Authors’ information KO and NS are members of the Medical Control

Authors’ information KO and NS are members of the Medical Control Council, Yokohama, Japan. NS is also the chairman of the council. Pre-publication history The pre-publication

history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-227X/9/21/prepub Acknowledgements The authors sincerely thank the members of the Yokohama Emergency Service Working Group. This work was supported by the Yokohama Safety Management Bureau; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [KAKENHI (C) 19590640]; and the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Japan Science and Technology Agency [Support Program 740800011].
Although pain is a commonly encountered Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical complaint in prehospital and emergency medicine Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical settings, evidence of inadequate analgesia

has been widely documented. Poor pain management practice has been described in the emergency department (ED)[1], and variations in pain management practice in this setting have been associated with ethnicity[2], gender[3], and extremes of age[4]. Reasons for inadequacies in pain management practice are likely to be multifactorial. Failure to assess for the presence and severity of pain may be one factor, as efforts to make pain measurement mandatory in the ED have been shown to improve the frequency of analgesic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical administration[5]. The importance of early and systematic assessment of pain is exemplified by recommendations to include pain as the “5th vital sign”[6], reinforcing the need to seek and record evidence of pain in every patient encounter. However, even when pain assessment is encouraged Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical or required, patients may be unable to communicate their experience to carers, or be reluctant to report pain due to concerns about treatment side effects or the possibility that they will be viewed as a complaining or difficult patient, a belief that has been documented in settings that include oncology [7] and aged care[8,9]. Paramedics have an important role Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in the assessment and management of pain, and are often a first point of contact for people experiencing

pain in the community. Effective management of pain in this context is made possible by evidence-based clinical practice guidelines that www.selleckchem.com/products/indoximod-nlg-8189.html enable paramedics to relieve pain by pharmacological and non-pharmacological means. However, effective management Cediranib (AZD2171) of pain depends on the paramedic’s ability to gather relevant clinical information to reveal the presence, nature and severity of the patient’s pain. As pain is a personal experience with external manifestations that are associated with significant interpersonal variations of expression[10] that limit generalisations regarding standards of pain behaviour, wherever possible the patient’s self report of pain should be sought to guide the clinician’s assessment and management of this complaint[11].

117 Oxidative stress markers are also correlated with decreased t

117 Oxidative stress markers are also correlated with decreased telomerase activity.118 Further, diminished levels of antioxidants reportedly lower BDNF activity.119 Interestingly, antidepressants decrease oxidative stress.120 Since cellular oxidative damage may be an important component of the aging process, prolonged or repeated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical exposure to oxidative stress might accelerate aspects of biological aging and promote the development of aging-related diseases in depressed individuals.114 It is unknown whether antioxidant treatment would retard stress- or depressionrelated aging; this is discussed below under “novel treatment implications.” Brain-derived

neurotrophic factor The “neurotrophic model” of depression74 emphasizes the centrality of neurogenesis

and neuronal plasticity in the pathophysiology of depression. It posits that diminished hippocampal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical BDNF activity, caused by stress or excessive GCs, impairs the ability of stem cells in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus (as well Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as cells in the subventricular zone, projecting to the prefrontal cortex) to remain viable and to proliferate into mature cells. It is not known whether such effects can cause depression, but they may be relevant to the mechanism of action of antidepressant treatments.121 Unmedicated patients with depression have decreased hippocampal (at autopsy) and serum concentrations of BDNF121,122 Over 20 studies have documented decreased serum concentrations of BDNF in unmedicated depressed individuals; this is now one of the most consistently replicated biochemical Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical findings in major depression.121,123 Further, serum BDNF concentrations increase with antidepressant treatment.121,123 The relationship

of peripheral BDNF concentrations to central ones is Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical not known, but even peripherally administered BDNF abrogates depressive and anxiety-like behaviors and increases hippocampal neurogenesis in mice, suggesting that serum BDNF concentrations are functionally significant for brain function and are more than merely a biomarker.124 A role of BDNF in antidepressant mechanisms of action is supported by findings that hippocampal Montelukast Sodium neurogenesis (in animals) and serum BDNF concentrations (in depressed humans) increase with antidepressant treatment,121,123 and that hippocampal neurogenesis and intact BDNF expression are required for behavioral effects of antidepressants in animals.125,126 Apart from its direct neurotrophic actions, BDNF also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects that may contribute to its neuroprotective efficacy,127 and BDNF, in MG-132 research buy concert with telomerase (discussed below) promotes the growth of developing neurons.

We address the following questions: (i) What is the frequency of

We address the following questions: (i) What is the frequency of each disorder when the other is present? (ii) Is the level of co-occurrence elevated? That is, is the prevalence of BPD significantly higher in patients with bipolar disorder than in other psychiatric disorders? (iii) Is BPD the most common personality disorder in bipolar patients or are other personality disorders Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical more frequent? Methodological issues in personality disorder assessment Any review of

a topic involving personality disorders needs to consider assessment methodology, because assessment issues can have a significant impact on the findings. In short, there should be some consideration of the who, what, and when of personality disorder assessment.To be sure, these are also issues in the evaluation of Axis I disorders, though they have not been studied as much as they have been studied in the personality Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical disorder field. Who should be questioned when assessing personality disorders-the target individual or someone who knows the target individual well? The evaluation

of personality disorders presents special problems that may require the use of informants. In contrast to the symptoms of major Axis I disorders, the Azacitidine manufacturer defining features of personality disorders are based on an extended longitudinal perspective of how individuals act in different situations, how they Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical perceive and

interact with a constantly changing environment, and the perceived reasonableness of their behaviors and cognitions. Only a minority of the personality disorder criteria are discrete, easily enumerated behaviors. For any individual to describe their normal personality they Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical must be somewhat introspective and aware of the effect their attitudes and behaviors Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical have on others. But insight is the very thing usually lacking in individuals with a personality disorder. DSM-IV notes that the characteristics defining a personality disorder may not be considered problematic by the affected individual (ie, ego-syntonic) and suggests that information be obtained from informants. Research comparing patient and informant report of personality pathology has found marked disagreement between the two sources of information.36-39 Only one of the Tryptophan synthase studies examining the frequency of personality disorders in patients with bipolar disorder examined the impact of informant assessment on the rates of personality disorder diagnoses.40 Peselow et al40 presented personality disorder rates based on independent patient and informant interviews, and we have included in Table I the results based on the patient information in order to be consistent with other studies. Table I Methods of studies of the frequency of borderline personality disorder in individuals with bipolar disorder.

one of the markers (

one of the markers (rs4713916) in the FKBP5 gene, a protein of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) system modulating the glucocorticoid receptor.114 Other agents Studies looking at genetic markers as predictors of response

to other antidepressants are few. The results of one study report 5HTTPR genotype to influence the likelihood of responding to the tricyclic antidepressant Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (TCA) nortriptyline in MDD115 although this could not be replicated in a separate study.99 Two separate studies report. 5HTTPR genotype to predict response to the SNRI venlafaxine,116 and the 5-HT2 alpha-2 adrenergic receptor inhibitor mirtazapine.117 Finally, there is also a single study examining the role of MAO-A genotype as a predictor of clinical response to the MAOI moclobemide; no relationship

was found.118 Reports from studies comparing agents of different classes Reports examining for genetic predictors of response from randomized, double-blind clinical trials comparing two antidepressants Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of different classes are few Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Although preliminary, such studies can be useful in genetic markers that may serve as moderators of treatment, efficacy. Joyce et al119 studied 169 MDD patients randomized to treatment with either fluoxetine or nortriptyline, and examined whether 5HTTPR or G-protein beta3-subunit (C825T) genotype influenced symptom improvement, following treatment with either of these two agents. For patients younger than 25 years of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical age, the T allele of the G protein beta3 subunit, was associated with a poorer response to nortriptyline. There was no relationship between 5HTTPR genotype and response to treatment with either antidepressant among this age group, nor was there any relationship between G protein beta3 subunit genotype status

and response to paroxetine. Among patients 25 years of age or older, however, 5HTTPR genotype predicted response to both fluoxetine Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and nortriptyline. Findings stemming from this report have yet to be replicated. Similarly, Szegcdi et al120 studied the relationship between the Olopatadine COMT (vall58met) polymorphism status and antidepressant response following treatment with paroxetine versus mirtazapine (5-HT2-alpha-2 adrenergic receptor antagonist) in MDD. Patients homozygous for COMT-met showed a poorer response to mirtazapine than patients with other genotypes. A similar finding was not observed during paroxetine treatment. Preliminary findings from these two trials have yet to be prospectively confirmed. Neurophysiology Brain functioning and NLG-8189 mw metabolism A number of studies have examined the potential relationship between functional changes, including changes in regional blood glucose metabolism as measured by positron emission tomography (PPT), and clinical response following the treatment of MDD with standard antidepressants.

XELOX consisted of a 2 h intravenous infusion of oxaliplatin (130

XELOX consisted of a 2 h intravenous infusion of oxaliplatin (130 mg/m2) on day 1 plus p.o. capecitabine (1,000 mg/m2) twice daily on days 1-15 of a 3-week cycle. BEV at a dose of 5 mg/kg with FOLFOX or 7.5 mg/kg with XELOX was administered as a 30 to 90 mins intravenous infusion before oxaliplatin on day 1. Standard antiemetic prophylaxis with a 5HT3-receptor Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical antagonist and dexamethasone

were administered to all patients. The inclusion criteria in the present study were patients who completed six cycles of FOLFOX/BEV or four cycles of XELOX/BEV as first-line chemotherapy with a grade 0 or 1 performance status defined by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. The exclusion criteria were patients who did not complete six or four cycles of chemotherapy, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical or who had received previous chemotherapy. Patients with liver metastases with multiple lesions (four or more) or with lesions greater

than five centimeters in the maximum dimension were excluded since these liver metastases can cause liver dysfunction themselves. The splenic volume (SV) was calculated by CT scan volumetry using the sum of the areas of the axial portal venous phase images created by consecutive sequential three millimeter-thick Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical slices. The SV index (SVI) was measured before chemotherapy and after the sixth cycle of chemotherapy as previously described (15). The post-chemotherapeutic CT was performed within four weeks after the sixth cycle of chemotherapy, and patients were excluded if the post-chemotherapeutic CT was performed more than four weeks after the sixth cycle. All patients were evaluated every two or three weeks for adverse Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical events, which were evaluated according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4.0 (CTCAE v4.0). The aspartate aminotransferase level, platelet count, and APR were retrieved for the analysis as laboratory markers. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical The protocol for the present retrospective study was approved by the local Wnt inhibitor ethics committee at our institution and written informed consent had already

been obtained from all of the patients. Continuous data were expressed as the means ± standard deviation. Differences between the groups were evaluated by the Mann-Whitney U test, and a P value <0.05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant Calpain difference. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software package, version 19.0J. Results A total of 35 patients receiving FOLFOX/BEV and 28 receiving XELOX/BEV fulfilled the criteria and were evaluated in the present study. No significant differences between the two groups were seen in the data before chemotherapy, including the patient age, gender, primary site of colorectal cancer, the aspartate aminotransferase level, platelet count, APR, SV or indication for chemotherapy (Table 1).

Patients from the familial group did not differ from controls Th

Patients from the familial group did not differ from controls. This study confirms the work of McNeil et al100 showing that, decreased hippocampal volume in schizophrenia is in part, a consequence of early environmental damage and points toward one causal mechanism, ie, severe OCs lead to hypoxia, which causes left, hippocampal

(and other cerebral) damage. This work contrasts with other studies that found that the unaffected relatives of people with schizophrenia have decreased hippocampal volume.101-103 It may be that the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical discrepancy lies in whether or not it was just the hippocampus or the hippocampal-amygdal complex that was measured. Other early environmental effects A slight, increase in risk for schizophrenia exists among Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical individuals born in late winter/early

spring.104,105 These results point towards an etiological agent acting during gestation, birth, or early childhood rather than around the time of onset. While some studies suggested this seasonal effect could be secondary to exposure to influenza in the uterus during winter ,45,106,107 other research failed to find such a link.108 Intrauterine Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical rubella infection has also been put forward as a potential risk factor for schizophrenia:40,109 Buka et al110 studied blood samples of mothers of 27 cases with psychosis and 54 matched controls as part of the Providence Collaborative Perinatal Project. Maternal blood samples collected during pregnancies in the early sixties were retrieved and analyzed for evidence of perinatal pathogens capable of BEZ235 solubility dmso affecting brain development. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical The offspring of mothers who had elevated levels of IgG and IgM immunoglobulins and antibodies to herpes simplex type 2 during pregnancy were at increased risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses in adulthood. Other potential early hazards described are maternal malnutrition,111 maternal

diabetes mellitus,112 and maternal stress.“113,114 Finally, Rantakallio et al115 and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Westergaard et al108 demonstrated that the window of opportunity for risk-increasing insults is wider than was previously thought, as those exposed to childhood viral central nervous system (CNS) infections were five times more likely to develop schizophrenia than those not exposed. There is also some evidence that brain injury in old childhood may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.116 What the simple neurodevelopmental model fails to explain Why does damage occurring in early life cause symptoms only decades later? Brain maturation is a prolonged process that continues until well after adolescence, so one possible explanation for the late onset of symptoms is that lesions could lie silent until maturation affects the neuronal circuits that were deviant, but normally not fonctional, in chilhood.

In our study, no statistically significant difference in proporti

In our study, no statistically significant difference in proportion of patients with EUS findings suspicious for invasion regarding the presence of any visible lesion was noted. When

the type of lesion was analyzed, no statistically significant association between significant EUS findings and flat lesions (type 0-IIb) was found. Our results are consistent with the most recently published studies about this topic. Pech et al. (51) reported an unsatisfactory accuracy rate of 74% for T stage and 73% for N stage when comparing EUS staging before surgery with esophagectomy staging (n=179). T2 cancers are the most frequently overstaged by EUS, leading Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in a significant impact on making treatment decisions. Similarly to our data, Thomas et al. (52) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical reported that the role of EUS in the Vorinostat cell line pretherapeutic algorithm for early Barrett’s neoplasia should be reconsidered with submucosal invasion detected only in 26% of patients

(n=50). The value of EUS is even more limited in patients with flat VL (0-IIb), where all of lesions are confined to the mucosa. In the same direction, a recent retrospective analysis of 131 patients with early esophageal cancer performed by the Amsterdam group (53) concluded that EUS exam has no clinical impact on the decision making for treatment. 24% of the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 105 patients with unremarkable EUS findings underwent surgery after EMR due to submucosal involvement, positive resection margins, lymphovascular invasion or poor differentiation grade. In the other hand, 38% of the 26 patients with suspected submucosal invasion or LNM according to the EUS exams were successfully treated by endoscopic approach. A recent review established a global incidence of incidental findings (in radiological Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical tests of 23.6%, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical which were detected in higher frequencies when CT scan was performed.

However, none of the included studies in this review had reported data from EUS exams (54). In this series, 10% (n=11) of patients had an additional diagnosis due to the EUS exam; in 6 of the 11 patients, these incidental findings were considered as significant according to the need for further investigations, treatment or follow up (4 pancreatic lesions and 1 mediastinal mass). The only study published to date, which reports incidental finding rates on EUS (55), CYTH4 found an overall 38.5% incidence of additional ancillary diagnoses in 239 consecutive EUS exams performed for a variety of indications. Of these incidentally found conditions, 11.3% were considered clinically significant. These findings raise the question if a complete endosonographic exploration should be performed in every patient. There are several limitations to our study, including a retrospective design based on the information provided by clinical reports from a single center. This study presents a markedly low rate of patients with TNM staging reported on the final EUS diagnosis.

2005) However, some divergent observations were reported (Pouyde

2005). However, some divergent observations were reported (Pouydebat et al. 2010), concluding to the difficulty to establish a stable handedness among Gorillas, based on different behavioral tasks. In Old World monkeys, handedness seems to be less consistent among the family (Westergaard et al. 1997, 2001a,b), as it appears to Navitoclax nmr depend on the species, especially in Macaques. Although some macaques, such as Macaca mulatta,

exhibited population-level left-handedness when they performed a specific task (also Macaca fuscata, see Murata et al. 2008), other species like M. fascicularis did not exhibit any manual bias at the population-level for the same tasks (tube task, reaching to food morsel; Westergaard et Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical al. 1997, 2001a,b; see also Lehman 1980b). The above data for M. mulatta are not consistent with previous observations derived from food reaching tests (Lehman 1978a), which showed roughly equal numbers of right- and left-handed individuals. Furthermore, the latter author and others reported that handedness

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical was accentuated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with monkeys’ age, as well as with task repetition (e.g., Lehman 1978a,b, 1980a,b; Westergaard and Suomi 1996; Westergaard and Lussier 1999; Zhao et al. 2012). Similarly, Hopkins (2004) found a less prominent handedness among Old and New World monkeys in comparison to the great apes. It is, however, interesting to highlight that, for some investigators (e.g.,

Lehman 1980a, 1989; Hopkins et al. 1989; Fagot and Vauclair 1991; Uomini 2009), these disparate results may depend on the task used to determine handedness (see also Spinozzi et al. 1998, 2007). Indeed, these authors showed that the complexity of the task plays an important role. A high-level Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical manual activity involves, most of the time, a manual bias at the population-level, whereas a simple and low-level task does not. A typical example of high-level manual performance is the precision grip (opposition of thumb and usually index finger Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to grasp an object), requiring the cooperation of several muscles of hand and arm, tendons, ligaments, and the stabilization of the upper limb to ensure a better effectiveness (e.g., Lemon 1993, 2008; Porter and Lemon 1993). Bimanual tasks are considered as high-level ones, involving a coordination of different Bay 11-7085 limbs and movements. As demonstrated in squirrel monkeys, hand preference is correlated to an asymmetry in functional topography of motor cortex between the two hemispheres, with a greater distal forelimb representation in the dominant hemisphere, opposite the preferred hand (Nudo et al. 1992). Asymmetries in the primary motor cortex related to handedness was reported in great apes (Hopkins and Pilcher 2001; Hopkins et al. 2002, 2010; Hopkins and Cantalupo 2004; Dadda et al. 2006; Sherwood et al. 2007) and in humans (e.g., Dassonville et al. 1997).

The minimum concentration of

The minimum concentration of menthol to evoke cold sensation (CS) at the menthol application site was determined as the cold sensation detection threshold (CDT). The conventional clinical grading system was used to assess the severity of neurotoxicity in relation to CDT. Patients also completed self-report ratings of their sensitivity to cold sensation, and the results of these objective and subjective findings were compared. Materials and Methods Subjects and treatment BYL719 nmr regimen A total of 76 subjects were enrolled Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in this study: 40 healthy subjects (24 women, 16 men; median age, 54 years; range, 22–85) and 36 patients (22 women, 14 men;

median age, 57 years; range, 33–80) with advanced-stage colorectal cancer who received standard oxaliplatin in combination

with infusional 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (FOLFOX) as a first-line treatment. In the FOLFOX regimens, oxaliplatin (modified FOLFOX 6, 85 mg/m2) was given intravenously over 2 h on day 1 in conjunction with leucovorin (200 mg/m2) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and followed by a 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) bolus injection Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (400 mg/m2), repeated every 2 weeks. A continuous 24-h infusion of 5-FU (600 mg/m2) was given over days 1 and 2. On day 2, leucovorin (200 mg/m2; over 2 h) and 5-FU bolus (400 mg/m2) were given intravenously. The subjects did not consume any spicy food 1 day prior to testing. They were also asked to refrain from eating, drinking, chewing gum, brushing their teeth, and using mouthwash for 2 h before testing, and we verified

that the participants had observed these restrictions at the beginning Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of each session. The present study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki for the care for human studies adopted by the Ethics Committee of Higashi-Asahikawa Hospital. All patients provided written informed consent. Assessment of menthol in experiments 1 and 2 A solution of 5% L-menthol (from dry crystals; MERCK, Tokyo, Japan) was Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical prepared in warm distilled water (41°C) at the time of application, and this solution was further diluted in warm distilled water to yield menthol solutions of 0.005%, 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1% (0.32 mM, 0.64 mM, 3.2 mM, 6.4 mM, 32 mM, and 64 mM, respectively). These solutions were topically applied with a cotton swab to the dorsal anterior tongue in two experiments (Fig. 1a). In experiment 1, the six different menthol solutions were administered to healthy subjects and patients with colon cancer prior to oxaliplatin exposure, and their subjective ratings of cold sensitivity were recorded. In experiment GBA3 2, patients were examined for alterations in the menthol-induced cold sensations before and 5–6 h after the patients receiving individual oxaliplatin infusions. The menthol concentrations used in this study were based on a previous human study (Albin et al. 2008). The vehicle control (warmed distilled water) was applied in the same manner. Figure 1 Effects of menthol on cold sensation and the detection threshold in healthy human subjects.

Psychiatric hospital beds are limited (1 2 per 10 000 population)

Psychiatric hospital beds are limited (1.2 per 10 000 population), there are no half-way houses or other intermediate care facilities, and state authorities actively return homeless persons to their families, so well over 90% of the 4.8 million persons currently suffering from schizophrenia in China live with family members.24 (By contrast, an estimated 40% of the

1.2 million schizophrenic patients in the USA live with family members.25) Traditionally, family members in China assume responsibility for ail the health care decisions of a seriously ill individual; in the case Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of schizophrenia, the decision about when to seek care

and where to seek care is that of the family, not of the individual. With the exception of serious forensic cases (eg, murder or arson), there Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is no formal commitment procedure for mentally ill patients; the family decides when the patient is admitted (typically to a locked inpatient facility) and has the power to discharge the patient at any time. Beliefs about causes and health care seeking Very few patients with schizophrenia in China or their family members consider Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical biological factors important causes of the problem. In a study in Suzhou and Siping (cities in Jiangsu and Jilin provinces), 245 family members of 135 schizophrenic patients attributed 84% of the cause of schizophrenia to social, interpersonal, and psychological problems26; even when prompted, none of the respondents Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical considered schizophrenia a “disease of the brain.” Family members of well-educated urban patients are more likely to employ internal attributions, blaming the condition on some defect in the patient, such as “personality problems”; family members from rural areas are more likely to use external attributions, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical blaming the

condition on factors outside of the patient’s control, such as spiritual or mystical forces. The family’s hierarchy of resort to care providers is determined by their beliefs about the causes of the problem and the availability and cost of NF-��B inhibitor research buy different types of providers. of There are many possible choices: specialist psychiatrists (almost all of whom are situated in urban psychiatric hospitals), Western-style general physicians, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) physicians, herbalists, acupuncturists, Buddhist monks, shamanistic healers, and others. Chinese families are very pragmatic in their utilization of services; they often try a variety of modalities (either sequentially or concurrently) to find the method that generates the most desirable outcome.