Randomized control trial comparing the functional outcomes of dynamic hip screw and locking plate dynamic hip screw in intertrochanteric fractures of femur

Background: The objective of the study was to compare the functional outcomes of intertrochanteric fractures of the femur treated with dynamic hip screw (DHS) and locking plate DHS in elderly.Methods: 48 participants (23 in DHS and 25 in locking plate DHS) aged ≥ 50 years with intertrochanteric fracture of femur were enrolled in the present randomized open label parallel group trial conducted at Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre during a period of 1 year. Open, pathological, other fractures in the same limb and participants with neurological involvement were excluded. Standard of care (pre and post-operative care) was given to all participants. Sociodemographic, radiological findings, fracture type and Singh’s index were recorded at baseline, 6 weeks, 3 and 6 months. Study commenced after approval from Institutional Ethics Committee and written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. Participants were randomized in 1:1 ratio using coin flip method. Quantitative variables were expressed means and medians and qualitative variables were expressed as proportions. Tests of significance were independent sample t test, Mann Whitney U test, Friedman test and Chi square test.Results: Between DHS and locking plate DHS, no significant difference in baseline parameters, neck shaft angle, tip apex distance, shortening, Harris hip score, range of motion score and length of hospital stay were observed.Conclusions: The functional outcomes and complications between DHS and locking plate DHS were not significantly different

Implicit self-consistent electrolyte model in plane-wave density-functional theory

The ab-initio computational treatment of electrochemical systems requires an appropriate treatment of the solid/liquid interfaces. A fully quantum mechanical treatment of the interface is computationally demanding due to the large number of degrees of freedom involved. In this work, we describe a computationally efficient model where the electrode part of the interface is described at the density-functional theory (DFT) level, and the electrolyte part is represented through an implicit solvation model based on the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. We describe the implementation of the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation into the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP), a widely used DFT code, followed by validation and benchmarking of the method. To demonstrate the utility of the implicit electrolyte model, we apply it to study the surface energy of Cu crystal facets in an aqueous electrolyte as a function of applied electric potential. We show that the applied potential enables the control of the shape of nanocrystals from an octahedral to a truncated octahedral morphology with increasing potential

An overview of deep learning based methods for unsupervised and semi-supervised anomaly detection in videos

Videos represent the primary source of information for surveillance applications and are available in large amounts but in most cases contain little or no annotation for supervised learning. This article reviews the state-of-the-art deep learning based methods for video anomaly detection and categorizes them based on the type of model and criteria of detection. We also perform simple studies to understand the different approaches and provide the criteria of evaluation for spatio-temporal anomaly detection.Comment: 15 pages, double colum

Prospective observational study evaluating the outcome of a fixed angle plate (proximal humerus internal locking system) in proximal humerus fractures

Background: Proximal humerus fractures are common among elderly. The present study assesses the functional outcomes of fixed angle plate (proximal humerus internal locking system (PHILOS)) in fractures of proximal humerus.Methods: 30 participants aged ≥18 years with proximal humerus fracture (2, 3 and 4 part) who underwent PHILOS fixation were enrolled. Undisplaced, open, severely comminuted, metastatic, and pathological fractures and with associated head injury and neurovascular injuries wew excluded. Clinical and radiological evaluation were done pre and post-operatively. Intraarticular extent of fracture geometry was assessed using 3-dimensional computed tomography. Participants were managed preoperatively with analgesics and shoulder immobilizer followed by preanesthetic check-up and routine investigations and surgery was done once participants were stable. Sample size was calculated assuming excellent or satisfactory results in 80% participants 6 months after surgery, relative precision of 20%, α of 5% and 10% attrition rate. Institutional ethics committee approved the study and written informed consent was obtained from all study participants.Results: Mean age of study participants was 62.9 (14.9) years and were predominantly females (66.6%, n=20). No significant difference between type of fracture and duration of recovery was observed (p=0.4). 30% participants had post-operative complications, stiffness was the most common (13.3%, n=4) complication. 76.6% (n=23) participants had good functional outcomes. Significant correlation between type of fracture and NEER score was observed (p<0.0001).Conclusions: PHILOS is a preferential implant in proximal humerus fractures due to angular stability, particularly in comminuted fractures in younger patients, and osteoporotic fractures in elderly, thus allowing early mobilization and satisfactory final functional outcome.

The Conundrum of Relaxation Volumes in First-Principles Calculations of Charged Defects in UO₂

The defect relaxation volumes obtained from density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of charged vacancies and interstitials are much larger than their neutral counterparts, seemingly unphysically large. We focus on UO2 as our primary material of interest, but also consider Si and GaAs to reveal the generality of our results. In this work, we investigate the possible reasons for this and revisit the methods that address the calculation of charged defects in periodic DFT. We probe the dependence of the proposed energy corrections to charged defect formation energies on relaxation volumes and find that corrections such as potential alignment remain ambiguous with regards to its contribution to the charged defect relaxation volume. We also investigate the volume for the net neutral defect reactions comprising individual charged defects, and find that the aggregate formation volumes have reasonable magnitudes. This work highlights the issue that, as is well-known for defect formation energies, the defect formation volumes depend on the choice of reservoir. We show that considering the change in volume of the electron reservoir in the formation reaction of the charged defects, analogous to how volumes of atoms are accounted for in defect formation volumes, can renormalize the formation volumes of charged defects such that they are comparable to neutral defects. This approach enables the description of the elastic properties of isolated charged defects within an overall neutral material