Article history: Received 12 July 2007 Received in revised form 7 July 2008 Accepted 13 August 2008

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare the stability and feasibility of four fixation constructs in a posterior column acetabular fracture: one reconstruction plate, one reconstruction plate and lag screw, two reconstruction plates, and a W-shaped acetabular angular plate. METHODS Twenty embalmed cadaveric pelvises with a posterior column acetabular fractures were allocated to one...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to determine whether one can achieve stable fixation of a two column (transverse) acetabular fracture by only fixing a single column with a locking plate and unicortical locking screws. We hypothesized that a locking plate applied to the anterior column of a transverse acetabular fracture would create a construct that is more rigid than a non-locking p...

BACKGROUND The differentiation of floor plate cells and motor neurons in the vertebrate neural tube appears to be induced by signals from the notochord. The secreted protein encoded by the Sonic hedgehog (Shh) gene is expressed by axial midline cells and can induce floor plate cells in vivo and in vitro. Motor neurons can also be induced in vitro by cells that synthesize Sonic hedgehog protein ...

Integral joints provide a rapid, simple and mechanically strong connection between parts. Our investigation focuses on the assembly of cross-laminated wood veneer plates, where previous studies have shown that the strength of through-tenons is equivalent or superior to state-ofthe-art fasteners such as screws or nails. This mechanical behavior is highly dependent on a precise fit of the joints,...

The telencephalon is one of the most complex parts of the brain, and its patterning is still poorly understood. In this issue of Neuron, describe a novel Wnt antagonist Tlc, a member of the secreted Frizzled-related protein (sFrp) family. Secreted from the anterior boundary of the zebrafish neural plate, Tlc appears to protect the telencephalon from obliteration by a more caudal neural Wnt signal.

In this paper, we propose a new method to separate tlie characters on tlic license plate using associative matching based on clique-finding. 180 digital ixnages are tested by the prototype system. The correct separating rate for each kind of characters have been increased significantly. The experimental results also sliow that this niethod is not only robust against zooming, skewing, variety of...

The hair and nails are rapidly growing structures and as such their cell division can be interrupted by disease states and iatrogenic treatments. Other internal diseases can alter the structure and color of the hair and nails. These alterations in the hair and nails supply important information to the physician regarding the underlying diagnosis.

This work aims to develop a system for predicting age progression in children’s faces from a small exemplar-image set, which is a critical task to assist in the search for missing children. The proposed method consists a facial component extraction module, a facial component distance measurement module, and a face synthesis module. It is developed based on the assumption that two similar facial...