Modified Vertical Rectus Abdominis Musculocutaneous Flap for Limb Salvage Procedures in Proximal Lower Limb Musculoskeletal Sarcomas

Introduction and aim. Management of complicated wounds after tumor extipiration of pelvic and proximal lower limb musculoskeletal sarcoma represents an essential component in the outcome of these patients. The authors present modified vertical rectus abdominis musculocutaneous (VRAM) flap techniques to reconstruct extensive defects after debridment of these complicated wounds. Material and Methods. Over a period of 4 years (2002–2005), 5 men and 2 women were managed. Median age was 21 years (range 15–49). The patients were managed for complicated lower trunk, groin, and upper thigh wounds after resection of three pelvic chondrosarcomas as well as two pelvic and two proximal femur osteosarcomas. The modifications included a VRAM flap with lateral and tongue-like extension design of the skin paddle (5 cases) or a delayed extended VRAM flap (2 cases). Results. All flaps showed complete survival and healing with no ischemic events providing stable coverage. All patients were ambulant with good limb functions in terms of walking and gait after adequate rehabilitation, 2 needed support with crutches. Conclusion. The modified VRAM flaps offer reliable reconstructive tools for coverage of complex groin and thigh defects by providing larger well-vascularized soft tissue with acceptable donor site

Clinical characteristics of depression among adolescent females: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adolescents rarely seek psychiatric help; they even hesitate to disclose their feelings to their parents. However; the adolescents especially the females experience depressive symptoms more frequently than general population. Do they experience classic depressive symptoms? Are there symptoms specific to this subpopulation?</p> <p>Aim of the study</p> <p>Through this study, the authors aimed to estimate the prevalence of depressive disorders in Egyptian adolescent female students. They also expected a characteristic profile of symptoms for the adolescent females. However available literature provides no guidance in the description of this profile of symptoms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A number of 602 adolescent females were interviewed, and subjected to General Health Questionnaire (GHQ); Children Depression Inventory (CDI), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I Disorders (SCID-I), then Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Ham-D). Results were analyzed by the use of SPSS-15.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study revealed the prevalence of depression in the sample of the study to be 15.3% (measured by CDI), and 13.3% (measured by SCID-I). Fatigue was the most common presenting depressive symptom (81.3%), in addition to other emotional, cognitive and physiological symptoms. Suicidal ideations were the most common suicidal symptoms in depressed adolescent females (20%), with 2.5% serious suicidal attempts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The somatic symptoms were by far the most common presenting symptom for female adolescents suffering from depressive disorders. Depressive phenomena including unexplained fatigue, decreased energy, psychomotor changes, lack of concentration, weight changes and suicidal ideations may be the presenting complaints instead of the classic sad mood.</p

A Combined Use of Rhizobacteria and Moringa Leaf Extract Mitigates the Adverse Effects of Drought Stress in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Less nutrient availability and drought stress are some serious concerns of agriculture. Both biotic and abiotic stress factors have the potential to limit crop productivity. However, several organic extracts obtained from moringa leaves may induce immunity in plants under nutritional and drought stress for increasing their survival. Additionally, some rhizobacterial strains have the ability to enhance root growth for better nutrient and water uptake in stress conditions. To cover the knowledge gap on the interactive effects of beneficial rhizobacteria and moringa leaf extracts (MLEs), this study was conducted. The aim of this experimental study was to investigate the effectiveness of sole and combined use of rhizobacteria and MLEs against nutritional and drought stress in wheat. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) (10(8) CFU ml(-1)) was inoculated to wheat plants with and without foliar-applied MLEs at two different concentrations (MLE 1 = 1:15 v/v and MLE 2 = 1:30 v/v) twice at 25 and 35 days after seed sowing (50 ml per plant) after the establishment of drought stress. Results revealed that Pa + MLE 2 significantly increased fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW), lengths of roots and shoot and photosynthetic contents of wheat. A significant enhancement in total soluble sugars, total soluble proteins, calcium, potassium, phosphate, and nitrate contents validated the efficacious effect of Pa + MLE 2 over control-treated plants. Significant decrease in sodium, proline, glycine betaine, electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxide (POD) concentrations in wheat cultivated under drought stress conditions also represents the imperative role of Pa + MLE 2 over control. In conclusion, Pa + MLE 2 can alleviate nutritional stress and drought effects in wheat. More research in this field is required to proclaim Pa + MLE 2 as the most effective amendment against drought stress in distinct agroecological zones, different soil types, and contrasting wheat cultivars worldwide.Peer reviewe

Renormalisation and fixed points in Hilbert Space

The energies of low-lying bound states of a microscopic quantum many-body system of particles can be worked out in a reduced Hilbert space. We present here and test a specific non-perturbative truncation procedure. We also show that real exceptional points which may be present in the spectrum can be identified as fixed points of coupling constants in the truncation procedure.Comment: 4 pages, 1 tabl

Mixing of the CP Even and the CP Odd Higgs Bosons and the EDM Constraints

The mixing among the CP even and the CP odd neutral Higgs bosons of MSSM by one loop induced effects in the presence of CP phases is investigated using three different mechanisms to satisfy the EDM constraints, i.e., a fine tuning of phases, a heavy sparticle spectrum, and the cancellation mechanism. It is shown that if a mixing effect among the CP even and the CP odd Higgs bosons is observed experimentally, then it is only the cancellation mechanism that can survive under the naturalness constraint.Comment: 14 pages, Latex and 4figures. A new paragraph is added and few more references. One figure is modified. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Effects of Large CP violating phases on g_{\m}-2 in MSSM

Effects of CP violation on the supersymmetric electro-weak correction to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon are investigated with the most general allowed set of CP violating phases in MSSM. The analysis includes contributions from the chargino and the neutralino exchanges to the muon anomaly. The supersymmetric contributions depend only on specific combinations of CP phases. The independent set of such phases is classified. We analyse the effects of the phases under the EDM constraints and show that large CP violating phases can drastically affect the magnitude of the supersymmetric electro-weak contribution to $a_{\mu}$ and may even affect its overall sign.Comment: 26 pages Latex file including 4 figure

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV