Differences in external and internal cortical strain with prosthesis in the femur.

The contact between a femoral stem prosthesis and the internal surface of the cortical bone with the stress in the interface is of crucial importance with respect to loosening. However, there are no reports of strain patterns at this site, and the main aim of the current study was to investigate differences of internal and external cortical strain in the proximal femur after insertion of a stem prosthesis. The external cortical strain of a human cadaveric femur was measured with strain gauges before and after implantation of a stem prosthesis.

Dynamic behavioural changes in the Spontaneously Hyperactive Rat: 2. Control by novelty.

An important aspect of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is its temporary amelioration by novelty and by stimulant medication. Extant learning-based accounts of ADHD are unable to account for the temporary amelioration effect. One possible mechanism is a drive for novelty.

Dynamic behavioural changes in the Spontaneously Hyperactive Rat: 1. Control by place, timing, and reinforcement rate.

Several existing theoretical models of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) predict that a high or low learning rate contributes to some cases of ADHD; and that this is controlled by the dopamine signal. The Spontaneously Hypertensive (Hyperactive) Rat has an abnormal Dopamine Transporter (DAT), which is likely to be hypofunctional, thereby increasing the dopamine concentration and the learning rate. We therefore test the prediction that the SHR learns too fast.

Dynamic behavioural changes in the Spontaneously Hyperactive Rat: 3. Control by reinforcer rate changes and predictability.

Variable intervals are widely believed to produce steady rates of responding. However, based on the calming effect of unpredictability in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) we hypothesised that an animal model of this disorder, the Spontaneously Hyperactive (or Hypertensive) Rat, would become less active following particularly variable sequences of interval-lengths in a variable interval schedule. From a large dataset of holepokes and tray-reports by rats in a variable interval reinforcement schedule, we extracted numerous short sequences of intervals on the basis of the first, second, and third derivatives of reinforcement timing (i.