1,119 research outputs found
Current understanding on venous leg ulcer
Venous leg ulcer (VLU) or stasis ulcer is a relatively common, chronic and recurring problem. Besides being costly to the health-care system, it significantly impairs the quality of life of the patients. Nearly 1% of adults and 3.6% of older patients are reported to suffer from this chronic condition. Chronic venous insufficiency is considered to be the predominant cause of VLU. The most recent theories associate the pathogenesis of venous ulcer with microcirculatory abnormalities and generation of an inflammatory response. The pharmacological treatment for VLU is based on the pathogenesis and often includes diosmin, pentoxifylline, diuretics as well as antibiotics and the non-pharmacological treatment like compression and skin grafting. VLU has a high rate of recurrence and requires self-care to avoid relapse. Treatment of VLU should always focus for complete treatment, and improve quality of life for patients along with minimum relapse. In recent years novel therapeutic approaches for venous ulcers have offered valuable tools for the management of patients with this disorder
The management of an accessory or replaced right hepatic artery during multiorgan retrieval:results of an angiographic study
Second-order Democratic Aggregation
Aggregated second-order features extracted from deep convolutional networks
have been shown to be effective for texture generation, fine-grained
recognition, material classification, and scene understanding. In this paper,
we study a class of orderless aggregation functions designed to minimize
interference or equalize contributions in the context of second-order features
and we show that they can be computed just as efficiently as their first-order
counterparts and they have favorable properties over aggregation by summation.
Another line of work has shown that matrix power normalization after
aggregation can significantly improve the generalization of second-order
representations. We show that matrix power normalization implicitly equalizes
contributions during aggregation thus establishing a connection between matrix
normalization techniques and prior work on minimizing interference. Based on
the analysis we present {\gamma}-democratic aggregators that interpolate
between sum ({\gamma}=1) and democratic pooling ({\gamma}=0) outperforming both
on several classification tasks. Moreover, unlike power normalization, the
{\gamma}-democratic aggregations can be computed in a low dimensional space by
sketching that allows the use of very high-dimensional second-order features.
This results in a state-of-the-art performance on several datasets
First-order structural transition in the magnetically ordered phase of Fe1.13Te
Specific heat, resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, linear thermal expansion
(LTE), and high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction investigations
of single crystals Fe1+yTe (0.06 < y < 0.15) reveal a splitting of a single,
first-order transition for y 0.12. Most
strikingly, all measurements on identical samples Fe1.13Te consistently
indicate that, upon cooling, the magnetic transition at T_N precedes the
first-order structural transition at a lower temperature T_s. The structural
transition in turn coincides with a change in the character of the magnetic
structure. The LTE measurements along the crystallographic c-axis displays a
small distortion close to T_N due to a lattice striction as a consequence of
magnetic ordering, and a much larger change at T_s. The lattice symmetry
changes, however, only below T_s as indicated by powder X-ray diffraction. This
behavior is in stark contrast to the sequence in which the phase transitions
occur in Fe pnictides.Comment: 6 page
Temporary Labour–Migration System and Long–term Residence Strategies in the United Arab Emirates
© 2019 The Authors. International Migration © 2019 IOM The United Arab Emirates’ migration system, the sponsorship–based kafala system, is defined as a temporary labour–migration regime. Although there are policies making permanent residence unattainable for virtually all migrants, it is still relevant to explore the temporality of migrations in the UAE. The purpose of this study is to investigate developments in migration, migration policies and population trends in the country, including trends that concern the duration of migrants’ stay. We also identify some of the major strategies used by migrants to prolong their sojourn in the UAE. It is maintained that the migrant stock has increased continuously in the last decades and that a large number of migrants devise strategies to continue their residence and remain in the country for years. The authors also identify and discuss migrants’ transition within and in-between regularity and irregularity, and analyse the reasons for utilizing different strategies over time
Subgrid-scale variability in clear-sky relative humidity and forcing by aerosol–radiation interactions in an atmosphere model
Atmosphere models with resolutions of several tens of kilometres take
subgrid-scale variability in the total specific humidity qt into account
by using a uniform probability density function (PDF) to predict fractional
cloud cover. However, usually only mean relative humidity,
RH, or mean clear-sky relative humidity,
RHcls, is used to compute hygroscopic growth
of soluble aerosol particles. While previous studies based on limited-area
models and also a global model suggest that subgrid-scale variability in RH
should be taken into account for estimating radiative forcing due to aerosol–radiation
interactions (RFari), here we present the first
estimate of RFari using a global atmospheric model with a parameterization
for subgrid-scale variability in RH that is consistent with the assumptions
in the model. For this, we sample the subsaturated part of the uniform RH-PDF
from the cloud cover scheme for its application in the hygroscopic growth
parameterization in the ECHAM6-HAM2 atmosphere model. Due to the non-linear
dependence of the hygroscopic growth on RH, this causes an increase in
aerosol hygroscopic growth. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) increases by a global
mean of 0.009 ( ∼ 7.8 % in comparison to the control run). Especially
over the tropics AOD is enhanced with a mean of about 0.013. Due to the
increase in AOD, net top of the atmosphere clear-sky solar radiation,
SWnet, cls, decreases by −0.22 W m−2
( ∼ −0.08 %). Finally, the RFari changes from −0.15 to
−0.19 W m−2 by about 31 %. The reason for this very
disproportionate effect is that anthropogenic aerosols are disproportionally
hygroscopic
5-Hydroxyethyl-3-tetradecanoyltetramic acid represents a novel treatment for intravascular catheter infections due to Staphylococcus aureus
Objectives: Biofilm infections of intravascular catheters caused by Staphylococcus aureus may be treated with catheter lock solutions (CLSs). Here we investigated the antibacterial activity, cytotoxicity and CLS potential of 5-hydroxyethyl-3-tetradecanoyltetramic acid (5HE-C14-TMA) compared with the related compounds 3-tetradecanoyltetronic (C14-TOA) and 3-tetradecanoylthiotetronic (C14-TTA), which are variants of quorum sensing signalling molecules produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Methods: Antibacterial activity and mechanism of action of 5HE-C14-TMA, C14-TOA and C14-TTA were determined via MIC, bacterial killing, membrane potential and permeability assays. Susceptibility of S. aureus biofilms formed in the presence of plasma in vitro was investigated, MTT cytotoxicity testing was undertaken and cytokine release in human blood upon exposure to 5HE-C14-TMA and/or S. aureus biofilms was quantified. The effectiveness of 5HE-C14-TMA as CLS therapy in vivo was assessed using a rat intravascular catheter biofilm infection model.
Results: MICs of 5HE-C14-TMA, C14-TOA and C14-TTA ranged from 2 to 4 mg/L. 5HE-C14-TMA and C14-TTA were bactericidal; all three compounds perturbed the staphylococcal membrane by increasing membrane permeability, depolarized the transmembrane potential and caused ATP leakage. Cytotoxicity and haemolytic activity were compound and target cell type-dependent. 5HE-C14-TMA reduced S. aureus biofilm viability in a dose-dependent manner in vitro and in vivo and did not trigger release of cytokines in human blood, but inhibited the high levels of IL-8 and TNF-α induced by S. aureus biofilms.
Conclusions: 5HE-C14-TMA, C14-TOA and C14-TTA are membrane-active agents. 5HE-C14-TMA was the most potent, eradicating S. aureus biofilms at 512–1024 mg/L both in vitro and in vivo as a CLS
Screening Practices for Infectious Diseases among Burmese Refugees in Australia
Helicobacter pylori and Strongyloides spp. infections were the most common conditions found
Estimates of measles case fatality ratios: a comprehensive review of community-based studies.
BACKGROUND: Global deaths from measles have decreased notably in past decades, due to both increases in immunization rates and decreases in measles case fatality ratios (CFRs). While some aspects of the reduction in measles mortality can be monitored through increases in immunization coverage, estimating the level of measles deaths (in absolute terms) is problematic, particularly since incidence-based methods of estimation rely on accurate measures of measles CFRs. These ratios vary widely by geographic and epidemiologic context and even within the same community from year-to-year. METHODS: To understand better the variations in CFRs, we reviewed community-based studies published between 1980 and 2008 reporting age-specific measles CFRs. RESULTS: The results of the search consistently document that measles CFRs are highest in unvaccinated children under age 5 years; in outbreaks; the lowest CFRs occur in vaccinated children regardless of setting. The broad range of case and death definitions, study populations and geography highlight the complexities in extrapolating results for global public health planning. CONCLUSIONS: Values for measles CFRs remain imprecise, resulting in continued uncertainty about the actual toll measles exacts
- …