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Identification of stable regularities in the distribution of heavy metals and radionuclides in soil profiles of the East European Plain is an important scientific and practical task. Heavy metals are easily included in the biological cycle, getting into the human body, are accumulated in the bones, tissues, causing incurable disease, which may subsequently proceed unnoticed. The peculiarity of radioactive pollutants is that they usually do not change the level of soil fertility, but accumulate in crops. Therefore, maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) of radionuclides have been established for human food and animal feed. When analyzing the results of the study, it was revealed that soil horizons are well traced by the content of heavy metals, which makes it possible to get an idea of the soil profile structure by the content of heavy metals in them. The content of natural radionuclides in carbonate yellow-brown clays was established for the first time. According to the obtained correlation data of radionuclides and gross content of heavy metals and a number of oxides of heavy metals with a sufficient degree of reliability we can determine the content of this or that radionuclide, being aware of the percentage content of the element or oxide in the soil.

The low-temperature linear and nonlinear transport on nanoperforated titanium nitride films is experimentally studied. A metallic Bose state is shown to appear in the system, and it transforms into a metallic state in a magnetic field. The linear and differential magnetoresistances of the system exhibit oscillations. A vortex Mott insulator was shown to transfer into a metallic state when a direct current passes through a film.

We investigate the low temperature complex impedance of disordered insulating thin TiN and NbTiN films in the frequency region 400 Hz–1MHz in close proximity to the superconductor-insulator transition. The frequency, temperature, and magnetic field dependence of the real and imaginary parts of the impedance indicate the response of superconducting droplets resulting from self-induced electronic granularity. The impedance crosses over from capacitive to inductive behavior as the sample is driven through the transition, characterized by a divergent dielectric response.

We investigate the low-temperature complex impedance of disordered insulating thin TiN and NbTiN films in the frequency region 400 Hz–1 MHz in close proximity to the superconductor–insulator transition (SIT). The frequency, temperature, and magnetic field dependencies of the real and imaginary parts of the impedance indicate that in full accord with the theoretical predictions and earlier observations, the films acquire self-induced electronic granularity and become effectively random arrays of superconducting granules coupled via Josephson links. Accordingly, the inductive component of the response is due to superconducting droplets, while the capacitive component results from the effective Josephson junctions capacitances. The impedance crosses over from capacitive to inductive behavior as films go across the transition.

To identify clinical factors associated with cancer risk in the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) and to systematically review the existing evidence related to cancer screening. A systematic literature search was carried out on Medline, Embase and Scopus. Cancer risk within the IIM population (i.e. not compared with the general population) was expressed as risk ratios (RR) for binary variables and weighted mean differences (WMD) for continuous variables. Evidence relating to cancer screening practices in the IIMs were synthesized via narrative review. Sixty-nine studies were included in the meta-analysis. DM subtype (RR 2.21), older age (WMD 11.19), male sex (RR 1.53), dysphagia (RR 2.09), cutaneous ulceration (RR 2.73) and anti-transcriptional intermediary factor-1 gamma positivity (RR 4.66) were identified as being associated with significantly increased risk of cancer. PM (RR 0.49) and clinically amyopathic DM (RR 0.44) subtypes, Raynaud's phenomenon (RR 0.61), interstitial lung disease (RR 0.49), very high serum creatine kinase (WMD −1189.96) or lactate dehydrogenase (WMD −336.52) levels, and anti-Jo1 (RR 0.45) or anti-EJ (RR 0.17) positivity were identified as being associated with significantly reduced risk of cancer. Nine studies relating to IIM-specific cancer screening were included. CT scanning of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis appeared to be effective in identifying underlying asymptomatic cancers. Cancer risk factors should be evaluated in patients with IIM for risk stratification. Screening evidence is limited but CT scanning could be useful. Prospective studies and consensus guidelines are needed to establish cancer screening strategies in IIM patients

Objectives To identify clinical factors associated with cancer risk in the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) and to systematically review the existing evidence related to cancer screening. Methods A systematic literature search was carried out on Medline, Embase and Scopus. Cancer risk within the IIM population (i.e. not compared with the general population) was expressed as risk ratios (RR) for binary variables and weighted mean differences (WMD) for continuous variables. Evidence relating to cancer screening practices in the IIMs were synthesized via narrative review. Results Sixty-nine studies were included in the meta-analysis. DM subtype (RR 2.21), older age (WMD 11.19), male sex (RR 1.53), dysphagia (RR 2.09), cutaneous ulceration (RR 2.73) and anti-transcriptional intermediary factor-1 gamma positivity (RR 4.66) were identified as being associated with significantly increased risk of cancer. PM (RR 0.49) and clinically amyopathic DM (RR 0.44) subtypes, Raynaud’s phenomenon (RR 0.61), interstitial lung disease (RR 0.49), very high serum creatine kinase (WMD −1189.96) or lactate dehydrogenase (WMD −336.52) levels, and anti-Jo1 (RR 0.45) or anti-EJ (RR 0.17) positivity were identified as being associated with significantly reduced risk of cancer. Nine studies relating to IIM-specific cancer screening were included. CT scanning of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis appeared to be effective in identifying underlying asymptomatic cancers. Conclusion Cancer risk factors should be evaluated in patients with IIM for risk stratification. Screening evidence is limited but CT scanning could be useful. Prospective studies and consensus guidelines are needed to establish cancer screening strategies in IIM patients.

The suppression of superconductivity in disordered systems is a fundamental problem of condensed matter physics. Here we investigate the superconducting niobium-titanium-nitride (Nb_{1-x}Ti_{x}N) thin films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) where disorder is controlled by the slight tuning of the ALD process parameters. We observe the smooth crossover from the disorder-driven superconductor-normal metal transition (often reffered to as fermionic mechanism) to the case where bosonic mechanism dominates and increasing disorder leads to formation of metal with Cooper pairing. We show that, in moderately disordered films, the transition to zero-resistance state occurs in a full agreement with the conventional theories of superconducting fluctuations and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. However, the critically disordered films violate this accord showing low-temperature features possibly indicating the Bose metal phase. We show that it is the interrelation between film's sheet resistance in the maximum, R_{max}, of the resistive curve R(T) and R_q = h/4e^2 that distinguishes between these two behaviors. We reveal the characteristic features in magnetoresistance of the critically disordered films with R_{max} > R_q, 8 pages, 3 figures

We study the electronic densities of states (DOS) of strongly disordered superconducting thin films of TiN. We find, using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) that the DOS decreases towards the Fermi level in the normal phase obtained by applying magnetic fields. The DOS shows spatial fluctuations whose length scale is related to the energy dependent DOS and is similar in normal and superconducting phases. This suggests that Coulomb interactions lead to a spatially varying DOS in the normal phase of a disordered superconductor.

A low-temperature intervening metallic regime arising in the two-dimensional superconductor-insulator transition challenges our understanding of electronic fluids. Here we develop a gauge theory revealing that this emergent anomalous metal is a bosonic topological insulator where bulk transport is suppressed by mutual statistics interactions between out-of-condensate Cooper pairs and vortices and the longitudinal conductivity is mediated by symmetry-protected gapless edge modes. We explore the magnetic-field-driven superconductor-insulator transition in a niobium titanium nitride device and find marked signatures of a bosonic topological insulator behavior of the intervening regime with the saturating resistance. The observed superconductor-anomalous metal and insulator-anomalous metal dual phase transitions exhibit quantum Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless criticality in accord with the gauge theory., 10 pages, 5 figures

Experimental results indicating a direct disorder-induced superconductor–insulator transition in NbTiN thin films have been reported. It has been shown that an increase in the resistance per square in the normal state is accompanied by the suppression of the critical temperature of the superconducting transition Tc according to the fermion mechanism of suppression of superconductivity by disorder. At the same time, the temperature of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition is completely suppressed at a nonzero critical temperature and, then, the ground state changes to insulating, which is characteristic of the boson model of suppression of superconductivity by disorder. It has been shown that the temperature dependences of the resistance of insulating films follow the Arrhenius activation law.

The low-temperature transport properties of titanium nitride wires with the width comparable with or much larger than the superconducting coherence length are studied experimentally. It is shown that the reduction of the width of wires does not affect the transport properties at the temperatures above the superconducting transition temperature and electron transport in this temperature range is determined by quantum contributions to the conductivity from weak localization and electron–electron interaction. It is established that the reduction of the width of wires does not change the superconducting transition temperature but completely suppresses the topological Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition. It is found that the threshold magnetic field increases with a decrease in the width of wires.

The nature of hadrons is one of the most fundamental mysteries of physics. It is generally agreed that they are made of “colored” quarks, which move nearly free at short scales but are confined inside hadrons by strong interactions at large distances. Because of confinement, quarks are never directly observable and, experimentally, their properties can be tested only indirectly, via high energy collisions. Here we show that superinsulating films realize a complete, one-color model system of hadron physics with Cooper pairs playing the role of quarks. We report measurements on highly controlled NbTiN films that provide a window into the interior of "Cooper pair mesons" and present the first direct evidence of asymptotic freedom, ‘t Hooft’s dual superconductivity confinement mechanism, and magnetic monopoles. Quarks in the interior of hadrons make up most of ordinary matter, yet their observation is not possible, and their properties can only be probed indirectly. Adopting an analogy between physics of superinsulators and high energy physics, the authors present direct observations of the interior of electric mesons made of Cooper pairs by standard transport measurements.

We developed novel techniques to fabricate atomically thin ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2.1}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{1.9}{\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2.0}{\mathrm{O}}_{8+\ensuremath{\delta}}$ van der Waals heterostructures down to two unit cells while maintaining a transition temperature ${T}_{c}$ close to the bulk, and carry out magnetotransport measurements on these van der Waals devices. We find a double sign change of the Hall resistance ${R}_{xy}$ as in the bulk system, spanning both below and above ${T}_{c}$. Further, we observe a drastic enlargement of the region of sign reversal in the temperature-magnetic field phase diagram with decreasing thickness of the device. We obtain quantitative agreement between experimental ${R}_{xy}(T,B)$ and the predictions of the vortex dynamics-based description of Hall effect in high-temperature superconductors both above and below ${T}_{c}$.

Objective.Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a disfiguring inflammatory breast disease without effective treatment. We report the largest IGM cohort treated with methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy.Methods.Chart review was performed on patients evaluated by the Stanford Immunology and Rheumatology Clinic, with histopathologically established IGM treated with MTX, and at least 1 followup appointment.Results.Nineteen female patients with a mean age of 33.5 years were identified. Most failed treatment with antibiotics, prednisone, and surgical intervention. By 15 months of treatment with MTX, 94% had disease improvement and 75% achieved disease remission.Conclusion.MTX monotherapy is an effective treatment for IGM.

We developed novel techniques to fabricate atomically thin Bi_{2.1}Sr_{1.9}CaCu_{2.0}O_{8+δ} van der Waals heterostructures down to two unit cells while maintaining a transition temperature T_{c} close to the bulk, and carry out magnetotransport measurements on these van der Waals devices. We find a double sign change of the Hall resistance R_{xy} as in the bulk system, spanning both below and above T_{c}. Further, we observe a drastic enlargement of the region of sign reversal in the temperature-magnetic field phase diagram with decreasing thickness of the device. We obtain quantitative agreement between experimental R_{xy}(T,B) and the predictions of the vortex dynamics-based description of Hall effect in high-temperature superconductors both above and below T_{c}.

We investigate the evolution of the electronic transport in disordered NbTiN films at the insulating side of the superconductor-insulator transition as function of the effective system size along the current direction. We demonstrate that both, the threshold voltage characterizing low-temperature superinsulating phase, and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless criticality of the conductance above the superinsulator critical temperature, vanish upon increasing disorder taking the system far from the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition. We find that decrease in the system’s effective size suppresses its insulating and superinsulating properties and that threshold voltage drops linearly with the diminishing system size. We demonstrate that this linear dependence can be used for experimental measurement of the linear tension of the electric string binding Cooper pairs and anti-Cooper pairs in a superinsulator.

Uvod: Zdravstvena oskrba v bolnišnicah je povezana s specifičnim tveganjem nastanka okužb, povezanih z zdravstvom, zato so zaposleni v zdravstvu dolžni izvajati dejavnosti ter ukrepe, ki vodijo k preprečevanju le-teh. Kontaminirane roke zdravstvenih uslužbencev z različnimi patogenimi organizmi so idealen medij za prenos mikroorganizmov s pacientove kože na kožo ali na sluznice drugega pacienta in njegovo okolico. S higieno rok se pojmuje umivanje in razkuževanje rok, kirurško umivanje in razkuževanje rok, uporaba rokavic, izvajanje tehnike nedotikanja in nega rok. Namen: Namen diplomskega dela je predstaviti standarde za izvajanje umivanja in razkuževanja rok v izbranih bolnišnicah v Sloveniji ter jih med seboj primerjati. Metode dela: Uporabili smo deskriptivno metodo. Vključili smo strokovno in znanstveno literaturo iz podatkovnih baz COBISS.SI, ScienceDirect, CINAH, PubMed in Medline. V raziskavi je uporabljena literatura od 2008 do 2018. Znanstveno in strokovno literaturo smo kritično pregledali in upoštevali določene predpostavke, da se vsebina članka navezuje na vzdrževanje higiene rok ter da se članek navezuje na bolnišnice. Rezultati: Primerjali smo standarde treh slovenskih bolnišnic - Bolnišnice Topolšica, Univerzitetnega kliničnega centra Ljubljana in Splošne bolnišnice Celje. Primerjali smo jih po navedenih standardnih ukrepih za preprečevanje okužb, kaj zajema pojem higiena rok, kdaj si je potrebno higiensko umiti/razkužiti roke, opis tehnike umivanja/razkuževanja rok ter pregled minimalnih tehničnih pogojev, potrebnih za ustrezno higieno rok. Razprava: Standardni ukrepi za preprečevanje okužb so vzdrževanje higiene rok, uporaba osebne varovalne opreme ter čiščenje in razkuževanje pacientove okolice. Roke si je potrebno higiensko umiti/razkužiti glede na splošna pravila osebne higiene, po socialnih stikih, kadar so vidno umazane z organskim materialom ter pred prihodom in odhodom z delovnega mesta. Tehnike umivanja/razkuževanja rok opisujejo, da si je potrebno odstraniti ves nakit, umiva/razkužuje se celotno površino rok ter pri umivanju se roke splahne in osuši z brisačkami za enkratno uporabo. Minimalni tehnični pogoji so tekoča voda, milo, umivalnik, brisačke za enkratno uporabo, razkužilo in koš za smeti. Zaključek: V zdravstvu ima vzdrževanje higiene na delovnem mestu pomembno vlogo. Kljub priporočilom, zavezam in raziskavam ugotavljamo, da se umivanje in razkuževanje rok v zdravstvenih ustanovah ne izvaja učinkovito. Stopnja obolevnosti za bolnišničnimi okužbami je velika. Preprečevanje le-teh prinaša zdravstveni negi izzive, s katerimi se bo potrebno v bodoče soočiti Introduction: Hospital healthcare is linked with the specific risk of healthcare-associated infections healthcare workers are therefore required to carry out activities and measures that will prevent such infections. Health professionals' pathogen-contaminated hands are an ideal medium for transfering microorganisms from one patient's skin to the skin or mucous membranes of another patient as well as their surroundings. Hand hygiene is regarded as hand washing and disinfecting, surgical hand scrubing and disinfecting, use of gloves, implementation of non-touch techniques and hand care. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma thesis is to present the standards for the implementation of hand washing and disinfection in the selected hospitals in Slovenia and compare them with each other. Methods of work: We used the descriptive method. We included professional and scientific literature from the COBISS.SI, ScienceDirect, CINAH, PubMed and Medline databases. Literature ranging from 2008 to 2018 is used in the research. All literature has been critically examined with certain assumptions taken into account - that the article content relates to the maintenance of hand hygiene and that the article relates to hospitals. Results: We compared the standards of three Slovenian hospitals - Topolšica Hospital, University Medical Centre Ljubljana and General Hospital Celje. We compared them according to the aforementioned standard measures for the infection prevention, which include the concept of hand hygiene, when it is necessary to hygienically wash/disinfect hands, a description of the technique of hand washing / disinfecting and an overview of the minimum technical conditions necessary for proper hand hygiene. Discussion: Standard measures to prevent infections include maintaining hygiene, using personal protective equipment in addition to cleaning and disinfecting the patient's surroundings. Hands should be hygienically washed /disinfected according to the general rules of personal hygiene, after social contacts, when visibly soiled with organic material and before arriving and leaving the workplace. The hand washing /disinfecting technique requires that all jewelry needs to be removed, followed by washing the entire surface of the hands, rinsing and drying using disposable paper towels. Minimum technical conditions include running water, soap, a sink, disposable paper towels, disinfectant and a waste bin. Conclusion: Maintainig hygiene at work is important in healthcare. Despite the recommendations, commitments and research we find that hand washing and disinfecting in health facilities is not performed effectively. There is a high incidence of hospital-acquired infections. Preventing these infections brings challenges into healthcare that will need to be addressed in the future.