Class of 2010 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: This is a selective systematic review of the methods used to monitor for the ocular adverse effects of chronic hydroxychloroquine use. This was done to describe the screening methods for detecting retinal toxicity and the recommendations for early detection of hydroxychloroquine associated retinopathy. METHODS: A literature search of OVID-MEDLINE and the Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) search database in the AHSL website were performed for the date range October 1999 to October 2009. Articles were selected based on content related to our purpose statement. Each article must have had at least one or more ophthalmic screening test including: fundus photography, Amsler grid, perimetry, color vision, and multifocal electroretinography. RESULTS: The search results returned a total of 67 articles. A total of twelve articles were selected for review. A total of 959 human subjects were studied and 22 patients had reported retinal changes attributed to hydroxychloroquine. Nine of the eleven studies that included mfERG recommended this specific test for monitoring for hydroxychloroquine induced retinopathy. Only six of the studies recommended the frequency of testing. The most common recommendation was to test at baseline and then at least annually. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest the mfERG is the most sensitive and objective exam for early documentation of toxic retinopathy. In addition baseline and annual testing was suggested most often. The data also suggest that high risk patients be followed more closely as the most severe and irreversible damage occurs in this population.

This thesis is concerned first with, establishing an appropriate vacancy into which an individual critical method might fit, and second, with defending that method.

Some of the properties of the specific summation methods will be investigated, such as what type of divergent series a method can or cannot sum, if the insertion of zeros into a series does change the sum, and when different methods give the same sum for a series.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of three common grips used in four-mallet playing. The three grips were referred to as (a) the Musser grip, (b) the cross stick grip No. 1, and (c) the cross stick grip No. 2. A thorough description (including illustrations) was given for each grip. The evaluation of efficiency was made through research testing, which was conducted by the author. Forty individuals participated in the research testing. Four tests were conducted, and each test had ten participants. The individuals who participated in Tests I, II and III had no previous four-mallet experience. The individuals who participated in Test IV had previous four-mallet experience. The evaluation of the efficiency covered by the four tests was limited to (a) horizontal movement of the outside mallet(s), (b) horizontal movement of the inside mallet(s), and (c) horizontal movement of the hand (s). According to Tests I, II and III, the majority of beginning four-mallet players will find the cross stick grip No. 2 the easiest and most efficient (as far as the three movements which were tested are concerned) of the three grips. However, some individuals (a much smaller percentage) will prefer either the Musser grip or the cross stick grip No. 1. Many beginners will find the Musser grip extremely difficult. A very small percentage of beginning four-mallet students will have poor efficiency using cross stick grip No. 2. According to the results of Test IV, the efficiency of the Musser grip and the cross stick grip No. 2 improve at a faster rate than does the efficiency of the cross stick grip No. 1. The movements tested in this study are extremely important when playing with four mallets. However, this study was limited to the testing of three types of horizontal movements and, therefore, did not cover all the aspects of four-mallet playing. Because all factors were not included in this study, no one grip was proven to be ultimately the "'best." Each individual four-mallet player must decide for himself which grip is best suited for his particular needs. The findings of this study should aid in making that decision.

The problem of this study is to determine the effects of two different social climates, as created by different teaching methods, upon the characteristics of college class groups. The social climates utilized in the present investigation were: (a) a democratic social climate, and (b) an autocratic social climate. The actual meaning of the adjectives used to label these social climates is necessarily somewhat different from the meanings attributed to them in political or economic discussions.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of two methods of teaching literature. An attempt will be made to ascertain whether the teacher-directed method or the free-reading method will be more effective in meeting the needs of the elementary children in the field of literature.

Large and variable polarization is an inherent property of a majority of blazars. Systematic rotations of the polarization vector have been claimed for several blazars. In some cases, however, the reality of these rotations may be questionable. We suggest an additional method for the verification of the reality of polarization position angle rotations based on the correlation of the normalized Stokes parameters.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2015. / Crowd simulation can be thought of as a group of entities interacting with one another. Traditionally, an animated entity would require precise scripts so that it can function in a virtual environment autonomously. Previous studies on crowd simulation have been used in real world applications but these methods are not learning agents and are therefore unable to adapt and change their behaviours. The state of the art crowd simulation methods include flow based, particle and strategy based models. A reinforcement learning agent could learn how to navigate, behave and interact in an environment without explicit design. Then a group of reinforcement learning agents should be able to act in a way that simulates a crowd. This thesis investigates the believability of crowd behavioural simulation via three multi-agent reinforcement learning methods. The methods are Q-learning in multi-agent markov decision processes model, joint state action Q-learning and joint state value iteration algorithm. The three learning methods are able to produce believable and realistic crowd behaviours.

This report describes our work in pricing options using computational methods. First, I collected the historical asset prices for assets in four economic sectors to estimate model parameters, such as asset returns and covariances. Then I used these parameters to model asset prices using multiple geometric Brownian motion and simulate new asset prices. Using the generated prices, I used Monte Carlo methods and control variates to price call options. Next I used the binomial tree model to price put options, which I was introduced to in the course Math 571: Financial Mathematics I. Using the estimated put and call option prices together with some stocks, I formed a portfolio in an Interactive Brokers paper account . This project was done a part of the masters capstone course Math 573: Computational Methods of Financial Mathematics.

3 Abstract Gravimetry is an enormously expanding geophysical exploration method during the last decade. Unfortunately the gravity inversion ambiguity problem introduces the necessity to constrain gravity model parameters by other independent data. Overview of gravity data processing and interpretation is presented. All stages of the project lifecycle are discussed with emphasis to the methodological aspects and new challenges introduced by common use of modern digital zero-length spring gravimeters. Special attention is drawn on approaches used in the presented case histories projects. Description of the interpretation stage of the project concentrates on constraining of gravity model parameters with a complex of geophysical and geological data in order to reduce ambiguity of the inversion process in gravimetry. In addition, approaches used for delineation of tectonic structures, an important aspect of the interpretation stage, are described. Three case histories examples are presented to demonstrate methodological aspects of the interpretation of gravity data. They are focused on environmental problems and tectonic structure assessment. The first project represents an attempt to use micro-gravity for determination of internal structure of an undocumented sealed landfill. The second project demonstrates...