BACKGROUND. Despite extensive current knowledge about fractures of the femoral shaft, the choice between antegrade and retrograde intramedullary (IM) nailing with respect to the future function of the joint serving to introduce the nail continues to raise controversy. To compare knee function in patients with a healed fracture of the femoral shaft fixed by antegrade vs. retrograde IM nailing. MATERIAL AND METHODS. The study involved a group of 65 individuals with traumatic fractures of the femoral shaft who underwent stabilisation with IM nails in the years 2001-2010. Thirty-two cases were retrograde nails (Group R) and 33 antegrade nails (Group A). Patient age at trauma ranged from 19 to 91 years (mean: 47). Knee function was assessed in both groups with the KOOS, KSS1 and KSS2 scoring systems. RESULTS. Knee function as assessed with KOOS differed significantly between retrograde and antegrade nailing, with a greater incidence of poor and fair results in the former and more excellent outcomes in the latter group (p=0.0133). As regards KSS1 and KSS2, there were no significant differences between the groups (p=0.1947, p=0.4038). The range of motion was 86-125 degrees in Group R and 121-125 degrees in Group A. Knee pain was reported by 37.5% of the patients treated with retrograde nailing and 39.4% of those who had the IM nail inserted via the antegrade approach (p=0.22). The mean time to bone union was 180 days in Group R and 219 days in Group A (p=0.25). Age and presence of osteoarthritis at trauma significantly lowered the KOOS (p=0.0027, p= 0.005) and KSS (p=0.0002, p=0.002) scores, as well as the knee range of motion (p=0.0014, p=0.004) CONCLUSIONS. 1. Knee function following retrograde and antegrade IM nailing to stabilise femoral shaft fractures was comparable. 2. The choice of IM nailing method should not be based solely on orthopaedic indications, but also on the severity of osteoarthritis present at trauma.

No abstract

BNCT facility in the Institute of Atomic Energy in Otwock-Swierk is under construction at the horizontal channel H2 of the research reactor MARIA. Measurements of the neutron energy spectrum performed at the front of the H2 experimental channel, have shown that flux of epithermal neutrons (above 10 keV) at the BNCT irradiation port was below 10 9 n cm 2 s 1 i.e. it was too low to be directly used for the BNCT treatment. Therefore, a fission converter will be placed between the reactor core and the periphery of the graphite reflector of MARIA reactor. The uranium converter will be powered by the densely packed EK-10 fuel elements with 10% enrichment. Preliminary calculations have shown that the total neutron flux in the converter will be about 10 13 n cm 2 s 1 and flux of epithermal neutrons at the entrance to the filter/moderator of the beam will be about 2•10 9 n cm 2 s 1 .

No abstract

In this article we introduce a generalization of the Newton transformation to the case of a system of endomorphisms. We show that it can be used in the context of extrinsic geometry of foliations and distributions yielding new integral formulas containing generalized extrinsic curvatures.

No abstract

The extensive analysis of the dynamics of relativistic spinning particles is presented. Using the coadjoint orbits method the Hamiltonian dynamics is explicitly described. The main technical tool is the factorization of general Lorentz transformation into pure boost and rotation. The equivalent constrained dynamics on Poincare group (viewed as configuration space) is derived and complete classification of constraints is performed. It is shown that the first class constraints generate local symmetry corresponding to the stability subgroup of some point on coadjoint orbit. The Dirac brackets for second class constraints are computed. Finally, canonical quantization is performed leading to infinitesimal form of irreducible representations of Poincare group.

No abstract