Effects of bracing in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis

BACKGROUND: The role of bracing in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis who are at risk for curve progression and eventual surgery is controversial. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter study that included patients with typical indications for bracing due to their age, skeletal immaturity, and degree of scoliosis. Both a randomized cohort and a preference cohort were enrolled. Of 242 patients included in the analysis, 116 were randomly assigned to bracing or observation, and 126 chose between bracing and observation. Patients in the bracing group were instructed to wear the brace at least 18 hours per day. The primary outcomes were curve progression to 50 degrees or more (treatment failure) and skeletal maturity without this degree of curve progression (treatment success). RESULTS: The trial was stopped early owing to the efficacy of bracing. In an analysis that included both the randomized and preference cohorts, the rate of treatment success was 72% after bracing, as compared with 48% after observation (propensity-score–adjusted odds ratio for treatment success, 1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08 to 3.46). In the intention-to-treat analysis, the rate of treatment success was 75% among patients randomly assigned to bracing, as compared with 42% among those randomly assigned to observation (odds ratio, 4.11; 95% CI, 1.85 to 9.16). There was a significant positive association between hours of brace wear and rate of treatment success (P CONCLUSIONS: Bracing significantly decreased the progression of high-risk curves to the threshold for surgery in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The benefit increased with longer hours of brace wear. (Funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and others; BRAIST ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00448448opens in new tab.)</p

On the stability of standing waves of Klein-Gordon equations in a semiclassical regime

We investigate the orbital stability and instability of standing waves for two classes of Klein-Gordon equations in the semi-classical regime.Comment: 9 page

Homoclinic standing waves in focussing DNLS equations --Variational approach via constrained optimization

We study focussing discrete nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equations and present a new variational existence proof for homoclinic standing waves (bright solitons). Our approach relies on the constrained maximization of an energy functional and provides the existence of two one-parameter families of waves with unimodal and even profile function for a wide class of nonlinearities. Finally, we illustrate our results by numerical simulations.Comment: new version with revised introduction and improved condition (A3); 16 pages, several figure

Thermal convection with non-Newtonian plates

The coupling between plate motions and mantle convection is investigated using a fully dynamic numerical model consisting of a thin non-Newtonian layer which is dynamically coupled to a thick Newtonian viscous layer. The non-Newtonian layer has a simple power-law rheology characterized by power-law index n and stiffness constant Μ p. A systematic investigation of steady, single cell configurations demonstrates that under certain conditions ( n > 7 being one of them) the non-Newtonian layer behaves like a mobile tectonic plate. Time-dependent calculations with multicellular configurations show the ability of the plate-mantle coupling model to adjust the number of plates and their sizes in accordance with the flow in the Newtonian layer. These calculations show that the geometry and number of plates do not necessarily resemble the planform of convection below.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72550/1/j.1365-246X.1992.tb02109.x.pd

Orbital stability: analysis meets geometry

We present an introduction to the orbital stability of relative equilibria of Hamiltonian dynamical systems on (finite and infinite dimensional) Banach spaces. A convenient formulation of the theory of Hamiltonian dynamics with symmetry and the corresponding momentum maps is proposed that allows us to highlight the interplay between (symplectic) geometry and (functional) analysis in the proofs of orbital stability of relative equilibria via the so-called energy-momentum method. The theory is illustrated with examples from finite dimensional systems, as well as from Hamiltonian PDE's, such as solitons, standing and plane waves for the nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger equation, for the wave equation, and for the Manakov system

Two-Loop O(αsGFmt2){\cal O}(\alpha_sG_Fm_t^2) Corrections to the Fermionic Decay Rates of the Standard-Model Higgs Boson

Low- and intermediate mass Higgs bosons decay preferably into fermion pairs. The one-loop electroweak corrections to the respective decay rates are dominated by a flavour-independent term of ${\cal O}(G_Fm_t^2)$. We calculate the two-loop gluon correction to this term. It turns out that this correction screens the leading high-$m_t$ behaviour of the one-loop result by roughly 10\%. We also present the two-loop QCD correction to the contribution induced by a pair of fourth-generation quarks with arbitrary masses. As expected, the inclusion of the QCD correction considerably reduces the renormalization-scheme dependence of the prediction.Comment: 14 pages, latex, figures 2-5 appended, DESY 94-08

Characterization of systematic error in Advanced LIGO calibration

The raw outputs of the detectors within the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory need to be calibrated in order to produce the estimate of the dimensionless strain used for astrophysical analyses. The two detectors have been upgraded since the second observing run and finished the year-long third observing run. Understanding, accounting, and/or compensating for the complex-valued response of each part of the upgraded detectors improves the overall accuracy of the estimated detector response to gravitational waves. We describe improved understanding and methods used to quantify the response of each detector, with a dedicated effort to define all places where systematic error plays a role. We use the detectors as they stand in the first half (six months) of the third observing run to demonstrate how each identified systematic error impacts the estimated strain and constrain the statistical uncertainty therein. For this time period, we estimate the upper limit on systematic error and associated uncertainty to be $< 7\%$ in magnitude and $< 4$ deg in phase ($68\%$ confidence interval) in the most sensitive frequency band 20-2000 Hz. The systematic error alone is estimated at levels of $< 2\%$ in magnitude and $< 2$ deg in phase

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types