The Topology of Foliations Formed by the Generic K-Orbits of a Subclass of the Indecomposable MD5-Groups

The present paper is a continuation of [13], [14] of the authors. Specifically, the paper considers the MD5-foliations associated to connected and simply connected MD5-groups such that their Lie algebras have 4-dimensional commutative derived ideal. In the paper, we give the topological classification of all considered MD5-foliations. A description of these foliations by certain fibrations or suitable actions of $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ and the Connes' C*-algebras of the foliations which come from fibrations are also given in the paper.Comment: 20 pages, no figur

The age of information in gossip networks

We introduce models of gossip based communication networks in which each node is simultaneously a sensor, a relay and a user of information. We model the status of ages of information between nodes as a discrete time Markov chain. In this setting a gossip transmission policy is a decision made at each node regarding what type of information to relay at any given time (if any). When transmission policies are based on random decisions, we are able to analyze the age of information in certain illustrative structured examples either by means of an explicit analysis, an algorithm or asymptotic approximations. Our key contribution is presenting this class of models.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Bilateral abducens nerve palsy due to septic thrombophlebitis.

PurposeTo report a case of septic thrombophlebitis producing bilateral abducens nerve palsy.ObservationA 65 year-old woman with recent sinus surgery experienced the onset of horizontal diplopia during treatment for bacteremia. Computer tomography of head and a neck ultrasonography showed right internal jugular vein occlusion. Ophthalmology examination was consistent with bilateral abducens nerve palsy. She was treated with systemic antibiotics and antiplatelet therapy with resolution of the internal jugular vein occlusion. The diplopia improved over a six-months.Conclusion and importanceOur patient had Lemierre syndrome with an unusual presentation. The patient was treated for septic thrombophlebitis with a resolution of her ocular symptoms

Using a novel source-localized phase regressor technique for evaluation of the vascular contribution to semantic category area localization in BOLD fMRI.

Numerous studies have shown that gradient-echo blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI is biased toward large draining veins. However, the impact of this large vein bias on the localization and characterization of semantic category areas has not been examined. Here we address this issue by comparing standard magnitude measures of BOLD activity in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) and Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA) to those obtained using a novel method that suppresses the contribution of large draining veins: source-localized phase regressor (sPR). Unlike previous suppression methods that utilize the phase component of the BOLD signal, sPR yields robust and unbiased suppression of large draining veins even in voxels with no task-related phase changes. This is confirmed in ideal simulated data as well as in FFA/PPA localization data from four subjects. It was found that approximately 38% of right PPA, 14% of left PPA, 16% of right FFA, and 6% of left FFA voxels predominantly reflect signal from large draining veins. Surprisingly, with the contributions from large veins suppressed, semantic category representation in PPA actually tends to be lateralized to the left rather than the right hemisphere. Furthermore, semantic category areas larger in volume and higher in fSNR were found to have more contributions from large veins. These results suggest that previous studies using gradient-echo BOLD fMRI were biased toward semantic category areas that receive relatively greater contributions from large veins

Proximity for Sums of Composite Functions

We propose an algorithm for computing the proximity operator of a sum of composite convex functions in Hilbert spaces and investigate its asymptotic behavior. Applications to best approximation and image recovery are described

Assessing alternative poverty proxy methods in rural Vietnam

This paper compares and contrasts the use of four "short-cut" methods for identifying poor households: the poverty probability method; ordinary least squares regressions; principal components analysis; and quantile regressions. After evaluating these four methods using two alternative criteria (total and balanced poverty accuracy) and representative household survey data from rural Vietnam, it is concluded that the poverty probability method-which can correctly identify around four-fifths of poor and non-poor households-is the most accurate "short-cut" method for measuring poverty for specific subpopulations, or in years when household surveys are not available. The performance of the poverty probability method was then tested with different poverty lines and using an alternative household survey, and found to be robus