Effects of a mixture of growth factors and proteins on the development of the osteogenic phenotype in human alveolar bone cell cultures

Strategies to promote bone repair have included exposure of cells to growth factor (GF) preparations from blood that generally include proteins as part of a complex mixture. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of such a mixture on different parameters of the development of the osteogenic phenotype in vitro. Osteoblastic cells were obtained by enzymatic digestion of human alveolar bone and cultured under standard osteogenic conditions until subconfluence. They were subcultured on Thermanox coverslips up to 14 days. Treated cultures were exposed during the first 7 days to osteogenic medium supplemented with a GFs + proteins mixture containing the major components found in platelet extracts [plate I et-derived growth factor-BB, transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1, TGF-beta 2, albumin, fibronectin, and thrombospondin] and to osteogenic medium alone thereafter. Control cultures were exposed only to the osteogenic medium. Treated cultures exhibited a significantly higher number of adherent cells from day 4 onward and of cycling cells at days 1 and 4, weak alkaline phosphatase (ALP) labeling, and significantly decreased levels of ALP activity and mRNA expression. At day 14, no Alizarin red-stained nodular areas were detected in cultures treated with GFs + proteins. Results were confirmed in the rat calvaria-derived osteogenic cell culture model. The addition of bone morphogenetic protein 7 or growth and differentiation factor 5 to treated cultures upregulated Runx2 and ALP mRNA expression, but surprisingly, ALP activity was not restored. These results showed that a mixture of GFs + proteins affects the development of the osteogenic phenotype both in human and rat cultures, leading to an increase in the number of cells, but expressed a less differentiated state.

The play of identities in Cypriot-Australian family storytelling

This article adopts a microanalytic approach to examine storytelling as a co-construction by family members in a Cypriot-Australian family. Previous studies on family storytelling have focused on the various roles of family members in storytelling with a means of studying family socialization (Miller et al., 1990; Ochs & Taylor, 1992; Blum-Kulka, 1997). These studies used critical discourse analysis, socioculturel theories, performance and pragmatic approaches to storytelling. This article offers a distinctive approach to family storytelling by examining the discourse and social identities that family members display during the storytelling. The data originate in a study that involves interviews with three generations of Greek-Australian and Cypriot-Australian women regarding their relationships with each other. In this paper we investigate the contributions of the father and the daughters in the course of the mother's turn at storytelling. The first part of the analysis focuses on the husband's discourse identities as a contributor, initiator and elicitor of his wife's storytelling. During the storytelling we also observe the production and exchange of different social identities between the husband and the mother, such as the 'unwilling suitor', the 'embarrassed schoolgirl' or the 'forceful but teasing husband'. The second part describes how the daughters take part in their mother's storytelling, producing a variety of identities such as the 'impatient mother', the 'complaining', 'happy', or 'good' mothers and daughters. These investigations succinctly illustrate how narratives become a resource for members' 'display' and 'play' of identities. Copyright ©2002, John Benjamins B.V.

Migrations, Exils Et Reconfigurations Identitaires Dans Aaron D'yves Thériault Et L'espérance Macadam, De Gisèle Pineau

Utilisant à la fois la méthodologie des études littéraires et celle des études culturelles, le présent travail se propose de délimiter, dans les romans L'Espérance Macadam de l'Antillaise Gisèle Pineau et Aaron du Québécois Yves Thériault, la problématique de la migration et de l'exil ainsi que la conséquente rencontre des cultures à l'origine à la trans-culturalité, en mettant en évidence de nouvelles approches qui rompent avec les paradigmes ethnocentriques et en signalant de nouveaux pactes sociaux qui fondent une culture de la paix entre les hommes.

New tendencies on intercultural communication

18th SPACE Annual Conference and EURASHE-SEPHE Seminar 21-24 March 2007 Thursday 22 March 2007

Écrire à l' université: jeux et enjeux didactiques

Nous présentons, dans cette communication, les resultats d'une étude menée dans le cours d'expression orale et écrite dispensé en premier année à l'Escola Superior de Educação de Lisbonne.

Pour une approche contrastive du présent simple en français et en portugais

Les temps du passé ont toujours constitué une pierre d’achoppement aussi bien dans l’enseignement du français aux étudiants lusophones que dans celui du portugais aux francophones. Le flot continu d’articles sur ce sujet attesterait, à lui seul, la difficulté du problème. Mais aussi étonnant que cela puisse paraître, il n’existe à ce jour aucune étude systématique qui aborde sur une base théorique le présent simple dans le passage du français vers le portugais et/ou vice-versa. Or, une telle étude nous paraît une voie de recherche intéressante et fructueuse qui ouvre de nombreuses perspectives de recherche, dont les possibilités d’application, que ce soit au domaine de l’enseignement des langues étrangères ou celui de la traduction, ne sont pas négligeables. Cette réflexion est d’autant plus urgente que l’emploi du présent simple pose de sérieux problèmes aux élèves lusophones plus inexpérimentés. En effet, ces derniers ont parfois beaucoup de peine à trouver les bonnes correspondances du présent simple en portugais. Afin d’aboutir à des conclusions fiables sur les similarités et les divergences entre le français et le portugais quant aux conditions d’apparition et au mode de fonctionnement du présent simple, nous nous attacherons, dans l’étude contrastive qui suit, à examiner des échantillons de textes littéraires français traduits en portugais et des extraits de textes littéraires portugais traduits en français1. Il s’agira essentiellement de montrer, en recourant à la Théorie des Opérations Énonciatives d’Antoine Culioli (Culioli, 1990; Campos & Xavier, 1991; Campos, 1997, 1998, entre autres), par quels moyens linguistiques le portugais exprime les valeurs aspectuo-temporelles associées au présent simple en français.

Brincadeira: marcos temporais e memória

A brincadeira, expressão maior das culturas lúdicas da infância e do saber popular infantil que colora o folclore das crianças e que entre elas constitui prática singular, tem marcos temporais indeléveis que lhe (de)marcaram um tempo e que a memória guardou para sempre. A linearidade que, durante quase todo o tempo antes da chegada da TV, a brincadeira transportou, a revolução das suas práticas que a partir daí se operou e acentuou com a chegada das novas tecnologias da comunicação e informação à vida das crianças e a consequente transformação radical do seu habitus lúdico (da rua para casa e daqui para o quarto) balizam eras distintas de tempos sociais paralelas às que ditaram, consequentemente, a transformação que as artes de e para brincar foram, historicamente, sofrendo. Ao resgatar a brincadeira pela voz das crianças, muitas das vezes expressa pela voz dos adultos que hoje são, faz-se o registo, que neste artigo se guarda, de um pedaço da herança cultural lúdica que foi passando entre as quatro gerações que estudamos qualitativamente a partir de entrevistas grupais feitas em contexto familiar, que serviram de base para o que a seguir fica relatado. A brincadeira e a parafernália que a acompanha fazem parte da história de vida de todos nós e, por isso, a cada um cabe velar para que nunca pereça.

Teamwork and Gendered Work Cultures: The Case of Finland

In this article I focus on women workers’ experiences of transformation from line work to teamworking in Finnish clothing companies in the 1990s and also show what happened after this transformation in the clothing branch. The undertone of it is rather melancholic. Following an initial period of intensive and successful development, clothing work was moved from Finland to countries of cheap labour, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, and even China. In this type of network manufacturing, the development of modern information and communication technologies played a central role. My aim is to present the standpoint of women clothing workers in this process. The main body of the empirical data of my study consists of dialogues with clothing workers, union representatives, supervisors and managers. I also make use of my fieldwork notes, memos and research diaries from three companies over a period of five years. Furthermore, in the background lie the action research material from Scandinavian type work conferences and the survey material of an extensive mail inquiry that covered the whole branch in Finland. My own research started in 1991 as a mail inquiry and then continued as a case study in companies from 1992 to 2000, by employing action research and ethnographic methodologies.

Control of predators in industrial scale microalgae cultures with Pulsed Electric Fields.

This work describes the utilization of Pulsed Electric Fields to control the protozoan contamination of a microalgae culture, in an industrial 2.7m3 microalgae photobioreactor. The contaminated culture was treated with Pulsed Electric Fields, PEF, for 6h with an average of 900V/cm, 65μs pulses of 50Hz. Working with recirculation, all the culture was uniformly exposed to the PEF throughout the assay. The development of the microalgae and protozoan populations was followed and the results showed that PEF is effective on the selective elimination of protozoa from microalgae cultures, inflicting on the protozoa growth halt, death or cell rupture, without affecting microalgae productivity. Specifically, the results show a reduction of the active protozoan population of 87% after 6h treatment and 100% after few days of normal cultivation regime. At the same time, microalgae growth rate remained unaffected. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Group-to-group bidirectional Wi-Fi direct communication with two relay nodes

The current capabilities of mobile phones in terms of communication, processing and storage, enables its use to form autonomous networks of devices that can be used in case of collapse or inexistent support from a communication infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a network configuration of nodes that provides high-speed bidirectional device-to-device communication, with symmetrical data transfer rates, in Wi-Fi Direct multi-group scenarios, without using performance hindering broadcasts. Copyright © 2015 ICST.

Le plurilinguisme dans le roman portugais contemporain (1963- 1983): caractéristiques, configurations linguistiques et énonciatives

THÈSE pour l’obtention du grade de DOCTEUR

Characterization of a new coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species (Staphylococcus pettenkoferi) isolated from blood cultures from a hospitalized patient in Porto Alegre, Brazil

INTRODUCTION: Staphylococcus pettenkoferi was originally isolated and described by Trülzsch et al (2002). In this study, we characterized two isolates of this newly described species. METHODS: Blood cultures were initially processed using the BacT/ALERT® device, and the isolates were initially characterized using the Vitek2 identification system. RESULTS: The initial characterization revealed slow-growing Gram-positive cocci that formed opaque colonies on sheep blood agar. Other phenotypic/genotypic tests were performed. CONCLUSIONS: We would like to emphasize that this new staphylococcus species is phenotypically similar to other CoNS, especially S. auricularis. This could potentially lead to misidentification of these uncommon species.