979 research outputs found
Borel Conjecture and Dual Borel Conjecture
We show that it is consistent that the Borel Conjecture and the dual Borel
Conjecture hold simultaneously.Comment: 47 pages, revised version 2013 (some typos removed, some points
elaborated. Dedication added.
Learning from past coevolutionary processes to envision sustainable futures: Extending an action situations approach to the Water-Energy-Food nexus
Despite near-global consensus on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, unresolved and politically contentious trade-offs have undermined implementation. One exemplary case facing difficult trade-offs are Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus cases. Here, we extend the nascent ‘Social-Ecological Action Situations’ framework to analyse past coevolution of WEF nexus cases (or other social-ecological systems) to envision possible futures where trade-offs are equally considered and minimized. We illustrate the value of the approach for a WEF nexus case in Switzerland with upstream hydropower reservoirs, water-bound biodiversity, and emerging downstream agricultural irrigation needs. The proposed solution-oriented, transformative approach goes beyond existing frameworks by analysing past coevolution of the intertwined system to build system understanding and to envision a future with concrete policies that would result in a higher adaptive capacity of the system and a compromise within the WEF nexus. We argue that this perspective helps to devise policies to address trade-offs in WEF nexus cases and thereby to tackle global crises
Mechanisms altering airway smooth muscle cell Ca(2+) homeostasis in two asthma models
Background: Asthma is characterized by airway remodeling, altered mucus production and airway smooth muscle cell (ASMC) contraction causing extensive airway narrowing. In particular, alterations of ASMC contractility seem to be of crucial importance. The elevation of the cytoplasmic Ca(2+) concentration is a key event leading to ASMC contraction and changes in the agonist- induced Ca(2+) increase in ASMC have been reported in asthma. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate mechanisms underlying these changes. Methods: Murine tracheal smooth muscle cells (MTSMC) from T- bet KO mice and human bronchial smooth muscle cells (HBSMC) incubated with IL-13 and IL-4 served as asthma models. Acetylcholine- induced changes in the cytoplasmic Ca(2+) concentration were recorded using fluorescence microscopy and the expression of Ca(2+) homeostasis regulating proteins was investigated with Western blot analysis. Results: Acetylcholine- induced Ca(2+) transients were elevated in both asthma models. This correlated with an increased Ca(2+) content of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). In MTSMC from T-bet KO mice, the expression of the SR Ca(2+) buffers calreticulin and calsequestrin was higher compared to wild- type mice. In HBSMC incubated with IL-13 or IL-4, the expression of ryanodine receptors, inositol-3-phosphate receptors and sarcoplasmic/ endoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ ATPases 2 was increased compared to HBSMC without incubation with interleukins. The enlarged acetylcholine- induced Ca(2+) transients could be reversed by blocking inositol-3- phosphate receptors. Conclusions: We conclude that in the murine asthma model the SR Ca(2+) buffer capacity is increased, while in the human asthma model the expression of SR Ca(2+) channels is altered. The investigation of the Ca(2+) homeostasis of ASMC has the potential to provide new therapeutical options in asthma. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel
Prompting Is Programming: A Query Language For Large Language Models
Large language models have demonstrated outstanding performance on a wide
range of tasks such as question answering and code generation. On a high level,
given an input, a language model can be used to automatically complete the
sequence in a statistically-likely way. Based on this, users prompt these
models with language instructions or examples, to implement a variety of
downstream tasks. Advanced prompting methods can even imply interaction between
the language model, a user, and external tools such as calculators. However, to
obtain state-of-the-art performance or adapt language models for specific
tasks, complex task- and model-specific programs have to be implemented, which
may still require ad-hoc interaction.
Based on this, we present the novel idea of Language Model Programming (LMP).
LMP generalizes language model prompting from pure text prompts to an intuitive
combination of text prompting and scripting. Additionally, LMP allows
constraints to be specified over the language model output. This enables easy
adaption to many tasks, while abstracting language model internals and
providing high-level semantics. To enable LMP, we implement LMQL (short for
Language Model Query Language), which leverages the constraints and control
flow from an LMP prompt to generate an efficient inference procedure that
minimizes the number of expensive calls to the underlying language model. We
show that LMQL can capture a wide range of state-of-the-art prompting methods
in an intuitive way, especially facilitating interactive flows that are
challenging to implement with existing high-level APIs. Our evaluation shows
that we retain or increase the accuracy on several downstream tasks, while also
significantly reducing the required amount of computation or cost in the case
of pay-to-use APIs (13-85% cost savings).Comment: 21 pages + Appendi
Pain and psychological health status in chronic pain patients with migration background—the Zurich study
The objective of this paper is to investigate whether there were differences in pain and psychological health status in chronic pain patients with and without migration background before and after an 8-week interdisciplinary outpatient pain programme (IOPP). One hundred eighteen consecutively assessed patients were included. Pain and psychological health were recorded prior to and after the intervention, and at the 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up. The migrant group experienced a statistically significant and clinically relevant higher amount of pain and worse psychological functioning than the non-migrant group at all time points. Statistically significant differences between the groups for the variables depression, anxiety, kinesiophobia and passive coping, in particular catastrophizing, were observed in the short and long term. The non-migrant group improved continuously on all outcome measurements at all time points. The results show differences in outcome for chronic pain patients with and without migration background. High pain intensity, high levels of depression, anxiety and catastrophizing at baseline appear to be major barriers for improvement in a sample of migrant patients when participating in an IOPP. Treatments may have to be tailored to the specific needs of this patient group to better address their poor psychological health status and to improve the course of the pain disorde
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