The objective of this pilot study was to determine whether 15 days of dietary supplementation with calcium fructoborate could acutely modulate inflammatory and lipid blood markers in individuals diagnosed with primary osteoarthritis. During 2 weeks, a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind study was conducted on 116 subjects that were initially recruited. Seventy-two subjects started the study, being divided into four groups, and only 60 completed the study as designed. The aim was to compare the effects of calcium fructoborate to placebo on subjects diagnosed with knee primary osteoarthritis. The obtained outcomes were inflammation biomarkers (C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and lipid markers (triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol). No serious adverse events were reported. The calcium fructoborate showed beneficial effect on the inflammatory markers for all groups subjected to the treatment when compared with the placebo group and slight changes in the lipid metabolism. This study suggests that short-term (2 weeks) calcium fructoborate supplementation in patients with osteoarthritis symptoms has a favorable prognosis on inflammation diseases.

In this paper we analyse the running and asymptotic diffusion coefficients of a plasma in the case of zonal flow generation by an anisotropic stochastic electrostatic potential. Both the weak and relatively strong turbulence regimes were analysed. The analysis of the diffusion coefficients in wave vector space provides an illustration of the fragmentation of drift wave structures in the radial direction and the generation of long-wavelength structures in the poloidal direction that are identified as zonal flows. We have shown that the fragmentation of drift wave structures is strongly influenced by the anisotropy parameter, the electrostatic Kubo number and by the initial values of the wave vector.

The decorrelation trajectory method is applied to the diffusion of magnetic field lines in a perturbed sheared slab magnetic configuration. Some interesting decorrelation trajectories for several values of the magnetic Kubo number and of the shear parameter are exhibited. The asymmetry of the decorrelation trajectories appears in comparison with those obtained in the purely electrostatic case studied in earlier work. The running and asymptotic diffusion tensor components are calculated and displayed.

Anisotropy in the magnetic fluctuation spectrum (stochastic anisotropy) and magnetic shear induce variations of global averaged quantities such as the running and the asymptotic diffusion tensors that can be investigated using a semi-analytical method. The study considers ranges for the anisotropy parameter, magnetic Kubo number and shear parameter leading to contrasting dynamical behaviors. In particular, the trapping of the stochastic magnetic field lines is analyzed. An asymptotic 'poloidal' velocity larger for stronger anisotropy is obtained for the wandering of the magnetic field lines for different values of the parameters.

The electron diffusion induced by a two-dimensional electrostatic turbulence, in a sheared slab approximation of the toroidal magnetic geometry, is studied firstly using the decorrelation trajectory method (DCT), secondly by direct numerical simulation. The former semi-analytical method allows us to go beyond the Corrsin approximation, thus allowing for a non-classical analysis of the particle trapping phenomenon. The DCT results are compared to the transport properties of the electrons obtained by numerical simulations assuming an isotropic spectrum of electrostatic drift type turbulence that is Gaussian for small wavevectors and power-law k −3 for large wavevectors. The 'radial' and the 'poloidal' running and asymptotic diffusion coefficients of thermal electrons are obtained for physically relevant parameter values. The existence of enhanced diffusion in the poloidal direction is observed in the presence of magnetic shear. The agreement between the semi-analytical method and the purely numerical method is pointed out.