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Redemptive benefit of atorvastatin in the risk factors of coronary artery disease
No full textCardiovascular disease, in particular coronary artery disease (CAD), is the principal cause of mortality in developed countries. The classical acute phase protein, C-reactive protein (CRP) is an exquisitely sensitive systemic marker of disease with broad clinical utility for monitoring and differential diagnosis. In recent years, acute phase reactants have been shown to predict future cardiovascular events in individuals with and without established CAD. Atorvastatin, a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor, substantially reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and recently their anti-inflammatory properties have been investigated. The present study was therefore designed to determine the effects of atorvastatin on CRP in patients with CAD. Ninety two patients with or without or at the risk of CAD were recruited for the study, of which 35 belongs to control (untreated) and 57 were test group, in which, 30 of them received daily with 20 mg/day of atorvastatin and the remaining 27 were untreated. The patients were followed for over a period of 6 weeks. For entire study population, CRP along with lipid profile, SGOT, SGPT, urea and creatinine were measured 1st day and at the end of 6th week of the treatment. For patients with or at risk of CAD, the reduced rate of progression of atherosclerosis associated with intensive atorvastatin treatment, as compared with control is significantly related to greater reduction in the levels of both atherogenic lipoproteins and CRP. This may be important with respect to the early benefits of atorvastatin therapy
An uncommon subtype of breast carcinoma in a man: The pure mucinous carcinoma
No full textAim: Our purpose is to describe a new case of pure mucinous carcinoma in a man, to put emphasis on the rarity of this histologic subtype and the problems of management due to the fewer reported cases in the literature and to compare it with the female counterpart. Observation: We report the case of a 79- year-old man presenting as a nodular mass of the right breast. The clinical symptoms weren’t specific and the diagnosis was based on histological and immunohistochemical findings. Conclusion: Male breast carcinoma is rare compared to its female counterpart representing less than 2% of male breast carcinomas and 1% of all breast carcinomas. Pure mucinous carcinoma in male is an extremely rare histological subtype. It is a variety of carcinoma of the breast which is characterized by the production of an abundant extra-cellular and/or intra-cellular mucin. It has been regarded as one of the more benign forms of breast carcinomas. To our knowledge, about 30 cases of mucinous breast carcinoma in male have been reported in the English literature and only 10 cases of pure mucinous carcinoma have been described. In general, pure mucinous carcinomas have a favorable prognosis. Numerous studies have shown that breast carcinomas in male behave more aggressively compared to those in females. Further research is needed on male carcinomas as they are becoming more frequent
Artífice: Generador de ciudades virtuales mediante autómatas celulares. Un enfoque desde los sistemas complejos y auto-organizantes.
No full textExisten sistemas que se componen de múltiples partes que interactúan de alguna forma para crear un comportamiento que no es derivable directamente de las características individuales de sus componentes, este tipo de sistemas se denominan sistemas complejos. Los sistemas complejos han sido estudiados con diversas técnicas, una de las más utilizadas han sido los autómatas celulares, debido a que son potentes motores conceptuales capaces de generar comportamientos complejos con reglas relativamente simples.\ud
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A lo largo de este trabajo nos enfocaremos en el estudio de un sistema complejo conocido por todos: la ciudad. Desde el siglo pasado ha sido de interés especial para los científicos el estudio del crecimiento de la ciudades porque éstas ha crecido notablemente -hasta un punto preocupante- en términos de terreno y pobladores.\ud
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Durante el desarrollo de la presente tesis se ha elaborado una herramienta computacional, llamada Artífice que nos permite analizar el crecimiento de ciudades ideales en términos de la ocupación de su terreno y su número de habitantes, además de lo anterior, Artífice brinda la posibilidad de crear una simulación en 3D de las ciudades hipotéticas que genera, utilizando un visor 3-Dimensional que ha sido optimizado mediante diversas técnicas de graficado por computadora para su mejor desempeño
Computation on Information, Meaning and Representations. An Evolutionary Approach
No full textUnderstanding computation as “a process of the dynamic change of information” brings to look at the different types of computation and information. Computation of information does not exist alone by itself but is to be considered as part of a system that uses it for some given\ud
purpose. Information can be meaningless like a thunderstorm noise, it can be meaningful like an alert signal, or like the representation of a desired food. A thunderstorm noise participates to the generation of meaningful information about coming rain. An alert signal has a meaning as allowing a safety constraint to be satisfied. The representation of a desired food participates to the satisfaction of some metabolic constraints for the organism. Computations on information and representations will be different in nature and in complexity as the systems that link them have different constraints to satisfy. Animals have survival constraints to satisfy. Humans have many specific constraints coming in addition. And computers will compute what the designer and programmer ask for.\ud
We propose to analyze the different relations between information, meaning and representation by taking an evolutionary approach on the systems that link them. Such a bottom-up approach allows starting with simple organisms and avoids an implicit focus on humans, which is the most complex and difficult case. To make available a common\ud
background usable for the many different cases, we use a systemic tool that defines the generation of meaningful information by and for a system submitted to a constraint [Menant, 2003]. This systemic tool allows to position information, meaning and representations for systems\ud
relatively to environmental entities in an evolutionary perspective.\ud
We begin by positioning the notions of information, meaning and representation and recall the characteristics of the Meaning Generator System (MGS) that link a system submitted to a constraint to its environment. We then use the MGS for animals and highlight the network nature of the interrelated meanings about an entity of the environment. This brings us to define the representation of an item for an agent as being the network of meanings relative to the item for the agent.\ud
Such meaningful representations embed the agents in their environments and are far from the Good Old Fashion Artificial Intelligence type ones.\ud
The MGS approach is then used for humans with a limitation resulting of the unknown nature of human consciousness.\ud
Application of the MGS to artificial systems brings to look for compatibilities with different levels of Artificial Intelligence (AI) like embodied-situated AI, the Guidance Theory of Representations, and enactive AI. Concerns relative to different types of autonomy and organic or artificial constraints are highlighted. We finish by\ud
summarizing the points addressed and by proposing some continuations.\u
Knowledge construction: The role of the teacher's interpersonal attitudes
No full textSocio-constructivist perspectives on adult education, as well as many practitioners in the field, assume that the teacher's interpersonal attitudes influence the process of knowledge construction on the part of the participants. The aim of this paper is to contribute to an empirical evaluation of this view, and in particular: (i) to understand whether the actions enacted by an educator toward learners may be taken as local cues of her underlying general interpersonal attitudes in and about the situation; (ii) to try to describe such behaviours and to gather them into meaningful clusters; (iii) to explore possible differences in the general interpersonal attitudes of novice vs. expert educators; (iv) to correlate such attitudes with the learners' behaviours. Fifteen training courses for adults, each involving different educators, participants and topics, were observed. All the courses took place in classrooms in the city of Torino, Italy. Each course was simultaneously observed by three independent judges. Factor analysis led to the identification of four main interpersonal attitudes of the educators, namely favouring cooperation, directivity, flexibility, and focusing on the group. These attitudes were then correlated to indexes of the participants' levels of attention, participation and understanding. The results corroborate the hypothesis that the interpersonal attitudes of the educators correlate with the mental attitudes of the learners. In particular, a cooperative orientation appears to foster the conditions for the construction of new knowledge. The two subgroups of expert and novice educators achieved different levels of effectiveness. Overall, our findings support the idea that learning is a process of knowledge transformation that takes place within an interpersonal context
Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease by NIRF Spectroscopy\ud and Nuclear Medicine\ud
No full textNovel approaches to Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease by NIRF Spectroscopy and Nuclear Medicine are presented and related cognitive, as well as molecular and cellular, models are critically evaluated.\u
Stress Among Health Care Professionals - The Need for Resiliency
No full textHealthcare professionals are subjected to considerable levels of stress such as work overload, excessive working hours, sleep deprivation, repeated exposure to emotionally charged situations, dealing with difficult patients and conflicts with other staffs. Management of such stress should be given due importance, right from the days of training in medical sciences
Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Blood Donation among Health Science Students in a University campus, South India
No full textBackground: The major part of demand for blood in India has been meeting through voluntary blood donations. The healthy, active and receptive huge student population is potential blood donors to meet safe blood requirements. However, there is a paucity of studies on awareness and attitude among health science students on voluntary blood donation. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitude about blood donation among health science students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 410 health sciences students from different streams in a University campus of South India through a structured survey questionnaire in the year 2009. Results: The overall knowledge on blood donation was good, but majority (62%) of students never donated blood. Knowledge level was found highest among allied health science (53.1%) and lowest among pharmacy students (20.7%). ‘Feeling of medically unfit’ and ‘never thought of blood donation’ were the major reasons for not donating blood. A significant association was observed between different streams of students and levels of knowledge and attitude about blood donation. Conclusion: This study elicits the importance of adopting effective measures in our campuses to motivate about voluntary blood donation among students
Road Rage Menace: A Cross-sectional Study to Assess Driver Anger Level in Public Motor Vehicle Drivers in a City in Central India
No full textIntroduction: Road rage and aggressive driving is a prevalent condition in today’s society due to motorists’ frustrations during heavy traffic volumes. Objective: This study was done to assess the level of anger amongst the drivers of public transport vehicles in Indore, using Driving Anger Scale (DAS by Deffenbacher et. al.) and various factors affecting it. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 135 drivers of Public transport vehicle drivers (Star bus, City-van and star cab drivers) in Indore to assess their anger level using Driving Anger Scale. The participants were required to record the amount of anger they would experience in response to each item in the scale (1=not at all angry, 2=a little angry, 3=some anger, 4=much anger, 5=very much angry). Results: The mean DAS score in Indore was found to be 3.013 and in the three organizations namely Star bus drivers, City van drivers and Star cab drivers was 2.92, 3.08 and 3.04 respectively. The DAS score of drivers with respect to the 6 sub-scales were: hostile gestures (Star bus -3.42,City van -3.67,Star cab -3.38), slow driving (Star bus -2.73,City van driv-2.78,Star cab-3.17), traffic obstructions (Star bus-2.85,City van -3.25,Star cab-3.18), discourtesy (Star bus -3.23,City van-3.33,Star cab -3.25)and police presence (Star bus -2.15,City van -1.99,Star cab -2.78), illegal driving (Star bus -3.04,City van -3.14,Star cab -2.89). The DAS scores of the drivers did not vary significantly with age group, experience, and educational qualification. Conclusion: Though DAS scores did not vary between the three groups of drivers, however average level anger for various given circumstances commonly found in the Indian traffic scenario was on the higher side
An evolutionary behavioral model for decision making
No full textFor autonomous agents the problem of deciding what to do next becomes increasingly complex when acting in unpredictable and dynamic environments pursuing multiple and possibly conflicting goals. One of the most relevant behavior-based model that tries to deal with this problem is the one proposed by Maes, the Bbehavior Network model. This model proposes a set of behaviors as purposive perception-action units which are linked in a nonhierarchical network, and whose behavior selection process is orchestrated by spreading activation dynamics. In spite of being an adaptive model (in the sense of self-regulating its own behavior selection process), and despite the fact that several extensions have been proposed in order to improve the original model adaptability, there is not a robust model yet that can self-modify adaptively both the topological structure and the functional purpose\ud
of the network as a result of the interaction between the agent and its environment. Thus, this work proffers an innovative hybrid model driven by gene expression programming, which makes two main contributions: (1) given an initial set of meaningless and unconnected units, the evolutionary mechanism is able to build well-defined and robust behavior networks which are adapted and specialized to concrete internal agent's needs and goals; and (2)\ud
the same evolutionary mechanism is able to assemble quite\ud
complex structures such as deliberative plans (which operate in the long-term) and problem-solving strategies