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Market Design with Distributional Objectives
No full textWe provide optimal solutions to an institution that has distributional objectives when choosing from a set of applications based on merit (or priority). For example, in college admissions, administrators may want to admit a diverse class in addition to choosing students with the highest qualifications. We provide a family of choice rules that maximize merit subject to attaining a level of the distributional objective. We study the desirable properties of choice rules in this family and use them to find all subsets of applications on the Pareto frontier of the distributional objective and merit. In addition, we provide two novel characterizations of matroids. A full version is available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00237
GENETICS OF PATIENTS WITH SEVERE COPD AND ADVANCED EMPHYSEMA REFERRED FOR BRONCHOSCOPIC LUNG VOLUME REDUCTION
No full textEvolutionary Paths to Systematically Unlocking the Frequency-Selective Potential of 3D Meta-Atoms
No full textThis paper highlights the benefits of advanced multi material 3D printing technology in enhancing the electromagnetic performance of metasurfaces By systematically evolving geometric structures the proposed bandpass filtering meta atom outperforms existing designs in key metrics including bandwidth out of band suppression in band insertion loss and transition band steepness underscoring the significant potential of 3D unit cells Through the integration of qualitative approach and semi analytical design algorithm the geometric topology is fully optimized without imposing substantial computational demand
To Be a Hero - First You Must Believe That You Are a Hero
No full textTo make an omelette, you must break a few eggs! Some individuals would argue that, to make the world a better place, you must break a few social and legal constraints. The belief that social norms and the law are unjust and hinder social improvement is not uncommon. Most individuals at times imagine how they could make the world a better place if only they were free from the shackles of society and the law. The majority do not follow up these views with behaviour due to the costs involved. A small subset of altruists, however, pursue their prosocial desires and goals via behaviours that would be classified as antisocial. Due to the high costs involved in such behaviour, these individuals are Extreme altruists. Comparatively little research has been done on the phenomenon of Extreme Altruism. This research seeks to address that. A literature review of the Dark Triad suggested that individuals high in antisocial personality traits are not incapable of acting prosocially as originally considered. Instead, their reliance on cognitive empathy may direct them towards utilitarian approaches of helping others. Furthermore, a systematic review of the positive relationship between prosocial behaviour and antisocial traits suggests that narcissists and psychopaths are capable of altruism, if given the means to express this behaviour. The lack of evidence of such expression may be due to an inherent bias in the reporting of such individuals’ actions. An extreme altruist subculture, the Real Life Superhero movement (RLSH), was used to test the proposed relationship between antisocial traits and extreme altruism. Analysis suggests that components within the narcissism spectrum may be the most likely candidates to be related to extreme altruism. The findings of this thesis not only support the proposal that traits from within the antisocial personality continuum can fuel extreme altruism but also suggest an exciting new direction for research into altruism as a whole
Telerehabilitation for neck pain.
No full textBACKGROUND: Neck pain is a very common condition, ranked fourth in terms of years lived with disability worldwide. Telerehabilitation has been growing in popularity with advances in technologies and telecommunication. Despite the potential benefits and the increased number of trials, there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of telerehabilitation in people with non-specific neck pain. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the benefits and harms of telerehabilitation to improve pain and function compared to no treatment, waiting list, usual care, or any other active intervention in people with acute, subacute, and chronic non-specific neck pain. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, Embase, five other databases, and two trial registers to 11 April 2024 without language or publication status restrictions. We screened reference lists of relevant potential studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials of telerehabilitation in adults with non-specific neck pain. We classified telerehabilitation interventions into three categories: 1. telehealth delivery of psychological or education interventions; 2. telehealth delivery of exercise or physical activity interventions; and 3. telehealth delivery of multicomponent interventions. We included trials comparing telerehabilitation with minimal intervention, matched non-telehealth treatment, and unmatched treatment controls. The primary outcomes were pain intensity, function, health-related quality of life, anxiety, depression, any adverse events, withdrawals due to adverse events, and short-term serious adverse events. The secondary outcomes were return to work, self-efficacy, fear avoidance, pain catastrophising, and adherence. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently screened relevant records, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias in included studies. We extracted data using a standardised form. We pooled trial results using a random-effects model meta-analysis. We combined results in a meta-analysis using mean difference (MD with pain and disability outcomes expressed on a 0 to 100 scale) or standardised mean difference (SMD), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for continuous outcomes at immediate-, short-, intermediate-, and long-term follow-up. Otherwise, we report the data with a narrative summary. We assessed heterogeneity using the I2 value and Chi2 test, and assessed the certainty of the evidence using the GRADE approach. MAIN RESULTS: We included 13 randomised controlled trials (1042 participants). Most studies included women (71%), aged 21 to 60 years (mean 39 years, standard deviation 11 years). Studies used different modalities for telerehabilitation, such as telephone, smartphone applications, pre-recorded videos, videoconference, and websites. The studies were conducted in China, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey. The telerehabilitation interventions lasted from one day to 48 weeks. Most studies had a low risk of selection bias, attrition bias, and reporting bias. All studies had a high risk of performance bias related to blinding of participants and therapists, and detection bias for outcome assessment. Chronic neck pain Telerehabilitation (psychological or education) versus minimal intervention We found very low-certainty evidence that there may be little to no difference between telerehabilitation (psychological or education) and minimal intervention in pain intensity at short-term follow-up, but the evidence is very uncertain (MD -8.4, 95% CI -23.9 to 7.1; 2 studies, 170 participants). We found moderate-certainty evidence that telerehabilitation (psychological or education) probably improves function when compared to minimal intervention at short-term follow-up (MD 6.0, 95% CI 0.9 to 11.1; 1 study, 53 participants). We found low-certainty evidence that telerehabilitation (psychological or education) may not improve health-related quality of life related to the Physical Component when compared to minimal intervention at short-term follow-up (mean: 47.4 with telerehabilitation versus 45.1 with minimal intervention; 1 study, 117 participants) and health-related quality of life related to Mental Component at short-term follow-up (mean: 45.4 with telerehabilitation versus 47.2 with minimal intervention; 1 study, 117 participants). We found moderate-certainty evidence that telerehabilitation (psychological or education) probably reduces anxiety slightly compared to minimal intervention at short-term follow-up (MD -4.5, 95% CI -8.9 to -0.1; 1 study, 53 participants). We found low-certainty evidence that there may be little to no difference between telerehabilitation (psychological or education) and minimal intervention for depression at short-term follow-up (MD -2.3, 95% CI -6.5 to 1.9; 1 study, 53 participants). No study in this comparison reported withdrawal due to adverse events or serious adverse events. Telerehabilitation (exercise and physical activity) versus minimal intervention We found low-certainty evidence that telerehabilitation (exercise and physical activity) may reduce pain intensity when compared to minimal intervention at short-term follow-up (MD -20.4, 95% CI -21.9 to -19.1; 3 studies, 146 participants). We found very low-certainty evidence that telerehabilitation may improve function compared to minimal intervention at short-term follow-up, but the evidence is very uncertain (MD 5.0, 95% CI 0.5 to 9.4; 3 studies, 146 participants). We found very low-certainty evidence that there may be little to no difference between telerehabilitation (exercise and physical activity) and minimal intervention in quality of life (Physical Component) at short-term follow-up (SMD -0.06, 95% CI -0.7 to 0.6; 2 studies, 64 participants) or quality of life (Mental Component) at short-term follow-up (SMD -0.3, 95% CI -0.8 to 0.2; 2 studies, 64 participants), but the evidence is very uncertain. No study in this comparison assessed anxiety, depression, withdrawal due to adverse events, or serious adverse events. Telerehabilitation (multicomponent interventions) versus minimal intervention We found low-certainty evidence that there may be little to no difference between telerehabilitation (multicomponent) and minimal intervention in pain intensity at short-term follow-up (MD -1.0, 95% CI -5.9 to 3.9; 1 study, 213 participants). No study in this comparison assessed function, health-related quality of life, anxiety, depression, withdrawals due to adverse events, and serious adverse events. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The current available evidence is inconclusive due to its very low certainty, and thus the question of the effectiveness of telerehabilitation interventions for non-specific neck pain remains unanswered
Goal-Directed Visual Diffusion Policy for Efficient Data Collection in Robot Learning
No full textRobotic manipulation often requires precise calibration and localization resulting in long setup times and poor adaptability to new environments While end to end learning from human demonstrations can reduce programming and calibration efforts collecting large datasets for each task is impractical due to time and labor constraints To address this challenge we introduce Goal Directed Visual Diffusion Policy which generates synthetic demonstration data using multiple single shot camera observations of a goal location By integrating traditional motion planning with diffusion policy this approach significantly reduces the need for task demonstrations while maintaining comparable accuracy Validation through both simulations and lab experiments demonstrates its effectiveness for real world applications The open source implementation is available at https github com DinhDangKhoaLe GoalDirected Diffusion Polic
Detecting and attributing climate change effects on vegetation: Australia as a test case
Get PDFSocietal Impact Statement: Climate change is contributing to vegetation changes that threaten life support systems. Yet, inherent climatic variability and past and present human actions—such as clearing, burning and grazing regimes—also alter vegetation and complicate understanding of vegetation change. Australian ecosystems exemplify such complexity. To predict future vegetation changes, proactively guide management and ensure persistent drivers do not disrupt intended outcomes, we need to untangle the effects of these various change drivers on vegetation. Such attribution of change, which is rarely done, requires historical context, long-term datasets of vegetation and environmental drivers and integrating data with process-based understanding. Summary: Climate change is expected to affect vegetation: associated rising atmospheric CO2, higher temperatures and more variable and extreme rainfall regimes can all cause major shifts in vegetation composition, structure and function. Such effects need to be detected to confirm understanding and to inform models that can predict future vegetation change and guide management efforts. However, many change drivers—some related to, and others distinct from, climate change—simultaneously affect vegetation. These drivers include altered land management practices and shifts in fire and grazing regimes. Untangling the signals of climate-change-induced vegetation change from these other drivers of variation poses significant challenges. These challenges are amplified in regions with high interdecadal climate variability and enduring legacies of shifting human activities. Here, we assess attempts to detect and attribute vegetation change across Australia, a continent that exemplifies such complexities. We develop a scheme to classify attribution efforts according to whether they consider (1) qualitative or quantitative evidence, (2) mechanistic explanations and (3) alternative plausible change drivers. While a significant body of evidence demonstrates vegetation change in Australia, we find that it is difficult to confidently attribute changes to recent climate shifts—noting that few studies have attempted to do so. Several recommendations emerge that may improve attribution worldwide, including explicitly considering attribution strength, committing to long-term monitoring of vegetation and change drivers and recognising multiple drivers of change, especially past and present human influences. Finally, achieving the strongest level of attribution requires linking observations and mechanistic models
Application-Oriented Analysis of Hexaglide Pose Accuracy in Through-Hole Assembly of Electronic Components
Get PDFHexaglide parallel manipulators are characterized by high accuracy and dynamic performance, which makes them suitable for industrial high-precision assembly tasks such as placement of electronic THT components on printed circuit boards. In this paper we describe an assembly system that comprises a Hexaglide manipulator with vertical ball screws, moving printed circuit boards relative to stationary THT components. We evaluate the effects of the manufacturing tolerances of machine parts, such as bar length tolerance, ball screw axis position uncertainty, and ball screw axis orientation uncertainty, on Hexaglide end-effector pose accuracy using a geometric simulation study based on stochastic tolerance sampling. In the investigated configuration and under standard industrial tolerances, bar length inaccuracy and axis position uncertainty lead to significant position and rotation deviations for the Hexaglide end-effector in the horizontal plane that need to be compensated for by control algorithms to enable THT assembly using the Hexaglide prototype. The geometric simulation method applied in this paper can be used by designers of Hexaglide machines to study and evaluate different machine configurations
Constructing Nature: Construal, Constitution, Composition, and the Politics of Ecology
No full textThis chapter describes the long-standing and still prominent influence of “social constructionism” in shaping how political ecologists view and study nature-society interactions. The chapter highlights how a constructivist lens usefully underscores how societies and individuals perceive reality in ways that eventually become accepted and institutionalized. To further unpack how nature is socially constructed, the chapter offers three value- and power-laden dimensions of this process: “construal,” “constitution,” and “composition.” Throughout, we are reminded that answering questions about why society uses and misuses our environments must begin by understanding ourselves and the nature of our ideas. Observations from this chapter will be helpful to those seeking foundational insights connecting environmental knowledge to social practice and the world of our (un)making
Antibacterial peptidomimetics based on guanidine-functionalized di-tertiary amides.
Get PDFTertiary amides such as peptoids are a novel class of peptidomimetics that offer enhanced structure, activity, and stability compared to many naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides. Guanidino compounds have gained interest in medicinal chemistry as cell-penetrating molecules. This work investigates the changes in the antibacterial activity of modified guanidino groups on the structure of active guanidino tertiary amides by incorporating lipophilic, hydrophobic, and extra cationic groups, thereby combining the properties of the tertiary amide in the peptoid backbone with the important role of addition of extra cationic and lipophilic residues, such as those in AMPs, but supported by guanidine backbones. A library of active antibacterial bromo-phenyl and dichloro-phenyl-based guanidinium tertiary amides, including three series, was designed. These compounds exhibited MICs of 1-2 μg mL-1, 4-8 μg mL-1, and 16.5-35.6 μg mL-1 against S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa, respectively. Tertiary amides with their guanidine bearing an alkylated cationic group of 3C (19a and 20a) and 6C (19b and 20b) length resulted in the most active molecules against all tested strains. Additionally, at 8× MIC, compound 19b was the most effective S. aureus biofilm disruptor, disrupting 75% of the biofilm, while compound 19g was the most active molecule against E. coli biofilm, with 50% disruption. The membrane permeability and QCM-D studies suggested that the designed cationic tertiary amides could depolarize and disrupt the bacterial cell membrane. The most potent peptoids were non-toxic, with HC50 of more than 50 μg mL-1
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