The role of mathematics in empirical science is puzzling, mysterious, and in my opinion has defied rational explanation. Why mathematics should be so enormously productive and effective in the handling of empirical phenomena is clearly an important foundational problem in science, but one for the most part that has been ignored. This is somewhat surprising given the rich theory and the abundanc...

The competitive complexity ratio is the worst case ratio of the regret of a data-driven model to that obtained by a model which benefits from side information. The side information bounds the sizes of unknown parameters. The ratio requires the use of a variation on parametric complexity, which we call the unconditional parametric complexity. We show that the optimal competitive complexity ratio...

Prothrombin time can be measured roughly on whole blood as in neonates, but is more commonly measured from plasma. Blood is taken into a vacutainer containing liquid citrate. Citrate acts as an anticoagulant by consuming all the calcium in the sample. The blood is mixed and centrifuged to separate blood cells from the plasma. The plasma is placed in a coagulation machine which takes a sample of...

Objective: To present a geometric ruler to determine predictive values of binary diagnostic test results from prevalence, sensitivity and specificity without calculation. Methods: On logarithmic scale the relationships between pre-/post-test odds and the likelihood ratio as well as sensitivity, speci ficity and the likelihood ratio appear as simple linear (additive) equations. Results: Each of ...

In the paper, after reviewing the history, background, origin, and applications of the functions b t −a t t and e −αt −e −βt 1−e−t , we establish sufficient and necessary conditions such that the special function e αt −e βt eλt−eμt are monotonic, logarithmic convex, logarithmic concave, 3-log-convex and 3-log-concave on R, where α, β, λ and μ are real numbers satisfying (α, β) 6= (λ, μ), (α, β)...

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening acute complication of diabetes mellitus and the novel systemic inflammation marker platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) may be associated with clinical outcome in patients with DKA. This study aimed to investigate the utility of PLR in predicting 90-day clinical outcomes in patients with DKA. Patient data exacted from the Multiparameter Intelligen...

a new anti-lock braking system (abs) for motorcycles is proposed in this study. it functions by processing the speed of the motorcycle tire in contact with the ground relative to the speed of the motorcycle itself and by calculating the slip ratio (λ) of the tire slipping on the ground while braking, and reducing it to a minimum which leads to increased controllability of the motorcycle and red...

introduction:  one ofdiagnostic criteria for acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome is  pao2/fio2 (pf) ratio 300 for ali or 200 for ards. this criteria requires invasive arterial sampling. measurement of spo2/fio2 (sf) ratio by pulseoximetry may be a reliable non invasive alternative to the pf ratio.   methods and materials: in a cross sectional study we enrolled 105 sample o...

background: iraq fought three wars in three consecutive decades, iran-iraq war (1980-1988), persian gulf war in 1991, and the iraq’s war in 2003. in the nineties of the last century and up to the present time, there have been anecdotal reports of increase in cancer in ninawa as in all provinces of iraq, possibly as a result of exposure to depleted uranium used by american troops in the last t...

sixteen rams (mean age: 13 mo; mean live weight: 40.0 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (4 rams per treatment). diets (dry matter basis) contained 65% concentrate and 35% alfalfa hay (control diet, t1), 35% wheat straw (t2), 35% barley straw (t3) or 35% maize straw (t4). total-tract apparent digestibility for dry matter, organic matter...