Vitamin D in Atopic Dermatitis, Asthma and Allergic Diseases

Tema ovog rada je konstruiranje rotacijskog paletnog spremnika. Tema je obrađena od ideje do tehničke dokumentacije modela koji nudi rješenje zadanog zadatka. Ideja je bila da se pomoću spremnika oblika krnje piramide reducira radni prostor prilikom dodavanja izradaka robotu, ali da priljev izradaka ostane isti. Analizom tržišta utvrđena su postojeća rješenja i pronađena su rješenja za rješavanje zahtjeva zadanih zadatkom. Funkcijskom strukturom prikazane su sve potrebne funkcije za rotaciju paletnog spremnika oko vlastite osi, točnost pozicioniranja i kvantiteta izradaka te osiguranje radne pozicije. Morfološkom matricom dana su rješenja za obavljanje funkcija definiranih u funkcijskoj dekompoziciji. Na temelju funkcijske dekompozicije i morfološke matrice razrađeni su koncepti koji se razlikuju po pitanju pogona spremnika. U radu je napravljen proračun ključnih komponenti na temelju odabranog koncepta i zahtjeva zadanih zadatkom te napravljen je 3D CAD model čija se tehnička dokumentacija nalazi u prilogu

Asthma in inner city children: recent insights: United States

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Children living in US inner cities experience disparate burdens of asthma, especially in severity, impairment, exacerbations, and morbidity. Investigations seeking to better understand the factors and mechanisms underlying asthma prevalence, severity, and exacerbation in children living in these communities can lead to interventions that can narrow asthma disparities and potentially benefit all children with asthma. This update will focus on recent (i.e. late 2016-2017) advances in the understanding of asthma in US inner city children. RECENT FINDINGS: Studies published in the past year expand understanding of asthma prevalence, severity, exacerbation, and the outcomes of guidelines-based management of these at-risk children, including: asthma phenotypes in US inner city children that are severe and difficult-to-control; key environmental determinants and mechanisms underlying asthma severity and exacerbations (e.g. allergy-mediated exacerbation susceptibility to rhinovirus); the importance of schools as a place for provocative exposures (e.g. mouse allergen, nitrogen dioxide) as well as a place where asthma care and outcomes can be improved; and the development and validation of clinically useful indices for gauging asthma severity and predicting exacerbations. SUMMARY: These recent studies provide a trove of actionable findings that can improve asthma care and outcomes for these at-risk children

Aeroallergen Sensitization, Serum IgE, and Eosinophilia as Predictors of Response to Omalizumab Therapy during the Fall Season among Children with Persistent Asthma

BACKGROUND: Perennial aeroallergen sensitization is associated with greater asthma morbidity and is required for treatment with omalizumab. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the predictive relationship between the number of aeroallergen sensitizations, total serum IgE, and serum eosinophil count, and response to omalizumab in children and adolescents with asthma treated during the fall season. METHODS: This analysis includes inner-city patients with persistent asthma and recent exacerbations aged 6-20 years comprising the placebo and omalizumab-treated groups in two completed randomized clinical trials, the Inner-City Anti-IgE Therapy for Asthma (ICATA) study and the Preventative Omalizumab or Step-Up Therapy for Fall Exacerbations (PROSE) study. Logistic regression modeled the relationship between greater degrees of markers of allergic inflammation and the primary outcome of fall season asthma exacerbations. RESULTS: The analysis included 761 participants who were 62% male and 59% African American with a median age of 10 years. Fall asthma exacerbations were significantly higher in children with greater numbers of aeroallergen-specific sensitizations in the placebo group (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.11-1.60, p CONCLUSIONS: In preventing fall season asthma exacerbations, treatment with omalizumab was most beneficial in children with a greater degree of allergic inflammation

Steering, Not Rowing? An Analysis of the Political Influence, the Role Perceptions, and the Behavior of Swiss City Councillors in Different Urban Governance Contexts

In today’s cities, councillors see themselves increasingly confronted with new forms of political steering focusing more on interaction than on hierarchical decision making and blurring the lines between the public and private spheres. By embedding the concept of governance in a new institutionalist framework, the article investigates the implications of new models of urban governance on the identity, the notion of democracy, the perceptions, and the role behavior of city councillors. It tests two rival hypotheses—an optimistic versus a pessimistic perspective on governance and democracy—and thereby draws on multilevel analyses of a comprehensive survey of all city councillors in Switzerland