Tumors of Parotid Gland in Albania, 10 Year Study Results

Objective: To evaluate surgical variations and treatment results of parotids gland masses that require parotidectomy. Methodology: The study group includes patients diagnosed in ENT service of UHC Tirana with tumors of the parotid gland and undergone parotidectomy. We recorded all patient personal data, histology (benign or malignant) of the disease, FNAC reports, type of surgical procedure, complications, and histology of the excised masses. All data was elaborated by statistical analysis with SPSS version 15.0. Results: Of 96 patients treated between years 2005-2014, 47 (49%) were males and 49 (51%) were female, with e median age of 42=/-12.6 years old. All patients presented with and indolent mass around the ear. 90.47% (87) of the patients had a benign tumor, and 9.52% (9) had a malignant tumor. Superficial parotidectomy was performed in 79.36% (n=76) of the patient, total parotidectomy was performed in 19% (n=18) of the cases, and total extended parotidectomy was performed in 2 cases with mucoepidermoid carcinoma. The most frequent post-operative complication was auricular major nerve palsy (n=14; 15%), followed by transitory palsy of the facial nerve (n=8; 9%). Conclusions: Parotid gland masses effect people of both genders. Most of the patients have benign disease and mostly pleomorphic adenoma. The surgical procedure performed more frequently is superficial parotidectomy.Keywords: Parotid gland, superficial parotidectomy, pleomorphic adenoma, facial nerve palsy, mucoepidermoid carcinoma

On Secondary Atomization and blockage of surrogate cough droplets in single and multi-layer face masks

By now it is well-understood that the usage of facemasks provides protection from transmission of viral loads through exhalation and inhalation of respiratory droplets. Therefore, during the current Covid-19 pandemic the usage of face masks is strongly recommended by health officials. Although three-layer masks are generally advised for usage, many commonly available or homemade masks contain only single and double layers. In this study, we show through detailed physics based analyses and high speed imaging that high momentum cough droplets on impingement on single- and double-layer masks can lead to significant partial penetration and more importantly atomization into numerous much smaller daughter droplets, thereby increasing the total population of the aerosol, which can remain suspended for a longer time. The possibility of secondary atomization of high momentum cough droplets due to impingement, hydrodynamic focusing and extrusion through the microscale pores in the fibrous network of the mask has not been explored before. However, this unique mode of aerosol generation poses a finite risk of infection as shown in this work. We also demonstrate that in single layer masks close to 70 % of a given droplet volume is atomized and only 30 % is trapped within the fibers. The entrapped volume is close to 90 % for double layer masks which still allows some atomization into smaller droplets. We however found that a triple-layer surgical mask permits negligible penetration and hence should be effective in preventing disease transmission.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Compaction of aluminium foil and its effect on oxidation and recycling yield

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Light Metals 2021, Part of the The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series book series (MMMS). The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65396-5_96One of the problems when recycling aluminium is its oxidation and consequent metal loss. This is especially critical for the thin sheet/foil materials used for food packaging applications. Compacting the scrap into briquettes may partly reduce such losses in addition to facilitate transport and storage. Shredded aluminium materials of different thicknesses (15-300 microns) were compacted into cylindrical briquettes of 4 cm diameter, each weighting 20 g by uniaxial pressure or moderate-pressuretorsion. A sub-set of briquettes and chips was subsequently oxidized at 650 C, while a sub-set was left untreated. Finally, all samples were re-melted under molten protective salt-flux. Compacting reduced the specific oxidation during the heat-treatment and promoted the coalescence and yield for the heat-treated materials. Both effects were most significant for the thinnest foil in the study (15 microns). The material thickness influenced the porosity and surface roughness of the resultant briquette, as well as the pressure required to reach a given bulk density.acceptedVersio

Depth profiling at a steel-aluminum interface using slow-flow direct current glow discharge mass spectrometry

Direct current glow discharge mass spectrometry (dc-GDMS), which relies on sector field mass analyzers, is not commonly used for depth profiling applications because of its slow data acquisition. Nevertheless, dc-GDMS has good reproducibility and low limits of detection, which are analytical features that are encouraging for investigating the potential of dc-GDMS for depth profiling applications. In this work, the diffusion of traces of chromium and nickel was profiled at the interface of a steel-aluminum bilayer using a new sensitive dc-GDMS instrument. The depth profile of the non-treated sample was compared with that of a heat-treated specimen at 400°C for 30 min. Scanning electron micrographs, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) were used to study the diffusion process. The results of the study show that both chromium and nickel are enriched at the steel-aluminum interface, with higher concentrations of both elements for the heat-treated specimen. Two peaks for both chromium and nickel were clearly present at the interface, with a high concentration of chromium in the aluminum layer. This observation is likely a consequence of elemental diffusion from the interface towards the aluminum layer. The presence of the third layer, steel beneath the aluminum layer, might also have contributed to this observation.acceptedVersio

The French version of the HSCL-25 has now been validated for use in primary care

Background The Hopkins Symptom Checklist in 25 items (HSCL-25) helps to assess anxiety and depression in Primary Care. Anxiety and depression show considerable overlap in primary care. This self-administrated questionnaire is valid, reliable and ergonomic in the original US version. We have translated it into French. The aim of this study was to estimate the test characteristics of the HSCL-25, in its French version (F-HSCL-25), by comparing it to the Present State Examination-9 French version (F-PSE-9) and by determining its internal validity and dimensions. Method Outpatients from three French General Practice settings (rural, semi-rural and urban) were recruited: approximately 20,000 outpatients among 17 GPs. Two groups were formed: F-HSCL-25 ≥1.75 and F-HSCL-25 1.75 was considered to indicate a clinically relevant level of symptoms of depression and anxiety. In order to obtain two balanced groups, a different method of randomization was chosen for each group. The F-PSE-9 was randomly administered to 1 in 2 patients in the F-HSCL-25 ≥1.75 group, and to 1 in 16 in the (much larger) F-HSCL-25 <1.75 group. The diagnostic performance was assessed and the test results obtained from both groups were compared with their F-PSE-9 results. Results Of the 1126 patients who completed the F-HCL-25, 886 joined the F-HSCL-25 <1.75 group and 240 the F-HSCL-25 ≥1.75 group. The overall prevalence of depression, using the F-HSCL-25, was 21% in these medical practices. The diagnostic performance of the F-HSCL-25 versus the F-PSE-9, the external criteria were as follows: Positive Predictive Value (PPV) 69.8%, Negative Predictive Value (NPV) 87%; Sensitivity 59.1%, and Specificity 91.4%. The Principal Component Analysis showed that F-HSCL-25 is a one-dimensional tool (anxiety and depression dimensions combined) with a Cronbach Alpha of 0.93. Conclusion The F-HSCL-25 is an appropriate diagnostic tool for anxiety and depression in primary care in France due to its high specificity and high NPV. The HSCL-25 scale has a high eigenvalue. This pilot study will be extended throughout Europe; however, preliminary evidence suggests that the HSCL-25 is a reliable and suitable diagnostic tool for primary care

Discovery of protein–DNA interactions by penalized multivariate regression

Discovering which regulatory proteins, especially transcription factors (TFs), are active under certain experimental conditions and identifying the corresponding binding motifs is essential for understanding the regulatory circuits that control cellular programs. The experimental methods used for this purpose are laborious. Computational methods have been proven extremely effective in identifying TF-binding motifs (TFBMs). In this article, we propose a novel computational method called MotifExpress for discovering active TFBMs. Unlike existing methods, which either use only DNA sequence information or integrate sequence information with a single-sample measurement of gene expression, MotifExpress integrates DNA sequence information with gene expression measured in multiple samples. By selecting TFBMs that are significantly associated with gene expression, we can identify active TFBMs under specific experimental conditions and thus provide clues for the construction of regulatory networks. Compared with existing methods, MotifExpress substantially reduces the number of spurious results. Statistically, MotifExpress uses a penalized multivariate regression approach with a composite absolute penalty, which is highly stable and can effectively find the globally optimal set of active motifs. We demonstrate the excellent performance of MotifExpress by applying it to synthetic data and real examples of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. MotifExpress is available at http://www.stat.illinois.edu/~pingma/MotifExpress.htm

Assigning roles to DNA regulatory motifs using comparative genomics

Motivation: Transcription factors (TFs) are crucial during the lifetime of the cell. Their functional roles are defined by the genes they regulate. Uncovering these roles not only sheds light on the TF at hand but puts it into the context of the complete regulatory network

Hydrides of Laves type Ti–Zr alloys with enhanced H storage capacity as advanced metal hydride battery anodes

The present work was focused on the studies of the effect of variation of stoichiometric composition of Ti–Zr based AB2±x Laves phase alloys by changing the ratio between A (Ti + Zr) and B (Mn + V + Fe + Ni) components belonging to both hypo-stoichiometric (AB1.90, AB1.95) and over-stoichiometric (AB2.08) alloys further to the stoichiometric AB2.0 composition to optimize their hydrogen storage behaviours and performances as the alloy anodes of nickel metal hydride batteries. AB2-xLa0.03 Laves type alloys (A = Ti0.15Zr0.85; B = Mn0.64–0.69V0.11–0.119Fe0.11–0.119Ni1.097–1.184; x = 0, 0.05 and 0.1) were arc melted and then homogenized by annealing. The studies involved probing of the phase-structural composition by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), together with studies of the microstructural state, hydrogen absorption–desorption and thermodynamic characteristics of gas–solid reactions and electrochemical charge-discharge performance, further to the impedance spectroscopy characterization. The alloys were probed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and XRD. These studies concluded that the alloys contained the main C15 FCC Laves type AB2 intermetallic co-existing with a secondary C14 hexagonal Laves phase and a small amount of LaNi intermetallic