Successful management of fipronil toxicosis in two pet rabbits

Background: Antiparasitic drug toxicosis is commonly described in dogs and cats, but reports on the management of antiparasitic drug toxicities in pet rabbits are scarce. Here, we describe the successful clinical management of two pet rabbits with fipronil toxicosis.Cases Description: The first case was a 5-month-old, intact female, rabbit that presented with the acute onset of seizures, obtunded mentation, and in lateral recumbency, while the second rabbit was a 1-year-old, intact male, rabbit that presented with anorexia and lethargy. In both cases, the owners reported to have administered a 0.5 ml fipronil vial topically on the skin as an antiparasitic drug between 4 and 6 hours prior to presentation. Complete blood count and serum biochemistry were unremarkable and both rabbits tested negative on Encephalitozoon cuniculi serology. Both animals were decontaminated by bathing with tepid water and dishwashing soap. The rabbit with seizures received on admission intravenous midazolam. In both cases, overnight hospitalization, intravenous isotonic crystalloid fluids, and assisted-feeding by oral syringe were provided until voluntary feeding was resumed. Both rabbits rapidly improved approximately 12 hours of initiating supportive care. Complete resolution of clinical signs and return of normal appetite and defecation occurred within 24 hours of hospitalization in both animals. No recurrence of neurological signs was reported in the rabbit presenting with seizures on a follow-up period of 1 month.Conclusion: The outcome of these cases suggests that supportive treatment of fipronil toxicity in pet rabbits can be successful if administered promptly

Fractional Cauchy problem on random snowflakes

Abstract. We consider time-changed Brownian motions on random Koch (pre-fractal and fractal) domains where the time change is given by the inverse to a subordinator. In particular, we study the fractional Cauchy problem with Robin condition on the pre-fractal boundary obtaining asymptotic results for the corresponding fractional diffusions with Robin, Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions on the fractal domain

From Sturm-Liouville problems to fractional and anomalous diffusions

Some fractional and anomalous diffusions are driven by equations involving fractional derivatives in both time and space. Such diffusions are processes with randomly varying times. In representing the solutions to those diffusions, the explicit laws of certain stable processes turn out to be fundamental. This paper directs one's efforts towards the explicit representation of solutions to fractional and anomalous diffusions related to Sturm-Liouville problems of fractional order associated to fractional power function spaces. Furthermore, we study a new version of the Bochner's subordination rule and we establish some connections between subordination and space-fractional operatorComment: Accepted by Stochastic Processess and Their Application

Editorial for the special issue on: IES 2015

Since 2005, the Italian Statistical Society Permanent Group “Statistics for quality evaluation of services” (SVQS Group) organizes a biannual confer- ence. The 6th edition called IES 2015 was held in Bari, 8-9 July, 2015. This special issue of EJASA collects a selection of contributions related to the key words of the conference

The XBOX 360 and Steganography: How Criminals and Terrorists Could Be Going Dark

Video game consoles have evolved from single-player embedded systems with rudimentary processing and graphics capabilities to multipurpose devices that provide users with parallel functionality to contemporary desktop and laptop computers. Besides offering video games with rich graphics and multiuser network play, today\u27s gaming consoles give users the ability to communicate via email, video and text chat; transfer pictures, videos, and file;, and surf the World-Wide-Web. These communication capabilities have, unfortunately, been exploited by people to plan and commit a variety of criminal activities. In an attempt to cover the digital tracks of these unlawful undertakings, anti-forensic techniques, such as steganography, may be utilized to hide or alter evidence. This paper will explore how criminals and terrorists might be using the Xbox 360 to convey messages and files using steganographic techniques. Specific attention will be paid to the going dark problem and the disjoint between forensic capabilities for analyzing traditional computers and forensic capabilities for analyzing video game consoles. Forensic approaches for examining Microsoft\u27s Xbox 360 will be detailed and the resulting evidentiary capabilities will be discussed. Keywords: Digital Forensics, Xbox Gaming Console, Steganography, Terrorism, Cyber Crim

A Practitioners Guide to the Forensic Investigation of Xbox 360 Gaming Consoles

Given the ubiquitous nature of computing, individuals now have nearly 24-7 access to the internet. People are not just going online through traditional means with a PC anymore, they are now frequently using nontraditional devices such as cell phones, smart phones, and gaming consoles. Given the increased use of gaming consoles for online access, there is also an increased use of gaming consoles to commit criminal activity. The digital forensic community has been tasked with creating new approaches for forensically analyzing gaming consoles. In this research paper the authors demonstrate different tools, both commercial and open source, available to forensically analyzing gaming consoles, specifically the Xbox 360. Used Xbox 360 gaming consoles were purchased online through popular auction sites for the purpose of this research. Keywords: Digital Forensics, Identity Theft, Xbox 360 Gaming Console, Cyber Crim

International Change and technological evolution in the Fashion Industry

textabstractThe aim of this research is to sketch out the parameters of the fashion industry. Whilst, without doubt fashion is a means of personal and cultural expression, it is also an industry. The industrial and economic aspects have been relatively under-researched. We highlight the fact that the fashion industry is fast evolving, and growing. Traditional economic analyses have under-examined some of the crucial drivers of change in this sector but these are all important issues for a number of reasons. First, the local and global consequences of the transformation of the fashion industry help us to understand the challenges facing urban and regional economies, particularly in Europe. Second, the fashion industry, like the cultural industries more generally, is leading a new form of economic development that blends qualitative elements and quantitative forms, a culturalisation of economic action. In so doing we also raise three questions, one has already been alluded to: what is the ‘fashion industry’; and following this, a second: is the fashion industry the same, or different, to other cultural industries? Finally, in relation to the dynamics of change, we point to the role of situatedness: the importance of place and institutional embedding

Genetic scaling for ordinal variables

This book aims to propose a method to quantify ordinal variables through the optimization of an objective function. There are various methods for quantifying (scaling) ordinal sta-tistical variables, but if the researcher wishes to make comparisons between two or more groups regarding the same feature, he should optimize the differences between their distributions, whether they concern assessments, attitudes, opinions, or other features. To do this, he needs to optimize linear forms and quadratic forms sub-ject to linear constraints of inequality and quadratic constraints of equality. This book suggests a solution to the problem, i.e. the use of ge-netic algorithms. If genetic algorithms are used there’s no need for information about the gradient of the objective function and it’s impossible to get relative and non-absolute extremes. This paper also implements the rules for deciding whether average evalua-tions are equal or not. The next section of this book is intended to apply the above technique in order to quantify the ordinal statistical variables. This method is subjected to clearly-defined objective rules and is, therefore, freed from the researcher’s will, thus being more relia-ble and more consistent than other methods of quantification that are already present in the literature. The method used to compare average evaluations expressed at a qualitative ordinal level is de-scribed in the first part of this paper. Besides, the method itself is validated by comparing the opinions that have been expressed by a sample of university graduates about the effectiveness of uni-versity education in terms of job exploitability; in particular, the interviewed people have been divided according to the different Faculties they attended as students, and to their current job condi-tion. A broad Appendix is given at the end of this book, including the MATLAB® code expressly written to perform this method

Vibrations and fractional vibrations of rods, plates and Fresnel pseudo-processes

Different initial and boundary value problems for the equation of vibrations of rods (also called Fresnel equation) are solved by exploiting the connection with Brownian motion and the heat equation. The analysis of the fractional version (of order $\nu$) of the Fresnel equation is also performed and, in detail, some specific cases, like $\nu=1/2$, 1/3, 2/3, are analyzed. By means of the fundamental solution of the Fresnel equation, a pseudo-process $F(t)$, $t>0$ with real sign-varying density is constructed and some of its properties examined. The equation of vibrations of plates is considered and the case of circular vibrating disks $C_R$ is investigated by applying the methods of planar orthogonally reflecting Brownian motion within $C_R$. The composition of F with reflecting Brownian motion $B$ yields the law of biquadratic heat equation while the composition of $F$ with the first passage time $T_t$ of $B$ produces a genuine probability law strictly connected with the Cauchy process.Comment: 33 pages,8 figure

Implicazioni medico-legali del trattamento endoscopico dell’ipertrofia prostatica benigna

We report a case of chronic urinary and faecal incontinence after transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and inguinal erniotomy. The analisys of the surgical techniques used in the treatment of prostatic hypertrophy (IPB) and the characterization of the complications demonstrate that many adverse effects are due to faulty surgical technique. Diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic aspects of prostatic hypertrophy are estimated and the “state of the art” of surgical treatment is traced, including positive and negative aspects. Particular attention was dedicated to the TURP, gold standard for IPB, singling out the risks and the possible iatrogenic injuries. Scientific references prove that the frequency of such injuries is wide distributed in endoscopic treatment and can be referred mainly to jatrogenic causes. The fundamental lines of professional liability are analyzed in order to the right of injury compensation, according to civil law