Correctness Criterion Research Articles

Основания, проблемы и перспективы современ­ных концепций семантической корректности

The notion of semantic correctness (meaningfulness, or sensefulness) of propositions is widespread in logico-philosophical and linguistic works, as well as in experimental cog­nitive science. Nevertheless, its content is not clear. Many discussions connected to its use serve as evidence for its obscurity. In this investigation, I articulate and solve some interrelated problems which should be analyzed to make this notion more intelligible. Firstly, I pose a question whether semantic correctness is a normative or a descriptive characteristic. In other words: does it refer to a certain ideal of language usage ascribed to the abstract rational agent but not necessarily observed or even recognized by real agents (the normative option), or to some attitude of real language users towards linguistic ex­pressions (the descriptive option)? I show that the notion of semantic correctness emerged in theoretical contexts as normative due to its role within certain conceptions of scientific rationality. However, one can say that it also contains a descriptive aspect, but it is needed to state distinctively what this aspect is. Particularly, there is a question: can the compatibility of ontological categories in the worldview of a language user (call it onto­logical correctness) be taken as a criterion of semantic correctness for natural languages? I show that this is inadmissible: ontological categorial mistakes should not be seen as se­mantic deviations because in this case it would be impossible to delimit senseless sen­tences from contradictive and simply false sentences in natural languages. Finally, I pro­pose a novel view of the content of the meaningful/senseless dichotomy. It occupies a special place among semantic distinctions being related to structural laws of knowledge incrementation and discourse deployment. From this perspective, I outline an integral ap­proach to the conditions of meaningfulness/senselessness of propositions considering a number of factors. In particular, I analyze the conditions of senselessness for contradic­tions and tautologies.

Thermo-Ecological Cost (TEC) –comparison of energy-ecological efficiency of renewable and non-renewable energy technologies

The article presents problems related to the assessment of local energy efficiency of energy systems. In practice, local energy efficiency is commonly used to evaluate these systems, which is not a correct criterion to compare different energy technologies, especially non-renewable and renewable energy systems. For the correct assessment of efficiency, a system analysis in the global balance boundary should be used. In the paper system analysis algorithm is discussed - Thermo-Ecological Cost (TEC), which is a correct tool to compare energy and ecological efficiency of different energy systems. Problems with the correct application of the energy and environmental efficiency assessment are illustrated with examples of results of local and system (TEC) evaluation of non-renewable and renewable energy systems efficiency.

Predicting population size and termination criteria in metaheuristics: A case study based on spotted hyena optimizer and crow search algorithm

The proper configuration of a metaheuristic requires specific and advanced knowledge, for instance to decide an appropriate population size, to effectively set probability parameters, or to define a correct termination criterion. During the last years there is a trend to let the metaheuristic to autonomously self-control the internal configuration. In this way, by using learning mechanisms, the algorithm is able to learn from the solving process and automatically adapt its configuration in order to improve their performance. Following this research trend, in this paper we explore the ability to autonomously predict population size and termination criteria. The population prediction allows the metaheuristic to dynamically vary the population size during solving time. In this regard, a suitable number of agents is used for each part of the process in order to efficiently explore the space of solutions. On the other hand, predicting the termination criteria is useful as well, the smart usage of resources in the optimization field can bring several advantages in solving complex industrial problems. In this regard, since the number of iterations is estimated during solving time, the proposed architecture avoids useless processing time that does not lead to any solution improvement. We illustrate interesting results using the spotted hyena optimizer and crow search algorithm solving 24 benchmarks functions and the multidimensional knapsack problem, where the proposed approach notably competes with several state-of-the-art optimization algorithms.

Assessing the scalability of a health management-strengthening intervention at the district level: a qualitative study in Ghana, Malawi and Uganda

BackgroundThe scale-up of successfully tested public health interventions is critical to achieving universal health coverage. To ensure optimal use of resources, assessment of the scalability of an intervention is recognized as a crucial step in the scale-up process. This study assessed the scalability of a tested health management-strengthening intervention (MSI) at the district level in Ghana, Malawi and Uganda.MethodsQualitative interviews were conducted with intervention users (district health management teams, DHMTs) and implementers of the scale-up of the intervention (national-level actors) in Ghana, Malawi and Uganda, before and 1 year after the scale-up had started. To assess the scalability of the intervention, the CORRECT criteria from WHO/ExpandNet were used during analysis.ResultsThe MSI was seen as credible, as regional- and national-level Ministry of Health officials were championing the intervention. While documented evidence on intervention effectiveness was limited, district- and national-level stakeholders seemed to be convinced of the value of the intervention. This was based on its observed positive results regarding management competencies, teamwork and specific aspects of health workforce performance and service delivery. The perceived need for strengthening of management capacity and service delivery showed the relevance of the intervention, and relative advantages of the intervention were its participatory and sustainable nature. Turnover within the DHMTs and limited (initial) management capacity were factors complicating implementation. The intervention was not contested and was seen as compatible with (policy) priorities at the national level.ConclusionWe conclude that the MSI is scalable. However, to enhance its scalability, certain aspects should be adapted to better fit the context in which the intervention is being scaled up. Greater involvement of regional and national actors alongside improved documentation of results of the intervention can facilitate scale-up. Continuous assessment of the scalability of the intervention with all stakeholders involved is necessary, as context, stakeholders and priorities may change. Therefore, adaptations of the intervention might be required. The assessment of scalability, preferably as part of the monitoring of a scale-up strategy, enables critical reflections on next steps to make the intervention more scalable and the scale-up more successful.

ANALYSIS OF DESIGN OF THE ROLLERS OF THROUGH FURNACES OF ROLLING MILLS

Furnace rollers are the most expensive part of the through-type furnaces, which determine the efficiency of the whole furnace unit. The features of design of rollers that are used at different temperatures of the working space of the furnace were considered. At temperature up to 1000 °C the rollers are used without water cooling (“dry”) or with cooling only of trunnions. With increase in temperature in the furnace up to 1250 °C the rollers with cooled shaft are used. It is shown that the operating costs of the through-type furnaces of rolling mills depend on the durability of the rollers and the costs associated with their cooling. Application of modern heat-resistant materials for manufacturing of furnace rollers enable to eliminate the necessity of their cooling in the furnaces with the temperature of working space up to 1250 °С and to reduce operating costs at the expense of saving of technological fuel for furnace heating. It is noted that the use of “dry” furnace rollers at furnace temperatures up to 1250 °C would require more expensive refractory materials, which will increase their cost. Therefore, it is important to select the correct material strength criteria for the barrel rollers in the design, taking into account the demanding operating conditions of the rollers. Based on the analysis of the process loads on the furnace rollers, the strength criterion is the conditional yield strength of the barrel material at the operating temperature and a safety margin of 3.5.

QAM-DMT of Hybridly Integrated EAM-DFBLD Chip-on-Board With Adaptive Machine Learning Algorithm for 149.6-Gbit/s BtB and 138-Gbit/s 10-km-SMF Transmission

By using the generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) and the machine learning algorithm for self-feedback amplitude/phase pre-distortion, the electro-absorption modulator integrated distributed-feedback semiconductor laser diode (EAM-DFBLD) is encoded with improved transmission quality and capacity. Both back-to-back (BtB) and 10-km single-mode fiber (SMF) transmissions are preliminarily demonstrated for inter-data-center applications. Optimizing the EAM-DFBLD transmitter at 1306.8 nm with a bias current of 100 mA and a bias voltage of −1.5 V can provide a 34.5-GHz bandwidth for 16-QAM discrete multitone (DMT) and GFDM formats. The parametric comparison reveals that the 16-QAM GFDM with <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">K</i> = 16 can improve its performance from BtB to 10-km SMF transmission with decoding BER slightly increasing from 1.44 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−3</sup> to 2.82 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−3</sup> . The EAM-DFBLD carried GFDM data also provides a better power penalty by -0.25 dB. This enables higher raw data rates of 149.6 Gbit/s under BtB case and 138 Gbit/s in 10-km SMF transmission link below the forward error correction (FEC) criterion. The GFDM format carried by the EAM-DFBLD transmitter thus becomes the more suitable candidate than the DMT to implement ultra-high-speed inter-data-center and data access link applications.

Updates in the Management of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease.

At the end of the activity, participants will be able to:Implement evidence-based methods for cognitive impairment screening in primary care. Identify correct diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD) based on current guideline recommendations. Design appropriate and effective treatment plans for patients with MCI and AD and refer to a specialist when necessary. Describe advances in testing and treatment for AD that may impact dementia care.

A δ

Over the last decade, automatic differentiation (AD) has profoundly impacted graphics and vision applications --- both broadly via deep learning and specifically for inverse rendering. Traditional AD methods ignore gradients at discontinuities, instead treating functions as continuous. Rendering algorithms intrinsically rely on discontinuities, crucial at object silhouettes and in general for any branching operation. Researchers have proposed fully- automatic differentiation approaches for handling discontinuities by restricting to affine functions, or semi- automatic processes restricted either to invertible functions or to specialized applications like vector graphics. This paper describes a compiler-based approach to extend reverse mode AD so as to accept arbitrary programs involving discontinuities. Our novel gradient rules generalize differentiation to work correctly, assuming there is a single discontinuity in a local neighborhood, by approximating the prefiltered gradient over a box kernel oriented along a 1D sampling axis. We describe when such approximation rules are first-order correct, and show that this correctness criterion applies to a relatively broad class of functions. Moreover, we show that the method is effective in practice for arbitrary programs, including features for which we cannot prove correctness. We evaluate this approach on procedural shader programs, where the task is to optimize unknown parameters in order to match a target image, and our method outperforms baselines in terms of both convergence and efficiency. Our compiler outputs gradient programs in TensorFlow, PyTorch (for quick prototypes) and Halide with an optional auto-scheduler (for efficiency). The compiler also outputs GLSL that renders the target image, allowing users to interactively modify and animate the shader, which would otherwise be cumbersome in other representations such as triangle meshes or vector art.

성분화질환을 둘러싼 법적 문제

Sexual differentiation disease is the abnormal condition in development situation of sexual differentiation which is the basis of gender determination. This thesis reviewed for the person born with this disease to enable normal growth without emotional disorders and inferiority complex under the system of male or female choice. The points are summarized as follows. First, it is about the malpractice of medical operation for gender confirmation. Malpractice cannot be admitted because the medical operation for gender confirmation of the son was suitable medical level at that time. Second, it is about the relation with the guarantee of gender determination of the son. About this, all unnecessary surgical operations should be postponed until the time when the son becomes mature and decides for himself. In addition, the doctor has the obligation to provide all information to the person with parental rights when the doctor is going to perform the gender confirmation operation on the patient with sexual differentiation disease. Especially, if the gender confirmation operation is not an emergency, the doctor should explain to the person with parental rights, thus the person with parental rights should not be misunderstood as emergency situation and not to perform early gender confirmation operation. Furthermore, the doctor should explain the side effect that the newborn baby can lose fertility through the gender confirmation operation. That is an important matter about basic human right to body, so if these information were not provided, it is against informed consent. Even in case the patient with sexual differentiation disease can live as male or female either, the son should be able to decide his gender as best interest not facing identity problem when he grow up. Third, it is about the birth registration of the person with sexual differentiation disease. About this, like family registration practice in Japan, birth registration should be reported in an undetermined state for happiness of the son, and the irreversible treatment like genital organ removal should be prohibited until the son can decide for himself. In addition, it is appropriate for the son to decide his gender and complete family relation register subsequently after adolescence appearing second sexual characteristics through sexual differentiation of brain. Fourth, it is about the decision criteria of gender correction to sexual differentiation disease. Recently, as the decision criteria, not only sex chromosome as the sole absolute criteria but also cause of abnormality, condition of internal and external genital organs, composition of sex chromosome, surgical operation possibility of external genital organs and prediction of future sexual function should be considered, and simultaneously, it also should be considered which gender would secure for his happy life, and then the doctor shall select the gender to perform operational treatment.

National-scale maps for soil aggregate size distribution parameters using pedotransfer functions and digital soil mapping data products

Soil aggregate size distribution (ASD) is a key soil property for quantitative characterization of soil structure. Typically, dry and wet sieving methods are followed to measure mass fractions of soil aggregates under each aggregate size class and their cumulative fractions are used to estimate ASD parameters. In general, available soil ASD databases are small and a comprehensive assessment of existing models to describe ASD data is not available for soil aggregates. With objectives to comprehensively assess available ASD models, parameterize each model through pedotransfer functions (PTF), and generate ASD parameter maps for large region, we evaluated 26 models using 1373 soil ASD datasets generated from four large Indian states. The lognormal distribution-based Buchan model was observed to best describe most of our datasets. In fact, 1305 ASD datasets met the threshold criteria consisting of ‘coefficient of determination (R2) > 0.95′ and ‘corrected Akaike information criterion (AICc) < − 45′ for the Buchan model. Once ASD models were chosen, we used both soil properties and terrain attributes as predictors in the random forest (RF) and extreme gradient boosting models to develop PTFs for their parameters. To check whether soil properties estimated through digital soil mapping (DSM) can replace measured soil properties in the PTFs, we extracted soil properties from available DSM products. With measured soil properties and terrain attributes as predictors, RF-based PTFs yielded R2 values in the range of 0.55–0.76 for ASD parameters. Comparable performance was observed when measured soil properties were replaced by the DSM-estimated soil properties. Such a result enabled us to create national digital soil maps for ASD parameters based on DSM-derived soil properties for the first time.

Role of circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids on cardiovascular diseases risk: analysis using Mendelian randomization and fatty acid genetic association data from over 114,000 UK Biobank participants

BackgroundDespite early interest in the health effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), there is still substantial controversy and uncertainty on the evidence linking PUFA to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We investigated the effect of plasma concentration of omega-3 PUFA (i.e. docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and total omega-3 PUFA) and omega-6 PUFA (i.e. linoleic acid and total omega-6 PUFA) on the risk of CVDs using Mendelian randomization.MethodsWe conducted the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating PUFA to date including a sample of 114,999 individuals and incorporated these data in a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework to investigate the involvement of circulating PUFA on a wide range of CVDs in up to 1,153,768 individuals of European ancestry (i.e. coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysm, venous thromboembolism and aortic valve stenosis).ResultsGWAS identified between 46 and 64 SNPs for the four PUFA traits, explaining 4.8–7.9% of circulating PUFA variance and with mean F statistics >100. Higher genetically predicted DHA (and total omega-3 fatty acids) concentration was related to higher risk of some cardiovascular endpoints; however, these findings did not pass our criteria for multiple testing correction and were attenuated when accounting for LDL-cholesterol through multivariable Mendelian randomization or excluding SNPs in the vicinity of the FADS locus. Estimates for the relation between higher genetically predicted linoleic acid (and total omega-6) concentration were inconsistent across different cardiovascular endpoints and Mendelian randomization methods. There was weak evidence of higher genetically predicted linoleic acid being related to lower risk of ischemic stroke and peripheral artery disease when accounting by LDL-cholesterol.ConclusionsWe have conducted the largest GWAS of circulating PUFA to date and the most comprehensive Mendelian randomization analyses. Overall, our Mendelian randomization findings do not support a protective role of circulating PUFA concentration on the risk of CVDs. However, horizontal pleiotropy via lipoprotein-related traits could be a key source of bias in our analyses.

Students’ evaluation of the trustworthiness of historical sources: Procedural knowledge and task value as predictors of student performance

Evaluating the trustworthiness of sources is important in today's society. However, research has shown that students struggle when applying this skill. This study in history education aims to gain insight into students' procedural knowledge about evaluating the trustworthiness of sources and into the value students attach to learning this skill. Grade 9 students (N = 132) performed tasks and filled out a questionnaire. Students applied more correct criteria of trustworthiness than they reported knowing. They considered this skill somewhat important and useful, but less interesting. Procedural knowledge and task value were significant predictors of students' task performance. Therefore, it is important to make students aware of the knowledge they implicitly possess and to make learning this skill more interesting for students.

A Suitable Model for Spatiotemporal Particulate Matter Concentration Prediction in Rural and Urban Landscapes, Thailand

Spatiotemporal particulate matter (PM) concentration prediction using MODIS AOD with significant PM factors in rural and urban landscapes in Thailand is necessary for public health and has been complicated by the limitations of PM monitoring stations. The research objectives were (1) to identify significant factors affecting PM10 concentrations in rural landscapes and PM2.5 in urban landscapes; (2) to predict spatiotemporal PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations using geographically weighted regression (GWR) and mixed-effect model (MEM), and (3) to evaluate a suitable spatiotemporal model for PM10 and PM2.5 concentration prediction and validation. The research methodology consisted of four stages: data collection and preparation, the identification of significant spatiotemporal factors affecting PM concentrations, the prediction of spatiotemporal PM concentrations, and a suitable spatiotemporal model for PM concentration prediction and validation. As a result, the predicted PM10 concentrations using the GWR model varied from 50.53 to 85.79 µg/m3 and from 36.92 to 51.32 µg/m3 in winter and summer, while the predicted PM10 concentrations using the MEM model varied from 50.68 to 84.59 µg/m3 and from 37.08 to 50.81 µg/m3 in both seasons. Likewise, the PM2.5 concentration prediction using the GWR model varied from 25.33 to 44.37 µg/m3 and from 16.69 to 24.04 µg/m3 in winter and summer, and the PM2.5 concentration prediction using the MEM model varied from 25.45 to 44.36 µg/m3 and from 16.68 and 23.75 µg/m3 during the two seasons. Meanwhile, according to Thailand and U.S. EPA standards, the monthly air quality index (AQI) classifications of the GWR and MEM were similar. Nevertheless, the derived average corrected Akaike Information Criterion (AICc) values of the GWR model for PM10 and PM2.5 predictions during both seasons were lower than that of the MEM model. Therefore, the GWR model was chosen as a suitable model for spatiotemporal PM10 and PM2.5 concentration predictions. Furthermore, the result of spatial correlation analysis for GWR model validation based on a new dataset provided average correlation coefficient values for PM10 and PM2.5 concentration predictions with a higher than the expected value of 0.5. Subsequently, the GWR model with significant monthly and seasonal factors could predict spatiotemporal PM 10 and PM2.5 concentrations in rural and urban landscapes in Thailand.

"Dual use of alcohol and cannabis among college students: A reinforcer pathologies approach." Correction to Reed et al. (2021).

Reports an error in "Dual use of alcohol and cannabis among college students: A reinforcer pathologies approach" by Gideon P. Naudé, Derek D. Reed, Tyler J. Thornton and Michael Amlung (Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2021[Aug], Vol 29[4], 407-417). In the original article, in the Method section under Principal Components Analyses, it reads "We used a loading of ≥ 4.0 ... " when it should read "≥ 0.40." The correct loading criterion is listed in the Table 3 note. Analyses were run using the correct criterion. In Table 3, the loading for BP1 under the alcohol amplitude factor is "-0.4" when it should be "-0.04." The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2020-25392-001). The reinforcer pathologies model proposes 2 behavioral economic constructs interact in addiction: operant demand and delay discounting. These constructs manifest as behavioral markers of addiction in the form of excessive reinforcer value and strong preference for immediate access and consumption of this reinforcer despite suboptimal long-term outcomes. The first aim of this investigation was to identify the degree to which delay discounting (of money and alcohol) and demand for alcohol differ between college student drinkers (N = 185) who do and do not co-use cannabis. As a second aim, we sought to replicate the 2-factor solution for alcohol and cannabis demand within a college sample. Results suggest dual users have significantly stronger Persistence and Amplitude for alcohol, demonstrate steeper delay discounting of alcoholic drinks, and are at greater risk for alcohol use disorder than individuals who drink yet do not use cannabis. These results provide further support for the reinforcer pathologies model and contribute to the literature on dual-substance use in the college population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Verified synthesis of optimal safety controllers for human-robot collaboration

We present a tool-supported approach for the synthesis, verification and validation of the control software responsible for the safety of the human-robot interaction in manufacturing processes that use collaborative robots. In human-robot collaboration, software-based safety controllers are used to improve operational safety, e.g., by triggering shutdown mechanisms or emergency stops to avoid accidents. Complex robotic tasks and increasingly close human-robot interaction pose new challenges to controller developers and certification authorities. Key among these challenges is the need to assure the correctness of safety controllers under explicit (and preferably weak) assumptions. Our controller synthesis, verification and validation approach is informed by the process, risk analysis, and relevant safety regulations for the target application. Controllers are selected from a design space of feasible controllers according to a set of optimality criteria, are formally verified against correctness criteria, and are translated into executable code and validated in a digital twin. The resulting controller can detect the occurrence of hazards, move the process into a safe state, and, in certain circumstances, return the process to an operational state from which it can resume its original task. We show the effectiveness of our software engineering approach through a case study involving the development of a safety controller for a manufacturing work cell equipped with a collaborative robot.

Investigation of preservice mathematics teachers’ concept definitions of circle, circular region, and sphere

The aim of this study was to analyse preservice elementary mathematics teachers’ concept definitions of circle, circular region, and sphere concepts in geometrical terms. The research was conducted during the 2016–2017 academic year with 56 preservice mathematics teachers enrolled within a teacher education programme at a state university in Turkey. A test consisting of three open-ended questions regarding circle, circular region, and sphere was used as the study's data collection tool. The preservice teachers’ test answers were investigated according to correctness and generalization criteria. Answers regarding each concept were compared with those of the two other concepts. Following the data analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine of the participant preservice teachers. The findings of the research revealed that the preservice teachers mostly experienced difficulty in defining the sphere. In addition, it was determined that most preservice teachers provided either insufficiently detailed or incorrect answers for the concepts of circle, circular region, and sphere. When the examples of the concepts were examined, it was determined that only a few of the preservice teachers gave appropriate examples of the related concepts.

Study on the commitment of oil palm companies to achieve sustainable agriculture in Riau Province from the perspective of pesticide use

Oil palm has become the main plantation commodity in Riau Province, Indonesia. As the province with the largest oil palm plantation at around 2.7 million hectares, Riau Province has 19% of Indonesia’s total oil palm plantation area. In the midst of environmental issues such as forest fires or using hazardous chemicals, companies or individuals who own oil palm plantations are trying to obtain sustainability certification from the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). However, many companies have not obeyed the correct principles and criteria for sustainable palm oil production, especially in the perspective of using pesticides in oil palm plantations. Based on those problems, this study was to carry out an in-depth examination of the data available from the Plantation Office and Environment-Forestry Office of Riau Province. As a result, we discovered that 70% of the pesticides used were classified as hazardous pesticides, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, it was also found that oil palm companies used glyphosate and paraquat as the active ingredient in pesticides, which have been banned in many countries due to environmental issues. By this finding, the commitment of oil palm companies to achieve sustainable agriculture in using appropriate and environmentally friendly pesticides needs to be questioned‥

LiDAR integrated IR OWC system with the abilities of user localization and high-speed data transmission.

By using narrow infrared (IR) optical beams, optical wireless communication (OWC) system can realize ultra-high capacity and high-privacy data transmission. However, due to the point-to-point connection approach, a high accuracy localization system and beam-steering antenna (BSA) are required to steer the signal beam to user terminals. In this paper, we proposed an indoor beam-steering IR OWC system with high accuracy and calibration-free localization ability by employing a coaxial frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system. In the meantime, benefitting from the mm-level ranging accuracy of the LiDAR system, a useful approach to assess the feasibility of the link alignment between beam-steering antenna and users is first demonstrated. With the assistance of the LiDAR system, we experimentally achieved the localization of user terminals with a 0.038-degree localization accuracy and on-off keying (OOK) downlink error-free transmission of 17 Gb/s in free space at a 3-m distance is demonstrated. The highest transmission data rate under the forward error correction (FEC) criterion (Bit error rate (BER) <3.8×103) can reach 24 Gb/s.

GOURSAT PROBLEM FOR THE ADJOINT MODEL TELEGRAPH EQUATION WITH THE RATE a(s, t) IN THE UPPER HALF-PLANE

In the upper half-plane, the classical solution and correctness criterion of the Goursat problem for a linear inhomogeneous adjoint model telegraph equation with variable rate a(s,t) are found explicitly. An explicit formula is obtained for the classical solution of this Goursat problem, unique and stable with respect to the right hand side of the equation and Goursat data. This formula contains implicit characteristic functions of the equation. In the case of a homogeneous conjugate model telegraph equation, the classical solution of this Goursat problem is the Riemann function in all linear mixed (initial-boundary) problems for an inhomogeneous model telegraph equation with variable rate a(s,t). This Riemann function has been calculated by us. A correctness criterion according to Hadamard (necessary and sufficient conditions) of its unique and stable on the right-hand side of the equation and the Goursat data solvability is found. This criterion consists of smoothness requirements on the righthand side of the equation and two Goursat data. The smoothness requirements on the right side of the equation are the condition of continuity of the right-side and the corresponding integral smoothness conditions on the right side of the equation and on the Goursat data – their twice continuous differentiability in the upper half-plane.

Enrichment of the Postdischarge GRACE Score With Deceleration Capacity Enhances the Prediction Accuracy of the Long-Term Prognosis After Acute Coronary Syndrome.

BackgroundCardiac autonomic nerve imbalance has been well documented to provide a critical foundation for the development of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) but is not included in the postdischarge GRACE score. We investigated whether capturing cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS)-related modulations by 24-h deceleration capacity (DC) could improve the capability of existing prognostic models, including the postdischarge Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score, to predict prognosis after ACS.MethodPatients with ACS were assessed with 24-h Holter monitoring in our department from June 2017 through June 2019. The GRACE score was calculated for postdischarge 6-month mortality. The patients were followed longitudinally for the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs), set as a composite of non-fatal myocardial infarction and death. To evaluate the improvement in its discriminative and reclassification capabilities, the GRACE score with DC model was compared with a model using the GRACE score only, using area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (AUC), Akaike's information criteria, the likelihood ratio test, category-free integrated discrimination index (IDI) and continuous net reclassification improvement (NRI).ResultsOverall, 323 patients were enrolled consecutively. After the follow-up period (mean, 43.78 months), 41 patients were found to have developed MACEs, which were more frequent among patients with DC <2.5 ms. DC adjusted for the GRACE score independently predicted the occurrence of MACEs with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.885 and 95% CI of 0.831–0.943 (p < 0.001). Moreover, adding DC to the GRACE score only model increased the discriminatory ability for MACEs, as indicated by the likelihood ratio test (χ2 = 9.277, 1 df; p < 0.001). The model including the GRACE score combined with DC yielded a lower corrected Akaike's information criterion compared to that with the GRACE score alone. Incorporation of the DC into the existing model that uses the GRACE score enriched the net reclassification indices (NRIe>0 7.3%, NRIne>0 12.8%, NRI>0 0.200; p = 0.003). Entering the DC into the GRACE score model enhanced discrimination (IDI of 1.04%, p < 0.001).ConclusionDC serves as an independent and effective predictor of long-term adverse outcomes after ACS. Integration of DC and the postdischarge GRACE score significantly enhanced the discriminatory capability and precision in the prediction of poor long-term follow-up prognosis.