Reducing the size and number of linear programs in a dynamic Gr\"obner basis algorithm

The dynamic algorithm to compute a Gr\"obner basis is nearly twenty years old, yet it seems to have arrived stillborn; aside from two initial publications, there have been no published followups. One reason for this may be that, at first glance, the added overhead seems to outweigh the benefit; the algorithm must solve many linear programs with many linear constraints. This paper describes two methods of reducing the cost substantially, answering the problem effectively.Comment: 11 figures, of which half are algorithms; submitted to journal for refereeing, December 201

Dietary patterns, insulin sensitivity and inflammation in older adults.

Background/objectivesSeveral studies have linked dietary patterns to insulin sensitivity and systemic inflammation, which affect risk of multiple chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary patterns of a cohort of older adults, and to examine relationships of dietary patterns with markers of insulin sensitivity and systemic inflammation.Subjects/methodsThe Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study is a prospective cohort study of 3075 older adults. In Health ABC, multiple indicators of glucose metabolism and systemic inflammation were assessed. Food intake was estimated with a modified Block food frequency questionnaire. In this study, dietary patterns of 1751 participants with complete data were derived by cluster analysis.ResultsSix clusters were identified, including a 'healthy foods' cluster, characterized by higher intake of low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish and vegetables. In the main analysis, the 'healthy foods' cluster had significantly lower fasting insulin and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance values than the 'breakfast cereal' and 'high-fat dairy products' clusters, and lower fasting glucose than the 'high-fat dairy products' cluster (P≤0.05). No differences were found in 2-h glucose. With respect to inflammation, the 'healthy foods' cluster had lower interleukin-6 than the 'sweets and desserts' and 'high-fat dairy products' clusters, and no differences were seen in C-reactive protein or tumor necrosis factor-α.ConclusionsA dietary pattern high in low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish and vegetables may be associated with greater insulin sensitivity and lower systemic inflammation in older adults

Cardiovascular medication adherence among patients with cardiac disease: a systematic review

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aims: The aim of this study was to critically appraise and synthesize the best available evidence on the effectiveness of interventions suitable for delivery by nurses, designed to enhance cardiac patients' adherence to their prescribed medications. Background: Cardiac medications have statistically significant health benefits for patients with heart disease, but patients' adherence to prescribed medications remains suboptimal. Design: A systematic quantitative review of intervention effects. Data Sources: We conducted systematic searches for English-language, peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial publications via Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, ProQuest, Web of Science and Google Scholar published between January 2004–December 2014. Review methods: According to pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria, eligible studies were identified and data extracted using a predefined form. Of 1962 identified papers; 14 studies met the study inclusion criteria, were assessed for risk of bias using the Cochrane Collaboration tool; and included in the review. Results: Study findings were presented descriptively; due to the heterogeneity of studies meta-analysis was not possible. Included papers described interventions categorized as: (1) multifaceted; and (2) behavioural and educational, comprising: (a) text message and mail message; (b) telephone calls; (c) motivational interviewing and (d) nurse-led counselling and education. Conclusions: Substantial heterogeneity limited the robustness of conclusions, but this review indicated that motivational interviewing, education and phone or text messaging appeared promising as means to enhance cardiac medication adherence. Future research should integrate multifaceted interventions that target individual behaviour change to enhance adherence to cardiovascular medications, to build on the beneficial outcomes indicated by this review

Behaviour change interventions to improve medication adherence in patients with cardiac disease: Protocol for a mixed methods study including a pilot randomised controlled trial

© 2017 Australian College of Nursing Ltd Background: Suboptimal adherence to medication increases mortality and morbidity; individually tailored supportive interventions can improve patients’ adherence to their medication regimens. Aims: The study aims to use a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to test the hypothesis that a theory-based, nurse-led, multi-faceted intervention comprising motivational interviewing techniques and text message reminders in addition to standard care will better promote medication adherence in cardiac patients compared to standard care alone. The pilot study will assess self-reported adherence or non-adherence to cardiovascular medication in patients referred to a cardiac rehabilitation program following hospital admission for an acute cardiac event and test the feasibility of the intervention. The study will examine the role of individual, behavioural and environmental factors in predicting medication non-adherence in patients with CVD. Methods: This is a mixed- methods study including a nested pilot RCT. Twenty-eight cardiac patients will be recruited; an estimated sample of nine patients in each group will be required for the pilot RCT with 80% power to detect a moderate effect size at 5% significance, and assuming 50% loss to follow-up over the six month intervention. Participants will complete a paper-based survey (Phase one), followed by a brief semi-structured interview (Phase two) to identify their level of adherence to medication and determine factors predictive of non-adherence. Participants identified as ‘non-adherent’ will be eligible for the pilot randomised trial, where they will be randomly allocated to receive either the motivational interview plus text message reminders and standard care, or standard care alone. Discussion: Nurse-led multi-faceted interventions have the potential to enhance adherence to cardiac medications. The results of this study may have relevance for cardiac patients in other settings, and for long-term medication users with other chronic diseases

The traumatized ischiopubic synchondrosis: a rare cause of acute hip pain

# The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.co

Bandit Models of Human Behavior: Reward Processing in Mental Disorders

Drawing an inspiration from behavioral studies of human decision making, we propose here a general parametric framework for multi-armed bandit problem, which extends the standard Thompson Sampling approach to incorporate reward processing biases associated with several neurological and psychiatric conditions, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addiction, and chronic pain. We demonstrate empirically that the proposed parametric approach can often outperform the baseline Thompson Sampling on a variety of datasets. Moreover, from the behavioral modeling perspective, our parametric framework can be viewed as a first step towards a unifying computational model capturing reward processing abnormalities across multiple mental conditions.Comment: Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, AGI-1

Entanglement fluctuation theorems

Pure-state entanglement transformations have been thought of as irreversible, with reversible transformations generally only possible in the limit of many copies. Here, we show that reversible entanglement transformations do not require processing on the many-copy level but can instead be undertaken on individual systems, provided the amount of entanglement which is produced or consumed is allowed to fluctuate. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for entanglement manipulations in this case. As a corollary, we derive an equation which quantifies the fluctuations of entanglement, which is formally identical to the Jarzynski fluctuation equality found in thermodynamics. One can also relate a forward entanglement transformation to its reverse process in terms of the entanglement cost of such a transformation, in a manner equivalent to the Crooks relation. We show that a strong converse theorem for entanglement transformations is formally related to the second law of thermodynamics, while the fact that the Schmidt rank of an entangled state cannot increase is related to the third law of thermodynamics. Achievability of the protocols is done by introducing an entanglement battery, a device which stores entanglement and uses an amount of entanglement that is allowed to fluctuate but with an average cost which is still optimal. This allows us to also solve the problem of partial entanglement recovery, and in fact, we show that entanglement is fully recovered. Allowing the amount of consumed entanglement to fluctuate also leads to improved and optimal entanglement dilution protocols

Isolation of a wide range of minerals from a thermally treated plant: Equisetum arvense, a Mare’s tale

Silica is the second most abundant biomineral being exceeded in nature only by biogenic CaCO3. Many land plants (such as rice, cereals, cucumber, etc.) deposit silica in significant amounts to reinforce their tissues and as a systematic response to pathogen attack. One of the most ancient species of living vascular plants, Equisetum arvense is also able to take up and accumulate silica in all parts of the plant. Numerous methods have been developed for elimination of the organic material and/or metal ions present in plant material to isolate biogenic silica. However, depending on the chemical and/or physical treatment applied to branch or stem from Equisetum arvense; other mineral forms such glass-type materials (i.e. CaSiO3), salts (i.e. KCl) or luminescent materials can also be isolated from the plant material. In the current contribution, we show the chemical and/or thermal routes that lead to the formation of a number of different mineral types in addition to biogenic silica

Patterns of recent natural selection on genetic loci associated with sexually differentiated human body size and shape phenotypes.

Levels of sex differences for human body size and shape phenotypes are hypothesized to have adaptively reduced following the agricultural transition as part of an evolutionary response to relatively more equal divisions of labor and new technology adoption. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by studying genetic variants associated with five sexually differentiated human phenotypes: height, body mass, hip circumference, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. We first analyzed genome-wide association (GWAS) results for UK Biobank individuals (~194,000 females and ~167,000 males) to identify a total of 114,199 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with at least one of the studied phenotypes in females, males, or both sexes (P<5x10-8). From these loci we then identified 3,016 SNPs (2.6%) with significant differences in the strength of association between the female- and male-specific GWAS results at a low false-discovery rate (FDR<0.001). Genes with known roles in sexual differentiation are significantly enriched for co-localization with one or more of these SNPs versus SNPs associated with the phenotypes generally but not with sex differences (2.73-fold enrichment; permutation test; P = 0.0041). We also confirmed that the identified variants are disproportionately associated with greater phenotype effect sizes in the sex with the stronger association value. We then used the singleton density score statistic, which quantifies recent (within the last ~3,000 years; post-agriculture adoption in Britain) changes in the frequencies of alleles underlying polygenic traits, to identify a signature of recent positive selection on alleles associated with greater body fat percentage in females (permutation test; P = 0.0038; FDR = 0.0380), directionally opposite to that predicted by the sex differences reduction hypothesis. Otherwise, we found no evidence of positive selection for sex difference-associated alleles for any other trait. Overall, our results challenge the longstanding hypothesis that sex differences adaptively decreased following subsistence transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture