Tunis University

About: Tunis University is a education organization based out in Tunis, Tunisia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Thin film. The organization has 11745 authors who have published 15400 publications receiving 154900 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Tunis & UT.

Surgical results and technical refinements in translabyrinthine excision of vestibular schwannomas: the Gruppo Otologico experience.

Abstract: BACKGROUND Vestibular schwannomas (VSs) are the most common cerebellopontine angle tumors, accounting for 75% of all lesions in this location. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the results after removal of VS through the enlarged translabyrinthine approach, which is a widening of the classic translabyrinthine approach that gives larger access and provides more room to facilitate tumor removal and to minimize surgery-related morbidities. METHODS This was a retrospective study of 1865 patients who underwent VS excision through the enlarged translabyrinthine approach between 1987 and 2009. Mean age was 50.39 years. Mean tumor size was 1.8 cm. Median follow-up was 5.7 years. RESULTS Total removal was achieved in 92.33% of cases; 143 patients had incomplete resection with evidence of regrowth in 8. In the 1742 previously untreated patients, anatomic preservation of facial nerve was achieved in 1661 cases (95.35%), and House-Brackmann grade I or II was reached in 1047 patients (59.87%). Facial nerve outcome was significantly better in tumors ≤ 20 mm. Surgical complications included cerebrospinal fluid leakage in 0.85%, meningitis in 0.10%, intracranial bleeding in 0.80%, non--VII/VIII cranial nerve palsy in 0.96%, cerebellar ataxia in 0.69%, and death in 0.10%. The technical modifications that evolved with increasing experience are described. CONCLUSION The enlarged translabyrinthine approach is a safe and effective approach for the removal of VS. In our experience, the complication rate is very low and tumor size is still the main factor influencing postoperative facial nerve function with a cutoff point at around 20 mm.

OGY-based control of chaos in semi-passive dynamic walking of a torso-driven biped robot

Abstract: This paper aims at controlling chaos exhibited in the semi-passive dynamic walking of a torso-driven biped robot as it goes down an inclined surface. Our control approach is based on the OGY method. The proposed biped robot is a three-degrees-of-freedom planar biped having an impulsive hybrid nonlinear dynamics. For this walker, we use only one torque between the stance leg and the torso in order to control the torso at some desired position and then in order to generate a semi-passive gait. The desired torso angle is considered as the control parameter in our OGY-based control approach. We develop a reduced simple impulsive hybrid linear model by linearizing the impulsive hybrid nonlinear dynamics around a desired period-1 hybrid limit cycle. This conducts to determine an explicit expression of a constrained controlled Poincare map. A linearization of the controlled Poincare map around its fixed point permits to looking for the gain matrix of the stabilizing control law. We show that application of the developed OGY-based control parameter law has controlled the chaotic semi-passive gait.

Stellar matter with a strong magnetic field within density-dependent relativistic models

Abstract: The effect of strong magnetic fields on the equation of state (EoS) for compact stars described with density-dependent relativistic hadronic models is studied. A comparison with other mean-field relativistic models is done. It is shown that the largest differences between models occur for low densities, and that the magnetic field affects the crust properties of a star, namely its extension.