OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to delineate the trends in early and late diagnosis of HIV-1 infection in newly diagnosed Tokyoites. METHODS: The BED assay was used to identify cases diagnosed at an early stage of infection. BED-positive non-AIDS cases with a CD4 cell count ≥200/μl were defined ...

Musicians have long been hampered by the challenge in turning sheet music while their hands are occupied playing an instrument. The sight of a human page turner assisting a pianist during a performance, for instance, is not uncommon. This need for a page turning solution is no less acute during ...

Abstract In this paper, we discuss a practical oil production planning optimization problem. For oil wells with insufficient reservoir pressure, gas is usually injected to artificially lift oil, a practice commonly referred as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The total gas that can be used for oil extraction is constrained by ...

Background  The SIMS-Trial (ISRCTN81072971) proved the effectiveness, in terms of patient's knowledge and care satisfaction, of an add-on information aid (personal interview with a physician using a navigable CD and take-home booklet) in 120 newly diagnosed patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) from five Italian centres. Objective  To scrutinize the experience ...

Fast and accurate solutions of large-scale electromagnetics problems involving homogeneous dielectric objects are considered. Problems are formulated with the electric and magnetic current combined-field integral equation and discretized with the Rao-Wilton-Glisson functions. Solutions are performed iteratively by using the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA). For the solution of large-scale problems ...

Objectives  The Malawian Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCT) is a social protection programme for ultra poor and labour-constrained households, including people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). We aimed to gain insight into respondents' circumstances prior to becoming transfer beneficiaries and to examine how PLWHA used transfers to support themselves and their ...

OBJECTIVES. The aim of this project was to explore the added value of participation in an Arts on Prescription (AoP) programme to aid the process of recovery in people with common but chronic mental health problems that have already undergone a psychological 'talking'-based therapy. METHODS. The study utilized qualitative in-depth ...

OBJECTIVES:: This study aimed to examine barriers in seeking help for gambling problems. METHODS:: A random digit dialing telephone survey was conducted among adults in Ontario, Canada. Respondents meeting criteria for possible past year gambling problems were asked an open-ended question on why they might hesitate once they had decided ...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the process and challenges of developing a decision aid for the national public breast cancer screening program in Finland.Methods: An expert team with stakeholder representation used European guidelines and other literature as basis for selecting relevant content and format for the ...

The present study examined the factor structure of a Spanish-translated version of the Reasons for Living Inventory (SRFL-I; Oquendo, Baca-Garcia, Graver et al., 2000). Participants (N = 168) were from a combined sample of bilingual undergraduate students and monolingual Spanish speaking outpatients at a community health center. Factor analytic results yielded a ...

Policymakers are often dissatisfied by the lack of what they consider useful information to support water management. Analysis of this 'water information gap' shows that this is caused by a lack of proper communication between information users and information producers. To improve this communication the process of specification of information ...

PURPOSE: To compare joint inflammation assessment using subjective grading of power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) versus computer-aided objective CEUS quantification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 37 joints of 28 patients with arthritis of different etiologies underwent B-mode ultrasonography, PDUS, and CEUS using a second-generation contrast agent. Synovial thickness, extent ...

OBJECTIVE: HIV/AIDS conferences provide an opportunity to review current research from around the world. Conferences are a good gauge of the amount of research conducted on HIV/AIDS and women because papers are disseminated widely and publicly, and can represent published or unpublished material. The objective of this study was to ...

Objectives: To begin to determine the significance of various dog welfare issues as perceived by veterinary practitioners. Methods: Using an online questionnaire, respondents were asked how frequently they were made aware of 12 welfare issues and how important they felt each one was for each dog affected. Respondents were also ...

As an alternative to the paradigmatic fragmentation problem of a single object crushed into a great number of pieces, we survey a large collection of identical bodies, each one randomly split into two fragments only. While some key features of usual fragmentation are preserved, this minimal approach allows for closed ...

Most people accept that if they can save someone from death at very little cost to themselves, they must do so; call this the 'duty of easy rescue.' At least for many such people, an instance of this duty is to allow their vital organs to be used for transplantation. ...

In recent years, the issue of environmental protection has received considerable attention. This paper adds to the literature by investigating a scheduling problem in the manufacturing of a glass recycling factory in Taiwan. The objective is to minimize the sum of the total holding cost and loss cost. We first ...

Abstract Problems in which some elementary entities interact with each other are common in computational intelligence. This scenario, typical for co-evolving artificial-life agents, learning strategies for games, and machine learning from examples, can be formalized as a test-based problem and conveniently embedded in the common conceptual framework of coevolution. In ...

Plaster is a material which is widely used in Brazil on construction sites. However, its use in recent years has been limited by a legal resolution on the environment introduced in Brazil. One of the regions most affected by these restrictions is the Northeast where the strategic importance of plaster ...

BACKGROUND Alcohol has long been an integral part of the social life of many Australians. However, alcohol is associated with significant harm to drinkers, and also to nondrinkers. OBJECTIVE This article explores the role of the general practitioner in the detection and assessment of problem drinking. DISCUSSION Excessive alcohol use ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The number of nongovernmental organizations working on AIDS has grown. There is great diversity in the type of activities and population groups that have been targeted. The purposes of this study are: to describe and analyze the objectives and HIV-AIDS preventive activities that are carried out by the ...

This paper investigates the Periodic Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (PCARP), which is often encountered in the waste collection application. PCARP is an extension of the well-known Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP) from a single period to a multi-period horizon. PCARP is a hierarchical optimization problem which has a primary objective ...

OBJECTIVE: To confirm factor structure of the teacher Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and to compare teacher and student reports in Russian youth. METHOD: The SDQ and psychopathology measures were completed by teachers in a representative sample of urban adolescents (N = 528). The factor structure was examined on two randomly selected ...

There are a number of important problems in quantitative psychology that require the identification of a permutation of the n rows and columns of an n×n proximity matrix. These problems encompass applications such as unidimensional scaling, paired-comparison ranking, and anti-Robinson forms. The importance of simultaneously incorporating multiple objective criteria in ...

In several jurisdictions around the world, venue staff are encouraged to make reasonable attempts to determine whether patrons may be experiencing problems associated with their gambling. Although a number of visible indicators and behaviours are recognised as being indicative of gambling problems, no research has investigated how effective staff might ...

Abstract In a multimodal optimization task, the main purpose is to find multiple optimal solutions (global and local), so that the user can have a better knowledge about different optimal solutions in the search space and as and when needed, the current solution may be switched to another suitable optimum ...

Objective. The objective of this study was to determine the health disturbances and to assess the severity of the incidents as reported during a 9-year experience of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)-related First Aid Attendees attending First Aid Stations at rave parties. Design. This study was a prospective observational study of self-referred patients from the ...

Oral presentations are, to a great extent, a matter of talent, but they can be practised and improved. There are three kinds of presentations: the short talk (5-10 minutes), the intermediate talk (15 minutes) and the long talk (approximately 45 minutes). Whatever the kind of the presentation, careful preparation is ...

Abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), including amphetamine, methamphetamine (METH), and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ecstasy), has become a major public health problem worldwide. Use of these stimulants has significant psychiatric and medical consequences, including psychosis, dependence, overdose, and death. METH abuse in particular is an extremely serious and growing problem in many ...

The era of the Internet presents new dilemmas in educating psychiatrists about professional boundaries. The objective of this overview is to clarify those dilemmas and offer recommendations for dealing with them. The characteristics of social networking sites, blogs, and search engines are reviewed with a specific focus on their potential ...

Despite the best conditions such as professional management, all possible aid and means of assistance, along with good legislation, sometimes unexpected factors occur to prevent or at the very least delay identification of the unknown deceased. The specific difficulties in identification cases that involve several countries, as well as problems ...

Governments, UN agencies and international and local NGOs have mounted a concerted effort to remobilise sport as a vehicle for broad, sustainable social development. This resonates with the call for sport to be a key component in national and international development objectives. Missing in these efforts is an explicit focus ...

Objective: To assess whether two women with blindness and additional disabilities could make independent phone calls through a computer-aided telephone system. Method: For each participant, the study involved an ABAB design, in which the A represented baseline phases and the B represented intervention phases with the special telephone system (involving ...

Medication misuse results in considerable problems for both patient and society. It is a complex problem with many contributing factors, including timely access to product information. To investigate the value of 3-dimensional (3D) visualization paired with video conferencing as a tool for pharmaceutical advice over distance in terms of accessibility ...

In an earlier paper I argued that we do not have an objective conception of best interests and that this is a particular problem because the courts describe that they use an '…objective approach or test. That test is the best interests of the patient' when choosing for children. I ...

Every year, there is a demand of more than 110 million metric tons of asphalt all around the world. This represents a huge amount of money and energy, from which a good part is for the preservation and renovation of the existing pavements. The problem of asphalt is that it ...

The restoration of facial harmony and establishment of a functional occlusion can pose unique problems in the treatment of complex dentoskeletal malformations. The advantages offered by the conjoint treatment planning, proper treatment sequencing, and the cooperation of various dental providers can create the best solutions for complex problems in patients. ...

The evolution of digital technology and computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacture (CAD/CAM) systems are creating exciting opportunities for improving the delivery of restorative dentistry. Digital systems now offer the opportunity to avoid traditional, analog impressions, including the usual impression materials, time, and handling limitations associated with them. Intraoral scanners have the potential ...

Annual Report, Surveys and Investigations Projects as required by Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act Illinois, Federal Aid Project W-99R-(12), Study XVII: Forest Wildlife Investigations, Job No. 4

Job Completion Report, Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act Project Number: W-112-R-8, Illinois Forest Game Hunter Survey: Fur Hunters 1998-99, Study 101, Job Number 101:5

We present a multilevel extension of the popular "thresholded Landweber" algorithm for wavelet-regularized image restoration that yields an order of magnitude speed improvement over the standard fixed-scale implementation. The method is generic and targeted towards large-scale linear inverse problems, such as 3-D deconvolution microscopy. The algorithm is derived within the ...

We examine the effect of strong three-dimensional quantum confinement on the thermopower and electrical conductivity of PbSe nanocrystal superlattices. We show that for comparable carrier concentrations PbSe nanocrystal superlattices exhibit a substantial thermopower enhancement of several hundred microvolts per Kelvin relative to bulk PbSe. We also find that thermopower increases ...

The term esthetic dentistry usually conjures up mental images of porcelain crowns and veneers. To some dentists, the term minimally invasive dentistry evokes thoughts of observing early lesions, and postponing treatment until lesions are closer to the pulp. (The World Congress of Minimally Invasive Dentistry defines minimally invasive dentistry as ...

Over the past decades the organ music has become one of the most popular kinds of classical music in Russia. About 30 new organs were built in concert halls, and several old instruments were restored or rebuilt. Acoustical properties of 15 well-known Russian concert halls with organs (Moscow, St. Petersburg, ...

High hydrodynamic volume, high viscosity and high colloidal osmotic pressure (COP) of PEGylated hemoglobin (Hb) have been suggested to neutralize the vasoactivity of acellular Hb. Consequences of non-conservative PEGylation (positive charge of the amino groups at the PEGylation sites is neutralized) using succinimidyl-ester of propionic acid PEG5K on the properties ...

From a 1-BuOH-soluble fraction of the MeOH extract of leaves of Euodia meliaefolia, collected in Okinawa, seven megastigmane glucosides, named euodionosides A-G, were isolated together with three known megastgmane glucosides, and two aliphatic and three phenolic compounds. Their structures were elucidated through a combination of spectroscopic analyses and application of ...

This article explores the complementary strengths and weaknesses of grounded and abstract representations in the domain of early algebra. Abstract representations, such as algebraic symbols, are concise and easy to manipulate but are distanced from any physical referents. Grounded representations, such as verbal descriptions of situations, are more concrete and ...

The scope of gerodontology and more specifically that of restorative dentistry (which in the UK includes the disciplines of endodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics and operative dentistry) within gerodontology, is expanding. This is true for several reasons. Firstly, the population, in both the UK and most of the western world is generally ...

The relationship between community diversity and the stability of summed community biomass has been an area of great theoretical and empirical interest in basic ecology. In general, it has been found that the complementary/compensatory dynamics among species that comprise a community can stabilize aggregate measures of community biomass. Although the ...

Natural wetlands, occupying 3.8% of China's land and providing 54.9% of ecosystem services, are unevenly distributed among eight wetland regions. Natural wetlands in China suffered great loss and degradation (e.g., 23.0% freshwater swamps, 51.2% costal wetlands) because of the wetland reclamation during China's long history of civilization, and the population ...