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Background: The purpose of this long-term (up to 17 years) follow-up study was to determine: (1) clinical results and evidence of clicking or squeaking sounds; (2) radiographic results, including rates of osseointegration, bone remodeling, and osteolysis; (3) rates of complications including thigh pain, periprosthetic fracture, and ceramic fracture; (4) rates of revision; and (5) survival rates of implants in patients younger than 30 years.Methods: We analyzed the results of 240 consecutive primary total hip arthroplasty in 180 patients (118 men and 62 women who had a mean age of 27 years (range, 21 to 30 years)). The mean follow-up was 16 years (range, 14 to 17 years).Results: Mean Harris hip score, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities score, and University of California, Los Angeles activity score were 93 points, 18 points, and 7 points, respectively, at final follow-up. Radiographically, all of the acetabular components and all but two femoral components were well-fixed at the final follow-up. No hip had osteolysis or exhibited Grade 3 stress shielding. All but two patients had no groin or thigh pain. No hip had a periprosthetic or ceramic fracture. Eight hips (3%) exhibited squeaking sounds. Two acetabular components and two femoral stems were revised. The survival of the acetabular and femoral component was 99.2% (95% confidence interval, 94 to 100%).Conclusion: The results of the present long-term study of ultra-short anatomic cementless femoral stems suggest excellent clinical and radiographic results in patients younger than 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Short and ultra‐short implants implants supporting single crowns seem to demonstrate high percentages of survival and stable marginal bone levels at a mid‐term follow‐up. Nevertheless, insurgence of peri‐implant complications still represents a critical issue, especially for patients with history of periodontitis. Purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate implant survival, marginal bone loss and peri‐implant complications in 333 short and ultra‐short implants, placed in periodontally healthy patients and patients with a history of periodontitis. Materials and Methods: Implants were placed in the maxillary and mandibular posterior regions of 142 patients with (PP) and without (NPP) a history of periodontitis. Clinical and radiographic examinations were performed at 5‐year recall appointments. Results: Implants respectively placed in PP and NPP were: 35.68% and 42.50% in 8.0 mm‐length group, 33.33% and 36.67% in 6.0 mm‐length group, and 30.99% and 20.83% in 5.0 mm‐length group. Implant‐based survival after 5 years of follow‐up was 95.77% for PP and 96.67% for NPP (p = 0.77). Regarding crestal bone level variations, average crestal bone loss was statistically different (p = 0.04) among PP (0.74 mm) and NPP (0.61 mm). Implants presenting signs of mucositis were 6.86% in PP and 7.76% in NPP (p = 0.76). Setting the threshold for excessive bone loss at 1 mm after 60 months, peri‐implantitis prevalence was 7.84% in PP and 2.59% in NPP (p = 0.08). Overall implant success was 92.16% and 97.41%, respectively, for PP and NPP. Conclusions: Under strict maintenance program, five‐year outcomes suggest that short and ultra‐short locking‐taper implants can be successfully restored with single crowns in the posterior jaws both in PP and NPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing levels of renewable energy in power systems, the coordination of different types of dispatchable resources, such as coal-fired power plants, hydropower plants, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles, has become more important than before. To optimally dispatch these operating units, the quality of the forecasting results becomes increasingly important for the operation of power systems. In this study, an ultra-short forecasting method was proposed for photovoltaic (PV) systems. It provided a forecast of the power output for the following 5 min using sky images obtained photographically in real time. The brightness of the key area was an important factor in determining the output power of the PV system. The output power was calculated using several different features extracted from the sky images. The brightness and other key features were then processed by a bidirectional long short-term memory network. The accuracy of the proposed PV forecasting method improved the accuracy of the forecast for the total power system. A testbed system was established to capture sky images in real time and verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This manuscript discusses the experimental results on 300 W picosecond laser machining of aerospace-grade nickel superalloy. The effect of the laser's energetic and beam scanning parameters on the machining performance has been studied in detail. The machining performance has been investigated in terms of surface roughness, sub-surface thermal damage, and material removal rate. At optimal process conditions, a picosecond laser with an average power output of 300 W can be used to achieve a material removal rate (MRR) of ∼140 mm3/min, with thermal damage less than 20 µm. Shorter laser pulse widths increase the material removal rate and reduce the resultant surface roughness. High scanning speeds improve the picosecond laser machining performance. Edge wall taper of ∼10° was observed over all the picosecond laser machined slots. The investigation demonstrates that high-power picosecond lasers can be used for the macro-machining of industrial components at an acceptable speed and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Short and ultra‐short implants represent a predictable treatment, in terms of implant survival, with patients presenting insufficient available bone volumes. Moreover, single crown restorations represent a gold standard in terms of oral hygiene. Purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate implant survival, marginal bone loss, and peri‐implant complications in 333 locking‐taper short and ultra‐short implants. Materials and Methods: Implants were placed in the maxillary and mandibular posterior regions of 142 patients. Clinical and radiographic examinations were performed at 5‐year recall appointments. Results: All implants placed consisted of 8.0‐, 6.0‐, and 5.0‐mm length, 38.14%, 34.53%, and 27.33%, respectively. Three hundred thirty‐two implants (one early failure) were rehabilitated with single crowns in 141 patients. In 45.48% of the implants the crown‐to‐implant ratio was ≥2, with a mean value of 1.94. Overall implant‐based survival after 5 years of follow‐up was 96.10%: 96.85%, 95.65%, and 95.60% for 8.0‐, 6.0‐, and 5.0‐mm length implants, respectively (p = 0.82). Overall patient‐based survival was 91.55%. Regarding crestal bone level variations, average crestal bone loss and apical shift of the "first bone‐to‐implant contact point" position were 0.69 and 0.01 mm, respectively. Setting the threshold for excessive bone loss at 1 mm, during the time interval from loading to follow‐up, 28 implants experienced loss of supporting bone greater than 1 mm: 19 of them (67.85%) were surgically treated with a codified surgical regenerative protocol. After 60 months, a peri‐implantitis prevalence of 5.94% was reported, with an overall implant success of 94.06%: 95.93%, 92.73%, and 93.10% for 8.0‐, 6.0‐, and 5.0‐mm length implants, respectively (p = 0.55). Conclusion: Long‐term outcomes suggest that short and ultra‐short locking‐taper implants can be successfully restored with single crowns in the posterior area of the maxilla and mandible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the advent of breast conservation, adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) has been standard of care following breast conserving surgery (BCS). Radiation therapy following BCS has traditionally been whole breast irradiation (WBI); studies comparing breast conservation to mastectomy utilized standard fractionation WBI, which delivers treatment daily over 5 to 7 weeks (1.8-2 Gy/fraction) and was the standard for decades. More recently, multiple randomized trials have compared standard fractionation WBI to moderately hypofractionated WBI (2.66 Gy/fraction, 15-16 fractions), which allows for completion of treatment in 3 to 4 weeks. Results have demonstrated no difference in local control between these two approaches with comparable toxicity and cosmetic outcomes with long-term follow-up. As such, moderately hypofractionated WBI represents the standard of care approach for most patients with early-stage breast cancer following BCS at this time. In the past few years, ultra-hypofractionated WBI (5.2-5.7 Gy/fraction, 5 fractions) has emerged with promising outcomes; 5-year outcomes from the FAST-Forward randomized trial demonstrated noninferiority between ultra-hypofractionated WBI and moderately hypofractionated WBI. Moving forward, long-term outcomes from ultra-hypofractionated WBI studies are expected, as well as the potential for incorporating moderately hypofractionated regimens into patients requiring regional nodal irradiation following BCS. Finally, the advent of ultra-short regimens may allow clinicians to re-evaluate treatment de-intensification in early-stage breast cancer to consider radiation therapy alone following BCS in lieu of endocrine therapy., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Ultra-short coeliac disease (USCD) is a novel celiac disease (CD) subtype limited to the duodenal bulb (D1). HLA haplotypes and flow cytometry have not been assessed yet., Aims: To compare genetic, clinical, serologic, histopathologic and inmmunophenotypic parameters between USCD and conventional celiac disease (CCD) patients., Methods: Prospective single-center study in children and adult patients undergoing duodenal biopsies on a gluten-containing diet. Biopsies for histology and flow cytometry were taken separately from D1 and distal duodenum. Biopsies in seronegative patients with celiac lymphogram were repeated after 2 years on a gluten-free diet., Results: Among 505 included patients, 127 were diagnosed with CD, of whom 7 (5.5%) showed USCD. HLADQ2 was significantly less common in USCD compared to CCD (71% vs. 95%, p 0.003). Likewise, USCD patients showed more frequent non-significant seronegativity (28% vs. 8%, p 0.07) and significantly lower titrations (7-15IU/ml) of tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTG-IgA) (60% vs. 13%, p<0.001). Biopsies from D1 revealed significant less NK cells down-expression in USCD patients (1.4 vs. 5, p 0.04)., Conclusions: Up to 5.5% of CD patients showed USCD. A lower frequency of HLADQ2, along with less serum tTG-IgA titration and duodenal NK cell suppression, were differential features of USCD., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

• Elite HRV and Welltory are valid and reliable smartphone applications and can be used to monitor HRV in elite endurance athletes. • Monitoring of the stress and recovery process is crucial in the population of elite endurance athletes. • The HRV use implemented in friendly technology like smartphone applications can substantially increase the compliance of this population. Heart rate variability (HRV) has been proposed as a useful marker that can show the performance adaptation and optimize the training process in elite athletes. The development of wearable technology permits the measurement of this marker through smartphone applications. The purpose of this study is to assess the validity and reliability of short and ultra-short HRV measurements in elite cyclists using different smartphone applications. Twenty-six professional cyclists were measured at rest in supine and in seated positions through the simultaneous use of an electrocardiogram and two different smartphone applications that implement different technologies to measure HRV: Elite HRV (with a chest strap) and Welltory (photoplethysmography). Level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Compared to an electrocardiogram, Elite HRV and Welltory showed no differences neither in supine nor in seated positions (p > 0.05) and they showed very strong to almost perfect correlation levels (r = 0.77 to 0.94). Furthermore, no differences were found between short (5 min) and ultra-short (1 min) length measurements. Intraclass correlation coefficient showed good to excellent reliability and the standard error of measurement remained lower than 6%. Both smartphone applications can be implemented to monitor HRV using short- and ultra-short length measurements in elite endurance athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]