Fair ground : festival phenomena : an urban park upgrade and transformation of the Southwest Bank of Wemmer Pan in Johannesburg South

“wherever the human spirit is free, people celebrate. All cultures commemorate what makes them distinctive and worthy in their own eyes. Periodically, a common humanity in us all sets aside the work and worry of everyday life and blossoms into festivity, sometimes even in the face of cultural domination and economic deprivation.” (Rinzler & Seitel, 1982, p.7) Various cultures exist and the display of specifi c group’s values, traditions and crafts in the form of an event becomes the ‘exciting experience’ longed for by the inhabitants of the city who crave an outlet from the everyday pressures and routine of life, desire a sense of belonging, want to express their suppressed desires or share an interest in the ideals or products being portrayed. These events require space, of various nature and size, which facilitate its range of needs from culturally relevant locations to necessary features. Globally, the urban setting has proved to be ideal when computing these space requirements and municipalities are going out of their way to create or maintain spaces to host these events for the wealth of social, spatial and economic stimulation they hold

A wearable proprioceptive stabilizer for rehabilitation of limb and gait ataxia in hereditary cerebellar ataxias: a pilot open-labeled study

The aim of this pilot study is to test the feasibility and effectiveness of a wearable proprioceptive stabilizer that emits focal mechanical vibrations in patients affected by hereditary cerebellar ataxias. Eleven adult patients with a confirmed genetic diagnosis of autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia or Friedreich's ataxia were asked to wear an active device for 3 weeks. Assessments were performed at baseline, after the device use (T1), and 3 weeks after (T2). SARA, 9-HPT, PATA, 6MWT, and spatial and temporal gait parameters, measured with a BTS-G-Walk inertial sensor, were used as study endpoints. As expected, no adverse effects were reported. Statistically significant improvements in SARA, 9HPT dominant hand, PATA test, 6MWT, cadence, length cycle, support right/cycle, support left/cycle, flight right/cycle, flight left/cycle, double support right/cycle, double support left/cycle, single support right/cycle, and single support left/cycle were observed between T0 and T1. All parameters improved at T1 did not show statistically significant differences a T2, with the exception of length of cycle. This small open-labeled study shows preliminary evidence that focal mechanical vibration exerted by a wearable proprioceptive stabilizer might improve limb and gait ataxia in patients affected by hereditary cerebellar ataxias

Thrombopoietin receptor agonists to control immune thrombocytopenia in patients with active lymphoma

Primary immune thrombocytopenia (pITP) is characterized by isolated thrombocytopenia (platelet count <100 9 109/l) in the absence of other causes or diseases, while secondary ITP (sITP) includes all ITP-like syndromes, associated with other disorders, such as chronic lymphoproliferative disorders (Rodeghiero et al, 2009). Approximately 30% of sITP are present at the diagnosis of a lymphoid tumour or occur during the disease (Liebman, 2007). Diagnosis of sITP in presence of lymphoproliferative disorders may be difficult because many confounding events (i.e. chemotherapy) can variably reduce the platelet count. The increase in bone marrow megakaryocytes, the rapidity of platelet decrease and the absence of previous recent cytotoxic treatments remain the most reliable diagnostic criteria (Visco & Rodeghiero, 2009; Gonzalez-Lopez et al, 2017). A correct diagnosis and an adequate therapeutic approach may prevent life-threatening bleeding and avoid undue toxicity

Prefrontal cortex as a compensatory network in ataxic gait: a correlation study between cortical activity and gait parameters

Purpose: To investigate whether prefrontal cortex (PFC) functioning during ataxic gait is linked to compensatory mechanisms or to the typical intra-subject variability of the ataxic gait. Methods: Nineteen patients with chronic ataxia and fifteen healthy subjects were evaluated. The subjects were requested to walk along a straight distance of 10 meters while PFC oxygenation and gait parameters were assessed. PFC activity was evaluated by NIRO-200 while gait analysis was performed by the SMART-D500. To investigate the intra-subject variability of gait, we calculated the coefficient of multiple correlation (CMC) of the hip, knee and ankle kinematic waveforms furthermore, we evaluated the step width. Results: We observed a positive correlation between PFC bilateral oxygenation changes and the step width (r = 0.54; p = 0.02 for the right PFC, and r = 0.50; p = 0.03 for the left PFC). No correlation was found between PFC activity and CMC of the hip, knee and ankle waveforms. Conclusions: Our results suggest that PFC activity is linked to gait compensatory mechanisms more than to the variability of the joint kinematic parameters caused by a defective cerebellar control

An instrumental approach for monitoring physical exercises in a visual markerless scenario: A proof of concept

This work proposes a real-time monitoring tool aimed to support clinicians for remote assessing exercise performances during home-based rehabilitation. The study relies on clinician indications to define kinematic features, that describe five motor tasks (i.e., the lateral tilt of the trunk, lifting of the arms, trunk rotation, pelvis rotation, squatting) usually adopted in the rehabilitation program for axial disorders. These features are extracted by the Kinect v2 skeleton tracking system and elaborated to return disaggregated scores, representing a measure of subjects performance. A bell-shaped function is used to rank the patient performances and to provide the scores. The proposed rehabilitation tool has been tested on 28 healthy subjects and on 29 patients suffering from different neurological and orthopedic diseases. The reliability of the study has been performed through a cross-sectional controlled design methodology, comparing algorithm scores with respect to blinded judgment provided by clinicians through filling a specific questionnaire. The use of task-specific features and the comparison between the clinical evaluation and the score provided by the instrumental approach constitute the novelty of the study. The proposed methodology is reliable for measuring subject's performance and able to discriminate between the pathological and healthy condition

Estimating minimum adult HIV prevalence: A cross-sectional study to assess the characteristics of people living with HIV in Italy

In 2012, we conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study to assess the number of people living with HIV linked to care and, among these, the number of people on antiretroviral therapy. The health authority in each of the 20 Italian Regions provided the list of Public Infectious Diseases Clinics providing antiretroviral therapy and monitoring people with HIV infection. We asked every Public Infectious Diseases Clinic to report the number of HIV-positive people diagnosed and linked to care and the number of those on antiretroviral therapy during 2012. In 2012, 94,146 people diagnosed with HIV and linked to care were reported. The majority were males (70.1%), Italians (84.4%), and aged between 25 and 49 years (63.4%); the probable route of transmission was heterosexual contact in 37.5% of cases, injecting drug use in 28.1%, and male-to-male contact in 27.9%. Among people in care, 20.1% had less than 350 CD4 cells/μl, 87.6% received antiretroviral therapy, and among these, 62.4% had a CD4 cell count higher than 350 cells/μl. The overall estimated prevalence of individuals diagnosed and linked to care in 2012 in Italy was 0.16 per 100 residents (all ages). Adding the estimated proportion of undiagnosed people, the estimated HIV prevalence would range between 0.19 and 0.26 per 100 residents. In Italy, the majority of people diagnosed and linked to care receive antiretroviral therapy. A higher prevalence of individuals diagnosed and linked to care was observed in Northern Italy and among males. More information for developing the HIV care continuum is necessary to improve the entire engagement in care, focusing on test-and-treat strategies to substantially reduce the proportion of people still undiagnosed or with a detectable viral load