The effects of time valuation in cancer optimal therapies: a study of chronic myeloid leukemia

Background The mathematical design of optimal therapies to fight cancer is an important research field in today’s Biomathematics and Biomedicine given its relevance to formulate patient-specific treatments. Until now, however, cancer optimal therapies have considered that malignancy exclusively depends on the drug concentration and the number of cancer cells, ignoring that the faster the cancer grows the worse the cancer is, and that early drug doses are more prejudicial. Here, we analyze how optimal therapies are affected when the time evolution of treated cancer is envisaged as an additional element determining malignancy, analyzing in detail the implications for imatinib-treated Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Methods Taking as reference a mathematical model describing Chronic Myeloid Leukemia dynamics, we design an optimal therapy problem by modifying the usual malignancy objective function, unaware of any temporal dimension of cancer malignance. In particular, we introduce a time valuation factor capturing the increase of malignancy associated to the quick development of the disease and the persistent negative effects of initial drug doses. After assigning values to the parameters involved, we solve and simulate the model with and without the new time valuation factor, comparing the results for the drug doses and the evolution of the disease. Results Our computational simulations unequivocally show that the consideration of a time valuation factor capturing the higher malignancy associated with early growth of cancer and drug administration allows more efficient therapies to be designed. More specifically, when this time valuation factor is incorporated into the objective function, the optimal drug doses are lower, and do not involve medically relevant increases in the number of cancer cells or in the disease duration. Conclusions In the light of our simulations and as biomedical evidence strongly suggests, the existence of a time valuation factor affecting malignancy in treated cancer cannot be ignored when designing cancer optimal therapies. Indeed, the consideration of a time valuation factor modulating malignancy results in significant gains of efficiency in the optimal therapy with relevant implications from the biomedical perspective, specially when designing patient-specific treatments.This work was supported by projects MTM2014-56022-C2-2-P and MTM2017-85476-C2-1-P of the Spanish Office of Innovation and Competitiveness and European FEDER Funds, and by projects of the Castile and León Autonomous Government: VA041P17 (with European FEDER Funds), VA138G18 and VA148G18

Population, immigration and growth in a Romer endogenous growth model

Producción CientíficaEndogenous growth theory has not yet consistently incorporated population growth or immigration into its models. As a result, in the present day, there is no universally accepted endogenous growth model explaining the empirical observed relationships between growth, population and immigration. The present paper overcomes this inconvenience by designing a fully specified Romer endogenous growth model, completely micro-founded, that incorporates the existence of population growth and immigration and that allows the stylised facts of growth as well as the relationships between growth, population and immigration to be explained. In addition, the proposed model is susceptible to calibration and simulation, and, when applied to the US economy, provides a good fit to the data.Financial support from Spanish Office of Economy and Competitiveness and European FEDER Funds, Research Projects MTM2014-56022-C2-2-P and MTM2017-85476-C2-1-P, is gratefully acknowledged

A review of the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and psychopathic traits: is the EI construct a mediator between aggression and psychopathy?

Background: In spite of their normal intelligence, individuals with psychopathic traits are usually characterized as having numerous troubles with social and emotional facets in their daily. These deficits that make complicated their adaptation could be related with deficiencies in their Emotional Intelligence (EI) or their ability to perceive, use, understand and regulate emotions. Aims: The aim of the present study is to review the existing evidence of the relationships between EI and the population with psychopathy traits for a better understanding of the emotional problems of these individuals. As well as to looking for evidence of EI as a possible mediator between psychopathy and the aggressive behavior. Methods: Scopus and Medline were searched for finding relevant articles in Spanish and English. Articles with psychopathic trait populations of all ages assessed through different scales were accepted when they were measured together with a self-report or an ability EI test. Results: These studies provide some evidences that participants with psychopathic traits have lower EI than control participants in almost all the articles found. Specifically, it seems that the secondary psychopathy and their impulsivity trait are the most related aspect of these construct with EI. Besides, the gender and age variables seems to play some roles in the link between EI and psychopathy. For its parts, some studies show evidence of the positive relationship between psychopathy and aggressive behavior as in a negative relation between EI and antisocial conduct. However, none of the reviewed articles stablish EI as a mediator variable. Conclusions: The results obtained from the review could be of special importance for future treatment of psychopathic population as well as for the prevention of a possible disruptive behavior in their adolescence or adulthood. Given that a deficit in EI is achieved for psychopath, an EI intervention could act as a protective factor by reducing their emotional and social shortages or prevent them if the training is implemented in an early period of their life and, therefore, improving their inappropriate behavior. Nonetheless, future research is necessary for a better understanding of the role of EI as a mediator between psychopathy and aggression.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Politics of Abstract Art. Forma 1 and the Italian Communist Party

Este artículo examina el papel del grupo de artistas abstractos Forma 1 en relación con la política cultural del Partido Comunista Italiano durante la posguerra, como ejemplo de los intentos de superar la dicotomía establecida en Italia entre arte abstracto y realismo socialista y producir una alternativa a la confrontación entre ambos discursos estéticos. Mientras los artistas realistas socialistas subrayaban la necesidad de expresar contenidos políticos explícitos con un estilo que asegurase su máxima legibilidad para una audiencia de masas, los artistas de Forma 1 argumentaban que la abstracción significaba una crítica de la representación pictórica que podía contribuir a la crítica de la ideología burguesa, armonizando de este modo el marxismo con los desarrollos artísticos más avanzados. El PCI, por su parte, basaba su política artística en amplias alianzas de artistas e intelectuales antifascistas, que cada vez eran más difíciles de mantener en el clima de creciente confrontación política y cultural que siguió a la II Guerra Mundial

Money in Consumption Economies

Three sequential models of consumption economies are considered, where consumers´only endowment is money. The existence and unicity of temporary equilibria, the neutrality of money and the validity of quantity theory are investigated. In the first two models "money" is persihable; in the second one lending between consumers is possible. In the third model money is an asset and can be created through bank loans.

Dynamic Inefficiency in an Overlapping Generation Economy with Pollution and Health Costs

We analyze an overlapping generations model in which pollution arises, in an accumulative way, from production. Households do not care directly about the environment, however pollution makes them incur health costs when they are elderly. We show that the presence of pollution makes the economy more likely to be dynamically inefficient. For these cases we analyze two kinds of tax scheme: one based on production taxes and the other based on capital and wage taxes. We show how to design both schemes in order to put the economy into the golden rule allocation. We also show that under the production tax scheme young and elderly agents pay less taxes (or receive more transfers) than under the capital and wage tax system.Dynamic inefficiency, Externalities, Health costs, Overlapping generations, Pollution, Taxes.

A Frictionless Economy With Subotimizing Agents

The existence of short-term monetary equilibrium in a frictionless economy with suboptimal agents is proved for any (reasonable) given interest rate. Separability ideas (as defined in Decision Theory) are applied. Two financial markets are in operation: for bank contracts (deposits and credits) and for shares.

Weil Representation of a Generalized Linear Group over a Ring of Truncated Polynomials over a Finite Field Endowed with a Second Class Involution

We construct a complex linear Weil representation $\rho$ of the generalized special linear group $G={\rm SL}_*^{1}(2,A_n)$ ($A_n=K[x]/\langle x^n\rangle$, $K$ the quadratic extension of the finite field $k$ of $q$ elements, $q$ odd), where $A_n$ is endowed with a second class involution. After the construction of a specific data, the representation is defined on the generators of a Bruhat presentation of $G$, via linear operators satisfying the relations of the presentation. The structure of a unitary group $U$ associated to $G$ is described. Using this group we obtain a first decomposition of $\rho$

Partial extinction did not diminish spontaneous recovery after 24-hour retention interval

Fear extinction is not permanent but it may suffer from different forms of relapse. One strategy potentially useful to diminish relapse is the partial extinction treatment, according to which, extinction may be potentiated if a gradual and sparse number of CS-US pairings are introduced within the extinction treatment. The present study, using a differential fear conditioning paradigm, tries to evaluate the efficacy of partial extinction to reduce a specific form of relapse, spontaneous recovery, after a 24 h. retention interval. The results showed that partial extinction did not diminish spontaneous recovery when compared with standard extinction. From a theoretical point of view, the pattern of results found was more consistent with the idea that extinction entails the acquisition of new knowledge than with the idea that there are conditions in which extinction entails the erasure of the original acquisitionUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech