Postpartum depression and thyroid dysfunction– should pregnant women be screened for thyroid disorders?

The relationship between thyroid dysfunction and postpartum depression has been investigated for quite some time now, but no consensus has been reached regarding the need for screening for thyroid function during pregnancy. This paper aims to investigate whether thyroid hormone screening in pregnancy might contribute to the diagnosis of postpartum depression. Depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) - one of the most widely used measures in detecting postpartum depression and anxiety. Thyroid function was measured using the commonly recommended thyroid laboratory tests. A structured questionnaire was given to 61 patients closely monitored during their pregnancy and at least one year after giving birth, including for thyroid and depression disorders. The questionnaire was completed anonymously online by the patients and had three sections: one containing the EPDS questions, one assessing thyroid function, and a demographic section. The interdependency between thyroid and depression was analyzed in SPSS using the Pearson chi-square test of independence. The results show no statistically significant relationship between thyroid dysfunction and depression. In other words, women suffering from thyroid dysfunctions have no greater rate of depression compared to women without thyroid dysfunction. As a result, it screening for thyroid disorders during pregnancy may not provide relevant information for detecting postnatal depression

Organization of cell junctions in the peritoneal mesothelium

Intercellular junctions in the mesothelium of the visceral (mesentery and omentum), and parietal (diaphragm, pre-aortic, and iliac region) peritoneum were examined in rats and mice by using freeze-cleaved preparations. In addition to usual intercellular junctions (cell body junctions), special junctions are found between cell processes and the surface of the neighboring cell (cell process junctions). Cell body junctions are provided with tight junctions and communicating (gap) junctions. The former consist of one to two junctional strands which show a characteristic staggered arrangement, and focal discontinuities. In cell process junctions, the strands form loops or appear as short, free-ending elements; their polymorphism suggests considerable lability, probably in connection with their assembly and disassembly. The existence of free-ending strands indicates that such structures can be used as attachment devices without being concomitantly involved in the formation of occluding zonules. In both types of junctions, the strands can be resolved into bars, approximately 80- 100nm long, frequently provided with terminal enlargements and intercalated particles which occur singly or in small clusters. These particles are morphologically similar to those present in communicating (gap) junctions. The mesothelium is also provided with isolate composite macular junctions. Throughout the mesothelium, the cleavage plane follows the outer contour of junctional strands and particles, suggesting that strand-to-strand interactions in the apposed membranes are weaker than interactions between each strand and underlying cytoplasmic structures. In their general geometry and cleavage characteristics, the mesothelial junctions resemble the junctions found in the venular endothelium

Treatment to Render Implants Resistant to Diabetes

Disclosed is a medical device treated with a phenolic compound and a process for treating a device with the phenolic compound. For example, a collagen or elastin-based scaffold can be treated with pentagalloyl glucose (PGG). The treated scaffold can become resistant to glycoxidative stress associated with advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that are present in a hyperglycemic environments associated with diabetes mellitus. The treated scaffold can exhibit a reduced increase in stiffness as compared to an untreated scaffold. The treated scaffold can also exhibit reduced inflammation without negatively affecting the ability of the scaffold to remodel in vivo

Simulating Astro-H Observations of Sloshing Gas Motions in the Cores of Galaxy Clusters

Astro-H will be the first X-ray observatory to employ a high-resolution microcalorimeter, capable of measuring the shift and width of individual spectral lines to the precision necessary for estimating the velocity of the diffuse plasma in galaxy clusters. This new capability is expected to bring significant progress in understanding the dynamics, and therefore the physics, of the intracluster medium. However, because this plasma is optically thin, projection effects will be an important complicating factor in interpreting future Astro-H measurements. To study these effects in detail, we performed an analysis of the velocity field from simulations of a galaxy cluster experiencing gas sloshing, and generated synthetic X-ray spectra, convolved with model Astro-H Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) responses. We find that the sloshing motions produce velocity signatures that will be observable by Astro-H in nearby clusters: the shifting of the line centroid produced by the fast-moving cold gas underneath the front surface, and line broadening produced by the smooth variation of this motion along the line of sight. The line shapes arising from inviscid or strongly viscous simulations are very similar, indicating that placing constraints on the gas viscosity from these measurements will be difficult. Our spectroscopic analysis demonstrates that, for adequate exposures, Astro-H will be able to recover the first two moments of the velocity distribution of these motions accurately, and in some cases multiple velocity components may be discerned. The simulations also confirm the importance of accurate treatment of PSF scattering in the interpretation of Astro-H/SXS spectra of cluster plasmas.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journa

EVOLUTIONS OF REMITTANCE FLOW DURING THE ECONOMIC-FINANCIAL CRISIS

The global financial markets crisis that hit the world economy at the middle of 2008 affected the global economy as a whole, but had also a major impact over the workforce markets in the European countries and by default over the remittance volume achieved by emigrants. The migration phenomenon has seen a decrease process, however differently, according to various geographic areas. The present work intends to achieve a brief analysis of the migration phenomenon under the financial crisis impact in certain European Union countries during 2007-2010. The recession at European level also determined for 2009 a decrease of remittance flows. The work presents a brief evolution of the remittance flow in certain countries from Central and Eastern Europe.emigrants, immigrants, remittances, crisis

New strategies to improve the accuracy of predictions based on Monte Carlo and bootstrap simulations: An application to Bulgarian and Romanian inflation

The necessity of improving the forecasts accuracy grew in the context of ac- tual economic crisis, but few researchers were interested till now in finding out some empirical strategies to improve their predictions. In this article, for the inflation rate forecasts on the horizon 2010 - 2012, we proved that the one-step-ahead forecasts based on updated AR(2) models for Romania and ARMA(1,1) models for Bulgaria could be substantially improved by gener- ating new predictions using Monte Carlo method and bootstrap technique to simulate the models' coeficients. In this article we introduced a new methodology of constructing the forecasts, by using the limits of the bias- corrected-accelerated bootstrap intervals for the initial data series of the variable to predict. After evaluating the accuracy of the new forecasts, we found out that all the proposed strategies improved the initial AR(2) and ARMA(1,1) forecasts. These techniques also improved the predictions of experts in forecasting made for Romania and the forecasts of the European Commission made for Bulgaria. Our own method based on the lower limits of BCA intervals generated the best forecasts. In the forecasting process based on ARMA models the uncertainty analysis was introduced, by calculating, under the hypothesis of normal distribution, the probability that the predicted value exceeds a critical value. For 2013 in both countries we anticipate a decrease in the degree of uncertainty for annual inflation rate

RISKS IN IMPLEMENTING PROJECTS WITH EUROPEAN FINANCING

The risk represents a future probable event and its appearance could cause damages, could represent a danger or a possible incovenience. Therefore the risk is characterized by probability, exposure and vulnerability. In practice, most of the times exposure is included in consequences’ evaluation. Risks analysis represents the activity of objectively establish the risk, the probability and the consequences of its appearance. Obviously risks analysis will also produce the necessary signals for finding alternatives, for evaluating the probability that distortions may appear along the path and for defining the necessary elements in decision making process in the analyzed field. There is always a risk in public administration that is also assumed by the partners when supplying services with the explicit or tacit acceptance of the manager of that authority or public institutionrisk, european funds, public administration