The bear in Eurasian plant names: motivations and models.

Ethnolinguistic studies are important for understanding an ethnic group's ideas on the world, expressed in its language. Comparing corresponding aspects of such knowledge might help clarify problems of origin for certain concepts and words, e.g. whether they form common heritage, have an independent origin, are borrowings, or calques. The current study was conducted on the material in Slavonic, Baltic, Germanic, Romance, Finno-Ugrian, Turkic and Albanian languages. The bear was chosen as being a large, dangerous animal, important in traditional culture, whose name is widely reflected in folk plant names. The phytonyms for comparison were mostly obtained from dictionaries and other publications, and supplemented with data from databases, the co-authors' field data, and archival sources (dialect and folklore materials). More than 1200 phytonym use records (combinations of a local name and a meaning) for 364 plant and fungal taxa were recorded to help find out the reasoning behind bear-nomination in various languages, as well as differences and similarities between the patterns among them. Among the most common taxa with bear-related phytonyms were Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng., Heracleum sphondylium L., Acanthus mollis L., and Allium ursinum L., with Latin loan translation contributing a high proportion of the phytonyms. Some plants have many and various bear-related phytonyms, while others have only one or two bear names. Features like form and/or surface generated the richest pool of names, while such features as colour seemed to provoke rather few associations with bears. The unevenness of bear phytonyms in the chosen languages was not related to the size of the language nor the present occurence of the Brown Bear in the region. However, this may, at least to certain extent, be related to the amount of the historical ethnolinguistic research done on the selected languages.

Demineralized bone matrix and spinal arthrodesis.

Spinal fusion is a gold-standard treatment for many disorders of the spine with autogenous bone graft as the gold-standard source for augmenting fusion. However, the morbidity and limitations of autogenous bone grafting has motivated the search for bone graft alternatives. One such alternative is demineralized bone matrix (DBM). The purpose of this paper is to describe and characterize the properties of DBM in addition to reviewing the results of its use in animal and human studies of spinal fusion. A thorough and critical review of the English-language literature was conducted. DBM is both osteoconductive and osteoinductive. Studies have produced variable results with respect to spinal fusion rates. Various studies have demonstrated inferior, equal, or enhanced fusion rates. Some of the differences in these studies include the animal models used, the manner in which DBM was prepared, and the carrier with which DBM was combined. These differences may account for the dissimilar results. DBM is able to function as a graft extender in the human species.