Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome in Men is Associated with Reduction of Relative Gray Matter Volume in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex Compared to Healthy Controls

Although chronic pelvic pain syndrome impairs the life of millions of people worldwide, the exact pathomechanisms involved remain to be elucidated. As with other chronic pain syndromes, the central nervous system may have an important role in chronic pelvic pain syndrome. Thus, we assessed brain alterations associated with abnormal pain processing in patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome.

Abnormal collagen fibrils in cartilage of matrilin-1/matrilin-3-deficient mice

Matrilins are oligomeric extracellular matrix adaptor proteins mediating interactions between collagen fibrils and other matrix constituents. All four matrilins are expressed in cartilage and mutations in the human gene encoding matrilin-3 (MATN3) are associated with different forms of chondrodysplasia. Surprisingly, however, Matn3-null as well as Matn1- and Matn2-null mice do not show an overt skeletal phenotype, suggesting a dominant negative pathomechanism for the human disorders and redundancy/compensation among the family members in the knock-out situation. Here, we show that mice lacking both matrilin-1 and matrilin-3 develop an apparently normal skeleton, but exhibit biochemical and ultrastructural abnormalities of the knee joint cartilage. At the protein level, an altered SDS-PAGE band pattern and a clear up-regulation of the homotrimeric form of matrilin-4 were evident in newborn Matn1/Matn3 and Matn1 knock-out mice, but not in Matn3-null mice. The ultrastructure of the cartilage matrix after conventional chemical fixation was grossly normal; however, electron microscopy of high pressure frozen and freeze-substituted samples, revealed two consistent observations: 1) moderately increased collagen fibril diameters throughout the epiphysis and the growth plate in both single and double mutants; and 2) increased collagen volume density in Matn1(-/-)/Matn3(-/-) and Matn3(-/-) mice. Taken together, our results demonstrate that matrilin-1 and matrilin-3 modulate collagen fibrillogenesis in cartilage and provide evidence that biochemical compensation might exist between matrilins.

Virtual reality ultrasound imaging of the normal and abnormal fetal central nervous system

OBJECTIVES: In fetal ultrasound imaging, teaching and experience are of paramount importance to improve prenatal detection rates of fetal abnormalities. Yet both aspects depend on exposure to normal and, in particular, abnormal 'specimens'. We aimed to generate a number of simple virtual reality (VR) objects of the fetal central nervous system for use as educational tools. METHODS: We applied a recently proposed algorithm for the generation of fetal VR object movies to the normal and abnormal fetal brain and spine. Interactive VR object movies were generated from ultrasound volume data from normal fetuses and fetuses with typical brain or spine anomalies. Pathognomonic still images from all object movies were selected and annotated to enable recognition of these features in the object movies. RESULTS: Forty-six virtual reality object movies from 22 fetuses (two with normal and 20 with abnormal brains) were generated in an interactive display format (QuickTime) and key images were annotated. The resulting .mov files are available for download from the website of this journal. CONCLUSIONS: VR object movies can be generated from educational ultrasound volume datasets, and may prove useful for teaching and learning normal and abnormal fetal anatomy.

Insular and caudate lesions release abnormal yawning in stroke patients.

Abnormal yawning is an underappreciated phenomenon in patients with ischemic stroke. We aimed at identifying frequently affected core regions in the supratentorial brain of stroke patients with abnormal yawning and contributing to the anatomical network concept of yawning control. Ten patients with acute anterior circulation stroke and ≥3 yawns/15 min without obvious cause were analyzed. The NIH stroke scale (NIHSS), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), symptom onset, period with abnormal yawning, blood oxygen saturation, glucose, body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and modified Rankin scale (mRS) were assessed for all patients. MRI lesion maps were segmented on diffusion-weighted images, spatially normalized, and the extent of overlap between the different stroke patterns was determined. Correlations between the period with abnormal yawning and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in the overlapping regions, total stroke volume, NIHSS and mRS were performed. Periods in which patients presented with episodes of abnormal yawning lasted on average for 58 h. Average GCS, NIHSS, and mRS scores were 12.6, 11.6, and 3.5, respectively. Clinical parameters were within normal limits. Ischemic brain lesions overlapped in nine out of ten patients: in seven patients in the insula and in seven in the caudate nucleus. The decrease of the ADC within the lesions correlated with the period with abnormal yawing (r = -0.76, Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.02). The stroke lesion intensity of the common overlapping regions in the insula and the caudate nucleus correlates with the period with abnormal yawning. The insula might be the long sought-after brain region for serotonin-mediated yawning.

Trading Values in Early Modern Antwerp

In his Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi of 1567, the Italian merchant and humanist Ludovico Guicciardini described Antwerp as the warehouse of the world where all kinds of commodities were traded and displayed. Early modern Antwerp’s pre-eminent position depended upon links between material trade and exchange and the circulation of information, knowledge and beliefs. In this multidisciplinary volume of the NKJ, articles by leading scholars in the fields of art and material culture, literature and history explore ways in which value was propagated in the city from its so-called golden age, before the Revolt of the Netherlands, far into the seventeenth century.

Sino-African State Trading in Services: Added-Value through Angola-Model loaning, GATS commitments or FTAs?

Paper presented by Charlotte Sieber-Gasser at the 5th Annual TRAPCA Conference, Arusha (Tanzania), 25-26 November 2010. Despite the increasing volume of trade between China and African countries, not one single conventional free trade agreement (FTA) or economic partnership agreement (EPA) has yet been signed between an African country and China. Initially, Sino-African trade relations were to a very large extent centred on investments secured through bilateral investment agreements (BITs). The more recent Chinese investments on the African continent, however, are more informally based on FDI contracts with the state at the receiving end and a government-owned private company as the investor, or loosely attached to loans commonly known under term ‘the Angola-Model’. This rather unusual basis for economic integration and development assistance, outside the trodden path of free trade agreements and ODA, requires further analysis in order to understand how the current legal framework between China and the African continent impacts economic development and national sovereignty, and what kind of distributive consequences it may have.