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Propionibacterium acnes infections in patients with idiopathic scoliosis: a case-control study and review of the literature.
Purpose:Surgical site infection (SSI) caused by Propionibacterium acnes is an infrequent but devastating complication after spinal fusion. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for SSI with Propionibacterium acnes after spinal fusion for juvenile and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (JIS and AIS). Methods:A case-control study was performed. Each case was matched 2:1 for age, gender and diagnosis. Retrospective chart review was performed to obtain relevant demographic, surgical and clinical data for all cases and controls. Statistical analysis included paired t-test and McNemar test, as well as exact logistic regression and robust regression models. Results:This study included ten infection cases (eight AIS, two JIS) and 20 controls (16 AIS, four JIS). In total, six infected cases presented within two weeks of the index procedure (acute infection) and four infected cases presented more than one year from the index procedure (delayed infection). The most common presentation for acute infections was wound drainage, while back pain was more common in delayed infections. All infections were successfully treated with surgical irrigation and debridement and postoperative antibiotics. Hardware was removed for patients with delayed infections. The strongest risk factor for infection was increased requirement for blood transfusion, but it did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion:SSI with Propionibacterium acnes is an important complication after spinal fusion for idiopathic scoliosis. These infections can be successfully treated, but larger studies are needed to further identify risk factors and establish standardized guidelines for the treatment and prevention of this complication. Level of Evidence Level III
Thermodynamic evidence of fractionalized excitations in {\alpha}-RuCl3
Fractionalized excitations are of considerable interest in recent
condensed-matter physics. Fractionalization of the spin degrees of freedom into
localized and itinerant Majorana fermions are predicted for the Kitaev spin
liquid, an exactly solvable model with bond-dependent interactions on a
two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. As function of temperature, theory predicts
a characteristic two-peak structure of the heat capacity as fingerprint of
these excitations. Here we report on detailed heat-capacity experiments as
function of temperature and magnetic field in high-quality single crystals of
{\alpha}-RuCl3 and undertook considerable efforts to determine the exact phonon
background. We measured single-crystalline RhCl3 as non-magnetic reference and
performed ab-initio calculations of the phonon density of states for both
compounds. These ab-initio calculations document that the intrinsic phonon
contribution to the heat capacity cannot be obtained by a simple rescaling of
the nonmagnetic reference using differences in the atomic masses. Sizable
renormalization is required even for non-magnetic RhCl3 with its minute
difference from the title compound. In {\alpha}-RuCl3 in zero magnetic field,
excess heat capacity exists at temperatures well above the onset of magnetic
order. In external magnetic fields far beyond quantum criticality, when
long-range magnetic order is fully suppressed, the excess heat capacity
exhibits the characteristic two-peak structure. In zero field, the lower peak
just appears at temperatures around the onset of magnetic order and seems to be
connected with canonical spin degrees of freedom. At higher fields, beyond the
critical field, this peak is shifted to 10 K. The high-temperature peak located
around 50 K is hardly influenced by external magnetic fields, carries the
predicted amount of entropy, R/2 ln2, and may resemble remnants of Kitaev
physics
Structural, magnetic, electric, dielectric, and thermodynamic properties of multiferroic GeV4S8
The lacunar spinel GeV4S8 undergoes orbital and ferroelectric ordering at the
Jahn-Teller transition around 30 K and exhibits antiferromagnetic order below
about 14 K. In addition to this orbitally driven ferroelectricity, lacunar
spinels are an interesting material class, as the vanadium ions form V4
clusters representing stable molecular entities with a common electron
distribution and a well-defined level scheme of molecular states resulting in a
unique spin state per V4 molecule. Here we report detailed x-ray, magnetic
susceptibility, electrical resistivity, heat capacity, thermal expansion, and
dielectric results to characterize the structural, electric, dielectric,
magnetic, and thermodynamic properties of this interesting material, which also
exhibits strong electronic correlations. From the magnetic susceptibility, we
determine a negative Curie-Weiss temperature, indicative for antiferromagnetic
exchange and a paramagnetic moment close to a spin S = 1 of the V4 molecular
clusters. The low-temperature heat capacity provides experimental evidence for
gapped magnon excitations. From the entropy release, we conclude about strong
correlations between magnetic order and lattice distortions. In addition, the
observed anomalies at the phase transitions also indicate strong coupling
between structural and electronic degrees of freedom. Utilizing dielectric
spectroscopy, we find the onset of significant dispersion effects at the polar
Jahn-Teller transition. The dispersion becomes fully suppressed again with the
onset of spin order. In addition, the temperature dependencies of dielectric
constant and specific heat possibly indicate a sequential appearance of orbital
and polar order.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Polar and magnetic order in GaV4Se8
In the present work, we provide results from specific heat, magnetic
susceptibility, dielectric constant, ac conductivity, and electrical
polarization measurements performed on the lacunar spinel GaV4Se8. With
decreasing temperature, we observe a transition from the paraelectric and
paramagnetic cubic state into a polar, probably ferroelectric state at 42 K
followed by magnetic ordering at 18 K. The polar transition is likely driven by
the Jahn-Teller effect due to the degeneracy of the V4 cluster orbitals. The
excess polarization arising in the magnetic phase indicates considerable
magnetoelectric coupling. Overall, the behavior of GaV4Se8 in many respects is
similar to that of the skyrmion host GaV4S8, exhibiting a complex interplay of
orbital, spin, lattice, and polar degrees of freedom. However, its dielectric
behavior at the polar transition markedly differs from that of the Jahn-Teller
driven ferroelectric GeV4S8, which can be ascribed to the dissimilar electronic
structure of the Ge compound.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Revised version according to suggestions of
referee
Numerical Simulations of Hyperfine Transitions of Antihydrogen
One of the ASACUSA (Atomic Spectroscopy And Collisions Using Slow
Antiprotons) collaboration's goals is the measurement of the ground state
hyperfine transition frequency in antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of
one of the best known systems in physics. This high precision experiment yields
a sensitive test of the fundamental symmetry of CPT. Numerical simulations of
hyperfine transitions of antihydrogen atoms have been performed providing
information on the required antihydrogen events and the achievable precision
Sub-gap optical response across the structural phase transition in van der Waals layered \alpha-RuCl
We report magnetic, thermodynamic, thermal expansion, and on detailed optical
experiments on the layered compound -RuCl focusing on the THz and
sub-gap optical response across the structural phase transition from the
monoclinic high-temperature to the rhombohedral low-temperature structure,
where the stacking sequence of the molecular layers is changed. This type of
phase transition is characteristic for a variety of tri-halides crystallizing
in a layered honeycomb-type structure and so far is unique, as the
low-temperature phase exhibits the higher symmetry. One motivation is to
unravel the microscopic nature of spin-orbital excitations via a study of
temperature and symmetry-induced changes. We document a number of highly
unusual findings: A characteristic two-step hysteresis of the structural phase
transition, accompanied by a dramatic change of the reflectivity. An electronic
excitation, which appears in a narrow temperature range just across the
structural phase transition, and a complex dielectric loss spectrum in the THz
regime, which could indicate remnants of Kitaev physics. Despite significant
symmetry changes across the monoclinic to rhombohedral phase transition, phonon
eigenfrequencies and the majority of spin-orbital excitations are not strongly
influenced. Obviously, the symmetry of the single molecular layers determine
the eigenfrequencies of most of these excitations. Finally, from this combined
terahertz, far- and mid-infrared study we try to shed some light on the so far
unsolved low energy (< 1eV) electronic structure of the ruthenium
electrons in -RuCl.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure
Measurement of the hyperfine structure of antihydrogen in a beam
A measurement of the hyperfine structure of antihydrogen promises one of the
best tests of CPT symmetry. We describe an experiment planned at the Antiproton
Decelerator of CERN to measure this quantity in a beam of slow antihydrogen
atoms.Comment: 5th International Symposium on Symmetries in Subatomic Physics
(SSP2012), Groningen (The Netherlands), June 18 to 22, 201
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