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Phase I trial of procarbazine as a 5-day continuous infusion in children with central nervous system tumors.
Seven children with previously treated brain tumors were enrolled in a phase I trial of 5-day continuous-infusion procarbazine at 360, 480, and 638 mg/m2/day. Vitamin B6 levels were monitored. Myelosuppression was moderate though occasionally delayed, and nausea and vomiting were mild. At the highest dose level, a patient experienced severe psychosis that persisted for several weeks. From that dose-limiting toxicity and the degree of myelosuppression, the recommended dose for phase II trials in children is the same as for adults, 450 mg/m2/day
Kinematic Orbits and the Structure of the Internal Space for Systems of Five or More Bodies
The internal space for a molecule, atom, or other n-body system can be
conveniently parameterised by 3n-9 kinematic angles and three kinematic
invariants. For a fixed set of kinematic invariants, the kinematic angles
parameterise a subspace, called a kinematic orbit, of the n-body internal
space. Building on an earlier analysis of the three- and four-body problems, we
derive the form of these kinematic orbits (that is, their topology) for the
general n-body problem. The case n=5 is studied in detail, along with the
previously studied cases n=3,4.Comment: 38 pages, submitted to J. Phys.
Aging is associated with an earlier arrival of reflected waves without a distal shift in reflection sites
Background-Despite pronounced increases in central pulse wave velocity (PWV) with aging, reflected wave transit time (RWTT), traditionally defined as the timing of the inflection point (T-INF) in the central pressure waveform, does not appreciably decrease, leading to the controversial proposition of a "distal-shift" of reflection sites. T-INF, however, is exceptionally prone to measurement error and is also affected by ejection pattern and not only by wave reflection. We assessed whether RWTT, assessed by advanced pressure-flow analysis, demonstrates the expected decline with aging. Methods and Results-We studied a sample of unselected adults without cardiovascular disease (n=48; median age 48 years) and a clinical population of older adults with suspected/established cardiovascular disease (n=164; 61 years). We measured central pressure and flow with carotid tonometry and phase-contrast MRI, respectively. We assessed RWTT using wave-separation analysis (RWTTWSA) and partially distributed tube-load (TL) modeling (RWTTTL). Consistent with previous reports, T-INF did not appreciably decrease with age despite pronounced increases in PWV in both populations. However, aging was associated with pronounced decreases in RWTTWSA (general population -15.0 ms/decade, P<0.001; clinical population -9.07 ms/decade, P=0.003) and RWTTTL (general -15.8 ms/decade, P<0.001; clinical -11.8 ms/decade, P<0.001). There was no evidence of an increased effective reflecting distance by either method. TINF was shown to reliably represent RWTT only under highly unrealistic assumptions about input impedance. Conclusions-RWTT declines with age in parallel with increased PWV, with earlier effects of wave reflections and without a distal shift in reflecting sites. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the role of wave reflections with aging
GEM Operation in Negative Ion Drift Gas Mixtures
The first operation of GEM gas gain elements in negative ion gas mixtures is
reported. Gains up to several thousand were obtained from single-stage GEMs in
carbon disulfide vapor at low pressure, and in mixtures of carbon disulfide
with Argon and Helium, some near 1 bar total pressure.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
An intelligent robotic aid system for human services
The long term goal of our research at the Intelligent Robotic Laboratory at Vanderbilt University is to develop advanced intelligent robotic aid systems for human services. As a first step toward our goal, the current thrusts of our R&D are centered on the development of an intelligent robotic aid called the ISAC (Intelligent Soft Arm Control). In this paper, we describe the overall system architecture and current activities in intelligent control, adaptive/interactive control and task learning
Adam Smith and Colonialism
In the context of debates about liberalism and colonialism, the arguments of Adam Smith have been taken as illustrative of an important line of anti-colonial liberal thought. The reading of Smith presented here challenges this interpretation. It argues that Smith’s opposition to colonial rule derived largely from its impact on the metropole, rather than on its impact on the conquered and colonised; that Smith recognised colonialism had brought ‘improvement’ in conquered territories and that Smith struggled to balance recognition of moral diversity with a universal moral framework and a commitment to a particular interpretation of progress through history. These arguments have a wider significance as they point towards some of the issues at stake in liberal anti-colonial arguments more generally
Microscopic study of the He2-SF6 trimers
The He2-SF6 trimers, in their different He isotopic combinations, are studied
both in the framework of the correlated Jastrow approach and of the Correlated
Hyperspherical Harmonics expansion method. The energetics and structure of the
He-SF6 dimers are analyzed, and the existence of a characteristic rotational
band in the excitation spectrum is discussed, as well as the isotopic
differences. The binding energies and the spatial properties of the trimers, in
their ground and lowest lying excited states, obtained by the Jastrow ansatz
are in excellent agreement with the results of the converged CHH expansion. The
introduction of the He-He correlation makes all trimers bound by largely
suppressing the short range He-He repulsion.
The structural properties of the trimers are qualitatively explained in terms
of the shape of the interactions, Pauli principle and masses of the
constituents.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to PR
Forward Flux Sampling for rare event simulations
Rare events are ubiquitous in many different fields, yet they are notoriously
difficult to simulate because few, if any, events are observed in a conventiona
l simulation run. Over the past several decades, specialised simulation methods
have been developed to overcome this problem. We review one recently-developed
class of such methods, known as Forward Flux Sampling. Forward Flux Sampling
uses a series of interfaces between the initial and final states to calculate
rate constants and generate transition paths, for rare events in equilibrium or
nonequilibrium systems with stochastic dynamics. This review draws together a
number of recent advances, summarizes several applications of the method and
highlights challenges that remain to be overcome.Comment: minor typos in the manuscript. J.Phys.:Condensed Matter (accepted for
publication
Information theoretic approach to interactive learning
The principles of statistical mechanics and information theory play an
important role in learning and have inspired both theory and the design of
numerous machine learning algorithms. The new aspect in this paper is a focus
on integrating feedback from the learner. A quantitative approach to
interactive learning and adaptive behavior is proposed, integrating model- and
decision-making into one theoretical framework. This paper follows simple
principles by requiring that the observer's world model and action policy
should result in maximal predictive power at minimal complexity. Classes of
optimal action policies and of optimal models are derived from an objective
function that reflects this trade-off between prediction and complexity. The
resulting optimal models then summarize, at different levels of abstraction,
the process's causal organization in the presence of the learner's actions. A
fundamental consequence of the proposed principle is that the learner's optimal
action policies balance exploration and control as an emerging property.
Interestingly, the explorative component is present in the absence of policy
randomness, i.e. in the optimal deterministic behavior. This is a direct result
of requiring maximal predictive power in the presence of feedback.Comment: 6 page
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