Associations of Menstrual Cycle and Progesterone-to-Estradiol Ratio With Alcohol Consumption in Alcohol Use Disorder: A Sex-Separated Multicenter Longitudinal Study.

Objective: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) constitutes a critical public health issue and has sex-specific characteristics. Initial evidence suggests that progesterone and estradiol might reduce or increase alcohol intake, respectively. However, there is a need for a better understanding of how the menstrual cycle in females and the ratio of progesterone to estradiol in females and males influence alcohol use patterns in individuals with AUD.

Consistency of the "central vein sign" in chronic multiple sclerosis lesions.

Background: In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the central vein sign (CVS) as a new imaging marker and previous cross-sectional studies demonstrated that the CVS has the potential to discriminate multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions from non-MS lesions. The aim of this study was to investigate the consistency of the CVS in a longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data set.

Methods: 3T MRI datasets from seventy-one people with MS acquired at baseline and after 12 months-follow-up were analyzed.

Hybrid Instrumentation in Lumbar Spinal Fusion: A Biomechanical Evaluation of Three Different Instrumentation Techniques.

Study Design: Ex vivo human cadaveric study.

Objective: The development or progression of adjacent segment disease (ASD) after spine stabilization and fusion is a major problem in spine surgery. Apart from optimal balancing of the sagittal profile, dynamic instrumentation is often suggested to prevent or impede ASD.

Biomechanical Effects of a Dynamic Topping off Instrumentation in a Long Rigid Pedicle Screw Construct.

Study Design: Biomechanical ex vivo study.

Objective: To determine if topping off instrumentation can reduce the hypermobility in the adjacent segments when compared with the classic rigid spinal instrumentation.

Summary Of The Background Data: Long rigid instrumentation might increase the mechanical load in the adjacent segments, the resulting hypermobility, and the risk for adjacent segment disease.

Observation of a new superfluid phase for He embedded in nematically ordered aerogel.

In bulk superfluid He at zero magnetic field, two phases emerge with the B-phase stable everywhere except at high pressures and temperatures, where the A-phase is favoured. Aerogels with nanostructure smaller than the superfluid coherence length are the only means to introduce disorder into the superfluid. Here we use a torsion pendulum to study He confined in an extremely anisotropic, nematically ordered aerogel consisting of ∼10 nm-thick alumina strands, spaced by ∼100 nm, and aligned parallel to the pendulum axis.

Radiation-Induced Intraspinal Chondrosarcoma: A Case Report.

Study Design Case report and review of the literature. Objective To report a unique case of an intraspinal chondrosarcoma that was diagnosed 18 years after radiotherapy for a cervical carcinoma and its remarkably unusual clinical presentation. Methods A retrospective case description of an intraspinal mass lesion that occurred 6 weeks after previous spinal surgery.

Understanding the similarity in thermophoresis between single- and double-stranded DNA or RNA.

Thermophoresis is the movement of molecules in a temperature gradient. For aqueous solutions its microscopic basis is debated. Understanding thermophoresis for this case is, however, important since it proved very useful to detect the binding affinity of biomolecules and since thermophoresis could have played an important role in early molecular evolution.

Thermophoretic manipulation of molecules inside living cells.

The complexity of biology requires that measurements of biomolecular interactions be performed inside living cells. While electrophoresis inside cells is prohibited by the cell membrane, the movement of molecules along a temperature gradient appears feasible. This thermophoresis could be used to quantify binding affinities in vitro at picomolar levels and perform pharmaceutical fragment screens.

Why charged molecules move across a temperature gradient: the role of electric fields.

Methods to move solvated molecules are rare. Apart from electric fields, only thermal gradients are effective enough to move molecules inside a fluid. This effect is termed thermophoresis, and the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood.

Symmetry in critical random Boolean network dynamics.

Using Boolean networks as prototypical examples, the role of symmetry in the dynamics of heterogeneous complex systems is explored. We show that symmetry of the dynamics, especially in critical states, is a controlling feature that can be used both to greatly simplify analysis and to characterize different types of dynamics. Symmetry in Boolean networks is found by determining the frequency at which the various Boolean output functions occur.

Canalization in the critical states of highly connected networks of competing Boolean nodes.

Canalization is a classic concept in developmental biology that is thought to be an important feature of evolving systems. In a Boolean network, it is a form of network robustness in which a subset of the input signals controls the behavior of a node regardless of the remaining input. It has been shown that Boolean networks can become canalized if they evolve through a frustrated competition between nodes.

Phase diagram for a two-dimensional, two-temperature, diffusive XY model.

Using Monte Carlo simulations, we determine the phase diagram of a diffusive two-temperature conserved order parameter XY model. When the two temperatures are equal the system becomes the equilibrium XY model with the continuous Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) vortex-antivortex unbinding phase transition. When the two temperatures are unequal the system is driven by an energy flow from the higher temperature heat-bath to the lower temperature one and reaches a far-from-equilibrium steady state.

[Unrepaired fracture of the styloid process of the ulna: not a bad treatment result at distal radius fracture].

Background: There are well-defined criteria for the treatment of distal radius fractures but the impact of an unrepaired fracture of the styloid process of the ulnar on recovery after operative treatment is uncertain. This study evaluated radiological and functional results after different operative treatment procedures of distal radius fractures in patients with an untreated fracture of the styloid process of the ulna and those without such a fracture.

Methods: Out of 480 patients with operatively treated distal radius fractures 238 were examined at least 1 year after injury.

[Post-traumatic anterior shoulder instability--arthroscopic stabilization method using bone anchors].

Purpose Of The Study: To evaluate the short-term results of re-insertion of the ventral labrum associated with plication of the capsular structures in anterior post-traumatic instability of the shoulder.

Material: The patients treated in our institution between April 2000 and December 2002 and followed up for periods ranging from 3 to 20 months were included. A total of 65 patients were treated for post-traumatic ventral instability.

[Treatment of hand surgery patients in chronic pain].

The treatment of hand surgery patients suffering from chronic pain requires an interdisciplinary procedure. An imbalance between nociception and antinociception can be seen as a reason for the chronification of pain. The complexity of the problem of chronic pain patients is marked by a wide variety of symptoms.

Oesophageal perforation: a rare complication of minor blunt trauma.

Oesophageal perforation following blunt trauma is rare and accounts for less than 10% of all oesophageal ruptures. Review of published reports revealed only two cases of isolated oesophageal perforation after minor blunt trauma, and these were as a direct result of the Heimlich manoeuvre. This paper describes a case of perforation of the oesophagus as an isolated injury following blunt minor trauma.

Foreign body in the throat.

The management of 104 patients complaining of foreign body (FB) in the throat in an accident and emergency (A&E) department was analysed over a period of 7 months. The majority of these patients (88.4%), underwent a soft tissue radiograph of the neck.

Pulmonary embolism in patients attending the accident and emergency department with pleuritic chest pain.

A series of 92 patients presenting to an accident and emergency department with pleuritic chest pain is described. Only one of the patients had a diagnosis of pulmonary embolus. All the patients were followed up over a period of 3 months.

Diagnosis of acute bone pain using isotope bone imaging.

Twenty-one patients with acute bone pain in areas other than the scaphoid were referred for isotope bone imaging directly from the A&E department. Of these scans 61% were positive. The various pathologies seen included stress fractures, osteomyelitis and bony metastases.

Use of isotope scanning as an aid to the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism in the accident and emergency department.

Twenty-five patients with a clinically suggestive diagnosis of pulmonary embolism were referred directly from the accident and emergency department for a ventilation and perfusion isotope scan. On the basis of a negative scan, the authors were able to discharge 19 patients. The advantages of having direct access to isotope imaging are described.

Comparison of 1% lignocaine with 0.5% bupivacaine in digital ring blocks.

In a randomised double-blind trial comparing 1% lignocaine with 0.5% bupivacaine in digital ring block, the mean time of onset of complete anaesthesia was 5.8 minutes (range 5 to 10 minutes) for lignocaine and 11.