Infectious endocarditis – current profile

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a disease of the endocardium of the heart and the endocardium of the great vessels, with infection affecting heart valves (native or prosthetic) and subvalvular structures and, in the last few decades, indwelling intracardiac devices or catheters. It is a life-threatening disease with a wide distribution worldwide. IE was first described 350 years ago, but it continues to be a huge challenge for doctors for several reasons. First – IE is a changing disease. Nowadays, the profile of patients with IE has significantly changed in terms of age, predisposing factors, microbiological causative agent, clinical picture, complications, therapeutic approach. Second, despite modern imaging and microbiological methods, diagnostics often encounter serious difficulties and delays. Third, the improvement in medical and surgical treatment in recent decades has not changed the rates of mortality and severe complications. Knowing the current profile of patients with IE helps in timely and accurate diagnosis, which is key to starting adequate treatment. Early identification of high-risk patients is important for the therapeutic approach, especially when deciding on operative treatment. This is associated with a reduction in in-hospital mortality and an improvement in the long-term prognosis of patients

EffEct of brEEding sEason on thE kinEmatic paramEtErs and morphology of ram' spErm from synthEtic population bulgarian milk shEEp brEEd

abstract AbADjievA, D., M. Chervenkov, r. StefAnov, n. MetoDiev, e. kiStAnovA, D. kAChevA and e. rAyChevA, 2014. effect of breeding season on the kinematic parameters and morphology of ram' sperm from synthetic population bulgarian milk sheep breed. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., the aim of this study was the investigation of the breeding season effect on the kinematic and main spermatological parameters of the rams from Synthetic Population Bulgarian Milk sheep breed (SPBM), new Bulgarian breed certificated in 2005. the experiment was carried out with seven rams. Two consecutive ejaculates from each ram were obtained by artificial vagina before and during the breeding campaign (n=28). overall sperm motility and the individual kinematic parameters of motile spermatozoa were assessed by the computer-aided sperm analysis system Sperm Class Analyzer (SCA). the sperm morphology was estimated after sperm blue stain and calculated as a percent of abnormal cells among 100 sperm cells from several fields on the slide. it was found that the ejaculates obtained from SPbM rams during the breeding season had better features of sperm motion kinetics. the values of the velocity parameters (P< 0.05), motility (P< 0.05), and percentages of spermatozoa with rapid (P< 0.01) and medium (P< 0.001) speed were higher than those from the ejaculates collected before the breeding season. Minor and not significant changes in the kinematic parameters of motile spermatozoa in consecutive ejaculates were observed. No significant differences were established in morphological status of spermatozoa in nonbreeding and breeding season. It seems that the better sperm motility kinematic parameters during the breeding season ensure the higher sperm fertility and success on the future insemination

Turbulent magnetic field in the HII region Sh 2-27

Magnetic fields in the turbulent interstellar medium (ISM) are a key element in understanding Galactic dynamics, but there are many observational challenges. One useful probe for studying the magnetic field component parallel to the line of sight (LoS) is Faraday rotation of linearly polarized radio synchrotron emission, combined with H$\alpha$ observations. HII regions are the perfect laboratories to probe such magnetic fields as they are localized in space, and are well-defined sources often with known distances and measurable electron densities. We chose the HII region Sharpless 2-27 (Sh 2-27). By using a map of the magnetic field strength along the LoS ($B_{\parallel}$) for the first time, we investigate the basic statistical properties of the turbulent magnetic field inside Sh 2-27. We study the scaling of the magnetic field fluctuations, compare it to the Kolmogorov scaling, and attempt to find an outer scale of the turbulent magnetic field fluctuations. We estimate the median value of $n_e$ as $7.3\pm0.1$ cm$^{-3}$, and the median value of $B_{\parallel}$ as $-4.5\pm0.1$ $\mu$G, which is comparable to the magnetic field strength in diffuse ISM. The slope of the structure function of the estimated $B_{\parallel}$-map is found to be slightly steeper than Kolmogorov, consistent with our Gaussian-random-field $B_{\parallel}$ simulations revealing that an input Kolmogorov slope in the magnetic field results in a somewhat steeper slope in $B_{\parallel}$. These results suggest that the lower limit to the outer scale of turbulence is 10 pc in the HII region, which is comparable to the size of the computation domain. This may indicate that the turbulence probed here could actually be cascading from the larger scales in the ambient medium, associated with the interstellar turbulence in the general ISM, which is illuminated by the presence of Sh 2-27.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Accepted by A&

Linking medical faculty stress/burnout to willingness to implement medical school curriculum change: a preliminary investigation

Rationale, aims and objectivesBalancing administrative demands from the medical school while providing patient support and seeking academic advancement can cause personal hardship that ranges from high stress to clinically recognizable conditions such as burnout. Regarding the importance of clinical faculties’ burnout and its effects on different aspects of their professional career, this study was conducted and aimed to evaluate the relationship between willingness to change teaching approaches as characterized by a modified stage‐of‐change model and measures of stress and burnout.MethodsThis descriptive analytic study was conducted on 143 clinical faculty members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Participants were asked to complete three questionnaires: a modified stages of change questionnaire the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the General Health Questionnaire. Data were analysed by SPSS: 16 using non‐parametric statistical tests such as multiple regression and ICC (intra‐class coefficient) and Spearman correlation coefficient test.ResultA significant relationship was found between faculty members’ readiness to change teaching approaches and the subscales of occupational burnout. Specifically, participants with low occupational burnout were more likely to be in the action stage, while those with high burnout were in the attitude or intention stage, which could be understood as not being ready to implement change. There was no significant correlation between general health scores and stage of change. ConclusionsWe found it feasible to measure stages of change as well as stress/burnout in academic doctors. Occupational burnout directly reduces the readiness to change. To have successful academic reform in medical schools, it therefore would be beneficial to assess and manage occupational burnout among clinical faculty members.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135679/1/jep12439.pd

Association Between Loss of Dp140 and Cognitive Impairment in Duchenne and Becker Dystrophies

The presence of variable degrees of non progressive cognitive impairment is recognized as a clinical feature of patients with Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies (DMD and BMD), but its pathogenesis still remains a matter of debate. A number of findings have proved that rearrangements located in the second part of the dystrophin (DMD) gene seem to be preferentially associated with cognitive impairment. Dp140 is a distal dystrophin isoform, mainly expressed during fetal brain development, whose role for neuropsychological functioning was suggested