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Background: Improvements for knee osteoarthritis (OA) care models are carried out widely. Yet, patient attendance behaviours in present care models are not fully understood, without the readily available localised evidence.

Objective: Hence, we examined the relationships of patient-specific factors with the physiotherapy attendance for patients with knee OA.

Methods: A retrospective, cohort study was conducted. Primary data from a randomised controlled trial of a community-based, individualised, multidisciplinary programme for patients with knee OA was analysed. Patient-specific factors like demographics, medical factors, self-reported knee function, physical function testing, activity levels and psychological factors were considered. We ran multiple ordered logistic models to examine the relationships between these factors and patients’ physiotherapy attendance.

Results: We found that factors like gender, BMI, pain during physical function, previous knee injections and psychological symptoms were associated with the physiotherapy attendances of patients with knee OA.

Conclusion: There’s evidence to suggest that patient-specific factors are associated with different levels of physiotherapy attendance among the patients with knee OA. Our results further the understanding of physiotherapy attendance patterns of patients with knee OA, and reinforces the need to consider these factors when developing informed treatment strategies that optimises the physiotherapy attendance of these patients.

The Group of Twenty (G20) was created first at the ministerial level and later upgraded to the summit level as a response to the global financial crises that first erupted from Asia in 1997, and then from the US in 2008 and Europe in 2010. These crises called into question the core principles and practices of the liberal order based on the economic, social and political openness that had been progressively internationally institutionalized since 1944. The G20 was designed with a dual distinctive foundational mission to promote financial stability and to make globalization work for all. It combined all established and emerging economies with high capability and connectivity, to operate as equals, to protect all within their borders and those beyond. It increasingly did so since its first summit in 2008. Its performance spiked at the summit in Hangzhou, China, on 3–4 September, 2016, and again at Hamburg, Germany, on 7–8 July, 2017. The latter coped with the new populist, protectionist US president and UK prime minister, whose countries had hosted the first three summits. G20-supported initiatives and agreements for full free trade have advanced since the first summit in 2008. No other center of global summit governance has emerged to guide an increasingly globalized world. The G20 has also steadily become an effective governor of global security. As the forces that propelled this rise will intensify, the Argentinian-hosted G20 summit on 30 November–1 December, 2018, promises to proceed along this path. It is guided by a country again afflicted by a financial crisis but now dedicated to following the core liberal order and making it work better for all. The real test will arrive in 2019, when Japan as host must co-operate with Korea and China, its neighbouring Asian powers and previous G20 hosts, to provide a new center of inclusive, progressive, liberal global governance that the world badly needs.

This paper has two main objectives. First, it aims to compare the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) Financial Accounting Standard 1 (FAS 1) with International Accounting Standard 1 (IAS 1). Second, it seeks to assess the level of compliance of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brunei with the AAOIFI standard on General Presentation and Disclosures (FAS 1). To achieve these goals, the author conducted a content assessment of annual reports from selected financial institutions, using checklists designed for the AAOIFI standard on General Presentation and Disclosures. The study found that UAE IFIs displayed greater compliance with AAOIFI FAS 1 compared to their counterparts in Brunei. In 2021, Emirates National Bank of Dubai (Emirates NBD) achieved a compliance rate of 74.3%, while BIBD recorded a lower compliance rate of 70.8%. In summary, this paper sheds light on the differences between AAOIFI FAS 1 and IAS 1, offering valuable insights into compliance levels among IFIs in the UAE and Brunei. However, it acknowledges certain limitations, such as limited generalizability, reliance on secondary data, subjective content analysis, absence of primary research, evolving regulatory frameworks, and resource constraints. Overall, this research contributes to the field of Islamic accounting by employing content analysis techniques to compare AAOIFI FAS 1 and IAS 1 and assess compliance in IFIs in Brunei and the UAE. It aligns with previous studies on International Financial Reporting Standards for IFIs and aims to advance the understanding of Islamic accounting and financial reporting practices.

Carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) is used as an indicator of atherosclerosis and a risk predictor for stroke and cardiovascular diseases. In macroscopic view, the atherosclerotic process constitutes changes in structure and mechanical function of vessels. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between carotid IMT and elastic property, or compliance, of the vessel.

Eighteen patients (10 males, 8 females, mean age: 65.5+/−12.2) who received coronary angiography due to coronary artery disease (CAD) were enrolled in this study. The IMT was measured at left carotid artery 5 cm below bifurcation. The blood pressure was measured through a catheter placed in aortic arch and continuous pressure change was recorded simultaneously during performing of carotid sonography. A sequence of cross section images of carotid sonogram was recorded. An image analysis algorithm is developed for serial luminal area measurements. Then the estimation of compliance was computed according to Windkessel model.

Regression analysis shows negative correlation (r=−0.704) between IMT and vascular compliance. The results correlate the elastic property and structural change of carotid artery during the process of atherosclerosis. This finding further support that IMT is a good parameter for evaluation of the severity of atherosclerosis.

Traditional arterial tonometry permits noninvasive and continuous recording of the arterial pressure waveform, by applanating a superficial artery supported by a bone. In the paper, we present an arterial tonometer to simultaneously register the blood pressure waveform and the arterial time-varying volume. The tonometer consisted mainly of a chamber filled with a conductive fluid, a flexible diphragm in touch with an artery, and a pressure sensor used to detect the underlying arterial pressure. In addition, four electrodes were in parallel diposed in the chamber, two of them were triggered with a constant-current source, and the voltage difference between the other two inner electrodes was assocated with the amount of change in the arterial volume. The pressure calibration curve performed with a mercury sphygmomanometer showed a fairly linear relationship (r = 0.998) between the tonometer's chamber pressure and the voltage output of the pressure-sensing circuit. The volume calibration was carried out with vessel-like cylinders of various diameters and a linear relationship (r = 0.884) of the change in vessel volume to the voltage output of the volume-sensing circuit was obtained. Clinical testing results revealed that the noninvasive blood pressure measurement with the tonometer was appreciably consistent with the invasive measurement with the catheter-tipped pressure transducer. In summary, the arterial applanation tonometer developed may be used to reliably determine the full arterial blood pressure waveform and the change in the arterial volume, and to make the wall compliance assessment of a superficial artery possible.

The objective of this study is to determine the pressure-dependent compliance of human radial artery in young subjects. The arterial blood pressure and the change in vessel volume of the radial artery in ten normotensive volunteers were simultaneously measured with an arterial tonometer. The arterial global compliance was calculated as the division of change in vessel volume by the difference between the systolic and the diastolic blood pressures. The arterial global compliance measured from the ten young volunteers was found to be 4.645 ± 2.739 uL/mmHg. When the arterial pressure-volume relation was assumed to be of natural logarithm, a correlation coefficient of 0.996 was yielded by curve-fit methods. Similarly, when the arterial compliance-pressure relation was fit in a natural logarithmic form, a correlation coefficient of 0.998 was obtained. In conclusion, the arterial vessel volume varies with the arterial blood pressure logarithmicly and positively, whereas a logarithmic and negative relation between the arterial global compliance and arterial blood pressure is present in human radial arteries. Thus, it is for all time necessary to take the pressure level into account if we want to compare compliance values obtained from distinct physiological situations.