A Fibred Tableau Calculus for Modal Logics of Agents

In previous works we showed how to combine propositional multimodal logics using Gabbay's \emph{fibring} methodology. In this paper we extend the above mentioned works by providing a tableau-based proof technique for the combined/fibred logics. To achieve this end we first make a comparison between two types of tableau proof systems, (\emph{graph} $\&$ \emph{path}), with the help of a scenario (The Friend's Puzzle). Having done that we show how to uniformly construct a tableau calculus for the combined logic using Governatori's labelled tableau system \KEM. We conclude with a discussion on \KEM's features.

Fast evolution strategies

Evolution strategies are a class of general optimisation algorithms which are applicable to functions that are multimodal, nondifferentiable, or even discontinuous. Although recombination operators have been introduced into evolution strategies, the primary search operator is still mutation. Classical evolution strategies rely on Gaussian mutations. A new mutation operator based on the Cauchy distribution is proposed in this paper. It is shown empirically that the new evolution strategy based on Cauchy mutation outperforms the classical evolution strategy on most of the 23 benchmark problems tested in this paper. The paper also shows empirically that changing the order of mutating the objective variables and mutating the strategy parameters does not alter the previous conclusion significantly, and that Cauchy mutations with different scaling parameters still outperform the Gaussian mutation with self-adaptation. However, the advantage of Cauchy mutations disappears when recombination is used in evolution strategies. It is argued that the search step size plays an important role in determining evolution strategies' performance. The large step size of recombination plays a similar role as Cauchy mutation.

Do Phenotypic Characteristics, Parental Psychopathology, Family Functioning, and Environmental Stressors Have a Role in the Response to Methylphenidate in Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder? A Naturalistic Study From a Developing Country

Little is known about the effect of clinical characteristics, parental psychopathology, family functioning, and environmental stressors in the response to methylphenidate in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) followed up in a naturalistic setting. Data from cultures outside the United States are extremely scarce. This is a longitudinal study using a nonrandom assignment, quasi-experimental design. One hundred twenty-five children with ADHD were treated with methylphenidate according to standard clinical procedures, and followed up for 6 months. The severity of ADHD symptoms was assessed by the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham rating scale. In the final multivariate model, ADHD combined subtype (P < 0.001) and comorbidity with oppositional defiant disorder (P = 0.03) were both predictors of a worse clinical response. In addition, the levels of maternal ADHD symptoms were also associated with worse prognosis (P < 0.001). In the context of several adverse psychosocial factors assessed, only undesired pregnancy was associated with poorer response to methylphenidate in the final comprehensive-model (P = 0.02). Our study provides evidence for the involvement of clinical characteristics, maternal psychopathology, and environmental stressors in the response to methylphenidate. Clinicians may consider adjuvant strategies when negative predictors are present to increase the chances of success with methylphenidate treatment.

Complete Clinical Response after Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation for Distal Rectal Cancer

Multimodality treatment of rectal cancer, with the combination of radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery has become the preferred approach to locally advanced rectal cancer The use of neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (CRT) has resulted in reduced toxicity rates, significant tumor down-sizing and downstaging, better chance of sphincter preservation, and improved functional results A proportion of patients treated with neoadjuvant CRT may ultimately develop complete clinical response Management of these patients with complete clinical response remains controversial and approaches including radical resection, transanal local excision, and observation alone without immediate surgery have been proposed The use of strict selection criteria of patients after neoadjuvant CRT has resulted in excellent long-term results with no oncological compromise after observation alone in patients with complete clinical response Recurrences are detectable by clinical assessment and frequently amenable to salvage procedures

The Cholinergic System in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer`s Disease: An In Vivo MRI and DTI study

Few studies have investigated in vivo changes of the cholinergic basal forebrain in Alzheimer`s disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an at risk stage of AD. Even less is known about alterations of cortical projecting fiber tracts associated with basal forebrain atrophy. In this study, we determined regional atrophy within the basal forebrain in 21 patients with AD and 16 subjects with MCI compared to 20 healthy elderly subjects using deformation-based morphometry of MRI scans. We assessed effects of basal forebrain atrophy on fiber tracts derived from high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) using tract-based spatial statistics. We localized significant effects relative to a map of cholinergic nuclei in MRI standard space as determined from a postmortem brain. Patients with AD and MCI subjects showed reduced volumes in basal forebrain areas corresponding to anterior medial and lateral, intermediate and posterior nuclei of the Nucleus basalis of Meynert (NbM) as well as in the diagonal band of Broca nuclei (P < 0.01). Effects in MCI subjects were spatially more restricted than in AD, but occurred at similar locations. The volume of the right antero-lateral NbM nucleus was correlated with intracortical projecting fiber tract integrity such as the corpus callosum, cingulate, and the superior longitudinal, inferior longitudinal, inferior fronto-occipital, and uncinate fasciculus (P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). Our findings suggest that a multimodal MRI-DTI approach is supportive to determine atrophy of cholinergic nuclei and its effect on intracortical projecting fiber tracts in AD. Hum Brain Mapp 32: 1349-1362, 2011. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

High and Low Frequency TENS Reduce Postoperative Pain Intensity After Laparoscopic Tubal Ligation A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is an effective adjunctive therapy for postoperative pain; however, effects of different frequencies Of stimulation have not been systematically investigated. Laparoscopic sterilization (LS) causes significant pain in the early postoperative period and requires substantial postoperative medication. Therefore, we studied the effects of TENS on postoperative pain after LS through placement of Yoon fallopian rings in a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled study. Methods: Sixty-four patients undergoing LS for uterine tube ligation were randomly allocated to receive either active TENS or placebo TENS. Postoperative pain was evaluated using a standard I I-point numeric rating scale and the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ)-pain rating index and number of words chosen. Both high frequency (100 Hz) and low frequency (4 Hz) TENS, at strong, but comfortable sensory intensity, were applied for 20 minutes through 4 electrodes placed around the surgical incision immediately after Surgery. Pain was assessed before and after application of TENS when patients were at postanesthesia care unit (PACU). Results: Both high and low frequency TENS significantly decreased postoperative pain intensity when compared with before administration of TENS using the numeric rating scale (P = 0.001), pain rating index (P = 0.001), and number of words chosen (P 0.001) compared with placebo TENS (P = 0.001). TENS in combination with standard pharmacologic analgesic treatment was efficacious for postoperative pain relief after LS. Conclusions: We recommend regular use of multimodal therapy with TENS and analgesic drugs after LS with placement of Yoon rings.

Resveratrol and quercetin cooperate to induce senescence-like growth arrest in C6 rat glioma cells

Glioma is the most frequent and malignant primary human brain tumor with dismal prognosis despite multimodal therapy. Resveratrol and quercetin, two structurally related and naturally occurring polyphenols, are proposed to have anticancer effects. We report here that resveratrol and quercetin decreased the cell number in four glioma cell lines but not in rat astrocytes. Low doses of resveratrol (10 mu M) or quercetin (25 mu M) separately had no effect on apoptosis induction, but had a strong effect on caspase 3/7 activation when administered together. Western blot analyses showed that resveratrol (10 mu M) and quercetin (25 mu M) caused a reduction in phosphorylation of Akt, but this reduction was not sufficient by itself to mediate the effects of these polyphenols. Most important, resveratrol and quercetin chronically administered presented a strong synergism in inducing senescence-like growth arrest. These results suggest that the combination of polyphenols can potentialize their antitumoral activity, thereby reducing the therapeutic concentration needed for glioma treatment. (Cancer Sci 2009; 100: 1655-1662).

Cytogenetic and molecular analysis of MLL rearrangements in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia survivors

The successful treatment of paediatric malignancies by multimodal therapy has improved outcomes for children with cancer, especially those with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Second malignant neoplasms, however, represent a serious complication after treatment. Depending on dosage, 2-12% of patients treated with topoisomerase II inhibitors and/or alkylating agents develop treatment-related acute myeloid leukaemia characterized by translocations at 11q23. Our goal was to study MLL rearrangements in peripheral lymphocytes using cytogenetic and molecular methods in order to evaluate the late effects of cancer therapy in patients previously treated for childhood ALL. Chromosomal rearrangements at 11q23 were analysed in cytogenetic preparations from 49 long-term ALL survivors and 49 control individuals. Patients were subdivided depending on the inclusion or omission of topoisomerase II inhibitors (VP-16 and/or VM-26) in their treatment protocol. The statistical analysis showed significant (P = 0.007) differences between the frequency of translocations observed for the groups of patients and controls. These differences were also significant (P = 0.006) when the groups of patients (independent of the inclusion of topoisomerase II inhibitors) and controls were compared (P = 0.006). The frequencies of extra signals, however, did not differ between groups of patients and controls. Several MLL translocations were detected and identified by inverse polymerase chain reaction, followed by cloning and sequencing. Thirty-five patients (81%) presented putative translocations; among those, 91% corresponded with t(4;11) (q21;q23), while the other 9% corresponded with t(11;X), t(8;11)(q23;q23) and t(11;16). Our results indicate an increase in MLL aberrations in childhood ALL survivors years after completion of therapy. The higher frequency in this cohort might be associated with therapy using anti-tumoural drugs, independent of the inclusion of topoisomerase II inhibitors. Even though the biological significance of these rearrangements needs further investigation, they demonstrate a degree of genome instability, indicating the relevance of cytogenetic and molecular studies during the follow-up of patients in complete clinical remission.

Haptic information stabilizes and destabilizes coordination dynamics

Goal-directed, coordinated movements in humans emerge from a variety of constraints that range from 'high-level' cognitive strategies based oil perception of the task to 'low-level' neuromuscular-skeletal factors such as differential contributions to coordination from flexor and extensor muscles. There has been a tendency in the literature to dichotomize these sources of constraint, favouring one or the other rather than recognizing and understanding their mutual interplay. In this experiment, subjects were required to coordinate rhythmic flexion and extension movements with an auditory metronome, the rate of which was systematically increased. When subjects started in extension on the beat of the metronome, there was a small tendency to switch to flexion at higher rates, but not vice versa. When subjects: were asked to contact a physical stop, the location of which was either coincident with or counterphase to the auditor) stimulus, two effects occurred. When haptic contact was coincident with sound, coordination was stabilized for both flexion and extension. When haptic contact was counterphase to the metronome, coordination was actually destabilized, with transitions occurring from both extension to flexion on the beat and from flexion to extension on the beat. These results reveal the complementary nature of strategic and neuromuscular factors in sensorimotor coordination. They also suggest the presence of a multimodal neural integration process-which is parametrizable by rate and context - in which intentional movement, touch and sound are bound into a single, coherent unit.

Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Mixture Densities for Binned and Truncated Multivariate Data

Binning and truncation of data are common in data analysis and machine learning. This paper addresses the problem of fitting mixture densities to multivariate binned and truncated data. The EM approach proposed by McLachlan and Jones (Biometrics, 44: 2, 571-578, 1988) for the univariate case is generalized to multivariate measurements. The multivariate solution requires the evaluation of multidimensional integrals over each bin at each iteration of the EM procedure. Naive implementation of the procedure can lead to computationally inefficient results. To reduce the computational cost a number of straightforward numerical techniques are proposed. Results on simulated data indicate that the proposed methods can achieve significant computational gains with no loss in the accuracy of the final parameter estimates. Furthermore, experimental results suggest that with a sufficient number of bins and data points it is possible to estimate the true underlying density almost as well as if the data were not binned. The paper concludes with a brief description of an application of this approach to diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia, in the context of binned and truncated bivariate measurements of volume and hemoglobin concentration from an individual's red blood cells.

Quantum dynamics of spin polarized optoelectronic processes

We study the quantum dynamics of the emission of multimodal polarized light in light emitting devices (LED) due to spin polarized carriers injection. We present the equations for photon number and carrier numbers, and calculate the polarisation degree of the light generated by LED. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Mapping the royal road and other hierarchical functions

In this paper we present a technique for visualising hierarchical and symmetric, multimodal fitness functions that have been investigated in the evolutionary computation literature. The focus of this technique is on landscapes in moderate-dimensional, binary spaces (i.e., fitness functions defined over {0, 1}(n), for n less than or equal to 16). The visualisation approach involves an unfolding of the hyperspace into a two-dimensional graph, whose layout represents the topology of the space using a recursive relationship, and whose shading defines the shape of the cost surface defined on the space. Using this technique we present case-study explorations of three fitness functions: royal road, hierarchical-if-and-only-if (H-IFF), and hierarchically decomposable functions (HDF). The visualisation approach provides an insight into the properties of these functions, particularly with respect to the size and shape of the basins of attraction around each of the local optima.

Caracterização da ontogenética do pau-brasil

As ações de reflorestamento com o pau-brasil (Caesalpinia echinata Lam.) depende de informações de suas características ecofisiológicas sujeitas às variações ontogenéticas e ambientais. O objetivo desse trabalho foi caracterizar alguns aspectos morfológicos, anatômicos, fisiológicos e estruturais de parede celular de C. echinata nas fases juvenil, jovem e adulto em condições naturais em um fragmento da Floresta Atlântica. Foi analisada a biometria, concentração de nutrientes e dos pigmentos cloroplastídicos dos foliólulos, anatomia foliar e do xilema secundário do caule e a constituição dos polímeros estruturais de parede celular. Os indivíduos juvenis localizados no estrato inferior da floresta se destacaram pela maior área foliar específica e maiores teores de pigmentos cloroplastídicos bem como pelas maiores dimensões de suas células guardas associado às maiores concentrações de K e Ca foliar. Estruturalmente, os indivíduos juvenis apresentaram menores elementos de vasos e teores de lignina. Os indivíduos jovens apresentaram valores intermediários das variáveis analisadas. Já os indivíduos adultos, cujas copas alcançavam o dossel, se destacaram pelo maior espessamento do limbo, da cutícula e do parênquima lacunoso, teor de água foliar, densidade estomática e teor de lignina foliar e caulinar cuja capacidade de síntese foi associada ao maior teor de P foliar. O conteúdo de celulose foliar e caulinar não variou entre as diferentes fases ontogenéticas. As hemiceluloses são do tipo xilanos com possibilidade de presença de xiloglucano dada a maior fração de xilose (±12% MS) e galactose (±1% MS). A glucose foi o monossacarídeo mais representativo (±40% MS) sem diferenças ontogenéticas. As diferenças morfológicas, anatômicas, fisiológicas e estruturais parecem, também, estarem sob controle da irradiância mais intensa na copa dos indivíduos adultos. Os resultados denotam que o plantio consorciado com espécies de crescimento rápido seja a melhor ação para o reflorestamento de C. echinata.

Algumas técnicas SIG úteis à obtenção de áreas de serviço de conjuntos de pontos

Em estudos de acessibilidade, e não só, são muito úteis um tipo de estruturas que se podem obter a partir de uma rede, eventualmente multi-modal e parametrizável: as chamadas “áreas de serviço”, as quais são constituídas por polígonos, cada qual correspondente a uma zona situada entre um certo intervalo de custo, relativamente a uma certa “feature” (ponto, multiponto, etc.). Pretende-se neste estudo obter, a partir de áreas de serviço relativas a um universo de features, áreas de serviço relativas a subconjuntos dessas features. Estas técnicas envolvem manipulações relativamente complexas de polígonos e podem ser generalizadas para conjuntos de conjuntos e assim sucessivamente. Convém notar que nem sempre se dispõe da rede, podendo dispor-se das referidas estruturas; eventualmente, no caso de áreas de serviço, sob a forma de imagens (raster) a serem convertidas para formato vectorial.

Alterações da força de preensão em portadores de polineuropatia amiloidótica familiar

Introdução: A polineuropatia amiloidótica familiar (PAF) é uma doença autossómica dominante neurodegenerativa relacionada com a deposição sistémica de fibras de amiloide essencialmente a nível do sistema nervoso periférico. Clinicamente, caracteriza-se por uma neuropatia sensitivo-motora iniciando-se quase sempre nos membros inferiores e comprometendo subsequentemente as mãos. Até agora, o único tratamento conhecido com efeitos positivos no atrasar da progressão da doença é o transplante hepático com medicação com efeitos negativos para o metabolismo muscular e consequentemente para a capacidade de produção de força. Do nosso conhecimento, não existem caracterizações quantitativas dos níveis de força nestes indivíduos nem comparações com a população saudável. Este conhecimento seria extremamente importante para verificar a evolução clínica e funcional desta doença e para a eventual prescrição adequada de um programa de reabilitação. Objectivo: O objectivo deste estudo foi descrever e comparar os níveis de força de preensão (peak force) entre doentes PAF com ou sem transplante de fígado (PAFTx e PAFNTx, respectivamente) com um grupo de indivíduos saudáveis (GC). Material e métodos: A amostra total foi constituída por 206 indivíduos, divididos em três grupos: 59 indivíduos PAFNTx (23 homens, 36 mulheres; idade 35 ± 8 anos); 85 indivíduos PAFTx (52 homens, 33 mulheres; idade 34 ± 8 anos) e 62 GC (30 homens, 32 mulheres; idade 33 ± 9 anos). A força de preensão foi avaliada com um dinamómetro de preensão portátil E-Link (Biometrics Ltd, UK). Tanto as posições de medição como as ordens fornecidas foram estandardizadas. O valor de força máxima considerado foi classificado de acordo com as normas do American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) para a força de preensão. Resultados: Os três grupos são diferentes (p < 0,05) no peso, no IMC e na força de preensão em ambas as mãos, bem como na resistência da mão esquerda. Foram encontradas correlações negativas entre a força e a idade, para os grupos PAFNTx e PAFTx, mas não para o grupo GC. Conclusões: De acordo com os nossos resultados, os indivíduos portadores de PAF apresentaram valores mais baixos para a força de preensão em ambas as mãos do que os indivíduos aparentemente saudáveis e consequentemente uma pior classificação nas normas do ACSM. A maioria dos doentes apresenta valores de força de preensão abaixo da média ou mesmo precária. Estes resultados poderão mostrar as implicações negativas na funcionalidade destes indivíduos e indicam também a necessidade de um programa de reabilitação com especificidade ao nível da motricidade da mão.