bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Prescribing and Dispensing Practices Based on WHO Core Prescribing Indicators in Hospital and Community Pharmacies in Khartoum State - Sudan
Authors: Rabie Dalia , Kheder Salah I.
Published: November 2020

Background
Rational drug management has become an increasingly important topic in order to make optimal use of the drug budget to offer health services of the highest possible standard. It is important that continuous assessment for rational prescribing and use of drug have to be carried. Objective of this study was to gather data on existing drug prescription and dispensing practices and to evaluate the prescribing and dispensing indicators as described by the WHO.

Method
Observational, cross-sectional, prospective study was designed and conducted to evaluate the performance of hospital and community pharmacies in Khartoum state, related to rational drug use and prescribing and dispensing practices during the period from November 2018 to March 2019. 297 Hospital and community pharmacies from public and private sectors were contacted for carrying out this study survey and the collected data were analysed against WHO standards for core drug use indicators.

Results
The average number of drugs per encounter was 3.98 drugs. Hospital pharmacies had a higher (4.18±1.516) number of drugs prescribed than community pharmacies (3.87±1.331) with significance difference between mean of two types of pharmacies (P = 0.015). The percentage of antibiotic per prescription was (53.7%). Antibiotic prescribing was much higher (54.0%) in the hospital pharmacies compared to (48.6 %) in community pharmacies. The average percentage of injections per prescription at the facilities was found to be (57.6%). The percentage of prescription with written diagnosis was (26%.0) and the percentage of prescriptions with written dose was (78%.0). The average dispensing time was (1.75) minutes, The Percentage of drugs actually dispensed was (55.99%), the average adequacy of labelling of drugs was (30.4%). Overall prescribing and dispensing indicators were higher than WHO standard.

Conclusion
The degree of poly pharmacy was greater than of WHO criteria. The completeness and rationality of prescription was found suboptimal and components were missed.
Excess Mortality After Liver Transplantation in Young Women With Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease
Authors: Lee Brian P. , Dodge Jennifer L. , Terrault Norah A.
Published: November 2020

INTRODUCTION:

Young adults with alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) are the fastest increasing demographic contributing to liver-related deaths; their outcomes after liver transplantation (LT) are understudied.

METHODS:

Using the United Network for Organ Sharing registry, we performed sex-specific analyses because of a significant interaction between sex and the explanatory variable, age. Cox regression was used with overall post-LT death as the primary outcome, adjusted for survival characteristics and center clustering. We calculated the absolute difference in adjusted 5-year post-LT survival between patient groups. Causes of death were supplemented by manual review of free-text entries.

RESULTS:

Among 42,014 LT recipients, 16,190 women (2,782 with ALD and 13,408 without ALD) and 25,824 men (9,502 with ALD and 16,322 without ALD), age of 40–50 years had the lowest risk of death. Women with ALD younger than 40 years had incrementally lower adjusted 5-year survival (95% confidence interval): 74% (63%–88%) for those aged 18–29 years, 82% (78%–87%) for those aged 30–39 years, and 90% (88%–92%) for those aged 40–49 years. Among women without ALD, men with ALD, and men without ALD, adjusted 5-year survival for ages 18–29, 30–39, and 40–49 years was similar. Among women, not men, there were significant interactions between younger age and ALD. Adjusted hazard for mortality for women with ALD vs without ALD was greater for those who aged 18–29 years (2.82 vs 1.09, P = 0.002) and 30–39 years (1.83 vs 1.09, P = 0.007 [reference age 40–49 years]). Among women with ALD, those aged 18–29 and 30–39 years had an absolute 17.7% and 9.5% excess in adjusted 5-year mortality vs similarly aged women without ALD.

DISCUSSION:

Young women (age < 40) with ALD have excess mortality beyond one-year post-LT. Recurrent disease or explicit mention of alcohol was the most common identified cause of death in this demographic.
Ochrana prírody, krajiny a životného prostredia a jej spoločenská reflexia na Slovensku v r. 1990 – 2020
Authors: Huba Mikuláš
Published: November 2020

Slovenská príroda, krajina a životné prostredie, ako aj organizácie a iniciatívy na ich ochranu prešli za uplynulých 30 rokov zložitým vývojom. Podobne zložito sa vyvíjala aj percepcia tejto problematiky zo strany verejnosti. Vari najvýstižnejšie sa dá tento vývoj charakterizovať slovíčkom nejednoznačný. Pokrok pri znižovaní znečistenia ovzdušia, vôd a ďalších zložiek životného prostredia sprevádzala bezprecedentná neúcta k iným jeho zložkám, najmä k zeleni a úrodným orným pôdam, celkové dlhodobé podfinancovanie starostlivosti o ŽP a zaostávanie v budovaní environmentálnej infraštruktúry (najmä kanalizácií a čistiarní odpadových vôd) ako aj riešenia problematiky starých environmentálnych záťaží.
Príspevok sa zameriava na stručnú charakteristiku stavu a vývoja jednotlivých zložiek životného prostredia, úspechy a neúspechy pri ich ochrane, ako aj na úlohu jednotlivých aktérov tohto procesu. Súčasťou príspevku sú aj výsledky niektorých výskumov, zameraných na reflexiu tejto problematiky zo strany verejnosti.
Particulele afirmative în limba română – perspectivă diacronică și areală
Authors: Klimkowski Tomasz
Published: November 2020

The present article analyses the Romanian affirmative particles from a diachronic and areal perspective in order to determine their origin. The analysis of a corpus of original literary texts and translations of religious texts as well as dictionaries and grammars from different epochs has resulted in distinguishing in Romanian the following affirmative particles: aşa (since the 16th, and especially the 17th century), ei (in the 16th century), ie (since the second half of the 18th century) and da (since the 19th century). As the last three can be put in the East European areal context, a natural explanation of their origin would be the assumption that they were borrowed respectively from Church Slavonic, German and Slavic. However, also because of the special status of affirmative particles as a part of basic vocabulary of most languages, we propose to apply to them the foothold theory inspired by Abraham’s half-open doors theory (2011). Accordingly, we believe that borrowing the particle ei from Church Slavonic could have used as a foothold the Old Romanian conjunction e (< lat. et) and the ie borrowed from German was superposed on the Romanian verbal form e ‘is’. On the other hand, the Slavic loanword da coincided with the inner semantic evolution of the Romanian forms dară ~ dar ~ da from an adversative conjunction to an affirmative particle.
La morphonologie du roumain : système d’alternances vs système de morphonèmes
Authors: Cychnerski Tomasz
Published: November 2020

The paper confronts two models of the Romanian morphonological system. The first one is a complete set of alternations, which are based on three essential relations of purely formal opposition. These are 83 alternations that are even more subdivided, mainly by the criterion of their direction. The second one is made up of 117 morphonemes derived from directional alternations and is based on qualitative, quantitative and distributional opposition relations. Wider use can be achieved by a system of morphonemes, above all thanks to a strict way of defining the constituent units and their simple representation.
Morphodynamic conditions of heavy metal concentration in deposits of the Vistula River valley near Kępa Gostecka (central Poland)
Authors: Kałmykow-Piwińska Agnieszka , Falkowska Ewa
Published: November 2020

The influence of morphodynamics of individual river valley zones on the anthropogenically induced distribution of heavy metals in the Małopolska Gorge of the Vistula River near Kępa Gostecka was studied. Based on the analysis of cartographic and geological mapping data, several floodplain features were distinguished. For each feature, lithological analysis of the deposits was carried out. It comprised determination of clay content, organic matter, carbonates and iron oxides and hydroxides, as well as analysis of heavy metal concentration. The investigations show that the concentration of heavy metals in floodplain surface deposits is strictly linked with the variability of depositional environments, which reflected in the intricate feature pattern. The highest contents of heavy metals have been found in the deposits of the contemporary floodplain, stagnation zones of floodwaters, oxbow lakes buried under floodplain or organic deposits and escarpment foot back swamps, while the lowest in deposits of the Pleistocene terrace and slope wash zones. Variability of floodwater dynamics modelling the floodplain surface is associated with the specific geological setting of the Vistula River valley stretch analysed.
Accuracy and functional assessment of an original low-cost fibre-based inclinometer designed for structural monitoring
Authors: Ćmielewski Kazimierz , Karsznia Krzysztof , Kuchmister Janusz , Gołuch Piotr , Wilczyńska Izabela
Published: November 2020

Safe exploitation of a building requires constant monitoring of both the object itself as well as its surrounding through the monitoring system. These tasks find particular applications when operating large construction projects, especially in urbanised areas. Besides the warning function and undertaking reactions, the monitoring system allows for recording changes in object geometries to assess their stability. To conduct monitoring, various sensors and instruments that work within the applied measuring systems can be used. As an example, one can mention precise inclinometers (‘electronic bubbles’) allowing for accurate determination of inclination angles. The paper discusses the precision and functional aspect of the original inclinometer developed and improved by the authors. The working principle of the device is based on optical fibres, light projection and its detection on a CCD camera objective. The presented issue is a low-cost solution offering high measurement accuracy, which may be used in structural monitoring of objects located in the impact zone of a deep excavation or other nearby ongoing investments.
The impacts of diagenetic facies on reservoir quality in tight sandstones
Authors: Ren Dazhong , Sun Liang , Li Rongxi , Liu Dengke
Published: November 2020

The impact of diagenetic minerals and the characteristics of pore structures on reservoir qualities has been studied separately in the past years. However, the difference in the reservoir quality with different pore structures and having same or similar content of diagenesis minerals has not been ascertained. In this study, based on the core samples derived from Chang 6 member in the Ordos basin, various tests were performed to examine the sandstone diagenesis and investigate the pore structure. The results showed that there were five diagenetic facies by diagenetic and pore structure analyses, and the best reservoir quality rocks were found to have relatively low percentage of illite, carbonate cement, pore-filling chlorite, authigenic quartz, and relatively high proportion of intergranular pores. Smectite-to-illite reaction and chemical compaction were main sources for quartz cementation at 60–120°C, and carbonate content was found to increase toward source rocks. The porosity depth trends significantly affected the diagenetic facies. The diagenetic and the pore structure pathways of various diagenetic facies were reconstructed by integrated petrographic, mineralogical, and pore system data. This study provides insights into the porosity evolution and diagenetic pathways of various diagenetic facies of tight sandstones, and the influence of diagenesis minerals and pore structures on their reservoir quality.
Disintegration characteristics in granite residual soil and their relationship with the collapsing gully in South China
Authors: Li Chengsheng , Kong Lingwei , Shu Rongjun , An Ran , Zhang Xianwei
Published: November 2020

The climate is a significant factor affecting the collapsing gully in weathered granite areas, and most of the surface layers of the collapsed area comprise granite residual soil. Granite residual soil has complex disintegration characteristics under different initial water content conditions. Besides, its disintegration characteristic is an essential factor for collapsing gully. Therefore, disintegration tests, triaxial shear tests, nuclear magnetic resonance tests, and hydraulic conductivity tests are conducted under torridity and rainstorm conditions in order to study the disintegration characteristics of granite residual soil. The results of disintegration test showed that the initial disintegration rate of granite residual soil increased rapidly with the decrease in water content, while the relationship between disintegration rate and water content in the later stage of disintegration is unclear. When soaked, the maximum decrease in cohesion was 44.48%, the hydraulic conductivity became six times larger, and the amplitude of the T
2 curve increased by about 40%, which reduced the strength of the soil and provided better access for rainwater infiltration to deeper stratum. The results show that the microstructure of granite residual soil would be damaged and the disintegration would occur after a rainstorm at low water content. Micropores would be formed inside the sample after soaking, resulting in destroying the continuity of the material.
Importance of traditional landscapes in Slovenia for conservation of endangered butterfly
Authors: Zupan Sara , Bužan Elena , Grubar Valentina Brečko , Jugovic Jure
Published: November 2020

Maintenance of traditional cultural landscapes largely depends on traditional agricultural practices, which are nowadays in decline as a result of increasingly intensive and mechanised land use. Losing traditional practices may result in impoverishing of picturesque mosaic landscape and biodiversity. This research focuses on land-use changes in two time periods (2002–2008; 2013–2016) and effects of changes reflecting on populations of critically endangered butterfly. False Ringlet, Coenonympha oedippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), is a habitat specialist, which in Slovenia inhabits two geographically distinct contrasting habitats – dry meadows in south-western and wetlands in central Slovenia. We compared nine environmental parameters to assess environmental differences, which shape species habitat; seven parameters significantly differ among the four geographical regions and five among the two habitat types. Four parameters significantly differ (i.e. at least in two regions) when tested for homogeneity, while in dry habitat type all (except slope) were significant and none in wet habitat. Changes in land use in two studied periods lit up two processes: transformation of meadows into agricultural land and overgrowing of the meadows, both processes affecting species severely. We believe that maintaining of traditional landscapes in future could serve as a good conservation practice for this endangered species.
Effect of photogrammetric RPAS flight parameters on plani-altimetric accuracy of DTM
Authors: Mora-Felix Zuriel Dathan , Sanhouse-Garcia Antonio Jesus , Bustos-Terrones Yaneth A. , Loaiza Juan G. , Monjardin-Armenta Sergio Alberto , Rangel-Peraza Jesus Gabriel
Published: November 2020

Remotely piloted aerial systems (RPASs) are gaining fast and wide application around the world due to its relative low-cost advantage in the acquisition of high-resolution imagery. However, standardized protocols for the construction of cartographic products are needed. The aim of this paper is to optimize the generation of digital terrain models (DTMs) by using different RPAS flight parameters. An orthogonal design L18 was used to measure the effect of photogrammetric flight parameters on the DTM generated. The image data were acquired using a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone and six flight parameters were evaluated: flight mode, altitude, flight speed, camera tilt, longitudinal overlap and transversal overlap. Fifty-one ground control points were established using a global positioning system. Multivision algorithms were used to obtain ultra-high resolution point clouds, orthophotos and 3D models from the photos acquired. Root mean square error was used to measure the geometric accuracy of DTMs generated. The effect of photogrammetric flight parameters was carried out by using analysis of variance statistical analysis. Altimetric and planimetric accuracies of 0.38 and 0.11 m were achieved, respectively. Based on these results, high-precision cartographic material was generated using low-cost technology.
The Role of Incidental Embarrassment in Social Interaction Behavior
Authors: Wan Lisa C. , Wyer Robert S.
Published: November 2020

People usually enjoy interacting with persons who are physically attractive or socially powerful. However, the embarrassment they happen to have experienced in an earlier, unrelated situation can sometimes inhibit them from doing so. Feelings of embarrassment increase individuals’ concern about their ability to present themselves in a positive light and activate more general concepts associated with this concern. Therefore, once these concepts become accessible in memory, they can lead the individuals to avoid interacting with a person on whom they wish to make a good impression (for example, a physically attractive member of the opposite sex or a person who has social power over them). Moreover, this is true even though the person has no knowledge of the incident that had led to their embarrassment. These effects are particularly pronounced among individuals with an interdependent self-construal. The effects are unique to embarrassment and do not generalize to other self-conscious emotions.
Self-Enhancement Error Motivates Social Projection
Authors: Heck Patrick R. , Krueger Joachim I.
Published: November 2020

Social projection is the tendency to assume that others are similar to the self, whereas self-enhancement is the tendency to see them as inferior. Although these concepts appear to be in conflict, we suggest that both can stem from the same motive of self-protection. In three studies, we show that respondents overestimate the prevalence of self-enhancement bias in others and predict that most self-enhancement entails an error in judgment. Critically, we find that social projection is strongest among those who learn that they have committed a self-enhancement error. Those who receive feedback saying that their positive self-evaluations are false project this outcome onto others. We also find that self-enhancement errors degrade perceptual accuracy. We discuss how self-protection motives affect both self-evaluation and social projection, and how social judgments that appear inductively rational may stem from arational processes of need satisfaction.
European Left Party – a New Ghost of Communism to Europe
Authors:   Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Guseletov Boris
Published: November 2020

The article analyzes the phenomenon of the emergence and development of a new pan-European political Party of the European left in the political arena. Its forerunner was a Forum of the new European left, formed in 1991, close to the Communist and workers’ parties and the group «European United Left – Nordic Green Left» in the European Parliament, which emerged in 1995 through the merger of «Confederal Group of the European United Left» faction of environmentalists «Left-wing Green of the North». Many experts viewed these parties as a vestige of a bipolar world, and believed that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, they should finally disappear from the political arena of Europe, giving up the left flank to the socialists and social Democrats. However, European Communists and left-wing radicals demonstrated incredible political vitality and in the tenth years of the twentieth century in a number of EU countries (Greece, France, the Czech Republic) managed to bypass their opponents on the left flank. In 2004 a pan-European party of the European left was created, which is characterized by a commitment to unorthodox Communist and environmental values and a moderately eurosceptic view of the EU’s development prospects. In the last European elections in 2019, this party lost some ground, but nevertheless managed to maintain its small faction in the European Parliament. So today it is difficult to speak about prospects of the European left, although the strength of parties in Germany, Greece, Spain, France and other countries, as well as the weakening of the party of European socialists, gives us reasonable confidence in the fact that the radical left will be able to maintain its presence on the political stage of Europe in the next 10-15 years. The author of the article tried to identify the causes of this political force and its future prospects.
Hungarian Politics against the background of the Second Stage of Pandemia
Authors:   Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Shishelina Lyubov
Published: November 2020

The article analyzes current trends of Hungarian politics that prevailed in 2020 against the background of the state’s fight against the pandemic. Among them are the old ones, presented by the conflict between liberal and conservative camps of politicians, and the new ones, which had become result of the changes in the lives of various segments of society, dictated by the global resistance to the pandemic. The author comes to the conclusion that new forces are emerging in the political amphitheater of the country, which have sufficient pressure, but are not yet as determined as the generation of the second half of the 1980’s to openly challenge the drawbacks of postsocialist political system that has developed over the past 30 years. Nevertheless, they have some potential to influence the national and regional political mainstream. This phenomenon is not ignored by the main conflicting parties, who are trying to find various forms of interaction with them in accordance with the existing opportunities within the current political alignment.
Regional Election in Czech Republic 2020
Authors:   Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vedernikov Mikhail
Published: November 2020

On October 2-3, 2020, regional elections were held in the Czech Republic amid the second wave of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Despite the traditional attitude to this election as secondary, its significance for the expert community was in the fact that it made possible to study political preferences of the population on the eve of the upcoming elections in 2021. Although the citizens of the Czech Republic preferred ANO movement, analysts noted the strengthening of the opposition forces – Pirate Party, the Civil Democratic Party and the STAN movement. The main feature of their participation in the last election campaign was their coalition with regional associations and movements, which made it possible to mobilize the population and claim more active participation in the work of regional authorities. Thus, scholars concluded that this approach could become the key to success in 2021. In turn, the ANO’s coalition partners tend to weaken their positions. Their fate in the future parliament was uncertain.
Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict in the Center of the EU Crisis Diplomacy
Authors:   MGIMO University, Shcherbak Igor
Published: November 2020

The article analyses the key aspects of the EU policy towards Armenian-Azerbaijan armed conflict. The author explores basic parameters of the EU presence in the region and a degree of its influence on political processes and peaceful settlement. The article shows basic directions of possible collective actions of the parties to the conflict and international mediators (Russia, USA, leading states of the EU) concerning peaceful settlement of this crisis situation in the framework of Minsk Group of the OSCE. In this context, the author devotes attention to the questions of status of Nagorno-Karabakh and models of possible international peacekeeping missions to the area.
«Ukrainian Transit»-6. Ukraine – is not Belarus
Authors:   Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Mironenko Viktor
Published: November 2020

The events in the Republic of Belarus have attracted general attention. They overshadowed the Ukrainian political drama and sparked a desire to compare these two socio-political bifurcations. From the point of view of policy analysis, it is useful and relevant to compare what is happening in the two Eastern European countries, to look more closely at what they have in common and what they differ from each other. In general, the first approximation is their orientation. The differences, which are not insignificant, are due to objective physical parameters and historical and cultural characteristics, the characteristics of the two societies and States, and the different foreign policy context. In both cases, there has been a process of modernization that began in the late 1980s, with significant national adjustments and external stimuli or, conversely, deterrents. Accelerated modernization for both countries, involving well-known interaction and mutual assistance, remains a common goal for them, as it is for all newly independent states in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This is the main conclusion of the proposed brief analysis.
UK Internal Market Bill
Authors:   Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ananieva Elena
Published: November 2020

The Internal Market Bill of the UK government is meant to secure flawless motion of goods and services between all parts of Britain in the wake of Brexit, to prevent competition and trade barriers between the regions, including Northern Ireland. The bill caused the threat of Tory backbenchers rebellion and harsh criticism by 5 former UK PM of both leading parties for breaching the EU Withdrawal Agreement and downgrading the UK image in the world as a global power adhering to international law. The devolved regions consider the bill to be a «power grab» by London of their devolved competences after control over laws is repatriated from Brussels to the UK. They insist on the UK government following the Sewel convention and common legal frameworks as a means to introduce legislation in the UK. The foreign policy implications are also complicated Brussels threatened to take London to court for infringement matters and the US Congress as well as the Democratic Party nominee for US president J. Biden warned that the Good Friday Agreement should not become a casualty of Brexit thus putting into question the bilateral FTA. Deal or no deal the UK will encounter further domestic and foreign policy problems.
Orienting Attention to Short-Term Memory Representations via Sensory Modality and Semantic Category Retro-Cues
Authors: Backer Kristina C. , Buchsbaum Bradley R. , Alain Claude
Published: November 2020

There is growing interest in characterizing the neural mechanisms underlying the interactions between attention and memory. Current theories posit that reflective attention to memory representations generally involves a fronto-parietal attentional control network. The present study aimed to test this idea by manipulating how a particular short-term memory (STM) representation is accessed, that is, based on its input sensory modality or semantic category, during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Human participants performed a novel variant of the retro-cue paradigm, in which they were presented with both auditory and visual non-verbal stimuli followed by Modality, Semantic, or Uninformative retro-cues. Modality and, to a lesser extent, Semantic retro-cues facilitated response time relative to Uninformative retro-cues. The univariate and multivariate pattern analyses (MVPAs) of fMRI time-series revealed three key findings. First, the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), including portions of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and ventral angular gyrus (AG), had activation patterns that spatially overlapped for both modality-based and semantic-based reflective attention. Second, considering both the univariate and multivariate analyses, Semantic retro-cues were associated with a left-lateralized fronto-parietal network. Finally, the experimental design enabled us to examine how dividing attention cross-modally within STM modulates the brain regions involved in reflective attention. This analysis revealed that univariate activation within bilateral portions of the PPC increased when participants simultaneously attended both auditory and visual memory representations. Therefore, prefrontal and parietal regions are flexibly recruited during reflective attention, depending on the representational feature used to selectively access STM representations.
Disentangling the Roles of RIM and Munc13 in Synaptic Vesicle Localization and Neurotransmission
Authors: Zarebidaki Fereshteh , Camacho Marcial , Brockmann Marisa M. , Trimbuch Thorsten , Herman Melissa A. , Rosenmund Christian
Published: November 2020

Efficient neurotransmitter release at the presynaptic terminal requires docking of synaptic vesicles to the active zone membrane and formation of fusion-competent synaptic vesicles near voltage-gated Ca2+channels. Rab3-interacting molecule (RIM) is a critical active zone organizer, as it recruits Ca2+channels and activates synaptic vesicle docking and priming via Munc13-1. However, our knowledge about Munc13-independent contributions of RIM to active zone functions is limited. To identify the functions that are solely mediated by RIM, we used genetic manipulations to control RIM and Munc13-1 activity in cultured hippocampal neurons from mice of either sex and compared synaptic ultrastructure and neurotransmission. We found that RIM modulates synaptic vesicle localization in the proximity of the active zone membrane independent of Munc13-1. In another step, both RIM and Munc13 mediate synaptic vesicle docking and priming. In addition, while the activity of both RIM and Munc13-1 is required for Ca2+-evoked release, RIM uniquely controls neurotransmitter release efficiency. However, activity-dependent augmentation of synaptic vesicle pool size relies exclusively on the action of Munc13s. Based on our results, we extend previous findings and propose a refined model in which RIM and Munc13-1 act in overlapping and independent stages of synaptic vesicle localization and release.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe presynaptic active zone is composed of scaffolding proteins that functionally interact to localize synaptic vesicles to release sites, ensuring neurotransmission. Our current knowledge of the presynaptic active zone function relies on structure-function analysis, which has provided detailed information on the network of interactions and the impact of active zone proteins. Yet, the hierarchical, redundant, or independent cooperation of each active zone protein to synapse functions is not fully understood. Rab3-interacting molecule and Munc13 are the two key functionally interacting active zone proteins. Here, we dissected the distinct actions of Rab3-interacting molecule and Munc13-1 from both ultrastructural and physiological aspects. Our findings provide a more detailed view of how these two presynaptic proteins orchestrate their functions to achieve synaptic transmission.
Specijalna teorija relativnosti u kemiji
Authors: Raos Nenad
Published: November 2020

Primjena specijalne teorije relativnosti u kemiji nije česta; potreba za njom javlja se tek pri proračunu svojstava teških atoma, u kojima se elektroni gibaju relativističkim brzinama. U članku su dati primjeri objašnjenja osebujne boje zlata, niskog tališta žive, boje bizmutovih i olovnih spojeva, utjecaja relativističke korekcije na proračun oblika klastera zlata, duljine veza u spojevima 11. skupine i lantanoida te napona olovnog akumulatora i baterije Zn/HgO. Usto su prikazane osnove specijalne teorije relativnosti i kvantne kemije.
Prediction of the Bicarbonate Amount in Drinking Water in the Region of Médéa Using Artificial Neural Network Modelling
Authors: Tahraoui Hichem , Belhadj Abd Elmouneïm , Hamitouche Adhya Eddine
Published: November 2020

The region of Médéa (Algeria) located in an agricultural site requires a large amount of drinking water. For this purpose, the water analyses in question are imperative. To examine the evolution of the drinking water quality in this region, firstly, an experimental protocol was done in order to obtain a dataset by taking into account several physicochemical parameters. Secondly, the obtained data set was divided into two parts to form the artificial neural network, where 70 % of the data set was used for training, and the remaining 30 % was also divided into two equal parts: one for testing and the other for validation of the model. The intelligent model obtained was evaluated as a function of the correlation coefficient nearest to 1 and lowest mean square error (RMSE). A set of 84 data points were used in this study. Eighteen parameters in the input layer, five neurons in the hidden layer, and one parameter in the output layer were used for the ANN modelling. Levenberg Marquardt learning (LM) algorithm, logarithmic sigmoid, and linear transfer function were used, respectively, for the hidden and the output layers. The results obtained during the present study showed a correlation coefficient of R = 0.99276 with root mean square error RMSE = 11.52613 mg dm–3. These results show that obtained ANN model gave far better and more significant results. It is obviously more accurate since its relative error is small with a correlation coefficient close to unity. Finally, it can be concluded that obtained model can effectively predict the rate of soluble bicarbonate in drinking water in the Médéa region.
REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH ON CHITOSAN AS A RAW MATERIAL IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS
Authors: Mania Szymon , Banach Adrianna , Tylingo Robert
Published: November 2020

Three-dimensional (3D) biomaterial manufacturing strategies show an extraordinary driving force for the development of innovative solutions in the biomedical sector, including drug delivery systems, disease modelling and tissue and organ engineering. Due to its remarkable and promising biological and structural properties, chitosan has been widely studied for decades in several potential applications in the biomedical field. However, tools in the form of 3D printers have created new possibilities for the production of chitosan models, implants and scaffolds for cell cultures that are much more precise than existing ones. The article presents current achievements related to the possibility of using chitosan to create new materials for 3D printing in the form of chitosan bioinks, filaments, resins and powders dedicated for bioprinting, fused deposition modelling, stereolithography/digital light processing and selective laser sintering methods, respectively
Carpal tunnel syndrome in acromegaly: a nationwide study
Authors: Vouzouneraki Konstantina , Esposito Daniela , Mukka Sebastian , Granfeldt Daniel , Ragnarsson Oskar , Dahlqvist Per , Olsson Daniel S
Published: November 2020

Objective

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is common in patients with acromegaly, with a reported prevalence of 19–64%. We studied CTS in a large national cohort of patients with acromegaly and the temporal relationship between the two diagnoses.

Design

Retrospective, nationwide, cohort study including patients diagnosed with acromegaly in Sweden, 2005–2017, identified in the Swedish Healthcare Registries.

Methods

CTS (diagnosis and surgery in specialised healthcare) was analysed from 8.5 years before the diagnosis of acromegaly until death or end of the study. Standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) with 95% CIs were calculated for CTS with the Swedish population as reference.

Results

The analysis included 556 patients with acromegaly (50% women) diagnosed at mean (s.d.) age 50.1 (15.0) years. During the study period, 48 patients were diagnosed with CTS and 41 patients underwent at least one CTS surgery. In the latter group, 35 (85%) were operated for CTS before the acromegaly diagnosis; mean interval (range) 2.2 (0.3–8.5) years and the SIR for having CTS surgery before the diagnosis of acromegaly was 6.6 (4.8–8.9). Women with acromegaly had a higher risk for CTS than men (hazard ratio: 2.5, 95% CI: 1.3–4.7).

Conclusions

Patients with acromegaly had a 6-fold higher incidence for CTS surgery before the diagnosis of acromegaly compared with the general population. The majority of patients with both diagnoses were diagnosed with CTS prior to acromegaly. Increased awareness of signs of acromegaly in patients with CTS might help to shorten the diagnostic delay in acromegaly, especially in women.
Mandelstam and Heraclitus
Authors: Kikhney Liubov
Published: November 2020

The article proves that the ontological poetics of Osip Mandelstam and one of his sources of the concept of the word lie in the doctrine of the Logos of Heraclitus of Ephesus, which is set in the surviving fragments of his treatise On Nature. The author comments on the explicit and hidden references of Mandelstam to Heraclitus and shows the specifics of the functional refraction of Heraclitic allusions in different periods of the Acmeist poet’s work.It is noted that Mandelstam received from Heraclitus the material-being and sensually perceived the integral and hypostatic idea of the Logos as a kind of cosmic law, and at the same time as an ordinary human word, the form of which can nevertheless conceal an analogy with the laws of the world order.Like Heraclitus, Mandelstam assumes that the universe (cosmos) has different stages of formation, controlled by the Logos. According to Heraclitus, the primary basis of the world, its material root is fire. The idea of the changing state of natural substances, their mutual transitions and transformations caused by the “world fire,” which goes back to Heraclitus, permeates a number of the poet’s works written in the era of social upheavals. In the “post-revolutionary” period, Mandelstam develops the idea of the unity of the world and aeonic time, based on Heraclitus. Heraclitic overtones are discerned in a number of Mandelstam’s poems of the 1920s and 30s, including one of his final works – Poems about the Unknown Soldier.In light of the discovered references, Mandelstam, with the sayings of Heraclitus, clarified a number of aesthetic ideas and tropic moves of the poet – for example, the idea of the correlation of how sound envelops speech and its meaning; the motive is the “fluidity” of the world and at the same time its structural unity; the method of the “reversible metaphor of,” marking the identity or paradoxical union of different and sometimes antinomic phenomena.
Scenery by M. V. Dobuzhinsky as a Version of Pushkin Studies
Authors: Markov Alexander
Published: November 2020

The sets by M. V. Dobuzhinsky for the operas by Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky based on Pushkin’s works represent an attempt to reconstruct Pushkin’s world and Pushkin’s attitude to history. The libretto required a stylization and standardization of scenography, but Dobuzhinsky continued to interpret the images of St. Petersburg and central Russia, correlating the plots of operas with a new national upsurge. Thus, the plot of The Queen of Spades was understood as part of Pushkin’s view on the successes and failures of the Petrine reforms, about the connection between adventurism and the imperial style, which corresponded to the general cultural myth of Petersburg but was supplemented by a number of observations on the Pushkin text. The plot of Boris Godunov was read not as a Russian story, but as a common one for countries inheriting the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. The plot of Eugene Onegin was brought closer to the dacha plots of Russian literature, becoming part of the integrated image of a lost Russia. It is proved that Dobuzhinsky in his decisions followed not the structure of the libretto, but a close reading of Pushkin’s texts.
The School of Reading Osip Mandelshtam: Readers No. 1, 2, 3
Authors: Timenchik Roman
Published: November 2020

“To prove now, that the history of literature is not only the history of writers, but also the history of readers […] means to belabor the obvious,” stated Alexander Beletskii a century ago, but the task of the detailed detecting of the separate groups, or rather to use Boris Tomashevskii’s term, “schools” of readers, is still vital for the historians of modern Russian poetry. The following is the attempt to name the first “enrollees” of the school of reading Osip Mandelshtam’s poetry, two of them sharing his activities in the literary workshop “The Guild of the Poets” in St. Petersburg in the 1910s, and the third being the poet’s wife during 1919–1938.
To Be or Not to Be (Inpatient Versus Observation): Improving Admission-Status Assignment
Authors: Fulchiero Rosanna , Tilman Laura , Green Simone , Bangiolo Lois , Hanvey Lisa , Ellinger Steve , Shuster Brooke , Port Courtney
Published: November 2020

BACKGROUND:

Observation care is frequently indistinguishable from inpatient care. However, the financial burden of inappropriate status assignment for hospitals and patients can be large. Increased awareness of the potential for financial hardships experienced by patients because of status designation spurred interest among physicians in this improvement project. The goal was to improve the percentage of appropriate inpatient-status assignments from 76% to 90% in 2 years and eliminate observation assignments for patients with hospitalizations >48 hours.

METHODS:

Our multidisciplinary team used the Model for Improvement. Interventions included securing a lead physician advisor to the use-review team, improving the process for status review and adjustment, and creating educational sessions and tools for physicians. Data collected included the percentage of appropriate inpatient assignments, percentage of observation assignments for patients with hospitalizations >48 hours, write-off dollar amount per year from denial of payment due to payer disagreement with inpatient status, and resident physician confidence in assigning status.

RESULTS:

Appropriate use of inpatient assignments increased from 76% to 84%. Status assignments remaining in observation >48 hours of hospital length of stay decreased by one-half, from 6% to 3%. The write-off dollar amount increased during the study period but decreased by 19% the following calendar year, 2018. Resident self-reported confidence in status designation increased after educational sessions.

CONCLUSIONS:

Careful selection of admission status by educated providers and a system to identify relevant cases for status changes can increase appropriate status assignment and, potentially, positively affect the economic burden placed on patients and hospitals.
Sleep in Hospitalized Children With Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Traube Chani , Rosenberg Lynne , Thau Francesca , Gerber Linda M. , Mauer Elizabeth A. , Seghini Thomas , Gulati Nitya , Taylor Damani , Silver Gabrielle , Kudchadkar Sapna R.
Published: November 2020

OBJECTIVES:

Many children with cancer have repeated and prolonged hospitalizations, and in-hospital sleep disruption may negatively affect outcomes. Our objective for this study was to characterize sleep quality and quantity in hospitalized children with cancer by using parental surveys and actigraphy, to evaluate the association between subjective and objective sleep measures, and to describe hospital-associated risk factors related to poor sleep.

METHODS:

Cross-sectional study of children aged 0 to 18 years old admitted to a pediatric oncology ward. Parents completed a baseline sleep questionnaire describing their child’s sleep at home before hospitalization, followed by daily questionnaires describing their child’s sleep for up to 3 nights while in the hospital. A subgroup of children aged 5 to 18 years wore actigraphs during the same time period. Demographic and clinical data were extracted from the electronic medical record. The primary outcome was inadequate sleep, defined by the total sleep duration adjusted for age.

RESULTS:

Among 56 participants over 135 hospital nights, 66% (n = 37) reported inadequate sleep. Actigraphy was completed on 39 nights (29%), with a median total sleep time of 477 (interquartile range 407–557) minutes. There was a strong correlation between subjective questionnaire measures and actigraphic measures (r = 0.76). No patient-specific demographic factors were related to inadequate sleep. A multivariable model indicated the following hospital-related factors were associated with inadequate sleep: noise (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.0; confidence interval [CI] 1.2–7.7), alarms (aOR 3.1; CI 1.2–8.3), child’s worries (aOR 2.8; CI 1.1–7.2), and receipt of benzodiazepines (aOR 2.9; CI 1.2–7.5).

CONCLUSIONS:

A majority of children experienced inadequate sleep during hospitalization. Subjective report of sleep duration correlated well with objective measures of sleep by actigraphy. Several potentially modifiable factors were independently associated with poor sleep. Further interventional studies are required to test approaches to optimize sleep in hospitalized children with cancer.
Associations Between Obesity and Use for Pediatric Hospitalizations
Authors: Kyler Kathryn E. , Hall Matt , Bettenhausen Jessica L.
Published: November 2020

BACKGROUND:

Obesity is associated with poor outcomes for specific clinical groups of hospitalized children, but few data exist on outcomes of children with obesity on a larger scale during hospitalization. Therefore, we aimed to determine if use outcomes differ between hospitalized children with obesity and hospitalized children without obesity.

METHODS:

We performed a retrospective longitudinal cohort study of all children aged 2 to 19 years hospitalized at a single academic institution between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2016. BMI was calculated from documented height and weight; obesity was defined by using age- and sex-specific BMI percentile guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only All Patient Refined Diagnosis-Related Groups (APR-DRGs) with >100 admissions during the study period were included. Primary outcome measures included hospital length of stay, hospital cost, and 14-day readmission. Generalized linear and logistic models were used to determine adjusted differences for outcome measures between patients with and without obesity.

RESULTS:

Of 78 756 included hospitalizations, obesity rates increased from 16.5% in 2009–2010 to 17.3% in 2015–2016 (P = .002). Only 6 (4.7%) of the 128 APR-DRGs examined were associated with increased use for patients with obesity: spinal procedures, tonsil and adenoid procedures, major respiratory procedures, peptic ulcer and gastritis, other musculoskeletal diagnoses, and other kidney and urinary tract diagnoses. There were no APR-DRGs with increased length of stay for children with obesity.

CONCLUSIONS:

Obesity is associated with increased hospitalization cost and readmission rates for a minority of diagnosis groups. Some groups of hospitalized children with obesity may benefit from targeted interventions to reduce obesity-specific risks. Future research should be focused on disparities in other relevant clinical outcomes.