[How I explore a non-traumatic gonalgia]. / Comment j'explore une gonalgie non traumatique.

Because the knee is the joint of the human body with the largest surface, it is no wonder that gonalgia is one of the most common complaints in the general population. Although the management of a painful traumatic knee is relatively well standardized, that of a non-traumatic knee pain is less codified. History and a rigorous systematic clinical examination play a key role in the management of nontraumatic gonalgia. The diagnostic approach is mainly guided by the inflammatory or mechanical nature of the pain and its topography. This article aims to clarify the diagnostic approach to gonalgia without notion of prior trauma.

Le genou étant la plus grosse articulation du corps humain en termes de surface, il n'est pas étonnant que la gonalgie compte parmi les plaintes les plus fréquentes de la population générale. Bien que la prise en charge d'un genou douloureux traumatique soit relativement bien standardisée, celle d'une gonalgie non traumatique est moins codifiée. L'anamnèse systématique et un examen clinique rigoureux jouent un rôle clé dans la prise en charge de la gonalgie non traumatique. L'orientation diagnostique est principalement guidée par le caractère inflammatoire ou mécanique de la douleur et sa topographie. Cet article vise à éclaircir la démarche diagnostique face à des gonalgies sans notion de traumatisme.

On the high-pressure phase stability and elastic properties of ß-titanium alloys.

We have studied the compressibility and stability of different ß-titanium alloys at high pressure, including binary Ti-Mo, Ti-24Nb-4Zr-8Sn (Ti2448) and Ti-36Nb-2Ta-0.3O (gum metal). We observed stability of the ß phase in these alloys to 40 GPa, well into the ω phase region in the P-T diagram of pure titanium. Gum metal was pressurised above 70 GPa and forms a phase with a crystal structure similar to the η phase of pure Ti. The bulk moduli determined for the different alloys range from 97 ± 3 GPa (Ti2448) to 124 ± 6 GPa (Ti-16.8Mo-0.13O).

Early Levallois technology and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus.

The Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition (~400,000 to 200,000 years ago) is marked by technical, behavioral, and anatomical changes among hominin populations throughout Africa and Eurasia. The replacement of bifacial stone tools, such as handaxes, by tools made on flakes detached from Levallois cores documents the most important conceptual shift in stone tool production strategies since the advent of bifacial technology more than one million years earlier and has been argued to result from the expansion of archaic Homo sapiens out of Africa. Our data from Nor Geghi 1, Armenia, record the earliest synchronic use of bifacial and Levallois technology outside Africa and are consistent with the hypothesis that this transition occurred independently within geographically dispersed, technologically precocious hominin populations with a shared technological ancestry.

Earliest Pleistocene hominid cranial remains from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia: taxonomy, geological setting, and age.

Archaeological excavations at the site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia have uncovered two partial early Pleistocene hominid crania. The new fossils consist of a relatively complete cranium and a second relatively complete calvaria from the same site and stratigraphic unit that yielded a hominid mandible in 1991. In contrast with the uncertain taxonomic affinity of the mandible, the new fossils are comparable in size and morphology with Homo ergaster from Koobi Fora, Kenya. Paleontological, archaeological, geochronological, and paleomagnetic data from Dmanisi all indicate an earliest Pleistocene age of about 1.7 million years ago, supporting correlation of the new specimens with the Koobi Fora fossils. The Dmanisi fossils, in contrast with Pleistocene hominids from Western Europe and Eastern Asia, show clear African affinity and may represent the species that first migrated out of Africa.