459 research outputs found
Controlling Fairness and Bias in Dynamic Learning-to-Rank
Rankings are the primary interface through which many online platforms match
users to items (e.g. news, products, music, video). In these two-sided markets,
not only the users draw utility from the rankings, but the rankings also
determine the utility (e.g. exposure, revenue) for the item providers (e.g.
publishers, sellers, artists, studios). It has already been noted that
myopically optimizing utility to the users, as done by virtually all
learning-to-rank algorithms, can be unfair to the item providers. We,
therefore, present a learning-to-rank approach for explicitly enforcing
merit-based fairness guarantees to groups of items (e.g. articles by the same
publisher, tracks by the same artist). In particular, we propose a learning
algorithm that ensures notions of amortized group fairness, while
simultaneously learning the ranking function from implicit feedback data. The
algorithm takes the form of a controller that integrates unbiased estimators
for both fairness and utility, dynamically adapting both as more data becomes
available. In addition to its rigorous theoretical foundation and convergence
guarantees, we find empirically that the algorithm is highly practical and
robust.Comment: First two authors contributed equally. In Proceedings of the 43rd
International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information
Retrieval 202
On the Trace Anomaly and the Anomaly Puzzle in N=1 Pure Yang-Mills
The trace anomaly of the energy-momentum tensor is usually quoted in the form
which is proportional to the beta function of the theory. However, there are in
general many definitions of gauge couplings depending on renormalization
schemes, and hence many beta functions. In particular, N=1 supersymmetric pure
Yang-Mills has the holomorphic gauge coupling whose beta function is one-loop
exact, and the canonical gauge coupling whose beta function is given by the
Novikov-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov beta function. In this paper, we study
which beta function should appear in the trace anomaly in N=1 pure Yang-Mills.
We calculate the trace anomaly by employing the N=4 regularization of N=1 pure
Yang-Mills. It is shown that the trace anomaly is given by one-loop exact form
if the composite operator appearing in the trace anomaly is renormalized in a
preferred way. This result gives the simplest resolution to the anomaly puzzle
in N=1 pure Yang-Mills. The most important point is to examine in which scheme
the quantum action principle is valid, which is crucial in the derivation of
the trace anomaly.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure; v2:slight correction in sec.5, minor addition in
appendi
Clarifying Some Remaining Questions in the Anomaly Puzzle
We discuss several points that may help to clarify some questions that remain
about the anomaly puzzle in supersymmetric theories. In particular, we consider
a general N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The anomaly puzzle concerns the
question of whether there is a consistent way to put the R-current and the
stress tensor in a single supercurrent, even though in the classical theory
they are in the same supermultiplet. As is well known, the classically
conserved supercurrent bifurcates into two supercurrents having different
anomalies in the quantum regime. The most interesting result we obtain is an
explicit expression for the lowest component of one of the two supercurrents in
4-dimensional spacetime, namely the supercurrent that has the energy-momentum
tensor as one of its components. This expression for the lowest component is an
energy-dependent linear combination of two chiral currents, which itself does
not correspond to a classically conserved chiral current. The lowest component
of the other supercurrent, namely, the R-current, satisfies the Adler-Bardeen
theorem. The lowest component of the first supercurrent has an anomaly that we
show is consistent with the anomaly of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor.
Therefore, we conclude that there is no consistent way to put the R-current and
the stress tensor in a single supercurrent in the quantized theory. We also
discuss and try to clarify some technical points in the derivations of the
two-supercurrents in the literature. These latter points concern the
significance of infrared contributions to the NSVZ beta-function and the role
of the equations of motion in deriving the two supercurrents.Comment: 22 pages, no figure. v2: minor changes. v3: sections re-organized.
new subsections (IVA, IVB) added. references adde
Dominant Folding Pathways of a WW Domain
We investigate the folding mechanism of the WW domain Fip35 using a realistic
atomistic force field by applying the Dominant Reaction Pathways (DRP)
approach. We find evidence for the existence of two folding pathways, which
differ by the order of formation of the two hairpins. This result is consistent
with the analysis of the experimental data on the folding kinetics of WW
domains and with the results obtained from large-scale molecular dynamics (MD)
simulations of this system. Free-energy calculations performed in two
coarse-grained models support the robustness of our results and suggest that
the qualitative structure of the dominant paths are mostly shaped by the native
interactions. Computing a folding trajectory in atomistic detail only required
about one hour on 48 CPU's. The gain in computational efficiency opens the door
to a systematic investigation of the folding pathways of a large number of
globular proteins
Pomeron in diffractive processes and at large Q^2: the onset of pQCD
We study the reactions and
at large Q^2 and and small
momentum transfer, , to the nucleon where the pomeron exchange
dominates. At large Q^2 the virtual photon selects a hard pair, thus
selecting the hard pomeron component (the BFKL pomeron). The amplitudes for
both transverse and longitudinal polarizations of the initial photon and
outgoing -meson (photon) are calculated in the framework of the BFKL
pomeron exchange. Our calculations show that one cannot expect the early onset
of the pure perturbative regime in the discussed diffractive processes: the
small interquark distances, fm, start to dominate not
earlier than at in
and in
.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, epsfig.st
Service engagement in interventions for street-connected children and young people: a summary of evidence supplementing a recent Cochrane–Campbell review
Abstract
Background This paper builds on a Cochrane–Campbell systematic review of interventions that reduce harms and promote reintegration in street-connected children and young people focusing on intervention outcomes. The aim of the present analysis is to explore questions raised in the systematic review over the potential role of service engagement in mediating outcomes of relevant interventions.
Objective The paper summarises engagement-related findings from quantitative intervention evaluations with street-connected populations of children and young people, as reported by study authors. It seeks to contribute to theoretical and methodological understandings of service engagement with street-connected youth populations and to highlight gaps in current knowledge.
Methods Drawing on the original search for the Cochrane–Campbell review, we rescreened search results in our database and included quantitative findings if relevant to our current research questions, regardless of study design. Additionally, we sought new study publications from authors whose work was included in the original systematic review. The discussion explores relevant data from five studies included in the original systematic review, ten studies excluded from the review, and two studies published after the completion of the review.
Results The measures of service engagement in the included studies focused on treatment attendance, ‘level of engagement’, and service satisfaction. Evidence on the impact of service engagement on other outcomes in interventions for street-connected children and young people was limited. Available data on the predictors and impact of service engagement were mixed and appear not to provide robust support for common hypotheses in the relevant context
Efficacy and tolerability of bevacizumab plus capecitabine as first-line therapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma
Molecularly targeted agents with anti-angiogenic activity, including bevacizumab, have demonstrated clinical activity in patients with advanced /metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This multicentre phase II study involving patients from several Asian countries sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of bevacizumab plus capecitabine in this population. METHODS: Histologically proven/clinically diagnosed advanced HCC patients received bevacizumab 7.5 mg kg(-1) on day 1 and capecitabine 800 mg m(-2) twice daily on days 1-14 every 3 weeks as first-line therapy. RESULTS: A total of 45 patients were enrolled; 44 (96%) had extrahepatic metastasis and/or major vessel invasion and 30( 67%) had hepatitis B. No grade 3/4 haematological toxicity occurred. Treatment-related grade 3/4 non-haematological toxicities included diarrhoea (n = 2, 4%), nausea/ vomiting ( n = 1, 2%), gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 4, 9%) and hand- foot syndrome (n = 4, 9%). The overall response rate ( RECIST) was 9% and the disease control rate was 52%. Overall , median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival(OS) were 2.7 and 5.9 months, respectively. Median PFS and OS were 3.6 and 8.2 months, respectively, for Cancer of the Liver Italian Programme (CLIP) score <= 3 patients, and 1.4 and 3.3 months, respectively, for CLIP score 4 patients. CONCLUSION: The bevacizumab-capecitabine combination shows good tolerability and modest anti-tumour activity in patients with advanced HCC
Metabolic and evolutionary insights into the closely-related species Streptomyces coelicolor and Streptomyces lividans deduced from high-resolution comparative genomic hybridization
Whilst being closely related to the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), S. lividans 66 differs from it in several significant and phenotypically observable ways, including antibiotic production. Previous comparative gene hybridization studies investigating such differences have used low-density (one probe per gene) PCR-based spotted arrays. Here we use new experimentally optimised 104,000 × 60-mer probe arrays to characterize in detail the genomic differences between wild-type S. lividans 66, a derivative industrial strain, TK24, and S. coelicolor M145
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