The Impact of Mobile Phone Dependency on Health and Biomarkers in a Greek University Student Sample

Introduction: Mobile phone use can be addictive for the young. However, little is known about the behavioral and biological effects of this addiction among the student population. Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of mobile phone use on the health behaviors and specific biomarkers in a sample of Greek students. Methods: Sample included 104 Nursing students from a stratified randomised sample. In 30 ran- domly selected out of the 104 students, melatonin and total antioxidant levels in saliva were also measured. Mobile phone dependence was estimated with the Mobile Phone Dependence Question- naire by Toda et al and general health with the GHQ-28. We used the Antioxidant assay kit-SIGMA to measure the total antioxidant levels and the anosoenzymic method ELISA (IBL kit) to measure melatonine levels. Analysis was performed with SPSS v15.0 software. All hypothesis were tested at a p<0,05 level. Results: No statistical difference between genders was detected (p=0.182). High dependence was apparent in 13.5% of the sample, which correlated with worse general health (p=0.004), greater alcohol consumption (p=0.007), sleep disturbances (p=0.02) and worse nutritional habits (p=0.032). Moreover, high mobile dependent students exhibited higher concentration of early morning mel- atonin (p=0.07) and lower antioxidant concentration (p=0.333) in saliva, compared to low mobile dependent students. Conclusions: Excessive use of mobiles among students seems to correlate with unhealthy habits and impaired health. The effect in well known biomarkers may suggest the burden of the health of the student population. However, the long term effects on health require further investigation

Miliary sarcoidosis: A diagnosis which should not be missed

Pulmonary and mediastinal involvement in sarcoidosis is common with variable radiographic features depending on the stage of the disease. It is randomly detected on chest radiography of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients, revealing bilateral hilar lymph node enlargement. High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the chest is most sensitive and has typical findings like micronodules with a perilymphatic distribution, fibrotic changes, and bilateral perihilar opacities. Miliary pattern is a rare, non-typical thoracic manifestation of pulmonary sarcoidosis. We describe two cases of female patients with miliary sarcoidosis who were referred to our department and treated successfully in the previous year

CAD-Free Soft Handle Parameterization Tool for Adjoint-Based Optimization Methods

<p>Soft Handle CAD – Free Parameterization Tool (Basic idea) Aims to keep rich design space and enforce smoothness to the resulting shape. Handles/Parameters are selected appropriately. Shape changes are gracefully driven by the movement of the handles, whilst enforcing smoothness to the shape</p

Comparative Experimental and Computational Study of Monoalkyl Chain Phosphatidylcholine-Containing Thermoresponsive Liposomes

Liposomes containing lysophospholipids are intensively studied as drug delivery systems that are stable at normal body temperature but exhibit fast release of their drug load at slightly elevated temperatures. In this study, the stability and release properties of dipalmitoylglycerophosphocholine (DPPC)-based liposomes incorporating the commonly used lysophosphatidylocholine (lyso-PC), and a series of monoalkyl chain ether-linked phosphatidylcholine, i.e., the biologically relevant monoalkyl chain platelet activating factor (PAF) and its derivatives lyso-PAF and methyl-PAF, were investigated. To this end a series of PEGylated small unilamellar liposomes with DPPC:monoalkyl lipid compositions of 5% and 10% molar ratio were prepared and compared with regard to stability (37 °C) and release properties at elevated temperatures (38–43 °C). All systems were characterized with respect to size distribution, ζ-potential, and phase transition characteristics. The presence of ether–lipids endows liposomes with superior (∼10% increase) release properties at 5% incorporation compared to lyso-PC, while at 10% molar ratio the formulations do not differ significantly, the release being close to 90%. The findings are supported by atomistic molecular dynamics simulations that suggest a correlation between the enhanced permeability and increased penetration of water molecules within the bilayers with density fluctuations resulting from the increased area-per-lipid and the disorder of the lysolipids alkyl chains

New N -(2-phenyl-4-oxo-1,3-thiazolidin-3-yl)-1,2-benzothiazole-3-carboxamides and acetamides as antimicrobial agents

A series of 21 novel N-[2-phenyl-4-oxo-1,3-thiazolidin-3-yl]-1,2-benzothiazole-3-carboxamides/acetamides (4a–4p) as well as a series of N′-(halophenylmethylidene)-1,2-benzothiazole-3-acetohydrazides (3h–3p) have been synthesized and evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against eight bacterial and eight fungal species, among them plant, animal and human pathogens and food contaminating species. All compounds appeared to be potent and the best activity was exhibited by compound 4d with MIC in the range of 10.7–21.4 μmol mL−1 × 10−2 and MBC of 21.4–40.2 μmol mL−1 × 10−2. The best antifungal activity was observed for compounds 4p and 3h. Elucidation of the relationship between the antimicrobial activity and molecular properties of the synthesized compounds was also performed. Synthetic intermediates were also tested with several exhibiting good antimicrobial activities. Docking studies for some compounds were performed

Convalescent plasma therapy in an immunocompromised patient with multiple COVID-19 flares: a case report

Convalescent plasma (CP) transfusion has been utilized as a salvage therapy in immunocompromised patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. We describe the case of a 45-year-old immunocompromised patient, who received CP, in order to control multiple COVID-19 flares and prolonged SARS-CoV-2 viraemia lasting for 2 months after the initial diagnosis