Alternative to the Conventional Heating and Cooling Systems in Public Buildings

The paper presents an alternative system for heating and cooling in public buildings. The system was designed for the retrofitted building of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) where it was also extensively tested. The installed system includes radiant wall mounted panels for heating and cooling, localized automated tangential fans for cooling and ventilation and a centralized building management system for the regulation and supervision of the performance. The efficiency of the system was thoroughly investigated through a series of experiments conducted prior to the renovation of the building as well as after the museum was put into service. The application of the described system resulted in substantial reduction of energy consumption, better internal thermal conditions and lower investment costs for the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system of the entire building. (C)2010 Journal of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved

Massive Analogue of Ashtekar-CJD Action

The action of Ashtekar gravity have been found by Cappovilla, Jacobson and Dell. It does not depend on the metric nor the signature of the space-time. The action has a similar structure as that of a massless relativistic particle. The former is naturally generalized by adding a term analogous to a mass term of the relativistic particle. The new action possesses a constant parameter regarded as a kind of a cosmological constant. It is interesting to find a covariant Einstein equation from the action. In order to do it we will examine how the geometrical quantities are determined from the non-metric action and how the Einstein equation follows from it.Comment: 6p. Te

Peningkatan Kemampuan Komunikasi Matematis Siswa Melalui Model Guided Inquiry

This research aimed to know the effectiveness of theimplementationof guided inquiry model in increasing students mathematical communications skill. The population of this research was all students of grade eight of SMPN 3 Natar South Lampung in academic year of 2016/ 2017. The sample of this research was students of VIIIJ class that was determined by purposive sampling. The design of this research was one group pretest-posttest design. Based on the result of this research, it was concluded that the implementation of guided inquirymodel was effective in increasing students mathematical communications skill.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efektivitas penerapan model guided inquirydalam meningkatkankemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa. Populasi penelitian ini adalah seluruh siswa kelas VIII SMPN 3 Natar Lampung Selatantahun pelajaran 2016/2017.Sampel penelitian adalah siswa kelas VIIIJyang dipilih dengan teknik purposive sampling. Desain penelitian ini adalah one grouppretest-posttest design.Berdasarkan hasil penelitian ini diperoleh kesimpulan bahwa penerapanmodel guided inquiryefektif dalam meningkatkankemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa.Kata kunci: Guided Inquiry, Komunikasi Matematis, Model Pembelajara

Koga, kdaj in kako napotiti k revmatologu

V Sloveniji kljub pomanjkanju revmatologov in s tem daljšimi čakalnimi dobami revmatološkim bolnikom zagotavljamo sodobno obravnavo, ki je primerljiva z delom v najbolj priznanih svetovnih ustanovah. Da visoko raven obravnave tudi vprihodnosti ohranimo, je bistvenega pomena, da so poslane napotnice primerno izpolnjene in opremljene z vsemi podatki, ki jih potrebujemo za ustrezno razvrščanje v čakalno knjigo glede na resnost in vrsto bolezni (triažiranje). V prispevku podajamo osnovna navodila glede napotitev v revmatološko ambulanto s strokovno ustreznimi stopnjami nujnosti

Genetic differences in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and CYP1A2 affect sensitivity to developmental polychlorinated biphenyl exposure in mice: relevance to studies of human neurological disorders

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants that remain a human health concern with newly discovered sources of contamination and ongoing bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Children exposed during early brain development are at highest risk of neurological deficits, but highly exposed adults reportedly have an increased risk of Parkinson\u27s disease. Our previous studies found allelic differences in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) affect sensitivity to developmental PCB exposure, resulting in cognitive deficits and motor dysfunction. High-affinity Ahr b Cyp1a2(-/-) mice were most sensitive compared with poor-affinity Ahr d Cyp1a2(-/-) and wild-type Ahr b Cyp1a2(+/+) mice. Our follow-up studies assessed biochemical, histological, and gene expression changes to identify the brain regions and pathways affected. We also measured PCB and metabolite levels in tissues to determine if genotype altered toxicokinetics. We found evidence of AHR-mediated toxicity with reduced thymus and spleen weights and significantly reduced thyroxine at P14 in PCB-exposed pups. In the brain, the greatest changes were seen in the cerebellum where a foliation defect was over-represented in Cyp1a2(-/-) mice. In contrast, we found no difference in tyrosine hydroxylase immunostaining in the striatum. Gene expression patterns varied across the three genotypes, but there was clear evidence of AHR activation. Distribution of parent PCB congeners also varied by genotype with strikingly high levels of PCB 77 in poor-affinity Ahr d Cyp1a2(-/-) while Ahr b Cyp1a2(+/+) mice effectively sequestered coplanar PCBs in the liver. Together, our data suggest that the AHR pathway plays a role in developmental PCB neurotoxicity, but we found little evidence that developmental exposure is a risk factor for Parkinson\u27s disease

Mnenje posvetovalnega sestanka revmatologov in pulmologov glede obravnave bolnika s prizadetostjo pljučnega intersticija v sklopu vnetnih revmatičnih bolezni

Vnetne revmatične bolezni so heterogena skupina bolezni, ki lahko prizadenejo tudi pljučni intersticij. Tako kot je pogostnost intersticijske pljučne bolezni (IPB) v okviru vnetnih revmatičnih bolezni variabilna, je tudi klinična slika zelo raznolika: od omejene nenapredujoče prizadetosti pljučnega intersticija do fulminantno potekajoče življenje ogrožajoče bolezni. Podatki za diagnosticiranje in zdravljenje IPB v sklopu vnetnih revmatičnih bolezni so razmeroma skopi. Temeljno zdravljenje praviloma predstavljajo imunomodulacijska zdravila. Nedavno so se jim pri progresivni pljučni fibrozi pridružili še protifibrotiki. Odločitev pri kom, kdaj in kako intenzivno zdraviti IPB pogosto predstavlja izziv. V prispevku podajamo sklepe multidisciplinarnega posvetovalnega sestanka slovenskih revmatologov in pulmologov, ki po mnenju avtorjev glede na dostopne podatke pomenijo dobro prakso pri obravnavi tovrstnih bolnikov. Osredinjamo se na bolnike s sistemskimi vezivnotkivnimi boleznimi in revmatoidnim artritisom

Are They Interchangeable?

Funding Information: On behalf of the EuroSpA Scientific Committee, the authors acknowledge Novartis Pharma AG and IQVIA for supporting the EuroSpA Research Collaboration Network. Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Journal of Rheumatology.Objective. Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score based on C-reactive protein (ASDAS-CRP) is recommended over ASDAS based on erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ASDAS-ESR) to assess disease activity in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). Although ASDAS-CRP and ASDAS-ESR are not interchangeable, the same disease activity cut-offs are used for both. We aimed to estimate optimal ASDAS-ESR values corresponding to the established ASDAS-CRP cut-offs (1.3, 2.1, and 3.5) and investigate the potential improvement of level of agreement between ASDAS-ESR and ASDAS-CRP disease activity states when applying these estimated cut-offs. Methods. We used data from patients with axSpA from 9 European registries initiating a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor. ASDAS-ESR cut-offs were estimated using the Youden index. The level of agreement between ASDAS-ESR and ASDAS-CRP disease activity states was compared against each other. Results. In 3664 patients, mean ASDAS-CRP was higher than ASDAS-ESR at both baseline (3.6 and 3.4, respectively) and aggregated follow-up at 6, 12, or 24 months (1.9 and 1.8, respectively). The estimated ASDAS-ESR values corresponding to the established ASDAS-CRP cut-offs were 1.4, 1.9, and 3.3. By applying these cut-offs, the proportion of discordance between disease activity states according to ASDAS-ESR and ASDAS-CRP decreased from 22.93% to 19.81% in baseline data but increased from 27.17% to 28.94% in follow-up data. Conclusion. We estimated the optimal ASDAS-ESR values corresponding to the established ASDAS-CRP cut-off values. However, applying the estimated cut-offs did not increase the level of agreement between ASDAS-ESR and ASDAS-CRP disease activity states to a relevant degree. Our findings did not provide evidence to reject the established cut-off values for ASDAS-ESR.publishersversionpublishe

Clinical Characteristics, Echocardiographic Feature, and Predictor of Embolic Events in Infective Endocarditis

Background. There are many risk factors that are associated with embolic events in patients with Infective Endocarditis (IE) ranging from infecting organism, valve location, vegetation morphology, to age. Nevertheless, echocardiography role in predicting embolic events in patients with Infective Endocarditis remains controversial. Some studies reported an increased risk of embolism in patients with large and mobile vegetations, whereas other studies failed to demonstrate such a relationship. Objectives. The aim of this study is to assess the risk factors that are associated with embolic events and to evaluate the role of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in predicting embolic events (EEs) in a small group of patients with definite endocarditis according to the Duke criteria. Methods. Subjects more than 17 years of age, who were enrolled in National Cardiac Center Harapan Kita Infective Endocarditis Registry and who had complete TTE recording were selected for this study. Fourteenpatients with definite Infective Endocarditis according to the Duke Criteria who were hospitalised within 2010 2011 were examined with M-mode and two-dimension echocardiogram. The incidence of embolism was compared with the clinical and echocardiographic characteristics (localization and mobility) of the vegetations. Results. Among 14 patients, 5 (35,7%) had one or more EEs. There were no difference between patients with and without embolism in terms of infecting organism, gender and vegetation mobility. Five out of 9 patients (55%) with mitral valve involvement vegetation had EE. No patients with only aortic and tricuspid valve vegetations had EEs. And all of the patents with EE had mitral valve involvement. Thus, there was a significant higher incidence of embolism was present in patients with mitral valve involvement of vegetation (100%, p = 0,038). Conclusion. Our study shows that the involvement of mitral valve on TTE is predictive of embolism