Strategy revision opportunities and collusion

This paper studies whether and how strategy revision opportunities affect levels of collusion in indefinitely repeated two-player games. Consistent with standard theory, we find that such opportunities do not affect strategy choices, or collusion levels, if the game is of strategic substitutes. In games of strategic complements, by contrast, revision opportunities lead to more collusion. We discuss alternative explanations for this result

Chemotherapy and diffuse low-grade gliomas: a survey within the European Low-Grade Glioma Network.

Diffuse low-grade gliomas (DLGGs) are rare and incurable tumors. Whereas maximal safe, functional-based surgical resection is the first-line treatment, the timing and choice of further treatments (chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or combined treatments) remain controversial. An online survey on the management of DLGG patients was sent to 28 expert centers from the European Low-Grade Glioma Network (ELGGN) in May 2015. It contained 40 specific questions addressing the modalities of use of chemotherapy in these patients. The survey demonstrated a significant heterogeneity in practice regarding the initial management of DLGG patients and the use of chemotherapy. Interestingly, radiation therapy combined with the procarbazine, CCNU (lomustine), and vincristine regimen has not imposed itself as the gold-standard treatment after surgery, despite the results of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 9802 study. Temozolomide is largely used as first-line treatment after surgical resection for high-risk DLGG patients, or at progression. The heterogeneity in the management of patients with DLGG demonstrates that many questions regarding the postoperative strategy and the use of chemotherapy remain unanswered. Our survey reveals a high recruitment potential within the ELGGN for retrospective or prospective studies to generate new data regarding these issues

PPI-Delayed Diagnosis of Gastrinoma: Oncologic Victim of Pharmacologic Success

Functional neuroendocrine tumors are often low-grade malignant neoplasms that can be cured by surgery if detected early, and such detection may in turn be accelerated by the recognition of neuropeptide hypersecretion syndromes. Uniquely, however, relief of peptic symptoms induced by hypergastrinemia is now available from acid-suppressive drugs such as proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs). Here we describe a clinical case in which time to diagnosis from the onset of peptic symptoms was delayed more than 10 years, in part reflecting symptom masking by continuous prescription of the PPI omeprazole. We propose diagnostic criteria for this under-recognized new clinical syndrome, and recommend that physicians routinely measure serum gastrin levels in persistent cases of PPI-dependent dyspepsia unassociated with H. pylori

IL28B genetic variations are associated with high sustained virological response (SVR) of interferon-α plus ribavirin therapy in Taiwanese chronic HCV infection

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection patients exhibit different sustained virological responses (SVRs) following the treatment with pegylated interferon-α (IFN-α) and ribavirin. Genome-wide association studies consistently linked SVR of IFN-α-based therapy to the IL28B single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 19q.13 in various populations. This study was undertaken to investigate the association of IL28B SNPs with SVR in a cohort of Taiwanese chronic HCV patients. Ten SNPs of IL28B were genotyped in 728 chronic HCV patients and 960 healthy controls. Genotype distributions, allele frequencies and haplotypes were tested for SVR and susceptibility in Taiwanese chronic HCV patients. Non-genotype 1 infection (adjusted P=3.3 × 10−12, odds ratio (OR) 0.179; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.110–0.290) and low HCV viral load (<400 000 IU ml–1) (adjusted P=3.5 × 10−9, OR 0.299; 95% CI: 0.200–0.446) were two major factors identified for high SVR. Notably, eight IL28B SNPs including previously described disease-associated SNPs (Trend test P=0.005) were significantly associated with SVR. Our data indicate that IL28B polymorphisms are the essential contributing factors for high SVR in Taiwanese chronic HCV patients. Combination of virus genotyping and host genetic data may be used to select the optimal treatment regimes in IFN-based therapy

On the Complexity of Pareto-optimal Nash and Strong Equilibria

We consider the computational complexity of coalitional solution concepts in scenarios related to load balancing suchas anonymous and congestion games. Incongestion games, Pareto-optimal Nash and strong equilibria, which are resilient to coalitional deviations, have recently been shown to yield significantly smaller inefficiency. Unfortunately, we show that several problems regarding existence, recognition, and computation of these concepts are hard, even in seemingly special classes of games. In anonymous games with constant number of strategies, we can efficiently recognize a state as Pareto-optimal Nash or strong equilibrium, but deciding existence for a game remains hard. In the case of player-specific singleton congestion games, we show that recognition and computation of both concepts can be done efficiently. In addition, in these games there are always short sequences of coalitional improvement moves to Pareto-optimal Nash and strong equilibria that can be computed efficiently

Daily consumption of a synbiotic yogurt decreases energy intake but does not improve gastrointestinal transit time: a double-blind, randomized, crossover study in healthy adults

Abstract Objective Probiotic and synbiotic products are widely marketed to healthy individuals, although potential benefits for these individuals are rarely studied. This study investigated the effect of daily consumption of a synbiotic yogurt on gastrointestinal (GI) function in a sample of healthy adults. Subjects/Methods In a randomized crossover double-blind study, 65 healthy adults consumed 200 g/day of yogurt with (synbiotic) or without (control) added probiotics (Bifidobacterium lactis Bb12, Lactobacillus acidophilus La5, Lactobacillus casei CRL431) and 4 g inulin for two 15-day treatment periods, each preceded by a 6-week washout period. GI transit time (GTT), duration of colour (DOC), GI symptoms and dietary intake were assessed and analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA, including PRE-treatment GTT as a covariate. Participants were grouped as short GTT (STT, n = 50, ≤32.7 h) or long GTT (LTT, n = 15, >32.7 h) based on their PRE-treatment GTT assessment. Results POST-treatment GTT and DOC were not different between synbiotic and control, and did not change from PRE-treatment, within the STT or LTT groups. There were no changes in GI symptom ratings, indicating that both yogurts were well tolerated. In STT, energy, fat and protein intakes were decreased from baseline with synbiotic (p = 0.055, p = 0.059 and p = 0.005, respectively) and dietary fibre intake was higher POST-treatment with synbiotic versus control (p = 0.0002). In LTT, decreases in energy and fat intakes with synbiotic were not significant (p = 0.14 and p = 0.18, respectively) and there were no differences in dietary fibre intake. Conclusion Consuming 200 g/day of synbiotic yogurt did not significantly alter GTT in healthy adults, but was well tolerated and helped to reduce overall energy intake