Hepatocellular adenomas are benign endothelial tumors of the liver, mostly associated with female individual users of estrogen-containing medications. However, the precise factors underlying the ...selective development of hepatic adenomas in certain females remain elusive. Additionally, the conventional profile of individuals prone to hepatic adenoma is changing. Notably, male patients exhibit a higher risk of malignant progression of hepatocellular adenomas, and there are instances where hepatic adenomas have no identifiable cause. In this paper, we theorize the role of the human gastrointestinal microbiota, specifically, of bacterial species producing β-glucuronidase enzymes, in the development of hepatic adenomas through the estrogen recycling pathway. Furthermore, we aim to address some of the existing gaps in our knowledge of pathophysiological pathways which are not yet subject to research or need to be studied further. As microbial β-glucuronidases proteins recycle estrogen and facilitate the conversion of inactive estrogen into its active form, this process results in elevated levels of unbound plasmatic estrogen, leading to extended exposure to estrogen. We suggest that an imbalance in the estrobolome could contribute to sex hormone disease evolution and, consequently, to the advancement of hepatocellular adenomas, which are estrogen related.
Objectives
Down syndrome (DS) is associated with multiple complications, including a high risk of leukemia and thyroid dysfunction. This clinical study aimed to examine the complete blood cell count ...in patients with DS without leukemia or transient abnormal myelopoiesis. We also aimed to evaluate the effect of thyroid dysfunction on hematological anomalies in DS.
Methods
We analyzed the peripheral blood cell count in 23 pediatric patients with DS with and without thyroid dysfunction and in 17 pediatric patients without DS with thyroid dysfunction.
Results
Patients with DS showed greater neutrophilia and lymphopenia than did patients with DS and hypothyroidism and patients with hypothyroidism. Surprisingly, patients with DS showed a significant degree of eosinopenia in the peripheral blood. Interestingly, hypothyroidism had an attenuating effect on different lineages in the complete blood count. However, these anomalies were specific for DS.
Conclusions
Our clinical findings support previous data on DS-associated changes in the complete blood count. Our study also shows novel alterations in the complete blood count in leukemia-free patients with DS in association with hypothyroidism. The attenuating effect of thyroid dysfunction on changes in different lineages in the context of DS is novel and deserves further analysis in larger studies.
Large-scale deployment of renewable energy sources brings new challenges for smart grid management requiring the development of decentralized solutions and active participation of prosumer and ...non-grid-owned assets. Local energy flexibility markets can help in monitoring energy flows, motivate changes in prosumers’ energy supply and demand, achieving local energy balance, and optimization of electricity flows. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based decentralized energy flexibility market enabling small-scale prosumers to trade in a peer-to-peer fashion their flexibility in terms of load modulation concerning the baseline energy profiles. We have defined an energy flexibility token for digitizing the flexibility of prosumers allowing to be traded on the market as an asset and self-enforcing smart contracts for decentralized market operation including functions such as the placement of flexibility bids/offers, trading session management, or energy and financial settlement of energy flexibility transactions. For matching the flexibility bids and offers, a solution based on a greedy heuristic and a bipartite graph is proposed for minimizing the number of flexibility transactions and reducing the blockchain-associated costs, while Oracles are used to assure its secure integration with the blockchain. The blockchain-based flexibility market was validated with the help of the Terni city Distribution System Operator, showing promising results in enabling the self-consumption of renewable energy generated in a small scale urban micro-grid considering live energy monitoring data, and in assuring the local balancing of the demand side in a simulated environment considering many market participants and historical energy data.
As IoT metering devices become increasingly prevalent, the smart energy grid encounters challenges associated with the transmission of large volumes of data affecting the latency of control services ...and the secure delivery of energy. Offloading computational work towards the edge is a viable option; however, effectively coordinating service execution on edge nodes presents significant challenges due to the vast search space making it difficult to identify optimal decisions within a limited timeframe. In this research paper, we utilize the whale optimization algorithm to decide and select the optimal edge nodes for executing services' computational tasks. We employ a directed acyclic graph to model dependencies among computational nodes, data network links, smart grid energy assets, and energy network organization, thereby facilitating more efficient navigation within the decision space to identify the optimal solution. The offloading decision variables are represented as a binary vector, which is evaluated using a fitness function considering round-trip time and the correlation between edge-task computational resources. To effectively explore offloading strategies and prevent convergence to suboptimal solutions, we adapt the feedback mechanisms, an inertia weight coefficient, and a nonlinear convergence factor. The evaluation results are promising, demonstrating that the proposed solution can effectively consider both energy and data network constraints while enduring faster decision-making for optimization, with notable improvements in response time and a low average execution time of approximately 0.03 s per iteration. Additionally, on complex computational infrastructures modeled, our solution shows strong features in terms of diversity, fitness evolution, and execution time.
The antifungal agent, ketoconazole, and the anti-inflammatory drug, piroxicam, were incorporated into matrices of xanthan or oleic acid-esterified xanthan (Xn) and polyurethane (PU), to develop ...topical drug delivery systems. Compared to matrices without bioactive compounds, which only showed a nominal compressive stress of 32.18 kPa (sample xanthan–polyurethane) at a strain of 71.26%, the compressive resilience of the biomaterials increased to nearly 50.04 kPa (sample xanthan–polyurethane–ketoconazole) at a strain of 71.34%. The compressive strength decreased to around 30.67 kPa upon encapsulating a second drug within the xanthan–polyurethane framework (sample xanthan–polyurethane–piroxicam/ketoconazole), while the peak sustainable strain increased to 87.21%. The Weibull model provided the most suitable fit for the drug release kinetics. Unlike the materials based on xanthan–polyurethane, those made with oleic acid-esterified xanthan–polyurethane released the active ingredients more slowly (the release rate constant showed lower values). All the materials demonstrated antimicrobial effectiveness. Furthermore, a higher volume of piroxicam was released from oleic acid-esterified xanthan–polyurethane–piroxicam (64%) as compared to xanthan–polyurethane–piroxicam (44%). Considering these results, materials that include polyurethane and either modified or unmodified xanthan showed promise as topical drug delivery systems for releasing piroxicam and ketoconazole.
EDUCATION FOR CHANGE Anghel, Ona Ionica
Review of Artistic Education,
2021
22
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Specialists in extremely diverse fields draw our attention to a wide range of problems facing humanity, problems that are global, universal, multidisciplinary, with priority: pollution, poverty, ...depletion of natural resources, war in unseen forms of humanity, pandemic, information explosion, etc. What they all have in common is that their dynamics are accelerated. Even if change is a natural phenomenon, a phenomenon that supports evolution and development, starting with the end of the twentieth century and more and more acute today, there is an acceleration of the rhytm of change in all areas of life. Specialists believe that new content is now needed more than ever to provide the information and skills needed to deal with these problems, content that offers new dimensions of education. This paper aims on the one hand to review the paradigms and theories that could build the trunk of education for change (progressivism and prospectivism), and on the other hand, to list and describe the purposes of an education for change, as pedagogues put us in the theme.
2. EDUCATION FOR CHANGE Anghel, Ona Ionica
Review of Artistic Education,
01/2021
22
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Specialists in extremely diverse fields draw our attention to a wide range of problems facing humanity, problems that are global, universal, multidisciplinary, with priority: pollution, poverty, ...depletion of natural resources, war in unseen forms of humanity, pandemic, information explosion, etc. What they all have in common is that their dynamics are accelerated. Even if change is a natural phenomenon, a phenomenon that supports evolution and development, starting with the end of the twentieth century and more and more acute today, there is an acceleration of the rhytm of change in all areas of life. Specialists believe that new content is now needed more than ever to provide the information and skills needed to deal with these problems, content that offers new dimensions of education. This paper aims on the one hand to review the paradigms and theories that could build the trunk of education for change (progressivism and prospectivism), and on the other hand, to list and describe the purposes of an education for change, as pedagogues put us in the theme.
The paper is in line with the development of applications specific to the digitization of medical services in order to improve their quality. The proposed application was designed in compliance with ...the established methodological principles regarding the quality assessment and oriented on a maturity model for the management of clinical data, in particular regarding the preparation, maintenance and transmission of medical records. The validation by simulation of the application proved the usefulness of the solution, the technical quality of the operator interface, the friendly handling, as well as the inclusion in a maturity model that certifies the improvement of the quality of medical services provided through Hospital Information Systems.
•Extraction and concentration of heavy metals in food was investigated.•ICP-OES was used to determine the concentrations of heavy metals in food.•Seafood, tuna, and poultry proved to have different ...capacities of extraction of heavy metals.
The study aims to provide evidence regarding the impact of the extraction of heavy metals into food products through conventional cooking and preserving of foods like seafood, tuna, and poultry. The optical emission spectrometric technique with an inductively coupled plasma source (ICP-OES) was employed to determine trace levels of heavy metals in the muscle tissue of seafood, fish meat, tuna species, poultry, and turkey that was collected raw, cooked, frozen, and preserved. Conventional cooking increased the concentration of some heavy metals (Al, Sn, Fe, Co, Ti, and Mn) by more than 100.00%, while preserving the mussels promoted the extraction and accumulation of metals such as Al, Fe, Sn, Zn, Cu, Hg, and As, resulting in an increase in concentration of more than 180.00%.
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