Viabilni i smrznuti transplantat meniska. Rana klinička i radiološka evaluacija

Aim: To perform a clinical and imaging short term evaluation of viable and frozen meniscus allografts. Methods and materials: Between 2005 and 2006, 12 meniscal allograft transplantations were performed in our institution. The study population consisted of 5 men and 7 women with a mean age of 36.4 years (range 17.1-42.5). Six patients received a viable allograft and six a deep-frozen one. All allografts were harvested from donors who died after a short disease. All patients were operated with an open surgical technique (medial or lateral arthrotomy) and soft tissue fixation with secure anterior and posterior horn fixation, performed by one senior surgeon. All patients were scored pre-operatively, at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 1 and 2 years postoperatively. Three questionnaires were used to score the patients clinically (KOOS, modified HSS and SF-36 questionnaire). Every patient received radiographs pre-operatively and at 6 months and 1 year. Results: Clinically, there was no difference in patient self-reported results through questionnaires or in a questionnaire based on clinical examination. There was no significant progress in joint space narrowing on weight bearing and Rosenberg view radiographs. Conclusion: Our results suggest that there are no clinical significant differences between the viable and the deep frozen subgroup after two years.Cilj: Učiniti ranu kliničku i radiološku evaluaciju vijabilnog i smrznutog transplantata meniska. Metoda i materijali: Tijekom 2005. i 2006. godine, u našoj ustanovi izvedeno je 12 alotransplantacija meniska. U studiju je bilo uključeno 5 muškaraca i 7 žena, s prosječnom dobi od 36,4 godina (raspon od 17,1 do 42,5). U šest pacijenata presađen je vijabilni transplantat, u šest duboko smrznuti transplantat. Svi transplantati su dobiveni od davatelja koji su umrli nakon kratke bolesti. Svi pacijenti operirani su otvorenim kirurškim zahvatom (medijalna ili lateralna artrotomija), uz fiksaciju mekih tkiva i fiksaciju prednjeg i stražnjeg roga. Svi pacijenti su evaluirani preoperativno, te 6 tjedana, 3 mjeseca, 6 mjeseci, jednu i dvije godine nakon operacije. Za kliničku evaluaciju bolesnika korištena su tri upitnika (KOOS, adaptirani HSS i SF-36 upitnik). Svakom pacijentu je učinjena rendgenska slika preoperativno, nakon 6 mjeseci i nakon jedne godine. Rezultati: Klinički, nije bilo razlika između rezultata koje su bolesnici samostalno naveli u upitnicima i onih dobivenih temeljem kliničkog pregleda. Rendgenska slika po Rosenbergu nije pokazala značajni pomak u suženju zglobne pukotine pod opterećenjem. Zaključak: Naši rezultati ukazuju na to da nakon dvije godine ne postoje klinički značajne razlike između transplantacije vijabilnog i duboko smrznutog transplantata

A piece of land is a piece of gold: gentrification, value, and material life

The Vietnamese saying, tấc đất tấc vàng, ‘a piece of land is a piece of gold’, used to mean that if you have a piece of land, it would always provide you with enough food to eat. Today, it means that if you own land in the city, you will be rich. These two meanings—land as fertile and abundant, land as a source of profit—point to the contradiction of value in an age of hyper-accelerated real estate speculation. Communities that fight for green parks or community gardens, making their neighbourhood greener and safer, may get displaced as their neighbourhood increases in value—value that they helped to create. What drives this paradox, where people’s everyday activities may lead to real estate profits, which in turn erodes the community of long-term residents? To answer this question, this study explores how people respond to gentrification in the day-to-day—what is here called ‘material life.’ Drawing on research in the cities of Hanoi and Montreal, narrated through people’s foodways—the material and social use of food—I show how poor people facing gentrification turn to material life to survive and resist the process. Gentrification, even if it does not lead to direct displacement, may lead to ‘life displacement’—which cuts across social-ecological relations. I trace how urban elites take advantage of this material life, drawing from community wealth to brand the neighbourhood. I find that the two-faced nature of material life under gentrification—its fecundity and its potential for return on investment—is both a site of extraction and new forms of struggle. Drawing on subaltern urbanism, political ecology, urban geography, and value theory, I argue that gentrification can be understood as a value conflict, where different forms of wealth are struggled over and ultimately sequestered into capitalist value

MIF contributes to Trypanosoma brucei associated immunopathogenicity development

African trypanosomiasis is a chronic debilitating disease affecting the health and economic well-being of many people in developing countries. The pathogenicity associated with this disease involves a persistent inflammatory response, whereby M1-type myeloid cells, including Ly6C(high) inflammatory monocytes, are centrally implicated. A comparative gene analysis between trypanosusceptible and trypanotolerant animals identified MIF (macrophage migrating inhibitory factor) as an important pathogenic candidate molecule. Using MIF-deficient mice and anti-MIF antibody treated mice, we show that MIF mediates the pathogenic inflammatory immune response and increases the recruitment of inflammatory monocytes and neutrophils to contribute to liver injury in Trypanosoma brucei infected mice. Moreover, neutrophil-derived MIF contributed more significantly than monocyte-derived MIF to increased pathogenic liver TNF production and liver injury during trypanosome infection. MIF deficient animals also featured limited anemia, coinciding with increased iron bio-availability, improved erythropoiesis and reduced RBC clearance during the chronic phase of infection. Our data suggest that MIF promotes the most prominent pathological features of experimental trypanosome infections (i.e. anemia and liver injury), and prompt considering MIF as a novel target for treatment of trypanosomiasis-associated immunopathogenicity

MIF-mediated hemodilution promotes pathogenic anemia in experimental African trypanosomosis

Animal African trypanosomosis is a major threat to the economic development and human health in sub-Saharan Africa. Trypanosoma congolense infections represent the major constraint in livestock production, with anemia as the major pathogenic lethal feature. The mechanisms underlying anemia development are ill defined, which hampers the development of an effective therapy. Here, the contribution of the erythropoietic and erythrophagocytic potential as well as of hemodilution to the development of T. congolense-induced anemia were addressed in a mouse model of low virulence relevant for bovine trypanosomosis. We show that in infected mice, splenic extramedullary erythropoiesis could compensate for the chronic low-grade type I inflammation-induced phagocytosis of senescent red blood cells ( RBCs) in spleen and liver myeloid cells, as well as for the impaired maturation of RBCs occurring in the bone marrow and spleen. Rather, anemia resulted from hemodilution. Our data also suggest that the heme catabolism subsequent to sustained erythrophagocytosis resulted in iron accumulation in tissue and hyperbilirubinemia. Moreover, hypoalbuminemia, potentially resulting from hemodilution and liver injury in infected mice, impaired the elimination of toxic circulating molecules like bilirubin. Hemodilutional thrombocytopenia also coincided with impaired coagulation. Combined, these effects could elicit multiple organ failure and uncontrolled bleeding thus reduce the survival of infected mice. MIF ( macrophage migrating inhibitory factor), a potential pathogenic molecule in African trypanosomosis, was found herein to promote erythrophagocytosis, to block extramedullary erythropoiesis and RBC maturation, and to trigger hemodilution. Hence, these data prompt considering MIF as a potential target for treatment of natural bovine trypanosomosis

Empowered, excited, or disenfranchised? Unveiling issues of energy access inequality and resource dependency in The Gambia

The study assesses the impact of energy service provision in The Gambian settlement of Kartong through a qualitative study that employs immersion and mapping methods. In time for the 2013 Ramadan celebrations, the first 19 households are connected to a regional electricity grid. Shortly after a bus service is introduced that runs from Kartong to Banjul, the capital city of The Gambia. It provides a reliable alternative to so-called bush taxis that operate without a set schedule. While the provision of energy services including electricity and transport is recognized as important in supporting people’s livelihoods, it poses questions about a shift from energy self-sufficiency to increased dependency on outside resources. Locally there is also an increased emphasis regarding inequality in accessing these services. For example, grid infrastructure is currently limited to the longer established parts of Kartong, putting households on the edge of the settlement in a disadvantaged position

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l'Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l’Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

The political economy of food banks

The welfare state continues to be eroded in the Global North. In Canada and the U.S., food banks are now one of the only systems of relief available. But in both countries, critics have accused food banks of being apolitical and thus taking away government responsibility to address inequality. The rise of food banks has been linked to the decline of the welfare state, leading to an assumption that an increase in public assistance can end the need for food banks. Yet little research exists that examines how other institutions such as the food industry drove food bank growth, or how food banks are politically active. The history of food banks in Canada presents an informative case study because the state was not directly involved in establishing food banks, thus allowing greater insight into the role of industry in the institutionalization of food banks and their political activity. Using environmental institutions and political ecology frameworks we conducted a literature review and interviews of experts, as well as a case study of one food bank. Our findings suggest that the factors leading to the existence of food banks cannot only be linked to cuts in welfare; rather, the influence of industrial decline and centralization of the food industry must also be taken into account, as well as social movements and the policy gap around food waste. Food banks can be political, using available resources as ‘fuel’ to challenge government failure. The case of Canadian food banks indicates that, to address inequality and food insecurity in the Global North, researchers and policy-makers should not only focus on welfare but need to tackle the cost-shifting practices of the food industry and work toward joined-up and nested food policy institutions. Further, food banks, or organizations that look like them, can help address rising food insecurity if they are provided with sufficient legal, political, and financial support.L'État-providence continue de s’éroder dans le Nord global. Au Canada et aux États-Unis, les banques alimentaires constituent aujourd’hui un des seuls systèmes d’aide disponibles. Mais dans les deux pays, les critiques accusent les banques alimentaires d’être apolitiques et, par cela, d’atténuer la responsabilité des gouvernements d’aborder l’inégalité. a prolifération des banques alimentaires a été reliée au déclin de l’État-providence, ce qui laisse supposer que l’accroissement de l’aide publique pourrait éliminer le besoin des banques alimentaires. Pourtant, il existe peu de recherches qui examinent le rôle des autres institutions – telles que l’industrie alimentaire – dans la croissance des banques alimentaires, ou les activités politiques de celles-ci. ’histoire des banques alimentaires au Canada forme une étude de cas informative : l’État n’a pas joué de rôle direct dans l’établissement des banques alimentaires, ce qui permet un meilleur aperçu du rôle de l’industrie dans l’institutionnalisation des banques alimentaires, et de leur activité politique. Employant des institutions environnementales et des cadres d’écologie politique, on a mené une analyse documentaire, des entrevues avec des experts, et une étude de cas sur une banque alimentaire. D’après nos constatations, l’existence des banques alimentaires ne s’explique pas uniquement par les coupures dans les prestations; il faut plutôt considérer l’influence du déclin industriel, de la centralisation de l’industrie alimentaire, des mouvements sociaux, et des lacunes sur le plan politique concernant le gaspillage alimentaire. es banques alimentaires peuvent être politisées, se servant des ressources disponibles comme ‘fuel’ pour aborder l’échec du gouvernement. e cas des banques alimentaires au Canada indique que, pour aborder l’inégalité et l’insécurité alimentaire dans le Nord global, les chercheurs et les responsables politiques ne devraient pas porter uniquement sur l’aide sociale, mais doivent aussi aborder les pratiques de transfert de couts de l’industrie alimentaire, et travailler en vue d’institutions intégrées et « nichées » de politique alimentaire. De plus, les banques alimentaires, ou les organismes qui leur ressemblent, peuvent aider à aborder le problème croissant de l’insécurité alimentaire, s’ils sont accordé assezd’appui légal, politique, et financier

Effects of duration and intensity of aluminum stress on growth parameters in four rice genotypes differing in aluminum sensitivity

The effects of aluminum (Al) stresses of varying intensities and durations on growth parameters were investigated in four Oryza sativa L. genotypes (two Al sensitive, two Al resistant). Our results support the current opinion that the use of only one parameter cannot easily account for differences in Al resistance, since Al concentration or stress duration can affect plant responses in opposite directions. For short stress duration (40 days) at Al 500 mu M, weight parameters appear to be more discerning than length parameters. Necrosis evaluation is a more reliable criterion for plants maintained for a long time (80 days) in the presence of high Al concentrations (Al 1000 or 1500 mu M)