1,578 research outputs found
Hydroxychloroquine daily dose, hydroxychloroquine blood levels and the risk of flares in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus
No full textBACKGROUND: Recent guidelines for SLE recommend using a hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) dose less than 5.0 mg/kg/day to reduce the risk of retinopathy. To determine if this dose reduction would have an impact on the clinical course of SLE, we compared flare incidence in a cohort of patients with SLE treated with two different oral HCQ dosages (≤5 mg/kg/day or >5 mg/kg/day). As a secondary analysis, we compared HCQ blood levels between the two different oral dosages, and evaluated the frequency of non-adherence in patients with SLE treated with HCQ. METHODS: We identified a cohort of patients with SLE taking HCQ for at least 6 months and followed for 24 months. At study entry and 6 months later, a blood venous sample was taken to measure HCQ blood levels by liquid chromatography. Incidence of new SLE flares after recruitment was put in relation to daily HCQ dose and mean HCQ blood levels. Cox regression analysis served to identify factors associated with SLE flares. RESULTS: 83 patients were enrolled. We observed 11 (16%) flares that developed in mean 14.8 months of follow-up. The difference in terms of flare rate and mean HCQ blood levels between the two oral dosages was not statistically significant. There was a trend (p=0.08) for high HCQ dose being associated with a lower flare rate. At Cox analysis, higher HCQ blood levels and older age at baseline were protective against flare occurrence, while concomitant immunosuppressant therapy showed significant positive association. HCQ blood levels did not correlate with prescribed HCQ dose. CONCLUSION: Patients with low oral HCQ dosage tend to have more flares, although the difference was not statistically significant. Higher HCQ blood levels were protective against flare occurrence. The risks and benefits must be balanced in choosing HCQ dose
Schermi. Immagini, corpi, condivisioni
No full textIn this book the author investigates the digital image proliferation of our times from an interdisciplinary point of view. Starting from the Visual Culture theoretical frame, Valentina Mignano explores the ways in which we interact with the screen, dealing with the "screen experience" in the first years of the network societ
Influence of hydroxychloroquine blood levels on adhesion molecules associated with endothelial dysfunction in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus
No full textBackground Patients with SLE have an endothelial dysfunction (ED), which is considered the earliest marker of cardiovascular (CV) disease. Endothelial cell activation induced by proinflammatory cytokines is defined by the endothelial expression of cell-surface adhesion molecules, such as vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and E-selectin. The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum endothelial adhesion molecule levels are influenced by blood hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) levels in SLE. Methods Consecutive patients with SLE taking a stable dose of HCQ were investigated. At study entry and 6 months later HCQ blood levels were quantified by tandem mass spectrometry. Serum levels of P-selectin, E-selectin, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 were also measured using a Luminex 200 instrument. Comparison of endothelial soluble adhesion molecules in groups with different HCQ blood levels was performed by t-test. Results 83 patients with SLE were enrolled. Correlation were demonstrated between mean blood HCQ concentrations and endothelial soluble adhesion molecules (E-selectin, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1). Moreover, serum levels of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 were significantly lower in the patients with SLE with HCQ blood levels >500 ng/mL (83.67 +/- 52.8 ng/mL vs 158.81 +/- 125.1 ng/mL and 8.9 +/- 2.2 ng/mL vs 10.4 +/- 2.3 ng/mL). Serum levels of E-selectin were nearly significantly lower in the patients with SLE with HCQ blood levels >500 ng/mL (64.7 +/- 30.2 ng/mL vs 71.6 +/- 42.2 ng/mL, p=0.06). No significant difference in concentration of P-selectin was detected. Conclusions In the present study, there was a trend towards higher adhesion molecules levels with lower HCQ blood levels in patients with SLE. Further longitudinal studies will determine whether changes in endothelial biomarkers reflect decreased clinical CV events
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN MARAMURES COUNTY
No full textInitiating and developing a business involves a considerable risk and a sustained effort in order to defeat the inertia against what is new. The person initiating a business, assuming the responsibility and risk of its development and benefiting from theentrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship, profit, businesses
The use of initial tocolysis and maintenance tocolysis in preterm birth : guideline-based approach or off-label use - a survey on the current application in Switzerland
No full textAuthor Valentina Schedl, BscMasterarbeit Universität Linz 202
Guido Crepax – Valentina – The Shape of Her Time
No full textThe paper will focus on the analysis of Guido Crepax revolutionary comic book character Valentina that belongs to the golden age of the Italian comic-book genre fumetto. The aim is to explore whether Guido Crepax Valentina character was a "living doll" filling male fantasies of her creator or she was a woman empowered by her author struggling for many of the values of the women's culture that feminists today are trying to introduce into the mainstream. It also addresses research questions that focus on comic books and gender and empowerment at the decade of sexual liberation.Through Valentina case study the present paper is going to study an approach on the concept of woman in comics, and touch the border of female empowerment issue in contemporary world taking in consideration that her revolutionary strong and independent figure was born in a society where women have been frequently viewed as passive and represented as inferior to men and where questions of sexuality were considered taboo. Despite the fact that she angered some feminists by the way she was portrayed as an object of male gaze or a damsel in distress, there is nothing anti-feminist about Valentina. The aim here is to uncover feminist themes in the stories of Valentina and to explore what empowered her and made her a contemporary icon of style and symbol of liberated women
Analysis of the interplay of the Orai1 Ca2+ Ion channel and different Ca2+ sensing proteins
No full textAuthor Valentina Hopl, MScDissertation Johannes Kepler Universität Linz 2024Arbeit nach Ablauf der Sperre auf den öffentlichen PCs in den Bibliotheken der JKU+Medizin abrufba
Lezioni d'autore, lezioni d'attore: Un ciclo di incontri con i protagonisti dello spettacolo, a cura di Valentina Garavaglia in collaborazione con il Teatro Franco Parenti di Milano Il lavoro dell'attore e la drammaturgia contemporanea
No full textMassimo Carlotto usa il noir come genere capace di raccontare le trasformazioni, anche nascoste, della società. I suoi libri sono tradotti in molte lingue e ha vinto numerosi premi sia in Italia che all'estero. Niente più niente al mondo è il monologo oggetto della ricerca del regista Fabio Cherstich interprete di un nuovo teatro di narrazione.Massimo Carlotto uses crime fiction to examine the oft-concealed transformations of society. His books have been translated in many languages and he has won numerous prizes, in Italy and abroad. No more nothing in the world is the monologue adapted by the director Fabio Cherstich, author of a new narrative theater
Is a Semantic Web Agent a Knowledge-Savvy Agent?
No full textThe issue of knowledge sharing has permeated the field of distributed AI and in particular, its successor, multiagent systems. Through the years, many research and engineering efforts have tackled the problem of encoding and sharing knowledge without the need for a single, centralized knowledge base. However, the emergence of modern computing paradigms such as distributed, open systems have highlighted the importance of sharing distributed and heterogeneous knowledge at a larger scale—possibly at the scale of the Internet. The very characteristics that define the Semantic Web—that is, dynamic, distributed, incomplete, and uncertain knowledge—suggest the need for autonomy in distributed software systems. Semantic Web research promises more than mere management of ontologies and data through the definition of machine-understandable languages. The openness and decentralization introduced by multiagent systems and service-oriented architectures give rise to new knowledge management models, for which we can’t make a priori assumptions about the type of interaction an agent or a service may be engaged in, and likewise about the message protocols and vocabulary used. We therefore discuss the problem of knowledge management for open multi-agent systems, and highlight a number of challenges relating to the exchange and evolution of knowledge in open environments, which pertinent to both the Semantic Web and Multi Agent System communities alike
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