Tears of the rotator cuff : Diagnosis, treatment and symptomatic status

Skulderplager er et økende problem i dagens samfunn. Arbeidsstillinger med langvarig, ensidig skulderbelastning, og et ønske om høy aktivitet hos mange eldre, kan ha bidratt til dette. Plagene er ofte relatert til en skade i rotatorcuffen, skulderens senemansjett. Rupturer i rotatorcuffen forekommer hovedsakelig i aldersgruppen over 40 år. Den naturlige senealdringen, enten alene eller i kombinasjon med traume, ansees som den viktigste utløsende faktoren. I sitt doktorgradsarbeid har ortoped og forsker Stefan Moosmayer vist at rupturer i rotatorcuffen kan påvises med høy grad av nøyaktighet med ultralyd utført av ortoped, senesutur gir bedre resultater enn fysioterapi, og asymptomatiske rupturer forekommer i aldersgruppen fra 50 til 79 år. I to studier ble resultatene fra preoperativ ultralydundersøkelse av skulderen sammenlignet med funnene fra operasjon. Når ultralyd ble utført av en ortoped med lite erfaring med metoden, var sensitivitet og spesifisitet for påvisning av full tykkelses rotatorcuffruptur på 77 % og 98 %. For mer erfaren undersøker, som var blindet for pasientens sykehistorie og kliniske funn, var sensitivitet og spesifisitet på 100 % og 97 %. Dette er like bra som tilsvarende studier har vist for magnettomografisk (MR) rotatorcuff utredning. I en randomisert studie av 103 pasienter sammenlignet Moosmayer og medarbeidere effekten av senesutur og fysioterapi ved rotatorcuffruptur. Ved kontroll etter ett år fant de bedret skulderfunksjon i begge grupper, men på en skala fra 0 til 100 var resultatene etter kirurgi 13 poeng bedre. Hvorfor noen rotatorcuffrupturer er asymptomatiske er uklart. I en sonografisk screeningsstudie av 420 skulderfriske personer i alderen 50 til 79 år, fant Moosmayer og medarbeidere asymptomatiske full tykkelsesrupturer hos 7,6 %. Prevalensen økte med alderen. Sammenligning av MR funn fra 50 asymptomatiske rupturer med funn fra 50 symptomatiske rupturer, viste at de symptomatiske rupturene var signifikant større, og at de hadde en alvorligere grad av muskelatrofi og fettdegenerasjon

Responsible practices in the wild: an actor-network perspective on mobile apps in learning as translation(s)

Competence to enact responsible practices, such as recycling waste or boycotting irresponsible companies, is core to learning for responsibility. We explore the role of apps in learning such responsible practices ‘in the wild,’ outside formal educational environments over a 3-week period. Learners maintained a daily diary in which they reflected on their learning of responsible practices with apps. Through a thematic analysis of 557 app mentions in the diaries, we identified five types of app-agency: cognitive, action, interpersonal, personal development, and material. Findings were interpreted from an actor-network perspective using the lens of ‘translation.’ To understand how apps enabled the learning of responsible practices, we analyzed app agency throughout four moments of translation: problematization, interessement, enrolment, and mobilization. Based on our analysis of how students’ app mentions changed over time, we further theorize learning as a sequence of subtranslations that form the larger translation process: learning as translation(s). Each subtranslation cycle is centered on enrolling a different set of human and nonhuman actors, with their competence, into the network. We contribute to the learning for responsibility field by showcasing how app-enabled learning may create real-life actor networks enacting responsibility, and by priming an actor-network pedagogy for ‘learning in the wild.’ We also contribute to the actor-network learning discussion by conceptualizing heterogeneous human–nonhuman competence and the first processual model of learning as translation(s)

Transverse-mode coupling effects in scanning cavity microscopy

Tunable open-access Fabry–Pérot microcavities enable the combination of cavity enhancement with high resolution imaging. To assess the limits of this technique originating from background variations, we perform high-finesse scanning cavity microscopy of pristine planar mirrors. We observe spatially localized features of strong cavity transmission reduction for certain cavity mode orders, and periodic background patterns with high spatial frequency. We show in detailed measurements that the localized structures originate from resonant transverse-mode coupling and arise from the topography of the planar mirror surface, in particular its local curvature and gradient. We further examine the background patterns and find that they derive from non-resonant mode coupling, and we attribute it to the micro roughness of the mirror. Our measurements and analysis elucidate the impact of imperfect mirrors and reveal the influence of their microscopic topography. This is crucial for the interpretation of scanning cavity images, and could provide relevant insight for precision applications such as gravitational wave detectors, laser gyroscopes, and reference cavities

Strategic and operational remanufacturing mental models: a study on Chinese automotive consumers buying choice

Purpose Remanufacturing is the only end-of-life (EOL) treatment process that results in as-new functional and aesthetic quality and warranty. However, applying mental model theory, the purpose of this paper is to argue that the conception of remanufacturing as an EOL process activates an operational mental model (OMM) that connects to resource reuse, environmental concern and cost savings and is thus opposed to a strategic mental model (SMM) that associates remanufacturing with quality improvements and potential price increases. Design/methodology/approach The authors support the argument by empirically assessing consumers’ multi-attribute decision process for cars with remanufactured or new engines among 202 car buyers in China. The authors conduct a conjoint analysis and use the results as input to simulate market shares for various markets on which these cars compete. Findings The results suggest that consumers on average attribute reduced utility to remanufactured engines, thus in line with the OMM. However, the authors identify a segment accounting for about 30 per cent of the market with preference for remanufactured engines. The fact that this segment has reduced environmental concern supports the SMM idea that remanufactured products can be bought for their quality. Research limitations/implications A single-country (China) single-brand (Volkswagen) study is used to support the conceptualised mental models. While this strengthens the internal validity of the results, future research could improve the external validity by using more representative sampling in a wider array of empirical contexts. Moreover, future work could test the theory more explicitly. Practical implications By selling cars with remanufactured engines to customers with a SMM that values the at least equal performance of remanufactured products, firms can enhance their profit from remanufactured products. In addition, promoting SMM enables sustainable business models for the sharing economy. Originality/value As a community, the authors need to more effectively reflect on shaping mental models that disconnect remanufacturing from analogies that convey inferior quality and performance associations. Firms can overcome reduced utility perceptions not only by providing discounts, i.e. sharing the economic benefits of remanufacturing, but even more by increasing the warranty, thus sharing remanufacturing’s performance benefit and reducing consumers’ risk, a mechanism widely acknowledged in product diffusion but neglected in remanufacturing so far

Charles Brasch, a visual poet : A study of natural imagery in Charles Brasch's poetry

In the field of post-war New Zealand literature, Charles Brasch is a prominent figure. Surprisingly little has been written on a man who edited the first successful literary periodical in this country, who was a generous patron and supporter of the arts, and who was a prolific writer in both prose and poetry. He is best known for his twenty-year-long editorship of Landfall; as a poet he has received less recognition than perhaps he deserves. In researching this study, I have discovered that the general impression of his poetry is of a verse which is rather narrow in scope; for it is the work of his first two volumes which has received most critical attention, and on the whole this is descriptive 'landscape poetry' which deals, superficially at least, with nationalist concerns. I feel, too, that in recent decades there has been a tendency to view the Landfall generation, European and male-dominated as it was, in a rather negative light - an inevitable reaction, perhaps, to the widely promoted reputation in the forties, fifties and early sixties, of these writers as the initiators of an established New Zealand culture. This, too, is a possible reason why Charles Brasch, even more European-orientated than most of his contemporaries, has been somewhat neglected in the literature of the 1970s and 1980s. It is the aim of this study to place Brasch's writing back in a realistic perspective, regardless of literary vogue, and to present it neither as solely 'landscape' nor solely 'indigenous' poetry but rather as work of a universal and timeless relevance. It is largely due to Brasch's constant reference to the unchanging absolutes of nature that his poetry transcends any categorical boundaries of nationality or era; and it is the different ways in which this natural imagery is used throughout the course of Brasch's writing that are the main focus of this work. There is a marked development in the way landscape is included throughout Brasch's six volumes, which constitute the main corpus of his poetical work: the specific concrete locations of the first three volumes give way to the symbolic imagery of the fourth and fifth, while in the sixth there is a partial return to the real. These shifts mirror the changes in the poet's preoccupations over several decades of writing, and, if only for this reason, I feel it is vital to view Brasch's work as a unified whole rather than to take a piecemeal approach. In order to outline this broad development, the divisions in this study are made according to volumes, in chronological order. A focus on landscape is, for Brasch, not often an end in itself, but instead provides him with the means of objectively expressing his own intensely private world, thereby commenting on the central facts of all human experience. This study presents my opinion that such a use of landscape imagery not only results in work of a strikingly visual impact, but also creates poetry of a timeless depth and quality, making it as enduring as the natural world around which it is centred

Strategic and operational remanufacturing mental models: a study on Chinese automotive consumers buying choice

Purpose: Remanufacturing is the only end-of-life (EOL) treatment process that results in as-new functional and aesthetic quality and warranty. However, applying mental model theory, we argue that the conception of remanufacturing as an EOL process activates an operational mental model(OMM) that connects to resource reuse, environmental concern and cost savings and is thus opposed to a strategic mental model (SMM) that associates remanufacturing with quality improvements and potential price increases. Design/methodology/approach: We support our argument by empirically assessing consumers’multi-attribute decision process for cars with remanufactured or new engines among 202 car buyers in China. We conduct a conjoint analysis and use the results as input to simulate market shares for various markets on which these cars compete. Findings: The results suggest that consumers on average attribute reduced utility to remanufactured engines, thus in line with the OMM. However, we identify a segment accounting for about 30 % of the market with preference for remanufactured engines. The fact that this segment has reduced environmental concern supports the SMM idea that remanufactured products can be bought for their quality. Research limitations/implications: A single-country (China) single-brand (Volkswagen) study is used to support the conceptualised mental models. While this strengthens the internal validity of the results, future research could improve the external validity by using more representative sampling in a wider array of empirical contexts. Moreover, future work could test our theory more explicitly. Practical implications: By selling cars with remanufactured engines to customers with a strategic mental model that values the at least equal performance of remanufactured products, firms can enhance their profit from remanufactured products. In addition, promoting SMM enables sustainable business models for the sharing economy. Originality/value: As a community, we need to more effectively reflect on shaping mental models that disconnect remanufacturing from analogies that convey inferior quality and performance associations. Firms can overcome reduced utility perceptions not only by providing discounts, i.e. sharing the economic benefits of remanufacturing, but even more by increasing the warranty, thus sharing remanufacturing’s performance benefit and reducing consumers’ risk, a mechanism widely acknowledged in product diffusion but neglected in remanufacturing so far

Strategic and operational remanufacturing mental models: a study on Chinese automotive consumers buying choice

Purpose: Remanufacturing is the only end-of-life (EOL) treatment process that results in as-new functional and aesthetic quality and warranty. However, applying mental model theory, we argue that the conception of remanufacturing as an EOL process activates an operational mental model(OMM) that connects to resource reuse, environmental concern and cost savings and is thus opposed to a strategic mental model (SMM) that associates remanufacturing with quality improvements and potential price increases. Design/methodology/approach: We support our argument by empirically assessing consumers’multi-attribute decision process for cars with remanufactured or new engines among 202 car buyers in China. We conduct a conjoint analysis and use the results as input to simulate market shares for various markets on which these cars compete. Findings: The results suggest that consumers on average attribute reduced utility to remanufactured engines, thus in line with the OMM. However, we identify a segment accounting for about 30 % of the market with preference for remanufactured engines. The fact that this segment has reduced environmental concern supports the SMM idea that remanufactured products can be bought for their quality. Research limitations/implications: A single-country (China) single-brand (Volkswagen) study is used to support the conceptualised mental models. While this strengthens the internal validity of the results, future research could improve the external validity by using more representative sampling in a wider array of empirical contexts. Moreover, future work could test our theory more explicitly. Practical implications: By selling cars with remanufactured engines to customers with a strategic mental model that values the at least equal performance of remanufactured products, firms can enhance their profit from remanufactured products. In addition, promoting SMM enables sustainable business models for the sharing economy. Originality/value: As a community, we need to more effectively reflect on shaping mental models that disconnect remanufacturing from analogies that convey inferior quality and performance associations. Firms can overcome reduced utility perceptions not only by providing discounts, i.e. sharing the economic benefits of remanufacturing, but even more by increasing the warranty, thus sharing remanufacturing’s performance benefit and reducing consumers’ risk, a mechanism widely acknowledged in product diffusion but neglected in remanufacturing so far