TYPE OF CELL SEPARATOR, FENWAL AMICUS VS FRESENIUS COM TEC, MAY INFLUENCE THE CORPUSCULAR ELEMENTS VALUE OF THE DONOR`S BLOOD

ntroduction: During the plateletpheresis procedure the number of thrombocytes in the donor’s blood significantly decreases, and the levels of the hematocrit (HCT), hemoglobin (Hgb), and leukocyte (WBC) diminish as well. Influence of the cell separator is one of the factors that affects the levels of HCT, Hgb and WBC. In this study, the goal was to determine the value difference o f HCT, Hgb, WBC, and platelets after the platelet pheresis process between performance on Fenwal AMICUS and on Fresenius Com Tec. Donors and methods: The criteria for participation: male in the age range of 25-45. We have formed two groups: for both groups - 180 separations were performed on 60 participants were the values of hematocrits, concentration of hemoglobin and number of leukocytes were established before and after separation using the double-needle continuous flow cell separation (DN- CFCS) on two different devices, Fenwal AMICUS device and the Fresenius Com Tec. device. To confirm the statistical differences we have used Student t-test for independent or dependent samples, as well as Mann-Whitney U test as non-parametric alternative. To compare differences between the values of four parameters (P1-P2) from two groups (using two devices - Fenwal AMICUS and Fresenius Com Tec) The possibility of errors were accepted for Į<0.05, and the difference between groups as statistical relevant were accepted for p<0.05. Results Statistically significant lower values were noted for all researche d parameters after separation on both devices. The statistically significant average values for Hct, Hgb and WBC obtained between two devices, were less than 0.05 (p=0.05). For the platelets (Plt) there was no statistical significant difference (p>0.05 - Į=0.05), between average level obtained using either Fenwal AMICUS or Frazenius Com Tec. Conclusion: The type of cell separator had the influence on the decrease value of the observed parameters

Evaluation of ENA-6 Profile by ELISA Immunoassay in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematodes

Autoimmune diseases occur in 3−5% of the population. Study included 30 patients with clinically diagnosed SLE and 30 healthy controls (American college of Rheumatology, 1997). SLE was diagnosed according to criteria issued in 1997 by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). The aim of this study was to evaluate concentration values of each antigen of ENA-6 profile in SLE, to investigate possible correlation between the concentration of Sm antibodies and CIC, and to test their use as possible immunobiological markers in SLE. Furthermore, the aim of our study was to determine whether there is a correlation between Sm antibodies and CIC and SLE activity. The results revealed that all of these ENA-6 and Sm antibodies as biomarkers complement diagnoses of active SLE but their use as solo markers does not allow classifying patients with SLE. Our study has shown that based on calculations from ROC curves, Sm/RNP was clearly a very important marker for diagnosis of SLE (cut off ≥ 9.56 EU, AUC 0,942). The high incidence of Scl-70 (10%) reactivity suggests that ELISA monitoring of this antibody produces more false positive results than other multiplex assay. An important conclusion that can be drawn from the results of our study is that laboratory tests are no more effective than clinical examination for detecting disease relapse, but are helpful in the confirmation of SLE activity

Life cycle assessment of the sweetness enhancer thaumatin (E957) produced from Thaumatococcus daniellii fruit foraged from West Africa: The SWEET project

Replacing added sugar with non-nutritive sweeteners and sweetness enhancers is of increasing interest due to the negative health effects of excess sugar consumption. Much has been done to understand health and safety of such sweetening additives, but little on their sustainability. This study, part of the Horizon 2020 SWEET project, presents results from the first life cycle assessment of the sweetness enhancer thaumatin, produced from Thaumatococcus daniellii fruit, from forests in West Africa and extracted in the United Kingdom. Thaumatin is used in formulations to increase perceived sweetness of added sugar, allowing some to be removed. Environmental impact is reported for multiple impact categories from the ReCiPe 2016 (H) method, focusing on global warming potential, land use, water consumption, and freshwater eutrophication. Impacts are expressed in terms of product mass and sweetness equivalence. Global warming potential for production of thaumatin is found to be 719.2 kgCO2-eq/kg. When thaumatin replaces 20% of added sugar, environmental impact for a given sweetness is found to reduce by an average of 19.4% across all impact categories. International transport is a major contributor to global warming potential, as is aril removal from the fruit to freshwater eutrophication and water use, and fruit foraging to land use. However, land use is identified as a key area of future research to improve uncertainty in the data. Results show that thaumatin can be used to reduce the environmental impact of providing sweet taste in food and beverage products

Environmental life cycle assessment of production of the high intensity sweetener steviol glycosides from Stevia rebaudiana leaf grown in Europe: The SWEET project

Purpose There is an increasing interest in the use of non-nutritive sweeteners to replace added sugar in food and beverage products for reasons of improving consumer health. Much work has been done to understand safety of sweeteners, but very little on sustainability. To address that gap, this study presents the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of production of rebaudioside A 60%, 95% pure (RA60) steviol glycoside mix from Stevia rebaudiana leaf grown in Europe. Methods An attributional cradle-to-factory-gate life cycle assessment was conducted on growing of stevia leaves and extraction of steviol glycosides in Europe. Primary data were used from a case study supply chain. Results are reported in impact categories from the ReCiPe 2016 (H) method, with focus given to global warming potential, freshwater eutrophication, water consumption, and land use. Impacts are expressed both in terms of production mass and sweetness equivalence, a common metric for understanding high intensity sweetener potency. Sweetness equivalence of RA60 is typically 200 to 300 times that of sugar. Comparison of environmental impact is made to sugar (sucrose) produced from both cane and beets. The research is part of the EU project SWEET (sweeteners and sweetness enhancers: impact on health, obesity, safety, and sustainability). Results and discussion Global warming potential for production of RA60 was found to be 20.25 kgCO2-eq/kgRA60 on a mass basis and 0.081 kgCO2-eq/kgSE on a sweetness equivalence basis. Field production of stevia leaves was found to be the main source of impact for most impact categories, and for all four focus categories. Extraction of the RA60 was the main source of impact for the others. Leaf processing and seedling propagation were minor contributors to life cycle impact. Removal of international transport from the supply chain reduced global warming potential by 18.8%. Compared with sugar on a sweetness equivalence basis, RA60 has approximately 5.7% to 10.2% the impact for global warming potential, 5.6% to 7.2% the impact for land use, and is lower across most other impact categories. Conclusion This is the first LCA of steviol glycoside mix RA60 produced from leaf in Europe. The results indicate that RA60 can be used to reduce environmental impact of providing a sweet taste by replacing sugar across all impact categories. However, it is important to note that specific formulations in which RA60 is used will have a bearing on the final environmental impact of any food or beverage products. For solid foods, this requires further research

Swimming Pool on top of High-Rise Buildings : A comparison of different structural designs and positions of swimming pools

This thesis is about determining the risks of positioning swimming pools on top of high-rise buildings.Pursuing this determination, computational simulations of constructed structural models in a finiteelement model software called RFEM have been analyzed. In further pursuit of wanted results comingfrom the computational software, the models have acquired relevant theory regarding both swimmingpools and high-rise buildings respectively to obtain realistic approximations of equivalent results if themodels were real life structures. Thence analytical observations and measures of each structural modelcontaining different positions of the swimming pools are generated, in several degrees, differentpossibilities of risks of failure are possible. Results have been compared out of design of swimmingpools and high-rise buildings in an initial stage of background and thereafter set as input values for themodeling where following perspectives have been analyzed:• Structural deformations,• Internal forces,• Utilization ratios, and• Mode shapes.Further analysis of social-, economic-, and environmental sustainability have been deliberated. Thus,in conclusion of this thesis, swimming pools positioned on top of the structure core or at center of theplan section tend to harm the stability of the structure likewise if the positioning of the swimming poolare cantilevered completely over the edge of the rooftop. More suitable design would either bepositioning the swimming pool attached to the core of the structure meanwhile cantilevered over theedge or integrated entirely along the edge.The results showed that some of the overhanging swimming pools pass the requirements of theEurocode. This will result in the columns experiencing a utilization which exceed its capacity. Thecolumn utilization was shown to behave differently depending on where the swimming pool was placedon the top floor. Furthermore, it was also a difference between the structures studied as dimensions ofthe members required either more or less depending on the form the structure had. The reaction of theswimming pool could be observed to behave as a stiff part of the structures with the deformation mostlybeing located at the slabs. The internal forces developed in the members due to the swimming poolaffected the columns at the bottom floors the most. The thesis finally shows how much is needed forthe worst case of each structure to pass the requirements. This resulted in different dimensions for themembers where the smaller structure (structure model 1) needed bigger dimensions and the largerstructure (structure model 2) needed smaller dimensions compared to the originally based dimensions.The social, economic, and environmental impact of the structures showed that the larger structureswould release more carbon dioxide than the smaller structures. The social aspect was treated moreregarding the safety and the experience of the user of the facility of swimming pool. The reinforcementvaried the most between the structures with the concrete being mostly the same for the two differentstructures made, in which an impact was made for both the economic and the environmental. Here itwas shown that in order to pass the requirements of the Eurocodes the impact on the climate needed tobe considerable different

Preschool children´s meeting with literacy

Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka metoder och arbetssätt förskollärare förhåller sig till för att främja barns språkutveckling genom läsning i förskolan. Denna studie görs utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och baserar sig på grundtesen att människors interaktion, möten med varandra, är betydelsefullt för hur språkinlärning och lärandet sker i samspelet med andra i olika situationer och med olika verktyg. Detta har undersökts genom en kvalitativ metod där fem förskollärare från fem olika förskolor har intervjuats. Studiens resultat visar att läsning förekommer i verksamheten varje dag på alla fem förskolorna men att det skiljer sig åt i vilken utsträckning läsning sker mellan förskollärare och barngrupp. De äldre barnen tar del av kapitelböcker för att skapa en djupare förståelsen för orden och de yngre barnen får möjligheten att själva kunna skapa sig en bild av sagan. Barnen lär sig på det sättet nya ord i samspel med andra som de sedan själva använder i sina lekar. Läsning sker initierat av både barn och vuxna och valet av litteraturen beror på om tillfället är planerat eller spontant

TYPE OF CELL SEPARATOR, FENWAL AMICUS VS FRESENIUS COM TEC, MAY INFLUENCE THE CORPUSCULAR ELEMENTS VALUE OF THE DONOR`S BLOOD

ntroduction: During the plateletpheresis procedure the number of thrombocytes in the donor’s blood significantly decreases, and the levels of the hematocrit (HCT), hemoglobin (Hgb), and leukocyte (WBC) diminish as well. Influence of the cell separator is one of the factors that affects the levels of HCT, Hgb and WBC. In this study, the goal was to determine the value difference o f HCT, Hgb, WBC, and platelets after the platelet pheresis process between performance on Fenwal AMICUS and on Fresenius Com Tec. Donors and methods: The criteria for participation: male in the age range of 25-45. We have formed two groups: for both groups - 180 separations were performed on 60 participants were the values of hematocrits, concentration of hemoglobin and number of leukocytes were established before and after separation using the double-needle continuous flow cell separation (DN- CFCS) on two different devices, Fenwal AMICUS device and the Fresenius Com Tec. device. To confirm the statistical differences we have used Student t-test for independent or dependent samples, as well as Mann-Whitney U test as non-parametric alternative. To compare differences between the values of four parameters (P1-P2) from two groups (using two devices - Fenwal AMICUS and Fresenius Com Tec) The possibility of errors were accepted for Į<0.05, and the difference between groups as statistical relevant were accepted for p<0.05. Results Statistically significant lower values were noted for all researche d parameters after separation on both devices. The statistically significant average values for Hct, Hgb and WBC obtained between two devices, were less than 0.05 (p=0.05). For the platelets (Plt) there was no statistical significant difference (p>0.05 - Į=0.05), between average level obtained using either Fenwal AMICUS or Frazenius Com Tec. Conclusion: The type of cell separator had the influence on the decrease value of the observed parameters

Cytogenetic effects of combination of tridecactide and met-enkephalin on lymphocytes of patients with multiple sclerosis

Introduction: The met-enkephalin (1-5 Adrenorphin) and tridecactide (alpha-corticotropin 1-13) combination is used in the multiple sclerosis (MS) immuno-modulatory treatment. A testing of cytogenetic effects of met-enkephalin resulted in reductions of lymphocytic aberrations in the in the lymphocytes of the peripheral blood (PBL) of patients with immune-mediated diseases. The aim of this research is to evaluate the in vitro effects of the combination of the met-enkephalin and tridecactide on the number and the type of chromosome aberrations in PBL of the MS patients. Methods: We used blood samples from seven female patients with the diagnosis multiple sclerosis based on a McDonald Diagnostic Criteria. The tested combination, met-enkephalin and alpha-ACTH 1-13 was added at three different concentrations and constant volume. Results: Results showed that the combination of tested substances did not reduce the number of structural aberrations, although the treatment did not result in severe aberrations such as ring, fragmented, and dicentric chromosomes. Furthermore, it elicited an increase in the number of numerical aberrations and aneuploidy after the treatment with the test combo. Conclusion: As the changes in ploidy significantly change the DNA as well as the biochemical cell phenotype, we concluded that more research in this field should be conducted, including both toxicological as well as the pharmacodynamic considerations