julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Two-sample hypothesis testing for inhomogeneous random graphs
2020-08-01

The study of networks leads to a wide range of high dimensional inference\\nproblems. In many practical applications, one needs to draw inference from one\\nor few large sparse networks. The present paper studies hypothesis testing of\\ngraphs in this high-dimensional regime, where the goal is to test between two\\npopulations of inhomogeneous random graphs defined on the same set of \\nvertices. The size of each population is much smaller than , and can\\neven be a constant as small as 1. The critical question in this context is\\nwhether the problem is solvable for small .\\n We answer this question from a minimax testing perspective. Let be the\\npopulation adjacencies of two sparse inhomogeneous random graph models, and \\nbe a suitably defined distance function. Given a population of graphs from\\neach model, we derive minimax separation rates for the problem of testing \\nagainst . We observe that if is small, then the minimax\\nseparation is too large for some popular choices of , including total\\nvariation distance between corresponding distributions. This implies that some\\nmodels that are widely separated in cannot be distinguished for small ,\\nand hence, the testing problem is generally not solvable in these cases.\\n We also show that if , then the minimax separation is relatively small\\nif is the Frobenius norm or operator norm distance between and . For\\n , only the latter distance provides small minimax separation. Thus, for\\nthese distances, the problem is solvable for small . We also present\\nnear-optimal two-sample tests in both cases, where tests are adaptive with\\nrespect to sparsity level of the graphs.\\n
Non-syndromic hearing loss: clinical and diagnostic challenges
2020-08-01

Abstract Hereditary hearing loss is clinically and genetically heterogeneous. There are presently over 120 genes that have been associated with non-syndromic hearing loss and many more that are associated with syndromic forms. Despite an increasing number of genes that have been implemented into routine molecular genetic diagnostic testing, the diagnostic yield from European patient cohorts with hereditary hearing loss remains around the 50 % mark. This attests to the many gaps of knowledge the field is currently working toward resolving. It can be expected that many more genes await identification. However, it can also be expected, for example, that the mutational signatures of the known genes are still unclear, especially variants in non-coding or regulatory regions influencing gene expression. This review summarizes several challenges in the clinical and diagnostic setting for hereditary hearing loss with emphasis on syndromes that mimic non-syndromic forms of hearing loss in young children and other factors that heavily influence diagnostic rates. A molecular genetic diagnosis for patients with hearing loss opens several additional avenues, such as patient tailored selection of the best currently available treatment modalities, an understanding of the prognosis, and supporting family planning decisions. In the near future, a genetic diagnosis may enable patients to engage in preclinical trials for the development of therapeutics.
Zoo-Housed Chimpanzees Can Spontaneously Use Tool Sets But Perseverate on Previously Successful Tool-Use Methods
2020-08-01

Tool use is documented in both wild and captive chimpanzees, but the creation of tool sets (e.g., two, or more, tools used in a sequence to solve a task), seems to be less common. This has raised the question of whether tool sets are a culture-dependent trait (CDT), or can be re-innovated independently, and thus fall within chimpanzees’ Zone of Latent Solutions (ZLS). To test this, we provided a group of zoo-housed chimpanzees with a novel task that mimicked the wild conditions, required a tool set to solve, and all necessary materials to do so. We therefore enhanced the necessary conditions for the tool-set behavior, but without providing demonstrations of tool-set manufacture or use. We baited an artificial termite mound with six ketchup-filled tubes, each with a 45-degree bend and with a cellophane barrier across the top. The chimpanzees needed a rigid tool to pierce the barrier and then a flexible tool to reach the reward. Overall, chimpanzees did use both tool types in order, thus demonstrating that this tool-set form is not a CDT. Yet, few attempts were successful, and the majority were not made using a tool set. This suggests that the behavioral pattern did not stabilize, which may have been due to unintentional difficulty created by the opacity of our task. Overall, our study showed that the form of tool sets can be within the ZLS of chimpanzees, but future studies need to determine what stabilizes the behavioral patterns in the wild.
Evolving global and national criteria for identifying a suspected case of COVID-19
2020-08-01

Background The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) began in December 2019 and continues to spread worldwide. Rapid and accurate identification of suspected cases is critical in slowing spread of the virus that causes the disease. We aimed to highlight discrepancies in the various criteria used by international agencies and highly impacted individual countries around the world. Methods We reviewed the criteria for identifying a suspected case of COVID-19 used by two international public health agencies and 10 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America. The criteria included information on the clinical causes of illness and epidemiological risk factors. Non-English language guidelines were translated into English by a co-author who is fluent in that particular language. Results Although most criteria are modifications of World Health Organization recommendations, the specific clinical features and epidemiological risks for triggering evaluation of patients with suspected COVID-19 differed widely among countries. The rationale for these differences may be related to each country’s resources, politics, experience with previous outbreaks or pandemics, health insurance system, COVID-19 outbreak severity, and other undetermined factors. Conclusion We found no consensus regarding the best diagnostic criteria for identifying a suspected case of COVID-19.
enerDAG – Towards a DLT-based Local Energy Trading Platform
2020-08-01

Due to decreasing costs and less by-effects of renewables energy the energy production is getting more and more decentralized and therefore leads to more bottom-up loads on the grid. To reduce the stress on the grid local energy grids with smart energy trading are a possible solution. This paper describes the goals and concept of our flexible resilient local energy trading platform called enerDAG and how it can easily be extended through smart contracts. At the end enerDAG gets critically analyzed if it solves the critical requirements for a scalable smart grid platform. Nodes using this platform can get a financial advantage through cheaper local energy which might also lead to even more investment in own regenerative energy systems.
Validation of a generalized laser safety analysis method for irregular pulse trains
2020-08-01

The current laser safety standards do not address specifically how to account for repetitively pulsed lasers with irregular pulse trains. Variations in peak power, pulse duration, and duty cycle within a pulse train pose a number of problems when it comes to product classification or to assess the hazard of a given exposure. This study proposes to analyze irregular pulse trains by generalizing the determination of the number of pulses N used in the IEC 60825-1 or n in the ANSI Z136.1 standard. The proposed method for the determination of N applies to emission durations longer than 5 μs and was validated by generating a large number of theoretical pulse patterns and by comparing the retinal injury threshold, determined with a computer model, with the applicable emission limit. For 18 000 different pulse patterns, the ratio of the injury threshold to the emission limit was never less than 2, which is commonly considered as a sufficient safety margin. The smallest safety margin found for regular pulse patterns also equals 2. This study validates an analysis method for irregular pulse trains that can be included in the standards by simple generalization of the determination of the parameter N.
Rehabilitation of a maxillary partial edentulous patient using an implant-supported overdenture retained with two bilateral milled bars
2020-08-01

The use of implants has enabled more treatment options for prosthetic rehabilitation of partially and completely edentulous patients. This clinical report describes a treatment approach for an 80-year-old patient taking advantage of the remaining natural teeth for prosthetic rehabilitation. The final treatment plan included natural tooth-supported and implant-supported crowns combined with a milled bar partial overdenture retained by tilted dental implants. The overdentures supported by the milled bar implants provide the advantages of both fixed and removable restorations. In addition to patient satisfaction, the overdentures also minimise alveolar bone resorption, increase longevity and stability and improve masticatory efficiency.
Web-based MINDfulness and Skills-based distress reduction in cancer (MINDS): study protocol for a multicentre observational healthcare study
2020-08-01

Introduction Although a high percentage of patients with cancer experience severe psychological distress, few of them receive psycho-oncological care, largely due to barriers on the side of patients and healthcare providers that pose great challenges to delivering such care. In response, low-threshold, self-guided eHealth interventions can enable patients with cancer to deal independently and effectively with disease-related challenges and distress. Mindfulness and Skills-Based Distress Reduction in Oncology Training, nicknamed Make It Training, is one such innovative, self-guided eHealth intervention. In our study, we propose to assess different characteristics of such patients in order to define target populations for Make It Training, evaluate the intervention in terms of its usability, feasibility and sustainability and gather longitudinal data concerning the intervention’s efficacy. Methods and analysis Self-guided and web-based Make It Training consists of eight 30 min modules involving the use of techniques of mindfulness therapy, cognitive–behavioural therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy to be completed in a 4-month period. In our observational study, adult patients with cancer who possess adequate German language skills and provide their informed consent will be recruited at Essen, Erlangen and Tübingen University Hospitals at outpatient oncological institutions and via online channels. Patients will undergo a baseline online assessment (T0), an assessment directly after completing the intervention (T1) and assessments 3 and 6 months later (T2 and T3, respectively). With the results of those assessments, we will perform descriptive analyses of their sociodemographic and medical data, compare means and conduct regression analyses. Ethics and dissemination The Ethics Committees of the University Hospitals Essen, Erlangen and Tübingen have approved the study (19-8643-BO, 27_19 B, 293/2018BO1). Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. Trial registration number DRKS00017119.
Experimentation preceding innovation in a MIS5 Pre-Still Bay layer from Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa): emerging technologies and symbols
2020-08-01

In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort. The Middle Stone Age sequence from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, on the West Coast of the region, preserves archaeological proxies that help unravelling the cultural processes at work. This unit yields one of the oldest abstract engraving so far discovered in Africa, in the form of a rhomboid marking on the cortical surface of an ungulate long bone shaft. The comprehensive analysis of the lithic artefacts and ochre pieces found in association with the engraved bone documents the transport of rocks over long distance (&amp;gt;20km), the heat treatment of silcrete, the coexistence of seven lithic reduction strategies (including the production of bladelets and the manufacture of unifacial and bifacial points), the use of adhesives and the processing of ochre. At Diepkloof, the appearance of engraving practices take place in a context that demonstrates a shift in rock procurement and a diversification in lithic reduction strategies, suggesting that these behavioral practices acted as a cultural answer to cope with new environmental and/or socio-economic circumstances. We argue that the innovations later found during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort were already in the making during the MIS5 pre-Still Bay, though not all the benefits were yet taken advantage of by the populations.
Lemons: Leveraging Model-Based Techniques to Enable Non-Intrusive Semantic Enrichment in Wireless Sensor Networks
2020-08-01

The paper presents an efficient approach to the semantic enrichment of measured sensor data in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), by bridging techniques from Model-driven Software Development (MDSD) and Semantic Web Technology (SWT). Our approach reinforces data interoperability, fostering data sharing and reuse, by utilizing SWT. Model-based and type-agnostic configuration reduces the overall effort for WSN setup and maintenance, which are traditionally complex and time-consuming tasks. The presented approach addresses the problem of large-scale WSN management through the application of SWT in WSN configuration and management without requiring expert knowledge. Additionally, we present a generic architecture and an implementation which is also supplemented by hands-on descriptions of an illustrative use case. Our experimental results demonstrate that our model-based approach provides non-intrusive semantic enrichment with sub-millisecond computational overhead, as well as partially automated configuration of WSNs.
A new product on 2 × 2 matrices
2020-08-01

Abstract We study a bilinear multiplication rule on 2 × 2 matrices which is intermediate between the ordinary matrix product and the Hadamard matrix product, and we relate this to the hyperbolic motion group of the plane.
Effect handlers, evidently
2020-08-02

Algebraic effect handlers are a powerful way to incorporate effects in a programming language. Sometimes perhaps even _too_ powerful. In this article we define a restriction of general effect handlers with _scoped resumptions_. We argue one can still express all important effects, while improving reasoning about effect handlers. Using the newly gained guarantees, we define a sound and coherent evidence translation for effect handlers, which directly passes the handlers as evidence to each operation. We prove full soundness and coherence of the translation into plain lambda calculus. The evidence in turn enables efficient implementations of effect operations; in particular, we show we can execute tail-resumptive operations _in place_ (without needing to capture the evaluation context), and how we can replace the runtime search for a handler by indexing with a constant offset.
Compiling effect handlers in capability-passing style
2020-08-02

Effect handlers encourage programmers to abstract over repeated patterns of complex control flow. As of today, this abstraction comes at a significant price in performance. In this paper, we aim to achieve abstraction without regret for effect handlers. We present a language for effect handlers in _capability-passing style_ (λ Cap ) and an implementation of this language as a translation to simply-typed lambda calculus in _iterated continuation-passing style_. A suite of benchmarks indicates that the novel combination of capability-passing style and iterated CPS enables significant speedups over existing languages with effect handlers or control operators. Our implementation technique is general and allows us to generate code in any language that supports first-class functions. We then identify a subset of programs for which we can further improve the performance and guarantee full elimination of the effect handler abstraction. To formally capture this subset, we refine λ Cap to λ λ Cap with a more restrictive type system. We present a type-directed translation for λ λ Cap that inserts staging annotations and prove that no abstractions or applications related to effect handlers occur in the translated program. Using this second translation we observe additional speedups in some of the benchmarks.
Analytical probabilistic modeling of dose‐volume histograms
2020-08-02

Purpose Radiotherapy, especially with charged particles, is sensitive to executional and preparational uncertainties that propagate to uncertainty in dose and plan quality indicators, for example, dose‐volume histograms (DVHs). Current approaches to quantify and mitigate such uncertainties rely on explicitly computed error scenarios and are thus subject to statistical uncertainty and limitations regarding the underlying uncertainty model. Here we present an alternative, analytical method to approximate moments, in particular expectation value and (co)variance, of the probability distribution of DVH‐points, and evaluate its accuracy on patient data. Methods We use Analytical Probabilistic Modeling (APM) to derive moments of the probability distribution over individual DVH‐points based on the probability distribution over dose. By using the computed moments to parameterize distinct probability distributions over DVH‐points (here normal or beta distributions), not only the moments but also percentiles, that is, α − DVHs, are computed. The model is subsequently evaluated on three patient cases (intracranial, paraspinal, prostate) in 30‐ and single‐fraction scenarios by assuming the dose to follow a multivariate normal distribution, whose moments are computed in closed‐form with APM. The results are compared to a benchmark based on discrete random sampling. Results The evaluation of the new probabilistic model on the three patient cases against a sampling benchmark proves its correctness under perfect assumptions as well as good agreement in realistic conditions. More precisely, ca. 90% of all computed expected DVH‐points and their standard deviations agree within 1% volume with their empirical counterpart from sampling computations, for both fractionated and single fraction treatments. When computing α − DVH, the assumption of a beta distribution achieved better agreement with empirical percentiles than the assumption of a normal distribution: While in both cases probabilities locally showed large deviations (up to ±0.2), the respective − DVHs for α ={0.05,0.5,0.95} only showed small deviations in respective volume (up to ±5% volume for a normal distribution, and up to 2% for a beta distribution). A previously published model from literature, which was included for comparison, exhibited substantially larger deviations. Conclusions With APM we could derive a mathematically exact description of moments of probability distributions over DVH‐points given a probability distribution over dose. The model generalizes previous attempts and performs well for both choices of probability distributions, that is, normal or beta distributions, over DVH‐points.
Pick the smaller number: No influence of linguistic markedness on three-digit number processing
2020-08-02

The symbolic number comparison task has been widely used to investigate the cognitive representation and underlying processes of multi-digit number processing. The standard procedure to establish numerical distance and compatibility effects in such number comparison paradigms usually entails asking participants to indicate the larger of two presented multi-digit Arabic numbers rather than to indicate the smaller number. In terms of linguistic markedness, this procedure includes the unmarked/base form in the task instruction (i.e., large). Here we evaluate distance and compatibility effects in a three-digit number comparison task observed in Bahnmueller et al. (2015) using a marked task instruction (i.e., ‘pick the smaller number’). Moreover, we aimed at clarifying whether the markedness of task instruction influences common numerical effects and especially componential processing as indexed by compatibility effects. We instructed German- and English-speaking adults (N=52) to indicate the smaller number in a three-digit number comparison task as opposed to indicating the larger number in Bahnmueller et al. (2015). We replicated standard effects of distance and compatibility in the new pick the smaller number experiment. Moreover, when comparing our findings to Bahnmueller et al. (2015), numerical effects did not differ significantly between the two studies as indicated by both frequentist and Bayesian analysis. Taken together our data suggest that distance and compatibility effects alongside componential processing of multi-digit numbers are rather robust against variations of linguistic markedness of task instructions.
Task-evoked activity quenches neural correlations and variability across cortical areas
2020-08-03

Many large-scale functional connectivity studies have emphasized the importance of communication through increased inter-region correlations during task states. In contrast, local circuit studies have demonstrated that task states primarily reduce correlations among pairs of neurons, likely enhancing their information coding by suppressing shared spontaneous activity. Here we sought to adjudicate between these conflicting perspectives, assessing whether co-active brain regions during task states tend to increase or decrease their correlations. We found that variability and correlations primarily decrease across a variety of cortical regions in two highly distinct data sets: non-human primate spiking data and human functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Moreover, this observed variability and correlation reduction was accompanied by an overall increase in dimensionality (reflecting less information redundancy) during task states, suggesting that decreased correlations increased information coding capacity. We further found in both spiking and neural mass computational models that task-evoked activity increased the stability around a stable attractor, globally quenching neural variability and correlations. Together, our results provide an integrative mechanistic account that encompasses measures of large-scale neural activity, variability, and correlations during resting and task states.