The human visual system and CNNs can both support robust online translation tolerance following extreme displacements

Visual translation tolerance refers to our capacity to recognize objects over a wide range of different retinal locations. Although translation is perhaps the simplest spatial transform that the visual system needs to cope with, the extent to which the human visual system can identify objects at previously unseen locations is unclear, with some studies reporting near complete invariance over 10 degrees and other reporting zero invariance at 4 degrees of visual angle. Similarly, there is confusion regarding the extent of translation tolerance in computational models of vision, as well as the degree of match between human and model performance. Here, we report a series of eye-tracking studies (total N = 70) demonstrating that novel objects trained at one retinal location can be recognized at high accuracy rates following translations up to 18 degrees. We also show that standard deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) support our findings when pretrained to classify another set of stimuli across a range of locations, or when a global average pooling (GAP) layer is added to produce larger receptive fields. Our findings provide a strong constraint for theories of human vision and help explain inconsistent findings previously reported with convolutional neural networks (CNNs)

Diet-Related Risk Factors for Leprosy: A Case-Control Study

Food shortage was associated with leprosy in two recent studies investigating the relation between socioeconomic factors and leprosy. Inadequate intake of nutrients due to food shortage may affect the immune system and influence the progression of infection to clinical leprosy. We aimed to identify possible differences in dietary intake between recently diagnosed leprosy patients and control subjects. In a leprosy endemic area of Bangladesh, newly diagnosed leprosy patients and control subjects were interviewed about their socioeconomic situation, health and diet. Dietary intakes were recorded with a 24-hour recall, from which a Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) was calculated. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) was filled out for every participant. Using logistic regression, a univariate, block wise multivariate, and an integrated analysis were carried out. 52 leprosy cases and 100 control subjects were included. Food shortage was more common, dietary diversity was lower and household food insecurity was higher in the patient group. Patients consumed significantly less items from the DDS food groups ‘Meat and fish’ and ‘Other fruits and vegetables.’ Lower food expenditure per capita, lower BMI, lower DDS and absence of household food stocks are the main factors associated with an increased risk of having leprosy. Low income families have only little money to spend on food and consequently have a low intake of highly nutritious non-rice foods such as meat, fish, milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables. Development of clinical leprosy could be explained by deficiencies of the nutrients that these foods normally provide

The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix

Optical Light Curves of Supernovae

Photometry is the most easily acquired information about supernovae. The light curves constructed from regular imaging provide signatures not only for the energy input, the radiation escape, the local environment and the progenitor stars, but also for the intervening dust. They are the main tool for the use of supernovae as distance indicators through the determination of the luminosity. The light curve of SN 1987A still is the richest and longest observed example for a core-collapse supernova. Despite the peculiar nature of this object, as explosion of a blue supergiant, it displayed all the characteristics of Type II supernovae. The light curves of Type Ib/c supernovae are more homogeneous, but still display the signatures of explosions in massive stars, among them early interaction with their circumstellar material. Wrinkles in the near-uniform appearance of thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae have emerged during the past decade. Subtle differences have been observed especially at near-infrared wavelengths. Interestingly, the light curve shapes appear to correlate with a variety of other characteristics of these supernovae. The construction of bolometric light curves provides the most direct link to theoretical predictions and can yield sorely needed constraints for the models. First steps in this direction have been already made.Comment: To be published in:"Supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursters", Lecture Notes in Physics (http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele