The Use of Polydimethylsiloxane for Injection Laryngoplasty

Background: Injuries of the recurrent laryngeal nerve with consecutive vocal cord paralysis is a typical complication in chest, esophageal, thyroideal, and neck surgery. Glottic insufficiency secondary to such a lesion can be treated by endolaryngeal vocal cord augmentation (injection laryngoplasty). Many different substances have been used, often showing complications or disadvantages. This study reports on the use of injectable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), with special regard to the long-term results. Methods: In this prospective study, 21 patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis underwent injection laryngoplasty using PDMS at a volume of 0.5-1.0ml. Preoperatively, 6 weeks and 12 months after the injection the following parameters concerning patients' voice were evaluated: Glottic closure by videolaryngostroboscopy, maximum phonation time, voice range, voice dynamic, jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonic-ratio, and roughness, breathiness, and hoarseness (RBH). In addition, patients were asked to give their own evaluation of how satisfied they felt with their voice and of the handicaps it caused them. Results: Postoperatively an improvement was evident in all the parameters that were investigated, and this significant improvement was still in evidence for most of the parameters more than one year after the injection. In our study no complications were observed more than one year after injection. Conclusion: PDMS is a safe substance for injection laryngoplasty in unilateral vocal cord paresis. Objective and subjective parameters confirm its effectiveness. It is suitable for obtaining satisfying results in the reestablishment of the patient's voice and communication abilit

Die Räte-Kommunistische Tradition von »Ökonomie der Zeit«: Wider die Halbheiten der neuerlichen Erledigung der Marx'schen Phrase von der »Parallele zur Warenproduktion«

Der Jubiläen in 1983 sind mehrere, zumal denkwürdige, die allein schon eine erneute Besinnung über die Frage der Aktualität des Marx'schen Denkens provozieren: Marx hundertstes Todesjahr jährt sich ebenso wie das fünfzigste Todesjahr der Weimarer Republik durch die faschistische Machtergreifung, die den noch verbliebenen Hoffnungen der revolutionären Arbeiterbewegung endgültig ein Ende setzte. Aber 1983 jähren sich auch der 500. Geburtstag von Martin Luther und der 100ste von J.M. Keynes.Das ist natürlich ein zufälliges Zusammentreffen von Daten. Sie werden aber auch dadurch denk-würdig, als es verschiedene Umstände, die zu Beginn der 80er Jahre zum Ausdruck kommen, fragwürdig erscheinen lassen, ob nicht der vom Wegbereiter der 'protestantischen Ethik' mit ins Leben gerufene 'Geist des Kapitalismus' nach dem Scheitern nun auch der keynesianischen, inner-kapitalistischen 'Revolution', im Schwinden begriffen sei. Nur anders auch, als es Marx - und mit ihm die revolutionäre Arbeiterbewegung - erhofft und erwartet hatte: nicht durch eine Revolution, sondern durch einen wie auch immer gearteten oder zustande gebrachten schleichenden Prozeß des Ausstiegs aus der sogenannten 'Arbeitsgesellschaft', von der selbst Dahrendorf allerdings nicht meint, daß ihr schlicht die Arbeit ausginge, sondern Arbeit unter Bedingungen der Verwertungsökonomie

Statistik der Arbeitszeit in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: zur Entwicklung und Charakterisierung des Gesamtsystems arbeitszeitrelevanter Erhebungen der amtlichen Statistik von den Nachkriegsreformen bis zur Mitte der 1970er Jahre

Grundlage der Überlegungen bildet eine These aus dem Jahr 1923: Die Statistik der Arbeitszeit hat im Gegensatz zu anderen Zweigen der Statistik ihren notizartigen Charakter bis in die Gegenwart behalten. Ob diese Qualifizierung bzw. Abqualifizierung des amtlicherseits bereitgestellten Datenmaterials auch für die weitere Entwicklung der nächsten 20 Jahre in der BRD Geltung besessen hat, oder wie weit auf diesem statistischen Sektor Verbesserungen erzielt worden sind, ist Gegenstand der Ausführungen. Die in der Nachkriegszeit bis etwa 1955/56 maßgeblichen Quellen zur Arbeitszeitstatistik werden soweit skizziert, daß in Gegenüberstellung dazu Ausmaß und Struktur der Verbesserungen der amtlichen Erhebungen durch eine Reihe von Reformen und Ergänzungen ab 1956 ersichtlich werden. Insbesondere wird die wirtschafts- und sozialpolitische Situation zu Anfang der 50er Jahre angesprochen, da dieser Hintergrund für die (arbeitszeit-)statistisch-methodisch interessante und folgenreiche Debatte der Tarifparteien um die gewerkschaftlich geforderten Arbeitszeitverkürzungen von Bedeutung war. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden einige generelle Charakterisierungendes ca. 20 Jahre lang (1956 - 1975/77) maßgeblichen Systems der arbeitszeitstatistischen Erhebungen vorgetragen, um die im Anhang gegebenen Synopsen vorzustrukturieren, die verdichtend resümierend dargestellt werden. (KW)'Recently working time, its development and structure became increasingly interesting both from a historical and an actual point of view - especially in the labor-market context. Accordingly statistical data concerning working time are required and araise the question, whether the national systems of working time statistics are still adequate to new seen problems. Therefore national and supranational efforts were made to evaluate those systems and to improve and harmonize them. With respect to those activities and based on a ongoing project concerning working time statistics this article summarizes the main-lines of the development in the official west-german working time statistics and their methods of measurement between 1956/57 and 1975/77. The data base after the war was too small to decide the debate about processes in working time reduction and special samples with consequences also to the methods were the beginning of extensive reforms of the whole system of working time statistics.' (author's abstract

Arbeitszeit-Politik der 80er Jahre und Defizite amtlicher Sozialstatistik

Stärken und Schwächen der Arbeitszeiterfassung durch Volkszählung und Mikrozensus werden diskutiert. Es wird darauf hingewiesen, daß Arbeitszeitfragen in den Erhebungen bisher eine relativ untergeordnete Rolle gespielt haben. Abgesehen von den Angaben für Pendler sind Volkszählungsdaten zur Arbeitszeit wegen ihrer methodisch primär anderen Zielsetzung sowie ihres langzeitigen Abstands in arbeitszeitstatistischer Hinsicht faktisch ohne Belang. Dem Mikrozensus kommt dagegen große Bedeutung zu, denn er stellt die einzige regelmäßige Quelle personenorientierter Daten für alle Beschäftigtengruppen dar. Erfragt werden seit 1972 die normalerweise geleistete Arbeitszeit je Woche, die tatsächliche Arbeitszeit in der Berichtswoche und die Gründe für Abweichungen zwischen Berichtswoche und normaler Arbeitszeit. Die Auswertung der erfaßten Informationen ist allerdings teilweise zu wenig differenziert. Es wird betont, daß bei Auflösung standardisierter und homogener Arbeitszeitstrukturen entsprechend differenzierungsfähige Erhebungs- und Analyseverfahren erforderlich werden. (GB

Jenseits des Bruttosozialprodukts: neue Ansätze zur Messung von nachhaltiger Entwicklung

'Grundlegende Ziele der internationalen Diskussion um den schillernden Begriff der nachhaltigen Entwicklung sind drastische Verminderungen des Verbrauchs an Naturressourcen und die Reduzierung der Belastung der Umwelt durch Schadstoffe und menschverursachte Material- und Stoffströme. Wege dorthin bieten umfassende und technisch machbare, meist noch ungenutzte, Effizienzrevolutionen oder Steigerungen der Ressourcenproduktivität. Die Dringlichkeit ergibt sich aus der ökologischen Überbeanspruchung der Tragfähigkeit unseres begrenzten Planeten Erde und Forderungen nach intra- und intergenerationaler Gerechtigkeit - fundamentale ökologische und ethische Dimensionen, die der Brundtland-Bericht 'Unsere gemeinsame Zukunft' von 1987 auf die Agenda internationaler Beratungen gesetzt hatte: Dauerhafte Entwicklung ist Entwicklung, die die Bedürfnisse der Gegenwart befriedigt, ohne zu riskieren, daß künftige Generationen ihre eigenen Bedürfnisse nicht befriedigen können.' (Autorenreferat

O palácio das ilusões da tradução austeniana : “Orgulho e preconceito” no sistema literário

Nas décadas de 1930 e 1940, o mercado editorial brasileiro passou por sérias crises e mudanças, as quais acabaram contribuindo para o crescimento da tradução no país, transformando essas décadas na Era de Ouro da tradução. Esta pesquisa, vinculada ao projeto “Tradução e sistema literário – história da tradução no Brasil: a tradução dos clássicos e os escritores/tradutores”, objetiva investigar esse período e sua importância para a história da tradução no Brasil, juntamente com o lugar ocupado pela Editora José Olympio nesse contexto com relação aos clássicos literários estrangeiros traduzidos por autores brasileiros. Em um segundo momento, analisaremos as traduções de duas das obras de Jane Austen publicadas pela José Olympio na Coleção Fogos Cruzados, Orgulho e preconceito, traduzida por Lúcio Cardoso, em 1941, e Mansfield Park, traduzida por Rachel de Queiroz, em 1942. Será feito um estudo comparativo das obras com suas traduções mais recentes, a de Orgulho e preconceito por Alexandre Barbosa de Souza (Penguin Companhia, 2011), e a de Mansfield Park de Mariana Menezes Neumann (BestBolso, 2011). Com isso, pretendemos analisar a apresentação da obra traduzida em relação à sua economia estética e aos paratextos editoriais.During the 1930’s and 1940’s, the Brazilian publishing industry experienced many crisis and changes that, surprisingly as it may be, contributed to the development of the translation practice in Brazil, making of these decades the Golden Age of translation. This research project is part of a major project, “Translation and literary system – the history of translation in Brazil: translation of canons and the writers/translators”, and aimed to investigate this period of time and its importance to the Brazilian translation history. It also studied the role of the Editora José Olympio in this context, regarding the translations of literary classics by Brazilian writers. After that, we analyzed the translations of two of Jane Austen’s titles that have been published by the Editora José Olympio in the Fogos Cruzados Collection, Pride and Prejudice, translated by Lúcio Cardoso, 1941, and Mansfield Park, translated by Rachel de Queiroz, 1942. We conducted a comparative study between these titles and their most recent translations: Pride and Prejudice, translated by Alexandre Barbosa de Souza (Penguin Companhia, 2011), and Mansfield Park, translated by Mariana Menezes Neumann (BestBolso, 2011). By doing this, we aimed to analyze the way these texts were presented to public, regarding its aesthetics and paratexts

Efficiency of biofilm removal by combination of water jet and cold plasma: an in-vitro study

Background: Peri-implantitis therapy is a major problem in implantology. Because of challenging rough implant surface and implant geometry, microorganisms can hide and survive in implant microstructures and impede debridement. We developed a new water jet (WJ) device and a new cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) device to overcome these problems and investigated aspects of efficacy in vitro and safety with the aim to create the prerequisites for a clinical pilot study with these medical devices. Methods: We compared the efficiency of a single treatment with a WJ or curette and cotton swab (CC) without or with adjunctive use of CAP (WJ + CAP, CC + CAP) to remove biofilm in vitro from rough titanium discs. Treatment efficacy was evaluated by measuring turbidity up to 72 h for bacterial re-growth or spreading of osteoblast-like cells (MG-63) after 5 days with scanning electron microscopy. With respect to application safety, the WJ and CAP instruments were examined according to basic regulations for medical devices. Results: After 96 h of incubation all WJ and CC treated disks were turbid but 67% of WJ + CAP and 46% CC + CAP treated specimens were still clear. The increase in turbidity after WJ treatment was delayed by about 20 h compared to CC treatment. In combination with CAP the cell coverage significantly increased to 82% (WJ + CAP) or 72% (CC + CAP), compared to single treatment 11% (WJ) or 10% (CC). Conclusion: The newly developed water jet device effectively removes biofilm from rough titanium surfaces in vitro and, in combination with the new CAP device, biologically acceptable surfaces allow osteoblasts to grow. WJ in combination with CAP leads to cleaner surfaces than the usage of curette and cotton swabs with or without subsequent plasma treatment. Our next step will be a clinical pilot study with these new devices to assess the clinical healing process

VoiceS: voice quality after transoral CO2 laser surgery versus single vocal cord irradiation for unilateral stage 0 and I glottic larynx cancer-a randomized phase III trial [study protocol].

BACKGROUND Surgery and radiotherapy are well-established standards of care for unilateral stage 0 and I early-stage glottic cancer (ESGC). Based on comparative studies and meta-analyses, functional and oncological outcomes after both treatment modalities are similar. Historically, radiotherapy (RT) has been performed by irradiation of the whole larynx. However, only the involved vocal cord is being treated with recently introduced hypofractionated concepts that result in 8 to 10-fold smaller target volumes. Retrospective data argues for an improvement in voice quality with non-inferior local control. Based on these findings, single vocal cord irradiation (SVCI) has been implemented as a routine approach in some institutions for ESGC in recent years. However, prospective data directly comparing SVCI with surgery is lacking. The aim of VoiceS is to fill this gap. METHODS In this prospective randomized multi-center open-label phase III study with a superiority design, 34 patients with histopathologically confirmed, untreated, unilateral stage 0-I ESGC (unilateral cTis or cT1a) will be randomized to SVCI or transoral CO2-laser microsurgical cordectomy (TLM). Average difference in voice quality, measured by using the voice handicap index (VHI) will be modeled over four time points (6, 12, 18, and 24 months). Primary endpoint of this study will be the patient-reported subjective voice quality between 6 to 24 months after randomization. Secondary endpoints will include perceptual impression of the voice via roughness - breathiness - hoarseness (RBH) assessment at the above-mentioned time points. Additionally, quantitative characteristics of voice, loco-regional tumor control at 2 and 5 years, and treatment toxicity at 2 and 5 years based on CTCAE v.5.0 will be reported. DISCUSSION To our knowledge, VoiceS is the first randomized phase III trial comparing SVCI with TLM. Results of this study may lead to improved decision-making in the treatment of ESGC. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04057209. Registered on 15 August 2019. Cantonal Ethics Committee KEK-BE 2019-01506

Life-history trait variation in a queen-size dimorphic ant

1. Size polymorphism is often connected to alternative life-history traits, which may eventually lead to distinct size classes. In the ant Myrmica ruginodis, larger macrogyne and smaller microgyne queen morphs have been suggested to follow different reproductive strategies, which has presumably resulted in several differences in their key life-history traits. 2. In this study, we examine the association of queen-size morphs with colony queen number (monogyny vs. polygyny), dispersal and queen recruitment patterns, as well as habitat associations of the queen morphs. We do this by sampling established queens from a large number of excavated nests from several populations, estimating genetic relatedness among coexisting queens and pitfall trapping free-ranging wingless queens. 3. Our results show that associations of queen morphs with colony queen number and nest-founding strategy holds only partly. The morph frequencies vary widely across populations from practically pure macrogyne to more than 50% microgyne, but the expected association of macrogyne occurrence with monogyny and microgyne with polygyny is not universal. Dispersal and queen recruitment patterns also show that although most macrogynes participate in nuptial flights and most microgynes are recruited back to their natal nests, a fraction of both morphs use the alternative strategy. 4. The polygynous microgyne morph has been suggested to specialize in stable habitats, but our results from Finnish mesic heath forests do not support this. This study shows that factors other than just queen size also influence life-history trait variation and reproductive strategies in ants.Peer reviewe

Temporal sampling, resetting, and adaptation orchestrate gradient sensing in sperm

© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Journal of Cell Biology 198 (2012): 1075-1091, doi:10.1083/jcb.201204024.Sperm, navigating in a chemical gradient, are exposed to a periodic stream of chemoattractant molecules. The periodic stimulation entrains Ca2+ oscillations that control looping steering responses. It is not known how sperm sample chemoattractant molecules during periodic stimulation and adjust their sensitivity. We report that sea urchin sperm sampled molecules for 0.2–0.6 s before a Ca2+ response was produced. Additional molecules delivered during a Ca2+ response reset the cell by causing a pronounced Ca2+ drop that terminated the response; this reset was followed by a new Ca2+ rise. After stimulation, sperm adapted their sensitivity following the Weber–Fechner law. Taking into account the single-molecule sensitivity, we estimate that sperm can register a minimal gradient of 0.8 fM/µm and be attracted from as far away as 4.7 mm. Many microorganisms sense stimulus gradients along periodic paths to translate a spatial distribution of the stimulus into a temporal pattern of the cell response. Orchestration of temporal sampling, resetting, and adaptation might control gradient sensing in such organisms as well.This work was supported by the German Research Foundation and the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie.2013-03-1