation, the presenters will open up the floor for discussion with the intention of sharing a variety of perspectives on the government\u27s funding of research and how best to provide fair and equitable access to it

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Department of ChemistryRu-based sensitizers (N719, N3, black dye, etc.) have been developed continuously and reached an efficiency of ~11.7% under AM 1.5G irradiation (1000 W/m2). However, these Ru-based sensitizers are not adequate to commercialization because of a stability issue and a need of thick TiO2 film for a high power conversion efficiency (PCE). Therefore, we designed and synthesized total four organic sensitizers by varying functional groups ondonor moieties to understand the structure-property relationship of the solar cell devices, ranging from the stability to the efficiency in thin TiO2 film system. First, all the sensitizers were composed of dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]thiophene (DTT) as a ??-conjugated bridge for a strong stability against external environment. Second, three sensitizers (TP-1, TP-2 and TP-3) containedthe proton (control group), the methoxygroup, and the carbazole group on donor moieties respectively. TP-2 with methoxy groups achieved thehighest PCE of 8.70%and exhibited stronger thermal and light stability than TP-1 and TP-3which can be attributed to the good electron donating ability. However, TP-2 showed the lowest water stability.On the other hands, TP-3 with carbazole groups showed a relatively low PCE of 7.40%.TP-3 alsoexhibited weak thermal and light stabilitybecause 3,6-position of carbazole were easily oxidized by external energy but achieved the highest water stabilitypresumably bythe strong hydrophobicity of carbazole groups. Based on the observation, we postulated protecting role of functional groups on donors (TPA) and themselves was vital to determine the stability.Therefore, TP-4 with a 2-ethylhexyloxy group was designed and synthesized for protecting oxygen on alkoxy group. As a result, TP-4 achieved high stabilitiesin terms of thermal, light and water stability and aPCE as high as 7.80%due to the strong electron donating ability as shown in the methoxy group of TP-2.ope