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Összefoglaló. Bevezetés: A metabolikus szindróma előfordulása és jelentősége az elhízás prevalenciájával arányosan megnövekedett. Diagnosztizálása különböző kritériumrendszerek segítségével történhet. Célkitűzés: A kutatás célkitűzése volt egy hátrányos helyzetű település lakosságánál a metabolikus szindróma prevalenciájának megállapítása a diabetes mellitus szempontjából fokozott, illetve magas kockázatú egyéneknél, emellett a glikált hemoglobin alkalmazhatóságának vizsgálata a metabolikus szindróma szűrésében. Módszer: A metabolikus szindróma megállapítása az International Diabetes Federation kritériumrendszere alapján történt a vérnyomás- és haskörfogatértékek, illetve vénás vérminta alapján. Az utóbbi folyamán szérumból a lipidparaméterek és a glikált hemoglobin vizsgálata, plazmából pedig éhomi és terheléses vércukorvizsgálat történt. A labordiagnosztikai módszerek alkalmazhatóságát „receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve” (vevőegység-működési karakterisztikus görbe) segítségével elemeztük. Eredmények: A 74 vizsgált egyén 71,62%-ánál igazolódott metabolikus szindróma (n = 53). A legideálisabb „cut-off point” az 5,65%-os (38,3 mmol/mol) glikálthemoglobin-érték volt, amelynél a szenzitivitás 69,8%-nak, míg a specificitás 77,3%-nak (pKövetkeztetés: A metabolikus szindróma előfordulása a fokozott, illetve magas diabetesrizikóval rendelkezők körében jelentősen magasabb volt, mint hasonló kutatások esetében az összpopulációra vonatkoztatva. Elemzéseink alapján a glikált hemoglobin a metabolikus szindróma megállapítása során alkalmazható az éhomi vércukorszint kiegészítéseként. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(31): 1244–1251. Summary. Introduction: The incidence and thus the relevance of metabolic syndrome have been increasing in parallel with the prevalence of obesity. Metabolic syndrome can be diagnosed using various criteria systems. Objective: This research was designed to establish the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among patients at moderate or high risk for diabetes mellitus in the population of a disadvantaged Hungarian municipality. The secondary objective of the study was the examination of the suitability of glycated hemoglobin as a screening tool for metabolic syndrome. Method: Diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was established using the International Diabetes Federation criteria system based on the measurement of blood pressure and abdominal circumference as well as values using venous blood samples. Lipid parameters and glycated hemoglobin levels were measured from serum as well. The fasting and two-hours post-load blood glucose were measured from plasma. The validity of the laboratory diagnostic methods were determined with receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: 71.62% of the 74 tested patients were confirmed to have metabolic syndrome (n = 53). The optimal cut-off point was 5.65% (38.3 mmol/mol) glycated hemoglobin value with 69.8% sensitivity and 77.3% specificity (pConclusion: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among individuals at elevated or high risk for diabetes was significantly higher compared to the total population, based on published data from similar earlier studies. Based on our analyses, glycated hemoglobin – used as a complementary parameter to fasting glucose level – is suitable for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(31): 1244–1251.

Absztrakt: Bevezetés: A mentális betegek stigmatizációja mind a hazai, mind a nemzetközi kutatásokban kiemelt jelentőséggel bír. Az érintetteknek a társadalmi előítéleteken túl az egészségügyi szakemberek stigmatizáló attitűdjével is meg kell küzdeniük. Célkitűzés: A vizsgálat során a pszichiátriai betegségekkel kapcsolatos sztereotípiák, a stigmatizáló egészségügyi szakdolgozói attitűdök jelenlétét kerestük. Célunk volt továbbá az ápolási munkát végző dolgozók körében a mentális betegségekkel kapcsolatos ismeretek felmérése. Az eredmények tükrében az ápolóképzések reformjával kapcsolatos javaslatok tételét tűztük ki célul. Módszer: A Magyar Egészségügyi Szakdolgozói Kamara (mentésügyi, sürgősségi betegellátási, pszichiátriai ápolási és felnőttápolási tagozat) tagjainak körében végzett online, kvantitatív, kérdőíves felmérés eredményeinek deskriptív és többváltozós elemzése. Eredmények: A kitöltött kérdőívek közül 495 volt értékelhető (n = 495). A pszichiátrián dolgozó ápolókat kevésbé stigmatizáló attitűd jellemzi a mentés és a sürgősségi ellátás, illetve az egyéb területeken dolgozókénál. Erőteljesebben megjelenik a stigmatizáló attitűd a hosszabb ideje a szakmában tevékenykedőknél. Kevésbé stigmatizáló attitűd jellemzi a főiskolai vagy egyetemi végzettségűeket, mint a középfokú végzettségűeket. A vizsgálatban részt vevő összes ápoló közel fele (47%) tartja hiányosnak felkészültségét a mentális betegségekkel kapcsolatosan. Tagozati bontásban a mentés és a sürgősségi ellátás dolgozóinál 49%, a felnőttápolási tagozat tagjainál 55% ez az arány. A pszichiátriai ápolók körében is viszonylag nagy (28%) azok aránya, akik hiányosnak ítélik meg felkészültségüket, ugyanakkor természetesen a megfelelő felkészültséget is ez a csoport választotta a legnagyobb arányban (37%). Következtetés: A pszichiátria oktatását az ápolóképzések minden szintjén szükséges hatékonyabbá tenni. Fontos lenne továbbá az érzékenyítő, stigma elleni módszerek beépítése és az empátia fejlesztése. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(2): 56–66.

IEEE Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) (32nd. 2021. Helsinki, Finland), This work was supported by the CHIST-ERA grant CHIST-ERA-17-BDSI-006, by Swiss National Fund (SNF), project number 20CH21_180431, by Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. 2/0125/20, by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CCCDI-UEFISCDI, 101/2019, COFUND- CHISTERA-SOON, within PNCDI III, and by AGENCIA ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACION (Spain), grant number MCIU-19-PCI2019-103443

Endocannabinoids (eCBs) anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) were shown to be involved in the basis of trauma-induced behavioral changes, particularly contextual conditioned fear, however, their ligand-specific effects and possible interactions are poorly understood. Here we assessed specific eCB effects and interactions on acquisition of contextual conditioned fear employing electric footshocks in a rat model. We selectively increased eCB levels by pharmacological blockade of the degrading enzymes of AEA by URB597 and 2-AG by JZL184 before traumatization either systemically or locally in relevant brain areas, the prelimbic cortex (PrL), ventral hippocampus (vHC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA). Following traumatization, a series of contextual reminders were conducted during which conditioned fear was assessed. While systemic URB597-treatment during traumatization only slightly enhanced the acquisition of contextual conditioned fear, administration of the compound in the PrL and vHC led to the acquisition of stable, lasting conditioned fear, resistant to extinction. These effects of URB597 were blocked by simultaneous administration of JZL184. Similar treatment effects did not occur in the BLA. Treatment effects were not secondary to alterations in locomotor activity or nociception. Our findings suggest that AEA and 2-AG functionally interact in the regulation of acquisition of contextual conditioned fear. AEA signaling in the PrL and vHC is a crucial promoter of fear acquisition while 2-AG potentially modulates this effect. The lack of eCB effects in the BLA suggests functional specificity of eCBs at distinct brain sites.

Aim:Aim of cross-sectional study was to survey the risk of diabetes mellitus in a severely disadvantaged Hungarian community and then to use laboratory tests to screen for potential carbohydrate metabolism disorders among those in the moderate- and high-risk groups.Background:The prevalence of diabetes mellitus shows a worrisome trend worldwide. Low socio-economic status significantly affects the development of diabetes, healthy life years and life expectancy.Method:Diabetes risk of the population was surveyed with the FINDRISC (Finnish Diabetes Risk Score) questionnaire, followed by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and glycated haemoglobin test of moderate- and high-risk patients.Findings:In sample of 551 subjects, moderate or high risk for diabetes was confirmed in 147 patients (26.68%). There was significant correlation between increased risk and age (P< 0.001) and between increased risk and body mass index (P< 0.001). Significant difference was confirmed between incidences for disease based on the results of OGTT and glycated haemoglobin test when two different criteria systems were used. Age was the strongest predictor of pre-diabetes/diabetes (P= 0.016). The presence of metabolic syndrome increased the level of glycated haemoglobin by an average of 0.2% in normal glycemic status.

We construct quasiconformal mappings on the Heisenberg group which change the Hausdorff dimension of Cantor-type sets in an arbitrary fashion. On the other hand, we give examples of subsets of the Heisenberg group whose Hausdorff dimension cannot be lowered by any quasiconformal mapping. For a general set of a certain Hausdorff dimension we obtain estimates of the Hausdorff dimension of the image set in terms of the magnitude of the quasiconformal distortion

Maintenance is a key factor to ensure the production efficiency, since the occurrence of unexpected failures leads to a degradation of the system performance, causing the loss of productivity and business opportunities, which are crucial roles to achieve competitiveness. The article aims to propose a reference architecture which will improve the way maintenance is considered in the current manufacturing world, by enabling an overall increase of production rates, while increasing the operational equipment effectiveness and decreasing the impact of maintenance needs. This objective would be accomplished by establishing an IoT infrastructure for the collection of the huge amount of available shop floor data, which can be analyzed, considering data analytics algorithms, predictive maintenance models and forecasting techniques, to perform the machine/system health assessment and prediction of maintenance needs, e.g. by detecting earlier the occurrence of possible failures and consequently the need to implement maintenance interventions. The scheduling of predictive maintenance needs will be integrated with the existing maintenance planning tools, and especially synchronized with the production planning tools to achieve a non disruptive maintenance impact in the production system. A cloud-based collaborative maintenance services platform allows the secure collection, aggregation and analysis of a large amount of shared data from numerous manufacturers that use the same or similar machinery, and acts as an open market where companies can contract specialized maintenance services. This reference architecture aims to provide replicable architecture to be broadly applicable in a variety of industries, capable to improve the production efficiency through a real-time health monitoring and early detection of failures and outages, to speed up the maintenance delivery, and consequently mitigate their impact. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Absztrakt A kozponti idegrendszert erintő betegsegek kialakulasanak es lefolyasanak molekularis szintű longitudinalis nyomon kovetese evtizedekig nem volt megoldott, a koros allapotu szerv vagy szovet direkt vizsgalatara altalaban a betegseg kesői stadiumaban volt lehetőseg. A kozponti idegrendszeri betegsegek modellezese jelentős szerepet jatszik az egyes korkepek patomechanizmusanak megismereseben, azonban az allatmodellek alkalmazasa a fajok idegrendszerei kozott fennallo kulonbsegek miatt a levont kovetkeztetesek ervenyesseget, a transzlaciot nagymertekben gyengitik. Az ily modon felmerulő problemak reszbeni athidalasara lehet alkalmas az indukalt pluripotens őssejtek nyujtotta modell, amely az utobbi evekben jelentősen hozzajarult a neurodegenerativ es neurodevelopmentalis betegsegek patogenezisenek megertesehez. Az indukalt pluripotens őssejtek a klinikai vizsgalatok előkeszitese soran meg hatterbe szorulnak, azonban a sejtelettani es molekularis biologiai mechanizmusok tanulmanyozasaban mar ma kiem...

Endocannabinoids are strong modulators of emotionality and present a novel target for psychotropic drug development. Increasing evidence suggests that endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) affect behavior differentially. While the roles of anandamide have been investigated extensively, studies regarding the specific roles of 2-AG became possible only recently, and its involvement in social behaviors has not yet been studied. We studied the impact of 2-AG signaling on aggression as a first attempt to characterize the role of this endocannabinoid in social behaviors. 2-AG signaling was enhanced by the monoacylglycerol lipase inhibitor JZL184 (8, and 16 mg/kg) in mice later submitted to the resident/intruder paradigm. JZL184 near completely abolished aggressiveness in residents and increased victimization (i.e., attacks by the opponent). Interestingly, the level of defensiveness remained unaltered, despite the large increase in bites received. The CB1 receptor blocker AM251 (0.5 mg/kg) did not influence the effects of JZL184. In intruders, JZL184 near completely suppressed bites and offensive behavior in a fashion similar to residents, but it also increased agitation and defensiveness during, and the corticosterone response to, aggressive encounters. Experiments involving the corticosterone synthesis inhibitor metyrapone (30 mg/kg) suggest that the suppression of biting and offensive behavior is directly influenced by JZL184, whereas increased agitation and defensiveness (seen in intruders only) are a secondary development of the stress-endocrine effects of JZL184. 2-AG signaling emerges as a surprisingly strong negative modulator of aggressiveness, which warrants further studies into its general role in social behavior and the target receptors involved.

The role of vasopressin in aggression received much attention in recent years. However, vasopressin has complex roles on social behavior, which are affected by social experience, motivation and hormonal background, suggesting that its effects depend on the condition of subjects. This hypothesis was tested here by studying the impact of vasopressin deficiency on aggressiveness in reproductively naive and reproductively experienced males, as well as in lactating females, with special reference to the patterns and contexts of attack behavior. We also studied effects on impulsiveness, a behavioral feature strongly related to aggression. Vasopressin deficiency did not affect aggressiveness in reproductively experienced males, decreased the share of violent attacks in reproductively inexperienced males without affecting total attack counts, and suppressed maternal aggression in both early and late phases of lactation; violent forms of attack were decreased in the latter but not the former phase. Changes in aggression appeared unrelated to general changes in maternal behaviors. Impulsivity in the delay discounting task was markedly decreased by vasopressin deficiency in lactating females but not males. Taken together, our findings confirm that vasopressin has an impact on aggressiveness, but show that this impact depends on the condition of subjects, and suggest that the effects of vasopressin on maternal aggression develop in conjunction with impulsivity. Interestingly, overall effects on aggression and specific effects on violent attacks dissociated in both males and females, which hints to the possibility that vasopressin has distinct roles in the development of escalated forms of aggression.

Vasopressin (AVP)-deficient Brattleboro rats develop a specific behavioral profile, which-among other things-include altered cognitive performance. This profile is markedly affected by alterations in neuroendocrine state of the animal such as during lactation. Given the links between AVP and cognition we hypothesized that AVP deficiency may lead to changes in impulsivity that is under cognitive control and the changes might be altered by lactation. Comparing virgin and lactating AVP-deficient female Brattleboro rats to their respective controls, we assessed the putative lactation-dependent effects of AVP deficiency on impulsivity in the delay discounting paradigm. Furthermore, to investigate the basis of such effects, we assessed possible interactions of AVP deficiency with GABAergic and serotonergic signaling and stress axis activity, systems playing important roles in impulse control. Our results showed that impulsivity was unaltered by AVP deficiency in virgin rats. In contrast a lactation-induced increase in impulsivity was abolished by AVP deficiency in lactating females. We also found that chlordiazepoxide-induced facilitation of GABAergic and imipramine-induced enhancement of serotonergic activity in virgins led to increased and decreased impulsivity, respectively. In contrast, during lactation these effects were visible only in AVP-deficient rats. These rats also exhibited increased stress axis activity compared to virgin animals, an effect that was abolished by AVP deficiency. Taken together, AVP appears to play a role in the regulation of impulsivity exclusively during lactation: it has an impulsivity increasing effect which is potentially mediated via stress axis-dependent mechanisms and fine-tuning of GABAergic and serotonergic function.

As more and more people are using the the social networks, they leave enormous amount of digital footprints of their personality available to them with every click. In this exploratory research, the publicly available data is collected from the biggest social network (Facebook) and sent to IBM Watson to reveal hidden personality traits that the posts and the profile pictures might contain. Watson is the name of the the cognitive computing system developed by IBM. It has several subsystems including the Personality Insights, that extracts personality traits from text and the Visual Recognition, that can be taught to analyze pictures. Firstly, the posts of Facebook users would be sent to Watson Personality Insights to get their Big5 personality traits, then their profile images and their personality traits will be linked to train the Visual Recognition. With a high number of input, the API probably could output the personality traits with high significance.

Recent evidence suggests that in addition to controlling emotional behavior in general, endocannabinoid signaling is engaged in shaping behavioral responses to challenges. This important function of endocannabinoids is still poorly understood. Here we investigated the impact of blockade of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the degrading enzyme of anandamide on behavioral responses induced by challenges of different intensity. Mice treated with FAAH inhibitor URB597 were either manually restrained on their backs (back test) or received foot-shocks. The behavior of mice showed bimodal distribution in the back test: they either predominantly showed escape attempts or equally distributed time between passivity and escape. URB597 increased escapes in animals with low escape scores. No effects were noticed in mice showing high escape scores, which is likely due to a ceiling effect. We hypothesized that stronger stressors would wash out individual differences in coping; therefore, we exposed mice to foot-shocks that decreased locomotion and increased freezing in all mice. URB597 ameliorated both responses. The re-exposure of mice to the shock cage 14 days later without delivering shocks or treatment was followed by reduced and fragmented sleep as shown by electrophysiological recordings. Surprisingly, sleep was more disturbed after the reminder than after shocks in rats receiving vehicle before foot-shocks. These reminder-induced disturbances were abolished by URB597 administered before shocks. These findings suggest that FAAH blockade has an important role in the selection of behavioral responses under challenging conditions and—judging from its long-term effects—that it influences the cognitive appraisal of the challenge.

European states regularly experience a wide range of major crisis events, including not only environmental disasters such as major flooding, avalanches and earthquakes, but also man-made incidents involving large-scale transport-related accidents and terrorist-sponsored events. When responding to such incidents, Emergency service agencies and rescue organisations are working together more frequently to enhance their overall operational effectiveness, often requiring collaboration across state borders. The REDIRNET project benefits multi-agency joint-working by facilitating information exchange through the concept of broad-scale data interoperability.

The Ministry of Health of Cyprus (approval no: Y.Y. 5.14.02.4(2)) and the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee (approval no: EEBK/EΠ/2008/1) reviewed and approved the research protocol as Cyprus was the coordinating country for the research study. Abstract BACKGROUND: Patients' decisional control over care is the ability or power for patients to decide what their involvement will be in healthcare decisions. There is evidence of limited agreement between the perceptions of patients and the perceptions of nurses and/or caregivers with regard to the degree of patient involvement in the planning and performance of their care. AIM: To analyse and compare patients' and nurses' perceptions of patients' decisional control over their own care. METHOD: A multisite cross-sectional comparative survey design was employed. Data were collected from hospitalised surgical inpatients (n = 1315) and their caregivers (n = 960 nurses) in five European countries. The Individualised Care Scale part B was used for collecting data from both the patients and nurses. Ethical standards were followed throughout the study. RESULTS: Significant between-country differences were found between patients and nurses. In all countries, both patients and nurses regarded that decisional control over care had been actualised (ICS-B: M = 3.75-4.47 and 3.48-4.33, respectively), but there were significant differences in their perceptions regarding four of the six items of the decisional control factor of the ICS-B. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that there are disparities between patients' and nurses' perceptions of patient involvement in care, probably due to cultural issues that need further exploration. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The disparities between patients' and nurses' perceptions on patients' decisional control over their care should be taken into consideration as a potential cause of patient dissatisfaction with nursing care. The study was funded by the Cyprus University of Technology (EX 11/2008).

Scand J Caring Sci; 2012; 26; 372–380 Patient satisfaction as an outcome of individualised nursing care Background: The association between individualised nursing care and patient satisfaction has been previously found. However, there is a lack of studies examining this association between individualised care and patient satisfaction in a cross-cultural study. Aims: This study examines the association between individualised care and patient satisfaction in a sample of general surgical patients from five European countries. Methods: A cross-sectional design and survey method were used to collect data from general surgical patients (N = 1315, response rate 78%) in 72 inpatient wards in 26 general acute hospitals’ in 2009 using self-completed questionnaires the Individualised Care Scale and the Patient Satisfaction Scale. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple stepwise regression analyses. Results: Surgical patients reported that the care they received was only moderately individualised overall, but individuality was taken into account well in patients’ clinical situation and decisional control over care. Patients were satisfied with their care, mostly with the technical aspects of care and least with the information given. There were between-country differences in patients’ perceptions of individuality in care and patient satisfaction. A positive correlation between the level of individualised care received and patient satisfaction was found, confirming that individualised nursing care delivery influences patients’ satisfaction with care and demonstrating that this quality of care indicator might be able to be used as a predictor of patient satisfaction, one outcome of care. Conclusion: The findings of this study strengthen previous results and further reporting the existence of a relationship and the positive correlation between individualised care and patient satisfaction. The results can inform administrative decisions and policy on introducing nursing approaches to care that would increase patient satisfaction.

Aim. The aim of this study was to compare patients’ and nurses’ perceptions of individualised care in five European countries, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland, Greece and Hungary. Background. Individualised nursing care has been studied from both patients’ and nurses’ perspectives, but to date, there are no studies comparing these perspectives internationally. Methods. A cross-sectional comparative survey design was used. Data were collected from nurses (n = 960; response rate, 79%) and patients (n = 1315; response rate, 78%) in 71 surgical units from 26 acute hospitals in 2009. Data were collected using two Individualised Care Scales (ICS-Nurse and ICS-Patient) and analysed statistically using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results. Differences in patients’ and nurses’ assessments of individualised nursing care were found between each country. Nurses, compared with patients, assessed that they supported patient individuality more often. The Meannurses ranged from 3·61 (SD 0·90, Greece)–4·31 (SD 0·53, Hungary), and the Meanpatients ranged from 3·05 (SD 1·09, Greece)–3·79 (SD 1·00, Cyprus). To a large extent, the care provided was individualised as defined by the Meannurses 3·75 (SD 0·92, Greece)–4·36 (SD 0·49, Hungary) and the Meanpatients 3·41 (SD 0·95, Greece)–4·18 (SD 0·79, Cyprus). In Cyprus and Finland, patients’ assessments of the individuality in their care corresponded well with nurses’ assessments. Clear between-country differences in both patients’ and nurses’ assessments were found in both subscales of the ICS. Conclusions. An in-depth analysis of the European between-country differences is required to define the causes of differences that may be due to the differing content of education, the organisation of nursing work, ideology and values assigned to individualised care and health care systems and processes in each country. Relevance to clinical practice. Obtaining both patients’ and nurses’ assessments of individualised care may facilitate the further development of individualised nursing care and be used to help to harmonise European health care processes and nursing care.

papastavrou e., efstathiou g., tsangari h., suhonen r., leino-kilpi h., patiraki e., karlou c., balogh z., palese a., tomietto m., jarosova d. & merkouris a. (2011) A cross-cultural study of the concept of caring through behaviours: patients’ and nurses’ perspectives in six different EU countries. Journal of Advanced Nursing 68(5), 1026–1037. Abstract Aim. This paper is a report of an international study of patients’ and nurses’ perceptions of nurse caring behaviours. Background. Current economic constraints on healthcare systems, demand to increase the quality of care and the incorporation of the consumers’ perspective into care, have created a need to develop a clear understanding of nursing behaviours which convey caring. Patients in different areas of the world report different expectations of nurses’ caring actions when compared to nurses’ views. Method. A descriptive comparative survey design was used to analyse a sample of surgical patients (n = 1659) and their nurses (n = 1195) in 88 wards of 34 hospitals in Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Italy. Data were collected in autumn 2009 using the Caring Behaviours Inventory-24. Nurses’ and patients’ responses were compared using both inferential and descriptive statistics. Results. Independent samples t-tests showed important differences between nurses’ and patients’ views. Although both groups perceived knowledge and skill as being the most important sub-scale, the nurses’ responses were higher compared to patients (P

In this article we aim at achieving trusted data collection from heterogeneous distributed sources including legacy systems and human end users. We adopt an agent-like approach where we are able to send agents to host platforms connected to legacy systems. Functionality of agents may vary while we are solving the trust between host platforms, legacy systems and agents. We had not used any existing multi-agent system but we extended an existing production grade service platform called Jini and implemented agents above Jini services. The core of this work is about how we adopted the Jini platform to host agents. We also provide examples about the implementation and integration of the platform in a real world example — a crisis management domain. We present our current achievements and plans concerning the implementation of the proposed platform.

Mono-(Co) and bimetallic (Fe-Co) catalysts supported by either 13X zeolite or CaCO 3 were doped with potassium and tested in carbon nanotube (CNT) production using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. In order to increase comparability, the evaluation of the performance of the catalysts a combinatorial arrangement was also used. Catalyst samples were characterized by carbon deposit and carbon yield values. For qualitative characterization, products were investigated by transmission electron microscopy.

Example There exists a space X with a sharp base and a perfect mapping f : X → Y onto a space Y which does not have a sharp base. It is known that a spaces with a sharp base have a point-countable sharp base. This can be sharpened to “point-finite” on the set of isolated points. Theorem If X has a sharp base then X has a point-countable sharp base which is point-finite on the set Z of isolated points. (Hence Z is an F σ set.) A topological proof of the previous theorem is given but the theorem follows from a more general combinatorial statement about certain subsets of κ × κ . This last statement is proved using a set-theoretic argument.

We show that there is a perfectly normal non-metrizable manifold if there is a Luzin subset of the real line, and that there is a countably compact perfectly normal non-metrizable manifold in any model of set-theory obtained by adding Cohen reals to a model of ZFC + ⋄ .

Let S denote a stationary subset of limit ordinals of ω1. A ladder system on S is a sequence {Lα : α ∈ S} such that each Lα is an unbounded subset of α of order type ω. A ladder system is uniformizable if for each sequence 〈fα : α ∈ S〉 of functions fα : Lα → ω there is an F : ω1 → ω such that F 1 Lα =∗ fα for each α ∈ S. I.e., for each α ∈ S, {β ∈ Lα : F (β) 6= fα(β)} is finite. We now formulate natural weakenings of uniformizable denoted, for each n ∈ ω, by Pn: A ladder system is said to satisfy Pn if for each f : S → ω there is an F : ω1 → [ω] such that for each α ∈ S (a) F 1 Lα is eventually constant with value sα, and (b) f(α) ∈ sα. Note that P0 is equivalent to the version of uniformizable obtained by considering only sequences of constant functions fα. We will say that a ladder system satisfies P

We investigate when countable multiplicity of jigsawed bases and similar collections on sets of various sizes implies metrizability in compact and countably compact spaces.

We prove various reflection theorems in locally nice spaces using Axiom R.

It is shown that if every ≤ ω 1 -sized subspace of a (regular) space X of density ≤ ω 1 has a point-countable base, then so does X. Similar results hold for meta-Lindelofness. Dow's reflection theorem and a number of other results are deduced as corollaries and applications.

A mindennapi, szinte folyamatos jelenlét a hálózaton számos melléktermékkel jár. Minden bejelentkezés, üzenet, vásárlás, akció adatok tömegét hagyja az interneten. A cikkben arra kívánnak a szerzők rámutatni, hogy ezeket az adatokat valaki vagy valakik összegyűjthetik, és esetleg olyasmire is használhatják, amihez nem járulnánk hozzá, ha ezt megkérdeznék. A szerzők nem foglalkoznak a rosszindulatú, esetleg bűntények elkövetésének céljára történő illegális adatgyűjtéssel, illetve -hasznosítással, azt kívánták bemutatni, hogy teljesen legális, ún. „white hat” eszközökkel is tartalmas felhasználói profilt lehet összeállítani. Szót ejtenek arról is, hogyan lehet megnehezíteni azok dolgát, akik rólunk szeretnének információt gyűjteni. ____ Everyday, almost continuous presence on the web results number of by-products. Each login, message, shopping, action leaves mass of data on the internet. In this article, the authors wish to point out that these data may be collected by somebody or somebodies. They wanted to introduce you that a meaningful user profile can be compiled by completely legal, so-called „White hat”tools. It also notes about how you can make more difficult their job, who would like to collect information from us.

The purpose of this European survey was to examine the relationship of surgical patients' and nurses' personal characteristics with their perceptions of caring behaviors. Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBI) was completed by convenience samples of 1,659 patients and 1,195 nurses from six countries of Europe. The results showed that the older the patients, the more positive were their evaluations of CBI. Those with planned admission and good/very good health conditions gave higher ratings compared to those with an emergency and poor health conditions. Type of admission, age, and health conditions explained 5.2% of CBI variance. Nurses with more work experience and experience in the unit gave significantly higher ratings compared to nurses with less experience. Nurses' total experience and gender explained 2.3% of the variance of perceived care. Therefore, in a multinational surgical environment, caring behaviors may be influenced by other variables, better captured by using different research methods. This study was funded by the Cyprus University of Technology.

For every uncountable cardinal κ we construct, in ZFC, a space X κ such that (a) the product of X κ with every metrizable space is normal; (b) X κ has an increasing ω 1 -cover by open sets that has no refinement by ⩽κ many closed sets. This answers a question of M.E. Rudin. It also proves a conjecture of K. Morita on a characterization of metrizability in terms normality of products.

We construct, in ZFC, a hereditarily collectionwise normal, hereditarily metaLindelof, hereditarily realcompact Dowker space. This answers a question of R. Hodel (also asked by S. Watson and D. Burke) and another question of M.E. Rudin.

For every regular cardinal κ we construct a hereditarily normal, countably paracompact space X κ which has an increasing open cover W = { W μ : μ ϵ ω 1 } such that W has no refinement by ⩽ κ closed sets. By work of Chiba, Przymusinski and Rudin, the existence of such a space proves a conjecture of Morita that σ-locally compact metrizable spaces are precisely the spaces whose product with every normal, countably paracompact space is normal. The spaces X κ are the first known examples of hereditarily normal ω 1 -Dowker spaces.

A topological property P is called n -additive in n th power (or weakly n -additive) if a topological space X has P as soon as X n = ∪{ Y i : i ϵ n } where all Y i have P. If P is n -additive in n th power for all natural n ⩾ 1, we say that P is weakly finitely additive. The main question we deal with in this paper is whether metrizability is weakly finitely additive. It was proved by Tkachuk (1994) that it is so in the class of regular spaces with Souslin property. Metrizability was also proved by Tkachuk (1994) to be weakly finitely additive in the class of Hausdorff compact spaces. We generalize this last result, showing that metrizability is weakly finitely additive in the class of regular pseudocompact spaces. We also prove that if X n is a regular Lindelof space then it is metrizable if represented as a union of its n metrizable subspaces. We show that there is an example of a Tychonoff nonmetrizable space X such that X n is a union of two metrizable subspaces for all n ⩾ 1. The method of constructing this example can be used to solve several problems stated by Tkachuk (1994).

We construct a hereditarily normal topological space whose product with the unit interval is not normal. The space is a-relatively discrete and has cardinality of the continuum c. Introduction. A Dowker space is a normal Hausdorff space whose product with the closed unit interval I is not normal. Whether there are such spaces at all was raised as a problem by C. H. Dowker [D] in 1951 who also gave an internal characterization of Dowker spaces. (See Lemma 0.1 below.) Constructing Dowker spaces turned out to be a hard, many-faceted problem in general and set-theoretic topology, of basically combinatorial set-theoretic nature. It has extensive, rich literature. (See the survey paper [R4] and also [Re], [W2] for some update.) There has been precisely one Dowker space built in usual (ZFC) mathematics by Mary Ellen Rudin [R2] in 1971. This space has cardinality and weight N', and it has few nice properties beyond normality. The search for a smaller example is referred to as the Small Dowker Space Problem. The effort of a number of mathematicians resulted in nice, small Dowker spaces in many models of set theory [Be], [C], [G], [JKR], [R1], [R5], [We], but no example different from Rudin's has been constructed in ZFC alone. In this paper we give a solution to the Small Dowker Space Problem by constructing, without extra set-theoretic axioms, a hereditarily normal, a-relatively discrete Dowker space of cardinality of the continuum c. Such a space of strongly compact cardinality (under the set-theoretic assumption that such large cardinals exist), was constructed by S. Watson [W1]. Our proof uses a general combinatorial technique originated in M. E. Rudin's [R3] and later used by the author [B] to construct Q-set spaces. Our terminology and notation follow the standards of contemporary set theory and set-theoretic topology as used in [K] and [KV]. In particular, [A]

Although respect and human presence are frequently reported in nursing literature, these are poorly defined within a nursing context. The aim of this study was to examine the differences, if any, in the perceived frequency of respect and human presence in the clinical care, between nurses and patients. A convenience sample of 1537 patients and 1148 nurses from six European countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Italy) participated in this study during autumn 2009. The six-point Likert-type Caring Behaviours Inventory-24 questionnaire was used for gathering appropriate data. The findings showed statistically significant differences of nurses’ and patients’ perception of frequency on respect and human presence. These findings provide a better understanding of caring behaviours that convey respect and assurance of human presence to persons behind the patients and may contribute to close gaps in knowledge regarding patients’ expectations.

Purpose: Theoretically, patient satisfaction is correlated with nursing care, but there is not sufficient evidence to support it. The aim of this study was to address three research questions: (a) What is the correlation between caring as perceived by patients and patient satisfaction? (b) Are there differences across various countries on the correlation on caring as perceived by patients and patient satisfaction? (c) Do caring behaviors affect patient satisfaction? Design: A multicenter correlational design was adopted involving surgical patients from six European countries: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Hungary, and Italy. Methods: A convenience sample of 1,565 patients was recruited in autumn 2009. The short version of the Caring Behaviours Inventory (CBI; 24 items) and Patient Satisfaction Scale (PSS; 11 items) were used. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, as well as correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression, to examine relations between caring behaviors and patient satisfaction. Findings: According to the patients involved, nurses performed caring behaviors between very frequently (score = 5) and always (score = 6). Patient satisfaction with nursing care was also high, between satisfied (score = 3) and very satisfied (score = 4). A positive correlation emerged between CBI and PPS (r= 0.66, p < .01) ranging between countries from 0.27 to 0.85 (Czech Republic r= 0.27, Cyprus r= 0.76, Finland r= 0.71, Greece r= 0.85, Hungary r= 0.63, and Italy r= 0.45 [p < .01]). Among the CBI dimensions, “connectedness” mainly explains patient satisfaction (R2= 0.404, p < .001), followed by “assurance” (R2= 0.032, p < .001) and “respectful” (R2= 0.005, p < .001). Conclusions: Caring behaviors enacted by nurses determine a consistent proportion of patient satisfaction. This association between them suggests several implications for nursing education, practice, and management. Clinical Relevance: The results may be utilized by policymakers, nurse ward managers, nurse educators, and clinical nurses as a background for taking appropriate measures to improve nursing care provided, thereby enhancing patient satisfaction.

A ladder system L on the set of limit ordinals is defined by iterated ccc forcing. The natural topological space X L derived from L is a locally compact, locally countable scattered space of height 2 which is ↗-normal, is a Morita P -space (and thus, countably metacompact), but the space is not perfect or normal. Then we discuss a number of reasons why such a space cannot exist in ZFC and in fact, in many models.