Consistency, converse consistency, and aspirations in TU-games

In problems of choosing ‘aspirations’ for TU-games, we study two axioms, ‘MW-consistency’ and ‘converse MW-consistency.’ In particular, we study which subsolutions of the aspiration correspondence satisfy MW-consistency and/or converse MW-consistency. We also provide axiomatic characterizations of the aspiration kernel and the aspiration nucleolus

Neglected foreign body aspiration mimicking bronchial carcinoma

Foreign body aspiration can occur in any age group, but it is more commonly seen in children. In adults, there is usually a predisposing condition that poses a risk of aspiration. If aspiration occurs, prompt diagnosis and extraction of the foreign body is needed to prevent early and late complications. We report a rare case of neglected foreign body aspiration in a 45-year-old schizophrenic opium addicted patient, which resulted in an occlusive lesion in the bronchus, mimicking bronchial carcinoma. © The Author(s) 2015

Acromioclavicular joint cyst in ASA 3-4 patients. Whether and how quickly it recurs after aspiration and steroid injection

We observed the clinical course, in the short-medium term, of patients with voluminous type II acromio-clavicular (AC) joint cyst who underwent aspiration and steroid injection regarded as the only possible treatment to avoid possible skin complications. Four patients (7.4% of cases described in literature) (3F-1M ; mean age 83 years, range : 78-87 years) with a voluminous ( > 7 cm) oval, no mobile, no fluctuant cyst overlying the AC joint, were retrospectively observed. The patients, judged by the anesthesiologist as ASA 3-4 patients, were merely submitted to cyst aspiration and steroid injection. The content of the cyst was microscopically analysed. All patients were clinically evaluated on the day of aspiration and after 14-30 days and after 1 year. Shoulder function and pain intensity were analysed with Constant score and VAS. We were able to aspirate 80-150 ml of amorphous joint fluid. At the first follow-up, all patients had a recurrence of the cyst, a lower grade of tension of the skin overlying the cyst and also a very little decreasing of pain intensity. After a month from aspiration, the cysts of the 4 patients had the same size as that present before aspiration. The range of motion, the average value of VAS and Constant were similar to those recorded before aspiration. In no case signs of infection or draining sinus occurred. Aspiration is a useless practice. However it is still a motive for discussion if the reduced suffering of the skin overlying the cyst after the aspiration has avoided, or simply postponed, an imminent complication

Characteristics of Alveolar Bone Marrow Cells from Patients Undergoing Dental Extractions or Dental Implant Therapy

Alveolar bone marrow stromal cells (aBMSCs) play important roles in craniofacial wound healing. To establish an easy, efficient and reliable method to harvest aBMSCs, we compared three different methods: extraction socket aspiration, osteotomy aspiration and bone core digestion. Samples of aBMSC were collected from two groups of subjects. Group 1 (dental extraction): after dental extraction, 22.5-gauge needles were used to collect 0.5-1cc marrow aspirate. Group 2 (dental implant): during implant surgeries, bone core and 0.5-1cc marrow aspirate were obtained from the osteotomy. Samples were cultured in petri dishes and attached cells were expanded. The population doubling time (PDT), surface markers, and osteogenic differentiation potential of these cells were studied. In total 12 subjects were enrolled in the study. The success rates of generating aBMSCs from extraction socket aspiration, osteotomy aspiration and bone core digestion were 42.8% (3/7), 40% (2/5) and 80% (4/5), respectively. Cells from extraction socket aspiration had the fastest proliferation rate among the three sample types, followed by bone core and osteotomy aspiration, as shown in PDTs and DNA fold changes. After isolation and expansion, all the aBMSCs expressed high levels of CD 73, CD90, and CD105, however, the expression of CD146 varied among the cells. Cells derived from bone core had the highest ALP activity after osteogenic induction, followed by cells from osteotomy aspiration, and then extraction aspiration. Taken together, bone core samples obtained during implant surgery is a more reliable source for generating aBMSCs and aBMSCs harvested from different methods may have different characteristics

Retrospective Review of Fluoroscopic Swallowing Studies and Outcomes at an Academic Health Center

Introduction: Aspiration is often associated with underlying medical conditions and can cause pneumonia or death. Aspiration risk can be assessed via video fluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) or barium swallow (BaSw). We aimed to assess the diagnoses and clinical course of patients who were evaluated for potential aspiration through VFSS or BaSw to determine if there is a degree of aspiration that increases the risk of developing pneumonia and/or death. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 374 patients in TJUH who were evaluated via VFSS or BaSw from January 1 to June 30, 2017. We recorded the degree and contents of aspiration, the underlying diagnoses, and evidence of subsequent pneumonia. We then collected data for any future admissions concerning for pneumonia. Results: Of the 374 patients, 165 had swallowing studies positive for laryngeal penetration or aspiration. Of the 165 patients, 78 patients (47.2%) had evidence of clinical and radiological pneumonia, and 18 of those 78 patients (23.1%) died. We found that 61 of 165 exhibited laryngeal penetration. Of those 61, 23 patients (37.7%) showed clinical and radiological signs of pneumonia, and 7 of the 23 (30.4%) died of aspiration pneumonia. Discussion: The incidence of pneumonia was considerable in persons with an abnormal swallow and the mortality rate was substantial. Minimally abnormal swallows with laryngeal penetration, but no true aspiration, still had serious consequences. While the incidence of pneumonia was lower (37.7%), there was a substanitial mortality rate (30.4%)

Lipid-laden alveolar macrophages and pH monitoring in gastroesophageal reflux-related respiratory symptoms

Lipid-laden alveolar macrophages and pH monitoring have been used in the diagnosis of chronic aspiration in children with gastroesophageal reflux (GER). This study was conducted to prove a correlation between the detection of alimentary pulmonary fat phagocytosis and an increasing amount of proximal gastroesophageal reflux. It was assumed that proximal gastroesophageal reflux better correlates with aspiration than distal GER. Patients from 6 months to 16 years with unexplained recurrent wheezy bronchitis and bronchial hyperreactivity, or recurrent pneumonia with chronic cough underwent 24-hour double-channel pH monitoring and bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Aspiration of gastric content was determined by counting lipid laden alveolar macrophages from BAL specimens. There were no correlations between any pH-monitoring parameters and counts of lipid-laden macrophages in the whole study population, even when restricting analysis to those with abnormal reflux index expressing clinically significant GER. Quantifying lipid-laden alveolar macrophages from BAL in children with gastroesophageal-related respiratory disorders does not have an acceptable specificity to prove chronic aspiration as an underlying etiology. Therefore, research for other markers of pulmonary aspiration is needed

Aspiration Dynamics of Multi-player Games in Finite Populations

Studying strategy update rules in the framework of evolutionary game theory, one can differentiate between imitation processes and aspiration-driven dynamics. In the former case, individuals imitate the strategy of a more successful peer. In the latter case, individuals adjust their strategies based on a comparison of their payoffs from the evolutionary game to a value they aspire, called the level of aspiration. Unlike imitation processes of pairwise comparison, aspiration-driven updates do not require additional information about the strategic environment and can thus be interpreted as being more spontaneous. Recent work has mainly focused on understanding how aspiration dynamics alter the evolutionary outcome in structured populations. However, the baseline case for understanding strategy selection is the well-mixed population case, which is still lacking sufficient understanding. We explore how aspiration-driven strategy-update dynamics under imperfect rationality influence the average abundance of a strategy in multi-player evolutionary games with two strategies. We analytically derive a condition under which a strategy is more abundant than the other in the weak selection limiting case. This approach has a long standing history in evolutionary game and is mostly applied for its mathematical approachability. Hence, we also explore strong selection numerically, which shows that our weak selection condition is a robust predictor of the average abundance of a strategy. The condition turns out to differ from that of a wide class of imitation dynamics, as long as the game is not dyadic. Therefore a strategy favored under imitation dynamics can be disfavored under aspiration dynamics. This does not require any population structure thus highlights the intrinsic difference between imitation and aspiration dynamics

CONGRUENCE BETWEEN SUBJECT CHOICE AND CAREERNOCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS OF ADOLESCENTS

The study investigated congruence in subject choice and career/vocational aspirations of adolescents. The Adolescent Personal Data lnventory(APDI) administered to a total of 120 respondents in secondary schools in lbadan Metropolis was used in investigating congruence in subject choice of Senior Secondary School Adolescents. Scoring and tabulation of data done at different levels relevant to Section E of the APDI using information from table of congruence depicted subject choices were relevant to career /vocational aspiration of adolescents for all careers investigated in the study, with the exception of architecture and physiotherapy. Adolescent respondents recorded 45.5% non- relevance of subject choice to vocational aspiration in Architecture, while they recorded a 53% non relevance of subject choice to vocational aspiration in Physiotherapy. In all, for six (6) of the careers investigated, participants subject choices rated 100% congruence to vocations of their aspiration

Automatic Measurement of Pre-aspiration

Pre-aspiration is defined as the period of glottal friction occurring in sequences of vocalic/consonantal sonorants and phonetically voiceless obstruents. We propose two machine learning methods for automatic measurement of pre-aspiration duration: a feedforward neural network, which works at the frame level; and a structured prediction model, which relies on manually designed feature functions, and works at the segment level. The input for both algorithms is a speech signal of an arbitrary length containing a single obstruent, and the output is a pair of times which constitutes the pre-aspiration boundaries. We train both models on a set of manually annotated examples. Results suggest that the structured model is superior to the frame-based model as it yields higher accuracy in predicting the boundaries and generalizes to new speakers and new languages. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of our structured prediction algorithm by replicating linguistic analysis of pre-aspiration in Aberystwyth English with high correlation