An algebraic analysis of cladistic characters

Cladistic characters are used by many numerical axonomists in the estimation of evolutionary history. We make use of semilattice theory to give an algebraic formulation of the ideas involved in this process and to give rigorous proofs of theorems which justify certain operational procedures in current use. In particular, we discuss certain compatibility tests for a collection of charactersPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/21663/1/0000050.pd

Variation Among Patients With Crohn's Disease in Benefit vs Risk Preferences and Remission Time Equivalents

Background & Aims: Patients with Crohn's disease (CD) must make decisions about their treatment. We aimed to quantify patients’ preferences for different treatment outcomes and adverse events. We also evaluated the effects of latent class heterogeneity on these preferences. Methods: An online stated-preference survey was completed by 812 individuals with CD in the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation Partners cohort (IBD Partners). Patients were given information on symptoms and severity of active disease; duration of therapy with corticosteroids; and risks of serious infection, cancer and surgery. Patients were asked to assume that their treatment was not working and to choose an alternative therapy. The primary outcome was remission-time equivalents (RTE) of a given duration of symptom severity or treatment-related risk. Latent class choice models identified groups of patients with dominant treatment-outcome preferences and associated patient characteristics with these groups. Results: Latent class analysis demonstrated 3 distinct groups of survey responders whose choices were strongly influenced by avoidance of active symptoms (61%), avoidance of corticosteroid use (25%), or avoidance of risks of cancer, infection or surgery (14%) when choosing a therapy. Class membership was correlated with age, sex, mean short CD activity index score and corticosteroid avoidance. RTEs in each latent class differed significantly from the mean RTEs for the overall sample, although the symptom-avoidant class most closely approximated the overall sample. Conclusions: In an online survey of patients with CD, we found substantial heterogeneity in preference for medication efficacy and risk of harm. Physicians and regulators should therefore not assume that all patients have mean-value preferences—this could result in significant differences in health-technology assessment models

Scattering of elastic waves by periodic arrays of spherical bodies

We develop a formalism for the calculation of the frequency band structure of a phononic crystal consisting of non-overlapping elastic spheres, characterized by Lam\'e coefficients which may be complex and frequency dependent, arranged periodically in a host medium with different mass density and Lam\'e coefficients. We view the crystal as a sequence of planes of spheres, parallel to and having the two dimensional periodicity of a given crystallographic plane, and obtain the complex band structure of the infinite crystal associated with this plane. The method allows one to calculate, also, the transmission, reflection, and absorption coefficients for an elastic wave (longitudinal or transverse) incident, at any angle, on a slab of the crystal of finite thickness. We demonstrate the efficiency of the method by applying it to a specific example.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, Phys. Rev. B (in press

Large-scale pharmacogenomic study of sulfonylureas and the QT, JT and QRS intervals: CHARGE Pharmacogenomics Working Group

Sulfonylureas, a commonly used class of medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Their effects on QT interval duration and related electrocardiographic phenotypes are potential mechanisms for this adverse effect. In 11 ethnically diverse cohorts that included 71 857 European, African-American and Hispanic/Latino ancestry individuals with repeated measures of medication use and electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements, we conducted a pharmacogenomic genome-wide association study of sulfonylurea use and three ECG phenotypes: QT, JT and QRS intervals. In ancestry-specific meta-analyses, eight novel pharmacogenomic loci met the threshold for genome-wide significance (P<5 × 10−8), and a pharmacokinetic variant in CYP2C9 (rs1057910) that has been associated with sulfonylurea-related treatment effects and other adverse drug reactions in previous studies was replicated. Additional research is needed to replicate the novel findings and to understand their biological basis

Unbiased, optimal, and in-betweens: the trade-off in discrete finite impulse response filtering

In this survey, the authors examine the trade-off between the unbiased, optimal, and in-between solutions in finite impulse response (FIR) filtering. Specifically, they refer to linear discrete real-time invariant state-space models with zero mean noise sources having arbitrary covariances (not obligatorily delta shaped) and distributions (not obligatorily Gaussian). They systematically analyse the following batch filtering algorithms: unbiased FIR (UFIR) subject to the unbiasedness condition, optimal FIR (OFIR) which minimises the mean square error (MSE), OFIR with embedded unbiasedness (EU) which minimises the MSE subject to the unbiasedness constraint, and optimal UFIR (OUFIR) which minimises the MSE in the UFIR estimate. Based on extensive investigations of the polynomial and harmonic models, the authors show that the OFIR-EU and OUFIR filters have higher immunity against errors in the noise statistics and better robustness against temporary model uncertainties than the OFIR and Kalman filters

Precision Measurement of the Proton and Deuteron Spin Structure Functions g2 and Asymmetries A2

We have measured the spin structure functions g2p and g2d and the virtual photon asymmetries A2p and A2d over the kinematic range 0.02 < x < 0.8 and 0.7 < Q^2 < 20 GeV^2 by scattering 29.1 and 32.3 GeV longitudinally polarized electrons from transversely polarized NH3 and 6LiD targets. Our measured g2 approximately follows the twist-2 Wandzura-Wilczek calculation. The twist-3 reduced matrix elements d2p and d2n are less than two standard deviations from zero. The data are inconsistent with the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule if there is no pathological behavior as x->0. The Efremov-Leader-Teryaev integral is consistent with zero within our measured kinematic range. The absolute value of A2 is significantly smaller than the sqrt[R(1+A1)/2] limit.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Measurements of the Q2Q^2-Dependence of the Proton and Neutron Spin Structure Functions g1p and g1n

The structure functions g1p and g1n have been measured over the range 0.014 < x < 0.9 and 1 < Q2 < 40 GeV2 using deep-inelastic scattering of 48 GeV longitudinally polarized electrons from polarized protons and deuterons. We find that the Q2 dependence of g1p (g1n) at fixed x is very similar to that of the spin-averaged structure function F1p (F1n). From a NLO QCD fit to all available data we find $\Gamma_1^p - \Gamma_1^n =0.176 \pm 0.003 \pm 0.007$ at Q2=5 GeV2, in agreement with the Bjorken sum rule prediction of 0.182 \pm 0.005.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Physics Letters