Resource use among patients with diabetes, diabetic neuropathy, or diabetes with depression

BACKGROUND: Diabetes is often associated with complications and comorbidities. The purpose of this research is to compare medical resources used by patients with the following diagnoses: diabetes mellitus (DM), diabetic neuropathy (DN), and diabetes mellitus combined with comorbid depression (DD). METHODS: Adult patients who were diagnosed with DM, DN, or DD were included in the study. There were 55,972 patients in the DM cohort, 2,146 in the DN, and 2,379 in the DD. P values for comparisons between the three mutually exclusive cohorts were conducted using the Tukey-Kramer method. Cost comparisons among the cohorts were conducted using a stepwise multivariate regression that controlled for patient characteristics and comorbid conditions. RESULTS: Individuals in the DM or DN cohorts were generally more likely to use antidiabetic medications than patients in the DD group. Those diagnosed with DN or DD generally used more pain medications than individuals in the DM cohort. The DM cohort had significantly lower diabetes-related total medical costs ($1,297 v$5,125, p < 0.0001) and lower total medical costs ($4,819 v$24,765, p < 0.0001) than the DN cohort. The DM cohort also had significantly lower diabetes-related total medical costs ($1,297 v$3,264, p < 0.0001) as well as significantly lower total medical costs ($4,819 v$19,298, p < 0.0001) than the DD cohort. CONCLUSION: Results from this study indicated significant differences in demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and medication use among individuals diagnosed with DM, DN, or DD. These differences translated into significant cost differences. Patients diagnosed with DN or DD had higher diabetes-related costs than patients diagnosed with DM

Understanding motivational factors in choosing a mobility destination: the case of Kauno Kolegija

With the central question being why mobility students choose Kauno Kolegija, it is the main goal to find out their opinion about the school starting with the question, what was their motivation to study in Kauno Kolegija. 53 students participated in the survey, being the majority of them Erasmus students.The data were obtained by a survey that took the form of an online questionnaire. This survey includes answers from EU and Non-EU students and it is based on a quantitative survey, which is after studied using the graphical analysis program SPSS.The major objective of this research is to help Kauno Kolegija with the best information and results to provide the responsible people with enough material to improve and increase the incoming students flow into the school from mobility studies and internships.Since the Erasmus program started, the flow of students has been going up and down, having students from Turkey as 40% of the income, Kauno Kolegija will benefit with the results by understanding why East Europe and nearby countries has more incoming students than West Europe and be able to fight this unbalance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Glauber Critical Dynamics: Exact Solution of the Kinetic Gaussian Model

In this paper, we have exactly solved Glauber critical dynamics of the Gaussian model on three dimensions. Of course, it is much easy to apply to low dimensional case. The key steps are that we generalize the spin change mechanism from Glauber's single-spin flipping to single-spin transition and give a normalized version of the transition probability . We have also investigated the dynamical critical exponent and found surprisingly that the dynamical critical exponent is highly universal which refer to that for one- two- and three-dimensions they have same value independent of spatial dimensionality in contrast to static (equilibrium) critical exponents.Comment: 9 page

Portuguese language teachers' perception of creativity in students' written productions

Este estudo investigou a percepção de professores de Língua Portuguesa sobre fatores relacionados à criatividade em produções textuais discentes. Foram entrevistados 12 docentes do segundo ciclo do ensino fundamental (seis de escolas públicas e seis de escolas particulares). Os resultados revelaram ser a elaboração de textos pouco trabalhada pelos professores, tendo sido dada como justificativa a falta de tempo gerada pelo número elevado de alunos e carga horária extensa. Um percentual expressivo de docentes considerou pouco criativas as produções textuais discentes, embora a quase totalidade tenha se avaliado como profissionais inventivos e apontado diversas estratégias para facilitar a escrita de textos criativos em sala de aula. Indicaram, como fatores limitadores à expressão da criatividade nas produções textuais, elementos relacionados aos estudantes, professores e escola. Os resultados trazem implicações para a formação de professores de Língua Portuguesa no que diz respeito à criatividade na redação de textos em sala de aula.This study investigated Portuguese language teachers' perceptions of factors associated with creativity in students' written production. Twelve elementary school Portuguese language teachers (six from public schools and six from private schools) were interviewed. The results revealed that written production has not been widely used in school, especially due to teachers' lack of time owing to the high number of students and number of hours of work. A considerable number of teachers considered their students' written production as not very creative although most of them considered themselves as highly creative professionals who make frequent use of several strategies to facilitate creative written production in the classroom. They indicated elements related to the students, teachers, and school as limiting factors to the expression of creativity in written production. The results show impacts on Portuguese language teachers' education and training in terms of creativity in written productions in the classroom

Strychnine Intoxication: A Case Report

Strychnine acts as an inhibitor of post-synaptic neuronal inhibition and intoxication leads to distinct clinical manifestations which may culminate in death. Since its commercialization is prohibited in most countries, cases of strychnine intoxication are now rare. We present a case of an elderly patient who voluntarily ingested a white powder thought to be strychnine. He developed myoclonus, startle response, and episodes of generalized muscle contractions accompanied by respiratory arrest in one occasion. Diazepam, valproic acid and supportive treatments were able to control manifestations, however the patient died after 2 days. Our aim is to alert clinicians that, despite its rarity, strychnine intoxication may still be seen in emergency departments, and clinical outcome can be influenced by rapid recognition and timely institution of adequate treatment

Planctomycetes as a vital constituent of the microbial communities inhabiting different layers of the meromictic lake sælenvannet (Norway)

Meromictic lakes are permanently stratified lakes that display steep gradients in salinity, oxygen and sulphur compounds tightly linked to bacterial community structure and diversity. Lake Sælenvannet is a meromictic lake located south of Bergen, Norway. The 26 m deep lake is connected to the open sea and permanently stratified into two layers separated by a chemocline. The upper water layer is brackish with major input from water runoff from the surroundings. The bottom layer consists of old saline water with low or no oxygen concentrations. Bacteria from phylum Planctomycetes are reported to be ubiquitous in lake environments. They are involved in the degradation of complex carbon sources in aquatic environments and are also linked to anaerobic processes such as fermentation and sulphur reduction. To study Planctomycete distribution along a chemical gradient, we sampled the water column throughout Lake Sælenvannet in 2012 and profiled the microbial community using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing (metabarcoding) with 454 pyrosequencing. Planctomycetes related 16S rRNA gene sequences were found to be present both in the oxic and anoxic parts of the lake and showed an uneven distribution throughout the water column, with the highest relative abundance of 10% found in the saline anoxic layer at 15 m depth. In a follow-up study in 2014, samples from eight different depths were collected for enrichment and isolation of novel Planctomycetes. This study resulted in successful isolation in pure culture of 10 isolates affiliated to four different genera from the family Planctomycetaceae. One strain closely related to Blastopirellula cremea was isolated from 9 m depth, and two novel strains affiliated to the genera Stieleria and Gimesia were isolated at 7 and 9 m depths, respectively. Furthermore, seven isolates with identical 16S rRNA gene sequences were retrieved from seven different depths which varied greatly in salinity and chemical composition. These isolates likely represent a new species affiliated to Rubinisphaera. The adaptation of this novel Planctomycete to water depths spanning the entire chemical gradient could indicate a high phenotypic plasticity and/or a very efficient survival strategy. Overall, our results show the presence of a diverse group of Planctomycetes in Lake Sælenvannet, with a strong potential for novel adaptations to chemical stress factors.This study was supported through the NRC funded CaveIce project number 531891 and by the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Norway. The sequencing was done at the Norwegian Sequencing Centre in Oslo, Norway

Rehabilitation with implant-supported overdentures in total edentulous patients: a review

Objectives: The main aim of this review article is to discuss implant-supported overdentures (ISOs) as treatment in edentulous patients. Besides, we will try to discuss among the different treatment options in such patients and to analyze their validity when ISOs are compared with other clinical modalities. At the same time, we will try to suggest clinical guidelines supported by current clinical studies. Material and methods: We performed a Medline search and review of pertinent articles on the mentioned subject from 1986 to 2011. As a searching strategy, we used the following words: implant-supported overdentures, attachment systems, Locator attachment, cantilever, fixed prosthesis. Results and conclusions: Implant-supported overdentures constitute an accurate and predictable treatment option and achieve a higher patient's satisfaction. This type of treatment constitutes a cheaper treatment than fixed prostheses and in some patients, with loss of lip support or with an interoclusal space larger than 15 mm, the choice of implant-supported overdentures seems to prevent future aesthetic or phonetic problems

Scattering phases for meson and baryon resonances on general moving-frame lattices

A proposal by L\"uscher enables one to compute the scattering phases of elastic two-body systems from the energy levels of the lattice Hamiltonian in a finite volume. In this work we generalize the formalism to S--, P-- and D--wave meson and baryon resonances, and general total momenta. Employing nonvanishing momenta has several advantages, among them making a wider range of energy levels accessible on a single lattice volume and shifting the level crossing to smaller values of $m_\pi L$.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figures. References added, minor edits to text. Version to be published in Phys. Rev.