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The patients’ history and conventional laboratory markers are often not sensitive or specific enough to detect chronic alcohol misuse, preoperatively. We investigated whether carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), determined with a new commercially available kit, is a more sensitive and specific marker to detect chronic alcohol misuse in these patients and we compared it to a CDT research kit and to other conventional laboratory markers. 153 patients with oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal or esophageal carcinomas were evaluated regarding their drinking habits. Chronic alcohol misuse was diagnosed if the daily ethanol intake was ≧60 g and the patient met the DSM-III-R criteria for chronic alcohol abuse or dependence. CDTs and the conventional laboratory markers were sampled on admission of the patients, preoperatively, postoperatively following admission to the ICU and on day 2, 4 and 7 in the ICU. CDT was determined by microanion exchange chromatography and turbidimetry (research kit) and microanion exchange chromatography and radioimmunoassay (commercially available CDT kit), respectively. The investigators were blinded to the CDT results. For all patients admitted to the hospital the sensitivity of the CDT research kit was 74% and for the commercially available CDT kit 77%. Specificity was 100% for the CDT research kit and 97% for the commercially available CDT kit. Both CDT kits were more accurate in detecting chronic alcohol misuse than any other conventional laboratory marker over a range of cutoffs evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curves. Since the CDT values on admission were significantly correlated with the length of ICU stay (CDT research kit: rs = 0.56; p = 0.000; commercially available CDT: rs = 0.39; p = 0.009) and since investigated chronic alcoholics developed more complications in the ICU and had a prolonged ICU stay, it seems reasonable to determine serum CDT, the most sensitive and specific marker of chronic alcohol misuse. Patients with pathologically elevated CDT values should be further evaluated and managed accordingly.

The treatment programmes for drug addiction operate on a constantly growing population of subjects who have received unsuccessful treatment with various negative consequences, mainly in terms of cost/benefit (due, e.g., to low therapeutic compliance and high rates of early drop-outs). The study we present is the first long-term Italian research project on psychiatric comorbidity carried out using standardised instruments. The sample consisted of 606 opioid addicts divided into two subgroups according to the type of treatment unit they were referred to (36.8% started residential programmes and 63.2% received outpatient treatment). Diagnostic evaluation consisted of a semi-structured interview that outlined the psychopathological profile according to DSM III. Only 323 subjects were recruited and included in the follow-up study (18-36 months after the end of treatment, either completed or interrupted). Our preliminary results tend to confirm international data, both in terms of rates and disorders. An analysis of the correlation between the clusters of personality disorders and the attrition/retention rates in different treatments shows that substance users with a diagnosis in cluster B tend to prefer outpatient treatment. When outcome was considered, we always found that subjects with a diagnosis of personality disorder showed a better response to residential than to outpatient treatment.

The Sixties were a decade of contrasts. Their three thousand, six hundred and fifty- three days were marked by some of the most tumultuous, violent and devastating, yet far-reaching, inspiring and influential events in human history. They saw enormous political, social and cultural change and have been seen as a nostalgic era of peace and liberalism, overshadowed by a dark cloud of hatred, oppression and wanton excess. They began, ominously, under the longest shadow of the Cold War. Only days after the first man rocketed into space, a newly-elected United States president and a feisty Soviet premier locked horns over the fortunes of a young Cuban revolutionary, bringing the possibility of nuclear war onto an international stage.

Significance: Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is a powerful technique to distinguish the unique molecular environment of fluorophores. FLIM measures the time a fluorophore remains in an excited state before emitting a photon, and detects molecular variations of fluorophores that are not apparent with spectral techniques alone. FLIM is sensitive to multiple biomedical processes including disease progression and drug efficacy. Aim: We provide an overview of FLIM principles, instrumentation, and analysis while highlighting the latest developments and biological applications. Approach: This review covers FLIM principles and theory, including advantages over intensity-based fluorescence measurements. Fundamentals of FLIM instrumentation in time- and frequency-domains are summarized, along with recent developments. Image segmentation and analysis strategies that quantify spatial and molecular features of cellular heterogeneity are reviewed. Finally, representative applications are provided including high-resolution FLIM of cell- and organelle-level molecular changes, use of exogenous and endogenous fluorophores, and imaging protein-protein interactions with Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Advantages and limitations of FLIM are also discussed. Conclusions: FLIM is advantageous for probing molecular environments of fluorophores to inform on fluorophore behavior that cannot be elucidated with intensity measurements alone. Development of FLIM technologies, analysis, and applications will further advance biological research and clinical assessments.

The aim of this study was to examine psychometric properties of the revised Posttraumatic Stress Checklist (PCL-5) for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual– 5 th Edition (DSM-5) in Greek postpartum women after Cesarean Section(CS) (emergency-elective).So far, there was no study in Greece assessing psychometric properties of the PCL-5 in women after CS. The participating women ( N = 469), who gave birth with emergency and elective CS at the Greek University Hospital of Larisa, have consented to participate in two phases of the survey and completed self-report questionnaires, the 2 nd day after CS and at the 6 th week after CS. Measures used in this study were the PCL-5 for DSM-5, the Life Events Checklist (LEC-5), Criteria B, C, D, E, and Criterion A, specifically designed for detection of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in postpartum period. To evaluate the internal reliability of the PCL-5 two different indices of internal consistency were calculated, i.e., Cronbach’s alpha (.97) and Guttman’ssplit-half (.95), demonstrating high reliability level. The data were positively skewed, suggesting that the reported levels of PTSD among our participants were low. Factor analyses demonstrated acceptable construct validity; a comparison of thePCL-5 with the other measures of the same concept showed a good convergent validity of the scale. Overall, all the results suggest that the four-factor PCL-5 seemed to work adequately for the Greek sample of women after CS.

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a technique employed in tactile sensing to create an image of impedance changes within a continuous sensor using electrodes placed only at the perimeter. This is advantageous for soft sensing 'e-skins' being developed for applications such as robotics and human-machine interactions. EIT was originally developed for medical diagnostics and has more recently been adopted for tactile imaging, which has distinct requirements and challenges. This book explains the fundamentals of EIT at a basic level, without requiring a high level of mathematical expertise, making it an accessible text for students and newcomers to the field. It also covers applications and challenges of the method, recent developments, and practical implications. Part of IOP Series in Sensors and Sensor Systems.

Long-term measurements of atmospheric mass concentrations of black carbon (BC) are needed to investigate changes in its emission, transport, and deposition. However, depending on instrumentation, parameters related to BC such as aerosol absorption coefficient (babs) have been measured instead. Most ground-based measurements of babs in the Arctic have been made by filter-based absorption photometers, including particle soot absorption photometers (PSAPs), continuous light absorption photometers (CLAPs), Aethalometers, and multi-angle absorption photometers (MAAPs). The measured babs can be converted to mass concentrations of BC (MBC) by assuming the value of the mass absorption cross section (MAC; MBC= babs/ MAC). However, the accuracy of conversion of babs to MBC has not been adequately assessed. Here, we introduce a systematic method for deriving MAC values from babs measured by these instruments and independently measured MBC. In this method, MBC was measured with a filter-based absorption photometer with a heated inlet (COSMOS). COSMOS-derived MBC (MBC (COSMOS)) is traceable to a rigorously calibrated single particle soot photometer (SP2), and the absolute accuracy of MBC (COSMOS) has been demonstrated previously to be about 15 % in Asia and the Arctic. The necessary conditions for application of this method are a high correlation of the measured babs with independently measured MBC and long-term stability of the regression slope, which is denoted as MACcor (MAC derived from the correlation). In general, babs–MBC (COSMOS) correlations were high (r2= 0.76–0.95 for hourly data) at Alert in Canada, Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Barrow (NOAA Barrow Observatory) in Alaska, Pallastunturi in Finland, and Fukue in Japan and stable for up to 10 years. We successfully estimated MACcor values (10.8–15.1 m2 g−1 at a wavelength of 550 nm for hourly data) for these instruments, and these MACcor values can be used to obtain error-constrained estimates of MBC from babs measured at these sites even in the past, when COSMOS measurements were not made. Because the absolute values of MBC at these Arctic sites estimated by this method are consistent with each other, they are applicable to the study of spatial and temporal variation in MBC in the Arctic and to evaluation of the performance of numerical model calculations.

With the ongoing developments in laser scanning technology, applications for describing tunnel deformation using rich point cloud data have become a significant topic of investigation. This study describes the independently developed a mobile tunnel monitoring system called the second version of Tunnel Scan developed by Capital Normal University (CNU-TS-2) for data acquisition, which has an electric system to control its forward speed and is compatible with various laser scanners such as the Faro and Leica models. A comparison with corresponding data acquired by total station data demonstrates that the data collected by CNU-TS-2 is accurate. Following data acquisition, the overall and local deformation of the tunnel is determined by denoising and 360° deformation analysis of the point cloud data. To enhance the expression of the analysis results, this study proposes an expansion of the tunnel point cloud data into a two-dimensional image via cylindrical projection, followed by an expression of the tunnel deformation through color difference to visualize the deformation. Compared with the three-dimensional modeling method of visualization, this method is easier to implement and facilitates storage. In addition, it is conducive to the performance of comprehensive analysis of problems such as water leakage in the tunnel, thereby achieving the effect of multiple uses for a single image.

Advances in geodetic altimetry instruments are providing more accurate measurements, thus enabling satellite missions to produce useful data for narrow rivers and streams. Altimetry missions produce spatially dense land and water surface elevation (WSE) measurements in remote areas where in situ data are scarce that can be combined with hydraulic and/or hydrodynamic models to simulate WSE and estimate discharge. In this study, we combine ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite) land and water surface elevation measurements with a low-parameterized hydraulic calibration to simulate WSE and discharge without the need for surveyed cross-sectional geometry and a rainfall–runoff model. ICESat-2 provides an opportunity to map river cross-sectional geometry very accurately, with an along-track resolution of 0.7 m, using the ATL03 product. These measurements are combined with the inland water product ATL13 to calibrate a steady-state hydraulic model to retrieve unobserved hydraulic parameters such as river depth or the roughness coefficient. The low-parameterized model, together with the assumption of steady-state hydraulics, enables the application of a global search algorithm for a spatially uniform parameter calibration at a manageable computational cost. The model performance is similar to that reported for highly parameterized models, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of around 0.41 m. With the calibrated model, we can calculate the WSE time series at any chainage point at any time for an available satellite pass within the river reach and estimate discharge from WSE. The discharge estimates are validated with in situ measurements at two available gauging stations. In addition, we use the calibrated parameters in a full hydrodynamic model simulation, resulting in a RMSE of 0.59 m for the entire observation period.

Background Women’s childbirth experience can have immediate as well as long-term positive or negative effects on their life, well-being and health. When evaluating and drawing conclusions from research results, women’s experiences of childbirth should be one aspect to consider. Researchers and clinicians need help in finding and selecting the most suitable instrument for their purpose. The aim of this study was therefore to systematically identify and present validated instruments measuring women’s childbirth experience. Methods A systematic review was conducted in January 2016 with a comprehensive search in the bibliographic databases PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, The Cochrane Library and PsycINFO. Included instruments measured women’s childbirth experiences. Papers were assessed independently by two reviewers for inclusion, and quality assessment of included instruments was made by two reviewers independently and in pairs using Terwee et al’s criteria for evaluation of psychometric properties. Results In total 5189 citations were screened, of which 5106 were excluded by title and abstract. Eighty-three full-text papers were reviewed, and 37 papers were excluded, resulting in 46 included papers representing 36 instruments. These instruments demonstrated a wide range in purpose and content as well as in the quality of psychometric properties. Conclusions This systematic review provides an overview of existing instruments measuring women’s childbirth experiences and can support researchers to identify appropriate instruments to be used, and maybe adapted, in their specific contexts and research purpose.