Luxembourg: Grand-Duke Henri’s refusal, in 2008, to sign the bill legalizing euthanasia

in Hazell, Robert; Morris, Bob (Eds.) The Role of Monarchy in Modern Democracy. European Monarchies Compared (2020)

Development and evaluation of a harmonized whole body physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for flutamide in rats and its extrapolation to humans.

in Environmental research (2020), 182

By their definition, inadvertent exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) intervenes with the endocrine signalling system, even at low dose. On the one hand, some EDCs are used as important ... [more ▼]

By their definition, inadvertent exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) intervenes with the endocrine signalling system, even at low dose. On the one hand, some EDCs are used as important pharmaceutical drugs that one would not want to dismiss. On the other hand, these pharmaceutical drugs are having off-target effects and increasingly significant exposure to the general population with unwanted health implications. Flutamide, one of the top pharmaceutical products marketed all over the world for the treatment of prostate cancer, is also a pollutant. Its therapeutic action mainly depends on targeting the androgen receptors and inhibiting the androgen action that is essential for growth and survival of prostate tissue. Currently flutamide is of concern with respect to its categorization as an endocrine disruptor. In this work we have developed a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model of flutamide that could serve as a standard tool for its human risk assessment. First we built the model for rat (where many parameters have been measured). The rat PBPK model was extrapolated to human where the re-parameterization involved human-specific physiology, metabolic kinetics derived from in-vitro studies, and the partition coefficient same as the rat model. We have harmonized the model by integrating different sets of in-vitro, in-vivo and physiological data into a PBPK model. Then the model was used to simulate different exposure scenarios and the results were compared against the observed data. Both uncertainty and sensitivity analysis was done. Since this new whole-body PBPK model can predict flutamide concentrations not only in plasma but also in various organs, the model may have clinical applications in efficacy and safety assessment of flutamide. The model can also be used for reverse dosimetry in the context of interpreting the available biomonitoring data to estimate the degree to which the population is currently being exposed, and a tool for the pharmaceutical companies to validate the estimated Permitted Daily Exposure (PDE) for flutamide. [less ▲]

Working toward equitable research practices: the value of highlighting complexity and respecting context

in Cultural Studies of Science Education (2020)

In this response paper, we reflect upon the contributions of Gallard Martínez, Pitts, Brkich, and Ramos de Robles (this issue) in their manuscript “How does one recognize contextual mitigating factors ... [more ▼]

In this response paper, we reflect upon the contributions of Gallard Martínez, Pitts, Brkich, and Ramos de Robles (this issue) in their manuscript “How does one recognize contextual mitigating factors (CMFs) as a basis to understand and arrive at better approaches to research designs” and elaborate the ways in which we work toward highlighting the contextual complexities within our own research. Our research focuses on working toward equitable practices for culturally and linguistically diverse children in science education, in order to draw on the many cultural and communicative resources they bring to primary school science investigations. We draw upon our previous and current research projects in this forum contribution to tease-apart CMFs related to issues of equity in teaching science with culturally and linguistically diverse primary school children in our national context in Luxembourg. We conclude with a consideration of how the process of unpacking a diverse array of CMFs relative to our work with students helps us select and employ theoretical lenses and research methodologies that position us to gather rich understandings of the complexities within our research contexts and in our work with children and teachers [less ▲]

Adaptive Graph Filters in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces: Design and Performance Analysis

in IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Networks (2020)

This paper develops adaptive graph filters that operate in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. We consider both centralized and fully distributed implementations. We first define nonlinear graph filters ... [more ▼]

This paper develops adaptive graph filters that operate in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. We consider both centralized and fully distributed implementations. We first define nonlinear graph filters that operate on graph-shifted versions of the input signal. We then propose a centralized graph kernel least mean squares (GKLMS) algorithm to identify nonlinear graph filters' model parameters. To reduce the dictionary size of the centralized GKLMS, we apply the principles of coherence check and random Fourier features (RFF). The resulting algorithms have performance close to that of the GKLMS algorithm. Additionally, we leverage the graph structure to derive the distributed graph diffusion KLMS (GDKLMS) algorithms. We show that, unlike the coherence check-based approach, the GDKLMS based on RFF avoids the use of a pre-trained dictionary through its data independent fixed structure. We conduct a detailed performance study of the proposed RFF-based GDKLMS, and the conditions for its convergence both in mean and mean-squared senses are derived. Extensive numerical simulations show that GKLMS and GDKLMS can successfully identify nonlinear graph filters and adapt to model changes. Furthermore, RFF-based strategies show faster convergence for model identification and exhibit better tracking performance in model-changing scenarios. [less ▲]

Exploring chemical compound space with quantum-based machine learning

in Nature Reviews. Chemistry (2020)

Clara Mortamet (dir.), L’orthographe. Pratiques d’élèves, pratiques d’enseignants, représentations

Article for general public (2020)

compte rendu / report

Assessment of the 2020 National Reform Programme

Report (2020)

From the perspective of primary, secondary and higher education, the 2020 NRP focuses on the two objectives (1) dropping out of school with a target rate under 10% and (2) higher education with a target ... [more ▼]

From the perspective of primary, secondary and higher education, the 2020 NRP focuses on the two objectives (1) dropping out of school with a target rate under 10% and (2) higher education with a target rate of people between 30 and 34 years of age having a HE qualification reaches 66%. At first glance, both of these target rates may not appear ambitious enough, since similar results have already been achieved in previous years (e.g., 9.3% ESL rate in 2015; see section 2.0). Nevertheless, in view of the specific situation of Luxembourg, which has the highest proportion of foreigners in the European Union, the rates described in the 2020 NRP appear appropriate. In order to achieve the objectives of the 2020 NRP on the ESL rate and the HE rate, the considerations formulated on lifelong learning appear to be of particular importance. [less ▲]

On the structure of symmetric $n$-ary bands

E-print/Working paper (2020)

We study the class of symmetric $n$-ary bands. These are $n$-ary semigroups $(X,F)$ such that $F$ is invariant under the action of permutations and idempotent, i.e., satisfies $F(x,\ldots,x)=x$ for all $x ... [more ▼]

We study the class of symmetric $n$-ary bands. These are $n$-ary semigroups $(X,F)$ such that $F$ is invariant under the action of permutations and idempotent, i.e., satisfies $F(x,\ldots,x)=x$ for all $x\in X$. We first provide a structure theorem for these symmetric $n$-ary bands that extends the classical (strong) semilattice decomposition of certain classes of bands. We introduce the concept of strong $n$-ary semilattice of $n$-ary semigroups and we show that the symmetric $n$-ary bands are exactly the strong $n$-ary semilattices of $n$-ary extensions of Abelian groups whose exponents divide $n-1$. Finally, we use the structure theorem to obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a symmetric $n$-ary band to be reducible to a semigroup. [less ▲]

Towards Partial Order Reductions for Strategic Ability

in Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (2020), 68

We propose a general semantics for strategic abilities of agents in asynchronous systems, with and without perfect information. Based on the semantics, we show some general complexity results for ... [more ▼]

We propose a general semantics for strategic abilities of agents in asynchronous systems, with and without perfect information. Based on the semantics, we show some general complexity results for verification of strategic abilities in asynchronous interaction. More importantly, we develop a methodology for partial order reduction in verification of agents with imperfect information. We show that the reduction preserves an important subset of strategic properties, with as well as without the fairness assumption. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of the reduction on a number of benchmarks. Interestingly, the reduction does not work for strategic abilities under perfect information. [less ▲]

Transport inequalities for random point measures

E-print/Working paper (2020)