Treatment of compound tibia fracture with microvascular latissimus dorsi flap and the Ilizarov technique : A cross-sectional study of long-term outcomes

Background: Extensive compound tibial fractures present reconstructive challenges. The present study aimed to assess the outcomes of microvascular latissimus dorsi (LD) flap combined with the Ilizarov technique for extensive compound tibial fractures with bone loss and bone healing complications. Methods: Patient records were reviewed retrospectively. The Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS), the Disabilities of the Arm, Hand and Shoulder (DASH), and the 15D health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instrument were applied. Results: Between 1989 and 2014, 16 patients underwent reconstruction with a microvascular LD flap and bone transport (11/16) or late bone lengthening (5/16). The mean clinical follow-up time was 6.6 (standard deviation (SD): 6.5) years. Three patients had minor complications requiring reoperation. Partial necrosis of one flap required late flap reconstruction in one case. Late bone grafting was used to enhance union in eight of 16 cases. The mean new bone gain was 3.8 cm (SD: 2.5). Overall, 11 patients completed the questionnaires in a mean of 22.3 years (SD: 2.4) after surgery. The main findings revealed a relatively good function of the reconstructed limb and good shoulder function. The mean HRQoL was comparable to that of an age-standardized sample of the general population. Conclusion: Segmental tibia transport and lengthening to correct limb length discrepancy do not compromise the microvascular muscle flap. Combined microvascular LD flap reconstruction and the Ilizarov technique can be used in treating acute compound tibial defects, pseudoarthrosis, and osteitis, all associated with significant amputation risk. Fair long-term functional outcomes and HRQoL are achieved when these combined techniques are used. (C) 2016 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Investigating the effects of location-based advertising in the supermarket: Does goal congruence trump location congruence?

Advertising professionals have great expectations of Location-Based Advertising (LBA). The present study therefore set out to investigate whether ads that are tailored to consumers’ location are indeed more effective than ads that are not. In addition it was investigated whether LBA is particularly likely to be effective when the ad is not only location-congruent, but also relevant to consumers’ goals. Therefore, a 2 (location congruence) X 2 (goal relevance) experimental design was employed. These expectations were borne out: the location-congruent ad resulted in more purchases than the location-incongruent ad, but only when the ad was high in goal relevance. These results suggest that it is only profitable for advertisers to send ‘local’ messages when these messages are relevant. Participants were 139 Dutch adults, who were recruited through a market-research company. Of all participants, 65 (46.8%) were women, 60 participants (43.2%) had finished tertiary education, and the mean age was M(SD) = 38.9(15.0). The research setting was a Virtual Supermarket (VSM), where participants received a short grocery list with the instruction to purchase the listed products. The following variables were assessed: manipulation checks of goal relevance, manipulation checks of location congruence, purchase behaviour, presence, perceived ad intrusiveness, ad receptiveness, ad attitude. Furthermore, perceived entertainment value of the app, and irritation, value, informativeness, ease of use, credibility with regards to the app were assessed. Finally, the following stable individual differences were assessed: product involvement, privacy concerns, attitude towards advertising in general, and personal innovativeness. The dataset contains the following files: - Mother (raw) data: 2016_Vantriet_Investigating the effects of location-based_mother data (including a portable file) - Edited data including recodes and constructed scale: 2016_Vantriet_Investigating the effects of location-based_edited_data (including a portable file) - Syntax for scale construction and analyses: 2016_Vantriet_Investigating the effects of location-based_syntax from mother to edited - Questionnaire: 2016_Vantriet_Investigating the effects of location-based_questions - Codebook containing details on the dataset: 2016_Vantriet_Investigating the effects of location-based_codeboo

Data of 'Relating plant height to demographic rates and extinction vulnerability'

This dataset was developed for our study on plant allometry and extinction vulnerabilities. In this study we gathered plant demographic data from various sources and related this to maximum plant height. We derived allometric relationships with maximum plant height for the intrinsic population growth rate, variance in population growth rate due to environmental stochasticity and the maximum plant density. These relationships were used to relate maximum plant height to the Mean time to extinction and the Probability of extinction. The results of this research will soon be published as ‘Relating plant height to demographic rates and extinction vulnerability’ (forthcoming). In this repository we provide only the processed data from this study because the original data was gathered from existing open access and semi-open access databases. Original data for this project was gathered from the following databases: (1) TRY Plant Trait Database, (2) COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database Version 4.0.1, (3) Biomass allocation and growth data of seeded plants The processed data is stored in two files: - 2017_deJonge_MaximumPlantDensity.csv: This file contains 230 datapoints with maximum plant density (per square meter) and average individual plant mass (grams). A description of the methodology used to obtain the processed data is given in a PDF file called ‘2017_deJonge_Methodology.pdf’. Additionally, a description file called 'description.pdf' is added, which includes the information mentioned above

Modeling elephant-mediated cascading effects of water point closure

This dataset contains the underlying data for the study: Hilbers, J.P., van Langevelde, F., Prins, H.H.T., Grant, C.C., Peel, M., Coughenour, M.B., de Knegt, H.J., Slotow, R., Smit, I.P.J., Kiker, G.A., de Boer, W.F. 2014. Modeling elephant-mediated cascading effects of water point closure. Ecological Applications. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/14-0322.1 Wildlife management to reduce the impact of wildlife on their habitat can be done in several ways, among which removing animals (by either culling or translocation) is most often used. There are however alternative ways to control wildlife densities, such as opening or closing water points. The effects of these alternatives are poorly studied. In this paper, we focus on manipulating large herbivores through the closure of water points (WPs). Removal of artificial WPs has been suggested to change the distribution of African elephants, which occur in high densities in national parks in Southern Africa and are thought to have a destructive effect on the vegetation. Here, we modeled the long-term effects of different scenarios of WP closure on the spatial distribution of elephants, and consequential effects on the vegetation and other herbivores in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Using a dynamic ecosystem model, SAVANNA, scenarios were evaluated that varied in (1) availability of artificial WPs, (2) levels of natural water, and (3) elephant densities. Our modeling results showed that elephants can indirectly negatively affect the distributions of mesomixed feeders, mesobrowsers and some mesograzers under wet conditions. The closure of artificial WPs hardly had any effect during these natural wet conditions. Only under dry conditions the spatial distribution of both elephant bulls and cows changed when the availability of artificial water was severely reduced in the model. These changes in spatial distribution triggered changes in the spatial availability of woody biomass over the simulation period of 80 years and this led to changes in the rest of the herbivore community, resulting in increased densities of all herbivores, except for giraffe and steenbok, in areas close to rivers. The spatial distributions of elephant bulls and cows showed to be less affected by the closure of WPs than most of the other herbivore species. Our study contributes to ecologically informed decisions in wildlife management. The results from this modeling exercise imply that long-term effects of this intervention strategy should always be investigated at an ecosystem scale

The psychological antecedents of employee referrals

Contains fulltext : 86853.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)24 p