Therapy burden, drug resistance, and optimal treatment regimen for cancer chemotherapy

Email: boldrini{at}ime.unicamp.brAuthor to whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: michel{at}Incc.br Three nonlinear models of tumour cell growth under continuousdelivery of cycle nonspecific anticancer agents are studied.A dynamical optimization problem with the objective of minimizingthe final level of tumour cells is posed for these mathematicalsetups. The simplest setup does not possess toxicity constraints,whereas the other setups contain a dynamical equation describingthe therapy burden as a toxicity criterion. In addition, thethird setting contains the dynamics of drug resistant cells.A discussion conceming the optimal strategies of the respectivemodels is performed.     

Linear Relationships for Constrained Multiple-item Inventory Systems

Inventory control is a problem common to many businesses andmanufacturing systems. Management spends a fair amount of timetrying to determine appropriate inventory policies. The firstinventory model, which is still used widely today, is the economicorder quantity (EOQ) model of Harris. This model, however, doesnot consider constraints on the problem such as storage capacityor budget Limitations. It is the purpose of this paper to examinethe multiple-item deterministic inventory system with one linearconstraint, and establish linear relationships between the Lagrangemultiplier of the constrgint and artain system characteristics.It is then discussed how the insights from these relationshipscan be used to provide tight hunds to the optimal multiplier.Computational results for these bounds are also included.     

An Ergodic Control Problem for Reflected Diffusion with Jump

The control of the drift of a stochastic differential equationwith jump term is considered for the long-run average cost.The convergence of the discounted problem is studied, as wellas the corresponding dynamic programming condition. This research was supported in part by U.S. Army Research Officeunder contract DAAG29-83-K-0014 and completed during a visitto INRIA.     

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A SYSTEM DYNAMICS MODEL FOR INVESTIGATING AGRICULTURALLY DRIVEN LAND TRANSFORMATION IN THE NORTH CENTRAL UNITED STATES

Land transformation from grassland to cropland in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) has become a growing concern among many stakeholders. A growing body of work has sought to determine the amount and rate of land use change with less emphasis on the systemic structures or feedback processes of land use decisions. This paper presents the development of a system dynamics simulation model to integrate ecological, economic, and social components influencing land use decisions, including cattle ranching, cropland production, rural communities, land quality, and public policies. Evaluation indicated that the model satisfactorily predicted historical land, agricultural commodity, and rural community data from the model structure. Reference modes for key variables, including the farmland area, were characterized by a bias correction of 0.999, root mean squared error of prediction of 0.053, R² of 0.921, and concordance correlation coefficient of 0.0959. The model was robust under extreme and varying sensitivity tests, as well as adequately predicting land use under changing system context. The model's major contributions were the inclusion of decision‐making feedbacks from economic and social signals with connectivity to land quality and elasticity values that drive land transformation. Limitations include lack of spatial input and output capabilities useful for visual interfacing.     

Metropolitan Optical Networks: When to Change to DWDM

In this article we propose a new methodology to estimate the change in the bandwidth demand in time, mainly in residential areas. The bandwidth demand forecast is a basic aspect to decide the evolution of metropolitan optical networks. The word evolution refers to the necessity of making changes in networks, either by upgrading or replacing different elements that are part of the network. This analysis, along with a technological alternatives analysis, provides the operator the needed information to achieve the appropriate network planning and to make investment decisions.     

A theoretical analysis of the excited states in 2-benzoylthiophene

The lower excited states of 2-benzoylthiophene have been studied using ab initio quantum chemical methods based on multiconfigurational wave functions. Six singlet and six triplet excited states have been characterized. The geometry has been optimized for the two lowest triplet states, which are responsible for the photoreactivity of the chromophore in the photosensitizing drug tiaprofenic acid. The T¹(π → π?) and T₂(n → π?) states have been found to be close in energy with the π → π? state slightly lower. The excited states have been characterized using density difference and spin density plots. The different photochemical behaviour of the two triplet states can be rationalized from the theoretical data.     

Theoretical study of the second-order vibrational Stark effect

The behaviour of the harmonic infrared frequency of diatomic molecules subjected to moderate static uniform electric fields is analysed. The potential energy expression has been developed as a function of a static uniform electric field, which brings about a formulation describing the frequency versus field strength curve. With the help of the first and second derivatives of the expressions obtained, which correspond to the first- and second-order Stark effects, it was possible to find the maxima of the frequency versus field strength curves for a series of molecules using a Newton-Raphson search. A method is proposed which requires only the calculation of a few energy derivatives at a particular value of the field strength. At the same time, the expression for the dependence of the interatomic distance on the electric field strength is derived and the minimum of this curve is found for the same species. Derived expressions and numerical results are discussed and compared with other studies.     

A model for viscosity coefficients of gases with potentials differing in form

A recent theory of non-conformal interactions has been very succesful in providing effective spherical potentials for the pressure of more than 40 real gases and many of their binary mixtures. Here, this theory is applied to deal with low-density viscosity coefficients. In its simplest form, the approximate non-conformal (ANC) theory introduces, besides the usual corresponding states parameters-energy ? and distance r_m-a softness parameter s to account for the form of a particular potential function. We investigate the effects of the potential form on the temperature behaviour of the viscosisty coefficient η. It is shown that the softer potentials, with wider attractive wells, have larger viscosities and an explicit expression for η (T, ?, r_m, s) is obtained. The ANC potentials are tested in their capacity to reproduce the temperature dependence of η for the heavier noble gases (Ar, Kr and Xe), diatomics (H₂, N₂, O₂ and CI₂) and a dozen small polyatomics. It is found that the ANC model η (T, ?, r_m, s), with only three substance-dependent parameters, reproduces experimental 7 data within their estimated error.     

Polarization effects in liquid metals and charge stabilized colloidal dispersions

The induced polarization contributions to the effective interionic potentials are derived for liquid metals, liquid alloys and charge stabilized colloidal dispersions. These contributions have been obtained within a perturbative scheme that includes up to three-body terms. The formalism is illustrated by calculating the static structure factor S(k) of liquid Ga near melting. It is found that the main effects due to the induced polarization in S(k) are first lowering the height of the principal diffraction peak, and second sharpening the subsidiary peak present in liquid Ga.