Using deep reinforcement learning to search reachability properties in systems specified through graph transformation

Today, model checking is one of the essential techniques in the verification of software systems. This technique can verify some properties such as reachability in which the entire state space is searched to find the desired state. However, model checking may lead to the state space explosion problem in which all states cannot be generated due to the exponential resource usage. Although the results of recent model checking approaches are promising, there is still room for improvement in terms of accuracy and the number of explored states. In this paper, using deep reinforcement learning and two neural networks, we propose an approach to increase the accuracy of the generated witnesses and reduce the use of hardware resources. In this approach, at first, an agent starts to explore the state space without any knowledge and gradually identifies the proper and improper actions by receiving different rewards/penalties from the environment to achieve the goal. Once the dataset is fulfilled with the agent's experiences, two neural networks evaluate the quality of each operation in each state, and afterwards, the best action is selected. The significant difficulties and challenges in the implementation are encoding the states, feature engineering, feature selection, reward engineering, handling invalid actions, and configuring the neural network. Finally, the proposed approach has been implemented in the Groove toolset, and as a result, in most of the case studies, it overcame the problem of state space explosion. Also, this approach outperforms the existing solutions in terms of generating shorter witnesses and exploring fewer states. On average, the proposed approach is nearly 400% better than other approaches in exploring fewer states and 300% better than the others in generating shorter witnesses. Also, on average, the proposed approach is 37% more accurate than the others in terms of finding the goals state

MP-02.14: Prevalence of disease in brothers of patients with varicocele: a comparison with healthy controls

Introduction: We performed a study to examine brothers of patients with varicocele to determine the familial risk for varicocele. Methods: Ninety-five patients with varicocele who presented with infertility, testicular pain, or cosmetic problems were enrolled in the study. Their healthy brothers were asked to refer and examined. A total of 131 men without varicocele aged 10 years or older were assessed along with their 56 brothers with varicocele. A group of 150 men referred for employment examinations were selected as control group and assessed for varicocele. Results: The mean ages of the patients, their brothers and the controls were 21.8 � 8.1 years, 20 � 8.9 years, and 19.2 � 5.6 years, respectively. Varicocele was seen in all, 60(45%), and 15(10%) of them, respectively. Varicocele grades 1, 2, and 3 were seen in 8(14.3%), 9(16.1%), and 49(87.5%) of the patients, in 20(15.3%), 24(18.3%), and 30(22.9%) of their brothers, and in 2(1.3%), 2(1.3%), 3 (2%) of the controls, respectively. Bilateral involvement was present in 10(17.9%), 14(10.6%), and 5(3.3%) of the patients in the three groups, respectively. The overall frequency of varicocele and the frequency of grades 2 and 3 varicocele were signifi- cantly higher in brothers of the patients than in the controls (P � .01; P � .05). Conclusions: The high frequency of varicocele among the brothers of our patients may be an indicative of a hereditary behavior of the disease, warranting more investigation in this regard

Reactive Astrocyte Gliosis: Production of Inhibitory Molecules

The astrocytic cell responses to injury have been extensively studied in a variety of experimental models, and the term “astrogliosis” is often used to describe the astrocyte reactions to injury. Cells responding in these ways to injury are often referred to as “reactive astrocytes.” Glial scarring appears to be a critical feature of wound healing in the central nervous system (CNS), since elimination of the mitotically active contingent of reactive astrocytes leads to increase in the size of the wound. Reactive astrogliosis is a term coined for the morphological and functional events seen in astrocytes responding to CNS injury. The concept of reactive astrogliosis and its molecular and cellular definition in spinal cord injury (SCI) is still incomplete. Producing several inhibitory molecules discourages regeneration of axons in the injured spinal cord. This inhibition is compounded by the poor regenerative ability of most CNS axons. This is probably a more achievable therapeutic target than axon regeneration, and an effective treatment would be of assistance to the majority of patients with partial cord injuries. Of course, understanding about astrogliosis and producing mediators and inhibitory molecules such as signaling pathways help us to develop new treatment strategies for SCI

Incidence Rate and Risk Factors of Radial Artery Spasm during Transradial Coronary Angiography

Background: Radial artery spasm (RAS) is one of the most common complications of radial coronary angiography. Several demographic and clinical factors increase the risk of RAS in this procedure. We aimed to evaluate the effect of various risk factors on the incidence and severity of RAS in radial coronary angiography.  Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 120 patients who were randomly selected from candidates referred to Shahid Modarres Educational Medical Center for coronary angiography by the radial method. After angiography, radial arteriography was performed to diagnose spasms. The association of some demographic and clinical factors with the incidence and severity of RAS was evaluated. Results: 35 of the 120 patients (29.16%) developed RAS during angiography. Shorter height, shorter radius bone length, less radial artery diameter, longer procedure length, diabetes mellitus, more catheters used, and female sex were significantly associated with higher incidence. The predictive power of these factors for the occurrence of spasms was very good with AUC=0.88. Age, shorter height, higher body mass index, smaller radial artery diameter, longer procedure time, diabetes mellitus, failure of initial effort for puncture, number of catheters used, and female sex were significantly associated with the severity of spasms. Conclusions: The incidence or severity of spasms during the procedure can be reduced by examining the available risk factors for every patient before deciding to perform angiography

Varicocele in brothers of patients with varicocele.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate varicocele patients' brothers to determine whether they are at a higher risk of varicocele than the general population of men. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 56 patients with varicocele and their 131 brothers (> 16 years old) were evaluated. The brothers had no complaints of infertility, pain, or cosmetic problems. They were all examined for varicocele. One hundred and fifty men who referred for employment medical examinations were considered as the control group. RESULTS: Of the subjects, 39 (69.6) had grade III varicocele. Sixty (45.8) of the brothers had varicocele. The grade of varicocele was III in 16 (26.7) brothers. In the control group, varicocele was present in 15 (10) which was grade III in 5 (33.3). The frequency of varicocele was 4.5-fold greater in the brothers of the patients than the controls (P<.001). Also, the frequency of grade III varicocele was significantly more than grades I and II in the patients in comparison with their brothers and controls with varicocele (P<.001). There was no significant difference in the grades between the controls and the patients' brothers (P=.31). The frequency of bilateral varicocele was not statistically different between the three groups (P=.14). CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that a significant increase is seen in the prevalence of varicocele in the patients' brothers compared to men in the general population, warranting evaluation of the first-degree relatives of men who present with varicocele