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Abstract Background The notion that all acute hip fractures are a surgical entity requiring either surgical fracture fixation or hip replacement represents a historic dogma, particularly within the orthopaedic community of the United States. The present study from a European regional trauma center was designed to challenge the notion that stable and undisplaced femoral neck fractures represent an absolute indication for surgical management. Methods The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that stable and undisplaced femoral neck fractures of the Garden types 1 and 2 can be safely managed nonoperatively. A retrospective observational cohort study was carried out at a regional orthopaedic trauma center in Germany from January 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021. The inclusion criteria specified patients older than 18 years suffering a

The crush-leach technique is a frequently used method to determine the bulk composition of fluid inclusions trapped in a range of geological samples. We present a modified crush-leach technique combining ion chromatography (IC) and total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (TXRF) which allows to determine a range of major, minor and trace elements out of one leachate. To date, trace element detection by means of TXRF is barely used in geosciences, although it combines the advantages of low to very low detection limits ([micro]g/L to ng/L range), small sample amount needed ([micro]L-range) and a fast and inexpensive analytical procedure. Previously described problems of adsorption of polyvalent cations at sample surfaces have been overcome by using acidified water as a leachate. Instead, it has been demonstrated that, for example, the syringe filter type used for IC measurements influences contamination and/or adsorption for a number of elements. The proposed method combination was evaluated for accuracy, reproducibility and system blanks and subsequently applied to quartz samples from hydrothermal vein deposits of the Schwarzwald ore district, SW Germany., Author(s): Sara Ladenburger [sup.1], Benjamin F. Walter [sup.1], Michael A. W. Marks [sup.1], Gregor Markl [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.10392.39, 0000 0001 2190 1447, Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Universität Tübingen, , 72074, [...]

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Treatment of patella fractures has always been difficult; especially in older patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the XS nail in the treatment of patella fractures. MATERIAL AND METHODS 49 fractures could be registered and reevaluated with a standardized questionnaire. RESULTS Mean follow-up time was 38.67 months, mean age 71.48 years. The mean OKS was 16.26 points, the Kujala Score was 81.56 points. No wound healing or revision could be detected. CONCLUSIONS The XS nail is a good treatment option with a low risk of complications also for the age-related trauma patient and for more complex patella fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) contributes to perinatal morbidity and mortality associated with preterm birth. Surfactant protein B (SP-B) is decreased in RDS. Both maternal antenatal steroid administration and chorioamnionitis reduce the incidence and severity of RDS. An important mediator in chorioamnionitis is IL-6 using the JAK-STAT signaling pathway for signal transduction. We hypothesized that the steroids, betamethasone (BTM) and dexamethasone (DXM), and IL-6 had synergistic effects on SP-B gene expression and STAT3 phosphorylation in H441 cells. DXM and BTM increased SP-B mRNA levels by 16.5 (13.3)-fold and IL-6 alone by 2.3-fold. After 48-h exposure of cells to DXM or BTM, IL-6 caused a significantly greater increase in SP-B mRNA levels (28.1-fold) than IL-6 or glucocorticolds alone. Whereas IL-6 stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT3 in a time- and dose-dependent way, DXM and BTM had no effect on STAT3 phosphorylation. Both DXM and BTM could potentiate IL-6-induced phosphorylation of STAT3. The synergism of glucocorticoids and IL-6 on SP-B gene expression and the effect of glucocorticoids on IL-6-induced STAT3 phosphorylation could be blocked by a JAK inhibitor. Expression level analysis showed that glucocorticoids increased the expression of the IL-6-binding s-subunit receptor (IL-6R) on mRNA and protein level. Our findings could represent an example of a pulmonary regulation system in which one role of glucocorticoids is to increase the effect of a cytokine by upregulation of its receptor. The described in vitro interaction of IL-6 and glucocorticoids could help explain the clinical observation that prenatal inflammation in preterm babies with antenatal steroid administration can attenuate severity of RDS. dexamethasone; betamethasone; surfactant protein B; interleukin-6 receptor; STAT3; Janus kinase; respiratory distress syndrome doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00055.2010.

A spatially resolved cathodoluminescence method was used to study the single zinc oxide (ZnO) nanopillars grown by the vapor-liquid-solid process on a-plane sapphire. The spectral position of the bound exciton lines and their narrow linewidths along the single pillars suggest that the pillars grow without strain on the a-plane sapphire substrate.

The technique of using porous membrane fabricated through particle-assisted wetting for structuring semi-conductors and metals on the scale of 100 nm is presented. Two types of nanostructures, etched silicon pillars exploiting a gold dot mask created through the regular pattern of the polymer membrane and a porous gold membrane having optical features of a dichroic filter as a by-product are created.

The release of Ca²⁺ from internal stores is a major source of signal Ca²⁺ in almost all cell types. The internal Ca²⁺ pools are activated via two main families of intracellular Ca²⁺-release channels, the ryanodine and the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP₃) receptors. Among multicellular organisms these channel types are ubiquitous, whereas in most unicellular eukaryotes the identification of orthologs is impaired probably due to evolutionary sequence divergence. However, the ciliated protozoan Paramecium allowed us to prognosticate six groups, with a total of 34 genes, encoding proteins with characteristics typical of InsP₃ and ryanodine receptors by BLAST search of the Paramecium database. We here report that these Ca²⁺-release channels may display all or only some of the characteristics of canonical InsP₃ and ryanodine receptors. In all cases, prediction methods indicate the presence of six trans-membrane regions in the C-terminal domains, thus corresponding to canonical InsP₃ receptors, while a sequence homologous to the InsP₃-binding domain is present only in some types. Only two types have been analyzed in detail previously. We now show, by using antibodies and eventually by green fluorescent protein labeling, that the members of all six groups localize to distinct organelles known to participate in vesicle trafficking and, thus, may provide Ca²⁺ for local membrane-membrane interactions. Whole genome duplication can explain radiation within the six groups. Comparative and evolutionary evaluation suggests derivation from a common ancestor of canonical InsP₃ and ryanodine receptors. With one group we could ascertain, to our knowledge for the first time, aberrant splicing in one thoroughly analyzed Paramecium gene. This yields truncated forms and, thus, may indicate a way to pseudogene formation. No comparable analysis is available for any other, free-living or parasitic/pathogenic protozoan.

The actual growth process of ZnO on Si catalyzed by Au is not of real vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) character in most cases. It is found that if the O2 partial pressure during the initial growth stage is too low, a thin layer of SiO2 and big liquid droplets of Zn-rich alloys are formed first on the substrate surface.

Background: The notion that all acute hip fractures are a surgical entity requiring either surgical fracture fixation or hip replacement represents a historic dogma, particularly within the orthopaedic community of the United States. The present study from a European regional trauma center was designed to challenge the notion that stable and undisplaced femoral neck fractures represent an absolute indication for surgical management. Methods: The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that stable and undisplaced femoral neck fractures of the Garden types 1 and 2 can be safely managed nonoperatively. A retrospective observational cohort study was carried out at a regional orthopaedic trauma center in Germany from January 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021. The inclusion criteria specified patients older than 18 years suffering a < 24 h, traumatic, femoral neck fracture Garden types 1 and 2. Exclusion criteria included Garden types 3 and 4 femoral neck fractures, pregnancy, active infection or previous surgery, tumor-associated fractures, medical history of femoral neck necrosis, vascular injury associated with femoral neck fractures, nerve injury associated to a femoral neck fracture and ≥ 24 h femoral neck fracture. The primary intention of this research was to identify deterioration of fracture retention with an ensuing unplanned trip to the operating room in femoral neck fractures Garden types 1 and 2. Secondary were included unplanned readmissions and complications such as surgical site infection. Results: A total of 41 undisplaced femoral neck fractures (Garden types 1 and 2) were included in this study; n = 20 were in the resulting admission operatively treated (group 1) and n = 21 were treated conservatively. The mean age in group 1 was 76 years; women (70%). In group 2 it was 81 years with a female dominance (71.4%). Admission status: Garden types 1 and 2, group 1 n = 13/7 and group 2 n = 15/6. Subsequent femoral neck fracture displacement (Y/N) (in case of operation, before operation) group 1 n = 14/6 and group 2 n = 6/15. Conclusion: According with our results, patients sustaining Garden type 1 femoral neck fractures, depending on age and comorbidities, should be treated conservatively with weight bearing and under physiotherapeutic instructions. In case of femoral neck fractures Garden type 2, a surgical treatment should be performed in order to avoid femoral neck fractures to slip after weight bearing by lacking of fracture impaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) technique, we have grown well-aligned nanopillars on [formula]-sapphire (a-plane) substrates at atmospheric pressure in a horizontal tube furnace employing gold catalyst seeds of different sizes and densities. It was the aim of the present work to find experimental conditions (source and template temperatures, temperature gradients, carrier gas flow, gold cluster size and density) under which controlled catalytic growth of nanopillars takes place. The VLS process is expected to result in a correlation of the zinc oxide (ZnO) pillar diameters with the gold catalyst cluster size. This is indeed found to hold true except for very small gold clusters. A minimum value of the pillar diameter of about 20 nm on a-plane sapphire is obtained in our experiments, which apparently represents a general limit. Structure characterization relies on high-resolution x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. Electronic characterization is done by Raman and standard luminescence measurements with large area (≈1 mm2) excitation. In particular, we have also studied individual nanopillars by spatially highly resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. We find that luminescence averaged over large areas can be dominated by features which are not typical for well-shaped pillars but come from regions of irregular ZnO growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has an ultrawide direct band gap of approximately 6.1 eV at low temperature and is fully miscible with gallium nitride. This makes AlN a promising material for ultraviolet optoelectronic applications. Here, we apply cathodoluminescence, photoluminescence, and reflectance spectroscopies to the same AlN layer grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on silicon carbide. In cathodoluminescence and photoluminescence, we observe strong near band edge emission at ≈6 eV. The contribution appearing at an energetic position of 5.983 eV could be identified as A free exciton recombination, strongly redshifted due to strain effects. The spectra obtained by reflectance measurements show features at 5.985 eV and ≈6.2 eV which we assign to the A exciton—in accordance to our luminescence measurements—and a combination of the B and C free excitons, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZnO wires were grown by a vapor -- liquid -- solid phase transport process. Self-assembled Au nano-clusters act as a catalyst or seed for the highly oriented growth of so-called ZnO whiskers on sapphire substrates by a vapor - liquid -- solid phase transport process. The ZnO nanowires were more than 500 nm high and smaller than 30 nm in diameter. Low-temperature photoluminescence measurements reveal intense and detailed ultraviolet light emission near the opitical band gap of ZnO at 3.37 eV. The ZnO nanowires show almost no broad green photoluminescence emission band related to oxygen defects and only a weak signal due to donor -- acceptor pair recombination. X-ray diffraction proves that the ZnO wires were grown c-plane oriented on an a-plane sapphire substrate with high crystal quality most likely because of a kind of self-purification during the growth process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A technique to create very small semiconductor nanostructures, with sizes far beyond the limit of conventional optical lithography processes is presented. The self-organizing polymers for nanolithographic masks are used to generate dry etched quantum structures and quantum dots.

The development of two competitive real-time PCR assays for the quantitative detection of trace amounts of two major food allergens, peanut and soybean, is reported. In order to achieve very low detection levels for both allergens, we established PCR primers and probes targeting mitochondrial DNA sequences. We were able to demonstrate that this approach led to an increase in detection sensitivity in the range of at least 1 order of magnitude compared with published assays targeting nuclear DNA. Furthermore, we generated corresponding competitor molecules, which were used as internal standards to compete with matrix effects that are evident during DNA extraction and PCR amplification in heterogeneous analytical matrixes like food. According to the recently described competitive quantitative PCR method published by Holzhauser et al. (2014), we performed threshold calibration against milk powder spiked with 10 ppm peanut and soy. Matrix-independent quantitative determination of peanut and soy could be demonstrated for three different calibrated food matrix standards in a range between 1 and 100 ppm. The data presented indicate that both assay concepts are powerful analytical tools for the quantitative detection of trace amounts of peanut and soy in commercial food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]