The findings of the oesophageal echocardiography in patients with acute cerebral ischaemia

AbstractIntroductionThe cerebrovascular accident ranks among the main causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In the Czech Republic, the cerebrovascular disease was the direct cause of death in 10% of the cases in the year 2012 (Healthcare Annual CZ 2012).AimThe aim of our study was to evaluate the transoesophageal echocardiogram findings (TOE) in patients with suspicion for cardioembolic stroke or TIA who were indicated to this examination in our echocardiography laboratory.MethodologyDuring the period from July 2009 to March 2013 (45 months), 108 TOE had been realized in our echocardiographic laboratory that was indicated for ischaemic stroke or TIA. We monitored the occurrence of pathological findings that have the cardioembolic potential according to the literature.ResultsThe examination was performed for a suspect of an infective endocarditis 10 times, this was proven in 3 cases. 5 patients were holders of a mechanical valvular prosthesis, and its dysfunction was discovered in neither case. The most frequent diagnosis was foramen ovale patens in the other patients (30 patients, i.e. 37%); in 3 cases it occurred simultaneously with an atrial septal aneurysm. We found a haemodynamic little significant atrial septal defect in 3 patients and a presence of an endocardial thrombus in 2 patients. A left atrial dilation and a systolic dysfunction of a left atrium auricle can relate with an occurrence of an atrial fibrillation. A left atrium volume was determined in 86 cases; only 35 patients (i.e. 40.7%) have the normal left atrium volume. A pathology, which can be connected with a cerebral ischaemia that took place, was found in 56% of the patients.ConclusionTransoesophageal echocardiography is an independent method in examination of potential sources of cardioembolism. In our sample, a pathology in more than half of the patients was diagnosed that could refer to a suffered ischaemic stroke and the diagnosis led to a change in a treatment strategy in 17 cases of the total number of 95 patients (i.e. at 18%)

Street Fights: Corporate Social Responsibility and a Dragway\u27s Attempt to Reduce Illegal Street Racing

This study sought to explore a professional sport venue’s use of Corporate social responsibility (CSR) to promote positive social change, by addressing illegal street racing, through events designed for community participation. This study specifically looked at public dragracing events, titled “Street Fights,” held at a professional dragway. The purpose of this study was to 1) examine drivers’ awareness of the event’s social responsibility initiatives with Street Fight events and 2) determine if these initiatives are promoting behavioral changes in drivers. Drivers at Street Fight events were surveyed (n=77, 60% response rate) on their levels of awareness of the venue’s social responsibility initiatives, as well as, the event and venue’s overall influence on positive social change within the community. Results showed that Street Fight racers seem to be aware that the events were created to offer a safe, legal, and affordable place to dragrace. Street Fight racers also indicated they were less likely to engage in excessive speeding on open roadways due to their participation in Street Fight events

New plant trait records of the Hungarian flora

Canopy height, leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) data of 210 species of the Hungarian flora resulting from our field sampling are presented in this data paper

Lightning Safety: How Is It Conducted at NIAAA Member High Schools?

The purposes of this study were to explore the current scenario of interscholastic athletics in regards to the existence and enforcement of lightning safety policies applied to athletic outdoor activities, and to identify the common practices related to lightning safety currently utilized. The results showed that 87.2% of the respondents (N=804) have lightning safety policies. However, only 90.3% of the respondents who have lightning safety policies actually enforce them. It seems that during practices coaches are most commonly responsible for making the decision to stop/resume activity, and that during games athletic directors are most commonly making the call. However, almost one third of the respondents (N=804) do not have a clear designation as to who makes the decision. A less than desirable percentage of respondents reported frequent use of a lightning detection system, availability of shelters for spectators, and posted lightning policy in facilities. Only 7.8% of the respondents indicated that all athletic coaches and staff receive lightning safety training. The results also showed that more experienced administrators were more likely to have and enforce lightning safety policies, and employ lightning safety best practices. This study provides high school athletic administrators and principals with relevant information that can be used to support their decision to adopt and enforce lightning safety policies for interscholastic athletic activities

Detection of fine-scale relationships between species composition and biomass in grassland

We elaborated and tested a novel operative framework for sampling and analysing fine-scale pattern of plant composition and biomass. We combined presence/absence sampling of plant species with non-destructive biomass estimation. In an open perennial sand grassland, we used 46 m long circular transects consisting of 0. 05 m by 0. 05 m adjoining elementary sampling units. This arrangement allows us to scale across a range of 0. 05 to 20 m. For measuring aboveground green biomass, we applied digital camera sensitive to red and near infrared parts of light spectrum, and we calculated normalised differential vegetation index (NDVI). We used information statistics proposed by Juhász-Nagy to study the association between spatial patterns of production and species composition. Since information statistical functions applied require binary data, we transformed NDVI data into one or several binary variables. We found that not only dominant species but subordinate gap species were also associated to high biomass, although the strength of association varied across scales. Most of the significant associations were detected at fine scales, from 0. 05 to 0. 25 m. At the scales commensurable with quadrat sizes usually applied in grasslands, i. e., from 0. 5 to 2. 0 m, we could hardly find any significant associations between species composition and biomass. We concluded that the novel methods applied proved reliable for studying fine-scale relationships between species composition and biomass

Comparing the accuracy of three non-destructive methods in estimating aboveground plant biomass

Aboveground plant biomass is one of the most important features of ecosystems, and it is widely used in ecosystem research. Non-destructive biomass estimation methods provide an important toolkit, because the destructive harvesting method is in many cases not feasible. However, only few studies have compared the accuracy of these methods in grassland communi - ties to date. We studied the accuracy of three widely used methods for estimation of aboveground biomass: the visual cover estimation method, the point intercept method, and field spectroscopy. We applied them in three independent series of field samplings in semi-arid sand grasslands in Central Hungary. For each sampling method, we applied linear regression to assess the strength of the relationship between biomass proxies and actual aboveground biomass, and used coefficient of determina - tion to evaluate accuracy. We found no evidence that the visual cover estimation, which is generally considered as a subjective method, was less accurate than point intercept method or field spectroscopy in estimating biomass. Based on our three datasets, we found that accuracy was lower for the point intercept method compared to the other two methods, while field spectroscopy and visual cover estimation were similar to each other in the semi-arid sand grassland community. We conclude that visual cover estimation can be as accurate for estimating aboveground biomass as other approaches, thus the choice amongst the methods should be based on additional pros and cons associated with each of the method and related to the specific research objective

Discharge Characteristics of a Portable Compressed Air Foam System

Existing portable foam extinguishers generate fire-fighting foam at high pressures with the aid of an air aspirating nozzle. This system could encounter several limitations at the point of application such as poor foam quality due to the use of fire contaminated air for foam generation and insufficient momentum to reach the seat of fire. Research has shown that by incorporating compressed air into a portable foam system, the integrated foam system could generate superior quality foam with high momentum when properly installed with the right components. Several studies had been conducted on the extinguishing performance of compressed air foam systems on multiple fire types, both for small and large fires. Compressed air foam systems mitigate exposure of the operator to heat and provides faster knockdown of the fire plume as compared to air-aspirated foam because of its stronger stability and rheology. Since the expansion ratio of the foam can be regulated to combat specific fire types and sizes, compressed air foam systems can be utilized in protecting a variety of equipment of varied sizes. The aim of this study is to investigate the discharge characteristics of a portable compressed air foam at low pressure. For this study, the requirements of NFPA 10 and CAN/ULC-S508 for a new system were used to determine the feasibility of the system. The effect of air pressure on the expansion ratio of the foam was investigated with foam concentrate ranging from 2% to 4% for three different hoses with lengths of 1-m, 2-m and 3-m. Pressure used ranged from 1.72 bar to 5.52 bar. The 3% and 4% solution for the 2-m hose and 3-m hose exhibited similar trend of a rise and fall with pressure by generating fluid foam of medium expansion ratio in the range of 19 to 28. However, the expansion ratio of 3% solution and 4% solution for the 1-m hose increased monotonically with increasing pressure and generated wet foam of low expansion ratio in the range of 8 to 15. While low expansion foams are effective in extinguishing liquid pool fires, medium expansion foams are used for structural protection due to its slow drainage time and its ability to adhere to sloped, vertical, horizontal and slippery surfaces. Discharge range tests were conducted to investigate the horizontal projection of the foam from the nozzle at a height of 0.9m above the ground. The test was conducted in an