On the Wassertein distance for a martingale central limit theorem

We prove an upper bound on the Wassertein distance between normalized martingales and the standard normal random variable, which extends a result of R\"ollin [Statist. Probabil. Lett. 138 (2018) 171-176]. The proof is based on a method of Bolthausen [Ann. Probab. 10 (1982) 672-688]

Empowering women : the effect of women's decision-making power on reproductive health services uptake -- evidence from Pakistan

A large body of research has attempted to explore the links between women's autonomy and their uptake of reproductive health services in the South Asia region, but the evidence so far is inconclusive. This study uses the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey to examine the influence of household decision making on women's uptake of reproductive health services. The analysis finds that women's decision-making power has a significant positive correlation with reproductive health services uptake and that influential males'decision-making power has the opposite effect, after controlling for socio-economic indicators and supply-side conditions. The findings suggest that empowering women and increasing their ability to make decisions may increase their uptake of reproductive health services. They also suggest that policies directed toward improving women's utilization of maternity services must target men as well as women in Pakistan.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Adolescent Health,Gender and Health,Health Systems Development&Reform

Synthesis of 4-thio-5-(2′′-thienyl)uridine and cytotoxicity activity against colon cancer cells <i>in vitro</i>

A novel anti-tumor agent 4-thio-5-(2′′-thienyl)uridine (6) was synthesized and the in vitro cytotoxicity activity against mice colon cancer cells (MC-38) and human colon cancer cells (HT-29) was evaluated by MTT assay. The results showed that the novel compound had antiproliferative activity toward MC-38 and HT-29 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The cell cycle analysis by flow cytometry indicated that compound 6 exerted in tumor cell proliferation inhibition by arresting HT-29 cells in the G2/M phase. In addition, cell death detected by propidium iodide staining showed that compound 6 efficiently induced cell apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, the sensitivity of human fibroblast cells to compound 6 was far lower than that of tumor cells, suggesting the specific anti-tumor effect of 4-thio-5-(2′′-thienyl)uridine. Taken together, novel compound 6 effectively inhibits colon cancer cell proliferation, and hence would have potential value in clinical application as an antitumor agent

Why People Search for Images using Web Search Engines

What are the intents or goals behind human interactions with image search engines? Knowing why people search for images is of major concern to Web image search engines because user satisfaction may vary as intent varies. Previous analyses of image search behavior have mostly been query-based, focusing on what images people search for, rather than intent-based, that is, why people search for images. To date, there is no thorough investigation of how different image search intents affect users' search behavior. In this paper, we address the following questions: (1)Why do people search for images in text-based Web image search systems? (2)How does image search behavior change with user intent? (3)Can we predict user intent effectively from interactions during the early stages of a search session? To this end, we conduct both a lab-based user study and a commercial search log analysis. We show that user intents in image search can be grouped into three classes: Explore/Learn, Entertain, and Locate/Acquire. Our lab-based user study reveals different user behavior patterns under these three intents, such as first click time, query reformulation, dwell time and mouse movement on the result page. Based on user interaction features during the early stages of an image search session, that is, before mouse scroll, we develop an intent classifier that is able to achieve promising results for classifying intents into our three intent classes. Given that all features can be obtained online and unobtrusively, the predicted intents can provide guidance for choosing ranking methods immediately after scrolling

Tribulus terrestris extracts alleviate muscle damage and promote anaerobic performance of trained male boxers and its mechanisms: Roles of androgen, IGF-1, and IGF binding protein-3

AbstractPurposeTo investigate the effects of Tribulus terrestris (TT) extracts on muscle mass, muscle damage, and anaerobic performances of trained male boxers and its mechanisms: roles of plasma androgen, IGF-1, and IGF-1 binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3).MethodsFifteen male boxers were divided into exercise group (E, n = 7) and exercise plus TT group (E + TT, n = 8). The two groups both undertook 3-week high intensity and 3-week high volume trainings separated by a 4-week rest. TT extracts (1250 mg/day) were orally administered by boxers in E + TT group. TT extract compositions were detected by UHPLC–Q-TOF/MS. Before and at the end of the two trainings, muscle mass, anaerobic performance, and blood indicators were explored.ResultsCompared with E group, decreases of plasma CK (1591.50 ± 909.55 vs. 2719.86 ± 832.47 U/L) and IGFBP-3 (3075.53 ± 1072.45 vs. 3950.83 ± 479.25 ng/mL) as well as increases of mean power (MP, 459.42 ± 122.25 vs. 434.60 ± 69.47 W) and MP/body weight (MP/BW, 7.54 ± 0.85 vs. 7.07 ± 1.09 W/kg) were detected in E + TT group after a high intensity training. For high volume training, reduction of IGFBP-3 (2946.38 ± 974.07 vs. 3632.67 ± 470.06 ng/mL) and increases of MP (508.71 ± 103.21 vs. 477.81 ± 49.90 W) and MP/BW (8.24 ± 0.29 vs. 7.52 ± 0.92 W/kg) were detected in E + TT group. Muscle mass, blood levels of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and IGF-1 were unchanged between the two groups.ConclusionTaking 1250 mg capsules containing TT extracts did not change muscle mass and plasma levels of testosterone, DHT, and IGF-1 but significantly alleviated muscle damage and promoted anaerobic performance of trained male boxers, which may be related to the decrease of plasma IGFBP-3 rather than androgen in plasma

Salient object subitizing

We study the problem of salient object subitizing, i.e. predicting the existence and the number of salient objects in an image using holistic cues. This task is inspired by the ability of people to quickly and accurately identify the number of items within the subitizing range (1–4). To this end, we present a salient object subitizing image dataset of about 14 K everyday images which are annotated using an online crowdsourcing marketplace. We show that using an end-to-end trained convolutional neural network (CNN) model, we achieve prediction accuracy comparable to human performance in identifying images with zero or one salient object. For images with multiple salient objects, our model also provides significantly better than chance performance without requiring any localization process. Moreover, we propose a method to improve the training of the CNN subitizing model by leveraging synthetic images. In experiments, we demonstrate the accuracy and generalizability of our CNN subitizing model and its applications in salient object detection and image retrieval.This research was supported in part by US NSF Grants 0910908 and 1029430, and gifts from Adobe and NVIDIA. (0910908 - US NSF; 1029430 - US NSF)https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.07525https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.07525.pdfAccepted manuscrip

Economic Impact of Covid-19 Prevention Policies: A Comparative Analysis of China and the United States

The COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2023) triggered an unprecedented global health and economic crisis. Governments worldwide implemented various levels of quarantine and lockdown measures to prevent the virus’s spread. To understand how different policies might influence their economy, this study makes a comparative analysis of China and the United States. By using regression analysis and spatial autocorrelation diagnostics, we assess the relationship between the strictness of quarantine policy and two economic indicators (unemployment rate and housing price index). The findings show marked differences between the two nations. For the U.S., we found that dummy variable states, workplace closing, international control, and eight other quarantine measures were significant predictors of the unemployment rate of the U.S.. However, only two policy variables were significant in China’s case, potentially reflecting the impact of centralized enforcement in mitigating the economic disruptions. These findings can provide policymakers with a better reference for adjusting their policy and facing this kind of infectious disease again in the future