Diversity and Adaptation in Large Population Games

We consider a version of large population games whose players compete for resources using strategies with adaptable preferences. The system efficiency is measured by the variance of the decisions. In the regime where the system can be plagued by the maladaptive behavior of the players, we find that diversity among the players improves the system efficiency, though it slows the convergence to the steady state. Diversity causes a mild spread of resources at the transient state, but reduces the uneven distribution of resources in the steady state.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Disseminated eruptive giant mollusca contagiosa in an adult psoriasis patient during efalizumab therapy

Molluscum contagiosum is a common viral skin infection in children with atopic diathesis and not rare in HIV patients. We report a 45-year-old psoriasis patient who developed eruptive mollusca contagiosa during an antipsoriatic treatment with efalizumab. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

American Gastroenterological Association Institute Clinical Practice Update—Expert Review: Care of Patients Who Have Achieved a Sustained Virologic Response After Antiviral Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C Infection

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is well-recognized as a common blood-borne infection with global public health impact affecting 3 to 5 million persons in the United States and more than 170 million persons worldwide. Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is associated with significant morbidity and mortality due to complications of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Current therapies with all-oral direct-acting antiviral agents are associated with high rates of sustained virologic response (SVR), generally exceeding 90%. SVR is associated with a reduced risk of liver cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation, need for liver transplantation, and both liver-related and all-cause mortality. However, a subset of patients who achieve SVR will remain at long-term risk for progression to cirrhosis, liver failure, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver-related mortality. Limited evidence is available to guide clinicians on which post-SVR patients should be monitored vs discharged, how to monitor and with which tests, how frequently should monitoring occur, and for how long. In this clinical practice update, available evidence and expert opinion are used to generate best practice recommendations on the care of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus who have achieved SVR

Adaptive User Interface for a Camera Aperture within an Active Display Area

This publication describes systems and techniques to account for an active display area around a camera aperture in a “hole-punch” style display of an electronic device to reduce a light-leaking effect caused by pixels surrounding the camera aperture. Illuminated pixels that are proximate to the camera aperture can degrade a quality of an image captured by a camera sensor by preventing the sensor from properly detecting light from a targeted image, such as a user’s face. To counteract this image degradation, techniques described herein override the illumination control for pixels surrounding the hole in the display. For example, responsive to the camera being engaged, one or more rings of pixels around the display hole can be controlled to have a decreased illumination level based on ambient brightness. The decreased illumination can involve being commanded to be turned off or being commanded to illuminate at a lower level. With less light emanating from pixels that are proximate to the display hole, there is less light pollution funneled into the camera aperture to affect the camera sensor

Effects of Diversity on Multi-agent Systems: Minority Games

We consider a version of large population games whose agents compete for resources using strategies with adaptable preferences. The games can be used to model economic markets, ecosystems or distributed control. Diversity of initial preferences of strategies is introduced by randomly assigning biases to the strategies of different agents. We find that diversity among the agents reduces their maladaptive behavior. We find interesting scaling relations with diversity for the variance and other parameters such as the convergence time, the fraction of fickle agents, and the variance of wealth, illustrating their dynamical origin. When diversity increases, the scaling dynamics is modified by kinetic sampling and waiting effects. Analyses yield excellent agreement with simulations.Comment: 41 pages, 16 figures; minor improvements in content, added references; to be published in Physical Review

High-flow nasal cannula implementation has not reduced intubation rates for bronchiolitis in Canada

Background and Objective: Bronchiolitis is the most common reason for admission to hospital in the first year of life, with increasing hospitalization rates in Canada. Respiratory support with high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) is being routinely used in paediatric centres, though the evidence of efficacy is continuing to be evaluated. We examined the impact of HFNC on intubation rates, hospital and paediatric critical care unit (PCCU) length of stay (LOS), and PCCU admission rates in paediatric tertiary centres in Canada. Methods: We conducted a multicentre, interrupted time series analysis to examine intubation rates pre- to postimplementation of HFNC for bronchiolitis. Data were obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information database. Paediatric tertiary centres that introduced HFNC between 2009 and 2014 were included, and data were collected from April 2005 to March 2017. Results: A total of 17,643 patients met inclusion criteria. There was no significant change in intubation rates after the introduction of HFNC. There was a significant increase in PCCU admission, with a decrease in the PCCU LOS following the introduction of HFNC. There was no significant change in average hospital LOS after HFNC was introduced. Conclusions: This study adds to the evolving evidence showing that overall disease course is not modified by the use of HFNC. The initiation of HFNC in Canadian paediatric centres resulted in no significant change in intubation rates or average LOS in hospital, but had an increase in PCCU admissions. Careful monitoring of new technologies on their clinical impact as well as health care resource utilization is warranted

Nuclear expression of Lyn, a Src family kinase member, is associated with poor prognosis in renal cancer patients

Background: 8000 cases of renal cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK, with a five-year survival rate of 50 %. Treatment options are limited; a potential therapeutic target is the Src family kinases (SFKs). SFKs have roles in multiple oncogenic processes and promote metastases in solid tumours. The aim of this study was to investigate SFKs as potential therapeutic targets for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Methods: SFKs expression was assessed in a tissue microarray consisting of 192 ccRCC patients with full clinical follow-up. SFK inhibitors, dasatinib and saracatinib, were assessed in early ccRCC cell lines, 786-O and 769-P and a metastatic ccRCC cell line, ACHN (± Src) for effects on protein expression, apoptosis, proliferation and wound healing. Results: High nuclear expression of Lyn and the downstream marker of activation, paxillin, were associated with decreased patient survival. Conversely, high cytoplasmic expression of other SFK members and downstream marker of activation, focal adhesion kinase (FAK) were associated with increased patient survival. Treatment of non-metastatic 786-O and 769-P cells with dasatinib, dose dependently reduced SFK activation, shown via SFK (Y419) and FAK (Y861) phosphorylation, with no effect in metastatic ACHN cells. Dasatinib also increased apoptosis, while decreasing proliferation and migration in 786-O and 769-P cell lines, both in the presence and absence of Src protein. Conclusions: Our data suggests that nuclear Lyn is a potential therapeutic target for ccRCC and dasatinib affects cellular functions associated with cancer progression via a Src kinase independent mechanism

A Comparison Of The Performances Of Various Single Variable Charts.

Control charts are used for process monitoring and improvement in industries. Two charts are usually used in the monitoring of both the mean and variance separately