| 1. |
- Derogar, Maryam, et al.
(författare)
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Preparedness for side effects and bother in symptomatic men after radical prostatectomy in a prospective, non-randomized trial
- 2016
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Ingår i: Acta Oncologica. - 0284-186X .- 1651-226X. ; 55:12, s. 1467-1476
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Many clinicians believe that preparedness before surgery for possible post-surgery side effects reduces the level of bother experienced from urinary incontinence and decreased sexual health after surgery. There are no published studies evaluating this belief. Therefore, we aimed to study the level of preparedness before radical prostatectomy and the level of bother experienced from urinary incontinence and decreased sexual health after surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We prospectively collected data from a non-selected group of men undergoing radical prostatectomy in 14 centers between 2008 and 2011. Before surgery, we asked about preparedness for surgery-induced urinary problems and decreased sexual health. One year after surgery, we asked about bother caused by urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. As a measure of the association between preparedness and bothersomeness we modeled odds ratios (ORs) by means of logistic regression. RESULTS: Altogether 1372 men had urinary incontinence one year after surgery as well as had no urinary leakage or a small urinary dribble before surgery. Among these men, low preparedness was associated with bother resulting from urinary incontinence [OR 2.84; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.59-5.10]. In a separate analysis of 1657 men we found a strong association between preparedness for decreased sexual health and experiencing bother from erectile dysfunction (OR 5.92; 95% CI 3.32-10.55). CONCLUSION: In this large-sized prospective trial, we found that preparedness before surgery for urinary problems or sexual side effects decreases bother from urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction one year after surgery.
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| 2. |
- Goding, Louise Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Preferences for bio jet fuel in Sweden: The case of business travel from a city airport
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sustainable energy technologies and assessments. - : Elsevier BV. - 2213-1388 .- 2213-1396. ; 29, s. 60-69
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A viable green alternative to petroleum-based jet fuel is urgently needed in order for the aviation industry to meet its environmental targets. This study elicited Swedish business organisations' willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for flights using bio-fuel blends using a contingent valuation approach. It also examined whether certain company characteristics had an effect on the stated WTP. It was found that the overall mean price premium amounted to 11.9 percent of the base price of flights, which is not high enough to cover the actual costs to airlines of using a 50/50 fuel blend. Only one-third of the respondents reported sufficiently high WTP to cover the associated costs of using bio jet fuel at current price levels. Furthermore, organisations that encouraged employees to choose the least expensive ticket at all times had lower WTP than organisations with no explicit travel policy. Accordingly, use of least-cost travel policies would prevent commercialisation of bio jet fuel. Moreover, voluntary actions by organisations in the form of price premiums on green flights could not create Swedish market demand for bio jet fuel. Development of other policy instruments is therefore vital to establish long-term market predictability and demand.
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| 4. |
- Lagerkvist, Mikael Z., et al.
(författare)
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Advisors for incremental propagation
- 2007
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Ingår i: Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming - CP 2007. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 9783540749691 ; , s. 409-422
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- While incremental propagation for global constraints is recognized to be important, little research has been devoted to how propagator-centered constraint programming systems should support incremental propagation. This paper introduces advisors as a simple and efficient, yet widely applicable method for supporting incremental propagation in a propagator-centered setting. The paper presents how advisors can be used for achieving different forms of incrementality and evaluates cost and benefit for several global constraints.
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| 5. |
- Lagerkvist, Mikael Zayenz, et al.
(författare)
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Propagator Groups
- 2009
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Ingår i: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 9783642042430 ; , s. 524-538
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper introduces propagator groups as an abstraction for controlling the execution of propagators as implementations of constraints. Propagator groups enable users of a constraint programming system to program how propagators within a group are executed. The paper exemplifies propagator groups for controlling both propagation order and propagator interaction. Controlling propagation order is applied to debugging constraint propagation and optimal constraint propagation for Berge-acyclic propagator graphs. Controlling propagator interaction by encapsulating failure and entailment is applied to general reification and constructive disjunction. The paper describes an implementation of propagator groups (based on Gecode) that is applicable to any propagator-centered constraint programming system. Experiments show that groups incur little to no overhead and that the applications of groups axe practically usable and efficient.
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| 6. |
- Lagerkvist, Mikael Zayenz, 1981-
(författare)
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Techniques for Efficient Constraint Propagation
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores three new techniques for increasing the efficiency of constraint propagation: support for incremental propagation, improved representation of constraints, and abstractions to simplify propagation. Support for incremental propagation is added to a propagator centered propagation system by adding a new intermediate layer of abstraction, advisors, that capture the essential aspects of a variable centered system. Advisors are used to give propagators a detailed view of the dynamic changes between propagator runs. Advisors enable the implementation of optimal algorithms for important constraints such as extensional constraints and Boolean linear in-equations, which is not possible in a propagator centered system lacking advisors. Using Multivalued Decision Diagrams (MDD) as the representation for extensional constraints is shown to be useful for several reasons. Classical operations on MDDs can be used to optimize the representation, and thus speeding up the propagation. In particular, the reduction operation is stronger than the use of DFA minimization for the regular constraint. The use of MDDs is contrasted and compared to a recent proposal where tables are compressed. Abstractions for constraint programs try to capture small and essential features of a model. These features may be much cheaper to propagate than the unabstracted program. The potential for abstraction is explored using several examples. These three techniques work on different levels. Support for incremental propagation is essential for the efficient implementation of some constraints, so that the algorithms have the right complexity. On a higher level, the question of representation looks at what a propagator should use for propagation. Finally, the question of abstraction can potentially look at several propagators, to find cases where abstractions might be fruitful. An essential feature of this thesis is a novel model for general placement constraints that uses regular expressions. The model is very versatile and can be used for several different kinds of placement problems. The model applied to the classic pentominoes puzzle will be used through-out the thesis as an example and for experiments.
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| 7. |
- Lundholm, Carl, et al.
(författare)
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A randomized prospective study comparing long-term intravesical instillations of mitomycin-c and BCG in patients with superficial bladder carcinoma
- 1996
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Ingår i: Journal of Urology. - 0022-5347 .- 1527-3792. ; 156:2, s. 372-376
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PURPOSE: We compared the efficacy and toxicity of long-term mitomycin C versus bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) instillation in patients at high risk for recurrence and progression of superficial bladder carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our randomized comparison study included 261 patients with primary dysplasia, or stage Tis, stage T1, grade 3 and multiple recurrent stage Ta/T1, grade 1 or 2 disease. Mitomycin C (40 mg.) or Pasteur strain BCG (120 mg.) was instilled weekly for 6 weeks, then monthly for up to 1 year and every 3 months during year 2. RESULTS: After a median followup of 39 months 49% of the patients given BCG and 34% given mitomycin C were disease-free (p < 0.03), compared to 48 and 35%, respectively, of those with stage Ta or T1 disease, and 54 and 33%, respectively, of those with dysplasia or stage Tis tumor. Tumor progressed in 13% of patients, with no statistically significant difference observed regarding progression between the mitomycin C and BCG groups. Side effects were more common after BCG instillation, with 5 cases of severe side effects compared to 1 in the mitomycin C group. Treatment was stopped due to toxicity in 10% of the patients. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients tolerated long-term intravesical therapy well. BCG instillation was hampered by more frequent side effects. BCG was superior regarding recurrence prophylaxis, since patients given BCG had fewer recurrences and a significantly longer time to treatment failure compared to those treated with mitomycin C. No statistically significant difference was observed regarding progression.
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