Our results point out that early reconstruction of ACJ-injuries in type III-V avoids the inferior clinical results of delayed reconstructions using a modified Weaver-Dunn-procedure.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the benefit of prophylactic vertebroplasty of the adjacent vertebrae in single-segment osteoporotic vertebral body fractures treated with kyphoplasty. METHODS All patients treated with kyphoplasty for osteoporotic single-segment fractures between January 2007 and August 2012 were included in this retrospective study. The patients received either kyphoplasty alone (kyphoplasty group) or kyphoplasty with additional vertebroplasty of the adjacent segment (vertebroplasty group). The segmental kyphosis with the rate of adjacent-segment fractures (ASFs) and remote fractures were studied on plain lateral radiographs preoperatively, postoperatively, at 3 months, and at final follow-up. RESULTS Thirty-seven (82%) of a possible 45 patients were included for the analysis, with a mean follow-up of 16 months (range 3–54 months). The study population included 31 women, and the mean age of the total patient population was 72 years old (range 53–86 years). In 21 patients (57%), the fracture was in the thoracolumbar junction. Eighteen patients were treated with additional vertebroplasty and 19 with kyphoplasty only. The segmental kyphosis increased in both groups at final follow-up. A fracture through the primary treated vertebra (kyphoplasty) was found in 4 (22%) of the vertebroplasty group and in 3 (16%) of the kyphoplasty group (p = 0.6). An ASF was found in 50% (n = 9) of the vertebroplasty group and in 16% (n = 3) of the kyphoplasty group (p = 0.03). Remote fractures occurred in 1 patient in each group (p = 1.0). CONCLUSIONS Prophylactic vertebroplasty of the adjacent vertebra in patients with single-segment osteoporotic fractures as performed in this study did not decrease the rate of adjacent fractures. Based on these retrospective data, the possible benefits of prophylactic vertebroplasty do not compensate for the possible risks of an additional cement augmentation.

Introduction : Acetabular reinforcement rings/ cages (AR) are commonly used for reconstruction of bone defects in complex hip arthroplasty. The aim of this study was to retrospectively investigate the 10-year survival rate of Ganz reinforcement rings and Burch-Schneider cages used in a single institution.Material and Methods : Between September 1999 and June 2002 all ARs, implanted in one institution, were identified. All patients had regular clinical and radiographic follow-up and were included in this study. Their prospectively collected clinical and radiographic data was retrospectively analyzed. In case of death before the 10-year follow-up examination, patient’s families or their general practitioner was contacted by telephone. The main outcome measures were survival of the ARs and kind of revision surgery.Results : The 10-year survival rate was 77.7%. At 10-year follow-up, 5/60 (8,3%) patients could not be located and had to be excluded therefore. 27/55 (49,1%) were dead, whereof 22 had no revision of the ARs before death (after a mean of 66 months; range: 0 - 123). Of the remaining 28/55 (50,9%) patients, 23 patients (24 ARs) had no revision of the ARs.Conclusion : Despite the high mortality rate of this study’s collective, ARs for complex primary or revision total hip arthroplasty provided predictable long term results.Level of Evidence : Clinical investigation.

As I approach this project, I reflect on my own religious identity. In particular, I reflect on my experience as my sense of religious identity evolved as I shifted from Evangelical Christianity to Christian Universalism. As I made the shift (I resist the term "convert" because Christian Universalism still recognizes, grew out of, and still is a form of Christianity), I felt the pressure from Evangelical Christians and the church through various media to maintain an Evangelical Christian identity as I drifted further from it. These were, as I would describe them, efforts to dictate my religious identity. This led me to consider how a religion might convey a preferred identity to members, especially when the religion seemed to be under threat as my own identity was. To conduct the research in this thesis, I have chosen one specific religion in this thesis: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. The choice to study the Mormon religion is personal for me. At the same time my religious identity was shifting, my political identity was as well. The first U.S. election I was able to vote in was the 2012 General Election. Having been raised in a Republican, moderate home, I had not yet formed my own progressive views. As I debated whether I would vote for President Barack Obama or former Massachusetts Governor and Mormon Mitt Romney, I had to confront what Evangelical Christianity always taught me: Mormons were heretics. Confronting what I had always been taught was difficult and deciding that what I had been taught throughout my childhood was wrong was when I first became aware of how intertwined an Evangelical identity was with my own worldview.

This study sought to form a more thorough understanding of how a prominent U.S. religion has utilized internally-generated media to interpellate its preferred identity onto members. Specifically, this research investigated how the ideograph was utilized as a tool for interpellation in the context of Mormonism. To do this, an ideological criticism of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Ensign magazine was conducted. A single ideology was found:The ideology of the perfect order. Constitutive ideographs of this ideology were also discovered.In connection to the use of gender, sex, and sexuality language to express the perfect order ideology, the ideographs of , , and were located. The perfect order ideology was also expressed using class ideology and the following ideographs were found in connection to this: , , and were described. These results evidenced the ideograph fulfilling three specific roles as a tool for interpellation: an intermediary role, a comparative role, and a regulative role. Each of these roles and how they are carried out in the Ensign were discussed at length. Lastly, implications and limitations for this research and directions for future research were discussed.