Danube University Krems

About: Danube University Krems is a education organization based out in Krems, Niederösterreich, Austria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Stroke & Population. The organization has 498 authors who have published 1572 publications receiving 68797 citations.

The Association Between Prediabetes and Dyslipidemia Among Attendants of Primary Care Health Centers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Introduction Early detection and treatment of dysglycemia including diabetes and prediabetes is demonstrated to improve disease outcomes and prevent complications. Objective To assess the association of prediabetes with lipid metabolism disorders to clarify whether systematic screening for prediabetes should be proposed for individuals with dyslipidemia. Material and methods A cross-sectional study design, employing a stratified two-stage cluster sampling method recruited non-diabetic adults (age ≥18 years) from attendees of Primary Health Care (PHC) centers in Jeddah. Anthropomorphic measurements, demographic and clinical information were taken, and blood pressure was measured. Fasting blood sample was obtained for the measurement of plasma glucose (FPG), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C), and lipid profile. Plasma glucose was estimated 1 hr after the ingestion of 50 g glucose (1h-OGTT). Prediabetes and dyslipidemia were defined according to international guidelines. Demographic and clinical factors of subjects with prediabetes, and those with normoglycemia were compared. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for confounding factors. Results A total of 613 individuals were included with a mean age (±SD) of 32±11.8years, and 54.8% being female. Prediabetes was detected in 28.7%, and dyslipidemia in 54.2% of participants. After adjusting for age, an association was found for high low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and prediabetes based on any definition. After adjustment for body mass index (BMI), the association was retained for any type of dyslipidemia and in particular high LDL-C. After adjusting for both age and BMI, a significant association was found only between high LDL-C and prediabetes based on any definition (OR, 95% CI=1.50,1.02-2.19, P= 0.037). Conclusion Even though high LDL-C is associated with an increased probability of prediabetes, a recommendation for universal screening of dyslipidemic patients requires further cohort studies.

Anticoagulation in combined membrane/adsorption systems.

Abstract: For extracorporeal blood purification treatments, an effective anticoagulation is needed to avoid contact activation via the intrinsic pathway of the blood-clotting system. While heparin is the standard anticoagulant in dialysis, it shows some disadvantages which have to be considered when it is used in membrane/adsorption-based blood purification systems. An alternative option for anticoagulation in these systems is citrate, which is effective as an anticoagulant by reducing the ionized calcium concentration in the extracorporeal circuit. However, to avoid citrate accumulation in the patient during treatment, the amount of citrate infusion and the citrate removal by the patient's metabolism as well as by dialysis have to be taken into consideration. The aim of this study was to elucidate the characteristics of heparin removal in membrane/adsorption-based blood purification systems, to find the correct way to pre-coat adsorbents in order to avoid excessive adsorption of heparin by anionic exchanging resins, and also to find an appropriate dosage of heparin for treatments with these systems to ensure patient safety. A further aim was to find the correct ionized calcium concentration to suppress complement activation, and to compare different dialysis filters regarding their citrate clearance in order to be able to recommend the correct dialysis setup to achieve appropriate citrate clearance. We were able to show that the adsorptive removal of heparin can be significantly reduced by pre-coating the adsorbents with heparin without a perceptible impact on the adsorption kinetics of bilirubin. Furthermore, we recommend the use of unfractionated heparin due to its lower sieving coefficient and therefore lower removal compared to fractionated heparins. Reducing the extracorporeal Ca(2+) concentration to 0.2 mmol/L by infusion of citrate solution to the extracorporeal circuit results in an effective suppression of the complement activation. To avoid citrate accumulation, we recommend the use of high flux filters when citrate anticoagulation is applied.

Towards a Threat Modeling Approach Addressing Security and Safety in OT Environments

Abstract: In Industry 4.0, Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) tend to converge further with an increasing interdependence of safety and security issues to be considered. On one hand, cyber attacks are possible which can alter implemented safety functionality leading to situations where people are harmed, serious injuries may occur or the environment gets damaged. On the other side, safety can also impact security. For instance, the misuse of a Safety Instrumented System (SIS) may force a machine or a production line to shut down resulting in a denial of service. To prevent or mitigate risks from such scenarios, this paper proposes a threat modeling technique which addresses an integrated view on safety and security. The approach is tailored to the industrial automation domain considering plausible attacks and evaluating risks based on three different metrics. The metrics selected consist of Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) used as an international standard for rating cyber security vulnerabilities, Security Level (SL) from IEC 62443 to rate cyber security risks in OT environments w.r.t. the underlying architecture, and Safety Integrity Level (SIL) from IEC 61508 to rate safety risks. Due to the variety of use cases involving the chosen metrics, the approach is also feasible for followup analyses, such as integrated safety and security assessments or audits.