A COVID–19-betegek, tünetmentes hordozók, illetve a betegségen már átesettek periodikus monitorizálási lehetősége IgM/IgG antitest alapú gyorstesztekkel az egészségügyi személyzet körében a SARS-CoV-2-járvány idején. A Covid–19-pandémia orvosszakmai kérdései [Opportunity of periodic monitoring of COVID-19 patients, asymptomatic virus carriers, and postinfectious individuals with IgM/IgG rapid antibody tests among healthcare workers during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic]

The first Hungarian COVID-19 case was reported on March 4, 2020 by Hungarian officials. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at the highest risk of contracting the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), with 12% of total coronavirus cases confirmed among them recently. 80% of the infected persons show only mild, moderate symptoms or stay asymptomatic. The single-stranded viral RNA can be detected by RT-PCR from the respiratory tract, urine, blood and, particulary in children, from stool samples for 30-40 days. We have no valid data of how many HCWs have been infected since the Hungarian SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, due to the lack of the systematic screening. HCWs could play a critical role in transmission and might jeopardize the health of both their patients and their own family members. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal sudies are recommended to evaluate the ratio of the recovered, i.e., "already protected", the ones in the acute phase, i.e., "the infectious", and the virus-naive, i.e., "at risk" workers. Of the available molecular diagnostic options, in addition to RT-PCR it would be advisable to introduce the novel rapid antibody tests which can give quick results, reveal the timeline of the infection, are easy to handle, inexpensive and can be used periodically to monitor HCWs' viral status during the still unkown duration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

As cold as a fish? Relationships between the Dark Triad personality traits and affective experience during the day: A day reconstruction study

The Dark Triad of personality is a cluster of three socially aversive personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. These traits are associated with a selfish, aggressive and exploitative interpersonal strategy. The objective of the current study was to establish relationships between the Dark Triad traits (and their dimensions) and momentary affect. Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism and the dimensions of the Triarchic model of psychopathy (namely, boldness, meanness and disinhibition) were examined. We used the Day Reconstruction Method, which is based on reconstructing affective states experienced during the previous day. The final sample consisted of 270 university students providing affective ratings of 3047 diary episodes. Analyses using multilevel modelling showed that only boldness had a positive association with positive affective states and affect balance, and a negative association with negative affective states. Grandiose narcissism and its sub-dimensions had no relationship with momentary affect. The other dark traits were related to negative momentary affect and/or inversely related to positive momentary affect and affect balance. As a whole, our results empirically demonstrated distinctiveness of the Dark Triad traits in their relationship to everyday affective states. These findings are not congruent with the notion that people with the Dark Triad traits, who have a dispositional tendency to manipulate and exploit others, are generally cold and invulnerable to negative feelings. The associations between the Dark Triad and momentary affect were discussed in the contexts of evolutionary and positive psychology, in relation to the role and adaptive value of positive and negative emotions experienced by individuals higher in Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy

Improving the Energy Efficiency in Lonza Ltd, Visp

Over the past few decades, the development of the energy market was marked by market liberalization, a surging appetite for energy in the developing world, constantly high energy prices, energy security concerns, a growing awareness of climate change, and introduction of the emissions trading. These issues result in the growing importance of energy efficiency for the chemical and life science industries. This article describes a systematic approach to achieve higher energy efficiency in the Swiss chemical and life science company Lonza Ltd. A particular energy-saving project focusing on the optimization of infrastructure is presented

An age-structured SIR model for cholera epidemics

Mathematical modeling is an important tool in epidemiology. It provides a way to understand the primary forces in disease dynamics, and to conduct theoretical experiments that are not possible in practice. In this paper, we study mathematical models that describe the spreading of epidemic cholera through a human population. We are particularly interested in one which shows the behavior of the disease across different human age groups as well as across time. A major assumption of many mathematical models of epidemics is that the population can be divided into a set of distinct compartments. These compartments are defined with respect to the disease status of individuals in the population. The general SIR model, which is used to simulate behavior of many diseases, consists of three compartments: susceptible (S), infected (I), and recovered (R). Since the general SIR model was first developed in 1927, several revisions have been made by different researchers to tailor it to fit to cholera epidemics. Until recently, most models described behavior with respect to time only. In 2011, Gobbert et al. extended the SIR Cholera model to simulate behavior across both time and age groups. This attempt was based on the fact that in endemic areas, both the risk of contracting the disease, and the response to currently available vaccines are age dependent. In this thesis we study the SIR-based age-structured epidemic cholera model as proposed by Gobbert. The model consists of a coupled system of five differential equations: three partial differential equations, describing the disease dynamics of a human population across both time and age, and two ordinary differential equations, describing cholera bacteria concentrations in the water supply across time. We solve the age-structured model numerically by implementing a first order accurate finite difference method and the Euler method. An agreement with the solution claimed by Gobbert is obtained. We further suggest and implement the Lax-Wendroff scheme and the Midpoint method to improve the accuracy of the model solution. We discuss our simulation results and suggest a way to improve one of the model parameters. Sensitivity analysis on model parameters are performed to determine their relative importance to disease dynamics, and finally we compare the model to several case studies found in literature

The Machiavellians' "Cool Syndrome": They Experience Intensive Feelings but Have Difficulties in Expressing Their Emotions

Abstract Previous studies clearly show that Machiavellian thinking and behavior are characterized by some kind of cold attitude; a tendency to be detached from the emotional features of a particular situation. However, very little is known what this cold-minded attitude means, and the presence or absence of which characteristics can lead to emotional detachment. Machiavellianism was found to have significant relationships with Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. Surprisingly, our study indicated that Machiavellians -contrary to the widespread conception -show more emotional instability: they may experience strong emotions and easily lose their coolness in various situations. However, we also found that they cannot express their emotions as subtly and precisely as others. We argue that this is exactly the deficit that can create the best condition for deceiving others. If Machiavellian persons have a difficulty in expressing their own emotions, they can easily disguise their true intentions from their partners