3,358 research outputs found
Association between spondylolisthesis and L5 fracture in patients with osteogenesis imperfecta
To investigate if an association between spondylolisthesis and L5 fracture occurs in patients affected by Osteogenesis Imperfecta (O.I.).
Methods
Anteroposterior and lateral radiograms were performed on the sample (38 O.I. patients, of whom 19 presenting listhesis); on imaging studies spondylolisthesis was quantified according to the Meyerding classification. Genant’s semiquantitative classification was applied on lateral view to evaluate the L5 fractures; skeleton spinal morphometry (MXA) was carried out on the same images to collect quantitative data comparable and superimposable to Genant’s classification. The gathered information were analyzed through statistical tests (O.R., χ 2 test, Fisher’s test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient).
Results
The prevalence of L5 fractures is 73.7 % in O.I. patients with spondylolisthesis and their risk of experiencing such a fracture is twice than O.I. patients without listhesis (OR 2.04). Pearson’s χ 2 test demonstrates an association between L5 spondylolisthesis and L5 fracture, especially with moderate, posterior fractures (p = 0.017) and primarily in patients affected by type IV O.I.
Conclusions
Spondylolisthesis represents a risk factor for the development of more severe and biconcave/posterior type fractures of L5 in patients suffering from O.I., especially in type IV. This fits the hypothesis that the anterior sliding of the soma of L5 alters the dynamics of action of the load forces, localizing them on the central and posterior heights that become the focus of the stress due to movement of flexion–extension and twisting of the spine. As a result, there is greater probability of developing an important subsidence of the central and posterior walls of the soma
Cannabis through the looking glass: chemo- and enantio-selective separation of phytocannabinoids by enantioselective ultra high performance supercritical fluid chromatography
By using the Inverted Chirality Columns Approach (ICCA) we have developed an enantioselective UHPSFC method to determine the enantiomeric excess (ee) of (-)-Δ(9)-THC in medicinal marijuana (Bedrocan®). The ee was high (99.73%), but the concentration of the (+)-enantiomer (0.135%) was not negligible, and it is worth a systematic evaluation of bioactivity
2-D constrained Navier-Stokes equation and intermediate asymptotics
We introduce a modified version of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes
equation, preserving energy and momentum of inertia, which is motivated by the
occurrence of different dissipation time scales and related to the gradient
flow structure of the 2-D Navier-Stokes equation. The hope is to understand
intermediate asymptotics. The analysis we present here is purely formal. A
rigorous study of this equation will be done in a forthcoming paper
Dismenorrea in donne lavoratrici dell'industria
La dismenorrea è una delle più comuni indisposizioni nelle donne. La frequenza varia in differenti lavori, probabilmente ciò è dovuto alla differenza nei gruppi di popolazione studiati. In alcune industrie Norvegesi, con molto personale femminile, l’inabilità periodica al lavoro dovuto ai fastidi mestruali è stato un problema di una
certa importanza e la domanda è sorta nel caso in cui l’assenza è medicalmente giustificata nella visione di un moderno trattamento ormonale. Per avvicinarci al problema abbiamo pianificato di esaminare l’evento dei fastidi mestruali, particolarmente la dismenorrea, tra il personale femminile in alcune industrie Italiane in quello che appariva essere un problema. I soggetti esaminati erano impiegati di una compagnia elettrica-tecnica e di una
industria tessile. Un questionario preparato da una infermiera dell’industria, è stato compilato da donne in età mestruale che erano state visitate per esami medici periodici e di pre-assunzione tra il 2002-2003. Ogni donna assistita soffriva di dolore, e quando tutti i sintomi erano considerati il 61% aveva mensilmente disturbi che ovviamente riducevano la loro capacità sul lavoro.
Visto che il 9% delle donne assumevano estroprogestinici, che riducevano o eliminavano la dismenorrea, la vera prevalenza potrebbe essere leggermente superiore. Circa il 30% delle donne erano confinate a letto. Circa il 30% si assentava dal lavoro, il che illustra la grandezza del problema sia medico che economico
Alice in wonderland: experimental jurisprudence on the internal point of view
Humans have this extraordinary cognitive ability: They imagine inexistent objects, they treat them as if they were real, and by doing so they make them real. They thus give rise to a shared institutional reality that enables them to cooperate in ways that would be impossible otherwise. In this paper, we would like to revisit the account that HLA Hart gives of the practice of collective acceptance that makes a legal system possible. We try to provide an explanation of what Hart calls the 'internal point of view', on the basis of experiments on institutional concepts, drawing on the paradigm known as 'embodied cognition'. Experts and non-experts in law rated the role of several cognitive dimensions for a list of words referring to two kinds of abstract concepts (institutional and theoretical/scientific) and two kinds of concrete ones (food and artifact). Institutional concepts were distinguished into pure-institutional (e.g., 'contract', 'state', 'property') and meta-institutional (e.g., 'norm', 'duty', 'justice'). The results provide an empirical account of how our way of thinking about institutions changes as we acquire expertise in the legal field, thus shading light on the cognitive underpinnings of the 'internal point of view'
Celebrating Cercignani's conjecture for the Boltzmann equation
Cercignani's conjecture assumes a linear inequality between the entropy and
entropy production functionals for Boltzmann's nonlinear integral operator in
rarefied gas dynamics. Related to the field of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities
and spectral gap inequalities, this issue has been at the core of the renewal
of the mathematical theory of convergence to thermodynamical equilibrium for
rarefied gases over the past decade. In this review paper, we survey the
various positive and negative results which were obtained since the conjecture
was proposed in the 1980s.Comment: This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Carlo Cercignani,
powerful mind and great scientist, one of the founders of the modern theory
of the Boltzmann equation. 24 pages. V2: correction of some typos and one
ref. adde
Spin Glass Computations and Ruelle's Probability Cascades
We study the Parisi functional, appearing in the Parisi formula for the
pressure of the SK model, as a functional on Ruelle's Probability Cascades
(RPC). Computation techniques for the RPC formulation of the functional are
developed. They are used to derive continuity and monotonicity properties of
the functional retrieving a theorem of Guerra. We also detail the connection
between the Aizenman-Sims-Starr variational principle and the Parisi formula.
As a final application of the techniques, we rederive the Almeida-Thouless line
in the spirit of Toninelli but relying on the RPC structure.Comment: 20 page
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Evaluation of the urban tile in MOSES using surface energy balance observations
The UK Met Office has introduced a new scheme for its urban tile in MOSES 2.2
(Met Office Surface Exchange Scheme version 2.2), which is currently implemented within
the operational Met Office weather forecasting model. Here, the performance of the urban
tile is evaluated in two urban areas: the historic core of downtown Mexico City and a light
industrial site in Vancouver, Canada. The sites differ in terms of building structures and
mean building heights. In both cases vegetation cover is less than 5%. The evaluation is
based on surface energy balance flux measurements conducted at approximately the blend-
ing height, which is the location where the surface scheme passes flux data into the atmo-
spheric model. At both sites, MOSES 2.2 correctly simulates the net radiation, but there are
discrepancies in the partitioning of turbulent and storage heat fluxes between predicted and
observed values. Of the turbulent fluxes, latent heat fluxes were underpredicted by about one
order of magnitude. Multiple model runs revealed MOSES 2.2 to be sensitive to changes in
the canopy heat storage and in the ratio between the aerodynamic roughness length and that
for heat transfer (temperature). Model performance was optimum with heat capacity values
smaller than those generally considered for these sites. The results suggest that the current
scheme is probably too simple, and that improvements may be obtained by increasing the
complexity of the model
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