Perceived fairness of direct-to-consumer genetic testing business models

Although consumers and experts often express concerns regarding the questionable business practices of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing services (e.g., reselling of consumers’ genetic data), the DTC genetic testing market keeps expanding rapidly. We employ retail fairness as our theoretical lens to address this seeming paradox and conduct a discrete choice experiment with 16 attributes to better understand consumers’ fairness perceptions of DTC genetic testing business models. Our results suggest that, while consumers perceive privacy-preserving DTC genetic testing services fairer, price is the main driver for fairness perception. We contribute to research on consumer perceptions of DTC genetic testing by investigating consumer preferences of DTC genetic testing business models and respective attributes. Further, this research contributes to knowledge about disruptive business models in healthcare and retail fairness by contextualizing the concept of retail fairness in the DTC genetic testing market. We also demonstrate how to utilize discrete choice experiments to elicit perceived fairness

Thermodynamic nonextensivity in a closed string gas

Well known results in string thermodynamics show that there is always a negative specific heat phase in the microcanonical description of a gas of closed free strings whenever there are no winding modes present. We will carefully compute the number of strings in the gas to show how this negative specific heat is related to the fact that the system does not have thermodynamic extensivity. We will also discuss the consequences for a system of having a microcanonical negative specific heat versus the exact result that such a thing cannot happen in any canonical (fixed temperature) description.Comment: Title + 13 pages, more typos correcte

Ascending Axonal Degeneration of the Corticospinal Tract in Pure Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia: A Cross-Sectional DTI Study

Objective: To identify structural white matter alterations in patients with pure hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) using high angular resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Methods: We examined 37 individuals with high resolution DTI, 20 patients with pure forms of hereditary spastic paraplegia and 17 age and gender matched healthy controls. DTI was performed using a 3 T clinical scanner with whole brain tract-based spatial statistical (TBSS) analysis of the obtained fractional anisotropy (FA) data as well as a region-of-interest (ROI)-based analysis of affected tracts including the cervical spinal cord. We further conducted correlation analyses between DTI data and clinical characteristics. Results: TBSS analysis in HSP patients showed significantly decreased fractional anisotropy of the corpus callosum and the corticospinal tract compared to healthy controls. ROI-based analysis confirmed significantly lower FA in HSP compared to controls in the internal capsule (0.77 vs. 0.80, p = 0.048), the corpus callosum (0.84 vs. 0.87, p = 0.048) and the cervical spinal cord (0.72 vs. 0.79, p = 0.003). FA values of the cervical spinal cord significantly correlated with disease duration. Conclusion: DTI metrics of the corticospinal tract from the internal capsule to the cervical spine suggest microstructural damage and axonal degeneration of motor neurons. The CST at the level of the cervical spinal cord is thereby more severely affected than the intracranial part of the CST, suggesting an ascending axonal degeneration of the CST. Since there is a significant correlation with disease duration, FA may serve as a future progression marker for assessment of the disease course in HSP

Designing Gamification Concepts for Expert Explainable Artificial Intelligence Evaluation Tasks: A Problem Space Exploration

Artificial intelligence (AI) models are often complex and require additional explanations for use in high-stakes decision-making contexts like healthcare. To this end, explainable AI (XAI) developers must evaluate their explanations with domain experts to ensure understandability. As these evaluations are tedious and repetitive, we look at gamification as a means to motivate and engage experts in XAI evaluation tasks. We explore the problem space associated with gamified expert XAI evaluation. Based on a literature review of 22 relevant studies and seven interviews with experts in XAI evaluation, we elicit knowledge about affected stakeholders, eight needs, eight goals, and seven requirements. Our results help us understand better the problems associated with expert XAI evaluation and paint a broad application potential for gamification to improve XAI expert evaluations. In doing so, we lay the foundation for the design of successful gamification concepts for expert XAI evaluation

1/T_1 nuclear relaxation time of \kappa-(BEDT-TTF)_ 2 Cu [N(CN)_2] Cl : effects of magnetic frustration

We study the role played by the magnetic frustration in the antiferromagnetic phase of the organic salt \kappa-(BEDT-TTF)_ 2 Cu [N(CN)_2] Cl. Using the spatially anisotropic triangular Heisenberg model we analyze previous and new performed NMR experiments. We compute the 1/T_1 relaxation time by means of the modified spin wave theory. The strong suppression of the nuclear relaxation time observed experimentally under varying pressure and magnetic field is qualitatively well reproduced by the model. Our results suggest the existence of a close relation between the effects of pressure and magnetic frustration.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, to appear in Journal of Phys.: Condens Matte

Hypertriglyceridemia and Recurrent Pancreatitis following Splenectomy

Hyperlipoproteinemia represents a constellation of clinical syndromes that frequently includes hypertriglyceridemia. Because of the degree of elevation in the triglyceride levels frequently seen in these syndromes, they are associated with complications not generally observed among those patients with essential hypertriglyceridemia, including as in this case report, recurrent pancreatitis. Here, we present a case of a patient with hyperlipoproteinemia who developed acute worsening of his hypertriglyceridemia and onset of acute panceatitis that became recurrent following elective splenectomy for suspected lymphoma. In particular, we discuss the dietary management of hypertriglyceridemia which significantly reduced the number of episodes of acute pancreatitis in this patient

Computational and Experimental Investigation of Interfacial Area in Near-Field Diesel Spray Simulation

[EN] The dense spray region in the near-field of diesel fuel injection remains an enigma. This region is difficult to interrogate with light in the visible range and difficult to model due to the rapid interaction between liquid and gas. In particular, modeling strategies that rely on Lagrangian particle tracking of droplets have struggled in this area. To better represent the strong interaction between phases, Eulerian modeling has proven particularly useful. Models built on the concept of surface area density are advantageous where primary and secondary atomization have not yet produced droplets, but rather form more complicated liquid structures. Surface area density, a more general concept than Lagrangian droplets, naturally represents liquid structures, no matter how complex. These surface area density models, however, have not been directly experimentally validated in the past due to the inability of optical methods to elucidate such a quantity. Optical diagnostics traditionally measure near-spherical droplet size far downstream, where the spray is optically thin. Using ultra-small-angle x-ray scattering (USAXS) measurements to measure the surface area and x-ray radiography to measure the density, we have been able to test one of the more speculative parts of Eulerian spray modeling. The modeling and experimental results have been combined to provide insight into near-field spray dynamics.Authors acknowledge that part of this work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in the frame of the COMEFF (TRA2014-59483-R) project.Pandal, A.; Pastor Enguídanos, JM.; Payri, R.; Kastengren, A.; Duke, DJ.; Matusik, KE.; Giraldo-Valderrama, JS.... (2017). Computational and Experimental Investigation of Interfacial Area in Near-Field Diesel Spray Simulation. SAE International Journal of Fuel and Lubricants. 10(2):1-9. doi:10.4271/2017-01-0859S1910

Multilevel Contracts for Trusted Components

This article contributes to the design and the verification of trusted components and services. The contracts are declined at several levels to cover then different facets, such as component consistency, compatibility or correctness. The article introduces multilevel contracts and a design+verification process for handling and analysing these contracts in component models. The approach is implemented with the COSTO platform that supports the Kmelia component model. A case study illustrates the overall approach.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233