Climate warming enhances snow avalanche risk in the Western Himalayas.

Ongoing climate warming has been demonstrated to impact the cryosphere in the Indian Himalayas, with substantial consequences for the risk of disasters, human well-being, and terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we present evidence that the warming observed in recent decades has been accompanied by increased snow avalanche frequency in the Western Indian Himalayas. Using dendrogeomorphic techniques, we reconstruct the longest time series (150 y) of the occurrence and runout distances of snow avalanches that is currently available for the Himalayas.

Regional reconstruction of flash flood history in the Guadarrama range (Central System, Spain).

Flash floods are a common natural hazard in Mediterranean mountain environments and responsible for serious economic and human disasters. The study of flash flood dynamics and their triggers is a key issue; however, the retrieval of historical data is often limited in mountain regions as a result of short time series and the systematic lack of historical data. In this study, we attempt to overcome data deficiency by supplementing existing records with dendrogeomorphic techniques which were employed in seven mountain streams along the northern slopes of the Guadarrama Mountain range.

Measuring anatomical acetabular cup orientation with a new X-ray technique.

Proper alignment of the acetabular cup component is one of the most important requisites for a successful long-term outcome in total hip replacement. However, measurement and indication of cup orientation in an anatomical pelvic reference system is very difficult. We propose a new C-arm-based X-ray technique for determining the values for inclination and anteversion of the acetabular cup component.

[What effect does the hydroxyapatite coating have in cementless knee arthroplasty?].

The goal of this study was to compare the migration of noncemented diffusion sintered titanium fibermesh-coated tibial components with (HA group) and without (non-HA group) additional hydroxyapatite coating. For this purpose digital radiostereometry (DIRSA) was used to compare the migration after 2 and 9 years for the two groups. After 2 years the mean maximum subsidence of the HA-coated components (0.