The frequency of microscopic and focal active colitis in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic functional bowel disorder. The frequency of microscopic colitis and focal active colitis in the colonic mucosa has been investigated in IBS patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between June 2007 and September 2010, 378 patients (between 16 and 84 years) were recruited prospectively. Of these 378 patients, 226 patients were diagnosed with IBS using the Rome III criteria. 152 control patients were also enrolled who were undergoing colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening or investigation of anemia. Histopathological abnormalities identified during colonoscopy were compared between the IBS and control groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The average age of the IBS group was 46.13 ± 14.16 years and and the average age of the control group was 57.01 ± 13.07 years. The prevalence of microscopic colitis (MC) in the diarrhea predominant and the mixed subgroup of IBS patients was 4.32% (7/162) whereas in all IBS patients, the prevalence was 3.09% (7/226). MC was not found in the 152 control cases, (p = 0.045). Lymphocytic colitis was seen in 7 IBS patients, with 1 case in the mixed group and 6 cases in the diarrhea group and there was a significant difference in the frequency of lymphocytic colitis between the IBS subgroups (p < 0.01). Focal active colitis was found in 6.6% (15/226) of the IBS patients and in none of the controls (p < 0.01), and there was no differences between IBS subtypes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Microscopic colitis was more often found in the diarrhea predominant/mixed subgroups of IBS patients and in patients who were older women. In patients who are older woman with non-constipated IBS, it may be reasonable to perform a biopsy to screen for microscopic colitis. Focal active colitis was significantly increased in patients with IBS compared to controls.</p

Role of anatomical sites and correlated risk factors on the survival of orthodontic miniscrew implants:a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Objectives The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate the failure rates of miniscrews related to their specific insertion site and explore the insertion site dependent risk factors contributing to their failure. Search methods An electronic search was conducted in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Knowledge, Scopus, MEDLINE and PubMed up to October 2017. A comprehensive manual search was also performed. Eligibility criteria Randomised clinical trials and prospective non-randomised studies, reporting a minimum of 20 inserted miniscrews in a specific insertion site and reporting the miniscrews’ failure rate in that insertion site, were included. Data collection and analysis Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment were performed independently by two reviewers. Studies were sub-grouped according to the insertion site, and the failure rates for every individual insertion site were analysed using a random-effects model with corresponding 95% confidence interval. Sensitivity analyses were performed in order to test the robustness of the reported results. Results Overall, 61 studies were included in the quantitative synthesis. Palatal sites had failure rates of 1.3% (95% CI 0.3–6), 4.8% (95% CI 1.6–13.4) and 5.5% (95% CI 2.8–10.7) for the midpalatal, paramedian and parapalatal insertion sites, respectively. The failure rates for the maxillary buccal sites were 9.2% (95% CI 7.4–11.4), 9.7% (95% CI 5.1–17.6) and 16.4% (95% CI 4.9–42.5) for the interradicular miniscrews inserted between maxillary first molars and second premolars and between maxillary canines and lateral incisors, and those inserted in the zygomatic buttress respectively. The failure rates for the mandibular buccal insertion sites were 13.5% (95% CI 7.3–23.6) and 9.9% (95% CI 4.9–19.1) for the interradicular miniscrews inserted between mandibular first molars and second premolars and between mandibular canines and first premolars, respectively. The risk of failure increased when the miniscrews contacted the roots, with a risk ratio of 8.7 (95% CI 5.1–14.7). Conclusions Orthodontic miniscrew implants provide acceptable success rates that vary among the explored insertion sites. Very low to low quality of evidence suggests that miniscrews inserted in midpalatal locations have a failure rate of 1.3% and those inserted in the zygomatic buttress have a failure rate of 16.4%. Moderate quality of evidence indicates that root contact significantly contributes to the failure of interradicular miniscrews placed between the first molars and second premolars. Results should be interpreted with caution due to methodological drawbacks in some of the included studies

Performative architecture as a guideline for transformation: Defense Line of Amsterdam

Since 2003, we have been developing a pedagogic proposal and didactic material for teaching Light and Optics to kindergarden children that enhances the construction of the first scientific thinking schemes. The design (industrial and graphic) applied to this project has generated an educational product composed of 44 objects. These materials allow teaching concepts such as: combination of colors, light indispensable to see, formation of shadows and images are not objects. These have been developed as inciters of curiosity, capable to awake the innate restlessness of children, achieving to stimulate their creativity. The purpose is to explore knowledge and construct their own ideas, enrich their experiences and inquire a reality that was drawn grey and tedious, generating a process of manipulation-action and then representation-conceptualization. This product has been successfully used as a pilot test in a kindergarden, reflecting significant gains in studentsi science learning. [Full paper in Spanish

Integrating User and Usage Information in a Design Environment

We describe research exploring and demonstrating the use of large-scale data gathering and processing to inform the activities of architectural and urban designers. We apply this research to public spaces in urban housing estates. The aim is to understand the current use patterns and usability of these spaces, and to adaptively redesign them according to the insights gained from these findings. Another aim of the research is to obtain scientific knowledge regarding the production and use of user-data-based design support systems which promote and enhance the capability of (digital) design aids, such as building- and urban-scale models, to act as ‘learning devices’ giving designers better insights to the nature of the design situations they are asked to address, as well as insights on design space definition and exploration. We adopt a multimodal data collection strategy, consisting of participatory workshops for residents and users, person-based crowdsourcing, location-based crowd sensing, and statistical demographics data

Visibility Analysis for 3D Urban Environments

This paper presents a visibility analysis tool for 3D urban environments and its possible applications for urban design practice. Literature exists for performing visibility analysis using various methods and techniques, however, tools that result from such research are generally not suitable for use by designers in practice. Our visibility analysis tool resides in Grasshopper, Rhino. It uses a ray casting method to analyze the visibility of façade surfaces from a given vantage point, and of a given urban setting, in particular, buildings and roads. The latter analysis provides information on the best visible buildings/building facades from segments of roads. We established a collaboration with a practicing architect to work on a design competition together, using this tool. The paper elaborates on the visibility analysis methods, presents the tool in detail, discusses the results of our joint work on the competition, and briefly reflects on the evaluation of the use of the tool by design practitioners

Mediated discourse as a form of architectonic intervention

We are currently exploring the concept of mediated discourse in relation to an architectonic intervention and urban transformation project in an educational project and elective course. Led by faculty and artists, students are offered the ability to experiment with various media in the design and development of a multidisciplinary discourse. A web-based elearning environment also allows the studentsi activities to form part of a larger discourse that takes place among all participants, including the public. In this paper, we describe the concept of mediated discourse and the various dimensions we distinguish, we present the educational project and its various aspects and participantsi roles, we consider the internationalisation of this educational project in a future instance of the course, and we describe the characteristics of the web environment in the context of an educational and software development project for a multimedia learning environment to support group work and discourse

A heuristic approach to minimising maximum lateness on a single machine

This paper focuses on the problem of scheduling on a single machine to minimise the maximum lateness when each job has a different ready time, processing time, and due date. A simple procedure is developed to find a better solution than the early due date (EDD) algorithm. The new algorithm suggested in this paper is called Least Slack Time - Look Ahead (LST-LA), which minimises the maximum lateness problem. Computational results show that when the number of jobs increases, LST-LA outperforms EDD

Facilitating the complexity of architectural analyses

It is common practice for architecture students to collect documents on prominent buildings relevant to their design task in the early stage of design. While practitioners can rely on a body of design experience of their own, during the process of a new design, students can only draw from the examples of success and failure from other architects. In the past, such precedent based learning was implicit in the master-apprentice relationship common in the educational system. Nowadays academics commonly no longer have the possibility to maintain an extensive design practice, and instead introduce important outside precedents to the students. Thus, the study of important historical precedents or designs plays an important role in design instruction and in the studentsi design processes. While there is no doubt that the most effective outcome of such a study would be achieved when the student does entire the study herself, students also benefit from a collaboration with peers, where they form groups to do an analysis of various aspects of a same building or over a group of buildings. By integrating the respective results into a common, extensible, library, students can draw upon other results for comparisons and relationships between different aspects or buildings. The complexity this introduces is best supported in a computer medium.The Web offers many examples of architectural analyses on a wide variety of subjects. Commonly, these analyses consist of a collection of documents, categorized and hyperlinked to support navigation through the information space. More sophisticated examples rely on a database for storage and management of the data, and offer a more complex categorization of the information entities and their relationships. These studies present effective ways of accessing and browsing information, however, it is precluded within these analyses to distinguish and relate different components within the project documents. If enabled, instead, this would offer a richer information structure presenting new ways of accessing, viewing, and interpreting this information. Hereto, documents can be decomposed by content. This implies both expanding the document structure, replacing document entities by detailed substructures, and augmenting the structureis relatedness with content information. The relationships between the resulting components make the documents inherently related by content.We propose a methodology to integrate project documents into a single model, and present an application for the presentation of architectural analyses in an educational setting. This approach provides the students with a simple interface and mechanisms for the presentation of an analysis of design precedents, and possibly their own designs. Since all the information is integrated within a single environment, students will benefit from each othersi studies, and can draw new conclusions across analyses and presentations from their peers.