Relationship between knee and ankle degeneration in a population of organ donors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive degenerative condition of synovial joints in response to both internal and external factors. The relationship of OA in one joint of an extremity to another joint within the same extremity, or between extremities, has been a topic of interest in reference to the etiology and/or progression of the disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The prevalence of articular cartilage lesions and osteophytes, characteristic of OA, was evaluated through visual inspection and grading in 1060 adult knee/tali pairs from 545 cadaveric joint donors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Joint degeneration increased more rapidly with age for the knee joint, and significantly more knee joints displayed more severe degeneration than ankle joints from as early as the third decade. Women displayed more severe knee degeneration than did men. Severe ankle degeneration did not exist in the absence of severe knee degeneration. The effect of weight on joint degeneration was joint-specific whereby weight had a significantly greater effect on the knee. Ankle grades increasingly did not match within a donor as the grade of degeneration in either the left or the right knee increased.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Gender and body type have a greater effect on knee joint integrity as compared to the ankle, suggesting that knees are more prone to internal causative effects of degeneration. We hypothesize that the greater variability in joint health between joints within an individual as disease progresses from normal to early signs of degeneration may be a result of mismatched limb kinetics, which in turn might lead to joint disease progression.</p

Parallel use of shake flask and microtiter plate online measuring devices (RAMOS and BioLector) reduces the number of experiments in laboratory-scale stirred tank bioreactors

Background Conventional experiments in small scale are often performed in a Black Box fashion, analyzing only the product concentration in the final sample. Online monitoring of relevant process characteristics and parameters such as substrate limitation, product inhibition and oxygen supply is lacking. Therefore, fully equipped laboratory-scale stirred tank bioreactors are hitherto required for detailed studies of new microbial systems. However, they are too spacious, laborious and expensive to be operated in larger number in parallel. Thus, the aim of this study is to present a new experimental approach to obtain dense quantitative process information by parallel use of two small-scale culture systems with online monitoring capabilities: Respiration Activity MOnitoring System (RAMOS) and the BioLector device. Results The same mastermix (medium plus microorganisms) was distributed to the different small-scale culture systems: 1) RAMOS device; 2) 48-well microtiter plate for BioLector device; and 3) separate shake flasks or microtiter plates for offline sampling. By adjusting the same maximum oxygen transfer capacity (OTRmax), the results from the RAMOS and BioLector online monitoring systems supplemented each other very well for all studied microbial systems (E. coli, G. oxydans, K. lactis) and culture conditions (oxygen limitation, diauxic growth, auto-induction, buffer effects). Conclusions The parallel use of RAMOS and BioLector devices is a suitable and fast approach to gain comprehensive quantitative data about growth and production behavior of the evaluated microorganisms. These acquired data largely reduce the necessary number of experiments in laboratory-scale stirred tank bioreactors for basic process development. Thus, much more quantitative information is obtained in parallel in shorter time.Cluster of Excellence “Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass”, which is funded by the Excellence Initiative by the German federal and state governments to promote science and research at German universities

Concrete Floors for Basementless Houses

To determine the most satisfactory floor from the standpoint of comfort, the University of Illinois has studied the construction of concrete floor slabs which are laid on the ground and which are designed for use in climates where central heating is desirable. The slabs tested were limited to floors for basementless houses having a conventional type of heating system floors without heating pipes or ducts in, or under, them

Temperature and Heat Loss Characteristics of Concrete Floors Lain on the Ground

The heat loss, temperature, and moisture-permea tion characteristics of nine types of concrete slab floor construction laid on the ground were investigated in a specially built structure. The room air above the floors was maintained at 70 deg. F. by electrical convection heaters, but there were no heating elements placed in the floors. An extensive thermocouple system was instailed to measure temperatures throughout the floors and air spaces of each compartment. The best overall performance was obtained with a floor construction in which a two-inch thickness of rigid waterproof insulation extended six inches down parallel to the exposed edge of the fioor and two feet back under the concrete slab. The floor surface temperature six inches from the exposed edge for an outside temperature of zero deg. F. was 62 de g. F. for this insulated floor as compared with 45 deg. F. at the same location on the surface of an uninsulated floor of similar construction. The heat loss through the insulated floor was about 70 percent of that through the uninzulated floor. Isotherm patterns drawn for each type of floor construction indicated that beyond a distance of three feet from the exposed edge of the floor, the path of heat flow was essentially straight downward and that the magnitude of heat flow was practically constant. The isoherms for the bordering three feet of the floor section showed the effect of different amounts and placements of insulation. The heat flow was downward through the floor into the ground and then upward to the outside, as well as directly through the exposed edge of the floor to the outside. Moisture permeation tests were being contined as the data and results obtained to date were not considered conclusive. The data available indicated that a vapor barrier may be more, effective in the spring and summer months than in the winter.U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Technical Service

University space planning : translating the educational program of a university into physical facility requirements

In the administrative vocabulary of today's colleges and universities, the word space -perhaps more than any other symbol- izes the pressures, and constraints that shape the growth of an institution of higher learning.vii, 150 p.: ill; 23 c

University space planning : translating the educational program of a university into physical facility requirements

In the administrative vocabulary of today's colleges and universities, the word space -perhaps more than any other symbol- izes the pressures, and constraints that shape the growth of an institution of higher learning.vii, 150 p.: ill; 23 c