Signalling Effects of a Large Player in a Global Game of Creditor Coordination

In case of multiple creditors a coordination problem can arise when the borrowing firm runs into financial distress. Even if the project's value at maturity is enough to pay all creditors in full, some creditors may be tempted to foreclose on their loans. We develop a model of creditor coordination where a large creditor moves before a continuum of small creditors, and analyze the signalling effects of the large creditor''s investment decision on the subsequent behavior of the small creditors. The signalling effects crucially depend on the relative size of the large creditor and the relative precision of information. We derive conditions under which pure herding behavior is to be expected.

Language assessment in Wada test: Comparison of methohexital and amobarbital

AbstractIntroductionMethohexital has replaced amobarbital during Wada testing at many centers. The objective of our study was to compare the use of methohexital and amobarbital during Wada testing regarding language and memory lateralization quotients as well as speech arrest times.MethodsA chart review of 582 consecutive patients undergoing 1041 Wada-procedures was performed (left=60, right=63, bilateral=459). Language lateralization was calculated based on duration of speech arrest using a laterality index, defined as (L−R)/(L+R). Memory lateralization was expressed as percentage of retained objects and laterality quotient.ResultsLanguage and memory lateralization revealed a similar distribution with amobarbital and methohexital. Speech arrest after left and right-sided injection was significantly longer in the amobarbital group as compared to the methohexital group. Language lateralization did not differ in the two groups. Percentage of retained memory items was higher in the methohexital group and there were fewer presented test items in the methohexital group.DiscussionLanguage and memory testing during the Wada test can successfully be performed with methohexital instead of amobarbital. The shorter half-life of methohexital allows repeated injections and shorter interhemispheric testing intervals, but also shortens the testing window

Recommendations for optimal interdisciplinary management and healthcare settings for patients with rare neurological diseases

BackgroundIn 2017, the German Academy for Rare Neurological Diseases (Deutsche Akademie fur Seltene Neurologische Erkrankungen;DASNE) was founded to pave the way for an optimized personalized management of patients with rare neurological diseases (RND) in all age groups. Since then a dynamic national network for rare neurological disorders has been established comprising renowned experts in neurology, pediatric neurology, (neuro-) genetics and neuroradiology. DASNE has successfully implemented case presentations and multidisciplinary discussions both at yearly symposia and monthly virtual case conferences, as well as further educational activities covering a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary expertise associated with RND. Here, we present recommendation statements for optimized personalized management of patients with RND, which have been developed and reviewed in a structured Delphi process by a group of experts.MethodsAn interdisciplinary group of 37 RND experts comprising DASNE experts, patient representatives, as well as healthcare professionals and managers was involved in the Delphi process. First, an online collection was performed of topics considered relevant for optimal patient care by the expert group. Second, a two-step Delphi process was carried out to rank the importance of the selected topics. Small interdisciplinary working groups then drafted recommendations. In two consensus meetings and one online review round these recommendations were finally consented.Results38 statements were consented and grouped into 11 topics: health care structure, core neurological expertise and core mission, interdisciplinary team composition, diagnostics, continuous care and therapy development, case conferences, exchange / cooperation between Centers for Rare Diseases and other healthcare partners, patient advocacy group, databases, translation and health policy.ConclusionsThis German interdisciplinary Delphi expert panel developed consented recommendations for optimal care of patients with RND in a structured Delphi process. These represent a basis for further developments and adjustments in the health care system to improve care for patients with RND and their families

Symbolic Model Checking by Automata Based Set Representation

Abstract. Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) are normally used in symbolic state space traversal to implicitly store and manipulate sets. As small BDDs can represent very large sets, it is possible to verify huge state spaces with this methodology. However, it is also well-known that certain systems do not have a compact (polynomial sized) BDD representation. Therefore, we propose a new technique for symbolic model checking where sets are represented with automata instead of BDDs. Except for the more succinct data structure, there are no major changes in the classical algorithms used in symbolic model checking. Using our approach, it is even possible to verify systems with an infinite or parameterized state space.

Causality Analysis of Synchronous Programs with Delayed Actions

Synchronous programs are well-suited for the implementation of real-time embedded systems. However, their compilation is difficult due to the paradigm that microsteps are executed in zero time. This can yield cyclic dependencies that must be resolved to generate single-threaded code. State of the art techniques are based on a fixpoint computation at compile time that `simulates' the microstep execution. However, existing procedures do not consider delayed actions that have been recently introduced in synchronous languages. In this paper, we show that the analysis of programs with delayed actions can be performed by two fixpoint computations, one for the initialization and one for the transitions of the system. Moreover, we discuss an implementation using BDDs that is based on dual rail encoding

Maximal causality analysis

Perfectly synchronous systems immediately react to the inputs of their environment, which may lead to so-called causality cycles between actions and their trigger conditions. Algorithms to analyze the consistency of such cycles usually extend data types by an additional value to explicitly indicate unknown values. In particular, Boolean functions are thereby extended to ternary functions. However, a Boolean function usually has several ternary extensions, and the result of the causality analysis depends on the chosen ternary extension. In this paper, we show that there always is a maximal ternary extension that allows one to solve as many causality problems as possible. Moreover, we elaborate the relationship to hazard elimination in hardware circuits, and finally show how the maximal ternary extension of a Boolean function can be efficiently computed by means of binary decision diagrams

Improving Constructiveness in Code Generators

Perfectly synchronous systems immediately react to the inputs of their environment. These instantaneous reactions may result in so-called causality cycles between the actions of a system and their preconditions. Programs with causality cycles may or may not have consistent and unambiguous behaviors. For this reason, compilers have to perform a causality analysis before code generation. In this paper, we analyze the impact of different code generation schemes on causality analysis and propose translations that yield different degrees of causality. To this end, we first translate the program to an equation system as an intermediate representation, which may alternatively be viewed as a hardware circuit. The second step then analyzes the equation system as known from ternary simulation of hardware circuits with combinational feedback loops. In particular, we consider alternative ways to obtain logically equivalent equation systems that show, however, different results in causality analysis