Omineca Herald, December, 28, 1977

EoE is an increasingly recognized disorder, characterized by symptoms of esophageal dysfunction and eosinophilic infiltration of the esophagus. The incidence increased from 0.01 in 1996 to 2.07 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015, these rates outpaces the expanding endoscopy rates. The natural course of EoE is characterized by a progression from atypical symptoms and the inflammatory endoscopic phenotype in childhood, towards symptoms of dysphagia and food impaction accompanied with the fibrostenotic phenotype in adults. If EoE is left untreated, the risk for stricture formation increased significantly. We have demonstrated that the mucosal integrity in EoE patients with active disease is impaired compared with patients in remission and controls and that it is a promising predictor of disease activity which can be used to follow up EoE patients after treatment. In contrary to other atopic diseases the duodenal mucosal integrity is not affected in EoE. Treatments include topical corticosteroids and dietary elimination of food allergens. In this thesis we have demonstrated that an elemental diet can induce quick histologic and clinical disease remission with improved patients’ adherence. Furthermore complete absence of food allergens restored the impaired mucosal integrity. However, diets remain cumbersome since standard allergy tests perform poorly as tools to guide elimination diets. We have demonstrated that an esophageal prick test (EPT), in which the esophageal mucosa was challenged by local allergen injections could identify sensitization patterns in EoE patients and not in controls. The EPT deserves further exploration because it may guide elimination diets. In conclusion, the studies described in this thesis have provided interesting new observations on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnostics and treatment of EoE

Generalized Totalizer Encoding for Pseudo-Boolean Constraints

Pseudo-Boolean constraints, also known as 0-1 Integer Linear Constraints, are used to model many real-world problems. A common approach to solve these constraints is to encode them into a SAT formula. The runtime of the SAT solver on such formula is sensitive to the manner in which the given pseudo-Boolean constraints are encoded. In this paper, we propose generalized Totalizer encoding (GTE), which is an arc-consistency preserving extension of the Totalizer encoding to pseudo-Boolean constraints. Unlike some other encodings, the number of auxiliary variables required for GTE does not depend on the magnitudes of the coefficients. Instead, it depends on the number of distinct combinations of these coefficients. We show the superiority of GTE with respect to other encodings when large pseudo-Boolean constraints have low number of distinct coefficients. Our experimental results also show that GTE remains competitive even when the pseudo-Boolean constraints do not have this characteristic.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. To be published in 21st International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming 201

Approximation Strategies for Incomplete MaxSAT

Incomplete MaxSAT solving aims to quickly find a solution that attempts to minimize the sum of the weights of the unsati sfied soft clauses without providing any optimality guarantees. In th is paper, we propose two approximation strategies for improving incomp lete MaxSAT solving. In one of the strategies, we cluster the weights and approximate them with a representative weight. In another strategy, we b reak up the problem of minimizing the sum of weights of unsatisfiable clauses into multiple minimization subproblems. Experimental res ults show that approximation strategies can be used to find better solution s than the best incomplete solvers in the MaxSAT Evaluation 2017

The Habitual Diet of Dutch Adult Patients with Eosinophilic Esophagitis Has Pro-Inflammatory Properties and Low Diet Quality Scores

We determined the nutritional adequacy and overall quality of the diets of adult patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Dietary intakes stratified by sex and age were compared to Dietary Reference Values (DRV). Overall diet quality was assessed by two independent Diet-Quality-Indices scores, the PANDiet and DHD-index, and compared to age- and gender-matched subjects from the general population. Lastly, food and nutrient intakes of EoE patients were compared to intakes of the general population. Saturated fat intake was significantly higher and dietary fiber intake significantly lower than the DRV in both males and females. In males, the DRV were not reached for potassium, magnesium, selenium, and vitamins A and D. In females, the DRV were not reached for iron, sodium, potassium, selenium, and vitamins A, B2, C and D. EoE patients had a significantly lower PANDiet and DHD-index compared to the general population, although the relative intake (per 1000 kcal) of vegetables/fruits/olives was significantly higher (yet still up to 65% below the recommended daily amounts) and alcohol intake was significantly lower compared to the general Dutch population. In conclusion, the composition of the habitual diet of adult EoE patients has several pro-inflammatory and thus unfavorable immunomodulatory properties, just as the general Dutch population, and EoE patients had lower overall diet quality scores than the general population. Due to the observational character of this study, further research is needed to explore whether this contributes to the development and progression of EoE

On Tackling the Limits of Resolution in SAT Solving

The practical success of Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solvers stems from the CDCL (Conflict-Driven Clause Learning) approach to SAT solving. However, from a propositional proof complexity perspective, CDCL is no more powerful than the resolution proof system, for which many hard examples exist. This paper proposes a new problem transformation, which enables reducing the decision problem for formulas in conjunctive normal form (CNF) to the problem of solving maximum satisfiability over Horn formulas. Given the new transformation, the paper proves a polynomial bound on the number of MaxSAT resolution steps for pigeonhole formulas. This result is in clear contrast with earlier results on the length of proofs of MaxSAT resolution for pigeonhole formulas. The paper also establishes the same polynomial bound in the case of modern core-guided MaxSAT solvers. Experimental results, obtained on CNF formulas known to be hard for CDCL SAT solvers, show that these can be efficiently solved with modern MaxSAT solvers

Efficacy of Budesonide Orodispersible Tablets as Induction Therapy for Eosinophilic Esophagitis in a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Swallowed topical-acting corticosteroids are recommended as first-line therapy for eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Asthma medications not optimized for esophageal delivery are sometimes effective, although given off-label. We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of a budesonide orodispersible tablet (BOT), which allows the drug to be delivered to the esophagus in adults with active EoE. METHODS: We performed a double-blind, parallel study of 88 adults with active EoE in Europe. Patients were randomly assigned to groups that received BOT (1 mg twice daily; n = 59) or placebo (n = 29) for 6 weeks. The primary end point was complete remission, based on clinical and histologic factors, including dysphagia and odynophagia severity ≤2 on a scale of 0-10 on each of the 7 days before the end of the double-blind phase and a peak eosinophil count <5 eosinophils/high power field. Patients who did not achieve complete remission at the end of the 6-week double-blind phase were offered 6 weeks of open-label treatment with BOT (1 mg twice daily). RESULTS: At 6 weeks, 58% of patients given BOT were in complete remission compared with no patients given placebo (P < .0001). The secondary end point of histologic remission was achieved by 93% of patients given BOT vs no patients given placebo (P < .0001). After 12 weeks, 85% of patients had achieved remission. Six-week and 12-week BOT administration were safe and well tolerated; 5% of patients who received BOT developed symptomatic, mild candida, which was easily treated with an oral antifungal agent. CONCLUSIONS: In a randomized trial of adults with active EoE, we found that budesonide oral tablets were significantly more effective than placebo in inducing clinical and histologic remission. Eudra-CT number 2014-001485-99; ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02434029

Politie in de netwerksamenleving

Contains fulltext : 121932.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)De complexer wordende samenleving vraagt, zo stellen beleidsmakers en politieonderzoekers al jaren, om een politieorganisatie die als netwerkspeler – of zelfs netwerkregisseur – opereert in zich steeds uitbreidende veiligheidsnetwerken. Het doel is vooral om de politiefuncties handhaving openbare orde en opsporing effectief te kunnen vervullen. Of met participatie van de politie in netwerken dit doel ook wordt bereikt is nog nauwelijks onderzocht. In dit onderzoek worden beleid en praktijk daarom met elkaar geconfronteerd. Verder wordt gekeken naar sturing door politiechefs op het werk van deze netwerkers binnen de politie en de mening van netwerkpartners over de politie. De wijkagent wordt geconfronteerd met zich steeds uitbreidende en actievere veiligheidsnetwerken. Wijkagenten participeren zelf ook actief in deze netwerken en moeten daarbij het politiebeleid trotseren om effectief te zijn als netwerker. Ze delen informatie met hun partners terwijl juist de informatie haalfunctie van de politie in de netwerken ten behoeve van anderen in het korps en het wegzetten van oneigenlijke taken door de politie niet goed van de grond komen. De onderzoekers reflecteren daarom op het nut van netwerken door de wijkagenten, dat overigens slechts 8% van de tijd van wijkagenten in beslag neemt en ook nog eens grotendeels uit informeel netwerken bestaat. Gezien vanuit de kernfuncties van de politie, namelijk opsporing en handhaving van de openbare orde heeft netwerken geen duidelijke waarde voor de politie. Toch wordt de deelname van wijkagenten in de netwerken wel zeer gewaardeerd door partners, met name de uitstraling van de zogenaamde ‘zwaardmacht’ is een essentiële netwerkbijdrage volgens de partners. Daarnaast verbetert het de hulpverlening aan individuen en daarmee de leefbaarheid van de buurt. De onderzoekers concluderen dan ook dat de illusie moet worden losgelaten dat het netwerken van wijkagenten leidt tot het wegzetten van niet primair geachte politietaken. Toch houden de onderzoekers een pleidooi voor meer goede wijkagenten met een brede functie-invulling.186 p

The Propositional Formula Checker HeerHugo

HeerHugo is a propositional formula checker that determines whether a given formula is satisfiable or not. Its main ingredient is the branch/merge rule, that is inspired by an algorithm proposed by Stallmarck, which is protected by a software patent. The algorithm can be interpreted as a breadth first search algorithm. HeerHugo differs substantially from Stallmarck&apos;s algorithm, as it operates on formulas in conjunctive normal form and it is enhanced with many logical rules including unit resolution, 2-satisfiability tests and additional systematic reasoning techniques. In this paper, the main elements of the algorithm are discussed, and its remarkable effectiveness is illustrated with some examples and computational results