Tree-Walking Pebble Automata

this paper is to investigate the power of tree-walking automata with pebbles. Obviously, the unrestricted use of pebbles leads to a class of tree languages much larger than the regular tree languages, in fact to all tree languages in NSPACE(logn). Thus, we restrict the automaton to the recursive use of pebbles, in the sense that the life times of pebbles, i.e., the times between dropping a pebble and lifting it again, are properly nested. A similar, but stronger, nesting requirement is studied in [13] for 2-way automata on strings. We prove in Section 5 that our restriction indeed guarantees that all tree languages recognized by the tree-walking pebble automaton are regular, but we conjecture that the automaton is not powerful enough to recognize all regular tree languages. In Section 6 we generalize the notion of pebble to that of a \set-pebble", in such a way that the tree-walking set-pebble automaton recognizes exactly the regular tree languages

Dose reduction of epoetin-alpha in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced anaemia.

INTRODUCTION: Anaemia during chemotherapy is often left untreated. Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents are frequently used to treat overt anaemia. Their prophylactic use, however, remains controversial and raises concerns about cost-effectiveness. Therefore, we assessed the efficacy of a dose-reduction schedule in anaemia prophylaxis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included patients with untreated solid tumours about to receive platinum-based chemotherapy and had haemoglobin (Hb) levels ≥11 g/dL. Epoetin-α was administered at a dose level of 3 × 10,000 U weekly as soon as Hb descended to < 13 g/dL. Dose reductions to 3 × 4,000 U and 3 × 2,000 U weekly were planned in 4-week intervals if Hb stabilised in the range of 11-13 g/dL. Upon ascending to ≥13 g/dL, epoetin was discontinued. Iron supplements of 100 mg intravenous doses were given weekly. Of 37 patients who enrolled, 33 could be evaluated. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Their median Hb level was 13.7 (10.9-16.2) g/dL at baseline and descended to 11.0 (7.4-13.8) g/dL by the end of chemotherapy. Anaemia (Hb < 10 g/dL) was prevented in 24 patients (73%). The mean dose requirement for epoetin-α was 3 × 5,866 U per week per patient, representing a dose reduction of 41%. Treatment failed in nine patients (27%), in part due to epoetin-α resistance in four (12%) and blood transfusion in three (9%) patients. CONCLUSION: Dose reduction was as effective as fixed doses in anaemia prophylaxis but reduced the amount of prescribed epoetin substantially