Sets Of Controls Research Articles

On two problems of pursuit of a group of evaders in differential games with fractional derivatives

In a finite-dimensional Euclidean space, the problem of pursuit of a group of evaders by a group of pursuers is considered, described by a system of the form \begin{gather*} D^{(\alpha)}x_i = a_i x_i + u_i, \ u_i \in U_i, \quad D^{(\alpha)}y_j = b_jy_j + v, \ v\in V, \end{gather*} where $D^{(\alpha)}f$ is the Caputo derivative of order $\alpha$ of the function $f$. The sets of admissible controls $U_i, V$ are convex compacts, $a_i, b_j$ are real numbers. The terminal sets are convex compacts. Sufficient conditions for the solvability of the pursuit problems are obtained. In the study, the method of resolving functions is used as the basic one. It is shown that such a conflict situation with equal opportunities for all participants is possible, in which one pursuer catches all the evaders.

JAK/STAT signaling regulated intestinal regeneration defends insect pests against pore-forming toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis.

A variety of coordinated host-cell responses are activated as defense mechanisms against pore-forming toxins (PFTs). Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a worldwide used biopesticide whose efficacy and precise application methods limits its use to replace synthetic pesticides in agricultural settings. Here, we analyzed the intestinal defense mechanisms of two lepidopteran insect pests after intoxication with sublethal dose of Bt PFTs to find out potential functional genes. We show that larval intestinal epithelium was initially damaged by the PFTs and that larval survival was observed after intestinal epithelium regeneration. Further analyses showed that the intestinal regeneration caused by Cry9A protein is regulated through c-Jun NH (2) terminal kinase (JNK) and Janus tyrosine kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) signaling pathways. JAK/STAT signaling regulates intestinal regeneration through proliferation and differentiation of intestinal stem cells to defend three different Bt proteins including Cry9A, Cry1F or Vip3A in both insect pests, Chilo suppressalis and Spodoptera frugiperda. Consequently, a nano-biopesticide was designed to improve pesticidal efficacy based on the combination of Stat double stranded RNA (dsRNA)-nanoparticles and Bt strain. This formulation controlled insect pests with better effect suggesting its potential use to reduce the use of synthetic pesticides in agricultural settings for pest control.

Control of the Hyperbolic Ill-posed Cauchy \\[6pt]Problem by Controllability

Control of the Hyperbolic Ill-posed Cauchy \\[6pt]Problem by Controllability

Parking precise alignment control and cotransporter system for rice harvester and transporter

In autonomous rice harvesting, the use of transporters to assist rice transportation is an effective way to improve efficiency. However, nonlinear systems, such as double Hydraulic Static Transmission (HST)-driven tracked rice harvesters and transporters, make it challenging to control the precise parallel parking alignment during transportation, often leading to rice loss and potential safety hazards. To address this issue, this study established a geometric cotransporter model and used a preset path to decouple a two-dimensional control problem into two sets of one-dimensional controls. Dynamic and kinematic models of the longitudinal drive and steering systems were analyzed. Based on the identified longitudinal drive system transfer function, a predictive model was constructed to predict and compensate for the parking slip caused by system inertia. It was combined with the integrator wind-up protection to improve the pure tracking method and eliminate or reduce system errors in path tracking. A parallel parking alignment control system was designed using these two methods, and comparative experiments were conducted on the road surface. The results demonstrate that the compensated predictor (CP) longitudinal control improves the alignment accuracy compared with the proportional differential (PD) controller, whereas the Improved Pure-Pursuit Control (IPPC) path-tracking slightly enhances the tracking accuracy compared with proportional integral (PI). Moreover, a field-autonomous rice-harvesting cotransporter experiment showed that the longitudinal alignment accuracy of the designed system was less than 0.2 m. The lateral alignment accuracy was less than 0.1 m.

A linear group pursuit problem with fractional derivatives and different player capabilities

In a finite-dimensional Euclidean space, the problem of pursuit of one evader by a group of pursuers is considered, described by a system of the form $$ D^{(\alpha)}x_i = a_i x_i + u_i, \ u_i \in U_i,\quad D^{(\alpha)}y = ay + v, \ v \in V, $$ where $D^{(\alpha)}f$ is the Caputo derivative of order $\alpha \in (1, 2)$ of the function $f$. Sets of admissible controls~$U_i$, $V$ are convex compacts, $a_i$, $a$ are real numbers. Terminal sets are convex compacts. Sufficient conditions for the solvability of the problems of pursuit and evasion are obtained. In the study, the method of resolving functions is used as the basic one.

Phenotypic detection of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase produced by Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from different clinical samples from intensive care unit, Khamis Military Hospital, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background: Klebsiella pneumoniae is an opportunistic pathogen that is one of the commonest causes of infection in intensive care units. K. pneumoniae infection have contributed considerably to morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic illnesses. The coexistence of virulence factors and the genetic determinant of antibiotic resistance complicates treatment outcomes. The emergence of pathogenic multi-drug resistant K. pneumoniae poses a great threat to the healthcare system. Thus, the aim of this study was to isolate and to phenotypically detect the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase produced by K. pneumoniae that are isolated from different clinical samples from ICU in Khamis Military Hospital. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted at Khamis Military Hospital from December 2021 to April 2022. Clinical samples collected within the ICU underwent microbiological identification phase to confirm the presence of K. pneumoniae. This was followed by antibiotic susceptibility testing to various antimicrobial agents to detect the production of carbapenemases (KPC, NDM-1, OXA-48) and extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL). The collected data were subjected to statistical analysis using appropriate tools. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the demographic and clinical characteristics of the patient population from whom the samples were obtained. Results: A total of 114 isolates of K. pneumoniae were identified from different clinical samples of ICU patients. The percentage of ESBL production constituted 28.94% (33 isolates). Regarding the distribution of carbapenemases production, 43 isolates (37.7%) had the KPC and NDM carbapenemases, while 34 isolates (29.8%) had the OXA-48 carbapenemases. Conclusions: The high prevalence of K. pneumoniae represents a threat to ICU patients, thus, this issue should be treated with urgent attention. Our data informs the need for regular surveillance of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria in clinical settings for meaningful control of emergence and spreading of multi-drug-resistant K. pneumoniae.

An improved genetic algorithm for the berth scheduling with ship-to-ship transshipment operations integrated model

In this paper, we consider a dynamic variant of Berth Allocation Problem with ship-to-ship transshipment in a container terminal, namely (DBAPSTS), where ships can arrive after the start of the planning plan. A novel mixed integer linear program (MILP) is developed to optimize the berthing schedule and build a transshipment connections planning between feeder and mother vessels. The aim is to reduce vessels dwell times in the terminal, and the penalty due to late vessels and decide the mode of transshipment needed. First, we develop a packing heuristic, and later we use an improved genetic algorithm based heuristic (GA) to solve the problem efficiently. We conducted a statistical analysis to identify relative importance and effective settings for parameters control of the GA, and we applied this algorithm with the control parameters settings determined to carry out the computational experiments on random generated instances. The proposed tailored method is able to solve the problem in an acceptable computing time for medium and large instances while a commercial solver was able to solve only small size instances.

Family size for women with primary ovarian insufficiency and their relatives.

How does the number of children in women with primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) compare to the number for control women across their reproductive lifespans? Approximately 14% fewer women with POI will have children, but for those able to have children the median number is 1 less than for age-matched controls. Women with POI are often identified when presenting for fertility treatment, but some women with POI already have children and there remains a low chance for pregnancy after the diagnosis. Further, POI is heritable, but it is not known whether relatives of women with POI have a smaller family size than relatives of controls. The study was a retrospective case-control study of women with POI diagnosed from 1995 to 2021 (n = 393) and age-matched controls (n = 393). Women with POI were identified using ICD9 and 10 codes in electronic medical records (1995-2021) from two major healthcare systems in Utah and reviewed for accuracy. Cases were linked to genealogy information in the Utah Population Database. All POI cases (n = 393) were required to have genealogy information available for at least three generations of ancestors. Two sets of female controls were identified: one matched for birthplace (Utah or elsewhere) and 5-year birth cohort, and a second also matched for fertility status (children present). The number of children born and maternal age at each birth were ascertained by birth certificates (available from 1915 to 2020) for probands, controls, and their relatives. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparisons. A subset analysis was performed on women with POI and controls who delivered at least one child and on women who reached 45 years to capture reproductive lifespan. Of the 393 women with POI and controls, 211 women with POI (53.7%), and 266 controls (67.7%) had at least one child. There were fewer children born to women with POI versus controls (median (interquartile range) 1 (0-2) versus 2 (0-3); P = 3.33 × 10-6). There were no children born to women with POI and primary amenorrhea or those <25 years old before their diagnosis. When analyzing women with at least one child, women with POI had fewer children compared to controls overall (2 (1-3) versus 2 (2-4); P = 0.017) and when analyzing women who reached 45 years old (2 (1-3) versus 3 (2-4); P = 0.0073). Excluding known donor oocyte pregnancies, 7.1% of women with POI had children born after their diagnosis. There were no differences in the number of children born to relatives of women with POI, including those with familial POI. The data are limited based on inability to determine whether women were trying for pregnancy throughout their reproductive lifespan or were using contraception. Unassisted births after the diagnosis of POI may be slightly over-estimated based on incomplete data regarding use of donor oocytes. The results may not be generalizable to countries or states with late first births or lower birth rates. Approximately half of women with POI will bear children before diagnosis. Although women with POI had fewer children than age matched controls, the difference in number of children is one child per woman. The data suggest that fertility may not be compromised leading up to the diagnosis of POI for women diagnosed at 25 years or later and with secondary amenorrhea. However, the rate of pregnancy after the diagnosis is low and we confirm a birth rate of <10%. The smaller number of children did not extend to relatives when examined as a group, suggesting that it may be difficult to predict POI based on family history. The work in this publication was supported by R56HD090159 and R01HD099487 (C.K.W.). We also acknowledge partial support for the Utah Population Database through grant P30 CA2014 from the National Cancer Institute. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors have no conflicts of interest. N/A.

Organised crime and educational outcomes in Southern Italy: An empirical investigation

This paper explores the relationship between the presence of organised crime into the local socio-economic fabric and educational outcomes in Southern Italy. For this purpose, we rely on different indices of organized crime, the main of which is the well-established Mafia Presence Index (IPM), a composite indicator capturing manifold dimensions (activities, violence, political, and economic infiltration) of the presence of Mafia-type organizations on the national soil. These indices proxy the (scale of) negative Mafia-type values that permeate a local society and that are likely to hinder educational achievements, distorting the incentives of both the youngsters (and/or their parents) to invest in human capital and the local firms to employ those who decide to make this investment. Furthermore, combining contemporary individual-level educational outcomes with historical data on Mafia infiltration, we control for endogeneity concerns through an IV strategy. We provide evidence that the presence of organised crime at local level significantly decreases the scores achieved by primary school students, undertaking the INVALSI test for literacy in Southern Italy. Our results are robust to the use of different measures of organised crime, to the inclusion of different sets of controls, different subsamples and to relaxing the exclusion restriction in the IV strategy.

How do material characteristics and antimicrobial mechanisms affect microbial control and water disinfection performance of metal nanoparticles?

Abstract Nanotechnology has been rapidly developing in the past decade, and metal nanomaterials have shown promising improvement in microbial control. Metal nanoparticles have been applied in medical settings for adequate disease spread control and to overcome the challenges of multidrug-resistant microorganisms. Recently, the demand for safe water supply has increased, requiring higher sanitation of the water treatment technology as well as being environmentally sustainable. However, the employed water disinfection technologies cannot meet the elevated demand due to limitations including chemical byproducts, immobility, energy consumption, etc. Metal nanomaterials are considered to be an alternative disinfection technology considering their high efficiency, mobility, and stability. A significant amount of research has been carried out on enhancing the antimicrobial efficiency of metal nanomaterials and determining the underlying antimicrobial mechanisms. This paper provides an overview of emerging metal nanomaterials development, including the synthesis method, material characteristics, disinfection performance, environmental factors, potential mechanism, limitations, and future opportunities in the water disinfection process.

Association of two genomic variants with HPV type-specific risk of cervical cancer

ProblemHuman papillomavirus infection is integral to developing invasive cervical cancer in the majority of patients. In a recent genome-wide association study, rs9357152 and rs4243652 have been associated with seropositivity for HPV16 or HPV18, respectively. It is unknown whether these variants also associate with cervical cancer triggered by either HPV16 or HPV18. MethodsWe investigate whether the two HPV susceptibility variants show association with type-specific cervical cancer in a genetic case-control study with cases stratified by HPV16 or HPV18, respectively. We further tested whether rs9357152 modulates gene expression of any of 36 genes at the human leukocyte antigen locus in 256 cervical tissues. Resultsrs9357152 was associated with invasive HPV16-positive cervical cancer (OR 1.33, 95%CI 1.03–1.70, p = 0.03), and rs4243652 was associated with HPV18-positive adenocarcinomas (OR 2.96, 95%CI 1.18–7.41, p = 0.02). These associations remained borderline significant after testing against different sets of controls. rs9357152 was found to be an eQTL for HLA-DRB1 in HPV-positive cervical tissues (pANOVA = 0.0009), with the risk allele lowering mRNA levels. ConclusionsWe find evidence that HPV seropositivity variants at chromosome 6 and 14 may modulate type-specific cervical cancer risk. rs9357152 may exert its effect through regulating HLA-DRB1 induction in the presence of HPV. In regard of multiple testing, these results need to be confirmed in larger studies.

Critical Decision-making in Medical Command and Control During Early Covid-19: An Interview Study

Introduction:A resilient health care system is expected to withstand disruptive events and consistently deliver high quality care by continually adapting, learning, and improving. To achieve these expectations, medical command and control teams are responsible for making relevant strategic decisions, reallocating resources, and initiating cooperation. Early during Covid-19, medical command and control teams were faced with an unforeseen increase in number of patients, as well as unknown disease mechanisms and treatment regimes. Timely and adequate decision-making to become a resilient healthcare system and maintain high quality care was necessary. The aim of the present study was to describe the challenges and strategies in a medical command and control team during the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.Method:A semi-structured retrospective in-depth interview study with phenomenological approach and inductive design was used. Thirteen experienced decision makers serving in a regional medical command and control team were interviewed using the Critical Decision Method. The interviews were analyzed using manifest conventional content analyses.Results:The respondents described twelve separate episodes during the Covid-19 management. The analysis resulted in five themes: organization, adaptation, common operational picture, assumptions, and analysis. Organization described how organizational challenges affected the decision-making process. Adaptation described the strategies to overcome the obstructive organizational factors. Common operational picture described how challenges in lack of available information affected decision-making and strategies used in creating situational awareness. Assumptions offered descriptions of strategies used to make decisions. Analysis emphasized descriptions and strategies affecting the decision-making process.Conclusion:This study enables a better understanding of how medical command and control teams can be organized and structured, while also highlighting challenges in maintaining high-quality care during unexpected events. The findings obtained in the present study provide further knowledge about disaster resilience and can be utilized in educational and training settings for medical command and control.

An improvement of stability and dynamic response in hybrid AC-DC microgrids using optimal power control management

Microgrid topologies enable more effective use of renewable resources as well as the autonomous process. Microgrids are effective frameworks for managing dispersed assets such as renewable structures with small-scale distributed generator supplies. Smart grids are adaptable electricity networks that have arisen as a result of the introduction of new technologies and features. It is suggested that a three-terminal AC/DC hybrid microgrid with DC two and AC one terminal be used. A two dual active bridge (DAB) with cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter with AC grid link-based interactions that connect isolated two DC buses are included in the suggested structure. To minimise the energy generation stages and power devices, the DAB converters are intrinsically linked to the CHB of DC rails based on the structure-specific requirements. To present the unnecessary grid currents and DC rail voltage issues exist by this revised structure topology by simply two power alteration stages, a better solution is suggested that employs zero-sequence voltage (ZSV) injection in the CHB converters. The impacts of managed settings on structure stability and dynamic responsiveness are investigated in order to reduce conflicts among ZSV injection by structure voltage/current regulation. This paper compares the performance of a PI and a PR for DC voltage regulation. A comparison of simulation results for both control approaches is provided. The major difficulty is to normalise the system model in order to identify the appropriate controller settings for robust control. The findings are confirmed and compared to the conventional regulator PI. The suggested 3-Φ AC current and DC rail voltage regulating approach's universal efficacy is proved by MATLAB/Simulink analytical model from the three and five-terminal hybrid AC/DC power structures.

Aberrantly Expressed Hsa_circ_0060762 and CSE1L as Potential Peripheral Blood Biomarkers for ALS.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive adult-onset neurodegenerative disease that is often diagnosed with a delay due to initial non-specific symptoms. Therefore, reliable and easy-to-obtain biomarkers are an absolute necessity for earlier and more accurate diagnostics. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have already been proposed as potential biomarkers for several neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we further investigated the usefulness of circRNAs as potential biomarkers for ALS. We first performed a microarray analysis of circRNAs on peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a subset of ALS patients and controls. Among the differently expressed circRNA by microarray analysis, we selected only the ones with a host gene that harbors the highest level of conservation and genetic constraints. This selection was based on the hypothesis that genes under selective pressure and genetic constraints could have a major role in determining a trait or disease. Then we performed a linear regression between ALS cases and controls using each circRNA as a predictor variable. With a False Discovery Rate (FDR) threshold of 0.1, only six circRNAs passed the filtering and only one of them remained statistically significant after Bonferroni correction: hsa_circ_0060762 and its host gene CSE1L. Finally, we observed a significant difference in expression levels between larger sets of patients and healthy controls for both hsa_circ_0060762 and CSE1L. CSE1L is a member of the importin β family and mediates inhibition of TDP-43 aggregation; the central pathogenicity in ALS and hsa_circ_0060762 has binding sites for several miRNAs that have been already proposed as biomarkers for ALS. In addition, receiver operating characteristics curve analysis showed diagnostic potential for CSE1L and hsa_circ_0060762. Hsa_circ_0060762 and CSE1L thus represent novel potential peripheral blood biomarkers and therapeutic targets for ALS.

Association of Weight Trajectory With Severe Obesity: A Case-Control Study.

Background: Early childhood weight trajectory is associated with future risk for obesity. However, little is known about the association of birth weight and weight trajectories before age 5.5 years with severe adult obesity. Methods: This study used a nested case-control design of 785 matched sets of cases and controls matched 1:1 on age and gender from a 1976 to 1982 birth cohort in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Cases with severe adult obesity were defined as individuals with a BMI ≥40 kg/m2 after 18 years of age. There were 737 matched sets of cases and controls for the trajectory analysis. Weight and height data from birth through 5.5 years were abstracted from the medical records, and weight-for-age percentiles were obtained from the CDC growth charts. Results: A two-cluster weight-for-age trajectory solution was identified as optimal, with cluster 1 having higher weight-for-age before age 5.5 years. While there was no association between birth weight and severe adult obesity, the odds of being in cluster 1, which includes children with higher weight-for-age percentiles, was significantly increased for cases compared with controls [odds ratio (OR) 1.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.60-2.47]. The association between cluster membership and case-control status persisted after adjusting for maternal age and education (adjusted OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.66-2.61). Conclusions: Our data suggest that early childhood weight-for-age trajectories are associated with severe obesity status in adult life. Our results add to growing evidence that it is critical to prevent excess early childhood weight gain.

First lead, now no bed? The unintended impacts of lead abatement laws on eviction

Lead paint in old houses is the leading cause of lead poisoning in children under 6 today. To combat this problem, several states have passed lead abatement laws, forcing landlords to remove lead in the homes they rent if tenants have children under the age of 6. However, these laws have unintended consequences, causing landlords to evict tenants rather than abate lead. I use a difference-in-differences approach while employing various model specifications with various fixed effects and sets of controls to examine the impact of Ohio’s 2003 lead abatement law on eviction rates. Using newly collected data from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, I find that the passage of Ohio’s lead abatement law sharply increased targeted evictions. Due to the law’s passage, the average census district in Ohio faced an increased eviction rate of roughly 0.457 points, corresponding to an additional 13.93 evictions a year. These impacts are highly statistically significant, sizeable, and economically meaningful, indicating that policy makers should incorporate distributional consequences when designing future lead abatement laws in order to avoid unintended consequences and ensure equitable outcomes.

The ill-posed Cauchy problem by Controllability the elliptic case

In this paper, we are dealing with the ill-posed Cauchy problem for an elliptic operator. To do this, we interpret the problem as an inverse problem, and therefore a controllability problem. This point of view induces a regularization method that makes it possible, on the one hand, to characterize the existence of a regular solution to the problem. On the other hand, this method makes it possible to obtain a singular optimality system for the optimal control, without resorting to any additional assumption, such as that of non-vacuity of the interior of the sets of admissibles controls, an assumption that many analysis have had to use. From this point of view, the regularization method presented here, called controllability method, is original for the analyzed problem.

Identification TDP‐43 fragments specific for frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP‐43 inclusions

AbstractBackgroundAnte‐mortem biomarkers specific for TDP‐43 pathology are highly desired given the challenge in distinguishing frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP‐43 pathology (FTLD‐TDP) from phenotypically related disorders. TDP‐43 post‐translational modifications, like C‐terminal fragments, are regarded as disease‐specific TDP‐43 proteoforms; however, the exact structure of these proteoforms remains unclear. This lack of clarity is due in part to the use of instrumentation and techniques with low structural resolution and the study of small sample sizes. With this in mind, we performed high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis of brain tissue from cases with and without TDP‐43 proteinopathy to identify TDP‐43 proteoforms unique to FTLD‐TDP.MethodHRMS was used to determine TDP‐43 proteoform composition in insoluble frontal lobe brain tissue from immunohistochemically‐confirmed FTLD‐TDP (n=13), related dementias (i.e., Alzheimer’s disease and FTLD‐tau without TDP‐43 deposits; n=10) and neuropathologically‐unaffected controls (n=3). Brain tissue was fractioned by gel electrophoresis, with HRMS analysis performed on molecular weight regions corresponding to &lt;28 kDa (low molecular weight TDP; L‐TDP), 28‐38 kDa (mid molecular weight TDP; M‐TDP), and 38‐55 kDa (intact TDP; I‐TDP).ResultIn all samples tested, the greatest TDP‐43 sequence coverage was observed for I‐TDP, followed by L‐TDP and then M‐TDP. TDP‐43 peptides from L‐TDP were more frequently detected in the FTLD‐TDP cases compared to both sets of controls, whereas no frequency differences were observed for I‐TDP and M‐TDP. Quantitative analysis revealed peptide concentrations from M‐ and L‐TDP were significantly increased in FTLD‐TDP cases compared to controls. The L‐TDP peptides concentrations differentiated FTLD‐TDP cases from related dementias and unaffected controls with 78% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Further, three in vivo cleavage sites of TDP‐43 were identified, which were unique to FTLD‐TDP cases.ConclusionThis is the largest reported proteomics study to date of histology‐confirmed FTLD‐TDP. This is also the first study to include a large number and range of control tissues, and to provide supporting evidence for in vivo cleavage sites including corroboration of the proteolytic fragment recently found in TDP‐43 fibrils. Clarity and consensus on the sequence of TDP‐43 disease‐specific proteoforms will be helpful in advancing biomarker and drug discovery efforts for TDP‐43 proteopathies.

Homicide and State History

We argue that cross-national variability in homicide rates is strongly influenced by state history. Populations living within a state are habituated, over time, to settling conflicts through regularized, institutional channels rather than personal violence. Because these are gradual and long-term processes, present-day countries composed of citizens whose ancestors experienced a degree of “state-ness” in previous centuries should experience fewer homicides today. To test this proposition, we adopt an ancestry-adjusted measure of state history that extends back to 0 CE. Cross-country analyses show a sizeable and robust relationship between this index and lower homicide rates. The result holds when using various measures of state history and homicide rates, sets of controls, samples, and estimators. We also find indicative evidence that state history relates to present levels of other forms of personal violence. Tests of plausible mechanisms suggest state history is linked to homicide rates via the law-abidingness of citizens. We find less support for alternative channels such as economic development or current state capacity.

Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Patients with COPD: Modifiable Explanatory Factors.

Anxiety and depressive symptoms affect up to 80% of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To reduce this symptom burden, clinicians should target modifiable explanatory factors while accounting for nonmodifiable explanatory factors of these symptoms. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to examine which modifiable factors explain anxiety and depressive symptoms in COPD. This secondary data analysis of 1,760 COPD patients used multiple regression to explain anxiety and depressive symptoms from sets of modifiable patient characteristics and demographic controls. Clinically significant symptoms of anxiety or depression presented in 29.6% (n = 526) of participants, and 20.6% (n = 363) had both. Significant modifiable explanatory factors of both disorder symptoms were perceived functional status, functional capacity, psychosocial impact, symptom self-management, and significant symptoms for the other. Somatic symptom burden and dyspnea explained anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. Addressing these modifiable factors may reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients with COPD.