University of Colorado Colorado Springs

About: University of Colorado Colorado Springs is a education organization based out in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 6664 authors who have published 10872 publications receiving 323416 citations. The organization is also known as: UCCS & University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Computer simulation of a breast cancer metastasis model

Abstract: Recent analysis of relapse data from 1173 untreatedearly stage breast cancer patients with 16–20 yearfollow-up shows that the frequency of relapse hasa double peaked distribution. There is a sharppeak at 18 months, a nadir at 50months and a broad peak at 60 months.Patients with larger tumors more frequently relapse inthe first peak while those with smaller tumorsrelapse equally in both peaks.No existing theory of tumor growth predicts thiseffect. To help understand this phenomenon, a modelof metastatic growth has been proposed consisting ofthree distinct phases: a single cell, an avasculargrowth, and a vascularized lesion. Computer simulation ofthis model shows that the second relapse peakcan be explained by a steady stochastic progressionfrom one phase to the next phase. However,to account for the first relapse peak, asudden perturbation of that development at the timeof surgery is necessary.Model simulations predict that patients who relapse inthe second peak would have micrometastases in statesof relatively low chemosensitivity when adjuvant therapy isnormally administered. The simulation predicts that 15% ofT1, 39% of T2, and 51% of T3staged patients benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, partially offsettingthe advantage of early detection. This suggests thatearly detection and adjuvant chemotherapy may not besymbiotic strategies. New therapies are needed to benefitpatients who would relapse in the second peak.

Particle Swarm Optimization

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to show how the search algorithm known as particle swarm optimization performs. Here, particle swarm optimization is applied to structural design problems, but the method has a much wider range of possible applications. The paper's new contributions are improvements to the particle swarm optimization algorithm and conclusions and recommendations as to the utility of the algorithm, Results of numerical experiments for both continuous and discrete applications are presented in the paper. The results indicate that the particle swarm optimization algorithm does locate the constrained minimum design in continuous applications with very good precision, albeit at a much higher computational cost than that of a typical gradient based optimizer. However, the true potential of particle swarm optimization is primarily in applications with discrete and/or discontinuous functions and variables. Additionally, particle swarm optimization has the potential of efficient computation with very large numbers of concurrently operating processors.

Transition Policy: Infusing Self-Determination and Self-Advocacy into Transition Programs:

Abstract: A SENSE OF DESTINY facilitates success (Coleman, 1966). Successful people assess their needs, determine goals, plan actions, act, monitor their performance, and make any needed adjustments (Mithaug, Martin, & Agran, 1987). Unfortunately, many students leaving our nation’s special education programs lack a sense of destiny (White, et al., 1982). They do not advocate for their own interests (Allen, 1989). During their final school years students remain dependent upon teachers, support staff, and parents to make decisions, evaluate performance, and make needed connections to post-school services (Chadsey-Rusch, Rusch, & O’Reilly, 1991). After exiting school, many former special education students can’t plan their future, remain unemployed or underemployed, and experience a quality of life remarkably different from their nondisabled peers (Hasazi, Gordon, & Roe, 1985; Mithaug, Horiuchi, & Fanning, 1985; McNair & Rusch, 1990; Neel, Meadows, Levine, & Edgar, 1988; Wagner, 1989, 1991).

Executive Functions of the Frontal Lobes and the Evolutionary Ascendancy of Homo Sapiens

Abstract: A core question of cognitive archaeology is the evolution of modern thinking. In this article, it is argued that a cluster of specific cognitive abilities, / executive functions', was one of the key evolutionary acquisitions that led to the development of modern thinking. A review of the history of executive functions is presented as well as current opinions as to their nature and genetic basis. Examples are also presented from the cognitive archaeologi­ cal record that may be representative of executive functions in the evolution of modern thought. One of the core questions of cognitive archaeology concerns the evolution of modem thought. When did modem thinking appear, and what were the circumstances of this evolutionary breakthrough? Some features of the human mind appear to be very old; spatial cognition, for example, appears to have been essentially modem prior to the end of the Acheulean several hundred thousand years ago (Wynn 1989). Yet culture was not modem, lacking many elements of complexity that characterize the modem world. There is a general consensus among palaeoanthropologists that humans possessed mod­ em cognitive abilities by the time of the European Upper Palaeolithic, largely because all of the famil­ iar elements of modem culture were in place, in­ duding ritual and art. Explaining this development has not been as easy. Richard Klein, for example, has recently suggested that the key was the 'neural ca­ pacity for language or for "symboling''', which re­ sulted from a rapid 'biological' change within the last 100,000 years (Klein 2000). This is congruent with Davidson & Noble's argument for the origins of language (Davidson & Noble 1989; Noble & Davidson 1996). Other scholars have invoked cogni­ tive abilities. Donald (1991) has suggested that exter­ nally stored symbols were the key, Mithen (1996) has emphasized the evolution of 'cognitive fluidity', and Shepard (1997) has posited evolution of abilities of internal representation that enable mental re­ hearsal. While all are reasonable hypotheses, based