Plenty of Fish in the Sea: Divorce Choice and the Quality of Singles

In the literature of marriage, divorce choices are usually assumed to not affect the distribution of types in the pool of singles. The scope of the present paper is to overcome this assumption. We analyse divorce choices when separation decision influences the distribution of singles and, thus, their expected quality. We consider a three-period model where heterogeneous individuals may unilaterally experience divorce and return to the marriage market. The choices of individuals are based on the change in the distribution of singles and the cost of waiting and divorcing, taking into consideration the individual’s eligibility in the marriage market. There are two main findings: Firstly, positive assortative matching dissolves with divorce for some intermediate types. Therefore, the endogenous positive assortative matching that usually emerges in models with nontransferable utility is weakened when matches can dissolve. Secondly, the existence of ranges where divorce emerges among individuals with positive assortative matching implies the existence of two disconnected classes of types. If matchings in the first period were to occur between individuals of different classes, such matches would be dissolved later

Soft-tissue sarcoma in adults: An update on the current state of histiotype-specific management in an era of personalized medicine.

AbstractSoft‐tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare tumors that account for 1% of all adult malignancies, with over 100 different histologic subtypes occurring predominately in the trunk, extremity, and retroperitoneum. This low incidence is further complicated by their variable presentation, behavior, and long‐term outcomes, which emphasize the importance of centralized care in specialized centers with a multidisciplinary team approach. In the last decade, there has been an effort to improve the quality of care for patients with STS based on anatomic site and histology, and multiple ongoing clinical trials are focusing on tailoring therapy to histologic subtype. This report summarizes the latest evidence guiding the histiotype‐specific management of extremity/truncal and retroperitoneal STS with regard to surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy

Simulating the Cost of Cooperation: A Recipe for Collaborative Problem-Solving

Collective problem-solving and decision-making, along with other forms of collaboration online, are central phenomena within ICT. There had been several attempts to create a system able to go beyond the passive accumulation of data. However, those systems often neglect important variables such as group size, the difficulty of the tasks, the tendency to cooperate, and the presence of selfish individuals (free riders). Given the complex relations among those variables, numerical simulations could be the ideal tool to explore such relationships. We take into account the cost of cooperation in collaborative problem solving by employing several simulated scenarios. The role of two parameters was explored: the capacity, the group’s capability to solve increasingly challenging tasks coupled with the collective knowledge of a group, and the payoff, an individual’s own benefit in terms of new knowledge acquired. The final cooperation rate is only affected by the cost of cooperation in the case of simple tasks and small communities. In contrast, the fitness of the community, the difficulty of the task, and the groups sizes interact in a non-trivial way, hence shedding some light on how to improve crowdsourcing when the cost of cooperation is high

Prognostic relevance of ALT-associated markers in liposarcoma: a comparative analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most cancers maintain telomeres by activating telomerase but a significant minority, mainly of mesenchymal origin, utilize an alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) mechanism.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study we comparatively analyzed the prognostic relevance of ALT in a monoinstitutional series of 85 liposarcoma patients as a function of the marker (ALT-associated promyelocytic leukemia bodies (APB) versus heterogeneous telomeres) used to classify the tumor.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Independently of the detection approach, ALT proved to be a prognostic discriminant of increased mortality, although the prognostic relevance of the two markers appeared at different follow-up intervals (at 10 years for APB and 15 years for telomeres).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Overall, we confirmed ALT as an indicator of poor clinical outcome in this disease and provide the first evidence that the sensitivity of the ALT predictive power depends, at least in part, on the method used.</p

Modeling the overalternating bias with an asymmetric entropy measure

Psychological research has found that human perception of randomness is biased. In particular, people consistently show the overalternating bias: they rate binary sequences of symbols (such as Heads and Tails in coin flipping) with an excess of alternation as more random than prescribed by the normative criteria of Shannon's entropy. Within data mining for medical applications, Marcellin proposed an asymmetric measure of entropy that can be ideal to account for such bias and to quantify subjective randomness. We fitted Marcellin's entropy and Renyi's entropy (a generalized form of uncertainty measure comprising many different kinds of entropies) to experimental data found in the literature with the Differential Evolution algorithm. We observed a better fit for Marcellin's entropy compared to Renyi's entropy. The fitted asymmetric entropy measure also showed good predictive properties when applied to different datasets of randomness-related tasks. We concluded that Marcellin's entropy can be a parsimonious and effective measure of subjective randomness that can be useful in psychological research about randomness perception

Staging, nomograms and other predictive tools in retroperitoneal soft tissue sarcoma.

Patient outcomes following surgical resection of retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPSs) are variable and therefore predicting prognosis is challenging. The risk of recurrence varies according to several patient- tumour- and treatment-related characteristics, including histological subtype and tumour grade. In an era of increased movement towards individualised patient care, the ability to predict prognosis following surgery for RPS is essential. The accurate prediction of an individual patient's outcome is important to allow adequate patient counselling and to ensure the optimal therapeutic strategy is selected. The outcomes of patients who have undergone resection for RPS can be predicted using tools such as nomograms. Nomograms take into account the relative contribution of each variable by giving them different weights and then combining them. This review aims to discuss current staging systems available for RPS and to critically appraise predictive tools that are currently available for use in clinical practice

Innovative system of very wide field optical sensors for space surveillance in the LEO region

ABSTRACT We present the results of a large scale simulation, reproducing the behavior of a data center for the build-up and maintenance of a complete catalog of space debris in the upper part of the low Earth orbits region (LEO). The purpose is to determine the achievable performances of a network of advanced optical sensors, through the use of the newest orbit determination algorithms developed by the Department of Mathematics of Pisa (DM). Such a network was designed and proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) framework by Carlo Gavazzi Space SpA (CGS), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), DM and Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell&apos;Informazione (ISTI-CNR). The latest developed orbit determination algorithms were used to process simulated observations from the proposed network. In particular two innovative methods for preliminary orbit determination based on the first integrals of the Kepler problem were compared, by using them to process the same data. In both cases, the results showed that it is possible to use a network of optical sensors to build up a catalog containing more than 98% of the objects with perigee height between 1100 and 2000 km, and diameter greater than 8 cm. Such a catalog is obtained in just two months of observations. However, such results depend upon specific assumptions on the sensor and on the software technologies

Staging systems and nomograms in soft tissue sarcoma: outcome prediction by categorization or personalization?

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare cancers that most commonly develop in the extremities and trunk, but can develop in any location throughout the body. Similar to other cancers, staging systems have been available, but for STS these have historically been criticized as inadequate and poorly applicable to daily clinical practice. In 2018, the American Joint Cancer Committee's (AJCC) TNM staging system was updated (8 th edition) with changes such as separation by tumor location and categorization of all node-positive disease as Stage 4

Working to improve the management of sarcoma patients across Europe: a policy checklist

Background: The Sarcoma Policy Checklist was created by a multidisciplinary expert group to provide policymakers with priority areas to improve care for sarcoma patients. Main body: This paper draws on this research, by looking more closely at how France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom are addressing each of these priority areas. It aims to highlight key gaps in research, policy and practice, as well as ongoing initiatives that may impact the future care of sarcoma patients in different European countries. A pragmatic review of the published and web-based literature was undertaken. Telephone interviews were conducted in each country with clinical and patient experts to substantiate findings. Research findings were discussed within the expert group and developed into five core policy recommendations. The five identified priority areas were: the development of designated and accredited centres of reference; more professional training; multidisciplinary care; greater incentives for research and innovation; and more rapid access to effective treatments. Most of the countries studied have ongoing initiatives addressing many of these priorities; however, many are in early stages of development, or require additional funding and resources. Conclusion: Gaps in access to quality care are particularly concerning in many of Europe’s lower-resourced countries. Equitable access to information, clinical trials, innovative treatments and quality specialist care should be available to all sarcoma patients. Achieving this across Europe will require close collaboration between all stakeholders at both the national and European level

Surgical management of retroperitoneal sarcoma and opportunities for global collaboration

Retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS) are rare cancers that often reach massive size before detection. The mainstay of treatment for RPS is surgical resection, and complete resection is the only chance for potential cure. The management of RPS can be challenging and in individual cases, radiation and systemic therapy may be beneficial in both primary and recurrent disease. Further research through multi-institutional collaboration, ideally on a global level, is needed to better understand RPS and optimize management of this disease