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The management of tandem extracranial internal carotid artery and intracranial large vessel occlusion during endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) has been under-investigated. We sought to investigate outcomes of AIS patients with tandem occlusion (TO) treated with carotid artery stenting (CAS) compared to those not treated with CAS (no-CAS) during EVT.We performed a cohort study using data from AIS patients enrolled in the Italian Registry of Endovascular Treatment in Acute Stroke. Outcomes were 3 months' mortality, functional outcome, complete and successful recanalization, any intracranial hemorrhage, parenchymal hematoma and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage.Among 466 AIS patients with TO, CAS patients were 122 and no-CAS patients were 226 (118 excluded). After adjustment for unbalanced variables, CAS was associated with a lower rate of 3 months' mortality (OR 0.407, 95% CI 0.171-0.969, p = 0.042). After adjustment for pre-defined variables, CAS was associated with a lower rate of 3 months' mortality (aOR 0.430, 95% CI 0.187-0.989, p = 0.047) and a higher rate of complete recanalization (aOR 1.986, 95% CI 1.121-3.518, p = 0.019), successful recanalization (aOR 2.433, 95% CI 1.263-4.686, p = 0.008) and parenchymal hematoma (aOR 2.876, 95% CI 1.173-7.050, p = 0.021). CAS was associated with lower 3 months mortality (OR 0.373, 95% CI 0.141-0.982, p = 0.046) and higher rates of successful recanalization (OR 2.082, 95% CI 1.099-3.942, p = 0.024) after adjustment for variables associated with 3 months' mortality and successful recanalization, respectively.Among AIS patients with TO, CAS during EVT was associated with a higher rate of successful reperfusion and a lower rate of 3 months' mortality.

We study the relationship between a notion of conjunction among conditional events, introduced in recent papers, and the notion of Frank t-norm. By examining different cases, in the setting of coherence, we show each time that the conjunction coincides with a suitable Frank t-norm. In particular, the conjunction may coincide with the Product t-norm, the Minimum t- norm, and Lukasiewicz t-norm. We show by a counterexample, that the prevision assessments obtained by Lukasiewicz t-norm may be not coherent. Then, we give some conditions of coherence when using Lukasiewicz t-norm.

Background and Purpose: To evaluate outcome and safety of endovascular treatment beyond 6 hours of onset of ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion in the anterior circulation, in routine clinical practice. Methods: From the Italian Registry of Endovascular Thrombectomy, we extracted clinical and outcome data of patients treated for stroke of known onset beyond 6 hours. Additional inclusion criteria were prestroke modified Rankin Scale score ≤2 and ASPECTS score ≥6. Patients were selected on individual basis by a combination of CT perfusion mismatch (difference between total hypoperfusion and infarct core sizes) and CT collateral score. The primary outcome measure was the score on modified Rankin Scale at 90 days. Safety outcomes were 90-day mortality and the occurrence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. Data were compared with those from patients treated within 6 hours. Results: Out of 3057 patients, 327 were treated beyond 6 hours. Their mean age was 66.8±14.9 years, the median baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale 16, and the median onset to groin puncture time 430 minutes. The most frequent site of occlusion was middle cerebral artery (45.1%). Functional independence (90-day modified Rankin Scale score, 0–2) was achieved by 41.3% of cases. Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage occurred in 6.7% of patients, and 3-month case fatality rate was 17.1%. The probability of surviving with modified Rankin Scale score, 0–2 (odds ratio, 0.58 [95% CI, 0.43–0.77]) was significantly lower in patients treated beyond 6 hours as compared with patients treated earlier No differences were found regarding recanalization rates and safety outcomes between patients treated within and beyond 6 hours. There were no differences in outcome between people treated 6-12 hours from onset (278 patients) and those treated 12 to 24 hours from onset (49 patients). Conclusions: This real-world study suggests that in patients with large vessel occlusion selected on the basis of CT perfusion and collateral circulation assessment, endovascular treatment beyond 6 hours is feasible and safe with no increase in symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage.

We generalize, by a progressive procedure, the notions of conjunction and disjunction of two conditional events to the case of $n$ conditional events. In our coherence-based approach, conjunctions and disjunctions are suitable conditional random quantities. We define the notion of negation, by verifying De Morgan's Laws. We also show that conjunction and disjunction satisfy the associative and commutative properties, and a monotonicity property. Then, we give some results on coherence of prevision assessments for some families of compounded conditionals; in particular we examine the Fr'echet-Hoeffding bounds. Moreover, we study the reverse probabilistic inference from the conjunction $mathcal{C}_{n+1}$ of $n+1$ conditional events to the family ${mathcal{C}_{n},E_{n+1}|H_{n+1}}$. We consider the relation with the notion of quasi-conjunction and we examine in detail the coherence of the prevision assessments related with the conjunction of three conditional events. Based on conjunction, we also give a characterization of p-consistency and of p-entailment, with applications to several inference rules in probabilistic nonmonotonic reasoning. Finally, we examine some non p-valid inference rules; then, we illustrate by an example two methods which allow to suitably modify non p-valid inference rules in order to get inferences which are p-valid.

We deepen the study of a notion of conjunction among conditional events, introduced in previous papers in theframework of coherence. This notion of conjunction, differently from other approaches, is given in the setting ofconditional random quantities. We show that some well known properties which are satisfied by conjunctionsof unconditional events are also satisfied by conjunctions of conditional events. In particular we examine anadditive property and a decomposition formula, by also obtaining a generalized inclusion-exclusion formula. Then,by exploiting the notion of conjunction, we introduce the set of constituents generated bynconditional events.Moreover, under logical independence, we give a necessary and sufficient condition of coherence for the previsionassessments on a familyFconstituted bynconditional events and all possible conjunctions among some of them.This condition of coherence has a simple geometrical characterization in terms of a suitable convex hull. Such acharacterization amounts to the solvability of a linear system as in the case of unconditional events. Then, weillustrate the set of all coherent assessments on the familyFby a list of linear inequalities on the componentsof the prevision assessment. Finally, given a coherent assessmentMonF, we show that every possible value ofthe random vector associated withFis itself a particular coherent assessment onF.

We discuss the problem of defining logical operations among conditional events. Differently from many authors, we define the conjunction and disjunction in the setting of conditional random quantities. In probability theory and in probability logic a relevant problem, largely discussed by many authors, is that of defining logical operations among conditional events. In the many works concerning these operations, the conjunction and disjunction have been usually defined as suitable conditional events. In Kaufmann 2009 it has been proposed a theory for the compounds of conditionals which has been framed in the setting of coherence in (Gilio and Sanfilippo , 2013, 2014) In this framework, which is quantitative rather than a logical one, conjunction and disjunction of conditional events are interpreted as conditional random quantities (c.r.q.'s), which can sometimes reduce to conditional events given logical dependencies. In our approach, given a random quantity $X$ and a non impossible event $H$ (we use the same symbols to refer to the event $H$ and its indicator), we look at a c.r.q. $X|H$ as an extended quantity $XH + mu o{H}$, where $mu$ is the conditional prevision $pr(X|H)$ which is subjectively evaluated. In particular (the indicator of) a conditional event $A|H$ is looked at as $AH + P(A|H) o{H}$. In this way, based on the betting scheme of de Finetti and its generalizations, the c.r.q. $X|H$ may be interpreted as the amount that you receive (resp., pay) in a bet on $X$ conditional on $H$, if you agree to pay (resp., to receive) $pr(X|H)$. This extended notion allows algebraic developments among c.r.q.'s also when the conditioning events are different. Then, among other things, we can give a meaning to the conjunction and disjunction of conditional events and we can define the notion of iterated conditionals; in particular we obtain that the usual probabilistic properties are preserved. Therefore, we consider the coherent prevision of these suitable random quantities as the generalization of the corresponding coherent probabilistic versions of unconditional events. These notions are relevant in natural language for a probabilistic interpretation of the conjunction, disjunction and iteration of conditionals. In particular they are useful for the probabilistic approaches in the psychology of reasoning and in the conditional syllogisms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of indebtedness in the capital structure of French farms, in order to understand how they finance their investments. The methodology is based on three main theoretical frameworks associated with capital structure in the financial literature: the trade-off theory, the pecking order theory and the signaling theory. We use data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) during the period 2000-2014, which are representative of French professional farms. A simultaneous equation model (3SLS) is estimated in order to explain the financing of farms by short- and long-term debt and the level of investments. The paper complements previous studies by validating parts of the financial literature for farm businesses. Notably, the model reveals that farmers prefer to finance their investments using first internal funds, second long-term debt and third short-term debt. Over the years, the capital structure of French farms remains quite stable, although it has progressively integrated more short-term debt. Practical implications in terms of farm financing are then suggested. Acknowledgement : The authors acknowledge financial support from the French research agency ( Agence Nationale de la Recherche -ANR) in the frame of the research project FARM_VALUE Farm value and farm transfer: perspectives from economics and sociology (ANR-15-CE36-0006-01).

OBJECTIVE—To evaluate the impact of a continuous quality improvement effort implemented by a network of diabetes outpatient clinics in Sicily, Italy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Twenty-two clinics adopted the same electronic medical record system. Process and intermediate outcomes indicators were identified and software was developed, enabling the extraction of the information needed for the profiling of quality of care. Data were centrally analyzed anonymously every year, and results were discussed in meetings with the participants. The performances of the different centers were ranked against the “best performers,” and the reasons for variation were discussed. RESULTS—From 2001 to 2005, a total of 26,782 patients aged ≥18 years have been seen in the participating clinics. Rates of monitoring of A1C, blood pressure, lipid profile, and microalbuminuria constantly increased over the years. The percentage of individuals with A1C values ≤7.0% increased by 16.6%, while the proportion of patients with blood pressure ≤130/85 mmHg increased by 10.7%. The percentage of individuals with LDL cholesterol levels CONCLUSIONS—We found a strong consistency between increasing rates of monitoring, increasing drug prescription, and better levels of intermediate outcomes. Despite the satisfactory achievements, a substantial room for improvement in the care of diabetes still persists.

In this paper we consider general conditional random quantities of the kind $X|Y$, where $X$ and $Y$ are finite discrete random quantities. Then, we introduce the notion of coherence for conditional prevision assessments on finite families of general conditional random quantities. Moreover, we give a compound prevision theorem and we examine the relation between the previsions of $X|Y$ and $Y|X$. Then, we give some results on random gains and, by a suitable alternative theorem, we obtain a characterization of coherence. We also propose an algorithm for the checking of coherence. Finally, we briefly examine the case of imprecise conditional prevision assessments by introducing the notions of generalized and total coherence. To illustrate our results, we consider some examples.

In this paper we consider imprecise conditional prevision assessments on random quantities with finite set of possible values. We use a notion of generalized coherence which is based on the coherence principle of de Finetti. We consider the checking of g-coherence, by extending some previous results obtained for imprecise conditional probability assessments. Then, we study a connection property of interval-valued gcoherent prevision assessments, by extending a result given in a previous paper for precise assessments.

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The aim of this study is to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of perineal ultrasound versus cystography in patients affected by urinary incontinence (UI). 40 patients affected by UI were evaluated by voiding cystography and by perineal ultrasound through sagittal scans. Bladder floor related to public simphysis, urethro-vesical angle, bladder neck dilatation after an increase of abdominal pressure with or without urine leakage, were checked. The comparison with urinary cystography gave similar results. In our experience perineal ultrasound study of pelvic floor showed, in the evaluation of urinary incontinence, the same accuracy of the urinary cystography. Ultrasound study allows a good visualization of the anatomic structures of the pelvic floor and of the lower urinary tract and a good evaluation of the tissues; it also offers easy performance, low cost, less invasivity and a better compliance.

We study probabilistic logic under the viewpoint of the coherence principle of de Finetti. In detail, we explore the relationship between coherence-based and model-theoretic probabilistic logic. Interestingly, we show that the notions of g-coherence and of g-coherent entailment can be expressed by combining notions in model-theoretic probabilistic logic with concepts from default reasoning. Crucially, we even show that probabilistic reasoning under coherence is a probabilistic generalization of default reasoning in system P. That is, we provide a new probabilistic semantics for system P, which is neither based on infinitesimal probabilities nor on atomic-bound (or also big-stepped) probabilities. These results also give new insight into default reasoning with conditional objects.