Chronic bacterial prostatitis: efficacy of short-lasting antibiotic therapy with prulifloxacin (Unidrox®) in association with saw palmetto extract, lactobacillus sporogens and arbutin (Lactorepens®)

Bacterial prostatitis (BP) is a common condition accounting responsible for about 5-10% of all prostatitis cases; chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP) classified as type II, are less common but is a condition that significantly hampers the quality of life, (QoL) because not only is it a physical condition but also a psychological distress. Commonly patients are treated with antibiotics alone, and in particular fluoroquinolones are suggested by the European Urology guidelines. This approach, although recommended, may not be enough. Thus, a multimodal approach to the prolonged antibiotic therapy may be helpful.210 patients affected by chronic bacterial prostatitis were enrolled in the study. All patients were positive to Meares-Stamey test and symptoms duration was > 3 months. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a long lasting therapy with a fluoroquinolone in association with a nutraceutical supplement (prulifloxacin 600 mg for 21 days and an association of Serenoa repens 320 mg, Lactobacillus Sporogens 200 mg, Arbutin 100 mg for 30 days). Patients were randomized in two groups (A and B) receiving respectively antibiotic alone and an association of antibiotic plus supplement.Biological recurrence at 2 months in Group A was observed in 21 patients (27.6%) and in Group B in 6 patients (7.8%). Uropathogens found at the first follow-up were for the majority Gram - (E. coli and Enterobacter spp.). A statistically significant difference was found at the time of the follow-up between Group A and B in the NIH-CPSI questionnaire score, symptoms evidence and serum PSA.Broad band, short-lasting antibiotic therapy in association with a nutritional supplement (serenoa repens, lactobacillus sporogens and arbutin) show better control and recurrence rate on patients affected by chronic bacterial prostatitits in comparison with antibiotic treatment alone.NCT02130713Date of trial Registration: 30/04/2014

An ultrastable silicon cavity in a continuously operating closed-cycle cryostat at 4 K

We report on a laser locked to a silicon cavity operating continuously at 4 K with $1 \times 10^{-16}$ instability and a median linewidth of 17 mHz at 1542 nm. This is a ten-fold improvement in short-term instability, and a $10^4$ improvement in linewidth, over previous sub-10 K systems. Operating at low temperatures reduces the thermal noise floor, and thus is advantageous toward reaching an instability of $10^{-18}$, a long-sought goal of the optical clock community. The performance of this system demonstrates the technical readiness for the development of the next generation of ultrastable lasers that operate with ultranarrow linewidth and long-term stability without user intervention.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Meritocratic aspects concerning civil servant career: comparative study in Central and Eastern European countries

Central and Eastern Europe has known in the last 20 years profound changes. The shift from a dictatorial system to a democratic system forced the states from this area to adopt structural measures for all public institutions. In this context, the institution of "civil servant" could not remain unaffected. In the period of communist regimes, the institution of "civil servant" did not exist, the civil servant being just a simple employee of the state. Work relations were the same as for any employee. The shift to another political system, the democratic one, determined the reconsideration the role and the place of public administration, and implicit of civil servant in the framework of the state system. In this context, it has been a shift from the statute of simple employee to that of civil servant, representing the power of the state. In the process of accession to the European Union, the states from Central and Eastern Europe have been permanently pressured to clearly define a strategy concerning the competitiveness of public administration, concerning the statute and the career of civil servant. In the context of democratisation, we can notice that the principle of meritocracy has become a key principle in the civil servant's career. The term "meritocracy" is often used in order to describe a type of society in which wealth and social position are obtained mainly through competition or through ability or proved competences. A position invested with responsibilities and social prestige has to be acquired and not inherited or obtained by arbitrary criteria. Meritocracy represents also the term used to describe or to criticise a society in competition that accepts inequitable disparities of income, wealth and social position. Taking into account the above considerations, the present paper aims to achieve an analysis of meritocratic aspects in the systems of planning and promotion of civil servant's career in Central and Eastern Europe

Molybdenum targets for production of 99mTc by a medical cyclotron

Introduction Alternative methods for producing the medical imaging isotope 99mTc are actively being developed around the world in anticipation of the imminent shutdown of the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada and the high flux reactor (HFR) in Petten, Holland that together currently produce up to 80 % of the world’s supply through fission. The most promising alternative methods involve accelerators that focus Bremsstrahlung radiation or protons on metallic targets comprised of 100Mo and a supporting material used to conduct heat away during irradiation. As an example, the reaction 100Mo(p,2n)99mTc provides a direct route that can be incorporated into routine production in regional nuclear medicine centers that possess medical cyclotrons for production of other isotopes, such as those used for Positron Emission Tomography (PET). The targets used to produce 99mTc are subject to a number of operational constraints. They must withstand the temperatures generated by the irradiation and be fashioned to accommodate temperature gradients from in situ cooling. The targets must be resilient, which means they cannot disintegrate during irradiation or post processing, because of the radioactive nature of the products. Yet, the targets must be easily post-processed to separate the 99mTc. In addition, the method used to manufacture the targets must not be wasteful of the 100Mo, because of its cost (~$2/mg). Any manufacturing process should be able to function remotely in a shielded space to accommodate the possibility of radioactive recycled target feedstock. There are a number of methods that have been proposed for large-scale target manufacturing including electrophoretic deposition, pressing and sinter-ing, electroplating and carburization [1]. How to develop these methods for routine production is an active business [2,3]. From the industrial perspective, plasma spraying showed promising results initially [4], but the process became very expensive requiring customized equipment in order to reduce losses because of overspray,which also required a large inventory of expen-sive feedstock. In this paper we report the ex-perimental validation of an industrial process for production of targets comprising a Mo layer and a copper support. Materials and methods Target Design Targets have been manufactured for irradiation at 15 MeV. Two targets are shown in FIG. 1: one as-manufactured and another after irradiation; no visible changes were observed following irradiation. The supporting circular copper (C101) disks have diameters of 24 mm and thickness of 1.6 mm. The molybdenum in the center of the target is fully dense with thickness 230 μm determined from SEM cross-sections.Targets have also been manufactured for irradi-ation in a general-purpose target holder designed to be attached to all makes of cyclotrons found in regional nuclear medicine centers. The elliptical targets were designed for high-volume production of 99mTc with 15 MeV protons at currents of 400 µA with 15% collimation [4]. The elliptical shape reduces the heat flux associated with high current sources. The cooling channels on the back of the target are designed to with-stand the high temperature generated during Irradiation. A thermal simulation of expected temperatures during irradiation is shown in FIG. 3. The center of the target is expected to reach 260 oC during irradiation. The elliptical targets were formed from a 27 mm C101 copper plate with width 22 mm and length 55 mm. The molybdenum in the center of the target is fully dense with thickness 60 m de-termined from SEM cross-sections. FIG. 4 shows the molybdenum deposition in the center of the target in a form of an ellipse (38×10 mm). Results and Conclusions Circular targets have been produced and suc-cessfully irradiated for up to 5 h with a proton beam with energy 15 MeV and current 50 µA. (FIG. 1). The targets were resilient. Before irradi-ation the targets were subjected to mechanical shock tests and thermal gradients with no ob-servable effect. After irradiation there was no indication of any degradation. The manufacturing process produced 20 consistently reproducible targets within an hour with a molybdenum loss of less than 2 %. After irradiation the targets were chemically processed and the products characterized by Ge-HP gamma spectrometry. Only Tc isotopes were found. No other contami-nants were identified after processing. The de-tails of the separation and purification are de-scribed elsewhere [5]. Circular targets suitable for low-volume produc-tion of 99mTc have been manufactured and test-ed. The targets have been shown to meet the required operation constraints: the targets are resilient withstanding mechanical shock and irradiation conditions; they are readily produced with minimal losses; and post-processing after irradiation for 5 h has been shown to produce 99mTc. Elliptical targets suitable for high-volume pro-duction of 99mTc with high power cyclotrons have been manufactured (FIG. 4). Like the circular targets, the elliptical targets are readily pro-duced with minimal losses and are able to with-stand mechanical shock and thermal gradients; however, they have yet to be irradiated

Determination of the photodisintegration reaction rates involving charged particles: systematical calculations and proposed measurements based on Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP)

Photodisintegration reaction rates involving charged particles are of relevance to the p-process nucleosynthesis that aims at explaining the production of the stable neutron-deficient nuclides heavier than iron. In this study, the cross sections and astrophysical rates of (g,p) and (g,a) reactions for about 3000 target nuclei with 10<Z<100 ranging from stable to proton dripline nuclei are computed. To study the sensitivity of the calculations to the optical model potentials (OMPs), both the phenomenological Woods-Saxon and the microscopic folding OMPs are taken into account. The systematic comparisons show that the reaction rates, especially for the (g,a) reaction, are dramatically influenced by the OMPs. Thus the better determination of the OMP is crucial to reduce the uncertainties of the photodisintegration reaction rates involving charged particles. Meanwhile, a gamma-beam facility at ELI-NP is being developed, which will open new opportunities to experimentally study the photodisintegration reactions of astrophysics interest. Considering both the important reactions identified by the nucleosynthesis studies and the purpose of complementing the experimental results for the reactions involving p-nuclei, the measurements of six (g,p) and eight (g,a) reactions based on the gamma-beam facility at ELI-NP and the ELISSA detector for the charged particles detection are proposed, and the GEANT4 simulations are correspondingly performed. The minimum required energies of the gamma-beam to measure these reactions are estimated. It is shown that the direct measurements of these photonuclear reactions within the Gamow windows at T_9=2.5 for p-process are fairly feasible and promising at ELI-NP. The expected experimental results will be used to constrain the OMPs of the charged particles, which can eventually reduce the uncertainties of the reaction rates for the p-process nucleosynthesis.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Phys. Rev. C accepte

In situ Control of Si/Ge Growth on Stripe-Patterned Substrates Using Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Si and Ge growth on the stripe-patterned Si (001) substrates is studied using in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). During Si buffer growth, the evolution of RHEED patterns reveals a rapid change of the stripe morphology from a multifaceted “U” to a single-faceted “V” geometry with {119} sidewall facets. This allows to control the pattern morphology and to stop Si buffer growth once a well-defined stripe geometry is formed. Subsequent Ge growth on “V”-shaped stripes was performed at two different temperatures of 520 and 600°C. At low temperature of 520°C, pronounced sidewall ripples are formed at a critical coverage of 4.1 monolayers as revealed by the appearance of splitted diffraction streaks in RHEED. At 600°C, the ripple onset is shifted toward higher coverages, and at 5.2 monolayers dome islands are formed at the bottom of the stripes. These observations are in excellent agreement with STM images recorded at different Ge coverages. Therefore, RHEED is an efficient tool for in situ control of the growth process on stripe-patterned substrate templates. The comparison of the results obtained at different temperature reveals the importance of kinetics on the island formation process on patterned substrates

Chronic bacterial prostatitis: efficacy of short-lasting antibiotic therapy with prulifloxacin (Unidrox®) in association with saw palmetto extract, lactobacillus sporogens and arbutin (Lactorepens®)

Background: Bacterial prostatitis (BP) is a common condition accounting responsible for about 5-10% of all prostatitis cases; chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP) classified as type II, are less common but is a condition that significantly hampers the quality of life, (QoL) because not only is it a physical condition but also a psychological distress. Commonly patients are treated with antibiotics alone, and in particular fluoroquinolones are suggested by the European Urology guidelines. This approach, although recommended, may not be enough. Thus, a multimodal approach to the prolonged antibiotic therapy may be helpful. Methods: 210 patients affected by chronic bacterial prostatitis were enrolled in the study. All patients were positive to Meares-Stamey test and symptoms duration was &gt; 3 months. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a long lasting therapy with a fluoroquinolone in association with a nutraceutical supplement (prulifloxacin 600 mg for 21 days and an association of Serenoa repens 320 mg, Lactobacillus Sporogens 200 mg, Arbutin 100 mg for 30 days). Patients were randomized in two groups (A and B) receiving respectively antibiotic alone and an association of antibiotic plus supplement. Results: Biological recurrence at 2 months in Group A was observed in 21 patients (27.6%) and in Group B in 6 patients (7.8%). Uropathogens found at the first follow-up were for the majority Gram – (E. coli and Enterobacter spp.). A statistically significant difference was found at the time of the follow-up between Group A and B in the NIH-CPSI questionnaire score, symptoms evidence and serum PSA. Conclusions: Broad band, short-lasting antibiotic therapy in association with a nutritional supplement (serenoa repens, lactobacillus sporogens and arbutin) show better control and recurrence rate on patients affected by chronic bacterial prostatitits in comparison with antibiotic treatment alone. Trial registration: NCT02130713 Date of trial Registration: 30/04/201

Emotions in context: examining pervasive affective sensing systems, applications, and analyses

Pervasive sensing has opened up new opportunities for measuring our feelings and understanding our behavior by monitoring our affective states while mobile. This review paper surveys pervasive affect sensing by examining and considering three major elements of affective pervasive systems, namely; “sensing”, “analysis”, and “application”. Sensing investigates the different sensing modalities that are used in existing real-time affective applications, Analysis explores different approaches to emotion recognition and visualization based on different types of collected data, and Application investigates different leading areas of affective applications. For each of the three aspects, the paper includes an extensive survey of the literature and finally outlines some of challenges and future research opportunities of affective sensing in the context of pervasive computing