A 5-year profile of the incidence of total joint replacement in South Africa (1985 - 1989)

This survey was conducted to determine the number of total joint replacements (TJRs) carried out annually in South Africa from 1985 to 1989 and the nwnber of surgeons performing these procedures. During this period there was a 28% increase in the number of TJRs performed annually with an average increase of 20% in total hip replacements and 40% in total knee replacements. The number of surgeons involved in joint replacement during the survey period decreased by 7% in state-subsidised institutions but increased by 57% in the private sector. This is reflected in the number of TJRs performed each year, which has remained static in the state institutions but exhibits a threefold increase in the private sector. This probably reflects a shift in emphasis in state health care policy

Geographical Distribution of Elderly People in Croatia

The authors outlined the geographical distribution of individuals displaying longevity in the Republic of Croatia. Elderly people, aged 80 years and older, have been the subject of this study and were viewed in several aspects including the number of elderly people and age-specific mortality rate by districts. Data for the years 1981 and 1991 were reviewed. In 1981 there were 73,052 (1.6%) persons aged 80 or older. Ten years later in 1991 their number had increased to 107,256, which was 2.2% of the whole population. Most of the elderly people live on the islands, in the district of Dubrovnik and in Lika, which is in the continental part of Croatia. There are more women than men among those aged 80 years and older. Age-specific mortality rate in 1981 in Croatia was 170 and in 1991 151 per 1,000 elderly people. In women the rate was 162 in 1981 and 141 in 1991, per 1,000 elderly people. The death rate was higher in men; in 1981 it was 201 and in 1991, 172 per 1,000 elderly people. We can see that the specific mortality rate had fallen in 1991 compared to 1981. The age specific mortality rate varies from district to district. In 1991 the lowest, 110 per 1,000, was in Lika, and the highest in the districts of Vara`din (182 per 1,000), Bjelovar (178 per 1,000) and Zagorje (175 per 1,000). The death rate was higher amongst elderly men (172.31 per 1,000) than elderly women (141.65 per 1,000). The smallest number of those aged 80 years and older with a high death rate is found in Slavonia. The opposite – a high number of elderly people and a low specific mortality rate – can be seen in the district of Lika. On the islands the number of elderly people is high, especially women, and surprisingly, the specific mortality rate is relatively high as well

Just a wind-up? Ethnicity, religion and prejudice in Scottish football-related comedy

This article probes how media representations of football in Scotland sustain the hegemonic ideologies associated with ethnicity and religion. The paper probes the football-related comedy output of one radio programme; radio output and football comedy are both neglected cultural material in studies of sport in Scotland. It argues that ambiguity and allusive language in comedy construct multiple interpretative possibilities that can demean the social and cultural identity of particular groups in society. The discussion analyses specific sketches from the Scottish radio comedy show Watson's Wind Up. It is concluded that although humorous, these sketches reveal how ideas, myths and stereotypes that coalesce round Celtic FC and the Irish-descended and Catholic communities in Scotland reinforce and sustain anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry

Inherited variants in CHD3 show variable expressivity in Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome

Purpose Common diagnostic next-generation sequencing strategies are not optimized to identify inherited variants in genes associated with dominant neurodevelopmental disorders as causal when the transmitting parent is clinically unaffected, leaving a significant number of cases with neurodevelopmental disorders undiagnosed. Methods We characterized 21 families with inherited heterozygous missense or protein-truncating variants in CHD3, a gene in which de novo variants cause Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome. Results Computational facial and Human Phenotype Ontology–based comparisons showed that the phenotype of probands with inherited CHD3 variants overlaps with the phenotype previously associated with de novo CHD3 variants, whereas heterozygote parents are mildly or not affected, suggesting variable expressivity. In addition, similarly reduced expression levels of CHD3 protein in cells of an affected proband and of healthy family members with a CHD3 protein-truncating variant suggested that compensation of expression from the wild-type allele is unlikely to be an underlying mechanism. Notably, most inherited CHD3 variants were maternally transmitted. Conclusion Our results point to a significant role of inherited variation in Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome, a finding that is critical for correct variant interpretation and genetic counseling and warrants further investigation toward understanding the broader contributions of such variation to the landscape of human disease

Mixed accents: Scottish children with English parents

We discuss accent mixture and the creation of idiosyncratic phonological systems in acquisition, with a focus on Scottish English. Such mixing is in addition to the relatively stable sociolinguistic systems of variation expected within a speech community, and arises when parents have radically different accents from each other or from the child's peers or other adult models. In terms of traditional geographic dialectology, there are a number of isoglosses around the Scotland/England border, but modern social mobility means that in some Scottish cities there are large numbers of families with at least one non-Scottish adult accent acting as a model for acquisition, which may feed into phonological change. Of particular interest is the influence of Southern British English accents. We exemplify the issues with two short case studies. The first concerns a child with mixed Scottish/English input in the home. His speech patterns do indeed indicate the acquisition of a mixed system. The second focuses on inter-sibling variation, looking at two sibling pairs who exemplify a different mix of accent features from each other. We examine two main diagnostics: monophthongal vs. diphthongal productions of the vowels in FACE and GOAT; and rhoticity. We also describe a parental demographic and accent attitude questionnaire as part of Case Study 2. The results support the need for speaker-by-speaker study of how incompatibility between two target systems is handled. We conclude that descriptions of mixed accents should be more common in the literature and approached on a feature-by-feature basis to help develop models of accent interference.caslpub3959pu

Damaged hardmen: organised crime and the half-life of deindustrialisation

Despite frequent associations, deindustrialization features rarely in studies of organized crime, and organized crime is at best a spectral presence in studies of deindustrialization. By developing an original application of Linkon's concept of the “half‐life,” we present an empirical case for the symbiotic relationship between former sites of industry and the emergence of criminal markets. Based on a detailed case‐study in the west of Scotland, an area long associated with both industry and crime, the paper interrogates the environmental, social, and cultural after‐effects of deindustrialization at a community level. Drawing on 55 interviews with residents and service‐providers in Tunbrooke, an urban community where an enduring criminal market grew in the ruins of industry, the paper elaborates the complex landscapes of identity, vulnerability, and harm that are embedded in the symbiosis of crime and deindustrialization. Building on recent scholarship, the paper argues that organized crime in Tunbrooke is best understood as an instance of “residual culture” grafted onto a fragmented, volatile criminal marketplace where the stable props of territorial identity are unsettled. The analysis allows for an extension of both the study of deindustrialization and organized crime, appreciating the “enduring legacies” of closure on young people, communal identity, and social relations in the twenty‐first century

A Human-Centred Approach Towards Design Integration

Many past efforts have addressed design integration in terms of inter-operation among design tools/applications. In this paper the authors attempt to stress the social dimension of design and the role of explicit support for human level interaction during design systems integration. A humancentred approach will be proposed by taking design integration as collaborative use of design artifacts. A virtual studio environment framework will be presented as an integration vehicle to link social and technical dimensions within a human-human interaction context. A prototype virtual studio environment will be outlined, and a demonstration of using the VSE prototype presented. This will he followed by some discussion on the related research and further work.

Managing design data in an integrated CAAD environment: a product model approach

This paper proposes a prototype architectural design environment which aims to integrate various applications for designing a building. Within an object-oriented design environment, a core data model and a data management system have been implemented to seamlessly connect all applications. The process of design has been investigated with the purpose of characterising the role that a system of this kind may have. In defining the system, an approach has been used that privileges the relationships with the existing computer-aided design (CAD) tools based on data exchange standards in course of definition today.