DPP-4 inhibitor dose selection according to manufacturer specifications:A Contemporary Experience From UK General Practice

Recently, 2 dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, sitagliptin and saxagliptin, adjusted dosing specification from creatinine clearance to glomerular filtration rate, more typically reported in routine laboratory tests. This cross-sectional study examines all DPP-4 inhibitor initiations that require dose adjustment and the dose selection using data from UK general practice. Results indicate that 34% of patients taking a nonlinagliptin DPP-4 inhibitor were given a higher dose and 11% a lower dose than specified in the Summary of Product Characteristics. This reinforces the deviation from Summary of Product Characteristics prescription of DPP-4 inhibitors identified in earlier studies despite improvement in compatibility with routine reporting. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc

Parea: multi-view ensemble clustering for cancer subtype discovery

Multi-view clustering methods are essential for the stratification of patients into sub-groups of similar molecular characteristics. In recent years, a wide range of methods has been developed for this purpose. However, due to the high diversity of cancer-related data, a single method may not perform sufficiently well in all cases. We present Parea, a multi-view hierarchical ensemble clustering approach for disease subtype discovery. We demonstrate its performance on several machine learning benchmark datasets. We apply and validate our methodology on real-world multi-view cancer patient data. Parea outperforms the current state-of-the-art on six out of seven analysed cancer types. We have integrated the Parea method into our developed Python package Pyrea (https://github.com/mdbloice/Pyrea), which enables the effortless and flexible design of ensemble workflows while incorporating a wide range of fusion and clustering algorithms

Tessellations and Pattern Formation in Plant Growth and Development

The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is a dome-shaped collection of cells at the apex of growing plants from which all above-ground tissue ultimately derives. In Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress), a small flowering weed of the Brassicaceae family (related to mustard and cabbage), the SAM typically contains some three to five hundred cells that range from five to ten microns in diameter. These cells are organized into several distinct zones that maintain their topological and functional relationships throughout the life of the plant. As the plant grows, organs (primordia) form on its surface flanks in a phyllotactic pattern that develop into new shoots, leaves, and flowers. Cross-sections through the meristem reveal a pattern of polygonal tessellation that is suggestive of Voronoi diagrams derived from the centroids of cellular nuclei. In this chapter we explore some of the properties of these patterns within the meristem and explore the applicability of simple, standard mathematical models of their geometry.Comment: Originally presented at: "The World is a Jigsaw: Tessellations in the Sciences," Lorentz Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, March 200

Exploring the Importance of Mentoring for New Scholars: A Social Exchange Perspective

This exploratory study examines the importance of mentor/mentee relationships on faculty development by measuring how social exchange between new faculty members (mentees) in information systems and their former dissertation chairs (mentors) relate to how quickly the new faculty members completed their doctoral program and the number of peer reviewed publications they produced in their first six years of academic employment. In addition, this study measures how gender and ethnicity relate to the strength of the social exchange between mentors and mentees. The results show a statistically significant relationship between social ties and the number of publications new faculty obtain in their early years of academic employment. The results also indicate that mixed gender pairs have higher social exchange in this context. This study has implications for shaping doctoral education by providing insight into the importance of social ties on the development and productivity of new faculty

Cyber-Slacking: Self-Control, Prior Behavior And The Impact Of Deterrence Measures

To further our understanding about how to control Internet abuse in the workplace, this study examines how a person’s level of self-control leads to cyber-slacking, how deterrence measures commonly used within organizations impact individual decisions to cyber-slack, and how self-control moderates the relative salience of one of the commonly used deterrence mechanisms against cyber-slacking, detection (monitoring) systems.  The results suggest that individuals that rate low in self-control overlook potential consequences for abusing the Internet in favor of immediate rewards, thus they have difficulty self-regulating themselves and have a higher propensity to cyber-slack.  The results also indicate that detection systems and awareness of the enforcement of sanctions are the biggest deterrents on individual intentions to cyber-slack and detection systems are even more salient to individuals that rate low in self-control.

CPAs And Electronic Survey Media

Gathering and utilizing data about customers and other stakeholders has become vital to maintaining competitiveness in today’s business world. With the ongoing expansion of the Internet, new methods for data collection are available. The success of utilizing new methods depends on the technological capabilities of the audience from whom data are sought.  One group of business professionals perceived to possess above average technological skills is practicing Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). A study was designed to measure the response rates of CPAs to different survey administration methods. This study compares one traditional survey method (regular mail) with newer methods for collecting survey data (e-mail and WWW form)

Symmetric Operation of the Resonant Exchange Qubit

We operate a resonant exchange qubit in a highly symmetric triple-dot configuration using IQ-modulated RF pulses. At the resulting three-dimensional sweet spot the qubit splitting is an order of magnitude less sensitive to all relevant control voltages, compared to the conventional operating point, but we observe no significant improvement in the quality of Rabi oscillations. For weak driving this is consistent with Overhauser field fluctuations modulating the qubit splitting. For strong driving we infer that effective voltage noise modulates the coupling strength between RF drive and the qubit, thereby quickening Rabi decay. Application of CPMG dynamical decoupling sequences consisting of up to n = 32 {\pi} pulses significantly prolongs qubit coherence, leading to marginally longer dephasing times in the symmetric configuration. This is consistent with dynamical decoupling from low frequency noise, but quantitatively cannot be explained by effective gate voltage noise and Overhauser field fluctuations alone. Our results inform recent strategies for the utilization of partial sweet spots in the operation and long-distance coupling of triple-dot qubits.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure