AIM To evaluate pegylated interferon alpha2a (PegIFN-alpha2a) in Egyptian patients with HCV genotype 4, and the impact of pretreatment viral load, co-existent bilharziasis and histological liver changes on response rate. METHODS A total of 73 naive patients (61 with history of bilharziasis) with compensated chronic HCV genotype 4 were enrolled into: group A (38 patients) who received 180 mg PegIFN-alpha2a subcutaneously once weekly for a year and group B (35 patients) received IFN alpha-2a 3 MU 3 times weekly. Ribavirin was added to each regimen at a dose of 1200 mg. Patients were followed for 72 wk and sustained response was assessed. RESULTS Significant improvement in both end of treatment response (ETR) (P < 0.002) and sustained response (SR) (P < 0.05) was noted with pegylated interferon, where ETR was achieved in 29 (76.3%) and 14 patients (40%) in both groups respectively, and 25 patients in group A (65.8%) and 9 (25.7%) in group B could retain negative viraemia by the end of follow up period. Sustained virological response (SVR) showed a significant negative correlation with age and positive correlation with pretreatment inflammation in patients receiving PegIFN. Viral clearance after 3 mo of therapy was associated with high incidence of ETR and SR (P < 0.001), but without significant difference between both forms of interferon. Significant improvement in response was achieved in patients with high grade fibrosis (grade 3 and 4) with PegIFN-alpha2a, where SR was seen in 5 out of 13 patients in group A, but none in group B. There was no significant difference in response between bilharzial and non-bilharzial patients in both groups. In terms of safety and tolerability, neutropenia was the predominant side effect; both drugs were comparable. CONCLUSION PegIFN-alpha2a combined with ribavirin results in improvement in sustained response in HCV genotype 4, irrespective of history of bilharzial infestation.

In the paper are presented results of very fast transients (VFT) investigations in air-insulated substations (AIS), produced by operations of circuit- breaker and disconnector rated voltage 220 kV. Measurements of these VFT are performed in the AIS at Hydro Power Plant (HPP) Grabovica on River Neretva. Results of computer simulations using EMTP-ATP [1] are presented. In the paper are presented measures for reducing sources of electromagnetic interferences (EMI) emission during switching of air-insulated disconnectors.

This work presents the preliminary results achieved within a FIRB project aimed to develop innovative support tools for automatic or semi-automatic restoration of damaged digital images concerning archaeological and monumental inheritance of Mediterranean coast. In particular, this paper is focused on a methodology for describing image degradation and its meta-representation for content based storing and retrieval. Our innovative idea is to decompose and store in a conventional RDBMS the images content, considering the damages as objects of the images. Moreover, a set of descriptors(a subset of MPEG7 descriptors) is used for the damage meta representation aimed to content based application. Finally we developed a user-friendly database management tool for manipulating the contents of the database.

This paper presents ConSCIS, conceptual space based cognitive imitation system, which tightly links low-level data processing with knowledge representation in the context of robot imitation. Our focus is on the program-level imitation: we are interested in the final effects of actions on objects, and not on the particular kinematic or dynamic properties of the motion. The same architecture is used both to analyze and represent the task to be imitated, and to perform the imitation by generalizing in novel and different circumstances. The implemented experimental scenario is a two dimensional world populated with various objects in which observation/imitation takes place. To validate our approach, we report some results concerned with the problem of teaching a humanoid hand/arm robotic system tasks of assembling different workspace objects

In this paper, we introduce Roillo, a social robotic platform for investigating, in the context of children's playrooms, questions about how to design compelling nonverbal interactive behaviors for social robots. Specifically, we are interested in the importance of rhythm to natural interactions and its role in the expression of affect, attention, and intent. Our design process has consisted of rendering, animation, surveys, mechanical prototyping, and puppeteered interaction with children

The analysis of food consumed by a large part of the population is important to establish the nutritional composition of diets to verify if diets are adequate regarding essential nutrients. In the present study, diet analysis results of steel industry workers´ dietary consumption are presented. Workers from 19 to 56 years old were selected and their diets were collected by a duplicate portion technique, including all the meals and beverages consumed over 3 consecutive days. The content of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, ash, humidity, fiber, vitamins B1 and B2 and piridoxine were determined in 24 diet samples. Comparing the results with the values set by the new dietary recommendation dietary intakes (DRIs), it was observed that the workers´ diets were 100% adequate in carbohydrates and 96% in proteins and lipids. However, dietetic fiber content of the diets was considered inadequate (only 4.2% of adequacy). All the diets were adequate in B1 and B2 vitamins, while 58% of the diets were inadequate in terms of piridoxine.