The Family Doctor in the "COVID-19 Era".

The SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, the most severe pandemic in recent human history, found healthcare systems around the world more or less unprepared. Adjusting to this challenge involved changes in the daily routines of healthcare systems, as well as the patients, once again highlighting the importance of primary care (family physician or general practitioner). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the family doctor in Romania played a crucial role in patient management, rapidly adapting to the changes and challenges imposed by the state of emergency.

Biotechnology Revolution Shaping the Future of Diabetes Management.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) has a millennia-long history, with early references dating back to ancient Egypt and India. However, it was not until the 20th century that the connection between diabetes and insulin was fully understood. The sequencing of insulin in the 1950s initiated the convergence of biotechnology and diabetes management, leading to the development of recombinant human insulin in 1982.

Stabilometry in Relation to Hip and Knee Muscle Force in Children with Surgically Treated Unilateral Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis.

Background/objectives: The main aim of our study was to analyze the stabilometric parameters in relation to hip and knee muscle force in children with unilateral slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) who had undergone surgical treatment. Another objective was to compare the stabilometry in three testing situations (eyes open, eyes closed, and head retroflexed).

Methods: In total, 26 patients with unilateral right SCFE treated via in situ fixation with one percutaneous screw performed stabilometry assessments under three different situations (with their eyes open, with their eyes closed, and with their head retroflexed) and isometric muscle force assessment of the bilateral hip flexors, extensors, abductors and adductors and bilateral knee flexors and extensors.

Clinical Study on the Implications of Immunological Markers in the Diagnosis of Periodontitis in People with Diabetes Mellitus.

The basic idea from which the working hypothesis for this study started is the fact that the only systemic disease today that is clearly linked to periodontal disease by biochemical mechanisms is diabetes mellitus, as well as the clinical finding that diabetes causes a number of specific periodontal changes. Highlighting the biochemical markers of inflammation during periodontal disease in patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is the main aim of the study. To achieve this objective, we used the human ELISA kit from Boster Biological Technology Co.

Digital Electronic System-on-Chip Design: Methodologies, Tools, Evolution, and Trends.

This paper reviews the evolution of methodologies and tools for modeling, simulation, and design of digital electronic system-on-chip (SoC) implementations, with a focus on industrial electronics applications. Key technological, economic, and geopolitical trends are presented at the outset, before reviewing SoC design methodologies and tools. The fundamentals of SoC design flows are laid out.

Patterned Sensory Enhancement, a Music Rehabilitation Therapy for Elderly Patients with Neuromotor Deficit during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Study.

(1) Background: The Patterned Sensory Enhancement (PSE) technique refers to a music-based rehabilitation therapy strategy used in neurological pathologies. (2) Methods: This study aims at developing a music-drill protocol for recovery in elderly patients with neuromuscular degenerative pathologies. Each music drill is based on a number of specific music-composition parameters.

Staged Treatment of Posttraumatic Tibial Osteomyelitis with Rib Graft and Serratus Anterior Muscle Autografts-Case Report.

Osteomyelitis of the tibia is a challenging condition, particularly when it occurs as a result of trauma. This abstract presents a case study detailing the successful staged treatment of posttraumatic tibial osteomyelitis utilizing a unique combination of rib graft and serratus anterior muscle. This medical abstract presents a case study of a 52-year-old male with a history of heavy smoking and obliterating arteriopathy of the lower limbs.

Healthcare Workers' Vulnerability to SARS-CoV-2 in Western Romania: A Study on Incidence and Risk Factors for Non-Vaccination and Reinfection.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted healthcare workers, a professional category at risk of infection in both hospital and community settings. The aim of the study was to compare morbidity among hospital staff and that in general population, as well as the factors predicting non-vaccination and reinfection.

Patients And Methods: The present study is a retrospective, cross-sectional study.

Robotic Process Automation Based Data Extraction from Handwritten Medical Forms.

This paper proposes to create an RPA(robotic process automation) based software robot that can digitalize and extract data from handwritten medical forms. The RPA robot uses a taxonomy that is specific for the medical form and associates the extracted data with the taxonomy. This is accomplished using UiPath studio to create the robot, Google Cloud Vision OCR(optical character recognition) to create the DOM (digital object model) file and UiPath machine learning (ML) API to extract the data from the medical form.

NET G3 vs NEC: p53 and Rb1 Immunolabeling in High-grade Gastrointestinal Neuroendocrine Neoplasms - Is It Enough for the Differential Diagnosis?

Background And Aims: High-grade gastrointestinal neuroendocrine neoplasms (GI-NENs) are divided into well-differentiated G3 neuroendocrine tumors (NETs G3) and neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs), having identical cut-offs of proliferation, but different biomolecular origins. This translates in distinct treatment choices. Our aim was to establish if p53/Rb1 immunohistochemical status in GI-NENs with Ki67 index >20% can predict the histopathological diagnosis.

Using machine learning to predict student retention from socio-demographic characteristics and app-based engagement metrics.

Student attrition poses a major challenge to academic institutions, funding bodies and students. With the rise of Big Data and predictive analytics, a growing body of work in higher education research has demonstrated the feasibility of predicting student dropout from readily available macro-level (e.g.

Reinforcement Learning Made Affordable for Hardware Verification Engineers.

Constrained random stimulus generation is no longer sufficient to fully simulate the functionality of a digital design. The increasing complexity of today's hardware devices must be supported by powerful development and simulation environments, powerful computational mechanisms, and appropriate software to exploit them. Reinforcement learning, a powerful technique belonging to the field of artificial intelligence, provides the means to efficiently exploit computational resources to find even the least obvious correlations between configuration parameters, stimuli applied to digital design inputs, and their functional states.

The Rescue of the Romanian Health System by the Emergency Departments during the Fourth Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the confrontation of the health system with the need to identify solutions for providing medical care to a very large number of patients. The main objective of our study was to describe the measures taken to provide optimal medical care to patients who presented themselves in one of the large emergency hospitals of Romania in the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods: We conducted a retrospective, observational study on a group of 1417 patients.

Umbilical Cord Teratoma - A Short Case Report.

Teratomas can occur in the umbilical cord, and may or may not be associated with other congenital abnormalities. This 35-year-old primigravida gave birth 37-38 weeks to a 3290-g normal female. The umbilical cord, at 10 cm from the abdominal insertion, had an 8 cm mature teratoma.

Are paranoid ideation and hallucination spectrum experiences differently associated with affect dynamics? A continuous-time modeling approach.

Psychotic experiences have been associated with distortions in affective functioning, including aberrancies in affect dynamics. However, it remains unclear whether the two principal symptom dimensions of psychosis, namely paranoid ideation and hallucination spectrum experiences, are differently associated with affect dynamics, and whether associations hold after statistically controlling for depressive symptoms. We investigate this by using a novel statistical approach, the hierarchical Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process model.

Cost-Efficient Approaches for Fulfillment of Functional Coverage during Verification of Digital Designs.

Digital integrated circuits play an important role in the development of new information technologies and support Industry 4.0 from a hardware point of view. There is great pressure on electronics companies to reduce the time-to-market for product development as much as possible.

A Review of Sensors and Biosensors Modified with Conducting Polymers and Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Used in Electrochemical Detection of Amino Acids: Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, and Tryptophan.

Recently, the studies on developing sensors and biosensors-with an obvious interdisciplinary character-have drawn the attention of many researchers specializing in various fundamental, but also complex domains such as chemistry, biochemistry, physics, biophysics, biology, bio-pharma-medicine, and bioengineering. Along these lines, the present paper is structured into three parts, and is aimed at synthesizing the most relevant studies on the construction and functioning of versatile devices, of electrochemical sensors and biosensors, respectively. The first part presents examples of the most representative scientific research focusing on the role and the importance of the phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan amino acids, selected depending on their chemical structure and their impact on the central nervous system.

Quantification of Tyrosine in Pharmaceuticals with the New Biosensor Based on Laccase-Modified Polypyrrole Polymeric Thin Film.

Stress, a state of body tension, sometimes caused by increased levels of tyrosine (Tyr) in the body, can lead to serious illnesses such as depression, irritability, anxiety, damage to the thyroid gland, and insomnia. The body can be provided with an adequate concentration of tyrosine by taking pharmaceutical products or by dietary intake. Therefore, this study presents the development of a new enzyme sensor for the quantification of Tyr in pharmaceuticals.

The impact of food delivery applications on Romanian consumers' behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact that food delivery mobile applications have on consumers' behaviour in the context of the changes generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we aimed to bridge the gap in the literature and practice by studying intrinsic and extrinsic variables that affect 18-50+ years old consumers' decision process. The data set was analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling Part Least Square model because this model has no limitations to integrating more variables into a path model.

Nanoengineered biomimetic hydrogels: A major advancement to fabricate 3D-printed constructs for regenerative medicine.

Nanostructured compounds already validated as performant reinforcements for biomedical applications together with different fabrication strategies have been often used to channel the biophysical and biochemical features of hydrogel networks. Ergo, a wide array of nanostructured compounds has been employed as additive materials integrated with hydrophilic networks based on naturally-derived polymers to produce promising scaffolding materials for specific fields of regenerative medicine. To date, nanoengineered hydrogels are extensively explored in (bio)printing formulations, representing the most advanced designs of hydrogel (bio)inks able to fabricate structures with improved mechanical properties and high print fidelity along with a cell-interactive environment.

Development of Polypyrrole Modified Screen-Printed Carbon Electrode Based Sensors for Determination of L-Tyrosine in Pharmaceutical Products.

Good health, of vital importance in order to carry out our daily routine, consists of both physical and mental health. Tyrosine (Tyr) deficiency as well as its excess are issues that can affect mental health and can generate disorders such as depression, anxiety, or stress. Tyr is the amino acid (AA) responsible for maintaining good mental health, and for this reason, the present research presents the development of new electrochemical sensors modified with polypyrrole (PPy) doped with different doping agents such as potassium hexacyanoferrate (II) (FeCN), sodium nitroprusside (NP), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) for a selective and sensitive detection of Tyr.

Impact of General Anesthesia Guided by State Entropy (SE) and Response Entropy (RE) on Perioperative Stability in Elective Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Patients-A Prospective Observational Randomized Monocentric Study.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is one of the most frequently performed interventions in general surgery departments. Some of the most important aims in achieving perioperative stability in these patients is diminishing the impact of general anesthesia on the hemodynamic stability and the optimization of anesthetic drug doses based on the individual clinical profile of each patient. The objective of this study is the evaluation of the impact, as monitored through entropy (both state entropy (SE) and response entropy (RE)), that the depth of anesthesia has on the hemodynamic stability, as well as the doses of volatile anesthetic.

Intravenous iron infusion as an alternative to minimize blood transfusion in peri-operative patients.

Despite the reported benefits of intravenous iron therapy (IVIT) for correcting iron deficiency anemia (IDA) before any major surgery and the evidence thereof, perioperative allogenic blood transfusion (ABT) practice is still considered as the only viable option by some clinicians worldwide. As ABT increases the likelihood of infections, cardiac complications, longer hospital stays and mortality among the patients, the practice of ABT should only be reserved for critical cases (Hb level < 7 g/dl). Timely iron studies and iron replenishment (oral/IV) of prospective surgical patients could help decrease the ABT practice, and prove beneficial from both the clinical and economic standpoint.