The high burden of hospitalizations for primary EBV infection: a 6-year prospective survey in a French hospital

AbstractPrimary Epstein-Barr virus infection (PEI) is acquired increasingly later in life in developed countries, involving a growing number of adults. No studies have examined the effect of age on PEI. We conducted a prospective, single-centre, noninterventional survey to assess the clinical and economic effects of PEI care according to age. We included all serology-confirmed cases observed in all departments of a large regional hospital. Clinical and biologic data, therapeutics and costs of care were examined. Over a 6-year period, we included 292 subjects (148 children and 144 adults) with a median age of 15.4 years (range 9 months to 79 years). Adults were hospitalized more often (83% vs. 60%) and for longer periods of time (median 4 days vs. 2 days) than children (p ≤ 0.0001 for both). Two adults required a secondary transfer into the intensive care unit, although no children did. Typically, adults showed higher levels of activated lymphocytes and liver abnormalities. They also required the use of systemic corticosteroids more often (45% vs. 23%, p < 0.0001) and for longer periods of time (median 7 days vs. 3 days, p 0.02) than children. Overall, the costs were significantly higher for adults than for children (median, €1940 vs. €1130, p < 0.0001), mainly because of the frequency and duration of hospitalizations. Age increases the immune response and clinical severity of PEI, resulting in substantial additional costs for the community. Better recognition of the disease in adults could shorten the average length of hospital stay

Prikaz znanja u internetu stvari: semantičko modeliranje i njegove primjene

Semantic modelling provides a potential basis for interoperating among different systems and applications in the Internet of Things (IoT). However, current work has mostly focused on IoT resource management while not on the access and utilisation of information generated by the “Things”. We present the design of a comprehensive and lightweight semantic description model for knowledge representation in the IoT domain. The design follows the widely recognised best practices in knowledge engineering and ontology modelling. Users are allowed to extend the model by linking to external ontologies, knowledge bases or existing linked data. Scalable access to IoT services and resources is achieved through a distributed, semantic storage design. The usefulness of the model is also illustrated through an IoT service discovery method.Semantičko modeliranje pruža potencijalnu osnovu za me.udjelovanje različitih sustava i aplikacija unutar interneta stvari (IoT). Međutim, postojeći radovi uglavnom su fokusirani na upravljanje IoT resursima, ali ne i pristupu i korištenju informacija koje generira “stvar”. Predstavljamo projektiranje sveobuhvatnog i laganog semantičkog opisnog modela za prikaz znanja u IoT domeni. Projektiranje slijedi široko-priznate najbolje običaje u inženjerstvu znanja i ontološkom modeliranju. Korisnicima se dopušta proširenje modela povezivanjem na eksterne ontologije, baze znanja ili postoje će povezane podatke. Skalabilni pristup IoT uslugama i resursima postiže se kroz distribuirano, semantičko projektiranje pohrane. Upotrebljivost modela tako.er je ilustrirana kroz metodu pronalaska IoT usluga

A Feedback-Based Adaptive Service-Oriented Paradigm for the Internet of Things

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018. With integrating physical devices into digital world, Internet of Things (IoT) have presented tremendous potential in various different application domains such as smart cities, intelligent transportation, smart home, healthcare and industrial automation. However, current IoT solutions and usage scenarios are still very limited because of the difficulty in sensing the context in continuously changing environments and adaptation to the changes accordingly. The complex dynamic interactions between system components and physical environments are a bit challenging especially when there are other concerns such as scalability and heterogeneity. To solve this problem, a novel adaptive service-oriented paradigm is proposed to support IoT from a low-level viewpoint. The paradigm can overcome some disadvantages of REST (Representational State Transfer) architecture style in the IoT. Two classical examples are illustrated using the proposed paradigm by adding an extra constraint based on REST to improve system states verification and enhance the functionality in modelling physical processes

Effects of a moderate intake of beer on markers of hydration after exercise in the heat: a crossover study

Background: Exercise in the heat causes important water and electrolytes losses through perspiration. Optimal rehydration is crucial to facilitate the recuperation process after exercise. The aim of our study was to examine whether a moderate beer intake as part of the rehydration has any negative effect protocol after a short but dehydrating bout of exercise in the heat.Methods: Sixteen active male (VO2max, 56 ± 4 mL/kg/min), were included in a crossover study and performed a dehydrating exercise (≤1 h running, 60 %VO2max) twice and 3 weeks apart, in a hot laboratory setting (35 ± 1 °C, humidity 60 ± 2 %). During the two hours following the exercise bouts participants consumed either mineral water ad-libitum (W) or up to 660 ml regular beer followed by water ad-libitum (BW). Body composition, hematological and serum parameters, fluid balance and urine excretion were assessed before, after exercise and after rehydration.Results: Body mass (BM) decreased (both ~ 2.4 %) after exercise in both trials. After rehydration, BM and fat free mass significantly increased although BM did not return to baseline levels (BM, 72.6 ± 6.7 to 73.6 ± 6.9; fat free mass, 56.9 ± 4.7 to 57.5 ± 4.5, no differences BW vs W). Beer intake did not adversely affect any measured parameter. Fluid balance and urine excretion values did not differ between the rehydration strategies.Conclusions: After exercise and subsequent water losses, a moderate beer (regular) intake has no deleterious effects on markers of hydration in active individuals.This study was partially supported by the “Centro de Información Cerveza y Salud” (n° C-2534-00)

The future problem solving program international: an intervention to promote creative skills in portuguese adolescents

The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) is an internationally applied educational program that involves young people. Its theoretical foundation is both the Creative Problem Solving Model and the Futurist Thinking. It aims to promote creative and critical thinking through a futurist approach to problems. This study intended to analyze the effects of the program on creative skills evaluated by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Figural Version). The participants’ perceptions of the efficacy of the program were also assessed. This intervention was carried out with 131 adolescents over a period of 7 months in an extra-curricular context. The evaluation of the program takes into account periods both before and after interventions, using similar experimental and control groups. The results showed significant statistical differences for the all skills studied and very positive perceptions of the efficacy of FPSPI. Two significant gender differences in creative performance were also found. The results are described and discussed in order to promote awareness for future research concerning this program(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

CC9 Livestock-Associated Staphylococcus aureus Emerges in Bloodstream Infections in French Patients Unconnected With Animal Farming

We report 4 bloodstream infections associated with CC9 agr type II Staphylococcus aureus in individuals without animal exposure. We demonstrate, by microarray analysis, the presence of egc cluster, fnbA, cap operon, lukS, set2, set12, splE, splD, sak, epiD, and can, genomic features associated with a high virulence potential in human

Carcass persistence and detectability : reducing the uncertainty surrounding wildlife-vehicle collision surveys

Carcass persistence time and detectability are two main sources of uncertainty on roadkill surveys. In this study, we evaluate the influence of these uncertainties on roadkill surveys and estimates. To estimate carcass persistence time, three observers (including the driver) surveyed 114km by car on a monthly basis for two years, searching for wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC). Each survey consisted of five consecutive days. To estimate carcass detectability, we randomly selected stretches of 500m to be also surveyed on foot by two other observers (total 292 walked stretches, 146 km walked). We expected that body size of the carcass, road type, presence of scavengers and weather conditions to be the main drivers influencing the carcass persistence times, but their relative importance was unknown. We also expected detectability to be highly dependent on body size. Overall, we recorded low median persistence times (one day) and low detectability (<10%) for all vertebrates. The results indicate that body size and landscape cover (as a surrogate of scavengers' presence) are the major drivers of carcass persistence. Detectability was lower for animals with body mass less than 100g when compared to carcass with higher body mass. We estimated that our recorded mortality rates underestimated actual values of mortality by 2±10 fold. Although persistence times were similar to previous studies, the detectability rates here described are very different from previous studies. The results suggest that detectability is the main source of bias across WVC studies. Therefore, more than persistence times, studies should carefully account for differing detectability when comparing WVC studies