Generalized energy equipartition in harmonic oscillators driven by active baths

We study experimentally and numerically the dynamics of colloidal beads confined by a harmonic potential in a bath of swimming E. coli bacteria. The resulting dynamics is well approximated by a Langevin equation for an overdamped oscillator driven by the combination of a white thermal noise and an exponentially correlated active noise. This scenario leads to a simple generalization of the equipartition theorem resulting in the coexistence of two different effective temperatures that govern dynamics along the flat and the curved directions in the potential landscape.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Velocity distribution in active particles systems

We derive an analytic expression for the distribution of velocities of multiple interacting active particles which we test by numerical simulations. In clear contrast with equilibrium we find that the velocities are coupled to positions. Our model shows that, even for two particles only, the individual velocities display a variance depending on the interparticle separation and the emergence of correlations between the velocities of the particles. When considering systems composed of many particles we find an analytic expression connecting the overall velocity variance to density, at the mean-field level, and to the pair distribution function valid in the limit of small noise correlation times. Finally we discuss the intriguing analogies and main differences between our effective free energy functional and the theoretical scenario proposed so far for phase-separating active particles

SGDE: Secure Generative Data Exchange for Cross-Silo Federated Learning

Privacy regulation laws, such as GDPR, impose transparency and security as design pillars for data processing algorithms. In this context, federated learning is one of the most influential frameworks for privacy-preserving distributed machine learning, achieving astounding results in many natural language processing and computer vision tasks. Several federated learning frameworks employ differential privacy to prevent private data leakage to unauthorized parties and malicious attackers. Many studies, however, highlight the vulnerabilities of standard federated learning to poisoning and inference, thus raising concerns about potential risks for sensitive data. To address this issue, we present SGDE, a generative data exchange protocol that improves user security and machine learning performance in a cross-silo federation. The core of SGDE is to share data generators with strong differential privacy guarantees trained on private data instead of communicating explicit gradient information. These generators synthesize an arbitrarily large amount of data that retain the distinctive features of private samples but differ substantially. In this work, SGDE is tested in a cross-silo federated network on images and tabular datasets, exploiting beta-variational autoencoders as data generators. From the results, the inclusion of SGDE turns out to improve task accuracy and fairness, as well as resilience to the most influential attacks on federated learning

Uterine and ovarian changes during testosterone administration in young female-to-male transsexuals

Abstract Objective Female-to-male transition remains a specific clinical indication for long-term testosterone administration. There is a limited number of studies dealing with the effect of androgen treatment on their female receptive targets (mainly breast and uterus) and the knowledge in this field is scarce and, sometimes, contradictory. Materials and Methods We performed a prospective study including 12 patients aged between 20 years and 32 years, with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, treated with parenteral testosterone administration before sexual reassignment surgery. Results Endometrial histology revealed the presence of active endometrium in 10 cases and secretive endometrium in two cases. Multifollicular ovaries were observed in all cases of active endometrium, while corpus luteum was present in the two cases of secretory endometrium. Fibroids or hypertrophic myometrium were observed in 58% of the patients. Estrogen receptor was very high (59%) in the endometrial epithelial cells and low (17%) in the myometrium. Androgen receptor expression was modest in endometrial epithelial cells (24%) and sustained in myometrium (69%). Ki67 expression is steadily present in all uterine compartments, varying from 8% in epithelial endometrium to 2% in the myometrium. Conclusion Our data suggest that long-term testosterone administration to female-to-male patients during reproductive age induces a low proliferative active endometrium, associated with some hypertrophic myometrial changes

An insight into the reactivity of the electrogenerated radical cation of caffeine

Controlled potential electrolyses of caffeine (CAF) were carried out at a Pt electrode in undried acetonitrile (ACN) and ACN-H2O and the products of the anodic oxidation were analyzed by HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS. A higher current efficiency occurred in ACN-H2O, but an analogous chromatographic outline was found in both media, evidencing a reactive pathway of the electrogenerated radical cation CAF•+ with water, added or in trace, as nucleophile. No dimeric forms were evidenced, excluding any coupling reactions. Neither was 1,3,7-trimethyluric acid found, reported in the literature as the main oxidative route for CAF in water. Four main chromatographic peaks were evidenced, assigned to four proposed structures on the base of chromatographic and spectral data: a 4,5-diol derivative and an oxazolidin-2-one derivative were assigned as principal oxidation products, supporting a mechanism proposed in a previous work for the primary anodic oxidation of the methylxanthines olefinic C4 = C 5 bond. Two highly polar degradation products were also tentatively assigned, that seemed generating along two different pathways, one opening the imidazolic moiety and another one opening the purinic one

Femoral Head Autograft to Manage Acetabular Bone Loss Defects in THA for Crowe III Hips by DAA: Retrospective Study and Surgical Technique

Introduction: The pathologic anatomy of Crowe III is characterized by the erosion of the superior rim of acetabulum, with a typical bone defect in its supero–lateral portion. The performance of a total hip arthroplasty requires the management of the acetabular bone defect, and femoral head autograft can be a valid option to optimize implant coverage. Material and Methods: In all, eight Crowe III patients (nine hips), seven of which having unilateral hip affected, and one with bilateral involvement by secondary osteoarthritis in DDH; maximum limb length discrepancy (LLD) of 3.5 cm in unilateral patients. All were operated on by direct anterior approach. Patients were evaluated in terms of clinical, surgical, and radiological (center-edge, horizontal coverage, cup inclination) parameters. Results: Cup placement was implanted with a mean of 39.5 ± 7.5°. Stem alignment showed average 1.5 ± 2.3° in valgus. LLD showed an overall average preoperative of −29.5 ± 10.5 mm at the affected side, with a significant improvement to −2.5 ± 6.4 mm (p = 0.023). The mean initial coverage evaluated like a percentage of the horizontal bone host was 52.1 ± 7.1%, while the mean final coverage at the last post-operative X-ray from femoral autograft bone was 97.0 ± 4.5% with an average improvement of 44.5%. Average CE improved from −9.5 ± 5.2° (CE I) to the immediate post-operative (CE II) of 40.6 ± 8.2°. At the final follow up, CE III showed a mean of 38.6 ± 6.2°, with an average decrease of 2.0°. Discussion: Acetabular bone defect in Crowe III DDH patients undergoing THA by DAA, can be efficiently managed by massive autograft femoral head, which allowed an adequate and long-lasting coverage of the implant, with cup positioning at the native acetabulum

AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS & SAFETY ISSUES: THE ROADMAP TO ENABLE NEW ADVANCES IN INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

The paper addresses the safety issues related to the development of new solutions based on autonomous systems for industrial applications and the necessity to develop experimental environments for investigating these cases; a set of examples is proposed in order to provide cases and challenges as well as to suggest approaches to address these problems

Multiple-magnon excitations shape the spin spectrum of cuprate parent compounds

Thanks to high resolution and polarization analysis, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) magnetic spectra of La2CuO4, Sr2CuO2Cl2 and CaCuO2 reveal a rich set of properties of the spin 1/2 antiferromagnetic square lattice of cuprates. The leading single-magnon peak energy dispersion is in excellent agreement with the corresponding inelastic neutron scattering measurements. However, the RIXS data unveil an asymmetric lineshape possibly due to odd higher order terms. Moreover, a sharp bimagnon feature emerges from the continuum at (1/2,0), coincident in energy with the bimagnon peak detected in optical spectroscopy. These findings show that the inherently complex spin spectra of cuprates, an exquisite manifestation of quantum magnetism, can be effectively explored by exploiting the richness of RIXS cross sections.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure