Clinical performance of implanted devices used in surgical treatment of patients with spinal tumors: a systematic review.

Purpose: Implanted devices used in metastatic spine tumor surgery (MSTS) include pedicle screws, fixation plates, fixation rods, and interbody devices. A material to be used to fabricate any of these devices should possess an array of properties, which include biocompatibility, no toxicity, bioactivity, low wear rate, low to moderate incidence of artifacts during imaging, tensile strength and modulus that are comparable to those of cortical bone, high fatigue strength/long fatigue life, minimal or no negative impact on radiotherapy (RT) planning and delivery, and high capability for fusion to the contiguous bone. The shortcomings of Ti6Al4V alloy for these applications with respect to these desirable properties are well recognized, opening the field for an investigation about novel biomaterials that could replace the current gold standard.

Imaging of glenohumeral osteoarthritis: Reliability and reproducibility of radiological classifications.

Background: Glenohumeral degenerative joint disease may affect up to 20% of the population. There are several classification systems of this disease in the scientific literature.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the reliability and reproducibility of glenohumeral osteoarthritis classification systems.

Magnetic resonance imaging could precisely define the mean value of tendon thickness in partial rotator cuff tears.

Purpose: Rotator Cuff (RC) lesions are classified in full-thickness and partial-thickness tears (PTRCTs). To our knowledge, no studies investigated the mean size of shoulder tendons in healthy and PTRCT patients using MRI scans. The aim of the study was to provide data to obtain and compare the mean value of tendon sizes in healthy and PTRCTs groups.

Ab Initio Properties of Hybrid Cove-Edged Graphene Nanoribbons as Metallic Electrodes for Peptide Sequencing via Transverse Tunneling Current.

Recently synthesized metallic cove-edged graphene nanoribbons are considered for use as one-dimensional (1D) electrodes for ideal atomistically resolved recognition of amino acids. To this purpose a narrow nanogap device is considered, and the transversal tunneling current flowing across it is calculated during the translocation of a model Gly homopeptide using the nonequilibrium Green function scheme, based on density functional theory. We show that the signal collected from the metallic spin states is characterized by a double peak per residue in analogy with the results obtained with 1D graphene nanoribbon template electrodes.