Introduction: Knee pain and low back pain are major public health issues and important causes of physical impairment among the elderly populations of most developed countries. When knee pain and low back pain and/or dysfunction occur together a complex situation that is capable of causing more disability occurs. Although the prevalence of knee pain and low back pain is quiet high little information is available on their association together. Physicians need to be able to recognize when, how and how much these conditions present together and know how to diagnose and treat them.\nBecause a limited amount of research exists regarding the potential temporal relationships between knee pain and low back pain (LBP), the purpose of this study was evaluation of coincidence and correlation of knee pain with lumbar disorders. \nMethods: This descriptive-analytic and case-control study was conducted in patients referred with knee pain complaint to physical medicine and rehabilitation outpatient clinic. Ninety patients with main complaint of knee pain were selected as case group and 90 patient whose main complaint were other than knee pain and low back pain were included into control group. Coincidence of knee pain and lumbar disorders were assessed and compared in case and control groups. \nResults: On the whole, 38 patients (22.4%) were male and 132 (77.6%) were women. In the case group, 20 individuals (22.2%) were male and 70 patients (8/77%) were female. In the control group, 18 patients (22.5%) were male and 62 patients (77.5%) were female. Gender composition between two groups was not significant. The mean age of the study population were 46.9±8.9 with range of 25 to 61 years. The mean age in the case and control groups was 47±9.2 years (25-61) and 46.7±8.6 years (25-61), respectively. No statistically significant difference between the groups was noted.\nEighty percent of patients of case group and 58.8% of control one had experienced LBP at some point (P=0.002). Life time prevalence for radicular LBP (P=0.02), chronic LBP (P=0.001), recurrent LBP (P=0.0001) of case group was higher than case group. Point prevalence of LBP was 57.7 % in case group and 28.8% in control one (P=0.0001). Range of motion (ROM) of lower limb and lumbar region, especially, for flexion and lateral bending in case group was less than control one. There was no significant difference in vertebral column posture between two groups. Trophedema of lumbar region was greater in case group than control one.\nConclusion: Considering the high prevalence of low back pain, more lumbar trophedema and greater limitation of range of motion in lumbar and lower extremity joints in cases, the relationship between lumbar and knee pain disorders in patients should attract greater attention for assessments and managements of patients with knee pain. Further investigation would be helpful

The aim of this research consist in providing the first empirical evidence toward the effects of corporate board and CEO characteristics on firm value for the case of Romanian listed companies. We considered the following characteristics as regards board of directors: board independence, board committees, board size, and board diversity. CEO characteristics comprise age, tenure, duality, state of residence, and gender. The empirical research was employed for a sample of companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange over 2007-2011. In order to catch the effects of selected variables on firm value we estimated multivariate regression models for panel data. Consistent with prior literature we employed industry-adjusted Tobin’s Q ratio to measure firm value. There resulted a positive effect of independent non-executive directors on firm value, whereas for non-executive directors the relationship was not statistically validated. Given the reduced number of companies which established board committees we concluded the lack of theirs influence on firm value. We notice a negative relationship between board size and firm value although not robust in all econometric specifications. We also find that female representation on board should be at least twenty percent in order to show a positive effect on firm value. The results provide support for a lack of any statistically significant relationship between CEO duality, CEO age, CEO tenure, and industry-adjusted Tobin’s Q ratio. Besides, CEO gender and CEO state of residence exhibit a positive effect on firm value.

Favism represents the clinical manifestation of Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and induces acute hemolytic anemia after the ingestion of fava beans or the consumption of several drugs such as antimalarias, sulfonamides and aspirin. It is known that aspirin is the cornerstone of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and patients who are contraindicated for aspirin intake because of hypersensitivity or active gastric bleeding pose a challenge for PCI. G6PD deficiency is another condition in which aspirin treatment is generally contraindicated. We present a literature review of patients with known G6PD deficiency that needed to undergo PCI using drug eluting stent (DES) and double antiplatelet treatment.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the induced changes in curve of activity against time (Renogram) in unilateral rabbit\'s left kidney stenosis. Renal scintigraphy is a diagnostic technique imaging to evaluate the kidney and its function in which the special radioactive substance is injected intravenously. Renal activity is evaluated by gama camera machine and a curve of activity against time is plotted by computer. Changes in the shape of the renogram can be helpful in diagnosing renal diseases. Early diagnosis of renal stenosis can lead to appropriate therapy and so cause reduces involvement side effects. In order to evaluate the renogram of the left kidney stenosis, ten nonpregnant Germen female rabbits were chosen and the semi left renal artery was occluded by ligation. Scintigraphy was under anesthetic condition with using 99m-DTPA radiodrug .The radioactive substance was injected rapidly through the marginal ear vein. Immediately after intravenous injection of radiodrug scintigraphic operations were done and computerized dynamic scans were gathered to plot the renogram curve. The ROIs can be drawn in scans and radioactive counting was easily measured. In our results, the renograms showed that the graph of renal stenosis had not reached the maximum level and the evacuation phase was delayed. The percentage of radioactive substance reaching both kidneys had decreased and in the stenotic kidney it decreased drastically. It shows the stenosis status in comparison to the normal kidney. Thus scintigraphy and renograms could be used noninvasively and accurately to diagnose unilateral stenosis in the rabbit kidney.

Relay nodes are used in the transfer of the data packets to the base station (BS) via the sensor nodes (SN). The placement of RNs influences the lifetime and connectivity of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) system. A traffic aware random deployment technique for the relay nodes is proposed in this paper. The scalability and traffic of the WSN are analyzed. A traffic aware RN selection is performed for both single hop and multi hop communication cases. Traffic based random deployment methods of RN, namely, lifetime-oriented deployment, and hybrid deployment, solve the issue of a short WSN lifetime and insufficient energy utilization. The trade-off between the lifetime extension and connectivity of SN in a WSN is considered in the performance analysis. The proposed method provides an efficient approach for the placement of RNs in a heterogeneous WSN.