High-sensitive C-Reactive Protein as a Marker for Inflammation in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Recent studies demonstrated low-grade inflammation in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). However, these studies have been relatively small and do not enable examination of this factor in different subtypes of IBS and the possibility of confounding effects of co-morbidities that may be associated with inflammatory responses

Representation theory of some infinite-dimensional algebras arising in continuously controlled algebra and topology

In this paper we determine the representation type of some algebras of infinite matrices continuously controlled at infinity by a compact metrizable space. We explicitly classify their finitely presented modules in the finite and tame cases. The algebra of row-column-finite (or locally finite) matrices over an arbitrary field is one of the algebras considered in this paper, its representation type is shown to be finite.Comment: 33 page

The rising burden of spondylodiscitis in Germany: an epidemiologic study based on the federal statistical office database [Abstract]

Introduction: Spondylodiscitis is the commonest form of infectious disease of the spine and harbours a high mortality rate of up to 20%. Recent demographic trends in Germany, such as an aging population, immunosuppression, and intravenous drug use, suggest that the incidence of spondylodiscitis may be on the rise. However, the exact epidemiological development of the disease remains uncertain. This study aims to analyse the burden on the tertiary healthcare system in Germany using data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (FSOG) database. Materials and Methods: All cases of spondylodiscitis diagnosed between 2005 and 2021 were identified from the FSOG database. The study characterised the mean duration of hospital stays, total and population-adjusted number of diagnoses made, age-stratified incidence, and outcomes of hospitalised patients. Results: A total of 131,982 diagnoses for spondylodiscitis were identified between 2005 and 2021. The number of diagnoses for spondylodiscitis has doubled during this period, from 5.4/100,000 population in 2005 to 11/100,000 population in 2021. The highest increase in admissions was recorded for those aged 90 years and above (+1307%), 80-89 (+376%) and 70-79 (+99%). Hospital discharges to rehabilitation facilities have increased by 160%, and discharges against medical advice by 91%. On the other hand, during the analysed period, the in-hospital mortality rate has decreased by 52%. Conclusion: The population-adjusted incidence of spondylodiscitis in Germany has more than doubled between 2005 and 2021, highlighting the clinical relevance of this disease. During the same period, in-hospital mortality dropped by half. These findings suggest the need for further investigation into optimal therapy, particularly the role and timing of surgical treatment

Novel Biodegradable Composite of Calcium Phosphate Cement and the Collagen I Mimetic P-15 for Pedicle Screw Augmentation in Osteoporotic Bone

Osteoporotic vertebral fractures often necessitate fusion surgery, with high rates of implant failure. We present a novel bioactive composite of calcium phosphate cement (CPC) and the collagen I mimetic P-15 for pedicle screw augmentation in osteoporotic bone. Methods involved expression analysis of osteogenesis-related genes during osteoblastic differentiation by RT-PCR and immunostaining of osteopontin and Ca2+ deposits. Untreated and decalcified sheep vertebrae were utilized for linear pullout testing of pedicle screws. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Expression of ALPI II (p p p p p p p p p = 0.04) with PMMA, and 1252 ± 131 N (p < 0.0078) with CPC-P-15. CPC-P-15 induces osteoblastic differentiation of human MES and improves pullout resistance of pedicle screws in osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic bone

Enumerating super edge-magic labelings for the union of non-isomorphic graphs

A super edge-magic labeling of a graph G=(V,E) of order p and size q is a bijection f:V ∪E→{i}p+qi=1 such that: (1) f(u)+f(uv)+f(v)=k for all uv∈E; and (2) f(V )={i}pi=1. Furthermore, when G is a linear forest, the super edge-magic labeling of G is called strong if it has the extra property that if uv∈E(G) , u′,v′ ∈V (G) and dG (u,u′ )=dG (v,v′ )<+∞, then f(u)+f(v)=f(u′ )+f(v′ ). In this paper we introduce the concept of strong super edge-magic labeling of a graph G with respect to a linear forest F, and we study the super edge-magicness of an odd union of nonnecessarily isomorphic acyclic graphs. Furthermore, we find exponential lower bounds for the number of super edge-magic labelings of these unions. The case when G is not acyclic will be also considered.Preprin

Morse theory of the moment map for representations of quivers

The results of this paper concern the Morse theory of the norm-square of the moment map on the space of representations of a quiver. We show that the gradient flow of this function converges, and that the Morse stratification induced by the gradient flow co-incides with the Harder-Narasimhan stratification from algebraic geometry. Moreover, the limit of the gradient flow is isomorphic to the graded object of the Harder-Narasimhan-Jordan-H\"older filtration associated to the initial conditions for the flow. With a view towards applications to Nakajima quiver varieties we construct explicit local co-ordinates around the Morse strata and (under a technical hypothesis on the stability parameter) describe the negative normal space to the critical sets. Finally, we observe that the usual Kirwan surjectivity theorems in rational cohomology and integral K-theory carry over to this non-compact setting, and that these theorems generalize to certain equivariant contexts.Comment: 48 pages, small revisions from previous version based on referee's comments. To appear in Geometriae Dedicat

Twitter as health information source : exploring the parameters affecting dementia-related tweets

Unlike other media, research on the credibility of information present on social media is limited. This limitation is even more pronounced in the case of healthcare, including dementia-related information. The purpose of this study was to identify user groups that show high bot-like behavior and profile features that deviation from typical human behavior. We collected 16,691 tweets about dementia posted over the course of a month by 8400 users. We applied inductive coding to categorize users. The BotOrNot? API was used to compute a bot score. This work provides insight into relations between user features and a bot score. We performed analysis techniques such as Kruskal-Wallis, stepwise multiple variable regression, user tweet frequency analysis and content analysis on the data. These were further evaluated for the most frequently referenced URLs in the tweets and most active users in terms of tweet frequency. Initial results indicated that the majority of users are regular users and not bots. Regression analysis revealed a clear relationship between different features. Independent variables in the user profiles such as geo_data and favourites_count, correlated with the final bot score. Similarly, content analysis of the tweets showed that the word features of bot profiles have an overall smaller percentage of words compared to regular profiles. Although this analysis is promising, it needs further enhancements