Local effects and global impact in neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration: The Xi"an International Neurotoxicology Conference

'Neurotoxicity and Neurodegeneration: Local Effect and Global Impact' was the theme of the Xi"an International Neurotoxicology Conference (XINC), held in Xi"an, June 2011. The Conference was a joint event of the 13th Biennial Meeting of the International Neurotoxicology Association (INA-13) and the 11th International Symposium on Neurobehavioral Methods and Effects in Occupational and Environmental Health (NEUREOH-11) of the Scientific Committee on Neurotoxicology and...

Local effects and global impact in neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration: The Xi"an International Neurotoxicology Conference

'Neurotoxicity and Neurodegeneration: Local Effect and Global Impact' was the theme of the Xi"an International Neurotoxicology Conference (XINC), held in Xi"an, June 2011. The Conference was a joint event of the 13th Biennial Meeting of the International Neurotoxicology Association (INA-13) and the 11th International Symposium on Neurobehavioral Methods and Effects in Occupational and Environmental Health (NEUREOH-11) of the Scientific Committee on Neurotoxicology and...

Official Positions for FRAX® clinical regarding prior fractures from Joint Official Positions Development Conference of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry and International Osteoporosis Foundation on FRAX®.

The 2010 Position Development Conference addressed four questions related to the impact of previous fractures on 10-year fracture risk as calculated by FRAX(®). To address these questions, PubMed was searched on the keywords "fracture, epidemiology, osteoporosis." Titles of retrieved articles were reviewed for an indication that risk for future fracture was discussed. Abstracts of these articles were reviewed for an indication that one or more of the questions listed above was discussed. For those that did, the articles were reviewed in greater detail to extract the findings and to find additional past work and citing works that also bore on the questions. The official positions and the supporting literature review are presented here. FRAX(®) underestimates fracture probability in persons with a history of multiple fractures (good, A, W). FRAX(®) may underestimate fracture probability in individuals with prevalent severe vertebral fractures (good, A, W). While there is evidence that hip, vertebral, and humeral fractures appear to confer greater risk of subsequent fracture than fractures at other sites, quantification of this incremental risk in FRAX(®) is not possible (fair, B, W). FRAX(®) may underestimate fracture probability in individuals with a parental history of non-hip fragility fracture (fair, B, W). Limitations of the methodology include performance by a single reviewer, preliminary review of the literature being confined to titles, and secondary review being limited to abstracts. Limitations of the evidence base include publication bias, overrepresentation of persons of European descent in the published studies, and technical differences in the methods used to identify prevalent and incident fractures. Emerging topics for future research include fracture epidemiology in non-European populations and men, the impact of fractures in family members other than parents, and the genetic contribution to fracture risk.

Official Positions for FRAX® Bone Mineral Density and FRAX® simplification from Joint Official Positions Development Conference of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry and International Osteoporosis Foundation on FRAX®.

Tools to predict fracture risk are useful for selecting patients for pharmacological therapy in order to reduce fracture risk and redirect limited healthcare resources to those who are most likely to benefit. FRAX® is a World Health Organization fracture risk assessment algorithm for estimating the 10-year probability of hip fracture and major osteoporotic fracture. Effective application of FRAX® in clinical practice requires a thorough understanding of its limitations as well as its utility. For some patients, FRAX® may underestimate or overestimate fracture risk. In order to address some of the common issues encountered with the use of FRAX® for individual patients, the International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD) and International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) assigned task forces to review the medical evidence and make recommendations for optimal use of FRAX® in clinical practice. Among the issues addressed were the use of bone mineral density (BMD) measurements at skeletal sites other than the femoral neck, the use of technologies other than dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, the use of FRAX® without BMD input, the use of FRAX® to monitor treatment, and the addition of the rate of bone loss as a clinical risk factor for FRAX®. The evidence and recommendations were presented to a panel of experts at the Joint ISCD-IOF FRAX® Position Development Conference, resulting in the development of Joint ISCD-IOF Official Positions addressing FRAX®-related issues.

IX ASMOSIA International Conference Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone: Tarragona, 8-13th June 2009 (Book of abstracts)

Aquesta obra recull els resums de les comunicacions orals i pòsters que es van presentar durant el IX Congrés Internacional de l’Association for the Study of Marbles and Other Stones in Antiquity (ASMOSIA), organitzat per l’ICAC en el marc del programa de recerca HAR2008-04600/HIST, amb el suport del programa d’Ajuts ARCS 2008 (referència expedient IR036826) de la Generalitat de Catalunya i del Ministeri de Ciència i Innovació (Accions Complementàries HAR2008-03181-E/HIST), i celebrat a Tarragona entre el 8 i el 13 de juny del 2009.

Scheduling an European basketball competition. An application of graph theory

The object of this project is to schedule a ctitious European basketball competition with many teams situated a long distances. The schedule must be fair, feasible and economical, which means that the total distance trav- eled by every team must be the minimal possible. First, we de ne the sport competition terminology and study di erent competition systems, focusing on the NBA and the Euroleague systems. Then we de ne concepts of graph theory and spherical distance that will be needed. Next we propose a com- petition system, explaining where will be allocated the teams and how will be the scheduling. Then there is a description of the programs that have been implemented, and, nally, the complete schedule is displayed, and some possible improvements are mentioned.

The international multidisciplinary consensus conference on multimodality monitoring in neurocritical care: evidentiary tables : a statement for healthcare professionals from the neurocritical care society and the European society of intensive care medicine.

A variety of technologies have been developed to assist decision-making during the management of patients with acute brain injury who require intensive care. A large body of research has been generated describing these various technologies. The Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) in collaboration with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), the Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), and the Latin America Brain Injury Consortium (LABIC) organized an international, multidisciplinary consensus conference to perform a systematic review of the published literature to help develop evidence-based practice recommendations on bedside physiologic monitoring. This supplement contains a Consensus Summary Statement with recommendations and individual topic reviews on physiologic processes important in the care of acute brain injury. In this article we provide the evidentiary tables for select topics including systemic hemodynamics, intracranial pressure, brain and systemic oxygenation, EEG, brain metabolism, biomarkers, processes of care and monitoring in emerging economies to provide the clinician ready access to evidence that supports recommendations about neuromonitoring.

The international multidisciplinary consensus conference on multimodality monitoring in neurocritical care: a list of recommendations and additional conclusions : a statement for healthcare professionals from the neurocritical care society and the European society of intensive care medicine.

Careful patient monitoring using a variety of techniques including clinical and laboratory evaluation, bedside physiological monitoring with continuous or non-continuous techniques and imaging is fundamental to the care of patients who require neurocritical care. How best to perform and use bedside monitoring is still being elucidated. To create a basic platform for care and a foundation for further research the Neurocritical Care Society in collaboration with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, the Society for Critical Care Medicine and the Latin America Brain Injury Consortium organized an international, multidisciplinary consensus conference to develop recommendations about physiologic bedside monitoring. This supplement contains a Consensus Summary Statement with recommendations and individual topic reviews as a background to the recommendations. In this article, we highlight the recommendations and provide additional conclusions as an aid to the reader and to facilitate bedside care.

On balanced CSPs with high treewidth

Tractable cases of the binary CSP are mainly divided in two classes: constraint language restrictions and constraint graph restrictions. To better understand and identify the hardest binary CSPs, in this work we propose methods to increase their hardness by increasing the balance of both the constraint language and the constraint graph. The balance of a constraint is increased by maximizing the number of domain elements with the same number of occurrences. The balance of the graph is defined using the classical definition from graph the- ory. In this sense we present two graph models; a first graph model that increases the balance of a graph maximizing the number of vertices with the same degree, and a second one that additionally increases the girth of the graph, because a high girth implies a high treewidth, an important parameter for binary CSPs hardness. Our results show that our more balanced graph models and constraints result in harder instances when compared to typical random binary CSP instances, by several orders of magnitude. Also we detect, at least for sparse constraint graphs, a higher treewidth for our graph models.

Generating hard SAT/CSP instances using expander graphs

In this paper we provide a new method to generate hard k-SAT instances. We incrementally construct a high girth bipartite incidence graph of the k-SAT instance. Having high girth assures high expansion for the graph, and high expansion implies high resolution width. We have extended this approach to generate hard n-ary CSP instances and we have also adapted this idea to increase the expansion of the system of linear equations used to generate XORSAT instances, being able to produce harder satisfiable instances than former generators.

An open source browser-based software tool for graph drawing and visualisation

In this research work we searched for open source libraries which supports graph drawing and visualisation and can run in a browser. Subsequent these libraries were evaluated to find out which one is the best for this task. The result was the d3.js is that library which has the greatest functionality, flexibility and customisability. Afterwards we developed an open source software tool where d3.js was included and which was written in JavaScript so that it can run browser-based.

WebGraphEd, an open source graph drawing editor for the web

WebGraphEd is an open source software for graph visualization and manipulation. It is especially designed to work for the web platform through a web browser. The web application has been written in JavaScript and compacted later, which makes it a very lightweight software. There is no need of additional software, and the only requirement is to have an HTML5 compliant browser. WebGraphEd works with scalable vector graphics (SVG), which it makes possible to create lossless graph drawings.

A note on the periodic orbits and topological entropy of graph maps

This paper deals with the relationship between the periodic orbits of continuous maps on graphs and the topological entropy of the map. We show that the topological entropy of a graph map can be approximated by the entropy of its periodic orbits.

Preface"11th Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms"

The EGU Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms was established in 1999 within the framework of the Interdisciplinary Working Group on Natural Hazards (IWG-NH) of the former European Geophysical Society (EGS)- since 2002,European Geosciences Union (EGU). Since its advent, the Plinius Conference series has provided a crucial interdisciplinary forum for improving our understanding of hazardous storms over the Mediterranean basin that are capable of producing strong winds, heavy rains, explosive landslides, devastating flash floods and other related extremes ...

Local effects and global impact in neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration: The Xi"an International Neurotoxicology Conference

'Neurotoxicity and Neurodegeneration: Local Effect and Global Impact' was the theme of the Xi"an International Neurotoxicology Conference (XINC), held in Xi"an, June 2011. The Conference was a joint event of the 13th Biennial Meeting of the International Neurotoxicology Association (INA-13) and the 11th International Symposium on Neurobehavioral Methods and Effects in Occupational and Environmental Health (NEUREOH-11) of the Scientific Committee on Neurotoxicology and...