Search

Item does not contain fulltext 42 p.

Background Prostate cancer is a leading disease affecting men worldwide. Conflicting evidence within the literature provides little guidance to men contemplating whether or not to be screened for prostate cancer. This systematic review aimed to determine whether decision aids about early detection of prostate cancer improve patient knowledge and decision making about whether to undergo prostate‐specific antigen testing. Methods Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects and Health Technology Assessment databases up until March 2014 were searched. All included randomised controlled trials were assessed for methodological quality. Clinical selection and assessment heterogeneity among studies prevented the pooling of data for meta‐analyses. Descriptive analyses of all included studies and comparison were performed. Results A total of 13 randomised controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. Significant heterogeneity was present for the design and implementation of decision aids including comparative interventions and outcomes. Eight studies were of a low methodological quality, with the remaining five of medium quality. Improvements in patient knowledge following use of a decision aid were demonstrated by 11 of the 13 included studies. Seven of 10 studies demonstrated a reduction in decisional conflict/distress. Three of four studies demonstrated no difference between a decision aid and information only in reducing decisional uncertainty. Three of five studies demonstrated an increase in decisional satisfaction with use of a decision aid. Conclusions Decision aids increase patient knowledge and confidence in decision making about prostate cancer testing. Further research into effective methods of implementation is needed.

Background: No study has compared allergic sensitization patterns in infants with atopic eczema from different countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the patterns of allergic sensitization in a cohort of infants with atopic eczema participating in a multicentre, international study. Methods: Two thousand one hundred and eighty-four infants (mean age 17.6 months) with atopic eczema from allergic families were screened in 94 centres in 12 countries to participate in a randomized trial for the early prevention of asthma. Clinical history, Severity Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis Index, measurements for total serum IgE and specific IgE antibodies to eight food and inhalant allergens were entered into a database before randomization to treatment. A history of type of feeding in the first weeks of life and exposure to animals was recorded. Results: A total of 52.9% of the infants had raised total IgE, and 55.5% were sensitized to at least one allergen. There was a wide difference in the total IgE values and in the sensitization rates to foods and aeroallergens among infants from different countries. The highest prevalence rates of allergen-sensitized infants were found in Australia (83%), the UK (79%) and Italy (76%). Infants from Belgium and Poland consistently had the lowest sensitization rates. In each country, a characteristic pattern of sensitization was found for aeroallergens (house dust mite > cat > grass pollen > Alternaria), but not for food allergens. Conclusions: In infants with atopic eczema, there is a wide variation in the pattern of allergic sensitization between countries, and data from one country are not necessarily generalizable to other countries.

Reactor physics deals with theoretical and applied investigations with the aim to use the obtained results in nuclear engineering for designing, building and safe operating of nuclear reactors. Among scientific and engineering disciplines, commonly named nuclear technologies, reactor physics is a discipline that directly stems from nuclear sciences and it has not had an analogue base in the standard technologies. The basic studies cover theoretical and experimental determination of static and dynamic parameters of fission systems, burn up of nuclear fuel, investigation of parameters of nuclear engineering materials, prediction of behaviour of fission systems during probable accidents and estimation of their consequences. The basic and roadmap of development in reactor physics and engineering in Serbia during the second half of the 20th century are given in this paper. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Geo-Sciences, Conference on Applied Physics in Serbia, May 27-29, 2002, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

Submitted by Lurdes Grilo (lurdesgrilo@ipcb.pt) on 2021-05-18T12:56:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Assessing engineering students_Manuscript_Revised_Version.pdf: 482512 bytes, checksum: 1b8be0659b3a7c8c799f06ed76e4596d (MD5) Approved for entry into archive by Lurdes Grilo (lurdesgrilo@ipcb.pt) on 2021-05-18T12:57:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Assessing engineering students_Manuscript_Revised_Version.pdf: 482512 bytes, checksum: 1b8be0659b3a7c8c799f06ed76e4596d (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2021-05-18T12:58:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Assessing engineering students_Manuscript_Revised_Version.pdf: 482512 bytes, checksum: 1b8be0659b3a7c8c799f06ed76e4596d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Despite the widespread clinical use of cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitors, dilemmas regarding the potential impact of these drugs on the cardiovascular system persist.To estimate the effects of different COX inhibitors (meloxicam, acetylsalicylic acid [ASA] and SC-560) on cardiac function and coronary flow in isolated rat hearts, with special focus on the L-arginine/nitric oxide system.The hearts of eight-week-old male Wistar albino rats (n=72; 12 rats per group; body mass 180 g to 200 g) were retrogradely perfused according to the Langendorff technique at gradually increased perfusion pressure (40 cmH2O to 120 cmH2O). After control experiments, the hearts were perfused with the following drugs: 100 μM ASA, alone or in combination with 30 μM N(ω)-nitro-L-arginine monomethyl ester (L-NAME), 0.3 μM meloxicam with or without 30 μM L-NAME, 3 μM meloxicam with or without 30 μM L-NAME, 30 μM L-NAME and 0.25 μM SC-560. In the control and experimental groups, the following parameters of heart function were continuously recorded: maximum rate of left ventricular pressure development, minimum rate of left ventricular pressure development, systolic left ventricular pressure, diastolic left ventricular pressure, heart rate and mean blood pressure. Coronary flow was measured flowmetrically. The amount of released NO2 (-) was determined spectrophotometrically in coronary venous effluent.While meloxicam and SC-560 were found to have an adverse influence on cardiac function and coronary perfusion, ASA did not negatively affect the intact model of the heart.It appeared that interaction between COX and the L-arginine/nitric oxide system truly exists in coronary circulation and may explain the causes of the observed effects.

This paper presents the design flow from system-level specifications to transistor-level design for three different fully-differential amplifiers composing the first and the second integrator of a second-order hybrid multi-bit ΔΣ modulator. The circuit-level specifications for each amplifier are extracted using behavioral models and timedomain system-level simulations with a SNDR target value of 93 dB ± 2 dB. The amplifiers are designed using the structured analog design methodology consisting of circuit partitioning into basic analog blocks, specification derivation for each basic block, and transistor sizing in a specific design sequence. Transistor-level design is based on the choice of the inversion factor and the transistor length to achieve the required specifications of each block. After all three analog amplifiers are sized, the system-level performance is confirmed by time-domain simulations, and the obtained SNDR value is within the specified range. Copyright © 2007 by Department of Microelectronics & Computer Science, Technical University of Lodz.