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Thanks to network slicing, mobile networks can now support multiple and diverse services, each requiring different key performance indicators (KPIs). In this new scenario, it is critical to allocate network and computing resources efficiently and in such a way that all KPIs targeted by a service are met. Accounting for all sorts of KPIs (e.g., availability and reliability, besides the more traditional throughput and latency) is an aspect that has been scarcely addressed so far and that requires tailored models and solution strategies. We address this issue by proposing a novel methodology and resource orchestration scheme, named OKpi, which provides high-quality decisions on VNF (Virtual Network Function) placement and data routing, including the selection of radio points of attachment. Importantly, OKpi has polynomial computational complexity and accounts for all KPIs required by each service, and for any resource available from the fog to the cloud. We prove several properties of OKpi and demonstrate that it performs very closely to the optimum under real-world scenarios. We also implement OKpi in a testbed supporting a robot-based, smart factory service, and we present some field tests that further confirm the ability of OKpi to make high-quality decisions. This work was supported by the EU Commission through the 5Growth Project under Agreement 856709.

Meeting 5G high bandwidth rates, ultra‐low latencies, and high reliabilities requires of network infrastructures that automatically increase/decrease the resources based on their customers' demand.An autonomous and dynamic management of a 5G network infrastructure represents a challenge, as any solution must account for the radio access network, data plane traffic, wavelength allocation, network slicing, and network functions' orchestration. Furthermore, federation among administrative domains (ADs) must be considered in the network management. Given the increased dynamicity of 5G networks, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) solutions are strong candidates able to learn, and take quick provisioning decisions upon fast changes in network conditions. Therefore, this chapter presents an analysis of the state‐of‐the‐art solutions for 5G networks' management, where AI/ML solutions are discussed and compared with traditional methods. Additionally, the chapter provides a technology overview of both standards, and existing solutions regarding the 5G network management, and directions toward the integration of AI/ML in 5G networks.

With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-empowered communications, industry, academia, and standardization organizations are progressing on the definition of mechanisms and procedures to address the increasing complexity of future 5G and beyond communications. In this context, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) organized the First AI for 5G Challenge to bring industry and academia together to introduce and solve representative problems related to the application of Machine Learning (ML) to networks. In this paper, we present the results gathered from Problem Statement 13 (PS-013), organized by Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), whose primary goal was predicting the performance of next-generation Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) applying Channel Bonding (CB) techniques. In particular, we provide an overview of the ML models proposed by participants (including artificial neural networks, graph neural networks, random forest regression, and gradient boosting) and analyze their performance on an open data set generated using the IEEE 802.11ax-oriented Komondor network simulator. The accuracy achieved by the proposed methods demonstrates the suitability of ML for predicting the performance of WLANs. Moreover, we discuss the importance of abstracting WLAN interactions to achieve better results, and we argue that there is certainly room for improvement in throughput prediction through ML.

Highlights • Each episode of diarrhea incurred $29 direct and $34 indirect costs to caregivers. • The highest costs of $136 per child were incurred at private healthcare facilities. • Around 46% of caregivers experienced catastrophic healthcare expenditure resulting from diarrheal treatment. • In 2018, an estimated 4% of GDP per capita was spent on diarrheal treatment., Background Diarrhea is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among under-five children in Bangladesh. Hospitalization for diarrhea can pose a significant burden on households and health systems. The aim of this study was to estimate the cost of illness due to diarrhea from the healthcare facility, caregiver, and societal perspectives in Bangladesh. Method A cross-sectional study with an ingredient-based costing approach was conducted in 48 healthcare facilities in Bangladesh. In total, 899 caregivers of under-five children with diarrhea were interviewed face-to-face between August 2017 and May 2018, followed up over phone after 7–14 days of discharge, to capture all expenses and time costs related to the entire episode of diarrhea. Results The average cost per episode for caregivers was US$62, with $29 direct and $34 indirect costs. From the societal perspective, average cost per episode of diarrhea was $71. In 2018, an estimated $79 million of economic costs were incurred for treating diarrhea in Bangladesh. Using 10% of income as threshold, over 46% of interviewed households faced catastrophic expenditure from diarrheal disease. Conclusion The economic costs incurred by caregivers for treating per-episode of diarrhea was around 4% of the annual national gross domestic product per-capita. Investment in vaccination can help to reduce the prevalence of diarrheal diseases and avert this public health burden.

METHOD: We carry out an observational study where reviewed the PET/CT studies with PSMA marked with Fluor-18 (18F) carried out from February 2019 to September 2020. We analyzed the average value of hepatic uptake SUV lean average (SUVlave), acquisition time, age, reason from the study, focal, multifocal and diffuse prostate uptake, analysis of the location of metastases, level of prostate specific antigen (PSA), we describe uptakes of non-prostate origin and focal uptakes in ribs without anatomical representation. RESULTS: The average hepatic SUVlave was 9.7, the acquisition times were variable (52 - 183 minutes) without alterations in the white-background relationship, the most frequent indication for the study was staging, the uptake in ribs without anatomical representation were considered benign with certain characteristics, PET/CT has the ability to detect neoplastic activity with low PSA levels in lymph nodes 18F-PSMA has advantages over bone scan and computed tomography of the abdomen and pelvis for the staging of prostate cancer.

Background This study estimated the economic cost of treating measles in children under-5 in Bangladesh from the caregiver, government, and societal perspectives. Method We conducted an incidence-based study using an ingredient-based approach. We surveyed the administrative staff and the healthcare professionals at the facilities, recording their estimates supported by administrative data from the healthcare perspective. We conducted 100 face-to-face caregiver interviews at discharge and phone interviews 7 to 14 days post-discharge to capture all expenses, including time costs related to measles. All costs are in 2018 USD ($). Results From a societal perspective, a hospitalized and ambulatory case of measles cost $159 and $18, respectively. On average, the government spent $22 per hospitalized case of measles. At the same time, caregivers incurred $131 and $182 in economic costs, including $48 and $83 in out-of-pocket expenses in public and private not-for-profit facilities, respectively. Seventy-eight percent of the poorest caregivers faced catastrophic health expenditures compared to 21% of the richest. In 2018, 2263 cases of measles were confirmed, totaling $348,073 in economic costs to Bangladeshi society, with $121,842 in out-of-pocket payments for households. Conclusion The resurgence of measles outbreaks is a substantial cost for society, requiring significant short-term public expenditures, putting households into a precarious financial situation. Improving vaccination coverage in areas where it is deficient (Sylhet division in our study) would likely alleviate most of this burden.

Industry 4.0 aims to support smarter and autonomous processes while improving agility, cost efficiency, and user experience. To fulfill its promises, properly processing the data of the industrial processes and infrastructures is required. Artificial intelligence (AI) appears as a strong candidate to handle all generated data, and to help in the automation and smartification process. This article overviews the digital twin as a true embodiment of a cyber-physical system (CPS) in Industry 4.0, showing the mission of AI in this concept. It presents the key enabling technologies of the digital twin such as edge, fog, and 5G, where the physical processes are integrated with the computing and network domains. The role of AI in each technology domain is identified by analyzing a set of AI agents at the application and infrastructure levels. Finally, movement prediction is selected and experimentally validated using real data generated by a digital twin for robotic arms with results showcasing its potential. This work has been (partially) funded by the H2020 EU/TW joint action 5G-DIVE (Grant #859881) and the H2020 5Growth project (Grant #856709). It has also been funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (TRUE5G project, PID2019-108713RB-C52/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).

A 25 4/7-week-gestation female infant is born via cesarean section to an 18-year-old gravida 1, para 0 woman in a level III nursery. The mother received adequate prenatal care, and has an unremarkable maternal medical history; she denies smoking or using drugs. The pregnancy was complicated by preterm labor, severe intrauterine growth restriction, and elevated umbilical artery Doppler ultrasonography findings. Prenatal screening for human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and Toxoplasma is negative; syphilis test is nonreactive; and rubella status is immune. Group B Streptococcus status is positive. Maternal history is negative for herpes simplex virus and she denies having any lesions before or during pregnancy. The mother’s blood type is A positive and blood antibodies are negative. Maternal white blood cell count and differential are normal. The mother receives magnesium sulfate, dexamethasone twice, and indomethacin at the time of delivery. The mother undergoes an emergency cesarean section under general anesthesia because of fetal deceleration. At delivery, membranes are artificially ruptured and show clear amniotic fluids. The infant appears apneic and cyanotic, and requires positive pressure ventilation, followed by endotracheal intubation. She does not require chest compression or epinephrine administration. Her Apgar scores are 4, 7, and 8 at 1, 5, and 10 minutes, respectively. Anthropometric measurements at birth are as follows: weight: 560 g (7.5th percentile), head circumference: 28.0 cm (1.1 percentile), length: 21.5 cm (14.9 percentile), growth status: symmetric small for gestational age. On admission to the NICU, the infant is given conventional ventilation and 1 dose of surfactant. A 3.5F umbilical venous catheter (UVC) and 5F umbilical arterial catheter (UAC) are placed for parenteral nutrition, antibiotic administration, and blood pressure monitoring. Initial radiography shows the following: lungs with ground-glass appearance, no free air; endotracheal tube tip at T2; UVC at T10 and UAC at L 4; …

The ongoing research and industrial exploitation of SDN and NFV technologies promise higher flexibility on network automation and infrastructure optimization. Choosing the location of Virtual Network Functions is a central problem in the automation and optimization of the software-defined, virtualization-based next generation of networks such as 5G and beyond. Network services provided for autonomous vehicles, factory automation, e-health and cloud robotics often require strict delay bounds and reliability constraints, which are influenced by the location of its composing Virtual Network Functions. Robots, vehicles and other end-devices provide significant capabilities such as actuators, sensors and local computation which are essential for some services. Moreover, these devices are continuously on the move and might lose network connection or run out of battery power, which further challenge service delivery in this dynamic environment. This work tackles the mobility, and battery restrictions; as well as the temporal aspects and conflicting traits of reliable, low latency service deployment over a volatile network, where mobile compute nodes act as an extension of the cloud and edge computing infrastructure. The problem is formulated as a cost-minimizing Virtual Network Function placement optimization and an efficient heuristic is proposed. The algorithms are extensively evaluated from various aspects by simulation on detailed real-world scenarios., Comment: Preprint version

Edge & Fog computing have received considerable attention as promising candidates for the evolution of robotic systems. In this letter, we propose COTORRA, an Edge & Fog driven robotic testbed that combines context information with robot sensor data to validate innovative concepts for robotic systems prior to being applied in a production environment. In lab/university, we established COTORRA as an easy applicable and modular testbed on top of heterogeneous network infrastructure. COTORRA is open for pluggable robotic applications. To verify its feasibility and assess its performance, we ran set of experiments that show how autonomous navigation applications can achieve target latencies bellow 15ms or perform an inter-domain (DLT) federation within 19 seconds., 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to IEEE Communications Letters

Proceedings of: Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit), 8-11 June 2021, Porto, Portugal. This paper presents a data-driven approach leveraging AI/ML models to automate the service scaling operation and, in this way, meet the service requirements while minimizing the consumption of network, computing, and storage resources. This approach is integrated into the 5Growth service management software platform. In particular, a prototype was developed to demonstrate how the novel 5Growth AI/ML platform can be used in a closed-loop automation system to support the automated service scaling operation. Furthermore, a number of additional ML-based approaches are developed in the context of eMBB and C-V2N scenarios, which can be embedded into the system for handling more complex use cases. This work has been partially supported by EC H2020 5GPPP 5Growth project (Grant 856709).

Part of a collection: Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for a Hyperconnected World: Challenges, Applications, and Major Advancements. Network programming and virtualization are technological trends being incrementally introduced in operational networks. This creates an environment where new innovations can be incorporated, facilitating also the evolution of the way in which existing services are delivered. These changes, however, are not only motivated by technical reasons. External factors, such as regulation, can trigger the evolution of existing services. Roaming services are an example of this two-sided situation. From the technical perspective, roaming users typically experiment worst performance than local users on the same network, since their traffic is usually routed through the home network. Besides that, due to recent regulation changes introduced in Europe for roaming services, known as Roam Like at Home (RLAH), roaming is charged at domestic prices. Both aspects are severely challenging the current mode of operation of roaming services as delivered nowadays by mobile operators. This paper presents the design of a virtualized based roaming solution, including an experimental assessment, as well as an economic insight of the concept. This work has been supported by the European Community through the 5GEx project within the H2020 programme (Grant agreement no. 671636). Special thanks to the teams of Deutsche Telekom and BISDN involved in H2020 EU 5GEx project that were part of the design and execution of this use case.

A male neonate is born at 36 2/7 weeks via vaginal delivery at a level 2 nursery. The mother is a 34-year-old, gravida 8, para 4, aborta 3 woman. The maternal history is remarkable for chronic hypertension that was treated with labetalol and amlodipine; hypothyroidism that was treated with levothyroxine; and obesity and gestational diabetes that were controlled with diet. Maternal laboratory findings are as follows: human immunodeficiency virus, negative; rapid plasma reagin, nonreactive; hepatitis B, negative; group B Streptococcus, negative; blood type, O positive; and antibodies, negative. The mother has not received any medication at the time of delivery. The neonate is born via cesarean section for nonreassuring fetal heart tracing and clear amniotic fluids. Anthropometric measurements at birth are as follows: weight, 2,740 g (45th percentile); head circumference, 34 cm (77th percentile); length, 45.5 cm (20th percentile); growth status: appropriate for gestational age; Apgar scores, 7 and 8 at 1 and 5 minutes, respectively. The neonate requires positive pressure ventilation for 1 minute after delivery. On admission to the nursery, the neonate exhibits signs of mild respiratory distress and tachypnea, and is placed on continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) of 6 cm H2O with a fraction of inspired oxygen (Fio2) of 50%; chest radiograph (Fig 1) shows mild ground glass appearance. Because of his worsening respiratory status, the neonate undergoes intubation and is administered surfactant. A few minutes after surfactant administration, the infant’s condition suddenly deteriorates, requiring an increase in Fio2 to 100%. Although the neonate receives maximal ventilator and oxygen support, his oxygen saturation remains under 80%. The presence of a pneumothorax prompts the placement of a left chest tube. He is transferred to a …

Introduction:Aedes-borne arboviruses contributes substantially to the disease and cost burden. Areas covered: We performed a systematic review of the economic evidence surrounding aedes-borne arboviruses and strategies to prevent and control these diseases to inform disease control policy decisions and research directions. We searched four databases covering an 18-year period (2000–2018) to identify arboviral disease-related cost of illness studies, cost studies of vector control and prevention strategies, cost-effectiveness analyses and cost-benefit analyses. We identified 74 published studies that revealed substantial global total costs in yellow fever virus and dengue virus ranging from 2.1 to 57.3 billion USD. Cost studies of vector control and surveillance programs are limited, but a few studies found that costs of vector control programs ranged from 5.62 to 73.5 million USD. Cost-effectiveness evidence was limited across Aedes-borne diseases, but generally found targeted dengue vaccination programs cost-effective. This review revealed insufficient economic evidence for vaccine introduction and implementation of surveillance and vector control programs. Expert opinion: Evidence of the economic burden of aedes-borne arboviruses and the economic impact of strategies for arboviral disease prevention and control is critical to inform policy decisions and to secure continued financial support for these preventive and control measures.

This paper has been presented at INFOCOM 2020: IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications Networks can now process data as well as transporting it; it follows that they can support multiple services, each requiring different key performance indicators (KPIs). Because of the former, it is critical to efficiently allocate network and computing resources to provide the required services, and, because of the latter, such decisions must jointly consider all KPIs targeted by a service. Accounting for newly introduced KPIs (e.g., availability and reliability) requires tailored models and solution strategies, and has been conspicuously neglected by existing works, which are instead built around traditional metrics like throughput and latency. We fill this gap by presenting a novel methodology and resource allocation scheme, named OKpi, which enables high-quality selection of radio points of access as well as VNF (Virtual Network Function) placement and data routing, with polynomial computational complexity. OKpi accounts for all relevant KPIs required by each service, and for any available resource from the fog to the cloud. We prove several important properties of OKpi and evaluate its performance in two real-world scenarios, finding it to closely match the optimum. This work was supported by the EU Commission through the 5GROWTH project (grant agreement no. 856709).

Multi-access edge computing (MEC) technologies bring important improvements in terms of network bandwidth, latency, and use of context information and critical for services like multimedia streaming, augmented, and virtual reality. In future deployments, operators will need to decide how many MEC points of presence (PoPs) are needed and where to deploy them, also considering the number of base stations needed to support the expected traffic. This paper presents an application of inhomogeneous Poisson point processes with hard-core repulsion to model feasible MEC infrastructure deployments. With the presented methodology a mobile network operator knows where to locate the MEC PoPs and associated base stations to support a given set of services. We evaluate our model with simulations in realistic scenarios, namely Madrid City Center, an industrial area and a rural area. This work was supported in part by EU H2020 5G-CORAL Project under Grant 761586, and in part by EU H2020 5G-TRANSFORMER Project under Grant 761536.

This paper has been presented at : 2019 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking Ongoing research on 5G is looking on software platforms to evaluate new developments on 5G networks. Some 5G hardware is now starting to be available, but it is scarce and very limited, which makes validation and performance evaluation of 5G quite challenging. Simulation is the tool of choice for most of the cases, but this requires creating large descriptor files representing a 5G network. This brings forward the need for tools that facilitate the generation of 5G networks' topologies. In this paper we present 5GEN, a tool that automatically creates graphs representing 5G networks. With 5GEN, a researcher can just define the number of resources, and 5GEN will generate the nodes and edges that interconnect them across the infrastructure. The tool has been successfully used to test several 5G network scenarios within the EU 5G-CORAL project. Work was partially funded by EU H2020 5G-TRANSFORMER Project (grant no. 761536) and EU H2020 5G-CORAL Project (grant no. 761586). Work was partially funded by EU H2020 5G-TRANSFORMER Project (grant no. 761536) and EU H2020 5G-CORAL Project (grant no. 761586).

The paper investigates the performance of a multi-domain orchestrator (MdO) deployed in a real multi-domain European testbed. Results show how the MdO prototype scales well with the number of domains advertised and connectivity services provisioned. TRUE pub

Five municipalities in Antioquia, Colombia, with population of 162,000 inhabitants, were the world's largest mercury polluter from artisanal gold mining in 2010, releasing and emitting an average of 92 (73–110) tonnes/a of mercury. UNIDO – United Nations Industrial Development Organization joined forces with the Government of Antioquia, National University of Colombia and University of British Columbia to start The Colombia Mercury Project to reduce mercury use and losses. 1 The actions consisted of assessment of mercury losses, health monitoring and awareness campaign. This was supported by technical demonstrations of methods to reduce the amount of mercury used in the processing centres (“entables”). Enhanced enforcement of existing local and federal regulations accompanied these activities. Demonstrations of cleaner methods to miners and owners of “entables” generated 39 new mercury-free processing plants. The presence of the company Gran Colombia Gold buying ore from the miners at a fair price also contributed considerably to observed reductions in mercury use. Mercury entering in the whole ore amalgamation in the 323 “entables” was reduced on average 43% from 2010 levels. In 2013, mercury losses were reduced by 63%, resulting in 46 to 70 tonnes/a, less mercury entering the environment than in 2010.

Summary Background Male circumcision reduces men's risk of acquiring HIV and some sexually transmitted infections from heterosexual exposure, and is essential for HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. Studies have also investigated associations between male circumcision and risk of acquisition of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in women. We aimed to review all evidence on associations between male circumcision and women's health outcomes to benefit women's health programmes. Methods In this systematic review we searched for peer-reviewed and grey literature publications reporting associations between male circumcision and women's health outcomes up to April 11, 2016. All biomedical (not psychological or social) outcomes in all study types were included. Searches were not restricted by year of publication, or to sub-Saharan Africa. Publications without primary data and not in English were excluded. We extracted data and assessed evidence on each outcome as high, medium, or low consistency on the basis of agreement between publications; outcomes found in fewer than three publications were indeterminate consistency. Findings 60 publications were included in our assessment. High-consistency evidence was found for five outcomes, with male circumcision protecting against cervical cancer, cervical dysplasia, herpes simplex virus type 2, chlamydia, and syphilis. Medium-consistency evidence was found for male circumcision protecting against human papillomavirus and low-risk human papillomavirus. Although the evidence shows a protective association with HIV, it was categorised as low consistency, because one trial showed an increased risk to female partners of HIV-infected men resuming sex early after male circumcision. Seven outcomes including HIV had low-consistency evidence and six were indeterminate. Interpretation Scale-up of male circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa has public health implications for several outcomes in women. Evidence that female partners are at decreased risk of several diseases is highly consistent. Synergies between male circumcision and women's health programmes should be explored. Funding US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Jhpiego.

Background: Road traffic injuries and fatalities have increased in Colombia despite that 2011-2020 had been declared as the Decade of Action for Road Safety in the world. Then, this paper aims to describe the trends of motorcycle mortality patterns in Colombia from 2000-2013. Methods: A longitudinal study is carried out using mortality records from the Colombian National Department of Statistics, and following the International Classification of Diseases -ICD-10 V200 to V299. Results: From 2000 to 2013 the study founded a near 100% increase in the number of motorcycle fatalities in Colombia; the occurrence rate increased from 3.6 to 5.7 per 100,000 populations. 65.4% of the fatalities involve individuals from 15 to 34 years of age. Conclusions: Motorcycle fatalities have become a serious public health issue in Colombia. For the 14-year of the study period, slightly more than 28,800 motorcyclist’s deaths have been attributed to different factors and social determinants.

Future 5G networks will rely on the coordinated allocation of compute, storage, and networking resources in order to meet the functional requirements of 5G services as well as guaranteeing efficient usage of the network infrastructure. However, the 5G service provisioning paradigm will also require a unified infrastructure service market that integrates multiple operators and technologies. The 5G Exchange (5GEx) project, building heavily on the Software-Defined Network (SDN) and the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) functionalities, tries to overcome this market and technology fragmentation by designing, implementing, and testing a multi-domain orchestrator (MdO) prototype for fast and automated Network Service (NS) provisioning over multiple-technologies and spanning across multiple operators. This paper presents a first implementation of the 5GEx MdO prototype obtained by extending existing open source software tools at the disposal of the 5GEx partners. The main functions of the 5GEx MdO prototype are showcased by demonstrating how it is possible to create and deploy NSs in the context of a Slice as a Service (SlaaS) use-case, based on a multi-operator scenario. The 5GEx MdO prototype performance is experimentally evaluated running validation tests within the 5GEx sandbox. The overall time required for the NS deployment has been evaluated considering NSs deployed across two operators. TRUE pub

BACKGROUND B cells influence the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Ocrelizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that selectively depletes CD20+ B cells. METHODS In two identical phase 3 trials, we randomly assigned 821 and 835 patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis to receive intravenous ocrelizumab at a dose of 600 mg every 24 weeks or subcutaneous interferon beta-1a at a dose of 44 mu g three times weekly for 96 weeks. The primary end point was the annualized relapse rate. RESULTS The annualized relapse rate was lower with ocrelizumab than with interferon beta-1a in trial 1 (0.16 vs. 0.29; 46% lower rate with ocrelizumab; P, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

A 5G network provides several service types, tailored to specific needs such as high bandwidth or low latency. On top of these communication services, verticals are enabled to deploy their own vertical services. These vertical service instances compete for the resources of the underlying common infrastructure. We present a resource arbitration approach that allows to handle such resource conflicts on a high level and to provide guidance to lowerlevel orchestration components. This work has been partially funded by the EU H2020 5GTransformer Project (grant no. 761536).

Se investigó la variación vertical y lateral del contenido de gas asociado dentro de un mismo manto de carbón y su relación a la porosidad y la geología. Varios mantos de carbón sub-bituminoso y bituminoso altos en volátiles C de la Formación Amagá fueron seleccionados. Se tomaron muestras de canal y fueron subdivididos en sus diferentes plies (asociaciones de litotipos), realizando análisis próximos completos; petrográficos (conteo maceral y determinación del poder reflector de la vitrinita); además pruebas de desorción y porosidad. El mayor contenido de gas se presentó en los plies intermedios. Fue posible identificar que el contenido de gas en microporos y mesoporos tiene una relación directa; también existe una relación directa entre el contenido de macerales liptiniticos y el contenido de gas. En algunos casos estas relaciones no fueron claras, dado que allí hay influencia de factores geológicos, como la presencia de fallas favorecen la migración y desgasificación de los mantos estudiados. Vertical and lateral gas content variation associated within a coal seam and its relation to porosity and geology was researched. Several seams of high sub-bituminous and bituminous coal volatile C from Amaga formation were selected. Channel samples were taken and were subdivided into the different plies (lithotypes associations), performing proximal analysis; Petrographic (maceral counting and determining the vitrinite reflectance); furthermore desorption testing and porosity. The higher gas content was in intermediate plies. It was possible to identify that the gas content, and micropores and mesopores has a direct relationship; also, there is a direct relationship between the content of liptinites macerals and gas content. In some cases, these relationships were not clear, since there is influence of geological factors such as the presence of faults favor migration and degassing of the mantles studied.

RVH offers significant advantages to the corresponding abdominal procedure, including: the possibility for regional anesthesia, particularly in patients with poor medical conditions; reduced surgical trauma because of the absence of an abdominal incision; applicability in obese patients; shorter surgical time when performed by an experienced surgeon; decreased need for blood transfusions; lower risk for complications; faster postoperative recovery period; shorter hospitalization. The primary drawback to the use of RVH for early stage cervical cancer has always been the lack of lymph node dissection. This has now been modified by the widespread use of laparoscopic lymphadenectomy. The increasing reliability of noninvasive radiologic techniques has provided and will continue to provide greater possibilities for preoperative staging to best determine the needs of the patient. The authors believe that an oncologic surgeon familiar with advanced laparoscopic techniques and RVH is able to take advantage of the benefits of both routes. Furthermore, a surgeon skilled in these techniques and RAH has the tools to ideally care for the specific needs, of each patient. The authors encourage individualization of surgical management, with special emphasis on the revision of the role of RVH in gynecologic oncology.

WACC has traditionally been used as a measure of the cost of capital for companies and as a discount rate of the future company's cash flows for valuation purposes. The WACC, especially for "distressed" companies, can play a key role in determining the efficiency of the restructuring framework for companies heading into bankruptcy. The theory and the practice show that companies that file for Chapter 11 have a higher probability of rehabilitation as a going concern and boost the recovery of the stakeholders as a whole than more credit friendly restructuring frameworks. Additionally, rehabilitated companies from more debtor friendly proceedings that have undergone a profound restructuring through efficient tools should also enjoy a higher probability of survival. In the first part of the thesis, we aim to prove that empirically by thoroughly looking at the market based WACC of a sample of American and European companies one year before and after the filing date. If we meet with success, then we should be confident that the WACC could result in a powerful tool to evaluate the efficiency of the restructuring framework of the company's filing. This paper is the first one of a series of papers that form my thesis for the phd in Finance

Wernicke encephalopathy is caused by thiamine deficiency in the central nervous system, and is defined by the triad of confusional symptoms, ocular alterations and ataxia. Some other factors may also predispose alcoholic patients to this deficiency. We report two patients with hyperglicaemia and ketoacidosis due to diabetes mellitus decompensation and chronic alcoholism who developed Wernicke encephalopathy before their hospital admission. The outcome was successful after intravenous thiamine administration and insulinotherapy. The presence of Wernicke encephalopathy in alcoholics with diabetic ketoacidosis, suggests that metabolic decompensation is essential in the onset of the disease.

This study examines hedge fund performance over the ongoing Sub-prime and credit crisis. We will determine how funds have changed their strategies to cope with the recent downturn. We will also conduct a post mortem analysis on failed and underperforming funds to determine “what went wrong” comparing their strategies to the ones adopted by the more successful funds.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effects on transfusion rates, perioperative complications, and survival of using intraoperative autologous blood transfusions for patients undergoing type III radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy. Study Design: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 156 patients treated with type III radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy at the University of Miami School of Medicine from 1990 to 1997. One group of patients (n = 50) had intraoperative autologous blood transfusions and the other (n = 106) did not. Results: The group that received intraoperative autologous blood transfusion had a significant reduction in homologous blood transfusions (12% vs 30%; P = .02). Patient demographic data, histologic parameters, and operative factors were similar between the 2 groups. There was a higher percentage of patients with positive pelvic lymph nodes in the group that did not receive intraoperative autologous blood transfusion (10% vs 30%; P = .02). Seven patients in the intraoperative autologous blood transfusion group (14%) died with disease present and all the recurrences in this group were local. Conclusion: The use of intraoperative autologous blood transfusions during type III radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy appears to be safe and effective without compromising rates and patterns of recurrence. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1999;181:1310-6.)

OBJECTIVE: Continent urinary diversions have become popular among gynecologic oncologists. Much information has been gained concerning the complications and current management of patients with continent ileocolonic reservoirs. The high mortality rate associated with reoperation has led clinicians to adopt a trend toward conservative means of management. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the applicability of conservative management of complications related to the creation of the continent ileocolonic reservoir Miami pouch. STUDY DESIGN: Patients who underwent creation of the Miami pouch at the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Miami School of Medicine, since 1988 have been included in this study. Management of complications, with particular emphasis on the conservative treatment, has been reviewed in detail for each patient. Open surgery and conservative treatment have been compared. RESULTS: Seventy-seven patients underwent creation of the Miami pouch from February 1988 to September 1997. Sixty (77.9%) patients were affected by recurrent cervical cancer; 72 (93.5%) were previously radiated. The perioperative mortality rate was 11.7% (9 patients). Six of these patients died as a result of sepsis; all of them underwent reoperation at least once. The most common urinary complications were ureteral stricture or obstruction (22.1%), difficult catheterization (19.5%), and pyelonephritis (13%). Conservative management strategies used for these complications included percutaneous nephrostomy, stent placement, balloon dilatation, radiologically (ultrasonography, fluoroscopy, computed tomography) guided placement of catheters, and antibiotic treatment. Eighty percent of the complications associated with the ileocolonic reservoir were resolved with conservative treatment, whereas 16.9% required surgical revision. CONCLUSION: On the basis of these findings, conservative management of urinary reservoir complications should always be considered before surgical intervention is attempted. The exact time to engage in open revision should be individualized on the basis of the clinical condition of each patient. It is our belief that the conservative approach should be instituted whenever possible but surgical intervention not be delayed when absolutely indicated. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1998;179:343-8.)

Enfrentarse a un diagnóstico de cáncer supone un fuerte impacto emocional tanto en el paciente como en los familiares ya que, además de la clara amenaza para la salud que supone se ven afectadas todas las áreas de la vida, lo cual les puede llevar a demandar atención psicológica. Por este motivo, el objetivo de este estudio consiste en determinar el contexto clínico habitual en oncología, analizando para ello, una muestra de pacientes y familiares (n = 4.924) del servicio de atención psicológica de la AECC. Los instrumentos utilizados en la metodología son un autoinforme, en concreto el Termómetro de distrés (DT), y una entrevista. Los resultados obtenidos nos muestran que el perfil del beneficiario demandante de atención psicológica en la AECC es mujer (72%), de 55 años, casada o con pareja estable (64%), que además es una paciente en tratamiento activo (37%) o en fase avanzada de la enfermedad (26%) y con diagnóstico de cáncer de mama (28%). Un 85% de los usuarios presenta niveles de distrés altos o severos, manifestando como principal motivo de consulta el malestar emocional derivado de la enfermedad (42%). El número de sesiones de intervención realizadas varía significativamente en función del motivo de consulta. A modo de conclusión indicar que la intervención psicológica es más solicitada en aquellas fases de la enfermedad donde los niveles de distrés son claramente superiores y el deterioro de calidad de vida es significativo. Por tanto, resulta fundamental destacar la importancia de la atención psicológica en el paciente oncológico. Facing a cancer diagnosis has a strong emotional impact on both patient and family because, in addition to the clear threat to health posed affecting all areas of life, which can lead them to demand psychological attention. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the usual clinical setting in oncology, analyzing for this, a sample of patients and relatives (n = 4,924) of the counseling service of AECC. The instruments used in the methodology are a self-report, specifically the distress thermometer (DT), and an interview. The results show that the profile of the primary beneficiary of psychological care in the AECC is female (72%), 55 ages, married or in a stable relationship (64%), which is also a patient in active treatment (37%) or at advanced disease (26%) and breast cancer diagnosis (28%). 85% of users presents high or severe levels of distress, manifesting as the main reason for consultation regarding emotional distress arising from the disease (42%). The number of intervention sessions conducted varies significantly according to the complaint. To conclude, indication that psychological intervention is requested on those stages of the disease where the levels of distress are clearly superior and deterioration of quality of life is significant. Therefore, it is essential to stress the importance of psychological care in cancer patients.

European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC 2019) 5G networks will pose complex network management challenges due to the variety of vertical services they will need to serve and the diversity and heterogeneity of underlying infrastructure. The service orchestration functionality is fundamental to enable fulfilling the requirements of the different verticals while efficiently sharing the infrastructure resources. This paper details the 5G-TRANSFORMER service orchestrator implementation and operation. It also evaluates and profiles service creation time showing how the automation offered by the platform allows reducing it from hours to minutes. It also shows that the most time-consuming steps correspond to the deployment of the virtual network functions and post-deployment configuration, which consume one order of magnitude more time than the rest of steps (e.g., network creation, port creation). This work has been partially funded by the EC H2020 5G-TRANSFORMER Project (grant no. 761536) and grants TEC2017-88373-R (5G-REFINE) and 2017 SGR 1195.

In this work, a commercial formulation of chlorpyrifos in water was treated using the UV/H2O2 process. To the best of our knowledge, the degradation of commercial formulations of CP in water by this method has not been so widely studied. The optimal amount of oxidizing agent to be incorporated and the behavior of the degradation rate of chlorpyrifos were studied. Total organic carbon was measured in order to evaluate the mineralization rate of the treated mixture. In addition, the toxicity during the photodegradation was evaluated by employing the Microtox acute toxicity test. Fil: Femia, Javier Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentina Fil: Mariani, Melisa Lourdes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentina Fil: Cassano, Alberto Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentina Fil: Zalazar, Cristina Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentina Fil: Tiscornia, Ines Silvia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentina