Traffic noise in urban and regional roads and impact on the administrative facility P+30 in Prishtina

Many current problems are related to noise, which in many cases may be undesirable factorfor the daily activities and work conditions. This is especially evident in urban areas, where isa rapid growth of traffic including the number of vehicles, especially in peak time.Orientations and knowledge bases for the noise will take an important place in this paper,with the right understanding of this phenomenon.Till now in our country that is not taken into account in road and urban analyses. In this paperwe will orient the potential impact of noise in the administrative building in Pristina with P+30 floors, which is very close to the roundabout as a major source of noise. Such an outputdata, based on present measurements of the number of vehicles, made in a different specifiedperiod of time according to standards, and those elements will be interlinked with othergeometric and material parameters. All the analyses will show a result of the intensity of thenoise in dB. To analyze these parameters, intensity of the noise will be taken as the workloadof analyzed building. Also the result of unwanted intensity will be the factor for the designeddimensions and the calculation of the sound barriers in the roundabout, taking into accountthe incorporation in the environment and the urban planning of that part.The result will be presented as a 3D animation for this urban part and the impact of noise asan important factor, since we are dealing with a large concentration of administration in thisbuilding

Disparities in rheumatoid arthritis disease activity according to gross domestic product in 25 countries in the QUEST–RA database

OBJECTIVE: To analyse associations between the clinical status of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the gross domestic product (GDP) of their resident country. METHODS: The Quantitative Standard Monitoring of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (QUEST-RA) cohort includes clinical and questionnaire data from 6004 patients who were seen in usual care at 70 rheumatology clinics in 25 countries as of April 2008, including 18 European countries. Demographic variables, clinical characteristics, RA disease activity measures, including the disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28), and treatment-related variables were analysed according to GDP per capita, including 14 "high GDP" countries with GDP per capita greater than US$24,000 and 11 "low GDP" countries with GDP per capita less than US$11,000. RESULTS: Disease activity DAS28 ranged between 3.1 and 6.0 among the 25 countries and was significantly associated with GDP (r = -0.78, 95% CI -0.56 to -0.90, r(2) = 61%). Disease activity levels differed substantially between "high GDP" and "low GDP" countries at much greater levels than according to whether patients were currently taking or not taking methotrexate, prednisone and/or biological agents. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical status of patients with RA was correlated significantly with GDP among 25 mostly European countries according to all disease measures, associated only modestly with the current use of antirheumatic medications. The burden of arthritis appears substantially greater in "low GDP" than in "high GDP" countries. These findings may alert healthcare professionals and designers of health policy towards improving the clinical status of patients with RA in all countries

Fabrication of Ceramic Monoliths from Diatomaceous Earth: Effects of Calcination Temperature on Silica Phase Transformation

The raw diatomaceous earth from the vicinity of Bitola (North Macedonia) showed low bulk density (0.61–0.69 g/cm3), high-water absorption (75–81%) and porosity (66–72%). The chemical composition was determined with ICP-MS, revealing the following results for the diatomaceous earth: SiO2 (63.69 wt%), Al2O3 (11.79 wt%), Fe2O3 (5.95 wt%), MnO (0.15 wt%), TiO2 (0.65 wt%), CaO (1.51 wt%), MgO (2.24 wt%), P2O5 (0.13 wt%), K2O (1.64 wt%), Na2O (0.93 wt%), LOI (11.21 wt%). XRPD data of the examined sample of clayey diatomite mainly depicted crystalline behavior with a small presence of amorphous phase. The crystalline mineral phases mainly comprise: silica (quartz), feldspars (plagioclase), mica (muscovite), chlorites and dolomite. SEM and TEM results show cased presence of micro- and nanostructures with pores ranging from 250 to 600 nm. The clayey diatomite was sintered at three temperatures (900, 1000 and 1100ºC) for a period of 1 h. XRPD of the sintered samples at 1100ºC showed certain thermal stability and formation of new phases (mullite and tridymite) that makes the analyzed diatomaceous earth suitable for production of various types of ceramic, construction and thermal insulating materials

Poststaphylococcal coagulase negative reactive arthritis: a case report

We report a case of a 49-year-old patient who developed poststaphylococcal coagulase negative reactive arthritis. The woman presented with constitutional symptoms, arthritis, urinary infection and conjunctivitis. The blood culture was positive for the staphylococcal coagulase negative infection. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein were elevated, whereas the rheumatoid factor was negative. Radiographic findings confirmed diagnosis of pleuropneumonia, and one year later of chronic asymmetric sacroileitis. Physicians should be aware of possible reactive arthritis after staphylococcal coagulase negative bacteremia