Despite the availability of more sophisticated methods, a popular way to estimate a Pareto exponent is still to run an OLS regression: log(Rank) = a − b log(Size), and take b as an estimate of the ...Pareto exponent. The reason for this popularity is arguably the simplicity and robustness of this method. Unfortunately, this procedure is strongly biased in small samples. We provide a simple practical remedy for this bias, and propose that, if one wants to use an OLS regression, one should use the Rank −1 / 2, and run log(Rank − 1 / 2) = a − b log(Size). The shift of 1 / 2 is optimal, and reduces the bias to a leading order. The standard error on the Pareto exponent ζ is not the OLS standard error, but is asymptotically (2 / n)
1 / 2
ζ. Numerical results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed approach over the standard OLS estimation procedures and indicate that it performs well under dependent heavy-tailed processes exhibiting deviations from power laws. The estimation procedures considered are illustrated using an empirical application to Zipf's law for the United States city size distribution.
What is known and objective
Chemotherapy drugs are often administered in combinations with predefined interdependent doses and cycle intervals. As yet, there is no global standardization system to ...describe these complex regimens in a universally comprehensive manner. The aim of this review is to identify which efforts for standardization have been undertaken and which recommendations for databases and nomenclature of chemotherapy regimens are available.
Methods
A literature review was performed to identify all peer‐reviewed full‐text articles about oncology therapy regimen codification. In addition, the results of this search were evaluated and consensus recommendations from a European expert panel were subsequently added.
Results
This review gives an overview of attempts to standardize chemotherapy nomenclature described in the literature, as well as of previously published identified gaps in regimen codification. In addition, we summarized the suggestions for improvement of chemotherapy codification found in the available literature, combining them with the expertise from a European expert panel of oncology pharmacists.
What is new and conclusions
We believe that one of the most important error‐prevention measures is standardization. However, there is a paucity of data how it may be achieved. Currently available data suggest that standardization has a positive impact on usability for data networks, prescription software, safety and the measurement of the quality of cancer care delivery. Standardization is also a strong pre‐requisite for all discussions including oncology pharmacists and oncologists when evaluating chemotherapy regimen in countries in Europe but also all over the world. The recommendations compiled in this review can help to support overdue standardization efforts in this important therapeutic area.
Improving oncology therapy regimen codification: A concise review of the literature and suggestions from an expert panel yielding 21 opportunities for standardization.
Dark matter blind spots at one-loop Han, Tao; Liu, Hongkai; Mukhopadhyay, Satyanarayan ...
The journal of high energy physics,
03/2019, Volume:
2019, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A
bstract
We evaluate the impact of one-loop electroweak corrections to the spin-independent dark matter (DM) scattering cross-section with nucleons (
σ
SI
), in models with a so-called blind spot ...for direct detection, where the leading-order prediction for the relevant DM coupling to the Higgs boson, and therefore
σ
SI
, are vanishingly small. Adopting a simple illustrative scenario in which the DM state results from the mixing of electroweak singlet and doublet fermions, we compute the relevant higher order corrections to the scalar effective operator contributions to
σ
SI
, stemming from both triangle and box diagrams involving the SM and dark sector fields. It is observed that in a significant region of the singlet-doublet model-space, the one-loop corrections “unblind” the tree-level blind spots and lead to detectable SI scattering rates at future multi-ton scale liquid Xenon experiments, with σ
SI
reaching values up to a few times 10
−47
cm
2
, for a weak scale DM with
O
1
Yukawa couplings. Furthermore, we find that there always exists a new SI blind spot at the next-to-leading order, which is perturbatively shifted from the leading order one in the singlet-doublet mass parameters. For comparison, we also present the tree-level spin-dependent scattering cross-sections near the SI blind-spot region, that could lead to a larger signal. Our results can be mapped to the blind-spot scenario for bino-Higgsino DM in the MSSM, with other sfermions, the heavier Higgs boson, and the wino decoupled.
Interpreting the electron EDM constraint Cesarotti, Cari; Lu, Qianshu; Nakai, Yuichiro ...
The journal of high energy physics,
05/2019, Volume:
2019, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A
bstract
The ACME collaboration has recently announced a new constraint on the electron EDM, |
d
e
|
<
1
.
1 × 10
−29
e
cm, from measurements of the ThO molecule. This is a powerful constraint on ...CP-violating new physics: even new physics generating the EDM at two loops is constrained at the multi-TeV scale. We interpret the bound in the context of different scenarios for new physics: a general order-of-magnitude analysis for both the electron EDM and the CP-odd electron-nucleon coupling; 1-loop SUSY, probing sleptons above 10 TeV; 2-loop SUSY, probing multi-TeV charginos or stops; and finally, new physics that generates the EDM via the charm quark or top quark Yukawa couplings. In the last scenario, new physics generates a “QULE operator”
q
f
σ
¯
μ
ν
u
¯
f
·
ℓ
σ
¯
μ
ν
e
¯
, which in turn generates the EDM through RG evolution. If the QULE operator is generated at tree level, this corresponds to a previously studied leptoquark model. For the first time, we also classify scenarios in which the QULE operator is generated at one loop through a box diagram, which include (among others) SUSY and leptoquark models. The electron EDM bound is the leading constraint on a wide variety of theories of CP-violating new physics interacting with the Higgs boson or the top quark. We argue that any future nonzero measurement of an electron EDM will provide a strong motivation for constructing new colliders at the highest feasible energies.
Social Incentives in the Workplace BANDIERA, ORIANA; BARANKAY, IWAN; RASUL, IMRAN
The Review of economic studies,
04/2010, Volume:
77, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present evidence on social incentives in the workplace, namely on whether workers' behaviour is affected by the presence of those they are socially tied to, even in settings where there are no ...externalities among workers due to either the production technology or the compensation scheme in place. To do so, we combine data on individual worker productivity from a firm's personnel records with information on each worker's social network of friends in the firm. We find that compared to when she has no social ties with her co-workers, a given worker's productivity is significantly higher when she works alongside friends who are more able than her, and significantly lower when she works with friends who are less able than her. As workers are paid piece rates based on individual productivity, social incentives can be quantified in monetary terms and are such that (i) workers who are more able than their friends are willing to exert less effort and forgo 10% of their earnings; (ii) workers who have at least one friend who is more able than themselves are willing to increase their effort and hence productivity by 10%. The distribution of worker ability is such that the net effect of social incentives on the firm's aggregate performance is positive. The results suggest that firms can exploit social incentives as an alternative to monetary incentives to motivate workers.
Factory automation strongly relies on industrial wireless networks that are able to guarantee reliable and real-time transmissions. To this end, a recently approved International Electrotechnical ...Commission standard Wireless networks for Industrial Automation-Factory Automation (WIA-FA) is proposed to specify wireless networks for time-critical industrial applications. This paper proposes a Flexible Retransmission Scheme for reliable and real-time transmissions in WIA-FA networks, termed as FRS, which combines the advantages of a cyclic reservation diversity retransmission scheme and an on-demand retransmission scheme to make full use of the strictly limited communication resources. Further, we perform the reliability analysis by analytical modeling to FRS, whose major contribution lies in the dynamic selection of retransmission schemes according to the reliability analysis. Simulation results finally show that this work outperforms other retransmission schemes in terms of transmission reliability for different scenarios.
Unemployment refuses unambiguous definition. Its statistical representation is always open to contestation, especially where labour markets differ from the Western-industrial norm. Why do countries ...adopt international standards even if they may fit local conditions poorly? South Africa is an exemplary case to answer this question. When Apartheid ended in the early 1990s, South African statisticians embraced the new emancipatory spirit. Their broad unemployment indicator defied international conventions but did justice to the marginalised Black population, and to Black women in particular. Since then, however, South Africa has fallen in line with the much narrower definition of the International Labour Organization (ILO), in spite of widespread criticism. Why? We find that ILO standards were not forced upon South Africa. Instead, South African statisticians themselves embraced international standards to repel charges of arbitrary or politically motivated numbers. Counterintuitively, international standards become alluring precisely when doubts about statistics' fit with local conditions are the greatest.
This paper presents the observation of four-top-quark (
t
t
¯
t
t
¯
) production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The analysis is performed using an integrated luminosity of 140
fb
-
1
at a ...centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected using the ATLAS detector. Events containing two leptons with the same electric charge or at least three leptons (electrons or muons) are selected. Event kinematics are used to separate signal from background through a multivariate discriminant, and dedicated control regions are used to constrain the dominant backgrounds. The observed (expected) significance of the measured
t
t
¯
t
t
¯
signal with respect to the standard model (SM) background-only hypothesis is 6.1 (4.3) standard deviations. The
t
t
¯
t
t
¯
production cross section is measured to be
22
.
5
-
5.5
+
6.6
fb, consistent with the SM prediction of
12.0
±
2.4
fb within 1.8 standard deviations. Data are also used to set limits on the three-top-quark production cross section, being an irreducible background not measured previously, and to constrain the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling and effective field theory operator coefficients that affect
t
t
¯
t
t
¯
production.
Adding abiraterone acetate with prednisolone (AAP) or docetaxel with prednisolone (DocP) to standard-of-care (SOC) each improved survival in systemic therapy for advanced or metastatic prostate ...cancer: evaluation of drug efficacy: a multi-arm multi-stage platform randomised controlled protocol recruiting patients with high-risk locally advanced or metastatic PCa starting long-term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The protocol provides the only direct, randomised comparative data of SOC+AAP versus SOC+DocP.
Recruitment to SOC+DocP and SOC+AAP overlapped November 2011 to March 2013. SOC was long-term ADT or, for most non-metastatic cases, ADT for≥2years and RT to the primary tumour. Stratified randomisation allocated pts 2:1:2 to SOC; SOC+docetaxel 75mg/m2 3-weekly×6+prednisolone 10mg daily; or SOC+abiraterone acetate 1000mg+prednisolone 5mg daily. AAP duration depended on stage and intent to give radical RT. The primary outcome measure was death from any cause. Analyses used Cox proportional hazards and flexible parametric models, adjusted for stratification factors. This was not a formally powered comparison. A hazard ratio (HR) <1 favours SOC+AAP, and HR>1 favours SOC+DocP.
A total of 566 consenting patients were contemporaneously randomised: 189 SOC+DocP and 377 SOC+AAP. The patients, balanced by allocated treatment were: 342 (60%) M1; 429 (76%) Gleason 8–10; 449 (79%) WHO performance status 0; median age 66years and median PSA 56ng/ml. With median follow-up 4years, 149 deaths were reported. For overall survival, HR=1.16 (95% CI 0.82–1.65); failure-free survival HR=0.51 (95% CI 0.39–0.67); progression-free survival HR=0.65 (95% CI 0.48–0.88); metastasis-free survival HR=0.77 (95% CI 0.57–1.03); prostate cancer-specific survival HR=1.02 (0.70–1.49); and symptomatic skeletal events HR=0.83 (95% CI 0.55–1.25). In the safety population, the proportion reporting≥1 grade 3, 4 or 5 adverse events ever was 36%, 13% and 1% SOC+DocP, and 40%, 7% and 1% SOC+AAP; prevalence 11% at 1 and 2 years on both arms. Relapse treatment patterns varied by arm.
This direct, randomised comparative analysis of two new treatment standards for hormone-naïve prostate cancer showed no evidence of a difference in overall or prostate cancer-specific survival, nor in other important outcomes such as symptomatic skeletal events. Worst toxicity grade over entire time on trial was similar but comprised different toxicities in line with the known properties of the drugs.
Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00268476.
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