106 research outputs found
Efficient Adaptive Activation Rounding for Post-Training Quantization
Post-training quantization attracts increasing attention due to its
convenience in deploying quantized neural networks. Although
rounding-to-nearest remains the prevailing method for DNN quantization, prior
research has demonstrated its suboptimal nature when applied to weight
quantization. They propose optimizing weight rounding schemes by leveraging
output error rather than the traditional weight quantization error. Our study
reveals that similar rounding challenges also extend to activation
quantization. Despite the easy generalization, the challenges lie in the
dynamic nature of activation. Adaptive rounding is expected for varying
activations and the method is subjected to runtime overhead. To tackle this, we
propose the AQuant quantization framework with a novel perspective to reduce
output error by adjusting rounding schemes of activations. Instead of using the
constant rounding border 0.5 of the rounding-to-nearest operation, we make the
border become a function w.r.t. the activation value to change the activation
rounding by the adaptive border. To deal with the runtime overhead, we use a
coarse-grained version of the border function. Finally, we introduce our
framework to optimize the border function. Extensive experiments show that
AQuant achieves notable improvements compared to state-of-the-art works and
pushes the accuracy of ResNet-18 up to 60.31% under the 2-bit weight and
activation quantization
Nesting Forward Automatic Differentiation for Memory-Efficient Deep Neural Network Training
An activation function is an element-wise mathematical function and plays a
crucial role in deep neural networks (DNN). Many novel and sophisticated
activation functions have been proposed to improve the DNN accuracy but also
consume massive memory in the training process with back-propagation. In this
study, we propose the nested forward automatic differentiation (Forward-AD),
specifically for the element-wise activation function for memory-efficient DNN
training. We deploy nested Forward-AD in two widely-used deep learning
frameworks, TensorFlow and PyTorch, which support the static and dynamic
computation graph, respectively. Our evaluation shows that nested Forward-AD
reduces the memory footprint by up to 1.97x than the baseline model and
outperforms the recomputation by 20% under the same memory reduction ratio.Comment: 8 pages, ICCD 202
Origination, Expansion, Evolutionary Trajectory, and Expression Bias of AP2/ERF Superfamily in Brassica napus
The AP2/ERF superfamily, one of the most important transcription factor families, plays crucial roles in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. So far, a comprehensive evolutionary inference of its origination and expansion has not been available. Here, we identified 515 AP2/ERF genes in B. napus, a neo-tetraploid forming ~7500 years ago, and found that 82.14% of them were duplicated in the tetraploidization. A prominent subgenome bias was revealed in gene expression, tissue-specific, and gene conversion. Moreover, a large-scale analysis across plants and alga suggested that this superfamily could have been originated from AP2 family, expanding to form other families (ERF, and RAV). This process was accompanied by duplicating and/or alternative deleting AP2 domain, intragenic domain sequence conversion, and/or by acquiring other domains, resulting in copy number variations, alternatively contributing to functional innovation. We found that significant positive selection occurred at certain critical nodes during the evolution of land plants, possibly responding to changing environment. In conclusion, the present research revealed origination, functional innovation, and evolutionary trajectory of the AP2/ERF superfamily, contributing to understanding their roles in plant stress tolerance
Tislelizumab vs Sorafenib as First-Line Treatment for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial
Importance: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality, and additional first-line treatments are needed. The programmed cell death protein 1 inhibitor tislelizumab demonstrated efficacy and a tolerable safety profile as second-line HCC treatment.
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Objective: To investigate efficacy and safety of tislelizumab vs sorafenib tosylate for first-line treatment of unresectable HCC.
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Design, Setting, and Participants: The open-label, global, multiregional phase 3 RATIONALE-301 randomized clinical trial enrolled systemic therapy–naive adults with histologically confirmed HCC, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage B or C disease, disease progression following (or patient was not amenable to) locoregional therapy, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 1 or less, and Child-Pugh class A, between December 27, 2017, and October 2, 2019. Data cutoff was July 11, 2022.
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Intervention: Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive tislelizumab, 200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks, or sorafenib tosylate, 400 mg orally twice daily.
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Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was overall survival (OS); secondary end points included objective response rate, progression-free survival, duration of response, and safety.
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Results: A total of 674 patients were included in the analysis (570 men [84.6%]; median age, 61 years [range, 23-86 years]). As of July 11, 2022, minimum study follow-up was 33 months. The primary end point of OS noninferiority of tislelizumab vs sorafenib was met in the intention-to-treat population (n = 674); median overall survival was 15.9 (95% CI, 13.2-19.7) months vs 14.1 (95% CI, 12.6-17.4) months, respectively (hazard ratio [HR], 0.85 [95.003% CI, 0.71-1.02]), and superiority of tislelizumab vs sorafenib was not met. The objective response rate was 14.3% (n = 49) for tislelizumab vs 5.4% (n = 18) for sorafenib, and median duration of response was 36.1 (95% CI, 16.8 to not evaluable) months vs 11.0 (95% CI, 6.2-14.7) months, respectively. Median progression-free survival was 2.1 (95% CI, 2.1-3.5) months vs 3.4 (95% CI, 2.2-4.1) months with tislelizumab vs sorafenib (HR, 1.11 [95% CI, 0.92-1.33]). The incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs) was 96.2% (325 of 338 patients) for tislelizumab and 100% (n = 324) for sorafenib. Grade 3 or greater treatment-related AEs were reported in 75 patients (22.2%) receiving tislelizumab and 173 (53.4%) receiving sorafenib. There was a lower incidence of treatment-related AEs leading to drug discontinuation (21 [6.2%] vs 33 [10.2%]) and drug modification (68 [20.1%] vs 187 [57.7%]) with tislelizumab vs sorafenib.
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Conclusions and Relevance: In RATIONALE-301, tislelizumab demonstrated OS benefit that was noninferior vs sorafenib, with a higher objective response rate and more durable responses, while median progression-free survival was longer with sorafenib. Tislelizumab demonstrated a favorable safety profile vs sorafenib.
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Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0341277
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Fatal Community-acquired Pneumonia in Children Caused by Re-emergent Human Adenovirus 7d Associated with Higher Severity of Illness and Fatality Rate
Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are highly contagious pathogens causing acute respiratory disease (ARD), such as community-acquired pneumonia. HAdV-7d, a re-emergent genomic variant, has been recently reported in Asia and the United States after a several-decade absence. However, whether HAdV-7d is associated with higher severity than other types is currently unclear. In this study, the clinical and epidemiological investigation showed that fever, cough, and sore throat were the three most common respiratory symptoms of HAdV infections. HAdV-7 caused longer duration of fever, higher morbidity of tachypnea/dyspnea, pleural effusion, diarrhea, hepatosplenomegaly, consciousness alteration, as well as higher rates of pneumonia, mechanical ventilation and higher fatality rate (28.6%) than other types, particularly HAdV-3 and HAdV-2. The genomes of seven HAdV-7d isolates from mild, severe, and fatal cases were sequenced and highly similar with each other. Surprisingly, two isolates (2011, 2012) had 100% identical genomes with an earlier strain from a fatal ARD outbreak in China (2009), which elucidates the virus origin and confirms the unexpected HAdV genomic conservation and stability. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that L1 52/55-kDa DNA packaging protein may be associated with the higher severity of illness and fatality rate of HAdV-7. Clinicians need to be aware of HAdVs in children with ARD
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