The effect of graphic organizers on the academic achievement of fourth grade students

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that graphic organizers have on the academic achievement of fourth grade students. The sample was a fourth grade classroom in an elementary school in southern New Jersey. The researcher taught the students two different social studies chapters. The researcher collected data by giving the students two tests for each of the two chapters taught. There were a total of four tests given. These tests were similar in that they were the exact same difficulty level. However, in each chapter there was one test that was constructed using graphic organizers, and a second test that was constructed using a question-answer format. The researcher then compared the four data sets to determine if the students scored higher on the tests that were constructed using graphic organizers. The researcher concluded that graphic organizers do not have a significant effect on the academic achievement of fourth grade students

Laminar air flow reduces particle load in TKA—even outside the LAF panel: a prospective, randomized cohort study

Purpose: Released particles are a major risk of airborne contamination during surgery. The present prospective study investigated the quantitative and qualitative particle load in the operating room (OR) depending on location, time of surgery and use of laminar air flow (LAF) system. Methods: The particle load/m(3) was measured during the implantation of 12 total knee arthroplasties (6 x LAF, 6 x Non-LAF) by using the Met One HHPC 6 + device (Beckmann Coulter GmbH, Germany). Measurement was based on the absorption and scattering of (laser) light by particles and was performed at three different time-points [empty OR, setting up, ongoing operation) at 3 fixed measurement points [OR table (central LAF area), anaesthesia tower (marginal LAF area), surgical image amplifier (outside LAF area)]. Results: Independent of time and location, all measurements showed a significantly higher particle load in the Non-LAF group (p < 0.01). With ongoing surgical procedure both groups showed increasing particle load. While there was a major increase of fine particles (size < 1 mu m) with advancing activity in the LAF group, the Non-LAF group showed higher particle gain with increasing particle size. The lowest particle load in the LAF group was measured at the operating column, increasing with greater distance from the operating table. The Non-LAF group presented a significantly higher particle load than the LAF group at all locations. Conclusion: The use of a LAF system significantly reduces the particle load and therefore potential bacterial contamination regardless of the time or place of measurement and therefore seems to be a useful tool for infection prevention. As LAF leads to a significant decrease of respirable particles, it appears to be a protective factor for the health of the surgical team regardless of its use in infection prevention. Level of evidence: I

Intragenus F1-hybrids of African weakly electric fish (Mormyridae: Campylomormyrus tamandua ♂ × C. compressirostris ♀) are fertile

Hybridization is widespread in fish and constitutes an important mechanism in fish speciation. There is, however, little knowledge about hybridization in mormyrids. F1-interspecies hybrids between Campylomormyrus tamandua ♂ × C. compressirostris ♀ were investigated concerning: (1) fertility; (2) survival of F2-fish and (3) new gene combinations in the F2-generation concerning the structure of the electric organ and features of the electric organ discharge. These F1-hybrids achieved sexual maturity at about 12–13.5 cm total length. A breeding group comprising six males and 13 females spawned 28 times naturally proving these F1-fish to be fertile. On average 228 eggs were spawned, the average fertilization rate was 47.8%. Eggs started to hatch 70–72 h after fertilization, average hatching rate was 95.6%. Average mortality rate during embryonic development amounted to 2.3%. Average malformation rate during the free embryonic stage was 27.7%. Exogenous feeding started on day 11. In total, we raised 353 normally developed larvae all of which died consecutively, the oldest specimen reaching an age of 5 months. During survival, the activities of the larval and adult electric organs were recorded and the structure of the adult electric organ was investigated histologically.Peer Reviewe

Reaction time and brake pedal force after total knee replacement: timeframe for return to car driving

Purpose: This prospective cohort study aimed to examine objective and subjective parameters in patients who underwent total knee replacement (TKR) to assess from when on driving a car can be deemed safe again. Methods: Thirty patients (16 women, 14 men, age 66±11 years) who received TKR of the right knee and 45 healthy controls (26 women, 19 men, age 32±9 years) were asked to perform an emergency braking manoeuvre using a driving simulator. Brake pedal force (BPF), neuronal reaction time (NRT), brake reaction time (BRT), and subjective parameters (pain, subjective driving ability) were measured preoperatively as well as 5 days, 3–4, and 6 weeks after TKR. Results: Preoperative NRT was 506±162 ms, BRT 985±356 ms, and BPF 614±292 N. NRT increased to 561±218 ms, BRT to 1091±404 ms and BPF decreased to 411±191 N 5 days after TKR. Three weeks after surgery, NRT was 581±164 ms and BRT 1013±260 ms, while BPF increased to 555±200 N. Only BPF showed signifcant diferences (p<0.01). In week 6, all parameters were restored to baseline levels; patients showed signifcant pain decrease and evaluated their driving abil ity as “good” again. Conclusion: BPF was the only parameter displaying a signifcant postoperative decrease. However, preoperative patients’ baseline levels and subjective confdence in driving ability were only reached 6 weeks after the operation. These results indicate that a minimum waiting period of 6 weeks should be considered before patients can safely participate in road traffic at their individual preoperative safety level again. Level of evidence II

Influence of Gender on Occurrence of Aseptic Loosening and Recurrent PJI after Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty

Background: Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a common yet severe complication after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Surgical intervention and antibiotic therapy are obligatory to achieve successful, infection-free outcome. Compared to the outcomes after primary TKA, prosthesis failure rates are drastically increased after PJI-dependent revision surgery. Recurrent PJI and aseptic loosening are the most common reasons for prosthesis failure after revision TKA. An open question is the influence of the patients’ gender on long-term prosthesis survival after revision surgery. Additionally, it is unknown whether gender-related parameters and risk factors or differences in treatment are responsible for potential differences in outcome after revision arthroplasty. Patients and Methods: In this report, 109 patients that received TKA revision surgery due to PJI were retrospectively analyzed. We used clinical, paraclinical and radiological examinations to study the influence of gender on the long-term complications aseptic loosening and recurrent PJI after PJI-dependent revision arthroplasty. Results: While overall prosthesis failure rates and risk of recurrent PJI did not differ between genders, the long-term risk of aseptic loosening was significantly elevated in female patients. Postoperative coronal alignment was significantly more varus for women later diagnosed with aseptic loosening. Besides coronal alignment, no gender-dependent differences in clinical presentation or treatment were observed. Conclusions: Female patients displayed a significantly increased risk for aseptic loosening after PJI-dependent revision TKA. The observed gender-dependent differences in long-term outcome in our study support theories surrounding the role of bone metabolism in the development of aseptic loosening. Our data suggest that further research on a female design for PJI-dependent revision prostheses is warranted

Significant increase in quantity and quality of knee arthroplasty related research in KSSTA over the past 15 years

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate both publication and authorship characteristics in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy journal (KSSTA) regarding knee arthroplasty over the past 15 years. Methods: PubMed was searched for articles published in KSSTA between January 1, 2006, and December 31st, 2020, utilising the search term 'knee arthroplasty'. 1288 articles met the inclusion criteria. The articles were evaluated using the following criteria: type of article, type of study, main topic and special topic, use of patient-reported outcome scores, number of references and citations, level of evidence (LOE), number of authors, gender of the first author and continent of origin. Three time intervals were compared: 2006-2010, 2011-2015 and 2016-2020. Results: Between 2016 and 2020, publications peaked at 670 articles (52%) compared with 465 (36%) published between 2011 and 2016 and 153 articles (12%) between 2006 and 2010. While percentage of reviews (2006-2010: 0% vs. 2011-2015: 5% vs. 2016-2020: 5%) and meta-analyses (1% vs. 6% vs. 5%) increased, fewer case reports were published (13% vs. 3% vs. 1%) (p < 0.001). Interest in navigation and computer-assisted surgery decreased, whereas interest in perioperative management, robotic and individualized surgery increased over time (p < 0.001). There was an increasing number of references [26 (2-73) vs. 30 (2-158) vs. 31 (1-143), p < 0.001] while number of citations decreased [30 (0-188) vs. 22 (0-264) vs. 6 (0-106), p < 0.001]. LOE showed no significant changes (p = 0.439). The number of authors increased between each time interval (p < 0.001), while the percentage of female authors was comparable between first and last interval (p = 0.252). Europe published significantly fewer articles over time (56% vs. 47% vs. 52%), whereas the number of articles from Asia increased (35% vs. 45% vs. 37%, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Increasing interest in the field of knee arthroplasty-related surgery arose within the last 15 years in KSSTA. The investigated topics showed a significant trend towards the latest techniques at each time interval. With rising number of authors, the part of female first authors also increased-but not significantly. Furthermore, publishing characteristics showed an increasing number of publications from Asia and a slightly decreasing number in Europe

Addiction Research Consortium: Losing and regaining control over drug intake (ReCoDe)—From trajectories to mechanisms and interventions

One of the major risk factors for global death and disability is alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use. While there is increasing knowledge with respect to individual factors promoting the initiation and maintenance of substance use disorders (SUDs), disease trajectories involved in losing and regaining control over drug intake (ReCoDe) are still not well described. Our newly formed German Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) on ReCoDe has an interdisciplinary approach funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with a 12-year perspective. The main goals of our research consortium are (i) to identify triggers and modifying factors that longitudinally modulate the trajectories of losing and regaining control over drug consumption in real life, (ii) to study underlying behavioral, cognitive, and neurobiological mechanisms, and (iii) to implicate mechanism-based interventions. These goals will be achieved by: (i) using mobile health (m-health) tools to longitudinally monitor the effects of triggers (drug cues, stressors, and priming doses) and modify factors (eg, age, gender, physical activity, and cognitive control) on drug consumption patterns in real-life conditions and in animal models of addiction; (ii) the identification and computational modeling of key mechanisms mediating the effects of such triggers and modifying factors on goal-directed, habitual, and compulsive aspects of behavior from human studies and animal models; and (iii) developing and testing interventions that specifically target the underlying mechanisms for regaining control over drug intake

Failure Analysis in Multiple TKA Revisions&mdash;Periprosthetic Infections Remain Surgeons&rsquo; Nemesis

Background: The aim of this study was to categorize reasons for failure and to analyze the survivorship of multiple total knee arthroplasty (TKA) revisions. Methods: The study retrospectively evaluated all multiple TKA revisions performed between 2005 and 2015 at the authors&rsquo; institutions. Sixty-three patients (35 female, 28 male, age 64 &plusmn; 10 years, follow-up 55 &plusmn; 36 months) underwent a total of 157 re-revision TKA surgeries (range 2&ndash;5). The revision indications were divided up into main diagnoses. Survivorship was evaluated by mixed model analysis. Results: The main overall reason for re-revision was periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) (48%), followed by instability (12%), polyethylene wear (11%), malpositioning (8%), and aseptic loosening (8%). Survivorship shortened with an increasing number of revision surgeries (p = 0.003). While PJI was in 38% of all cases, the reason for the first revision, incidence increased constantly with the number of revisions (48% at second revision, 55% at third revision, 86% at fourth revision, and 100% at fifth revision, p = 0.022). If periprosthetic infection caused the first revision, patients showed an average of two more septic revisions at follow-up than patients with an aseptic first revision indication (p &lt; 0.001). In 36% of cases, the reason for follow-up surgery in case of periprosthetic infection was again PJI. Conclusion: The probability of survival of the implanted knee arthroplasty is significantly reduced with each subsequent revision. Periprosthetic infection is the main cause of multiple revisions

Mid-term results of the mini-open approach in the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement

Hintergrund: In der Therapie des femoroazetabulären Impingements (FAI) hat die Arthrosko-pie als minimalinvasives Verfahren mit geringem Weichteilschaden in den letzten Jahren einen deutlichen Aufschwung erfahren. Nachteile der Arthroskopie sind bekanntlich die lange Opera-tionsdauer und flache Lernkurve des Operateurs. Das mini-open Verfahren stellt demgegenüber eine mögliche Alternative dar. Kritisch diskutiert werden der Einfluss des größeren Weichteileingriffs der mini-open Technik auf das Outcome sowie das noch ungenügende Follow-up der vorliegenden Ergebnisse. Ziel dieser Arbeit war daher die Evaluation des Outcomes nach mini-open Verfahren im mittleren Follow-up und die Gegenüberstellung derselben mit den Ergebnis-sen des arthroskopischen Verfahrens in der Literatur. Patienten, Material und Methodik: Es erfolgte eine retrospektive Nachuntersuchung ( Follow-up 40,5 Monaten) von 99 Patienten (105 Hüften, 40 Frauen, 59 Männer) die sich aufgrund eines klinisch und radiologisch gesicherten FAI zwischen 2005 und 2012 einer mini-open Operation unterzogen. Im Fokus der Untersuchung standen die prä- und postoperative Schmerzintensität (NRS), das klinische und funktionelle Outcome sowie die Änderung des sportlichen Verhaltens und die Zufriedenheit der Patienten. Die radiologische Auswertung (Head-Neck-Offset, α-Winkel, Arthrosegrad) erfolgte anhand präoperativer, direkt postoperati-ver und zum Follow-up vorliegender Röntgenbilder. Ergebnisse: Der präoperative NRS konnte von 6,5 ± 2,3 auf durchschnittlich 2,3 ± 2,6 gesenkt werden (p < 0,001). Der mHHS stieg von 69,2 auf 85,2 Punkte. Der HOS-ADL betrug zum Follow-up 82,2 %, der HOS-Sport 69,7 %. Die Rückkehrrate zur sportlichen Aktivität betrug 93 %, jedoch war ein deutlicher Rückgang der High-Impact Sportarten und eine Zunahme der Low-Impact Sportarten zu verzeichnen. In 17,6 % der Fälle konnte zum Follow-up eine Arthro-seprogredienz festgestellt werden. Patienten mit Koxarthrose nach Kellgren & Lawrence Grad ≥ 2 hatten ein signifikant schlechteres Outcome als Patienten im Stadium Kellgren & Lawrence ≤ 1. Schlussfolgerung: Die mini-open Technik stellt ein effektives und sicheres Verfahren in der Therapie des femoroazetabulären Impingements dar. Es weist im mittelfristigen Follow-up gute Ergebnisse auf, äquivalent dem arthroskopischen Verfahren und ermöglicht die Rückkehr zur sportlichen- und Alltagsaktivität. Da Patienten mit Kellgren & Lawrence Grad ≥ 2 nur unzu-reichend von diesem Vorgehen profitieren, sollte die Indikation zur mini-open Operation in diesen Fällen zurückhaltend gestellt werden.Background: Despite its flat learning curve and long operation times, the use of hip arthros-copy has seen a marked increase in recent years in the operative treatment of FAI. The mini-open technique offers a possible alternative that addresses the abnormal morphologic prominence and allows a minimally invasive clearance of hip motion. There is still a lack of information concerning the influence of the greater soft tissue intrusion inherent to the mini-open approach. Therefore we decided to evaluate the medium-term outcome of the mini-open technique and to compare the results to those of the arthroscopic technique reported in the literature. Patients, material und methods: 99 patients (105 hips, 40 women, 59 men) who underwent mini-open surgical treatment for FAI between 2005 and 2012 were followed-up after an average of 40.5 months. The evaluation fo-cused on the pre- and postoperative pain intensity (NRS), the clinical and functional outcomes such as HOS (Hip Outcome Score) and mHHS (modified Harris Hip Score), changes in athletic behaviour and the satisfaction of the patients. The radiological analysis (α-angle, anterior head-neck-offset, grade of osteoarthrosis) was performed using preoperative, immediate postopera-tive as well as follow-up radiographs. Results: The average pain level decreased from 6.5 ± 2.3 to 2.3 ± 2.6 (p< 0.001). The mHHS increased from 68.2 ± 13.5 to 85.2 ± 18.2 (p < 0.001). The HOS-ADL was 82.2 % ± 19.7 and the HOS-sport was 69.7 % ± 27.9 at the final follow-up. At the time of the latest follow-up 93 % of the preoperative active patients (n=84) returned to athletic activities (n=78). Comparing the athletic behaviour significant less patients were doing high- impact and more patients were doing low-impact sport after surgery. In 17.6 % of the cases a progress of OA was noticed. Patients with initial OA Kellgren ≥ 2 showed a significantly worse outcome than those without OA. Conclusion: The mini-open technique is a safe and effective alternative for treating FAI. It shows a recovery of pain-free hip function in short- and medium-term follow-up and allows a return to practicing sports in most cases. Patients with preoperative osteoarthrosis ≥ 2 seem to experience insufficient gains from the mini-open surgery, so practitioners should be reluctant to apply the technique under those circumstances