Background: Fingolimod is the first oral immunomodulatory therapy approved for highly active relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. Based on the distribution pattern of fingolimod interacting sphingosine-1-phosphat receptors in organism including immune system and cardiovascular system clinical monitoring of patients and evaluation of adverse events are recommended. Despite extensive data on cardiovascular safety, experience with fingolimod in patients with concomitant cardiological disease, especially within the pulmonary circulation, is rare. Case presentation: We report the case of a 46-year-old woman presented with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and severe idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. Fingolimod was initiated because of disease activity of multiple sclerosis with two relapses and gadolinium-enhancing lesions in MRI. The patient demonstrated stable disease course of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension when fingolimod was started. Fingolimod therapy did not alter or even worsen the pulmonary or cardiovascular conditions during first dose application as well as follow up of nine months. Conclusion: In this report, we present the first case of fingolimod treatment in a patient with highly active multiple sclerosis and severe idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. We suggest an interdisciplinary approach with detailed cardiopulmonary monitoring for safety in such patients.

A multitude of sensory inputs needs to be processed during sensorimotor integration. A crucial factor for detecting relevant information is its complexity, since information content can be conflicting at a perceptual level. This may be central to executive control processes, such as response inhibition. This EEG study aims to investigate the system neurophysiological mechanisms behind effects of perceptual conflict on response inhibition. We systematically modulated perceptual conflict by integrating a Global-local task with a Go/Nogo paradigm. The results show that conflicting perceptual information, in comparison to non-conflicting perceptual information, impairs response inhibition performance. This effect was evident regardless of whether the relevant information for response inhibition is displayed on the global, or local perceptual level. The neurophysiological data suggests that early perceptual/ attentional processing stages do not underlie these modulations. Rather, processes at the response selection level (P3), play a role in changed response inhibition performance. This conflict-related impairment of inhibitory processes is associated with activation differences in (inferior) parietal areas (BA7 and BA40) and not as commonly found in the medial prefrontal areas. This suggests that various functional neuroanatomical structures may mediate response inhibition and that the functional neuroanatomical structures involved depend on the complexity of sensory integration processes.

La Loi modifiant le Code civil et d'autres dispositions législatives relativement à la publicité des droits personnels et réels mobiliers et à la constitution d'hypothèques mobilières sans dépossession, L.Q. 1998, ch. 5 a assujetti à la publicité pour fins d'opposabilité aux tiers la fiducie à titre onéreux constituée pour garantir l'exécution d'une obligation, les droits du crédit-bailleur et, dans certains cas, les droits des vendeurs à tempérament et avec faculté de rachat et du locateur à long terme. L'interprétation de certaines de ces dispositions législatives a suscité une vive controverse jurisprudentielle portant sur la requalification des contrats et l'effet de la publicité dans le contexte où le vendeur à tempérament et le locateur à long terme ont fait défaut de publier leurs droits en temps utile et avant la faillite de leur débiteur. Le présent mémoire étudie cette problématique en procédant à l'analyse des jugements pertinents, et plus particulièrement des arrêts de la Cour suprême dans Lefebvre (Syndic de); Tremblay (Syndic de), [2004] 3 R.C.S. 326 et Ouellet (Syndic de), [2004] 3 R.C.S. 348. Également, ce mémoire traite de l'amendement apporté par le législateur à la définition de « créancier garanti» de la Loi sur la faillite et l'insolvabilité, qui a tenté, sans succès, d'harmoniser cette notion avec celle du Code civil. Ainsi, il sera démontré que la situation juridique des contrats conclus à des fins de garantie s'est complexifiée au fil des ans. / The Act to amend the Civil Code and other legislative provisions as regards the publication of personal and movable real rights and the constitution of movable hypothecs without delivery, S.Q. 1998, ch. 5, has subjected to publicity, to have effect against third persons, onerous trusts constituted to secure the performance of an obligation, the rights of the lessor of a leasing and, in certain cases, the rights of the instalment seller, the right of redemption of the seller and the rights of the long term lessor. The interpretation of certain of these legislative provisions has given rise to a strong jurisprudential controversy on the characterization of these contracts and the effect of publicity in the context where the instalment seller and the long term lessor did not publish their rights in a timely manner and prior to the bankruptcy of their debtor. The present memorandum examines this issue by analyzing the relevant judgements rendered on this matter, and more particularly the judgements of the Supreme Court of Canada in Lefebvre (Trustee of); Tremblay (Trustee of), [2004] 3 S.C.R. 326 and Ouellet (Syndic de), [2004] 3 S.C.R. 348. Also examined is the amendment brought by the legislator to the definition of “secured creditor” in the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act who tried, without success, to harmonize this notion with the Civil Code. It will therefore be demonstrated that the juridical status of these contracts concluded for security purposes has become more complex over the years.

The thesis introduces one of the most important personalities of the Czech musical pedagogy of the last century - professor PaedDr. Jaroslav Herden, CSc. Its aim of the thesis is to present the wide range of pedagogical activities he practiced. The thesis consists of six main chapters dealing with Herden's life with the focus on his musical activities, his education and professional growth. The chapters analyse Herden's experience at the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague and his publication and broadcast activities. This work also mentions the Summer School of Music, as Herden was its founder. The last part of the thesis focuses on the heritage of this extraordinary personage.

If policymakers address water scarcity with the demand-oriented approach, the income elasticity of water demand is of pivotal importance. Its estimates, however, differ considerably. We collect 307 estimates of the income elasticity of water demand reported in 62 studies, codify 31 variables describing the estimation design, and employ Bayesian model averaging to address model uncertainty inherent to any meta-analysis. The studies were published between 1972 and 2015, which means that this meta-analysis covers a longer period of time than two previous meta-analyses on this topic combined. Our results suggest that income elasticity estimates for developed countries do not significantly differ from income elasticity estimates for developing countries and that different estimation techniques do not systematically produce different values of the income elasticity of water demand. We find evidence of publication selection bias in the literature on the income elasticity of water demand with the use of both graphical and regression analysis. We correct the estimates for publication selection bias and estimate the true effect beyond bias, which reaches approximately 0.2. 1

Background Migrants in many European countries including Germany tend to utilize preventive measures less frequently than the majority population. Little is known about the dental health of migrants as well as about their oral health behaviour, particularly in the adult population. The aim of this study was to examine differences in the uptake of annual dental check-ups in adult migrants and non-migrants in Germany. Methods We used data from the cross-sectional survey ‘German Health Update 2010’ conducted by the Robert Koch Institute (n = 22,050). Data from 21,741 German-speaking respondents with information on the use of dental check-ups was available, of which 3404 (15.7%) were migrants. Multiple logistic regression models were applied to adjust for demographic and socioeconomic confounders, including the place of residence as well as type of health insurance. Results Migrants were generally younger, had a lower socioeconomic status and showed a lower utilization of dental check-ups. The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) for utilization was 0.67 (95%-CI = 0.61–0.73). After adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic confounders the chance only increased slightly (adjusted OR = 0.71; 95%-CI = 0.65–0.77). Conclusions The analysis shows that migration status is associated with a reduced chance of attending dental check-ups, independently of demographic and socioeconomic factors. The influence of other factors, such as type of health insurance and place of residence had also no influence on the association. Migrants are exposed to different barriers in the health care system, comprising the patient, provider and system level. Further studies need to examine the relevant barriers for the uptake of preventive dental services in order to devise appropriate migrant- sensitive measures of dental prevention.

Alloying aluminum offers the possibility of creating low-density high-entropy alloys (HEAs). Several studies that focus on the system AlCoCrFeNiTi differ in their phase determination. The effect of aluminum on the phase composition and microstructure of the compositionally complex alloy (CCA) system AlxCoCrFeNiTi was studied with variation in aluminum content (molar ratios x = 0.2, 0.8, and 1.5). The chemical composition and elemental segregation was measured for the different domains in the microstructure. The crystal structure was determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. To identify the spatial distribution of the phases found with XRD, phase mapping with associated orientation distribution was performed using electron backscatter diffraction. This made it possible to correlate the chemical and structural conditions of the phases. The phase formation strongly depends on the aluminum content. Two different body-centered cubic (bcc) phases were found. Texture analysis proved the presence of a face-centered cubic (fcc) phase for all aluminum amounts. The hard η-(Ni, Co)3Ti phase in the x = 0.2 alloy was detected via metallographic investigation and confirmed via electron backscatter diffraction. Additionally, a centered cluster (cc) with the A12 structure type was detected in the x = 0.2 and 0.8 alloys. The correlation of structural and chemical properties as well as microstructure formation contribute to a better understanding of the alloying effects concerning the aluminum content in CCAs. Especially in the context of current developments in lightweight high-entropy alloys (HEAs), the presented results provide an approach to the development of new alloy systems.

This dissertation defines aspects of Russian culture which bear the marks of French influence and explores the historical origins of that influence. While it is generally acknowledged that Russia’s culture has been influenced by France, no systematic history of the origins of this influence has been written. Previous research has dealt only superficially with the topic, focusing almost exclusively on the Francophile preferences of society’s elite. The present study examines Russian society more broadly and explores those elements of French cultural influence still relevant today through an historical analysis of the Russian language. French loanwords found in dictionaries from the time of Peter the Great to the present are analyzed chronologically and topically, yielding the conclusion that the most significant period of long-lasting French influence was the turn of the nineteenth century and was primarily cultural in nature—including the areas of fashion, cuisine, the arts, interior design and etiquette—but was also in areas related to technology and official administration. Following this lexical analysis, other primary sources—archival documents, military memoirs, and periodical publications from the resultant period—are searched for influences in these areas, especially during the period’s two major Franco-Russian events: the wave of immigration to Russia following the French Revolution and Russia’s war with Napoleon. The former facilitated deep cultural enrichment as native Frenchmen and French women, engaged in various occupations, acted as cultural mentors to the Russian nobility. The latter facilitated broad cultural immersion as tens of thousands of Russian troops—noble and common alike—marched into France and experienced French culture firsthand. This dissertation concludes that both of these explosive events, though by no means the beginning of French influence, were unique in the depth and permanence of their mark upon Russia’s culture.

I investigate the relationship between expected stock returns and trading volume. I collect together 522 estimates from 46 studies and conduct the first meta-analysis in this field. Use of Bayesian model averaging and Frequentist model averaging help me to discover the most influential factors that affect the return-volume relationship, since I control for more than 50 differences among primary articles such as midyear and type of data, length of the primary dataset, size of market, or model employed. In the end, I find out that the relation between expected stock returns and trading volume is rather negligible. On the other hand, the contemporaneous relation between returns and volume is positive. These two findings cut the mixed results from previously written studies. Moreover, the investigated relationship is influenced by the size of country of interest and the level of its development. Besides the primary studies that employ higher data frequency provide substantially larger estimates than the studies with data from longer time periods. On the contrary, there is no difference among different estimation methodologies used. Finally, I employ classical and modern techniques such as stem-based methodology for publication bias detection, and I find evidence for it in this field. 1

Introdução: O carcinoma epidermóide de cabeça e pescoço avançado é uma doença de difícil tratamento. Apesar dos avanços nas técnicas de diagnóstico e tratamento nos últimos 30 anos não ocorreram ganhos significativos em sobrevida. A falha no tratamento ocorre principalmente pela recidiva locorregional e freqüentemente impede a realização de tratamentos de resgate. Com o desenvolvimento da imunoterapia novas abordagens tem sido descritas para o combate ao câncer. Estudos em animais demonstraram a redução de tumores com a utilização de vacinas de DNA contendo a HSP-65 do Mycobacterium leprae. Neste estudo avaliou-se a utilização desta proteína em pacientes portadores de carcinoma epidermóide de cabeça e pescoço em estádio avançado e fora de possibilidades terapêutica curativa pelos métodos convencionais. Objetivos: Testar a viabilidade de realização da injeção intratumoral do DNA HSP65 nesse grupo de doentes, avaliar a resposta tumoral através da análise comparativa do volume, pesquisar a transfecção do DNA HSP65 do M. Leprae e verificar se o tratamento realizado apresentou impacto na evolução dos pacientes. Casuística e métodos: Foram incluídos 21 pacientes em três grupos. Cada grupo recebeu diferentes doses da vacina de DNA HSP-65 do Mycobacterium leprae: 150, 600 e 400µg, através de aplicações intratumorais guiadas por ultra-som com Doppler. Foram realizadas tomografias computadorizadas antes e após o tratamento, para avaliação da resposta tumoral através da comparação de volume tumoral. Realizaram-se biópsias antes e após o tratamento, e o material foi submetido a reação em cadeia da polimerase (Rt-PCR) para identificar a transfecção do DNA injetado. Durante o protocolo os pacientes foram acompanhados para observação de eventos adversos que pudessem ser relacionados à medicação. Resultados: Dos 21 pacientes, sete faleceram antes do término do protocolo. Nos 13 pacientes passíveis de análise, ocorreram quatro respostas parciais e estabilidade da lesão em um caso. Em nove casos houve progressão da doença. Dois pacientes encontram-se vivos em seguimento a mais de oitocentos dias do inicio do protocolo. Os eventos adversos ocorridos foram principalmente aumento da dor local e edema. Não foi possível comprovar a transcrição do DNA injetado no Rt-PCR pela ocorrência de um resultado falso positivo. Conclusões: A aplicação foi segura na dose de 400µg por aplicação. Não foi possível comprovar a transfecção de DNA de HSP65. Nos pacientes que apresentaram diminuição do volume tumoral parece ter havido benefício clínico. / Introduction: The squamous cell carcinoma of the head and advanced neck is an disease difficult to treat. Despite the advances in diagnosis and treatment in last the 30 years had not occurred major survival improvements. The treatment failure occurs mainly locorregionaly and recurrences frequently canot be rescued. immunotherapy has had encouraging results in the last years. Studies in animals had demonstrated the reduction of tumors with the DNA vaccine containing HSP-65 of the Mycobacterium leprae. In this study we evaluate the use of this protein in patients with avdanced head and neck carcinoma, stages II and IV without possibilities of curative treatment. Objectives: To test the viability of accomplishment of the intratumoral injection of DNA HSP65 in this group of patients, test its effectiveness through the comparative analysis of the volume, to verify transfeccion of the DNA injected and to see if the carried through treatment presented impact in the evolution of the patients. Patients and methods: 21 patients in 3 groups of doses 150,600 and 400µg of the vaccine of DNA HSP-65 of M leprae, through intratumoral applications guided by USG Doppler repeated 3 times every 21 days. CT scans before and after the treatment had been carried through, for evaluation of the tumoral response through the comparison of tumoral volume. We also did biopsis before and after the treatment, and the material was submitted the Rt-PCR in search of tranfeccion of the injected DNA. During the protocol the patients had been evalueted to rule observe adverse events that could be related to the medication. Results: Of 21 patients, seven died before the end of the protocol. In the 13 suitable for analysis, 4 partial responses and stability of the disese in 1 case had occurred. In 9 cases the tumors progressed. Two patients are still alive, with more than eight hundred days of the beginning of the protocol. The adverse events occurred mainly as an increase of local pain and edema. It was not possible to prove the transcription of the DNA injected in the Rt-PCR because of the occurrence of positive a false result. Conclusions: The application was secure in the dose of 400mcg . We saw reduction of tumoral volume in 5 of the 13 patients suitable for analysis, four partial responses and one stable disease. In the patients who had presented reduction of the tumoral volume there seems to be clinical benefit. It was not possible to prove the transfeccion of the injected DNA.