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.

A case report of a 40-year-old woman with endomyocardial fibrosis in a non-tropical area: from initial presentation to high urgent heart transplantation

Abstract: Endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) represents the most common cause of restrictive cardiomyopathy worldwide. Despite a high prevalence in tropical regions, it occasionally occurs in patients who have never visited these areas. While researches have proposed various possible triggers for EMF, etiology and pathogenesis remain largely unknown. Diagnosis is based on patient history, heart failure symptoms, and echocardiographic signs of restrictive ventricular filling, atrioventricular valve regurgitation and frequently apical thrombus. Following is a case report of an Austrian patient with EMF who eventually had to undergo a heart transplant. This case report strives to promote awareness for this in non-tropical areas uncommon but nevertheless detrimental disease. A 40-year-old woman was presented at our emergency department with chest pain and fever up to 38.1° Celsius. Plasma troponin-T levels and inflammatory markers were slightly elevated, but the echocardiogram was without pathological findings. The patient was hospitalized on the suspicion of acute myocarditis and discharged soon after improvement. Eight months later, she was presented again with chest pain and symptoms of heart failure. The echocardiogram showed normal systolic left ventricular (LV) function with LV wall thickening and severe restrictive mitral regurgitation as well as aortic and tricuspid regurgitation. Coronary angiogram was normal but right heart catheterization showed pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease. Further diagnostic workup with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging revealed subendocardial late enhancement and apical thrombus formation in the left ventricle compatible with the diagnosis of EMF. A comprehensive diagnostic workup showed no evidence of infection, systemic immunologic or hematological disease, in particular hypereosinophilic syndrome. After a multidisciplinary consideration of several therapeutic options, the patient was listed for heart transplantation. On the waiting list, she deteriorated rapidly due to progressive heart failure and finally underwent a heart transplantation. Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of EMF. Six years after her heart transplantation, the patient was presented in an excellent clinical condition. Even in non-tropical regions, the diagnosis of EMF should always be considered in restrictive cardiomyopathy. Knowledge of the distinct phenotype of EMF facilitates diagnosis, but comprehensive workup and therapeutic management remain challenging and require a multidisciplinary approach.

A 3D computerized tomography study of changes in craniofacial morphology of Portuguese skulls from the eighteenth century to the present

Abstract: This study examined the three-dimensional (3D) changes in craniofacial morphology between 482 identified Portuguese skulls from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries and 150 modern Portuguese individuals randomly selected from the armed forces. The goal was to investigate the interrelationship between changes in various parts of the skull, in particular, the cranial base, the brain supporting structures, and the face. Cone beam computed tomography images from the identified skull collections belonging to the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Coimbra and Natural History National Museum of Lisbon were used. These 3D images from craniometric analyses included 19 different linear, angular, and orthogonal 3D measurements. The trend in horizontal position of the maxilla (SNA) and horizontal position of the mandible (SNB) angles showed a significant increase, while the relative position of the maxilla to mandible (ANB) and the global angle mean values decreased over time. Skulls from each subsequent century demonstrated a decrease in anterior cranial base, indicated by the mean distance between S and N landmarks. Significant negative correlations were found between SNA and anterior cranial base length (S-N). The negative correlations between SNB and anterior cranial base length (S-N) decreased from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. The twenty-first century skulls were characterized by a significant difference in the mean value of different craniofacial variables between males and females. The results of this study suggest changes in the 3D cephalometric measurements of craniofacial architecture. These changes are highly integrated, and show an interesting correlation between structures of the craniofacial facial complex and the anterior cranial base.

DEMDATA: The Austrian-Czech institutional long term care project - design and protocol of a two-centre cross sectional study.

Abstract: The organization of long-term care is one of the main challenges of public health and health policies in Europe and worldwide, especially in terms of care concepts for people with dementia. In Austria and the Czech Republic the majority of elderly institutionalized persons with dementia are cared for in nursing homes. It is however unclear, how many persons living in nursing homes in Austria and in the Czech Republic are suffering from cognitive impairment and dementia. In addition, basic information on the nutritional status, the status of mobility and the medication prescription patterns are often missing. To facilitate new effective and evidenced based care concepts, basic epidemiological data are in urgent need. Thus, DEMDATA was initiated to provide important basic data on persons living in nursing homes in Austria and the Czech Republic for future care planning. DEMDATA is a multicentre mixed methods cross-sectional study. Stratified and randomly drawn nursing homes in Austria and the Czech Republic are surveyed. The study protocol used in both study centres assesses four different domains: a) Resident, b) Care team, c) Relative and d) Environmental Factors. Resident’s data include among others health status, cognition, dementia, mobility, nutrition, behavioural symptoms, pain intensity and quality of life. A minimum of 500 residents per country are included into the study (N = 1000 residents). The care team is asked about the use of the person-centred care and their burden. The relatives are asked about the number of visits and proxy-rate the quality of life of their family member. All staff employed in the nursing homes, all residents and relatives can voluntary take part in the study. The environmental factors include among others the organisational category of the nursing home, number of residents, number of rooms, social activities and the care concept. The project started in March 2016 and will be concluded in February 2018. DEMDATA will provide important epidemiological data on four different nursing home domains in Austria and the Czech Republic, with a focus on the prevalence of dementia in this population. Thereby supplying decision and policy makers with important foundation for future care planning.

Emotions and E-participation of Young People: A Preliminary Study

Abstract: The following paper presents a quantitative content analysis of blog posts of selected discussions on a EU wide e-participation platform with the goal of showing that emotional writing is an indicator for the frequency of participation in online deliberations. The platform analyzed for this research has been designed to bring young people in contact with stakeholders and politicians in order to discuss politically relevant topics for young people in Europe. We argue that political participation is motivated by emotions that should be reflected in the blog posts of users. We theorize that more emotional users will also be more active on the platform. Although there have been significant data limitations, our paper indicates that emotions have a positive effect on political e-participation.

Agent-Based cognitive architecture framework implementation of complex systems within a multi-agent framework

Abstract: Due to their increasing complexity, the implementation of automation systems faces more challenges. Cognitive architectures have been designed to deal exactly with that. The purpose of a cognitive architecture is to find an action to every possible sensor data to move the system closer to a defined goal. The method is to utilize stored knowledge to reason about the best solution. The challenge for the implementation of such an architecture is to manage the overwhelming complexity of functionality and data. This paper presents the Agent-based Cognitive Architecture (ACONA) Framework, which aims at providing a general infrastructure, allowing the implementation of various cognitive architectures. It considers the encapsulation of functionality and provides a flexible composition of building blocks by applying a multi-agent approach.