La jardinera, emblemática comparsa carnavalesca del barrio “Jesús María” de la Habana en Cuba

The comparsas in the carnivals of Cuba are like the samba schools in the carnivals of Brazil. Through their repertoire of rhythms, songs and dances, they express a  sense of bodily, emotional, and verbal freedom of the artists and the public. People share their joy, their sorrows, as well as their sense of community, national, union, racial, gender, family and religious identity, and belonging. These groups are representative of popular disagreement with taboos and stereotypes that threaten the traditions and prosperity of the community they represent. We will talk about the comparsa “La Jardinera” of the Jesus Maria neighborhood in Old Havana, Cuba and its celebrities of conga and rumba.As comparsas nos carnavais de Cuba são como as escolas de samba nos carnavais do Brasil. Por meio do repertório de ritmos, canções e danças que esbanjam, se expressa o sentido de liberação corporal, emocional e verbal dos artistas e do povo. As pessoas compartilham sua alegria, suas tristezas, bem como seu senso de identidade e pertencimento de comunidade, nacionalidade, união, raça, gênero, família e religião. Esses grupos são porta-vozes do desacordo popular com tabus e estereótipos que ameaçam as tradições e a prosperidade da comunidade que representam. Este artigo é sobre a trupe “La Jardinera” do bairro “Jesús María” de Havana Velha, uma trupe emblemática cubana. Falaremos sobre o bairro e suas celebridades da conga e da rumba.Las comparsas en los carnavales de Cuba son como las escuelas de samba en los carnavales del Brasil. A través del repertorio de ritmos, cantos y danzas que derrochan, se expresa el sentido de liberación corporal, emocional, y verbal de los artistas y el pueblo. La gente comparte su alegría, sus penas, así como su sentido de identidad y pertenencia comunitaria, nacional, gremial, racial, de género, familiar, y religiosa. Estas agrupaciones son portavoces de la disconformidad popular por los tabúes, y los estereotipos que atentan con las tradiciones y la prosperidad de la comunidad que representa. Este artículo trata de la comparsa “La Jardinera” del barrio de “Jesús María” en la Habana Vieja, emblemáticas comparsas de Cuba. Hablaremos del barrio y sus celebridades de la conga y la rumba

Hypofractionated simultaneous integrated boost (IMRT-SIB) with pelvic nodal irradiation and concurrent androgen deprivation therapy for high-risk prostate cancer: results of a prospective phase II trial

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Aphasic seizures in patients with temporopolar and anterior temporobasal lesions: a video-EEG study

Studies of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy provide few descriptions of seizures that arise in the temporopolar and the anterior temporobasal brain region. Based on connectivity, it might be assumed that the semiology of these seizures is similar to that of medial temporal lobe epilepsy. However, accumulating evidence suggests that the anterior temporobasal cortex may play an important role in the language system, which could account for particular features of seizures arising here. We studied the electroclinical features of seizures in patients with circumscribed temporopolar and temporobasal lesions in order to identify specific features that might differentiate them from seizures that originate in other temporal areas. Among 172 patients with temporal lobe seizures registered in our epilepsy unit in the last 15 years, 15 (8.7%) patients had seizures caused by temporopolar or anterior temporobasal lesions (11 left-sided lesions). The main finding in our study is that patients with left-sided lesions had aphasia during their seizures as the most prominent feature. In addition, while all patients showed normal to high intellectual functioning in standard neuropsychological testing, semantic impairment was found in a subset of 9 patients with left-sided lesions. This case series demonstrates that aphasic seizures without impairment of consciousness can result from small, circumscribed left anterior temporobasal and temporopolar lesions. Thus, the presence of speech manifestation during seizures should prompt detailed assessment of the structural integrity of the basal surface of the temporal lobe in addition to the evaluation of primary language areas

Evaluating Phospholipid‐Functionalized Gold Nanorods for In Vivo Applications

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) have attracted a great deal of attention due to their potential for use in a wide range of biomedical applications. However, their production typically requires the use of the relatively toxic cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) leading to continued demand for protocols to detoxify them for in vivo applications. In this study, a robust and facile protocol for the displacement of CTAB from the surface of AuNRs using phospholipids is presented. After the displacement, CTAB is not detectable by NMR spectroscopy, surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy, or using pH‐dependent ζ‐potential measurements. The phospholipid functionalized AuNRs demonstrated superior stability and biocompatibility (IC50 > 200 µg mL−1) compared to both CTAB and polyelectrolyte functionalized AuNRs and are well tolerated in vivo. Furthermore, they have high near‐infrared (NIR) absorbance and produce large amounts of heat under NIR illumination, hence such particles are well suited for plasmonic medical applications

Analytical methods and experimental approaches for electrophysiological studies of brain oscillations

Brain oscillations are increasingly the subject of electrophysiological studies probing their role in the functioning and dysfunction of the human brain. In recent years this research area has seen rapid and significant changes in the experimental approaches and analysis methods. This article reviews these developments and provides a structured overview of experimental approaches, spectral analysis techniques and methods to establish relationships between brain oscillations and behaviour

Vision-Based Finger Detection, Tracking, and Event Identification Techniques for Multi-Touch Sensing and Display Systems

This study presents efficient vision-based finger detection, tracking, and event identification techniques and a low-cost hardware framework for multi-touch sensing and display applications. The proposed approach uses a fast bright-blob segmentation process based on automatic multilevel histogram thresholding to extract the pixels of touch blobs obtained from scattered infrared lights captured by a video camera. The advantage of this automatic multilevel thresholding approach is its robustness and adaptability when dealing with various ambient lighting conditions and spurious infrared noises. To extract the connected components of these touch blobs, a connected-component analysis procedure is applied to the bright pixels acquired by the previous stage. After extracting the touch blobs from each of the captured image frames, a blob tracking and event recognition process analyzes the spatial and temporal information of these touch blobs from consecutive frames to determine the possible touch events and actions performed by users. This process also refines the detection results and corrects for errors and occlusions caused by noise and errors during the blob extraction process. The proposed blob tracking and touch event recognition process includes two phases. First, the phase of blob tracking associates the motion correspondence of blobs in succeeding frames by analyzing their spatial and temporal features. The touch event recognition process can identify meaningful touch events based on the motion information of touch blobs, such as finger moving, rotating, pressing, hovering, and clicking actions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed vision-based finger detection, tracking, and event identification system is feasible and effective for multi-touch sensing applications in various operational environments and conditions

A novel mutation in the glycogen synthase 2 gene in a child with glycogen storage disease type 0

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glycogen storage disease type 0 is an autosomal recessive disease presenting in infancy or early childhood and characterized by ketotic hypoglycemia after prolonged fasting and postprandial hyperglycemia and hyperlactatemia. Sixteen different mutations have been identified to date in the gene which encodes hepatic glycogen synthase, resulting in reduction of glycogen storage in the liver.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>Biochemical evaluation as well as direct sequencing of exons and exon-intron boundary regions of the <it>GYS2 </it>gene were performed in a patient presenting fasting hypoglycemia and postprandial hyperglycemia and her parents. The patient was found to be compound heterozygous for one previously reported nonsense mutation (c.736 C>T; R243X) and a novel frameshift mutation (966_967delGA/insC) which introduces a stop codon 21 aminoacids downstream from the site of the mutation that presumably leads to loss of 51% of the COOH-terminal part of the protein. The glycemia and lactatemia of the parents after an oral glucose tolerance test were evaluated to investigate a possible impact of the carrier status on the metabolic profile. The mother, who presented a positive family history of type 2 diabetes, was classified as glucose intolerant and the father, who did not exhibit metabolic changes after the glucose overload, had an antecedent history of hypoglycemia after moderate alcohol ingestion.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The current results expand the spectrum of known mutations in <it>GYS2 </it>and suggest that haploinsufficiency could explain metabolic abnormalities in heterozygous carriers in presence of predisposing conditions.</p

Mechanical behaviour and rupture of normal and pathological human ascending aortic wall

The mechanical properties of aortic wall, both healthy and pathological, are needed in order to develop and improve diagnostic and interventional criteria, and for the development of mechanical models to assess arterial integrity. This study focuses on the mechanical behaviour and rupture conditions of the human ascending aorta and its relationship with age and pathologies. Fresh ascending aortic specimens harvested from 23 healthy donors, 12 patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) and 14 with aneurysm were tensile-tested in vitro under physiological conditions. Tensile strength, stretch at failure and elbow stress were measured. The obtained results showed that age causes a major reduction in the mechanical parameters of healthy ascending aortic tissue, and that no significant differences are found between the mechanical strength of aneurysmal or BAV aortic specimens and the corresponding age-matched control group. The physiological level of the stress in the circumferential direction was also computed to assess the physiological operation range of healthy and diseased ascending aortas. The mean physiological wall stress acting on pathologic aortas was found to be far from rupture, with factors of safety (defined as the ratio of tensile strength to the mean wall stress) larger than six. In contrast, the physiological operation of pathologic vessels lays in the stiff part of the response curve, losing part of its function of damping the pressure waves from the heart

Changes in balance and joint position sense during a 12-day high altitude trek: The British Services Dhaulagiri medical research expedition

<div><p>Postural control and joint position sense are essential for safely undertaking leisure and professional activities, particularly at high altitude. We tested whether exposure to a 12-day trek with a gradual ascent to high altitude impairs postural control and joint position sense. This was a repeated measures observational study of 12 military service personnel (28±4 years). Postural control (sway velocity measured by a portable force platform) during standing balance, a Sharpened Romberg Test and knee joint position sense were measured, in England (113m elevation) and at 3 research camps (3619m, 4600m and 5140m) on a 12-day high altitude trek in the Dhaulagiri region of Nepal. Pulse oximetry, and Lake Louise scores were also recorded on the morning and evening of each trek day. Data were compared between altitudes and relationships between pulse oximetry, Lake Louise score, and sway velocity were explored. Total sway velocity during standing balance with eyes open (p = 0.003, d = 1.9) and during Sharpened Romberg test with eyes open (p = 0.007, d = 1.6) was significantly greater at altitudes of 3619m and 5140m when compared with sea level. Anterior-posterior sway velocity during standing balance with eyes open was also significantly greater at altitudes of 3619m and 5140m when compared with sea level (p = 0.001, d = 1.9). Knee joint position sense was not altered at higher altitudes. There were no significant correlations between Lake Louise scores, pulse oximetry and postural sway. Despite a gradual ascent profile, exposure to 3619 m was associated with impairments in postural control without impairment in knee joint position sense. Importantly, these impairments did not worsen at higher altitudes of 4600 m or 5140 m. The present findings should be considered during future trekking expeditions when developing training strategies targeted to manage impairments in postural control that occur with increasing altitude.</p></div