Venous Thromboembolism: Classification, Risk Factors, Diagnosis, and Management

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is categorised as deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). VTE is associated with high morbidity and causes a huge financial burden on patients, hospitals, and governments. Both acquired and hereditary risks factors contribute to VTE. To diagnose VTE, noninvasive cost-effective diagnostic algorithms including clinical probability assessment and D-dimer measurement may be employed followup by compression ultrasonography for suspected DVT patients and multidetector computed tomography angiography for suspected PE patients. There are pharmacological and mechanical interventions to manage and prevent VTE. The pharmacological approaches mainly target pathways in coagulation cascade nonspecifically: conventional anticoagulants or specifically: new generation of anticoagulants. Excess bleeding is one of the major risk factors for pharmacological interventions. Hence, nonpharmacological or mechanical approaches such as inferior vena cava filters, graduated compression stockings, and intermittent pneumatic compression devices in combination with pharmacological interventions or alone may be a good approach to manage VTE

Mast cell density in gastric biopsies of pediatric age group and its relation to inflammation and presence of Helicobacter pylori

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between mast cell density, histological severity of gastritis, and presence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in the antral mucosa of pediatric patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study included 352 (192 male and 160 female, < 14 years old) patients. All cases underwent endoscopy, and biopsies were obtained for histopathological examination and evaluation of Helicobacter pylori. All biopsies were evaluated according to the Sydney system and mast cell density in the antral mucosa was analyzed by Giemsa stain. Spearman's correlation test was used to determine the relationship between mast cell density and other histopathological parameters. The comparison of mast cell density between H. pylori positive and negative groups was analyzed by Mann Whitney U test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mast cell density was 12.6 ± 0.87 in 0.25 mm²(0–81). Means of severity of gastric inflammation in H. pylori-positive and negative patients were 1.7 ± 0.6 and 0.6 ± 0.7, respectively, which was statistically significant (p = 0.0001). Mast cell density was not correlated with presence and degree of inflammation, activity, presence and score of H. pylori in the antrum (p > 0.05). There was no significant correlation between mast cell density and allergy.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>We concluded that there may be some other ways for contribution of mast cells in pathologic processes involving gastrointestinal tract in children.</p

Effects of treatment with antimicrobial agents on the human colonic microflora

Antimicrobial agents are the most valuable means available for treating bacterial infections. However, the administration of therapeutic doses of antimicrobial agents to patients is a leading cause of disturbance of the normal gastrointestinal microflora. This disturbance results in diminishing the natural defense mechanisms provided by the colonic microbial ecosystem, making the host vulnerable to infection by commensal microorganisms or nosocomial pathogens. In this minireview, the impacts of antimicrobials, individually and in combinations, on the human colonic microflora are discussed

Low temperature magnetic properties and spin dynamics in single crystals of Cr8Zn antiferromagnetic molecular rings

Under the terms of the CC BY license.-- et al.A detailed experimental investigation of the effects giving rise to the magnetic energy level structure in the vicinity of the level crossing (LC) at low temperature is reported for the open antiferromagnetic molecular ring CrZn. The study is conducted by means of thermodynamic techniques (torque magnetometry, magnetization and specific heat measurements) and microscopic techniques (nuclear magnetic resonance line width, nuclear spin lattice, and spin-spin relaxation measurements). The experimental results are shown to be in excellent agreement with theoretical calculations based on a minimal spin model Hamiltonian, which includes a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The first ground state level crossing at μH = 2.15 T is found to be an almost true LC while the second LC at μH = 6.95 T has an anti-crossing gap of Δ = 0.19 K. In addition, both NMR and specific heat measurements show the presence of a level anti-crossing between excited states at μH = 4.5 T as predicted by the theory. In all cases, the fit of the experimental data is improved by introducing a distribution of the isotropic exchange couplings (J), i.e., using a J strain model. The peaks at the first and second LCs in the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate are dominated by inelastic scattering and a value of Γ ∼ 10 rad/s is inferred for the life time broadening of the excited state of the open ring, due to spin phonon interaction. A loss of NMR signal (wipe-out effect) is observed for the first time at LC and is explained by the enhancement of the spin-spin relaxation rate due to the inelastic scattering.This work was financially supported by the Italian FIRB Project No. RBFR12RPD1 of the Italian MIUR “New Challenges in Molecular Nanomagnetism: From Spin Dynamics to Quantum-Information Processing.”Peer Reviewe

Magnetic effects on the low-T/|W| instability in differentially rotating neutron stars

Dynamical instabilities in protoneutron stars may produce gravitational waves whose observation could shed light on the physics of core-collapse supernovae. When born with sufficient differential rotation, these stars are susceptible to a shear instability (the "low-T/|W| instability"), but such rotation can also amplify magnetic fields to strengths where they have a considerable impact on the dynamics of the stellar matter. Using a new magnetohydrodynamics module for the Spectral Einstein Code, we have simulated a differentially-rotating neutron star in full 3D to study the effects of magnetic fields on this instability. Though strong toroidal fields were predicted to suppress the low-T/|W| instability, we find that they do so only in a small range of field strengths. Below 4e13 G, poloidal seed fields do not wind up fast enough to have an effect before the instability saturates, while above 5e14 G, magnetic instabilities can actually amplify a global quadrupole mode (this threshold may be even lower in reality, as small-scale magnetic instabilities remain difficult to resolve numerically). Thus, the prospects for observing gravitational waves from such systems are not in fact diminished over most of the magnetic parameter space. Additionally, we report that the detailed development of the low-T/|W| instability, including its growth rate, depends strongly on the particular numerical methods used. The high-order methods we employ suggest that growth might be considerably slower than found in some previous simulations.Comment: REVTeX 4.1, 21 pages, 18 figures, submitting to Physical Review

Assessment of the sustainability of fibre-reinforced concrete by considering both environmental and mechanical properties

The environmental consequences of human activities, e.g., the depletion of non-renewable fuel resources, consumption of natural raw materials, and release of huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, resulted in new challenges in materials engineering. Based on these challenges, building materials must fulfil not only mechanical performance criteria, but also produce the least environmental impact accompanied by their production. In the present study, the possibility of employing scrap tire recycled steel fibres (RSF) as a substitution to industrial steel fibres (ISF) for developing more sustainable fibre-reinforced concretes was explored by adopting a life-cycle approach, integrated both environmental and mechanical properties. Four different fibre-reinforced self-compacting concretes–FRSCCs–were tailored by means of replacing the ISFs partially/totally (i.e., 0%, 50%, 67%, 100% by mass of) with the recycled ones. The effect of applying various dosages of RSFs on mechanical behavior of FRSCC–namely compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile responses–were evaluated experimentally. The environmental impacts associated with the production of each FRSCC were also assessed through life-cycle analysis. The potentiality of the RSFs to be used as concrete reinforcement with a comparable mechanical performance to that of ISF-reinforced concrete and lower environmental footprint was evaluated through a consolidated environmental and mechanical index (EM). In this study, using RSFs instead of industrial fibres for developing FRSCC has provided up to 37% higher EM index. The results confirmed the promising prospects for the application of RSFs in developing more eco-efficient and sustainable reinforced concrete.FOATIDE, reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028112, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under Portugal 2020, and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia—FCT (National Agency for Science and Technology). The first author also acknowledges the Scientific Employment funding, No. CEECIND/01627/2017, provided by FCT. The financial support provided by FCT under the project UIDB/04033/2020 is kindly acknowledged by the last author