Occlusion of acute distal brachial, proximal radial and ulnar arteries in a young thrower

SummaryAcute arterial occlusion, a rare condition in throwers, requires early detection and treatment for avoiding further complications. Thus far, no study has mentioned the occurrence of distal brachial, proximal radial, and ulnar artery occlusion in baseball players. An adolescent baseball pitcher presented with acute occlusion of the distal brachial, proximal radial, or ulnar artery. The patient complained of a cold sensation in the hand, wrist, and distal forearm. On physical examination, decreased surface skin temperature, and no radial pulse in the wrist suggested arterial occlusion. Emergency angiography validated the clinical suspicion, and identified the arteries and sites of vascular occlusion. Surgery was performed to alleviate the occlusions, thereby resolving the preoperative complaints and abnormal findings. Furthermore, postoperative magnetic resonance imaging of the shoulder and elbow joint was conducted to determine the causes of arterial occlusion. The patient resumed pitching 4 months postoperatively, and has remained active and symptom free. Magnetic resonance imaging examination revealed no vascular abnormalities or bony or soft tissue in the shoulder or elbow region. With early detection and treatment, a favorable prognosis can be achieved in baseball pitchers with acute upper extremity arterial occlusion so that their pitching career is not jeopardized

IMAGE-BASED MEASUREMENT AND BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF THE KNEE JOINT DURING FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

A new approach based on the integration of medical image-based measurement techniques, infrared stereophotogrammetry and finite element modelling (FEM) was developed for comprehensive subject-specific biomechanical analyses of the knee joint during weight-bearing functional activities including cycling. The medical image-based methods include digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR) based 3D fluoroscopy methods, and a new slice-to-volume registration method using FLASH MRI for the real-time measurement of the 3D kinematics of the knee in vivo. With the new approach, the soft tissue artefacts associated with skin marker-based stereophotogrammetry and their effects on the calculated biomechanical variables were also investigated

Influence of Step Length and Cadence on the Sharing of the Total Support Moments Between the Lower Limbs During Level Walking

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of walking speed on the inter-limb sharing of whole body support in terms of total support moments (Ms) during walking. A multiple linear regression model was conducted to explore the relationship between gait speed in terms of step length and cadence, and the difference of the first and second peaks of the Ms (DMs) during walking. The DMs were found to increase with either increased step length or cadence. Walking with greater speed relied more on the leading limb to provide support for the forward progression of the body. In addition, variations of gait speed parameters affected the load-sharing pattern between the lower limbs during weight transfer of walking. Gait speed parameters have to be taken as covariates when analysing the coordination of the kinetics between lower limbs

MUSCLE RECRUITMENT SEQUENCE AND TOTAL REACTION TIME DURING A KARATE ROUNDHOUSE KICK

The purpose of the current study is to quantify the muscle recruitment sequence and total reaction time of fourteen national karate athletes and fourteen college karate athletes while performing upper level roundhouse kick. A 16-channel electromyography was used to measured the muscle activities and an instrumented target was for the evaluation of the response time. The experimental results show that both groups recruited the biceps femoris on the kicking (right) side, followed by the right gastrocnemius, but the subsequent muscle firing sequence was slightly different. This resulted in smaller total reaction time of the national group (736.32 ms) than the time of the control group (770.28 ms) because of different across skill level

Treatment of hook nails using the Bakhach’s technique: a retrospective study

Introduction: The cause of the hook nail is the trauma of the hyponychium. The nail plate presents longitudinal hypercurvature of volar concavity, causing functional loss, aesthetics concerns, and pain. Objective: To evaluate the research results of 20 medical records of patients submitted to hook nail correction surgeries of traumatic etiologies. Methods: Epidemiological, cross-sectional, retrospective study of patients’ medical records who were submitted to Bakhach’s surgical technique, from 2010 to 2018, in the Hand Surgery Outpatient Clinic of the Hospital do Servidor Público Municipal de São Paulo. Results: We analyzed 20 affected fingers: 7 were victims of accidents with sharp objects, 5 with press machines, 5 with doors, 1 with window, 1 with motorcycle, and 1 due to a dog bite. The finger with the highest incidence was the middle finger (n=12), followed by the index finger (n=5), and ring finger (n=3). The main complaint was aesthetics (n=11); pain (n=6), and functional (n=3). All cases had type II distal digital transverse amputations and underwent surgical treatment. The reconstruction surgery occurred between 4 and 25 months after the trauma. Conclusion: 15 patients were satisfied and two felt pain: one in the distal interphalangeal joint and the other in the hyponychium. The follow-up ranged from 6 months to 2 years

Specific Threonine Phosphorylation of a Host Target by Two Unrelated Type III Effectors Activates a Host Innate Immune Receptor in Plants

The Arabidopsis NB-LRR immune receptor RPM1 recognizes the Pseudomonas syringae type III effectors AvrB or AvrRpm1 to mount an immune response. Although neither effector is itself a kinase, AvrRpm1 and AvrB are known to target Arabidopsis RIN4, a negative regulator of basal plant defense, for phosphorylation. We show that RIN4 phosphorylation activates RPM1. RIN4142–176 is necessary, and with appropriate localization sequences, sufficient to support effector-triggered RPM1 activation, with the threonine residue at position 166 being critical. Phosphomimic substitutions at T166 cause effector-independent RPM1 activation. RIN4 T166 is phosphorylated in vivo in the presence of AvrB or AvrRpm1. RIN4 mutants that lose interaction with AvrB cannot be co-immunoprecipitated with RPM1. This defines a common interaction platform required for RPM1 activation by phosphorylated RIN4 in response to pathogenic effectors. Conservation of an analogous threonine across all RIN4-like proteins suggests a key function for this residue beyond the regulation of RPM1

Specific Threonine Phosphorylation of a Host Target by Two Unrelated Type III Effectors Activates a Host Innate Immune Receptor in Plants

The Arabidopsis NB-LRR immune receptor RPM1 recognizes the Pseudomonas syringae type III effectors AvrB or AvrRpm1 to mount an immune response. Although neither effector is itself a kinase, AvrRpm1 and AvrB are known to target Arabidopsis RIN4, a negative regulator of basal plant defense, for phosphorylation. We show that RIN4 phosphorylation activates RPM1. RIN4142–176 is necessary, and with appropriate localization sequences, sufficient to support effector-triggered RPM1 activation, with the threonine residue at position 166 being critical. Phosphomimic substitutions at T166 cause effector-independent RPM1 activation. RIN4 T166 is phosphorylated in vivo in the presence of AvrB or AvrRpm1. RIN4 mutants that lose interaction with AvrB cannot be co-immunoprecipitated with RPM1. This defines a common interaction platform required for RPM1 activation by phosphorylated RIN4 in response to pathogenic effectors. Conservation of an analogous threonine across all RIN4-like proteins suggests a key function for this residue beyond the regulation of RPM1

KOBAS 2.0: a web server for annotation and identification of enriched pathways and diseases

High-throughput experimental technologies often identify dozens to hundreds of genes related to, or changed in, a biological or pathological process. From these genes one wants to identify biological pathways that may be involved and diseases that may be implicated. Here, we report a web server, KOBAS 2.0, which annotates an input set of genes with putative pathways and disease relationships based on mapping to genes with known annotations. It allows for both ID mapping and cross-species sequence similarity mapping. It then performs statistical tests to identify statistically significantly enriched pathways and diseases. KOBAS 2.0 incorporates knowledge across 1327 species from 5 pathway databases (KEGG PATHWAY, PID, BioCyc, Reactome and Panther) and 5 human disease databases (OMIM, KEGG DISEASE, FunDO, GAD and NHGRI GWAS Catalog). KOBAS 2.0 can be accessed at http://kobas.cbi.pku.edu.cn

Synchronization in complex networks

Synchronization processes in populations of locally interacting elements are in the focus of intense research in physical, biological, chemical, technological and social systems. The many efforts devoted to understand synchronization phenomena in natural systems take now advantage of the recent theory of complex networks. In this review, we report the advances in the comprehension of synchronization phenomena when oscillating elements are constrained to interact in a complex network topology. We also overview the new emergent features coming out from the interplay between the structure and the function of the underlying pattern of connections. Extensive numerical work as well as analytical approaches to the problem are presented. Finally, we review several applications of synchronization in complex networks to different disciplines: biological systems and neuroscience, engineering and computer science, and economy and social sciences.Comment: Final version published in Physics Reports. More information available at http://synchronets.googlepages.com