Multicriterion differential games

Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 1, pp. 24–33, January–February, 1994.     

Fault trees—Problems and the modern state of investigations

Published in Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 3, pp. 128–150, May–June, 1994.     

Comments on “Editorial: fuzzy models-what are they andwhy?”

In the editorial by J.C. Bezdek (ibid., p.1), an example is presented to demonstrate differences between fuzzy membership and probability. The authors argue that probability can be used in a way much more closely analogous to this use of fuzzy membership, weakening the argument for the latter     

Statistical synchronization among participants in real-time multimedia conferencing

In this paper, an algorithm to determine the set of packets generated continuously and periodically from different participants that are arriving at a node either for mixing at the master of a conference, or for simply playing back at a regular participant of a conference, is proposed. The essence of the algorithm is to estimate the expected packet arrival time (or reference time) for each participant. With the reference time at hand, the maximum jitter and the optimum waiting time for a mixer to wait packets from all participants can be determined. An enhancement to improve synchronization which deals with the estimation of the time offsets between the individual periods of the sources and the period of the receiver is also presented. The error of the proposed algorithm is enumerated by the Chernoff bound and demonstrated by simulation and is shown to be acceptable in practical application. The algorithm can also be employed when traffic sources operate with different periods.     

Bacteriophage lambda: transactivation, positive control and other odd findings

The purpose for this study was to evaluate the results of silicone oil use in patients who have undergone vitrectomy for proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). The authors reviewed the 5-year results of 50 consecutive patients (52 eyes) with grade C1/D3 PVR operated on in 1987. Silicone oil has been removed in 42 eyes. The retina remained attached in 38 eyes. Visual acuities were finger counting in 12 eyes and 0.1 or greater in 19 eyes. Glaucoma was thought to be the major cause of loss of visual acuity after an initial improvement (9 eyes), as well as the most frequent complication of surgery (13 eyes). Silicone oil was deemed nonremovable in 10 operated eyes. A questionnaire was developed to determine the patients' perceptions of the use of silicone oil, and 46 patients responded to the questionnaire. Four patients indicated that they would not have elected to have surgery again. Six patients thought that surgery was not worthwhile, but would permit treatment again. Most patients thought that a modest amount of improvement had taken place and that vision was stable. Subjectively, most patients believed that surgery was worthwhile.     

Cholesterol and vascular disease. Study of pravastatin

Variations in lipid profile and incidence of vascular events were evaluated. Group 1 had a 29.3% reduction of total and a 38.3% reduction of LDL cholesterol as against reductions of 9% and 9.6% respectively in group 2. No significant difference was observed between the two groups as far as the vascular events considered were concerned. Pravastatin is an effective and safe drug. The lack of influence on the evolution of vascular disease would appear to be correlated to the small number of subjects studied and the short follow-up.