Tariffs, rent extraction and manipulation of competition

Tariffs;Models

Export subsidies and oligopoly with switching costs

Models;Export Subsidies;Switching Costs

Does bariatric surgery prior to total hip or knee arthroplasty reduce post-operative complications and improve clinical outcomes for obese patients? Systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIMS: Our aim was to determine whether, based on the current literature, bariatric surgery prior to total hip (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) reduces the complication rates and improves the outcome following arthroplasty in obese patients. METHODS: A systematic literature search was undertaken of published and unpublished databases on the 5 November 2015. All papers reporting studies comparing obese patients who had undergone bariatric surgery prior to arthroplasty, or not, were included. Each study was assessed using the Downs and Black appraisal tool. A meta-analysis of risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) was performed to determine the incidence of complications including wound infection, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), revision surgery and mortality. RESULTS: From 156 potential studies, five were considered to be eligible for inclusion in the study. A total of 23 348 patients (657 who had undergone bariatric surgery, 22 691 who had not) were analysed. The evidence-base was moderate in quality. There was no statistically significant difference in outcomes such as superficial wound infection (relative risk (RR) 1.88; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.95 to 0.37), deep wound infection (RR 1.04; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.66), DVT (RR 0.57; 95% CI 0.13 to 2.44), PE (RR 0.51; 95% CI 0.03 to 8.26), revision surgery (RR 1.24; 95% CI 0.75 to 2.05) or mortality (RR 1.25; 95% CI 0.16 to 9.89) between the two groups. CONCLUSION: For most peri-operative outcomes, bariatric surgery prior to THA or TKA does not significantly reduce the complication rates or improve the clinical outcome. This study questions the previous belief that bariatric surgery prior to arthroplasty may improve the clinical outcomes for patients who are obese or morbidly obese. This finding is based on moderate quality evidence. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2016;98-B:1160-6

Scaling by 5 on a 1/4-Cantor Measure

Each Cantor measure (\mu) with scaling factor 1/(2n) has at least one associated orthonormal basis of exponential functions (ONB) for L^2(\mu). In the particular case where the scaling constant for the Cantor measure is 1/4 and two specific ONBs are selected for L^2(\mu), there is a unitary operator U defined by mapping one ONB to the other. This paper focuses on the case in which one ONB (\Gamma) is the original Jorgensen-Pedersen ONB for the Cantor measure (\mu) and the other ONB is is 5\Gamma. The main theorem of the paper states that the corresponding operator U is ergodic in the sense that only the constant functions are fixed by U.Comment: 34 page

Advances in Evaluating Tsunami Forces on Coastal Structures

At source, tsunami waves have relatively small wave heights (typically 0.5-2m), but very long wavelengths. As these waves approaches the shoreline and enter the shallower waters, their wavelength reduces and their wave height increases dramatically. The resulting waves can cause violent impacts on infrastructure and structures, and the long wavelengths lead to extensive inundation inland causing destruction over large areas of coast as seen recently in Japan (2011). Clearly there is a need for a systematic analysis of the physics of tsunami flows in and around buildings and the forces and pressures they produce on structures as a function of time. The first steps towards such a study are presented. This paper presents preliminary observations obtained from sets of unique physical experiments designed to study the impact of tsunami-like waves on coastal structures towards the development of tsunami design/assessment guidance