Bad Cases Research Articles

A trust region filter method for general non-linear programming

Filter approach is initially proposed by Fletcher and Leyffer in 2002. Because of promising numerical results, filter methods are recently attached importance to. If the objective function value or the constraint violation is reduced, this step is accepted by a filter, which is the basic idea of the filter. In this paper, the filter technique is employed in a trust region algorithm. In every trial step, the step length is controlled by a trust region radius. Moreover, our purpose is not to reduce the objective function and constraint violation directly. To overcome some bad cases, we aim to reduce the degree of constraint violation and the entry of some function, and the function is a combination of the objective function and the degree of constraint violation. The algorithm in this paper requires neither Lagrangian multipliers nor strong decrease condition. In certain conditions, this method produces K-T points for the original problem. Moreover, Maratos effect can be avoided for our algorithm.

Production Follow-Up of the LHC Main Dipoles Through Magnetic Measurements at Room Temperature

In this paper, we review the tools used for controlling the production of the LHC main dipoles through warm magnetic measurements. For the collared coil measurements, control limits are based on the statistics relative to the pre-series production. For the cold mass, the difference between collared coil and cold mass is considered, allowing a very stringent test. In both cases, measurements are split in straight part average, variations and coil ends contributions. Two different alarm levels exist in case the measured field is out of limits. The analysis can be carried out at the manufacturer and allows detection of anomalies in the measured magnetic field. These can be either due to wrong measurements or caused by assembly defects. Techniques used to work out information on the magnet assembly from the field harmonics are outlined. We summarize the experience gathered on about 180 collared coils and 120 cold masses, pointing out the bad cases and investigating the reliability of the measurements.

Fast and simple character classes and bounded gaps pattern matching, with applications to protein searching.

The problem of fast exact and approximate searching for a pattern that contains classes of characters and bounded size gaps (CBG) in a text has a wide range of applications, among which a very important one is protein pattern matching (for instance, one PROSITE protein site is associated with the CBG [RK] - x(2,3) - [DE] - x(2,3) - Y, where the brackets match any of the letters inside, and x(2,3) a gap of length between 2 and 3). Currently, the only way to search for a CBG in a text is to convert it into a full regular expression (RE). However, a RE is more sophisticated than a CBG, and searching for it with a RE pattern matching algorithm complicates the search and makes it slow. This is the reason why we design in this article two new practical CBG matching algorithms that are much simpler and faster than all the RE search techniques. The first one looks exactly once at each text character. The second one does not need to consider all the text characters, and hence it is usually faster than the first one, but in bad cases may have to read the same text character more than once. We then propose a criterion based on the form of the CBG to choose a priori the fastest between both. We also show how to search permitting a few mistakes in the occurrences. We performed many practical experiments using the PROSITE database, and all of them show that our algorithms are the fastest in virtually all cases.

Changes in density fluctuations associated with confinement transitions close to a rational edge rotational transform in the W7-AS stellarator

At certain values of the edge rotational transform ῑa, the confinement quality of plasmas in the Wendelstein 7-AS (W7-AS) stellarator is found to reactvery sensitively to small modifications of the edge rotational transform ῑa. As ῑa can be reproducibly changed either by external fields or by a small plasma current, these transitions offer a precise way to systematically analyse differences in plasma turbulence between bad and good confinement cases. This paper presents results of the study of electron density fluctuations associated with confinement changes. Wavenumber and frequency spectra and radial profiles are compared. A slow and reproducible transition is induced by a small plasma current and the sequence of events leading to bad confinement is investigated. The laser scattering core plasma density fluctuation measurements are complemented by edge beam emission spectroscopy results and magnetic fluctuation measurements with Mirnov coils.Clear correspondence between plasma fluctuations and confinement degradation is observed: the weight of larger structures increases, fluctuations increase in the plasma core, the poloidal flow velocity decreases and regions of mode-like activity move radially in the plasma. These changes occur gradually and controllably if the magnetic configuration is steered by a small plasma current.

Bad cases make bad law: HCA v. Miller is not a guide for resuscitation of extremely premature newborns.

Bad Cases Make Bad Law: HCA v. Miller is not a Guide for Resuscitation of Extremely Premature Newborns

Gas chromatography double focusing sector-field ICP-MS as an innovative tool for bad breath research

The development of a new methodology for the determination of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in human breath by gas chromatography (GC) coupled to ICP-double focusing (DF)-MS is described. The coupling between GC and ICP-DF-MS was achieved by means of an interface built in our laboratory. The different parameters affecting the chromatographic separation and the sulfur-specific detection by ICP-DF-MS were optimised in order to achieve best response for the isotope 32S. Selected chromatographic conditions are given using a capillary column for sulfur compounds (SPB-1 Sulfur). The effect of using cold plasma conditions and a shielded torch, available in the double focusing instrument, were also evaluated to obtain the best analytical performance characteristics for 32S monitoring. Using the selected instrumental conditions for this GC-ICP-DF-MS system, it was possible to obtain detection limits between 8 and 33 ppb (v/v), depending upon the sulfur chemical species, and precisions of around ±7.5% at 800 ppb (v/v) levels. The developed hybrid method was successfully applied to the determination of volatile sulfur compounds in the head-space of vials containing human saliva. The saliva is incubated in anaerobic conditions at 37 °C in order to reproduce the rotting processes, that are caused in the mouth by anaerobic microbiota, and which are responsible for more than 80% of bad breath cases described in the literature.

Deportation, Social Control, and Punishment: Some Thoughts about Why Hard Laws Make Bad Cases

From the Author's Introduction: We live in a time of unusual vigor, efficiency, and strictness in the deportation of long-term permanent resident aliens convicted of crimes. This situation is the result of some fifteen years of relatively sustained attention to this issue, which culminated in two exceptionally harsh laws: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). In many cases, these laws have brought about a rather complete convergence between the criminal justice and deportation systems. Deportation is now often a virtually automatic consequence of criminal conviction. This convergence, and the harshness of these laws - their retroactivity, their use of mandatory detention, the automatic and often disproportionate nature of the deportation sanction, and the lack of statues of limitation - raise two related questions: First, why are we doing this? Second, what could be the consequences of this approach for the constitutional legitimacy of deportation proceedings?

Empirical scoring functions. II. The testing of an empirical scoring function for the prediction of ligand-receptor binding affinities and the use of Bayesian regression to improve the quality of the model.

This paper tests the performance of a simple empirical scoring function on a set of candidate designs produced by a de novo design package. The scoring function calculates approximate ligand-receptor binding affinities given a putative binding geometry. To our knowledge this is the first substantial test of an empirical scoring function of this type on a set of molecular designs which were then subsequently synthesised and assayed. The performance illustrates that the methods used to construct the scoring function and the reliance on plausible, yet potentially false, binding modes can lead to significant over-prediction of binding affinity in bad cases. This is anticipated on theoretical grounds and provides caveats on the reliance which can be placed when using the scoring function as a screen in the choice of molecular designs. To improve the predictability of the scoring function and to understand experimental results, it is important to perform subsequent Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) studies. In this paper, Bayesian regression is performed to improve the predictability of the scoring function in the light of the assay results. Bayesian regression provides a rigorous mathematical framework for the incorporation of prior information, in this case information from the original training set, into a regression on the assay results of the candidate molecular designs. The results indicate that Bayesian regression is a useful and practical technique when relevant prior knowledge is available and that the constraints embodied in the prior information can be used to improve the robustness and accuracy of regression models. We believe this to be the first application of Bayesian regression to QSAR analysis in chemistry.

Fully Dynamic Algorithms for Bin Packing: Being (Mostly) Myopic Helps

The problem of maintaining an approximate solution for one-dimensional bin packing when items may arrive and depart dynamically is studied. In accordance with various work on fully dynamic algorithms, and in contrast to prior work on bin packing, it is assumed that the packing may be arbitrarily rearranged to accommodate arriving and departing items. In this context our main result is a fully dynamic approximation algorithm for bin packing MMP that is $\frac{5}{4}$-competitive and requires $\Theta(\log n)$ time per operation (i.e., for an Insert or a Delete of an item). This competitive ratio of $\frac{5}{4}$ is nearly as good as that of the best practical off-line algorithms. Our algorithm utilizes the technique (introduced here) whereby the packing of an item is done with a total disregard for already packed items of a smaller size. This myopic packing of an item may then cause several smaller items to be repacked (in a similar fashion). With a bit of additional sophistication to avoid certain bad cases, the number of items (either individual items or bundles of very small items treated as a whole) that needs to be repacked is bounded by a constant.

A Study on the Formation of Process Agreement in Public Work's Execution

There are many conflict cases in the process of public work s execution in Japan. The distrust of public work s execution piled up by some past bad cases may exert serious influence upon various projects in the future.In this study, I focused the case of Tokyo Univ. s Komaba Dormitory (1988-1998) as it is very familiar to me. I reviewed previous studies concerned with assessment, citizen participation, disclosure, then picked up problems in the administrations of public works and suggest their countermeasure.

Do Hard Laws Make Bad Cases? — The High Court's Decision in Kable V Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW)

Do Hard Laws Make Bad Cases? — The High Court's Decision in Kable V Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW)

Do Hard Laws Make Bad Cases? — The High Court's Decision in Kable V Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW)

Do Hard Laws Make Bad Cases? — The High Court's Decision in Kable V Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW)

32 Minimal access surgery in oncology

The gynaecologists were the first to use minimal access surgery. This kind of surgery was, during years, limited to benign conditions. We were the first, in December 86, to use it in the management of cancer while performing a laparoscopic assessment of the pelvic lymph nodes for a woman affected by an infiltrative cervical cancer. We have now an experience of more than 400 cases. Pretherapeutic assessment of the retroperitoneal lymph nodes remains the best of the good indications of laparoscopy in the field of gynecologic oncology. Laparoscopy enables us to assess either the pelvic or the aortic retroperitoneal lymph nodes, using either the direct retroperitoneal approach or the transumbilical transperitoneal one. Many data clearly established that such an assessment is as reliable as the classical surgical assessment, while avoiding all the drawbacks of the open surgery. Knowledge of the lymphnodal status enables us to take at the good time (before radical surgery or radiotherapy) the good decision: in the good cases (no risk factor, no lymphnodal involvement) the treatment can be exclusively surgical and the surgery can be performed using the vaginal route: in the bad cases (risk factors and/or lymphnodal involvement) the treatment has to be multimodal using combinations (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery) whose choice depends on the extend of the disease as it has been denned by the laparoscopy. The chosen example is representative regarding the role of minimal access surgery in oncology. The laparoscopie debulking surgery has been advocated by some surgeons in thoracic, abdominal and pelvic surgery. This practice appears as hazardous except, maybe, in the frame of neoadjuvant chemotherapy protocols during which a laparoscopie debulking of the residual masses can be undertaken. However the actual place of laparoscopie surgery is not here. Laparoscopy's first role is selecting the cases for an appropriate treatment. Minimal access surgery is a cost effective tool to use in order to improve the cost effectiveness of the treatment of pelvic, abdominal and thoracic cancer. The gynaecologists were the first to use minimal access surgery. This kind of surgery was, during years, limited to benign conditions. We were the first, in December 86, to use it in the management of cancer while performing a laparoscopic assessment of the pelvic lymph nodes for a woman affected by an infiltrative cervical cancer. We have now an experience of more than 400 cases. Pretherapeutic assessment of the retroperitoneal lymph nodes remains the best of the good indications of laparoscopy in the field of gynecologic oncology. Laparoscopy enables us to assess either the pelvic or the aortic retroperitoneal lymph nodes, using either the direct retroperitoneal approach or the transumbilical transperitoneal one. Many data clearly established that such an assessment is as reliable as the classical surgical assessment, while avoiding all the drawbacks of the open surgery. Knowledge of the lymphnodal status enables us to take at the good time (before radical surgery or radiotherapy) the good decision: in the good cases (no risk factor, no lymphnodal involvement) the treatment can be exclusively surgical and the surgery can be performed using the vaginal route: in the bad cases (risk factors and/or lymphnodal involvement) the treatment has to be multimodal using combinations (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery) whose choice depends on the extend of the disease as it has been denned by the laparoscopy. The chosen example is representative regarding the role of minimal access surgery in oncology. The laparoscopie debulking surgery has been advocated by some surgeons in thoracic, abdominal and pelvic surgery. This practice appears as hazardous except, maybe, in the frame of neoadjuvant chemotherapy protocols during which a laparoscopie debulking of the residual masses can be undertaken. However the actual place of laparoscopie surgery is not here. Laparoscopy's first role is selecting the cases for an appropriate treatment. Minimal access surgery is a cost effective tool to use in order to improve the cost effectiveness of the treatment of pelvic, abdominal and thoracic cancer.

General formula evaluation of the electron-repulsion integral (ERI) and its derivatives over Gaussian-type orbitals. II. ERI evaluation improved

The general recurrence relation (RR) of paper I [J. Chem. Phys. 95, 5198 (1991)] can be improved. This improved RR, with the use of the Head–Gordon–Pople (HGP), is able to take the contraction of Gaussian-type orbitals (GTO’s) efficiently into account for the electron-repulsion-integral (ERI) evaluation. With the use of the RR by Hamilton and Schaefer and by Lindh, Ryu, and Liu (HSLRL), this improved RR makes the evaluation more rapid. Furthermore, the calculation of the roots and weights of the Rys polynomial can be improved. As a result, an extremely rapid code can be obtained for a vector computer. For example, the measured time is 135 ns per one ERI for [HH‖HH] shell block of the uncontracted GTO’s, which is 16 times faster than that of paper I. When the degree of contraction K=2 for (HH‖HH) shell block of the contracted GTO’s, the measured time is 40 ns per one primitive ERI. It is confirmed that the present method is most efficient for the ERI evaluation of GTO’s higher than or equal to f. It is found that both the HGP and the HSLRL RR’s are numerically unstable in their bad cases. Several procedures to avoid their instabilities are discussed.

Black-Box Complexity of Local Minimization

The complexity of local minimization in the black-box model, that is, the model in which the objective function and its gradient are available as external subroutines, is studied. The black-box model is used, for example, in all the optimization algorithms in Dennis and Schnabel [Numerical Methods for Unconstrained Optimization and Nonlinear Equations, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1983]. The first main result is that the complexity grows polynomially with the number of variables n, in contrast to other related black-box problems (global minimization and Brouwer fixed points) for which the worst-case complexity is exponential in n. The second contribution is the construction of a family of functions that are bad cases for all possible black-box local optimization algorithms.

The width of an RBS spectrum: influence of plural and multiple scattering

Abstract The width of RBS spectra from thin films depends on film thickness and stopping power, hence it is possible to determine one of these quantities when the other is known. For low ion energies or large film thicknesses, however, the spectrum shape significantly differs from that obtained by the single scattering calculation normally used. In this contribution, we determine quantitatively the influence of plural and multiple scattering on the width of RBS spectra: we calculate RBS spectra for protons and He ions by Monte Carlo simulation and by an analytical single scattering model using the same stopping power and interaction potential. As a result, quantitative agreement of the Monte Carlo spectra with measurements is found, while the single scattering model fails, especially near the low energy edge and below. Not only the spectrum shape but also the position of the low energy edge is affected by plural and multiple scattering. We determine this shift by varying projectile and target parameters and we find it is mostly governed by the angular width α 1 2 of the multiple scattering distribution. In bad cases, the shift may be as large as 3–4% for α 1 2 ≅ 20°.

Diagnostics for Use with Regression Recursive Residuals

Conventional regression case diagnostics use the fit of the regression model to all cases to assess the deviation of individual cases from the full sample. Unfortunately, as few as two bad cases can make these diagnostics completely unreliable. An alternative approach is that based on recursive fitting, in which the sample is stripped away case by case and the regression refitted after each deletion until there are only as many cases as parameters. Recursive residuals are residuals obtained from these successive recursive fits. They are particularly effective for diagnosis when the assumptions of the regression model do not hold for the full data set but do hold after some “bad” cases are stripped away. Conventional regression case diagnostics provide not only residuals but also measures of leverage and influence, and in this article, I propose analogous single-case diagnostics for use with recursive fitting. Furthermore, since recursive fitting focuses on the compatibility of various subregressions with the full regression, it is also important to have cumulative measures that assess the leverage, mean compatibility, and influence of all excluded cases; measures of these quantities are also defined. The diagnostics are applied successfully to one artificially constructed data set and to another data set from the literature, and it is shown how they provide useful insights into the fit of the model.

Diagnostics for Use With Regression Recursive Residuals

Conventional regression case diagnostics use the fit of the regression model to all cases to assess the deviation of individual cases from the full sample. Unfortunately, as few as two bad cases can make these diagnostics completely unreliable. An alternative approach is that based on recursive fitting, in which the sample is stripped away case by case and the regression refitted after each deletion until there are only as many cases as parameters. Recursive residuals are residuals obtained from these successive recursive fits. They are particularly effective for diagnosis when the assumptions of the regression model do not hold for the full data set but do hold after some “bad” cases are stripped away. Conventional regression case diagnostics provide not only residuals but also measures of leverage and influence, and in this article, I propose analogous single-case diagnostics for use with recursive fitting. Furthermore, since recursive fitting focuses on the compatibility of various subregressions with the full regression, it is also important to have cumulative measures that assess the leverage, mean compatibility, and influence of all excluded cases; measures of these quantities are also defined. The diagnostics are applied successfully to one artificially constructed data set and to another data set from the literature, and it is shown how they provide useful insights into the fit of the model.

INSIDER TRADING: THE CASE AGAINST THE “VICTIMLESS CRIME” HYPOTHESIS

ABSTRACTThis paper challenges the long held hypothesis that insider trading is a victimless crime. Using utility maximization analysis, the author examines both the good news and bad news cases. Injury is demonstrated. Separability of the insider's trade from the insider's information monopoly is also examined utilizing the generally accepted market structure analysis. Separability is rejected.

Total and unbound cortisol-, progesterone-, oestrone- and transcortin-binding activities in sera from patients with myocardial infarction: evidence for differential responses of good and bad prognostic cases.

Day-of-admission sera from myocardial infarction patients (MI) and patients with cardiopathies other than MI (non-MI) were analysed for total and unbound cortisol (F), progesterone (P4), oestrone (E1), and corticosteroid binding activities (CBG). The MI who survived (n = 28) showed high increases of F, P4 and E1 compared to healthy controls. By contrast, the MI who died within 10 days of admission (n = 6) had unchanged F and less increased P4 and E1 than survivors. The non-MI (n = 6) had higher F and E1 than controls but normal P4. The unbound steroids were increased in all patients: however, the MI who died showed much smaller rises than survivors (P less than 0.001 for unbound F and E1 increases in survivors vs. deceased). The CBG activity was in all MI lower than in normals (P less than 0.001) but unchanged in non-MI. These results are discussed in terms of the potential significance of unbound plasma steroids as predictors of MI severity.