Linear programming (LP) formulations are often employed to solve stationary, infinitehorizon Markov decision process (MDP) models. We present an LP approach to solving nonstationary, finite-horizon MDP models that can potentially overcome the computational challenges of standard MDP solution procedures. Specifically, we establish the existence of an LP formulation for risk-neutral MDP models wh...

We uncover relations between robust MDPs and risk-sensitive MDPs. The objective of a robust MDP is to minimize a function, such as the expectation of cumulative cost, for the worst case when the parameters have uncertainties. The objective of a risk-sensitive MDP is to minimize a risk measure of the cumulative cost when the parameters are known. We show that a risk-sensitive MDP of minimizing t...

To clarify the mechanism of interaction of dental adhesive monomers with biological membranes at the molecular level, we studied the interaction of methacryloyloxydecyl dihydrogen phosphate (MDP) and methacrylic acid (MAA) with the dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposome system using NMR and DSC. MDP-DPPC interaction became apparent through broadening of the DPPC phase transition as pH d...

The performance of the Multicast Dissemination Protocol (MDP) in a simulated satellite channel is investigated. The environment that is modeled is that to be expected in a small satellite communications environment including channel errors and link interruptions. The satellite link is simulated with a channel environment simulator. The performance of MDP is compared with file transfer protocol ...

The effect on respiratory burst of murine splenic cells after in vitro exposure to synthetic muramyl dipeptide (MDP) and 6-O-acyl and quinonyl derivatives was studied at an early phase of interaction by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence (CL) in response to stimulation by zymosan. The MDP molecule enhanced CL, but the degree of CL response varied with the kinds of fatty acids introduced in the...

UNLABELLED Quantitative studies of bone using (99m)Tc-methylene diphosphonate (MDP) reflect bone remodeling. The simplest method of evaluating (99m)Tc-MDP kinetics involves taking multiple blood samples and measuring total clearance (K(total)) from the area under the plasma curve (AUC) and deriving bone clearance (K(bone)) by subtracting glomerular filtration rate (GFR) from K(total). However, ...

In a previous study we demonstrated that antiviral response against the coliphage MS-2 can be elicited by immunization with a synthetic antigen consisting of a conjugate (P2-A -- L) of a synthetic fragment (P2) of the virus coat protein attached to a synthetic polymeric carrier. The antiviral response was induced when the antigen was administered in complete Freund's adjuvant or when it was adm...

Calreticulin (CRT) is a binding protein for apoptotic N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-isoglutamine (L,D-MDP) or peptidoglycan in RK(13) cells. CRT on RK(13) cell surface (srCRT) forms complex(es) with tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1) and TNFR-associated death domain (TRADD) protein of the cell membrane. CRT polyclonal or monoclonal antibody binding to RK(13) srCRT dose-dependently inhibited ...

The performance of the Multicast Dissemination Protocol (MDP) in a simulated satellite channel is investigated. The environment that is modeled is that to be expected in a small satellite communications environment including channel errors and link interruptions. The satellite link is simulated with a channel environment simulator. The performance of MDP is compared with file transfer protocol ...

  Metastatic survey of the patients with known primary malignancies with bone scan is one of the most common studies in nuclear medicine. Unfortunately the conventional planar bone scan has a very low specificity for differentiating benign from malignant lesions especially in the spinal column. In this study, we compared the specificity of SPECT imaging and convention...