Line Alignment Research Articles

“Espone le cose sue partite a tutti per indurli alla meraviglia dell’arte sua”: misli o partiturah polifone glasbe v Italiji do Molinarove izdaje Gesualdovih madrigalov (1613)

The article summarizes the state of research on early Italian scores up to 1615, developing the hypothesis of a specific connection between two eminent lutenists, Carlo Gesualdo and Simone Molinaro. The latter published in 1613 in score the six books of Gesualdo’s Madrigals and two years later his own (only recently discovered) Madrigali a cinque voci con partitura. Lute tablature could be considered a kind of score in which the vertical alignment of the polyphonic lines is fundamental not only when transcribing vocal music but also in composing for the instrument.

Extracellular matrix alignment dictates the organization of focal adhesions and directs uniaxial cell migration.

Physical features of the extracellular matrix (ECM) heavily influence cell migration strategies and efficiency. Migration in and on fibrous ECMs is of significant physiologic importance, but limitations in the ability to experimentally define the diameter, density, and alignment of native ECMs in vitro have hampered our understanding of how these properties affect this basic cell function. Here, we designed a high-throughput in vitro platform that models fibrous ECM as collections of lines of cell-adhesive fibronectin on a flat surface to eliminate effects of dimensionality and topography. Using a microcontact printing approach to orthogonally vary line alignment, density, and size, we determined each factor's individual influence on NIH3T3 fibroblast migration. High content imaging and statistical analyses revealed that ECM alignment is the most critical parameter in influencing cell morphology, polarization, and migratory behavior. Specifically, increasing ECM alignment led cells to adopt an elongated uniaxial morphology and migrate with enhanced speed and persistence. Intriguingly, migration speeds were tightly correlated with the organization of focal adhesions, where cells with the most aligned adhesions migrated fastest. Highly organized focal adhesions and associated actin stress fibers appeared to define the number and location of protrusive fronts, suggesting that ECM alignment influences active Rac1 localization. Utilizing a novel microcontact-printing approach that lacks confounding influences of substrate dimensionality, mechanics, or differences in the adhesive area, this work highlights the effect of ECM alignment on orchestrating the cytoskeletal machinery that governs directed uniaxial cell migration.

The effect of the parameters of submerged arc surfacing with oscillating electrode on a padding weld forming, depth of fusion penetration and the content of parent metal in a weld

The effect of oscillating movement amplitude and frequency of electrode wire swinging on forming of pad weld runs, the character of parent metal penetration, as well as structural and chemical inhomogeneityin the zone of intermixing padding weld with parent material has beentested while submerged arc surfacing using oscillating electrode. It has been stated that along with increasing frequency of electrode wire end oscillations and the same amplitude and surfacing speed, the weld runformation is improved, the width of the zone of padding weld intermixture with parent material is reduced and more dispersive structure with lower structural and chemical inhomogeneity in a padding weld is be- ing formed. More uniform fusion penetration into the parent material and alignment of fusion line can be observed. Those relations remain practically unchanged with increasing amplitude of oscillation.

Flexible and wavelength-independent optical transmission for laser pointing stabilization and assembly error compensation.

A flexible light guide was developed for an ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) poloidal polarimeter which is a passive laser beam alignment and stabilization system for free-space propagation of a wide range of wavelengths. The advantages of using a flexible light guide are (1) to compensate the relative movement between the floor of a building and an optical table, (2) to negate assembly error of the optical transmission line, (3) to minimize the time required for assembly of the line and laser position alignment in a radiological environment, and (4) to transmit a wide wavelength range from visible to far-infrared. The authors fabricated a flexible light guide with an inner diameter of 120 mm and with a motion range of 10 cm. Pointing stability of the laser beam passing through the flexible light guide was less than 70 μrad when the support moved ±50 mm. A flexible light guide error of 70 μrad leads to a beam position displacement of 0.98 mm at a beam position steering mirror ITER poloidal polarimeter that is located 14 m from the flexible light guide. The achieved error is stable enough to guide the laser beam to its target in ITER.

Early Failure in Medial Unicondylar Arthroplasty: Radiographic Analysis on the Importance of Joint Line Restoration.

Survivorship of unicondylar knee arthroplasty (UKA) remains a drawback, especially compared with the outcome of total knee arthroplasty. This could be improved by identifying and correcting failure mechanisms. To this purpose, this study aimed at exploring failure modalities of UKA, with particular focus on the role of joint line (JL) position and alignment as variable to be optimized for a successful outcome. This study explored modes of failure in 266 medial UKAs. Radiological comparison was performed between 24 failures and 24 matched controls, to determine the importance of UKA positioning in terms of femorotibial angle (FTA), tibial plateau angle, and posterior tibial slope (PTS). Radiographic comparative analysis showed statistically significant differences in the failure group compared with the control group in terms of variation in FTA (p = 0.0222), PTS (p = 0.0025), and JL height (p = 0.0022). Variations not only in FTA but also PTS and JL height were correlated with failures observed in this series. Thus, based on the results of this study, it emerges that JL position should be carefully controlled in all planes while implanting a UKA. This is a Level III, case-control study.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 7:35 AM–9:00 AM ePosters: P7. Gravity line and sagittal alignment are both risk factors for increased rod stresses in long lumbopelvic fixation: A biomechanics study

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Posterior lumbopelvic fixation with iliac screws is a method that is commonly used for reconstructing the spine. However, clinically significant failure of lumbopelvic fixation (11.9%) and other complications such as pseudoarthrosis (observed in up to 50% of patients with rod failure) are possible, requiring revision surgery. With high rates of implant failure, questions remain regarding mechanical risk factors, or if there is any relationship between implant type, spinopelvic parameters, and failure to achieve fusion. PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to identify if—and to what extent—spinal-pelvic parameters play a role in construct failure using an in silico model. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING Finite element analysis. OUTCOME MEASURES Range of motion, rod stress or strain. METHODS Finite element models (T10-pelvis) were created to match the average spinal-pelvic parameters (pelvic tilt, sacral slope, and lumbar lordosis) of two cohorts of patients reported in the literature, major-failure (defined as pseudoarthrosis or rod fracture above S1) and nonfailure groups. In both groups, vertebral segments were modeled as three-dimensional solid elements. Intervertebral discs were structured as hyperelastic materials. The sacroiliac joint was modeled as articular cartilage contacts surrounded by six types of strong ligaments, depicted as spring elements. Pedicle screws with 5.5 mm diameters were modeled as titanium cylinders (yield strength=795 MPa). A moment load was applied at the T10 superior endplate to simulate gravimetric loading in a standing position. Both nonfailure and major-failure spines had a similar gravity line offset from the heels, as provided by the literature. A model validation was carried out to compare the range of motion of the intact spine unit with the experiments under 10Nm moment in flexion and extension. RESULTS Despite a fixed gravity line position relative to the heels, differences in spinopelvic parameters resulted in a neutral sagittal alignment in the nonfailure spine model, but produced a “sagittal forward” alignment of the major-failure spine model. In order for the latter to maintain sagittal balance, pelvic retroversion was reported and the major-failure spine was translated toward the heel by 10 mm to simulate that. As a result, the bending moment was approximately 17.3 Nm in the nonfailure group and 20.7 Nm in the major-failure group. Differences in loads produced 14 mm translation and 4.9° rotation for the major-failure group—18% and 14% higher, respectively, than in the nonfailure group (11.9 mm translation/4.3° rotation). Rod stresses were highest at L1–L2 and L4–L5. In the major-failure group, maximum stress (138.3 MPa) was observed at the left rod between L4 and L5. In the nonfailure group, maximum stress (115.4 MPa) was at the left rod surface between L1 and L2. High stress (141.0 MPa) was also observed in the right S1 screws in the major-failure group; it was 42% higher than the stress observed in the nonfailure group. CONCLUSIONS Due to compensatory differences in alignment of spinopelvic parameters between normal and failed spines, in the presence of a fixed gravity line, the major failure cohort in this study observed a 20% higher load and 18% greater instability. The higher load and instability further increased loading and mechanical demand on the posterior rods in the lower lumbar spine, further emphasizing the importance of proper sagittal alignment.

Rehabilitation of Sunkoshi Small Hydropower Plant (2.6 MK), Nepal after Sequences of Natural Disaster

Sunkoshi Small Hydropower Plant (SSHP) is a run-of-river type project constructed in Sunkoshi River located in Sindhupalchowk District of Bagmati zone of Central Development Region, Nepal. The plant started its commercial operation since March 2005. During the year 2014, 2015 and 2016 the plant faced series of natural disaster events; landslide at Jure village on 2 August 2014, earthquake (7.8 magnitude) on 25 April 2015, landslide dammed flood in Sunkoshi River on 11 August 2015 and Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in Sunkoshi River on 5 July 2016. The Jure landslide created 55 m dam across Sunkoshi River. Thus created landslide dammed lake inundated the powerhouse of SSHP for 36 days. About seven million cubic meters of water was reserved in the lake. The event damaged entire powerhouse building, Electromechanical Equipment (EM), tailrace culvert, portion of steel penstock pipe and staff quarter. The rehabilitation works after Jure landslides included strengthening of powerhouse building and tailrace culvert, winding of generators, replacement of electromechanical equipment and portion of penstock pipe and change of transmission line alignment. On 25 April 2015, most of the rehabilitation works were completed. The EM experts were conducting a wet test for power generation when the power-plant was hit by other natural disaster - earthquake of 7.8 Rector Scale. The earthquake and its aftershocks followed by landslide dammed outburst flood of 11 August 2015 damaged headworks structures - formed a cavern of 56.6 m3 below gravel trap, collapsed entire powerhouse building and damaged newly installed electromechanical equipment, created several landslides along water way alignment and damaged about 900 m of penstock alignment. Some innovations in designs were introduced such as construction of sliding type saddle supports, bio-engineering combined with civil engineering structures to stabilize landslides, retrofitting of powerhouse building, use of crackamite and rock drill and avoidance of heavy masonry wall and gable wall in powerhouse. After rehabilitation works, the power plant re-operated since 4 January 2016 - after about 18 months. However, the plant was again affected by a Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in Botekoshi River on 5 July 2016.

A comprehensive model for code readability

AbstractUnreadable code could compromise program comprehension, and it could cause the introduction of bugs. Code consists of mostly natural language text, both in identifiers and comments, and it is a particular form of text. Nevertheless, the models proposed to estimate code readability take into account only structural aspects and visual nuances of source code, such as line length and alignment of characters. In this paper, we extend our previous work in which we use textual features to improve code readability models. We introduce 2 new textual features, and we reassess the readability prediction power of readability models on more than 600 code snippets manually evaluated, in terms of readability, by 5K+ people. We also replicate a study by Buse and Weimer on the correlation between readability and FindBugs warnings, evaluating different models on 20 software systems, for a total of 3M lines of code. The results demonstrate that (1) textual features complement other features and (2) a model containing all the features achieves a significantly higher accuracy as compared with all the other state‐of‐the‐art models. Also, readability estimation resulting from a more accurate model, ie, the combined model, is able to predict more accurately FindBugs warnings.

Design status of the double Closure Plate Sub-Plate concept for the ITER Electron Cyclotron Upper Launcher

The Closure Plate Sub-Plate (CPSP), which defines the border between ex-vessel and in-vessel components of the Electron Cyclotron Upper Launcher (EC UL), bundles the waveguides into a sub-assembly which can be manipulated separately from the UL Port Plug (PP). The primary CPSP functions are to provide transmission line feedthroughs, support and alignment of the attached waveguides, neutron and gamma shielding, and Tritium/vacuum containment. The double CPSP concept, which is divided into In-vessel Waveguides CPSP and Thermal Isolation CPSP, was recently introduced in order to minimize the openings that expose the interior of the plug, to avoid the near environment activation in case of maintenance or intervention on the in-vessel components.This paper reports the most recent status of the CPSP as well as the analyses carried out to validate the design for normal operation. The fluid-dynamic analyses show that the power dissipated due to mm-wave transmission can be properly removed with an acceptable mass flow producing admissible values of pressure drop and temperature rise in the cooling systems. The results obtained in the thermo-mechanical simulation, validated using the ASME code, shows that the CPSP design is capable of withstanding the expected loads taking place during normal operation.

Femur Distal Diafiz Kırıklarının İntramedüller Çivi ile Tedavisinde Dizilimin Değerlendirilmesi

Aim: Distal femoral fractures are common seen both elderly and young population. These fractures are % 7 of all femoral fractures. Providing of alingment after distal femoral diaphyseal fractures is important for the development of deformity and shortness. In this study, it was aimed to determine whether the effect of intramedullary nail method applied in the treatment of distal femoral diaphyseal fractures that do not extend into the joint to the femoral alignment. Patients and Methods : 62 patients were evaluated who were treated with intramedullary nail with the diagnosis of distal femoral diaphyseal fracture between 2010 and 2016. Patients has at least 1 year of follow-up. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to fracture joint distance (<100 mm, 100-130 mm, >130 mm). Nail-joint distance (NJD), fracture line-joint distance (FJD), fracture-nail distance (FND), and the translation and alignment of the fracture line were evaluated for each group. Results: In group 1; NJD 17,1±6,8 mm, FJD 78,4±17,6 mm, FND 60,8±15,9 mm, translation 4±1,3 mm, and the malalignment was 2,9±1,7°. In Group 2; NJD 19±6,8 mm, FJD 119,5±8 mm, FND 100,6±8 mm, translation 3,9±1,7 mm, and malalignment 3±1,7°. In group 3; NJD 25,2±8,7 mm, FJD 143,3±7,8 mm, FND 118,1±11,7 mm, translation 3,5±1,8 mm, and malalignment was 2,5±1,4°. Conclusion: In our study, we found that as the distance between the fracture and the joint decreased, the degree of malalignment and translation increased, and when the distance between the nail and the joint was kept below 20 mm, the amount of malalignment and translation decreased. If distal femur fractures near the joint line will be treated with intramedullary nailing attention must be taken for the malalignment and translation. Especially when the fracture-joint distance is less than 100 mm, keeping the distance between the nail and the joint below 20 mm will keep the translation and malalingment at a minimum level.

A comparison of linear and mosaic diagrams for set visualization

Linear diagrams have been shown to compare favourably to better known forms of set visualization, such as Venn and Euler diagrams, in supporting non-interactive assessment of set relationships. Recent studies that compared several variants of linear diagrams have demonstrated that users perform best at tasks involving identification of intersections, disjointness and subsets when using a horizontally drawn linear diagram with thin lines representing sets and employing vertical lines as guide lines. The essential visual task the user needs to perform in order to interpret this kind of diagram is vertical alignment of parallel lines and detection of overlaps. Space-filling mosaic diagrams which support this same visual task have been used in other applications, such as the visualization of schedules of activities, where they have been shown to be superior to linear Gantt charts. In this article, we present an experimental comparison of linear and mosaic diagrams for visualization of set relationships, in terms of accuracy, time-to-answer and subjective ratings of perceived task difficulty. The findings show that the two visualizations are largely similar with respect to these measures, suggesting that the choice of one or the other may be solely guided by other visual design considerations. Mosaic diagrams might be more suitable, for instance, in cases where miniature diagrams representing overviews of relations in different collections of sets are required, such as in small-multiples displays.

Thermal interaction between main engine body and ship hull

The paper presents analysis of displacement of a propulsion system shaft line and a crankshaft axis caused by temperature of marine, slow-speed main engine. Detailed information of thermal displacement of a power transmission system axis is significant during a shaft line alignment and a crankshaft springing analysis and during designing of structural health monitoring (SHM) system. A warmed-up main engine is a source of deformations of an engine body as well as a ship hull in the area of an engine room and hence axis of a crankshaft and a shaft line. Engines' producers recommend the model of parallel displacement of the crankshaft axis under the influence of an engine heat. This model may be too simple in some cases (especially for SHM systems).The paper presents computations of MAN B&W K98MC type engine mounted on 3000 TEU container ship. The engine body is much stiffer than its foundation pads and ship hull (double bottom) - boundary conditions of the engine. Especially for the high power marine engines correct model of the boundary conditions plays a key role during the analyses. Presented numerical analyses are based on temperature measurements of the main engine body and the ship hull during a sea voyage. Numerical analyses were performed using Nastran software based on Finite Element Method. The FEM model of the engine body comprised over 800 thousand degree of freedom (dof); the model of the ship hull contains over 200 thousand dof. Both models are analysed separately; the mutually interaction between them is taken into account by heat transfer and special model of boundary conditions. The specialized SHM system dedicated to marine propulsion systems working in very bad environmental conditions is the future aim of the research.

A Study on the Saving Method of Plate Jigs in Hull Block Butt Welding

A large amount of plate jigs is used for alignment of welding line and control of welding deformations in hull block assembly stage. Besides material cost, the huge working man-hours required for working process of plate jigs is one of the obstacles in productivity growth of shipyard. In this study, analysis method was proposed to simulate the welding deformations of block butt joint with plate jigs setting. Using the proposed analysis method, an example simulation was performed for actual panel block joint to investigate the saving method of plate jigs. Results show that it is possible to achieve two objectives of quality accuracy of the hull block and saving the plate jig usage at the same time by deploying the plate jigs at the right places. And the proposed analysis method can be used in establishing guidelines for the proper use of plate jigs in block assembly stage.

Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence Mediated by Reconnection

Abstract Magnetic field fluctuations in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence can be viewed as current sheets that are progressively more anisotropic at smaller scales. As suggested by Loureiro &amp; Boldyrev and Mallet et al., below a certain critical thickness, , such current sheets become tearing-unstable. We propose that the tearing instability changes the effective alignment of the magnetic field lines in such a way as to balance the eddy turnover rate at all scales smaller than . As a result, turbulent fluctuations become progressively less anisotropic at smaller scales, with the alignment angle increasing as , where is the resistive dissipation scale. Here L 0 is the outer scale of the turbulence, S 0 is the corresponding Lundquist number, and is a parameter. The resulting Fourier energy spectrum is , where is the wavenumber normal to the local mean magnetic field, and the critical scale is . The simplest model corresponds to β = 0, in which case the predicted scaling formally agrees with one of the solutions obtained in Mallet et al. from a discrete hierarchical model of abruptly collapsing current sheets, an approach different from and complementary to ours. We also show that the reconnection-mediated interval is non-universal with respect to the dissipation mechanism. Hyper-resistivity of the form leads (in the simplest case of β = 0) to the different transition scale and the energy spectrum , where is the corresponding hyper-resistive Lundquist number.

Magnetic field evolution in tidal disruption events

When a star gets tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole, its magnetic field is expected to pervade its debris. In this paper, we study this process via smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the disruption and early debris evolution including the stellar magnetic field. As the gas stretches into a stream, we show that the magnetic field evolution is strongly dependent on its orientation with respect to the stretching direction. In particular, an alignment of the field lines with the direction of stretching induces an increase of the magnetic energy. For disruptions happening well within the tidal radius, the star compression causes the magnetic field strength to sharply increase by an order of magnitude at the time of pericentre passage. If the disruption is partial, we find evidence for a dynamo process occurring inside the surviving core due to the formation of vortices. This causes an amplification of the magnetic field strength by a factor of $\sim 10$. However, this value represents a lower limit since it increases with numerical resolution. For an initial field strength of 1 G, the magnetic field never becomes dynamically important. Instead, the disruption of a star with a strong 1 MG magnetic field produces a debris stream within which magnetic pressure becomes similar to gas pressure a few tens of hours after disruption. If the remnant of one or multiple partial disruptions is eventually fully disrupted, its magnetic field could be large enough to magnetically power the relativistic jet detected from Swift J1644+57. Magnetized streams could also be significantly thickened by magnetic pressure when it overcomes the confining effect of self-gravity.

Contact tracing performance during the Ebola virus disease outbreak in Kenema district, Sierra Leone.

Contact tracing in an Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak is the process of identifying individuals who may have been exposed to infected persons with the virus, followed by monitoring for 21 days (the maximum incubation period) from the date of the most recent exposure. The goal is to achieve early detection and isolation of any new cases in order to prevent further transmission. We performed a retrospective data analysis of 261 probable and confirmed EVD cases in the national EVD database and 2525 contacts in the Contact Line Lists in Kenema district, Sierra Leone between 27 April and 4 September 2014 to assess the performance of contact tracing during the initial stage of the outbreak. The completion rate of the 21-day monitoring period was 89% among the 2525 contacts. However, only 44% of the EVD cases had contacts registered in the Contact Line List and 6% of probable or confirmed cases had previously been identified as contacts. Touching the body fluids of the case and having direct physical contact with the body of the case conferred a 9- and 20-fold increased risk of EVD status, respectively. Our findings indicate that incompleteness of contact tracing led to considerable unmonitored transmission in the early months of the epidemic. To improve the performance of early outbreak contact tracing in resource poor settings, our results suggest the need for prioritized contact tracing after careful risk assessment and better alignment of Contact Line Listing with case ascertainment and investigation.This article is part of the themed issue 'The 2013-2016 West African Ebola epidemic: data, decision-making and disease control'.

An infrared interactive patient position guidance and acquisition control system for use during radiotherapy treatment

AbstractBackgroundThe control of patient position, posture and respiratory movements during radiotherapy is important for effective and specific treatment of malignancy. We have developed an infrared (IR) interactive patient position guidance and acquisition control system for clinical use, comprising IR cameras, IR markers and dedicated software.Materials and methodsWe evaluated the system with ten healthy volunteers and ten experienced operators. IR markers were placed on the body surface. Their positions were calculated using vectors of three translational and three rotational parameters, and the intrafractional error for each marker was acquired with and without respiratory motion. The inclusion of multiple positioning markers allowed for real-time visualisation of the patient posture, with feedback on misalignment and required postural adjustments.ResultsThe positioning time was 73 seconds (with a minimum period of 39 seconds), which was significantly shorter than for conventional line alignment. A comparison of positioning reproducibility between conventional line alignment and this system was &lt;3·5 mm and was not patient dependent or operator dependent. An intrafractional error of displacement of up to 10·0 mm was found in the right iliac crest.ConclusionsThis IR interactive system was shown to be high utility and suitable for monitoring patient position, posture and respiratory movements during radiotherapy.

Atomization efficiency and photon yield in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy analysis of single nanoparticles in an optical trap

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was employed for investigating the influence of particle size on the dissociation efficiency and the absolute production of photons per mass unit of airborne solid graphite spheres under single-particle regime. Particles of average diameter of 400nm were probed and compared with 2μm particles. Samples were first catapulted into aerosol form and then secluded in an optical trap set by a 532nm laser. Trap stability was quantified before subjecting particles to LIBS analysis. Fine alignment of the different lines comprising the optical catapulting-optical trapping-laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy instrument and tuning of excitation parameters conditioning the LIBS signal such as fluence and acquisition delay are described in detail with the ultimate goal of acquiring clear spectroscopic data on masses as low as 75fg. The atomization efficiency and the photon yield increase as the particle size becomes smaller. Time-resolved plasma imaging studies were conducted to elucidate the mechanisms leading to particle disintegration and excitation.

Association of Individual Characteristics with Teleoperation Performance.

A number of space activities (e.g., extravehicular astronaut rescue, cooperation in satellite services, space station supplies, and assembly) are implemented directly or assisted by remote robotic arms. Our study aimed to reveal those individual characteristics which could positively influence or even predict teleoperation performance of such a space robotic arm. There were 64 male volunteers without robot operation experience recruited for the study. Their individual characteristics were assessed, including spatial cognitive ability, cognitive style, and personality traits. The experimental tasks were three abstracted teleoperation tasks of a simulated space robotic arm: point aiming, line alignment, and obstacle avoidance. Teleoperation performance was measured from two aspects: task performance (completion time, extra distance moved, operation slips) and safety performance (collisions, joint limitations reached). The Pearson coefficients between individual characteristics and teleoperation performance were examined along with performance prediction models. It was found that the subjects with relatively high mental rotation ability or low neuroticism had both better task and safety performance (|r| = 0.212 ∼ 0.381). Subjects with relatively high perspective taking ability or high agreeableness had better task performance (r = -0.253; r = -0.249). Imagery subjects performed better than verbal subjects regarding both task and safety performance (|r| = 0.236 ∼ 0.290). Compared with analytic subjects, wholist subjects had better safety performance (r = 0.300). Additionally, extraverted subjects had better task performance (r = -0.259), but worse safety performance (r = 0.230). Those with high spatial cognitive ability, imagery and wholist cognitive style, low neuroticism, and high agreeableness were seen to have more advantages in working with the remote robotic arm. These results could be helpful to astronaut selection and training for space station missions. Pan D, Zhang Y, Li Z, Tian Z. Association of individual characteristics with teleoperation performance. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2016; 87(9):772-780.

Impact of Intraoperative Cone Beam Computed Tomography on Reduction Quality and Implant Position in Treatment of Tibial Plafond Fractures.

The intraoperative assessment of the articular surface in displaced intra-articular distal tibia fractures can be challenging using conventional fluoroscopy. The aim of the study was to determine the frequency and the method of intraoperative corrections of fracture reductions or implant placements during open reduction, internal fixation by using cone beam computed tomography (CT) after conventional fluoroscopy. Displaced intra-articular distal tibia fractures were retrospectively analyzed from August 2001 until December 2011. The fractures were classified according to the standards of the AO/OTA as type B or C and treated with open reduction and internal plate fixation. After primary reduction using conventional fluoroscopy, an additional cone beam CT scan was used to determine the alignment of the joint line and the implant position. The number of intraoperative revisions of the primary reduction due to the use of cone beam CT was analyzed. A total of 143 patients with an intra-articular tibial plafond fracture were included in the analysis. In 43 patients (30%), an intraoperative correction was performed after the cone beam CT scan. In 34 (24%) of these cases, intraoperative correction was required because of inadequate joint line reduction. Nine (6%) corrections were required as a result of a malposition of the implant. The revision rate did not differ by fracture classification. Despite its acceptance as the standard method of imaging, intraoperative conventional fluoroscopy for the assessment of implant positioning and fracture reduction of tibial plafond fractures is limited. The intraoperative utilization of cone beam CT provided additional information for the surgeon to detect insufficient reduction or implant malposition. Level III, retrospective comparative series.