An unprecedented case of cranial surgery in Longobard Italy (6th–8th century) using a cruciform incision

The Longobard necropolis of Castel Trosino dates from the 6th to the 8th century CE. Among the tombs excavated, the skull of an older female shows the first evidence of a cross-shaped bone modification on a living subject. Macroscopic, microscopic, and CT scan analyses revealed signs of at least two sets of scraping marks. Specifically, SEM analysis shows that perimortem bone-scraping traces are present on the skull. Both healed and non-healed defects suggest that the woman has received at least twice intentional bone modifications to address her condition. This is the first evidence of a cross-shaped therapeutic intervention on a living subject

A Numerical Feasibility Study of Kinetic Energy Harvesting from Lower Limb Prosthetics

With the advancement trend of lower limb prosthetics headed towards bionics (active ankle and knee) and smart prosthetics (gait and condition monitoring), there is an increasing integration of various sensors (micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, strain gauges, pressure sensors, etc.), microcontrollers and wireless systems, and power drives including motors and actuators. All of these active elements require electrical power. However, inclusion of a heavy and bulky battery risks to undo the lightweight advancements achieved by the strong and flexible composite materials in the past decades. Kinetic energy harvesting holds the promise to recharge a small on-board battery in order to sustain the active systems without sacrificing weight and size. However, careful design is required in order not to over-burden the user from parasitic effects. This paper presents a feasibility study using measured gait data and numerical simulation in order to predict the available recoverable power. The numerical simulations suggest that, depending on the axis, up to 10s mW average electrical power is recoverable for a walking gait and up to 100s mW average electrical power is achievable during a running gait. This takes into account parasitic losses and only capturing a fraction of the gait cycle to not adversely burden the user. The predicted recoverable power levels are ample to self-sustain wireless communication and smart sensing functionalities to support smart prosthetics, as well as extend the battery life for active actuators in bionic systems. The results here serve as a theoretical foundation to design and develop towards regenerative smart bionic prosthetics

Anthemocritus and the ὀργάς Disputes

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2003 The Tools of Asklepros: Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times

2003/02/20. By combining objects recovered from archaeological digs with classical texts referring to the tools in use, Greco-Roman surgical instruments can be identified to reconstruct a picture of ancient surgery. The C. May Marston Lecture

Cypriote objects in Washington State /

Includes bibliographical references

Developing a Collaborative Faculty-Librarian Information Literacy Assessment Project

Case studyPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of developing an information literacy assessment project, and to discuss key findings from the project. Design/methodology/approach – A variety of assessment tools were used to gather information about student learning and our information literacy instruction: pre- and post-surveys, student feedback surveys, faculty feedback to librarians, librarian self-reflection, library worksheets, student research journals, and citation analysis of students’ final research paper bibliographies. Findings – We found that our initial suite of assessment tools did not provide us with the information we wanted about students’ research processes, so we modified our ‘assessment toolkit’. We found that we were able to gather more meaningful information about students’ research processes when we worked closely with faculty to embed information literacy assessments into course assignments. From our analysis of student work, we discovered that, for many students, our library instruction was most valuable in helping them refine and explore research topics. Originality/value – This paper will be useful to librarians and faculty seeking to implement an information literacy assessment project. We provide ideas for ways for faculty and librarians to collaborate on information literacy assessment, as well as on assignment and course design