1,008 research outputs found
Bronchiolitis â It Is Time for a Unique Definition
Bronchiolitis is the most common lower respiratory tract infections in infants. It is time to reach a unique clinical definition,
encompassing the acute onset of respiratory distress with cough, tachypnoea, retraction and diffuse crackles on auscultation in
infants aged less than 12 months
Optimal Transportation Theory with Repulsive Costs
This paper intents to present the state of art and recent developments of the
optimal transportation theory with many marginals for a class of repulsive cost
functions. We introduce some aspects of the Density Functional Theory (DFT)
from a mathematical point of view, and revisit the theory of optimal transport
from its perspective. Moreover, in the last three sections, we describe some
recent and new theoretical and numerical results obtained for the Coulomb cost,
the repulsive harmonic cost and the determinant cost.Comment: Survey for the special volume for RICAM (Special Semester on New
Trends in Calculus of Variations
Th17, intestinal microbiota and the abnormal immune response in the pathogenesis of celiac disease
Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy induced by the ingestion of gluten in genetically predisposed individuals who carry the HLA-DQ2 or -DQ8 alleles. The immune response is abnormal in celiac disease with small intestinal epithelial damage via CD8+CD4- intraepithelial lymphocytes. The etiology is multifactorial involving genetic and environmental factors, an abnormal immune response, and intestinal dysbiosis. The innate and acquired T-cell mediated immunity play important roles in the pathogenesis of this disease, particularly CD4+ Th17 cells, which have been shown to have critical functions in host defense against bacterial pathogens and in the inflammatory responses to deamidated gluten peptides. We review what is known about the interaction between immune system and intestinal microbiota in the pathogenesis of celiac disease
A Numerical Method to solve Optimal Transport Problems with Coulomb Cost
In this paper, we present a numerical method, based on iterative Bregman
projections, to solve the optimal transport problem with Coulomb cost. This is
related to the strong interaction limit of Density Functional Theory. The first
idea is to introduce an entropic regularization of the Kantorovich formulation
of the Optimal Transport problem. The regularized problem then corresponds to
the projection of a vector on the intersection of the constraints with respect
to the Kullback-Leibler distance. Iterative Bregman projections on each
marginal constraint are explicit which enables us to approximate the optimal
transport plan. We validate the numerical method against analytical test cases
Generalized incompressible flows, multi-marginal transport and Sinkhorn algorithm
Starting from Brenier's relaxed formulation of the incompressible Euler
equation in terms of geodesics in the group of measure-preserving
diffeomorphisms, we propose a numerical method based on Sinkhorn's algorithm
for the entropic regularization of optimal transport. We also make a detailed
comparison of this entropic regularization with the so-called Bredinger
entropic interpolation problem. Numerical results in dimension one and two
illustrate the feasibility of the method
VÀhÀhiilistÀ elÀmÀÀ suomalaisessa maaseutukunnassa : esteitÀ ja mahdollistajia
Hiili-intensiivisistÀ elÀmÀntavoista luopumisella on tÀrkeÀ rooli nykyisen ilmastokriisin torjuntatyössÀ. Erityinen merkitys sillÀ on Suomen kaltaisissa varakkaissa valtioissa, joissa kansalaisten hiilijalanjÀljet ovat suuria. ElÀmÀntapojen muuttaminen voi kuitenkin olla hankalaa, sillÀ monet tekijÀt vaikeuttavat uusien vÀhÀhiilisten tapojen omaksumista. Toisaalta myös tapojen muutosta edistÀviÀ tekijöitÀ voi olla hankala tunnistaa. NÀiden, usein esteiksi ja mahdollistajiksi, kutsuttujen tekijöiden merkitys ja valikoima voivat vaihdella erilaisten paikkojen vÀlillÀ johtuen paikkojen uniikeista konteksteista. Esteiden ja mahdollistajien tutkiminen erilaisissa paikoissa auttaa tekemÀÀn pÀÀtöksiÀ siitÀ, miten vÀhÀhiilisten elÀmÀntapojen omaksumista voitaisiin edistÀÀ nÀissÀ konteksteissa. TÀssÀ tutkielmassa esteitÀ ja mahdollistajia tutkitaan Suomen maaseudun kontekstissa. Suomen maaseutuun usein liitettÀviÀ piirteitÀ ovat muun muassa pitkÀt etÀisyydet, palveluiden vÀhÀisyys, konservatiivisuus ja yhteisöllisyys.
TÀmÀn tutkielman tavoite oli tarkastella, minkÀlaisia vÀhÀhiilisten elÀmÀntapojen esteitÀ ja mahdollistajia maaseudulla asuvat suomalaiset kokevat, ja mitkÀ nÀistÀ esteistÀ ja mahdollistajista ovat erityisen linkittyneitÀ maaseudun kontekstiin. Tutkielmaa varten haastateltiin kahdeksaa Kauhajoen kaupungin asukasta. Litteroitu haastatteluaineisto analysoitiin laadullisella sisÀllönanalyysillÀ. Aineistosta koodattiin esteitÀ ja mahdollistajia, ja muodostettiin 14 este- ja 13 mahdollistajakategoriaa.
Este- ja mahdollistajakategorioiden teemat vastasivat sisÀllöltÀÀn hyvin toisiaan. Esteet saivat enemmÀn mainintoja. SekÀ esteet ettÀ mahdollistajat liittyivÀt muun muassa infrastruktuuriin, palvelujen ja tuotteiden saatavuuteen, aikaan, rahaan, tietoon, terveyteen, sosiaaliseen ympÀristöön, tapojen muodostumiseen, elÀmÀntilanteeseen, tunteisiin sekÀ kÀsityksiin helppoudesta tai vaikeudesta. Ne kumpusivat osallistujien psykologisista prosesseista ja henkilökohtaisista elÀmistÀ, heidÀn omaamistaan resursseista sekÀ heitÀ ympÀröivÀstÀ fyysisestÀ ja sosiaalisesta ympÀristöstÀ. Maaseudun kontekstiin linkittyvÀt esteet ja mahdollistajat koskivat etenkin infrastruktuuria ja saatavuutta.
Tulosten perusteella maaseudun asukkaat elĂ€vĂ€t monimutkaisessa esteiden ja mahdollistajien muodostamassa vastakohtaisuuksien ympĂ€ristössĂ€. Koska esteitĂ€ nĂ€ytetÀÀn tunnistavan helpommin, on tĂ€rkeÀÀ, ettĂ€ mahdollistajia pyrittĂ€isiin korostamaan. Vaikka maaseudulla fyysiseen ympĂ€ristöön liittyvĂ€t esteet ja mahdollistajat ovat helpoiten havaittavissa, huomiota tulisi kiinnittÀÀ niihin kaikkiin, jotta muutospotentiaalia ei tuhlattaisi. Tutkielman tulokset auttavat tunnistamaan sekĂ€ vĂ€hĂ€hiilistĂ€ elĂ€mĂ€ntapamuutosta hĂ€iritseviĂ€ esteitĂ€ ettĂ€ sitĂ€ eteenpĂ€in auttavia mahdollistajia Suomen maaseudulla.Abandoning carbon intensive lifestyles plays an integral role in mitigating the current climate crisis, especially in wealthy countries such as Finland where citizensâ carbon footprints are large. Mitigative lifestyle change can however be hard as many factors hinder the adoption of low-carbon practices. It can also be hard to recognize factors that could push lifestyle change forward. The significance and range of these factors, often called barriers and enablers, can vary between different places as each place constitutes its unique context. Studying barriers and enablers in different places can help us decide how to best advance the adoption of low-carbon practices in these contexts. In this thesis barriers and enablers are examined in the context of rural Finland. Characteristics that are often connected to rural Finland include long distances, scarcer services, conservativeness, and communality.
The aim of this study was to examine what kinds of barriers to and enablers of low-carbon lifestyle change people dwelling in rural Finland experience, and which of these barriers and enablers have special links to the rural context. Eight citizens of Kauhajoki municipality were interviewed. The transcribed interview data was analysed with qualitative content analysis. Barriers and enablers were coded from the data, and 14 barrier and 13 enabler categories were formed.
The themes of the barrier and enabler categories coincided well in terms of their content. Barriers were mentioned more often. Both barriers and enablers included factors related to infrastructure, availability of services and products, time, money, knowledge, health, social environment, habit formation, life situation, feelings, and perceptions of difficulty or easiness. They stemmed from the participantsâ psychological processes and personal lives, the resources they had, and the physical and social aspects of their environment. Barriers and enablers with links to the rural context were most abundantly connected to infrastructure and availability.
Based on the results, rural citizens live in a complicated push-pull environment of different barriers and enablers. Given that barriers appear to be more easily identified, it is important to start highlighting enablers. Even though in rural areas barriers and enablers related to the physical environment are most visible, attention should be paid to all factors to ensure that no potential for change is wasted. The results of this thesis help recognize both hurdles and helpers of low-carbon lifestyle change in rural Finland
Convergence rate of entropy-regularized multi-marginal optimal transport costs
We investigate the convergence rate of multi-marginal optimal transport costs
that are regularized with the Boltzmann-Shannon entropy, as the noise parameter
tends to . We establish lower and upper bounds on the
difference with the unregularized cost of the form
for some explicit dimensional
constants depending on the marginals and on the ground cost, but not on the
optimal transport plans themselves. Upper bounds are obtained for Lipschitz
costs or locally semi-concave costs for a finer estimate, and lower bounds for
costs satisfying some signature condition on the mixed second
derivatives that may include degenerate costs, thus generalizing results
previously in the two marginals case and for non-degenerate costs. We obtain in
particular matching bounds in some typical situations where the optimal plan is
deterministic
Are Italy's public finances sustainable? The role of demographics, productivity, and labour markets.
In light of the uncertainty of the effects of population ageing on growth and fiscal variables, it is sensible to ask whether Italy's public finances can achieve sustainability under the spending pressure exerted by future demographic and macroeconomic developments. The paper addresses this question by assessing long-term fiscal sustainability, following the commonlyagreed European methodology, under alternative scenarios considering a variety of issues that may have a bearing on Italy's public finance conditions, namely, immigration, life expectancy, female labour participation, and productivity growth. Despite the different hypotheses captured by the alternative scenarios, the paper finds that projected debt-to-GDP ratios decrease over time, as long as fiscal consolidation is achieved in the near future. It also shows a one-shot debt-reduction strategy is not a credible substitute for a budgetary-adjustment strategy. The paper concludes Italy's public finances are sustainable and can deal with future spending pressures resulting from the ageing population.Fiscal Sustainability, Fiscal Policy
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