Functional Limit Theorem for the Empirical Process of a Class of Bernoulli Shifts with Long Memory

International audienceWe prove a functional central limit theorem for the empirical process of a stationary process $X_t = Y_t + V_t$, where $Y_t$ is a long memory moving average in i.i.d. r.v.'s $\zeta_s, s\le t$, and $V_t = V(\zeta_t, \zeta_{t-1}, \dots )$ is a weakly dependent nonlinear Bernoulli shift. Conditions of weak dependence of $V_t$ are written in terms of $L^2-$norms of shift-cut differences $V(\zeta_t, \dots, \zeta_{t-n}, 0, \dots, ) - V(\zeta_t, \dots, \zeta_{t-n+1}, 0, \dots )$. Examples of Bernoulli shifts are discussed. The limit empirical process is a degenerated process of the form $f(x) Z$, where $f$ is the marginal p.d.f. of $X_0$ and $Z$ is a standard normal r.v. The proof is based on a uniform reduction principle for the empirical process

The role of the CO2 laser in the management of laryngotracheal stenosis: a survey of 100 cases

Over the last decade, improvement of CO2 lasers with the microspot and ultrapulse technologies has broadened the indications for endoscopic CO2-laser resection of benign laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS). This article reviews 100 patients treated solely by endoscopic means for a LTS. There were 47 grade III, 41 grade II and 12 grade I stenoses according to the Myer-Cotton classification. The postoperative results show that the improvement to a nearly normal (>80% luminal size) airway declines from 92% (11/12 patients) for grade I to 46% (19/41 patients) for grade II and 13% (6/47 patients) for grade III stenoses. When compared to open surgery for more severe grades of stenosis (31 grade IV, 66 grade III and 3 grade II stenoses), the results of the endoscopy group is much less favorable: 36% of patients in the endoscopy group versus 76% of patients in the open surgery group were rehabilitated to a normal respiration without exertional dyspnea and 38% versus 5% patients remained tracheotomy dependent. However, if strict selection and therapeutic criteria are respected, a significant number of grade I and II stenoses, and to a lesser degree of grade III stenoses, can be improved to a nearly normal airway by endoscopic means only. The endoscopic treatment is potentially less invasive and risky and only needs a short hospital stay. To try this as a first treatment modality in a selected group of patients is worthwhile, provided that this endoscopic treatment is not repeated a second time, if the stenosis recurs to its initial grade after a primary CO2-laser treatment. Some guidelines for safe endoscopic treatment modalities with of the CO2 laser, dilatation and/or stenting are propose

Compact preference representation and Boolean games

International audienceGame theory is a widely used formal model for studying strategical in- teractions between agents. Boolean games[23, 22] yield a compact rep- resentation of 2-player zero-sum static games with binary preferences: an agent's strategy consists of a truth assignment of the propositional variables she controls, and a player's preferences are expressed by a plain propositional formula. These restrictions (2-player, zero-sum, binary preferences) strongly limit the expressivity of the framework. We first generalize the framework to n-player games which are not necessarily zero-sum. We give simple char- acterizations of Nash equilibria and dominated strategies, and investigate the computational complexity of the associated problems. Then, we relax the last restriction by coupling Boolean games with a representation, namely,CP-nets

First IJCAI International Workshop on Graph Structures for Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (GKR@IJCAI'09)

International audienceThe development of effective techniques for knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR) is a crucial aspect of successful intelligent systems. Different representation paradigms, as well as their use in dedicated reasoning systems, have been extensively studied in the past. Nevertheless, new challenges, problems, and issues have emerged in the context of knowledge representation in Artificial Intelligence (AI), involving the logical manipulation of increasingly large information sets (see for example Semantic Web, BioInformatics and so on). Improvements in storage capacity and performance of computing infrastructure have also affected the nature of KRR systems, shifting their focus towards representational power and execution performance. Therefore, KRR research is faced with a challenge of developing knowledge representation structures optimized for large scale reasoning. This new generation of KRR systems includes graph-based knowledge representation formalisms such as Bayesian Networks (BNs), Semantic Networks (SNs), Conceptual Graphs (CGs), Formal Concept Analysis (FCA), CPnets, GAI-nets, all of which have been successfully used in a number of applications. The goal of this workshop is to bring together the researchers involved in the development and application of graph-based knowledge representation formalisms and reasoning techniques

Retrospective Evaluations of Sequences: Testing the Predictions of a Memory-based Analysis

Retrospective evaluation (RE) of event sequences are known to be biased in various ways. The present paper presents a series of studies that examined the suggestion that the moments that are the most accessible in memory at the point of RE contribute to these biases. As predicted by this memory-based analysis, Experiment 1 showed that pleasantness ratings of word lists were biased by the presentation position of a negative item and by how easy the negative information was to retrieve. Experiment 2 ruled out the hypothesis that these findings were due to the dual nature of the task called upon. Experiment 3 further manipulated the memorability of the negative items—and corresponding changes in RE were as predicted. Finally, Experiment 4 extended the findings to more complex stimuli involving event narratives. Overall, the results suggest that assessments were adjusted based on the retrieval of the most readily available information

Vaccination of patients with cutaneous melanoma with telomerase-specific peptides

Purpose: A phase I study was conducted to investigate the safety, tolerability, and immunological responses to vaccination with a combination of telomerase-derived peptides GV1001 (hTERT: 611-626) and p540 (hTERT: 540-548) using granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) or tuberculin as adjuvant in patients with cutaneous melanoma. Experimental design: Ten patients with melanoma stages UICC IIb-IV were vaccinated 8times intradermally with either 60 or 300nmole of GV1001 and p540 peptide using GM-CSF as adjuvant. A second group of patients received only 300nmole GV1001 in combination with tuberculin PPD23 injections. HLA typing was not used as an inclusion criterion. Peptide-specific immune responses were measured by delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions, in vitro T cell proliferation assays, and cytotoxicity (51-Chromium release) assays for a selected number of clones subsequently generated. Results: Vaccination was well tolerated in all patients. Peptide-specific immune response measured by DTH reactions and in vitro response could be induced in a dose-dependent fashion in 7 of 10 patients. Cloned T cells from the vaccinated patients showed proliferative responses against both vaccine peptides GV1001 and p540. Furthermore, T cell clones were able to specifically lyse p540-pulsed T2 target cells and various pulsed and unpulsed tumor cell lines. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that immunity to hTERT can be generated safely and effectively in patients with advanced melanoma and therefore encourage further trial

Block orthogonal polynomials: I. Definition and properties

Constrained orthogonal polynomials have been recently introduced in the study of the Hohenberg-Kohn functional to provide basis functions satisfying particle number conservation for an expansion of the particle density. More generally, we define block orthogonal (BO) polynomials which are orthogonal, with respect to a first Euclidean scalar product, to a given $i$-dimensional subspace ${\cal E}_i$ of polynomials associated with the constraints. In addition, they are mutually orthogonal with respect to a second Euclidean scalar product. We recast the determination of these polynomials into a general problem of finding particular orthogonal bases in an Euclidean vector space endowed with distinct scalar products. An explicit two step Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization (G-SO) procedure to determine these bases is given. By definition, the standard block orthogonal (SBO) polynomials are associated with a choice of ${\cal E}_i$ equal to the subspace of polynomials of degree less than $i$. We investigate their properties, emphasizing similarities to and differences from the standard orthogonal polynomials. Applications to classical orthogonal polynomials will be given in forthcoming papers.Comment: This is a reduced version of the initial manuscript, the number of pages being reduced from 34 to 2

Investigating the effects of the disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug methotrexate on the vascular endothelium

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease that associates with increased mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methotrexate (MTX), a folate analogue used as disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD), reduces CVD morbidity and mortality in RA patients, possibly by improving endothelial function. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular effects of MTX in quiescent and activated vascular endothelial cells (EC). In EC pre-treated with tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, MTX independently increased the activity of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38 and Akt and caused cell cycle arrest due to folate depletion. In contrast, MTX did not affect cell signalling, proliferation or gene expression in EC exposed to different types of shear stress. To tease out the underlying mechanism, folate or one carbon metabolism (OCM) was investigated in EC cultivated under static or shear stress conditions. Endothelial OCM was fundamentally altered by shear stress, with potentially important implications for MTX uptake and function. Using endothelial colony forming cells (ECFC) isolated from RA patients before and after treatment initiation with MTX and hydroxychloroquine, it was shown that systemic inflammation primes ECFC towards a pro-inflammatory state that may be reversible with DMARD treatment. These data suggest that MTX acts on vascular EC in a folate-dependent manner. However, since endothelial OCM was largely downregulated by shear stress, this implies that MTX may have limited direct effects on EC in vivo and provides a potential explanation for the controversies around the vascular effects of folate and anti-folate therapy. Although findings in ECFC from patients with RA support anti-inflammatory effects of MTX containing therapy, the data in this thesis do not support a direct MTX-mediated anti-atherogenic effect on the endothelium but suggest that the drug may limit EC dysfunction in combination with other drugs indirectly by reducing systemic inflammation.Open Acces