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The presented article follows the research mainstream of econometric analyses focused on the assessment of correlations between youth unemployment rate and market and macroeconomic determinants, including economic growth and productivity of the economy, its structure in terms of NACE Rev.2 sections as well as the labor market tools. The research addresses 28 European Union (EU) countries. The analysis period covers the years 2008–2018. The econometric methods dedicated to panel data were used. The research results confirm the importance of the general economic condition as well as the development of knowledge-based economy for the improvement of the youth situation in the labor market. With regard to the economy structure, the development of manufacturing section importance turned out to be a major factor in female youth unemployment rate reduction. The growing importance of the construction sector translated into a decline in the unemployment rate among young men.

Effective and precise neural modulation with real-time detection in the brain is of great importance and represents a significant challenge. Nanoliposome-encapsulated light-sensitive compounds have excellent characteristics such as high temporal and spatial resolution, delayed drug clearance, and restricted drug biodistribution for neural modulation. In this study, we developed a nanoliposome-based delivery system for ruthenium-based caged GABA compounds (Nanolipo-Ru) to modulate neural activity and allow for real-time monitoring using the microelectrode arrays (MEAs). The Nanolipo-Ru nanoparticles had an average size of 134.10 ± 4.30 nm and exhibited excellent stability for seven weeks. For the in vivo experiment in the rat, release of GABA by Nanolipo-Ru under blue light illumination resulted in an average firing rate reduction in interneurons and pyramidal neurons in the same brain region of 79.4% and 81.6%, respectively. Simultaneously, the average power of local field potentials in the 0–15 Hz range degraded from 4.34 to 0.85 mW. In addition, the Nanolipo-Ru nanoparticles have the potential to provide more flexible timing of modulation than unencapsulated RuBi-GABA in the experiments. These results indicated that Nanolipo-Ru could be an effective platform for regulating neuronal electrophysiology. Furthermore, nanoliposomes with appropriate modifications would render promising utilities for targeting of specific types of neurons in the future.

Objective To evaluate the impact on cesarean section (CS) rate with of a program of multiple non-clinical interventions targeted at health-care professional within a hospital maternity ward. Materials and methods Retrospective quasi-experimental pre-post intervention study with an historical control group conducted in a second-level teaching hospital. All women who gave birth in the period 2014 to 2018 were included. A series of multiple non-clinical interventions including a dedicated team of obstetricians for delivery room and antenatal counseling, monthly internal audits and physician education by local opinion leader were prospectively introduced from September 2016. The primary outcome of the study was the CS rate. The incidences of operative vaginal delivery, 3rd−/4th-degree perineal tears and further maternal and neonatal complications were considered as secondary outcomes. Results The CS rate dropped from 33.05 to 26.06% after starting the interventions (p p p p p p = 0.010). Conclusions The introduction of multiple non-clinical interventions can significantly reduce the CS rate. However, beside an improvement in neonatal composite outcome, a potential increase in high-degree perineal tears should be taken in account.

We analyze a mathematical model for drug delivery monitoring subject to flow-through bioreactor. We use a convection–diffusion–reaction model combined with PID control. Enzyme-containing bioreactor converts a prodrug into an active drug. This approach connects two aspects of drug delivery, mechanical pumps and prodrugs. Drug delivery monitoring is performed by adjusting the prodrug inflow pressure. We model several dynamic treatment regimes. A combined algorithm of treatment regimes can be used for personalized treatment. A control-aided system allows us to reduce the impact of pumping fluctuations, diffusion slowdown, and drug production rate reduction.

In rural regions with limited resources, the provision of clean water remains challenging. The resulting high incidence of diarrhea can lead to acute kidney injury and death, particularly in the young and the old. Membrane filtration using recycled hemodialyzers allows water purification. This study quantifies the public health effects. Between 02/2018 and 12/2018, 4 villages in rural Ghana were provided with a high-volume membrane filtration device (NuFiltration). Household surveys were collected monthly with approval from Ghana Health Services. Incidence rates of diarrhea for 5-month periods before and after implementation of the device were collected and compared to corresponding rates in 4 neighboring villages not yet equipped. Data of 1,130 villagers over 10 months from the studied communities were studied. Incidence rates showed a decline following the implementation of the device from 0.18 to 0.05 cases per person-month (ppm) compared to the control villages (0.11 to 0.08 ppm). The rate ratio of 0.27 for the study villages is revised to 0.38 when considering the non-significant rate reduction in the control villages. Provision of a repurposed hemodialyzer membrane filtration device markedly improves health outcomes as measured by diarrhea incidence within rural communities.

Long Acting Beta2 Agonists (LABA) prevent COPD exacerbations in strictly standardized clinical trials. Our aim was to evaluate the relationship between the amount of LABA provided by the government and the trend in COPD hospital admission (HA) rate in Brazil. This is a longitudinal large-scale real-life study. We calculated COPD HA rate and the number of subjects per 105 inhabitant who received LABA supplied by the government in each Brazilian municipality, between years 2004 and 2013. We used Poisson Multilevel Regression analysis to calculate the rate ratio between LABA dispensation rate and COPD HA rate. In Brazil, COPD HA rate reduced 59% among subjects between 40 and 59 years of age and 60% among subjects older than 59 years of age. Most of the 5506 Brazilian municipalities reduced COPD HA rate [4149 (75%) municipalities & 1357 (25%) municipalities]. The dispensation of LABA was greater among municipalities that reduced COPD HA rate. In the 40–59 age group, the gap in LABA dispensation between the two groups of municipalities increased during the study period from 90.40 to 614.28 subjects per 105 inhabitants. In the > 59 age group, the gap in LABA dispensation increased from 35.87 to 912.99 subjects per 105 inhabitants. For each one hundred subjects who received LABA there was less one HA (RR 0.99, 95 CI 0.99–0.99). COPD HA rate reduced in Brazil. LABA dispensation growth was associated with COPD HA rate reduction.

In this paper, a simple and robust pilot-aided carrier phase estimation scheme with a modified phase unwrapping is proposed. The principle of the proposed phase unwrapping is shown with a step-by-step procedure. Further, we test the post-FEC BER performance for the pilot-aided carrier phase estimation scheme with the traditional and proposed phase unwrapping. For the proposed phase unwrapping, a cycle slip rate reduction of about 10 times is achieved than the case using the traditional phase unwrapping through simulations in the presence of Wiener phase noise. Finally, we present a 2.2 Eb/N0 gain and post-FEC error-free performance with only 0.78 % pilot overhead in a 32-Gbaud QPSK system using soft-decision forward error correction.

Tree-structured data are popular in many domains making structural classification an important task. In this paper, an associative classification method is introduced based on a structure preserving flat representation of trees. A major difference to traditional tree mining techniques is that subtrees are constrained by the position in the original trees, leading to a drastic reduction in the number of rules generated, especially with data having great structural variation among tree instances. This characteristic would be desired in the current status of frequent pattern mining, where excessive patterns hinder the practical use of results. However the question remains whether this reduction comes at a high cost in accuracy and coverage rate reduction. We explore this aspect and compare the approach with a state-of-the-art structural classifier based on same subtree type, but not positional constrained in any way. We investigate the effect of using different types of frequent pattern (frequent or closed), or subtree types (induced, embedded or embedded-plus-disconnected subtrees) to the performance of the two classifiers. Different rule strength measures such as confidence, weighted confidence and likelihood are also examined in our study. The experiments on three real-world data sets reveal important similarities and differences between the methods.

US utility regulation is evolving. Negotiated or stipulated settlements have begun to replace or supplement litigation, but relatively little seems to be known about this practice. This paper presents evidence from Florida. During 1976–2002, 30% of earnings reviews were settled by stipulations involving the Office of Public Counsel but only 7% of company requests. The mean value of a rate reduction was eight times larger with a stipulation than without; the median value was more than 50 times larger. Over three quarters of the rate reductions associated with earnings reviews derived from these stipulations; excluding one exceptional case the proportion was 94%.

Future mobile handsets will often be multi-mode, containing both wireless LAN (WLAN) and cellular air interfaces. When such a device is within a WLAN it can be served by the WLAN resources. As it moves out of the WLAN coverage area, it has to be served by the cellular system. Therefore, handoffs are necessary between the WLAN and the cellular system. In loosely coupled WLAN/Cellular systems the system administrator of the WLAN is different from the cellular one. Therefore, in these situations, reducing the dropping probability based on classical methods, such as using some reserved guard channels, is difficult. In this paper, we propose to use ad hoc relaying during the vertical handoff process in a hybrid WLAN/Cellular system. The method that we propose in this paper improves the dropping probability regardless of the number of reserved channels. Therefore, this method could be employed in loosely coupled hybrid systems. Both analytical reasoning and simulation results support the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The CMS experiment will take data at the CERN LHC starting from 2007. The CMS muon system has been designed to identify, reconstruct and measure muons with high efficiency and accuracy. In this paper the layout of the system and the key features of the detectors are presented. The reconstruction algorithms, in the context of the High Level Trigger, and their performance in terms of resolution, rate reduction and trigger efficiency are also discussed. PACS: 25.70.Ef – 21.60.Gx – 27.30.+t

Inhibition by cyclodextrins ofchymotrypsin-catalysed hydrolysis of N-acetyl-L-tyrosineethyl ester (ATEE) and of N-succinyl-L-phenylalaninep-nitroanilide (SUPHEPA) was measured. Rates ofproteolysis are reduced by a factor of three tofour by a four-molar ratio of cyclodextrin tosubstrate, except for α-cyclodextrin andSUPHEPA where the rate reduction is much less.The kinetics of inhibition, as well as NMR andUV measurements, were used to measureassociation constants between the cyclodextrinsand substrates. Agreement between these methodsconfirmed that inhibition by cyclodextrins isdue to steric effects at the substrate, ratherthan direct interaction with the enzyme.

Body constitution is estimated by weight as a quantity index and percent body fat (%BF) as a quality index. Obesity is one of the risk factors in hypertension. High blood pressure drops by body weight reduction. The relationship between %BF change and blood pressure change during 1 year, and whether blood pressure changed in subjects whose %BF decreased without body weight reduction, were investigated. %BF was measured with bioelectrical impedance analysis. The changes of body weight, %BF and blood pressure in the decreased %BF group that decreased more than 2 points of %BF, and in the no body weight change group which body weight had not changed in the decreased %BF group, were studied. In the decreased %BF group, average blood pressures fell significantly from 149/92 to 141/86 mm Hg in the subjects in hypertensive state at baseline. In the no weight change group, average blood pressures also fell significantly from 151/93 to 140/87 mm Hg. Even if the body weight had not changed, blood pressure had decreased significantly when %BF had decreased significantly.

It is a great pleasure for us to realize that what started as a heretic idea in our department found supporters or, better, in order to be more precise, colleagues sharing the same research ideas and dilemmas within the hernia repair surgical society. So, ‘‘we are not alone’’. Indeed, we continue to believe that chronic pain and, generally, the interactions of the different mesh type’s materials with the host tissues are still the most ill-investigated field in inguinal hernia repair with great perspectives for future development and progress. We would like to start this response by stating right from the outset that our response probably entails bias as in many instances there are no unequivocal evidences to be supported from. We read with great interest the report by Negro et al. [1] dealing with their experience out of the use of the Bio A totally absorbable material as the sole mesh for inguinal hernia repair. The authors have used the Shumbelick classification of inguinal hernias in order to sub-classify patients with lateral inguinal hernias according to the magnitude of the defect [1]. In addition, they have adopted a modified repair technique altering the normal anatomy by placing the external oblique aponeurosis dorsally to the spermatic cord [1]. Although the authors report a significantly better recurrence rate than the one reported in our recent report [2], we would rather avoid entering into a discussion relevant to the actual causes of this finding. We do believe that Negro et al. [1] have supplied adequate arguments on the subject and we tend to agree with the majority of them. However, to our opinion, it is still a result that requires proper interpretation. Negro et al. [1] have concluded that this certain mesh type can indeed have an indication for inguinal hernia repair. Young (\45 years) patients with small inguinal hernias (L1 and L2) without a notable defect in the transversalis fascia verified with the intra-operative stress test could be the ideal candidates for having their hernia repaired with the use of this totally absorbable mesh [1]. The reproducibly of this test though, could be quite problematic, as by definition, general anesthetic, currently the mainstream anesthesia for inguinal hernia repair in the majority of Northern European countries [3], is precluded as a valid alternative for the procedure from the anesthetic viewpoint. Furthermore, we would consider the above modification of the textbook tension-free technique as an alternative repair on its own, although not properly validated, especially if a small lateral inguinal hernia is the case. Although this maneuver can indeed aid in lowering the recurrence rate, can prove especially misleading if the evaluation of the efficacy of the mesh used is the actual challenge. In L1 and L2 patients, i.e., the patients group ‘‘suitable’’ for this type of mesh according to Negro et al., the benefits in terms of recurrence rate reduction of the use of a prosthetic mesh are not as obvious as in patients with large defects [4]. Negro et al. have witnessed a total failure of the followed repair in all (2 patients) L3 hernia patient, the patient group definitely in need of a repair reinforcement, i.e., a mesh. Within this context, the almost axiomatic adage that a large hernia needs a mesh in order to lower to an acceptable range the recurrence rate, does not seem to be fulfilled by This reply refers to the article available at doi:10.1007/s10029-013-1117-4.

The Rapid Response Team (RRT) represents an important advance in the management of deteriorating ward patients and is recommended as a patient safety measure. Most studies on RRT evaluate the effects of its implementation on rate reduction of cardiopulmonary arrest outside the ICU and hospital mortality, with limited information on the criteria for RRT calls and predictive factors associated with hospital mortality [1],[2]. Therefore, our objective was to determine what factors are associated with hospital mortality for patients seen by the RRT at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (HIAE).

Epitaxial CoSi2 layers on Si substrates have been amorphized with Co and/or Si ion implantation. The influence of nonstoichiometry on the rate of solid-phase epitaxial growth (SPEG) of amorphized CoSi2 has been investigated with time-resolved reflectivity, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and Mossbauer spectrometry, the latter with radioactive 57Co probes. A decrease in SPEG rate was apparent with an increase in nonstoichiometry. For a given ion dose, the decrease was greater following Co implantation. The means by which non-stoichiometry is accommodated in a crystalline CoSi2 lattice - either through phase separation or defect formation - has been considered. SPEG rate retardation was also evident in samples implanted with both Si and Co ions with a Si:Co dose ratio of 2:1. Additional mechanisms may thus also contribute to the observed SPEG rate reduction.

The role of E in affecting the course of severe ROP has remained controversial. Most E trials were done prior to the International Classification of ROP (ICROP), and in previous meta-analyses the E effect on stage 3+ ROP (as per ICROP) was not routinely assessed. Since stage 3+ ROP predicts progression to visual loss, and since the cohort at risk for ROP has increased, we performed an analysis to ask: By combining previous randomized clinical trial (RCT) data, can we demonstrate a reduction in risk for stage 3+ ROP in

A failure to support Premack’s assertion that a rate reduction in the reinforcing response of a reinforcement contingency, relative to the precontingency baseline rate of that response, is necessary for the occurrence of reinforcement, is reported. The implications of this finding for reinforcement theory are discussed, and it is proposed that reinforcement contingencies have potential importance for evaluating animal intelligence.