Postpartum depression and thyroid dysfunction– should pregnant women be screened for thyroid disorders?

The relationship between thyroid dysfunction and postpartum depression has been investigated for quite some time now, but no consensus has been reached regarding the need for screening for thyroid function during pregnancy. This paper aims to investigate whether thyroid hormone screening in pregnancy might contribute to the diagnosis of postpartum depression. Depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) - one of the most widely used measures in detecting postpartum depression and anxiety. Thyroid function was measured using the commonly recommended thyroid laboratory tests. A structured questionnaire was given to 61 patients closely monitored during their pregnancy and at least one year after giving birth, including for thyroid and depression disorders. The questionnaire was completed anonymously online by the patients and had three sections: one containing the EPDS questions, one assessing thyroid function, and a demographic section. The interdependency between thyroid and depression was analyzed in SPSS using the Pearson chi-square test of independence. The results show no statistically significant relationship between thyroid dysfunction and depression. In other words, women suffering from thyroid dysfunctions have no greater rate of depression compared to women without thyroid dysfunction. As a result, it screening for thyroid disorders during pregnancy may not provide relevant information for detecting postnatal depression

Opportunities, Challenges and Results of the Regionalization Process in the Romanian Water Sector

One of the specific objectives of the Sectoral Operational Programme Environment SOPENV is to Improve the quality and access to water and wastewater infrastructure, by providing watersupply and wastewater services in most urban areas by 2015 and by setting efficient regional waterand wastewater management structures. (Priority Axis 1 – Water: regional projects). In order toimplement the investments needed to comply with the relevant EU environmental directives forimproving the quality of water services and environment, the regional operators have access to the EUFunds from the current programming period 2007-2013. For the Priority Axis 1 the allocated fundsraise up to 2,78 billion Euros from Cohesion Funds and 0,49 Billion Euros from national cofinancing.The paper presents a comparative approach of current status of the regionalization processin the water sector in Romania as well main problems encountered by the regionalization process, ingeneral and the regional operators, in particular, presenting some solutions and success factors in theregionalization process in the Romanian water sector

Short run and alternative macroeconomic forecasts for Romania and strategies to improve their accuracy

For the same macroeconomic variables more predictions can be made, using different forecasting forecasting. The most important step is the choice of the prediction with the highest degree of accuracy, this being used in establishing the governmental policies or the monetary policy by the central bank. We made short run forecasts (January 2012-March 2012) for variables as inflation rate, unemployment rate and interest rate for Romania using techniques like: econometric modeling, exponential smoothing technique and moving average method. In order to improve the forecasts accuracy, we used two empirical strategies: making combined prognosis and building the forecasts based on historical accuracy indicators. The predictions based on exponential smoothing technique have the highest degree of acuracy, being superior to those got applying the strategies of improving the accuracy

Preprotachykinin A (PPTA) is expressed by a distinct population of excitatory neurons in the mouse superficial spinal dorsal horn including cells that respond to noxious and pruritic stimuli

The superficial dorsal horn, which is the main target for nociceptive and pruritoceptive primary afferents, contains a high density of excitatory interneurons. Our understanding of their roles in somatosensory processing has been restricted by the difficulty of distinguishing functional populations among these cells. We recently defined three non-overlapping populations among the excitatory neurons, based on the expression of neurotensin, neurokinin B (NKB) and gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP). Here we identify and characterise another population: neurons that express the tachykinin peptide substance P. We show with immunocytochemistry that its precursor protein (preprotachykinin A, PPTA) can be detected in ~14% of lamina I-II neurons, and these are concentrated in the outer part of lamina II. Over 80% of the PPTA-positive cells lack the transcription factor Pax2 (which determines an inhibitory phenotype), and these account for ~15% of the excitatory neurons in this region. They are different from the neurotensin, NKB or GRP neurons, although many of them contain somatostatin, which is widely expressed among superficial dorsal horn excitatory interneurons. We show that many of these cells respond to noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli, and to intradermal injection of pruritogens. Finally, we demonstrate that these cells can also be identified in a knock-in Cre mouse line (Tac1Cre), although our findings suggest that there is an additional population of neurons that transiently express PPTA. This population of substance P-expressing excitatory neurons is likely to play an important role in transmission of signals that are perceived as pain and itch

Postpartum depression and thyroid dysfunction– should pregnant women be screened for thyroid disorders?

The relationship between thyroid dysfunction and postpartum depression has been investigated for quite some time now, but no consensus has been reached regarding the need for screening for thyroid function during pregnancy. This paper aims to investigate whether thyroid hormone screening in pregnancy might contribute to the diagnosis of postpartum depression. Depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) - one of the most widely used measures in detecting postpartum depression and anxiety. Thyroid function was measured using the commonly recommended thyroid laboratory tests. A structured questionnaire was given to 61 patients closely monitored during their pregnancy and at least one year after giving birth, including for thyroid and depression disorders. The questionnaire was completed anonymously online by the patients and had three sections: one containing the EPDS questions, one assessing thyroid function, and a demographic section. The interdependency between thyroid and depression was analyzed in SPSS using the Pearson chi-square test of independence. The results show no statistically significant relationship between thyroid dysfunction and depression. In other words, women suffering from thyroid dysfunctions have no greater rate of depression compared to women without thyroid dysfunction. As a result, it screening for thyroid disorders during pregnancy may not provide relevant information for detecting postnatal depression

Cerium, gallium and zinc containing mesoporous bioactive glasscoating deposited on titanium alloy

Surface modification is one of the methods for improving the performance of medical implants inbiological environment. In this study, cerium, gallium and zinc substituted 80%SiO2-15%CaO-5%P2O5mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) in combination with polycaprolactone (PCL) were coated over Ti6Al4 Vsubstrates by dip-coating method in order to obtain an inorganic\u2014organic hybrid coating (MBG-PCL).Structural characterization was performed using XRD, nitrogen adsorption, SEM-EDXS, FTIR. The MBG-PCL coating uniformly covered the substrate with the thickness found to be more than 1 m. Glass andpolymer phases were detected in the coating along with the presence of biologically potent elementscerium, gallium and zinc. In addition, in vitro bioactivity was investigated by soaking the coated samplesin simulated body fluid (SBF) for up to 30 days at 37\u25e6C. The apatite-like layer was monitored by FTIR, SEM-EDXS and ICP measurements and it formed in all the samples within 15 days except zinc samples. In thisway, an attempt was made to develop a new biomaterial with improved in vitro bioactive response dueto bioactive glass coating and good mechanical strength of Ti6Al4 V alloy along with inherent biologicalproperties of cerium, gallium and zinc

ASSESSMENT OF Pb, Cd, Cu AND Zn AVAILABILITY FOR PLANTS IN BAIA MARE MINING REGION

In order to evaluate the mobility of heavy metals in soil from Baia Mare mining region, the total, water and DTPA extractable metal contents were determined. The results showed that despite the high total metals contents and the high percentages of plant available metals only a low percent was water soluble, indicating a potential accumulation of metals in trophic chain and a potential risk for public health. Among the investigated metals, the plant available Pb and Cd species are the most severe contaminants. Significant correlations between total and DTPA extractable metals were found for Cu (r=0.510) and Pb (0.418), and also an affinity between total and water extractable metals were identified for Cu (0.366), Pb (0.502) and Zn (0.597)

Wood - a renewable resource for production of sugar and biofuel

Albies Alba wood samples were subjected to autohydrolysis extraction at different severities (180, 190 and 200°C), delignification with sodium chloride, and acid hydrolysis of pretreated and delignified substrates. After autohydrolysis pre-treatment under selected operation conditions, cellulose and lignin, in solid phases, and liquors containing hemicellulose products (monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and inhibitory compounds) have been obtained. The purpose of this study is to obtain glucose by autohydrolysis, delignification and acid hydrolysis of fir wood. Fir wood was pretreated at 180, 190 and 200 °C for 5, 10 and 15 minutes, followed by delignification with sodium chloride and acid hydrolysis. The acid hydrolysis of pretreated material and pretreated-delignified material was hydrolyzed using H2SO4 in two stages of impregnation with acid. The results show that elimination of hemicellulose by autohydrolysis pretreatment and lignin by delignification method improve acid hydrolysis yield