DataPerf: Benchmarks for Data-Centric AI Development

Machine learning research has long focused on models rather than datasets, and prominent datasets are used for common ML tasks without regard to the breadth, difficulty, and faithfulness of the underlying problems. Neglecting the fundamental importance of data has given rise to inaccuracy, bias, and fragility in real-world applications, and research is hindered by saturation across existing dataset benchmarks. In response, we present DataPerf, a community-led benchmark suite for evaluating ML datasets and data-centric algorithms. We aim to foster innovation in data-centric AI through competition, comparability, and reproducibility. We enable the ML community to iterate on datasets, instead of just architectures, and we provide an open, online platform with multiple rounds of challenges to support this iterative development. The first iteration of DataPerf contains five benchmarks covering a wide spectrum of data-centric techniques, tasks, and modalities in vision, speech, acquisition, debugging, and diffusion prompting, and we support hosting new contributed benchmarks from the community. The benchmarks, online evaluation platform, and baseline implementations are open source, and the MLCommons Association will maintain DataPerf to ensure long-term benefits to academia and industry.Comment: NeurIPS 2023 Datasets and Benchmarks Trac

Setting Research and Extension Priorities for Agronomic Crop Production in California

Agronomic crop production in California faces a number of challenges related to farm economics, market demand shifts, environmental regulations, labor availability, and conservation of natural resources. Given the diversity of crops and production regions in California, combined with a reduction of University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) personnel, a statewide needs assessment was conducted to identify the major concerns of UCCE’s agronomic crops clientele and their preferences for different types of extension material programming. Between July - August 2020, 483 growers, consultants, and allied industry of agronomic crop production responded to an online survey. Based on the responses, water clearly ranked as the top concern for California agronomy, while weed control and irrigation/water management were identified as the top management challenges. Crop rotation benefits were a primary reason for growing agronomic crops, with profitability and tradition ranked closely behind. In addition to water and profits, land stewardship was a high priority for growers when making management decisions. From a broader list of topics covered by UCCE research and extension, the top gaps in issues that clientele consider to be priority vs. their satisfaction with delivery of information on these topics include testing new products, water conservation and storage, irrigation management, weed control, and soil health. Based on the gap in priority and satisfaction, UCCE’s agronomy advisors should consider focusing research and extension efforts on these topics. The results or this needs assessment survey provide insights into the priorities and decision-making process of agronomic crops clientele, helping to improve regional and statewide research and extension efforts, and identifying opportunities for collaboration

A telemedicine bridge clinic improves access and reduces cost for opioid use disorder care

Objective: We evaluated the impact of a telemedicine bridge clinic on treatment outcomes and cost for patients with opioid use disorder. Telemedicine bridge clinics deliver low-barrier rapid assessment of patients with opioid use disorder via audio-only and audiovisual telemedicine to facilitate induction on medication therapy and connection to ongoing care. Methods: A pre-post analysis of UPMC Health Plan member claims was performed to evaluate the impact of this intervention on the trajectory of care for patients with continuous coverage before and after bridge clinic visit(s). Results: Analysis included 150 UPMC Health Plan members evaluated at the bridge clinic between April 2020 and October 2021. At least one buprenorphine prescription was filled within 30 days by 91% of patients; median proportion of days covered by buprenorphine was 73.3%, 54.4%, and 50.6% at 30, 90, and 180 days after an initial visit compared to median of no buprenorphine claims 30 days prior among the same patients. Patients had an 18% decline in unplanned care utilization 30 days after initial Bridge Clinic visit, with a 62% reduction in unplanned care cost per member per month (PMPM), 38% reduction in medical cost PMPM, and 10% reduction in total PMPM (medical + pharmacy cost) at 180 days. Primary care, outpatient behavioral health, and laboratory costs increased while emergency department, urgent care, and inpatient costs declined. Conclusion: Utilization of a telemedicine bridge clinic was associated with buprenorphine initiation, linkage to ongoing care with retention including medication treatment, reduced unplanned care cost, and overall savings

Inflammatory Stimuli Induce Acyl-CoA Thioesterase 7 and Remodeling of Phospholipids Containing Unsaturated Long ( 65C20)-Acyl Chains in Macrophages

Acyl-CoA thioesterase 7 (ACOT7) is an intracellular enzyme that converts acyl-CoAs to free fatty acids. ACOT7 is induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), thus we investigated downstream effects of LPS-induced induction of ACOT7 and its role in inflammatory settings in myeloid cells. Enzymatic thioesterase activity assays in wildtype and ACOT7-deficient macrophage lysates indicated that endogenous ACOT7 contributes a significant fraction of total acyl-CoA thioesterase activity towards C20:4-CoA, C20:5-CoA and C22:6-CoA, but contributes little activity towards shorter acyl-CoA species. Lipidomic analyses revealed that LPS causes a dramatic increase primarily in bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate species containing long ( 65C20) polyunsaturated acyl-chains in macrophages, and that the limited effect observed by ACOT7-deficiency is restricted to glycerophospholipids containing 20-carbon unsaturated acyl-chains. Furthermore, ACOT7-deficiency did not detectably alter the ability of LPS to induce cytokines or prostaglandin E2 production in macrophages. Consistently, although ACOT7 was induced in macrophages from diabetic mice, hematopoietic ACOT7-deficiency did not alter the stimulatory effect of diabetes on systemic inflammation or atherosclerosis in LDL receptor-deficient mice. Thus, inflammatory stimuli induce ACOT7 and remodeling of phospholipids containing unsaturated long ( 65C20)-acyl chains in macrophages, and though ACOT7 has preferential thioesterase activity toward these lipid species, loss of ACOT7 has no major detrimental effect on macrophage inflammatory phenotypes

Setting research and extension priorities for agronomic crops in California

Agronomic crops, including grains, forages, and fiber, are central to California agriculture, yet face many challenges. To ensure resilience, a statewide survey was conducted by the University of California Cooperative Extension service (UCCE) to identify high-priority needs and inform extension programming based on grower, consultant, and allied industry input. The goal was to compare the importance of different topics with the level of satisfaction regarding UCCE’s delivery of information on these topics. Survey respondents identified integrated pest management, nutrient and irrigation management, and variety testing as high-priority needs, with overall high satisfaction regarding UCCE’s program delivery on these topics. Topics needing more focus (high priority but below-average level of satisfaction) included testing new products, soil health management, and water conservation and storage. Areas of low priority and low satisfaction included niche marketing, emerging crops, organic production, harvest/post-harvest technology, salinity management, compost and manure management, and greenhouse gas emission reductions. To address stakeholder challenges, results from this study suggest that research and extension efforts should prioritize issues directly impacting on-farm crop production. At the same time, areas of low interest reflect a need for more support to engage farmers on these topics, particularly those concerning state environmental regulations and challenges to local and global food production and security