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It is observed that the importance of executive-employee relationships is continuously increasing in today’s professional life in addition to the importance of leadership types of managers along with the efficiency of employees as well as the sufficiency of these people in their social relations. Communication of employees with one another and with their manager, along with their social relations, is among the most important factors that sustain an organization. Bullying is a kind of psychological terror that takes place in the form of repeated attacks among workers, as well as by the manager on the employees, aiming to instill stress, job dissatisfaction, and exhaustion on the employees. It has been put forth especially by recent studies that the leadership styles of the managers are highly influential on bullying. The study was carried out with 1189 forest engineers working at 25 different Regional Directorates of Forestry in Turkey. The status of engineers subject to bullying in addition to the effects of leadership types on bullying was determined as a result of the statistical analyses carried out. The results of the study were evaluated comprehensively in comparison with other studies in the relevant literature, thus developing suggestions for preventing bullying behaviors that vary across leadership types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a case of a displaced atrial septal defect (ASD) occluder in the left ventricle. We successfully adapted a strategy to remove the device through a single right atrial incision which permitted retrieval of the occluder and the closure of the ASD. (J Card Surg 2010;25:382-384) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronary-coronary bypass grafting refers to making anastomoses between two segments of the same coronary artery or between different coronary arteries, and provides less “touch” to the aorta, which is important for the patients with severely atherosclerotic ascending aorta. In this report we represent a case of a patient with extensive atherosclerotic aorta, in whom a saphenous vein graft was placed between the acute marginal and the posterior-descending branches of the right coronary artery during an off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. (J Card Surg 2010;25:167-169) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Hepcidin plays a regulatory role in systemic iron homeostasis. GDF-15 has been found to be expressed from matured erythroblasts and very high levels of GDF-15 suppresses hepcidin secretion. In this study, we evaluated hepcidin and GDF-15 levels in polycythemia vera ( PV) and essential thrombocythemia ( ET). Methods The study included 29 patients and 21 healthy controls. The patient group included 13 patients with ET and 16 patients with PV. Serum hepcidin and GDF-15 levels were measured at the time of diagnosis, before the initiation of any therapy. Results Hepcidin levels did not differ significantly in patients with chronic myeloproliferative disease ( CMPD) and healthy controls. However, GDF-15 levels were significantly increased in patients with CMPD ( P = 0.038). No difference could be found between patients with PV and ET in terms of hepcidin and GDF-15 levels. Patients with JAK2-V617F mutation had increased GDF-15 levels when compared with patients without this mutation ( P: 0.006). Conclusions The levels of GDF-15 were higher in CMPD, which are characterized by increased erythropoiesis, and this effect was more pronounced particularly in individuals with JAK2-V617F mutation. Hepcidin levels were not suppressed despite the increased erythroid activity and GDF-15 levels may be protective against the clinical complications of the disease such as thrombosis. This study revealed that, hepcidin levels were not suppressed despite increased erythroid activity and high GDF-15 levels in CMPD. We hypothesized that, this may be an attempt to prevent further amplification of erythropoietic activity by reducing iron utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To study possible causes of an outbreak of severe endophthalmitis after planned extracapsular cataract surgery in Medan, Indonesia. Methods: In a 3 week period in November 2001, 17 of 43 patients developed signs of endophthalmitis after planned extracapsular cataract surgery. A search for possible causes was undertaken 4 months later. Results: In autoclaved stored distilled water used to dissolve acetylcholine (used in 16 of 17 patients with endophthalmitis) a high amount of endotoxin was detected in a human blood essay, as well as a small number of non-typeable Pseudomonas spp. Conclusions: These findings suggest that distilled water used as solvent for acetylcholine was responsible for this outbreak of endophthalmitis. As a consequence, we now rely on solvents that are regularly checked for impurities such as an intravenous infusion fluid, rather than on vials with distilled water that is presumed to be sterile and kept for some time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfer of the sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) has been proposed as a new principle of cancer gene therapy. Using clinically relevant doses of 131I for the treatment of NIS-expressing prostate carcinoma cells, we investigated the kinetics and the absorbed doses obtained in these tumors. hNIS-expressing cell lines accumulated up to 200 times more iodide when compared to wild-type cells. However, a rapid efflux of the radioactivity (80%) occurred during the first 20?min after replacement of the medium. In rats, the hNIS-expressing tumors accumulated up to 20 times more iodide when compared to contralateral transplanted wild-type tumors. After 24?h and doses of 550, 1200 or 2400?MBq/m2 hNIS-expressing tumors lost 89, 89 and 91% of the initial activity, respectively. Dosimetric calculations showed that 1200?MBq/m2 resulted in 3±0.5?Gy (wild-type tumor 0.15±0.1?Gy) and 2400?MBq/m2 resulted in 3.1±0.9?Gy (wild-type tumor 0.26±0.02?Gy). Although transduction of the hNIS gene induces iodide transport in rat prostate adenocarcinoma a rapid efflux occurs, which leads to a low absorbed dose in genetically modified tumors. With regard to a therapeutic application additional conditions need to be defined leading to iodide trapping.Gene Therapy (2003) 10, 774-780. doi:10.1038/sj.gt.3301943 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]