A. Kaczmarska

Background Studies have suggested that HIV-1 may develop thymidine analogue mutations (TAMs) by one of two distinct pathways – the TAM1 pathway (including mutations 41L, 210W and 215Y) or the TAM2 pathway (including mutations 67N, 70R and 219E/Q) – under the pressure of a not fully suppressive thymidine-analogue-containing regimen. Methods Frozen plasma samples stored in the EuroSIDA repository were selected and sent to two central laboratories for genotypic analysis. We considered 733 patients with at least one genotypic test showing ≥1 TAMs (the first of these tests in chronological order was used). TAM1 and TAM2 genotypic profiles were defined in accordance with previous literature. Statistical modelling involved logistic regression and linear regression analysis for censored data. Results The observed frequencies of patterns classifiable as TAM1 or TAM2 profiles were markedly higher than the probabilities of falling into these classifications by chance alone. The chance of detecting a TAM2 profile increased by 25% per additional year of exposure to zidovudine. We found that mutations 67N and 184V were not associated with a particular TAM profile. In the presence of TAM2 profiles, the adjusted mean difference in the 6-month viral reduction was 0.96 log 10 copies/ml (95% confidence interval: 0.20; 1.73) higher in patients who started stavudine-containing regimens instead of zidovudine-containing regimens. Conclusions This study provides evidence that the suggested TAM clustering is a real phenomenon and that it may be driven by which thymidine analogue the patients has used. In patients with TAM2-resistant viruses, stavudine appears to retain greater viral activity than zidovudine.

The assessment of teachers' exposure to noise in primary schools was carried out on the basis of: questionnaire studies (covering 187 teachers in 3 schools), noise measurements at the teachers' workplaces, measurements of the school rooms acoustic properties (reverberation time and speech transmission index STI in 72 classrooms), analysis of statistical data regarding hazards and occupational diseases in the education sector. The studies have shown that noise is the main factor of annoyance in the school environment. Over 50% of questioned teachers consider noise as annoying and near 40% as very annoying or unbearable. A-weighted equivalent continuous sound pressure levels measured in classrooms, teacher rooms and common rooms are in the range of 58-80 dB and they exceed 55 dB (criteria of noise annoyance). The most frequently reported subjective feelings and complaints (over 90%) are: growth of psychical and emotional tension, irritation, difficulties in concentrating, hoarseness, cough. Noise in schools is also a harmful factor. High A-weighted equivalent continuous sound pressure levels ranging from 80 to 85 dB, measured in corridors during pauses and in sports halls, can cause the risk of hearing damage among PE teachers and persons oversensitive to noise. The latter concerns both teachers and pupils. High background noise levels (55-65 dB) force teachers to raise their voice. It can lead to the development of an occupational disease - chronic voice disorders due to excessive vocal effort lasting for at least 15 years. In the education sector 785 new cases of this disease were reported only in 2008. Poor acoustics in classrooms (reverberation time ranging from 0.8 to 1.7 s, STI<0.6 in 50% of classrooms) have an adverse influence on speech reception and make the teaching and learning processes difficult.

This article presents the results of an analysis of annoyance caused by low-frequency noise (including infrasonic noise) that occurs at work stations located in offices. The tests covered measurements of acoustic parameters specific for this type of noise and a survey conducted in the working environment and in laboratory conditions at a model of a work station.

Breast cancer (BC) and prostate cancer (PC) are at the top of the list when it comes to the most common types of cancers worldwide. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is important, in that it strongly influences the development and progression of these tumors. Previous studies have emphasized the key role of inhibitors of the PIK3/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in the treatment of BC and PC, and it remains to be a crucial method of treatment. In this review, the inhibitors of these signaling pathways are compared, as well as their effectiveness in therapy and potential as therapeutic agents. The use of these inhibitors as polytherapy is evaluated, especially with the use of hormonal therapy, which has shown promising results.

Abstract Defect structure and transport properties of Co 3 O 4 cobalt oxide have been studied as a function of temperature and oxygen pressure, using marker and thermogravimetric techniques. It has been found that the oxidation of CoO to form Co 3 O 4 follows parabolic kinetic, being thus diffusion controlled. Marker experiments have demonstrated that cation sublattice of Co 3 O 4 oxide is predominantly disordered, but the defect structure is rather complex. At very low oxygen pressures, close to the dissociation pressure of the oxide, interstitial cations are the predominant point defects, while at high pressures cation vacancies predominate. This behavior is reflected in complex dependence of the parabolic rate constant of CoO oxidation on oxygen pressure. At low pressures, namely, parabolic rate constant of the reaction increases with oxygen pressure, reaching then virtually constant value in intermediate pressure range and increases again in highest pressure range. Theoretical analysis of kinetic results in terms of point defect thermodynamics confirmed the above conclusion, concerning complex defect structure of Co 3±y O 4 oxide. Finally, self-diffusion coefficient of cations in the discussed oxide has been calculated as a function of temperature and oxygen pressure from kinetic rate measurements, using Wagner's theory of metals oxidation.

We study a process of released substance from a medium in the shape of sphere.In both the sphere and a surrounding medium occurs subdiffusion.Using linear partial differential equations with a fractional time derivative, we obtain concentration profiles and a time evolution of an amount of substance which released from the sphere, both in the limit of large values of time.We also briefly discuss the obtained results.

The base-line design and implementation of the ATLAS DAQ DataFlow system is described. The main components of the DataFlow system, their interactions, bandwidths, and rates are discussed and performance measurements on a 10% scale prototype for the final ATLAS TDAQ DataFlow system are presented. This prototype is a combination of custom design components and of multithreaded software applications implemented in C++ and running in a Linux environment on commercially available PCs interconnected by a fully switched gigabit Ethernet network.

The ATLAS High Level Trigger's (HLT) primary function of event selection will be accomplished with a Level-2 trigger farm and an event filter (EF) farm, both running software components developed in the ATLAS offline reconstruction framework. While this approach provides a unified software framework for event selection, it poses strict requirements on offline components critical for the Level-2 trigger. A Level-2 decision in ATLAS must typically be accomplished within 10 ms and with multiple event processing in concurrent threads. To address these constraints, prototypes have been developed that incorporate elements of the ATLAS data flow, high level trigger, and offline framework software. To realize a homogeneous software environment for offline components in the HLT, the Level-2 Steering Controller was developed. With electron/gamma- and muon-selection slices it has been shown that the required performance can be reached, if the offline components used are carefully designed and optimized for the application in the HLT.

We present an overview of the strategy for Event Selection at the ATLAS High Level Trigger and describe the architecture and main components of the software developed for this purpose.

In this paper, simulation ("computer modeling") of the Trigger/data acquisition (DAQ) system of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC accelerator is discussed. The system will consist of a few thousand end nodes, which are interconnected by a large Ethernet network. The nodes will run various applications under the Linux operating system (OS). Predictions for the latency, throughput and queue development in various places have been obtained. Results are presented with respect to the application of traffic shaping to reduce the probability of possible frame loss (which may cause severe performance degradation).

The ATLAS trigger reduces the rate of interesting events to be recorded for off-line analysis in three successive levels from 40 MHz to /spl sim/100 kHz, /spl sim/2 kHz and /spl sim/200 Hz. The high level triggers and data acquisition system are designed to profit from commodity computing and networking components to achieve the required performance. In this paper, we discuss data flow aspects of the design of the second level trigger (LVL2) and present results of performance measurements.

Nonstoichiometry and chemical diffusion in Co 3 O 4 oxide have been studied as a function of temperature (973-1173 K) and oxygen pressure (30-10 5 Pa), using thermogravimetric techniques. It has been found that at very low oxygen pressures, close to the dissociation pressure of the oxide, interstitial cations and quasi-free electrons are the predominant point defects, while at high pressures cation vacancies and electron holes predominate. This behaviour is reflected in complex dependence of the deviation from stoichiometry, y, in the Co 3±y O 4 oxide on oxygen pressure. At low pressures, namely, deviation from stoichiometry decreases with increasing oxygen pressure, reaching virtually constant value in intermediate pressures and increases at highest pressure range. Finally, these data as well as the results of kinetic rate measurements of Co 3±y O 4 formation have been utilized in calculating the chemical diffusion coefficient as a function of temperature.

Following rigorous software design and analysis methods, an object-based architecture has been developed to derive the second- and third-level trigger decisions for the future ATLAS detector at the LHC. The functional components within this system responsible for generating elements of the trigger decisions are algorithms running within the software architecture. Relevant aspects of the architecture are reviewed along with concrete examples of specific algorithms and their performance in "vertical" slices of various physics selection strategies.

The τ leptons identification with the ATLAS experiment will be possible already at the start of the data taking. The copious production of W and Z bosons decaying to the tau leptons will provide unique possibility to calibrate and understand identification of hadronically decaying tau's above the QCD background already with few hundreds of pb−1. With integrated luminosity of tens of fb−1, tau leptons will become an excellent probe for searching for the SM and MSSM Higgs boson, SUSY or extra dimensions. In this paper, prospect for early physics and the new physics searches scenarios involving tau leptons are presented.

The Large Hadron Collider experiments will search for physics phenomena beyond the Standard Model. Highly sensitive tests of beauty hadrons will represent an alternative approach to this research. The analysis of complex decay chains of the beauty hadrons have to efficiently extract the detector tracks made by these reactions and reject other events in order to make sufficiently precise measurement. This places severe demands on the software used to analyze the B-physics data. The ATLAS B-physics group has written a series of tools and algorithms for performing these tasks, to be run within the ATLAS offline software framework Athena. This paper describes this analysis suite, paying particular attention to mechanisms for handling combinatorics, interfaces to secondary vertex fitting packages, B-flavor tagging tools and finally Monte Carlo true information association to pursue simulation data in process of the software validations which is an important part of the development of the physics analysis tools.

Extending the Higgs sector by introducing additional scalar fields to account for the electroweak symmetry breaking, can provide solutions to some of the questions the Standard Model fails to answer. Introducing additional scalar fields leads to extra Higgs like particles, which can be either neutral or charged. These proceedings present some recent direct searches for additional Higgs bosons, using proton proton collision data at 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment in Run 2 of the LHC.

C. Arnault, F. Barone, F. Bellachia, R. Bilhaut, D. Boget, T. Carron, D. Castellazzi, D. Dufournaud, F. Cavalier, R. Chiche, F. Chollet, M. Dehamme, L. Derome, C. Drezen, R. Flaminio, F. Garufi, X. Grave, P. Heusse, O. Lodygenski, F. Marion, L. Massonnet, L. Milano, R. Morand, B. Mours, P. Roudier, V. Sannibale, D. Verkindt, M. Yvert L.A.L. /IN2P3-CNRS et Universite de Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay, France I.N.F.N. Sez. di Napoli e Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche dell’Univ. Federico II, Pad.19, I-80125 Napoli, Italy

This paper presents the results of low-frequency noise (LFN) annoyance tests in laboratory conditions on a model workstation conceptual mental work. Group of volunteers: 60 persons (30 women and 30 men) participated in the experiment consisting in completing psychological tests in three different acoustic conditions. The tests results have shown significant differences in subjective assessment of noise annoyance depending on the gender and reactivity level of surveyed persons.

WSTĘP: W artykule prezentowana jest problematyka dotycząca subiektywnego poziomu zdrowia osob wspierających chorych na bialaczke oraz związkow wystepujących pomiedzy zasobami podmiotowymi a zdrowiem badanych. MATERIAŁ I METODY: W badaniu zastosowano skale szacunkowe sluzące do pomiaru subiektywnego poziomu zdrowia oraz Inwentarz Stanu i Cechy leku (ISCL-STAI) Spilbergera, Strelau, Tysarczyk i Wrześniewskiego, Kwestionariusz Orientacji Życiowej (SOC-29) Antonovsky’ego, Skale Samooceny Rosenberga. WYNIKI: Jak wskazują wyniki badan, subiektywny poziom zdrowia badanych jest na przecietnym poziomie, 10 badanych osob odczuwa pogorszenie swojego stanu zdrowia od momentu postawienia diagnozy bialaczki u osoby bliskiej. Badani odznaczają sie niskim poczuciem jakości zycia. Wykazano związek pomiedzy wysokim subiektywnym poziomem zdrowia a wysokim poczuciem koherencji, wysoką samooceną oraz nizszym poziomem leku jako cechy. Stwierdzono wystepowanie dodatniej korelacji pomiedzy czasem ,ktory uplynąl od diagnozy a poziomem zdrowia i samooceną badanych. WNIOSKI: Dla zdrowia badanych kluczowa jest umiejetnośc wykorzystania i pomnazania posiadanych zasobow. Wsparcia psychologicznego wymaga nie tylko pacjent, ale rowniez osoby bliskie wspierające chorych.

Following rigorous software design and analysis methods, an object-based architecture has been developed to derive the second- and third-level trigger decisions for the future ATLAS detector at the LHC. The functional components within this system responsible for generating elements of the trigger decisions are algorithms running within the software architecture. Relevant aspects of the architecture are reviewed along with concrete examples of specic algorithms.

The working group on electroweak physics and beyond the Standard Model (SM) physics at the Deep Inelastic Scattering 2014 workshop included results ranging from Higgs over gauge boson physics to searches for supersymmetric particles and exotic states, performed by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments ATLAS and CMS.Higgs results from the Tevatron experiment have been presented as well.Each session was complemented by invited theoretical overviews on the subject under discussion.We give a short summary by presenting some selected results.For more details we refer to the individual contributions collected in these proceedings.

This note describes the analysis of the soft electrons and related b-tagging in the Higgs boson associated production (WH) events. The simulation, reconstruction and analysis are done in the framework of the Atlas Data Challenge 1

The ATLAS trigger reduces the rate of interesting events to be recorded for off-line analysis in three successive levels from 40 MHz to about 100 kHz, about 2 kHz and about 200 Hz. The High Level Triggers and Data Acquisition System are designed to profit from commodity computing and networking components to achieve the required performance. We discuss Data Flow aspects of the design of the Second Level Trigger (LVL2) and present results of performance measurements.

Elementary particle physics experiments, which search for very rare processes, require the efficient analysis and selection algorithms able to separate a signal from the overwhelming background. Four learning machine algorithms have been applied to identify τ leptons in the ATLAS experiment: projective likelihood estimator (LL), Probability Density Estimator with Range Searches (PDE-RS), Neural Network, and the Support Vector Machine (SVM). All four methods have similar performance, which is significantly better than the baseline cut analysis. This indicates that the achieved background rejection is close to the maximal achievable performance.

This work was supported in part by the Polish Ministry of Higher Education under grant no. NN202127937

Streszczenie

The first LHC collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s=7TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector are used to study the reconstruction and identification algorithms for hadronic τ decays. Although the dataset used here, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 244nb−1, contains a small number of real τ leptons, the background jets reconstructed as τ candidates can be used to assess performance aspects of these algorithms. Distributions of identification variables are compared in data and Monte Carlo samples, and the background efficiency of τ identification criteria is measured in a QCD dijet enriched data sample. Good agreement is observed between data and the fake τ candidates selected from simulated QCD dijet events, giving confidence in the performance of the algorithms on real τ leptons, to be observed soon.

Background: Cardiac surgery operations are related to high risk of perioperative complications.10-20% of patients require hospitalization in intensive care units mostly due to cardiac failure, respiratory failure, hypovolemic shock, septic shock, abdominal complications, and neurologic complications.Aim: The aim of the study was to analyze complications which led to admission to the Intensive Care Unit of the Upper Silesian Medical Centre in 2010-2011, after cardiac surgery.Material and methods: This study enrolled patients after cardiac surgery, who required hospitalization in the ICU in 2010-2011.The study was retrospective.The material for this study was medical documentation of the patients.We analyzed demographic data, reasons for admission to the ICU, and therapeutic routines.Results: In the ICU 32 patients were treated due to complications after cardiac surgery.The mortality rate among those patients was 65.6%.The most common complication was septic shock.Neurologic complications were rare.Other complications were pneumonia and surgery complications.Health condition was assessed on admission according to APACHE II and values were significantly lower among patients who survived.The TISS-28 score was significantly higher among patients who died.Conclusions: The mortality rate among patients with complications after cardiac surgery is still significant.Acute bowel ANESTEZJOLOGIA I INTENSYWNA TERAPIA

The number of control cabins installed in industry has increased considerably during the last few years. Most cabins installed nowadays show a satisfactory noise reduction in the frequency range above 500 Hz. The effect of noise damping however shows a gradual decrease for lower frequencies. The present paper is a description of the distribution of low frequency noise in different types of control cabins installed in typical low frequency noise environments in steel plants and the machine building industry. Measurements were made in 20 control cabins, constructed of metal and stone Measurements of sound pressure levels in octave bands were made inside and outside the cabins. The sound pressure level in octave bands in the low frequency range (4–31.5 Hz) inside the cabins was high and varied between 60–108 dB. This is probably due to the insufficient noise reduction for lower frequencies. In some control cabins there was an increased level of low frequency noise inside the cabin compared to the outside. In these control cabins sound pressure levels exceed the admissible values according to Polish standards. The increase of noise level within the low frequency range is considered to be based on resonances.

The presence of tau leptons in the final state is an important signature in many Higgs boson and SUSY searches. With the ATLAS detector, hadronically decaying tau leptons can be reconstructed in a wide range of transverse energies. The reconstruction algorithm for hadronically decaying tau leptons is explained and the performance of tau lepton identification is shown. Particularly important is the discrimination of hadronically decaying tau leptons against overwhelming backgrounds from QCD jets.

The present High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments require unprecedented amount of computingpower and storage space. We present the WLCG structure of the LHC computing,which will be used to perform data processing required by the ATLAS collaboration. Wealso describe the ATLAS detector full simulation chain. Finally, we quantify the computingneeds and up-to-date usage of the ACK CYFRONET AGH resources by the ATLAS detector simulations.

This paper analyses the evolution of the bottom boundary layer observed over a flood tide in the Plymouth Sound in June 2006. The overview of the energy budget associated with turbulence is presented in which an estimation of turbulent energy dissipation and production in the boundary layer is performed. Turbulent characteristics are calculated from data collected by two Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADV) located at 69 cm and 52 cm above the sea bed. The same turbulent characteristics are calculated, but applying different methods, using the velocity measured by a downlooking 1200 kHz Acoustics Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) installed at a height 1.36m above the bed. The study compares turbulent characteristics calculated from data collected by two different types of instruments. Additionally, the currents in the whole water column are examined by analysing profiles of velocity collected by 600 kHz ADCP. The study checks whether the velocities measured by the two ADCPs are consistent with each other and examines the possible effects of density stratification on turbulence in the bottom boundary layer. It was found that the flow was an effect of semidiurnal tide with the maximum velocities of 22cm/s observed two hours after Low Water 4m above the bed. Velocity profiles, measured by the two ADCP, did not overlap each other but the results are consistent with each other. Measurements performed by both ADVs showed the same magnitudes and trends in the mean velocity as the 1.2MHz ADCP. The results indicated weak stratification in the water column. Velocities measured by 1.2MHz ADCP had logarithmic profiles from which the friction velocity (u*) and bed stress (I„b) were calculated. The characteristics had similar values (u*&#8249 1cm/s, I„b&#8249 0.09Pa) as reported previously for similar conditions (flat bed, tidal channel, unstratified water column). Dissipation rate (Iµ) calculated from the two ADVs provided inaccurate results which were three orders of a magnitude higher than that obtained from the higher frequency ADCP (10-8-10-6 W/kg). That difference was found to be associated with the assumptions of the first method, which were not fulfilled. The production of TKE (P), from ADVs and the 1.2MHz ADCP, had the same magnitude than Iµ and the average Iµ/P ratio, over the whole time of deployment, was found to be 1.45 +/- 1.07. However, the ratio was biased by the high Iµ during run 2. After rejecting that run the ratio was closer to the expected value of unity: 0.78 +/- 0.36.

This note describes the performance obtained by applying the soft electron b-tagging algorithm to CSC data. Jets are built from the energy reconstructed in the electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters with a cone algorithm. Electrons, reconstructed by a track seeded algorithm, are searched for among charged particle tracks associated to the jets. Tagging of jets originating from b quarks is based on kinematics and identification capabilities of the inner tracker and the electromagnetic calorimeter. The algorithm is applied on WH events, with H->bb and uu decays. Performance of the electron identification and b-tagging procedures are presented. This note is an extended version of the ``CSC note'' published on the same subject.

We are pleased to welcome you to the “Congress on Advanced Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery” after the successful completion of the series of drug delivery congress. The conference is scheduled to London, time zone, on December 02-03, 2021. This Advanced Drug Discovery 2021 congress will provide you with an exemplary research experience and huge ideas. The perspective of the drug delivery congress is to set up transplant research to help people understand how treatment techniques have advanced and how the field has developed in recent years. Drug Delivery is where people travel from one country to another for the medical treatment . The Conference will primarily emphasize on the various topics related to Drug Discovery, Drug Delivery, and Pharmaceutics, Medical Devices for Drug Delivery, and Bio pharmaceutics and Biologic Drugs. It is a world-wide dais that combines different spheres, kindle the exchange of ideas and enable participants to grasp the latest developments and ideas in different areas of Drug Discovery. It will serve as a great platform to improve your knowledge and skills in this field through the various research experience and presentations. It also helps gaining a view about the career development and job search. Market analysis: Drug Discovery continuing evolution, involving the organisation of better Drug Discovery services, the development of innovative models of care, and the discovery of new research innovations, drives us to share the latest discoveries for the benefit of all. Many challenges still exist, but by drawing on the successes from the past and moving forward with new knowledge together, we can help shape a better future for professionals and patients alike. Advanced Drug Discovery 2021 conference will offer the Drug Discovery community the possibility for educational exchanges, scientific news and best practice updates while protecting the safety, health, and well-being of all congress participants. Drug selection, ethical drugs and molecular therapeutics are broad categories that deal with situations affecting every community. Increasing understanding and Implementing Drug Discovery, Drug evaluations, and Reverse pharmacology through prototypes drug and Molecular Medicine are crucial steps towards Drug discovery and development resources It is estimated that over one billion people globally have a diseases, Infectious Pains or substance use suffer from such conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of illhealth and disability worldwide. Key highlighting Sessions: Advances in pharmaceutical analytical methods, Advance Topics in Drug Delivery, Biopharmaceutics and Biologic Drugs, Challenges in Delivery of Therapeutic Genomics and Proteomics, Drug Delivery Research, Medical Devices for Drug Delivery, Peptides and Protein Drug Delivery Advanced Drug Discovery 2021 Scientific committee feels esteemed delight to invite participants from around the world to join us at International Conference on Advanced Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery schedule to be held on December 02-03, 2021 Singapore city , Singapore. The Conference will primarily emphasize on the various topics related to Drug Discovery, Drug Delivery, and Pharmaceutics, Medical Devices for Drug Delivery, and Bio pharmaceutics and Biologic Drugs. It is a world-wide dais that combines different spheres, kindle the exchange of ideas and enable participants to grasp the latest developments and ideas in different areas of Drug Discovery. It will serve as a great platform to improve your knowledge and skills in this field through the various research experience and presentations. It also helps gaining a view about the career development and job search. People who have missed attending the past conference are most welcome to present your research ideas at the 2021 drug delivery conference. This conference will help you improve networking with eminent people in the field of drug discovery.

How to thrive in the fastest growing industry in the world? International healthcare is constantly expanding and medical tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors with 25% annual growth and 55% in developing countries. In this fast-moving industry healthcare and wellness providers have new, substantial opportunities to grow their business and open new revenue streams. At the same time, the patient journey along with patient’s expectations are evolving and new services and solutions are created every day to meet the demands of the patients, but few succeeded. Why is that? To answer that question, we will explain some of the main opportunities in the industry and how healthcare providers need to transform their patient journey in order to succeed. We are going to explain how to create patient centric solutions and how to succeed on the international markets when it comes to geographical expansion, patient acquisition strategies (B2B & B2C) and maximise the average send per patient, for the optimum ROI in medical tourism.

Effects of differentiated diet with reduced proteins or diet without proteins with simultaneous use of lactulose or the preparation enriched with aliphatic amino acids with aminosteril-hepa chain on the clinical results and the ammonia, phenols, alpha-amino nitrogen, tyrosine, phenylalanine and tryptophan++ concentrations in the serum have been studied. It has been demonstrated that limitations of proteins in the diet or diet without proteins with the use of lactulose or amino acids mixtures above does not influence significantly the clinical amelioration or biochemical indices of encephalopathy or coma during the liver cirrhosis course. Homogenates of the liver and brain of patients who died due to encephalopathy and liver cirrhosis showed high contents of ammonia, tyrosine, phenylalanine and tryptophan++.

The LHC ATLAS experiment at CERN will produce 1.6 PB of data per year. The High Energy Physics analysis techniques require that corresponding samples of at least 2 PB of Monte Carlo simulated data are also required. Currently the Monte Carlo test production is performed, in steps called Data Challenges. Such production and analysis can be performed in distributed sites. The computing model should allow for central brokering of jobs and management of huge amounts of data. The Grid environment is a possible solution. Data Challenges have to prove reliability and usability of the Grid. Main effort is to use Grid as ‘yet another job submission system’. Some tentative solutions are presented and some weaknesses of existing software are pointed out. Additionally, perspectives of further development and improvements are indicated.

Identification and use of low p_T electrons with Rome data / Cochran, J ; Derue, F ; Kaczmarska, A ; Wolter, M This note describes the perfomance obtained with the low p_T electron reconstruction algorithm with Rome data. The algorithm is used on WH, H->bb, uu and J/psi->e+e- events.

VIRGO is a gravitational wave detector based on a Michelson interferometer with 3 km long arms. The aim of the experiment is the first detection of gravitational waves emitted by compact stellar objects such as neutron stars, black holes or supernova. The detector is being built near Pisa (Italy) by a French–Italian collaboration funded by INFN in Italy and CNRS in France. The test of the central part of the interferometer have been performed successfully this year. Civil engineering has also been completed this year and the detector final assembly will be finished early next year. The main scientific goals and detector issues are introduced. Some of the control and stabilization systems used to operate the interferometer are also discussed. Recent results and present status are presented. 1 SCIENTIFIC MOTIVATIONS Gravitational waves [1] are predicted by Einstein general relativity theory. According to Einstein theory, the gravitational force is a manifestation of space-time curvature. Any mass curves the space-time geometry around itself and, as a consequence, it curves the trajectory of a free falling test mass passing nearby. If this same mass starts oscillating the space-time curvature will also start oscillating and this oscillation will propagate across space-time at the speed of light as a wave propagating on a water surface. These small propagating perturbations of the space-time metric are gravitational waves. Their effect is to change the distance between two free falling masses and a detailed analysis of Einstein equations shows that they are spin 2 waves. As a consequence if a gravitational wave travels across a set of masses placed on a circle, the circle will be transformed in an ellipse with its axis pointing in the direction of the wave polarization (see Fig. 1). If L is the circle diameter, it will undergo a change h·L/2 where h<<1 is the gravitational wave amplitude. Any mass produces gravitational waves with amplitude h proportional to the second derivative of its quadrupole moment Q:

Possible protective effects of cortisone in experimental post-alcohol liver damage were evaluated in relation to dose and duration of treatment. Model examinations were undertaken in 100 rabbits divided into groups of 10. No protective effect of cortisone could be demonstrated. Treatment did not alter biochemical indices of liver function. Histologic examination revealed somewhat less extensive fatty changes following chronic alcohol exposure in animals receiving 1 mg cortisone per kilogram body weight.