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An algorithm for the optimisation of n-forms using symmetric multilinear forms
This paper describes an algorithm for locating stationary points of n-forms. Use is made of the associated n-linear form, the stationary points of which are seen to coincide with those of the n-form. Conditions of convergence are established using the concept of Liapunov stability, and it is seen that the scheme can always be made to converge to the global maximum of the n-form over unit vectors
Reluctant allies? Iuliu Maniu and Cornellu Zelea Codreanu against King Carol II of Romania
Romanian legionary movement, to prevent the incumbent government falsifying the elections of December 1937. Thus far, the secondary literature on the history of interwar Romania has shed little light on Maniu's motives in signing the pact with Codreanu or on the nature and extent of Maniu's relations with the legionary movement in the 1930s. This article, which draws on previously unutilized Romanian archival sources, will examine the links between Maniu and the movement and argue that these extended well beyond the signing of the pact in 1937. It will conclude that Maniu and Codreanu were far from being 'reluctant allies' in their fight against government corruption and King Carol of Romania
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Simple Efficient Contracts in Complex Environments
The paper studies a general model of hold-up in a setting encompassing the models of Segal (1999) and Che and Hausch (1999) among others. It is shown that if renegotiation is modelled as an infinite-horizon non-cooperative bargaining game then, with a simple initial contract, an efficient equilibrium will generally exist. The contract gives authority to one party to set the terms of trade and gives the other party a non-expiring option to trade at these terms. The difference from standard results arises because the existing contract ensures that the renegotiation game has multiple equilibria; the multiplicity of continuation equilibria can be used to enforce efficient investment
Adaptive Computation of the Swap-Insert Correction Distance
The Swap-Insert Correction distance from a string of length to
another string of length on the alphabet is the minimum
number of insertions, and swaps of pairs of adjacent symbols, converting
into . Contrarily to other correction distances, computing it is NP-Hard in
the size of the alphabet. We describe an algorithm computing this distance
in time within , where there are occurrences of
in , occurrences of in , and where
measures the
difficulty of the instance. The difficulty is bounded by above by various
terms, such as the length of the shortest string , and by the maximum number
of occurrences of a single character in . Those results illustrate how, in
many cases, the correction distance between two strings can be easier to
compute than in the worst case scenario.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, long version of the extended abstract accepted
to SPIRE 201
Study of Serum Leptin in Well-differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma: Correlation with Patient and Tumor Characteristics
Background
There is a proven relationship between obesity and several cancers including breast, endometrium, colorectal, and esophagus. With the increasing incidence of both obesity and thyroid cancer, we designed the present study to investigate a causal relationship between leptin, which is one of the well known adipokines, and well-differentiated thyroid cancer (WDTC).
Methods
Serum leptin levels were measured in 30 patients with WDTC and compared to 30 healthy control subjects before and 1 month after surgery. Other parameters studied included age, sex, body mass index, menopausal status in women, lymph node status, tumor size, and disease multifocality.
Results
There were no differences between the two groups regarding age and sex. Preoperative leptin levels were higher in the WDTC patients when compared to the control patients [19.25 (1.50–109.60) vs 0.90 (0.50–11.80) ng/ml, p < 0.001, group 1 vs group 2, respectively]. A significant drop in leptin levels 1 month after surgery occurred in the WDTC group, falling from 19.25 (1.50–109.60) to 0.90 (0.60–8.90) ng/ml (p < 0.001). This did not occur in the control group (p = 0.274). Lymph node involvement, tumor size, and multifocality had no effect on leptin levels, although trends were observed (p = 0.48, 0.079, and 0.064), respectively.
Conclusions
Serum leptin levels were significantly higher in WDTC patients when compared to control group patients, with a significant drop after surgery. Leptin may play a role in diagnosis of WDTC; however, its prognostic value is still undetermined
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