Subchondral bone proteomics in osteoarthritis: Current status and perspectives

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Is subchondral cyst an indicator for osteoblast dysfunction in knee osteoarthritis?

Free Paper Presentation Session 6 – Adult Joint Reconstruction: no. 6.5INTRODUCTION: Subchondral bone cyst (SBC) is a key radiological feature in advanced OA. The presence of SBC was reported in a relation to the risk of cartilage loss and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Whilst the link between SBCs and bone dysmetabolism in hip OA was studied, their links in knee OA remain unknown. Therefore we try to elucidate the relationship between SBC and subchondral bone disturbance from tissue and cellular levels in ...postprin

Multiscale Analysis of Biological Data by Scale-Dependent Lyapunov Exponent

Physiological signals often are highly non-stationary (i.e., mean and variance change with time) and multiscaled (i.e., dependent on the spatial or temporal interval lengths). They may exhibit different behaviors, such as non-linearity, sensitive dependence on small disturbances, long memory, and extreme variations. Such data have been accumulating in all areas of health sciences and rapid analysis can serve quality testing, physician assessment, and patient diagnosis. To support patient care, it is very desirable to characterize the different signal behaviors on a wide range of scales simultaneously. The Scale-Dependent Lyapunov Exponent (SDLE) is capable of such a fundamental task. In particular, SDLE can readily characterize all known types of signal data, including deterministic chaos, noisy chaos, random 1/fα processes, stochastic limit cycles, among others. SDLE also has some unique capabilities that are not shared by other methods, such as detecting fractal structures from non-stationary data and detecting intermittent chaos. In this article, we describe SDLE in such a way that it can be readily understood and implemented by non-mathematically oriented researchers, develop a SDLE-based consistent, unifying theory for the multiscale analysis, and demonstrate the power of SDLE on analysis of heart-rate variability (HRV) data to detect congestive heart failure and analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data to detect seizures

Is green space in the living environment associated with people's feelings of social safety?

Abstract. The authors investigate whether the percentage of green space in people's living environ- ment affects their feelings of social safety positively or negatively. More specifically they investigate the extent to which this relationship varies between urban and rural areas, between groups in the community that can be identified as more or less vulnerable, and the extent to which different types of green space exert different influences. The study includes 83736 Dutch citizens who were interviewed about their feelings of social safety. The percentage of green space in the living environment of each respondent was calculated, and data analysed by use of a three-level latent variable model, controlled for individual and environmental background characteristics. The analyses suggest that more green space in people's living environment is associated with enhanced feelings of social safetyöexcept in very strongly urban areas, where enclosed green spaces are associated with reduced feelings of social safety. Contrary to the common image of green space as a dangerous hiding place for criminal activity which causes feelings of insecurity, the results suggest that green space generally enhances feelings of social safety. The results also suggest, however, that green space in the most urban areas is a matter of concern with respect to social safety.

Algorithmic statistics: forty years later

Algorithmic statistics has two different (and almost orthogonal) motivations. From the philosophical point of view, it tries to formalize how the statistics works and why some statistical models are better than others. After this notion of a "good model" is introduced, a natural question arises: it is possible that for some piece of data there is no good model? If yes, how often these bad ("non-stochastic") data appear "in real life"? Another, more technical motivation comes from algorithmic information theory. In this theory a notion of complexity of a finite object (=amount of information in this object) is introduced; it assigns to every object some number, called its algorithmic complexity (or Kolmogorov complexity). Algorithmic statistic provides a more fine-grained classification: for each finite object some curve is defined that characterizes its behavior. It turns out that several different definitions give (approximately) the same curve. In this survey we try to provide an exposition of the main results in the field (including full proofs for the most important ones), as well as some historical comments. We assume that the reader is familiar with the main notions of algorithmic information (Kolmogorov complexity) theory.Comment: Missing proofs adde

Proximal femoral resection arthroplasty for patients with cerebral palsy and dislocated hips: 20 patients followed for 1–6 years

Background and purpose Chronic hip dislocation in non-ambulatory individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) can lead to severe problems, of which pain is often the most severe. We studied the outcome of proximal femoral resection, especially regarding pain, sitting balance, perineal care, and patient satisfaction

Antifungal activity of aqueous and corn steep liquor extract of Ficus exasperata, Anonna muricata and Azadiractha indica

This study investigated the activity of aqueous and corn steep liquor (CSL) extracts of Ficus exaperasta, Azadirachta indica and Annona muricata against Candida spp isolated from high vagina swab samples. Phytochemical screening of the plants was done using standard methods, the antifungal activity of the plant’s extracts and standard drugs were tested against isolates of Candida spp using the agar well diffusion method; the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) were also determined using microdilution standardized techniques. Phytochemical screening of the aqueous and CSL extracts of the plants revealed the presence of tannin, saponin, phenols and flavonoids. Among the five Candida strains, the zone of inhibition (ZI) produced by the plant extracts against C. kefyra shows a range of 6-28 mm; C. kruseia: 5-25 mm; C. albican: 0-18 mm; C. kefyrb: 0-27 mm; while, C. kruseib ZI: 0-18 mm. CSL extract had higher inhibitory action compared with aqueous extract while F. exasperata and A. muricata gave better antifungal activity against the tested Candida strains. The MIC of the aqueous and CSL extracts of the F. exasperata ranged between 6.25-12.5 mg/ml; A. muricata: 3.125-12.5mg/ml, while the aqueous and CSL extracts of A. indica was found to have no activity at all the tested concentrations against C. albican, C. kruseiaand C. kruseib, similar observation for the MFC. This study proved the antifungal efficacy of aqueous and CSL extracts of F. exasperata, A. muricata, and A. indica against isolates of Candida species which are usually implicated in candidiasis

Perceiving Nasal Patency through Mucosal Cooling Rather than Air Temperature or Nasal Resistance

Adequate perception of nasal airflow (i.e., nasal patency) is an important consideration for patients with nasal sinus diseases. The perception of a lack of nasal patency becomes the primary symptom that drives these patients to seek medical treatment. However, clinical assessment of nasal patency remains a challenge because we lack objective measurements that correlate well with what patients perceive.The current study examined factors that may influence perceived patency, including air temperature, humidity, mucosal cooling, nasal resistance, and trigeminal sensitivity. Forty-four healthy subjects rated nasal patency while sampling air from three facial exposure boxes that were ventilated with untreated room air, cold air, and dry air, respectively. In all conditions, air temperature and relative humidity inside each box were recorded with sensors connected to a computer. Nasal resistance and minimum airway cross-sectional area (MCA) were measured using rhinomanometry and acoustic rhinometry, respectively. General trigeminal sensitivity was assessed through lateralization thresholds to butanol. No significant correlation was found between perceived patency and nasal resistance or MCA. In contrast, air temperature, humidity, and butanol threshold combined significantly contributed to the ratings of patency, with mucosal cooling (heat loss) being the most heavily weighted predictor. Air humidity significantly influences perceived patency, suggesting that mucosal cooling rather than air temperature alone provides the trigeminal sensation that results in perception of patency. The dynamic cooling between the airstream and the mucosal wall may be quantified experimentally or computationally and could potentially lead to a new clinical evaluation tool