The influence of head diameter and wall thickness on deformations of metallic acetabular press-fit cups and UHMWPE liners: a finite element analysis.

Background: To increase the range of motion of total hip endoprostheses, prosthetic heads need to be enlarged, which implies that the cup and/or liner thickness must decrease. This may have negative effects on the wear rate, because the acetabular cups and liners could deform during press-fit implantation and hip joint loading. We compared the metal cup and polyethylene liner deformations that occurred when different wall thicknesses were used in order to evaluate the resulting changes in the clearance of the articulating region.

Variations at a quantitative trait locus (QTL) affect development of behavior in lead-exposed Drosophila melanogaster.

We developed Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study correlated behavioral, neuronal and genetic effects of the neurotoxin lead, known to affect cognitive and behavioral development in children. We showed that, as in vertebrates, lead affects both synaptic development and complex behaviors (courtship, fecundity, locomotor activity) in Drosophila. By assessing differential behavioral responses to developmental lead exposure among recombinant inbred Drosophila lines (RI), derived from parental lines Oregon R and Russian 2b, we have now identified a genotype by environment interaction (GEI) for a behavioral trait affected by lead.