Integrated Information System for Sustainable Urban Regeneration

Information systems are widely used in urban planning process for communication between different side actors. However, most of them have been implemented without providing possibilities for decision makers to participate together with urban planners in the process. This research aims to outline a framework where an interactive model for decision making plays a key role in creating a collaborative environment. The proposal regards the information representation as the main instrument for encouraging a constructive dialog between different actors. The focus is on the relationship between three elements of information representation: level of detail, type of visualization and interaction. Combining these elements, information can be provided in a dynamic way enabling more effective exploration and understanding. The proposed strategy implements a digital model that operates on different scales and levels in order to support the key stages of the planning process for sustainable urban regeneration in Bulgaria. Positional approach is used to define the functionality and decision making operation for the selected process. As a result research ideas about the use of the digital model are presented

Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea L., Origin from Bulgaria Indicate in Vitro Antitumor Еffect on Human Cervical and Breast Cancer Cells

Cancer is a socially significant disease. Along with efforts to understand the complex genetic/epigenetic factors that trigger a carcinogenesis, it is also necessary to analyze the potential natural active substances that may delay or even stop neoplastic transformation. Promising candidates are Bulgarian cranberries from high mountain plant populations, which are rich in phenolics and anthocyanins and have proven beneficial effects on human body.The present study aims to evaluate in vitro, antitumor activities of total extracts and purified nonanthocyanin and anthocyanins fractions of Vaccinium vitis-idaea L., picked in Bulgaria on human cervical (HeLa) and breast (MCF7) cancer cell lines, as well as to examine some of the apoptotic mechanisms underlying them.Materials and methods: Four methanol extracts and respective number of purified B- nonanthocyanin / C- anthocyanins fractions of Bulgarian lingonberry were used. Antitumor effect was established by Trypan Blue method, monitoring of morphological changes and МТТ cell viability assay. Assessment of apoptotic activity was performed using DNA fragmentation method.Results: The results from МТТ analyses showed that B- nonanthocyanin fractions of Bulgarian lingonberry have well expressed inhibitory effect on survival of tested tumor cells. The observed effect dependent of the dose administered and were stronger in relation with the high-mountain populations and HeLa cell line. The integrity of the extracted DNA from treated survival cells indicates possible apoptosis mechanisms under the action of biologically active ingredients from lingonberries.Conclusion: Survey of antitumor activities of Bulgarian lingonberries based on molecular methods, could contribute to establish the natural substances useful for human health in general and practical oncology

A Review on Antitumor and Antiviral Potential of Cranberries (Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea) Origin from Bulgaria

A major goal in antitumor and antiviral therapy is to find active ingredients that selectively suppress the proliferation of tumor cells or inhibit viral replication and proliferation. In this connection, the antitumor and antiviral activity of natural products with proven phytochemical properties and pharmacological significance are actively investigated. A promising candidate are Bulgarian cranberries from high mountain plant populations, which are a valuable natural source of food and have proven healing properties in urinary tract infections, eye diseases and cardiovascular disorders, as well as prevention of hypertension and diabetes. The active components of Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. are polyphenols and anthocyanins which belong to classes of plant components with high antioxidant, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and antiproliferative activity. Cranberries contain a high percentage and variety of vitamins (A,  E, C,  etc.) and a number of minerals (K, Ca, Mg, P, Na). In the world regions where endemic measles outbreaks occur, for secondary prevention and avoidance of complications including blindness, WHO recommends the use of high doses of vitamin A in children under 5 years of age. Bulgarian cranberries are a valuable source of vitamins A and C.The assessement of biological activity of the individual components and fractions in the composition of the Bulgarian cranberries may help to identify substances with antitumor and/or antiviral activity that could potentially be useful in future development of new therapeutic agents

Dried Blood Spots as a Clinical Samples for Laboratory Diagnosis and Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in Bulgaria

In recent years the dried blood spots (DBS) had new and innovative applications in medicine, neonatology, virology and microbiology. This study aimed to evaluation of the frequency of detection of viral IgM/IgG markers in dried blood spots and introducing an easy-to-implement protocol for serum extraction in measles, mumps and rubella surveillance. The total 204 clinical samples (102 serum samples and 102 dried blood spots) collected from 102 patients were included. All specimens were tested for presence of specific viral markers (IgM and IgG antibodies) by a commercial indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Of all tested patients, three (3/102, 2.94%, 95% CI: 0 ÷ 6.22) were confirmed for acute measles infection and two (2/102, 1.96%, 95% CI: 0 ÷ 4.65) for mumps. Double positive ELISA-IgM results were found in their serum samples and DBS. No acute rubella infection and rubella IgM marker were detected in both clinical samples. By immunoassay analysis of all 102 patients, measles, mumps and rubella IgG were found in 83/102 (81%, 95% CI: 73.40 ÷ 88.60), 76/102 (75%, 95% CI: 66.60 ÷ 83.40) and 79/102 (77%, 95% CI: 68.83 ÷ 85.17) serum samples.  Comparative results were obtained in the adequately obtained DBS. Viral IgG seroprevalence in DBS were obtained in 79/102 (77%, 95% CI: 68.83 ÷ 85.17) for measles, 69/102 (68%, 95% CI: 58.67 ÷ 77.33) for mumps and 73/102 (72%, 95% CI: 63 ÷ 81) for rubella, respectively. Double negative results for each screened viral markers were proven in six tested patients.The study shown higher extinction value (Ratio and NovaTec units) in DBS compared to serum samples of same persons were calculated. Our studies show over 90% coincidence in combined ELISA assay of viral markers against measles, mumps, and rubella in serum samples and DBS. DBS clinical approach is non-aggressive and more acceptable to the public (including young children, pregnant women, etc.). It has a variety of new and innovative applications in medicine and in particular in the laboratory diagnosis of acute and past (presence of protective immunity) measles, mumps and rubella infection in the phase of elimination

A Review on Dried Blood Spots (DBS) as Alternative, Archival Material for Detection of Viral Agents (Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Hepatitis B Virus)

In recent years there appears a variety of new and innovative applications of the dried blood spots. The areas of their range of application are medicine, neonatology, virology, microbiology, toxicology and pharmacokinetics, metabolic exchange, therapeutic drug monitoring, toxicology, and control of environmental pollution. The advantages of DBS technology can be combined into four main groups: (1) compared to conventional venipuncture, requires less blood volume, which is especially important in pediatrics and neonatology; (2) the procedure for blood collection is easy, inexpensive and noninvasive; (3) the risk of bacterial contamination or hemolysis is minimal; and (4) DBS can be maintained for a long time with almost no impact on the quality of the analysis. In recent years is increasing the application of DBS as method for seroepidemiological survey with focus viral infections: measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B virus. The DBS technique is optimized as an alternative approach (non-invasive, inexpensive, not requiring trained staff and cold chain for transport and storage) of venipuncture collection of clinical material in virology.This method facilitates the scientific researches about the concentration of virus specific antibodies in peripheral blood taken from a finger or heel; determining the percentage susceptibility / protection of the studied group of patients againt vaccine-preventable infectious - measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B; social benefits - non-invasive technique for testing of small children and infants and applications in regions in the countries with not well developed logistics infrastructure

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Evaluating the consistency of word embeddings from small data

In this work, we address the evaluation of distributional semantic models trained on smaller, domain-specific texts, particularly philosophical text. Specifically, we inspect the behaviour of models using a pretrained background space in learning. We propose a measure of consistency which can be used as an evaluation metric when no in-domain gold-standard data is available. This measure simply computes the ability of a model to learn similar embeddings from different parts of some homogeneous data. We show that in spite of being a simple evaluation, consistency actually depends on various combinations of factors, including the nature of the data itself, the model used to train the semantic space, and the frequency of the learned terms, both in the background space and in the in-domain data of interest

COMPARISON OF DIAGNOSTIC CAPABILITIES OF ORTHOPANTOMOGRAPHY AND CONE BEAM COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN DETERMINING THE TOPOGRAPHIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IMPACTED MANDIBULAR THIRD MOLARS AND MANDIBULAR CHANNEL

Impacted teeth are a common pathology in dental practice. With the greatest frequency is third molars impaction of the upper and lower jaw. Essential for the proper treatment plan has an accurate assessment of the situation of these teeth in the jaw, as well as their relationship with surrounding structures. Of great importance is to determine the position of impacted third molars of the lower jaw to the mandibular channel, in order to prevent complications related to vascular-nerve bundle in this channel. This review article presents a significant X-ray features published by several authors in the literature. Compare the diagnostic capabilities between two-dimensional method –Orthopantomography (OPG) and three-dimensional Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)