Pediatric Laryngotracheal Stenosis and Airway Reconstruction: A Review of Voice Outcomes, Assessment, and Treatment Issues

Laryngotracheal stenosis is defined as a congenital or acquired narrowing of the airway. Congenital causes may include subglottic membranous or cartilaginous narrowing. Acquired causes may include trauma due to prolonged endotracheal or tracheal intubation or laryngotracheal injury. Although advances have been made over the past 30 years in reconstructive surgeries to improve airway patency in these patients, long-term laryngeal function for voice production is not well defined in this population. This review examines causes, symptoms and signs, and methods for diagnosing laryngotracheal stenosis. Surgical management procedures are briefly summarized. The current literature on voice outcomes is summarized. The predominant voice characteristics in the population are presented, although results are challenged by the heterogeneity of voice presentation and paucity of data from instrumental measures. Considerations for subjective and instrumental assessment, measures of quality of life, instrumental methods, and treatment options specific to the needs of this population are discussed. Research strategies to identify long-term outcomes of surgical and behavioral treatments in this population are posed.     

Directed metalation/ligand coupling approach to the enantioselective synthesis of 1,1′-binaphthyls

Introduction of a 2-isopropoxycarbonyl or 2-NN-dimethylcarbamoyl group into homochiral 1-p-tolyl- or 1-t-butyl-sulfinylnaphthalenes, via directed metalation reaction, followed by ligand coupling reaction with 1-naphthylmagnesium bromide, furnished atropisomeric 1,1′-binaphthyls in 82–95% enantiomeric excess (e.e.).     

Entropy estimate for high-dimensional monotonic functions

We establish upper and lower bounds for the metric entropy and bracketing entropy of the class of d-dimensional bounded monotonic functions under L^p norms. It is interesting to see that both the metric entropy and bracketing entropy have different behaviors for p<d/(d-1) and p>d/(d-1). We apply the new bounds for bracketing entropy to establish a global rate of convergence of the MLE of a d-dimensional monotone density.     

An algorithm for computing Jordan chains and inverting analytic matrix functions

We present an efficient algorithm for obtaining a canonical system of Jordan chains for an n × n regular analytic matrix function A(λ) that is singular at the origin. For any analytic vector function b(λ), we show that each term in the Laurent expansion of A(λ)⁻¹b(λ) may be obtained from the previous terms by solving an (n + d) × (n+d) linear system, where d is the order of the zero of det A(λ) at λ = 0. The matrix representing this linear system contains A(0) as a principal submatrix, which can be useful if A(0) is sparse. The last several iterations can be eliminated if left Jordan chains are computed in addition to right Jordan chains. The performance of the algorithm in floating point and exact (rational) arithmetic is reported for several test cases. The method is shown to be forward stable in floating point arithmetic.     

Navigating Schooled Numeracies: Explanations for Low Achievement,in Mathematics of UK Children From Low SES Background

The intention of the research reported here was to seek explanations for low achievement in school mathematics, as conventionally assessed, that derive from broad understandings of mathematics as social. Such a broad social perspective can provide explanations for low achievement, which could lead to different understandings and hence to different teaching approaches. This study centered on 5- to 8-year-old children from a White working-class area in England. Data were collected during visits to the children in school, in their homes, and in the broader community over a 3-year period. Parents, teachers, and other professionals in the broad school context were interviewed, and data were also collected from school documents and policy statements. Interpretations of these data in terms of ways of understanding children's achievements in school mathematics are put forward. The potential effects of these factors on low schooled numeracy attainment are discussed, together with some possible strategic implications for practice and policy.     

Computing Aviation Sparing Policies: Solving a Large Nonlinear Integer Program

Deployed US Navy aircraft carriers must stock a large number of spare parts to support the various types of aircraft embarked on the ship. The sparing policy determines the spares that will be stocked on the ship to keep the embarked aircraft ready to fly. Given a fleet of ten or more aircraft carriers and a cost of approximately 50 million dollars per carrier plus the cost of spares maintained in warehouses in the United States, the sparing problem constitutes a significant portion of the Navy’s resources. The objective of this work is to find a minimum-cost sparing policy that meets the readiness requirements of the embarked aircraft. This is a very large, nonlinear, integer optimization problem. The cost function is piecewise linear and convex while the constraint mapping is highly nonlinear. The distinguishing characteristics of this problem from an optimization viewpoint are that a large number of decision variables are required to be integer and that the nonlinear constraint functions are essentially “black box” functions; that is, they are very difficult (and expensive) to evaluate and their derivatives are not available. Moreover, they are not convex. Integer programming problems with a large number of variables are difficult to solve in general and most successful approaches to solving nonlinear integer problems have involved linear approximation and relaxation techniques that, because of the complexity of the constraint functions, are inappropriate for attacking this problem. We instead employ a pattern search method to each iteration of an interior point-type algorithm to solve the relaxed version of the problem. From the solution found by the pattern search on each interior point iteration, we begin another pattern search on the integer lattice to find a good integer solution. The best integer solution found across all interations is returned as the optimal solution. The pattern searches are distributed across a local area network of non-dedicated, heterogeneous computers in an office environment, thus, drastically reducing the time required to find the solution.     

Differential algebraic equations with after-effect

In this paper, we are concerned with the solution of delay differential algebraic equations. These are differential algebraic equations with after-effect, or constrained delay differential equations. The general semi-explicit form of the problem consists of a set of delay differential equations combined with a set of constraints that may involve retarded arguments. Even simply stated problems of this type can give rise to difficult analytical and numerical problems. The more tractable examples can be shown to be equivalent to systems of delay or neutral delay differential equations. Our purpose is to highlight some of the complexities and obstacles that can arise when solving these problems, and to indicate problems that require further research.     

A method for molecular ionization potentials

A new method for one-electron propagator calculations of molecular inization potentials is proposed, using a large matrix technique The results of some trial calculations on molecular nitrogen are given.