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Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements in China indicate that crustal shortening accommodates most of India's penetration into Eurasia. Deformation within the Tibetan Plateau and its margins, the Himalaya, the Altyn Tagh, and the Qilian Shan, absorbs more than 90% of the relative motion between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Internal shortening of the Tibetan plateau itself accounts for more than one-third of the total convergence. However, the Tibetan plateau south of the Kunlun and Ganzi-Mani faults is moving eastward relative to both India and Eurasia. This movement is accommodated through rotation of material around the eastern Syntaxis. The North China and South China blocks, east of the Tibetan Plateau, move coherently east-southeastward at rates of 2 to 8 millimeters per year and 6 to 11 millimeters per year, respectively, with respect to the stable Eurasia.

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Sintering and crystallisation phenomena in powders of a typical bioactive glass composition (45S5 Bioglass) have been investigated in order to gain further understanding of the processes involved in the fabrication of Bioglass, based glass-ceramic scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. In situ experiments in an environmental scanning electron microscope with a heating stage were carried out to follow the morphology of Bioglass particles during sintering and crystallisation. Optimal processing parameters for the manufacture of Bioglass based glass-ceramic scaffolds by the foam-replica technique were determined. To assess the in vitro performance and bioreactivity of Bioglass -derived glass-ceramic scaffolds, the biodegradation of samples in simulated body fluid (SBF) was investigated using various techniques, including SEM, TEM, XRD and EDX. The mechanism of interaction of the glass-ceramic surface with SBF was determined, which involves (i) preferential dissolution at glass/crystal interfaces, (ii) break-down of crystalline particles into very fine grains through preferential dissolution at crystal structural defects, and (iii) amorphisation of the crystalline structure by introduction of point defects produced during ion exchange. The present report thus offers for the first time a complete assessment of the processing parameters, microstructure, and in vitro performance of Bioglass derived glass-ceramic scaffolds intended for bone tissue engineering.