Meat trays, marginalisation and the mechanisms of social capital creation: An ethnographic study of a licensed social club and its older users

Alongside informal networks of friends and family, formal social groupings such as voluntary associations are valued by older people as opportunities for engagement. In Australia, one such grouping is the licensed social (or ‘registered’) club. Approximately 20 per cent of all older Australians, and 80 per cent of older residents of the state of New South Wales, actively participate in such clubs. Despite this, older people’s registered club participation has received little scholarly attention. This ethnographic study of one particular registered club aimed to discover the nature, meaning and role of club participation for its older members. Social capital existing in club-based networks emerged as a further investigative focus, and its mechanisms and outcomes were examined. Participant observation and in-depth interviewing were the main data collection methods used. Data analysis procedures included thematic analysis (based loosely on grounded theory methodology), as well as the more contextsensitive narrative analysis and key-words-in-context analysis. The study found that club participation enabled older members to maintain valued social networks, self-reliance and a sense of autonomy. Social networks were characterised by social capital of the bonding type, being largely homogeneous with respect to age, gender, (working) class and cultural background. Strong cohesive bonds were characterised by intimacy and reciprocity, and possessed norms including equality and the norm of tolerance and inclusiveness. These helped to minimise conflict and build cohesiveness, while protecting older club-goers from increasing marginalisation within the club. Peer grouping within this mainstream setting may have shielded the older club-goers from stigma associated with participation in old-age specific groups. The nature and scale of registered club participation amongst older Australians points to their unique and important role. The findings of this research indicate that – for at least this group of older men and women - club use is a major contributor to maintaining social connectedness and a sense of self as self-reliant, autonomous and capable. In the context of an ageing population, Australia’s registered clubs feature in the mosaic of resources available to older people, and their communities, for the creation of social capital

Adjuvant Zoledronic Acid in High-Risk Giant Cell Tumor of Bone: A Multicenter Randomized Phase II Trial

LESSONS LEARNED:Adjuvant treatment with zoledronic acid did not decrease the recurrence rate of giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB) in this study. The efficacy could not be determined because of the small sample size.GCTB recurrences, even in the denosumab era, are still an issue; therefore, a randomized study exploring the efficacy of zoledronic acid in the adjuvant setting in GCTB is still valid.BACKGROUND:Bisphosphonates are assumed to inhibit giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB)-associated osteoclast activity and have an apoptotic effect on the neoplastic mononuclear cell population. The primary objective of this study was to determine the 2-year recurrence rate of high-risk GCTB after adjuvant zoledronic acid versus standard care.METHODS:In this multicenter randomized open-label phase II trial, patients with high-risk GCTB were included (December 2008 to October 2013). Recruitment was stopped because of low accrual after the introduction of denosumab. In the intervention group, patients received adjuvant zoledronic acid (4 mg) intravenously at 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after surgery.RESULTS:Fourteen patients were included (intervention n = 8, controls n = 6). Median follow-up was long: 93.5 months (range, 48-111). Overall 2-year recurrence rate was 38% (3/8) in the intervention versus 17% (1/6) in the control group (p = .58). All recurrences were seen within the first 15 months after surgery.CONCLUSION:Adjuvant treatment with zoledronic acid did not decrease the recurrence rate of GCTB in this study. The efficacy could not be determined because of the small sample size. Because recurrences, even in the denosumab era, are still an issue, a randomized study exploring the efficacy of zoledronic acid in the adjuvant setting in GCTB is still valid.Experimentele farmacotherapi

Introduction

PARADISEC (Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures), Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories, Ethnographic E-Research Project and Sydney Object Repositories for Research and Teaching

Consensus document for the diagnosis of prosthetic joint infections: a joint paper by the EANM, EBJIS, and ESR (with ESCMID endorsement).

For the diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection, real evidence-based guidelines to aid clinicians in choosing the most accurate diagnostic strategy are lacking. To address this need, we performed a multidisciplinary systematic review of relevant nuclear medicine, radiological, orthopaedic, infectious, and microbiological literature to define the diagnostic accuracy of each diagnostic technique and to address and provide evidence-based answers on uniform statements for each topic that was found to be important to develop a commonly agreed upon diagnostic flowchart. The approach used to prepare this set of multidisciplinary guidelines was to define statements of interest and follow the procedure indicated by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (OCEBM)