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The graph consisting of the three 3-cycles (a,b,c), (c,d,e), and (e,f,a), where a,b,c,d,e, and f are distinct is called a hexagon triple. The 3-cycle (a,c,e) is called an “inside” 3-cycle; and the 3-cycles (a,b,c), (c,d,e), and (e,f,a) are called “outside” 3-cycles. A 3k-fold hexagon triple system of order n is a pair (X,C), where C is an edge disjoint collection of hexagon triples which partitions the edge set of 3kKn. Note that the outside 3-cycles form a 3k-fold triple system. If the hexagon triple system has the additional property that the collection of inside 3-cycles (a,c,e) is a k-fold triple system it is said to be perfect. A perfect maximum packing of 3kKn with hexagon triples is a triple (X,C,L), where C is a collection of edge disjoint hexagon triples and L is a collection of 3-cycles such that the insides of the hexagon triples plus the inside of the triangles in L form a maximum packing of kKn with triangles. This paper gives a complete solution (modulo two possible exceptions) of the problem of constructing perfect maximum packings of 3kKn with hexagon triples.

Abstract Objective. We analyzed the relationship between serum leptin levels and bone mineral density (BMD) values as well as the relationship between serum leptin levels and whole body composition, whether or not they were associated. In addition, we also investigated whether lean mass or fat mass is a better predictor of BMD in postmenopausal Turkish women. Design and measurements. One hundred consecutive postmenopausal women with a mean age of 55.1±6.3 years who visited our outpatient clinic for the evaluation of osteoporosis were recruited. Skin fold thickness at four sites and waist:hip ratio were measured. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated in kg/m2. Serum concentrations of leptin, insulin, and estradiol were evaluated. Bone formation and resorption markers were also determined. The BMD values were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) at the lumbar spine and femoral neck. Whole body composition (lean mass, fat mass, and percentage of fat), total bone mineral content (BMC) in g, and total BMD were also measured by DEXA. Results. Serum leptin levels did not correlate with BMD values at all skeleton sites measured. Leptin correlated positively with fat mass, percentage of fat, and BMI (r=0.738 and P=0.00, r=0.536 and P=0.00, r=0.356 and P=0.00, respectively). Lean mass correlated with BMD at all sites measured (r=0.339 and P=0.00, r=0.312 and P=0.01, r=0.523 and P=0.00, r=0.636 and P=0.00). Lean mass correlated with BMI (r=0.636, P=0.00) but not with serum leptin (r=–0.021, P=0.881), and it was an independent determinant of BMD at all skeleton sites measured. Conclusion. Our study showed that lean mass is a better predictor than fat mass of bone mineral density and that serum leptin levels are not associated with BMD.

In this study which was carried out between March 2003 and February 2005 Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, Cr, Pb and Cd contents were determined in muscle, liver and gill of carp (Cyprinus carpio L., 1758) caught from Beyşehir Lake. Among the heavy metals analyzed Cr, Pb and Cd were below the detection limit (<0.03). Heavy metal concentrations varied significantly depending on the type of the tissue and season. The highest metal concentrations were found in the liver, followed by gill and muscle. Heavy metal levels in tissues of carp were increased in summer and winter, while were decreased in autumn and spring. The present study shows that precautions need to be taken in Beyşehir Lake in order to prevent heavy metal pollution that can occur in the future.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to evaluate echocardiographically determined cardiac functions with serum levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and total antioxidant status (TAOS) in childhood leukemia treated with chemotherapeutics containing anthracyclines.Methods: A study group of 29 patients who have been followed for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and administered a treatment protocol containing chemotherapy of anthracyclines were included in the analysis. Levels of BNP, cTnI and TAOS were studied in serum samples of the patients.Results: We demonstrated that as the drug dosage increased, systolic ejection fraction (EF) and shortening fraction (FS) values decreased (EF r2= 0.2327, FS r2= 0.251). On the other hand, increased dosage of anthracycline therapy was associated with significant raise in plasma BNP levels (r2= 0.246) and significant decrease in serum TAOS levels (r2= 0.317) without any change in serum cTnI levels.Conclusion: Our study suggest that serum TAOS and BNP levels may be useful as an early and sensitive indicator of anthracycline induced cardiotoxicity.

Powders of Al-12Si with 25 and 50 wt% SiC particles were ball-milled in a conventional rotating ball mill with alumina balls for 2 h. The milled powders were plasma-sprayed onto aluminum and stainless steel substrates to obtain Al matrix composites with high SiC weight fraction. The microstructure characteristics of the sprayed composites were investigated by metal microscopy. Surface roughness, coating thickness and microhardness were measured. Microhardness values increased when the amount of SiC particles in Al-12Si coatings increased. The wear behavior of the coatings under dry-sliding and water-lubricated sliding with stainless steel counter material was studied using ball on disc for 10 kN. Wear surfaces were investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Increasing SiC content of coatings increased the wear resistance. The highest wear resistance in coatings was observed in the coating having 50% SiC.

We consider peer-to-peer anti-entropy paradigms for epidemic information diffusion, namely pull, push and hybrid cases, and provide exact performance measures for them. Major benefits of the proposed epidemic algorithms are that they are fully distributed, utilize local information only via pair-wise interactions, and provide eventual consistency, scalability and communication topology-independence. Our contribution is the derivation of exact expressions for infection probabilities through elaborated counting techniques on a digraph. Considering the first passage times of a Markov chain based on these probabilities, we find the expected message delay experienced by each peer and its overall mean as a function of initial number of infectious peers. In terms of these criteria, the hybrid approach outperforms pull and push paradigms, and push is better than the pull case. Such theoretical results would be beneficial when integrating the models in several peer-to-peer distributed application scenarios.

In this study, our aim was to prepare low-cost autogenous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for use in minor bone grafting procedures. This was the preliminary study of an experimental study concerning augmentation of bony defects with a mixture of PRP and beta-tricalcium phosphate. Venous blood was collected from marginal ear veins of New Zealand White rabbits in EDTA (K3) vacutainer tubes. Blood samples were divided into 2 groups, and PRP was prepared through 2 methods, 1 of which is a variant of the other. The 2 PRP preparation methods described in this study were modified from Landesberg et al (J Oral Maxillofac Surg 58:297, 2000) after several trials, because the platelet enrichment percentages we obtained using their method were very low. Complete blood counts of venous blood samples, PRP, and platelet poor plasma (PPP) were made. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows (SPSS, Chicago, IL). It took approximately 30 minutes to prepare PRP with both methods. Platelet counts in PRP were increased with respect to venous blood platelet counts. The differences between the experimental groups and genders were evaluated statistically with Mann-Whitney U tests (P &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt; .05). Correlations between the groups and genders were also evaluated (P &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt; .05). It was experimentally shown that PRP with high platelet counts can be prepared using this modified method without the need for costly autotransfusion systems.