Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with suture tape augmentation

The advent of suture tape augmentation has led to increased use in knee, elbow, and ankle ligament repairs and reconstructions. Recent biomechanical analysis of the use of suture tape augmentation have shown superior strength characteristics compared with repair or reconstruction alone. Despite its increased use in extra-articular ligament procedures, its use as an augment to anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction has not been widely described. This article details a simple technique to incorporate the use of suture tape augmentation during concurrent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction using hamstring autograft

Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Sustainable Agriculture? A Research Agenda

Global warming and the increasing food demand are problems of the current generation and require a change towards sustainable agriculture. In recent years, research in the field of artificial intelligence has made considerable progress. Thus, the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture can be a promising solution to ensure sufficient food supply on a global scale. To investigate the state-of-the-art in the use of artificial intelligence-based systems in agriculture, we provide a structured literature review. We show that research has been done in the field of irrigation and plant growth. In this regard, camera systems often provide images as training/input data for artificial intelligence-based systems. Finally, we provide a research agenda to pave the way for further research on the use of artificial intelligence in sustainable agriculture

The 2018 Nobel Laureates and Foreign-Born Scholars in the U.S. Higher Education System

Each year, the Nobel Prize is awarded to outstanding individuals in the fields of Economics, Physics, Medicine or Physiology, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace. Unlike in prior years, in 2018, none of the American winners were foreign-born individuals who immigrated to the United States or who were working at a U.S. institution at the time they won. But the United States did play an important role in their formation; nine of the twelve 2018 Nobel Laureates were either students, teachers, or research fellows at U.S. institutions of higher education at some point in their lives, even if they were not born in the United States. Three of the 2018 Nobel Laureates were foreign-born academics who spent considerable time at U.S. institutions. Their stories are the stories of dozens of foreign-born Nobel Prize Laureates and other gifted scientists who came to the United States to follow their dreams of knowledge and of genuine contribution to the wellbeing of humankind

Puzzling subunits of mitochondrial cytochrome reductase

The ubiquinol-cytochrome c reductase complex, like the other proton-pumping respiratory complexes of mitochondria, is an assembly of many different subunits. However, only a few of these subunits participate directly in the electron transfer and proton translocation. The roles of the other subunits are largely unknown. We discuss here some intriguing features of two of these subunits

Synthesis of mono and multidomain YIG particles by chemical coprecipitation or ceramic procedure

4 páginas, 3 figuras.Yttrium iron garnet powders have been synthesized by chemical coprecipitation using two different precursors, nitrates and chlorides, and by an oxides mixture route. It is shown that depending on the precursors and synthesis conditions used pure yttrium iron garnet powders can be obtained with a mono or multidomain magnetic behaviour. The yttrium iron garnet crystalline structure, as studied by Raman spectroscopy, was already formed after calcination at temperatures as low as 800 °C when the nitrate precursors were used. However, calcination temperatures of up to 1100 °C were required to obtain yttrium iron garnet powders when the precursors were chlorides or when the oxides mixture route was chosen. The saturation magnetization of the powders correlates well with the structural characterization: when nitrate precursors were used, the saturation magnetization was already close to the bulk value, 26.8 emu/cm3, after calcination at 800 °C. However, the saturation magnetization of the powders obtained by the chlorides and oxides mixture routes was close to zero up to calcination temperatures of 1100 °C. Finally, both the chlorides and the oxides mixture routes yield multidomain micron sized yttrium iron garnet powders, whereas the nitrates route led to monodomain submicron sized powders.The authors want to acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and UE for funding through project MAT2009-14534-C03-03. One of us, L. Fernandez-Garcia, wants to acknowledge JAE program for PhD grant.Peer reviewe

Synchronous micromechanically resonant programmable photonic circuits

Programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are emerging as powerful tools for the precise manipulation of light, with applications in quantum information processing, optical range finding, and artificial intelligence. The leading architecture for programmable PICs is the mesh of Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) embedded with reconfigurable optical phase shifters. Low-power implementations of these PICs involve micromechanical structures driven capacitively or piezoelectrically but are limited in modulation bandwidth by mechanical resonances and high operating voltages. However, circuits designed to operate exclusively at these mechanical resonances would reduce the necessary driving voltage from resonantly enhanced modulation as well as maintaining high actuation speeds. Here we introduce a synchronous, micromechanically resonant design architecture for programmable PICs, which exploits micromechanical eigenmodes for modulation enhancement. This approach combines high-frequency mechanical resonances and optically broadband phase shifters to increase the modulation response on the order of the mechanical quality factor $Q_m$, thereby reducing the PIC's power consumption, voltage-loss product, and footprint. The architecture is useful for broadly applicable circuits such as optical phased arrays, $1$ x $N$, and $N$ x $N$ photonic switches. We report a proof-of-principle programmable 1 x 8 switch with piezoelectric phase shifters at specifically targeted mechanical eigenfrequencies, showing a full switching cycle of all eight channels spaced by approximately 11 ns and operating at >3x average modulation enhancement across all on-chip modulators. By further leveraging micromechanical devices with high $Q_m$, which can exceed 1 million, our design architecture should enable a new class of low-voltage and high-speed programmable PICs.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 5 supplementary figure

Paraoxonase 2 protein is spatially expressed in the human placenta and selectively reduced in labour

Humans parturition involves interaction of hormonal, neurological, mechanical stretch and inflammatory pathways and the placenta plays a crucial role. The paraoxonases (PONs 1–3) protect against oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation, modulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress and regulation of apoptosis. Nothing is known about the role of PON2 in the placenta and labour. Since PON2 plays a role in oxidative stress and inflammation, both features of labour, we hypothesised that placental PON2 expression would alter during labour. PON2 was examined in placentas obtained from women who delivered by cesarean section and were not in labour and compared to the equivalent zone of placentas obtained from women who delivered vaginally following an uncomplicated labour. Samples were obtained from 12 sites within each placenta: 4 equally spaced apart pieces were sampled from the inner, middle and outer placental regions. PON2 expression was investigated by Western blotting and real time PCR. Two PON2 forms, one at 62 kDa and one at 43 kDa were found in all samples. No difference in protein expression of either isoform was found between the three sites in either the labour or non-labour group. At the middle site there was a highly significant decrease in PON2 expression in the labour group when compared to the non-labour group for both the 62 kDa form (p = 0.02) and the 43 kDa form (p = 0.006). No spatial differences were found within placentas at the mRNA level in either labour or non-labour. There was, paradoxically, an increase in PON2 mRNA in the labour group at the middle site only. This is the first report to describe changes in PON2 in the placenta in labour. The physiological and pathological significance of these remains to be elucidated but since PON2 is anti-inflammatory further studies are warranted to understand its role

A Genome-Wide association Study of Obstructive Heart Defects among Participants in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study

Obstructive heart defects (OHDs) share common structural lesions in arteries and cardiac valves, accounting for ~25% of all congenital heart defects. OHDs are highly heritable, resulting from interplay among maternal exposures, genetic susceptibilities, and epigenetic phenomena. A genome-wide association study was conducted in National Birth Defects Prevention Study participants (