Decay of correlation rate in the mean field limit of point vortices ensembles

We consider the Mean Field limit of Gibbsian ensembles of 2-dimensional (2D) point vortices on the torus. It is a classical result that in such limit correlations functions converge to 1, that is, point vortices decorrelate: We compute the rate at which this convergence takes place by means of Gaussian integration techniques, inspired by the correspondence between the 2D Coulomb gas and the Sine-Gordon Euclidean field theory

I vissuti dello staff e dei volontari che assistono pazienti pediatrici terminali: aspetti etici, diamoci e metodologici.

<p><span>The development of guidelines for palliative care in the paediatric settings is judged to be still incomplete and characterized by many controversial issues; in order to explore the life-experience of individual health care professionals, we proposed a semi-structured questionnaire with open questions on end-of-life procedures to the staff members of the Paediatric Onco-hematology Ward of the University of Padua, of the Oncology Ward and in the Home Assistance Module of the Giannetta Gaslini Hospital, Genoa, both in Italy. This paper will focus on the responses provided to the third question: “<em>In your opinion, can inducing the suspension of the state of consciousness be counted among end-of-life procedures? If so, how and when?</em>”. Staff members were found to face challenging interactions at at least three levels: within the professional team, with respect to the parents and with respect to the adolescent patients. Among the most complex issues raised by the participants we found the moral distress sometimes experienced by nurses with respect to the decisions assumed by doctors, as stated by a nurse: “<em>Everything is subjective in those 24 hours  (…) and you are to do or not do certain things and it makes you feel distressed</em>”. Second, it emerged that the relationship with the parents becomes very challenging when the two are not in agreement: “<em>The father wants to give the morphine, but the mother secretly closes the drip</em>”. Finally, the relationship of trust with the adolescent patients is under threat when they ‘want to know’ while parents seem to be unable to tolerate this degree of painful but essential self-consciousness in their ‘child’: “<em>He locked me in the room and asked, ‘Am I dying?’, and I wanted to die at that point…</em>”. Our study shows that health care professionals require not just guidelines but a tailor-made training and support which integrate much deeply the therapeutic as well as the moral and philosophical approaches to the issues raised by palliative care in paediatric settings.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><p><strong>Articoli Selezionati del Congresso “Medicina Narrativa e Comunicazione nella Pratica Clinica” ·  Cagliari · 14 Aprile 2014 </strong></p> <p><span><strong>Guest Editors: Massimiliano Zonza, Vassilios Fanos, Gian Paolo Donzelli</strong></span></p

[clinical Aspects And Complete Blood Counts In Children Exposed To Hiv-1: Comparison Between Infected Patients And Seroreverters]

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the evolution of clinical and hematological aspects of children exposed to the vertical transmission of HIV-1, comparing infected patients with uninfected ones or seroreverters. METHODS: Prospective, descriptive, longitudinal study. We analyzed 79 children born from HIV-1 infected mothers, under clinical follow up from March, 1996 until November, 1997, at the Immunodeficiency division of the Hospital de Clínicas da Unicamp (State University Hospital of Campinas). RESULTS: Failure to thrive was observed in both groups, but was greater among seroreverters. Among the infected children, 23 mothers did not use AZT during pregnancy, 16 of them (61.5%) had been breastfed, four were classified into clinical category N, seven into A and fifteen into B. Clinical manifestations in patients younger than one year were seen in 18 infected children (69.2%). Anemia was observed in 73.1% of the infected group and in 41.5% of the seroreverters (P<0.008). The comparison between the groups showed that the most common hematologic alterations in the infected children was microcytosis and hypochromia (P<0.05), lymphopenia between 15 and 18 months (P<0.05), monocytosis between 9 and 12 months (P<0.05) and a tendency towards high ferritin levels, with no statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Microcytic and hypochromic anemia were observed in both groups: iron deficiency in the uninfected children, and chronic disease anemia in the infected ones. The infected children presented with monocytosis and lymphopenia at an earlier stage.77503-1

Production of bacterial cellulose nanocrystals via enzymatic hydrolysis and evaluation of their coating on alginate particles formed by ionotropic gelation

This study aimed to obtain the bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) by enzymatic hydrolysis and verify the CNC application as coating material in alginate particles. Therefore, the production of CNC was carried out through two enzymatic hydrolysis methods involving a time period of 48 and 72 h. 0.35 mg of dry mass of cellulose was produced approximately 1.6 × 1011 CNC/mL. The CNC obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis at 72 h (Method II) was applied to cover the alginate particles, obtained by ionotropic gelation. The CNC Zeta potential value was about +15 mV and for alginate particles -26.46 ± 1.48 mV. These results confirmed the application of CNC as coating material for alginate particles. It brings an incremental contribution to the knowledge advancement in the pharmaceutical and food area, allowing the engineering of systems to use a mixed composition of nanobiomaterials to modify the release pattern of drugs, macromolecule, nutrients, stabilizers and target specific drug release.The authors acknowledge financial support from Coordination for Higher Level Graduate Improvements (CAPES/Brazil, Grant Numbers 001), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Brazil), and the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP/Brazil, grant numbers 2019/22,626–5 and 2018/10,508–5).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in an air force base in Western Greece

BACKGROUND: On the 20(th )September 2005, soldiers and staff at the Air Force base in Western Greece experienced an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis. The purpose of this study was to identify the agent and the source of the outbreak in order to develop control measures and to avoid similar outbreaks in the future. METHODS: A case-control analytical approach was employed with 100 randomly selected cases and 66 controls. Patients completed standardized questionnaires, odds ratios were calculated and statistical significance was determined using χ(2 )test. In addition, to identify the source of the infection, we performed bacteriological examination of food samples (included raw beef, cooked minced meat, grated cheese and grated cheese in sealed package) collected from the cuisine of the military unit. RESULTS: More than 600 out of the 1,050 individuals who ate lunch that day, became ill. The overall attack rate, as the military doctor of the unit estimated it, was at least 60%. The overall odds ratio of gastroenteritis among those who had lunch was 370 (95% CI: 48–7700) as compared to those who didn't eat lunch. Among the symptoms the most prominent were watery diarrhoea (96%) and abdominal pain (73%). The mean incubation period was 9 h and the median duration of the symptoms was 21 h. In the bacteriological examination, Staphylococcus aureus was detected in a sample of raw beef (2,000 cfu per g) and in two samples of grated cheese; leftover cheese from lunch (7,800 cfu per g) and an unopened package purchased from the market (3,000 cfu per g). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest that the aetiological agent of this outbreak was S. aureus. The food vehicle was the grated cheese, which was mixed with the beef and served for lunch in the military unit. This outbreak highlights the capacity of enterotoxin-producing bacteria to cause short term, moderately-severe illness in a young and healthy population. It underscores the need for proper food handling practices and reinforces the public health importance of timely notification of such outbreaks

Prevalence of prehypertension and associated cardiovascular risk profiles among prediabetic Omani adults

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The importance of prediabetes and prehypertension has been demonstrated in several studies especially for primary prevention of CVD. A recent community based cross-sectional study revealed that 40.9 percent Omani adults are prediabetics. This study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of prehypertension and associated cardiovascular risk profiles in prediabetics. To best of our knowledge, this is the first report on this subject.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study included 327 confirmed pre-diabetic Omani adults, who were analysed for their demographic, metabolic and behavioral characteristics. These characteristics were compared between the three different blood pressure groups to determine the CVD risk factors. Univariate and step-wise multiple logistic regression methods were used to carry out the analysis of the data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, the prevalence of prehypertension was 54.1 percent. Males were at higher risk of developing prehypertension as compared to females (OR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.21, 4.38; P < 0.01). The individuals with higher BMI have two fold more risk of developing prehypertension (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.26, 4.02; P < 0.01). The increased level of OGT enhanced the risk of developing prehypertension (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.50; P < 0.01).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A high prevalence of prehypertension (54.1%) exists in this study population. The major determinants of prehypertension in these prediabetic subjects were male gender, increasing dysglycemia and BMI. Appropriate intervention strategies have been suggested.</p