Detecting Latin-Based Medical Terminology in Croatian Texts

No matter what the main language of texts in the medical domain is, there is always an evidence of the usage of Latin-derived words and formative elements in terminology development. Generally speaking, this usage presents language-specific morpho-semantic behaviors in forming both technical-scientific and common-usage words. Nevertheless, this usage of Latin in Croatian medical texts does not seem consistent due to the fact that diferent mechanisms of word formation may be applied to the same term. In our pursuit to map all the diferent occurrences of the same concept to only one, we propose a model designed within NooJ and based on dictionaries and morphological grammars. Starting from the manual detection of nouns and their variations, we recognize some word formation mechanisms and develop grammars suitable to recognize Latinisms and Croatinized Latin medical terminology

A review of assessment methods for river hydromorphology

The work leading to this paper has received funding for the EU’s FP7 under Grant Agreement No. 282656 (REFORM

Development of an IS change reason - IS change type combination matrix

Firms change their information systems (IS) for various reasons, ranging from compliance with government regulations to the development of new capabilities. When making these changes a firm can choose between four different IS change types: IS introduction, IS extension, IS replacement, and IS merger. This paper proposes that change reasons and change types are interrelated, and that certain reason-type combinations are more likely than others to result in a successful IS change. To identify these combinations, an IS change reason–IS change type matrix is developed. While the matrix is created from prior IS research, we conducted a focus group study of IS professionals to further explore and refine the matrix. The findings from the focus group study reveal that some IS change reason–IS change type combinations are more appropriate than others to carry out the IS change project successfully. We also present three examples of IS change projects to illustrate the use and value of the matrix in practice

Oral Health in Women During Preconception and Pregnancy: Implications for Birth Outcomes and Infant Oral Health

The mouth is an obvious portal of entry to the body, and oral health reflects and influences general health and well being. Maternal oral health has significant implications for birth outcomes and infant oral health. Maternal periodontal disease, that is, a chronic infection of the gingiva and supporting tooth structures, has been associated with preterm birth, development of preeclampsia, and delivery of a small-for-gestational age infant. Maternal oral flora is transmitted to the newborn infant, and increased cariogenic flora in the mother predisposes the infant to the development of caries. It is intriguing to consider preconception, pregnancy, or intrapartum treatment of oral health conditions as a mechanism to improve women's oral and general health, pregnancy outcomes, and their children's dental health. However, given the relationship between oral health and general health, oral health care should be a goal in its own right for all individuals. Regardless of the potential for improved oral health to improve pregnancy outcomes, public policies that support comprehensive dental services for vulnerable women of childbearing age should be expanded so that their own oral and general health is safeguarded and their children's risk of caries is reduced. Oral health promotion should include education of women and their health care providers ways to prevent oral disease from occurring, and referral for dental services when disease is present

Cortisol in hair measured in young adults - a biomarker of major life stressors?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Stress as a cause of illness has been firmly established. In public health and stress research a retrospective biomarker of extended stress would be an indispensible aid. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate whether concentrations of cortisol in hair correlate with perceived stress, experiences of serious life events, and perceived health in young adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Hair samples were cut from the posterior vertex area of (n = 99) university students who also answered a questionnaire covering experiences of serious life events, perceived Stress Scale and perceived health during the last three months. Cortisol was measured using a competitive radioimmunoassay in methanol extracts of hair samples frozen in liquid nitrogen and mechanically pulverised.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean cortisol levels were significantly related to serious life events (p = 0.045), weakly negatively correlated to perceived stress (p = 0.025, r = -0.061) but nor affected by sex, coloured/permed hair, intake of pharmaceuticals or self-reported health. In a multiple regression model, only the indicator of serious life events had an independent (p = 0.041) explanation of increased levels of cortisol in hair. Out of four outliers with extremely high cortisol levels two could be contacted, both reported serious psychological problems.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings suggest that measurement of cortisol in hair could serve as a retrospective biomarker of increased cortisol production reflecting exposure to major life stressors and possibly extended psychological illness with important implications for research, clinical practice and public health. Experience of serious life events seems to be more important in raising cortisol levels in hair than perceived stress.</p

Azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV

The results from the STAR Collaboration on directed flow (v_1), elliptic flow (v_2), and the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the anisotropic azimuthal distribution of particles from Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV are summarized and compared with results from other experiments and theoretical models. Results for identified particles are presented and fit with a Blast Wave model. Different anisotropic flow analysis methods are compared and nonflow effects are extracted from the data. For v_2, scaling with the number of constituent quarks and parton coalescence is discussed. For v_4, scaling with v_2^2 and quark coalescence is discussed.Comment: 26 pages. As accepted by Phys. Rev. C. Text rearranged, figures modified, but data the same. However, in Fig. 35 the hydro calculations are corrected in this version. The data tables are available at http://www.star.bnl.gov/central/publications/ by searching for "flow" and then this pape

Optimal free descriptions of many-body theories

Interacting bosons or fermions give rise to some of the most fascinating phases of matter, including high-temperature superconductivity, the fractional quantum Hall effect, quantum spin liquids and Mott insulators. Although these systems are promising for technological applications, they also present conceptual challenges, as they require approaches beyond mean-field and perturbation theory. Here we develop a general framework for identifying the free theory that is closest to a given interacting model in terms of their ground-state correlations. Moreover, we quantify the distance between them using the entanglement spectrum. When this interaction distance is small, the optimal free theory provides an effective description of the low-energy physics of the interacting model. Our construction of the optimal free model is non-perturbative in nature; thus, it offers a theoretical framework for investigating strongly correlated systems

Staphylococcal phenotypes induced by naturally occurring and synthetic membrane-interactive polyphenolic β-lactam resistance modifiers.

Galloyl catechins, in particular (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECg), have the capacity to abrogate β-lactam resistance in methicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA); they also prevent biofilm formation, reduce the secretion of a large proportion of the exoproteome and induce profound changes to cell morphology. Current evidence suggests that these reversible phenotypic traits result from their intercalation into the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. We have endeavoured to potentiate the capacity of ECg to modify the MRSA phenotype by stepwise removal of hydroxyl groups from the B-ring pharmacophore and the A:C fused ring system of the naturally occurring molecule. ECg binds rapidly to the membrane, inducing up-regulation of genes responsible for protection against cell wall stress and maintenance of membrane integrity and function. Studies with artificial membranes modelled on the lipid composition of the staphylococcal bilayer indicated that ECg adopts a position deep within the lipid palisade, eliciting major alterations in the thermotropic behaviour of the bilayer. The non-galloylated homolog (-)-epicatechin enhanced ECg-mediated effects by facilitating entry of ECg molecules into the membrane. ECg analogs with unnatural B-ring hydroxylation patterns induced higher levels of gene expression and more profound changes to MRSA membrane fluidity than ECg but adopted a more superficial location within the bilayer. ECg possessed a high affinity for the positively charged staphylococcal membrane and induced changes to the biophysical properties of the bilayer that are likely to account for its capacity to disperse the cell wall biosynthetic machinery responsible for β-lactam resistance. The ability to enhance these properties by chemical modification of ECg raises the possibility that more potent analogs could be developed for clinical evaluation

Modification of the carboxy-terminal flanking region of a universal influenza epitope alters CD4+ T-cell repertoire selection

Human CD4+ αβ T cells are activated via T-cell receptor recognition of peptide epitopes presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II (MHC-II). The open ends of the MHC-II binding groove allow peptide epitopes to extend beyond a central nonamer core region at both the amino- and carboxy-terminus. We have previously found that these non-bound C-terminal residues can alter T cell activation in an MHC allele-transcending fashion, although the mechanism for this effect remained unclear. Here we show that modification of the C-terminal peptide-flanking region of an influenza hemagglutinin (HA305−320) epitope can alter T-cell receptor binding affinity, T-cell activation and repertoire selection of influenza-specific CD4+ T cells expanded from peripheral blood. These data provide the first demonstration that changes in the C-terminus of the peptide-flanking region can substantially alter T-cell receptor binding affinity, and indicate a mechanism through which peptide flanking residues could influence repertoire selection