Non-operative treatment for partial ruptures of the fibular collateral ligament occurring in combination with complete ruptures of the anterolateral ligament: a common injury pattern in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu athletes presenting with acute knee injury

Background: Combined partial lateral collateral and complete anterolateral ligament (PLCCALL) injuries are a specific injury pattern seen in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu due to the knee varus/flexion mechanism that frequently occurs during grappling. Purpose: The aim of this article was to evaluate the incidence of this injury pattern in a series of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu athletes with an acute knee injury, and also to evaluate clinical and functional outcomes after non-operative management, at a minimum follow up of one year. Hypothesis: Our hypotheses were that partial lateral collateral and complete anterolateral ligament (PLCCALL) injuries are common in BJJ and that non-operative treatment is associated with excellent clinical outcomes and return to the pre-injury level of sport Study Design: Case series – cohort Methods: All Brazilian Jiu-jitsu athletes presenting with an acute knee injury between July 2013 and June 2017 who underwent MRI of the knee were included. A specific emphasis was placed on identifying those whose imaging demonstrated PLCCALL injury. Clinical evaluation included physical examination, Lysholm and International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score. Results: Of the 27 patients analyzed, seven (25.9%) were identified to have MRI proven PLCCALL injuries. The mean follow-up was 41.3 months. The mean IKDC/Lysholm score pre-injury was 94.3/92, at initial assessment after injury was 26/35.6 and this improved to 82.8/78.2 at 12 months post-injury (p<0.00001). All seven patients returned to the pre-injury level of sports after one year of follow-up. The mean time between injury and return to competition level was 4.7 months (range 4-6). Conclusion: Combined partial LCL rupture and complete rupture of the ALL is a specific but infrequent injury pattern in BJJ. The prognosis of this injury following non-operative treatment appears to be excellent. Improved functional scores (IKDC and Lysholm) and MRI demonstrate that the ALL has intrinsic healing potential because the images show complete healing of the previously documented rupture of the anterolateral ligament from its proximal attachment. Clinical Relevance: The present article primarily evaluates the incidence of a specific injury pattern in a large series of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes with an acute knee injury, and also evaluates clinical and functional outcomes of these patients. The second major finding of this study is that these injuries can heal as proven by improved functional scores (IKDC e Lysholm) and subsequent MRI, how has been debate in the recent literature

The Potential of Visible Spectroscopy as a Tool for the In-Line Monitoring of Lignin Methylolation

Out of the 50 to 70 million tons of lignin that are produced annually, only 1 to 2% are used for value-added products. Currently, 90% of the total market of this compound corresponds to lignosulphonates (LS). The most successful industrial attempts to use lignin for wood adhesives rely on using it as a partial substitute in phenolformaldehyde or ureaformaldehyde resins. However, lignins aromatic ring presents a low number of reactive sites. Several methods have been proposed to improve its reactivity, such as prior methylolation with formaldehyde. Off-line methods are commonly applied to monitor this reactions progress, but this introduces a significant delay in the analysis. This study proposes a new method for in-line monitoring of the methylolation reaction using visible spectroscopy. In order to monitor the reaction progress, principal component analysis was applied to the spectra, and the obtained scores were analyzed. When these results were plotted against those obtained by the off-line methods, a satisfactory regression was obtained at 50 °C (R2 = 0.97) and 60 °C (R2 = 0.98) for two different LS samples. Therefore, it was concluded that visible spectroscopy is a promising technique for studying lignin methylolation.</jats:p

Study of the injection molding of a polarizing beam splitter

We describe the replication of a relief grating that behaves like a polarizing beam splitter by injection molding. Measurements of the grating master, nickel shim, and replica, performed by atomic force microscopy, allow establishing a limit for the injection molding technique (currently used in CD fabrication) to aspect ratios of approximately 0.15. Although this limit strongly reduces the diffraction efficiency of the elements as well as their polarizing properties, extinction ratios of approximately 10:1 were measured for the replicas in a large range of wavelengths. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.45110010

IL-4-secreting CD4+ T cells are crucial to the development of CD8+ T-cell responses against malaria liver stages.

CD4+ T cells are crucial to the development of CD8+ T cell responses against hepatocytes infected with malaria parasites. In the absence of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells initiate a seemingly normal differentiation and proliferation during the first few days after immunization. However, this response fails to develop further and is reduced by more than 90%, compared to that observed in the presence of CD4+ T cells. We report here that interleukin-4 (IL-4) secreted by CD4+ T cells is essential to the full development of this CD8+ T cell response. This is the first demonstration that IL-4 is a mediator of CD4/CD8 cross-talk leading to the development of immunity against an infectious pathogen

Prior Mating Experience Modulates the Dispersal of Drosophila in Males More Than in Females

Cues from both an animal’s internal physiological state and its local environment may influence its decision to disperse. However, identifying and quantifying the causative factors underlying the initiation of dispersal is difficult in uncontrolled natural settings. In this study, we automatically monitored the movement of fruit flies and examined the influence of food availability, sex, and reproductive status on their dispersal between laboratory environments. In general, flies with mating experience behave as if they are hungrier than virgin flies, leaving at a greater rate when food is unavailable and staying longer when it is available. Males dispersed at a higher rate and were more active than females when food was unavailable, but tended to stay longer in environments containing food than did females. We found no significant relationship between weight and activity, suggesting the behavioral differences between males and females are caused by an intrinsic factor relating to the sex of a fly and not simply its body size. Finally, we observed a significant difference between the dispersal of the natural isolate used throughout this study and the widely-used laboratory strain, Canton-S, and show that the difference cannot be explained by allelic differences in the foraging gene

Epidemiology of vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus in Goiás, central Brazil: re-evaluation based on G-L intergenic region

Abstract Background Vampire bat related rabies harms both livestock industry and public health sector in central Brazil. The geographical distributions of vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus variants are delimited by mountain chains. These findings were elucidated by analyzing a high conserved nucleoprotein gene. This study aims to elucidate the detailed epidemiological characters of vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus by phylogenetic methods based on 619-nt sequence including unconserved G-L intergenic region. Findings The vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus isolates divided into 8 phylogenetic lineages in the previous nucleoprotein gene analysis were divided into 10 phylogenetic lineages with significant bootstrap values. The distributions of most variants were reconfirmed to be delimited by mountain chains. Furthermore, variants in undulating areas have narrow distributions and are apparently separated by mountain ridges. Conclusions This study demonstrates that the 619-nt sequence including G-L intergenic region is more useful for a state-level phylogenetic analysis of rabies virus than the partial nucleoprotein gene, and simultaneously that the distribution of vampire bat-transmitted RABV variants tends to be separated not only by mountain chains but also by mountain ridges, thus suggesting that the diversity of vampire bat-transmitted RABV variants was delimited by geographical undulations

A Rapid and Simple Procedure for the Establishment of Human Normal and Cancer Renal Primary Cell Cultures from Surgical Specimens

The kidney is a target organ for the toxicity of several xenobiotics and is also highly susceptible to the development of malignant tumors. In both cases, in vitro studies provide insight to cellular damage, and represent adequate models to study either the mechanisms underlying the toxic effects of several nephrotoxicants or therapeutic approaches in renal cancer. The development of efficient methods for the establishment of human normal and tumor renal cell models is hence crucial. In this study, a technically simple and rapid protocol for the isolation and culture of human proximal tubular epithelial cells and human renal tumor cells from surgical specimens is presented. Tumor and normal tissues were processed by using the same methodology, based on mechanical disaggregation of tissue followed by enzymatic digestion and cell purification by sequential sieving. The overall procedure takes roughly one hour. The resulting cell preparations have excellent viabilities and yield. Establishment of primary cultures from all specimens was achieved successfully. The origin of primary cultured cells was established through morphological evaluation. Normal cells purity was confirmed by immunofluorescent staining and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis for expression of specific markers