The goal of Reinforcement learning (RL) is to maximize reward (minimize cost) in a Markov decision process (MDP) without knowing the underlying model a priori. RL algorithms tend to be much slower than planning algorithms, which require the model as input. Recent results demonstrate that MDP planning can be expedited, by exploiting the graphical structure of the MDP. We present extensions to tw...

objective(s): to review the findings of the patients with sjögren’s syndrome (ss) having technetium-99m-pertechnetate (99mtc-pertechnetate) and gallium-67 citrate (ga-67) salivary gland scintigraphy in the past eight years.methods: the patients with ss, who were referred to our department for salivary gland scintigraphy during january 2008-december 2015 were studied using both 99mtc-pertechneta...

we report a three-phase bone scintigraphy for the diagnosis of a peripheral bone lesion caused by systemic sarcoidosis. a 32-year-old man with suspected osteomyelitis of the right forefinger underwent three-phase bone scintigraphy with tc-99m hydroxymethylene diphosphonate (hmdp) and single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (spect/ct). the lesion was rich in blood flow acc...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate stress fractures in leg (particularly around the knee, tibia, and femur) and knee pathology in active asymptomatic (no symptoms in the preceding month) soccer players. METHOD The study included 42 asymptomatic soccer players (21 women, 21 men; age range 19-31 years). Players from seven teams in the major female professional and amateur male soccer leagues were examined b...

A 50-year-old man with postprandial abdominal pain, weight loss, and generalized body ache was referred to Nuclear medicine department for a whole body bone scan to look for any malignancy. Clinical examination did not reveal any specific positive findings. He underwent aTechnetium-99m Methylene Diphosphonate (99mTc-MDP) bone scan which showed no obvious bone pathology. But there was...

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is bacterial cell wall component capable of inducing osteoclast formation and pathological bone resorption. Muramyl dipeptide (MDP), the minimal essential structural unit responsible for the immunological activity of peptidoglycans, is ubiquitously expressed by bacterium. In this study, we investigated the effect of MDP in LPS-induced osteoclast formation and bone resor...

Recently, some studies have utilized the Markov Decision Process for diversifying (MDP-DIV) the search results in information retrieval. Though promising performances can be delivered, MDP-DIV suffers from a very slow convergence, which hinders its usability in real applications. In this paper, we aim to promote the performance of MDPDIV by speeding up the convergence rate without much accuracy...

Objective: To evaluate stress fractures in leg (particularly around the knee, tibia, and femur) and knee pathology in active asymptomatic (no symptoms in the preceding month) soccer players. Method: The study included 42 asymptomatic soccer players (21 women, 21 men; age range 19–31 years). Players from seven teams in the major female professional and amateur male soccer leagues were examined b...