Mission of enquiry to the Jews in China: present state of the Jews at Kae-Fung-Foo

Detached from 'Jewish Intelligence', volume 17, May, 1851. In volume lettered: Miscellaneous on China

Multiculturalism, integration and contact amongst socio-ethnic groups in Malta

Migration has always been a way of life for islands. At the crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea, Malta was always open to regional cross-fertilisation. There is biological evidence of this contact by geneticists who observed in Malta lineages similar to those of southern Italy, North Africa and the Middle East. These links are corroborated by influences on the Maltese language, place names and surnames that vividly illustrate solid interconnections with the Arab Muslim world.peer-reviewe

Joint estimation of CD4+ cell progression and survival in untreated individuals with HIV-1 infection.

OBJECTIVE: We compiled the largest dataset of seroconverter cohorts to date from 25 countries across Africa, North America, Europe, and Southeast/East (SE/E) Asia to simultaneously estimate transition rates between CD4 cell stages and death, in antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive HIV-1-infected individuals. DESIGN: A hidden Markov model incorporating a misclassification matrix was used to represent natural short-term fluctuations and measurement errors in CD4 cell counts. Covariates were included to estimate the transition rates and survival probabilities for each subgroup. RESULTS: The median follow-up time for 16 373 eligible individuals was 4.1 years (interquartile range 1.7-7.1), and the mean age at seroconversion was 31.1 years (SD 8.8). A total of 14 525 individuals had recorded CD4 cell counts pre-ART, 1885 died, and 6947 initiated ART. Median (interquartile range) survival for men aged 20 years at seroconversion was 13.0 (12.4-13.4), 11.6 (10.9-12.3), and 8.3 years (7.9-8.9) in Europe/North America, Africa, and SE/E Asia, respectively. Mortality rates increase with age (hazard ratio 2.22, 95% confidence interval 1.84-2.67 for >45 years compared with <25 years) and vary by region (hazard ratio 2.68, 1.75-4.12 for Africa and 1.88, 1.50-2.35 for Asia compared with Europe/North America). CD4 cell decline was significantly faster in Asian cohorts compared with Europe/North America (hazard ratio 1.45, 1.36-1.54). CONCLUSION: Mortality and CD4 cell progression rates exhibited regional and age-specific differences, with decreased survival in African and SE/E Asian cohorts compared with Europe/North America and in older age groups. This extensive dataset reveals heterogeneities between regions and ages, which should be incorporated into future HIV models

Hebrew prayers used by the Jews in China

Detached from 'Jewish Intelligence', volume 19, January, 1853. In volume lettered: Miscellaneous on China

Joint estimation of CD4+ cell progression and survival in untreated individuals with HIV-1 infection.

OBJECTIVE: We compiled the largest dataset of seroconverter cohorts to date from 25 countries across Africa, North America, Europe, and Southeast/East (SE/E) Asia to simultaneously estimate transition rates between CD4 cell stages and death, in antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive HIV-1-infected individuals. DESIGN: A hidden Markov model incorporating a misclassification matrix was used to represent natural short-term fluctuations and measurement errors in CD4 cell counts. Covariates were included to estimate the transition rates and survival probabilities for each subgroup. RESULTS: The median follow-up time for 16 373 eligible individuals was 4.1 years (interquartile range 1.7-7.1), and the mean age at seroconversion was 31.1 years (SD 8.8). A total of 14 525 individuals had recorded CD4 cell counts pre-ART, 1885 died, and 6947 initiated ART. Median (interquartile range) survival for men aged 20 years at seroconversion was 13.0 (12.4-13.4), 11.6 (10.9-12.3), and 8.3 years (7.9-8.9) in Europe/North America, Africa, and SE/E Asia, respectively. Mortality rates increase with age (hazard ratio 2.22, 95% confidence interval 1.84-2.67 for >45 years compared with <25 years) and vary by region (hazard ratio 2.68, 1.75-4.12 for Africa and 1.88, 1.50-2.35 for Asia compared with Europe/North America). CD4 cell decline was significantly faster in Asian cohorts compared with Europe/North America (hazard ratio 1.45, 1.36-1.54). CONCLUSION: Mortality and CD4 cell progression rates exhibited regional and age-specific differences, with decreased survival in African and SE/E Asian cohorts compared with Europe/North America and in older age groups. This extensive dataset reveals heterogeneities between regions and ages, which should be incorporated into future HIV models

A Multi-Stage Negotiation Architecture for

that each activity needs only one resource. It is possible to model activities requiring multiple resources by putting together more activities to be carried out in parallel. These extensions enable us to develop negotiation policies that allow agents to exchange resources and strike deals for agreed time windows so that (nonconsumable) resources can be shared, thus allowing solutions for a wider range of resource re-allocation problems. In [2] we introduce a multi-stage process of negotiation, where a higher stage involves more information passing between agents and more sophisticated negotiation and possible re-planning by the agents aimed at trying to help satisfy each other&apos;s constraints and requirements. This work was supported by \Progetto Giovani Ricercatori&quot; of the University of Bologna, and by the SOCS project, funded by the CEC, contract IST-2001-32530. F-s S 1 S F-u S 0 y:request x:accept_req x:refuse_req S F-s S 2 x:promise y:change_prom y:accept_pro