Anisotropy of spin relaxation in metals.

The concept of anisotropy of spin relaxation in nonmagnetic metals with respect to the spin direction of the injected electrons relative to the crystal orientation is introduced. The effect is related to an anisotropy of the Elliott-Yafet parameter, arising from a modulation of the decomposition of the spin-orbit Hamiltonian into spin-conserving and spin-flip terms as the spin quantization axis is varied. This anisotropy, reaching gigantic values for uniaxial transition metals (e.g., 830% for hcp Hf) as density-functional calculations show, is related to extended "spin-flip hot areas" on the Fermi surface created by the proximity of extended sheets of the surface, or "spin-flip hot loops" at the Brillouin zone boundary, and has no theoretical upper limit. Possible ways of measuring the effect as well as consequences in application are briefly outlined.

The Adaptation of the Buddhist Death Acceptance Scale for Vietnamese Persons with Cancer.

PURPOSE: This study reports on selected psychometric properties of the adapted Buddhist Death Acceptance Scale (BDAS) for Vietnamese persons with cancer. METHODS: The original 13-item BDAS was developed based on Buddhist perspectives toward death and life and was translated from Thai into Vietnamese. Item content checking with five Vietnamese local experts suggested three items of the original BDAS were irrelevant in Vietnamese culture and hence should be excluded. Psychometric properties of the 10-item BDAS Vietnamese version were tested using a convenience sample of 193 Vietnamese Buddhists with cancer. RESULTS: The internal consistency coefficient of the scale was found to be 0.73. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the 10 items of the BDAS Vietnamese version constituted 2 factors, explaining 51.1% of the variance of death acceptance. The first factor was "acceptance of natural process of death" and the second was "preparing for death." Both factors reflected explicitly Buddhist viewpoints toward death acceptance and were consistent with the original Thai BDAS. However, although similar factors were found, some items in the Vietnamese BDAS did not load to same factors as in the Thai BDAS. CONCLUSIONS: The BDAS Vietnamese version provides an initial suitable measurement for death acceptance among Vietnamese Buddhists. Its availability will enable cross-cultural research to investigate death acceptance among Buddhist patients with cancer in Vietnam. However, the differences in item loadings between the Thai and Vietnamese scales suggest that further conceptual and empirical works to refine the measurement are needed.

Total knee arthroplasty using modified measured resection: a five-year retrospective review of midterm outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: Deforming arthrosis, or osteoarthritis, is the most common rheumatic disease that involves the musculoskeletal system. The purpose of this research is to perform a retrospective review of the quality of life of patients with knee arthrosis, who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) no less than 5 years ago, to evaluate, based on the Knee Society Scoring System, the efficacy of a modified measured resection technique, and to investigate factors that affect the outcomes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The research sample consisted of 44 patients who had severe osteoarthrosis, Kellgren-Lawrence grade III and grade IV. RESULTS: The post-operative complications occurred in seven knee joints. Among them there were 2 cases of infection, 2 cases of periprosthesis fracture, and 2 cases of aseptic instability, each pair accounting for 4.3%, and 1 case of femoropatellar pain (2.3%). The remaining 38 knee joints (84.8%) were free of complications. CONCLUSIONS: Knee arthrosis is a serious health problem, given the significant rate of disability among patients and the significant reduction in the quality of life. Patients often seek medical help at the later stages of the disease, when pain is strong and knee function is significantly reduced. The approach to rehabilitation procedures and, in some cases, to lifestyle improvement should be more responsible.

Anisotropy of spin relaxation and transverse transport in metals.

Using first-principles methods we explore the anisotropy of the spin relaxation and transverse transport properties in bulk metals with respect to the real-space direction of the spin-quantization axis in paramagnets or of the spontaneous magnetization in ferromagnets. Owing to the presence of the spin-orbit coupling the orbital and spin character of the Bloch states depends sensitively on the orientation of the spins relative to the crystal axes. This leads to drastic changes in quantities which rely on interband mixing induced by the spin-orbit interaction. The anisotropy is particularly striking for quantities which exhibit spiky and irregular distributions in the Brillouin zone, such as the spin-mixing parameter or the Berry curvature of the electronic states. We demonstrate this for three cases: (i) the Elliott-Yafet spin-relaxation mechanism in paramagnets with structural inversion symmetry; (ii) the intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnets; and (iii) the spin Hall effect in paramagnets. We discuss the consequences of the pronounced anisotropic behavior displayed by these properties for spin-polarized transport applications.