Fecal calprotectin levels correlate significantly with endoscopic disease activity in IBD. The test appears useful in clinical practice for assessment of endoscopic activity and remission.

Static RAM memory is more than ever a key component in systems on chip. Static memories are dominating factors in the cost, the performance and the energy consumption of such systems. Deep deep submicron scaling beyond 130 nm complicates the design of SRAM circuits that make a good compromise between performance and energy consumption. This is mainly caused by leakage and technological variability. The effect of leakage and variability is amplified by the fact that large area penalties are unacceptable for cost reasons. As a consequence, novel circuit designs are needed to alleviate the additional problems introduced by advanced scaling while keeping classic scaling advantages intact. This paper gives an overview of circuit techniques that have recently been proposed to improve the position of SRAMS in the area-energy-performance design space. This paper starts from the SRAM cell, expands to the local bitline to conclude with the circuit architecture of complete SRAMs.

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Background. Complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) are used by patients with chronic disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with a desire to manage their disease. Methods. Patients visiting an IBD outpatient clinic and infusion unit in a tertiary referral center were surveyed through an anonymized Dutch version of the international questionnaire to measure the use of CAMs. Results. Of the 467 IBD patients who responded to the survey, 41.8% ( n = 195 ) reported the use of CAMs. Gender ( p = 0.03 , higher in females), educational qualification ( p = 0.02 , higher in more educated patients), and number of prior IBD medical treatments ( p = 0.05 , higher in patients having received more than one therapy) were significantly associated with CAM usage. Overall, there was no significant difference in CAM-usage between UC (45.3%) and CD (38.2%) patients. Over two-thirds of patients reported using CAMs to alleviate IBD-related symptoms. The most prevalent reason for CAM-usage was to minimize stress and symptoms. The top five nonsupplemental CAMs used by IBD patients included probiotics, curcumin, yoghurt, homeopathy, and yoga. Among CAMs with a minimum of 25 users, yoga (93.5%), cannabis (87.5%), and mindfulness (84.6%) had high self-reported efficacy indices. Fifty-six percent of the patients who affirmed the economic worthiness of CAMs expressed their interest to consult with their gastroenterologist about CAM-conventional therapy interactions. Conclusion. CAM usage in IBD patients is highly prevalent, and consultation of the patients with the gastroenterologist about the use of CAMs is warranted. Since CAMs can interact with conventional therapies, a debate could help optimizing CAM use, eventually resulting in better disease management.

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