Two-sided matching with indifferences

Most of the two-sided matching literature maintains the assumption that agents are never indifferent between any two members of the opposite side. In practice, however, ties in preferences arise naturally and are widespread. Market design needs to handle ties carefully, because in the presence of indifferences, stability no longer implies Pareto efficiency, and the deferred acceptance algorithm cannot be applied to produce a Pareto efficient or a worker-optimal stable matching. We allow ties in preference rankings and show that the Pareto dominance relation on stable matchings can be captured by two simple operations which involve rematching of workers and firms via cycles or chains. Likewise, the Pareto relation defined via workers' welfare can also be broken down to two similar procedures which preserve stability. Using these structural results we design fast algorithms to compute a Pareto efficient and stable matching, and a worker-optimal stable matching

Product Engineering and Performance Testing in Relation to Strength Design of Furniture

This article contains a narrative description of the history, current status, and possible future progress of the product engineering, strength design, and performance testing of furniture. Product engineering is covered both in general and from a furniture perspective. Strength design of furniture forms the essential part of the article.Reliability concepts are depicted in general both in their application to furniture and in their incorporation into standards for performance testing. The major objective of reliability and performance testing is to improve the durability and safety of furniture products and to predict failure or unexpected problems associated with them.Testing and evaluation are needed to obtain safe and reliable furniture and should provide pertinent expected performance information to manufacturers and customers alike. Both the history of development of strength design and its current stage of development are treated, along with suggestions for its use in improvement of furniture construction. In conclusion, an integrated methodology for the production of high strength furniture in view of current technological improvements is outlined

Biomedical image time series registration with particle filtering (Parçacık süzgeci ile biyomedikal görüntü zaman serisi çakıştırma)

We propose a family of methods for biomedical image time series registration based on Particle filtering. The first method applies an intensity-based information-theoretic approach to calculate importance weights. An effective second group of methods use landmark-based approaches for the same purpose by automatically detecting intensity maxima or SIFT interest points from image time series. A brute-force search for the best alignment usually produces good results with proper cost functions, but becomes computationally expensive if the whole search space is explored. Hill climbing optimizations seek local optima. Particle filtering avoids local solutions by introducing randomness and sequentially updating the posterior distribution representing probable solutions. Thus, it can be more robust for the registration of image time series. We show promising preliminary results on dendrite image time series

Group Strategyproof Pareto-Stable Marriage with Indifferences via the Generalized Assignment Game

We study the variant of the stable marriage problem in which the preferences of the agents are allowed to include indifferences. We present a mechanism for producing Pareto-stable matchings in stable marriage markets with indifferences that is group strategyproof for one side of the market. Our key technique involves modeling the stable marriage market as a generalized assignment game. We also show that our mechanism can be implemented efficiently. These results can be extended to the college admissions problem with indifferences

Preliminary Assessment of and Lessons Learned in PITCH: an Integrated Approach to Developing Technical Communication Skills in Engineers

The Project to Integrate Technical Communication Habits (PITCH) has been implemented across seven engineering and computer science undergraduate programs starting in fall 2012. The overarching goal of PITCH is to develop written, oral and visual communication skills and professional habits in engineering students. PITCH activities begin in the very first semester and are reinforced and extended through all four years of each program. After three years of progressively more extensive development and deployment, a preliminary assessment of student writing over their first three years in programs was performed. In May 2016 the first cohort of students will have completed the entire sequence of PITCH courses, including senior design. PITCH was designed to include technical memoranda, poster presentations, oral presentations, laboratory reports, proposals, and senior design reports. In addition to text elements, the use of tables and graphics also were addressed. These technical communication products are integrated into specific foundational courses common to several programs, as well as higher-level courses unique to each program. Engineering faculty teaching these courses were progressively trained through workshops conducted over three summers, so in the early years not all instructors teaching these courses had been fully trained. A random sample of students from four programs was selected for the assessment. These students had taken freshman through junior courses with trained instructors, and the assessment was performed based on the PITCH writing assignments they submitted in four courses. Four faculty members and an external consultant involved in the development and deployment of PITCH performed the assessment. Each writing assignment was evaluated through use of a common rubric to see how well students achieved the overall PITCH learning outcomes. The evaluations were done in a series of collective settings with all five evaluators present and each writing assignment was assessed. Student progress through the four courses spanning the first three years of PITCH is quantified and the results are discussed. Also discussed are pedagogical and administrative lessons learned during development and implementation of PITCH to date. PITCH is supported by a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation

Erzurum il merkezinde çocuklarda febril konvülziyon prevelansı

Objective: We investigate the prevalence of febrile seizure (FS) in children Erzurum, Turkey, and to reveal its epidemiological characteristics. Material and Methods: This was a sectional study. The proportionate layer sampling technique was used by calculating the population consisting of children aged 1 month to 5 years registered with general practitioners in the Erzurum provincial center and the participants selected. By explaining the definition of FS to participants, the existence of FS in the participant's children were questioned. In this way the demographic characteristics, the characteristics of FS and the risk factors of FS are determined with these questionnaires. Completed questionnaires were recorded. Results: 126 subjects, 71 (56.3%) male and 55 (43.7%) female had undergone FS. The total prevalence rate was 6.4%, 5.6% in females and 7.2% in males. A family history of FS was determined in 35.7% of those with FS, and a history of epilepsy in the family was 5.6% positive. Prevalence of FS was higher in those with asphyxia at birth and a family history of FS. Conclusion: The prevalence of FS was closer to that of developed countries rather than developing ones. FS described as with good prognosis were determined as having a high risk of recurrence and a higher risk of developing epilepsy compared to the general population. The most important risk factor was determined as a family history of FS. © Copyright 2016 by Türkiye Klinikleri

Coronary artery bypass surgery in a patient with Kartagener syndrome: a case report and literature review

Kartagener syndrome consists of congenital bronchiectasis, sinusitis, and total situs inversus in half of the patients. A patient diagnosed with Kartagener syndrome was reffered to our department due to 3-vessel coronary disease. An off-pump coronary artery bypass operation was performed using both internal thoracic arteries and a saphenous vein graft. We performed a literature review for cases with Kartagener syndrome, coronary surgery and dextrocardia. Although a few cases of dextrocardia were found in the literature, no case of Kartagener syndrome was mentioned