People with Tourette syndrome appeal for compassion as pandemic panic exacerbates their neurological condition, causing their anxieties and tics to worsen.

Vance Mazur will serve at least 15 years behind bars for fatally stabbing a 35-year-old Broome man outside a bottle shop in 2017 while suffering from violent delusions.

In their ruling, the three Court of Appeals judges say a couple who were inside the home had not done anything to "revoke or negate" the implied right for police to walk up their footpath and approach the door.

A man is arrested in Canberra's south, after a woman was shot in the head this morning as she sat in her parked car in a "random" and "untargeted" attack.

There’s nothing stopping Jimmy Donaldson aka Mr. Beast from giving away money, this time doing it via video calls. Watch as he and his friends pretend to be a news reporter, school professor, and many others as they interview people, and then surprise them by giving them thousands of dollars. Some recognize him and his team, however.

“A lot of people are going through a ruff time right now so I tried my best to do some good,” he said in the video description. He also posted this on his birthday, and said that liking or subscribing would be “a dope present.”

Very wholesome.

(Video Credit: MrBeast/ YouTube)

The great continents of North and South America are linked by an isthmus which also separates the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This volatile area both politically and geologically is where the Mayan Indian ruled in preColombian times. Now between Southern

Goedemorgen to you all . We would have probably woken up in Belgium this morning having dined on waffles or frites last night . I am sure that the sun would be shining as we rose . The sun has arrived here so the chances are Belgium would have been just as

Sometimes I cannot believe that I actually live in this Central American country. It has been raining and raining and raining since we came home from Managua on Friday. Like the pants 7 pairs 3 mine that I washed in the rain on Saturday morning

A Los Angeles real estate agent was shoved backwards off a stairway and pinned to the ground by an unknown open house visitor who flashed a chilling smile at a security camera seconds earlier.

N. N. Leonenko, I. Papić, A. Sikorskii and N. Šuvak
Theor. Probability and Math. Statist. 99 (2020), 137-147.
Abstract, references and article information

Korey Capozza
May 1, 2015; 28:83-91
Feature Articles

The prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is an excellent target for theranostic applications in prostate cancer (PCa). However, PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy can cause undesirable effects due to high accumulation of PSMA radiotracers in salivary glands and kidneys. This study assessed orally administered monosodium glutamate (MSG) as a potential means of reducing kidney and salivary gland radiation exposure using a PSMA targeting radiotracer. Methods: This prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study enrolled 10 biochemically recurrent PCa patients. Each subject served as his own control. [¹⁸F]DCFPyl PET/CT imaging sessions were performed 3 – 7 days apart, following oral administration of either 12.7 g of MSG or placebo. Data from the two sets of images were analyzed by placing regions of interest on lacrimal, parotid and submandibular glands, left ventricle, liver, spleen, kidneys, bowel, urinary bladder, gluteus muscle and malignant lesions. The results from MSG and placebo scans were compared by paired analysis of the ROI data. Results: A total of 142 pathological lesions along with normal tissues were analyzed. As hypothesized a priori, there was a significant decrease in maximal standardized uptake values corrected for lean body mass (SULmax) on images obtained following MSG administration in the parotids (24 ± 14%, P = 0.001), submandibular glands (35 ± 11%, P<0.001) and kidneys (23 ± 26%, P = 0.014). Significant decreases were also observed in lacrimal glands (49 ± 13%, P<0.001), liver (15 ± 6%, P<0.001), spleen (28 ± 13%, P = 0.001) and bowel (44 ± 13%, P<0.001). Mildly lower blood pool SULmean was observed after MSG administration (decrease of 11 ± 13%, P = 0.021). However, significantly lower radiotracer uptake in terms of SULmean, SULpeak, and SULmax was observed in malignant lesions on scans performed after MSG administration compared to the placebo studies (SULmax median decrease 33%, range -1 to 75%, P<0.001). No significant adverse events occurred and vital signs were stable following placebo or MSG administration. Conclusion: Orally administered MSG significantly decreased salivary gland, kidney and other normal organ PSMA radiotracer uptake in human subjects, using [¹⁸F]DCFPyL as an exemplar. However, MSG caused a corresponding reduction in tumor uptake, which may limit the benefits of this approach for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomisation study to investigate the causal associations of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with risk of overall cancer and 22 site-specific cancers. Summary-level data for cancer were extracted from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium and UK Biobank. Genetic predisposition to T2DM was associated with higher odds of pancreatic, kidney, uterine and cervical cancer, lower odds of oesophageal cancer and melanoma, but not associated with 16 other site-specific cancers or overall cancer. The odds ratios (95% confidence interval) were 1.13 (1.04, 1.22), 1.08 (1.00, 1.17), 1.08 (1.01, 1.15), 1.07 (1.01, 1.15), 0.89 (0.81, 0.98), and 0.93 (0.89, 0.97) for pancreatic, kidney, uterine, cervical, and oesophageal cancer and melanoma, respectively. The association between T2DM and pancreatic cancer was also observed in a meta-analysis of this and a previous Mendelian randomisation study (odds ratio 1.08; 1.02, 1.14; p=0.009). There was limited evidence supporting causal associations between fasting glucose and cancer. Genetically predicted fasting insulin levels were positively associated with cancers of the uterus, kidney, pancreas and lung. The present study found causal detrimental effects of T2DM on several cancers. We suggested to reinforce the cancers screening in T2DM patients to enable the early detection of cancer.

Allocation concealment - blinding which arm of a trial a patient is randomised to - is being questioned in an analysis published on thebmj.com. David Torgerson, director of the York Trials Unit at the university of York and colleagues have been looking at the way in which trials do this randomisation, and how they subsequently report it - and...

Mendelian randomisation - it’s a technique that uses the chance distribution of genes in a population, combined with big data sets, to investigate causative relationships. But there are a lot of questions we have in The BMJ about how the technique works - the association between genes and apparently non-biologically mediated behaviours, how much...

OBJECTIVE

To assess the impact of a telemedicine visit using the platform Diabetic compared with a face-to-face visit on clinical outcomes, patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and physicians’ satisfaction in patients with type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate and compare the efficacy of long-term use of low-dose aspirin for the prevention of dementia in men and women.

OBJECTIVE

Reparixin is an inhibitor of CXCR1/2 chemokine receptor shown to be an effective anti-inflammatory adjuvant in a pilot clinical trial in allotransplant recipients.

Hannele Yki-Järvinen
Dec 1, 2014; 37:3235-3243
Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics

Lalantha Leelarathna
Jul 1, 2014; 37:1931-1937
Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics

Roman Hovorka
May 1, 2014; 37:1204-1211
Advances in Artificial Pancreas Development

Robert R. Henry
Mar 1, 2015; 38:412-419
Evolving Tactics With Inhibition of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporters

Hans-Ulrich Häring
Jun 1, 2014; 37:1650-1659
Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics

Joseph Henson
Jan 1, 2016; 39:130-138
IDF-ADA Translational Symposium

Matthew C. Riddle
Oct 1, 2014; 37:2755-2762
Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics

Saila B. Koivusalo
Jan 1, 2016; 39:24-30
Considerations in the Management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Jennifer M. Yamamoto
Jul 1, 2018; 41:1346-1361
Reconsidering Pregnancy With Diabetes

Khalid A. Jadoon
Oct 1, 2016; 39:1777-1786
Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics

Vanita R. Aroda
Sep 1, 2019; 42:1724-1732
Emerging Therapies: Drugs and Regimens

W. Timothy Garvey
May 1, 2020; 43:1085-1093
Emerging Therapies: Drugs and Regimens

Rob M. van Dam
Dec 1, 2004; 27:2990-2992
Brief Reports

OBJECTIVE

Topical oxygen has been used for the treatment of chronic wounds for more than 50 years. Its effectiveness remains disputed due to the limited number of robust high-quality investigations. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of multimodality cyclical pressure Topical Wound Oxygen (TWO2) home care therapy in healing refractory diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) that had failed to heal with standard of care (SOC) alone.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether ACE inhibitors reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes using a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of fast-acting insulin aspart (faster aspart) compared with insulin aspart (IAsp), both with insulin degludec with or without metformin, in adults with type 2 diabetes not optimally controlled with a basal-bolus regimen.

OBJECTIVE

To confirm the presence of subclinical cardiovascular dysfunction in working-age adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and determine whether this is improved by a low-energy meal replacement diet (MRP) or exercise training.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the efficacy and safety of a 1:1 fixed-ratio combination of insulin glargine and lixisenatide (iGlarLixi) versus lixisenatide (Lixi) in insulin-naive Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) inadequately controlled on oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs).

OBJECTIVE

The role of U300 glargine insulin for the inpatient management of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has not been determined. We compared the safety and efficacy of glargine U300 versus glargine U100 in noncritically ill patients with T2D.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate whether high glucose levels in the normoglycemic range and higher have a causal genetic effect on risk of retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy, chronic kidney disease (CKD), peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and myocardial infarction (MI; positive control) in the general population.

This researchprojectimplemented a randomizedcontrolledtrial ofthe SEAM program in Terms 3 and 4 ofthe 2016 school year. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of the SEAM program. The study enrolled 448 treatment group students who were referred to SATOs for potential SEAM intervention, and 448 matched control group students who were not referred to SATOs. Approximately one-third of treatment group students received a compulsory conference notice, approximately one-third of treatment students' families signed an attendance plan, about 20% had a compulsory conference take place, and payment was suspended for approximately 5% of treatment students. No significant differences following any of these interventions were observed between treatment and control students.

Annalisa Fabretti, Samantha Leorato.

Source: Electronic Journal of Statistics, Volume 14, Number 1, 1611--1647.

Abstract:
We propose a method to generate random distributions with known quantile distribution, or, more generally, with known distribution for some form of generalized quantile. The method takes inspiration from the random Sequential Barycenter Array distributions (SBA) proposed by Hill and Monticino (1998) which generates a Random Probability Measure (RPM) with known expected value. We define the Sequential Quantile Array (SQA) and show how to generate a random SQA from which we can derive RPMs. The distribution of the generated SQA-RPM can have full support and the RPMs can be both discrete, continuous and differentiable. We face also the problem of the efficient implementation of the procedure that ensures that the approximation of the SQA-RPM by a finite number of steps stays close to the SQA-RPM obtained theoretically by the procedure. Finally, we compare SQA-RPMs with similar approaches as Polya Tree.

We study the question of whether parallelization in the exploration of the feasible set can be used to speed up convex optimization, in the local oracle model of computation and in the high-dimensional regime. We show that the answer is negative for both deterministic and randomized algorithms applied to essentially any of the interesting geometries and nonsmooth, weakly-smooth, or smooth objective functions. In particular, we show that it is not possible to obtain a polylogarithmic (in the sequential complexity of the problem) number of parallel rounds with a polynomial (in the dimension) number of queries per round. In the majority of these settings and when the dimension of the space is polynomial in the inverse target accuracy, our lower bounds match the oracle complexity of sequential convex optimization, up to at most a logarithmic factor in the dimension, which makes them (nearly) tight. Another conceptual contribution of our work is in providing a general and streamlined framework for proving lower bounds in the setting of parallel convex optimization. Prior to our work, lower bounds for parallel convex optimization algorithms were only known in a small fraction of the settings considered in this paper, mainly applying to Euclidean ($ell_2$) and $ell_infty$ spaces.

We study the least-squares regression problem over a Hilbert space, covering nonparametric regression over a reproducing kernel Hilbert space as a special case. We first investigate regularized algorithms adapted to a projection operator on a closed subspace of the Hilbert space. We prove convergence results with respect to variants of norms, under a capacity assumption on the hypothesis space and a regularity condition on the target function. As a result, we obtain optimal rates for regularized algorithms with randomized sketches, provided that the sketch dimension is proportional to the effective dimension up to a logarithmic factor. As a byproduct, we obtain similar results for Nystr"{o}m regularized algorithms. Our results provide optimal, distribution-dependent rates that do not have any saturation effect for sketched/Nystr"{o}m regularized algorithms, considering both the attainable and non-attainable cases, in the well-conditioned regimes. We then study stochastic gradient methods with projection over the subspace, allowing multi-pass over the data and minibatches, and we derive similar optimal statistical convergence results.

Dual first-order methods are essential techniques for large-scale constrained convex optimization. However, when recovering the primal solutions, we need $T(epsilon^{-2})$ iterations to achieve an $epsilon$-optimal primal solution when we apply an algorithm to the non-strongly convex dual problem with $T(epsilon^{-1})$ iterations to achieve an $epsilon$-optimal dual solution, where $T(x)$ can be $x$ or $sqrt{x}$. In this paper, we prove that the iteration complexity of the primal solutions and dual solutions have the same $Oleft(frac{1}{sqrt{epsilon}} ight)$ order of magnitude for the accelerated randomized dual coordinate ascent. When the dual function further satisfies the quadratic functional growth condition, by restarting the algorithm at any period, we establish the linear iteration complexity for both the primal solutions and dual solutions even if the condition number is unknown. When applied to the regularized empirical risk minimization problem, we prove the iteration complexity of $Oleft(nlog n+sqrt{frac{n}{epsilon}} ight)$ in both primal space and dual space, where $n$ is the number of samples. Our result takes out the $left(log frac{1}{epsilon} ight)$ factor compared with the methods based on smoothing/regularization or Catalyst reduction. As far as we know, this is the first time that the optimal $Oleft(sqrt{frac{n}{epsilon}} ight)$ iteration complexity in the primal space is established for the dual coordinate ascent based stochastic algorithms. We also establish the accelerated linear complexity for some problems with nonsmooth loss, e.g., the least absolute deviation and SVM.

Daniela Bertacchi, Fabio Zucca.

Source: Brazilian Journal of Probability and Statistics, Volume 34, Number 2, 426--438.

Abstract:
Given a branching random walk on a set $X$, we study its extinction probability vectors $mathbf{q}(cdot,A)$. Their components are the probability that the process goes extinct in a fixed $Asubseteq X$, when starting from a vertex $xin X$. The set of extinction probability vectors (obtained letting $A$ vary among all subsets of $X$) is a subset of the set of the fixed points of the generating function of the branching random walk. In particular here we are interested in the cardinality of the set of extinction probability vectors. We prove results which allow to understand whether the probability of extinction in a set $A$ is different from the one of extinction in another set $B$. In many cases there are only two possible extinction probability vectors and so far, in more complicated examples, only a finite number of distinct extinction probability vectors had been explicitly found. Whether a branching random walk could have an infinite number of distinct extinction probability vectors was not known. We apply our results to construct examples of branching random walks with uncountably many distinct extinction probability vectors.

Benjamin Arras, Ehsan Azmoodeh, Guillaume Poly, Yvik Swan.

Source: Brazilian Journal of Probability and Statistics, Volume 34, Number 2, 394--413.

Abstract:
In this paper we propose a new, simple and explicit mechanism allowing to derive Stein operators for random variables whose characteristic function satisfies a simple ODE. We apply this to study random variables which can be represented as linear combinations of (not necessarily independent) gamma distributed random variables. The connection with Malliavin calculus for random variables in the second Wiener chaos is detailed. An application to McKay Type I random variables is also outlined.