General existence and uniqueness of viscosity solutions for impulse control of jump-diffusions

General theorems for existence and uniqueness of viscosity solutions for Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman quasi-variational inequalities (HJBQVI) with integral term are established. Such nonlinear partial integro-differential equations (PIDE) arise in the study of combined impulse and stochastic control for jump-diffusion processes. The HJBQVI consists of an HJB part (for stochastic control) combined with a nonlocal impulse intervention term. Existence results are proved via stochastic means, whereas our uniqueness (comparison) results adapt techniques from viscosity solution theory. This paper is to our knowledge the first treating rigorously impulse control for jump-diffusion processes in a general viscosity solution framework; the jump part may have infinite activity. In the proofs, no prior continuity of the value function is assumed, quadratic costs are allowed, and elliptic and parabolic results are presented for solutions possibly unbounded at infinity

Previous Experiences with Epilepsy and Effectiveness of Information to Change Public Perception of Epilepsy

Differences with regard to the effectiveness of health information and attitude change are suggested between people with direct, behavioral experiences with a health topic and people with indirect, nonbehavioral experiences. The effects of three different methods of health education about epilepsy, frequently used in health education practice, are assessed in a pretest posttest design with control groups, controlling for experiences with epilepsy. Subjects were 132 students from teacher-training colleges. After all treatments, attitudes, and knowledge about epilepsy were changed in a positive way. Treatments were found to be equally effective. Before treatment, direct behavioral experiences were related to knowledge and a more positive attitude towards epilepsy. After treatment, subjects with direct behavioral experiences with epilepsy showed less change of attitude and knowledge as compared with subjects with indirect experiences. Direct experiences appear to restrain the processing of new information and attitude change

Does mammographic screening and a negative result affect attitudes towards future breast screening?

OBJECTIVES:To investigate the impact of an experience of a benign mammographic result on intention to seek medical help immediately in the case of breast abnormalities, and on intentions and thoughts about future participation in screening. SETTING:The Dutch Breast Cancer Screening Programme for women aged 50¿69. METHODS:Subjects were women who were invited for an initial breast examination: 223 women filled out a questionnaire about 10 days before and about 6 weeks after their initial breast examination. To be able to control for possible test effects, another group of 293 women filled out a questionnaire only after mammography. Changes in thoughts and intentions were examined. RESULTS:Most women were very satisfied with the course of their initial breast examination, although pain or discomfort was often mentioned. No clues to suggest false reassurance were found: more than 99% of the women would consider the possibility of breast cancer if they felt a lump in one of their breasts. In such a situation, most women intended to seek medical help within a week. These variables were not influenced by the experience of mammography with a benign result. In general, women were very positive about (repeat) participation, both before and after screening. After screening, the average woman perceived fewer costs in participating, and perceived her own ability to engage in future screening as higher. However, the experience of pain and anxiety during the initial screening did lead to reverse effects. Women who were less satisfied about their treatment by the staff were more likely to change their intentions to reparticipate in a negative way. CONCLUSIONS:As, in general, women became more positive about regular participation after they had attended breast cancer screening, efforts to improve first round attendance must be continued. At the same time, the screening organisations must continue to prioritise the high level of client friendliness throughout the screening. No evidence for detrimental effects of screening through false reassurance among participants was found

Health status, adherence with health recommendations, self-efficacy and social support in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

A study was performed in 86 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to assess their health problems, the problems they experience in adhering to health recommendations and the relationships of these problems with self-efficacy and social support. Feeling dependent, disability and pain were the most important health related problems. The results showed self-efficacy to be related to the subjective experience of health status as measured by DUTCH-AIMS. Social emotional support was not related to health status and contrary to what we expected social instrumental support was positively related to health status. The majority of the patients (55%) experienced adherence problems with health recommendations. These problems were not related to functional incapacity, pain or other aspects of health status but to the patient's self-efficacy expectations about coping with arthritis. Our conclusion is that to improve the self-management of disability and pain and adherence to health recommendations, patient education should be aimed at strengthening self-efficacy expectations in which social emotional support might be a motivating factor

Espacios de rememoración transgeneracionales y transnacionales: los hijos de detenidos-desaparecidos en el cine documental mexicano y argentino

El debate que tras el fin de la dictadura se ha venido desarrollando en Argentina acerca de las políticas de la memoria, la justicia, el perdón y el olvido, ha sido significativo para que, en el nuevo milenio, los grupos de derechos humanos en México impulsaran el debate acerca de los crímenes de lesa humanidad que se cometieron durante la llamada "guerra sucia" (1969-1982) y lograran, así, obtener mayor visibilidad en el espacio público mexicano. En ambos países, desde fines del siglo XX, los hijos de los desaparecidos se han unido a la lucha de sus abuelas por la justicia y verdad y tratan de construir una imagen de sus padres. En el presente artículo se abordará la creación de un espacio de rememoración transnacional y la constitución de una memoria transgeneracional. Concretamente, se analizará la historia de búsqueda identitaria y la representación del proceso de reconstrucción de los lazos familiares rotos por la represión estatal en los largometrajes documentales (h) historias cotidianas, de Andrés Habegger (2000), y Trazando Aleida, de Christiane Burkhard (2007).* (Agradezco al PASPA-DGAPA-UNAM por el apoyo financiero que se me otorgó durante mi estancia sabática para poder elaborar el presente artículo.

Establishment and characterization of a mouse model of chronic Salmonella enterica infection as a proposed animal model for human inflammatory bowel disease

The aim of this study was to establish a bacteria-induced mouse model of human IBD applicable for investigation of the role of commensal versus pathogenic bacteria in the onset and development of chronic intestinal inflammation. The mouse model introduced in the present work focused on chronic inflammatory reaction triggered by S. enterica infection. Furthermore, differences between the acute and chronic phase of infection were analyzed. Additionally, it was investigated, whether antibiotic treatment prior to infection has a significant impact on the course of the systemic or local mucosal immune response against S. enterica. Due to the significant increase of the IL-22 level reported from IBD patients, and the assumed crucial role of this immunoregulatory cytokine for human IBD a special focus of this study was to analyze the role of IL-22 in the established mouse model of bacteria-induced chronic colitis

Multi-Parented End-Effectors in Optimization-Based Prediction of Posture and Anthropometry

Improving motion capture processing onto a virtual model is an important research area. Although there has been significant research in this field, little work has been done to determine posture and anthropometry simultaneously with the intent of visualizing the data on virtual models. Many existing techniques are less accurate when applying processed data to a virtual model for biomechanical analysis. This paper presents a novel approach that estimates posture and anthropometry using optimization-based posture prediction to determine joint angles and link-lengths of a virtual model. By including anthropometric design variables, this approach introduces flexible handling of innate variance in subject-model measurements without need for pre- or post-processing. This produces a more realistic motion and exhibits anthropometric measurements closer to those of the original subject, resulting in a new level of biomechanical accuracy that allows for analysis of a processed motion with a higher degree of confidence