objective: in this study efficacy of sub lingual misoprostol was examined in comparison to oxytocin (i.v.) for inducing of labor in term pregnancy. materials and methods: seventy patients were allocated by blocked randomization to groups a (n=35, sub lingual misoprostol 25 μg four hourly to maximum of 5 doses) and b (n=35, continuous oxytocin infusion). results: delivery active phase and total ...

Previous studies of the so-called frontier production function have not utilized an adequate characterization of the disturbance term for such a model. In this paper we provide an appropriate specification, by defining the disturbance term as the sum of symmetric normal and (negative) half-normal random variables. Various aspects of maximum-likelihood estimation for the coefficients of a produc...

In this paper we develop a vector time series model which allows long-term disequilibriums to have epochs of non-stationarity, giving the impression that long term relationships between economic variables have temporarily broken down, before they endogenously collapse back towards their long term relationship. The autoregressive conditional root (ACR) process is shown to be geometrically ergodi...

The square G of a graph G = (V,E) is the graph whose vertex set is V and in which two distinct vertices are adjacent if and only if their distance in G is at most 2. What is the maximum possible chromatic number of G, as G ranges over all graphs with maximum degree d and girth g? Our (somewhat surprising) answer is that for g = 3, 4, 5 or 6 this maximum is (1 + o(1))d (where the o(1) term tends...

BACKGROUND This study investigated the risk of transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) and acute urine retention (AUR) in relation to 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor (5ARI) therapy. METHODS We identified 22,687 patients who were newly diagnosed with PE and low urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2011. We further classified study subjects who had moderate to s...

In this paper we investigate qualitative and asymptotic behavior of solutions for a class of diffusion-aggregation equations. The challenge in the analysis consists of the nonlocal aggregation term as well as the degeneracy of the diffusion term which generates compactly supported solutions. The key tools used in the paper are maximum-principle type arguments as well as estimates on mass concen...

rangelands are one of the most vulnerable parts concerning the climatechanges‟ impacts. these impacts are even stronger in the arid and semi-arid areas whererangeland ecosystems are in critical conditions. therefore, it is crucial to figure out theactual dynamics of climate variations on the rangelands. the aim of this research was todetermine climate changes in khabr rangeland, kerman, iran. s...

Mobile robots often rely upon systems that render sensor data and perceptual features into costs that can be used in a planner. The behavior that a designer wishes the planner to execute is often clear, while specifying costs that engender this behavior is a much more difficult task. This is particularly apparent when attempting to simultaneously tune many parameters that define the mapping fro...