The mini bottle brush--a new fastening device in cancellous bone

We examined the associations between cerebral infarction (CI), asymptomatic arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO), and known risk factors for these diseases. The subjects were 67 elderly patients (11 men and 56 women, mean +/- SD age of 79.6 +/- 8.5 years). in 44 patients CI was diagnosed by CT scan; 23 were classified as having cortical infarction and 21 as having lacunar infarction. In 41 patients asymptomatic ASO was diagnosed by an ankle-pressure index (API) of less than 0.9. To identify risk factors for these diseases, we examined the association among these diseases and hypertension (blood pressure > or = 140/90 mmHg), hypercholesterolemia (total cholesterol concentration > or = 220 mg/dl), hypertriglyceridemia (triglyceride concentration > or = 150 mg/dl), low HDL-cholesterolemia (HDL-C concentration < 40 mg/dl), high LDL-cholesterolemia (LDL-C concentration > or = 150 mg/dl), and glucose intolerance (fasting blood sugar concentration > or = 110 mg/dl). The incidence of asymptomatic ASO in the subjects with CI was significantly higher than that in the subjects without CI (chi 2 test; p < 0.05, odds ratio 6.4), including cortical infarction (p < 0.05, odds ratio 8.9) and lacunar infarction (p < 0.05, odds ratio 3.8). Patients with lacunar infarction were more likely to have hypertension than were controls (p < 0.05). Cortical infarction was not associated with these risk factors. Both low HDL-C and high LDL-G were more common in patients with asymptomatic ASO than patients without asymptomatic ASO (p < 0.05). These results indicate that CI and asymptomatic ASO are strongly associated in the elderly, especially in subjects with cortical infarction, and that aging itself contributes to cortical infarction.     

Polymers in hernia repair–common polyester vs. polypropylene surgical meshes

Within the last years meshes have become essential for the repair ofabdominal wall hernias. While the type of mesh obviously influencesthe clinical result, the selection of the best suitablemesh-modification should have favourable effects onto the rate ofcomplications. Available surgical meshes mainly differ in the typeand amount of the basic polymers. The most common meshes are madeeither out of monofilament polypropylene (PP) or multifilamentpolyester (PET). In the following contribution we studied thefunctional and histological results of standard and commerciallyavailable surgical meshes: a standard heavyweight, large pore-sizedPP-mesh (Prolene®), a heavyweight, large pore-sized PET-mesh(Parietex®, coated with bovine collagen) and a low weightsmall pore-sized PET-mesh (Mersilene®) in a standardised ratmodel. The meshes are studied by three dimensional stereography,tensiometry, light-(LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM),as well as morphometry over implantation intervals of 3, 7, 14, 21and 90 days. The results proved marked differences between thetested meshes in regard to textile properties, the mechanicalfunction (tensile strength, abdominal wall mobility), as well as thehistologically proved tissue reaction. Both heavyweight meshes (PPand PET) revealed an enormous and most similar strength whereas thelow weight PET-mesh primarily showed a considerable increase offlexibility. Despite their different structures and their diversehistological response all tested meshes led to a similar andsignificant reduction of the abdominal wall flexibility. However, thelocal tissue response of the interface mesh/recipient tissuesrevealed a significant reduction of the acute inflammatory activity anda significant decrease of connective tissue formation in the case ofthe low weight PET-mesh Mersilene® compared to both heavyweightmesh-modifications. Mersilene® showed an excellent andrelatively inert tissue reaction of the interface compared toProlene® and Parietex®. Modifications of the mesh-structure(e.g. larger pores) should improve the functional results, inparticular, abdominal wall flexibility. However, the use of PET inhernia surgery is at least questionable in respect to the obligatelong-term degradation of this polymer.     

Real-time computability of real numbers by chemical reaction networks

Natural Computing - We explore the class of real numbers that are computed in real time by deterministic chemical reaction networks that are integral in the sense that all their reaction rate...     

Changes in the activation markers of blood coagulation and fibrinolysis in the neonatal period

BACKGROUND: Activation markers of the clotting and fibrinolytic systems are elevated immediately after birth and decline to near adult levels during the first 24 hours of life. The aims of this study were to investigate, whether the activation of both clotting and fibrinolysis is dependent on the mode of delivery, and to measure activation markers in newborns with infection beyond the first days of life. PATIENTS: We have studied activation markers thrombin-antithrombin III complex, prothrombin fragment 1 + 2, D-dimer and plasmin-antiplasmin complex by use of commercially available ELISA techniques in 20 newborns after elective Cesarean sections because of previous sections, in 20 newborns after Cesarean sections and a trial of labor with uterine contractions over a period of > 20 hours and in 20 newborns (34.-41. gestational week) aged 10-25 days with infection. 20 healthy adults served as controls. RESULTS: A significant elevation of all activation markers was observed both in the newborns after Cesarean sections and in the 10-25 days old children with infection. There were no differences among newborns after elective sections compared to newborns after section and a trial of labor with uterine contractions over a period of > 20 hours. CONCLUSIONS: The clotting and fibrinolytic systems reveal increased activation immediately after delivery, but uterine contractions over a period of > 20 hours seem not to make a difference. During infection, the activation markers of the hemostatic system in newborns aged 10-25 days behaves similarly to the mature adult system.     

PET and CBF studies of chronic hydrocephalus: a contribution to surgical indication and prognosis

The management of acute myoglobinuric renal failure, the major complication of rhabdomyolysis, continues to be a treatment dilemma for the clinician as limited therapeutic options are available. Previously, we have demonstrated that continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration (CAVH) is an effective technique for removing myoglobin in an animal model. In the present study, swine were administered four grams of equine myoglobin intravenously and underwent the continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH) procedure for six hours each. Animals were studied in each of the following groups: CVVH at a pump rate 100 ml/minute, CVVH at a pump rate 200 ml/minute and CVVH at a pump rate 100 ml/minute plus dialysis at a dialysate flow rate of one Liter/h. Once the filtering process was initiated there was a rapid and sustained production of ultrafiltrate in all groups. The amount of myoglobin excreted in the ultrafiltrate over the six-hour filtering period was 688, 948 and 570 mg which corresponded to 17, 24 and 14 percent of the administered dose, respectively, for the three treatments. In comparison to previous CAVH experiments, CVVH removed more circulating myoglobin and the addition of the dialysis component did not appear to improve removal. Based on these findings, it appears that the CVVH hemofiltration system is a viable option for the removal of systemic myoglobin.     

Functional and morphological evaluation of different polypropylene-mesh modifications for abdominal wall repair

Modern surgical hernia repair depends increasingly on synthetic meshes for the reconstruction of the abdominal wall. Despite the undisputed advantages of the polypropylene (PP) meshes currently available (Marlex, Prolene), reports of complications after implantation are increasing. Although, serious complications such as perforation and fistula formation are rare, minor and local complaints such as seromas, misfeelings and a decreased abdominal wall mobility are observed in about one-half of the patients. In regard to the exaggerated strength of the currently available mesh modifications a reduction of the material should improve the integration of the meshes into the artificial abdominal wall. In the present study, the commercially available basic mesh Prolene has been compared to two newly constructed PP-mesh modifications with reduced amounts of PP. The modifications have gradually been adopted to the physiological requirements of abdominal wall stability and mobility by reducing the amount of PP to 64% (E-BLUE) and 24% (variant A) of the Prolene mesh (developed by ETHICON, Norderstedt, Germany). All PP-mesh variants have been implanted in a rat model and studied by 3D-photogrammetry, tensiometry, light- and electron microscopy, as well as morphometry over implantation intervals of 3, 7, 14, 21 and 90 days. The data show that current constructions of PP-meshes are oversized and definitely restrict abdominal wall mobility in the present model. Sufficient stability of the artificial abdominal wall is even guaranteed by PP-mesh modifications with a reduction of PP-quantity to about 25% of the Prolene mesh. The degree of fibrosis directly correlated with abdominal wall restriction, whereas the formation of connective tissue in the interface PP-fibre/host-issue depends on the amount and activity of the inflammatory reaction. The quantity and quality of inflammation, again, directly relies to the amount of PP and to the surface area in contact with the recipient tissues. Altogether, the present study suggests that a modification of the PP-meshes could be helpful to prevent major and minor complications of surgical PP-meshes.     

Improvement of Transmission Control Protocol for High Bandwidth Applications

Transmission control protocol (TCP) is the widely and dominantly used protocol in today’s internet. A very recent implementation of congestion control algorithm is BBR by Google. Bottleneck bandwidth and round-trip time (BBR) is a congestion control algorithm which is created with the aim of increasing throughput and reducing delay. The congestion control protocols mentioned previously try to determine congestion limits by filling router queues. BBR drains the router queues at the bottleneck by sending exactly at the bottleneck link rate. This is done by the BBR through pacing rate which infers the delivery rate of the receiver and uses this as the estimated bottleneck bandwidth. But when the data rate is high, in the startup phase itself pipe becomes full and leads to some degradation in the Access Point of wireless environments by inducing losses specific to this environment. So the current pacing rate is not suitable for producing higher throughputs. Therefore, in the proposed system named R-BBR, this startup gain should be lower than the current startup gain which eventually would reduce pacing rate to reduce queue pressure in the sink node during the startup phase. The startup phase of BBR is modified to solve the problem of pipe full under high data rate. R-BBR has been evaluated over a wide range of wired as well as wireless networks by varying different factors like startup gain, congestion window, and pacing rate. It is inferred that R-BBR performs better than BBR with significant performance improvement.

     

Relative accuracy of automated MMPI narratives generated from adult norm and adolescent norm profiles.

Studied the effect of patient and interpretive narrative characteristics on the judged accuracy of pairs of automated narratives generated by 2 types of norms using MMPI protocols of 100 adolescent psychiatric patients. 25 raters (clinicians and advanced psychiatry residents) were naive as to which narrative was generated by which set of norms and received computer printouts in which all nonnarrative portions (scale scores, critical items, clinical profile) were omitted. Narratives generated from adolescent norm profiles were rated as significantly more accurate than narratives generated from adult norm profiles. Only 1 variable (narrative length) was related to judged accuracy within a norm group, though 2 variables (age and sex) affected the relative accuracy of narrative pairs. Narratives generated from adolescent norms were rated as significantly more accurate for younger patients and for females than were those generated from adult norms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between basal body temperature and body activity in a human following a bilateral oophorectomy

Continuous measures of arm movement activity and basal body temperature were obtained on one female over a total of 149 days, beginning 3 months subsequent to this female's bilateral oophorectomy. Prior to the oophorectomy the subject had been menstruating regularly, and earlier data on this subject had indicated a low-order positive correlation between temperature and activity. The present results found no such correlation, lending support to the notion that at least one index of bodily activity is related to ovarian functioning.