ECG scoring for the evaluation of therapy-naïve cancer patients to predict cardiotoxicity

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a new electrocardiographic (ECG) score reflecting domains of electrical and structural alterations in therapy-naïve cancer patients to assess their risk of cardiotoxicity. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 134 therapy-naïve consecutive cancer patients in our two university hospitals concerning four ECG score parameters: Contiguous Q-waves, markers of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, QRS duration and JTc prolongation. Cardiotoxicity was assessed after a short-term follow-up (up to 12 months). RESULTS: Of all the patients (n = 25), 19% reached 0 points, 50% (n = 67) reached 1 point, 25% (n = 33) reached 2 points, 5% (n = 7) reached 3 points and 0.7% reached 4 or 5 points (n = 1 respectively). The incidence of cardiotoxicity (n = 28 [21%]) increased with the ECG score, with 0 points at 0%, 1 point 7.5%, 2 points 55%, 3 points 71% and ≥3 points 50%. In the ROC (Receiver operating curves) analysis, the best cut-off for predicting cardiotoxicity was an ECG score of ≥2 points (sensitivity 82%, specificity 82%, AUC 0.84, 95% CI 0.77-0.92, p < 0.0001) which was then defined as a high-risk score. High-risk patients did not differ concerning their age, LV ejection fraction, classical cardiovascular risk factors or cardiac biomarkers compared to those with a low-risk ECG score. CONCLUSION: ECG scoring prior to the start of anti-cancer therapies may help to identify therapy-naïve cancer patients at a higher risk for the development of cardiotoxicity. SIMPLE SUMMARY: Due to improved survival upon effective anti-cancer therapies, the management of treatment-related side-effects is of increasing interest and importance. Cardiovascular side-effects of chemo-, targeted- and/or immunotherapies are common and can be harmful. To date, the identification of patients who could experience those cardiovascular side-effects prior to the anti-cancer therapy start is difficult. We show that the use of a simple electrocardiographic (ECG) score can help to predict the occurrence of cardiovascular toxicity of anti-cancer therapies

Costs and Benefits of Labour Mobility between the EU and the Eastern Partnership Partner Countries - Country Report: Moldova

This Report is one of six studies in the first phase of the EU project on "Costs and Benefits of Labour Mobility between the EU and the Eastern Partnership Partner Countries". It aims to provide an informed view on the potential for increased migration flows and their consequences as a result of possible changes in the migration policies of the European Union with regard to Moldova. Since Moldova's Declaration of Independence in 1990, migration has transformed the country in ways that were impossible to predict. With over a quarter of its labour force now working abroad (a full ten percent of its population), Moldova has become the epitome of a migration-dependent country, with all the costs and benefits associated with this definition. Remittances are as high as one-third of national income, and have helped the country raise its living standards and fuel investment in housing and small businesses. Yet there have also been costs to the large migratory flows, ranging from effects on the macroeconomy to the disruption of social life. All in all, migration has been good for Moldova. This complex socio-economic phenomenon now appears to have stabilized. Further gains for Moldova and its partner countries could be achieved when new agreements are implemented and the institutions dealing with the planning of migration and protection of migrants are strengthened

Assessment of coronary artery disease during hospitalization for cancer treatment

BACKGROUND: With improvement of cancer-specific survival, comorbidities and treatment-related side effects, particularly cardiovascular toxicities, need close attention. The aim of the present study was to evaluate clinical characteristics and outcomes of cancer patients requiring coronary angiography during inpatient care. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients hospitalized between 02/2011 and 02/2018 in our two university hospital cancer centers. From a cohort of 60,676 cancer patients, we identified 153 patients (65.7 ± 11.6 years, 73.2% male), who underwent coronary angiography and were eligible for analysis. These were compared to a control group of 153 non-cancer patients pair-matched with respect to age, sex, and indication for catheterization. RESULTS: Cancer patients presented in 66% with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The most prevalent cancer entities were lymphoma (19%) and lung cancer (18.3%). The rate of primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) was significantly lower in the cancer cohort (40.5% vs. 53.6%, p = 0.029), although manifestation of coronary artery disease (CAD) and PCI results were comparable (SYNergy between PCI with TAXus and cardiac surgery (SYNTAX)-score, delta pre- and post-PCI - 9.8 vs. - 8.0, p = 0.2). Mortality was remarkably high in cancer patients (1-year mortality 46% vs. 8% in non-cancer patients, p < 0.001), particularly with troponin-positive ACS (5-year mortality 71%). CONCLUSION: Strategies to effectively control cardiovascular risks in cancer patients are needed. Additionally, suspected CAD in cancer patients should not prevent prompt diagnostic clarification and optimal revascularization as PCI results in cancer patients are comparable to non-cancer patients and occurrence of troponin-positive ACS leads to a significantly increased risk of mortality

Mobilising Knowledge through Global Partnerships to Support Research-informed Teaching: Five Models for Translational Research

Education Futures Collaboration Charity The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Improving the quality of teaching is of global concern: UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4c in the Education 2030: Framework for Action calls for high quality teaching for all. The OECD challenges the education system to improve Knowledge Management. JET’s (2015) special issue: Translational Research (TR) and Knowledge Mobilisation in Teacher Education introduced the concept of ‘translational’ or ‘theory to practice’ research - well-established in medicine but not in education. Five TR models were subsequently developed by the MESH charity’s international network with organisations in South Africa, Bangladesh, Australia, Pakistan, UK. These distinct models engage 1) university staff and teachers 2) subject associations, 3) research units, 4) an international NGO working in crisis settings, 5) PhD tutors and students. Each model shares common features forming the MESH Translational Research methodology introduced in this article. A TR repository is part of the MESH knowledge mobilisation strategy giving teachers access to research summaries which, overtime, accumulate knowledge. TR publications called MESHGuides (www.meshguides.org) complement existing forms of publication. This article proposes the MESH TR methodology as one affordable and scalable solution to OECD and UNESCO’s challenges of keeping teachers up-to-date and making new knowledge accessible to teachers regardless of location

Overview of cattle diseases listed under category C, D or E in the animal health law for wich control programmes are in place within Europe

13 páginas, 5 figuras, 3 tablas.The COST action “Standardising output-based surveillance to control non-regulated diseases of cattle in the European Union (SOUND control),” aims to harmonise the results of surveillance and control programmes (CPs) for non-EU regulated cattle diseases to facilitate safe trade and improve overall control of cattle infectious diseases. In this paper we aimed to provide an overview on the diversity of control for these diseases in Europe. A non-EU regulated cattle disease was defined as an infectious disease of cattle with no or limited control at EU level, which is not included in the European Union Animal health law Categories A or B under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2002. A CP was defined as surveillance and/or intervention strategies designed to lower the incidence, prevalence, mortality or prove freedom from a specific disease in a region or country. Passive surveillance, and active surveillance of breeding bulls under Council Directive 88/407/EEC were not considered as CPs. A questionnaire was designed to obtain country-specific information about CPs for each disease. Animal health experts from 33 European countries completed the questionnaire. Overall, there are 23 diseases for which a CP exists in one or more of the countries studied. The diseases for which CPs exist in the highest number of countries are enzootic bovine leukosis, bluetongue, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine viral diarrhoea and anthrax (CPs reported by between 16 and 31 countries). Every participating country has on average, 6 CPs (min–max: 1–13) in place. Most programmes are implemented at a national level (86%) and are applied to both dairy and non-dairy cattle (75%). Approximately one-third of the CPs are voluntary, and the funding structure is divided between government and private resources. Countries that have eradicated diseases like enzootic bovine leukosis, bluetongue, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and bovine viral diarrhoea have implemented CPs for other diseases to further improve the health status of cattle in their country. The control of non-EU regulated cattle diseases is very heterogenous in Europe. Therefore, the standardising of the outputs of these programmes to enable comparison represents a challenge.Peer reviewe

Role of Operational Radioprotection Simulation in the Dismantling of the Protection and Control Rods of VVR-S Reactor

The VVR-S nuclear research reactor owned by Horia Hubulei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, has functioned between 1957 and 1997 at a nominal thermal power of 2 MW, using less-enriched nuclear fuel (10%), type EK-10, and highly enriched fuel (36%), type S-36. The reactor control was carried out by means of nine rods placed in the central part of the core. Four rods were used for the manual control of power, one for automatic control, three rods for reactor safety (emergency rods) and one for the fine control of power. One of the high hazard operations was the dismantling of the activated-contaminated control rods. Because of a higher radiological risk, simulation was performed to determine the expected maximum dose. The maximum gamma dose rate obtained using simulated results was 3.5 Sv/h, for the highly activated rod. In the real measurement, when the work was performed, the maximum gamma dose rate was 3 Sv/h. ⁹⁰Sr+⁹⁰Y are expected to be present in the control rods radioactivity

Power system stability studies including real hardware using phasor power hardware-in-the-loop technology

Stability is a main topic in the field of power systems. Due to the change of the conventional power generation plants to a more flexible distributed solution by adding renewable energy resources, power system stability will be getting more complex in future scenarios. Many studies and researches are currently under investigation to ensure a safe future power system. Badly is the state-of-the-art that power systems studies and component testing are mostly separated. Technologies like power hardware-in-the-loop showed a good solution over the last decade to close this gap. However, normal power system studies will be made by the use of phasor simulations. To increase the functionality of hardware-in-the-loop systems and closing the gap between simulation studies and component testing, this paper presents an explanation to combine phasor simulations and hardware-under-test testing

Power System-in-the-Loop testing concept for holistic system investigations

New testing and development procedures are needed to address topics like power system stability and control in the context of grid integration of rapidly developing new smart grid technologies. The main focus of this paper is to analyze the impact of the grid integration of smart grid equipment from the component perspective and from the system perspective, respectively and to propose appropriate testing methods. In order to cope with the challenges introduced by the integration of the afore-mentioned technologies, a holistic testing infrastructure needs to be considered and set up. For this purpose, the holistic multi-domain design concept is proposed to fulfill the needs of new smart grid technologies testing and development phases. The holistic Power System-in-the-Loop testing setup proposed by this paper has the advantage of a testing environment, which is very close to field testing, includes the grid dynamic behavior feedback and is risks-free for the power system, for the equipment under test and for the personnel executing the tests

Sparse Green’s Functions Estimation Using Orthogonal Matching Pursuit: Application to Aeroacoustic Beamforming

International audienceThe paper presents a new methodology for the numerical estimation of the Green's functions in complex external aeroacoustic configurations. Computational aeroacoustics is used to propagate multi-frequency signals from focus points to microphones. The method takes advantage of the sparsity of the Green's functions in the time-domain to minimize the simulation time. It leads to a complex sparse linear regression problem. To solve it, the Orthogonal Matching Pursuit algorithm is adapted. The method is first applied on the case of the diffraction by a rigid sphere. Results are studied both in terms of Green's function estimation and aeroacoustic beamforming. They show that the Green's functions are obtained with a good accuracy and enable to localize acoustic sources placed behind the diffracting object. The methodology is then applied on a NACA0012 2D wing in a potential flow for which the Green's function is not known analytically. The use of the reverse-flow reciprocity principle enables to reduce the complexity of the estimation problem when there are more scan points than microphones. It is shown that it is possible to take advantage of the presence of diffracting objects to improve the capability of detection of a sensor array

Analysis of the radon concentrations in natural mineral and tap water using Lucas cells technique

The aims of this study were to determine the radon concentration in natural mineral and tap water and to estimate the resulting ingestion doses received by adults. Physical-chemical characteristics of water samples have also been investigated. In the last years have been an increase of water consumption of both, natural mineral and tap, many sources and producers being available on the market. Thus, the physical-chemical and radiologic parameters of water must be in compliance with the Drinking Water Directive (DWD). Thus, the study presents an assessment of the radioactivity due to 222Rn and 3H in several mineral natural water samples from the north region of Romania, but also in several tap water samples. The methods used were based on gamma spectrometry, gross alpha-beta measurements and beta spectroscopy, but also ICP-MS for chemical parameters. The results of this work showed that the geology and rock types clearly influence the water radon concentration. The radon concentration is lower in the water that passes through sedimentary rocks than that passing through granitic rocks. An important aspect of this work is to provide reliable information regarding radon and tritium concentrations. Radon concentration varied between 0.15±0.05 Bq/L and 11.35±2.97 Bq/L in the natural mineral water samples and between 0.17±0.05 Bq/L and 8.51±2.34 Bq/L in the tap water samples. An estimation of annual effective radiation dose based on the sample results was also made. Calculated values for ingestion dose due to regular consumption of water does not induce a health risk because of the intake of various radionuclides contained in the water. The maximum values being of 47.38 µSv/y. The determined values for the collected samples are below recommended reference levels, but more important aspect is that this study emphasise environmental sustainability in the investigated area