A Benchmark Environment Motivated by Industrial Control Problems

In the research area of reinforcement learning (RL), frequently novel and promising methods are developed and introduced to the RL community. However, although many researchers are keen to apply their methods on real-world problems, implementing such methods in real industry environments often is a frustrating and tedious process. Generally, academic research groups have only limited access to real industrial data and applications. For this reason, new methods are usually developed, evaluated and compared by using artificial software benchmarks. On one hand, these benchmarks are designed to provide interpretable RL training scenarios and detailed insight into the learning process of the method on hand. On the other hand, they usually do not share much similarity with industrial real-world applications. For this reason we used our industry experience to design a benchmark which bridges the gap between freely available, documented, and motivated artificial benchmarks and properties of real industrial problems. The resulting industrial benchmark (IB) has been made publicly available to the RL community by publishing its Java and Python code, including an OpenAI Gym wrapper, on Github. In this paper we motivate and describe in detail the IB's dynamics and identify prototypic experimental settings that capture common situations in real-world industry control problems

Batch Reinforcement Learning on the Industrial Benchmark: First Experiences

The Particle Swarm Optimization Policy (PSO-P) has been recently introduced and proven to produce remarkable results on interacting with academic reinforcement learning benchmarks in an off-policy, batch-based setting. To further investigate the properties and feasibility on real-world applications, this paper investigates PSO-P on the so-called Industrial Benchmark (IB), a novel reinforcement learning (RL) benchmark that aims at being realistic by including a variety of aspects found in industrial applications, like continuous state and action spaces, a high dimensional, partially observable state space, delayed effects, and complex stochasticity. The experimental results of PSO-P on IB are compared to results of closed-form control policies derived from the model-based Recurrent Control Neural Network (RCNN) and the model-free Neural Fitted Q-Iteration (NFQ). Experiments show that PSO-P is not only of interest for academic benchmarks, but also for real-world industrial applications, since it also yielded the best performing policy in our IB setting. Compared to other well established RL techniques, PSO-P produced outstanding results in performance and robustness, requiring only a relatively low amount of effort in finding adequate parameters or making complex design decisions

A Benchmark Environment Motivated by Industrial Control Problems

In the research area of reinforcement learning (RL), frequently novel and promising methods are developed and introduced to the RL community. However, although many researchers are keen to apply their methods on real-world problems, implementing such methods in real industry environments often is a frustrating and tedious process. Generally, academic research groups have only limited access to real industrial data and applications. For this reason, new methods are usually developed, evaluated and compared by using artificial software benchmarks. On one hand, these benchmarks are designed to provide interpretable RL training scenarios and detailed insight into the learning process of the method on hand. On the other hand, they usually do not share much similarity with industrial real-world applications. For this reason we used our industry experience to design a benchmark which bridges the gap between freely available, documented, and motivated artificial benchmarks and properties of real industrial problems. The resulting industrial benchmark (IB) has been made publicly available to the RL community by publishing its Java and Python code, including an OpenAI Gym wrapper, on Github. In this paper we motivate and describe in detail the IB's dynamics and identify prototypic experimental settings that capture common situations in real-world industry control problems

Exhibition catalogue: 'Something Possible Everywhere: Pier 34, NYC 1983-84'

'Something Possible Everywhere: Pier 34, NYC 1983-84' Exhibition at 205 Hudson Street Gallery in New York, 30 September to 20 November 201

Hypofractionated helical intensity-modulated radiotherapy of the prostate bed after prostatectomy with or without the pelvic lymph nodes - the PRIAMOS trial

BACKGROUND: While evidence on safety and efficacy of primary hypofractionated radiotherapy in prostate cancer is accumulating, data on postoperative hypofractionated treatment of the prostate bed and of the pelvic lymph nodes is still scarce. This phase II trial was initiated to investigate safety and feasibility of hypofractionated treatment of the prostate bed alone or with the pelvic lymph nodes. METHODS/DESIGN: A total of 80 prostate cancer patients with the indication for adjuvant radiotherapy will be enrolled, where 40 patients with a low risk of lymph node involvement (arm 1) and another 40 patients with a high risk of lymph node involvement (arm 2) will each receive 54 Gy in 18 fractions to the prostate bed. Arm 2 will be given 45 Gy to the pelvic lymph nodes additionally. Helical Tomotherapy and daily image guidance will be used. DISCUSSION: This trial was initiated to substantiate data on hypofractionated treatment of the prostate bed and generate first data on adjuvant hypofractionated radiotherapy of the pelvic lymph nodes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT0162071

Helical intensity-modulated Radiotherapy of the Pelvic Lymph Nodes with Integrated Boost to the Prostate Bed - Initial Results of the PLATIN 3 Trial

BACKGROUND: Adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy of the prostate bed are established treatment options for prostate cancer. While the benefit of an additional radiotherapy of the pelvic lymph nodes is still under debate, the PLATIN 3 prospective phase II clinical trial was initiated to substantiate toxicity data on postoperative IMRT of the pelvic lymph nodes and the prostate bed. METHODS: From 2009 to 2011, 40 patients with high-risk prostate cancer after prostatectomy with pT3 R0/1 M0 or pT2 R1 M0 or a PSA recurrence and either > 20% risk of lymph node involvement and inadequate lymphadenectomy or pN + were enrolled. Patients received two months of antihormonal treatment (AT) before radiotherapy. AT continuation was mandatory during radiotherapy and was recommended for another two years. IMRT of the pelvic lymph nodes (51.0 Gy) with a simultaneous integrated boost to the prostate bed (68.0 Gy) was performed in 34 fractions. PSA level, prostate-related symptoms and quality of life were assessed at regular intervals for 24 months. RESULTS: Of the 40 patients enrolled, 39 finished treatment as planned. Overall acute toxicity rates were low and no acute grade 3/4 toxicity occurred. Only 22.5% of patients experienced acute grade 2 gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) toxicity. During follow-up, 10.0% late grade 2 GI and 5.0% late grade 2 GU toxicity occurred, and one patient developed late grade 3 proctitis and enteritis. After a median observation time of 24 months the PLATIN 3 trial has shown in 97.5% of all patients sufficient safety and thus met its prospectively defined aims. After a median of 24 months, 34/38 patients were free of a PSA recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative whole-pelvis IMRT with an integrated boost to the prostate bed can be performed safely and without excessive toxicity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial Numbers: ARO 2009–05, ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01903408

Accelerated large volume irradiation with dynamic Jaw/Dynamic Couch Helical Tomotherapy

BACKGROUND: Helical Tomotherapy (HT) has unique capacities for the radiotherapy of large and complicated target volumes. Next generation Dynamic Jaw/Dynamic Couch HT delivery promises faster treatments and reduced exposure of organs at risk due to a reduced dose penumbra. METHODS: Three challenging clinical situations were chosen for comparison between Regular HT delivery with a field width of 2.5 cm (Reg 2.5) and 5.0 cm (Reg 5.0) and DJDC delivery with a maximum field width of 5.0 cm (DJDC 5.0): Hemithoracic Irradiation, Whole Abdominal Irradiation (WAI) and Total Marrow Irradiation (TMI). For each setting, five CT data sets were chosen, and target coverage, conformity, integral dose, dose exposure of organs at risk (OAR) and treatment time were calculated. RESULTS: Both Reg 5.0 and DJDC 5.0 achieved a substantial reduction in treatment time while maintaining similar dose coverage. Treatment time could be reduced from 10:57 min to 3:42 min / 5:10 min (Reg 5.0 / DJDC 5.0) for Hemithoracic Irradiation, from 18:03 min to 8:02 min / 8:03 min for WAI and to 18:25 min / 18:03 min for TMI. In Hemithoracic Irradiation, OAR exposure was identical in all modalities. For WAI, Reg 2.5 resulted in lower exposure of liver and bone. DJDC plans showed a small but significant increase of ∼ 1 Gy to the kidneys, the parotid glans and the thyroid gland. While Reg 5.0 and DJDC were identical in terms of OAR exposure, integral dose was substantially lower with DJDC, caused by a smaller dose penumbra. CONCLUSIONS: Although not clinically available yet, next generation DJDC HT technique is efficient in improving the treatment time while maintaining comparable plan quality

Intensity-modulated versus 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy in the definitive treatment of esophageal cancer: comparison of outcomes and acute toxicity

Background: Though the vast majority of seminal trials for locally advanced esophageal cancer (EC) utilized three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), the advanced and highly conformal technology known as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) can decrease doses to critical cardiopulmonary organs. To date, there have been no studies comparing both modalities as part of definitive chemoradiation (dCRT) for EC. Herein, we investigated local control and survival and evaluated clinical factors associated with these endpoints between cohorts. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 93 patients (3DCRT n = 49, IMRT n = 44) who received dCRT at our institution between 2000 and 2012 with the histologic diagnosis of nonmetastatic EC, a Karnofsky performance status of ≥70, curative treatment intent, and receipt of concomitant CRT. Patients were excluded if receiving <50 Gy. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to evaluate the endpoints of local relapse rate (LR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazards modeling addressed factors associated with outcomes with univariate and multivariate approaches. Rates of acute toxicities and basic dosimetric parameters were compared between 3DCRT and IMRT patients. Results: Mean follow-up was 34.7 months. The 3-year LR was 28.6% in the 3DCRT group and 22.7% in the IMRT group (p = 0.620). Median PFS were 13.8 and 16.6 months, respectively (p = 0.448). Median OS were 18.4 and 42.0 months, respectively (p = 0.198). On univariate analysis, only cumulative radiation dose was associated with superior LR (hazard ratio (HR) 0.736; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.635 – 0.916, p = 0.004). Factors clearly affecting survival were not observed. Conclusions: When comparing 3DCRT- versus IMRT-based dCRT, no survival benefits were observed. However, we found a lower local recurrence rate in the IMRT group potentially owing to dose-escalation. Prospective data are needed to verify the presented results herein

Risk and Protective Factors for Bullying Victimization among Sexual Minority Youths

Sexual minority youths: SMY) suffer higher rates of bullying victimization and related mental health and academic problems compared to their heterosexual peers. At present, little research has investigated the modifiable and non-modifiable risk and protective factors that are associated with lower frequencies of bullying victimization and victim distress for SMY. This study utilized a risk and resilience theoretical framework and addressed the following research questions among a community-based sample of SMY: 1) What are the associations between risk and protective factors and the frequencies of total and four types: i.e., verbal, relational, electronic, and physical) of bullying victimization? 2) What are the associations between the frequencies of total and four types of bullying victimization and mental health problems and academic outcomes? and 3) To what extent do modifiable risk and protective factors: MRPF) moderate the association between total bullying victimization and mental health problems and academic outcomes? A cross-sectional, quantitative design was utilized for this study. Structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with SMY: N = 125) aged 15 to 19 years old and recruited from two Midwest, community-based organizations. Bivariate analyses were performed to identify associations between: 1) risk and protective factors and bullying victimization: total and type) and: 2) bullying victimization: total and type) and mental health problems and academic outcomes. Multiple regression analyses were performed to explore the potential moderating influence of MRPF on the relationship between total bullying victimization and mental health problems and academic outcomes. For research question 1, SMY who reported higher levels of classmate support and positive school climate experienced significantly lower frequencies of bullying victimization. Older SMY reported significantly lower levels of physical and verbal bullying victimization than their younger counterparts. Similarly, African American and Caucasian SMY reported lower levels of physical and verbal bullying victimization compared to their Hispanic, Native American, and multiracial counterparts. Emotional, physical, and sexual child abuse were identified as significant risk factors for bullying victimization. For research question 2, SMY who experienced higher frequencies of bullying victimization: total and type) reported significantly higher levels of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression. Further, those who experienced higher frequencies of bullying victimization: total and type) had significantly higher odds of having seriously considered suicide, attempted suicide, and experienced disciplinary actions in school. SMY who reported higher frequencies of bullying victimization also had significantly lower grade performance. Overall, physical bullying victimization had the strongest associations with mental health problems and academic outcomes, while electronic bullying victimization consistently had the weakest associations. For research question 3, classmate support was found to be a significant moderator of total bullying victimization and grade performance, such that SMY with higher levels of classmate support experienced less of a decline in grades as the frequency of total bullying victimization increased compared to SMY with lower levels of classmate support. Last, parent support was found to be a significant moderator of total bullying victimization and psychological distress. High levels of parent support had a protective effect on psychological distress only at a low frequency of total bullying victimization. Parent support appeared to be unable to protect SMY from poorer psychological distress as the frequency of total bullying victimization increased. This study is one of the first to examine the protective factors present in the lives of SMY and contributes to the bullying literature for SMY by identifying the modifiable and non-modifiable risk and protective factors that may be used to inform multi-level, anti-bullying interventions. Individual-level intervention components may include provision or referral to mental health services to address the high levels of mental health problems and histories of child abuse and neglect often present in the lives of SMY. In addition, peer-level intervention components may include the adoption of peer mentoring programs that foster classmate support and increase the rates at which classmates intervene to stop incidents of bullying victimization at school. Last, school-level intervention components may include strategies that promote positive school climates for SMY through the adoption of anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies that provide specific protections for sexual minority students, teachers, and staff

KICKING IN SOCCER

Kicking as the defining action of soccer has gained huge interest within the scientific community with respect to practice, coaching, science and technology. This paper focuses on current knowledge of soccer kicking, including its biomechanical description, skill execution, kicking techniques, performance criteria, and measurement technology .Additionally, it refers to a fairly new research aspect, the influence of soccer footwear on the kicking movement and consequently on kicking success as it has been shown that soccer footwear alters the biomechanics of kicking. Finally, future directions of research are suggested that are helpful to enhance the fundamental understanding of kicking