Post-operative CT assessment of interbody fusion two years after thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery

The relationship between radiologic union and clinical outcome in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery is not clear, as apparent non-union of a spinal fusion does not always correspond to a poor clinical result. The aim of this study was to evaluate CT fusion rates 24 months after thoracoscopic anterior scoliosis surgery, and to explore the relationship between fusion scores and; (i) rod diameter, (ii) graft type, (iii) fusion level, (iv) occurrence of post-operative implant failure, and (v) lateral position of the fusion mass in the intervertebral disc space. We propose that moderate fusion scores on the Sucato scale secure successful clinical outcomes in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery.

Postoperative low dose CT assessment of interbody fusion two years after thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery

The relationship between radiologic union and clinical outcomes in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery is not clear, as apparent non-union of a spinal fusion does not always correspond to a poor clinical result. The aim of this study was to evaluate for the first time the interbody fusion rates using low dose CT scans at minimum 24 months after thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery, and to explore the relationship between fusion scores and; (i) rod diameter, (ii) graft type, (iii) fusion level, (iv) implant failure, and (v) lateral position in the disc space. The study found that moderate fusion scores on the Sucato scale secure successful clinical outcomes in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery.

Post-operative CT assessment of interbody fusion two years after thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery

The relationship between radiologic union and clinical outcome in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery is not clear, as apparent non-union of a spinal fusion does not always correspond to a poor clinical result. The aim of this study was to evaluate CT fusion rates 2yrs after thoracoscopic surgery, and to explore the relationship between fusion scores and rod diameter, graft type, fusion level, implant failure, and lateral position in the disc space. This study suggests that moderate fusion scores secure successful clinical outcomes in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery.

Flow regime transition criteria for two-phase flow at reduced gravity conditions

Flow regime transition criteria are of practical importance for two-phase flow analyses at reduced gravity conditions. Here, flow regime transition criteria which take the friction pressure loss effect into account were studied in detail. Criteria at reduced gravity conditions were developed by extending an existing model with various experimental datasets taken at microgravity conditions showed satisfactory agreement. Sample computations of the model were performed at various gravity conditions, such as 0.196, 1.62, 3.71, and 9.81 m/s2 corresponding to micro-gravity and lunar, Martian and Earth surface gravity, respectively. It was found that the effect of gravity on bubbly-slug and slug-annular (churn) transitions in a two-phase flow system was more pronounced at low liquid flow conditions, whereas the gravity effect could be ignored at high mixture volumetric flux conditions. While for the annular flow transitions due to flow reversal and onset of dropset entrainment, higher superficial gas velocity was obtained at higher gravity level.

How do level of experience, purpose for riding, and preference for facilities affect location of riding?

Characteristics of the road infrastructure affect both the popularity of bicycling and its safety, but comparisons of the safety performance of infrastructure may be confounded by differences in the profiles of cyclists who use them. Data from a survey of 2,532 adult bicycle riders in Queensland, Australia, demonstrated that many riders rode reluctantly in particular locations and that preference for riding location was influenced by degree of experience and riding purpose. Most riders rode most often and furthest per week on urban roads, but approximately one-third of all riders (and more new riders) rode there reluctantly. Almost two-thirds of riders rode on bicycle paths, most by choice, not reluctantly. New riders rode proportionally more on bicycle paths, but continuing riders rode further in absolute terms. Utilitarian riders were more likely to ride on bicycle paths than social and fitness riders and almost all of this riding was by choice. Fitness riders were more reluctant in their use of bicycle paths, but still most of their use was by choice. One-third of the respondents reported riding on the sidewalk (legal in Queensland), with approximately two-thirds doing so reluctantly. The frequency and distance ridden on the sidewalk was less than for urban roads and bicycle paths. Sidewalks and bicycle paths were important facilities for both inexperienced and experienced riders and for utilitarian riding, especially when urban roads were considered a poor choice for cycling.

Problem-solving courts, therapeutic jurisprudence and the constitution : if two is company, is three a crowd?

Court costs, resource-intensive trials, booming prison populations and the obduracy of recidivism rates all present as ugly excesses of the criminal law adversarial paradigm. To combat these excesses, problem-solving courts have evolved with an edict to address the underlying issues that have caused an individual to commit a crime. When a judge seeks to help a problem-solving court participant deal with issues like addiction, mental health or poverty, they are performing a very different role to that of a judicial officer in the traditional court hierarchy. They are no longer the removed, independent arbiter — a problem-solving court judge steps into the ‘arena’ with the participant and makes active use of their judicial authority to assist in rehabilitation and positive behavioural change. Problem-solving court judges employing the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence appreciate that their interaction with participants can have therapeutic and anti-therapeutic consequences. This article will consider how the deployment of therapeutic measures (albeit with good intention) can lead to the behavioural manifestation of partiality and bias on the part of problem-solving court judges. Chapter III of the Commonwealth Constitution will then be analysed to highlight why the operation and functioning of problem solving courts may be deemed unconstitutional. Part IV of this article will explain how a problem-solving court judge who is not acting impartially or independently will potentially contravene the requirements of the Constitution. It will finally be suggested that judges who possess a high level of emotional intelligence will be the most successful in administering an independent and impartial problem solving court.

The two dimensions of virtual and collocated project teams or what project team members WANT and GET : an empirical study

The current paper compares and investigates the discrepancies in motivational drives of project team members with respect to their project environment in collocated and distributed (virtual) project teams. The set of factors, which in this context are called ‘Sense of Ownership’, is used as a scale to measure these discrepancies using one tailed t tests. These factors are abstracted from theories of motivation, team performance, and team effectiveness and are related to ‘Nature of Work’, ‘Rewards’, and ‘Communication’. It has been observed that ‘virtual ness’ does not seem to impact the motivational drives of the project team members or the way the project environments provide or support those motivational drives in collocated and distributed projects. At a more specific level in terms of the motivational drives of the project team (‘WANT’) and the ability of the project environment to provide or support those factors (‘GET’), in collocated project teams, significant discrepancies were observed with respect to financial and non financial rewards, learning opportunities, nature of work and project specific communication, while in distributed teams, significant discrepancies with respect to project centric communication, followed by financial rewards and nature of work. Further, distributed project environments seem to better support the team member motivation than collocated project environments. The study concludes that both the collocated and distributed project environments may not be adequately supporting the motivational drives of its project team members, which may be frustrating to them. However, members working in virtual team environments may be less frustrated than their collocated counterparts as virtual project environments are better aligned with the motivational drives of their team members vis-à-vis the collocated project environments.

The two dimensions of virtual and collocated project teams or what project team members WANT and GET : empirical evidence

The current paper compares and investigates the discrepancies in motivational drives of project team members with respect to their project environment in collocated and distributed (virtual) project teams. The set of factors, which in this context are called ‘Sense of Ownership’, is used as a scale to measure these discrepancies using one tailed t tests. These factors are abstracted from theories of motivation, team performance, and team effectiveness and are related to ‘Nature of Work’, ‘Rewards’, and ‘Communication’. It has been observed that ‘virtualness’ does not seem to impact the motivational drives of the project team members or the way the project environments provide or support those motivational drives in collocated and distributed projects. At a more specific level in terms of the motivational drives of the project team (‘WANT’) and the ability of the project environment to provide or support those factors (‘GET’), in collocated project teams, significant discrepancies were observed with respect to financial and non financial rewards, learning opportunities, nature of work and project specific communication, while in distributed teams, significant discrepancies with respect to project centric communication, followed by financial rewards and nature of work. Further, distributed project environments seem to better support the team member motivation than collocated project environments. The study concludes that both the collocated and distributed project environments may not be adequately supporting the motivational drives of its project team members, which may be frustrating to them. However, members working in virtual team environments may be less frustrated than their collocated counterparts as virtual project environments are better aligned with the motivational drives of their team members vis-à-vis the collocated project environments.

Managing Work, Hedonism and 'the Borderline' Between the Legal and Illegal Markets: Two Case Studies of Recreational Heavy Drug Users

In the context of cultural and/or differential ‘normalisation’ of certain forms of drug use, this article describes two case-studies of heavy recreational drug users. The daily lives of these users blur the line between the legal and the illegal; their drug trading is generally as a consumer and ‘friend of a friend’ small dealer in the low-level market. In the first case, problems with management of employment, time and financial budgeting are described; in the second case, such management is accomplished. Discussion refers to: differences between the two in relation to resources and vulnerability to risks, and to leisure/pleasure cultures of hedonism. The research agenda should pay more attention to users who seek to maintain a legitimate lifestyle but who develop problems managing work and their drug-related leisure. Understanding the consumer demand and dealing activity of such users is important in trying to develop a fuller understanding of drug markets.

High level protein expression in plants through the use of a novel autonomously replicating geminivirus shuttle vector

We constructed a novel autonomously replicating gene expression shuttle vector, with the aim of developing a system for transiently expressing proteins at levels useful for commercial production of vaccines and other proteins in plants. The vector, pRIC, is based on the mild strain of the geminivirus Bean yellow dwarf virus (BeYDV-m) and is replicationally released into plant cells from a recombinant Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti plasmid. pRIC differs from most other geminivirus-based vectors in that the BeYDV replication-associated elements were included in cis rather than from a co-transfected plasmid, while the BeYDV capsid protein (CP) and movement protein (MP) genes were replaced by an antigen encoding transgene expression cassette derived from the non-replicating A. tumefaciens vector, pTRAc. We tested vector efficacy in Nicotiana benthamiana by comparing transient cytoplasmic expression between pRIC and pTRAc constructs encoding either enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) or the subunit vaccine antigens, human papillomavirus subtype 16 (HPV-16) major CP L1 and human immunodeficiency virus subtype C p24 antigen. The pRIC constructs were amplified in planta by up to two orders of magnitude by replication, while 50% more HPV-16 L1 and three- to seven-fold more EGFP and HIV-1 p24 were expressed from pRIC than from pTRAc. Vector replication was shown to be correlated with increased protein expression. We anticipate that this new high-yielding plant expression vector will contribute towards the development of a viable plant production platform for vaccine candidates and other pharmaceuticals. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Groundwater overuse and farm-level technical inefficiency : evidence from Sri Lanka

Extraction of groundwater for onion and other cash crop production has been increasing rapidly during the last two decades in the dry zone areas of Sri Lanka. As a result of overuse, the quantity of available groundwater is gradually declining, while water quality is deteriorating. The deteriorating water quality has a negative impact on agricultural production, especially for crops (such as onions) that are sensitive to increases in salinity levels. This issue is examined with respect to onion production in Sri Lanka. A stochastic frontier production function (SFPF) is used, in which technical efficiency and the determinants of inefficiencies are estimated simultaneously. The results show that farmers are overusing groundwater in their onion cultivation, which has resulted in decreasing yields. Factors contributing to inefficiency in production are also identified. The results have important policy implications.

Within-subject intra- and inter-method consistency of two experimental risk attitude elicitation methods

We compare the consistency of choices in two methods to used elicit risk preferences on an aggregate as well as on an individual level. We asked subjects to choose twice from a list of nine decision between two lotteries, as introduced by Holt and Laury (2002, 2005) alternating with nine decisions using the budget approach introduced by Andreoni and Harbaugh (2009). We find that while on an aggregate(subject pool) level the results are (roughly) consistent, on an individual(within-subject) level,behavior is far from consistent. Within each method as well as across methods we observe low correlations. This again questions the reliability of experimental risk elicitation measures and the ability to use results from such methods to control for the risk aversion of subjects when explaining e�ects in other experimental games.

Factors affecting two- and five-year re-offence rates in Queensland drink drivers

Risk factors for repeat drink driving, an important road safety issue, are well known, but estimates of Australian recidivism rates by risk factors, apart from a recent NSW study, are not. Driving records of a cohort of Queensland drink drivers matched by age, region, BAC level and prior offence to participants in a drink driving rehabilitation program were used to estimate sex-specific two- and five-year re-offence rates overall and by these factors. Estimates of the proportion of Queensland drink drivers with a prior DD offence in 2004 were used to standardise rates to the Queensland drink driving population. Rates were higher in remote areas, as were rates in males, young drivers, drivers with high BAC levels and in drivers with one and especially with at least two prior DD convictions. Five-year rates for Queensland were estimated as 21.8% in males and 16.4% in females, appreciably higher than in NSW.

Multi-level knowledge transfer in software development outsourcing projects : the agency theory view

In recent years, software development outsourcing has become even more complex. Outsourcing partner have begun‘re- outsourcing’ components of their projects to other outsourcing companies to minimize cost and gain efficiencies, creating a multi-level hierarchy of outsourcing. This research in progress paper presents preliminary findings of a study designed to understand knowledge transfer effectiveness of multi-level software development outsourcing projects. We conceptualize the SD-outsourcing entities using the Agency Theory. This study conceptualizes, operationalises and validates the concept of Knowledge Transfer as a three-phase multidimensional formative index of 1) Domain knowledge, 2) Communication behaviors, and 3) Clarity of requirements. Data analysis identified substantial, significant differences between the Principal and the Agent on two of the three constructs. Using Agency Theory, supported by preliminary findings, the paper also provides prescriptive guidelines of reducing the friction between the Principal and the Agent in multi-level software outsourcing.

Comparison of two suspension control strategies for multi-axle heavy truck

Two simple and effective control strategies for a multi-axle heavy truck, modified skyhook damping (MSD) control and proportional-integration-derivative (PID) control, were implemented into functional virtual prototype (FVP) model and compared in terms of road friendliness and ride comfort. A four-axle heavy truck-road coupling system model was established using FVP technology and validated through a ride comfort test. Then appropriate passive air suspensions were chosen to replace the rear tandem suspensions of the original truck model for preliminary optimization. The mechanical properties and time lag of dampers were taken into account in simulations of MSD and PID semi-active dampers implemented using MATLAB/Simulink. Through co-simulations with Adams and MATLAB, the effects of semi-active MSD and PID control were analyzed and compared, and control parameters which afforded the best comprehensive performance for each control strategy were chosen. Simulation results indicate that compared with the passive air suspension truck, semi-active MSD control improves both ride comfort and road-friendliness markedly, with optimization ratios of RMS vertical acceleration and RMS tyre force ranging from 10.1% to 44.8%. However, semi-active PID control only reduces vertical vibration of the driver’s seat by 11.1%, 11.1% and 10.9% on A, B and C level roads respectively. Both strategies are robust to the variation of road level.