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Copyright of Der Nephrologe is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forschung im Ingenieurwesen is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Der Diabetologe is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Gefaesschirurgie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forschung im Ingenieurwesen is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Gefaesschirurgie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Der Chirurg is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

OBJECTIVE The evaluation of depression in patients with types 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and its correlation with features of the disease and the presence of complications. METHOD Patients with DM were recruited from the diabetic outpatient departments of hospitals in the Attica region and Korinthos, 164 in total, 72 men and 92 women, with a mean of age 66.9±11.53 years. The tools that were used were the scale of self-assessment of depression of Zung (ZDRS) and a structured questionnaire covering demographic data, body measurements and information concerning the course of the disease. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v. 18.0. RESULTS Regarding the somatometric status, 57.3% of patients were overweight and 30.5% obese, with high rates of central obesity (83.3% in the men and 92.4% in the women). A high body mass index [r=0.309, p=0.001] and central obesity [t(162)=4.773, p=0.001] were significantly associated with depression as assessed by the ZDRS. Of the sample of patients with DM, 50% presented symptoms of depression at a low level and 20% at a medium level, with the female sex [t(162)=3.26, p=0.001] and age [r=0.492, p=0.001] being correlated to a statistically significant degree with depression. Severe depression was correlated with the duration of disease (mean 12.96±7.07 years [r=0.354, p=0.001]), the years of monitoring in the diabetic outpatient department (mean 9.08±5.64 years [r=0.221, p=0.005]) and poor regulation, as assessed by the concentration of HbA1c (28.8% [r=0.415, p=0.001]). The most frequent complications recorded were sexual impairment in the men (52.8%), which was strongly age-related [r=0.459, p=0.001], and retinopathy (40.2% [r=0.369, p=0.001]), neuropathy (34.8% [r=0.304, p=0.001]) and nephropathy (22% [r=0.344, p=0.001]), which were correlated with the duration of disease and depression. CONCLUSIONS The majority of this sample of patients with DM presented a low or medium degree of depression, which was observed to be correlated with poor glycemic control. The presence of most chronic complications, and particularly neuropathy, was strongly associated with the appearance of symptoms of depression. Appropriate investigation, evaluation of difficulties and creation of a protective environment are very important for the resolution of problems associated with DM, the adaptation of the individual, the prevention of complications and achievement of optimal regulation of DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gefaesschirurgie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aim. The aim of the present study was to record habits and attitudes of primary school students in Greece regarding sunprotection measures. Materials and Methods. 2,163 students with an average age of 9.9 (±1.1) years, studying in 14 schools of a Greek region, constituted our sample. The SPSS 17.0 software was used for the statistical analysis and significance level was set to P = 0.05. Results. Our sample had an equal gender distribution. 16% of the students belonged to the high-risk group, 70.2% of the participants lived 0-5 km away from the sea (urban area), 84.2% of the students were Greek, and 15.8% had non-Greek nationality. Half of the participants said they wear a hat when under the sun and 72% of them said they use sunscreen. 33.1% of the students said they had a sunburn last summer. Greek students as well as those who lived near the sea had better behaviour patterns regarding sun protection. Finally, children who did not use a sunscreen systematically had suffered sunburns more often than the rest. Conclusions. Health education programmes are necessary for students and parents/teachers alike, in order to raise awareness about everyday sun protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gefaesschirurgie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Physicians report outpatient quality measures from data in electronic health records to facilitate care improvement and qualify for incentive payments. Objective: To determine the frequency and validity of exceptions to quality measures and to test a system for classifying the reasons for these exceptions. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Setting: 5 internal medicine or cardiology practices. Participants: 47 075 patients with coronary artery disease between 2006 and 2007. Measurements: Counts of adherence with and exceptions to 4 quality measures, on the basis of automatic reports of recommended drug therapy by computer software and separate manual reviews of electronic health records. Results: 3.5% of patients who had a drug recommended had an exception to the drug and were not prescribed it (95% CI, 3.4% to 3.7%). Clinicians did prescribe the recommended drug for many other patients with exceptions. In 538 randomly selected records, 92.6% (CI, 90.3% to 94.9%) of the exceptions reported automatically by computer software were also exceptions during manual review. Most medical exceptions were clinical contraindications, drug allergies, or drug intolerances. In 592 randomly selected records, an unreported exception or a drug prescription was found during manual review for 74.6% (CI, 71.1% to 78.1%) of patients for whom automatic reporting recorded a quality failure. Limitation: The study used a convenience sample of practices, nonstandardized data extraction methods, only drug-related quality measures, and no financial incentives. Conclusion: Exceptions to recommended therapy occur infrequently and are usually valid. Physicians frequently prescribed drugs even when exceptions were present. Automated reports of quality failure often miss critical information. Primary Funding Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gefaesschirurgie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Der Nephrologe is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forschung im Ingenieurwesen is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aim: Studies have shown lower infection rates of port systems compared to established, transcutaneous cuffed-tunneled dialysis catheters. This was shown in otherwise quite healthy patients starting hemodialysis treatment. It is unclear to what extent these results can be applied to countries such as Germany where, unlike the US, central venous access systems are used mainly for patients with a high comorbidity. We investigated complications in patients with exhausted access sites and a high comorbidity. Method: In a retrospective, representative multicenter study, 34 patients with a high rate of comorbidity were assessed. The age was 67.5 ± 12.5 years, the median number of failed AV fistulas or AV grafts was 4 (0 - 18). Results: The survival rate was 84.9%, 5 5.2% and 5 5.2% after 6, 12 and 24 months, respectively. The rate of local and systemic infections was 2.83 per 1,000 patient days. Thrombotic events occurred at a rate of 2.26 per 1,000 patient days. We did not see a statistically significant effect using 0.2% sodium oxychlorosene (n 13) or 70% isopropyl alcohol solution (n 21) as the antimicrobial solution used before opening the valve of the port with the dialysis needle. Conclusions: We showed that complications of hemodialysis treatment using Life Site vascular access systems in patients with very high co-morbidity in Germany seem to occur less often than those reported for cuffed-tunneled catheters and were not more frequent than those reported for other patient groups using LifeSites in the US. Technical survival rates were encouraging for up to two years. Life Site port systems might be a good or even better central venous access than cuffed-tunneled catheters for patients in which an AV fistula or -graft is not possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments were performed on the motion of isolated air bubbles and drops of Fluorinert FC-75 moving in a Dow-Corning silicone oil under the action of an applied temperature gradient in a reduced gravity environment aboard the Space Shuttle in orbit. The disturbance of the imposed temperature field due to the motion of the objects was studied optically using a shearing interferometer with a Wollaston prism and the results of a typical bubble run were compared with theoretical predictions. Also, the liquid velocity field surrounding the bubbles and drops has been qualitatively investigated in a few runs by the observation of tracer particles dispersed in the continuous phase fluid. The measurement techniques are described, and the results for the temperature and flow fields are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the combined action of buoyancy and thermocapillarity, the flow around a moving or stationary bubble, surrounded by a liquid matrix, exhibits a relative complex structure. The results of recent experiments show two different cases. First the buoyancy force is stronger than the thermocapillary force, secondly, the reverse relationship holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Heat & Mass Transfer is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forschung im Ingenieurwesen is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The in-and out-of-plane angular distributions for fission fragments in coincidence with projectile-like products from the reaction of 252 MeVNe withAu andU have been measured. The results are compared to a statistical model which has successfully explained γ-ray anisotropies from a heavy symmetric system. The agreement is rather good after proper consideration of the direction of the line-of-centers at contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connection between the characteristic features of reactions involving very heavy target-projectile combinations (e.g.Kr+Au) and lighter systems (e.g.Ar+Ag) is discussed. Evidence for an empirical scaling law based upon the ratio E/B (center-of-mass kinetic energy to Coulomb barrier) is presented. This scaling is justified in terms of semiquantitative arguments whereby the different charge and angular distribution patterns from light and heavy target-projectile combinations are correlated with different lifetime regimes for the 'intermediate complex' as it diffuses along the mass-asymmetry coordinate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

K-vacancy production probabilities in elastic 7.5- and 8.6-MeV/a.m.u. U+U collisions are reported for impact parameters less than 15 fm. In 7.5-MeV/a.m.u. U+U collisions the ionization probability rises above the trend indicated by larger impact parameter measurements, increasing to 1.8 vacancies per collision at the smallest impact parameter. The measured probabilities for 8.6-MeV/a.m.u. collisions increase to a maximum value of slightly less than 2 vacancies per collision at the smallest impact parameters. The data is compared to previous results and existing theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently the most used perfusion techniques during aortic arch surgery to prevent cerebral damage include hypothermic circulatory arrest, retrograde cerebral perfusion and selective cerebral perfusion (SCP). The application of simplified SCP, which does not require deep hypothermia, has become an alternative procedure for brain protection. Including the physiological principle of autoregulated cerebral blood flow, cerebral perfusion flow is not predetermined, but differentiated from the different cannula sizes for the lower and upper body perfusion. In a mock circulation loop, we could show that resistance changes in the two compartments led to flow shifts between the systemic and brachiocephalic regions. In addition to mechanical factors, cerebral perfusion is determined from physiological changes. In practice, these shifts can be initiated with disrupted autoregulation due to ph-stat management or dramatic pressure changes. To prevent mismatched cerebral perfusion extended perioperative monitoring was included in our clinical setting. With bilateral somatosensory evoked potentials, a computer-aided topographical electroencephalometry system, transcranial doppler- sonography and jugular venous bulb saturation, we could provide a sufficient bihemispheric perfusion. Between 1990 and 1995 we operated on 21 patients using SCP. Intraoperatively no signs of cerebral ischaemia due to inadequate perfusion could be observed. Only temporary neurological changes were found postoperatively. In summary, the simplified SCP, despite its physiological basis, is intricately involved in control and influence. We think that the application of SCP is safe if extended neurophysiological monitoring is included in the clinical setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1991 European Homograft Bank (EHB) initiated a program of cryopreservation and distribution of large arteries to meet a new demand for quality-controlled arterial homo grafts of various sizes. From May 1991 to June 1995, 308 arteries have been registered from 136 donors: 122 brain death cases and 14 cadavers (mean age 34 years, male/female ratio 1.52/1); 263 arteries were cryopreserved (113 aortas, 64 aortic bifur cations, and 86 femoral); 19 were discarded for atherosclerosis (6.7%); 10 batches of arteries were partially or totally discarded because of persistent contamination and further eight batches for positive or doubtful viral serology. One hundred patients were treated in nine European centers with one (N = 69) or more EHB homografts. Indications were: infected prosthesis 70 (17 with aortoenteric fistula); mycotic aneurysm 19 (four ascending aortas, two with bronchial fistula); neoplastic infiltration of subrenal aorta one; extracardiac reconstructions/shunts 10. (continued on next page) (Abstract continued) Results from homograft reconstructions in infected prosthesis or mycotic aneurysm were available in 90 patients. There were 19 early deaths and 24 early complications, three were directly graft-related and included a fatal case of homograft rupture. Sixty- seven vascular cases were followed up from 1 month onward (mean: 16 months): 50 were uneventful; there were nine late deaths, of which two resulted from graft-related digestive hemorrhage; there were eight cases of late complications; three arteries were partly explanted as a result of focal thrombosis. Four patients were lost to follow-up. In the cases of aortoenteric fistula, however, the results were disappointing with only five late survivors of the 16 treated patients. Finally, these results show that cryopreserved arteries seem to perform as well in the midterm as the fresh ones.Both the banking activity of cryopreserved homografts and the short- to mid-term performances of the implants in cases of prosthetic or native arterial infection are very satisfactory, provided no aortoenteric fistula is present. Cryopreserved arteries can also be used for extracardiac shunts and reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]