The New European and/or EU Studies Curriculum

In this part we will present turn by turn the evolution of the curriculum in four domains which are developing in the area of European and/or EU Studies: EU Intercultural Dialogue Studies, EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies, EU Communication and Information Studies, EU and Comparative Regionalism, from several points of view. First, we will take into consideration the perspective that each curriculum from the four domains has in the ensemble of European and/or EU Studies, the new domains, at the three levels of study, Bachelor, Master and PhD in the twelve countries that made the object of our research, emphasizing the nuances from a country to another. Secondly, we will trace the evolution of each curriculum in relation with the internal drivers (the dynamics of the study programmes/specializations where European Studies are taught), we will stress the role of mobility in various ways for crossing the disciplinary (transdisciplinarity) and national (transnational) borders and we will follow the application of ICT in the development of European studies curricula in the mentioned field. Afterwards, we will stress the evolution of each curriculum in function of the external drivers: the evolution of each curriculum depending on the European Agenda, how much the curriculum is adapted to the changes of the European Labour Market and the impact of the Jean Monnet Action in the development of the curricula in European Studies in each field of study

Pancreatogenic type 3C diabetes

Background. The relationship between chronic pancreatitis and diabetes is well established. This form of diabetes is secondary to exocrine pancreatic disorder and is known as diabetes mellitus type 3c (T3cDM). Materials and Methods. In this retrospective study we included 261 patients, 59 patients being diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis and secondary diabetes mellitus, and admitted in the Fundeni Clinical Institute, 2nd Department of Gastroenterology or N.C. Paulescu Institute/ Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Results and Discussions. Patients were 22.2% women and 77.8% men, with an average age of 56.8 years and 53.4 years respectively. 63% came from urban areas. The mean duration of chronic pancreatitis was six years. Non-diabetic patients were compared with patients who were previously diagnosed with T3cDM and who had been analyzed for body mass index (BMI). Imaging investigations were also performed to confirm pseudotumors or pancreatic tumours. Patients already considered non-diabetic had basal blood glucose values and were mostly overweight and obese. In this context, insulin resistance cannot be excluded for this group of patients. Conclusions. T3cDM is a new pathological entity that needs to be explored more deeply, and that should benefit from both a diagnostic stratification and treatment

The New European and/or EU Studies Curriculum

In this part we will present turn by turn the evolution of the curriculum in four domains which are developing in the area of European and/or EU Studies: EU Intercultural Dialogue Studies, EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies, EU Communication and Information Studies, EU and Comparative Regionalism, from several points of view. First, we will take into consideration the perspective that each curriculum from the four domains has in the ensemble of European and/or EU Studies, the new domains, at the three levels of study, Bachelor, Master and PhD in the twelve countries that made the object of our research, emphasizing the nuances from a country to another. Secondly, we will trace the evolution of each curriculum in relation with the internal drivers (the dynamics of the study programmes/specializations where European Studies are taught), we will stress the role of mobility in various ways for crossing the disciplinary (transdisciplinarity) and national (transnational) borders and we will follow the application of ICT in the development of European studies curricula in the mentioned field. Afterwards, we will stress the evolution of each curriculum in function of the external drivers: the evolution of each curriculum depending on the European Agenda, how much the curriculum is adapted to the changes of the European Labour Market and the impact of the Jean Monnet Action in the development of the curricula in European Studies in each field of study

Pancreatogenic type 3C diabetes

Background. The relationship between chronic pancreatitis and diabetes is well established. This form of diabetes is secondary to exocrine pancreatic disorder and is known as diabetes mellitus type 3c (T3cDM). Materials and Methods. In this retrospective study we included 261 patients, 59 patients being diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis and secondary diabetes mellitus, and admitted in the Fundeni Clinical Institute, 2nd Department of Gastroenterology or N.C. Paulescu Institute/ Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Results and Discussions. Patients were 22.2% women and 77.8% men, with an average age of 56.8 years and 53.4 years respectively. 63% came from urban areas. The mean duration of chronic pancreatitis was six years. Non-diabetic patients were compared with patients who were previously diagnosed with T3cDM and who had been analyzed for body mass index (BMI). Imaging investigations were also performed to confirm pseudotumors or pancreatic tumours. Patients already considered non-diabetic had basal blood glucose values and were mostly overweight and obese. In this context, insulin resistance cannot be excluded for this group of patients. Conclusions. T3cDM is a new pathological entity that needs to be explored more deeply, and that should benefit from both a diagnostic stratification and treatment

The influence of dehulling on the nutritional quality of lupine seeds (Lupinus albus L.) and the effect of their use in the feed of laying quails on the live performance and quality of eggs

Lupinus albus seeds from low-alkaloid varieties are a valuable alternative source of protein for reducing the dependence on soybean meal for the feeding of monogastric animals. Therefore, the aim of this research was to evaluate the dehulling influence of lupine seeds (L. albus, cv. Amiga) and the effect of their use in the laying quails feed on live performance and egg quality. A total of 200 laying quails (Coturnix japonica), with an age of 10 weeks, were randomly assigned to five experimental groups (five replicates/group). Each group was randomly assigned to one of five dietary treatments: the control group (C) diet was based on soybean meal, while the experimental groups received either 200 g/kg (WLS20) or 250 g/kg (WLS25) of whole lupine seeds in their diets, or 200 g/kg (DLS20) or 250 g/kg (DLS25) of dehulled lupine seeds in their diets. The results show that by dehulling the lupine seeds, the nutritional value of the seeds increased. The use of dehulled lupine seeds in the diet of laying quails did not affect the live performance (egg production, feed intake, feed conversion ratio), yolk cholesterol content, and physico-chemical quality indices of the eggs, compared with control. The presence of dehulled lupine seeds in the diet improved the nutritional quality of the yolk lipids because of the increase in the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Thus, the lipid quality indices of the yolk became more favorable to consumer health because of an increase in the h/H ratio (hypocholesterolemic/Hypercholesterolemic FA) and a decrease in the atherogenic index and thrombogenic index values. The higher content in carotenoids also contributed to the higher nutritional quality of the eggs obtained by lupine utilization. In conclusion, dehulling of lupine seeds had a positive influence on the nutritional quality of the seeds, the live performance of quails, and the quality of eggs

Pancreatogenic type 3C diabetes

Background. The relationship between chronic pancreatitis and diabetes is well established. This form of diabetes is secondary to exocrine pancreatic disorder and is known as diabetes mellitus type 3c (T3cDM). Materials and Methods. In this retrospective study we included 261 patients, 59 patients being diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis and secondary diabetes mellitus, and admitted in the Fundeni Clinical Institute, 2nd Department of Gastroenterology or N.C. Paulescu Institute/ Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Results and Discussions. Patients were 22.2% women and 77.8% men, with an average age of 56.8 years and 53.4 years respectively. 63% came from urban areas. The mean duration of chronic pancreatitis was six years. Non-diabetic patients were compared with patients who were previously diagnosed with T3cDM and who had been analyzed for body mass index (BMI). Imaging investigations were also performed to confirm pseudotumors or pancreatic tumours. Patients already considered non-diabetic had basal blood glucose values and were mostly overweight and obese. In this context, insulin resistance cannot be excluded for this group of patients. Conclusions. T3cDM is a new pathological entity that needs to be explored more deeply, and that should benefit from both a diagnostic stratification and treatment

Global incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 371 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Detailed, comprehensive, and timely reporting on population health by underlying causes of disability and premature death is crucial to understanding and responding to complex patterns of disease and injury burden over time and across age groups, sexes, and locations. The availability of disease burden estimates can promote evidence-based interventions that enable public health researchers, policy makers, and other professionals to implement strategies that can mitigate diseases. It can also facilitate more rigorous monitoring of progress towards national and international health targets, such as the Sustainable Development Goals. For three decades, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) has filled that need. A global network of collaborators contributed to the production of GBD 2021 by providing, reviewing, and analysing all available data. GBD estimates are updated routinely with additional data and refined analytical methods. GBD 2021 presents, for the first time, estimates of health loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The GBD 2021 disease and injury burden analysis estimated years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 371 diseases and injuries using 100 983 data sources. Data were extracted from vital registration systems, verbal autopsies, censuses, household surveys, disease-specific registries, health service contact data, and other sources. YLDs were calculated by multiplying cause-age-sex-location-year-specific prevalence of sequelae by their respective disability weights, for each disease and injury. YLLs were calculated by multiplying cause-age-sex-location-year-specific deaths by the standard life expectancy at the age that death occurred. DALYs were calculated by summing YLDs and YLLs. HALE estimates were produced using YLDs per capita and age-specific mortality rates by location, age, sex, year, and cause. 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for all final estimates as the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles values of 500 draws. Uncertainty was propagated at each step of the estimation process. Counts and age-standardised rates were calculated globally, for seven super-regions, 21 regions, 204 countries and territories (including 21 countries with subnational locations), and 811 subnational locations, from 1990 to 2021. Here we report data for 2010 to 2021 to highlight trends in disease burden over the past decade and through the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings: Global DALYs increased from 2·63 billion (95% UI 2·44–2·85) in 2010 to 2·88 billion (2·64–3·15) in 2021 for all causes combined. Much of this increase in the number of DALYs was due to population growth and ageing, as indicated by a decrease in global age-standardised all-cause DALY rates of 14·2% (95% UI 10·7–17·3) between 2010 and 2019. Notably, however, this decrease in rates reversed during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, with increases in global age-standardised all-cause DALY rates since 2019 of 4·1% (1·8–6·3) in 2020 and 7·2% (4·7–10·0) in 2021. In 2021, COVID-19 was the leading cause of DALYs globally (212·0 million [198·0–234·5] DALYs), followed by ischaemic heart disease (188·3 million [176·7–198·3]), neonatal disorders (186·3 million [162·3–214·9]), and stroke (160·4 million [148·0–171·7]). However, notable health gains were seen among other leading communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) diseases. Globally between 2010 and 2021, the age-standardised DALY rates for HIV/AIDS decreased by 47·8% (43·3–51·7) and for diarrhoeal diseases decreased by 47·0% (39·9–52·9). Non-communicable diseases contributed 1·73 billion (95% UI 1·54–1·94) DALYs in 2021, with a decrease in age-standardised DALY rates since 2010 of 6·4% (95% UI 3·5–9·5). Between 2010 and 2021, among the 25 leading Level 3 causes, age-standardised DALY rates increased most substantially for anxiety disorders (16·7% [14·0–19·8]), depressive disorders (16·4% [11·9–21·3]), and diabetes (14·0% [10·0–17·4]). Age-standardised DALY rates due to injuries decreased globally by 24·0% (20·7–27·2) between 2010 and 2021, although improvements were not uniform across locations, ages, and sexes. Globally, HALE at birth improved slightly, from 61·3 years (58·6–63·6) in 2010 to 62·2 years (59·4–64·7) in 2021. However, despite this overall increase, HALE decreased by 2·2% (1·6–2·9) between 2019 and 2021. Interpretation: Putting the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of causes of health loss is crucial to understanding its impact and ensuring that health funding and policy address needs at both local and global levels through cost-effective and evidence-based interventions. A global epidemiological transition remains underway. Our findings suggest that prioritising non-communicable disease prevention and treatment policies, as well as strengthening health systems, continues to be crucially important. The progress on reducing the burden of CMNN diseases must not stall; although global trends are improving, the burden of CMNN diseases remains unacceptably high. Evidence-based interventions will help save the lives of young children and mothers and improve the overall health and economic conditions of societies across the world. Governments and multilateral organisations should prioritise pandemic preparedness planning alongside efforts to reduce the burden of diseases and injuries that will strain resources in the coming decades. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The bond-graph design of a motor used for electrical traction

In this paper the asynchronous motorwith cage, used for electrical traction is studied andanalyzed. For this motor we realized the associatedbond-graph, we pointed out the equations thatdescribe this motor, and we analyzed the electricaland mechanical features of this motor, by using thesimulation program 20 SIM, in order to improve theperformances of this motor even from the early stageof design

Networks of neurons. Selecting topology and applications for the diagnosis of a DC machine

Obtaining a model is a key step for thedecision. All Models residue behaviour in responseto flaws that I have used so far have been establishedthrough a cognitive approach: thus, the useddecision tables resulting either from a knowledgeexpert, (taking into account the signs, deduction ofsequences in simulation), or the study generatorresidue (sensitivity study, qualitative deductionsequences from a transfer). If the use of expertknowledge can be extremely useful, it is not alwaysavailable or effective, and systematic study ofproperties of a generator of waste is often based onrestrictive assumptions. The model of a (dynamic)system may certainly result from a priori knowledge(knowledge model) and of a procedure foridentifying and learning (model behaviour). Ourobjective is thus to build, through learning, adynamic model for the decision