Equilibrium or Simple Rule at Wimbledon? An Empirical Study

We follow Walker and Wooders’(2001) empirical analysis to collect and study a broader data set in tennis, including male, female and junior matches. We find that there is mixed evidence in support of the minimax hypothesis. Granted, the plays in our data pass all the tests in Walker and Wooders (2001). However, we argue that not only the test on equal winning probabilities may lack power, but also the current serve choices may depend on past serve choices, the performance of past serve choices, or the time that the game has elapsed. We therefore examine the role that simple rules may play in determining the plays. For a significant number of top tennis players, some simple low-information rules outperform the minimax hypothesis. By comparing junior players with adult players, we find that the former tend to adopt simpler rules. The result of comparison between female and male players is inconclusiveminimax, learning, low-information

Database anonymization and protections of sensitive attributes

The importance of database anonymization has become increasingly critical for organizations that publish their database to the public. Current security measures for anonymization poses different manner of drawbacks. k-anonymity is prone to many varieties of attack; !-diversity does not work well with categorical or numerical attributes; t-closeness erases too much information in the database. Moreover, some measures of information loss are designed for anonymization measure, such as k-anonymity, where sensitive attributes do not play a part in measuring database's security. Not measuring the re-distribution of sensitive attributes will result in an underestimate for information loss such as 1- diversity or t-closeness which intentionally tries removing the association between non-sensitive attributes and sensitive attributes for better protecting individuals from being indentified. This thesis provides a more generalized version of !-diversity that will better protect categorical attributes and numerical attributes and analyzes the effectiveness and complexity of our new security scheme. Another focus of this thesis is to design a better approach of measuring information loss and lay down a new standard for evaluating information loss on security measures such as 1- diversity and t-closeness and quantify actual information loss from deliberately hiding relations between non-sensitive attributes and sensitive attributes. This new standard of information loss measure should provide a better estimation of the data mining potential remained in a generalized database. This thesis also proves that unlike k-anonymity which can be solved in polynomial time when k=2. 1-diversity in fact remains NP-Hard in the special case where 1=2, and even when there are only 2 possible sensitive attributes in the alphabet

Exploring Strategies to Enhance the Presentation of Information in Print DTCA to Improve Consumers’ Recall of Information

This study examines how best to present information in an antidepressant print DTCA. The objectives of this study are to: (1) modify an antidepressant print advertisement to enhance consumers’ understanding of the presented information, (2) create a questionnaire to measure consumers’ recall of the information presented in an antidepressant print advertisement and (3) pilot test the study instruments by comparing consumers’ recall of the information in the antidepressant print advertisement between those who view the original advertisement and those who view the modified advertisement. Modifications of the advertisement were based on the Explanatory Structure Building Model, findings from previous studies, and literature pertaining to the enhancement of the readability and comprehension of written health information. Data collection was conducted in three stages using mixed methods. This study details potential techniques that can be used to enhance the presentation of information in print DTCA in order to improve consumers’ recall of the information. Furthermore, this study shows that strategies to improve the presentation of information in print DTCA exist and that the strategies are feasible to apply. Conflict of Interest This research study was supported by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Population Health Dissertation Grants sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Sonderegger Research Center Dissertation Research Grants.   Type: Original Researc

Developing Blue Ocean Strategy of Sustainable Product Design and Development for Business Opportunities of BOP Groups in Taiwan

This study expands the definition of the poor group and attempts to delve into and make known the phenomenon of poverty in Taiwan and aims to explore the goals and possibilities of the BOP consumer market. Through a questionnaire survey and expert interviews, this research adopts the concept of sustainability to discuss the lifestyle and consumption characteristics of the BOP group and establishes a design strategic norm of the sustainable products. The findings show that the BOP group in Taiwan is new poverty or working poor and high quality and common prices are the main requirements; these should be introduced into the development model of sustainable design

Feasibility of Virtual Mock Trials as a Parallel Teaching-Assessment Activity for Student Pharmacists at Two American Pharmacy Programmes During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Background: Student-pharmacists forced into remote-learning by the COVID-19 pandemic participated in a Virtual Mock Trial (VMT). Objectives: Feasibility of VMTs was assessed by evaluating student VMT performance, student perceptions on technology and overall experiences. Methods: The VMT was implemented via video conferencing technology in April 2020. Faculty-judges and student-jurors observed/rated student performance using pre-established rubrics. A post-VMT survey was administered electronically. Descriptive analyses were performed, and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests were conducted to compare programmes. Results: Forty-six students from Programme A (East Coast, USA) and 89 from Programme B (West Coast, USA) participated in the VMTs. The faculty-judges’ evaluation scores for student performance ranged from 85.0% to 96.7%, while the student-jurors’ evaluation scores ranged from 68.3% to 100%. Student perceptions on the four categories regarding technology use all had means \u3e 5 on a 7-Point Likert Scale. More than 79.0% of students rated their VMT experience positively (i.e. 6 or 7). Conclusions: VMT is feasible for the current pandemic remote-learning environment, and it could be replicated in other pharmacy or healthcare programmes to enrich students\u27 active learning in virtual education

Molecular identification for epigallocatechin-3-gallate-mediated antioxidant intervention on the H2O2-induced oxidative stress in H9c2 rat cardiomyoblasts

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been documented for its beneficial effects protecting oxidative stress to cardiac cells. Previously, we have shown the EGCG-mediated cardiac protection by attenuating reactive oxygen species and cytosolic Ca2+ in cardiac cells during oxidative stress and myocardial ischemia. Here, we aimed to seek a deeper elucidation of the molecular anti-oxidative capabilities of EGCG in an H2O2-induced oxidative stress model of myocardial ischemia injury using H9c2 rat cardiomyoblasts

Successful treatment of methemoglobinemia in an elderly couple with severe cyanosis: two case reports

INTRODUCTION: Methemoglobinemia should be considered in all cyanotic patients who remain unresponsive to oxygen therapy. Rapid diagnosis is very important in emergency cases. Here, we present the cases of two patients, a married couple, admitted to our hospital with methemoglobinemia after exposure to sodium nitrite. CASE PRESENTATION: Two patients, a married couple, presented with methemoglobinemia. The 72-year-old Taiwanese man and 68-year-old Taiwanese woman were referred to our hospital with dizziness and tachypnea. On examination, their mucous membranes were cyanotic, and their blood samples showed the classic ‘chocolate brown’ appearance. The man also reported having experienced twitching of his right arm for a few minutes before arrival at the hospital. The symptoms of both patients failed to improve in response to supplemental oxygen delivered via oxygen masks, although the arterial blood gas data of these patients were normal and their pulse oximetry showed oxyhemoglobin levels of approximately 85%. A carbon monoxide-oximeter showed that the man’s methemoglobin concentration was 48.3%, and the woman’s was 36.4%. Methylene blue (100mg) was administered intravenously to both patients, and their symptoms improved dramatically. They were admitted to the intensive care unit and discharged three days later, without neurological sequelae. CONCLUSION: Severe methemoglobinemia is a life-threatening condition and, if untreated, may result in death. Early diagnosis and appropriate antidotal treatment are crucial in treating this emergency situation

Gallic Acid Induces a Reactive Oxygen Species-Provoked c-Jun NH 2

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic lung disorder characterized by fibroblasts proliferation and extracellular matrix accumulation. Induction of fibroblast apoptosis therefore plays a crucial role in the resolution of this disease. Gallic acid (3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid), a common botanic phenolic compound, has been reported to induce apoptosis in tumor cell lines and renal fibroblasts. The present study was undertaken to examine the role of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in lung fibroblasts apoptosis induced by gallic acid. We found that treatment with gallic acid resulted in activation of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and protein kinase B (PKB, Akt), but not p38MAPK, in mouse lung fibroblasts. Inhibition of JNK using pharmacologic inhibitor (SP600125) and genetic knockdown (JNK specific siRNA) significantly inhibited p53 accumulation, reduced PUMA and Fas expression, and abolished apoptosis induced by gallic acid. Moreover, treatment with antioxidants (vitamin C, N-acetyl cysteine, and catalase) effectively diminished gallic acid-induced hydrogen peroxide production, JNK and p53 activation, and cell death. These observations imply that gallic acid-mediated hydrogen peroxide formation acts as an initiator of JNK signaling pathways, leading to p53 activation and apoptosis in mouse lung fibroblasts