The samples Mg 1+xTi xFe 2-2xO 4 were prepared in a single phase spinel structure as indicated from X-ray analysis. The preference of Mg 2+ ions to the octahedral site decreases the ratio of the normal spinel in the investigated ferrite where the Mg 2+ increases on the expense of the Fe 3+ ions on the same site. The increase in the conductivity was found to be due to thermally activated mobility of charge carriers. The mobility data enhances the use of Verway model of conductivity which depends on the electron exchange between iron ions of different valences located on the same crystallographic sites. The existence of Ti 4+ ions on the octahedral site screens the polarization and decreases the conductivity of the samples. Peculiar behavior was obtained for Ti content of 0.7 and 0.8 due to the presence of secondary phases. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The samples Mg 1+xTi xFe 2-2xO 4 were prepared in a single phase spinel structure as indicated from X-ray analysis. The preference of Mg 2+ ions to the octahedral site decreases the ratio of the normal spinel in the investigated ferrite where the Mg 2+ increases on the expense of the Fe 3+ ions on the same site. The increase in the conductivity was found to be due to thermally activated mobility of charge carriers. The mobility data enhances the use of Verway model of conductivity which depends on the electron exchange between iron ions of different valences located on the same crystallographic sites. The existence of Ti 4+ ions on the octahedral site screens the polarization and decreases the conductivity of the samples. Peculiar behavior was obtained for Ti content of 0.7 and 0.8 due to the presence of secondary phases. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowledge discovery in financial organization have been built and operated mainly to support decision making using knowledge as strategic factor.In this paper, we investigate the use of association rule mining as an underlying technology for knowledge discovery in insurance business. Existing association rule algorithms and its extensions are inefficient in mining association rules in such data characteristics. We introduce algorithms for discovering knowledge in the form of association rules, suitable for data characteristics. Proposed data mining techniques is a hybrid of clustering partitioning and multi level rule induction. The proposed tool is managed by a repository meta model instantiated by meta-data libraries specific to insurance domain. It is implemented on a PC running on Ms Windows 2000. Samples of life data are extracted from different geographical locations of an Egyptian insurance company covering ten years. By using the induced rules, the decision- maker can define the horizontal expansion of marketing activities on new geographical area, or vertically empower the marketing forces in existing geographical area. Keywords: insurance data characteristics, macro association rules, clustering partitioning, preprocessing &transformation, OLAP aggregation, ontology, data warehouse

OBJECTIVE: Diamond-Blackfan anemia is a rare congenital hypoproliferative anemia of infancy and early childhood. Treatment with corticosteroids is commonly used, but with limited success. Trials with cyclosporin-A (CSA) are not frequently reported. Therefore, in this study we analyzed our results in the management of this rare disease by different medical treatments.

DESIGN: The results of 22 patients diagnosed at our Hematology Center in the New Cairo University Children's Hospital during the period 1991-2001 were retrospectively analyzed. Our patients first received prednisolone (2 mg/kg/d) for different courses according to their response. Since the year 2000, the steroid nonresponders received CSA (3-12 mg/kg/d) for 6 months unless treatment complications developed.

RESULTS: The age at the onset of the disease ranged from 1 to 24 months (median: 2.5 months). The mean values of the hemoglobin, the reticulocyte count, and the myeloid/erythroid ratio at the onset of the disease were 4.75 +/- 1.79 g/dL, 0.14 +/- 0.16, and 39.4 +/- 27.08, respectively. Patients received prednisolone from 0.25 to 10 years (median: 2 years). Ten patients were nonresponders (45.5%), and 5 patients (22.7%) responded to corticosteroid therapy. Two of 5 responders are off treatment with a hemoglobin level of >9 g/dL, and 3 of 5 are currently corticosteroid-dependent. Of 10 patients not responding to steroids, 8 received CSA for 6 months. Four patients (50%) responded to CSA therapy. A significant positive association was found between CSA dose and response.

CONCLUSION: CSA therapy should be tried in steroid-resistant Diamond-Blackfan anemia patients before blood transfusion or corticosteroid therapy complications are instituted.

We evaluated the ability of serum transferrin receptor (sTFR) to identify different types of anaemia in children. Thus 150 Egyptian children suffering from anaemia (iron deficiency anaemia, anaemia of chronic disease and beta-thalassaemia) were enrolled, together with 50 controls. There was a significant increase in the mean levels of sTFR in the groups with iron deficiency anaemia and thalassaemia, and a significant decrease in mean sTFR levels in the group with anaemia of chronic disease. Serum ferritin levels were significantly higher in all patient groups except the group with iron deficiency anaemia. There were also significant correlations between the sTFR and sTFR/log ferritin ratio (sTFR-F index) and different indices of iron status and of erythropoiesis. The sTFR-F index could be used as a diagnostic or screening tool for iron deficiency anaemia, anaemia of chronic disease and thalassaemia.

We evaluated the ability of serum transferrin receptor (sTFR) to identify different types of anaemia in children. Thus 150 Egyptian children suffering from anaemia (iron deficiency anaemia, anaemia of chronic disease and beta-thalassaemia) were enrolled, together with 50 controls. There was a significant increase in the mean levels of sTFR in the groups with iron deficiency anaemia and thalassaemia, and a significant decrease in mean sTFR levels in the group with anaemia of chronic disease. Serum ferritin levels were significantly higher in all patient groups except the group with iron deficiency anaemia. There were also significant correlations between the sTFR and sTFR/log ferritin ratio (sTFR-F index) and different indices of iron status and of erythropoiesis. The sTFR-F index could be used as a diagnostic or screening tool for iron deficiency anaemia, anaemia of chronic disease and thalassaemia.

A novel conjugate of mitomycin C (MMC) and triamcinolone acetonide (TA) was synthesized using glutaric acid as a linker molecule. To determine the rate of hydrolysis, the conjugate was dissolved in aqueous solution and the rate of appearance of free MMC and TA was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. Antiproliferative activity of the MMC-TA conjugate and parent compounds was assessed using an NIH 3T3 fibroblast cell line. Cell growth was quantified using the MTT assay. Kinetic analysis of the hydrolysis rate demonstrated that the conjugate had a half-life of 23.6 h in aqueous solutions. The antiproliferative activities of the MMC-TA conjugate and MMC were both concentration dependent, with similar IC(50) values of 2.4 and 1.7 microM, respectively. However, individual responses at concentrations above 3 microM showed that the conjugate was less active than MMC alone. TA alone showed only limited inhibition of cell growth. Studies evaluating intravitreal injection of the conjugate demonstrate that this agent produced no measurable toxicity. Our data provide evidence that the MMC-TA conjugate could be used as a slow-release drug delivery system. This could in turn be used to modulate a posttreatment wound healing process or to treat various proliferative diseases.

The effect of γ irradiation on some physical properties of rare earth ferrite of the general formula Li0.5+zCoz YbxFe2.5-2z-xO4, (z = 0.1, x = 0.00, 0.025, 0.050,..., 0.200) is discussed. The temperature dependence of the polarization and resistance is studied in the range (300 K ≤ T ≤ 700 K) at different frequencies (10 kHz ≤ f ≤ 1 MHz). The relaxation time and the activation energy have been calculated before and after irradiation with γ rays doses of 1 and 3 Mrad. A comparison was made between the ac resistance before and after irradiation for the samples with (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2). The results after irradiation with 1 Mrad γ rays showed that the resistance at the critical concentration decreases from 800 to 25 kΩ at room temperature. Furthermore, with increasing temperature the resistance ranged from R ≈ 130 kΩ at T ≈ 310 K to R ≈ 0.13 kΩ at T ≈ 640 K. Thus, it is possible to improve the conductivity of this type of rare earth ferrite materials to be used in technological applications at room as well as at high temperature. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Objectives: To evaluate the levels of some parameters related to bone metabolism during pregnancy i.e. total calcium (CA), 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (Vit.D), parathormone hormone (PTH), phosphorous, osteocalcin, total acid phosphatase and its tartrate resistant isoform (TrACP), total alkaline phosphatase (TALP) and its isoenzmes activities, total protein, albumin, globulin in sera and haemoglobin in blood in a group of egyptian pregnant women who are living in cairo and under reasonable medical care.
Cases: The study was conducted on 33 healthy pregnant women (age range from 20 to 38 years) and 16 healthy non-pregnant women within the same age range to serve as controls. Twenty blood samples were collected from the pregnant women at the end of first trimester of pregnancy (Week-11), twenty four were collected at the end of third trimester (Week-38).
Results: Regarding the osteoblastic activity, the T.ALP was significantly increased due to placental T.ALP and to a lesser degree to bone ALP, while osteocalcin levels. Showed a non significant increment in the 1st and 2nd trimesters of pregnancy with significant increase in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy .concerning the osteoclastic activity, The TrACP isoform decreased significantly in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy, Then returned to the normal values of non-pregnant control levels. Women in the last trimester of pregnancy have higher estrogen level than any other time of life. Although, estrogens at physiologic concentration inhibit osteoclastic activity, hight estrogen concentration increases osteoclastic activity.
As regards the factors that responsible for calcium homeostasis, significant decrease in serum intact PTH was concurrent with significant increase in Vit.D. The total serum calcium level was significantly decreased through the pregnancy, while the ionized calcium did not change, and the serum phosphorus was highly significantly increased.
Conclusion: From these results it has been concluded that, the pregnancy imposes major changes in the mother's nutritional requirement and causes physiological alternation in maternal bone metabolism. Minimal changes affecting the bone turnover were demonstrated among egyptian women throughout pregnancy due to the nutritional statue of the women and thier supplementation with Ca and/or Vit.D. Also,the changes in the haemodynamic parameters of the mother may be due to heamodilution that occur during pregnancy. The obtained patterns showed that the egyptian women who are living in urban areas (e.g. cairo), and under reasonable medical care are in good health compared to other communities in which the nutritional status and the poor medical care are the main reasons for the dramatic changes in the bone metabolism.