Changing clinical activity in Paediatrics in Malta, 1996-2011

Aim: This study reviews the clinical workload in paediatrics in Malta over a 16-year period. Methods: National statistics for live birth rates were obtained from the Directorate of Health Information and Research. Data for paediatric (birth to 14 completed years) and neonatal admissions, day cases, outpatient visits, attendance at Paediatric Accident and Emergency and the Community-based Developmental Unit were obtained from the Annual Reports, Department of Paediatrics, for the period 1996-2011. Results: During the study period, live births fell by 11% from 4,349 in 1996 to 3,857 in 2005, and recovered to 4,283 in 2011. Whereas neonatal admissions to NPICU remained constant at around 340(±22) per annum, inpatient admissions to the general Paediatric wards decreased by 19% (from 3,151 to 2,550), and casualty reviews dropped by 35% (11,831 to 7,773). In contrast, day care reviews increased by 66% (1,347 to 3,928), the total outpatient workload increased by 70% (13,500 to 22,998), and cases reviewed in the Community-based Child Developmental Unit increased by 184% from 413 to 1174. Changes observed in the clinical activity in Gozo General Hospital were similar but less marked. Conclusion: Over a 16 year period, there has been a significant shift in the paediatric workload in Malta from an in-patient bias in 1996 to increased day care and outpatient reviews in 2011. This shift is largely the result of improved hospital and community day health care services, and can be increased further with augmented community care. Health resources and future paediatric health care programmes will need to take heed of these trends.peer-reviewe

Towards a Minimal Stabilizer ZX-calculus

The stabilizer ZX-calculus is a rigorous graphical language for reasoning about quantum mechanics. The language is sound and complete: one can transform a stabilizer ZX-diagram into another one using the graphical rewrite rules if and only if these two diagrams represent the same quantum evolution or quantum state. We previously showed that the stabilizer ZX-calculus can be simplified by reducing the number of rewrite rules, without losing the property of completeness [Backens, Perdrix & Wang, EPTCS 236:1--20, 2017]. Here, we show that most of the remaining rules of the language are indeed necessary. We do however leave as an open question the necessity of two rules. These include, surprisingly, the bialgebra rule, which is an axiomatisation of complementarity, the cornerstone of the ZX-calculus. Furthermore, we show that a weaker ambient category -- a braided autonomous category instead of the usual compact closed category -- is sufficient to recover the meta rule 'only connectivity matters', even without assuming any symmetries of the generators.Comment: 29 pages, minor updates for v

Beautiful and damned. Combined effect of content quality and social ties on user engagement

User participation in online communities is driven by the intertwinement of the social network structure with the crowd-generated content that flows along its links. These aspects are rarely explored jointly and at scale. By looking at how users generate and access pictures of varying beauty on Flickr, we investigate how the production of quality impacts the dynamics of online social systems. We develop a deep learning computer vision model to score images according to their aesthetic value and we validate its output through crowdsourcing. By applying it to over 15B Flickr photos, we study for the first time how image beauty is distributed over a large-scale social system. Beautiful images are evenly distributed in the network, although only a small core of people get social recognition for them. To study the impact of exposure to quality on user engagement, we set up matching experiments aimed at detecting causality from observational data. Exposure to beauty is double-edged: following people who produce high-quality content increases one's probability of uploading better photos; however, an excessive imbalance between the quality generated by a user and the user's neighbors leads to a decline in engagement. Our analysis has practical implications for improving link recommender systems.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, final version published in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (Volume: PP, Issue: 99

Hydrogels for Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine requires materials that are biodegradable, biocompatible, structurally and chemically stable, and that can mimic the properties of the native extracellular matrix (ECM). Hydrogels are hydrophilic three-dimensional networks that have long received attention in the field of regenerative medicine due to their unique properties. Hydrogels have a potential to be the future of regenerative medicine due to their desirable mechanical and chemical properties, ease of their synthesis, and their multiple applicability as drug delivery vehicles, scaffolds, and constructs for cell culture. In this chapter, we have described hydrogels in terms of their cross-linking and then discussed the most recent developments in the use of hydrogels for peripheral nerve regeneration, tooth regeneration, and 3D bioprinting

Recensement, conservation et valorisation du patrimoine professionnel de la Ville de Paris

Depuis 2015, la Ville de Paris a entrepris un travail d’inventaire de son patrimoine professionnel matériel et immatériel : après une analyse du contexte, la responsable de cette mission présente la démarche suivie et la méthodologie adoptée ainsi que les premières actions qui préconisent une approche par lieux croisée à une approche par métiers et témoignent d’un souci d’insuffler une culture patrimoniale à l’organisation municipale

Paul Tournon (1881 - 1964), un architecte catholique

Le chantier de l’église du Saint-Esprit, la « reine des Églises du cardinal », apporte un éclairage riche sur les conceptions de Paul Tournon dans ses choix stylistiques, constructifs et spirituels, tant la construction d’églises constitue une part centrale dans le corpus d’un architecte qui déclare avoir toujours été attiré par l’architecture sacrée. Après l’analyse d’une biographie qui révèle un homme influent et actif dans de nombreuses instances, l’étude de la construction de cet édifice s’attache à décrire une conception totalisante du décor de l’édifice, corollaire d’une pratique traditionnelle de la maîtrise d’œuvre. La place respective de la tradition et de la modernité dans l’architecture religieuse de Paul Tournon, est ensuite étudiée, et mise en regard avec l’œuvre de Perret. Natif de Marseille, entré à l’École des Beaux-Arts de Paris en 1902, il en sort avec le deuxième Grand Prix de Rome en 1911 et son diplôme d’architecte en 1912. Il crée son agence en 1914 et participe aux concours de plusieurs monuments aux morts après la guerre. Il participe à plusieurs expositions dans les années 1920-1930. Il se rend célèbre pour la réalisation d’une quinzaine d’édifices religieux en béton armé, dont l’église du Saint-Esprit à Paris, l’un des plus prestigieux des Chantiers du Cardinal. À cette occasion, il collabore avec de nombreux artistes qui participent au renouveau de l’art religieux. Il répond par ailleurs à une commande publique considérable au cours de sa carrière. Il est nommé architecte de la Banque de France en 1940 et architecte des bâtiments civils et palais nationaux pour plusieurs monuments. Professeur à l’École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts à partir de 1925, il en devient le directeur en 1942, ainsi que le directeur de l’École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. Il est élu président de la Société centrale des architectes de 1945 à 1948, membre de l’Académie des beaux-arts en 1942.The site of the Saint-Esprit church, know as ‘la reine des Églises du cardinal’, richly illustrates Paul Tournon’s stylistic, spiritual and architectural choices. Tournon said he was drawn to religious architecture, and churches are a central part of his reportoire. His biography reveals that he was an influential man, active in a variety of important positions. All of the decorative elements of this construction reflect the traditional practice of the builder. The place of tradition and modernity in Paul Tournon’s architecture can be related to Perret’s works. Born in Marseille, he studied at the École des beaux-arts in Paris. He obtained the second ‘Grand Prix de Rome’ in 1911, and his architecture diploma in 1912. He founded his practice in 1914, and after the war, he participated in design competitions for memorials. He took part in several exhibitions in the 1920-1930’s. His most famous early works a number of religious buildings made of reinforced concrete, such as the Saint-Esprit church in Paris, the most prestigious of the Chantiers du Cardinal’s projects. On this occasion, he collaborated with artits who contributed to the revival of religious art. Many of his works were public commissions. He was appointed architect of the Banque de France in 1940, an as architect of civil buildings and national palaces, he designated many monuments. Appointed professor at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in 1925, he became the director in 1942, and also of the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. He was elected president of the Société centrale des architectes from 1945 to 1948, and was made a member of the Académie des beaux-arts in 1942.Das Bauvorhaben der Église du Saint-Esprit in Paris, die als Hauptwerk der unter dem Kardinal Jean Verdier zahlreich entstandenen Kirchenneubauten gilt, eröffnet einen ausgiebigen Einblick in die stilistischen, architektonischen und spirituellen Konzeptionen Paul Tournons, der sich selbst als einen betont der Sakralarchitektur zugewandten Architekten beschrieb. Nach einem biographischen Überblick über das Leben dieses auf verschiedenen Gebieten tätigen und einflussreichen Architekten widmet sich der Beitrag einer umfassenden Untersuchung des Baudekors, in dem sich die Verwendung traditioneller Baupraktiken widerspiegelt. Anschließend rückt das Verhältnis von Tradition und Moderne in der Sakralarchitektur Paul Tournons in den Mittelpunkt und wird in Beziehung zum Werk Auguste Perrets gesetzt. Der in Marseille gebürtige Tournon beginnt 1902 ein Studium an der École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, das er 1911 mit dem zweiten Preis des Prix de Rome und 1912 mit dem Architektendiplom abschließt. 1914 gründet er sein eigenes Büro und beteiligt sich an mehreren Wettbewerben für Kriegsdenkmäler. In den 1920er und 1930er Jahren ist er in verschiedenen Ausstellungen vertreten. Bekannt wird Tournon mit seinen fünfzehn Sakralbauten aus Stahlbeton, zu denen auch die Église du Saint-Esprit in Paris gehört, eines der anspruchsvollsten Bauvorhaben des Kardinals Verdier. An diesem Bau arbeitet Tournon mit anderen Künstlern zusammen, die sich ebenfalls der Erneuerung der sakralen Kunst verschrieben haben. Tournon erhält während seiner Karriere zahlreiche öffentliche Aufträge. 1940 wird er zum Architekten der Banque de France ernannt sowie als architecte des bâtiments civils et palais nationaux mit der Restaurierung verschiedener Bauten beauftragt. Nachdem er bereits seit 1925 als Professor an der École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts lehrt, wird er 1942 zu deren Direktor ernannt sowie zum Leiter der École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. Von 1945 bis 1948 hat Tournon das Amt des Präsidenten des Architektenverbandes der Société centrale des architectes inne; ab 1942 ist er Mitglied der Académie des Beaux-Arts

Antithrombotic therapy in palliative care

Management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients in advanced cancer can be difficult due to the increased risk of recurrent and extending VTE despite therapeutic anticoagulation, and of bleeding due to or exacerbated by anticoagulation. Currently, best practice is long term administration of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), but a recurrent VTE and bleeding rate remains, and some patients have contra-indications to anticoagulation. Newer anticoagulants such as oral anti-thrombin agents and biotinylated idrapurinux may have a role in the future.Management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients in advanced cancer can be difficult due to the increased risk of recurrent and extending VTE despite therapeutic anticoagulation, and of bleeding due to or exacerbated by anticoagulation. Currently, best practice is long term administration of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), but a recurrent VTE and bleeding rate remains, and some patients have contra-indications to anticoagulation. Newer anticoagulants such as oral anti-thrombin agents and biotinylated idrapurinux may have a role in the future

Human peritoneal mesothelial cell death induced by high-glucose hypertonic solution involves Ca2+ and Na+ ions and oxidative stress with the participation of PKC/NOX2 and PI3K/Akt pathways

Indexación: Web of Science; Scopus.Chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy is equally efficient as hemodialysis while providing greater patient comfort and mobility. Therefore, PD is the treatment of choice for several types of renal patients. During PD, a high-glucose hyperosmotic (HGH) solution is administered into the peritoneal cavity to generate an osmotic gradient that promotes water and solutes transport from peritoneal blood to the dialysis solution. Unfortunately, PD has been associated with a loss of peritoneal viability and function through the generation of a severe inflammatory state that induces human peritoneal mesothelial cell (HPMC) death. Despite this deleterious effect, the precise molecular mechanism of HPMC death as induced by HGH solutions is far from being understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the pathways involved in HGH solution-induced HPMC death. HGH-induced HPMC death included influxes of intracellular Ca2+ and Na+. Furthermore, HGH-induced HPMC death was inhibited by antioxidant and reducing agents. In line with this, HPMC death was induced solely by increased oxidative stress. In addition to this, the cPKC/NOX2 and PI3K/Akt intracellular signaling pathways also participated in HGH-induced HPMC death. The participation of PI3K/Akt intracellular is in agreement with previously shown in rat PMC apoptosis. These findings contribute toward fully elucidating the underlying molecular mechanism mediating peritoneal mesothelial cell death induced by high-glucose solutions during peritoneal dialysis.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2017.00379/ful