A geometric approach to the impact of immigration of people infected with communicable diseases.

We construct a set of new epidemiological thresholds to address the general problem of spreading and containment of a transmissible disease with influx of infected individuals (i.e., when the classic R is no longer meaningful).

Benefits of Best Practice Guidelines in Spine Fusion: Comparable Correction in AIS with Higher Density and Fewer Complications.

Background: There is significant variability in surgeons' instrumentation patterns for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis surgery. Implant density and costs are difficult to correlate with deformity correction, safety, and quality of life measures.

Materials And Methods: Two groups of postoperative adolescents were compared based on exposure to a best practice guidelines program (BPGP) introduced to decrease complications.

Complications associated with surgical treatment for pediatric spine deformities: A single center 10-years experience.

Introduction: The surgical treatment for pediatric spine deformity is complex and often associated with complications, which generates important clinical and economic impact. Herein the authors analyze the prevalence of complications in surgery for pediatric spine deformity, the correlation between complications and several risk factors, and present a preventive algorithm for these events.

Material And Methods: We collected for analysis the data regarding pediatric patients with spine deformities surgically treated in our institution through a 10 years period with 100% revision rate and a 24-month minimum follow-up were included.

Estimating peptide half-life in serum from tunable, sequence-related physicochemical properties.

Proteolytic instability is a critical limitation for peptide-based products. Although significant efforts are devoted to stabilize sequences against proteases/peptidases in plasma/serum, such approaches tend to be rather empirical, unspecific, time-consuming, and frequently not cost-effective. A more rational and potentially rewarding alternative is to identify the chemical grounds of susceptibility to enzymatic degradation of peptides so that proteolytic resistance can be tuned by manipulation of key chemical properties.

Blood Management and Risk Assessment for Transfusion in Pediatric Spinal Deformity Surgery.

Objectives: Evaluate the impact of a Quality and Safety Program (QSP) on the reduction of blood loss and transfusion needs in pediatric spinal deformity surgery, while defining risk factors for transfusion.

Background: Multimodal plan aiming to minimize transfusion needs has been shown to reduce transfusions and index rates in spinal deformity surgery. Anticipating blood loss and transfusion may help direct resources to patient needs or encourage reconsideration of the surgical plan.

Hepatitis C Pretreatment Profile and Gender Differences: Cognition and Disease Severity Effects.

Background: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known to infect the brain, however, the findings based on associated neuropsychiatric syndrome are controversial and the association itself remains unclear. Gender research in HCV infection is limited, failing to integrate the role of gender differences in neurocognitive syndrome. The aim of this study was to characterize psychological and neurocognitive profiles in HCV-infected patients before treatment and to explore gender differences in those profiles, as well as the impact of disease severity.

Impact of Surgery on the Quality of Life of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis.

Background: The impact of surgery on the quality of life of adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) remains to be clarified as most of the studies are retrospective and few include quality of life questionnaires completed in the pre- and postoperative periods.

Methods: Operated patients with AIS who completed preoperative and postoperative SRS-22 questionnaires were selected for evaluation. The demographic data were collected and quality of life improvement was assessed by comparing deviation to the means with standard deviation at both moments.

Affinity to cellulose is a shared property among coiled-coil domains of intermediate filaments and prokaryotic intermediate filament-like proteins.

Coiled-coil domains of intermediate filaments (IF) and prokaryotic IF-like proteins enable oligomerisation and filamentation, and no additional function is ascribed to these coiled-coil domains. However, an IF-like protein from Streptomyces reticuli was reported to display cellulose affinity. We demonstrate that cellulose affinity is an intrinsic property of the IF-like proteins FilP and Scy and the coiled-coil protein DivIVA from the genus Streptomyces.

Tolerability and positive efficacy results after subcutaneous immunotherapy with Parietaria judaica depot extract.

Aim: To evaluate tolerability and efficacy of Parietaria judaica subcutaneous immunotherapy on patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.

Patients & Methods: 51 patients were assigned to build-up scheme (six increasing doses) of P. judaica depot native extract, plus three maintenance monthly administrations.

In vivo diagnosis with purified tropomyosin in mite and shellfish allergic patients.

Background: Tropomyosin is the most studied shellfish allergen and has been involved in cross-reactivity among different invertebrates (crustacean, mollusks, mites, insects, and nematodes).

Objective: To determine the relevance of tropomyosin in mite- and shellfish-sensitized patients using tropomyosin skin testing.

Methods: Patients were divided into 3 groups: group M included mite allergic patients (ie, individuals with respiratory symptoms and a positive result on skin prick testing [SPT] to house dust mites), group S included shellfish allergic patients (ie, individuals who reported symptoms with shellfish), and group MS included mite- and shellfish allergic patients (ie, individuals who simultaneously fulfilled the inclusion criteria for groups M and S).

Patterns of perceptions of workplace violence in the Portuguese health care sector.

This article characterizes the problem of violence against health professionals in the workplace (VAHPITWP) in selected settings in Portugal. It addresses the questions of what types of violence are most frequent and who are the most affected health professionals.Three methodological approaches were followed: (i) documentary studies, (ii) a questionnaire-based hospital and health centre (HC) complex case study and (iii) semi-structured interviews with stakeholders.