Iterated Strict Dominance in General Games

We offer a definition of iterated elimination of strictly dominated strategies (IESDS) for games with (in)finite players, (non)compact strategy sets, and (dis)continuous payoff functions. IESDS is always a well-defined order independent procedure that can be used to solve Nash equilibrium in dominance-solvable games. We characterize IESDS by means of a "stability" criterion, and offer a sufficient and necessary epistemic condition for IESDS. We show by an example that IESDS may generate spurious Nash equilibria in the class of Reny's better-reply secure games. We provide sufficient/necessary conditions under which IESDS preserves the set of Nash equilibria. Nous donnons une définition de l’élimination itérative des stratégies qui sont strictement donimées (EISSD) pour les jeux avec un nombre fini (ou infini) de joueurs , des ensembles de stratégies compactes (ou non-compactes), et des fonctions de gains continues (ou non-continues). Le processus EISSD est bien défini et indépendant de l’ordre d’élimination. Nous donnons une caractérisation du processus EISSD en utilisant un critère de stabilité et offrons une condition épistémologique. Nous démontrons que le processus EISSD peut produire des équilibres faux dans la classe des jeux de meilleures réponses sécuritaires de Reny. Nous donnons des conditions nécessaires et suffisantes pour que le processus EISSD conserve l’ensemble des équilibre de Nash.game theory, strict dominance, iterated elimination, Nash equilibrium, Reny's better-reply secure games., théorie des jeux, dominance stricte, élimination itérative, équilibre de Nash, jeux de meilleures réponses sécuritaires de Reny

Quantum Critical Spin-2 Chain with Emergent SU(3) Symmetry

We study the quantum critical phase of a SU(2) symmetric spin-2 chain obtained from spin-2 bosons in a one-dimensional lattice. We obtain the scaling of the entanglement entropy and finite-size energies by exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization group methods. From the numerical results of the energy spectrum, central charge, and scaling dimension we identify the conformal field theory describing the whole critical phase to be the SU(3)$_1$ Wess-Zumino-Witten model. We find that while in the whole critical phase the Hamiltonian is only SU(2) invariant, there is an emergent SU(3) symmetry in the thermodynamic limit

Locoregional therapy in luminal-like and HER2-enriched patients with de novo stage IV breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Locoregional therapy is rarely the standard of care for De Novo stage IV breast cancer but usually used for palliation of symptoms. This retrospective study aimed to determine whether surgery or radiation would contribute to survival benefit for this group of patients by examining the survival outcome through the disease molecular subtypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed 246 patients with de novo stage IV (M1) breast cancer treated at our hospital between 1990 and 2009. Multivariable Cox Analysis was used to evaluate the survival association with subtypes and clinicopathologic factors. RESULTS: Patients with luminal-like subtype are mostly premonopausal (66.9%, P = 0.0002), with abnormal CA 15–3 level at initial diagnosis (58.7%, P = 0.01), a higher rate of bony metastases (78.5%, P = 0.02), and a lower rate of liver metastases (22.3%, P < 0.0001). Patients with HER2-enriched and triple negative showed higher rate of nuclear grade III, up to 35% and 40%, respectively (P = 0.01). There is no difference in treatment options patient received: systemic chemotherapy up to 82.2 ~ 95% (p = 0.0705), locoregional treatment up to 40.0 ~ 51.2% (P-0.2571). The median overall survival was 23.1 months: luminal-like subtype 39.6 months, HER2-enriched subtype 17.9 months, and triple negative subtype 13.3 months, respectively (P < 0.0001). In multivariate analysis, poor prognostic factors included HER2-enriched (HR 2.2, P < 0.0001) and triple negative subtype (HR 4.3, P < 0.0001), liver metastasis (HR 1.9, P < 0.0001), lung metastasis (HR 1.4, P = 0.0153), and bone metastasis (HR 1.8, P = 0.0007). Subgroup analysis revealed that local treatments (surgery or radiotherapy) to primary/regional tumors achieved better survival in patients with luminal-like (3-year survival 66.4% vs. 34.4%, p = 0.0001) and HER2-enriched (3-year survival 41.6% vs. 8.8%, p = 0.0012) subtypes, but not in triple negative subtype (P = 0.9575). CONCLUSIONS: For better survival outcome, De Novo Stage IV breast cancer patients with luminal-like or HER2-enriched subtype should be offered local treatments when surgery and/or radiotherapy presents an option for proper control of the primary and regional tumors

Pengaruh Penerapan Strategi Concept Mapping terhadap Hasil Belajar Siswa di Sekolah Dasar

This study aimed to analyze the influence of concept mapping strategy towards the learning result students in social science study on the V B grade of SD Negeri 17 Pontianak Kota. This study used an experimental method with Pre-Experimental design form using One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design. The population in this research were 68 students. The samples in this research was V B as a research class. Based on the t-test, the calculation result obtained t test (7,29) > t table (1,699) with significance level α = 5% means a significant influence using concept mapping strategy. The value of effect size (ES) is 0.39 with moderate category. It means that concept mapping strategy give a moderate effect to the learning result students in social science study on the V B grade of SD Negeri 17 Pontianak Kota

Prostate biopsies guided by three-dimensional real-time (4-D) transrectal ultrasonography on a phantom: comparative study versus two-dimensional transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsies

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the accuracy in localisation and distribution of real-time three-dimensional (4-D) ultrasound-guided biopsies on a prostate phantom. METHODS: A prostate phantom was created. A three-dimensional real-time ultrasound system with a 5.9MHz probe was used, making it possible to see several reconstructed orthogonal viewing planes in real time. Fourteen operators performed biopsies first under 2-D then 4-D transurethral ultrasound (TRUS) guidance (336 biopsies). The biopsy path was modelled using segmentation in a 3-D ultrasonographic volume. Special software was used to visualise the biopsy paths in a reference prostate and assess the sampled area. A comparative study was performed to examine the accuracy of the entry points and target of the needle. Distribution was assessed by measuring the volume sampled and a redundancy ratio of the sampled prostate. RESULTS: A significant increase in accuracy in hitting the target zone was identified using 4-D ultrasonography as compared to 2-D. There was no increase in the sampled volume or improvement in the biopsy distribution with 4-D ultrasonography as compared to 2-D. CONCLUSION: The 4-D TRUS guidance appears to show, on a synthetic model, an improvement in location accuracy and in the ability to reproduce a protocol. The biopsy distribution does not seem improved

Decreased risk of acute myocardial infarction in stroke patients receiving acupuncture treatment: a nationwide matched retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Whether acupuncture protects stroke patients from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has not been studied previously. The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk of AMI among stroke patients receiving acupuncture treatment. METHODS: Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database was used to conduct a retrospective cohort study of 23475 stroke patients aged 40–79 years receiving acupuncture treatment and 46950 propensity score-matched stroke patients not receiving acupuncture treatment who served as controls from 2000 to 2004. Both stroke cohorts were followed until the end of 2009 and were adjusted for immortal time to measure the incidence and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for new-onset AMI in multivariate Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS: Stroke patients who received acupuncture treatment (9.2 per 1000 person-years) exhibited a lower incidence of AMI compared with those who did not receive acupuncture treatment (10.8 per 1000 person-years), with an HR of 0.86 (95 % CI, 0.80–0.93) after adjusting for age, sex, low income, coexisting medical conditions and medications. The relationship between acupuncture treatment and AMI risk was investigated in female stroke patients (HR, 0.85; 95 % CI, 0.76–0.95), male stroke patients (HR, 0.87; 95 % CI, 0.80–0.95), patients from 50 to 59 years of age (HR, 0.75; 95 % CI, 0.63–0.90), patients from 60 to 69 years of age (HR, 0.85; 95 % CI, 0.75–0.95), patients suffering from ischemic stroke (HR, 0.87; 95 % CI, 0.79–0.95), and patients suffering from hemorrhagic stroke (HR, 0.62; 95 % CI, 0.44–0.88). CONCLUSIONS: We raised the possibility that acupuncture may be effective in lowering the risk of AMI in stroke patients aged 50–69 in this study, which was limited by a lack of information regarding stroke severity and acupuncture points. Our results suggest that prospective randomized trials are needed to establish the efficacy of acupuncture in preventing AMI

Discovery of Stable and Selective Antibody Mimetics from Combinatorial Libraries of Polyvalent, Loop-Functionalized Peptoid Nanosheets.

The ability of antibodies to bind a wide variety of analytes with high specificity and high affinity makes them ideal candidates for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. However, the poor stability and high production cost of antibodies have prompted exploration of a variety of synthetic materials capable of specific molecular recognition. Unfortunately, it remains a fundamental challenge to create a chemically diverse population of protein-like, folded synthetic nanostructures with defined molecular conformations in water. Here we report the synthesis and screening of combinatorial libraries of sequence-defined peptoid polymers engineered to fold into ordered, supramolecular nanosheets displaying a high spatial density of diverse, conformationally constrained peptoid loops on their surface. These polyvalent, loop-functionalized nanosheets were screened using a homogeneous Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay for binding to a variety of protein targets. Peptoid sequences were identified that bound to the heptameric protein, anthrax protective antigen, with high avidity and selectivity. These nanosheets were shown to be resistant to proteolytic degradation, and the binding was shown to be dependent on the loop display density. This work demonstrates that key aspects of antibody structure and function-the creation of multivalent, combinatorial chemical diversity within a well-defined folded structure-can be realized with completely synthetic materials. This approach enables the rapid discovery of biomimetic affinity reagents that combine the durability of synthetic materials with the specificity of biomolecular materials

Physics perspectives of heavy-ion collisions at very high energy

Heavy-ion collisions at very high colliding energies are expected to produce a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at the highest temperature obtainable in a laboratory setting. Experimental studies of these reactions can provide an unprecedented range of information on properties of the QGP at high temperatures. We report theoretical investigations of the physics perspectives of heavy-ion collisions at a future high-energy collider. These include initial parton production, collective expansion of the dense medium, jet quenching, heavy-quark transport, dissociation and regeneration of quarkonia, photon and dilepton production. We illustrate the potential of future experimental studies of the initial particle production and formation of QGP at the highest temperature to provide constraints on properties of strongly interaction matter.Comment: 35 pages in Latex, 29 figure