Masking Kernel for Learning Energy-Efficient Representations for Speaker Recognition and Mobile Health

Modern smartphones possess hardware for audio acquisition and to perform speech processing tasks such as speaker recognition and health assessment. However, energy consumption remains a concern, especially for resource-intensive DNNs. Prior work has improved the DNN energy efficiency by utilizing a compact model or reducing the dimensions of speech features. Both approaches reduced energy consumption during DNN inference but not during speech acquisition. This paper proposes using a masking kernel integrated into gradient descent during DNN training to learn the most energy-efficient speech length and sampling rate for windowing, a common step for sample construction. To determine the most energy-optimal parameters, a masking function with non-zero derivatives was combined with a low-pass filter. The proposed approach minimizes the energy consumption of both data collection and inference by 57%, and is competitive with speaker recognition and traumatic brain injury detection baselines

A continuous isotropic-nematic liquid crystalline transition of F-actin solutions

The phase transition from the isotropic (I) to nematic (N) liquid crystalline suspension of F-actin of average length $3~\mu$m or above was studied by local measurements of optical birefringence and protein concentration. Both parameters were detected to be continuous in the transition region, suggesting that the I-N transition is higher than 1st order. This finding is consistent with a recent theory by Lammert, Rokhsar & Toner (PRL, 1993, 70:1650), predicting that the I-N transition may become continuous due to suppression of disclinations. Indeed, few line defects occur in the aligned phase of F-actin. Individual filaments in solutions of a few mg/ml F-actin undergo fast translational diffusion along the filament axis, whereas both lateral and rotational diffusions are suppressed.Comment: 4 pages with 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Topological Phases in Graphitic Cones

The electronic structure of graphitic cones exhibits distinctive topological features associated with the apical disclinations. Aharonov-Bohm magnetoconductance oscillations (period Phi_0) are completely absent in rings fabricated from cones with a single pentagonal disclination. Close to the apex, the local density of states changes qualitatively, either developing a cusp which drops to zero at the Fermi energy, or forming a region of nonzero density across the Fermi energy, a local metalization of graphene.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX 4, 3 PostScript figure

Same Book, Different Bookmarks: The Development and Preliminary Validation of the Bible Verse Selection Task as a Measure of Christian Fundamentalism

The development and preliminary validation of a new measure of Christian fundamentalism required a multi-stage process. In an initial exploratory study, participants indicated which of a set of Bible verses were most central to their faith, and factor analysis was used to identify verses that appeared to tap a latent dimension of religious fundamentalism (Study 1). These relationships were re-tested with a new method in a new sample (Study 2), and the items that predicted fundamentalism in both samples were incorporated into a new measure of Christian fundamentalism, the Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST). Importantly, the forced-choice format of the BVST may be less impacted by social desirability response styles that may affect scores on existing fundamentalism scales (Studies 3 & 4) while preserving useful levels of criterion-related validity (Study 5) and convergent evidence of construct validity (Study 6). These studies provide initial psychometric evidence for the BVST as an internally consistent measure of Christian fundamentalism that predicts scores on other fundamentalism scales and related constructs including traditionalism, authoritarianism, and political conservativism

Pre-endoscopy SARS-CoV-2 testing strategy during COVID-19 pandemic: the care must go on

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, endoscopic societies initially recommended reduction of endoscopic procedures. In particular non-urgent endoscopies should be postponed. However, this might lead to unnecessary delay in diagnosing gastrointestinal conditions. Methods: Retrospectively we analysed the gastrointestinal endoscopies performed at the Central Endoscopy Unit of Saarland University Medical Center during seven weeks from 23 March to 10 May 2020 and present our real-world single-centre experience with an individualized rtPCR-based pre-endoscopy SARS-CoV-2 testing strategy. We also present our experience with this strategy in 2021. Results: Altogether 359 gastrointestinal endoscopies were performed in the initial period. The testing strategy enabled us to conservatively handle endoscopy programme reduction (44% reduction as compared 2019) during the frst wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of COVID-19 rtPCR from nasopharyngeal swabs were available in 89% of patients prior to endoscopies. Apart from six patients with known COVID-19, all other tested patients were negative. The frequencies of endoscopic therapies and clinically signifcant fndings did not difer between patients with or without SARS-CoV-2 tests. In 2021 we were able to unrestrictedly perform all requested endoscopic procedures (>5000 procedures) by applying the rtPCR-based pre-endoscopy SARS-CoV-2 testing strategy, regardless of next waves of COVID-19. Only two out-patients (1893 out-patient procedures) were tested positive in the year 2021. Conclusion: A structured pre-endoscopy SARS-CoV-2 testing strategy is feasible in the clinical routine of an endoscopy unit. rtPCR-based pre-endoscopy SARS-CoV-2 testing safely allowed unrestricted continuation of endoscopic procedures even in the presence of high incidence rates of COVID-19. Given the low frequency of positive tests, the absolute efect of pre-endoscopy testing on viral transmission may be low when FFP-2 masks are regularly used

Nonperturbative approach to the Hubbard model in C60 cluster

We propose a computational scheme for the Hubbard model in the C60 cluster in which the interaction with the Fermi sea of charges added to the neutral molecule is switched on sequentially. This is applied to the calculation of the balance of charging energies, within a low-energy truncation of the space of states which produces moderate errors for an intermediate range of the interaction strength.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 2 figure

Protective Effects of Statin Therapy in Cirrhosis Are Limited by a Common SLCO1B1 Transporter Variant

Complications of cirrhosis and portal hypertension (PH) can be reduced by statin therapy. The common loss-of-function variant p.V174A in the solute carrier organic anion transporter gene 1B1 (SLCO1B1) gene encoding the organic anion transporting polypeptide 1B1 results in decreased hepatic uptake of statins. Our specific aim was to assess the impact of this variant in patients with cirrhosis and statin treatment while controlling for the stage of cirrhosis and other potential confounders with propensity score matching (PSM), availing of a large cohort of genotyped study patients. In total, from 1,088 patients with cirrhosis in two German academic medical centers, PSM yielded 154 patients taking statins and 154 matched controls. The effect on PH was assessed by the liver stiffness–spleen size–to–platelet score (LSPS), and complications of cirrhosis were retrospectively recorded applying consensus criteria. As hypothesized, patients on statin treatment presented less frequently with signs of PH: Esophageal varices (41% vs. 62%; P < 0.001) were less common, and LSPS (4.8 ± 11.5 vs. 5.6 ± 6.4; P = 0.01) was reduced. Correspondingly, decompensation events were also reduced in patients on statins (odds ratio [OR] = 0.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.32-0.90; P = 0.02). When the variant in SLCO1B1 was present in patients on statins, esophageal varices (OR = 2.68, 95% CI 1.24-5.81; P = 0.01) and bacterial infections (OR = 2.50, 95% CI 1.14-5.47; P = 0.02) were more common as compared with wild type carriers on statins. Conclusion: In this cohort, signs and complications of PH were reduced in patients with cirrhosis treated with statins. Notably, this effect was diminished by the common loss-of-function variant in SLCO1B1. Further prospective studies in independent cohorts are warranted to confirm these genotype-specific observations

Kaluza-Klein description of geometric phases in graphene

In this paper, we use the Kaluza-Klein approach to describe topological defects in a graphene layer. Using this approach, we propose a geometric model allowing to discuss the quantum flux in $K$-spin subspace. Within this model, the graphene layer with a topological defect is described by a four-dimensional metric, where the deformation produced by the topological defect is introduced via the three-dimensional part of metric tensor, while an Abelian gauge field is introduced via an extra dimension. We use this new geometric model to discuss the arising of topological quantum phases in a graphene layer with a topological defect.Comment: 16 pages, version accepted to Annals of Physic

Dirac fermions on a disclinated flexible surface

A self-consisting gauge-theory approach to describe Dirac fermions on flexible surfaces with a disclination is formulated. The elastic surfaces are considered as embeddings into R^3 and a disclination is incorporated through a topologically nontrivial gauge field of the local SO(3) group which generates the metric with conical singularity. A smoothing of the conical singularity on flexible surfaces is naturally accounted for by regarding the upper half of two-sheet hyperboloid as an elasticity-induced embedding. The availability of the zero-mode solution to the Dirac equation is analyzed.Comment: 6 page