The role of tendon and subacromial bursa in rotator cuff tear pain. A clinical and histopathological study

To evaluate a possible association of shoulder pain with the clinical features and the histopathological changes occurring in the ruptured tendon and subacromial bursa of patients with rotator cuff tear

Con Captain Spirit somos tres. Sobre mecánicas y elecciones significantes

The character of Captain Spirit reveals the power of imagination in the ludonarrative layer, as he does not limit himself to being another avatar managed by the player, nor an alter ego of his creator, little Chris. At a narrative level, Captain Spirit is part of the psychology of our main character, he tells us about who he was, who he is, what his fears and dreams are. He is also the perfect vehicle that leads us to empathy through the essential phases of the Aristotelian tragedy. At a ludic level, Captain Spirit manifests himself through significant mechanics, showing his differences with the person who created him. In this text we will review some of the aspects that make up the ludonarrative engine of video games that include design of choices or ramification, applying them to the case study of The Awesome Adventure of Captain Spirit (Dontnod Entertainment, 2018), a spin-off created by the franchise Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment, 2015-) that serves as a bridge the first two installments and whose strategy lies in limiting the agency frame of the player and building an emotional bond with the character through his imagination.El personaje de Captain Spirit pone en manifiesto el poder de la imaginación en la capa ludonarrativa, pues no se limita a ser un avatar más a manejar por el jugador, ni un álter ego de su creador, el pequeño Chris. A nivel narrativo, Captain Spirit forma parte de la psicología de nuestro protagonista, nos habla de quién fue, quién es, cuáles son sus miedos y sus sueños. También es un vehículo prefecto que nos conduce a la empatía a través de las fases esenciales de la tragedia aristotélica. Y, a nivel lúdico, Captain Spirit se manifiesta a través de mecánicas significantes evidenciando sus diferencias con la persona que le imaginó. En este texto repasaremos algunas cuestiones que conforman el motor ludonarrativo de videojuegos que cuentan con un diseño de elecciones o ramificaciones aplicándolas al estudio de caso de The Awesome Adventure of Captain Spirit (Dontnod Entertainment, 2018), un spin-off de la franquicia Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment, 2015-) que sirve de puente entre las dos primeras entregas y cuya estrategia radica en limitar el marco de agencia del jugador y construir un vínculo emocional con el personaje a través de su imaginación

Assessment of Hydrological Processes in an Ungauged Catchment in Eritrea

This study investigates the surface processes taking place in an ungauged catchment in the Foro region in Eritrea (East Africa). We focus on estimating river discharge, sediment transport, and surface runoff to characterize hydrological fluxes in the area and provide a preliminary quantification of sediment transport and erosion. In this context, an overarching objective of the research is the study of the catchment associated with the Foro Dam. The latter comprises a silted reservoir formerly employed for agricultural water supply. The main traits associated with the system behavior across the watershed are assessed for a variety of combinations of the parameters governing the hydrological model selected. A detailed sensitivity analysis is performed to quantify the effects of the hydrological parameters on the estimated results. Numerical analyses are then performed to obtain an appraisal of expected water and sediment fluxes. Outputs of interest are largely dominated by the curve number parameter

Stable Isotope Ratios in Hair and Teeth Reflect Biologic Rhythms

Biologic rhythms give insight into normal physiology and disease. They can be used as biomarkers for neuronal degenerations. We present a diverse data set to show that hair and teeth contain an extended record of biologic rhythms, and that analysis of these tissues could yield signals of neurodegenerations. We examined hair from mummified humans from South America, extinct mammals and modern animals and people, both healthy and diseased, and teeth of hominins. We also monitored heart-rate variability, a measure of a biologic rhythm, in some living subjects and analyzed it using power spectra. The samples were examined to determine variations in stable isotope ratios along the length of the hair and across growth-lines of the enamel in teeth. We found recurring circa-annual periods of slow and fast rhythms in hydrogen isotope ratios in hair and carbon and oxygen isotope ratios in teeth. The power spectra contained slow and fast frequency power, matching, in terms of normalized frequency, the spectra of heart rate variability found in our living subjects. Analysis of the power spectra of hydrogen isotope ratios in hair from a patient with neurodegeneration revealed the same spectral features seen in the patient's heart-rate variability. Our study shows that spectral analysis of stable isotope ratios in readily available tissues such as hair could become a powerful diagnostic tool when effective treatments and neuroprotective drugs for neurodegenerative diseases become available. It also suggests that similar analyses of archaeological specimens could give insight into the physiology of ancient people and animals

Letter Grading Government Efficiency

We mailed letters to non-existent business addresses in 159 countries (10 per country), and measured whether they come back to the return address in the United States and how long it takes. About 60% of the letters were returned, taking over six months, on average. The results provide new objective indicators of government efficiency across countries, based on a simple and universal service, and allow us to shed light on its determinants. The evidence suggests that both technology and management quality influence government efficiency, just as they do that of the private sector.Economic

Assessment of cardiovascular regulation through irreversibility analysis of heart period variability: a 24 hours Holter study in healthy and chronic heart failure populations

We propose an approach based on time reversibility analysis to characterize the cardiovascular regulation and its nonlinearities as derived from 24 hours Holter recordings of heart period variability in a healthy population (n=12, age: median=43 years, range=34–55 years) and in a pathological group of age-matched chronic heart failure (CHF) patients (n=13, primarily in NYHA class II, age: median=37 years, range=33–56 years, ejection fraction: median=25%, range=13–30%). Two indices capable of detecting nonlinear irreversible dynamics according to different strategies of phase-space reconstruction (i.e. a fixed two-dimensional phase-space reconstruction and an optimal selection of the embedding dimension, respectively) are tested and compared with a more traditional nonlinear index based on local nonlinear prediction. Results showed that nonlinear dynamics owing to time irreversibility at short time scales are significantly present during daytime in healthy subjects, more frequently present in the CHF population and less frequently during night-time in both groups, thus suggesting their link with a dominant sympathetic regulation and/or with a vagal withdrawal. On the contrary, nonlinear dynamics owing to time irreversibility at longer, dominant time scales were insignificantly present in both groups. During daytime in the healthy population, irreversibility was mostly due to the presence of asymmetric patterns characterized by bradycardic runs shorter than tachycardic ones. Nonlinear dynamics produced by mechanisms different from those inducing temporal irreversibility were significantly detectable in both groups and more frequently during night-time. The present study proposes a method to distinguish different types of nonlinearities and assess their contribution over different temporal scales. Results confirm the usefulness of this method even when applied in uncontrolled experimental conditions such as those during 24 hours Holter recordings

Politička korupcija i loša uprava u Italiji

Korumpirani politički bossovi odabiru ljude koje će postaviti na položaje u strankama i javnoj upravi, a prirodno preferiraju one koji zbog “pragmatizma” ili “nepostojanja predrasuda” nisu “rizični” za vrlo korumpirani sustav

Basic Caenorhabditis Elegans Methods: Synchronization And Observation

Research into the molecular and developmental biology of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was begun in the early seventies by Sydney Brenner and it has since been used extensively as a model organism (1). C. elegans possesses key attributes such as simplicity, transparency and short life cycle that have made it a suitable experimental system for fundamental biological studies for many years (2). Discoveries in this nematode have broad implications because many cellular and molecular processes that control animal development are evolutionary conserved (3). C. elegans life cycle goes through an embryonic stage and four larval stages before animals reach adulthood. Development can take 2 to 4 days depending on the temperature. In each of the stages several characteristic traits can be observed. The knowledge of its complete cell lineage (4,5) together with the deep annotation of its genome turn this nematode into a great model in fields as diverse as the neurobiology (6), aging (7,8), stem cell biology (9) and germ line biology (10). An additional feature that makes C. elegans an attractive model to work with is the possibility of obtaining populations of worms synchronized at a specific stage through a relatively easy protocol. The ease of maintaining and propagating this nematode added to the possibility of synchronization provide a powerful tool to obtain large amounts of worms, which can be used for a wide variety of small or high-throughput experiments such as RNAi screens, microarrays, massive sequencing, immunoblot or in situ hybridization, among others. Because of its transparency, C. elegans structures can be distinguished under the microscope using Differential Interference Contrast microscopy, also known as Nomarski microscopy. The use of a fluorescent DNA binder, DAPI (4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole), for instance, can lead to the specific identification and localization of individual cells, as well as subcellular structures/defects associated to them