Subspace Detours Meet Gromov–Wasserstein

In the context of optimal transport (OT) methods, the subspace detour approach was recently proposed by Muzellec and Cuturi. It consists of first finding an optimal plan between the measures projected on a wisely chosen subspace and then completing it in a nearly optimal transport plan on the whole space. The contribution of this paper is to extend this category of methods to the Gromov–Wasserstein problem, which is a particular type of OT distance involving the specific geometry of each distribution. After deriving the associated formalism and properties, we give an experimental illustration on a shape matching problem. We also discuss a specific cost for which we can show connections with the Knothe–Rosenblatt rearrangement.

Surrogate Models Applied to Optimized Organic Rankine Cycles

Global optimization of industrial plant configurations using organic Rankine cycles (ORC) to recover heat is becoming attractive nowadays. This kind of optimization requires structural and parametric decisions to be made; the number of variables is usually high, and some of them generate disruptive responses. Surrogate models can be developed to replace the main components of the complex models reducing the computational requirements. This paper aims to create, evaluate, and compare surrogates built to replace a complex thermodynamic-economic code used to indicate the specific cost (US$/kWe) and efficiency of optimized ORCs. The ORCs are optimized under different heat sources conditions in respect to their operational state, configuration, working fluid and thermal fluid, aiming at a minimal specific cost. The costs of 1449.05, 1045.24, and 638.80 US$/kWe and energy efficiencies of 11.1%, 10.9%, and 10.4% were found for 100, 1000, and 50,000 kWt of heat transfer rate at average temperature of 345 °C. The R-square varied from 0.96 to 0.99 while the number of results with error lower than 5% varied from 88% to 75% depending on the surrogate model (random forest or polynomial regression) and output (specific cost or efficiency). The computational time was reduced in more than 99.9% for all surrogates indicated.

Bacterial supergroup specific “Cost” of Wolbachia infections in Nasonia vitripennis

The maternally-inherited endosymbiont, Wolbachia, is known to alter the reproductive biology of its arthropod hosts for its own benefit. It is also known to induce both positive and negative fitness effects in many hosts. Here we describe the effect of maintenance of two distinct Wolbachia infections, one each from supergroups A and B, on the parasitoid host Nasonia vitripennis. We compare the effect of Wolbachia infections on various traits between uninfected, single A, single B, and double infected strains. Contrary to the previous reports, our results suggest that there is a “significant cost” associated with the maintenance of Wolbachia infections where traits like progeny family size, fecundity, longevity and rates of male copulation is compromised in Wolbachia infected strains. The double infection of Wolbachia has more detrimental impacts on the host as compared to single infections, while the supergroup B infections elicits the most pronounced negative effect. These findings raise important questions on the mechanism of survival and maintenance of these reproductive parasites in arthropod hosts.

Canadian cost data associated with treating overactive bladder is lacking

Introduction: Cost-effectiveness analysis forms an integral part of the approval process for new medical treatments in Canada, including drug and non-drug technologies. This study’s primary objective was to identify peer-reviewed studies that report Canadian-specific cost data for treating overactive bladder (OAB) based on the Canadian Urological Association (CUA) guidelines. A secondary objective was to identify studies that report cost data from other healthcare jurisdictions that could be generalizable to the Canadian context. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the published peer-reviewed literature. We included studies from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, excluding the U.S., published in English since January 2009. Results: From 165 abstracts identified in our initial search, 18 studies were ultimately included for analysis. This included one Canadian-based study reporting costs in Canadian dollars, all related to second-line treatments. The other studies were primarily from Europe, reporting costs in Euros or U.K. pounds. There were no studies reporting costs for first-line treatments. Gaps in costs for select second-line and third-line treatments recommended by the CUA were also identified. Conclusions: Canadian-specific cost data for OAB treatments published in the peer-reviewed literature is limited to a single study reporting costs for only a few second-line treatments sourced from a single province over 10 years ago. Cost data from other healthcare jurisdictions are available, but the generalizability of costs associated with third-line treatments is questionable.

Determinants of climbing energetic costs in humans

Previous studies in primates and other animals have shown that mass specific cost of transport (J kg−1 m−1) for climbing is independent of body size across species, but little is known about within-species allometry of climbing costs or the effects of difficulty and velocity. Here, we assess the effects of velocity, route difficulty, and anatomical variation on the energetic cost of climbing within humans. Twelve experienced rock climbers climbed on an indoor wall over a range of difficulty levels and velocities, with energy expenditure measured via respirometry. We found no effect of body mass or limb proportions on mass-specific cost of transport among subjects. Mass-specific cost of transport was negatively correlated with climbing velocity. Increased route difficulty was associated with slower climbing velocities and thus higher costs, but there was no statistically significant effect of route difficulty on energy expenditure independent of velocity. Finally, human climbing costs measured in this study were similar to published values for other primates, suggesting arboreal adaptations have a negligible effect on climbing efficiency.

A Data Adaptive Model for Retail Sales of Electricity

When fitting a model to a data set, the goal is to create a model that captures the trends present in the data. However, data often contains regions where the underlying model changes or exhibits shifts in certain parameters due to economic events. These locations in the data are known as changepoints, and ignoring them can result in high error and incorrect forecasts. By developing a specific cost function and optimizing using the genetic algorithm, we are able to locate and account for the changepoints in a given data set. We specifically apply this process to the retail sales of electricity in the United States by examining data sets from each state's residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. We demonstrate that, when changepoints are accounted for, model trends can be computed more accurately. We specifically explore this in the case of data sets that exhibit changepoints due to the 2020 (and ongoing) pandemic.

Show Me the Money

Background: Out-of-pocket medication costs for patients who have heart failure with reduced ejection fraction may be an important part of shared decision-making, but cost has generally been excluded from clinical discussions. This study reports patients’ perspectives on a decision aid for sacubitril/valsartan that explicitly addresses out-of-pocket costs. Methods: Structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction from 2 medical centers to elicit their views on a publicly available decision aid for sacubitril/valsartan that explicitly incorporates considerations related to out-of-pocket costs. Qualitative descriptive analysis was conducted. Results: Key themes identified were general enthusiasm for decision aids for medication decisions, openness on the part of patients to incorporation of cost into decision-making and the decision aid, requests for greater specificity regarding patient-specific cost, and challenges communicating evidence of benefit in a way that allows patients to make cost-benefit analyses for themselves. Patients also raised questions regarding logistical challenges of incorporating a decision aid into the normal clinical and decision-making workflow. Conclusions: Patients were receptive to the inclusion of out-of-pocket cost as relevant in a decision aid for sacubitril/valsartan. Key challenges to effective integration of cost in these decisions include developing mechanisms for acquiring reliable patient-specific cost estimates and addressing patients’ difficulties (and sometimes skepticism) applying trial evidence to their own situation. In addition, implementation strategies are important to develop to facilitate decision aid integration for routine medical decisions into clinic workflow.

Statistical Modeling of the Ecological Risks as a Factor of the Ecological Safety

In modern conditions, the priority of Ukraine’s national interests is to ensure environmentally safe living conditions of society, as well as the preservation and restoration of the natural environment, increasing requirements for environmental safety. The purpose of this article is the statistical modelling of environmental risks to determine the direction of justification of management decisions on environmental safety. This necessitates the implementation of the effective methods of environmental safety regulation, assessment and monitoring of environmental risk. The author clarifies the definition of environmental safety as a set of conditions and processes that provide all vital human needs and do not provide for the deterioration of the future generations living conditions in terms of economic and environmental balance to achieve sustainable economic development. As an object of statistical research, environmental safety is a component of national security, which reflects the quantitative parameters of the environmental pollution risks. The environmental risks’ modelling is performed by using trend models in the article. The difference between the real levels of air and water resources pollution, as well as the generation of hazardous waste of I-III classes and their theoretical values calculated by the model, assesses the pollution risk of the corresponding environmental resource. The specific cost of air pollution, water bodies, and hazardous waste is defined as the ratio of the amount of environmental payments of the last year to the amount of actual pollution of the same year, that is environmental payments per 1 unit of pollution. Further assessment of the risk cost is proposed to be defined as the product of the calculated deviations excess proportion and the specific cost of pollution by types. For Ukraine today the most acute problems are pollution of water resources, as well as the formation of hazardous waste, much lower than air pollution. The obtained results allow drawing a conclusion about the inefficiency of the current payment system for environmental pollution and compensation for damage, which requires an increase in capital investment in environmental equipment, increasing fines for non-compliance with pollution standards.