Diagnosis and Surgical Principles in the Treatment of Acute Injuries of the Flexor Tendons of the Hand

Injuries to the flexor tendons of the wrist are a separate chapter in wrist surgery. Flexor tendon injuries still remain a challenge to ensure the patient's optimal outcome. A special problem in the exploration of hand injuries is the accurate assessment of whether there is an injury to one or more tendons, at what height the injury is, and whether it is accompanied by injury to other elements of the hand. On the volar side of the hand, both flexors of the fingers, superficial and deep, or just one of them, maybe injured. If the lesion is in the first zone depending on the severity of the injury, reinsertion or direct tenography is required. In the second zone, there are still ambiguous views on the reconstruction of the deep and superficial flexor, ie. whether the surface flexor needs to be reconstructed. Injury to the flexor tendons in the third zone requires careful exploration for possible injury to the neurovascular elements, and the fourth zone often requires the release of the carpal tunnel. In the most proximal zone of the flexor tendons, the fifth zone, injury to the main blood vessels of the hand and the nerves responsible for sensitive and motor innervation of the hand is possible. Each injury should be approached with careful preoperative examination, appropriate operative technique as well as postoperative rehabilitation in order to fully restore the function of the hand.

Impact of insulation thicknesses of several types of thermal insulator on energy cost with respect to different climate zones in Morocco

In Morocco the thermal insulation of buildings envelop was not a common practice until it becomes obligatory since 2015 to meet the requirements of the Moroccan construction thermal regulation (RTCM) depending on six climate zones. The aim of this paper is to determine the optimum thickness of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and rock wool (RW) of walls constructed of brick for different Moroccan climate zones: Agadir (first zone), Tanger (second zone), Fes (third zone), Ifrane (fourth zone), Marrakech (fifth zone), Errachidia (sixth zone). A numerical model of a multilayered wall is developed to compute the annual heating and cooling loads. These loads are used as input to life cycle cost analysis using the energy and insulation costs. The liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity are used as energy source, respectively, for heating and cooling. For each case, the calculation is carried out for annual heating and cooling loads and total cost including insulation and energy costs. Results show that the optimum thermal insulation depends on climate zones and insulation types. The lowest value of energy savings is obtained for climate zone 1 which are 289.55 and 300.55 dh/m² respectively for EPS and RW.

Intervenciones del arquitecto Alejandro Ferrant en el Real Monasterio de Vallbona de las Monjas durante la dictadura franquista (1955-1968) / Restoring Works directed by the Architect Alejandro Ferrant in the Royal Monastery of Vallbona de las Monjas during Franco’s dictatorship (1955-1968)

Resumen: El monasterio de Santa María de Vallbona ha sido, desde su fundación, el centro cisterciense femenino más importante de Cataluña. No obstante, su estado de conservación se ha visto muy afectado desde inicios del siglo xix, debido a acontecimientos provocados por la convulsa situación social, política, y económica de España, algo que perduraría hasta la Guerra Civil. La situación se vio agravada por la alarmante situación económica de su omunidad, que impedía realizar las intervenciones más necesarias en un momento donde la conciencia patrimonial era casi inexistente. En este artículo se tratan las intervenciones realizadas en el edificio por parte de Alejandro Ferrant Vázquez, arquitecto conservador de la Cuarta Zona entre 1940 y 1976. Sus obras de restauración supondrían, para el monasterio, un acondicionamiento general de su estructura después de la Guerra Civil y el programa de restauración más amplio y completo realizado hasta entonces en el monumento.Abstract: The monastery of Santa María de Vallbona has been, since its foundation, the most important cistercian feminine center of Catalonia. However, its state of conservation has been severely affected since the beginning of the xix century. The multiple events caused by the convulsive political, social and economic situation until the Spanish Civil War, aggravated by the alarming poverty of its community, prevented the realization of the most necessary interventions as at the time patrimonial consciousness was almost inexistent.This article covers the interventions done in the Monastery by Alejandro Ferrant Vázquez, conservator architect of the Fourth Zone between 1940 and 1976. Hisrestoration works supposed the general reconditioning of the structure after the Civil War and represented the largest and the most complete restoration program of the monument until that moment.

Criteria Analysis using GIS to Priorities the Slums

Due to rapid urbanization most of the people are migrating towards the urban. Urban regions in the developing country are facing enormous challenges. The well planned and managed urban region will provide better environment with good infrastructure and improved quality of life for their people. One of most important issues of the cities, especially in developing countries is the human settlement. Most of the rapidly growing cities keep on sprawling. Due to new migrants and also increasing poverty forced the urban poor to settle in unauthorized area of cities. This leads towards creation of new slums or expanding the existing slums. To make our cities sustainable and also to provide good environment for the urban poor, the slums need to be revamped. This paper is dealing with the slums which had been identified at zone four of Erode City, Tamil Nadu State, India. Erode city is one of the rapidly growing cities in Tamil Nadu. Totally 28 slums had been identified and mapped using GIS in the fourth zone. The tenability status of each slum and information about the basic facilities like drainage, road, water supply, condition of structures had been collected through the site visit. The collected attribute information had been mapped using GIS. Based on the importance of the criteria the weightages given had been assigned. The weightage criterion analysis provides the Prioritization Index (PI) for each slum. This guideline will be useful for the government to facelift the slums which need urgency.

Management zones determination based on physical properties of the soil

ABSTRACT The physical characteristics of the soil are defined through the interaction between its properties, and they, in turn, can indicate its physical quality. The study area is located in the Centro Agropecuário Marengo (Marengo Agricultural Center), with an extension of 94.5 ha, subdivided into 17 plots. The objective of this research was to study characteristics such as water storage capacity, structure, consistency, and soil compaction in the two surface horizons (H1 and H2), in order to define management zones through the soil index. Properties such as soil penetration resistance were an indicator of soil degradation, with values higher than 2 MPa in 13 plots. The total porosity exhibited medium or low values in the H1 and H2 horizons, with a predominance of micropores, which means that the presence of water could be lower than 14%. Four management zones were identified for each horizon, where the first zone represents the area where the soil is capable of retaining between 17% and 21% of the available water, with a bulk density of around 1 g cm-3 and organic carbon content close to 6%. By contrast, the fourth zone represents the sites where the soils are the finest, with contents above 45% clay, available water less than 11%, and a mean compaction of 4.39 MPa.

Peculiarities of Aerobic Development in Kayak Rowers Preparing for 1000 m Event

Research background and hypothesis. Lithuanian scientific publications mostly deal with kayak rowers’ preparation for 200 and 500 m events, while 1000 m event is hardly analyzed yet. Research aim was to project scientifically based program of kayak rowers’ preparation for 1000 m event, which is to develop aerobic capacity in different mezo-cycles, and to evaluate its efficiency.Research methods. Preparation of kayak doubles crew members was investigated; the athletes were the 5 th place winners of 2013 World Cup II event. The carried out training load for aerobic capacity development was divided into 5 zones of intensity. During training sessions, computer program Garmin Connect measured the distance and speed of a boat, as well as athletes’ heart rate (HR). Athletes’ aerobic capacity at critical intensity level (CIL) and anaerobic threshold (ANT) was established using gas analyser ‘Oxycon Mobile’. Research results. As the research showed, the kayak rowers in mezzo-cycles of both preparatory and competition periods carried out very little training load in the fifth zone of intensity. Considerable is also the fact that during competition period, in mezzo-cycle, the total number of kilometres decreased from 218 to 158 km. Discussion and conclusions. The research demonstrated that training workloads in the first and the second zones for elite kayak rowers preparing for 1000 m event in the first mezzo-cycle of competitive period were diminished comparing to the workload carried out in the preparatory period, while the amount of workload in the fourth zone was considerably increased. Adaptation of the two elite athletes to applied training loads is different, although they were following the same program. Due to this fact, the training process of those athletes is recommended to be given more individual approach, though they are rowing one boat.Keywords: kayak rowing, preparatory and competitive periods, training mezzo-cycles, aerobic capacity.

Agroclimatic zoning of the northern grain-producing territory of Kazakhstan

Introduction. The existing agroclimatic handbooks in Kazakhstan are outdated in informational and technological relation. Therefore it is necessary to conduct reassessment of agroclimatic resources. Purpose. The agroclimatic zoning of the territory of northern Kazakhstan in terms of heat supply and moisture content. Methods. Data of meteorological stations over 1981-2014 were used. Methods of statistic and climatologic processing of data were applied. Agroclimatic maps were developed using the ArcGIS 10.1 software. Results. Analysis of spatial distribution of values of moisture coefficient K and sums of active air temperatures above 10оC provided an opportunity to single out 6 agroclimatic zones of plain territory of Kazakhstan. Zones from 3 to 6 are subdivided into two types in terms of thermal conditions. There are 3 agroclimatic zones singled out within the territory of North Kazakhstan Region, 4 zones – in Kostanai region, 4 zones – in Akmola region, 2 zones – in Pavlodar region. Distribution of drought characteristics, hot dry winds and climatic terms for beginning of spring field works within Akmola region's agroclimatic zones was given as an example for systematization of spatial distribution of respective values. The first zone with moderately humid and moderately warm climate has severe droughts with recurrence of 2%, hot winds of moderate intensity are observed during 2-3 days, climatic terms for beginning of spring field works fall on 15th-19th of May. The fourth zone with moderately dry and warm climate has severe droughts with recurrence of 30-35%, hot winds of moderate intensity are observed during 20-25 days, climatic terms for beginning of spring field works fall on 5th-7th of May. Conclusions. There are 3 agroclimatic zones singled out within the territory of North Kazakhstan Region, 4 zones – in Kostanai region, 4 zones – in Akmola region, 2 zones – in Pavlodar region.

Local Chronologies and Regional Diversity of Dendrochronological Signal of Douglas Fir in Poland

Local Chronologies and Regional Diversity of Dendrochronological Signal of Douglas Fir in PolandIn Poland, 50 sites of Douglas fir were selected for which tree-ring chronologies were computed. Douglas fir in different parts of Poland has a specific increment rhythm, on the basis of which the four homogeneous dendrochronological zones were distinguished. The first zone (I) comprises Pomerania, Baltic coast, Warmia, and Mazuria (lowlands of northern Poland), the second zone (II) - Great Poland, Lower Silesia (lowlands of central Poland), the third zone (III) - the Sudetes and the Carpathian mountains, and the fourth zone (IV) - foothills of the Carpathians Mts., Roztocze, and the Świętokrzyskie Mts. (uplands of southern Poland). These areas are called the dendroclimatic zones because different thermo-pluvial conditions of the summer season were a cause of diversification of the Douglas fir increment rhythm, and in consequence of its chronology. A high similarity of site chronologies of a given region permitted to construct regional tree-ring chronologies for respective zones. Thermal conditions of the winter season (February - March) were the factor most strongly and similarly affecting radial increment of Douglas fir populations in the entire territory of Poland. This factor caused that all chronologies showed many similar traits in their progress. This fact permitted to construct the supra-regional (all-Polish) tree-ring chronology for this tree species. It comprises the period from 1900 to 2000, and it is a good standard for dating Douglas fir wood samples originating from the area of Poland.

A different type of amphibian mesoderm morphogenesis in Ceratophrys ornata

Ceratophrys ornata, the Argentinean horned frog, has a significantly different pattern of early morphogenesis than does the most studied amphibian, Xenopus laevis. Time-lapse videomicroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, histological sections and lineage tracers have shown that, in C. ornata, some prospective notochord, somite and tailbud mesoderm cells leave the surface epithelium of the archenteron by ingression. After gastrulation, SEM reveals cells with constricted apices and a bottle shape in three zones on the archenteron roof and in a fourth zone around the blastopore. Prospective somitic tissue ingresses first from two lateral zones, followed by ingression of prospective notochord from the medial zone and tailbud mesoderm from the circumblastoporal zone. This is unlike X. laevis, in which no cells with constricted apices are present on the dorsal surface of the archenteron, nor do any cells ingress into the deep mesodermal layers from the surface layer.

Development of the tibiotarsus in the chick embryo: biosynthetic activities of histologically distinct regions

The dynamics of the histological changes which occur in the distal half of the tibial portion of the embryonic chick tibiotarsus from day 8 to day 18 of incubation are correlated with the capacities of histologically distinct zones to incorporate isotopic precursors into mucopolysaccharides and collagen. At the distal end of the tibia, which abuts the suture line formed by the fusion of the two tarsals with the tibia, there persists throughout embryonic development a narrow band ofsmall, round or oval, rapidly dividing chondrocytes which synthesize chondroitin SO4 and collagen at low rates. Just proximal to this zone is a broader zone of flattened, disc-shaped chondrocytes which divide more slowly and are extremely active in chondroitin SO4 and collagen synthesis. Proximal to the zone of flattened chondrocytes is a zone of non-dividing, hypertrophied chondrocytes which are large and round and increase continually in size going from the distal to the proximal end of the zone. The biosynthetic activities of the cells in this zone fall sharply with their distance from the zone of flattened chondrocytes. Finally, there is a fourth zone, the marrow cavity, formed by a proximal to distal disintegration of the hypertrophied chondrocytes, starting at mid-diaphysis. The marrow cavity is surrounded by a shell of periosteal and intra-membranous bone which extends to the distal end of the zone of hypertrophied chondrocytes. Our data suggest that as the tibiotarsus grows in length the small, round rapidly dividing cells of the tibia differentiate first to flattened chondrocytes which synthesize matrix at a high rate and ultimately to low activity, hypertrophying chondrocytes. This sequence proceeds in a linear fashion.