We propose a decision procedure for a general class of normed commutative process rewrite systems and their induced bisimulation equivalences. Our technique is inspired by the polynomial-time algorithm for strong bisimilarity on normed Basic Parallel Processes (BPP), developed by Hirshfeld, Jerrum and Moller. As part of our framework we present a generic unique decomposition result, which we ob...

We study the question whether there is a computational advantage in deciding properties of Boolean functions given a succinct description of the function (such as a Boolean circuit) as opposed to black-box access to the function. We argue that a significant computational advantage for a large class of properties implies a non-trivial algorithm for the Circuit Satisfiability (Circuit-SAT) proble...

This is the first study to assess the associations between the trajectories of marijuana use and other predictors of violent behavior with the use of guns or other weapons as well as stealing without the use of weapons among inner-city African Americans and Puerto Ricans (N = 838). Logistic regression analyses examined whether the longitudinal trajectories of marijuana use compared with the tra...

Introduction: Fetal thrombotic vasculopathy is a recently described placental alteration with varying degrees of involvement and often associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. The diagnosis is made histologically and therefore is postnatal, which makes it a challenge in clinical practice. Method: Case report and review of literature on the subject. Results: The present case refers to a p...

Accurate retrieval of particulate backscattering coefficients has been a great challenge in optically complex Case 2 waters. Although several models exist for retrieval of the Inherent Optical Properties (IOP’s) such as particulate backscattering (bbp) from the remote sensing reflectance, these models produce bbp with high errors mainly because of improper parameterization or inappropriate defi...

Evolutionary trees sit at the core of all realistic models describing a set of related sequences, including alignment, homology search, ancestral protein reconstruction and 2D/3D structural change. It is important to assess the stochastic error when estimating a tree, including models using the most realistic likelihood-based optimizations, yet computation times may be many days or weeks. If so...

INTRODUCTION Pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH), especially preeclampsia, is a state of extremely increased oxidative stress (OS), due to decrease of antioxidant capacity in comparison to normotensive pregnant women. The consequences of increased state of oxidative stress with hypertension disorder in pregnancy are disorder of placental blood flow, intrauterine hypoxia of the fetus and distur...

Objective: Evaluating the effect of antenatal betamethasone on the biophysical profile and Doppler indices of umbilical and middle cerebral arteries. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five preterm labor singleton pregnancies (gestational age, 26-34 weeks) were studied prospectively. These patients received two consecutive doses of betamethasone 24 hours apart to accelerate pulmonary maturation. Fet...