755 research outputs found
REFORMING ADMINISTRATIVE LAW IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES - KOSOVO CONTEXT
Countries in transition, such as Kosovo, have as their primary goal the reform of the administration and administrative law in order to ensure democratic governance. This reform turns out to be directly related to the mechanisms of interaction with citizens. The administrative procedure contains mechanisms that should provide legal certainty to citizens when interacting with state institutions. The legal norm that regulates this mutual interaction between the state and the citizens and its effective implementation is of great importance because it is a source of satisfaction and trust of citizens towards public institutions and vice versa. However, the implementation of the law continues to be one of the major challenges for strengthening institutions in the Kosovo context and, consequently, for advancing the rule of law. This article aims, through the analytical, legal-dogmatic, and qualitative method, to analyze the mechanisms of interaction between citizens and public institutions through the law on general administrative procedure and the legal effects caused by the latter. In this context, it was found that the established practices are not in full compliance with the legal provisions and consequently reflect negatively on the mutual relations between citizens and public institutions
Similarity classes of 3x3 matrices over a local principal ideal ring
In this paper similarity classes of three by three matrices over a local
principal ideal commutative ring are analyzed. When the residue field is
finite, a generating function for the number of similarity classes for all
finite quotients of the ring is computed explicitly.Comment: 14 pages, final version, to appear in Communications in Algebr
CONGENITAL OSTEOCHONDRODYSPLASIA – A CASE REPORT
Congenital osteochondrodysplasia is a rare inborn disorder of the development and growth of bone and cartilage.
Its incidence in children is 2–3/10,000.
We present the case of a female patient, born in 1952 from an unplanned pregnancy as the fourth child in the
family. At her birth the mother was 42 and the father 53 years old. At examination her body height was 152 cm and
body weight 87 kg.
She was hospitalized at our clinic because of pain in the spinal and peripheral joints from which she had been
suff ering since young age. Her father and uncle had similar problems. On physical examination the patient was obese
with a large scaphoid calvaria, a very high forehead, a nose with wide base, short trunk and extremities, especially the
arms with semi-contractures of the elbow joints and fi ngers of equal length. Th ere was a contracture of the right hip,
the feet were in disproportion with the rest of the body, while Lasegue’s test was positive on both sides at 30°. Th e
patient’s karyotype was 46 xx. Radiography of the hip joints showed varus deformations and pronounced sclerosis of
the femoral head. Th e knee radiographs were characterized by congenital deformities, and there were clinical and
radiographic signs of osteoarthritis. Radiographs of the lumbosacral spine and pelvis showed osteoporosis, hyperlordosis,
and a compression fracture of the L5 vertebral body. Total T-score of the hip on DEXA scan was –3.7.
Based on data from the history, physical examination, as well as clinical and laboratory fi ndings, we established
the diagnosis of congenital osteochondrodysplasia, a condition which should be considered and diagnosed as soon as
possible. Treatment of the disease is multidisciplinary and mainly symptomatic
Neuroendocrine aspects of pediatric aggression: Can hormone measures be clinically useful?
Pediatric aggression is common in human societies, mainly presenting as impulsive aggression or predatory aggression. Numerous psychiatric disorders can contain aggression as a symptom, leading to difficulties in diagnosis and treatment. This review focuses on the biological systems that affect pediatric aggression. We review the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis, and the mechanisms by which these axes influence the body and mind of aggressive children and adolescents. Although this review focuses on the HPA and HPG axes, it is important to note that other biological systems have relationships with these two axes. Based on the results of the studies reviewed, elevated cortisol concentrations were associated with impulsive aggression, whereas, low levels of cortisol were associated with callous-unemotional traits similar to predatory aggression. Higher levels of dehydroepiandrosterone were correlated with higher levels of aggression as were higher levels of testosterone. However, there have been discrepancies in the results between various studies, indicating the need for more research on hormonal levels and pediatric aggression. In the future, hormonal levels may be useful in determining what treatments will work best for certain pediatric patients
The soft X-ray properties of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We use the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) to study the soft X-ray properties of
a homogeneous sample of 46,420 quasars selected from the third data release of
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Optical luminosities, both at rest-frame
2500\AA () and in [OIII] () span more than three
orders of magnitude, while redshifts range over . We detect 3366
quasars directly in the observed 0.1--2.4 keV band. Sub-samples of radio-loud
and radio-quiet objects (RLQs and RQQs) are obtained by cross-matching with the
FIRST catalogue. We study the distribution of X-ray luminosity as a function of
optical luminosity, redshift and radio power using both individual detections
and stacks of complete sets of similar quasars. At every optical luminosity and
redshift \log L_{2\kev} is, to a good approximation, normally distributed
with dispersion , at least brightwards of the median X-ray
luminosity. This median X-ray luminosity of quasars is a power law of optical
luminosity with index for and for
. RLQs are systematically brighter than RQQs by about a factor
of 2 at given optical luminosity. The zero-points of these relations increase
systematically with redshift, possibly in different ways for RLQs and RQQs.
Evolution is particularly strong at low redshift and if the optical luminosity
is characterised by . At low redshift and at given
the soft X-ray emission from type II AGN is more than 100
times weaker than that from type I AGN.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, replaced with final version accepted
by MNRA
The first joint ESGAR/ ESPR consensus statement on the technical performance of cross-sectional small bowel and colonic imaging
Objectives: To develop guidelines describing a standardised approach to patient preparation and acquisition protocols for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound (US) of the small bowel and colon, with an emphasis on imaging inflammatory bowel disease. Methods: An expert consensus committee of 13 members from the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) and European Society of Paediatric Radiology (ESPR) undertook a six-stage modified Delphi process, including a detailed literature review, to create a series of consensus statements concerning patient preparation, imaging hardware and image acquisition protocols. Results: One hundred and fifty-seven statements were scored for agreement by the panel of which 129 statements (82 %) achieved immediate consensus with a further 19 (12 %) achieving consensus after appropriate modification. Nine (6 %) statements were rejected as consensus could not be reached. Conclusions: These expert consensus recommendations can be used to help guide cross-sectional radiological practice for imaging the small bowel and colon. Key points: • Cross-sectional imaging is increasingly used to evaluate the bowel • Image quality is paramount to achieving high diagnostic accuracy • Guidelines concerning patient preparation and image acquisition protocols are provided
Young pre-Low-Mass X-ray Binaries in propeller phase : Nature of the 6.7-hour periodic X-ray source 1E 161348-5055 in RCW 103
Discovery of the 6.7-hour periodicity in the X-ray source 1E 161348-5055 in
RCW 103 has led to investigations of the nature of this periodicity. We explore
a model for 1E 161348-5055, wherein a fast-spinning neutron star with a
magnetic field G in a young pre-Low-Mass X-ray Binary (pre-LMXB)
with an eccentric orbit of period 6.7 hr operates in the "propeller" phase. The
6.7-hr light curve of 1E 161348-5055 can be quantitatively accounted by a model
of orbitally-modulated mass transfer through a viscous accretion disk and
subsequent propeller emission (both Illarionov-Sunyaev type and
Romanova-Lovelace et al type), and spectral and other properties are also in
agreement. Formation and evolution of model systems are shown to be in
accordance both with standard theories.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics on 23/08/200
A forming disk at z~0.6: Collapse of a gaseous disk or major merger remnant?
[Abridged] We present and analyze observations of J033241.88-274853.9 at
z=0.6679, using multi-wavelength photometry and imaging with FLAMES/GIRAFFE 3D
spectroscopy. J033241.88-274853.9 is found to be a blue, young (~320Myr)
stellar disk embedded in a very gas-rich (fgas=73-82% with
log(Mstellar/Mo)=9.45) and turbulent phase that is found to be rotating on
large spatial scales. We identified two unusual properties of
J033241.88-274853.9. (1) The spatial distributions of the ionized gaseous and
young stars show a strong decoupling; while almost no stars can be detected in
the southern part down to the very deep detection limit of ACS/UDF images,
significant emission from the [OII] ionized gas is detected. (2) We detect an
excess of velocity dispersion in the southern part of J033241.88-274853.9 in
comparison to expectations from a rotating disk model. We considered two disk
formation scenarios, depending on the gaseous phase geometry. In the first one,
we examined whether J033241.88-274853.9 could be a young rotating disk that has
been recently collapsed from a pre-existing, very gas-rich rotating disk. This
scenario requires two (unknown) additional assumptions to explain the
decoupling between the distribution of stars and gas and the excess of velocity
dispersion in the same region. In a second scenario, we examine whether
J033241.88-274853.9 could be a merger remnant of two gas-rich disks. In this
case, the asymmetry observed between the gas and star distributions, as well as
the excess of velocity dispersion, find a common explanation. Shocks produced
during the merger in this region can be ionized easily and heat the gas while
preventing star formation. This makes this scenario more satisfactory than the
collapse of a pre-existing, gas-rich rotating disk.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 8 pages & 5 figure
LNCS
In resource allocation games, selfish players share resources that are needed in order to fulfill their objectives. The cost of using a resource depends on the load on it. In the traditional setting, the players make their choices concurrently and in one-shot. That is, a strategy for a player is a subset of the resources. We introduce and study dynamic resource allocation games. In this setting, the game proceeds in phases. In each phase each player chooses one resource. A scheduler dictates the order in which the players proceed in a phase, possibly scheduling several players to proceed concurrently. The game ends when each player has collected a set of resources that fulfills his objective. The cost for each player then depends on this set as well as on the load on the resources in it – we consider both congestion and cost-sharing games. We argue that the dynamic setting is the suitable setting for many applications in practice. We study the stability of dynamic resource allocation games, where the appropriate notion of stability is that of subgame perfect equilibrium, study the inefficiency incurred due to selfish behavior, and also study problems that are particular to the dynamic setting, like constraints on the order in which resources can be chosen or the problem of finding a scheduler that achieves stability
Statistics: Handle with Care, Detecting Multiple Model Components with the Likelihood Ratio Test
The likelihood ratio test (LRT) and the related test, do not (even
asymptotically) adhere to their nominal and distributions in many
statistical tests common in astrophysics, thereby casting many marginal line or
source detections and non-detections into doubt. Although there are many
legitimate uses of these statistics, in some important cases it can be
impossible to compute the correct false positive rate. For example, it has
become common practice to use the LRT or the test for detecting a line in a
spectral model or a source above background despite the lack of certain
required regularity conditions. In these and other settings that involve
testing a hypothesis that is on the boundary of the parameter space, {\it
contrary to common practice, the nominal distribution for the LRT or
the distribution for the test should not be used}. In this paper, we
characterize an important class of problems where the LRT and the test fail
and illustrate this non-standard behavior. We briefly sketch several possible
acceptable alternatives, focusing on Bayesian posterior predictive
probability-values. We present this method in some detail, as it is a simple,
robust, and intuitive approach. This alternative method is illustrated using
the gamma-ray burst of May 8, 1997 (GRB 970508) to investigate the presence of
an Fe K emission line during the initial phase of the observation.Comment: Twenty four pages, seven figures. The Astrophysical Journal, May
2002, to appea
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