The costs of non-training in chronic wounds : estimates through practice simulation

The high prevalence and incidence rates of chronic wounds represent high financial costs for patients, families, health services, and for society in general. Therefore, the proper training of health professionals engaged in the diagnosis and treatment of these wounds can have a very positive impact on the reduction of costs. As technology advances rapidly, the knowledge acquired at school soon becomes outdated, and only through lifelong learning can skills be constantly updated. Information and Communication Technologies play a decisive role in this field. We have prepared a cost estimate model of Non-Training, using a Simulator (Web Based System – e-fer) for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic wounds. The preliminary results show that the costs involved in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic wounds are markedly higher in health professionals with less specialized training

A new cuticle scale hydrolysing protease from beauveria brongniartii

From a screening for the production of new proteases specific for cuticle scales, Beauveria brongniartii was selected producing an alkaline Ca++ dependent protease. The purified had a molecular weight of 27 kDa and a pI value of 8.0. Substrate specificities of model substrates (wool with partially removed cuticles treated with SDS) were analyzed by protein release, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen analysis. The C/N ratio of released material turned out to be a good parameter to determine the site of action of proteases on fibres. Compared to other enzymes, the fungal protease preferentially hydrolyzed cuticle scales and has thus a potential for antishrinking pre-treatment of wool fabrics

Memory functions and Correlations in Additive Binary Markov Chains

A theory of additive Markov chains with long-range memory, proposed earlier in Phys. Rev. E 68, 06117 (2003), is developed and used to describe statistical properties of long-range correlated systems. The convenient characteristics of such systems, a memory function, and its relation to the correlation properties of the systems are examined. Various methods for finding the memory function via the correlation function are proposed. The inverse problem (calculation of the correlation function by means of the prescribed memory function) is also solved. This is demonstrated for the analytically solvable model of the system with a step-wise memory function.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Enzymatic reduction of azo and indigoid compounds

A customer- and environment-friendly method for the decolorization azo dyes was developed. Azoreductases could be used both to bleach hair dyed with azo dyes and to reduce dyes in vat dyeing of textiles. A new reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent azoreductase of Bacillus cereus, which showed high potential for reduction of these dyes, was purified using a combination of ammonium sulfate precipitation and chromatography and had a molecular mass of 21.5 kDa. The optimum pH of the azoreductase depended on the substrate and was within the range of pH 6 to 7, while the maximum temperature was reached at 40°C. Oxygen was shown to be an alternative electron acceptor to azo compounds and must therefore be excluded during enzymatic dye reduction. Biotransformation of the azo dyes Flame Orange and Ruby Red was studied in more detail using UV-visible spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry (MS). Reduction of the azo bonds leads to cleavage of the dyes resulting in the cleavage product 2-amino-1,3 dimethylimidazolium and N∼1∼,N∼1∼-dimethyl-1,4-benzenediamine for Ruby Red, while only the first was detected for Flame Orange because of MS instability of the expected 1,4-benzenediamine. The azoreductase was also found to reduce vat dyes like Indigo Carmine (C.I. Acid Blue 74). Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an oxidizing agent was used to reoxidize the dye into the initial form. The reduction and oxidation mechanism of Indigo Carmine was studied using UV-visible spectroscopy

Inventory of assessed infrastructure risk factors and measures, Deliverable 5.4 of the H2020 project SafetyCube

Inventory of assessed infrastructure risk factors and measures, Deliverable 5.4 of the H2020 project SafetyCub

Identification and safety effects of road user related measures. Deliverable 4.2 of the H2020 project SafetyCube

Safety CaUsation, Benefits and Efficiency (SafetyCube) is a European Commission supported Horizon 2020 project with the objective of developing an innovative road safety Decision Support System (DSS). The DSS will enable policy-makers and stakeholders to select and implement the most appropriate strategies, measures, and cost-effective approaches to reduce casualties of all road user types and all severities. This document is the second deliverable (4.2) of work package 4, which is dedicated to identifying and assessing road safety measures related to road users in terms of their effectiveness. The focus of deliverable 4.2 is on the identification and assessment of countermeasures and describes the corresponding operational procedure and outcomes. Measures which intend to increase road safety of all kind of road user groups have been considered [...continues]