InfiniteB2[g] sequences

4 páginas.We exhibit, for any integer g >= 2, an infinite sequence A € B2[g] such that lim supx--infinito A(x)/ raiz cuadrada x = 3 / 2 raiz cuadrada 2 . raiz cuadrada g-1. In adition, we obtain better estimates for small values of g. For example, we exhibit an infinite sequence A € B2[2] such that lim supx---infinito A(x)/ raiz cuadrada x = raiz cuadrada3/2 .Partially supported by COLCIENCIAS, Colombia and Universidad del Cauca.Peer reviewe

PARENTS’ ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CHOICE OF MARTIAL ARTS FOR THEIR CHILDREN

Child engagement with martial arts contributes to the development of their personality. These are sports activities that are not done within the school but during their leisure time. This children’s choice is linked to the social and cultural environment of the family and constitutes part of the family practices of social reproduction according to P. Bourdieu This paper examines the pre-school and school children’s involvement in martial arts in relation to their social origin. The sample of the survey consists of 268 parents whose children are involved in the martial arts in their leisure time. The questionnaire was used as a means of collecting data. According to the results of the survey, boys are more involved in martial arts than girls are a fact which highlights the contribution of martial arts to the reproduction of gender discrimination. There was a statistically significant relationship between the choice of the martial arts and the profession, the educational level and the income of the parents. It seems that both the profession and the level of parenting education and their annual family income influence the choice of the martial arts sport for their children. In conclusion, the martial arts, although they had started from the lower social strata nowadays a social development is observed. More and more educated parents, who belong to the middle and upper social classes, get their children be involved in martial arts, in their free time, since they have realized the importance of the martial arts and how these help in creating and developing a complete personality.  Article visualizations

Εικονικά περιβάλλοντα για την ενίσχυση της ευαισθητοποίησης του κοινού για την Ιδεοψυχαναγκαστική διαταραχή.

Η παρούσα έρευνα έχει σκοπό τη δημιουργία εικονικών περιβαλλόντων που ευαισθητοποιούν το κοινό για την Ιδεοψυχαναγκαστική διαταραχή (Ι.Δ.Ψ). Συνεπώς, εξετάζονται τα εξής ερευνητικά ερωτήματα: α) η διερεύνηση των χαρακτηριστικών της διαταραχής που πρέπει να περιλαμβάνει ένα εικονικό περιβάλλον που έχει στόχο την ευαισθητοποίηση και β) ο βαθμός ευαισθητοποίησης των χρηστών μετά από την περιήγηση τους στο εικονικό περιβάλλον. Για το πρώτο ερευνητικό ερώτημα της εργασίας, πραγματοποιήθηκαν συνεντεύξεις με τέσσερις ψυχολόγους προκειμένου να προσδιοριστούν τα χαρακτηριστικά της διαταραχής που χρειάζεται να περιλαμβάνει το εικονικό περιβάλλον. Ύστερα, σε συνδυασμό με τη βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση διαμορφώθηκε το σενάριο για τα δύο εικονικά περιβάλλοντα όπου το ένα αφορούσε την Ιδεοψυχαναγκαστική διαταραχή για την πρόκληση βλάβης και τον αυτοέλεγχο και το άλλο την Ιδεοψυχαναγκαστική διαταραχή για τη μόλυνση και τα μικρόβια. Στη συνέχεια πραγματοποιήθηκε αξιολόγηση της ευχρηστίας των δύο εικονικών περιβαλλόντων για την εμπειρία χρήσης από τρεις χρήστες καθώς και για τη ρεαλιστικότητα απεικόνισης της διαταραχής από δύο ψυχολόγους και δύο άτομα με Ι.Δ.Ψ. Τέλος, τα εικονικά περιβάλλοντα αξιολογήθηκαν από 13 χρήστες προκειμένου να διερευνηθεί ο βαθμός ευαισθητοποίησης τους μετά τη χρήση. Τα αποτελέσματα από τις συνεντεύξεις και τα ερωτηματολόγια έδειξαν πως τα δύο εικονικά περιβάλλοντα συνέβαλαν στην κατανόηση της διαταραχής. Ωστόσο, το εικονικό περιβάλλον για την Ι.Δ.Ψ με την πρόκληση της βλάβης και τον αυτοέλεγχο συνέβαλλε στη δημιουργία μεγαλύτερης ενσυναίσθησης συγκριτικά με το εικονικό περιβάλλον για τη μόλυνση και τα μικρόβια.The aim of this study is the development of virtual environments for raising public awareness about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (O.C.D). Therefore, the study focused on two main research questions a) exploring the characteristics of O.C.D that a virtual environment should include b) the degree of user’s awareness regarding O.C.D after navigating the virtual environment. Regarding the first research question of the study, interviews were carried out with four psychologists in order to specify the symptoms of the disorder that virtual environment should include. Secondly, the interaction scenario was created for the two virtual environments based on psychologists’ interviews and relevant literature. Specifically, two types of O.C.D were selected: Checking O.C.D and Contamination O.C.D. After the creation of the virtual environments, three users evaluated the user experience of the two environments. Moreover, two psychologists and two persons suffering from O.C.D evaluated the two virtual environments in terms of how realistically the disorder was represented. The final part of the study was about exploring the awareness degree of 13 users after using the virtual environments. The results from interviews and questionnaires showed that the two virtual environments contributed to the understanding of the disorder. However, the results for the virtual environment about Checking O.C.D was able to raise more empathy than the virtual environment about Contamination O.C.D

Toll-Like Receptor 8 Agonist and Bacteria Trigger Potent Activation of Innate Immune Cells in Human Liver

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The study was supported by a Grant core funding from the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR, Singapore) and a Singapore Translational Research Investigator Award (NRMC/StaR/013/2012) to AB as well as NIHR Biomedical Centre, Oxford, WT 091663MA, NIAID1U19AI082630-01, Oxford Martin School funding and an NIHR Senior Investigator award to PK

Clinical indicators as prognostic factors of multi-trauma patients in the Intensive Care Unit

Background: In recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding the role of prognostic factors in patient outcome.Aim: To investigate the role of clinical indicators, and severity-of-disease assessment scales, as prognostic factors in the outcome of multi-trauma patients in the ICU.Material and Method: The sample consisted of 65 ICU multi-trauma patients treated in a hospital in Thessaloniki city, with an average stay of 16.5 days. Clinical indicators such as Glasgow Coma Scale, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, lactic acid, hemoglobin, urine output, as well as APACHE II and SAPS II scales, were recorded on the day of admission to the ICU.Data analysis: Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression and Mann-Whitney Test. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the predictive capacity of specific indicators on patient outcome.Results: The results of the analysis showed that in cases where all clinical indicators changed, then patient outcome may be affected by 79,4% (Relative Risk 3.846, p<0.001). Glasgow Coma Scale (p=0.022) and hemoglobin (p=0.013) were the strongest influencing factors related to patient outcome. Mann-Whitney analysis was used to evaluate the predictive value of Apache II and SAPS II and demonstrated that both systems could significantly predict patient outcome (APACHE II=0.019 and SAPS II=0.013).Conclusion: Hemoglobin and Glasgow Coma Scale values upon multi-trauma patient admission to the ICU appear to be strong prognostic factors of patient outcome

Mechanisms of tissue injury in autoimmune liver diseases

Autoimmune diseases affecting the liver are mainly represented by autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The characteristic morphologic patterns of injury are a chronic hepatitis pattern of damage in AIH, destruction of small intrahepatic bile ducts in PBC and periductal fibrosis and inflammation involving larger bile ducts in PSC. The factors responsible for initiation and perpetuation of the injury in all the three autoimmune liver diseases are not understood completely but are likely to be environmental triggers on the background of genetic variation in immune regulation. In this review, we summarise the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying the breakdown of self-tolerance in autoimmune liver diseases.</p

Bioreactor technologies to support liver function in vitro

Liver is a central nexus integrating metabolic and immunologic homeostasis in the human body, and the direct or indirect target of most molecular therapeutics. A wide spectrum of therapeutic and technological needs drives efforts to capture liver physiology and pathophysiology in vitro, ranging from prediction of metabolism and toxicity of small molecule drugs, to understanding off-target effects of proteins, nucleic acid therapies, and targeted therapeutics, to serving as disease models for drug development. Here we provide perspective on the evolving landscape of bioreactor-based models to meet old and new challenges in drug discovery and development, emphasizing design challenges in maintaining long-term liver-specific function and how emerging technologies in biomaterials and microdevices are providing new experimental models.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 EB010246)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P50-GM068762-08)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01-ES015241)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P30-ES002109)5UH2TR000496-02National Science Foundation (U.S.). Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (CBET-0939511)United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Microphysiological Systems Program (W911NF-12-2-0039

Innate immune cells in liver inflammation

Innate immune system is the first line of defence against invading pathogens that is critical for the overall survival of the host. Human liver is characterised by a dual blood supply, with 80% of blood entering through the portal vein carrying nutrients and bacterial endotoxin from the gastrointestinal tract. The liver is thus constantly exposed to antigenic loads. Therefore, pathogenic microorganism must be efficiently eliminated whilst harmless antigens derived from the gastrointestinal tract need to be tolerized in the liver. In order to achieve this, the liver innate immune system is equipped with multiple cellular components; monocytes, macrophages, granulocytes, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells which coordinate to exert tolerogenic environment at the same time detect, respond, and eliminate invading pathogens, infected or transformed self to mount immunity. This paper will discuss the innate immune cells that take part in human liver inflammation, and their roles in both resolution of inflammation and tissue repair.</p