319,706 research outputs found
A Multiscale Approach for Statistical Characterization of Functional Images
Increasingly, scientific studies yield functional image data, in which the observed data consist of sets of curves recorded on the pixels of the image. Examples include temporal brain response intensities measured by fMRI and NMR frequency spectra measured at each pixel. This article presents a new methodology for improving the characterization of pixels in functional imaging, formulated as a spatial curve clustering problem. Our method operates on curves as a unit. It is nonparametric and involves multiple stages: (i) wavelet thresholding, aggregation, and Neyman truncation to effectively reduce dimensionality; (ii) clustering based on an extended EM algorithm; and (iii) multiscale penalized dyadic partitioning to create a spatial segmentation. We motivate the different stages with theoretical considerations and arguments, and illustrate the overall procedure on simulated and real datasets. Our method appears to offer substantial improvements over monoscale pixel-wise methods. An Appendix which gives some theoretical justifications of the methodology, computer code, documentation and dataset are available in the online supplements
A Bayesian Variable Selection Approach Yields Improved Detection of Brain Activation From Complex-Valued fMRI
Voxel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) time courses are complex-valued signals giving rise to magnitude and phase data. Nevertheless, most studies use only the magnitude signals and thus discard half of the data that could potentially contain important information. Methods that make use of complex-valued fMRI (CV-fMRI) data have been shown to lead to superior power in detecting active voxels when compared to magnitude-only methods, particularly for small signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). We present a new Bayesian variable selection approach for detecting brain activation at the voxel level from CV-fMRI data. We develop models with complex-valued spike-and-slab priors on the activation parameters that are able to combine the magnitude and phase information. We present a complex-valued EM variable selection algorithm that leads to fast detection at the voxel level in CV-fMRI slices and also consider full posterior inference via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Model performance is illustrated through extensive simulation studies, including the analysis of physically based simulated CV-fMRI slices. Finally, we use the complex-valued Bayesian approach to detect active voxels in human CV-fMRI from a healthy individual who performed unilateral finger tapping in a designed experiment. The proposed approach leads to improved detection of activation in the expected motor-related brain regions and produces fewer false positive results than other methods for CV-fMRI. Supplementary materials for this article are available online
Statistical Arbitrage Mining for Display Advertising
We study and formulate arbitrage in display advertising. Real-Time Bidding
(RTB) mimics stock spot exchanges and utilises computers to algorithmically buy
display ads per impression via a real-time auction. Despite the new automation,
the ad markets are still informationally inefficient due to the heavily
fragmented marketplaces. Two display impressions with similar or identical
effectiveness (e.g., measured by conversion or click-through rates for a
targeted audience) may sell for quite different prices at different market
segments or pricing schemes. In this paper, we propose a novel data mining
paradigm called Statistical Arbitrage Mining (SAM) focusing on mining and
exploiting price discrepancies between two pricing schemes. In essence, our
SAMer is a meta-bidder that hedges advertisers' risk between CPA (cost per
action)-based campaigns and CPM (cost per mille impressions)-based ad
inventories; it statistically assesses the potential profit and cost for an
incoming CPM bid request against a portfolio of CPA campaigns based on the
estimated conversion rate, bid landscape and other statistics learned from
historical data. In SAM, (i) functional optimisation is utilised to seek for
optimal bidding to maximise the expected arbitrage net profit, and (ii) a
portfolio-based risk management solution is leveraged to reallocate bid volume
and budget across the set of campaigns to make a risk and return trade-off. We
propose to jointly optimise both components in an EM fashion with high
efficiency to help the meta-bidder successfully catch the transient statistical
arbitrage opportunities in RTB. Both the offline experiments on a real-world
large-scale dataset and online A/B tests on a commercial platform demonstrate
the effectiveness of our proposed solution in exploiting arbitrage in various
model settings and market environments.Comment: In the proceedings of the 21st ACM SIGKDD international conference on
Knowledge discovery and data mining (KDD 2015
Functional dynamic factor models with application to yield curve forecasting
Accurate forecasting of zero coupon bond yields for a continuum of maturities
is paramount to bond portfolio management and derivative security pricing. Yet
a universal model for yield curve forecasting has been elusive, and prior
attempts often resulted in a trade-off between goodness of fit and consistency
with economic theory. To address this, herein we propose a novel formulation
which connects the dynamic factor model (DFM) framework with concepts from
functional data analysis: a DFM with functional factor loading curves. This
results in a model capable of forecasting functional time series. Further, in
the yield curve context we show that the model retains economic interpretation.
Model estimation is achieved through an expectation-maximization algorithm,
where the time series parameters and factor loading curves are simultaneously
estimated in a single step. Efficient computing is implemented and a
data-driven smoothing parameter is nicely incorporated. We show that our model
performs very well on forecasting actual yield data compared with existing
approaches, especially in regard to profit-based assessment for an innovative
trading exercise. We further illustrate the viability of our model to
applications outside of yield forecasting.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOAS551 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Self-consistent relativistic quasiparticle random-phase approximation and its applications to charge-exchange excitations and -decay half-lives
The self-consistent quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA) approach
is formulated in the canonical single-nucleon basis of the relativistic
Hatree-Fock-Bogoliubov (RHFB) theory. This approach is applied to study the
isobaric analog states (IAS) and Gamov-Teller resonances (GTR) by taking Sn
isotopes as examples. It is found that self-consistent treatment of the
particle-particle residual interaction is essential to concentrate the IAS in a
single peak for open-shell nuclei and the Coulomb exchange term is very
important to predict the IAS energies. For the GTR, the isovector pairing can
increase the calculated GTR energy, while the isoscalar pairing has an
important influence on the low-lying tail of the GT transition. Furthermore,
the QRPA approach is employed to predict nuclear -decay half-lives. With
an isospin-dependent pairing interaction in the isoscalar channel, the
RHFB+QRPA approach almost completely reproduces the experimental -decay
half-lives for nuclei up to the Sn isotopes with half-lives smaller than one
second. Large discrepancies are found for the Ni, Zn, and Ge isotopes with
neutron number smaller than , as well as the Sn isotopes with neutron
number smaller than . The potential reasons for these discrepancies are
discussed in detail.Comment: 34 pages, 14 figure
Expectation-maximization for logistic regression
We present a family of expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms for binary
and negative-binomial logistic regression, drawing a sharp connection with the
variational-Bayes algorithm of Jaakkola and Jordan (2000). Indeed, our results
allow a version of this variational-Bayes approach to be re-interpreted as a
true EM algorithm. We study several interesting features of the algorithm, and
of this previously unrecognized connection with variational Bayes. We also
generalize the approach to sparsity-promoting priors, and to an online method
whose convergence properties are easily established. This latter method
compares favorably with stochastic-gradient descent in situations with marked
collinearity
Calcium-sensing receptor activation increases cell-cell adhesion and ß-cell function
Background/Aims: The extracellular calcium-sensing receptor (CaR) is expressed in pancreatic β-cells where it is thought to facilitate cell-to-cell communication and augment insulin secretion. However, it is unknown how CaR activation improves β-cell function. Methods: Immunocytochemistry and western blotting confirmed the expression of CaR in MIN6 β-cell line. The calcimimetic R568 (1µM) was used to increase the affinity of the CaR and specifically activate the receptor at a physiologically appropriate extracellular calcium concentration. Incorporation of 5-bromo-2’-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was used to measure cell proliferation, whilst changes in non-nutrient-evoked cytosolic calcium were assessed using fura-2-microfluorimetry. AFM-single-cell-force spectroscopy related CaR-evoked changes in epithelial (E)-cadherin expression to improved functional tethering between coupled cells. Results: Activation of the CaR over 48hr doubled the expression of E-cadherin (206±41%) and increased L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel expression by 70% compared to control. These changes produced a 30% increase in cell-cell tethering and elevated the basal-to-peak amplitude of ATP (50µM) and tolbutamide (100µM)-evoked changes in cytosolic calcium. Activation of the receptor also increased PD98059 (1-100µM) and SU1498 (1-100µM)-dependent β-cell proliferation. Conclusion: Our data suggest that activation of the CaR increases E-cadherin mediated functional tethering between β-cells and increases expression of L-type VDCC and secretagogue-evoked changes in [Ca2+]i. These findings could explain how local changes in calcium, co-released with insulin, activate the CaR on neighbouring cells to help ensure efficient and appropriate secretory function
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