Issues and events

The progressive approach to teaching out-rightly condemns the type of classroom arrangement where pupils are seated in rows facing the teacher as being too rigid: assigning to pupils a listeners' and to teachers a talkers' role. Besides it impedes the creative organization of teaching and learning activities. Groupwork, to name one example, cannot be organized effectively within such a classroom set-up. Progressives, therefore, would do away with dual benches and have them replaced with tables around which pupils sit in groups. Such an arrangement, they claim, brings about more effective teaching and encourages pupils to work together in carrying out learning tasks. Emphasis, therefore, is placed on cooperation rather than competition.peer-reviewe

Anxiety and the management of asthma in an adult outpatient population

Review of the literature suggests that anxiety is more common among patients with asthma than among the general population, yet it does not appear to be given the attention it deserves as part of the overall management of asthma. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between anxiety and asthma management, in terms of Global Initiative for Asthma steps, lung function and medication. Methods: A total of 201 consecutive patients with respiratory physician-diagnosed asthma were recruited from an adult outpatient asthma clinic. Participants underwent a sociodemographic review, and a medical interview which included a detailed drug history. Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) values were recorded using a Micro Medical portable spirometer. The level of anxiety was assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: A total of 51.5% of participants registered clinically significant levels of anxiety. Of these only 21% had already been diagnosed and were receiving treatment. Females reported significantly higher BAI scores than males (p<0.01). More females (66.3%) registered clinically significant levels of anxiety as compared with males (33.7%) (p<0.05). There was a positive correlation between the BAI score and the prescribed dose of inhaled glucocorticoids (rs¼0.150, p<0.05) and between anxiety and GINA treatment step (rs¼0.139, p<0.05). There was also a positive correlation between anxiety and the number of medicines taken by patients (rs¼0.259, p<0.001). Conclusions: Physicians treating patients with asthma should be sensitised to the association between asthma and anxiety, and should also consider assessing patients for the possibility of anxiety disorders as part of asthma management plans.peer-reviewe

Health and the Economy : a statement of concern

The relationship between health and the economy is an intimate and complex one. The economy of health and the apportioning of funds to different medical services and health care programs are issues that depend on the health profile of a given community as well as the expectations of its members. Decisions ultimately depend on available resources and political priorities. Health and the economy cannot be isolated and contrasted, as the integrity of a given economic system clearly depends on the state of health of the community both at an individual level as well as at a population level.peer-reviewe

Conference scene : Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Days : educational activities on pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine

The Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Days are high-profile international educational scientific meetings discussing pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. Here, we provide an overview of the scientific lectures and the topics discussed during the 4th Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Day, held in Cagliari, Italy, on 7 October 2011, and the 5th Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Day, that was held in Msida, Malta, on 3 December 2011. The scientific programs of both events included scientific and company lectures on pharmacogenomics, bioinformatics and personalized medicine by local and international speakers from Europe and the USA.peer-reviewe

Relevance of pharmacogenomics for developing countries in Europe : implementation in the Maltese population

Pharmacogenomics is a promising new discipline that can realize personalized treatment for patients suffering from many common diseases, particularly those with multiple treatment modalities. Recent advances in the deciphering of the human genome sequence and high throughput genotyping technology have led to the reduction of the overall genotyping costs and enabled the inclusion of genotype-related dosing recommendations into drug package inserts, hence allowing the integration of pharmacogenomics into clinical practice. Although, pharmacogenomics gradually assumes an integral part in mainstream medical practice in developed countries, many countries, particularly from the developing world, still do not have access either to the knowledge or the resources to individualize drug treatment. The PharmacoGenetics for Every Nation Initiative (PGENI) aims to fill in this gap, by making pharmacogenomics globally applicable, not only by defining population-specific pharmacogenomic marker frequency profiles and formulating country-specific recommendations for drug efficacy and safety but also by increasing general public and healthcare professionals’ awareness over pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine. This article highlights the PGENI activities in Europe and its implementation in the Maltese population, in an effort to make pharmacogenomics readily applicable in European healthcare systems.peer-reviewe

Transcatheter closure of Ventricular Septal defects in Malta : initial experience

Ventricular septal defects (VSD) consist of deficiencies of the wall separating the two ventricles. VSDs are the commonest congenital cardiac defects. Small VSDs rarely require intervention, however, larger defects cause ventricular volume overload with or without heart failure or pulmonary hypertension and may, therefore, require closure. Traditionally, closure has been an open heart surgical procedure. In recent years, various devices have been developed to close a wide variety of cardiac defects including atrial septal defects and patent arterial ducts through transcatheter interventional techniques. Recently, AGA Medical Corporation have introduced a range of Amplatzer VSD occluders which include specific devices for perimembranous (PM), muscular and post myocardial infarction (MI) VSDs. Atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale closure has been carried out at St. Luke's Hospital in Malta for the past three years. This year, for the first time, we have closed three VSDs in three individuals; two children with large perimembranous defects and an elderly gentleman with a large post-MI VSD. This paper will discuss this technique and initial results.peer-reviewe

Gullain-Barre’ syndrome post-SARS-CoV-2 in Malta : a case report

A 70-year-old lady presented three weeks after a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection with a nine-day history of worsening back pain, progressive lower limb weakness and paraesthesia, dysphagia, constipation and difficulty in completing full sentences. Outcome of her investigations were in keeping with a diagnosis of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. The patient made a rapid and full recovery after treatment with intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG).peer-reviewe

Transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale in Malta

Significant atrial septal defects (ASD) are closed, surgically or through a transcatheter device, in order to avoid pulmonary hypertension in late life. A patent foramen ovale (PFO) may need to be closed because of transient shunt reversal resulting in transient ischaemic events or stroke. We report the Maltese experience to date in transcatheter closure of these defects. A total of 46 ASDs and 51 PFOs have been successfully closed at our unit (total 97), with very low complication rates, rates that compare very favourably with results from larger international centres.peer-reviewe

Model checking concurrent assembly algorithms

Model checking has been used in various domains, to enable automatic verification of properties for a given model. Especially in cases when the correctness of the the model is not evident due to the complex nature of the description, model checking can be an indispensable tool. One such domain is the use of concurrent assembly algorithms for lowlevel synchronisation, which can be notoriously difficult to check their correctness or even test. In this paper we look at this domain, and explore the use of model-checking in verifying a number of such algorithms, such as barrier synchronisation and wait-free CSP channel communication. We tackle the state explosion problem inherent in model checking by making use of abstraction techniques to remove rendundant information in the the model, and partial-order techniques to remove redundant interleavings of actions. Finally, we also investigate the use of structural induction to reason about families of systems of arbitrary size. Making use of symmetry and induction, we verify algorithms with an unbounded number of identical participating tasks.peer-reviewe