4,711 research outputs found
MDL Convergence Speed for Bernoulli Sequences
The Minimum Description Length principle for online sequence
estimation/prediction in a proper learning setup is studied. If the underlying
model class is discrete, then the total expected square loss is a particularly
interesting performance measure: (a) this quantity is finitely bounded,
implying convergence with probability one, and (b) it additionally specifies
the convergence speed. For MDL, in general one can only have loss bounds which
are finite but exponentially larger than those for Bayes mixtures. We show that
this is even the case if the model class contains only Bernoulli distributions.
We derive a new upper bound on the prediction error for countable Bernoulli
classes. This implies a small bound (comparable to the one for Bayes mixtures)
for certain important model classes. We discuss the application to Machine
Learning tasks such as classification and hypothesis testing, and
generalization to countable classes of i.i.d. models.Comment: 28 page
Role of protein kinase C in inhibition of renin release caused by vasoconstrictors
It was the aim of the present study to get insight into some of the intracellular mechanisms by which the vasoconstrictor hormones angiotensin II (ANG II), arginine vasopressin (AVP), and norepinephrine (NE) inhibit renin release from renal juxtaglomerular cells. To this end a primary cell culture from rat renal cortex was established that consisted of 50% juxtaglomerular cells. The cultured juxtaglomerular cells contained prominent renin granules closely resembling those in the intact kidney and responded to a number of stimuli of renin release. By using these cultures, we found that ANG II (10(-7) M), AVP (10(-6) M), and NE (10(-5) M) inhibited renin release and increased the calcium permeability of the plasma membrane of the cultured cells. Both the effects on renin release and on calcium permeability could be diminished or even be abolished by the calcium channel blocker verapamil (Vp) (10(-5) M). ANG II, AVP, and NE led to an increased formation of diacylglycerol (DAG), a well-known stimulator of protein kinase C (PKC). Moreover, a direct stimulation of PKC by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) (10(-8)-10(-6) M) also inhibited renin release and increased the calcium permeability of the cell membrane. Similar to ANG II, AVP, and NE, the effects of TPA on calcium permeability and renin release could be diminished by Vp. In conclusion, these results point toward a common mechanism by which vasoconstrictors inhibit renin release from renal juxtaglomerular cells: ANG II, AVP, and NE activate a phospholipase C, which generates DAG.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS
On Martin-Löf convergence of Solomonoff’s mixture
We study the convergence of Solomonoff’s universal mixture on individual Martin-Löf random sequences. A new result is presented extending the work of Hutter and Muchnik (2004) by showing that there does not exist a universal mixture that converges on all Martin-Löf random sequences
Extreme State Aggregation Beyond MDPs
We consider a Reinforcement Learning setup where an agent interacts with an
environment in observation-reward-action cycles without any (esp.\ MDP)
assumptions on the environment. State aggregation and more generally feature
reinforcement learning is concerned with mapping histories/raw-states to
reduced/aggregated states. The idea behind both is that the resulting reduced
process (approximately) forms a small stationary finite-state MDP, which can
then be efficiently solved or learnt. We considerably generalize existing
aggregation results by showing that even if the reduced process is not an MDP,
the (q-)value functions and (optimal) policies of an associated MDP with same
state-space size solve the original problem, as long as the solution can
approximately be represented as a function of the reduced states. This implies
an upper bound on the required state space size that holds uniformly for all RL
problems. It may also explain why RL algorithms designed for MDPs sometimes
perform well beyond MDPs.Comment: 28 LaTeX pages. 8 Theorem
A Ground-Based Albedo Upper Limit for HD 189733b from Polarimetry
We present 50 nights of polarimetric observations of HD 189733 in band
using the POLISH2 aperture-integrated polarimeter at the Lick Observatory Shane
3-m telescope. This instrument, commissioned in 2011, is designed to search for
Rayleigh scattering from short-period exoplanets due to the polarized nature of
scattered light. Since these planets are spatially unresolvable from their host
stars, the relative contribution of the planet-to-total system polarization is
expected to vary with an amplitude of order 10 parts per million (ppm) over the
course of the orbit. Non-zero and also variable at the 10 ppm level, the
inherent polarization of the Lick 3-m telescope limits the accuracy of our
measurements and currently inhibits conclusive detection of scattered light
from this exoplanet. However, the amplitude of observed variability
conservatively sets a upper limit to the planet-induced polarization
of the system of 58 ppm in band, which is consistent with a previous upper
limit from the POLISH instrument at the Palomar Observatory 5-m telescope
(Wiktorowicz 2009). A physically-motivated Rayleigh scattering model, which
includes the depolarizing effects of multiple scattering, is used to
conservatively set a upper limit to the geometric albedo of HD
189733b of . This value is consistent with the value derived from occultation observations with HST STIS (Evans et al.
2013), but it is inconsistent with the large albedo
reported by (Berdyugina et al. 2011).Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Ap
A time-dependent Tsirelson's bound from limits on the rate of information gain in quantum systems
We consider the problem of distinguishing between a set of arbitrary quantum
states in a setting in which the time available to perform the measurement is
limited. We provide simple upper bounds on how well we can perform state
discrimination in a given time as a function of either the average energy or
the range of energies available during the measurement. We exhibit a specific
strategy that nearly attains this bound. Finally, we consider several
applications of our result. First, we obtain a time-dependent Tsirelson's bound
that limits the extent of the Bell inequality violation that can be in
principle be demonstrated in a given time t. Second, we obtain a
Margolus-Levitin type bound when considering the special case of distinguishing
orthogonal pure states.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, 1 figur
Concurrent bariatric operations and association with perioperative outcomes: Registry based cohort study
Quantitative evaluation of orofacial motor function in mice: The pasta gnawing test, a voluntary and stress-free behavior test
AbstractBackgroundEvaluation of motor deficits in rodents is mostly restricted to limb motor tests that are often high stressors for the animals.New methodTo test rodents for orofacial motor impairments in a stress-free environment, we established the pasta gnawing test by measuring the biting noise of mice that eat a piece of spaghetti. Two parameters were evaluated, the biting speed and the biting peaks per biting episode. To evaluate the power of this test compared to commonly used limb motor and muscle strength tests, three mouse models of Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Niemann-Pick disease were tested in the pasta gnawing test, RotaRod and wire suspension test.ResultsOur results show that the pasta gnawing test reliably displays orofacial motor deficits.Comparison with existing methodsThe test is especially useful as additional motor test in early onset disease models, since it shows first deficits later than the RotaRod or wire suspension test. The test depends on a voluntary eating behavior of the animal with only a short-time food deprivation and should thus be stress-free.ConclusionsThe pasta gnawing test represents a valuable tool to analyze orofacial motor deficits in different early onset disease models
A Parameter Study of Classical Be Star Disk Models Constrained by Optical Interferometry
We have computed theoretical models of circumstellar disks for the classical
Be stars Dra, Psc, and Cyg. Models were constructed
using a non-LTE radiative transfer code developed by \citet{sig07} which
incorporates a number of improvements over previous treatments of the disk
thermal structure, including a realistic chemical composition. Our models are
constrained by direct comparison with long baseline optical interferometric
observations of the H emitting regions and by contemporaneous H
line profiles. Detailed comparisons of our predictions with H
interferometry and spectroscopy place very tight constraints on the density
distributions for these circumstellar disks.Comment: 10 figures,28 pages, accepted by Ap
Parsec-scale Magnetic-Field Structures in HEAO-1 BL Lacs
We present very long baseline interferometry polarization images of an X-ray
selected sample of BL Lacertae objects belonging to the first High Energy
Astronomy Observatory (HEAO-1) and the ROSAT-Green Bank (RGB) surveys. These
are primarily high-energy-peaked BL Lacs (HBLs) and exhibit core-jet radio
morphologies on pc-scales. They show moderately polarized jet components,
similar to those of low-energy-peaked BL Lacs (LBLs). The fractional
polarization in the unresolved cores of the HBLs is, on average, lower than in
the LBLs, while the fractional polarizations in the pc-scale jets of HBLs and
LBLs are comparable. However a difference is observed in the orientation of the
inferred jet magnetic fields -- while LBL jets are well-known to preferentially
exhibit transverse magnetic fields, the HBL jets tend to display longitudinal
magnetic fields. Although a `spine-sheath' jet velocity structure, along with
larger viewing angles for HBLs could produce the observed magnetic field
configuration, differences in other properties of LBLs and HBLs, such as their
total radio power, cannot be fully reconciled with the different-angle scenario
alone. Instead it appears that LBLs and HBLs differ intrinsically, perhaps in
the spin rates of their central black holes.Comment: 41 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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