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Klinefelter’s syndrome (KS) is associated with specific neurobehavioral features and personality traits. The aim of our study was to investigate fluid intelligence, personality traits and personality disorders (PD) and possible correlations with testosterone in a cohort of adult KS patients. We analyzed 58 adult KS patients with the classic 47, XXY karyotype. The Structured Clinical Interview for axis II disorders was used to assess DSM IV personality disorders. Personality traits were assessed using MMPI-2. Fluid intelligence was tested by using Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) Test. Testosterone blood concentration was measured by CMIA. PD prevalence was 31%. Four altered MMPI scales (Social Responsibility, Dominance, Ego Strength and Repression) were found in more than 40% of patients. Overcontrolled hostility and MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale-Revised scales were altered in the PD− group only. Biz-Odd Thinking and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder scale were associated with the presence of personality disorder. The raw SPM score was 44 ± 10.8 without any significant correlation with testosterone. No significant difference in mean age, SPM raw score and MMPI score was observed between eugonadal, hypogonadal and treated patients. Most KS patients had average fluid intelligence. PD prevalence was higher than in the general population. Testosterone was not correlated with fluid intelligence, personality traits or PD, but a reduction in marital distress was observed in treated patients. This could suggest that testosterone therapy can improve physical symptoms and this effect could also improve relationship abilities and wellness awareness.

The UMTS appear to be the communication system of the next future. In this system all the communication services will be included. This means that the Quality of Service (QoS) will have a great importance. So is envisaged that the management of the system will take in account the momentary system capabilities continually determined in real time. Until now, the quality of the links is determined by end-to-end in line procedures based on Bit Error Rate (BER) measurements. It is clear that an end-to-end procedure cannot detect the worse section of the link. To overcome this inconvenient the morerecent trend of QoS management is to realise a distributed monitoring of the whole system. Following this last trend this paper proposes a distributed off-line monitoring of the system based on the analysis of the Quality of Analog Signal (QoAS). This proposed analysis implies a high-speed analog to digital conversion of the Intermediate Frequency signal and a very complex processing. In this paper, the state-of-the-art researches performed in this perspective are described.

A novel approach for the efficient digital decoding of DTMF signals used in telecommunications is based on an artificial neural network (ANN) implemented on a digital signal processor (DSP). After the appropriate training phase the ANN is able to associate a digital output corresponding to the received DTMF signal. The proposed approach may allow the possibility of implementing a real-time non-intrusive decoder. This decoder is fully described and particular attention paid to the solutions adopted for optimising the ANN's computation on the DSP. A comparison is made of the performance obtained by the proposed approach, and that recommended by the CCITT standard. Finally, experimental results are given which highlight the performance of the apparatus in different real conditions in DTMF signal decoding.

Summary In recent years, the cardiovascular manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus have became more apparent as a consequence of both prolonged survival and improvement in diagnostic modalities. We report the case of a 16-year old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus in whom the presence of cardiomyopathy was characterized by endomyocardial biopsy. This diagnostic technique also showed that the histologic hall-mark of lupus myocardiopathy persisted despite corticosteroid and plasmapheresis, suggesting the need of a careful cardiac follow-up in these patients.

The effect of calcium infusion on osteocalcin(Bone Gla Protein, BGP) serum levels were studied in a group of preterm newborns with bw appropriate for gestational age. Results showed that basal BGP serum levels in preterm newborns are higher than those reported at birth in normal infants. Moreover, calcium infusion induced a significant decrease in BGP values, inversely correlated with serum calcium. Since calcium loading increases both Ca availability for bone formation and BGP affinity for mineral surfaces, reduction of osteocalcin serum levels might reflect a shift of the protein from bloodstream to bone, suggesting an intervention in regulating an effective calcium uptake.

Summary: To further investigate the relationship between oophorectomy (OF) and mineral bone loss, 15 women who underwent total hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy were studied for 12 months after surgery. Mineralometric and metabolic data were obtained before and after 3, 6, and 12 months. The women lost bone mineral content (measured by single photon absorptiometry) at the same rate they lost cortical and trabecular bone, suggesting that bone loss after OF is a generalized phenomenon. Our data also show that in increase in bone resorption takes place only in the first period after OF; the persistency of a negative bone balance up to 12 months, accompanied by a reduction of osteocalcin serum levels, may be dependent on a reduced bone formation, probably due to osteoblastic insufficiency.

La rupture d’un anévrisme intracrânien est un accident dévastateur qui perturbe en profondeur l’homéostasie cérébrale. La coagulation est fortement activée par la rupture artérielle, surtout dans les cas d’hémorragies sous-arachnoïdiennes (HSA) les plus sévères, ce qui peut en parallèle entraîner une hypocoagulabilité par consommation des facteurs de la coagulation.

ABSTRACTWe report the first case of necrotizing fasciitis due to the uncommon Gram-negative pathogen Sphingobacterium multivorumin an immunocompromised patient, who presented with septic shock. This case adds necrotizing fasciitis to the spectrum of S. multivorum-related infections and highlights the emergence of Gram-negative bacteria in severe soft tissue infections.

Presents the poem "Coffee Nights," by D. L. Grimaldi. First Line: The old man drank his coffee on the patio, Last Line: The old man drank his coffee in the summer darkness.