The clinical significance of urinary tract infection and Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients in the general practices of Varna region - Bulgaria

Background: The urinary system of diabetics is one of their most frequently affected body systems. Periodic urine analysis reveals that asymptomatic bacteriuria is very often detected in this population. Objectives: The aim of the study is to estimate the clinical significance of upper urinary tract infection (UUT/) and asymptomatic bacteriuria (ABU) in diabetics in a general practice setting, their clinical characteristics, incidence, course, evolution and complications. Methods: We tested 560 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) from 12 general practices ofVarna region, Bulgaria in a prospective study. We traced ABU in the group for 2 years. There were 310 female patients (55.4%) mean age 52.5 ± 3.2 years and duration of DM was 8.5 ± 2.8 years. Results: The results showed that in 11.14% ABU was significant. Only 4.82% of diabetics developed upper urinary tract infection and the complications from it were very rare: 0.89% pyonephrosis and 0.89% sepsis. Conclusions: Our conclusion was that upper urinary tract infection in diabetics was not as severe as reported in the literature. Pyelonephritis had a benign course and only 16.6% of our patients developed chronic renal failure a few years later but the reason for its development was not diabetic nephropathy. All these facts show that ABU disappears spontaneously in most diabetics. Relevance to general practice: We discuss the question: is it necessary for every case of ABU in diabetics in general practice to be treated and isn't it time to revaluate the postulated antibiotic treatment for diabetics with ABU?peer-reviewe

Social Cognition Impairments in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Comparison with Imaging Studies, Disease Duration and Grade of Disability

Cognitive impairments in multiple sclerosis (MS) are heterogeneous and their rate varies between 43% and 70%. A less studied aspect of cognition is social cognition, which is not a uniform theoretical construct. It includes emotion perception, prosody, empathy, theory of mind (ToM) and assessment of mood. In addition to progressive physical disability, social cognitive impairments are a reason for job loss in 24–80% of patients with MS, increased divorce rate, dissolution of partnerships and social communication difficulties

Specifics of the workplace conflict in the implementation of state health control

Конфликтът е неразделна част от нашия живот. За съжаление той е наше всекидневие и реалност. При осъществяването на държавен здравен контрол служителите често попадат в конфликтни ситуации, които се отразяват неблагоприятно на психоемоционалното им състояние. Дейността на здравните инспектори е строго специфична с ненормирано работно време и мобилни работни места, които, освен че са разнообразни поради вида на посещаваните обекти, са и с широк териториален обхват. Необходими са сериозни познания на действащата нормативна уредба и високо ниво на професионална компетентност. В процеса на работа здравните инспектори общуват и взаимодействат с разнообразни хора. Деловите умения за воденето на проверки, срещи и работа с граждани са от голямо значение за служителите от държавните инспекции, тъй като са важна предпоставка за управление и намаляване на конфликтите на работното място.Целта на настоящото проучване е да се установи степента и спецификата на конфликта при осъществяването на държавен здравен контрол.Проведено е анкетно проучване на служители от Регионалните здравни инспекции и Областните дирекции по безопасност на храните в градовете Варна, Добрич и Сливен.Данните показват, че много служители при изпълнение на служебните си задължения попадат в конфликтни ситуации поне веднъж седмично. Като най-честа причина за възникналите конфликтни ситуации анкетираните посочват остарялата нормативна уредба, недостатъчната информация, достигаща до гражданите, лошата икономическа ситуация и голямото психическо натоварване по време на работа. Добрата комуникация, деловият тон и положителната нагласа винаги помагат конфликтите да се разрешават лесно и бързо.Conflict is an integral part of our lives. Unfortunately, everyday we are part of it. In implementing state health control, employees often fall into conflict situations that adversely affect their psycho-emotional condition. The activities of health inspectors are very specific with irregular working hours and mobile workplaces, which in addition to being different because of the type of sites visited are also with a wide territorial range. Serious knowledge of the current legislation and a high level of professional competence are necessary. While working, health inspectors communicate and interact with various people. Business skills for conducting inspections, meetings and work with citizens are of great importance for employees from state inspections for the management and reduction of the conflict at the workplace.The purpose of this study was to determine the extent and specifics of the conflict in the implementation of state health control. A survey of employees of Regional Health Inspections and District Directorates of Food Safety in Varna, Dobrich, Sliven was conducted. Data show that all employees, in the performance of their duties, fall into conflict situations at least once a week. As the most common cause of emerging conflict situations, respondents indicated outdated regulations, lack of information reaching the public, the poor economic situation and the great mental stress at work. Good communication, business conduct and positive attitude always help and conflicts can be resolved easily and quickly

Technology in Help of Personalised Education

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, June, 2017The aim of the research is to evaluate the potential of new technologies applied in education. We assess the usage of information and communication technology (ICT) for personalisation of learning resources by examining opinion of teachers in a survey. The results show that to be used in different learning contexts and to meet the needs and preferences of the learners most parameters of educational resources should be changeable. In addition, we examine the views of teachers on how technology-assisted teaching methods affect the students.Association for the Development of the Information Society, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski

Big Data – Opportunities and Challenges for Education

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2015The paper reveals the potential of Big Data applied in education. The specifics of Big Data in educational contexts and different sources for their extraction are described. The power of innovative tools for data collection, management, and analysis by which to identify best practices or problems in the educational process is shown. Considering these findings, a conceptual proposal for an example of educational system using Big Data is presented. The possible effects of the implementation of Big Data in education are discussed.Association for the Development of the Information Society, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski

Application of sorting algorithms for convex hull determination

The proposed research explores the possibilities of applying some base algorithms for sorting to the process of finding a convex in order to optimize the time indicators of this process. A comparative analysis of the time characteristics has been performed using different time approaches in Graham’s algorithm. The empirical results obtained have been used as a basis for building a pattern model of the process of finding a convex hull. It performs point sorting by a given criterion and finds a convex hull on a two-dimensional set of points. For this model, a visualization module has been developed that can be used as a learning environment in the courses of computing and complexity of algorithms

Circulating Exosomal microRNAs as Predictive Biomarkers of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response in Breast Cancer

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is an increasingly used approach for treatment of breast cancer. The pathological complete response (pCR) is considered a good predictor of disease-specific survival. This study investigated whether circulating exosomal microRNAs could predict pCR in breast cancer patients treated with NACT. Method: Plasma samples of 20 breast cancer patients treated with NACT were collected prior to and after the first cycle. RNA sequencing was used to determine microRNA profiling. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was used to explore the expression patterns and survivability of the candidate miRNAs, and their potential targets based on the expression levels and copy number variation (CNV) data. Results: Three miRNAs before that NACT (miR-30b, miR-328 and miR-423) predicted pCR in all of the analyzed samples. Upregulation of miR-127 correlated with pCR in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). After the first NACT dose, pCR was predicted by exo-miR-141, while miR-34a, exo-miR182, and exo-miR-183 predicted non-pCR. A significant correlation between the candidate miRNAs and the overall survival, subtype, and metastasis in breast cancer, suggesting their potential role as predictive biomarkers of pCR. Conclusions: If the miRNAs identified in this study are validated in a large cohort of patients, they might serve as predictive non-invasive liquid biopsy biomarkers for monitoring pCR to NACT in breast cancer

Effectiveness of yoga intervention enhanced by progressive muscular relaxation on pain in women after breast cancer surgery

Introduction. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga intervention enhanced by progressive muscular relaxation on pain in women after breast cancer surgery. Methods. Overall, 84 patients after Madden mastectomy were eligible for this study. After the exclusion of 7 women, 77 participants were randomly allocated to group A (n = 38), receiving progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to yoga intervention, and group B (n = 39), receiving yoga intervention only. McGill Pain Questionnaire and visual analogue scale were used to evaluate pain at baseline and after the 4-week intervention. Results. Most of the investigated pain characteristics in both studied groups steadily improved during the 4-week rehabilitation. However, the 4-week monitoring indicated that using progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to the yoga intervention was more effective for reducing self-reported pain in women after Madden mastectomy. The post-intervention level of pain reported in the visual analogue scale and present pain intensity were statistically lower in group A compared with group B by 0.99 points (p < 0.05) and 1.68 points (p < 0.05), respectively. Conclusions. Performing progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to yoga intervention helped reduce pain in women after Madden mastectomy

Chaotic genetic structure and past demographic expansion of the invasive gastropod Tritia neritea in its native range, the Mediterranean Sea

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Boissin, E., Neglia, V., Baksay, S., Micu, D., Bat, L., Topaloglu, B., Todorova, V., Panayotova, M., Kruschel, C., Milchakova, N., Voutsinas, E., Beqiraj, S., Nasto, I., Aglieri, G., Taviani, M., Zane, L., & Planes, S. Chaotic genetic structure and past demographic expansion of the invasive gastropod Tritia neritea in its native range, the Mediterranean Sea. Scientific Reports, 10(1), (2020): 21624. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-77742-3.To better predict population evolution of invasive species in introduced areas it is critical to identify and understand the mechanisms driving genetic diversity and structure in their native range. Here, we combined analyses of the mitochondrial COI gene and 11 microsatellite markers to investigate both past demographic history and contemporaneous genetic structure in the native area of the gastropod Tritia neritea, using Bayesian skyline plots (BSP), multivariate analyses and Bayesian clustering. The BSP framework revealed population expansions, dated after the last glacial maximum. The haplotype network revealed a strong geographic clustering. Multivariate analyses and Bayesian clustering highlighted the strong genetic structure at all scales, between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, but also within basins. Within basins, a random pattern of genetic patchiness was observed, suggesting a superimposition of processes involving natural biological effects (no larval phase and thus limited larval dispersal) and putative anthropogenic transport of specimens. Contrary to the introduced area, no isolation-by-distance patterns were recovered in the Mediterranean or the Black Seas, highlighting different mechanisms at play on both native and introduced areas, triggering unknown consequences for species’ evolutionary trajectories. These results of Tritia neritea populations on its native range highlight a mixture of ancient and recent processes, with the effects of paleoclimates and life history traits likely tangled with the effects of human-mediated dispersal.This project was funded by the European FP7 CoCoNet project (Ocean.2011-4, grant agreement #287844) and we are grateful to the whole CoCoNET consortium. We are grateful to the following people for their critical help with logistics and field work ‘Antheus srl (Lecce, Italy)’; S Bevilacqua, G Guarnieri, S Fraschetti and T Terlizzi (University of Salento, Italy); L Angeletti and M Sigovini (ISMAR, Italy); D Shamrey (IBSS, Sevastopol); A Anastasopoulou, MA Pancucci-Papadopoulou and S Reizopoulou (HCMR, Greece) and E Hajdëri (Catholic University ‘Our Lady of Good Counsel’, Tirana). Thank you to J Almany for English corrections. This is ISMAR-CNR scientific contribution n1987. E Boissin was supported by a European Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship MC-CIG-618480

Level of hypertension treatment adherence during pandemic

Adherence to antihypertensive medications is the cornerstone for achieving metabolic syndrome control. The aim of this study was to explore how the pandemic has affected the adherence of patients with high BP to prescribed antihypertensive drugs. This multicentre observational study utilized self-completed questionnaires among patients between June and November 2020. Overall, 842 patients were included in the study. The likelihood of adherence was assessed using the 5‐item version of the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5Professor Rob Horne). The average MARS score of the sample was 16.81, the median was 4.162, and the most common value was 3 (24.5% of respondents) for the patients treated during the pandemic. The study suggests that several sociodemographic factors but not the COVID pandemic play a role in treatment adherence