PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bacterial adherence to high--tensile strength suture materials using a bioluminescent in vitro model. METHODS Eleven strands each of No. 2 MaxBraid (Arthrotek [Biomet], Warsaw, IN), FiberWire (Arthrex, Naples, FL), Ethibond (Ethicon, Somerville, NJ), Orthocord (DePuy Mitek, Raynham, MA), and silk (Ethicon) sutures were immersed in a broth ...

Our study shows that deposited Ge and Si dielectric thin-films can exhibit low microwave losses at near single-photon powers sub-Kelvin temperatures ($\approx$40 mK). This loss enables their use in a wide range of devices, including low-loss coplanar, microstrip, stripline resonators, as well layers for device isolation, inter-wiring dielectrics, passivation Josephson junction circuit fabricati...

BACKGROUND Many patients suffer from recurrent Staphylococcus aureus infections, but there are few data examining recurrence predictors. METHODS We followed adults and children after treatment for S. aureus skin infections and their household contacts in Los Angeles and Chicago. We surveyed subjects for S. aureus body colonization, household fomite contamination, and behavioral and clinical f...

A total skin electron (TSE) floor technique is presented for treating patients who are unable to safely stand for extended durations. A customized flattening filter is used to eliminate the need for field junctioning, improve field uniformity, and reduce setup time. The flattening filter is constructed from copper and polycarbonate, fits into the linac's accessory slot, and is optimized to exte...

Two dosimetry protocols based on absorbed dose to water have recently been implemented: TG-51 and TRS-398. These protocols use different beam-quality indices: %dd(10)x and TPR20,10. The effect of electron contamination in measurements of %dd(10)x has been proposed as a disadvantage of the TG-51. For actual measurements of %dd(10)x in five clinical beams (Primus 6-18 MV, SL-75/5 6 MV, SL-18 6-15...

Bystander effects have been observed repeatedly in mammalian cells following photon and alpha particle irradiation. However, few studies have been performed to investigate bystander effects arising from neutron irradiation. Here we asked whether neutrons also induce a bystander effect in two normal human lymphoblastoid cell lines. These cells were exposed to fast neutrons produced by targeting ...

BACKGROUND In this study, dosimetric aspects of TSEI consisting of a 4 MeV beam with no spoiler were investigated in comparison to a nominal 6 MeV beam with spoiler, and the potential for clinical applications was evaluated. METHODS The TSEI technique is based on the Stanford technique, which utilizes a beam configuration of six-dual fields. MOSFETs were used to measure the optimal gantry ang...

in this work we investigate the thermal entanglement between two-level atoms and photons in a nonlinear cavity. we consider intensity-dependent couplings and calculate the negativity, as a measure of atom-photonentanglement. the cavity is assumed to be at a temperature t, so that all number of photons, and at the same time, both atomic states, with definite probabilities, are present. we then d...