Using Similarity Metrics on Real World Data and Patient Treatment Pathways to Recommend the Next Treatment

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most prevalent types of lung cancer and continues to have an ominous five year survival rate. Considerable work has been accomplished in analyzing the viability of the treatments offered to NSCLC patients; however, while many of these treatments have performed better over populations of diagnosed NSCLC patients, a specific treatment may not be the most effective therapy for a given patient. Coupling both patient similarity metrics using the Gower similarity metric and prior treatment knowledge, we were able to demonstrate how patient analytics can complement clinical efforts in recommending the next best treatment. Our retrospective and exploratory results indicate that a majority of patients are not recommended the best surviving therapy once they require a new therapy. This investigation lays the groundwork for treatment recommendation using analytics, but more investigation is required to analyze patient outcomes beyond survival

Co-location of CHP units for high power charging of battery electric vehicles : a comparison of the fuel efficiency for AC and DC coupled systems

This paper proposes the co-location of gas reciprocating generator sets with High Power Charging (HPC) stations for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), to offer a low carbon source of heat and power which could help to meet national government transportation and heating strategies while minimizing the impact that HPC systems will have on the power network. Three different Combined Heat and Power (CHP) connection configurations are considered to determine the most fuel-efficient per forecasted utilization rates of the HPC station. The use of variable speed generators connected directly to the dc bus of the HPC station can offer improved fuel-efficiency performance compared to fixed speed, especially under part-loading conditions, however, the sizing of engine-generator sets based on expected utilization rates of the HPC station has the most influence on fuel efficiency

Incorporating practice theory in sub-profile models for short term aggregated residential load forecasting

Aspirations of grid independence could be achieved by residential power systems connected only to small highly variable loads, if overall demand on the network can be accurately anticipated. Absence of the diversity found on networks with larger load cohorts or consistent industrial customers, makes such overall load profiles difficult to anticipate on even a short term basis. Here, existing forecasting techniques are employed alongside enhanced classification/clustering models in proposed methods for forecasting demand in a bottom up manner. A Markov Chain based sampling technique derived from Practice Theory of human behavior is proposed as a means of providing a forecast with low computational effort and reduced historical data requirements. The modeling approach proposed does not require seasonal adjustments or environmental data. Forecast and actual demand for a cohort of residential loads over a 5 month period are used to evaluate a number of models as well as demonstrate a significant performance improvement if utilized in an ensemble forecast

Neogene stratigraphic architecture and tectonic evolution of Wanganui, King Country, and eastern Taranaki Basins, New Zealand

Analysis of the stratigraphic architecture of the fills of Wanganui, King Country, and eastern Taranaki Basins reveals the occurrence of five 2nd order Late Paleocene and Neogene sequences of tectonic origin. The oldest is the late Eocene-Oligocene Te Kuiti Sequence, followed by the early-early Miocene (Otaian) Mahoenui Sequence, followed by the late-early Miocene (Altonian) Mokau Sequence, all three in King Country Basin. The fourth is the middle Miocene to early Pliocene Whangamomona Sequence, and the fifth is the middle Pliocene-Pleistocene Rangitikei Sequence, both represented in the three basins. Higher order sequences (4th, 5th, 6th) with a eustatic origin occur particularly within the Whangamomona and Rangitikei Sequences, particularly those of 6th order with 41 000 yr periodicity

Combination of herbivore removal and nitrogen deposition increases upland carbon storage

© 2015 The Authors. Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Acknowledgements We thank Ruth Mitchell, Alison Hester, Bob Mardon, Eoghain Maclean, David Welch, National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Woodland Trust for helping find appropriate exclosures and granting access permission. We thank Nick Littlewood and Antonio Lopez Nogueira for their assistance in the field and processing samples in the lab and Ron Smith and Tony Dore for providing N deposition data. SWS was funded by a BBSRC studentship.Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Affective reactivity of speech disturbances in schizotypy

Speech disturbances (SD) are a stable, pernicious symptom of schizophrenia that increase when negative emotion and/or arousal are elicited. While considerable research has examined SD in patients with schizophrenia, much less is known about individuals at risk for the disorder, who demonstrate schizophrenia-like, or schizotypic, traits. The present study examined SD and speech reactivity to stress, termed affective reactivity (AR), produced during a laboratory procedure in separate groups of controls and individuals with psychometrically identified schizotypy. This project had two primary aims: 1) to examine SD severity across schizotypy symptoms and 2) to examine how SD varies as a function of emotion/stress. We hypothesized that heightened schizotypic traits would be associated with more instances of SD and increased reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli. In total, 105 participants (schizotypy= 83, control= 22) were examined here. We observed several interesting findings regarding SD and AR when comparing the schizotypy and control groups. On average, participants in the schizotypy group produced a trend level increase in SD across the pleasant and stressful conditions. When examining specific schizotypal symptoms in the stressful condition, disorganized symptoms were positively correlated with SD and negative schizotypy was inversely correlated with SD and AR. These findings indicate that negative and disorganized schizotypy symptoms may be correlated with SD; however, these correlations were only apparent when stress was induced. This study highlights the role of stress reactivity across the schizophrenia-spectrum. Moreover, the incongruous relationships between disorganized and negative symptoms and SD underscore the marked heterogeneity in disease process across schizotypy