Africa's World Cup:critical reflections on play, patriotism, spectatorship, and space

Africas World Cup: Critical Reflections on Play, Patriotism, Spectatorship, and Space focuses on a remarkable month in the modern history of Africa and in the global history of football. Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann are well-known experts on South African football, and they have assembled an impressive team of local and international journalists, academics, and football experts to reflect on the 2010 World Cup and its broader significance, its meanings, complexities, and contradictions. The World Cups sounds, sights, and aesthetics are explored, along with questions of patriotism, nationalism, and spectatorship in Africa and around the world. Experts on urban design and communities write on how the presence of the World Cup worked to refashion urban spaces and negotiate the local struggles in the hosting cities. The volume is richly illustrated by authors photographs, and the essays in this volume feature chronicles of match day experiences; travelogues; ethnographies of fan cultures; analyses of print, broadcast, and electronic media coverage of the tournament; reflections on the World Cups private and public spaces; football exhibits in South African museums; and critiques of the World Cups processes of inclusion and exclusion, as well as its political and economic legacies. The volume concludes with a forum on the World Cup, including Thabo Dladla, Director of Soccer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mohlomi Kekeletso Maubane, a well-known Soweto-based writer and a soccer researcher, and Rodney Reiners, former professional footballer and current chief soccer writer for the Cape Argus newspaper in Cape Town. This collection will appeal to students, scholars, journalists, and fans. Cover illustration: South African fan blowing his vuvuzela at South Africa vs. France, Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, June 22, 2010. Photo by Chris Bolsmann.

Carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP); some considerations about pathogenesis and diagnostic strategy, particularly focusing on CUPS pertaining to the Urology

he term "carcinoma of unknown primary" (CUP) defines a malignant condition in which a metastatic cancer is documented in absence of a detectable primary site. It occurs in about 2÷6 % of cancer patients, according to various literature reports. The primary tumor site results indefinable because of several either single or associated factors, even remaining occult at autopsy in 15÷25% of CUP patients. The metastatic spread pattern of CUP is quite unlike that expected for analogous known primary malignancy. For instance, the unknown prostate cancer often metastasizes to the lungs and liver while the its known analogous usually spreads to the bone. Whether certain genetic abnormalities might play a role in determining a CUP condition, it remains undefined. Most CUP are adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, either undifferentiated or differentiated carcinoma, whereas less frequently may be sarcoma, melanoma or neuroendocrine tumor. As CUP diagnostic management is concerned, two opposite approach modalities may be adopted, one, named "shotgun modality", consisting in a multiplicity of examinations aimed at achieving the identification of the primary tumor and the other, a nihilistic modality, by adopting tout court a palliative therapy of the metastatic disease. A reasonable intermediate diagnostic strategy consists in undertaking some procedures with a specific target and low cost/benefit ratio. Selected imaging studies, serum tumor markers, immunohistochemical analyses and genetic- molecular examinations on biopsy material allow sometimes to reach the detection of primary malignancies that might be responsive to a potential treatments. Nevertheless, in spite of recent sophisticated -laboratory and imaging progress, CUP remains a strong challenge in clinical oncology.

Diferencias en los indicadores de rendimiento técnico-tácticos entre ganadores y perdedores en la Women Rugby World Cup 2010

El objetivo del presente estudio fue conocer las diferencias en acciones técnico - tácticas entre equipos ganadores y perdedores en equipos de rugby femenino de alto rendimiento. Se analizaron 30 partidos disputados entre 12 equipos nacionales de la Women Rugby World Cup 2010. Las variables de estudio fueron las conductas relativas a la obtención del balón, el desarrollo del juego, a los reagrupamientos, los puntos marcados, y las faltas reglamentarias. Se realizó un análisis descriptivo e inferencial de los datos (prueba T de Student y análisis discriminate). Los equipos ganadores realizan más ensayos, transformaciones de ensayos, y pierden menos rucks y touches que los perdedores. Estos resultados pueden usarse como valores de referencia para el entrenamiento y el análisis del rendimiento en competición.

Percepción de los residentes sobre el legado de la America's Cup

El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar las percepciones de los residentes sobre el legado de un gran evento deportivo como es la America's Cup (AC) celebrada en Valencia en 2007 y 2010. Se utilizó una encuesta compuesta por una escala de 41 ítems que contemplaban diversos legados positivos y negativos agrupados en seis dimensiones: legado socioeconómico; legado en el desarrollo urbano e infraestructuras; legado en la imagen, política y conocimiento; legado deportivo; legado sociocultural; y legado negativo. Se recogió una muestra de 735 residentes con un error de muestreo ±3.6. Los resultados permitieron identificar tres grupos de residentes con percepciones diferentes hacia el legado de la AC: pesimistas (46.9%), indiferentes (38.4%) y optimistas (14.7%). La mayoría de los ciudadanos entrevistados no se mostraba de acuerdo en que este evento deportivo haya generado legados positivos a nivel socioeconómico, en el desarrollo urbano y las infraestructuras, en el deporte y a nivel sociocultural, mientras que se observaba cierta tendencia al acuerdo en algunos legados negativos. Sólo el legado en la imagen, política y conocimiento adquirido por los residentes mostraba una tendencia positiva para la mayoría de los ciudadanos encuestados.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE BRAZILIAN SOCCER TEAM IN WORLD CUP BY GLOBOESPORTE.COM

Our work in this research is to capture the value judgments in the discourse of the website Globoesporte.com on representing the Brazil National Football Team during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We have checked how the team is overrated by the website, submitted to the editorial line of Globo Organizations which is especially optimistic about the national football. The analysis was based on the relation between the texts and the information we have access to and the theoretical assumptions. It seems obvious for us that, because of the emotional bond with the country, the Brazil National Football Team gets more attention from the website.

High body mass index is not a barrier to physical activity: Analysis of international rugby players' anthropometric data

Recent data indicate that levels of overweight and obesity are increasing at an alarming rate throughout the world. At a population level (and commonly to assess individual health risk), the prevalence of overweight and obesity is calculated using cut-offs of the Body Mass Index (BMI) derived from height and weight. Similarly, the BMI is also used to classify individuals and to provide a notional indication of potential health risk. It is likely that epidemiologic surveys that are reliant on BMI as a measure of adiposity will overestimate the number of individuals in the overweight (and slightly obese) categories. This tendency to misclassify individuals may be more pronounced in athletic populations or groups in which the proportion of more active individuals is higher. This differential is most pronounced in sports where it is advantageous to have a high BMI (but not necessarily high fatness). To illustrate this point we calculated the BMIs of international professional rugby players from the four teams involved in the semi-finals of the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) cut-offs for BMI, approximately 65% of the players were classified as overweight and approximately 25% as obese. These findings demonstrate that a high BMI is commonplace (and a potentially desirable attribute for sport performance) in professional rugby players. An unanswered question is what proportion of the wider population, classified as overweight (or obese) according to the BMI, is misclassified according to both fatness and health risk? It is evident that being overweight should not be an obstacle to a physically active lifestyle. Similarly, a reliance on BMI alone may misclassify a number of individuals who might otherwise have been automatically considered fat and/or unfit.

The STRATIFY tool and clinical judgment were poor predictors of falling in an acute hospital setting

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of the STRATIFY falls tool with nurses’ clinical judgments in predicting patient falls. Study Design and Setting: A prospective cohort study was conducted among the inpatients of an acute tertiary hospital. Participants were patients over 65 years of age admitted to any hospital unit. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) of the instrument and nurses’ clinical judgments in predicting falls were calculated. Results: Seven hundred and eighty-eight patients were screened and followed up during the study period. The fall prevalence was 9.2%. Of the 335 patients classified as being ‘‘at risk’’ for falling using the STRATIFY tool, 59 (17.6%) did sustain a fall (sensitivity50.82, specificity50.61, PPV50.18, NPV50.97). Nurses judged that 501 patients were at risk of falling and, of these, 60 (12.0%) fell (sensitivity50.84, specificity50.38, PPV50.12, NPV50.96). The STRATIFY tool correctly identified significantly more patients as either fallers or nonfallers than the nurses (P50.027). Conclusion: Considering the poor specificity and high rates of false-positive results for both the STRATIFY tool and nurses’ clinical judgments, we conclude that neither of these approaches are useful for screening of falls in acute hospital settings.

Biotribological assessment for artificial synovial joints : the role of boundary lubrication

Biotribology, the study of lubrication, wear and friction within the body, has become a topic of high importance in recent times as we continue to encounter debilitating diseases and trauma that destroy function of the joints. A highly successful surgical procedure to replace the joint with an artificial equivalent alleviates dysfunction and pain. However, the wear of the bearing surfaces in prosthetic joints is a significant clinical problem and more patients are surviving longer than the life expectancy of the joint replacement. Revision surgery is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and has a far less successful outcome than primary joint replacement. As such, it is essential to ensure that everything possible is done to limit the rate of revision surgery. Past experience indicates that the survival rate of the implant will be influenced by many parameters, of primary importance, the material properties of the implant, the composition of the synovial fluid and the method of lubrication. In prosthetic joints, effective boundary lubrication is known to take place. The interaction of the boundary lubricant and the bearing material is of utmost importance. The identity of the vital active ingredient within synovial fluid (SF) to which we owe the near frictionless performance of our articulating joints has been the quest of researchers for many years. Once identified, tribo tests can determine what materials and more importantly what surfaces this fraction of SF can function most optimally with. Surface-Active Phospholipids (SAPL) have been implicated as the body’s natural load bearing lubricant. Studies in this thesis are the first to fully characterise the adsorbed SAPL detected on the surface of retrieved prostheses and the first to verify the presence of SAPL on knee prostheses. Rinsings from the bearing surfaces of both hip and knee prostheses removed from revision operations were analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to determine the presence and profile of SAPL. Several common prosthetic materials along with a novel biomaterial were investigated to determine their tribological interaction with various SAPLs. A pin-on-flat tribometer was used to make comparative friction measurements between the various tribo-pairs. A novel material, Pyrolytic Carbon (PyC) was screened as a potential candidate as a load bearing prosthetic material. Friction measurements were also performed on explanted prostheses. SAPL was detected on all retrieved implant bearing surfaces. As a result of the study eight different species of phosphatidylcholines were identified. The relative concentrations of each species were also determined indicating that the unsaturated species are dominant. Initial tribo tests employed a saturated phosphatidylcholine (SPC) and the subsequent tests adopted the addition of the newly identified major constituents of SAPL, unsaturated phosphatidylcholine (USPC), as the test lubricant. All tribo tests showed a dramatic reduction in friction when synthetic SAPL was used as the lubricant under boundary lubrication conditions. Some tribopairs showed more of an affinity to SAPL than others. PyC performed superior to the other prosthetic materials. Friction measurements with explanted prostheses verified the presence and performance of SAPL. SAPL, in particular phosphatidylcholine, plays an essential role in the lubrication of prosthetic joints. Of particular interest was the ability of SAPLs to reduce friction and ultimately wear of the bearing materials. The identification and knowledge of the lubricating constituents of SF is invaluable for not only the future development of artificial joints but also in developing effective cures for several disease processes where lubrication may play a role. The tribological interaction of the various tribo-pairs and SAPL is extremely favourable in the context of reducing friction at the bearing interface. PyC is highly recommended as a future candidate material for use in load bearing prosthetic joints considering its impressive tribological performance.