33,923 research outputs found
Prediction with Dimension Reduction of Multiple Molecular Data Sources for Patient Survival
Predictive modeling from high-dimensional genomic data is often preceded by a
dimension reduction step, such as principal components analysis (PCA). However,
the application of PCA is not straightforward for multi-source data, wherein
multiple sources of 'omics data measure different but related biological
components. In this article we utilize recent advances in the dimension
reduction of multi-source data for predictive modeling. In particular, we apply
exploratory results from Joint and Individual Variation Explained (JIVE), an
extension of PCA for multi-source data, for prediction of differing response
types. We conduct illustrative simulations to illustrate the practical
advantages and interpretability of our approach. As an application example we
consider predicting survival for Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) patients from
three data sources measuring mRNA expression, miRNA expression, and DNA
methylation. We also introduce a method to estimate JIVE scores for new samples
that were not used in the initial dimension reduction, and study its
theoretical properties; this method is implemented in the R package R.JIVE on
CRAN, in the function 'jive.predict'.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Proposal for a Performance Dashboard for the Monitoringof Water and Sewage Service Companies (WaSCs)
The water and sewage industry provides an essential service to the community, but it is characterized by natural monopoly tendencies of service suppliers. In this framework, it is very important to assist regulators with a small set of critical indicators (performance dashboard) for the evaluation and monitoring of the service provided by Water and Sewage Companies (WaSCs). The paper originates from the analysis of situation of Piemonte (Italy), where each regional and local body adopts a proprietary Performance Measurement System (PMS). In order to improve the coordination of information flow and to support the definition of common service standards, a methodology to merge existing PMSs and define a unique shared reference system is proposed. The Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is adopted as the reference model of this approach. BSC is widely recognized to be an exhaustive and balanced framework in describing the performances of an organization and ensures that all the operational aspects of WaSCs are adequately monitored. The output of the proposed procedure is a general performance dashboard for the monitoring of WaSCs. The dashboard is shown and some remarks about indicators properties are developed. In particular, this analysis highlights some common pitfalls originated by a ârushed' aggregation of several performance indicators. Description is supported by several example
Suppression of Dephasing of Optically Trapped Atoms
Ultra-cold atoms trapped in an optical dipole trap and prepared in a coherent
superposition of their hyperfine ground states, decohere as they interact with
their environment. We demonstrate than the loss in coherence in an "echo"
experiment, which is caused by mechanisms such as Rayleigh scattering, can be
suppressed by the use of a new pulse sequence. We also show that the coherence
time is then limited by mixing to other vibrational levels in the trap and by
the finite lifetime of the internal quantum states of the atoms
A Coherent Timing Solution for the Nearby Isolated Neutron Star RX J0720.4-3125
We present the results of a dedicated effort to measure the spin-down rate of
the nearby isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125. Comparing arrival times of
the 8.39-sec pulsations for data from Chandra we derive an unambiguous timing
solution for RX J0720.4-3125 that is accurate to 5 years.
Adding data from XMM and ROSAT, the final solution yields
Pdot=(6.98+/-0.02)x10^(-14) s/s; for dipole spin-down, this implies a
characteristic age of 2 Myr and a magnetic field strength of 2.4e13 G. The
phase residuals are somewhat larger than those for purely regular spin-down,
but do not show conclusive evidence for higher-order terms or a glitch. From
our timing solution as well as recent X-ray spectroscopy, we concur with recent
suggestions that RX J0720.4-3125 is most likely an off-beam radio pulsar with a
moderately high magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in ApJ
The continued spectral and temporal evolution of RX J0720.4-3125
RX J0720.4-3125 is the most peculiar object among a group of seven isolated
X-ray pulsars (the so-called "Magnificent Seven"), since it shows long-term
variations of its spectral and temporal properties on time scales of years.
This behaviour was explained by different authors either by free precession
(with a seven or fourteen years period) or possibly a glitch that occurred
around .
We analysed our most recent XMM-Newton and Chandra observations in order to
further monitor the behaviour of this neutron star. With the new data sets, the
timing behaviour of RX J0720.4-3125 suggests a single (sudden) event (e.g. a
glitch) rather than a cyclic pattern as expected by free precession. The
spectral parameters changed significantly around the proposed glitch time, but
more gradual variations occurred already before the (putative) event. Since
the spectra indicate a very slow cooling by
2 eV over 7 years.Comment: seven pages, three figures, three tables; accepted by MNRA
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