Problem For Several Years Research Articles

Задержки раннего развития у детей с краниоцеребральной диспропорцией

The article offers a description of an urgent medical problem that has been actively considered as an interdisciplinary problem for several years. The author considers the formation of child development delays as an element of pathogenesis in case of craniocerebral disproportion / nonsyndromiccraniosynostosis resulting from perinatal lesions of the central nervous system, and he describes this cause-and-effect relationship based on his own model [4,5] and literature data. 
 This approach makes it possible to introduce new details into the understanding of pathogenesis of developmental delays in young children and, consequently, to consider new methods of solving the problem of their correction.

Facing Justice Through Connecting French Literature and Service Learning to the Adjunct Problem

This article makes a case for addressing social justice issues through both service learning and the study of early modern French literature, while exploring the institutional inequity of adjunct instructors. It focuses on the pathway of the General Education Honors Program at California State University, Sacramento. This interdisciplinary program immerses students in the past in tandem with service-based pedagogy while focusing on a selected "wicked" problem for several years. This approach helps students understand how they read through their own social position and how they can use this knowledge to drive the creation of engaged projects for the common good.

Kenneth (Ken) Ronald Walter Brewer (1931–2021)

Kenneth (Ken) Ronald Walter Brewer (1931–2021)

Design and Analysis of Dynamic Comparator Implemented Using Stacking Technique

Comparatorsareone of the basic devices that is mostly used in analog-to-digital converters (ADC). Designing low-power circuits with CMOS technology has been a serious research problem for several years. Nowadays the need of low power electronics became vital in various fields. In this paper, stacking technique is used to reduce the power consumed by the comparator.65nm CMOS process is used to design and simulate the comparator. The power consumption ofproposed comparator is compared with thepower consumption of double tail dynamic latch comparator. The proposed approach obtained less power consumption results.

Antibiotic self-medication and knowledge about antimicrobial resistance among medical and non-medical students of the University of Dodoma, Tanzania

Background: Antibiotic misuse and overuse are the major driving factors of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). High-income countries have been conscious of the problem for several years, while Tanzania shows the increasing trend of self-medication with antibacterial drugs. This study aimed to compare the antibiotics use practice and awareness about AMR among undergraduate students of the largest Tanzanian university. Methods and materials: Self-administered questionnaires were distributed among 2nd year medical (MDS) and non-medical students (non-MDS) at the University of Dodoma, Tanzania. A total of 356 respondent's answers were analyzed in the study. Statistical analysis was done by using MedCalc statistical software. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Non-MDS were more prone to use self-medication with antibiotics compared to MDS group: 46.2% and 35.1%, respectively (OR 1.58, 95%CI: 1.0 to 2.5). Among them, 45.5% of non-MDS and 49.2% of MDS reported an inability to visit a doctor as the main reason for the self-treatment. Moreover, non-MDS replied that they did not attend the doctor for financial reasons (OR 4.64, 95%CI: 2.05 to 10.46). Most students relied on a previous experience to choose medicine type: 76.3% MDS and 57.6% non-MDS (OR 2.36, 95%CI: 1.09 to 5.13). The next most common approach, notably popular among Tanzanian students, was to follow Pharmacist's recommendations: 22% MDS and 24.2% non-MDS. All surveyed participants demonstrated a high level of awareness regarding the antibiotic indications. However, less than half of MDS (46.2%) knew about AMR, and only 19.1% of non-MDS were familiar with the problem (OR 3.63, 95%CI 2.22 to 5.95). Furthermore, 48.8% of MD and 27.3% of non-MD students did not finish an entire course of antibiotics (OR 2.54, 95%CI 1.58 to 4.09) and stopped taking a drug mainly when the symptoms of disease disappeared. Analysis of antibiotic trends showed Ampicillin, Amoxicillin and others from Penicillin group to be the most popular among Tanzanian undergraduates. However, many students confused antibiotics, pain killers and antiallergic medicines. Conclusion: Our findings indicated the high rate of self-medication with antibiotics and AMR illiteracy among undergraduate students that proved the necessity of educational programs, antibiotic use guidance and the control of sales of antibiotics in the country.

Comparison of somatic characteristics and motion prerequisites between children who perform organized physical activities, and children not engaged in sports

Low physical activity in children of pre-school and younger school age has been a multifaceted problem for several years, which is being addressed by several scientists, primarily doctors, educationalists, and psychologists. The purpose of our study is to compare somatic and motion prerequisites among physically active and physically inactive children from the first grades of primary schools in the Pilsen region. The research sample consisted of 753 pupils from the first grades of primary schools in the Pilsen region, of which 421 boys and 332 girls. Of a total number of pupils, 176 (23.4%) girls and 275 (36.5%) boys are engaged in any sporting activities. At the time of measurement, their average age was 6.87±0.59 years. To obtain somatic characteristics, body heights and weights of children were measured, and from the measured data, a body mass index (BMI) for the child category was calculated. To determine the level of motion prerequisites, we used the DMT 6-18 test battery, consisting of 8 tests. The tests are aim to assess the level of dynamic and explosive power, speed, coordination, balance, flexibility, and endurance. The results of our study highlight the fact that even in the age range of 6 to 7 years, there are significant differences between physically active and physically inactive children in the tests, which monitor motion prerequisites of children. Statistically significant differences were seen primarily in tests which monitor the level of fitness abilities, i.e. the components of the body health-oriented fitness.

Antibiotic Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Use Among Early Years Medical and Non-medical Students in Tanzania

Background and aim of the study: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been called one of the greatest threats of the century worldwide. Self-treatment with antibiotics impacts the most on AMR. High-income countries have been conscious of the problem for several years, while Tanzania shows the increasing trend of self-medication with antibacterial. We aimed to assess and compare knowledge and antibiotics use experience among Tanzanian medical (MD) and non-medical (non-MD) students. Methods: The current study was conducted in the largest Tanzanian university, the University of Dodoma. The study was based on questionnaire survey, which included questions regarding knowledge and experience of use of antibiotics, and socioeconomic situation of the respondent. Results: Medical students were found to be more educated about antimicrobials. Although no significant difference in antibiotics use among MD and non-MD was observed and MD had slightly higher percentage of self-treatment experience, factors associated with the self-treatment were different: educational for medical students and economic factor for non-medical. Analysis of antibiotic trends showed Ampicillin, Amoxicillin and others from Penicillin group to be the most popular among both of groups. Nevertheless, many students confused antibiotics, pain killers and antiallergic drugs. Conclusion: In general, results could have been predicted. The higher prevalence of self-treatment among early-years MD students, AMR illiteracy and common attitude to antibiotics proved again the necessity of antibiotic use guidance and control in the country.

Sensory and Physicochemical Evaluation of Acacia and Linden Honey Adulterated with Sugar Syrup.

Honey is produced by honeybees and is used as a food and medical product. Adulteration of honey has been a problem for several years now because of the relatively high price of honey on the market according to its valuable composition. The aim of our study is to determine the physicochemical properties of authentic Hungarian linden and acacia honeys (pure samples or manipulated ones blended with sugar syrup) as well as commercially available blends of European Union (EU) non-European Union (non-EU) honeys. Authentic linden and acacia were blended with sugar syrup at 10%, 20% and 50% concentration levels, and physicochemical properties were determined according to the methods of the International Honey Commission. Our objectives also included testing of the performance of electronic sensory techniques (electronic tongue (ET) and electronic nose (EN)) in the detection of adulteration, and the results are compared to the sensory profile analysis. The results provide good average recognition and prediction abilities for the classification of adulterated and authentic honeys (>90% for ET and higher than >80 for EN). Misclassifications were found only in the case of honey with 10% added sugar syrup. The methods were also able to reveal adulteration of independently predicted samples.

The Impact of the Fine Ambient Particle on Infertile Male's Sperm Quality

Introduction: Infertility has been a major problem for several years. Previously, infertility was often attributed to female factors. Recently, however, male factors have been found to contribute to 50% of the infertility cases overall. Male infertility is a multifactorial issue. A genetic disorder, abnormal endocrine system, structural anomaly, and environmental causes could lead to male infertility. Studies have revealed a link between fine air particles and decreased fertility. The aim of this study was to discover the effect of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), representing environmental fine particles, on male infertility. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively collected data from patients diagnosed as having infertility and visited National Taiwan University Hospital from January 2015 to October 2017. We recorded each patient's body weight, height, basic blood test, sperm analysis, and sex hormone profile. Air quality data, especially PM2.5 concentration, were acquired from the Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan. A total of 78 monitoring stations throughout Taiwan record PM2.5 concentrations (μg/m3) each hour automatically. Multivariate linear regression was used to detect independent factors affecting sperm count, concentration, motility, and morphology and sex hormone profile. Results:We observed regional and seasonal differences in the distributions of PM2.5 concentrations. In nearly all cities in Taiwan, the PM2.5 concentrations increased during early winter and continued to increase until next spring, with a peak around January and February. In particular, regional differences were observed in winter. The peak PM2.5 concentrations in southern and northern cities in Taiwan ranged between 35 and 40 μg/m3 and between 18 and 23 μg/m3, respectively. PM2.5 in central Taiwan reached as high as 30 μL/m3. By contrast, the eastern part of Taiwan had the lowest peak PM2.5, which was mostly &lt;15 μg/m3. The average 24-month PM2.5 concentration had a negative effect on sperm count, but the result was nonsignificant. Additionally, the effect of PM2.5 on sperm motility and morphology was minimal. Conclusion: In infertile Taiwanese men, there is a trend of a negative association between exposure to PM2.5 and sperm concentration and total sperm count. Exposure to ambient fine particles, especially PM2.5, might have a negative correlation with sperm quality, sex hormone balance, and the testicular microenvironment through different mechanisms.

Validation of a new “3D calorimetry” of hot nuclei with the HIPSE event generator

In nuclear thermodynamics, the determination of the excitation energy of hot nuclei is a fundamental experimental problem. Instrumental physicists have been trying to solve this problem for several years by building the most exhaustive 4Pi detector arrays and perfecting their calorimetry techniques. In a recent paper, a proposal for a new calorimetry, called "3D calorimetry", was made. It tries to optimize the separation between the particles and fragments emitted by the Quasi-Projectile and the other possible contributions. This can be achieved by determining the experimental probability for a given nucleus of a nuclear reaction to be emitted by the Quasi-Projectile. It has been developed for the INDRA data. In the present work, we wanted to dissect and validate this new method of characterization of a hot Quasi-Projectile. So we tried to understand and control it completely to determine these limits. Using the HIPSE event generator and a software simulating the functioning of INDRA, we were able to achieve this goal and provide a quantitative estimation of the quality of the QP characterization.

The use of educational platforms as teaching resource in mathematics

Dropping out from the school system at High School level has been a problem for several years; high levels of mathematics’ failing have been a recurring situation. This paper discusses how academic virtual counseling might be a tool to help students in math class. The methodological approach is based in the non-experimental, longitudinal model evolution and in the designs of evolutionary group analysis, we stated the possibility to generalize the results of the use of technological resources in the teaching of mathematics in order to find out if it is possible to improve the levels of students at a school in upper level education. According to this research, the use of educational platforms as a resource for the subject of mathematics represents not only a technological tool for teachers but also offers students the opportunity to view this subject as an academic challenge to overcome

First identification of Herpesvirus infections among endemic and exotic psittacines in Mexico

Veterinaria Mexico OA ISSN: 2448-6760 Cite this as: Turral Ramirez MM, Cordova Ponce R, Gonzalez Ruiz C, Castaneda Aceves G, Marin Flamand E, Garrido Farina G, Ramirez Alvarez H. First identification of Herpesvirus infections among endemic and exotic psittacines in Mexico. Veterinaria Mexico OA. 2017;4(4). doi: 10.21753/vmoa.4.4.469 . The illegal trafficking of exotic birds such as parrots is now the third most lucrative business in the world and has been a problem for several years. As a result of this trafficking, there has been an increase in the emergence of exotic diseases. Herpesvirus is a pathogen of psittacines that has not been identified in Mexico to date. Through the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays and pathological analyses, the present study demonstrates the presence of herpesvirus in endemic and exotic psittacines in Mexico. The study was based on 50 birds, with clinical signs of herpervirus infection, and 45 clinically healthy birds. DNA samples were obtained from proctodaeal cells of the healthy birds, collected through the use of an enema; additionally, the liver, kidneys, brain, large intestines, and lungs of five birds exhibiting clinical signs suggestive of herpesvirus infection, were collected and fixed in buffered formalin for histopathological examination. PCR assays revealed herpesvirus infection in 8 clinically healthy birds, including four exotic species, and one endemic species. On necropsy, four of the five birds with clinical signs of herpesvirus infection showed lesions caused by herpesvirus, and the presence of intranuclear inclusion bodies in various tissues. Thus, these results demonstrate that there is a high risk of herpesvirus infection in endemic Mexican psittacines, which could significantly impact the health of these populations. Figure 5. a) Liver with mononuclear infiltrate (MNI) (100× magnification). The image shows the parenchyma at the interstitial level with a mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate characterized by the presence of lymphocytes (L), plasma cells (P), and macrophages (MO). b) Liver with necrosis and mononuclear infiltrate (40× magnification). Zones of coagulative necrosis (N) delimited by the inflammatory mononuclear infiltrate (arrow) are evident. c) Kidney with necrosis and mononuclear infiltrate (10× magnification). Renal parenchyma with extensive areas of coagulative necrosis (N) between the cortex and the medulla were observed. These areas were characterized by a marked loss of architecture and cellular detail and were delimited by mononuclear inflammatory cells (arrows). d) Necrotic intestine (100× magnification). The intestine developed severe coagulative necrosis (N) throughout the mucosa. Additionally, inflammatory infiltrates of mononuclear cells were observed near the basal membrane of the mucosa (arrows).

Understanding the policy environment for immunization supply chains: Lessons learned from landscape analyses in Uganda and Senegal

As immunization programs around the world undergo rapid change and expansion, supply chain and logistics systems have become strained, making it increasingly challenging for national public health systems to provide reliable, safe, and efficient access to vaccines. Governments and immunization partners have been aware of this problem for several years, and in 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Effective Vaccine Management (EVM) process to help countries identify shortcomings in their immunization supply chains and develop plans for systematic improvement. EVM improvement plans now exist in all Gavi-eligible countries plus many middle- and upper-income countries; however, implementation has been slow and in many cases fraught with financial, managerial, structural, and political roadblocks. Recognizing that significant change of any kind requires a supportive policy environment and strong leadership, PATH began working in Uganda and Senegal to landscape the policy environment around immunization and identify relevant policies, administrative and technical roles and responsibilities, and other issues that may be affecting the supply chain for immunization.The policy landscape assessments included a desk review and a series of structured, in-depth interviews with key international, national, and local stakeholders. The findings highlighted a number of critical issues and challenges in both countries that may be preventing supply chains from functioning optimally. These challenges include a need for better coordination and planning between immunization programs and supply chain managers; the need for sufficient, timely and reliable financing for all aspects of immunization programs; the need for high-level managers trained in immunization supply chain management; and an urgent need for better, more timely data for decision-making. Overcoming these challenges will require the involvement of high-level political actors—including ministers of health and finance, parliamentarians, and other officials who have the ability to approve and influence policy, personnel, and structural changes; ensure work plans are backed with adequate resources for implementation; and hold program managers accountable for achieving agreed indicators.

Çevresel biyoetik açısından ön bildirimli kabul sistemi

This article examines the ethical debate on international trade of dangerous chemicals and pesticides (plant protection products) and harms of this type of chemicals on environment and human health especially pesticide poisonings. In parallel with these subjects, it is mentioned that the dangerous chemicals and pesticides are problems of all world’s nations whether they are developed or developing countries. The adverse effects of this type of chemicals on human health and environment was noticed by human beings at late 1960s, however there was no single step taken toward this problem for several years. This kind of problems led to be taken a global action by developed and developing countries at late 1980s. “International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides” (in short; Code of Conduct) and “The London Guidelines for the Exchange of Information on Chemicals in International Trade” (in short; London Guidelines) were two important but voluntary applications taken regarding to this problem. This article also emphasizes the historical stage, functioning, strong and weak points of the Prior Informed Consent procedure was subjected at first in Code of Conduct and London Guidelines and then after in Rotterdam Convention that a document legally binds the parties.

Deciding choreography realizability

Since software systems are becoming increasingly more concurrent and distributed, modeling and analysis of interactions among their components is a crucial problem. In several application domains, message-based communication is used as the interaction mechanism, and the communication contract among the components of the system is specified semantically as a state machine. In the service-oriented computing domain such communication contracts are called "choreography" specifications. A choreography specification identifies allowable ordering of message exchanges in a distributed system. A fundamental question about a choreography specification is determining its realizability, i.e., given a choreography specification, is it possible to build a distributed system that communicates exactly as the choreography specifies? Checking realizability of choreography specifications has been an open problem for several years and it was not known if this was a decidable problem. In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions for realizability of choreographies. We implemented the proposed realizability check and our experiments show that it can efficiently determine the realizability of 1) web service choreographies, 2) Singularity OS channel contracts, and 3) UML collaboration (communication) diagrams.

A review of coronary vessel segmentation algorithms

Coronary heart disease has been one of the main threats to human health. Coronary angiography is taken as the gold standard; for the assessment of coronary artery disease. However, sometimes, the images are difficult to visually interpret because of the crossing and overlapping of vessels in the angiogram. Vessel extraction from X-ray angiograms has been a challenging problem for several years. There are several problems in the extraction of vessels, including: weak contrast between the coronary arteries and the background, unknown and easily deformable shape of the vessel tree, and strong overlapping shadows of the bones. In this article we investigate the coronary vessel extraction and enhancement techniques, and present capabilities of the most important algorithms concerning coronary vessel segmentation.

Realizing disjoint degree sequences of span at most two: A tractable discrete tomography problem

We consider the problem of coloring a grid using p colors with the requirement that each row and each column has a specific total number of entries of each color. Ryser (1957) [20], and independently Gale (1957) [10], obtained a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such a coloring when two colors are considered. This characterization yields a linear-time algorithm for constructing the coloring when it exists. Later, Gardner et al. (2000) [11], and Chrobak and Dürr (2001) [5], showed that the problem is NP-hard when p ⩾ 7 and p ⩾ 4 , respectively. The case p = 3 was an open problem for several years and has been recently settled by Dürr et al. (2009) [9]: it is NP-hard too. This grid coloring problem is equivalent to finding disjoint realizations of two degree sequences d 1 , d 2 in a complete bipartite graph K X , Y . These kinds of questions are well studied when one of the degree sequences has span zero or one, where the span of a function is the difference between its maximum and its minimum values. In [4], Chen and Shastri (1989) showed a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a coloring when d 1 + d 2 restricted to X or Y has span at most one. In terms of discrete tomography this latter condition means that for two colors, the sum of the number of occurrences of these colors in each row is k or k + 1 , for some integer k . In the present paper we prove an analog to Chen and Shastri’s characterization when d 1 + d 2 restricted to X and to Y has span at most two. That is, there exist integers k 1 and k 2 such that the sum of the number of occurrences of two of the colors in each row is k 1 − 1 , k 1 or k 1 + 1 , and in each column is k 2 − 1 , k 2 or k 2 + 1 . Our characterization relies on a new natural condition called the total saturation condition which, when not satisfied, gives a non-existence certificate of such a coloring that can be checked in polynomial time.

Generalized hypertree decompositions: NP-hardness and tractable variants

The generalized hypertree width GHW( H ) of a hypergraph H is a measure of its cyclicity. Classes of conjunctive queries or constraint satisfaction problems whose associated hypergraphs have bounded GHW are known to be solvable in polynomial time. However, it has been an open problem for several years if for a fixed constant k and input hypergraph H it can be determined in polynomial time whether GHW( H ) ≤ k . Here, this problem is settled by proving that even for k = 3 the problem is already NP-hard. On the way to this result, another long standing open problem, originally raised by Goodman and Shmueli [1984] in the context of join optimization is solved. It is proven that determining whether a hypergraph H admits a tree projection with respect to a hypergraph G is NP-complete. Our intractability results on generalized hypertree width motivate further research on more restrictive tractable hypergraph decomposition methods that approximate generalized hypertree decomposition (GHD). We show that each such method is dominated by a tractable decomposition method definable through a function that associates a set of partial edges to a hypergraph. By using one particular such function, we define the new Component Hypertree Decomposition method, which is tractable and strictly more general than other approximations to GHD published so far.

Partielle Differentialgleichungen

The workshop differential equations , organised by Tom Ilmanen (ETH Zürich), Reiner Schätzle (Universität Tübingen) and Neil Trudinger (Australian National University Canberra) was held July 22–28, 2007. This meeting was well attended by 50 participants, including 6 females, with broad geographic reprensentation. The program consisted of 19 talks and 3 shorter contributions and left sufficient time for discussions. One focus was the combination of nonlinear partial differential equations and geometric problems. There were talks on monotonicity formulas in presence of degenerate singularities and on estimates of the singular set for branched minimal immersions. One striking new result was the proof of the diffeomorphic sphere theorem by the use of Ricci flow. Many leading experts in the regularity of elliptic and variational problems and in fully nonlinear differential equations occuring in optimal transport and in Hessian equations attended the workshop. Several main contributions were given to this subject. Here, we mention the proof of interior estimates for quadratic Hessian equations in three dimensions, which has been an open problem for several years of similar relevance as the gradient estimates for the minimal surface equation. New results were also presented for the Willmore functional. It was achieved to write the Euler-Lagrange equation in divergence form, and the existence of minimizers in fixed conformal classes with certain energy bounds were obtained. The organisers and the participants are grateful to the Oberwolfach Institute for presenting the opportunity and the resources to arrange this interesting meeting.

Synthesis of the NEMURO model studies and future directions of marine ecosystem modeling

NEMURO, the North Pacific Ecosystem Model for Understanding Regional Oceanography, simulates the temporal evolution and dynamics of the North Pacific's nutrient–phytoplankton–zooplankton food web. The approach of developing a single model formulation allowed quantitative comparisons across various locations and time periods. Building on a common foundation enabled the linkages between lower trophic levels to the higher trophic (fish) components to proceed systematically. NEMURO was extended to NEMURO.FISH by using the lower trophic level output of NEMURO as input to a bioenergetic-based model of fish growth and population dynamics. This paper summarizes the contributions of individual papers that comprise this issue of Ecological Modelling and that all used the NEMURO family of models. Contributions represent a rich set of case-studies and in-depth modeling studies focused on the North Pacific that addressed: oceanic biogeochemistry, regional and seasonal variability of phytoplankton and zooplankton, reconstruction of 40–50 years of plankton dynamics, effects of climate on herring and saury growth and population dynamics, the feasibility of automatic calibration methods, the sensitivity of the model to parameter values, and projections of future states of the ecosystem under global warming. Next steps in the evolution of NEMURO are suggested and include increased resolution of the physical model underlying NEMURO, the addition of new biological state variables at the lower trophic levels to better represent the diversity of oceanic species and their potential for different responses under changing environmental conditions, and the addition of more higher trophic level species to allow for inter-specific (competition and predation) interactions. The NEMURO effort involved a diverse group of researchers working jointly on a common problem for several years. Consequently, the resulting contributions, even at the level of the individual papers, provide a broader perspective and integration of the results than would have occurred by working in isolation. The benefits of a large-scale collaborative effort to develop a common model formulation are clearly illustrated by the papers in this issue.