Objective-To examine if unilateral knee injury affects the synovial fluid concentrations of aggrecan fragments, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) fragments, stromelysin-l, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-l (TIMP-1) in the contralateral uninjured knee. Methods-Synovial fluids from the injured and uninjured knees were obtained at different times in a group of patients after unila

Objective. To compare the effect of intraarticular injections of hyaluronan and placebo (vehicle, saline) in patients with knee pain on exertion and with joint cartilage abnormalities. Methods. Fifty-two patients with arthroscopically verified deep cartilage fissures and villus-like flakes in the symptomatic knee were randomly assigned to receive intraarticular injections of 2.5 ml of either hyalu

Aggrecan fragments are released from human joint cartilage matrix into joint fluid after injury and in osteoarthritis (OA). The temporal patterns of release agree with changes in synthesis and degradation of aggrecan found in experimental animal models of OA. However, we are far from being able to use these molecular fragments to monitor human OA. The structures of the aggrecan fragments remaining

Tendon healing and integration of tendon grafts may be site or donor specific. To determine if differences exist in sensitivity to growth factors that have the potential to influence tendon repair, we compared the effect of recombinant human insulin-like growth factor-1 on various types of tendon segments. The dose response effects on proteoglycan, collagen, noncollagen protein, and DNA synthesis

Biochemical markers for osteoarthritis (OA) may serve different purposes. Since markers reflect ongoing dynamic metabolic processes in the joint tissues (cartilage, synovium, bone, etc.), they are most likely to be useful to predict prognosis and response to treatment, to monitor response to treatment, and for disease staging. Markers are currently being used at the research level for these purpos

The Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) is a self-administered instrument measuring outcome after knee injury at impairment, disability, and handicap level in five subscales. Reliability, validity, and responsiveness of a Swedish version was assessed in 142 patients who underwent arthroscopy because of injury to the menisci, anterior cruciate ligament, or cartilage of the knee. The

This article investigates innovations in public diplomacy and nation brands through the example of Sweden's Embassy in Washington, DC, the House of Sweden (HoS). The analysis explores the styles of communication and public outreach made possible by the interaction between its architectural design, brand values and public diplomacy applications. Aimed at practitioners and scholars with an interest

There are many kinds of public diplomacy (PD) currently practiced inEurope. Perhaps the most familiar of these is the national level advocacyand cultural promotion work conducted by foreign and cultural ministries.This chapter explores the PD policies of the “big three” in Europe:France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (UK). Although the UK iswell represented in recent scholarly debates, there are

The new public diplomacy is a major paradigm shift in international political communication. Globalisation and a new media landscape challenge traditional foreign ministry ‘gatekeeper’ structures, and foreign ministries can no longer lay claim to being sole or dominant actors in communicating foreign policy. This demands new ways of communicating foreign policy to a range of nongovernmental intern

This unique collection gathers together important instruments dealing with the relationship between business and a range of topics such as labour rights, security issues, environmental protection, anti-corruption, good governance, poverty alleviation and development, which all have important human rights dimensions. The premise for the collection is that business has both the responsibility and th

The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (‘GPs’) were unanimously endorsed in 2011 in the UN Human Rights Council and also recorded an unprecedented level of stakeholder support. Does this watershed signify a genuine convergence of expectations? Is the GPs’ conceptualization of the corporate ‘responsibility to respect’ (RtR) truly able to persuade and provide that focal point around whi

Low-energy-electron-diffraction (LEED), scanning-tunneling-microscopy (STM), and photoelectron-spectroscopy measurements have been performed on the ordered submonolayer surface reconstructions of Yb on Si(111). Two of these reconstructions, namely, 3×1 and 2×1, have been studied in detail. STM and LEED revealed that what was considered to be the 3×1 reconstruction is actually a 3×2 reconstruction.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been customarily seen as an inherently voluntary corporate endeavour that inhabits the area stretching ‘beyond compliance’ with law. However a growing number of writers and practitioners deem this understanding of CSR inaccurate and unproductive. In this article CSR as ‘beyond compliance’ is questioned from logical, descriptive and normative points of view

In this paper, we present a photoemission study of the interaction of Cu, Ag and Au with clean single-crystal Bi2CaSr2Cu2O8 superconductor surfaces. Both the valence-band and the Bi 5d, O 1s and Sr 3d core levels were monitored for all overlayers. Cu, Ag and Au were deposited as consecutively thicker layers starting with a third of a monolayer and progressing in steps up to a deposition in the ran

The presentation of the United Nation’s (UN) Global Compact (hereinafter “GC” or “Compact”) in a book dedicated to monitoring mechanisms requires an urgent clarification: the GC itself is not a monitoring mechanism meant to deliver corporate accountability. Still, the Compact is an important hub in a broader network of initiatives dealing with responsible business practices and corporate accountab