809 research outputs found
Team Collaboration vs Competition: New Fictitious Play Dynamics for Multi-team Zero-Sum Games
This paper presents a new variant of fictitious play (FP) called
team-fictitious-play (Team-FP) that can reach equilibrium in multi-team
competition, different from the other variants of FP. We specifically focus on
zero-sum potential team games with network separable interactions (ZSPTGs),
unifying potential games (if there is a single team) and zero-sum polymatrix
games (if each team has a single member) due to their wide range of
applications from robotics to financial markets beyond two-team games. Similar
to the FP dynamics, in Team-FP, agents follow a simple behavioral rule where
they respond (with some inertia and exploration in the update of actions) to
the last actions of the neighboring team members and the beliefs formed about
the other neighbors' strategies as if the opponents are playing according to
some stationary strategy. We show the almost sure convergence of the empirical
averages of teams' action profiles to near team-Nash equilibrium in ZSPTGs
under standard assumptions on the step sizes used. We formulate a bound on the
approximation error, decaying with the exploration in the agents' responses. We
further examine the performance of the Team-FP dynamics numerically
Early postpartum lactation effects of cesarean and vaginal birth
Objectives: Breastfeeding has positive effects for both, the mother and the infant. The purpose of the study was to examine how cesarean delivery and vaginal delivery influenced subsequent breastfeeding. The study was conducted at the Kırıkkale University Medical School.
Material and methods: Breastfeeding outcomes after an elective cesarean delivery and after a planned vaginal delivery were compared. The study included 169 consenting mothers who gave birth to healthy infants (86 cesarean deliveries and 83 vaginal deliveries) between March and September 2001. All cesarean deliveries were performed under regional anesthesia.
Results: Elective cesarean delivery was performed at a significantly earlier gestational age as compared to vaginal delivery (p = 0.001). Maternal age in the planned vaginal delivery group was significantly lower (p = 0.003). As for the change in prolactin levels, the results were similar but not statistically significant (p = 0.21). The frequency of breastfeeding per day did not differ significantly between the groups (p = 0.20). However, women after cesarean delivery tended to breastfeed more often than after vaginal delivery (p = 0.003). Mean number of points recorded at the first breastfeeding session, according to the LATCH charting system, was lower in the group after cesarean delivery as compared to vaginal labor. The difference between the average point scores of vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery mothers was found to be meaningful in favor of the women after vaginal delivery (p = 0.05).
Conclusions: Elective cesarean section has negative effects on breastfeeding. Our results indicate that cesarean section constitutes a risk factor for delayed lactogenesis
Effects of Vitamin D levels on asthma control and severity in pre-school children
OBJECTIVE: Prevalence of asthma and Vitamin D deficiency has been increasing and leading to significant morbidities. This study aimed to compare the Vitamin D levels in the pre-school children with asthma and in healthy controls and to assess the relationship between Vitamin D levels and asthma clinical parameters and control. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Vi tamin D [25(OH)D3] levels were measured in 102 preschool children, aged 1-4 years with asthma and 102 healthy controls in winter. The patients with asthma were grouped according to serum Vitamin D levels as sufficient, insufficient and deficient. Asthma control was classified according to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines and the Test for Respiratory and Asthma Control in Kids (TRACK) in 1-4 years-old children. RESULTS: Serum Vitamin D levels were 22.64 (9.96) ng/ml in the asthma group and 32.11 (14.74) ng/ml in the control group (p = 0.001). Total number of exacerbations during the previous year were significantly lower in the Vitamin D sufficient group, compared to the deficient and insufficient groups (p = 0.03). Frequency of patients with controlled asthma was higher in the sufficient group compared to the deficient and insufficient groups (p = 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). There was a positive correlation between serum Vitamin D levels and asthma control. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was higher in children with asthma, compared to the controls. Therefore, we suggest that lower levels of Vitamin D are associated with poor asthma control and increased asthma severity
Early postzygotic mutations contribute to de novo variation in a healthy monozygotic twin pair
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Background: Human de novo single-nucleotide variation (SNV) rate is estimated to range between 0.82-1.70×10-8 mutations per base per generation. However, contribution of early postzygotic mutations to the overall human de novo SNV rate is unknown. Methods: We performed deep whole-genome sequencing (more than 30-fold coverage per individual) of the whole-blood-derived DNA samples of a healthy monozygotic twin pair and their parents. We examined the genotypes of each individual simultaneously for each of the SNVs and discovered de novo SNVs regarding the timing of mutagenesis. Putative de novo SNVs were validated using Sanger-based capillary sequencing. Results: We conservatively characterised 23 de novo SNVs shared by the twin pair, 8 de novo SNVs specific to twin I and 1 de novo SNV specific to twin II. Based on the number of de novo SNVs validated by Sanger sequencing and the number of callable bases of each twin, we calculated the overall de novo SNV rate of 1.31×10-8 and 1.01×10-8 for twin I and twin II, respectively. Of these, rates of the early postzygotic de novo SNVs were estimated to be 0.34×10-8 for twin I and 0.04×10-8 for twin II. Conclusions: Early postzygotic mutations constitute a substantial proportion of de novo mutations in humans. Therefore, genome mosaicism resulting from early mitotic events during embryogenesis is common and could substantially contribute to the development of diseases
Enhanced self-collimation effect by low rotational symmetry in hexagonal lattice photonic crystals
In this study, we present the design of a photonic crystal (PC) structure
with a hexagonal lattice, where adjustments to the PC unit cell symmetry reveal
an all-angle self-collimation (SC) effect. By optimizing opto-geometric
parameters, such as the rotational angle of auxiliary rods and adjacent
distances, we analyze the SC property in detail, leveraging group velocity
dispersion (GVD) and third-order dispersion (TOD) characteristics. We also
investigate the relationship between symmetry properties and their influence on
dispersion characteristics. Through symmetry manipulation, we gain a
comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms governing light
collimation and confinement in the proposed configurations. The PC structure
with a symmetry group exhibits all-angle SC effect within the range of
and normalized frequencies, with a
bandwidth of . Further breaking the symmetry,
transforming from to group symmetry, enhances the SC bandwidth to
and reveals the perfect linear equi-frequency
contours (EFC) at two different frequency bands: all angle SC between
and normalized frequencies in the 4th
transverse magnetic (TM) band and between and
in the 5th TM band. Additionally, we propose a
composite/hybrid PC structure resembling group symmetry, where two
auxiliary rods are replaced by rectangular photonic wires with the same
refractive index and width equal to the diameter of auxiliary rods. This hybrid
structure exhibits an all-angle SC effect with an operating bandwidth of
, displays near-zero GVD and TOD performance
and offers enhanced robustness against potential fabrication precision issues
The tumour bank at the children's hospital at westmead: An Australian paediatric cancer biorepository
© 2018 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Tumor Bank at The Children's Hospital at Westmead was established in 1998 with the purpose of facilitating research into childhood malignancy through the active provision of well annotated, ethically collected tissue samples and providing a pathway for the Children Hospital at Westmead to engage in leading research initiatives, supporting international investigations and clinical trials. Within 20 years practice as a single institute biorepository, The Tumour Bank has established standard operating procedures for collection of tissue, blood and bone marrow that were integrated into routine patient management systems. In addition, three main operational areas have been developed: collection of biospecimens and written consent; management of clinical data and biospecimen inventory database; and implementation of an open access policy to support childhood cancer research around the world. Regulatory oversight is provided by the Tumour Bank Committee, Human Research Ethics Committee and Governance Department. This concerted effort has resulted in collecting 20340 specimens from 3788 patients within 20 years, and The Tumour bank has supported over 108 national and international research projects, and contributed to over 70 peer-reviewed publications to date, with a mean time-to-publication of 19.1 ± 9.0 months and average Impact Factor of 6.11 ± 4.53. In conclusion, the Children's Hospital at Westmead Tumour Bank has demonstrated a sustained single institutional biorepository model for facilitating translational research of rare cancer. It has provided strong evidence that integration of a single institutional biobank into standard clinical practices would be the long-term pathway of valuable bio-resource for rare cancer research
CAREPATH:Developing Digital Integrated Care Solutions for Multimorbid Patients with Dementia.
The role of Tadalafil in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia and erectile dysfunction
The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a single 5 mg daily dose of Tadalafil in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) accompanied by erectile dysfunction (ED). The data of patients who applied to the urology outpatient clinic between 2014 and 2019 and were diagnosed with BPH and ED were retrospectively analysed. Before and after the treatment with 5 mg tadalafil daily for 12 weeks; maximum flow rate (Qmax), average flow rate (Qave), postvoid residual volume (PVR), prostate volume (PV), PSA values,
IPSS and IIEF scores of the patients were compared. The mean
age of 66 male patients diagnosed with ED and BPH was 48.1±6.9 years. The mean IPSS score of the patients before the treatment was 9.85 which represents moderate LUTS. After the treatment, the mean score decreased to 5.7 which represents mild LUTS. Before the treatment, the mean IIEF score showed mild ED with 18.79. After the treatment, the mean IIEF score increased to 29,9. The treatment statistically significantly decreased ED and increased
the IIEF score (p=0.000). While the mean Qmax and Qave were
increased statistically significantly (p=0.000). A statistically significant decrease was observed in the mean PVR from 60.1 ml to 37.6 ml (p=0.000). The decrease in PV was not statistically significant (p=0.321). The decrease in PSA values before and after treatment was found to be statistically significant with p=0.046. It has been shown that the daily use of 5 mg Tadalafil alone for 12 weeks can be a preferable treatment option, especially in younger patients with BPH / LUTS and ED
Pulmonary hemosiderosis with normocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis in a child
urticarial vaculitis especially if normocomplementemic. An eigth year old girl presented with relapsing and remitting chronic and persistent urticarial lesions, conjunctival injection, recurrent cough and hemoptysis. Respiratory findings started at seven years of age. Physical examination revealed diffuse skin lesions mainly settled on the extremites, nonpurulent conjunctival injection, rare ronchi and fine crackles in bilateral lower zones of the lungs. Biopsy of the urticaria like skin lesions demonstrated leukocytoclastic vasculitis. Rheumatological markers were negative. Levels of complement fractions 3 and 4 were normal. Chest x-ray demonstrated diffuse alveolar infiltrative images. High Resolution Computed Tomography of the chest revealed diffuse ground-glass appearance, increased interstitial density. Diagnostic flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid revealed hemosiderin laden alveolar macrophages. She was started on systemic corticosteroid treatment. During follow up, pulmonary symptoms disappeared, however skin lesions and conjunctival symptoms persisted and exacerbated four times in two years. CT of lungs after two years of treatment revealed rare patchy areas of ground glass appearance in bilateral lower lobes and right upper lobe as well as a few of milimetric pleural nodules. This patient is still followed up under low dose steroids and pulmonary findings regressed but low grade inflammation due to vasculitis is thought to continue as supported by the persistence of tomographic findings in the lungs despite the absence of any symptoms. This case demonstrates association of urticarial vasculitis and pulmonary hemosiderosis in the setting of normocomplementemia
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