A 31-year-old woman with hepatocellular carcinoma suffered from recurrent oesophageal variceal bleeding due to portal hypertension, which was caused by severe compression of the portal vein by metastatic lymph nodes. Endoscopic band ligation and pharmacological treatment did not suffice to prevent recurrence of variceal bleeding. Eventually, after the fifth variceal bleeding within 6 months, the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit in a haemodynamic shock. A Sengstaken-Blakemore tube was inserted and all treatment options were discussed, but only percutaneous transhepatic recanalisation of the portal vein with stent placement to reduce portal vein pressure was thought to be feasible with any chance to relieve portal vein pressure. After successful portal vein stenting, our patient did not have any recurrent bleeding in the remaining year of her life. We suggest that percutaneous transhepatic portal vein stenting may be a feasible and adequate last line treatment for complications of portal hypertension.

In this study, a method was developed for the determination of five neonicotinoid pesticides (acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam) in propolis. Two sample preparation methods were tested: solid-phase extraction and the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method. The identities of analytes were confirmed using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in the selected reaction monitoring mode. Solid-phase extraction resulted in cleaner extracts; therefore, the SPE-LC-MS/MS method was validated according to the SANTE protocol in triplicate at two spiking levels (10 ng/g and 50 ng/g). The average recoveries of analytes ranged from 61% to 101%, except for clothianidin (10–20%). The LOD ranged from 0.2 ng/g to 4.4 ng/g, whereas the LOQ was in the range of 0.8 ng/g–14.7 ng/g. In order to compensate for the matrix effect, matrix-matched calibration was used. Good accuracy (relative error: 1.9–10.4%) and good linearity (R2 > 0.991) were obtained for all compounds. The optimised method was applied to 30 samples: 18 raw propolis and 12 ethanol tinctures. Acetamiprid, imidacloprid, and thiacloprid were detectable in seven samples but were still below the LOQ. This study is the first to report the determination of several neonicotinoid residues in propolis.

A subgraph H of a graph G with perfect matching is nice if G−V(H) has perfect matching. It is well-known that all fullerene graphs have perfect matchings and that all fullerene graphs contain some small connected graphs as nice subgraphs. In this contribution, we consider fullerene graphs arising from smaller fullerenes via the leapfrog transformation, and show that in such graphs, each pair of (necessarily disjoint) pentagons is nice. That answers in affirmative a question posed in a recent paper on nice pairs of odd cycles in fullerene graphs.

Aim To investigate the association of FasL gene polymorphism (rs763110) with rheumatoid arthritis occurrence, disease activity, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) plasma concentration in Croatian patients, and to conduct an updated meta-analysis. Methods This cross-sectional study enrolled 81 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 94 control patients. After the assessment of the Disease Activity Score (DAS)-28, blood was taken for analysis. DNA was isolated from the whole blood to determine FasL polymorphism (rs763110) by polymerase chain reaction. Protein levels of TNF-α were determined with ELISA. After a detailed literature search, we conducted an updated meta-analysis using the Review Manager 5 software. Results Rheumatoid arthritis patients had significantly higher TNF-α concentration in plasma (1.65 [1.2-2.42] pg/mL) than controls (0.99 [0.77-1.35] pg/mL, P < 0.001). The FasL rs763110 polymorphism was not associated with rheumatoid arthritis occurrence in either codominant, dominant, recessive, overdominant, or log additive model. Furthermore, the rs763110 genotype was not associated with DAS 28 score or TNF-α concentration. After we added our results to an updated meta-analysis, the significant association previously reported for Western Eurasians was abolished. Conclusion Our data suggest that the association between FasL rs763110 polymorphism and RA susceptibility in Western Eurasians observed in previous studies might be overestimated and should be limited to the population of Southwestern Asia until further investigations are performed.

Background: Because of the health systems globalization, it is important to examine health systems organization in Africa, in terms of patient care, to highlight the failures and propose possible solutions. Objective: Modeling based on the Internet of Things (IoT) an Integrated Network for Monitoring Patient Data in West African Health Systems. Methodology: To achieve this, three steps have been followed. 1) Identification of the different characteristics of IoT-based health surveillance systems, WBAN systems and physiological parameters monitorable on a patient. 2) The modeling of the architecture of West African health systems in the form of a cloud of Technocentres. 3) Cross analysis between different IoT technologies, characteristics and functional requirements identified. All this is based on wireless medical sensor networks in Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) systems. Result: This work has been used to model health systems in Africa as a remote monitoring network for patients. Conclusion: The implementation of this model of monitoring networks will be a tool for supporting large-scale decision-making for a health system in Africa. It will enable the West African health system to have an information database.

Cilj: Prikazati učestalost uroloških komplikacija nakon transplantacije bubrega u našem transplantacijskom centru. Ispitanici i metode: Retrospektivnim istraživanjem bili su obuhvaćeni svi pacijenti u Kliničkom bolničkom centru Rijeka u kojih je između 30. siječnja 1971. godine i 31. prosinca 2018. godine učinjena transplantacija bubrega. Rezultati: U promatranom razdoblju u našem transplantacijskom centru učinjeno je 1160 transplantacija bubrega. Urološke komplikacije imala su ukupno 154 pacijenta (13,3 %). Najčešće komplikacije su bile stenoza uretera u 52 pacijenta (4,5 %), urinarna fistula u 50 pacijenata (4,3 %), retencija urina u 23 pacijenta (1,9 %) te urolitijaza u 8 pacijenata (0,7 %). U većine pacijenata je provedeno kirurško liječenje. U posljednje vrijeme značajno se povećalo rješavanje uroloških komplikacija korištenjem minimalno-invazivnih metoda. U dvoje pacijenata (0,17 %) je zbog uroloških komplikacija došlo do gubitka grafta, a u troje pacijenata (0,25 %) su one dovele do smrtnog ishoda. Zaključak: Urološke komplikacije u našoj transplantacijskoj populaciji nisu česte. U pacijenata u kojih je potrebno kirurško liječenje endourološke metode predstavljaju danas inicijalnu metodu liječenja.

Abstract Analysis of representative tools for SQL query processing on Hadoop (SQL-on-Hadoop systems), such as Hive, Impala, Presto, Shark, show that they are not still sufficiently efficient for complex analytical queries and interactive query processing. Existing SQL-on-Hadoop systems have many benefits from the application of modern query processing techniques that have been studied extensively for many years in the database community. It is expected that with the application of advanced techniques, the performance of SQL-on-Hadoop systems can be improved. The main idea of this paper is to give a review of big data concepts and technologies, and summarize big data optimization techniques that can be used for improving performance when processing big data.

Introduction: Changes in the skin can occur as part of a diabetic, metabolic disorder or diabetic complications. Studies have shown that diabetes has an extremely strong negative impact on quality of life, especially diabetes with complications. Aim: Examine the impact of skin changes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus on quality of life. Methods: A prospective study analysed the quality of life in 200 respondents with type 2 diabetes mellitus which had diabetes-related skin changes. Subjects were divided into four groups according to the type of skin changes associated with diabetes mellitus. Group 1 consisted of patients which had skin changes with a greater or lesser association with diabetes mellitus, group 2 patients with infections, group 3 patients with cutaneous manifestations of diabetic complications and group 4 patients with allergic reactions to antidiabetic therapy. Quality of life assessment was performed using the Skindex-29 questionnaire, and the Nijsten categorization was used to assess the impact of skin changes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus on quality of life. Results: There were (51.95%) respondents in group 1, group 2 (24.02%), group 3 (22.22%) and group 4 (1.8%) respondents. In the scale of emotions in 84 respondents (43.0%) the impact on quality of life was serious, in the scale of symptoms in 96 (48%) was moderate, and in the scale of social and physical functioning 106 (55%) also had a moderate impact on quality of life, as well as in the total score of 94 respondents (47%). There was a statistically significant difference in the scale of social and physical functioning in the presence of skin changes in group 1 (x2 = 7.95; df = 3, p = 0.045) and group 3 (x2 = 12.48, df = 3; p = 0.006), and in the total score of Skindex-29 when it comes to changes in the skin of group 3 (x2 = 7.26, df = 3, p = 0.05). Conclusion: the quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus which have skin changes is significantly reduced.