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In this paper, we study the problem of cost optimisation of individual-based institutional incentives (reward, punishment, and hybrid) for guaranteeing a certain minimal level of cooperative behaviour in a well-mixed, finite population. In this scheme, the individuals in the population interact via cooperation dilemmas (Donation Game or Public Goods Game) in which institutional reward is carried out only if cooperation is not abundant enough (i.e., the number of cooperators is below a threshold 1 ≤ t ≤ N - 1 , where N is the population size); and similarly, institutional punishment is carried out only when defection is too abundant. We study analytically the cases t = 1 for the reward incentive under the small mutation limit assumption and two different initial states, showing that the cost function is always non-decreasing. We derive the neutral drift and strong selection limits when the intensity of selection tends to zero and infinity, respectively. We numerically investigate the problem for other values of t and for population dynamics with arbitrary mutation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we rigorously study the problem of cost optimisation of hybrid (mixed) institutional incentives, which are a plan of actions involving the use of reward and punishment by an external decision-maker, for maximising the level (or guaranteeing at least a certain level) of cooperative behaviour in a well-mixed, finite population of self-regarding individuals who interact via cooperation dilemmas (Donation Game or Public Goods Game). We show that a mixed incentive scheme can offer a more cost-efficient approach for providing incentives while ensuring the same level or standard of cooperation in the long-run. We establish the asymptotic behaviour (namely neutral drift, strong selection, and infinite-population limits). We prove the existence of a phase transition, obtaining the critical threshold of the strength of selection at which the monotonicity of the cost function changes and providing an algorithm for finding the optimal value of the individual incentive cost. Our analytical results are illustrated with numerical investigations. Overall, our analysis provides novel theoretical insights into the design of cost-efficient institutional incentive mechanisms for promoting the evolution of cooperation in stochastic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient ammonia gas (NH3(g)) was continuously measured for one year, from March 2018 to February 2019, using a passive sampling method in a source-specific monitoring campaign in Hanoi, Vietnam, providing an unprecedented picture of the spatiotemporal characteristics of NH3(g) in this city. The four survey sites (three urban and one rural) were representative of a typical downtown area, a polluted river, a crossroad, and a rural area. Regarding spatial distribution, a distinctly high concentration (79.8 ± 61.2 ppb) was indicated at the polluted river, an important source unheard of in urban areas, followed by the crossroad (38.6 ± 18.8 ppb) and the downtown (36.5 ± 20.0 ppb); the lowest concentration (35.6 ± 36.0 ppb) was observed in the rural area. Seasonal variation was thoroughly discussed, together with meteorological parameters as driving factors. The strong dependence of NH3(g) concentration on the change in temperature and relative humidity at polluted river and rural area due to the strong impact of these meteorological factors on the volatilization of NH3(g) from wastewater and agriculture, respectively, causes the highest concentration in summer at these sites. The NH3(g) intensely emitted from the polluted river in summer was, furthermore, transferred to the surrounding area under the impact of the local wind direction. However, basically, in downtown, the concentration was higher in the cooler seasons than in the warmer seasons, which was found different compared with the conventional results in most of former studies, suggesting the major impact of vehicular emission on the rise of NH3(g) in urban area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the problem of Brownian motion in a multiscale potential. The potential is assumed to have N + 1 scales (i.e. N small scales and one macroscale) and to depend periodically on all the small scales. We show that for nonseparable potentials, i.e. potentials in which the microscales and the macroscale are fully coupled, the homogenized equation is an overdamped Langevin equation with multiplicative noise driven by the free energy, for which the detailed balance condition still holds. This means, in particular, that homogenized dynamics is reversible and that the coarse-grained Fokker–Planck equation is still a Wasserstein gradient flow with respect to the coarse-grained free energy. The calculation of the effective diffusion tensor requires the solution of a system of N coupled Poisson equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: Medication review is an important component of the management of older hospital patients. Deprescribing (supervised withdrawal of inappropriate medicines) is one outcome of review. This study aimed to iteratively develop and test the usability of deprescribing guides, which support multidisciplinary clinicians to reduce inappropriate polypharmacy in older inpatients. Methods: Deprescribing guides for hospital clinicians were developed using a novel mixed-methods, ten-step process. Iterative development and usability testing were applied. This included content development through review of the literature; expert consensus through five rounds of feedback using a modified Delphi approach; and usability testing by 16 multidisciplinary hospital clinicians on hypothetical clinical scenarios involving observations, semi-structured interviews, and administration of the System Usability Scale. Results: This novel process was used to develop deprescribing guides that facilitate implementation of evidence on deprescribing in routine hospital care. The guides present evidence-based information in a format that aligns with workflows of multidisciplinary hospital clinicians. The guides were adapted for various clinical roles to navigate efficiently to suit differing workflow needs. Guides include unique communication support in the form of "preferred language". Clinicians can use the "preferred language" to apply the evidence to the individual patient and relay decisions between health providers and with patients/carers. The total System Usability Scale score was 80.6 ± 2.0 (mean ± standard error of the mean), indicating excellent usability. Guides have been developed using consistent format for nine medication classes that are common targets for deprescribing and are publicly available. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a novel approach to the development and implementation of evidence-based recommendations that support deprescribing in routine hospital care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are interested in exploring interacting particle systems that can be seen as microscopic models for a particular structure of coupled transport flux arising when different populations are jointly evolving. The scenarios we have in mind are inspired by the dynamics of pedestrian flows in open spaces and are intimately connected to cross-diffusion and thermo-diffusion problems holding a variational structure. The tools we use include a suitable structure of the relative entropy controlling TV-norms, the construction of Lyapunov functionals and particular closed-form solutions to nonlinear transport equations, a hydrodynamics limiting procedure due to Philipowski, as well as the construction of numerical approximates to both the continuum limit problem in 2D and to the original interacting particle systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI) was used to study metabolic abnormalities inside the gray matter (GM) during or distant to white matter (WM) inflammatory processes reflected by T1 gadolinium-enhancing lesions in patients at the very early stage of multiple sclerosis (MS). The spectroscopic examination was performed in the axial plane using a home-designed acquisition-weighted, hamming shape, 2D-SE pulse sequence (TE = 135 ms; TR = 1,600 ms). Bilateral thalami and the medial occipital cortex were explored in 35 patients (15 with and 20 without T1-Gd enhancing lesions) with clinically isolated syndrome suggestive of MS and in 30 controls. The mean duration since the first presenting symptom was 9.1 (±6.7) months. The two groups of patients (with or without T1 Gd-enhancing lesions) did not differ in terms of time elapsed since the first clinical onset and T2 lesion load. The spatial contamination of surrounding WM tissues was obtained in each GM region by determining the tissue component in the ROI from GM and WM probability maps smoothed with the point spread function of the MRSI acquisition. Contribution of WM signal was important (60%) inside thalami while the region centered on the medial occipital cortex was well representative of GM metabolism (>70%). Comparisons of relative metabolite levels (ratios of each metabolite over the sum of all metabolites) between all patients and controls showed significant decrease in relative N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) levels, increase in relative choline-containing compounds (Cho) levels and no change in relative creatine/phosphocreatine levels inside the three ROIs. Decrease in relative NAA levels and increase in relative Cho levels were found in patients with inflammatory activity, while no metabolic alterations were present in patients without T1 Gd-enhancing lesions. These results suggest that abnormalities in GM metabolism observed in patients at the very early stage of MS are mainly related to neuronal dysfunction occurring during acute inflammatory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents research which examined optimal CO2-emission abatement paths for specified long-term constraints on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Interplay of uncertainty in concentrations and inertia in energy systems producing CO2 emissions; Integrated assessment models; Costs of deferring abatement; Minimizing risk to environmental and economic systems. INSET: Box 1 DIAM: A model of the dynamics of inertia...