Functional Knee Extension Test (FKET): Inter-rater palpatory agreement and visual analysis during a non-weight bearing functional assessment of the knee.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of the Functional Knee Extension Test (FKET), a non-weight bearing functional assessment of the knee that is utilized within clinical practice.

Methods: The design was a single-session, test-retest reliability study. Active knee extension was assessed and documented by each examiner for each of the visual, palpatory and vastus medialis obliqus (VMO) components of the FKET on fifty-seven healthcare professionals.

Highly efficient in-line magnetic domain wall injector.

We demonstrate a highly efficient and simple scheme for injecting domain walls into magnetic nanowires. The spin transfer torque from nanosecond long, unipolar, current pulses that cross a 90° magnetization boundary together with the fringing magnetic fields inherently prevalent at the boundary, allow for the injection of single or a continual stream of domain walls. Remarkably, the currents needed for this "in-line" domain wall injection scheme are at least one hundred times smaller than conventional methods.

Hormone modeling in preterm neonates: establishment of pituitary and steroid hormone reference intervals.

Context: Reports suggest significant differences in serum levels of hormones in extremely preterm compared with late preterm and full-term infants.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to develop reference intervals (RIs) for 3 pituitary hormones and 5 steroid hormones in serum of preterm infants.

Design: Blood samples were collected from 248 (128 male and 120 female) preterm neonates born between 24 and 32 weeks' gestation.

Development of a new biochemical test to diagnose and monitor neuroblastoma in Vietnam: homovanillic and vanillylmandelic acid by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to develop an accurate robust testing method to simultaneously measure urine levels of HVA and VMA using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) and to establish age-specific reference intervals of HVA and VMA in random urines for Vietnamese children.

Design And Methods: The assay for urinary HVA and VMA was developed based on a classical urinary organic acid profiling method. Briefly, this incorporated 3-phenyl butyric acid as the internal standard and liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate followed by derivatization with BSTFA.