GRETA’s First Years of Work: Review of the monitoring of implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings

The monitoring mechanism of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (CoE Convention) consists of an independent group of experts (GRETA) and a Committee of Parties. GRETA, which began work in 2009, develops questionnaires for States Parties, reviews their replies and conducts study visits. It then produces a report that is used by the Committee of Parties to make recommendations. This article analyses GRETA’s work until November 2011 by assessing the available materials including the questionnaire, the three published replies of States Parties to the questionnaire and the five published final reports on the parties. The objective of the article is to examine the capacity of this process to contribute to enhancing the accountability of States Parties, and to consider whether the application of a human rights-based approach by the parties can, in fact, be effectively monitored. The article also considers the role of civil society in the monitoring process and the ways in which this could be enhanced

On Erdős and Sárközy's sequences with Property P

A sequence $A$ of positive integers having the property that no element $a_i \in A$ divides the sum $a_j+a_k$ of two larger elements is said to have `Property P'. We construct an infinite set $S\subset \mathbb{N}$ having Property P with counting function $S(x)\gg\frac{\sqrt{x}}{\sqrt{\log x}(\log\log x)^2(\log \log \log x)^2}$. This improves on an example given by Erd\H{o}s and S\'ark\"ozy with a lower bound on the counting function of order $\frac{\sqrt{x}}{\log x}$.Comment: 8 page

West Nile Virus Infection in Plasma of Blood and Plasma Donors, United States

This study investigated the association of ongoing West Nile virus (WNV) infections with neutralizing antibody titers in US plasma-derived intravenous immune globulin released during 2003–2008. Titers correlated closely with the prevalence of past WNV infection in blood donors, with 2008 lots indicating a prevalence of 1%

Effect of different contact formulations used in commercial FEM software packages on the results of hot forging simulations

Commercial FEM-software packages are widely used in the industry to predict material flow, temperaturedistribution and die load during the forging process. Contact in conjunction with plastic material behaviour,which is typical for forging simulations, leads to highly nonlinear equations in the FEM algorithms, whichmay cause problems in numerical convergence. Some FEM software providers handle this problem byautomatic contact damping or similar algorithms. However, the user has mostly no detailed information aboutadjustments and prediction accuracy. The only possibility for the user to have an impact on the contactbehaviour is to set a friction factor and to choose a friction model (e.g. Coloumb or Shear) appropriate to theinvestigated process. Friction factors are often measured by standard tests like the ring compression test whichshould be valid for all used software packages. In this paper a benchmark between three software programs isperformed based on a model for ring compression tests under typical hot forging conditions. The commercialFEM-software programs Deform2D, Forge2007 and Abaqus are compared by generating a nomogram for eachsoftware package. For all simulations identical physical (temperature, flow curves etc.) as well as numericalinfluence parameters are used. The simulations show a significant divergence in the results depending on theused FEM-software. This leads to the conclusion that a friction coefficient which is true for one softwarepackage can not be transferred directly into another one

Delayed Stroke after Aneurysm Treatment with Flow Diverters in Small Cerebral Vessels: A Potentially Critical Complication Caused by Subacute Vasospasm

Flow diversion (FD) is a novel endovascular technique based on the profound alteration of cerebrovascular hemodynamics, which emerged as a promising minimally invasive therapy for intracranial aneurysms. However, delayed post-procedural stroke remains an unexplained concern. A consistent follow-up-regimen has not yet been defined, but is required urgently to clarify the underlying cause of delayed ischemia. In the last two years, 223 patients were treated with six different FD devices in our center. We identified subacute, FD-induced segmental vasospasm (SV) in 36 patients as a yet unknown, delayed-type reaction potentially compromising brain perfusion to a critical level. Furthermore, 86% of all patients revealed significant SV approximately four weeks after treatment. In addition, 56% had SV with 25% stenosis, and 80% had additional neointimal hyperplasia. Only 13% exhibited SV-related high-grade stenosis. One of those suffered stroke due to prolonged SV, requiring neurocritical care and repeated intra-arterial (i.a.) biochemical angioplasty for seven days to prevent territorial infarction. Five patients suffered newly manifested, transient hemicrania accompanying a compensatorily increased ipsilateral leptomeningeal perfusion. One treated vessel obliterated permanently. Hence, FD-induced SV is a frequent vascular reaction after FD treatment, potentially causing symptomatic ischemia or even stroke, approximately one month post procedure. A specifically early follow-up-strategy must be applied to identify patients at risk for ischemia, requiring intensified monitoring and potentially anti-vasospastic treatment