644 research outputs found
Knowing urban informalities
How do Anglophone urban scholars know urban informalities? This article reviews three dominant ways of knowing urban informality, noting that, despite the profoundly rich insights they each provide, two critiques of the overall concept endure. These are that the concept is often imprecise, and that the contribution to knowing âthe urbanâ more generally remains clearly circumscribed to the âurban non-westâ. In our view, these limitations curtail the possibilities of sharpening our understanding of the relationship to inequalities and injustices. We work with these critiques, suggesting that they represent two sides of the same problem, associated with binaries. In doing so, we build on the existing emphasis on practices and work across the three dominant ways of knowing urban informalities. This reveals that binaries are not held together magically and transparently so that each is the mirror opposite. Instead, the difference is constituted through unnamed aspects of common denominators â two of which we highlight (property rights and aesthetics) â and may be intrinsic to the way urban informality has come to develop. It is through the latent power relations that inhere in these common denominators that urban scholars can achieve greater conceptual precision and make different contributions to broader urban theory committed to challenging injustices
Survival of dental implants in patients with oral cancer treated by surgery and radiotherapy: a retrospective study
BACKGROUND:
The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the survival of dental implants placed after ablative surgery, in patients affected by oral cancer treated with or without radiotherapy.
METHODS:
We collected data for 34 subjects (22 females, 12 males; mean age: 51â±â19) with malignant oral tumors who had been treated with ablative surgery and received dental implant rehabilitation between 2007 and 2012. Postoperative radiation therapy (less than 50 Gy) was delivered before implant placement in 12 patients. A total of 144 titanium implants were placed, at a minimum interval of 12 months, in irradiated and non-irradiated residual bone.
RESULTS:
Implant loss was dependent on the position and location of the implants (Pâ=â0.05-0.1). Moreover, implant survival was dependent on whether the patient had received radiotherapy. This result was highly statistically significant (Pâ<â0.01). Whether the implant was loaded is another highly significant (Pâ<â0.01) factor determinin
Uterine tumours are a phenotypic manifestation of the hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumour syndrome
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74672/1/j.1365-2796.2004.01421.x.pd
Ribonuclease 1 attenuates septic cardiomyopathy and cardiac apoptosis in a murine model of polymicrobial sepsis.
Septic cardiomyopathy is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by sepsis. Ribonuclease 1 (RNase 1) belongs to a group of host-defense peptides that specifically cleave extracellular RNA (eRNA). The activity of RNase1 is inhibited by ribonuclease-inhibitor 1 (RNH1). The role of RNase 1 in septic cardiomyopathy and associated cardiac apoptosis, however, is completely unknown. Here, we showed that sepsis resulted in a significant increase in RNH1 and eRNA serum levels compared to those of healthy subjects (p < 0.05). Treatment with RNase 1 resulted in a significant decrease of apoptosis, induced by the intrinsic pathway, and TNF expression in murine cardiomyocytes exposed to either necrotic cardiomyocytes or serum of septic patients for 16 h (p < 0.05). Furthermore, treatment of septic mice with RNase 1 resulted in a reduction in cardiac apoptosis, TNF expression and septic cardiomyopathy (p < 0.05). These data demonstrate that eRNA plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of the organ (cardiac) dysfunction in sepsis and RNase and RNH1 may be new therapeutic targets/strategies to reduce the cardiac injury and dysfunction caused by sepsis
"Meaning" as a sociological concept: A review of the modeling, mapping, and simulation of the communication of knowledge and meaning
The development of discursive knowledge presumes the communication of meaning
as analytically different from the communication of information. Knowledge can
then be considered as a meaning which makes a difference. Whereas the
communication of information is studied in the information sciences and
scientometrics, the communication of meaning has been central to Luhmann's
attempts to make the theory of autopoiesis relevant for sociology. Analytical
techniques such as semantic maps and the simulation of anticipatory systems
enable us to operationalize the distinctions which Luhmann proposed as relevant
to the elaboration of Husserl's "horizons of meaning" in empirical research:
interactions among communications, the organization of meaning in
instantiations, and the self-organization of interhuman communication in terms
of symbolically generalized media such as truth, love, and power. Horizons of
meaning, however, remain uncertain orders of expectations, and one should
caution against reification from the meta-biological perspective of systems
theory
Sociological and Communication-Theoretical Perspectives on the Commercialization of the Sciences
Both self-organization and organization are important for the further
development of the sciences: the two dynamics condition and enable each other.
Commercial and public considerations can interact and "interpenetrate" in
historical organization; different codes of communication are then
"recombined." However, self-organization in the symbolically generalized codes
of communication can be expected to operate at the global level. The Triple
Helix model allows for both a neo-institutional appreciation in terms of
historical networks of university-industry-government relations and a
neo-evolutionary interpretation in terms of three functions: (i) novelty
production, (i) wealth generation, and (iii) political control. Using this
model, one can appreciate both subdynamics. The mutual information in three
dimensions enables us to measure the trade-off between organization and
self-organization as a possible synergy. The question of optimization between
commercial and public interests in the different sciences can thus be made
empirical.Comment: Science & Education (forthcoming
In vitro mycorrhization of micropropagated plants: studies on Castanea sativa Mill.
In vitro mycorrhization can be made by several axenic and nonaxenic
techniques but criticism exists about their artificiality and inability to
reproduce under natural conditions. However, artificial mycorrhization under
controlled conditions can provide important information about the physiology
of symbiosis. Micropropagated Castanea sativa plants were inoculated with
the mycorrhizal fungus Pisolithus tinctorius after in vitro rooting. The
mycorrhizal process was monitored at regular intervals in order to evaluate the
mantle and hartig net formation, and the growth rates of mycorrhizal and
nonmycorrhizal plants. Plant roots show fungal hyphae adhesion at the surface
after 24 hours of mycorrhizal induction. After 20 days a mantle can be
observed and a hartig net is forming although the morphology of the epidermal
cells remains unaltered. At 30 days of rootâfungus contact the hartig net is
well developed and the epidermal cells are already enlarged. After 50 days of
mycorrhizal induction, growth was higher for mycorrhizal plants than for
nonmycorrhizal ones. The length of the major roots was lower in mycorrhizal
plants after 40 days. Fresh and dry weights were higher in mycorrhizal plants
after 30 days. The growth rates of chestnut mycorrhizal plants are in agreement
with the morphological development of the mycorrhizal structures observed at
each mycorrhizal time. The assessment of symbiotic establishment takes into
account the formation of a mantle and a hartig net that were already developed
at 30 days, when differences between fresh and dry weights of mycorrhizal and
nonmycorrhizal plants can be quantified. In vitro conditions, mycorrhization
influences plant physiology after 20 days of rootâfungus contact, namely in
terms of growth rates. Fresh and dry weights, heights, stem diameter and
growth rates increased while major root growth rate decreased in mycorrhizal
plants.Springe
Micro-CT Based Experimental Liver Imaging Using a Nanoparticulate Contrast Agent: A Longitudinal Study in Mice
BACKGROUND: Micro-CT imaging of liver disease in mice relies on high soft tissue contrast to detect small lesions like liver metastases. Purpose of this study was to characterize the localization and time course of contrast enhancement of a nanoparticular alkaline earth metal-based contrast agent (VISCOVER ExiTron nano) developed for small animal liver CT imaging. METHODOLOGY: ExiTron nano 6000 and ExiTron nano 12000, formulated for liver/spleen imaging and angiography, respectively, were intravenously injected in C57BL/6J-mice. The distribution and time course of contrast enhancement were analysed by repeated micro-CT up to 6 months. Finally, mice developing liver metastases after intrasplenic injection of colon carcinoma cells underwent longitudinal micro-CT imaging after a single injection of ExiTron nano. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: After a single injection of ExiTron nano the contrast of liver and spleen peaked after 4-8 hours, lasted up to several months and was tolerated well by all mice. In addition, strong contrast enhancement of abdominal and mediastinal lymph nodes and the adrenal glands was observed. Within the first two hours after injection, particularly ExiTron nano 12000 provided pronounced contrast for imaging of vascular structures. ExiTron nano facilitated detection of liver metastases and provided sufficient contrast for longitudinal observation of tumor development over weeks. CONCLUSIONS: The nanoparticulate contrast agents ExiTron nano 6000 and 12000 provide strong contrast of the liver, spleen, lymph nodes and adrenal glands up to weeks, hereby allowing longitudinal monitoring of pathological processes of these organs in small animals, with ExiTron nano 12000 being particularly optimized for angiography due to its very high initial vessel contrast
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