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Congenital pseudarthrosis of the clavicle is a rare phenomenon with multiple proposed causes. Surgical management is typically indicated either because of the cosmetic appearance of the irregularity or, less commonly, for pain, particularly in adolescent patients. Multiple surgical methods have previously described in the literature, which have raised concern owing to the persistently high rate of nonunion postoperatively. This article describes management of congenital pseudarthrosis of the clavicle with open reduction and internal fixation using a T-shaped iliac crest autograft.

Thermal power cycles using sCO2 as a working fluid place extreme demands on their turbomachinery components and their electric motors/generators. In this paper, new system topologies for sCO2 turbomachinery are proposed which take advantage of “bearingless” electric machine technology to improve performance. Bearingless motors/generators are a new type of electric machine which integrate the functionality of active magnetic bearings into the existing hardware of an electric motor/generator. The existing electromagnetic surfaces and materials are reused to enable controllable production of radial forces on the machine shaft. This is envisioned to improve hermetic direct-drive turbomachinery systems by either augmenting existing bearings (i.e., bearing assist) or replacing existing bearings (i.e., bearing removal). The state-of-the-art technologies for several bearing types (gas foil bearings, externally pressurized porous (EPP) gas bearings, and active magnetic bearings) and electric machines are reviewed to motivate the introduction of bearingless technology. Two system designs using bearingless machines are proposed and compared against existing commercial solutions in terms of maximum shaft weight, number of passthroughs into the hermetic environment, cost, and complexity. A case-study bearingless motor/generator is assessed via simulations and a hardware prototype to investigate practical considerations for using bearingless technology in sCO2 turbomachinery. The proposed bearingless solutions have potential to enable a new generation of sCO2 turbomachinery with improved reliability, reduced complexity, and lower cost. This paper shows that by transforming the motor/generator already present in turbomachinery into a bearingless motor/generator, the technical challenges involved with sCO2 can be overcome without adding significant cost.

Background: Additive manufacturing has recently gained popularity and is widely adopted in the orthopaedic industry. However, there is a paucity of literature on the radiographic and clinical outcomes of these relatively novel components. The aim of this study was to assess the 2-year clinical and radiographic outcomes of a specific additive-manufactured acetabular component in primary total hip arthroplasty. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 60 patients who underwent primary total hip arthroplasty with the use of the Stryker’s TRIDENT II acetabular component. Evaluation of radiographs was performed at 6 weeks, 1 year, and 2 years postoperatively. Radiographs were evaluated for radiolucencies in Charnley and DeLee zones, signs of biologic fixation, and acetabular inclination and anteversion measurements. Patient-reported outcomes and complications were also obtained. Results: There were no cases of component loosening or changes in component position during follow-up, with an average follow-up time of 1.7 years. A radiolucent line was identified in one patient in zone 1 at 6 weeks; this was absent at 1 year. Radiographic signs of cup biologic fixation were present in 85% of cases by final follow-up. The average inclination was 45.1 (SD = 4.0), and the average anteversion was 26.9 (SD = 5.2). Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System scores significantly increased at the final follow-up, and there were no complications in this cohort. Conclusions: This study demonstrated excellent radiographic and clinical outcomes with this novel additive-manufactured acetabular component at early follow-up. Although longer-term follow-up is warranted, this additively manufactured highly porous titanium acetabular component demonstrated excellent biologic fixation and reliable fixation at mid-term follow-up.

A common solution to mitigate the complexity of power system studies is time aggregation. This is to replace the actual data set for all time intervals with representative time periods. Previous research confirms that when energy storage systems are involved in the study, preserving the overall shape of the original data is crucial. This paper proposes a new time aggregation framework to incorporate a shape-based distance to jointly extract representative periods of wind and demand data. The duration curve of the net demand is used as a data-based validation index to compare the performance of the proposed method against other techniques. Also, a 3-bus case study that includes a wind resource, an energy storage system, and two conventional generators is designed. Four model-based validation indices are defined and applied for performance measurement, including the annual operation cost of the system, the annual wind curtailment in the system, the energy throughput of the storage facility, and the daily average of the state of the charge of the energy storage for each 365 days of the year.

The Hippo signaling pathway is a vital regulator of pancreatic development and homeostasis, directing cell fate decisions, morphogenesis, and adult pancreatic cellular plasticity. Through loss-of-function research, Hippo signaling has been found to play key roles in maintaining the proper balance between progenitor cell renewal, proliferation, and differentiation in pancreatic organogenesis. Other studies suggest that overactivation of YAP, a downstream effector of the pathway, promotes ductal cell development and suppresses endocrine cell fate specification via repression of Ngn3. After birth, disruptions in Hippo signaling have been found to lead to de-differentiation of acinar cells and pancreatitis-like phenotype. Further, Hippo signaling directs pancreatic morphogenesis by ensuring proper cell polarization and branching. Despite these findings, the mechanisms through which Hippo governs cell differentiation and pancreatic architecture are yet to be fully understood. Here, we review recent studies of Hippo functions in pancreatic development, including its crosstalk with NOTCH, WNT/β-catenin, and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways.

This paper examines the relationships that developed over a 10+ year span at a comprehensive college in upstate New York. When the library was reorganized into a generalist model of library support, the faculty members felt unsupported. The paper explains the origin of the department-wide collaboration and then uses reflections to analyze ways in which the relationship with a liaison librarian support the faculty members work. Specific themes include overcoming library anxiety, online teaching support, and scholarship support with suggestions for librarian practice.

This paper analyses the impact of petrol price movements on inflation outcomes in South Africa since the mid-1970s. The results show that, over time, the direct contribution of petrol inflation to headline inflation has not only increased, but has also exceeded its weight in the consumer price index. In addition, Granger causality tests and the autoregressive distributed lag approach to co-integration testing reveal that petrol prices have an important bearing on the prices of other (non-petrol) commodities in the economy. The results essentially show that petrol price increases had an important bearing on inflation outcomes in South Africa. This implies that petrol price movements warrant special attention in policy formulation and implementation in South Africa if inflation outcomes were to be kept in check. Keywords: commodity prices, energy prices, inflation, core inflation

In this paper, clustering for the circuit placement problem is examined from the perspective of wire length contribution from groups of nets. First, the final wire length data of groups of nets with different degrees are extracted and studied. It is illustrated that nets with high-degree contribute a high percentage to the total wire length. To remedy this problem, a clustering algorithm for placement is proposed that focuses on clustering nets with high-degree. This new clustering algorithm is implemented as a preprocessing step in the placement stage. ICCAD04 benchmark circuits abstracted from IBM are used to validate the placement quality by using four academic placers with and without the proposed preprocessing step. Experiments show that the overall placement results can be improved by up to 5%.

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Changes in metabolism have been reported in the majority of patients undergoing cancer treatment, and these are usually characterized by progressive change in body composition. The effects of aerobic exercise programs to combat the cancer and cancer treatment-related side effects, which include the negative changes in body composition, have been extensively reported in the literature. However, few resistance exercise intervention studies have hypothesized that breast cancer patients might benefit from this type of exercise. The purpose of this study was to determine whether exercise protocols that emphasize resistance training would change body composition and strength in breast cancer patients undergoing treatment. DESIGN AND SETTING: Randomized controlled trial, at the Campus Recreation Center and Rocky Mountain Cancer Rehabilitation Institute of the University of Northern Colorado, and the North Colorado Medical Center. METHODS: Twenty inactive breast cancer patients were randomly assigned to a 21-week exercise group (n = 10) or a control group (n = 10). The exercise group trained at low to moderate intensity for 60 minutes on two days/week. The primary outcome measurements included body composition (skinfold method) and muscle strength (one repetition maximum). RESULTS: Significant differences in lean body mass, body fat and strength (p = 0.004, p = 0.004, p = 0.025, respectively) were observed between the groups at the end of the study. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that exercise emphasizing resistance training promotes positive changes in body composition and strength in breast cancer patients undergoing treatment.