A computer adaptive measure of delay discounting

Delay discounting has been linked to important behavioral, health, and social outcomes, including academic achievement, social functioning and substance use, but thoroughly measuring delay discounting is tedious and time consuming. We develop and consistently validate an efficient and psychometrically sound computer adaptive measure of discounting. First, we develop a binary search–type algorithm to measure discounting using a large international data set of 4,190 participants. Using six independent samples ($N$ = 1,550), we then present evidence of concurrent validity with two standard measures of discounting and a measure of discounting real rewards, convergent validity with addictive behavior, impulsivity, personality, survival probability; and divergent validity with time perspective, life satisfaction, age and gender. The new measure is considerably shorter than standard questionnaires, includes a range of time delays, can be applied to multiple reward magnitudes, shows excellent concurrent, convergent, divergent, and discriminant validity—by showing more sensitivity to effects of smoking behavior on discounting.Nehru Trust for Cambridge University, Cambridge Overseas Trus

The role of Tadalafil in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia and erectile dysfunction

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a single 5 mg daily dose of Tadalafil in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) accompanied by erectile dysfunction (ED). The data of patients who applied to the urology outpatient clinic between 2014 and 2019 and were diagnosed with BPH and ED were retrospectively analysed. Before and after the treatment with 5 mg tadalafil daily for 12 weeks; maximum flow rate (Qmax), average flow rate (Qave), postvoid residual volume (PVR), prostate volume (PV), PSA values, IPSS and IIEF scores of the patients were compared. The mean age of 66 male patients diagnosed with ED and BPH was 48.1±6.9 years. The mean IPSS score of the patients before the treatment was 9.85 which represents moderate LUTS. After the treatment, the mean score decreased to 5.7 which represents mild LUTS. Before the treatment, the mean IIEF score showed mild ED with 18.79. After the treatment, the mean IIEF score increased to 29,9. The treatment statistically significantly decreased ED and increased the IIEF score (p=0.000). While the mean Qmax and Qave were increased statistically significantly (p=0.000). A statistically significant decrease was observed in the mean PVR from 60.1 ml to 37.6 ml (p=0.000). The decrease in PV was not statistically significant (p=0.321). The decrease in PSA values before and after treatment was found to be statistically significant with p=0.046. It has been shown that the daily use of 5 mg Tadalafil alone for 12 weeks can be a preferable treatment option, especially in younger patients with BPH / LUTS and ED

The global prevalence of infections in urology study. a long term worldwide surveillance study on urological infections

The Global Prevalence of Infections in Urology (GPIU) study is a worldwide-performed point prevalence study intended to create surveillance data on antibiotic resistance, type of urogenital infections, risk factors and data on antibiotic consumption, specifically in patients at urological departments with healthcare-associated urogenital infections (HAUTI). Investigators registered data through a web-based application (http://gpiu.esiu.org/). Data collection includes the practice and characteristics of the hospital and urology ward. On a certain day in November, each year, all urological patients present in the urological department at 8:00 a.m. are screened for HAUTI encompassing their full hospital course from admission to discharge. Apart from the GPIU main study, several side studies are taking place, dealing with transurethral resection of the prostate, prostate biopsy, as well as urosepsis. The GPIU study has been annually performed since 2003. Eight-hundred fifty-six urology units from 70 countries have participated so far, including 27,542 patients. A proxy for antibiotic consumption is reflected by the application rates used for antibiotic prophylaxis for urological interventions. Resistance rates of most uropathogens against antibiotics were high, especially with a note of multidrug resistance. The severity of HAUTI is also increasing, 25% being urosepsis in recent years. KEYWORDS

The survival probability and the local density of states for one-dimensional Hamiltonian systems

For chaotic systems there is a theory for the decay of the survival probability, and for the parametric dependence of the local density of states. This theory leads to the distinction between "perturbative" and "non-perturbative" regimes, and to the observation that semiclassical tools are useful in the latter case. We discuss what is "left" from this theory in the case of one-dimensional systems. We demonstrate that the remarkably accurate {\em uniform} semiclassical approximation captures the physics of {\em all} the different regimes, though it cannot take into account the effect of strong localization.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, textual improvement