Summary Objective To adapt the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) into French and to evaluate the psychometric properties of this new version. Methods The French version of the KOOS ...was developed according to cross-cultural guidelines by using the “translation-back translation” method to ensure content validity. KOOS data were then obtained in patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). The translated questionnaire was evaluated in two knee OA population groups, one with no indication for joint replacement (medicine), and the other waiting for joint replacement (surgery). The psychometric properties evaluated were feasibility: percentage of responses, floor and ceiling effects; construct validity: internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha, correlations with osteoarthritis knee and hip quality of life domains using Spearman's rank test, and known group comparison between medicine and surgery groups; reliability: intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), Bland and Altman representation; responsiveness using data obtained prior to and 3 months after surgery: standardized response mean (SRM), and effect size. Results Thirty-seven patients were included in the medicine group (68% women, mean age = 70 ± 10 years) and 30 in the surgery group (73% women, mean age = 71 ± 10 years). The percentage of responses was excellent. Neither a floor nor a ceiling effect was observed, except for the sport and recreation subscale (20.6% of patients with the worst possible score in the medicine group, 40 and 0% in the surgery group prior to and after surgery, respectively). Results for internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.76 to 0.93), and convergent and divergent construct validity were satisfactory. The patients waiting for knee surgery presented with significantly lower scores in all KOOS domains. The reproducibility of measurements of all KOOS subscales was good to excellent, with ICC ranging from 0.755 to 0.914. The responsiveness was high, with SRM ranging from 0.89 to 1.93, and effect size from 1.31 to 2.8. Conclusion The French version of KOOS is a valid, reliable, and responsive instrument to capture specific aspects of functional disability affecting quality of life of knee OA patients.
We propose a new type of public-key cryptosystems (PKC) which is based on repetition of different error-correcting codes. We give a brief analysis of some well known attacks on code-based PKC, ...including structural ones and show that the scheme could be used as a perspective post-quantum PKC.
The maximum-length sequences, also called m-sequences, have received a lot of attention since the late 1960s. In terms of linear-feedback shift register (LFSR) synthesis they are usually generated by ...certain power polynomials over a finite field and in addition are characterized by a low cross correlation and high nonlinearity. We say that such a sequence is generated by a semi-bent function. Some new families of such function, represented by f(x)=/spl Sigma//sub i=1//sup (n-1)/2/c/sub i/Tr(x(2/sup i/)+1), n odd and c/sub i//spl isin/F/sub 2/, have recently (2002) been introduced by Khoo et al. We first generalize their results to even n. We further investigate the conditions on the choice of c/sub i/ for explicit definitions of new infinite families having three and four trace terms. Also, a class of nonpermutation polynomials whose composition with a quadratic function yields again a quadratic semi-bent function is specified. The treatment of semi-bent functions is then presented in a much wider framework. We show how bent and semi-bent functions are interlinked, that is, the concatenation of two suitably chosen semi-bent functions will yield a bent function and vice versa. Finally, this approach is generalized so that the construction of both bent and semi-bent functions of any degree in certain range for any n/spl ges/7 is presented, n being the number of input variables.
Summary Objective To translate and adapt the Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS) into French and to evaluate the psychometric properties of this new version, by testing ...feasibility, internal consistency, construct validity, reliability and responsiveness, in patients with hip osteoarthritis (OA). Methods The French version of the HOOS was developed according to published international guidelines to ensure content validity. The new version was then evaluated in two symptomatic hip OA populations, one with no indication for joint replacement (medical group), and the other waiting for total hip replacement (THR) (surgery group). The psychometric properties assessed were feasibility : percentage of responses, floor and ceiling effects; internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha; construct validity by evaluating correlations with the Lequesne's index and the visual analogic scale (VAS) for pain (Pearson's correlation coefficient); reliability : intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), Bland et Altman representation; responsiveness by comparing the results of before and 1 month after injection of hyaluronic acid (medical group) and by comparing the pre and 3 months post THR results (surgery group) by calculating standardized response mean (SRM) and effect size (ES). Results A total of 88 patients were recruited; 58 in the medicine group (mean age = 61.8 ± 9 years, range 42–81, 70% women) and 30 in the surgery group (mean age = 67.5 ± 9 years, range 50–81, 68% women). The percentage of item responses was excellent (99%). Neither a floor nor a ceiling effect was observed, except for a ceiling effect (17.8% of patients with worst possible score) observed prior to surgery in the sport and recreation subscale. The internal consistency was good for four of the five HOOS subscales. As expected, the strongest correlations were observed between all HOOS subscales and Lequesne's index or VAS pain, indicating good construct validity. The reliability was good, with an ICC > 0.8 for all subscales. The responsiveness was good for all domains 1 month after hyaluronic acid injection (ES ranging from 0.73 to 1.86 and SRM from 0.51 to 1.04) and high for all domains 3 months after THR (ES ranging from 1.47 to 2.08 and SRM ranging from 1.97 to 3.24). Conclusion The French version of HOOS demonstrated good psychometric properties and appears to be useful for the evaluation of patient-relevant outcome whatever the severity of hip OA. This study provides a basis for the use of this French version of the HOOS in future clinical trials.
Objective. To evaluate the effects of loss of range of motion (ROM) of the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint on the kinematic parameters of walking in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Methods. ...Inclusion of RA patients with inactive disease, no synovitis of the inferior limb and reduced ROM of the MTP joints. Evaluation of the ROM of the MTP dorsal and plantar flexion, and gait analysis using a three-dimensional computerized movement analysis. Calculation of gait parameters and maximal flexion and extension of the hips and knees during walking. Analysis 1 compared the ROM of dorsal and plantar flexion in patients with or without walking pain; 2 compared the gait parameters between patients and controls; 3 investigated a relationship between gait parameters and (i) the ROM of the MTP dorsal and plantar flexion and (ii) the pain at walking; 4 investigated the relationship between the ROM of the MTP dorsal and plantar flexion and maximal flexion and extension of the hip and knee joints during walking. Results. Nine patients and seven controls were included. The MTP ROM was no different in patients presenting with or without pain at walking. The walking velocity was lower and the stride length shorter in patients than in controls. The walking velocity and the stride length were positively related to the MTP dorsal flexion ROM (r2=0.75 and 0.67). There was a negative relationship between maximal flexion of the knee and hips during walking and the underlying MTP dorsal flexion ROM (r2=0.67 and 0.54). Conclusion. In RA patients, reduced MTP dorsal flexion mobility induces changes in the walking parameters, including the kinematics of the overlying lower limb joints. Treatment of an RA-impaired forefoot should focus on MTP mobility as well as on pain.
► A enthalpy-based model for pulsed excimer laser annealing was developed. ► The model predicts similar temperature and phase evolution than the phase-field model. ► Undercooling is found to be ...negligible in a TCAD model. ► The melt depth found in experiment is reproduced by simulation.
We present an enthalpy-based model for pulsed excimer laser annealing of crystalline silicon in the melting regime that integrates into the technology computer-aided design (TCAD) suite Sentaurus Process of Synopsys. The currently one-dimensional model includes laser absorption, a transient simulation of the heat flux, melting of the surface layer, and undercooling during recrystallization. To verify the model, its predictions for a laser pulse with a duration of ∼150ns and a wavelength of 308nm were compared to those of a phase-field implementation of melting laser annealing by La Magna et al. The two models show a good agreement for the melt depth, melt duration, and melt front dynamics. In a second step, model predictions were compared to melt depths extracted from SIMS measurements of ion implanted and excimer-laser-annealed silicon samples. They were found to agree within the experimental error. Variation of the beam parameters indicated a strong influence of laser energy density fluctuations on the melt depth.
Hole transport properties in relaxed and biaxially strained Si
1-
x
Ge
x
, Si
1-
y
C
y
and Si
1-
x-
y
Ge
x
C
y
alloys are investigated using a Full-Band Monte Carlo simulator. Our results allow the ...extraction of bulk, in-plane and out-of-plane hole drift mobilities. Doping effects in SiGeC alloys are taken into account through an efficient ionized-impurity scattering model. This model is based on inverse momentum relaxation times derived from phase-shift theory.
1
1
Also known as
partial-wave theory.
A new alloy scattering model relevant to the case of random ternary alloys is presented. It involves two effective alloy potential parameters, which account for the respective scattering strengths of Ge and C in the crystal lattice. From our mobility results we have derived an analytical hole mobility model which includes dependencies upon doping concentration, doping type, Ge content and C content.
Let a biorthogonal Reed-Muller code RM (1,m) of length n = 2 m be used on a memoryless channel with an input alphabet plusmn1 and a real-valued output R. Given any nonzero received vector y in the ...Euclidean space R n and some parameter epsiisin(0,1), our goal is to perform list decoding of the code RM (1, m) and retrieve all codewords located within the angle arccos e from y. For an arbitrarily small epsi, we design an algorithm that outputs this list of codewords with the linear complexity order of n ln 2 isin bit operations. Without loss of generality, let vector y be also scaled to the Euclidean length radic(n) of the transmitted vectors. Then an equivalent task is to retrieve all coefficients of the Hadamard transform of vector y whose absolute values exceed nisin. Thus, this decoding algorithm retrieves all ne-significant coefficients of the Hadamard transform with the linear complexity n ln 2 isin instead of the complexity n In 2 n of the full Hadamard transform.
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