Linear algebraic structure of zero-determinant strategies in repeated games

Zero-determinant (ZD) strategies, a recently found novel class of strategies in repeated games, has attracted much attention in evolutionary game theory. A ZD strategy unilaterally enforces a linear relation between average payoffs of players. Although existence and evolutional stability of ZD strategies have been studied in simple games, their mathematical properties have not been well-known yet. For example, what happens when more than one players employ ZD strategies have not been clarified. In this paper, we provide a general framework for investigating situations where more than one players employ ZD strategies in terms of linear algebra. First, we theoretically prove that a set of linear relations of average payoffs enforced by ZD strategies always has solutions, which implies that incompatible linear relations are impossible. Second, we prove that linear payoff relations are independent of each other under some conditions. These results hold for general games with public monitoring including perfect-monitoring games. Furthermore, we provide a simple example of a two-player game in which one player can simultaneously enforce two linear relations, that is, simultaneously control her and her opponent's average payoffs. All of these results elucidate general mathematical properties of ZD strategies.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

Applicability of care quality indicators for women with low-risk pregnancies planning hospital birth: a retrospective study of medical records

Practices for planned birth among women with low-risk pregnancies vary by birth setting, medical professional, and organizational system. Appropriate monitoring is essential for quality improvement. Although sets of quality indicators have been developed, their applicability has not been tested. To improve the quality of childbirth care for low-risk mothers and infants in Japanese hospitals, we developed 35 quality indicators using existing clinical guidelines and quality indicators. We retrospectively analysed data for 347 women in Japan diagnosed with low-risk pregnancy in the second trimester, admitted between April 2015 and March 2016. We obtained scores for 35 quality indicators and evaluated their applicability, i.e., feasibility, improvement potential, and reliability (intra- and inter-rater reliability: kappa score, positive and negative agreement). The range of adherence to each indicator was 0–95.7%. We identified feasibility concerns for six indicators with over 25% missing data. Two indicators with over 90% adherence showed limited potential for improvement. Three indicators had poor kappa scores for intra-rater reliability, with positive/negative agreement scores 0.94/0.33, 0.33/0.95, and 0.00/0.97, respectively. Two indicators had poor kappa scores for inter-rater reliability, with positive/negative agreement scores 0.25/0.92 and 0.68/0.61, respectively. The findings indicated that these 35 care quality indicators for low-risk pregnant women may be applicable to real-world practice, with some caveats

Time-delayed collective flow diffusion models for inferring latent people flow from aggregated data at limited locations

The rapid adoption of wireless sensor devices has made it easier to record location information of people in a variety of spaces (e.g., exhibition halls). Location information is often aggregated due to privacy and/or cost concerns. The aggregated data we use as input consist of the numbers of incoming and outgoing people at each location and at each time step. Since the aggregated data lack tracking information of individuals, determining the flow of people between locations is not straightforward. In this article, we address the problem of inferring latent people flows, that is, transition populations between locations, from just aggregated population data gathered from observed locations. Existing models assume that everyone is always in one of the observed locations at every time step; this, however, is an unrealistic assumption, because we do not always have a large enough number of sensor devices to cover the large-scale spaces targeted. To overcome this drawback, we propose a probabilistic model with flow conservation constraints that incorporate travel duration distributions between observed locations. To handle noisy settings, we adopt noisy observation models for the numbers of incoming and outgoing people, where the noise is regarded as a factor that may disturb flow conservation, e.g., people may appear in or disappear from the predefined space of interest. We develop an approximate expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm that simultaneously estimates transition populations and model parameters. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model on real-world datasets of pedestrian data in exhibition halls, bike trip data and taxi trip data in New York City

Epithelial Splicing Regulatory Protein 1 is a Favorable Prognostic Factor in Pancreatic Cancer that Attenuates Pancreatic Metastases

Epithelial splicing regulatory protein 1 (ESRP1) binds the FGFR-2 auxiliary cis-element ISE/ISS-3, located in the intron between exon IIIb and IIIc, and primarily promotes FGFR-2 IIIb expression. Here we assessed the role of ESRP1 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Immunohistochemical analysis was performed using anti-ESRP1, FGFR-2 IIIb and FGFR-2 IIIc antibodies in 123 PDAC cases. ESRP1-expression vector and small interference RNA (siRNA) targeting ESRP1 were transfected into human PDAC cells, and cell growth, migration and invasion were analyzed. In vivo heterotopic and orthotopic implantations using ESRP1 overexpression clones were performed and effects on pancreatic tumor volumes and hepatic and pulmonary metastases determined. ESRP1 immunoreactivity was strong in the nuclei of cancer cells in well-to-moderately differentiated PDACs, but weak in poorly-differentiated cancers. Well-to-moderately differentiated cancers also exhibited high FGFR-2 IIIb and low FGFR-2 IIIc expression, whereas this ratio was reversed in the poorly-differentiated cancers. Increased ESRP1 expression was associated with longer survival by comparison with low-ESRP1 expression, and PANC-1 cells engineered to express ESRP1 exhibited increased FGFR-2 IIIb expression and decreased migration and invasion in vitro, whereas ESRP1 siRNA-transfected KLM-1 cells exhibited increased FGFR-2 IIIc expression and increased cell growth, migration and invasion. In vivo, ESRP1-overexpressing clones formed significantly fewer liver metastases as compared with control clones. ESRP1 regulates the expression pattern of FGFR-2 isoforms, attenuates cell growth, migration, invasion, and metastasis, and is a favorable prognostic factor in PDAC. Therefore, devising mechanisms to up-regulate ESRP1 may exert a beneficial therapeutic effect in PDAC

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia pneumonia during acute myeloid leukemia: A case report

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (S. maltophilia) is a Gram-negative, multidrug-resistant organism that both opportunistically infects the bloodstream and leads to pneumonia in immunosuppressed patients, including those with hematologic malignancies. In patients with severe respiratory failure, venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO) can stabilize the respiratory status. However, whether ECMO in patients with hematologic malignancies improves the clinical outcomes is still controversial because ECMO increases the risk of the exacerbation of sepsis and bleeding. We report a case of a 46-year-old man with Stenotrophomonas maltophilia hemorrhagic pneumonia acquired during consolidation chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia in whom VV ECMO lead to a good clinical outcome. The stabilization of his respiratory status achieved with VV ECMO allowed time for trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole antibiotic therapy to improve the pneumonia. We suggest the background of patients, including comorbidities and general conditions, should be taken into account when considering the clinical indications of ECMO

Follistatin-like 5 is expressed in restricted areas of the adult mouse brain: Implications for its function in the olfactory system

Follistatin‐like 5 (Fstl5), a member of the follistatin family of genes, encodes a secretory glycoprotein. Previous studies revealed that other members of this family including Fstl1 and Fstl3 play an essential role in development, homeostasis, and congenital disorders. However, the in vivo function of Fstl5 is poorly understood. To gain insight into the function of Fstl5 in the mouse central nervous system, we examined the Fstl5 expression pattern in the adult mouse brain. The results of in situ hybridization analysis showed a highly restricted pattern of Fstl5, namely, with localization in the olfactory system, hippocampal CA3 area and granular cell layer of the cerebellum. Restricted expression in the olfactory system suggests a possible role for Fstl5 in maintaining odor perception

Mbeann: Mutation-based evolving artificial neural networks

Abstract. A novel approach to topology and weight evolving artificial neural networks (TWEANNs) is presented. Compared with previous TWEANNs, this method has two major characteristics. First, a set of genetic operations may be designed without recombination because it often generates an offspring whose fitness value is considerably worse than its parents. Instead, two topological mutations whose effect on fitness value is assumed to be nearly neutral are provided in the genetic operations set. Second, a new encoding technique is introduced to define a string as a set of substrings called operons. To examine our approach, computer simulations were conducted using the standard reinforcement learning problem known as the double pole balancing without velocity information. The results obtained were compared with NEAT results, which is recognised as one of the most powerful techniques in TWEANNs. It was found that our proposed approach yields competitive results, especially when the problem is difficult

多形腺腫における細胞分化因子としてのNotchの可能性

The expression of Notch in 30 cases of pleomorphic adenoma was examined by immunohistochemistry.Comparing the results of our study with previous literatures, from the partial CK7 expression and substantial Notch expression in ductal epithelial cells as well as the Notch expression in solid tumor nests, it can be inferred that Notch is involved in cell differentiation. CK13 expression was observed in cells undergoing squamous metaplasia and Notch expression was seen in the nucleus of basal and squamous cells. The intense Notch expression in basal cells and weak expression in squamous cells suggests that Notch is involved in the differentiation from basal to squamous cell. Moreover, the loss of nuclear expression on the inner layer would signify that differentiation is about to end or has been terminated. Notch was expressed in the cytoplasm of cartilage cells and in the cell membrane of mucous cells but not in the nucleus indicating that differentiation has been concluded. Notch involvement is suspected in cell differentiation in areas showing ductal structures and squamous metaplasia. In summary, Notch is involved in cell differentiation of ductal cells in PA. Nuclear expression was shown in tumor cells in solid nests and surrounding structures. Moreover, Notch is expressed by basal cells undergoing squamous metaplasia suggesting the participation of Notch in cell differentiation in PA.2015博士（歯学）松本歯科大

Intraoperative hand strength as an indicator of consciousness during awake craniotomy: a prospective, observational study

握力が覚醒下開頭手術中の覚醒度の指標となる. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-01-11.Awake craniotomy enables mapping and monitoring of brain functions. For successful procedures, rapid awakening and the precise evaluation of consciousness are required. A prospective, observational study conducted to test whether intraoperative hand strength could be a sensitive indicator of consciousness during the awake phase of awake craniotomy. Twenty-three patients who underwent awake craniotomy were included. Subtle changes of the level of consciousness were assessed by the Japan Coma Scale (JCS). The associations of hand strength on the unaffected side with the predicted plasma concentration (Cp) of propofol, the bispectral index (BIS), and the JCS were analyzed. Hand strength relative to the preoperative maximum hand strength on the unaffected side showed significant correlations with the Cp of propofol (ρ =  − 0.219, p = 0.007), the BIS (ρ = 0.259, p = 0.002), and the JCS (τ =  − 0.508, p = 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for discriminating JCS 0–1 and JCS ≥ 2 demonstrated that the area under the curve was 0.76 for hand strength, 0.78 for Cp of propofol, and 0.66 for BIS. With a cutoff value of 75% for hand strength, the sensitivity was 0.76, and the specificity was 0.67. These data demonstrated that hand strength is a useful indicator for assessing the intraoperative level of consciousness during awake craniotomy