Clinical results : Acetabular impaction grafting

Written by the surgeons of the Exeter Hip Team and their colleagues from around the world, this book describes 40 years of innovation and development with cemented hip replacement. Topics covered include the basic science behind successful cemented hip replacement, modern surgical techniques and recent advances. There is also extensive coverage of the revision techniques developed at Exeter and elsewhere, focussing on femoral and acetabular impaction grafting. Each chapter is a self-contained article with an emphasis, where appropriate, on practical techniques and surgical tips, supported by line drawings and intra-operative photographs.

Operative technique : acetabulum

BOOK: Written by the surgeons of the Exeter Hip Team and their colleagues from around the world, this book describes 40 years of innovation and development with cemented hip replacement. Topics covered include the basic science behind successful cemented hip replacement, modern surgical techniques and recent advances. There is also extensive coverage of the revision techniques developed at Exeter and elsewhere, focussing on femoral and acetabular impaction grafting. Each chapter is a self-contained article with an emphasis, where appropriate, on practical techniques and surgical tips, supported by line drawings and intra-operative photographs.

The Exeter Hip. 40 Years of Innovation in Total Hip Arthroplasty

* Propoerties and use of acrylic cement * Design and biomechaniscs of a cemented hip replacement * The science of loosening, lysis and wear * Preparation of patients for surgery * Potential complications and their avoidance * Modern primary surgical techniques and new developments * Complex primary hip replacement and specialist techniques * Outcomes of cemented hip replacement * Principles of revision hip replacement * Basic science of bone grafting in revision surgery * Femoral acetabular impaction bone grafting techniques * Results of revision with bone graft and cement

The evolution of tax morale in modern Spain

This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-France era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent variable and attempts to answer what actually shapes tax morale. Te analysis uses suevey data from two sources; the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, allowing us to observe tax morale in Spain for the years 1981,1990, 1995 and 1999/2000. The sutudy of evolution of tax morale in Spain over nearly a 20-year span is particularly interesting because the political and fiscal system evolved very rapidly during this period.

Combined marrow stromal cell-sheet techniques and high-strength biodegradable composite scaffolds for engineered functional bone grafts

In this study, cell sheets comprising multilayered porcine bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) were assembled with fully interconnected scaffolds made from medical-grade polycaprolactone–calcium phosphate (mPCL–CaP), for the engineering of structural and functional bone grafts. The BMSC sheets were harvested from culture flasks and wrapped around pre-seeded composite scaffolds. The layered cell sheets integrated well with the scaffold/cell construct and remained viable, with mineralized nodules visible both inside and outside the scaffold for up to 8 weeks culture. Cells within the constructs underwent classical in vitro osteogenic differentiation with the associated elevation of alkaline phosphatase activity and bone-related protein expression. In vivo, two sets of cell-sheet-scaffold/cell constructs were transplanted under the skin of nude rats. The first set of constructs (554mm3) were assembled with BMSC sheets and cultured for 8 weeks before implantation. The second set of constructs (10104mm3) was implanted immediately after assembly with BMSC sheets, with no further in vitro culture. For both groups, neo cortical and well-vascularised cancellous bone were formed within the constructs with up to 40% bone volume. Histological and immunohistochemical examination revealed that neo bone tissue formed from the pool of seeded BMSC and the bone formation followed predominantly an endochondral pathway, with woven bone matrix subsequently maturing into fully mineralized compact bone; exhibiting the histological markers of native bone. These findings demonstrate that large bone tissues similar to native bone can be regenerated utilizing BMSC sheet techniques in conjunction with composite scaffolds whose structures are optimized from a mechanical, nutrient transport and vascularization perspective.

Exploring the needs for SMEs for mobile data technologies : the role of qualitative research techniques

The seemingly exponential nature of technological change provides SMEs with a complex and challenging operational context. The development of infrastructures capable of supporting the wireless application protocol (WAP) and associated 'wireless' applications represents the latest generation of technological innovation with potential appeals to SMEs and end-users alike. This paper aims to understand the mobile data technology needs of SMEs in a regional setting. The research was especially concerned with perceived needs across three market segments : non-adopters, partial-adopters and full-adopters of new technology. The research was exploratory in nature as the phenomenon under scrutiny is relatively new and the uses unclear, thus focus groups were conducted with each of the segments. The paper provides insights for business, industry and academics.

The modern movement architecture of four South African cities

South Africa's modern architecture is not confined to the cities, but the ideas of the movement were mostly disseminated by architects and academics in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, its four major urban centres. The lay out of significant areas of each city was also influenced by international modernist plans. In outlining the achievements and innovative designs of architects in these cities between the 1930s and 1970s, this article draws a picture of the importance of modernism in South African urban space, and of its diversity. It also draws attention to the political nature of the South African landscape and space, where modernist design was used for racial purposes, and to past and present conservation ideologies. The second part of the article concerns the conservation of modern buildings in these centres; it quotes bibliographies and lists the registers, those existing or under construction. It concludes with an overview of the conservation legislation in place and the challenges of conservation in a context of changing cultural values.

Victoria regia's bequest to modern architecture

This paper will explore the relationship between the giant South American waterlily, the Victoria regia (today named Victoria amazonica), and the 1914 Glashaus exposition building by the German architect, Bruno Taut. Starting with a general botanical introduction of Victoria regia, the paper exposes the first European cultivation of the lily by Joseph Paxton at Chatsworth,England, in 1849. Following this initial cultivation, Paxton subsequently develops a specialist greenhouse for the plant, that later becomes the prototype for all Victoria regia greenhouses. However, from about 1860 as Victoria regia cultivation spreads to continental Europe, a greenhouse that differs from Paxton’s prototype subsequently evolves. An investigation of these later continental European greenhouses, coupled with an exposure of Taut’s own writings concerning Victoria regia, reveals startling similarities to the Glashaus, which ultimately reveals the Glashaus as directly inspired by Victoria regia.

The quest for authenticity in the west – negotiating the self in late modern cultures

Across western culture in the late modern era a number of phenomena have emerged that seek to challenge mainstream consumer capitalism and its effects on everyday lifestyles. Two of these movements labelled as Seachange (Amenity Migration) and Downshifting have grown steadily in popularity within the public sphere and also academic discourse. In this thesis these phenomena are investigated further using a Durkheimian platform for theoretical interrogation. It is argued that while previous research accomplishes much in the investigation of Seachange and Downshifting, there is a significant gap in theoretical explanation and synthesis that requires filling. Thus in this research, it is argued that the concept of self-authenticity assists in the fulfilment of this aim. It is shown here that authenticity guides the construction, negotiation and experience of the phenomena which serves to authenticate the self. It is further argued however that Downshifting and Seachange reflect a wider theme of the self where the individual seeks protection from the profane impacts of advanced capitalism. Subsequently, the thesis aims not only to reveal the underlying principles which feed each phenomenon, but also relate them back to a wider cultural narrative of the sacred self.

Fixing the volatile : studio vocal performance techniques

The process of compiling a studio vocal performance from many takes can often result in the performer producing a new complete performance once this new "best of" assemblage is heard back. This paper investigates the ways that the physical process of recording can alter vocal performance techniques, and in particular, the establishing of a definitive melodic and rhythmic structure. Drawing on his many years of experience as a commercially successful producer, including the attainment of a Grammy award, the author will analyse the process of producing a “credible” vocal performance in depth, with specific case studies and examples. The question of authenticity in rock and pop will also be discussed and, in this context, the uniqueness of the producer’s role as critical arbiter – what gives the producer the authority to make such performance evaluations? Techniques for creating conditions in the studio that are conducive to vocal performances, in many ways a very unnatural performance environment, will be discussed, touching on areas such as the psycho-acoustic properties of headphone mixes, the avoidance of intimidatory practices, and a methodology for inducing the perception of a “familiar” acoustic environment.

Investigation of 'off-line‘ relaxation phenomena in oil filled transformers

Power transformers are one of the most important and costly equipment in power generation, transmission and distribution systems. Current average age of transformers in Australia is around 25 years and there is a strong economical tendency to use them up to 50 years or more. As the transformers operate, they get degraded due to different loading and environmental operating stressed conditions. In today‘s competitive energy market with the penetration of distributed energy sources, the transformers are stressed more with minimum required maintenance. The modern asset management program tries to increase the usage life time of power transformers with prognostic techniques using condition indicators. In the case of oil filled transformers, condition monitoring methods based on dissolved gas analysis, polarization studies, partial discharge studies, frequency response analysis studies to check the mechanical integrity, IR heat monitoring and other vibration monitoring techniques are in use. In the current research program, studies have been initiated to identify the degradation of insulating materials by the electrical relaxation technique known as dielectrometry. Aging leads to main degradation products like moisture and other oxidized products due to fluctuating thermal and electrical loading. By applying repetitive low frequency high voltage sine wave perturbations in the range of 100 to 200 V peak across available terminals of power transformer, the conductive and polarization parameters of insulation aging are identified. An in-house novel digital instrument is developed to record the low leakage response of repetitive polarization currents in three terminals configuration. The technique is tested with known three transformers of rating 5 kVA or more. The effects of stressing polarization voltage level, polarizing wave shapes and various terminal configurations provide characteristic aging relaxation information. By using different analyses, sensitive parameters of aging are identified and it is presented in this thesis.

Application of data mining techniques in the prediction of coronary artery disease : use of anaesthesia time-series and patient risk factor data

The high morbidity and mortality associated with atherosclerotic coronary vascular disease (CVD) and its complications are being lessened by the increased knowledge of risk factors, effective preventative measures and proven therapeutic interventions. However, significant CVD morbidity remains and sudden cardiac death continues to be a presenting feature for some subsequently diagnosed with CVD. Coronary vascular disease is also the leading cause of anaesthesia related complications. Stress electrocardiography/exercise testing is predictive of 10 year risk of CVD events and the cardiovascular variables used to score this test are monitored peri-operatively. Similar physiological time-series datasets are being subjected to data mining methods for the prediction of medical diagnoses and outcomes. This study aims to find predictors of CVD using anaesthesia time-series data and patient risk factor data. Several pre-processing and predictive data mining methods are applied to this data. Physiological time-series data related to anaesthetic procedures are subjected to pre-processing methods for removal of outliers, calculation of moving averages as well as data summarisation and data abstraction methods. Feature selection methods of both wrapper and filter types are applied to derived physiological time-series variable sets alone and to the same variables combined with risk factor variables. The ability of these methods to identify subsets of highly correlated but non-redundant variables is assessed. The major dataset is derived from the entire anaesthesia population and subsets of this population are considered to be at increased anaesthesia risk based on their need for more intensive monitoring (invasive haemodynamic monitoring and additional ECG leads). Because of the unbalanced class distribution in the data, majority class under-sampling and Kappa statistic together with misclassification rate and area under the ROC curve (AUC) are used for evaluation of models generated using different prediction algorithms. The performance based on models derived from feature reduced datasets reveal the filter method, Cfs subset evaluation, to be most consistently effective although Consistency derived subsets tended to slightly increased accuracy but markedly increased complexity. The use of misclassification rate (MR) for model performance evaluation is influenced by class distribution. This could be eliminated by consideration of the AUC or Kappa statistic as well by evaluation of subsets with under-sampled majority class. The noise and outlier removal pre-processing methods produced models with MR ranging from 10.69 to 12.62 with the lowest value being for data from which both outliers and noise were removed (MR 10.69). For the raw time-series dataset, MR is 12.34. Feature selection results in reduction in MR to 9.8 to 10.16 with time segmented summary data (dataset F) MR being 9.8 and raw time-series summary data (dataset A) being 9.92. However, for all time-series only based datasets, the complexity is high. For most pre-processing methods, Cfs could identify a subset of correlated and non-redundant variables from the time-series alone datasets but models derived from these subsets are of one leaf only. MR values are consistent with class distribution in the subset folds evaluated in the n-cross validation method. For models based on Cfs selected time-series derived and risk factor (RF) variables, the MR ranges from 8.83 to 10.36 with dataset RF_A (raw time-series data and RF) being 8.85 and dataset RF_F (time segmented time-series variables and RF) being 9.09. The models based on counts of outliers and counts of data points outside normal range (Dataset RF_E) and derived variables based on time series transformed using Symbolic Aggregate Approximation (SAX) with associated time-series pattern cluster membership (Dataset RF_ G) perform the least well with MR of 10.25 and 10.36 respectively. For coronary vascular disease prediction, nearest neighbour (NNge) and the support vector machine based method, SMO, have the highest MR of 10.1 and 10.28 while logistic regression (LR) and the decision tree (DT) method, J48, have MR of 8.85 and 9.0 respectively. DT rules are most comprehensible and clinically relevant. The predictive accuracy increase achieved by addition of risk factor variables to time-series variable based models is significant. The addition of time-series derived variables to models based on risk factor variables alone is associated with a trend to improved performance. Data mining of feature reduced, anaesthesia time-series variables together with risk factor variables can produce compact and moderately accurate models able to predict coronary vascular disease. Decision tree analysis of time-series data combined with risk factor variables yields rules which are more accurate than models based on time-series data alone. The limited additional value provided by electrocardiographic variables when compared to use of risk factors alone is similar to recent suggestions that exercise electrocardiography (exECG) under standardised conditions has limited additional diagnostic value over risk factor analysis and symptom pattern. The effect of the pre-processing used in this study had limited effect when time-series variables and risk factor variables are used as model input. In the absence of risk factor input, the use of time-series variables after outlier removal and time series variables based on physiological variable values’ being outside the accepted normal range is associated with some improvement in model performance.

A world elsewhere : virtual reality, motion capture and early modern theatre

This paper investigates virtual reality representations of the 1599 Boar’s Head Theatre and the Rose Theatre, two renaissance places and spaces. These models become a “world elsewhere” in that they represent virtual recreations of these venues in as much detail as possible. The models are based on accurate archeological and theatre historical records and are easy to navigate particularly for current use. This paper demonstrates the ways in which these models can be instructive for reading theatre today. More importantly we introduce human figures onto the stage via motion capture which allows us to explore the potential between space, actor and environment. This facilitates a new way of thinking about early modern playwrights’ “attitudes to locality and localities large and small”. These venues are thus activated to intersect productively with early modern studies so that the paper can test the historical and contemporary limits of such research.