Moment inequalities and their application

This paper provides conditions under which the inequality constraints generated by either single agent optimizing behavior, or by the Nash equilibria of multiple agent problems, can be used as a basis for estimation and inference. We also add to the econometric literature on inference in models defined by inequality constraints by providing a new specification test and methods of inference for the boundaries of the model's identified set. Two applications illustrate how the use of inequality constraints can simplify the problem of obtaining estimators from complex behavioral models of substantial applied interest.

A nine-year longitudinal case study of a 27-year-old male with neurocysticercosis presenting with new onset seizures

Background: Taenia solium is a cestode endemic to regions of Latin America, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, and serves as the most common cause of acquired epilepsy in the world. T. solium eggs are transmitted fecal-orally when a human or pig host ingests contaminated food or water. Larvae hatch from the intestines and invade into muscle, tissue, or organs, forming cysts called cysticerci. Cysticerci involving the central nervous system is termed neurocysticercosis (NCC). Patients with NCC typically remain asymptomatic for 3-5 years in the viable stage until the host’s immune response is activated in the degenerating stage. Immune-mediated degradation of cysticerci and subsequent inflammation and edema in the nonviable stage may manifest as new onset seizures, headache, and other neurological deficits caused by increasing intracranial pressure. The diagnosis of NCC in non-endemic areas is based on clinical symptoms, history of travel to an endemic region, and presence of classic ring-enhancing lesions on neuroimaging. Case Description: A healthy 27-year-old male presents with new onset seizures. The first episode was witnessed by his wife who stated he was washing dishes before he fell to the ground convulsing. The seizure spontaneously resolved upon arrival of the ambulance. The patient denies symptoms of fever, fatigue, unexplained weight change, headaches, focal neurologic deficit, visual changes, cough, rash, recent illness, or head trauma. Further history is noncontributory except for note of travel to China four years ago to visit his in-laws. Vital signs are within normal range. In the Emergency Department, he suffers another witnessed seizure and is treated with lorazepam. He is disoriented and combative in his postictal state necessitating sedation with intubation. A CBC, CMP, troponin, HIV, toxicology, and tuberculosis screen are largely normal. Lumbar puncture reveals elevated leukocytes with normal glucose and protein levels. Parasitology report and blood cultures remain negative throughout the visit. Computerized tomography (CT) scan and contrasted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain show a 3-4 millimeter calcified, ring-enhancing lesion in the right frontal lobe with surrounding edema. He is diagnosed with NCC based on symptoms, travel history, and neuroimaging findings. Conclusion/Discussion: This is an uncomplicated nine-year longitudinal case study of a patient with NCC presenting with new onset seizures four years after traveling to China. Symptomatic management at the time of diagnosis included dexamethasone for brain edema and levetiracetam for prevention of further seizures. Antiparasitics, which can be used in viable or degenerating stages, were not utilized in our patient due to the evidence of a nonviable calcified cysticercus on imaging. The patient ultimately opted for surgical removal of the lesion to definitively treat his seizures. A six-month postoperative MRI confirmed resolution of abnormal findings, at which point the patient was weaned off levetiracetam. Nine years later, the patient remains seizure-free and without complications

Construction of Horizontal Wells in Municipal Solid Waste using a Directional Drill

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) has been employed in many situations including cable lines under rivers and rehabilitation of pipelines under buildings and busy traffic. Within the context of a municipal landfill site, a by-product of organic waste (leachate) accumulates within an established landfill. Leachate is a liquid produced from the wastes placed inside landfills and rain that percolates through the wastes and reacts with the products of decomposition. This thesis investigates the effectiveness of employing HDD techniques to extract leachate in the municipal landfill application

XMM-Newton spectroscopy of an X-ray selected sample of RL AGNs

This paper presents the X-ray spectroscopy of an X-ray selected sample of 25 radio-loud (RL) AGNs extracted from the XBSS sample. The main goal is to study the origin of the X-ray spectral differences usually observed between radio-loud and radio-quiet (RQ) AGNs. To this end, a comparison sample of 53 RQ AGNs has been also extracted from the same XBSS sample and studied together with the sample of RL AGNs. We have focused the analysis on the distribution of the X-ray spectral indices of the power-law component that models the large majority of the spectra in both samples. We find that the mean X-ray energy spectral index is very similar in the 2 samples and close to alpha_X~1. However, the intrinsic distribution of the spectral indices is significantly broader in the sample of RL AGNs. In order to investigate the origin of this difference, we have divided the RL AGNs into blazars and ``non-blazars'', on the basis of the available optical and radio information. We find strong evidence that the broad distribution observed in the RL AGN sample is mainly due to the presence of the blazars. Furthermore, within the blazar class we have found a link between the X-ray spectral index and the value of the radio-to-X-ray spectral index suggesting that the observed X-ray emission is directly connected to the emission of the relativistic jet. This trend is not observed among the ``non-blazars'' RL AGNs. This favours the hypothesis that, in these latter sources, the X-ray emission is not significantly influenced by the jet emission and it has probably an origin similar to the RQ AGNs. Overall, the results presented here indicate that the observed distribution of the X-ray spectral indices in a given sample of RL AGNs is strongly dependent on the amount of relativistic beaming present in the selected sources.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Ablation of AMP-Activated Protein Kinase α\alpha2 Activity Exacerbates Insulin Resistance Induced by High-Fat Feeding of Mice

Objective: We determined whether muscle AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has a role in the development of insulin resistance. Research Design and Methods: Muscle-specific transgenic mice expressing an inactive form of the AMPK $\alpha$2 catalytic subunit ($\alpha$2i TG) and their wild-type littermates were fed either a high-fat (60% kcal fat) or a control (10% kcal fat) diet for 30 weeks. Results: Compared with wild-type mice, glucose tolerance in $\alpha$2i TG mice was slightly impaired on the control diet and significantly impaired on the high-fat diet. To determine whether the whole-body glucose intolerance was associated with impaired insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle, glucose transport in response to submaximal insulin (450 $\mu$U/ml) was measured in isolated soleus muscles. On the control diet, insulin-stimulated glucose transport was reduced by $\sim$50% in $\alpha$2i TG mice compared with wild-type mice. High-fat feeding partially decreased insulin-stimulated glucose transport in wild-type mice, while high-fat feeding resulted in a full blunting of insulin-stimulated glucose transport in the $\alpha$2i TG mice. High-fat feeding in $\alpha$2i TG mice was accompanied by decreased expression of insulin signaling proteins in gastrocnemius muscle. Conclusions: The lack of skeletal muscle AMPK $\alpha$2 activity exacerbates the development of glucose intolerance and insulin resistance caused by high-fat feeding and supports the thesis that AMPK $\alpha$2 is an important target for the prevention/amelioration of skeletal muscle insulin resistance through lifestyle (exercise) and pharmacologic (e.g., metformin) treatments

A Survey of PCN-Based Admission Control and Flow Termination

Pre-congestion notification (PCN) provides feedback\ud about load conditions in a network to its boundary nodes. The PCN working group of the IETF discusses the use of PCN to implement admission control (AC) and flow termination (FT) for prioritized realtime traffic in a DiffServ domain. Admission control (AC) is a well-known flow control function that blocks admission requests of new flows when they need to be carried over a link whose admitted PCN rate already exceeds an admissible rate. Flow termination (FT) is a new flow control function that terminates some already admitted flows when they are carried over a link whose admitted PCN rate exceeds a supportable rate. The latter condition can occur in spite of AC, e.g., when traffic is rerouted due to network failures.\ud This survey gives an introduction to PCN and is a primer for\ud this new technology. It presents and discusses the multitude of architectural design options in an early stage of the standardization process in a comprehensive and streamlined way before only a subset of them is standardized by the IETF. It brings PCN from the IETF to the research community and serves as historical record

Renal impairment at diagnosis in myeloma: Patient characteristics, treatment, and impact on outcomes. Results trom the Australia and New Zealand myeloma and related diseases registry

Background: Renal impairment (RI) is a common complication of multiple myeloma (MM) and remains a poor prognostic factor despite improved survival with newer therapies. Patients and Methods: We evaluated baseline characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of newly diagnosed MM patients with RI at diagnosis in the Australia and New Zealand Myeloma and Related Diseases Registry over 5 years to April 2018; we compared patients with RI (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR

Daratumumab plus lenalidomide and dexamethasone in relapsed/ refractory multiple myeloma: extended follow-up of POLLUX, a randomized, open-label, phase 3 study

In POLLUX, daratumumab (D) plus lenalidomide/dexamethasone (Rd) reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 63% and increased the overall response rate (ORR) versus Rd in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). Updated efficacy and safety after >3 years of follow-up are presented. Patients (N = 569) with ≥1 prior line received Rd (lenalidomide, 25 mg, on Days 1–21 of each 28-day cycle; dexamethasone, 40 mg, weekly) ± daratumumab at the approved dosing schedule. Minimal residual disease (MRD) was assessed by next-generation sequencing. After 44.3 months median follow-up, D-Rd prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) in the intent-to-treat population (median 44.5 vs 17.5 months; HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.35–0.55; P < 0.0001) and in patient subgroups. D-Rd demonstrated higher ORR (92.9 vs 76.4%; P < 0.0001) and deeper responses, including complete response or better (56.6 vs 23.2%; P < 0.0001) and MRD negativity (10–5; 30.4 vs 5.3%; P < 0.0001). Median time to next therapy was prolonged with D-Rd (50.6 vs 23.1 months; HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.31–0.50; P < 0.0001). Median PFS on subsequent line of therapy (PFS2) was not reached with D-Rd versus 31.7 months with Rd (HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.42–0.68; P < 0.0001). No new safety concerns were reported. These data support using D-Rd in patients with RRMM after first relapse