Ivermectin in the treatment of Bancroftian filariasis infection in Orissa, India

Ivermectin treatment has evaluated for its efficacy and side reactions in sixty patients of Orissa with Bancroftian filarial infection and microfilaremia. Ivermectin was administered as a single oral dose at four dosage levels (20, 50. 100 and 200 μg/kg), and both microfilarial clearance and associated side reactions were monitored in a double blind fashion. Blood microfilariae were cleared in all patients at all dosages within 1 to 14 days. In most patients microfilariae reappeared by third month. The microfilaria appearance by third and sixth month averaged 12.2 to 44 percent of pretreatment values in the fourstudy groups. Side reactions were encountered in almost all patients, the commonest being fever. headache, weakness, myalgia and cough which occured most prominently 12 to 72 hours after treatment. Side reactions were more frequent and severe in patients with high microfilaria counts. Clinical reaction scores for each group were independent of the dose administered. The 200 μg dose group showed significantly more rapid microfilariae clearance and its delayed reappearance as compared with the other dosage groups and without inducing significantly greater clinical reaction scores

Cognitive transfer of spatial awareness states from immersive virtual environments to reality.

An individual's prior experience will influence how new visual information in a scene is perceived and remembered. Accuracy of memory performance per se is an imperfect reflection of the cognitive activity (awareness states) that underlies performance in memory tasks. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of varied visual fidelity of training environments on the transfer of training to the real-world after exposure to immersive simulations representing a real-world scene. A between groups experiment was carried out to explore the effect of rendering quality on measurements of location-based recognition memory for objects and associated states of awareness. The immersive simulation, consisted of one room that was either rendered flat-shaded or using radiosity rendering. The simulation was displayed on a stereo head-tracked Head Mounted Display. Post exposure to the synthetic simulation, participants completed a memory recognition task conducted in a real-world scene by physically arranging objects in their physical form in a real world room. Participants also reported one of four states of awareness following object recognition. They were given several options of awareness states that reflected the level of visual mental imagery involved during retrieval, the familiarity of the recollection and related guesses. The scene incorporated objects that 'fitted' into the specific context of the real-world scene, referred to as consistent objects, and objects which were not related to the specific context of the real-world scene, referred to as inconsistent objects. A follow-up study was conducted a week after the initial test. Interestingly, results revealed a higher proportion of correct object recognition associated with mental imagery when participants were exposed to low fidelity flat-shaded training scenes rather than the radiosity rendered ones. Memory psychology indicates that awareness states based on visual imagery require stronger attentional processing in the first instance than those based on familiarity. A tentative claim would therefore be that those immersive environments that are distinctive because of their variation from 'real', such as flat-shaded environments, recruit stronger attentional resources. This additional attentional processing may bring about a change in participants' subjective experiences of 'remembering' when they later transfer the training from that environment into a real-world situation

Plant Diversity in an Intensively Cultivated Vineyard Agroecosystem (Langhe, North-West Italy)

In areas of intensive agriculture, wild plant species are confined to field margins, thus they play a role inprotecting biodiversity. The aim of the present study was to assess plant diversity in an area of intensiveviticulture and to evaluate, for the first time, the impact of field margins on vineyard flora biodiversity. Thestudy was conducted in North-West Italy, were five categories of floristic lists in vineyard-margin pairs weresampled and compared. Five margins were identified: grass-covered (A) and bare (B) headlands, small (C)and wide (D) woodlands, and shrub and herbaceous (E) areas. Two hundred and fifty-two taxa were found,although only 19 were widespread. Differences among categories emerged, highlighting the high floristiccomplexity of the sites surrounded by wide wooded areas (D). The findings suggest an influence of marginsize, in addition to margin type, on the floristic richness of the vineyard. Moreover, an inverse relationshipbetween species richness and both the presence of Poaceae and the degree of soil grass coverage emerged.Enhancing biodiversity, at landscape and field level, by the appropriate management of cover crops andecological infrastructures, within and around vineyards, could be a strategy in sustainable viticulture.The increase in plant species richness is not an end in itself, but it might help to promote biodiversity atdifferent trophic levels

Efektivitas Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Student Fasilitator And Explaining Menggunakan Media Concept Map terhadap Peningkatan Pemahaman Konsep

Penelitian ini bertujuan (1) Untuk mengetahui gambaran peningkatan pemahaman konsep siswa kelasX SMA Negeri 1 Walenrang yang diajar menggunakan model pembelajaran Student Fasilitator andExplaining (2) Untuk mengetahui gambaran peningkatan pemahaman konsep siswa kelas X SMANegeri 1 Walenrang yang diajar tanpa menggunakan model student fasilitator and explaining (3)Untuk mengetahui model pembelajaran Student Fasilitator and Explaining efektif untukmeningkatkan pemahaman konsep fisika siswa dari pada siswa yang tidak diajar dengan modelpembelajaran Student Fasilitator and Explaining kelas X SMA Negeri 1 Walenrang. Penelitian inimerupakan jenis penelitian Quasi Experimental Design dengan menggunakan desain penelitian pretestposttestcontrol group design. Teknik analisis yang digunakan adalah analisis statistik deskriptif dananalisis statistik inferensial. Berdasarkan hasil analisis statistik inferensial diperoleh Dhitung = 0,56 , dapat disimpulkan bahwapenerapan Model pembelajaran Student Fasilitator and Explaining dengan Menggunakan MediaConcept Map efektif untuk meningkatkan pemahaman konsep fisika siswa daripada siswa yang tidakdiajar dengan model pembelajaran Student Fasilitator and Explaining dengan Menggunakan MediaConcept Siswa Kelas X SMAN 1 Walenran

Levels Of The 4p4 Configuration Of Ge-like Kr V

The spectrum of four-times-ionized krypton, Kr v, has been observed in the vuv region using a θ-pinch as a light source. The 4s4p3-4p4 transition array has been observed in this ion. This transition has not previously been observed in the Ge i isoelectronic sequence. Thirteen lines were classified that belong to this transition array. All levels of the 4p4 configuration were determined. The identifications are supported by relativistic Hartree-Fock calculations. © 1993 The American Physical Society.4853595359

On the monotone stability approach to BSDEs with jumps: Extensions, concrete criteria and examples

We show a concise extension of the monotone stability approach to backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) that are jointly driven by a Brownian motion and a random measure for jumps, which could be of infinite activity with a non-deterministic and time inhomogeneous compensator. The BSDE generator function can be non convex and needs not to satisfy global Lipschitz conditions in the jump integrand. We contribute concrete criteria, that are easy to verify, for results on existence and uniqueness of bounded solutions to BSDEs with jumps, and on comparison and a-priori $L^{\infty}$-bounds. Several examples and counter examples are discussed to shed light on the scope and applicability of different assumptions, and we provide an overview of major applications in finance and optimal control.Comment: 28 pages. Added DOI https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-22285-7_1 for final publication, corrected typo (missing gamma) in example 4.1

A Delayed Black and Scholes Formula I

In this article we develop an explicit formula for pricing European options when the underlying stock price follows a non-linear stochastic differential delay equation (sdde). We believe that the proposed model is sufficiently flexible to fit real market data, and is yet simple enough to allow for a closed-form representation of the option price. Furthermore, the model maintains the no-arbitrage property and the completeness of the market. The derivation of the option-pricing formula is based on an equivalent martingale measure

Group status drives majority and minority integration preferences

WOS:000300955100009 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science)“Prémio Científico ISCTE-IUL 2013”This research examined preferences for national-and campus-level assimilative and pluralistic policies among Black and White students under different contexts, as majority-and minority-group members. We targeted attitudes at two universities, one where 85% of the student body is White, and another where 76% of students are Black. The results revealed that when a group constituted the majority, its members generally preferred assimilationist policies, and when a group constituted the minority, its members generally preferred pluralistic policies. The results support a functional perspective: Both majority and minority groups seek to protect and enhance their collective identities

Effects of technetium on marine micro-organisms

Eleven bacterial species have been isolated from the upper layer of intertidal sediments collected along the Belgian coast (Coxyde). Three of them (no. 1, 4 and 11) have been chosen for their halophilous character. One species has been identified as Flavobacterium halmephilum, the other two are being investigated. Effects of technetium (99Tc) have been studied on a mixed bacterial population isolated from sediments, as well as on the three halophilic species.At the concentrations utilized in this work (up to 100 microg ml-1), 99Tc has no evident effects on bacterial growth. Uptake of technetium (99Tc and/or 95mTc) has been investigated in the mixed bacterial population, in the three halophilic bacteria (including Flavobacterium halmephilum) and in the benthic ciliate Uronema marinum. It has been found that technetium is taken up by all these micro-organisms. However, the transfer factor (TF) in bacteria may vary considerably (from 0.5 to 200), but the cause of this variability is not known and deserves further study.The ciliate Uronema marinum, which feeds on living marine bacteria, was found to take up 95mTc added to the culture medium. However, the TF in this ciliate is rather low (from 1.4 to 5.5). Because it feeds on bacteria, Uronema marinum is supposed to take up technetium from water (direct contamination) as well as from contaminated bacteria (indirect contamination). Experiments with 95mTc-labeled bacterial cells might be useful, as they could indicate which form of contamination (direct or indirect) is prevailing

Quadratic BSDEs driven by a continuous martingale and application to utility maximization problem

In this paper, we study a class of quadratic Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (BSDEs) which arises naturally when studying the problem of utility maximization with portfolio constraints. We first establish existence and uniqueness results for such BSDEs and then, we give an application to the utility maximization problem. Three cases of utility functions will be discussed: the exponential, power and logarithmic ones