Racing Multi-Objective Selection Probabilities

In the context of Noisy Multi-Objective Optimization, dealing with uncertainties requires the decision maker to define some preferences about how to handle them, through some statistics (e.g., mean, median) to be used to evaluate the qualities of the solutions, and define the corresponding Pareto set. Approximating these statistics requires repeated samplings of the population, drastically increasing the overall computational cost. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes to directly estimate the probability of each individual to be selected, using some Hoeffding races to dynamically assign the estimation budget during the selection step. The proposed racing approach is validated against static budget approaches with NSGA-II on noisy versions of the ZDT benchmark functions

No Significant Evidence of Cognitive Biases for Emotional Stimuli in Children At-Risk of Developing Anxiety Disorders.

This paper explores whether the increased vulnerability of children of anxious parents to develop anxiety disorders may be partially explained by these children having increased cognitive biases towards threat compared with children of non-anxious parents. Parents completed questionnaires about their child’s anxiety symptoms. Children aged 5–9 (n = 85) participated in two cognitive bias tasks: 1) an emotion recognition task, and 2) an ambiguous situations questionnaire. For the emotion recognition task, there were no significant differences between at-risk children and children of non-anxious parents in their cognitive bias scores for reaction times or for accuracy in identifying angry or happy facial expressions. In addition, there were no significant differences between at-risk children and children of non-anxious parents in the number of threat interpretations made for the ambiguous situations questionnaire. It is possible that these cognitive biases only become present subsequent to the development of an anxiety disorder, or only in older at-risk children

Force-based Cooperative Search Directions in Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization

International audienceIn order to approximate the set of Pareto optimal solutions, several evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) algorithms transfer the multi-objective problem into several independent single-objective ones by means of scalarizing functions. The choice of the scalarizing functions' underlying search directions, however, is typically problem-dependent and therefore difficult if no information about the problem characteristics are known before the search process. The goal of this paper is to present new ideas of how these search directions can be computed \emph{adaptively} during the search process in a \emph{cooperative} manner. Based on the idea of Newton's law of universal gravitation, solutions attract and repel each other \emph{in the objective space}. Several force-based EMO algorithms are proposed and compared experimentally on general bi-objective $\rho$MNK landscapes with different objective correlations. It turns out that the new approach is easy to implement, fast, and competitive with respect to a $(\mu+\lambda)$-SMS-EMOA variant, in particular if the objectives show strong positive or negative correlations

An internet-based intervention with brief nurse support to manage obesity in primary care (POWeR+): a pragmatic, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial

Background The obesity epidemic has major public health consequences. Expert dietetic and behavioural counselling with intensive follow-up is effective, but resource requirements severely restrict widespread implementation in primary care, where most patients are managed. We aimed to estimate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an internet-based behavioural intervention (POWeR+) combined with brief practice nurse support in primary care. Methods We did this pragmatic, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial at 56 primary care practices in central and south England. Eligible adults aged 18 years or older with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more (or ≥28 kg/m2 with hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, or diabetes) registered online with POWeR+—a 24 session, web-based, weight management intervention lasting 6 months. After registration, the website automatically randomly assigned patients (1:1:1), via computer-generated random numbers, to receive evidence-based dietetic advice to swap foods for similar, but healthier, choices and increase fruit and vegetable intake, in addition to 6 monthly nurse follow-up (control group); web-based intervention and face-to-face nurse support (POWeR+Face-to-face [POWeR+F]; up to seven nurse contacts over 6 months); or web-based intervention and remote nurse support (POWeR+Remote [POWeR+R]; up to five emails or brief phone calls over 6 months). Participants and investigators were masked to group allocation at the point of randomisation; masking of participants was not possible after randomisation. The primary outcome was weight loss averaged over 12 months. We did a secondary analysis of weight to measure maintenance of 5% weight loss at months 6 and 12. We modelled the cost-effectiveness of each intervention. We did analysis by intention to treat, with multiple imputation for missing data. This trial is registered as an International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial, number ISRCTN21244703. Findings Between Jan 30, 2013, and March 20, 2014, 818 participants were randomly assigned to the control group (n=279), the POWeR+F group (n=269), or the POWeR+R group (n=270). Weight loss averaged over 12 months was recorded in 666 (81%) participants. The control group lost almost 3 kg over 12 months (crude mean weight: baseline 104·38 kg [SD 21·11; n=279], 6 months 101·91 kg [19·35; n=136], 12 months 101·74 kg [19·57; n=227]). The primary imputed analysis showed that compared with the control group, patients in the POWeR+F group achieved an additional weight reduction of 1·5 kg (95% CI 0·6–2·4; p=0·001) averaged over 12 months, and patients in the POWeR+R group achieved an additional 1·3 kg (0·34–2·2; p=0·007). 21% of patients in the control group had maintained a clinically important 5% weight reduction at month 12, compared with 29% of patients in the POWeR+F group (risk ratio 1·56, 0·96–2·51; p=0·070) and 32% of patients in the POWeR+R group (1·82, 1·31–2·74; p=0·004). The incremental overall cost to the health service per kg weight lost with the POWeR+ interventions versus the control strategy was £18 (95% CI −129 to 195) for POWeR+F and –£25 (−268 to 157) for POWeR+R; the probability of being cost-effective at a threshold of £100 per kg lost was 88% and 98%, respectively. No adverse events were reported. Interpretation Weight loss can be maintained in some individuals by use of novel written material with occasional brief nurse follow-up. However, more people can maintain clinically important weight reductions with a web-based behavioural program and brief remote follow-up, with no increase in health service costs. Future research should assess the extent to which clinically important weight loss can be maintained beyond 1 year

Influence of nonlocal electrodynamics on the anisotropic vortex pinning in YNi2B2CYNi_2B_2C

We have studied the pinning force density Fp of YNi_2B_2C superconductors for various field orientations. We observe anisotropies both between the c-axis and the basal plane and within the plane, that cannot be explained by usual mass anisotropy. For magnetic field $H \parallel c$, the reorientation structural transition in the vortex lattice due to nonlocality, which occurs at a field $H_1 \sim 1kOe$, manifests itself as a kink in Fp(H). When $H \bot c$, Fp is much larger and has a quite different H dependence, indicating that other pinning mechanisms are present. In this case the signature of nonlocal effects is the presence of a fourfold periodicity of Fp within the basal plane.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Existing guidance on reporting of consensus methodology: a systematic review to inform ACCORD guideline development

Objective To identify evidence on the reporting quality of consensus methodology and to select potential checklist items for the ACcurate COnsensus Reporting Document (ACCORD) project to develop a consensus reporting guideline.Design Systematic review.Data sources Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Emcare, Academic Search Premier and PsycINFO from inception until 7 January 2022.Eligibility criteria Studies, reviews and published guidance addressing the reporting quality of consensus methodology for improvement of health outcomes in biomedicine or clinical practice. Reports of studies using or describing consensus methods but not commenting on their reporting quality were excluded. No language restrictions were applied.Data extraction and synthesis Screening and data extraction of eligible studies were carried out independently by two authors. Reporting quality items addressed by the studies were synthesised narratively.Results Eighteen studies were included: five systematic reviews, four narrative reviews, three research papers, three conference abstracts, two research guidance papers and one protocol. The majority of studies indicated that the quality of reporting of consensus methodology could be improved. Commonly addressed items were: consensus panel composition; definition of consensus and the threshold for achieving consensus. Items least addressed were: public patient involvement (PPI); the role of the steering committee, chair, cochair; conflict of interest of panellists and funding. Data extracted from included studies revealed additional items that were not captured in the data extraction form such as justification of deviation from the protocol or incentives to encourage panellist response.Conclusion The results of this systematic review confirmed the need for a reporting checklist for consensus methodology and provided a range of potential checklist items to report. The next step in the ACCORD project builds on this systematic review and focuses on reaching consensus on these items to develop the reporting guideline.Dermatology and Venereolog

Temperature dependence and mechanisms for vortex pinning by periodic arrays of Ni dots in Nb films

Pinning interactions between superconducting vortices in Nb and magnetic Ni dots were studied as a function of current and temperature to clarify the nature of pinning mechanisms. A strong current dependence is found for a square array of dots, with a temperature dependent optimum current for the observation of periodic pinning, that decreases with temperature as (1-T/Tc)3/2. This same temperature dependence is found for the critical current at the first matching field with a rectangular array of dots. The analysis of these results allows to narrow the possible pinning mechanisms to a combination of two: the interaction between the vortex and the magnetic moment of the dot and the proximity effect. Moreover, for the rectangular dot array, the temperature dependence of the crossover between the low field regime with a rectangular vortex lattice to the high field regime with a square configuration has been studied. It is found that the crossover field increases with decreasing temperature. This dependence indicates a change in the balance between elastic and pinning energies, associated with dynamical effects of the vortex lattice in the high field range.Comment: 12 text pages (revtex), 6 figures (1st jpeg, 2nd-6th postscript) accepted in Physical Review

Cerebello-cerebral connectivity in the developing brain

Disrupted cerebellar development and injury is associated with impairments in both motor and non-motor domains. Methods to non-invasively characterize cerebellar afferent and efferent connections during early development are lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of delineating cortico-ponto-cerebellar (CPC) and cerebello-thalamo-cortical (CTC) white matter tracts during brain development using high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI). HARDI data were obtained in 24 infants born between 24+6 and 39 weeks gestational age (median 33+4 weeks) and scanned between 29+1 and 44 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA) (median 37+1 weeks). Probabilistic tractography of CPC and CTC fibers was performed using constrained spherical deconvolution. Connections between cerebellum and contralateral cerebral hemisphere were identified in all infants studied. Fractional anisotropy (FA) values of CTC and CPC pathways increased with increasing PMA at scan (p < 0.001). The supratentorial regions connecting to contralateral cerebellum in most subjects, irrespective of PMA at scan, included the precentral cortex, superior frontal cortex, supplementary motor area, insula, postcentral cortex, precuneus, and paracentral lobule. This study demonstrates the feasibility of assessing CTC and CPC white matter connectivity in vivo during the early stages of development. The ability to assess cerebellar connectivity during this critical developmental period may help improve our understanding of the role of the cerebellum in a wide range of neuromotor and neurocognitive disorders

Inflation in Realistic D-Brane Models

We find successful models of D-brane/anti-brane inflation within a string context. We work within the GKP-KKLT class of type IIB string vacua for which many moduli are stabilized through fluxes, as recently modified to include `realistic' orbifold sectors containing standard-model type particles. We allow all moduli to roll when searching for inflationary solutions and find that inflation is not generic inasmuch as special choices must be made for the parameters describing the vacuum. But given these choices inflation can occur for a reasonably wide range of initial conditions for the brane and antibrane. We find that D-terms associated with the orbifold blowing-up modes play an important role in the inflationary dynamics. Since the models contain a standard-model-like sector after inflation, they open up the possibility of addressing reheating issues. We calculate predictions for the CMB temperature fluctuations and find that these can be consistent with observations, but are generically not deep within the scale-invariant regime and so can allow appreciable values for $dn_s/d\ln k$ as well as predicting a potentially observable gravity-wave signal. It is also possible to generate some admixture of isocurvature fluctuations.Comment: 39 pages, 21 figures; added references; identified parameters combining successful inflation with strong warping, as needed for consistency of the approximation