22,754 research outputs found
Kamakahi v. ASRM: The Egg Donor Price Fixing Litigation
In April 2011, Lindsay Kamakahi caused an international stir by suing the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), SART-member fertility clinics, and a number of egg donor agencies on behalf of herself and other oocyte donors. The suit challenged the ASRM-SART oocyte donor compensation guidelines, which limit payments to egg donors to 10,000 under special circumstances), as an illegal price-fixing agreement in violation of United States antitrust laws.
Ensuing discussion of the case has touched on familiar debates surrounding coercion, commodification, and exploitation. It has also revealed many misconceptions about oocyte donation, the allegations in the case, and antitrust lawâs application to the ASRM-SART oocyte donor compensation guidelines. Regardless of outcome, the suit is an important one that could signal a change in public attitudes about the propriety of mixing money with motherhood. It should â and will â be closely watched
Robust estimation on a parametric model via testing
We are interested in the problem of robust parametric estimation of a density
from i.i.d. observations. By using a practice-oriented procedure based on
robust tests, we build an estimator for which we establish non-asymptotic risk
bounds with respect to the Hellinger distance under mild assumptions on the
parametric model. We show that the estimator is robust even for models for
which the maximum likelihood method is bound to fail. A numerical simulation
illustrates its robustness properties. When the model is true and regular
enough, we prove that the estimator is very close to the maximum likelihood
one, at least when the number of observations is large. In particular, it
inherits its efficiency. Simulations show that these two estimators are almost
equal with large probability, even for small values of when the model is
regular enough and contains the true density.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/15-BEJ706 in the Bernoulli
(http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical
Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm
The effects of response probability on commission errors in high go low no-go dual response versions of the sustained attention to response task (SART)
In the current investigation, we modified the high Go low No-Go Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) by replacing the single response on Go trials with a dual response (dual response SART or DR SART). In three experiments a total of 80 participants completed the SART and versions of the DR SART in which response probabilities varied from 50-50, through 70-30 to 90-10. The probability of No-Go withhold stimuli was .11 in all experiments. Using a dynamic utility based model proposed by Peebles and Bothell (2004) we predicted that the 50-50 DR-SART would dramatically reduce commission errors. Additionally, the model predicted that the probability of commission errors to be an increasing function of response frequency. Both predictions were confirmed. Although the increasing rate of commission errors with response probability can also be accommodated by the rationale originally proposed for the SART by its creators (Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997) the fact that the current DR SART results and SART findings in general can be accommodated by a utility model without need for any attention processes is a challenge to views that ascribe commission errors to lapses of sustained attention
Variable Weighted Ordered Subset Image Reconstruction Algorithm
We propose two variable weighted iterative reconstruction algorithms (VW-ART and VW-OS-SART) to improve the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) and simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART) and establish their convergence. In the two algorithms, the weighting varies with the geometrical direction of the ray. Experimental results with both numerical simulation and real CT data demonstrate that the VW-ART has a significant improvement in the quality of reconstructed images over ART and OS-SART. Moreover, both VW-ART and VW-OS-SART are more promising in convergence speed than the ART and SART, respectively
Review of the lithostratigraphy of the Middle Ordovician to Llandovery of the Condroz inlier (Belgium) by chitinozoan biostratigraphy: does the sedimentary succesion records the Ardennian deformation?
This paper reports on chitinozoans from the early Llanvirn (mid Darriwilian) Huy Formation found at three localities in the central Condroz Inlier: the Huy and Sart-Bernard railway sections and the WĂ©pion borehole. In addition, it presents data on chitinozoans from the middle Caradoc (upper Sandbian to lower Katian) Sart-Bernard Formation, known from the eastern Sart-Bernard railway section and historically confused with the Huy Formation. We confirm the distinct palaeontological and lithological differences between the two formations, already noted by some authors. Our data, however, suggest that the Huy Formation is probably absent in the eastern Sart-Bernard section and demonstrate that the supposed stratigraphic hiatus between the Huy and Sart-Bernard formations is at least partly occupied by the soon-to-be-defined Chevreuils Formation. The chitinozoans indicate an early Abereiddian (early Llanvirn, mid Darriwilian) age for the Huy Formation and a BurrellianCheneyan age (middle Caradoc, late Sandbian to early Katian) for the Sart-Bernard Formation, thus narrowing the known stratigraphic range of these units. The chitinozoans of the Huy Formation have a northern Gondwana signature, whereas those of the Sart-Bernard Formation show clear Baltoscandian affinities
Ability of dyslexic and control teenagers to sustain attention and inhibit responses
Dyslexia and attentional difficulty have often been linked, but little is known of the nature of the supposed attentional disorder. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART: Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley and Yiend, 1997) was designed as a measure of sustained attention and requires the withholding of responses to rare (one in nine) targets. To investigate the nature of the attentional disorder in dyslexia, this paper reports two studies which examined the performance of teenagers with dyslexia and their age-matched controls on the SART, the squiggle SART (a modification of the SART using novel and unlabellable stimuli rather than digits) and the go-gap-stop test of response inhibition (GGST). Teenagers with dyslexia made significantly more errors than controls on the original SART, but not the squiggle SART. There were no group differences on the GGST. After controlling for speed of reaction time in a sequential multiple regression predicting SART false alarms, false alarms on the GGST accounted for up to 22% extra variance in the control groups (although less on the squiggle SART) but negligible amounts of variance in the dyslexic groups. We interpret the results as reflecting a stimulus recognition automaticity deficit in dyslexia, rather than a sustained attention deficit. Furthermore, results suggest that response inhibition is an important component of performance on the standard SART when stimuli are recognised automatically
Long-Term Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Hypnotherapy in Patients with Severe Endometriosis - a Retrospective Evaluation
Background: 15% of patients with severe endometriosis suffer from pain symptoms in spite of pharmacological and surgical treatments. In this retrospective study we aimed to assess the effectiveness of a combined therapy of Traditional Chinese medicine and hypnotherapy (systemic autoregulation therapy, SART) as a novel treatment for endometriosis-associated symptoms. Patients and Methods: 47 patients with severe endometriosis, which were treated with SART, were followed-up by standardized telephone interviews. Follow-up data were compared to baseline assessments. Results: Median follow-up time was 5 years. The median intensity of endometriosis-associated pain had decreased from 8 to 3 points on a 0-10 point visual analogue scale (p < 0.001). 18 patients (38%) were free of pain, and the number of patients using pain medication had decreased from 38 to 19 (from 81% to 40%). 17 out of the 31 women trying for a pregnancy (55%) showed a total of 21 births at follow-up. Exploratory analyses revealed that larger decreases in pain scores correlated significantly with longer treatment durations, suggesting a dose-response relationship. Conclusion: Treatment of endometriosis with a holistic approach of Chinese medicine and hypnotherapy may result in a substantial reduction of pain as well as increased birth rates in patients with therapy-refractory endometriosis. Randomized controlled studies to further investigate the effectiveness of SART are highly warranted
- âŠ