Postoperative Management And Core Stabilization Interventions For A Semi-Pro Football Athlete Following Lumbar Discectomy: A Case Report

Background: Many cases of low back pain (LBP) are idiopathic in nature, however, LBP in result of a herniated intervertebral disc exerting pressure on the nerve root may require lumbar discectomy to relieve sciatica and radiating pain. Although there is evidence to support successful return to work in the general population and return to sports in professional athletes, less is known regarding the interventions that played a role in their return. Purpose: The purpose of this case report is to describe the physical therapy management and core stabilization interventions for a semi-pro football athlete following lumbar discectomy who sustained a herniated disc during recreational exercise and football.https://dune.une.edu/pt_studcrposter/1034/thumbnail.jp

Who Gets What from International Organizations? The Case of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Technical Cooperation

What affects the allocation of aid by international organizations to their member states? Using data on nuclear assistance by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), I demonstrate that political considerations affect the likelihood of receiving aid, and the amount of aid countries receive. Specifically, I find that membership in the IAEA Board of Governors or acceptance of tougher IAEA inspections increase the likelihood of IAEA assistance, and in some cases the amounts of assistance, but only for countries that do not share policy preferences with the US. This finding is consistent with theories that foreign aid is given in exchange for cooperation and concessions to recipients that are not likely to be cooperative without aid. I also examine whether nuclear assistance is given to countries that need it the most and that can make effective use of this aid, and find only partial support for need-based explanations of aid allocation

Soil radium, soil gas radon and indoor radon empirical relationships to assist in post-closure impact assessment related to near-surface radioactive waste disposal

Least squares (LS), Theil’s (TS) and weighted total least squares (WTLS) regression analysis methods are used to develop empirical relationships between radium in the ground, radon in soil and radon in dwellings to assist in the post-closure assessment of indoor radon related to near-surface radioactive waste disposal at the Low Level Waste Repository in England. The data sets used are (i) estimated 226Ra in the <2 mm fraction of topsoils (eRa226) derived from equivalent uranium (eU) from airborne gamma spectrometry data, (ii) eRa226 derived from measurements of uranium in soil geochemical samples, (iii) soil gas radon and (iv) indoor radon data. For models comparing indoor radon and (i) eRa226 derived from airborne eU data and (ii) soil gas radon data, some of the geological groupings have significant slopes. For these groupings there is reasonable agreement in slope and intercept between the three regression analysis methods (LS, TS and WTLS). Relationships between radon in dwellings and radium in the ground or radon in soil differ depending on the characteristics of the underlying geological units, with more permeable units having steeper slopes and higher indoor radon concentrations for a given radium or soil gas radon concentration in the ground. The regression models comparing indoor radon with soil gas radon have intercepts close to 5 Bq m−3 whilst the intercepts for those comparing indoor radon with eRa226 from airborne eU vary from about 20 Bq m−3 for a moderately permeable geological unit to about 40 Bq m−3 for highly permeable limestone, implying unrealistically high contributions to indoor radon from sources other than the ground. An intercept value of 5 Bq m−3 is assumed as an appropriate mean value for the UK for sources of indoor radon other than radon from the ground, based on examination of UK data. Comparison with published data used to derive an average indoor radon: soil 226Ra ratio shows that whereas the published data are generally clustered with no obvious correlation, the data from this study have substantially different relationships depending largely on the permeability of the underlying geology. Models for the relatively impermeable geological units plot parallel to the average indoor radon: soil 226Ra model but with lower indoor radon: soil 226Ra ratios, whilst the models for the permeable geological units plot parallel to the average indoor radon: soil 226Ra model but with higher than average indoor radon: soil 226Ra ratios

Structural Stability Analysis of Waste Packages Containing Low- and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste in a Silo-type Repository

The structural stability of a waste package is essential for containing radioactive waste for the long term in a repository. A silo-type disposal facility would require more severe verification for the structural integrity, because of radioactive waste packages staked with several tens of meters and overburdens of crushed rocks and shotcretes. In this study, structural safety was analyzed for a silo-type repository, located approximately 100 m below sea level in Gyeongju, Korea. Finite element simulation was per -formed to investigate the influence of the loads from the backfilling materials and waste package stacks on the mechanical stress of the disposed of wastes and containers. It was identified that the current design of the waste package and the compressive strength criterion for the solidified waste would not be enough to maintain structural stability. Therefore, an enhanced criterion for the compressive strength of the solidified waste and several reinforced structural designs for the disposal concrete container were proposed to prevent failure of the waste package based on the results of parametric studies

Predicting the cost of the consequences of a large nuclear accident in the UK

Nuclear accidents have the potential to lead to significant off-site effects that require actions to minimise the radiological impacts on people. Such countermeasures may include sheltering, evacuation, restrictions on the sale of locally-grown food, and long-term relocation of the population amongst others. Countries with nuclear facilities draw up emergency preparedness plans, and put in place such provisions as distributing instructions and iodine prophylaxis to the local population. Their plans are applied in simulated exercises on a regular basis. The costs associated with emergency preparedness and the safety provisions to reduce the likelihood of an accident, and/or mitigate the consequences, are justified on the basis of the health risks and accident costs averted. There is, of course, only limited actual experience to indicate the likely costs so that much of the costing of accidents is based on calculations. This paper reviews the methodologies used, in particular the approach that has been developed in the UK, to appraise the costs of a hypothetical nuclear accident. Results of analysing a hypothetical nuclear accident at a fictitious reactor site within the United Kingdom are discussed in relation to the accidents at Three Mile Island 2, Chernobyl and Fukushima Dai-ichi

Small Modular Reactors: Licensing constraints and the way forward

SMR (Small Modular Reactor) is an acronym for a group of nuclear power plant designs receiving an increasing deal of attention from the industry and policy makers. A large number of SMRs need to be built in the same site and across the word to compensate diseconomies of scale and be cost competitive with large reactors and other base-load technologies. A major barrier is the licensing process, historically developed for large reactors, preventing the simply deployment of several identical units in different countries. This paper, discussing Ramana, Hopkins and Glaser [1], enlarges the view to all the SMR-related implications on the licensing process, presenting their legislative implications and market effects

Economics and finance of Small Modular Reactors: A systematic review and research agenda

The interest toward Small Modular nuclear Reactors (SMRs) is growing, and the economic competitiveness of SMRs versus large reactors is a key topic. Leveraging a systematic literature review, this paper firstly provides an overview of “what we know” and “what we do not know” about the economics and finance of SMRs. Secondly, the paper develops a research agenda. Several documents discuss the economics of SMRs, highlighting how the size is not the only factor to consider in the comparison; remarkably, other factors (co-siting economies, modularisation, modularity, construction time, etc.) are relevant. The vast majority of the literature focuses on economic and financial performance indicators (e.g. Levelized Cost of Electricity, Net Present Value, and Internal Rate of Return) and SMR capital cost. Remarkably, very few documents deal with operating and decommissioning costs or take a programme (and its financing) rather than a “single project/plant/site” perspective. Furthermore, there is a gap in knowledge about the cost-benefit analysis of the “modular construction” and SMR decommissioning

Long-term field and laboratory leaching tests of cemented radioactive wastes

Experiments with real and simulated radioactive cementitious wasteforms were set up to compare the leaching behaviour of cementitious wasteforms containing nuclear power plant operational waste in field and laboratory test conditions. Experiments revealed that the average annual Cs-137 leach rate in deionised water was about thirty-five times greater compared with the measured average value for the 1st year of the field test. Cumulative leached fraction of Cs-137 for 1st year (3.74%) was close to values reported in literature for similar laboratory experiments in deionised water, however more than two orders of magnitude higher than the 1st year leached fraction of Cs-137 in the repository test (0.01%). Therefore, to compare field and laboratory test results, a scaling factor is required in order to account for surface to volume factor difference, multiplied by a temperature factor and a leach rate decrease coefficient related to the ground water composition. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Demonstration of lightweight gamma spectrometry systems in urban environments

Urban areas present highly complex radiation environments; with small scale features resulting from different construction materials, topographic effects and potential anthropogenic inputs from past industrial activity or other sources. Mapping of the radiation fields in urban areas allows a detailed assessment of exposure pathways for the people who live and work there, as well as locating discrete sources of activity that may warrant removal to mitigate dose to the general public. These areas also present access difficulties for radiometric mapping using vehicles or aircraft. A lightweight portable gamma spectrometry system has been used to survey sites in the vicinity of Glasgow to demonstrate the possibilities of radiometric mapping of urban areas, and to investigate the complex radiometric features such areas present. Variations in natural activity due to construction materials have been described, the presence of 137Cs used to identify relatively undisturbed ground, and a previously unknown NORM feature identified. The effect of topographic enclosure on measurements of activity concentration has been quantified. The portable system is compared with the outputs that might be expected from larger vehicular or airborne systems. For large areas airborne surveys are the most cost effective approach, but provide limited spatial resolution, vehicular surveys can provide sparse exploratory data rapidly or detailed mapping of open areas where off-road access is possible. Backpack systems are ideally suited to detailed surveys of small areas, especially where vehicular access is difficult

Optimising in situ gamma measurements to identify the presence of radioactive particles in land areas

High-coverage in situ surveys with gamma detectors are the best means of identifying small hotspots of activity, such as radioactive particles, in land areas. Scanning surveys can produce rapid results, but the probabilities of obtaining false positive or false negative errors are often unknown, and they may not satisfy other criteria such as estimation of mass activity concentrations. An alternative is to use portable gamma-detectors that are set up at a series of locations in a systematic sampling pattern, where any positive measurements are subsequently followed up in order to determine the exact location, extent and nature of the target source. The preliminary survey is typically designed using settings of detector height, measurement spacing and counting time that are based on convenience, rather than using settings that have been calculated to meet requirements. This paper introduces the basis of a repeatable method of setting these parameters at the outset of a survey, for pre-defined probabilities of false positive and false negative errors in locating spatially small radioactive particles in land areas. It is shown that an un-collimated detector is more effective than a collimated detector that might typically be used in the field