Statistics and society: a study on the burden experienced by caregivers of patients with Alzheimer

The cost of caring for people with Alzheimer-type diseases is enormous. Caregivers experience emotional, physical and financial stress, and their demands are central to decisions on patient institutionalization. We hereby investigate the burden experienced by caregivers of Alzheimer patients in Cyprus. We explore whether burden is related to variables such as patient psychopathology, caregiver gender, income and level of education. Moreover, we examine if there is a significant difference in the level of burden, depression, or reaction to memory and behavior problems when patients live in the community or in institutions and if the level of burden is associated with the use of different coping strategies by caregivers. Various statistical techniques are implemented for the analysis and all the conclusions are discussed. This work was partially funded by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation

Bis(4,6-diaminopyrimidin-2-yl) disulfide dimethyl sufoxide disolvate

The title compound, C8H10N8S2·2C2H6SO, was obtained unintentionally during an attempt to prepare a thiol-ate derivative of trimethyl-tin. The complete disulfide mol-ecule is generated by twofold rotation symmetry and the C - S - S - C torsion angle around the S - S bond is -85.70 (10)°. The mol-ecules are connected via N - H⋯N hydrogen bonds into strongly corrugated layers parallel to (001), generating an R 2 2(8) motif. The solvent mol-ecule, which exhibits minor disorder of its S atom [site occupancies = 0.9591 (18) and 0.0409 (18)], is linked to this layer via a pair of N - H⋯O inter-actions

Use of Multicomponent Non-Rigid Registration to Improve Alignment of Serial Oncological PET/CT Studies

Non-rigid registration of serial head and neck FDG PET/CT images from a combined scanner can be problematic. Registration techniques typically rely on similarity measures calculated from voxel intensity values; CT-CT registration is superior to PET-PET registration due to the higher quality of anatomical information present in this modality. However, when metal artefacts from dental fillings are present in a pair of CT images, a nonrigid registration will incorrectly attempt to register the two artefacts together since they are strong features compared to the features that represent the actual anatomy. This leads to localised registration errors in the deformation field in the vicinity of the artefacts. Our objective was to develop a registration technique which overcomes these limitations by using combined information from both modalities. To study the effect of artefacts on registration, metal artefacts were simulated with one CT image rotated by a small angle in the sagittal plane. Image pairs containing these simulated artifacts were then registered to evaluate the resulting errors. To improve the registration in the vicinity where there were artefacts, intensity information from the PET images was incorporated using several techniques. A well-established B-splines based non-rigid registration code was reworked to allow multicomponent registration. A similarity measure with four possible weighted components relating to the ways in which the CT and PET information can be combined to drive the registration of a pair of these dual-valued images was employed. Several registration methods based on using this multicomponent similarity measure were implemented with the goal of effectively registering the images containing the simulated artifacts. A method was also developed to swap control point displacements from the PET-derived transformation in the vicinity of the artefact. This method yielded the best result on the simulated images and was evaluated on images where actual dental artifacts were present

Η επιβάρυνση της φροντίδας παιδιού - άτομου με ειδικές ανάγκες

Ο ερχομός ενός παιδιού στη ζωή αποτελεί ένα από τα πιο χαρμόσυνα γεγονότα στη ζωή του ανθρώπου, το οποίο καθορίζει την υπόλοιπη ζωή και τις σχέσεις του. Υπάρχουν όμως περιπτώ σεις στις οποίες η γέννηση ενός παιδιού με νοητική στέρηση και όλες οι επακόλουθες δυσκολίες όπως είναι η εξάρτηση και η ανάγκη φροντίδας, προκαλεί στρες, άγχος, θλίψη και δυσκο¬λία στην αποδοχή της κατάστασης του παιδιού. Η παρούσα εργασία αποτελεί μια ανασκόπηση ερευνητικών μελετών στο θέμα της επιβάρυνσης που προκαλεί η φροντίδα ενός ατόμου με νοητική στέρηση. Θα αναλυθεί η έννοια της φροντίδας, η έννοια της επιβάρυνσης και η επιβάρυνση που προκαλεί η φροντίδα ενός ατόμου με νοητική στέρηση, οι πιθανές αιτίες της επιβάρυνσης, οι παράγοντες οι οποίοι συμβάλλουν στη μείωση της επιβάρυνσης και των επιπτώσεων της φροντίδας στην υγεία των πρωτοβάθμιων φροντιστών όπως είναι οι γονείς και γενικά της οικογένειας, και πως διαμορφώνεται η κατάσταση όταν τα παιδιά αυτά γίνονται ενήλικες

Le symbolisme de la colonne dans la scène de l'Annonciation

Μη διαθέσιμη περίληψηno abstrac

Incorporating self-assembly into robocasting for applications in hard tissue engineering

High cost coupled with limited supply of hard tissue substitutes make necessary the development of synthetic biomaterials, as well as economical and reproducible manufacturing techniques that can be easily scaled up. Multiple and often conflicting requirements have so far impeded the application of polymer/ceramic composites in large load-bearing defects. Although porosity is a crucial biological requirement, it has a detrimental effect on their mechanical performance. This thesis emphasizes upon methods for structuring bioceramic materials at different orders of magnitude - termed structural hierarchy. In bones, this constitutes the main mechanism contributing to their remarkable strength and fracture resistance. This can be achieved through combining AM with physical processes that cause the material to self-assemble into various configurations during or following its deposition. The first part of this research explores the potential of Low-Temperature Deposition Modelling (LDM) in fabricating scaffolds with tailorable bimodal porosity. More specifically, LDM is treated as a hybrid technique, in which robocasting is combined with freezing-induced self-assembly. For the purposes of this study, a highly versatile and economical print-head was fabricated that can be operated at ambient temperatures down to -20oC. In addition, a highly thixotropic β-TCP paste formulation of high water content (80% v/v) was developed that takes advantage of a synergy existing between Sodium Alginate and Xanthan Gum. The findings suggest that chamber temperature and water content have the most marked effect on pore morphology. Ordered micro-architectures comprising lamellar pores with a high degree of alignment were obtained at low freezing rates (-5oC). Most importantly, this research evidences for the first time that their direction is not only dictated by toolpath geometry, but also by the ice structure in preceding layers (epitaxy). The second part of this thesis demonstrates the combination of robocasting with a heating process to produce planar hollow-tube lattices that can be manipulated into various configurations. This technique makes use of a novel Sodium Alginate-based β-TCP slurry reinforced with cellulose nano-fibrils. When heated rapidly, it forms hollow-shell structures, which can be cross-linked in Ca2+-rich solutions to produce flexible yet strong particle-reinforced gels. Optimal results were achieved at 3 and 4% w/w alginate content, where the paste’s loss tangent reaches its maximum value. This research demonstrates that such combinational approaches to AM can successfully produce hard tissue substitutes that exhibit multiple levels of structural hierarchy. This constitutes a first step towards achieving biomimetic bone scaffolds with superior mechanical performance

Le symbolisme de la colonne dans la scène de l'Annonciation

Μη διαθέσιμη περίληψηno abstrac

L'idée de l'Ecclesia et la scène de l'Annonciation. Quelques aspects

Κατά τον Ευαγγελισμό επιτελείται η ένωση του Θείου Λόγου με την Παρθένο Μαρία, εκπρόσωπο ολόκληρου του ανθρώπινου γένους. Συγχρόνως, τίθενται οι προϋποθέσεις για την ίδρυση της Εκκλησίας. Για τούτο, συχνά, η σκηνή του Ευαγγελισμού, τόσο στο Βυζάντιο όσο και στη Δύση, εμπλουτίζεται με κάποιους συμβολισμούς, που συνδέονται με την Ενσάρκωση και με την Παναγία, τονίζοντας το θείο εγκαθίδρυμα, την Εκκλησία.The Incarnate Word and the Virgin Mary, representative of the human species, united in the Annunciation. This event has been considered as the cornerstone for the foundation of the Church. Thus, both in Byzantium and the medieval West the representations of the Annunciation are enhanced by certain symbolical features, which relate to the Incarnation and the Virgin and which by extension pay an emphasis to the foundation of the Holy Church.