The impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection on the survival of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related end-stage liver disease (ESLD) is unknown. Because HIV infection is no ...longer considered an absolute contraindication for liver transplantation in some countries, it has become a priority to address this topic. The objective of this study was to compare the survival of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients with decompensated cirrhosis due to HCV. In a retrospective cohort study, the survival of 1,037 HCV monoinfected and 180 HCV/HIV-coinfected patients with cirrhosis after the first hepatic decompensation was analyzed. Of the group, 386 (37%) HCV-monoinfected and 100 (56%) HCV/HIV-coinfected subjects died during the follow-up. The median survival time of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients was 16 and 48 months, respectively (P < .001). The relative risk (95% CI) of death for HIV-infected patients was 2.26 (1.51-3.38). Other independent predictors of survival were age older than 63 years (2.25 1.53-3.31); Child-Turcotte-Pugh class B versus class A (1.95 1.41-2.68) and class C versus class A (2.78 1.66-4.70); hepatitis D virus infection (1.56 1.12-4.77); model for end-stage liver disease score, (1.05 1.01-1-11); more than one simultaneous decompensation (1.23 1.12-3.33); and the type of the first hepatic decompensation, with a poorer prognosis associated with encephalopathy compared with portal hypertensive gastrointestinal bleeding (2.03 1.26-3.10). In conclusion, HIV coinfection reduces considerably the survival of patients with HCV-related ESLD independently of other markers of poor prognosis. This fact must be taken into account to establish the adequate timing of liver transplantation in HIV-coinfected subjects.
Radiochromic film has become an important tool to verify dose distributions for intensity‐modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and quality assurance (QA) procedures. A new radiochromic film model, EBT3, has ...recently become available, whose composition and thickness of the sensitive layer are the same as those of previous EBT2 films. However, a matte polyester layer was added to EBT3 to prevent the formation of Newton's rings. Furthermore, the symmetrical design of EBT3 allows the user to eliminate side‐orientation dependence. This film and the flatbed scanner, Epson Perfection V750, form a dosimetry system whose intrinsic characteristics were studied in this work. In addition, uncertainties associated with these intrinsic characteristics and the total uncertainty of the dosimetry system were determined. The analysis of the response of the radiochromic film (net optical density) and the fitting of the experimental data to a potential function yielded an uncertainty of 2.6%, 4.3%, and 4.1% for the red, green, and blue channels, respectively. In this work, the dosimetry system presents an uncertainty in resolving the dose of 1.8% for doses greater than 0.8 Gy and less than 6 Gy for red channel. The films irradiated between 0 and 120 Gy show differences in the response when scanned in portrait or landscape mode; less uncertainty was found when using the portrait mode. The response of the film depended on the position on the bed of the scanner, contributing an uncertainty of 2% for the red, 3% for the green, and 4.5% for the blue when placing the film around the center of the bed of scanner. Furthermore, the uniformity and reproducibility radiochromic film and reproducibility of the response of the scanner contribute less than 1% to the overall uncertainty in dose. Finally, the total dose uncertainty was 3.2%, 4.9%, and 5.2% for red, green, and blue channels, respectively. The above uncertainty values were obtained by minimizing the contribution to the total dose uncertainty of the film orientation and film homogeneity.
PACS number(s): 87.53.Bn
Forced Mobility of EU Citizens is a critical evaluation from an empirical perspective of existing practices of the use of transnational criminal justice instruments within the European Union. Such ...instruments include the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), prisoner transfer procedures and criminal law-related deportations.
The voices and experiences of people transferred across internal borders of the European Union are brought to the fore in this book. Another area explored is the scope and value of EU citizenship rights in light of cooperation not just between judicial authorities of EU Member States, but criminal justice systems in general, including penitentiary institutions. The novelty of the book lays not only in the fact that it brings to the fore a topic that so far has been under-researched, but it also brings together academics and studies from different parts of Europe – from the west (i.e. the expelling countries) and the east (the receiving countries, with a special focus on two of the jurisdictions most affected by these processes – Poland and Romania). It therefore exposes processes that have so far been hidden, shows the links between sending and receiving countries, and elaborates on the harms caused by those instruments and the very idea of ‘justice’ behind them. This book also introduces a new element to deportation studies as it links to them the institution of the European Arrest Warrant and EU law transfers targeting prisoners and sentenced individuals.
With a combination of legal, criminological, and sociological perspectives, this book will be of great interest to scholars and students with an interest in EU law, criminal law, transnational criminal justice, migration/immigration, and citizenship.
Transnational criminal justice instruments and the management of ‘unwanted’ EU nationals: An introduction
José A. Brandariz, Witold Klaus and Agnieszka Martynowicz
Chapter 1: Foiled Transnational Justice? An exploration on the failures of EU judicial cooperation procedures
José A. Brandariz
Chapter 2: Enhancing social rehabilitation or finding a back door to reduce prison overcrowding? The failed implementation of FD 909 in Italy
Valeria Ferraris
Chapter 3: Transfer for rehabilitation?
Gabriel Oancea and Theodora E.D. Ene
Chapter 4: The meaning of ‘just punishment’ and the role of courts in transnational criminal justice procedures
Witold Klaus
Chapter 5: Judicial cooperation vs. migration control. Critical reflections on the implementation of grounds for refusing the execution of a European Arrest Warrant for residents and stayers: European trends and insights from Italy
Stefano Montaldo
Chapter 6: Is the EAW efficient? Assessment of the European Arrest Warrant procedure based on opinions of Polish criminal justice practitioners
Justyna Włodarczyk-Madejska and Dominik Wzorek
Chapter 7: Abruptly interrupted lives: The effects of executing the European Arrest Warrant procedures on Polish emigrants
Witold Klaus, Justyna Włodarczyk-Madejska and Dominik Wzorek
Chapter 8: Conditional residence - prisons and beyond: how ‘criminality’ shapes uncertain futures in the times of crimmigration
Agnieszka Martynowicz
Chapter 9: Schengen as a European criminal justice instrument – the power of evaluation
Martin Nøkleberg and Helene O.I. Gundhus
José A. Brandariz is a professor of criminal law and criminology at the University of A Coruña, Spain. He is a former associate editor of the European Journal of Criminology (2018-2022) and a former member of the executive board of the European Society of Criminology (2016-2019). He has published some 20 books and 150 journal articles and book chapters, and has been visiting professor and visiting research fellow at various international universities and research institutes, such as Bologna (Italy), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Coimbra (Portugal), Chicago (USA), Freiburg (Germany), Northern Arizona (USA), Pompeu Fabra (Spain), Turin (Italy) and Warsaw (Poland), among others. Prof Brandariz has particularly focused his research on migration enforcement, bordered penality and citizenship issues in the last decade. Having participated in various EU-funded projects, he recently co-coordinated a Spanish team participating in two supranational research actions on EU criminal justice cooperation procedures (2017-2020).
Witold Klaus is a professor at the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences and Head of the Department of Criminology and of the Centre for Migration Law Research. He is also a research fellow in the Centre of Migration Research at the University of Warsaw. He is a lawyer, criminologist, migration researcher and NGO activist. He is a former executive secretary of the Polish Society of Criminology (2008-2018), and serves as editor-in-chief to the oldest Polish criminological journal "Archiwum Kryminologii" (Archives of Criminology). He held scholarships from: the British Academy (UK), the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (currently the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Germany) and the US government. His main areas of academic interests include refugee and immigrant rights, deportation studies, crimmigration, victimology and victimisation of vulnerable groups in society. Currently he leads a project on experiences of Poles deported from the UK and the EU in the aftermath of their contact with criminal justice system (funded by National Science Centre, Poland).
Agnieszka Martynowicz is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Edge Hill University (EHU) in England. She is currently the ‘Features’ editor for Justice, Power and Resistance (journal, Bristol University Press) and a member of the Editorial Committee of ‘Archiwum Kryminologii’ (Archives of Criminology). Dr Martynowicz is a Core Member of the Migration Working Group – North West (EHU) and a long-standing member of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control. Before entering an academic career in 2016, she worked as a researcher and policy officer in a number of statutory and voluntary sector organisations, including the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in Belfast, the Institute for Conflict Research (Belfast) and the Irish Penal Reform Trust in Dublin. Between 2011 and 2016, she worked as an independent research and evaluations consultant, delivering projects with organisations such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the European Prison Litigation Network. She is an author and co-author of numerous publications relating to prisons and prisoners’ rights; migration and migrant rights; ‘crimmigration’, children’s rights, and youth justice.
Covered stent correction of a superior sinus venosus atrial septal defect is increasingly performed as an alternative to surgical repair. While sinus node dysfunction requiring pacemaker implantation ...may be required after surgical repair, this has not been previously reported after covered stent implantation. We reviewed the experience in two interventional centers. Balloon inflation in the superior vena cava was used to confirm the anomalous pulmonary vein drainage would be unobstructed after stent implantation. During balloon testing in 62 consecutive patients, we assessed gradients across the pulmonary vein to left atrium while monitoring the rhythm. We observed the outcomes after covered stent correction in 51 patients. In a single patient, significant bradycardia and pauses developed on repeat balloon testing and the procedure was abandoned without stent implantation. In another patient, there was no sign of sinus node dysfunction during balloon testing but several hours after stent implantation, the patient became symptomatic from sinus bradycardia and pauses and had a pacemaker implanted 3 days later. Over a year later there are some signs of improvement in sinus node function. While sinus node dysfunction has not been described previously during balloon testing or after stent implantation, this report demonstrates for the first time that it may occur. Larger registries are therefore required to monitor for this uncommon complication.
The use of selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) in the biomedical area has been increasing as an alternative to the growing bacterial resistance to antibiotics. In this research, SeNPs were synthesized by ...green synthesis using ascorbic acid (AsAc) as a reducing agent and methanolic extract of
L. flowers as a stabilizer. Characterization of SeNPs was performed by UV-vis spectrophotometry, infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. SeNPs of 40-60 nm and spherical morphologies were obtained. The antibacterial activity of marigold extracts and fractions was evaluated by disk diffusion methodology. The evaluation of SeNPs at different incubation times was performed through the colony-forming unit (CFU) count, in both cases against
,
, and
bacteria. Partial antibacterial activity was observed with methanolic extracts of marigold leaves and flowers and total inhibition with SeNPs from 2 h for
, 1 h for
, and 30 min for
In addition, SeNPs were found to exhibit antioxidant activity. The results indicate that SeNPs present a potentiated effect of both antimicrobial and antioxidant activity compared to the individual use of marigold extracts or sodium selenite (Na
SeO
). Their application emerges as an alternative for the control of clinical pathogens.
The aim of this study is to analyze the properties of a series of polysaccharide composite films, such as apparent density, color, the presence of functional groups, morphology, and thermal ...stability, as well as the correlation between them and their antimicrobial and optical properties. Natural antioxidants such as anthocyanins (from cranberry; blueberry and pomegranate); betalains (from beetroot and pitaya); resveratrol (from grape); and thymol and carvacrol (from oregano) were added to the films. Few changes in the position and intensity of the FTIR spectra bands were observed despite the low content of extract added to the films. Due to this fact, the antioxidants were extracted and identified by spectroscopic analysis; and they were also quantified using the Folin-Denis method and a gallic acid calibration curve, which confirmed the presence of natural antioxidants in the films. According to the SEM analysis, the presence of natural antioxidants has no influence on the film morphology because the stretch marks and white points that were observed were related to starch presence. On the other hand, the TGA analysis showed that the type of extract influences the total weight loss. The overall interpretation of the results suggests that the use of natural antioxidants as additives for chitosan-starch film preparation has a prominent impact on most of the critical properties that are decisive in making them suitable for food-packing applications.
Abstract
Background
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has already affected more than 400 million people, with increasing numbers of survivors. These data indicate that a myriad of people ...may be affected by pulmonary sequelae of the infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate pulmonary sequelae in patients with bilateral COVID-19 pneumonia according to severity 1 year after hospital discharge.
Methods
COVID-FIBROTIC is a multicenter prospective observational cohort study for admitted patients with bilateral COVID-19 pneumonia. Pulmonary functional outcomes and chest computed tomography sequelae were analyzed 12 months after hospital discharge and we classified patients into three groups according to severity. A post hoc analysis model was designed to establish how functional test changed between groups and over time. A multivariable logistic regression model was created to study prognostic factors for lung diffusion impairment and radiological fibrotic-like changes at 12 months.
Results
Among 488 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, 284 patients had completed the entire evaluation at 12 months. Median age was 60.5 ± 11.9 and 55.3% were men. We found between-group differences in male sex, length of hospital stay, radiological involvement and inflammatory laboratory parameters. The functional evaluation of pulmonary sequelae showed that severe patients had statistically worse levels of lung diffusion at 2 months but no between group differences were found in subsequent controls. At 12-month follow up, however, we found impaired lung diffusion in 39.8% unrelated to severity. Radiological fibrotic-like changes at 12 months were reported in 22.7% of patients (102/448), only associated with radiological involvement at admission (OR: 1.55, 95% CI 1.06–2.38; p = 0.02) and LDH (OR: 0.99, 95% CI 0.98–0.99; p = 0.046).
Conclusion
Our data suggest that a significant percentage of individuals would develop pulmonary sequelae after COVID 19 pneumonia, regardless of severity of the acute process.
Trial registration
clinicaltrials.gov NCT04409275 (June 1, 2020)