High-resolution ultrasound visualization of the recurrent motor branch of the median nerve: normal and first pathological findings

Purpose To evaluate in a prospective study the possibility of visualization and diagnostic assessment of the recurrent motor branch (RMB) of the median nerve with high-resolution ultrasound (HRUS). Materials and methods HRUS with high-frequency probes (1822 MhZ) was used to locate the RMB in eight fresh cadaveric hands. To verify correct identification, ink-marking and consecutive dissection were performed. Measurement of the RMB maximum transverse-diameter, an evaluation of the origin from the median nerve and its course in relation to the transverse carpal ligament, was performed in both hands of ten healthy volunteers (n=20). Cases referred for HRUS examinations for suspected RMB lesions were also assessed. Results The RMB was clearly visible in all anatomical specimens and all volunteers. Dissection confirmed HRUS findings in all anatomical specimens. Mean RMB diameter in volunteers was 0.7 mm 0.1 (range, 0.61). The RMB originated from the radial aspect in 11 (55%), central aspect in eight (40%) and ulnar aspect in one (5%) hand. Nineteen (95%) extraligamentous courses and one (5%) subligamentous course were detected. Three patients with visible RMB abnormalities on HRUS were identified. Conclusion HRUS is able to reliably visualize the RMB, its variations and pathologies. Key Points Ultrasound allows visualization of the recurrent motor branch of the median nerve. Ultrasound may help clinicians to assess patients with recurrent motor branch pathologies. Patient management may become more appropriate and targeted therapy could be improved.(VLID)354468

Monitoring the ex-vivo expansion of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells in xeno-free microcarrier-based reactor systems by MIR spectroscopy

Human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) have received considerable attention in the field of cell-based therapies due to their high differentiation potential and ability to modulate immune responses. However, since these cells can only be isolated in very low quantities, successful realization of these therapies requires MSCs ex-vivo expansion to achieve relevant cell doses. The metabolic activity is one of the parameters often monitored during MSCs cultivation by using expensive multi-analytical methods, some of them time-consuming. The present work evaluates the use of mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, through rapid and economic high-throughput analyses associated to multivariate data analysis, to monitor three different MSCs cultivation runs conducted in spinner flasks, under xeno-free culture conditions, which differ in the type of microcarriers used and the culture feeding strategy applied. After evaluating diverse spectral preprocessing techniques, the optimized partial least square (PLS) regression models based on the MIR spectra to estimate the glucose, lactate and ammonia concentrations yielded high coefficients of determination (R2 ≥ 0.98, ≥0.98, and ≥0.94, respectively) and low prediction errors (RMSECV ≤ 4.7%, ≤4.4% and ≤5.7%, respectively). Besides PLS models valid for specific expansion protocols, a robust model simultaneously valid for the three processes was also built for predicting glucose, lactate and ammonia, yielding a R2 of 0.95, 0.97 and 0.86, and a RMSECV of 0.33, 0.57, and 0.09 mM, respectively. Therefore, MIR spectroscopy combined with multivariate data analysis represents a promising tool for both optimization and control of MSCs expansion processes

Arms Trade Offsets and Cases of Corruption: The usage of anti-corruption tools in

Because of a lack of transparency and the high complexity of administrative processes, arms acquisition is an area with a high risk of corruption. The aim of this paper is: 1) to provide a typology of cases of corruption in compensatory trade agreements, so called arms trade offsets, that have become integral parts of most arms trades; and 2) to analyze tools possessed by government agencies concerned to prevent or detect corruption. Based on an analysis of all major English-speaking newspaper articles between 1980 and mid-2012, the results show that only a few different types of corruption typically exist in arms trade offsets. Also, the lack of transparency leads to an unusually high amount of questionable allegations. Contrary to most other scholarly articles on corruption, this paper argues that there may be no need for new and stricter anticorruption policies in this area, but that the usage of basic performance management and already existing due diligence tools could be helpful

Momente des Konflikts

Der Zusammenbruch der stalinistischen Regime in Mittel- und Osteuropa, das Ende des Kalten Krieges und die Überwindung der innereuropäischen und globalen Teilung in zwei antagonistische soziale Systeme bedeutete für viele Länder des ehemaligen sowjetischen Blocks eine umfassende Transformation, eine Neuorientierung, die sich sowohl politisch als auch wirtschaftlich und kulturell niederschlug. Polen fand sich im geografischen Zentrum dieser Dynamik des Umbruchs, des politischen Wandels und der ökonomischen Globalisierung wieder, und so zeugt auch die polnische Kunst der 90er Jahre vom Zusammentreffen der postkommunistischen und neoliberalen Strukturen. Wenn man prinzipiell nach 1989 durchaus von Prozessen der Vernetzung und der transnationalen Perspektiven sprechen kann, so sah man gerade in den Bereichen Kunst und Kultur auch einer eigenartigen Zentralisierung entgegen, deren Ausgangspunkt die Erfolge der westlichen Moderne waren: die neuen Medien und die Ästhetik der Werbe- und Popkultur. Gleichzeitig bedeutete diese häufig mit den Begriffen des postkolonialen Diskurses als „kulturelle Neokolonisierung“ beschriebene Situation aber auch eine verstärkte Besinnung auf die eigene Kultur. Und so begannen die polnischen KünstlerInnen, sich neben der Konfrontation mit den Angeboten der Moderne auch mit den „kulturellen Eigenheiten“ und der nationalen Identität auseinanderzusetzen. Die Prozesse der Demokratisierung, die gesellschaftspolitischen Strukturen und religiösen Konstrukte und die Fragen nach Medialität und Körperlichkeit standen dabei im Zentrum ihres Interesses. Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die polnische kritische Kunst der 90er Jahre, als welche sie heute bezeichnet wird, unter dem Aspekt des Religiösen. Denn der polnische Katholizismus war – als Antithese zur Ideologie der liberalen Gesellschaften des „freien Westens“ – nach 1989 nicht nur ein gerne verwendetes Motiv der künstlerischen Auseinandersetzungen, sondern spielt seit jeher und noch immer eine zentrale Rolle im gesellschaftlichen, politischen und kulturellen Leben Polens.After the collapse of the Stalinist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, which ended the Cold War and overcame the division of Europe and the world into two antagonistic systems, many countries in the former Soviet bloc underwent a profound transformation, a reorientation that entailed political as well as economic and cultural consequences. Poland found itself at the geographic center of this revolutionary dynamic, of political change and economic globalization, and the Polish art of the 1990s accordingly attests to the collision of post-communist and neoliberal structures. If we can describe the era after 1989 as generally shaped by the formation of networks and transnational perspectives, actors in the fields of art and culture also found themselves challenged by a strange form of centralization, one based on the accomplishments of Western modernism: the new media and the aesthetics of advertising and pop culture. At the same time, this situation, often described in the terms of the discourse of postcolonialism as a “cultural neo-colonization,” also led to a growing awareness of and interest in these countries’ own cultures. While confronting what modernity had to offer, Polish artists accordingly also initiated a critical examination of their country’s “cultural idiosyncrasies” and national identity. Of central interest were the processes of democratization, sociopolitical structures and religious constructs, and questions of mediality and corporeality. The present study examines Polish critical art of the 1990s, as it is called today, from a perspective focused on the religious aspect. For Polish Catholicism, as an antithesis to the ideology of the liberal societies of the “Free Western World,” became not only a frequently used motif in artistic contentions after 1989; it has also historically played—and continues to play—a central role in the country’s social, political, and cultural life

Nanolithography : status and challenges

With the help of immersion lithography and multiple patterning, photolithography has been the key technology over the last decade in manufacturing of ICs, microchips and MEMS devices. Continuous rapid shrinking of feature size made the authorities to seek alternative patterning methods that can go beyond classic photographic limits. Some promising techniques have been proposed as next generation lithography and further technological progress are required to make them significant and reliable to meet the current demand. EUVL is considered as the main candidate for sub-10 nm manufacturing because of its process simplicity and reduced operating cost. Remarkable progress in EUVL has been made and the tools will be available for commercial operation soon. EBL, FIB and X-ray lithography are used for patterning in R&D, mask/mold fabrication and low volume chip design. DSA have already been realized in lab and further effort will be needed to make it as NGL solution. NIL has emerged attractively due to its simple process-steps, high-throughput, high-resolution and low cost and become one of the commercial platforms for nanofabrication

DISEGNARE IL VISSUTO LINGUISTICO: LE METAFORE DEL CORPO NEI RITRATTI LINGUISTICI

Questo studio indaga le dimensioni emotive ed esperienziali dei repertori linguistici individuali nel contesto sociale multilingue dell’Alto Adige. Utilizzando il metodo del ritratto linguistico, analizziamo una collezione di ritratti creati da giovani studenti nell’ambito del progetto “RepertoirePluS” (Eurac Research), insieme alle loro conversazioni sui ritratti. La nostra analisi si basa sul concetto di Spracherleben proposto da Busch (2017), che enfatizza gli aspetti emotivi ed esperienziali dell’uso della lingua. Esaminiamo come gli studenti utilizzino le metafore del corpo per rappresentare le loro percezioni di sé e degli altri e come esprimano le emozioni che sorgono nell’interazione e che sono inscritte e si inscrivono nel corpo. La nostra analisi dimostra l’importanza dei metodi linguistico-biografici e visivi nel catturare gli aspetti emotivi ed esperienziali dell’uso della lingua, e forniscono spunti sul rapporto tra lingua, identità ed emozione in contesti multilingui.   Drawing the linguistic experience: body metaphors in linguistic portraits   This study investigates the emotional and experiential dimensions of individual linguistic repertoires within the multilingual social context of Alto Adige. Using the linguistic portrait method, we analyze a collection of portraits created by young students as part of the “RepertoirePluS” project (Eurac Research), along with their conversations about the portraits. Our analysis is based on the concept of Spracherleben proposed by Busch (2017), which emphasizes the emotional and experiential aspects of language use. We examine how students use body metaphors to represent their perceptions of themselves and others, and how they express the emotions that arise during interaction and are stored in the body. Our findings demonstrate the importance of linguistic-biographical and visual methods in capturing the emotional and experiential aspects of language use, and provide insights into the relationship between language, identity, and emotion in multilingual contexts

Mesenchymal stromal cells induce regulatory T cells via epigenetic conversion of human conventional CD4 T cells in vitro.

Regulatory T cells (Treg) play a critical role in immune tolerance. The scarcity of Treg therapy clinical trials in humans has been largely due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient Treg numbers. We performed a preclinical investigation on the potential of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to expand Treg in vitro to support future clinical trials. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors were cocultured with allogeneic bone marrow-derived MSCs expanded under xenogeneic-free conditions. Our data show an increase in the counts and frequency of CD4+ CD25high Foxp3+ CD127low Treg cells (4- and 6-fold, respectively) after a 14-day coculture. However, natural Treg do not proliferate in coculture with MSCs. When purified conventional CD4 T cells (Tcon) are cocultured with MSCs, only cells that acquire a Treg-like phenotype proliferate. These MSC-induced Treg-like cells also resemble Treg functionally, since they suppress autologous Tcon proliferation. Importantly, the DNA methylation profile of MSC-induced Treg-like cells more closely resembles that of natural Treg than of Tcon, indicating that this population is stable. The expression of PD-1 is higher in Treg-like cells than in Tcon, whereas the frequency of PDL-1 increases in MSCs after coculture. TGF-β levels are also significantly increased MSC cocultures. Overall, our data suggest that Treg enrichment by MSCs results from Tcon conversion into Treg-like cells, rather than to expansion of natural Treg, possibly through mechanisms involving TGF-β and/or PD-1/PDL-1 expression. This MSC-induced Treg population closely resembles natural Treg in terms of phenotype, suppressive ability, and methylation profile

Do homogeneous brand associations benefit the brand?

Brand associations have been linked to brand response in numerous ways. Much research has focused on the number, valence and uniqueness of brand associations. This paper focuses on another association facet which managerially-oriented brand literature frequently highlights as a sign of brand strength: Brand consensus, that is, the degree to which people elicit the same associations when confronted with a brand. We introduce two meaningful operationalizations of consensus (group- and individual-level) and discuss and test the link between consensus and brand response. Our results, which are based on a large-scale study for an international luxury brand, show that for individual consumers high levels of brand consensus tend to foster positive brand response whereas for a group as a whole too much brand consensus tends to be detrimental

Sprachenrepertoires und Mehrsprachigkeitskompetenzen im Sprachendorf aktivieren

Aufbauend auf aktuellen Entwicklungen in der Mehrsprachigkeitsforschung und -didaktik zeigt dieser Beitrag, wie Sprachenrepertoires und Mehrsprachigkeitskompetenzen in einem didaktischen Szenario erhoben, beschrieben und aktiviert werden können. Dieses als Sprachendorf konzipierte Szenario enthält fünf mehrsprachige Stationen, an denen SchülerInnen in mehr als zehn Arbeitssprachen verschiedene Aufgaben- bzw. Problemstellungen bewältigen. Auf der Grundlage von Daten aus dem Südtiroler Forschungsprojekt RepertoirePluS (2016–2019) beantwortet unser Beitrag folgende Fragen: Wie ist ein mehrsprachiges Sprachendorf konzipiert? Wie kann man es zur Aktivierung von Sprachenrepertoires einsetzen? Welche Mehrsprachigkeitskompetenzen kann man im Rahmen des Sprachendorfs erheben? Wie lässt sich ein Sprachendorf auch im schulischen Kontext zur Förderung der Mehrsprachigkeit aller SchülerInnen und ihrer gesamten Sprachenrepertoires integrieren?Building on current developments in multilingualism research and didactics, our contribution aims to show how language repertoires and multilingual competence can be collected, described and activated in a didactic scenario. This scenario, which was conceived as a ‘language village’, contains five multilingual stations at which pupils cope with different tasks and problems in more than ten working languages. On the basis of data from the South Tyrolean project RepertoirePluS (2016–2019), our contribution will answer the following questions: How is a multilingual ‘language village’ conceived? How can it be used to activate language repertoires? Which multilingual competencies can be surveyed within the framework of the ‘language village’? How can a ‘language village’ also be integrated in a school context to promote the multilingualism of all pupils and their entire language repertoires