Tritium activity levels in drinking water of Adana, Turkey

Tritium activity in potable drinking water samples from Adana city were measured using liquid scintillation counting after distillation procedure. The results exposed that the activity concentrations of the tritium measured in one-third of these samples were lower than minimum detectable activity which has a value of 2 Bq/L for counting time of 1,500 min. However, the maximum and mean value of the tritium activity was found to be 9.1 Bq/L (77.3 TU) and 7.0 Bq/l (59.4 TU), respectively. These values were substantially below the 100 Bq/L which is normative limit in Turkey for waters intended for human consumption. The highest values of annual effective dose received by infants, children and adults due to measured tritium activity were estimated as 0.041, 0.057 and 0.120 µSv/y, respectively. © 2014 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary

Sex-specific differences in patients with psoriatic arthritis: a systematic review

Objective A systematic review of published literature was conducted to collate evidence on sex-specific differences in clinical characteristics, disease activity and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in psoriatic arthritis (PsA), including response to treatment. Methods Searches of MEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were performed in November 2020 for observational studies of adults with PsA reporting outcomes by sex (published 2015–), with hand searches of systematic literature review and (network) meta-analysis bibliographies, plus searches of ClinicalTrials.gov and congress abstracts from the European League Against Rheumatism, American College of Rheumatology and American Academy of Dermatology (2019–2020). Eligible studies pre-specified a comparison by sex and reported clinical characteristics and/or disease activity (N>100). Data extracted included patient characteristics, study design, baseline clinical characteristics, and disease activity results (including PROs). Results Database searching yielded 3,283 unique records; 31 publications (27 unique studies) were included. The review found generally higher rates of peripheral disease in women, including higher tender joint counts (TJCs). There was some evidence of more axial disease in men, plus greater skin disease burden. There were consistently no differences in Dermatology Life Quality Index scores, though across other PROs women had worse scores, including pain and fatigue. Women had poorer responses to treatment, indicated by outcome measures such as American College of Rheumatology responses and minimal disease activity. Conclusion This review indicates that important differences exist between the sexes in PsA. However, the limited evidence for this conclusion underlines the need for additional research in this area

Electronic structures of organic salts (DI-DCNQI) 2 M(M Cu and Ag) using photoelectron spectromicroscopy

The electronic structures of organic salts (DI-DCNQI) 2 M with M Cu and Ag, where DI-DCNQI is 2,5-diiodo-N,N # - dicyanoquinonediimine, were studied using photoelectron spectromicroscopy at various photon energies. From the photon energy dependence of the photoionization cross-section, the atomic orbital characters of the observed spectral features were determined. For both (DI-DCNQI) 2 Cu and (DI-DCNQI) 2 Ag, the C and N 2p states originating in the cyano group and the quinone ring are located at # 4.0 and # 6.5 eV, respectively. The Cu 3d states for (DI-DCNQI) 2 Cu and the Ag 4d states for (DI-DCNQI) 2 Ag are located at # 3.2 and # 5.2 eV, respectively. This indicates that the p#--d hybridization at the Fermi level between the M ions and the N atoms of the DCNQI columns is larger for (DI-DCNQI) 2 Cu than for (DI-DCNQI) 2 Ag. The reason for the difference in the electronic structure between (DI-DCNQI) 2 Cu and (DMe-DCNQI) 2 Cu is also discussed. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved