17 research outputs found
5-Phenyluridine trihydrate
No full textThe title compound (systematic name: 2,4-dihydroxy-5phenyl-1-beta-D-ribofuranosylpyrimidine trihydrate), crystallized as the trihydrate, C15H16N2O6 center dot 3H(2)O, stabilized by hydrogen bonds to the uracil O atoms. Two statistically disordered water solvent molecules occupy channels along the a axis; the site occupancy factors are ca 0.6 and 0.4. The heterocyclic base is almost planar and is oriented anti with respect to the puckered sugar moiety. The sugar ring adopts a conformation intermediate between twist and envelope
Substance use and knowledge among Italian High School students.
No full textThis study was aimed for evaluation of Italian students' attitudes to addictive substances, their knowledge and personal experience, and their awareness about the risks. The research was realized among high school students from Marche region in the Central Italy in the year 2006; the study group was randomly chosen from all schools in the region. 4118 appropriately completed questionnaires returned. The statistic processing was carried out by
using chi-square test for two qualitative variables. 29.9 % of the students have tried drugs; 36.4 % of the
interviewed reckon alcohol, tobacco and antidepressants
for drugs. A relationship between the use of licit and illicit addictive substances and a correlation between the use of illicit substances and the use of liquors and tobacco
in family was found. The students, who drink frequently,
smoke regularly and use drugs, believe that the drugs create
dependence only if overused; only a quarter of them
classify themselves as drug addicts.
The study indicates a lack of information on the drugs among the young people. It emerges that the young people do not sufficiently know the risk of the dependence. A change of the preventive strategies should be considered
State resilience in post-Arab Spring setting
No full textDie Anfangsphase dieser Forschungsarbeit führte darauf hin, dass die einzigen Staaten, die relativ in der Lage wären, die Sicherheit und Stabilität in der Region Mittlerer Osten und Nordafrika bewahren zu können, Tunesien und Marokko seien. Jedoch blieb keiner der beiden von den jüngsten Veränderungen unbeeinflusst. Das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit ist es, herauszufinden und zu beschreiben wie stabil der tunesische Staat ist: entgegen hauptsächlich interne, aber zu einem bestimmten Grade auch externe destabilisierenden Faktoren. Die Forschungsbasis für diese Arbeit ist das Konzept der Politischen Settlements.
Zuerst werden die für die Politischen Settlements am meisten relevanten Akteure und Interessensgruppen der Gesellschaft bestimmt, dann wird individuell auf ihre Interessen eingegangen. Dazu gehören sowohl formale Institutionen, staatliche Einrichtungen und ihre besonderen Einheiten, als auch omnigesellschaftliche Organisationen, das Interesse der Privatwirtschaft, elitäre Gruppen, die die Stabilität des Politischen Settlements gefährden usw. Als Ausgangspunkt für die Analyse dient Parks und Coles Charakterisierung von Politischen Settlements, die auf vier Elementen basiert: Akteure, Macht, Interessen, Institutionen. Da der Konflikt und die daraus folgenden Veränderungen in der Region Nordafrika fortlaufend sind, sind Primärressourcen karg oder gänzlich nicht verfügbar. Nichtsdestotrotz befasst sich der Autor mit Thinktank-Analysen, Indexen und nationalen, regionalen und ausländischen Medienperspektiven um die Grundzüge der Politischen Settlements festzulegen.
Das System des Landes hat einen Punkt erreicht, an dem politische Parteien zwar wesentliche Träger des politischen Willens und der Prozesse sind, aber dabei nicht die einzigen sind. Der innere Einflussbereich hat Seite an Seite sowohl formale als auch informale Eliten entwickelt. Wie man der Forschungsarbeit entnehmen kann, zeigen die meisten Indikatoren schwerwiegende Bedenken gegenüber der Stabilität des Settlements auf. Diejenigen Indikatoren, die positive Aussichten aufzeigen, sind eher institutionellen Charakters und bleiben leider oft nur in Debatten und auf dem Papier bestehen.As it seemed in the initial stage of this research, the only countries, relatively capable of being the security and stability “guardians” of the Middle East and North African region could be Tunisia and Morocco. Yet, neither of them remained unaffected by the recent changes. The main goal of this work is to identify and describe the degree of resilience of Tunisian state: against mainly internal but to some degree also external destabilizing factors.
This thesis will research the topic based on the concept of political settlements. It will identify the core political settlement relevant actors and factions of society, then separately look at their interests. These encompass both formal institutions, state agencies and their special engagements, as well as omni-societal organizations, private sector interests, elite groups threatening the stability of the political settlement and so on. Parks and Cole, who represent a starting point for the analysis, characterize political settlements based on four elements: actors, power, interests, and institutions. The conflict and connected changes in the North African region are ongoing, primary sources might be therefore scarce or fairly unavailable. Nevertheless, the author will look into think-tanks’ analyses, indexes, and national, regional and foreign media perspectives to map the political settlements' outlines.
The country’s system reached a point where political parties are a major, although not the only, carrier of political will and process. The inner circle of influence has developed hand in hand with of both formal and informal elites, rather than exclusively amongst one of these. As one can see from the research, majority of the indicators show severe concerns over the resilience of the settlement. Those that show positive outlooks are rather of an institutional than informal character and, unfortunately, often remain only on paper
Author's personal copy The problems of proteinuria measurement in urine with presence of Bence Jones protein
No full texta b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Design and methods: The laboratories received a reference urine sample obtained from a patient with multiple myeloma and lambda free light chain proteinuria and were asked to type the paraprotein using immunofixation and to measure total urinary protein using their established method, most commonly turbidimetry, pyrogallol red assay, and biuret assay. Results: There was a very wide inter-laboratory variability in the protein concentration readouts with up to three-fold difference in some cases. High-resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis and linear mass spectrometry showed that a high proportion of the urinary paraprotein was composed of lambda light chain fragments with molecular weight of 12 kDa. Conclusions: Our results highlight the challenges of reliable and reproducible measurement of urinary protein concentration in the presence of Bence Jones protein
Gender-related differences in presentation, treatment, and outcome of patients with atrial fibrillation in Europe - A report from the Euro Heart Survey on atrial fibrillation
No full textObjectives This study sought to investigate gender-related differences in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in Europe.
Background Gender-related differences may play a significant role in AF.
Methods We analyzed the data of 5,333 patients (42% female) enrolled in the Euro Heart Survey on Atrial Fibrillation.
Results Compared with men, the women were older, had a lower quality of life (QoL), had more comorbidities, more often had heart failure (HF) with preserved left ventricular systolic function (18% vs. 7%, p < 0.001), and less often had HF with systolic dysfunction (17% vs. 26%, p < 0.001). Among patients with typical AF symptoms (56% of women, 49% of men), there was no gender-related difference in the choice of rate or rhythm control. Among patients with atypical or no symptoms (44% of women, 51% of men), women less frequently underwent rhythm control (39% vs. 51%, p < 0.001) than did men. Women underwent less electrical cardioversion (22% vs. 28%, p < 0.001). Prescription of oral anticoagulants was identical (65%) in both genders. One-year outcome was similar except that women had a higher chance for stroke (odds ratio 1.83 in multivariable regression analysis, p = 0.019).
Conclusions Women with AF had more comorbidities, more HF with preserved systolic function, and a lower QoL than men. In the large group with atypical or no symptoms, women were treated appropriately more conservatively with less rhythm control than men. Women had a higher chance for stroke. Long-term QoL changes and other morbidities and mortality were similar
Prognosis, disease progression, and treatment of atrial fibrillation patients during 1 year: Follow-up of the Euro Heart Survey on Atrial Fibrillation
No full textAims: To gain insight in the prognosis and treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients during 1-year follow-up in the Euro Heart Survey (EHS) on AF. Methods and results: The EHS enrolled 5333 AF patients in 2003-2004. One-year follow-up data were available for 80%. Of first detected AF patients, 46% did not have a recurrence during 1 year, paroxysmal AF largely remained paroxysmal AF (80%), and 30% of persistent AF progressed to permanent AF. Many treatment changes occurred since baseline. Oral anticoagulation was started in 19% and discontinued in 16% of all patients. Of patients initially on rhythm control 27% did not receive rhythm control during follow-up, whereas 15% of patients initially on rate control received rhythm control. Mortality was highest in permanent AF (8.2%), but also substantial in first detected AF (5.7%). In multivariable analysis, sinus rhythm at baseline was associated with lower mortality, but no significant effect was observed regarding the application of either rhythm or rate control. Conclusion: The EHS on AF provides unique prospective observational data on AF progression, long-term treatment, prognosis, and determinants of adverse outcome of the total clinical spectrum of AF in a European cardiology-based patient cohort. © The Author 2008
Refining clinical risk stratification for predicting stroke and thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation using a novel risk factor-based approach: The Euro Heart Survey on atrial fibrillation
No full textBackground: Contemporary clinical risk stratification schemata for predicting stroke and thromboembolism (TE) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are largely derived from risk factors identified from trial cohorts. Thus, many potential risk factors have not been included. Methods: We refined the 2006 Birmingham/National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) stroke risk stratification schema into a risk factor-based approach by reclassifying and/or incorporating additional new risk factors where relevant. This schema was then compared with existing stroke risk stratification schema in a real-world cohort of patients with AF (n = 1,084) from the Euro Heart Survey for AF. Results: Risk categorization differed widely between the different schemes compared. Patients classified as high risk ranged from 10.2% with the Framingham schema to 75.7% with the Birmingham 2009 schema. The classic CHADS 2 (Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age > 75, Diabetes, prior Stroke/transient ischemic attack) schema categorized the largest proportion (61.9%) into the intermediate-risk strata, whereas the Birmingham 2009 schema classified 15.1% into this category. The Birmingham 2009 schema classified only 9.2% as low risk, whereas the Framingham scheme categorized 48.3% as low risk. Calculated C-statistics suggested modest predictive value of all schema for TE. The Birmingham 2009 schema fared marginally better (C-statistic, 0.606) than CHADS 2 . However, those classified as low risk by the Birmingham 2009 and NICE schema were truly low risk with no TE events recorded, whereas TE events occurred in 1.4% of low-risk CHADS 2 subjects. When expressed as a scoring system, the Birmingham 2009 schema (CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc acronym) showed an increase in TE rate with increasing scores ( P value for trend = .003). Conclusion: Our novel, simple stroke risk stratification schema, based on a risk factor approach, provides some improvement in predictive value for TE over the CHADS 2 schema, with low event rates in low-risk subjects and the classification of only a small proportion of subjects into the intermediate-risk category. This schema could improve our approach to stroke risk stratification in patients with AF. © 2010 American College of Chest Physicians
Gender-Related Differences in Presentation, Treatment, and Outcome of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation in Europe. A Report From the Euro Heart Survey on Atrial Fibrillation
No full textObjectives: This study sought to investigate gender-related differences in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in Europe. Background: Gender-related differences may play a significant role in AF. Methods: We analyzed the data of 5,333 patients (42% female) enrolled in the Euro Heart Survey on Atrial Fibrillation. Results: Compared with men, the women were older, had a lower quality of life (QoL), had more comorbidities, more often had heart failure (HF) with preserved left ventricular systolic function (18% vs. 7%, p < 0.001), and less often had HF with systolic dysfunction (17% vs. 26%, p < 0.001). Among patients with typical AF symptoms (56% of women, 49% of men), there was no gender-related difference in the choice of rate or rhythm control. Among patients with atypical or no symptoms (44% of women, 51% of men), women less frequently underwent rhythm control (39% vs. 51%, p < 0.001) than did men. Women underwent less electrical cardioversion (22% vs. 28%, p < 0.001). Prescription of oral anticoagulants was identical (65%) in both genders. One-year outcome was similar except that women had a higher chance for stroke (odds ratio 1.83 in multivariable regression analysis, p = 0.019). Conclusions: Women with AF had more comorbidities, more HF with preserved systolic function, and a lower QoL than men. In the large group with atypical or no symptoms, women were treated appropriately more conservatively with less rhythm control than men. Women had a higher chance for stroke. Long-term QoL changes and other morbidities and mortality were similar. © 2007 American College of Cardiology Foundation
