Zero-shot Object-Level OOD Detection with Context-Aware Inpainting

Machine learning algorithms are increasingly provided as black-box cloud services or pre-trained models, without access to their training data. This motivates the problem of zero-shot out-of-distribution (OOD) detection. Concretely, we aim to detect OOD objects that do not belong to the classifier's label set but are erroneously classified as in-distribution (ID) objects. Our approach, RONIN, uses an off-the-shelf diffusion model to replace detected objects with inpainting. RONIN conditions the inpainting process with the predicted ID label, drawing the input object closer to the in-distribution domain. As a result, the reconstructed object is very close to the original in the ID cases and far in the OOD cases, allowing RONIN to effectively distinguish ID and OOD samples. Throughout extensive experiments, we demonstrate that RONIN achieves competitive results compared to previous approaches across several datasets, both in zero-shot and non-zero-shot settings

PALM-3000 high-order adaptive optics system for Palomar Observatory

Deployed as a multi-user shared facility on the 5.1 meter Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory, the PALM-3000 highorder upgrade to the successful Palomar Adaptive Optics System will deliver extreme AO correction in the near-infrared, and diffraction-limited images down to visible wavelengths, using both natural and sodium laser guide stars. Wavefront control will be provided by two deformable mirrors, a 3368 active actuator woofer and 349 active actuator tweeter, controlled at up to 3 kHz using an innovative wavefront processor based on a cluster of 17 graphics processing units. A Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with selectable pupil sampling will provide high-order wavefront sensing, while an infrared tip/tilt sensor and visible truth wavefront sensor will provide low-order LGS control. Four back-end instruments are planned at first light: the PHARO near-infrared camera/spectrograph, the SWIFT visible light integral field spectrograph, Project 1640, a near-infrared coronagraphic integral field spectrograph, and 888Cam, a high-resolution visible light imager

PALM-3000 high-order adaptive optics system for Palomar Observatory

Deployed as a multi-user shared facility on the 5.1 meter Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory, the PALM-3000 highorder upgrade to the successful Palomar Adaptive Optics System will deliver extreme AO correction in the near-infrared, and diffraction-limited images down to visible wavelengths, using both natural and sodium laser guide stars. Wavefront control will be provided by two deformable mirrors, a 3368 active actuator woofer and 349 active actuator tweeter, controlled at up to 3 kHz using an innovative wavefront processor based on a cluster of 17 graphics processing units. A Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with selectable pupil sampling will provide high-order wavefront sensing, while an infrared tip/tilt sensor and visible truth wavefront sensor will provide low-order LGS control. Four back-end instruments are planned at first light: the PHARO near-infrared camera/spectrograph, the SWIFT visible light integral field spectrograph, Project 1640, a near-infrared coronagraphic integral field spectrograph, and 888Cam, a high-resolution visible light imager

Envisioning the Next-Generation AI Coding Assistants: Insights & Proposals

As a research-product hybrid group in AI for Software Engineering (AI4SE), we present four key takeaways from our experience developing in-IDE AI coding assistants. AI coding assistants should set clear expectations for usage, integrate with advanced IDE capabilities and existing extensions, use extendable backend designs, and collect app data responsibly for downstream analyses. We propose open questions and challenges that academia and industry should address to realize the vision of next-generation AI coding assistants

Selecting technological alternatives for regulatory compliance towards emissions reduction from shipping: An integrated fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach under vague environment

Due to the increasing pressure from stricter environmental regulations to reduce emissions in shipping, the maritime industry has been striving for finding more effective measures. Existing measures are often not enough to comply with new regulations. Among various alternative measures, it is not easy for decision-makers (shipowners and operators) to choose the most suitable alternative measure as it involves with multi-criteria decision-making where the prioritization of a number of alternatives vis-à-vis multiple criteria evaluation is undertaken. Further challenges on such analysis are the lack of information as well as its subjectivity and/or the inconsistency. This study proposes an integrative fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making method that combines fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for the selection of technological alternatives for regulatory compliance under vague environment. Nine criteria within three sustainability aspects (social, economic and environmental aspects) were analysed and evaluated as regards four possible alternatives. The weights of these aspects and criteria were determined by the fuzzy AHP; meanwhile, alternatives were prioritized by the fuzzy TOPSIS. According to the outputs of the proposed decision-making framework, the study revealed that low-sulphur fuels are the best suitable alternative for regulatory compliance. The following alternatives are methanol, scrubbers and liquefied natural gas in order. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to tell us that the proposed framework is robust. This proposed method will be potentially applicable to other fields where decisions are required to make under vague information conditions

Streptococcus pneumoniae Response to Repeated Moxifloxacin or Levofloxacin Exposure in a Rabbit Tissue Cage Model

The role of moxifloxacin and levofloxacin pharmacokinetics (PK) in antimicrobial efficacy and in the selection of fluoroquinolone-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae strains was investigated using the rabbit tissue cage abscess model. A rabbit tissue cage was created by insertion of sterile Wiffle balls in the dorsal cervical area. Animals orally received a range of moxifloxacin or levofloxacin doses that simulate human PK for 7 days 48 h after the Wiffle balls were inoculated with fluoroquinolone-sensitive S. pneumoniae (10(7) CFU). Abscess fluid was collected on a daily basis over 14 days to measure bacterial density and MICs. Moxifloxacin regimens produced a range of area under the concentration-time curve (AUC)/MIC ratios ranging from 9.2 to 444 and peak/MIC ratios ranging from 1.3 to 102. Levofloxacin doses produced AUC/MIC ratios of 5.1 to 85.5 and peak/MIC ratio of 0.9 to 14.8. Moxifloxacin at 6.5, 26, and 42 mg/kg reduced the bacterial log CFU per milliliter in abscess fluid (percentage of that in a sterile animal) by 4.2 ± 2.2 (20%), 5.8 ± 0.4 (100%), and 5.4 ± 0.4 (100%), respectively, over the dosing period. Levofloxacin at 5.5, 22, and 32 mg/kg reduced the log CFU per milliliter in abscess fluid (percentage of that in a sterile animal) by 2.8 ± 0.7 (20%), 5.1 ± 1.3 (80%), and 4.6 ± 1.3 (60%), respectively. Moxifloxacin has a greater bactericidal rate as determined by regression of log CFU versus time data. The AUC/MIC and peak/MIC ratios correlated with the efficacy of both drugs (P < 0.05). Resistance to either drug did not develop with any of the doses as assessed by a change in the MIC. In conclusion, data derived from this study show that moxifloxacin and levofloxacin exhibit rapid bactericidal activity against S. pneumoniae in vivo, and moxifloxacin exhibits enhanced bactericidal activity compared to levofloxacin, with AUC/MIC and peak/MIC ratios correlated with antimicrobial efficacy for both drugs. The development of fluoroquinolone-resistant S. pneumoniae was not observed with either drug in this model

The Vault: A Comprehensive Multilingual Dataset for Advancing Code Understanding and Generation

We present The Vault, an open-source, large-scale code-text dataset designed to enhance the training of code-focused large language models (LLMs). Existing open-source datasets for training code-based LLMs often face challenges in terms of size, quality (due to noisy signals), and format (only containing code function and text explanation pairings). The Vault overcomes these limitations by providing 40 million code-text pairs across 10 popular programming languages, thorough cleaning for 10+ prevalent issues, and various levels of code-text pairings, including class, function, and line levels. Researchers and practitioners can utilize The Vault for training diverse code-focused LLMs or incorporate the provided data cleaning methods and scripts to improve their datasets. By employing The Vault as the training dataset for code-centric LLMs, we anticipate significant advancements in code understanding and generation tasks, fostering progress in both artificial intelligence research and software development practices

Mycoplasma genitalium infections among participants in a HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis program in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Mycoplasma genitalium causes a sexually transmitted infection and is also emerging as an important antimicrobial resistant pathogen. Data on M. genitalium infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) in low-resource settings are sparse.From January to December 2022, participants in an HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) program in Hanoi, Vietnam were enrolled into the study. Demographic, behavioral, and clinical characteristics were collected. Self-collected urine, rectal, and pharyngeal specimens were tested for M. genitalium using the Alinity m STI Assay (Abbott Molecular, USA). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were performed to assess for factors associated with infections.Among 477 participants, the median age was 25.3 years (21.7-29.6) and 92.2% (n = 440) identified as MSM; 48.6% had ≥2 sex partners and 38.1% reported condomless anal sex in the prior month. The overall prevalence of M. genitalium infection was 10.9% (52/477); 7.3% (34/464) rectal, 3.2% (15/476) urethral, and 1.9% (9/476) pharyngeal. Infections were asymptomatic in 71.2% (37/52). Among those with M. genitalium, 30.7% (16/52) were co-infected with either N. gonorrhoeae or C. trachomatis. Among those reporting rectal (n = 51) or urethral (n = 35) symptoms, but without C. trachomatis or N. gonorrhoeae co-infections, five (9.8%) had rectal infections and one (2.9%) had urethral infection. Participants with M. genitalium were more likely to be asymptomatic than participants without M. genitalium (aOR 1.93; 95% CI 1.01-3.71).M. genitalium infections were common among primarily MSM engaged in an HIV PrEP program in Vietnam. The prevalence was highest in rectal specimens and nearly three quarters of M. genitalium infections were asymptomatic. Testing for M. genitalium infections among those with symptoms is important to enable pathogen-directed therapy. Additional research on antimicrobial resistance and treatment strategies for M. genitalium in low-resource settings is needed

Improving Efficacy of Endoscopic Diagnosis of Early Gastric Cancer: Gaps to Overcome from the Real-World Practice in Vietnam

Objective. To identify factors associated with increased proportion of early gastric cancer to total detected gastric cancer among patients undergoing diagnostic esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Methods. A nationwide survey was conducted across 6 central-type and 6 municipal-type Vietnamese hospitals. A questionnaire regarding annual esophagogastroduodenoscopy volume, esophagogastroduodenoscopy preparation, the use of image-enhanced endoscopy, and number of gastric cancer diagnosed in 2018 was sent to each hospital. Results. The total proportion of early gastric cancer was 4.0% (115/2857). Routine preparation with simethicone and the use of image-enhanced endoscopy were associated with higher proportion of early gastric cancer (OR 1.9, 95% CI: 1.1–3.2, p=0.016; OR 2.7, 95% CI: 1.8–4.0, p60.000–100.000 (OR 2.7, 95% CI: 1.7–4.2, p<0.001). Only four (33.3%) hospitals reported all endoscopic types of early gastric cancer. Conclusions. The detection of early gastric cancer is still challenging even for endoscopists working in regions with relatively high prevalence. The real-world evidence showed that endoscopic detection of early gastric cancer could potentially improve with simple adjustments of esophagogastroduodenoscopy protocols