Cluster analysis and disease mapping--why, when, and how? A step by step guide

Growing public awareness of environmental hazards has led to an increased demand for public health authorities to investigate geographical clustering of diseases. Although such cluster analysis is nearly always ineffective in identifying causes of disease, it often has to be used to address public concern about environmental hazards. Interpreting the resulting data is not straightforward, however, and this paper presents a guide for the non-specialist. The pitfalls include the fact that cluster analyses are usually done post hoc, and not as a result of a prior hypothesis. This is particularly true for investigations prompted by reported clusters, which have the inherent danger of overestimating the disease rate through "boundary shrinkage" of the population from which the cases are assumed to have arisen. In disease surveillance the problem of making multiple comparisons can be overcome by testing for clustering and autocorrelation. When rates of disease are illustrated in disease maps undue focus on areas where random fluctuation is greatest can be minimised by smoothing techniques. Despite the fact that cluster analyses rarely prove fruitful in identifying causation, they may-like single case reports-have the potential to generate new knowledge.     

Editorial: Special issue on approximate dynamic programming and reinforcement learning

We are extremely pleased to present this special issue of the Journal of Control Theory and Applications.Approximate dynamic programming (ADP) is a general and effective approach for solving optimal control and estimation problems by adapting to uncertain environments over time.ADP optimizes the sensing objectives accrued over a future time interval with respect to an adaptive control law,conditioned on prior knowledge of the system,its state,and uncertainties.A numerical search over the present value of the control minimizes a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation providing a basis for real-time,approximate optimal control.     

From Images to Shape Models for Object Detection

We present an object class detection approach which fully integrates the complementary strengths offered by shape matchers. Like an object detector, it can learn class models directly from images, and can localize novel instances in the presence of intra-class variations, clutter, and scale changes. Like a shape matcher, it finds the boundaries of objects, rather than just their bounding-boxes. This is achieved by a novel technique for learning a shape model of an object class given images of example instances. Furthermore, we also integrate Hough-style voting with a non-rigid point matching algorithm to localize the model in cluttered images. As demonstrated by an extensive evaluation, our method can localize object boundaries accurately and does not need segmented examples for training (only bounding-boxes).     

SusyMath: A Mathematica package for quantum superfield calculations

SusyMath is a Mathematica package for quantum superfield calculations. It defines a standard form to translate the correction to the effective action corresponding to a given supergraph into a Mathematica expression, which is then evaluated and simplified. Several functions for manipulations of these expressions are provided, and the package also has the ability to save the outcomes of its calculations in form.

Program summary

Title of program: SusyMathCatalogue identifier:ADYQ_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADYQ_v1_0Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. Ireland, also at http://fma.if.usp.br/~alysson/SusyMathLicensing provisions: LGPL, CPC non-profit use licenseProgramming language: MathematicaPlatform: Any platform supporting Mathematica 4.0 or higherComputer tested on: PC (Athlon64 X2 +3800); 1 GB RAMOperating system under which the program has been tested: Linux (Debian 4.0); XOrg 7.0.22; Mathematica 5.2No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.:42 472No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.:471 596Distribution format:tar.gzNature of the problem: Evaluate quantum corrections to the effective action of supersymmetric field theories, formulated in the superfield formalism, both in three- and four-spacetime dimensions.Solution method: A set of procedures for integration by parts, application of the algebra of covariant derivatives and Grassman integration, along with several auxiliary functions, is introduced.Restrictions: At the moment, the background field method is not implemented, but the system is designed to be further generalized.Running time: Depends on the complexity of the problem. From seconds for simpler one-loop diagrams to several hours for simple two-loop graphs.     

MPGS: an interactive tool for the specification and generation ofmultimedia presentations

Multimedia presentations are composed of objects belonging to different data types such as video, audio, text and image. An important aspect is that, quite often, the user defining a presentation needs to express sophisticated temporal and spatial constraints among the objects composing the presentation. We present a system (called MPGS-Multimedia Presentation Generator System) which supports the specification of constraints among multimedia objects and the generation of multimedia presentations according to the specified constraints. The constraint model provided by MPGS is very flexible and powerful in terms of the kinds of object constraints it can represent. A large number of innovative features are supported including: asynchronous and simultaneous spatial constraints; components of interest and priority levels; motion functions. Obviously, the flexibility provided to the users requires the development of nontrivial techniques to check constraint consistency and to generate a presentation satisfying the specified constraints. We illustrate the solutions we have devised in the framework of MPGS     

The early detection of colorectal cancer

A review of the American Cancer Society's statistics for colorectal cancer indicates that there has been little improvements in the survival rate for this disease in the past 25 years. Although there have been advances in surgical techniques, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, the key to improved survival rates is earlier diagnosis. A significant percentage of patients continues to present with regional or distal metastasis at the time of their initial diagnosis. Both proctosigmoidoscopy and guaiac impregnated filter slide paper methods have been productive in diagnosing this disease at an earlier stage. The "Hemoccult" test, however, is inexpensive, can be used on a routine basis, is easier for patients to perform themselves, and is aesthetically pleasing. It represents a significant cost savings compared to proctosigmoidoscopy and should be advocated for routine use in all patients over 40 years of age. Although there continues to be a role for local and regional mass screening programs, significant improvements in colorectal survival rates cannot be expected until routine application of this type of screening is practiced.     

Chlorpropamide-induced hypoglycemia: successful treatment with diazoxide

A healthy adolescent boy was treated on two occasions for an overdose of chlorpropamide (Diabinese). Glucose therapy alone was not sufficient to control the hypoglycemia, but the administration of glucose plus diazoxide raised the blood sugar to supranormal levels. A bolus of intravenous glucagon briefly raised the blood sugar level to within normal limits, increased the blood ketones but also augmented insulin secretion. An overdose of sulfonylurea may cause prolonged and fatal hypoglycemia. Rational therapy, both in diabetic and normal persons, is glucose plus an "insulin antagonist." The administration of diazoxide was effective in our patient, substantially reducing the plasma insulin level; this agent may be the "insulin-antagonist" of choice for use in sulfonylurea-induced hypoglycemia.     

Micropuncture studies of glucose transport in the dog: mechanism of renal glycosuria

Clearance and micropuncture studies were performed in 23 dogs without glucose loading to examine the tubule mechanism of renal glycosuria. Studies were carried out in three groups of animals before and after 10% extracellular volume expansion, and administration of maleic acid in low dose at 150 mumol/kg and in high dose at 300 mumol/kg. Specific hexokinase methods were used for the determination of glucose in tubule fluid and urine. Under control conditios, glucose reabsorption occurred predominantly in the proximal tubule. In all three groups, proximal tubule reabsorption of both sodium and glucose was inhibited in the second phase, showing a good correlation between the two. In contrast, fractional urinary glucose excretion remained unchanged after volume expansion and low-dose maleic acid, indicating reabsorption of virtually all the increased glucose load at a further "distal" site. On the other hand, significant glycosuria developed after high-dose maleic acid that was a result of reduced glucose reabsorption in the distal nephron, in addition to the proximal effect. It was concluded that distal glucose transport plays a significant role in regulating urinary glucose excretion and maintains renal thershold for glucose,     

Changes in serum thyrotropin (TSH) in man during halofenate administration

Halofenate, a serum lipid-lowering agent which inhibits binding of thyroid hormone to thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG), was administered daily for 14 days to 8 hypothyroid subjects with elevated TSH concentrations as a result of incomplete thyroxine (T4) therapy. Drug administration resulted in mean increases in serum dialyzable fraction T4 (DFT4) of 52% over pretreatment levels (P less than 0.01) and in dialyzable fraction triiodothyronine (DFT3) of 26% in 7 subjects, (P less than 0.01). During halofenate treatment in these 7 subjects, serum TSH concentrations decreased significantly (mean = 39%, P less than 0.01) when DFT4 and DFT3 were increased by halofenate. In only two subjects was there a convincing temporal relationship between increased serum absolute free T4 (AFT4) and decreased serum TSH concentrations. Contrary to what would be predicted from the "free hormone hypothesis", changes in serum TSH concentration in these hypothyroid patients appeared to relate primarily to changes in the free fraction of circulating T4 and T3 (DFT4, DFT3), rather than to alterations in AFT4 or AFT3. Halofenate did not alter serum TBG binding capacity. An eighth subject did not show increased DFT4 and DFT3 during halofenate treatment despite achievement of therapeutic serum levels of the agent; in this patient, serum TSH levels rose progressively throughout the period of inadequate T4 replacement and halofenate administration. In hypothyroid patients, short-term halofenate use suggests that the pituitary-thyroid hormone feedback circuit can respond to increases in serum DFT4 and DFT3 in the absence of detactable increases in absolute free hormone concentrations.     

Project proposal for the investigation of particle-stabilised emulsions and foams by microgravity experiments

The utilisation of particle-surfactants nanostructures as stabilising agents represents today the technologic and scientific frontier in the stabilisation of liquid films in emulsion and foams. This topic will be addressed by the proposal STEFAN (STabilisation of Emulsions and FoAms by Nanoparticles), proposed by European groups in the framework of the ESA AO-2004 for Life and Physical Sciences and Applied Research projects Similarly to what can be observed for surfactant-stabilised emulsions and foams, microgravity provides ideal conditions for the investigation of the hierarchy of involved objects: interfacial layer, liquid film, dispersed systems foam or emulsion. Microgravity experiments are planned by refurbishing the Experimental Container FASES for the ISS Fluid Science Laboratory and the facility FASTER for the European Drawer Rack, already under development in existing research programmes. Here the scientific guidelines of the project are presented together with examples and preliminary results on the effect of nano-particle-surfactant structures adsorbed at liquid interfaces. First experimental results have been achieved for particle monolayers at the water/air interface and a thermodynamic model was derived to describe the obtained surface pressure-area isotherms.