1,081 research outputs found
Degradation of fluorobenzene by a Rhizobiales strain F11 via ortho cleavage of 4-fluorocatechol and catechol
Epidemiología y pronóstico de los pacientes con VIH ingresados en la UCI en la era de tratamiento antirretroviral de gran actividad actual
Observational study[Abstract] Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of critical disease in HIV-infected patients during the current highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era and to identify hospital mortality predictors.
Methods: A longitudinal, retrospective observational study was made of HIV-infected adults admitted to the ICU in two Spanish hospitals between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2014. Demographic and HIV-related variables were analyzed, together with comorbidities, severity scores, reasons for admission and need for organ support. The chi-squared test was used to compare categorical variables, while continuous variables were contrasted with the Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test or Kruskal-Wallis test, assuming an alpha level=0.05. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios for assessing correlations to mortality during hospital stay. Joinpoint regression analysis was used to study mortality trends over time.
Results: A total of 283 episodes were included for analyses. Hospital mortality was 32.9% (95%CI: 21.2-38.5). Only admission from a site other than the Emergency Care Department (OR 3.64, 95%CI: 1.30-10.20; p=0.01), moderate-severe liver disease (OR 5.65, 95%CI: 1.11-28.87; p=0.04) and the APACHE II score (OR 1.14, 95%CI: 1.04-1.26; p<0.01) and SOFA score at 72h (OR 1.19, 95%CI: 1.02-1.40; p=0.03) maintained a statistically significant relationship with hospital mortality.
Conclusions: Delayed ICU admission, comorbidities and the severity of critical illness determine the prognosis of HIV-infected patients admitted to the ICU. Based on these data, HIV-infected patients should receive the same level of care as non-HIV-infected patients, regardless of their immunological or nutritional condition.[Resumen] Objetivos. Describir la epidemiología de la patología crítica en el paciente infectado por VIH durante la era de tratamiento antirretroviral de gran actividad actual y encontrar predictores de mortalidad hospitalaria.
Métodos. Estudio observacional, retrospectivo y longitudinal que incluye pacientes infectados por VIH adultos ingresados en las UCI de hospitales de Galicia, entre el 1 de enero de 2000 y el 31 de diciembre de 2014. Analizamos variables demográficas y relacionadas con la infección por el VIH, comorbilidades, puntuaciones de gravedad, motivo de ingreso y necesidad de soporte de órganos. Empleamos la prueba de la Chi-cuadrado para comparar las variables categóricas y las pruebas de la T-Student, U de Mann-Whitney o H de Kruskal-Wallis para las variables continuas, asumiendo un error α = 0,05. Utilizamos la regresión logística multivariante para calcular la OR de la asociación con la mortalidad hospitalaria. Aplicamos análisis de regresión de joinpoint para estudiar la tendencia temporal de mortalidad.
Resultados. Incluimos 283 episodios. La mortalidad hospitalaria fue del 32,9% (IC 95% = 21,2-38,5%). El ingreso no procedente de Urgencias (OR 3,64; IC 95% = 1,30-10,20; p = 0,01), la enfermedad hepática moderada-grave (OR 5,65; IC 95% = 1,11-28,87; p = 0,04), el APACHE II (OR 1,14; IC 95% = 1,04-1,26; p < 0,01) y el SOFA a las 72 h (OR 1,19; IC 95% = 1,02-1,40; p = 0,03) se relacionan con la mortalidad hospitalaria en el análisis multivariante.
Conclusiones. El retraso en el ingreso en UCI, las comorbilidades y la gravedad del episodio determinan el pronóstico del paciente infectado por VIH ingresado en UCI. Los pacientes con VIH deberían recibir el mismo nivel de cuidados que los pacientes no infectados por VIH, independientemente de su estado inmunológico o nutricional
Dutasteride treatment over 2 years delays prostate-specific antigen progression in patients with biochemical failure after radical therapy for prostate cancer: Results from the randomised, placebo-controlled avodart after radical therapy for Prostate Cancer Study (ARTS)
Background: Rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels after radical therapy are indicative of recurrent or residual prostate cancer (PCa). This biochemical recurrence typically predates clinically detectable metastatic disease by several years. Management of patients with biochemical recurrence is controversial. Objective: To assess the effect of dutasteride on progression of PCa in patients with biochemical failure after radical therapy. Design, setting, and participants: Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 294 men from 64 centres across 9 European countries. Intervention: The 5α-reductase inhibitor, dutasteride. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: The primary end point was time to PSA doubling from start of randomised treatment, analysed by log-rank test stratified by previous therapy and investigative-site cluster. Secondary end points included time to disease progression and the proportion of subjects with disease progression. Results and limitations: Of the 294 subjects randomised (147 in each treatment group), 187 (64%) completed 24 mo of treatment and 107 discontinued treatment prematurely (71 [48%] of the placebo group, 36 [24%] of the dutasteride group). Dutasteride significantly delayed the time to PSA doubling compared with placebo after 24 mo of treatment (p < 0.001); the relative risk (RR) reduction was 66.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 50.35-76.90) for the overall study period. Dutasteride also significantly delayed disease progression (which included PSA- and non-PSA-related outcomes) compared with placebo (p < 0.001); the overall RR reduction in favour of dutasteride was 59% (95% CI, 32.53-75.09). The incidence of adverse events (AEs), serious AEs, and AEs leading to study withdrawal were similar between the treatment groups. A limitation was that investigators were not blinded to PSA levels during the study. Conclusions: Dutasteride delayed the biochemical progression of PCa in patients with biochemical failure after radical therapy for clinically localised disease. The safety and tolerability of dutasteride were generally consistent with previous experience. Clinical trial registry: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00558363
Pilot study on university students' opinion about STEM studies at higher education
The percentages of women enrolled in higher education in the
STEM sector are significantly lower than those of men. Overall,
gender representation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
degrees in Europe is not balanced. The Leaky Pipeline phenomenon,
marked by gender stereotypes, makes the latent gender
gap a relevant topic of study. Studies exist on academic performance,
self-perception, self-efficacy, outcome expectations; however, studying
gender stereotypes linked to STEM studies is also essential. It
is necessary to know the social and family context in which young
people have grown up, as well as their perception of such studies.
To study gender stereotypes of university students about STEM
studies, a questionnaire has been designed for empirical validation.
For the design of the instrument, to be validated, items from other
instruments have been taken and adapted to Spanish. After the
design of the instrument, an online pilot study has been applied
in the University of Salamanca, the University of Valencia and the
Polytechnic University of Valencia. A total of 115 people answered
the questionnaire. The results of the pilot study reveal that the
study sample is not particularly marked by gender stereotypes
about gender equality in STEM. Also, the sample is receptive to
learning about science and applying it in their lives. On the other
hand, the idea that women have to give up their studies and careers
to look after their families and children is rejected. The idea that
men are more interested in university studies than women is also
rejected. At the same time, the sample is aware of the difficulties
that women encounter in the STEM sector. Another optimistic point
of the results is that there are no alarming data on bad experiences
due to gender. In the future, the study will be replicated on a larger
scale
Sporting embodiment: sports studies and the (continuing) promise of phenomenology
Whilst in recent years sports studies have addressed the calls ‘to bring the body back in’ to theorisations of sport and physical activity, the ‘promise of phenomenology’ remains largely under-realised with regard to sporting embodiment. Relatively few accounts are grounded in the ‘flesh’ of the lived sporting body, and phenomenology offers a powerful framework for such analysis. A wide-ranging, multi-stranded, and interpretatively contested perspective, phenomenology in general has been taken up and utilised in very different ways within different disciplinary fields. The purpose of this article is to consider some selected phenomenological threads, key qualities of the phenomenological method, and the potential for existentialist phenomenology in particular to contribute fresh perspectives to the sociological study of embodiment in sport and exercise. It offers one way to convey the ‘essences’, corporeal immediacy and textured sensuosity of the lived sporting body. The use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is also critically addressed.
Key words: phenomenology; existentialist phenomenology; interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA); sporting embodiment; the lived-body; Merleau-Pont
Yield and mineral nutrition of soybean, maize, and Congo signal grass as affected by limestone and slag
Adaptation of the Landau-Migdal Quasiparticle Pattern to Strongly Correlated Fermi Systems
A quasiparticle pattern advanced in Landau's first article on Fermi liquid
theory is adapted to elucidate the properties of a class of strongly correlated
Fermi systems characterized by a Lifshitz phase diagram featuring a quantum
critical point (QCP) where the density of states diverges. The necessary
condition for stability of the Landau Fermi Liquid state is shown to break down
in such systems, triggering a cascade of topological phase transitions that
lead, without symmetry violation, to states with multi-connected Fermi
surfaces. The end point of this evolution is found to be an exceptional state
whose spectrum of single-particle excitations exhibits a completely flat
portion at zero temperature. Analysis of the evolution of the temperature
dependence of the single-particle spectrum yields results that provide a
natural explanation of classical behavior of this class of Fermi systems in the
QCP region.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures. Dedicated to 100th anniversary of A.B.Migdal
birthda
Kaon Production and Kaon to Pion Ratio in Au+Au Collisions at \snn=130 GeV
Mid-rapidity transverse mass spectra and multiplicity densities of charged
and neutral kaons are reported for Au+Au collisions at \snn=130 GeV at RHIC.
The spectra are exponential in transverse mass, with an inverse slope of about
280 MeV in central collisions. The multiplicity densities for these particles
scale with the negative hadron pseudo-rapidity density. The charged kaon to
pion ratios are and
for the most central collisions. The ratio is lower than the same
ratio observed at the SPS while the is higher than the SPS result.
Both ratios are enhanced by about 50% relative to p+p and +p
collision data at similar energies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Origin of the submillimeter radio emission during the time-extended phase of a solar flare
Solar flares observed in the 200-400 GHz radio domain may exhibit a slowly
varying and time-extended component which follows a short (few minutes)
impulsive phase and which lasts for a few tens of minutes to more than one
hour. The few examples discussed in the literature indicate that such
long-lasting submillimeter emission is most likely thermal bremsstrahlung. We
present a detailed analysis of the time-extended phase of the 2003 October 27
(M6.7) flare, combining 1-345 GHz total-flux radio measurements with X-ray,
EUV, and H{\alpha} observations. We find that the time-extended radio emission
is, as expected, radiated by thermal bremsstrahlung. Up to 230 GHz, it is
entirely produced in the corona by hot and cool materials at 7-16 MK and 1-3
MK, respectively. At 345 GHz, there is an additional contribution from
chromospheric material at a few 10^4 K. These results, which may also apply to
other millimeter-submillimeter radio events, are not consistent with the
expectations from standard semi-empirical models of the chromosphere and
transition region during flares, which predict observable radio emission from
the chromosphere at all frequencies where the corona is transparent.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure
Update on the correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic matter
Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory through 31 August 2007 showed
evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above the
Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min energy threshold, \nobreak{eV}. The
anisotropy was measured by the fraction of arrival directions that are less
than from the position of an active galactic nucleus within 75 Mpc
(using the V\'eron-Cetty and V\'eron catalog). An updated
measurement of this fraction is reported here using the arrival directions of
cosmic rays recorded above the same energy threshold through 31 December 2009.
The number of arrival directions has increased from 27 to 69, allowing a more
precise measurement. The correlating fraction is , compared
with expected for isotropic cosmic rays. This is down from the early
estimate of . The enlarged set of arrival directions is
examined also in relation to other populations of nearby extragalactic objects:
galaxies in the 2 Microns All Sky Survey and active galactic nuclei detected in
hard X-rays by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A celestial region around the
position of the radiogalaxy Cen A has the largest excess of arrival directions
relative to isotropic expectations. The 2-point autocorrelation function is
shown for the enlarged set of arrival directions and compared to the isotropic
expectation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics on 31 August 201
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