Asbestos-related diseases are one of the burning public health issues worldwide. The incidence and the epidemiological patterns of malignant pleural mesothelioma in Split-Dalmatian County, where a ...large part of Croatian industry related to asbestos processing and use have been situated were assessed in this study. The history of asbestos-related issues and development of current legislation in Croatia was also discussed briefly. Data on the incidence were collected retrospectively from the medical records of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated at Department of Pulmonary Diseases University Hospital Split during the 2000–2007 period. A total of 137 new cases was recorded with the mean incidence of 3.55/100 000 and the trend was increasing over years compared with 1992–1995 period in the same county when the mean incidence was 1.7/100000. Men accounted for 85.4% of all cases. The mean age of patients was 64.9±15.4 years. The majority of patients were occupationally exposed to asbestos (85.4%), 8.8% had environmental exposure, and 2.2% had domestic exposure. The type of household exposition was in 5.8% of patients. More than half of the cases were exposed to asbestos 31–40 years. The mean length of exposure was 28.87±15.63 years. The incidence of malignant pleural mesothelioma in Split-Dalmatian County has been obviously increasing due to the predominantly occupational exposure and it is reasonable to assume that it will remain high in the next two –three decades and to be a reason for concern and fear among the general population.
The aim of this study is to find dialysis relevant sonographic parameters of painful shoulder of the symptomatic dialyzed patients comparing them with parameters in asymptomatic dialyzed patients and ...healthy volunteers. Significant difference in all metric parameters (thickness of supraspinatus tendon, diameter of biceps tendon sheet and capsula-bone distance) were noticed between all groups and the symptomatic had the highest values. Asymptomatic had the higher values then volunteers. Inhomogenicity of the tendon and biceps tendon sheet effusion in the symptomatic patients were the most often occurred. Subdeltoid effusion, deposits and tendon rupture were found only in symptomatic patients. No difference in presence of calcifications between symptomatic and asymptomatic was found. Metric parameters are relevant and associated with dialysis, as well as biceps tendon effusion tendon inhomogenicity, deposits and subdeltoid effusion. Tendon ruptures are relatively rare and nonspecific.
Tetratopic porphyrin-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) represent a particularly interesting subclass of zirconium MOFs due to the occurrence of several divergent topologies. Control over the ...target topology is a demanding task, and reports often show products containing phase contamination. We demonstrate how mechanochemistry can be exploited for controlling the polymorphism in 12-coordinated porphyrinic zirconium MOFs, obtaining pure hexagonal PCN-223 and cubic MOF-525 phases in 20–60 min of milling. The reactions are mainly governed by the milling additives and the zirconium precursor. In situ monitoring by synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction revealed that specific reaction conditions resulted in the formation of MOF-525 as an intermediate, which rapidly converted to PCN-223 upon milling. Electron spin resonance measurements revealed significant differences between the spectra of paramagnetic centers in two polymorphs, showing a potential of polymorphic Zr-MOFs as tunable supports in spintronics applications.
Dialysis related amyloidosis is the accumulation and deposition of P2-microglobulin derived fibrils in bones and joints, due to insufficient elimination during therapy or slowly progressing renal ...failure. The aim of this Study was to analyse biochemical, morphologic and anamnestic parameters that may be relevant for the onset and developement of dialysis related amyloidosis. In addition to standard statistical procedures, we also applied the machine-learning based methods of data mining to quantify the risk factors for asymptomatic patients. Extraction of risk factors for the onset of the dialysis related amyloidosis syndrome could enable the clinician to predict the symptoms and consider medical procedures to prevent the onset of the disease. The C4.5 machine learning algorithm extracted a simple and highly accurate tree for discrimination of asymptomatic and symptomatic patients suffering from dialysis related amyloidosis. It remains an open question if our findings may contribute to the problem of accurately predicting the onset of dialysis related arthropathy in the asymptomatic patient group.
The Resonant Recognition Model (RRM) of protein bioactivity is applied to the protein secondary structure prediction. The method is based on the physical and mathematical model of the electron-ion ...interaction pseudopotential (EIIP) and uses signal analysis to interpret linear information contained in a macromolecular sequence. The method of analysis is based on a two-step procedure. Protein sequence is first transformed into a numerical series by means of the individual EIIP amino acid values. The second step of the model involves the Fourier spectral analysis of the obtained numerical series. Ćosić et al.1-8 have shown that single frequency peaks of the spectrum define characteristic positions of the amino acids, i.e., hot spots, correlated to the biological function of the protein. We have analysed the secondary protein structure by comparing the patterns of 20 most prominent frequency peaks of the single-series Fourier RRM periodogram. The patterns within 140 nonhomologous a- and p-protein folds obtained from the Jpred and SCOP databases were analysed by means of the classification tree in order to obtain the algorithm for the α- and β-fold classification.
This quick and simple procedure of the secondary fold prediction showed high accuracy of 98.55%. The stability of the tree algorithm solution was confirmed by jack-knife testing of the tree algorithm (mean error 2.6). This method of the secondary structure prediction is presented in more detail on a subset of 30 different cytokines, hormones, enzymes and viral proteins. Our results indicate that resonant spectral analysis of the protein primary amino acid sequence may be used to extract information about its secondary structure.
This research underlines the potential of employing emulsion/internal gelation encapsulation in alginate and pectin hydrogels for the simultaneous delivery of hydrophilic (polyphenols from dandelion ...(Taraxacum officinalis L.) extract) and lypophilic (β-carotene) compounds. The approach of reinforcing alginate and pectin hydrogels by whey proteins and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as the carriers for the design of microencapsulated delivery systems was also evaluated. Comprehensive characterization of the morphological properties, particle size, encapsulation efficiency, interactions and release in gastrointestinal conditions was achieved. A simple and effective procedure based on the ionic gelation of emulsions for microencapsulation of polyphenols and β-carotene was developed, allowing formulation of micro-sized particles ranging ≤800 μm, which retained their spherical morphological properties upon drying. Incorporation of whey proteins and HPMC in the alginate gel contributed to better encapsulation parameters i.e. the morphological properties and encapsulation efficiency in relation to plain alginate particles. The combination of alginate with whey proteins as the carrier matrix arised as the optimal delivery system, owing to its regular, spherical shape, high encapsulation efficiency of total polyphenols (77,35%) and very good retention of hydroxycinnamic acids (89,14%), while the binary mixture of alginate and HPMC as the carrier enabled the best (prolongued) release profile of these compounds from the formulated microparticles in simulated gastrointestinal fluids.
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•Microencapsulation procedure by ionic gelation of emulsions established.•Simultaneous entrappment of polyphenols and ß-carotene achieved.•Reinforcement with whey proteins preserved microbead’s spherical properties.•Higher encapsulation efficiency of hydroxycinnamic acids observed.•Alginate in combination with whey proteins - the optimal carrier system.
Due to endothelial impairment, high-dose lithium may produce an occlusive-like syndrome, comparable to permanent occlusion of major vessel-induced syndromes in rats; intracranial, portal, and caval ...hypertension, and aortal hypotension; multi-organ dysfunction syndrome; brain, heart, lung, liver, kidney, and gastrointestinal lesions; arterial and venous thrombosis; and tissue oxidative stress. Stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 may be a means of therapy via activating loops (bypassing vessel occlusion) and counteracting major occlusion syndromes. Recently, BPC 157 counteracted the lithium sulfate regimen in rats (500 mg/kg/day, ip, for 3 days, with assessment at 210 min after each administration of lithium) and its severe syndrome (muscular weakness and prostration, reduced muscle fibers, myocardial infarction, and edema of various brain areas). Subsequently, BPC 157 also counteracted the lithium-induced occlusive-like syndrome; rapidly counteracted brain swelling and intracranial (superior sagittal sinus) hypertension, portal hypertension, and aortal hypotension, which otherwise would persist; counteracted vessel failure; abrogated congestion of the inferior caval and superior mesenteric veins; reversed azygos vein failure; and mitigated thrombosis (superior mesenteric vein and artery), congestion of the stomach, and major hemorrhagic lesions. Both regimens of BPC 157 administration also counteracted the previously described muscular weakness and prostration (as shown in microscopic and ECG recordings), myocardial congestion and infarction, in addition to edema and lesions in various brain areas; marked dilatation and central venous congestion in the liver; large areas of congestion and hemorrhage in the lung; and degeneration of proximal and distal tubules with cytoplasmic vacuolization in the kidney, attenuating oxidative stress. Thus, BPC 157 therapy overwhelmed high-dose lithium intoxication in rats.
Genetic discoveries and technological advances have been changing nursing care delivery, which modifies the roles and practices of nursing in society. Although the need for education of nurses in the ...field of genomics has been recognized in the 1960s, many countries still have no clear guidelines in this field of education and training. The purpose of this study was to evaluate current genomics content in the curriculum of undergraduate and graduate programs of studies in nursing in Croatia, and to measure the genomic literacy of Croatian undergraduate nursing students through assessing participants' understanding of genomic concepts most critical to nursing practice. The curriculum of undergraduate and graduate programs of nursing classes of 2020/2021 were independently analyzed by the authors. For measuring the knowledge of essential genomic concepts among nurses, a Genomic Nursing Concept Inventory (GNCI
) instrument was employed. Results indicate that the current genomics content, for undergraduate and graduate nursing programs in Croatia, is inadequate and not concordant among universities. Moreover, the genomic literacy of Croatian undergraduate students (Undergraduate program 10) was found to be low. Scores across respondents ranged from 3 to 22 (out of possible 31), with a mean scale score 9.8 (SD 5.3) (31.6% correct). We can conclude that the curriculum for undergraduate and graduate programs of Studies in nursing should be revised to implement the latest genomic practices and approaches to genomics education while nurses should acquire an adequate level of genomic literacy in order to produce desired outcomes of competency in nursing practice.
We revealed the therapy effect of the stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 (10 μg/kg, 10 ng/kg ig or po) with specific activation of the collateral rescuing pathways, the azygos vein, on bile duct ...ligation in particular, and acute pancreatitis as local disturbances (i.e., improved gross and microscopy presentation, decreased amylase level). Additionally, we revealed the therapy’s effect on the acute pancreatitis as vascular failure and multiorgan failure, both peripherally and centrally following “occlusion-like” syndrome, major intoxication (alcohol, lithium), maintained severe intra-abdominal hypertension, and myocardial infarction, or occlusion syndrome, and major vessel occlusion. The application-sacrifice periods were ligation times of 0–30 min, 0–5 h, 0–24 h (cured periods, early regimen) and 4.30 h–5 h, 5 h–24 h (cured periods, delayed regimen). Otherwise, bile duct-ligated rats commonly presented intracranial (superior sagittal sinus), portal and caval hypertension and aortal hypotension, gross brain swelling, hemorrhage and lesions, heart dysfunction, lung lesions, liver and kidney failure, gastrointestinal lesions, and severe arterial and venous thrombosis, peripherally and centrally. Unless antagonized with the key effect of BPC 157 regimens, reversal of the inferior caval and superior mesenteric vein congestion and reversal of the failed azygos vein activated azygos vein-recruited direct delivery to rescue the inferior-superior caval vein pathway; these were all antecedent to acute pancreatitis major lesions (i.e., acinar, fat necrosis, hemorrhage). These lesions appeared in the later period, but were markedly attenuated/eliminated (i.e., hemorrhage) in BPC 157-treated rats. To summarize, while the innate vicious cycle may be peripheral (bile duct ligation), or central (rapidly developed brain disturbances), or peripheral and central, BPC 157 resolved acute pancreatitis and its adjacent syndrome.
Juniperus L. is a very diverse genus of dioecious or monoecious conifers distributed throughout the Mediterranean region. In addition to the complex taxonomic characteristics of the genus, sexual ...dimorphism leads to sex-specific differences in the morphology of juniper species, which further complicates the delimitation of species. Two of these species, Juniperus oxycedrus L., which occurs in the western part of the Mediterranean, and J. deltoides R.P.Adams, which occurs in the eastern part, have only recently been delimited as separate species. To further support the delimitation of the species, we examined the phenotypic traits of the cones and needles of both species for both sexes. Three populations from the western and three from the eastern part of the Mediterranean region were sampled and a total of 2400 needles, 1200 cones and 1200 seeds were measured and analyzed. Both needles and cones of J. oxycedrus were slightly larger, longer and wider than those of J. deltoides and also less variable. Sexual dimorphism was observed in most of the needle traits measured, with the majority of traits in J. oxycedrus being larger in females than in males. Although sexual dimorphism was confirmed based on needle morphology, no consistent pattern of diversity was observed between the two species. In addition, variability among populations of J. oxycedrus was higher than that of J. deltoides . Our results confirm the previous species delimitation and open the possibility for further exploration of sex-specific differences in adaptability, as well as the potential implications for differential management and conservation of individuals of both sexes.
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