Obesity is associated with increased postoperative complications after operative management of distal humerus fractures.

Background: Distal humerus fractures commonly require surgical intervention, including open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) and, more recently in elderly, low-demand individuals, total elbow arthroplasty (TEA). The association of obesity with complications after either of these procedures has not previously been examined.

Methods: A national insurance database was queried for ORIF or TEA for management of a distal humerus fracture using procedural and diagnostic codes.

Science in the Making: Right Hand, Left Hand. I: A BBC television programme broadcast in 1953.

In August 1953, the BBC broadcast a television science programme entitled Science in the Making: Right Hand, Left Hand. The programme was broadcast live, being presented by Dr Jacob Bronowski in collaboration with Dr Kenneth Smith, and produced by George Noordhof. It not only presented a popular account of current ideas about right- and left-handedness, by using a group of celebrities (and a chimpanzee) in the studio, but also asked viewers to complete a brief questionnaire on handedness, which was printed in the Radio Times.

Science in the Making: Right Hand, Left Hand. III: Estimating historical rates of left-handedness.

The BBC television programme Right Hand, Left Hand, broadcast in August 1953, used a postal questionnaire to ask viewers about their handedness. Respondents were born between 1864 and 1948, and in principle therefore the study provides information on rates of left-handedness in those born in the nineteenth century, a group for which few data are otherwise available. A total of 6,549 responses were received, with an overall rate of left-handedness of 15.

Science in the Making: Right Hand, Left Hand. II: The duck-rabbit figure.

The BBC television programme Right Hand, Left Hand, broadcast in August 1953, showed a version of the duck-rabbit figure and asked viewers to say what they could see in the “puzzle picture”. Nearly 4,000 viewers described the image, and the answers to those questions have recently been found and analysed. The programme probably used the same version of the figure as appeared in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, which had been published a month or two previously.

Identification of a novel phosphatidic acid binding domain in protein phosphatase-1.

Phosphatidic acid (PA) has been recognized as a lipid second messenger, yet few cellular targets for PA have been identified. Previous work demonstrated PA as a potent and noncompetitive tight-binding inhibitor of the catalytic subunit (gamma isoform) of protein phosphatase-1 (PP1c gamma) in vitro. The high potency of inhibition, coupled with high specificity for PA over other phospholipids, suggested the presence of a high-affinity PA binding domain on PP1c gamma.

Job search strategies, attitudes to school and attributions about unemployment.

Two-hundred and seventy British final-year school-leavers completed a questionnaire battery looking at attitudes to school, attributions for unemployment, job search strategies and the perceived characteristics of an ideal job. Six varimax-rotated factor analyses were performed on each part of the six part questionnaire. In accordance with similar studies in the area, each of the questionnaire sections yielded a predictable factor structure.

The formation of flashbulb memories.

A large group of subjects took part in a multinational test-retest study to investigate the formation of flashbulb (FB) memories for learning the news of the resignation of the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Over 86% of the U.K.

Recognition of upright and inverted faces: a correlational study.

An investigation of ninety-five university admission candidates failed to replicate the finding by Yin of a negative correlation between the ability to recognise upright and inverted faces. A zero correlation was obtained when unknown faces were both learned and recognised upside down, but when well-known faces were presented normally and upside down for identification, a significant positive correlation appeared. Rock has suggested that inverted faces are difficult to recognise because they overtax a mechanism for correcting disoriented stimuli.