Magnetic resonance of the encephalon in 17 patients with ocular Beh?et''s disease

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationships between patient and physician pretreatment expectations of pain relief and subsequent pain relief reported by chronic pain patients immediately after treatment. DESIGN: Prospective study of consecutive patients undergoing a procedure in a pain clinic for treatment of chronic pain. Patients rated their current pain level and their expectation of pain relief immediately prior to undergoing a procedure (e.g., intravenous drug infusion, nerve block) for the treatment of chronic pain. Simultaneously and independently, the treating physician completed a similar questionnaire. At completion of the procedure, patients rated their current pain level and degree of pain relief. SETTING: University of Washington Multidisciplinary Pain Center procedure suite. PATIENTS: Forty-six consecutive chronic pain patients. INTERVENTION: Intravenous drug infusions and nerve blocks. OUTCOME MEASURES: Current pain and pain relief ratings. RESULTS: Patients' pain relief expectation ratings were not correlated significantly with their postprocedure pain relief ratings or pre-post procedure changes in pain ratings. However, a statistically significant correlation was found between physician expectations of pain relief and patient pain relief ratings and patient pre-post procedure changes in pain. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that physicians are better predictors than are patients of patients responses to these procedures and/or that physicians may somehow subtly communicate their expectations to patients during the procedure, and these expectations then influence patient response. Patient pretreatment expectations may not always play a significant role in nonspecific treatment effects.     

An EIA method on single donor solubilized HLA antigens for the identification of anti-HLA antibodies

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is an immunologically mediated disease in which activated T lymphocytes attack and destroy epithelial cells in the small intralobular bile ducts of genetically susceptible patients. This article reviews the results of treatment of PBC with immunomodulatory agents. Results with drugs such as glucocorticoids, azathioprine, and chlorambucil have been disappointing because of either limited efficacy (azathioprine), toxicity (chlorambucil), or both (glucocorticoids). Colchicine improved tests of liver function in three prospective studies and was associated with improved survival for up to 4 years. However, survival benefits were lost at 8 years. Colchicine appears to slow the rate of progression of PBC but not to stop it. Preliminary results suggest that colchicine may have synergistic effects if used together with ursodeoxycholic acid, particularly in patients who are only partially responsive to ursodeoxycholic acid. Results with cyclosporine have been disappointing because of limited efficacy and predictable toxicity. The modest improvement in tests of liver function and survival are counterbalanced by the development of hypertension in some and worsening renal function in most. There is little beneficial effect on symptoms or histology. Results with methotrexate are promising. There are improvements in symptoms and tests of liver function that are equal to those seen with ursodeoxycholic acid and significant improvement in liver histology. Some patients, particularly those with striking inflammation and granulomas in portal triads, appear to have achieved sustained remission while on methotrexate. The effects of methotrexate are additive to those of ursodeoxycholic acid in patients whose blood tests have responded only partially to ursodeoxycholic acid. The most effective treatment of PBC will most likely use a combination of drugs such as ursodeoxycholic acid, colchicine, and methotrexate.     

Certain nonlinear partially observable stochastic optimal controlproblems with explicit control laws equivalent to LEQG/LQG problems

This paper is concerned with partially observed stochastic optimal control problems when nonlinearities enter the dynamics of the unobservable state and the observations as gradients of potential functions. Explicit representations for the information state are derived in terms of a finite number of sufficient statistics. Consequently, the partially observed problem is recast as one of complete information with a new state generated by a modified version of the Kalman filter. When the terminal cost is quadratic in the unobservable state and includes the integral of the nonlinearities, the optimal control laws are explicitly computed, similar to linear-exponential-quadratic-Gaussian (LEQG) and linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) tracking problems. The results are applicable to filtering and control of Hamiltonian systems     

Estimating the viewing parameters of random, noisy projections ofasymmetric objects for tomographic reconstruction

The ability to determine the viewing parameters of objects from their projections has enabled well established tomographic techniques to be employed in the 3D reconstruction of objects from images obtained via modalities where the orientation of the objects cannot be controlled. A method is described for the determination of the viewing parameters of randomly acquired projections of asymmetric objects. It extends upon the common lines algorithm by determining the relative orientation of projections from the location of lines of intersection among the Fourier transforms of the projections in 3D Fourier space. A new technique for finding the lines of intersection in the presence of translational displacement, and for subsequently finding the translational displacement, is presented. The complete algorithm is described and its efficacy is demonstrated using real data. A new technique for dealing with noise is also discussed     

On a large-gain theorem

The aim of this paper is to give a general quantitative requirement which the loop gain must satisfy in order to stabilize a given unstable (possibly nonlinear and time-varying) plant, namely that the gain must exceed one.     

Imprudent linking weaves a tangled Web

Hypertext linking is often embraced uncritically by Web authors eager to explore the power of hypertext without first considering its effects on their readers' comprehension. Hypertext linking is not a substitute for thought-we think with ideas, not with dissociated snippets of raw information. Even the most germane bits of information cannot become ideas, regardless of how cleverly they are stacked, listed or linked. Ideas define relevance, provide context and establish patterns. With patterns, most concepts become intelligible, and we need continuity and stability of theme and context to recognize patterns. So, like most powerful technologies, hypertext links are a mixed blessing. Used improperly, they can be detrimental to Web sites. “Loose links” can drive away an audience, dilute the site's message, confuse the reader with irrelevant digressions and become a continuing maintenance headache for site authors and Webmasters     

Large-scale simulation studies in image pattern recognition

Many obstacles to progress in image pattern recognition result from the fact that per-class distributions are often too irregular to be well-approximated by simple analytical functions. Simulation studies offer one way to circumvent these obstacles. We present three closely related studies of machine-printed character recognition that rely on synthetic data generated pseudo-randomly in accordance with an explicit stochastic model of document image degradations. The unusually large scale of experiments - involving several million samples that makes this methodology possible have allowed us to compute sharp estimates of the intrinsic difficulty (Bayes risk) of concrete image recognition problems, as well as the asymptotic accuracy and domain of competency of classifiers