Robotic Arthroplasty Clinical and cost Effectiveness Randomised controlled trial (RACER-knee): a study protocol.

Introduction: Robotic-assisted knee replacement systems have been introduced to healthcare services worldwide in an effort to improve clinical outcomes for people, although high-quality evidence that they are clinically, or cost-effective remains sparse. Robotic-arm systems may improve surgical accuracy and could contribute to reduced pain, improved function and lower overall cost of total knee replacement (TKR) surgery. However, TKR with conventional instruments may be just as effective and may be quicker and cheaper.

Biophysical evaluation of milk-clotting enzymes processed by high pressure.

High pressure processing (HPP) is able to promote changes in enzymes structure. This study evaluated the effect of HP on the structural changes in milk-clotting enzymes processed under activation conditions for recombinant camel chymosin (212MPa/5min/10°C), calf rennet (280MPa/20min/25°C), bovine rennet (222MPa/5min/23°C), and porcine pepsin (50MPa/5min/20°C) and under inactivation conditions for all enzymes (600MPa/10min/25°C) including the protease from Rhizomucor miehei. In general, it was found that the HPP at activation conditions was able to increase the intrinsic fluorescence of samples with high pepsin concentration (porcine pepsin and bovine rennet), increase significantly the surface hydrophobicity and induce changes in secondary structure of all enzymes.

Application of biochar and nitrogen influences fluxes of CO, CH and NO in a forest soil.

Nitrogen (N) fertilization of forests for increasing carbon sequestration and wood volume is expected to influence soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially to increase NO emissions. As biochar application is known to affect soil GHG emissions, we investigated the effect of biochar application, with and without N fertilization, to a forest soil on GHG emissions in a controlled laboratory study. We found that biochar application at high (10%) application rates increased CO and NO emissions when applied without urea-N fertilizer.

Will they catch up? The role of age at cochlear implantation in the spoken language development of children with severe to profound hearing loss.

Purpose: The authors examined the benefits of younger cochlear implantation, longer cochlear implant use, and greater pre-implant aided hearing to spoken language at 3.5 and 4.5 years of age.

Effects of early auditory experience on the spoken language of deaf children at 3 years of age.

Objective: By age 3, typically developing children have achieved extensive vocabulary and syntax skills that facilitate both cognitive and social development. Substantial delays in spoken language acquisition have been documented for children with severe to profound deafness, even those with auditory oral training and early hearing aid use. This study documents the spoken language skills achieved by orally educated 3-yr-olds whose profound hearing loss was identified and hearing aids fitted between 1 and 30 mo of age and who received a cochlear implant between 12 and 38 mo of age.