A Novel Noninvasive Method to Assess Left Ventricular −dP/dt Using Diastolic Blood Pressure and Isovolumic Relaxation Time

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96727/1/echo12042.pd

The Growth of Global Risks After the COVID-19 Pandemic

The 2006 Global Risks Report sounded the alarm on pandemics and health-related risks. Unsurprisingly, the global pandemic became a reality, and the immediate human and economic costs were affected. The efficiency of managing risks is accompanied by high levels of uncertainty, and the planning is unable to ensure accountability and yield reliable projections. This work aims to examine the complex system of risks and their interconnectivity with COVID-19 pandemic. Each risk itself may be considered a complex system that upon interaction with the global system of risks might be unstoppable and trigger a sequence of catastrophic events. This calls for a systematic examination of risks in a complex system to project the probability of risks becoming events, initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Risks have proliferated in recent years and the pandemic is an ascending factor. This paper analyzes the risks indicated by World Economic Forum, The Global Risk Reports from 2006 to 2022. We form our model by defining the risks associated with COVID-19 pandemic. The association between risks accelerating the probability of risk occurring, and increasing its impact. The most important elements are the virtually unheard factors produced in a fast-changing environment, which changes so fast because the system of factors is not a national or regional one, but the world functions uniformly. Informative and predictive functions under this reality does not provide information for the future, and the more important qualification of this information is uncertain unless the information from the past and the present has all the qualitative historical data, and the proportionate analysis is used. Dealing with risk under the development of a model would result in exclusion of certain factors or variants from this model, which could become a restricted perception and subject of imposing certain influential theories which demolished in conflict with reality. Risk events demonstrate the success and failure of risk management, which consistently point to poor planning as a major cause of risk management failure. This may be not the only reason for poor planning under conditions of high uncertainty. Furthermore, business is unaware of risk governance and lacks an understanding of risk situations, promoting individualism when governance necessitates broader participation. This lack of understanding or refusal of collective contribution is a societal malfunction and an avoidance of corporations’ respective responsibilities in social welfare. Keywords: COVID-19, global risks, economic crisis, risk management, governanc

Continuing Medical Education Activity in Echocardiography

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96660/1/echo12183.pd

Influence of indoor environmental quality and dwelling satisfaction aspects on overall satisfaction: Findings from a Swedish national survey

The objective of this study is to contribute to the discussion on the impact of dwelling satisfaction aspects (size, standard, layout, appearance/aesthetics, well-being, cost and area/neighbourhood) and perceived indoor environmental quality (thermal comfort, air quality, satisfaction with daylight and acoustic comfort) on occupants\u27 overall satisfaction. This article uses data from the Swedish National Survey, BETSI (2007/08). The results are representative of adults living in multi-family and single-family buildings (1597 responses/955 buildings). Linear regression models are developed with overall satisfaction as the dependent variable and independent variables: seven satisfaction aspects, four indoor environmental quality factors and all combined (eleven). An all-model explained 54.7% of the results (best performed). All the retained variables (except satisfaction with daylight) are statistically significant predictors. Satisfaction with well-being (b = 0.286) and satisfaction with dwellings\u27 standard (b = 0.188) have the greatest effect on overall satisfaction. The model with the IEQ aspects explained only 35.5% of the results. Reliability statistics (Cronbach\u27s alpha) and confirmatory factor analysis have been implemented in the dataset. The responses can be categorized into two clusters. The two clusters were significantly different across living duration, dwelling type, age category and tenure status

An overview of the armed conflicts in Late Byzantium.Theoretical Foundations and Current Research

Η μελέτη αποτελεί μία πρώιμη σύνοψη των συμπερασμάτων που προκύπτουν από το υλικό που συγκεντρώθηκε στο πλαίσιο του ερευνητικού προγράμματος «Ευρετήριο Πολεμικών Συγκρούσεων της Ύστερης Βυζαντινής Περιόδου». Οι παλαιότεροι μελετητές της στρατιωτικής ιστορίας είχαν υιοθετήσει ένα θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο το οποίο βασιζόταν στην έννοια της «αποφασιστικής μάχης», όπως την είχαν οραματιστεί οι θεωρητικοί του πολέμου τον 19ο αι. Μετά από μία σύντομη αναδρομή στην ιστορία της έρευνας, ιδίως των τελευταίων δεκαετιών, αναλύονται ορισμένα χαρακτηριστικά παραδείγματα εκστρατειών που χρονολογούνται στην υστεροβυζαντινή περίοδο. Το συμπέρασμα το οποίο συνάγεται από την ανάλυση αυτή είναι ότι οι εκ παρατάξεως μάχες ήταν κατά πολύ σπανιότερες σε σχέση με άλλου τύπου συγκρούσεις (κυρίως πολιορκίες και επιδρομές) που στόχο είχαν να φθείρουν τον αντίπαλο και όχι να καταστρέψουν τον στρατό του

Extracellular fluid astroglial markers of brain injury after subarachnoid haemorrhage

Inroduction: Despite the great strides that have been made during the modern era of cerebrovascular surgery, subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) remains a devastating illness. Approximately 12% of patients die before receiving medical attention, 40% of hospitalized patients die within one month after the event, and more than one third of those who survive have major neurological deficits and will be dependent on others for activities of daily living. The prognosis of patients surviving the initial ictus and reaching hospital care is mainly aggravated by a number of secondary insults (cerebral vasospasm, intracranial hypertension, rebleeding, seizures, hydrocephalus, ischaemia, hypoxia) which commonly complicate their in-hospital clinical course. Earlier detection of these insults would enable us to treat them in a more timely and aggressive manner biochemical markers could certainly contribute to this goal. Our hypothesis is that certain substances released into brain extracellular fluid (ECF) during the primary and secondary insults could correlate with or even precede clinical manifestations of secondary insults, and act as predictors of short and long-term outcome. We chose to focus on two astroglial proteins, namely S100B and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), as the astrocytes play a critical role in the regulation of brain homeostasis at the cellular level, and they are immediately activated after the initial ictus. Moreover, both proteins have shown some promising results when measured in serum, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and ECF