There are an overwhelming number of patients suffering from low back pain (LBP) resulting from disc pathology. Although several strategies are being developed pre-clinically, simple strategies to ...treat the large number of patients currently affected is still needed. One option is to use concentrated bone marrow aspirate (cBMA), which may be effective due to its intrinsic stem cells and growth factors.
Thirty-three patients who received intradiscal injections of cBMA to relieve LBP were followed up based on Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Index (ODI), and Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) scores. Patients were also subdivided into those with a pre-injection NRS > 5 and pre-injection NRS ≤ 5. The proportion of patients demonstrating at least 50% improvement (and 95% confidence intervals) from baseline at five follow-up visits for each outcome was evaluated.
At least 50% improvement in NRS was observed for 13.8, 45.8, 41.1, 23.5, and 38.9% of patients across five follow-up visits, out to 1 year. When stratified by high (> 5) versus low (≤ 5) baseline NRS scores, the values were 14.3, 45.5, 71.4, 22.2, and 44.4% among those with high baseline pain, and 13.3, 46.2, 20.0, 25.0, and 33.3% among those with low baseline pain. The 50% improvement rates across visits were 4.3, 28.6, 30.0, 22.2, and 30.8% for SF-36, and 4.2, 26.7, 36.4, 55.6, and 30.8% for ODI.
Intradiscal cBMA injections may be effective to reduce pain and improve function. Patients with relatively higher initial pain may have potential for greatest improvement.
The global polarization of Λ hyperons along the total orbital angular momentum of a relativistic heavy-ion collision is presented based on the high statistics data samples collected in Au+Au ...collisions at sNN=2.4 GeV and Ag+Ag at 2.55 GeV with the High-Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI, Darmstadt. This is the first measurement below the strangeness production threshold in nucleon-nucleon collisions. Results are reported as a function of the collision centrality as well as a function of the hyperon's transverse momentum (pT) and rapidity (yCM) for the range of centrality 0–40%. We observe a strong centrality dependence of the polarization with an increasing signal towards peripheral collisions. For mid-central (20 – 40%) collisions the polarization magnitudes are 〈PΛ〉(%)=6.8±1.3(stat.)±2.1(syst.) for Au+Au and 〈PΛ〉(%)=6.2±0.4(stat.)±0.6(syst.) for Ag+Ag, which are the largest values observed so far. This observation thus provides a continuation of the increasing trend previously observed by STAR and contrasts expectations from recent theoretical calculations predicting a maximum in the region of collision energies about 3 GeV. The observed polarization is of a similar magnitude as predicted by 3D-fluid-dynamics and the UrQMD plus thermal vorticity model and significantly above results from the AMPT model.
Recent FOPI data on strangeness production in central Al+Al and Ni+Ni collisions at 1.9A GeV are presented, including yields of K0, Λ, strange resonances Σ*±(1385) and K*0(892), and results of ...searches for kaonic bound states in the Λp-channel. An emphasis is put on the findings on directed flow of charged kaons as well as comparison of ratios of integrated yields to the statistical model calculations.
Part of emission of the negatively charged kaons from the nucleus-nucleus collisions appears to originate from decays of ϕ(1020) mesons into the K+K− channel. We report on the measurement of the ...emission yield of ϕ mesons in the collisions of Ni+Ni at the beam kinetic energy of 1.91A GeV. The experiment was done with the FOPI spectrometer at the SIS 18 accelerator at GSI, Darmstadt. The total yield of ϕ was found to be (4.5 ± 0.7−1.2+1.8) · 10−4 per triggered event. Ratio of ϕ/K− emission yields was estimated at 0.42±0.13−0.11+0.17, meaning that about 20% of negatively charged kaons emitted from the collision originate from decays of ϕ mesons. The results are in agreement with similar HADES results done for the collisions of Ar+KCl.
The parametrizations of experimental yields of K
±
,
0
,
ϕ
and
Λ
+
Σ
0
are proposed as function of available energy,
s
NN
, and number of participants,
⟨
A
part
⟩
b
, for
s
NN
from 2.15 to 3 GeV. For ...all the dataset the
⟨
A
part
⟩
b
was extracted using the Glauber Monte Carlo method. The
α
exponent of yield dependency on
⟨
A
part
⟩
b
appears not to change with beam energy and is found to be 1.30 ± 0.02. Our parametrization and the predictions of public versions of RQMD.RMF, SMASH and UrQMD transport models are compared to the HADES experimental data for Ar+KCl at
s
NN
of 2.61 GeV. The phenomenological parametrization currently offers the best overall description of these yields. Predictions are given for yields from Ag + Ag collisions at available energies of 2.41 and 2.55 GeV, analysed by HADES, Au + Au experiment at 2.16 and 2.24 GeV planned by this collaboration, some yields for STAR’s Au + Au collisions at 3 GeV, and for Au + Au collisions planned by CBM, up to 3.85 GeV.
Heavy-ion collisions often produce fusion barrier distributions with structures displaying a fingerprint of couplings to highly collective excitations. Similar distributions can be obtained from ...large-angle quasielastic scattering, although in this case, the role of the many weak direct-reaction channels is unclear. For {sup 20}Ne+{sup 90}Zr, we have observed the barrier structures expected for the highly deformed neon projectile; however, for {sup 20}Ne+{sup 92}Zr, we find significant extra absorption into a large number of noncollective inelastic channels. This leads to smearing of the barrier distribution and a consequent reduction in the ''resolving power'' of the quasielastic method.
Modular polyketide synthase ketoreductases often set two stereocenters when reducing intermediates in the biosynthesis of a complex polyketide. Here we report the 2.55-Å resolution structure of an ...A2-type ketoreductase from the 11th module of the amphotericin polyketide synthase that sets a combination of l-α-methyl and l-β-hydroxyl stereochemistries and represents the final catalytically competent ketoreductase type to be structurally elucidated. Through structure-guided mutagenesis a double mutant of an A1-type ketoreductase was generated that functions as an A2-type ketoreductase on a diketide substrate analogue, setting an α-alkyl substituent in an l-orientation rather than in the d-orientation set by the unmutated ketoreductase. When the activity of the double mutant was examined in the context of an engineered triketide lactone synthase, the anticipated triketide lactone was not produced even though the ketoreductase-containing module still reduced the diketide substrate analogue as expected. These findings suggest that re-engineered ketoreductases may be catalytically outcompeted within engineered polyketide synthase assembly lines.
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