Astrophysical Parameter Inference on Accreting White Dwarf Binaries using Gravitational Waves

Accreting binary white dwarf systems are among the sources expected to emanate gravitational waves that the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will detect. We investigate how accurately the binary parameters may be measured from LISA observations. We complement previous studies by performing our parameter estimation on binaries containing a low-mass donor with a thick, hydrogen-rich envelope. The evolution is followed from the early, pre-period minimum stage, in which the donor is non-degenerate, to a later, post-period minimum stage with a largely degenerate donor. We present expressions for the gravitational wave amplitude, frequency, and frequency derivative in terms of white dwarf parameters (masses, donor radius, etc.), where binary evolution is driven by gravitational wave radiation and accretion torques, and the donor radius and logarithmic change in radius ($\eta_{\rm d}$) due to mass loss are treated as model parameters. We then perform a Fisher analysis to reveal the accuracy of parameter measurements, using models from Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) to estimate realistic fiducial values at which we evaluate the measurement errors. We find that the donor radius can be measured relatively well with LISA observations alone, while we can further measure the individual masses if we have an independent measurement of the luminosity distance from electromagnetic observations. When applied to the parameters of the recently-discovered white dwarf binary ZTF J0127+5258, our Fisher analysis suggests that we will be able to constrain the system's individual masses and donor radius using LISA's observations, given ZTF's measurement of the luminosity distance.Comment: Submitted to MNRA

MR diffusion changes in the perimeter of the lateral ventricles demonstrate periventricular injury in post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus of prematurity

OBJECTIVES: Injury to the preterm lateral ventricular perimeter (LVP), which contains the neural stem cells responsible for brain development, may contribute to the neurological sequelae of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus of prematurity (PHH). This study utilizes diffusion MRI (dMRI) to characterize the microstructural effects of IVH/PHH on the LVP and segmented frontal-occipital horn perimeters (FOHP). STUDY DESIGN: Prospective study of 56 full-term infants, 72 very preterm infants without brain injury (VPT), 17 VPT infants with high-grade IVH without hydrocephalus (HG-IVH), and 13 VPT infants with PHH who underwent dMRI at term equivalent. LVP and FOHP dMRI measures and ventricular size-dMRI correlations were assessed. RESULTS: In the LVP, PHH had consistently lower FA and higher MD and RD than FT and VPT (p\u3c.050). However, while PHH FA was lower, and PHH RD was higher than their respective HG-IVH measures (p\u3c.050), the MD and AD values did not differ. In the FOHP, PHH infants had lower FA and higher RD than FT and VPT (p\u3c.010), and a lower FA than the HG-IVH group (p\u3c.001). While the magnitude of AD in both the LVP and FOHP were consistently less in the PHH group on pairwise comparisons to the other groups, the differences were not significant (p\u3e.050). Ventricular size correlated negatively with FA, and positively with MD and RD (p\u3c.001) in both the LVP and FOHP. In the PHH group, FA was lower in the FOHP than in the LVP, which was contrary to the observed findings in the healthy infants (p\u3c.001). Nevertheless, there were no regional differences in AD, MD, and RD in the PHH group. CONCLUSION: HG-IVH and PHH results in aberrant LVP/FOHP microstructure, with prominent abnormalities among the PHH group, most notably in the FOHP. Larger ventricular size was associated with greater magnitude of abnormality. LVP/FOHP dMRI measures may provide valuable biomarkers for future studies directed at improving the management and neurological outcomes of IVH/PHH

Mixed Spatial and Movement Representations in the Primate Posterior Parietal Cortex

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of humans and non-human primates plays a key role in the sensory and motor transformations required to guide motor actions to objects of interest in the environment. Despite decades of research, the anatomical and functional organization of this region is still a matter of contention. It is generally accepted that specialized parietal subregions and their functional counterparts in the frontal cortex participate in distinct segregated networks related to eye, arm and hand movements. However, experimental evidence obtained primarily from single neuron recording studies in non-human primates has demonstrated a rich mixing of signals processed by parietal neurons, calling into question ideas for a strict functional specialization. Here, we present a brief account of this line of research together with the basic trends in the anatomical connectivity patterns of the parietal subregions. We review, the evidence related to the functional communication between subregions of the PPC and describe progress towards using parietal neuron activity in neuroprosthetic applications. Recent literature suggests a role for the PPC not as a constellation of specialized functional subdomains, but as a dynamic network of sensorimotor loci that combine multiple signals and work in concert to guide motor behavior

The dChip survival analysis module for microarray data

International audienceBACKGROUND: Genome-wide expression signatures are emerging as potential marker for overall survival and disease recurrence risk as evidenced by recent commercialization of gene expression based biomarkers in breast cancer. Similar predictions have recently been carried out using genome-wide copy number alterations and microRNAs. Existing software packages for microarray data analysis provide functions to define expression-based survival gene signatures. However, there is no software that can perform survival analysis using SNP array data or draw survival curves interactively for expression-based sample clusters. RESULTS: We have developed the survival analysis module in the dChip software that performs survival analysis across the genome for gene expression and copy number microarray data. Built on the current dChip software's microarray analysis functions such as chromosome display and clustering, the new survival functions include interactive exploring of Kaplan-Meier (K-M) plots using expression or copy number data, computing survival p-values from the log-rank test and Cox models, and using permutation to identify significant chromosome regions associated with survival. CONCLUSIONS: The dChip survival module provides user-friendly way to perform survival analysis and visualize the results in the context of genes and cytobands. It requires no coding expertise and only minimal learning curve for thousands of existing dChip users. The implementation in Visual C++ also enables fast computation. The software and demonstration data are freely available at http://dchip-surv.chenglilab.org

Animal models of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Many animal models have been developed to study atherosclerosis, and permit experimental conditions, diet and environmental risk factors to be carefully controlled. Pathophysiological changes can be produced using genetic or pharmacological means to study the harmful consequences of different interventions. Experiments using such models have elucidated its molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms, and provided platforms for pharmacological development. Different models have their own advantages and disadvantages, and can be used to answer different research questions. In the present review article, different species of atherosclerosis models are outlined, with discussions on the practicality of their use for experimentation.GT was supported by a BBSRC Doctoral Training Award and thanks the Croucher Foundation of Hong Kong for the generous support of his clinical assistant professorship. YC is supported by the ESRC

Animal models of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Many animal models have been developed to study atherosclerosis, and permit experimental conditions, diet and environmental risk factors to be carefully controlled. Pathophysiological changes can be produced using genetic or pharmacological means to study the harmful consequences of different interventions. Experiments using such models have elucidated its molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms, and provided platforms for pharmacological development. Different models have their own advantages and disadvantages, and can be used to answer different research questions. In the present review article, different species of atherosclerosis models are outlined, with discussions on the practicality of their use for experimentation.GT was supported by a BBSRC Doctoral Training Award and thanks the Croucher Foundation of Hong Kong for the generous support of his clinical assistant professorship. YC is supported by the ESRC

Full Stack Optimization of Transformer Inference: a Survey

Recent advances in state-of-the-art DNN architecture design have been moving toward Transformer models. These models achieve superior accuracy across a wide range of applications. This trend has been consistent over the past several years since Transformer models were originally introduced. However, the amount of compute and bandwidth required for inference of recent Transformer models is growing at a significant rate, and this has made their deployment in latency-sensitive applications challenging. As such, there has been an increased focus on making Transformer models more efficient, with methods that range from changing the architecture design, all the way to developing dedicated domain-specific accelerators. In this work, we survey different approaches for efficient Transformer inference, including: (i) analysis and profiling of the bottlenecks in existing Transformer architectures and their similarities and differences with previous convolutional models; (ii) implications of Transformer architecture on hardware, including the impact of non-linear operations such as Layer Normalization, Softmax, and GELU, as well as linear operations, on hardware design; (iii) approaches for optimizing a fixed Transformer architecture; (iv) challenges in finding the right mapping and scheduling of operations for Transformer models; and (v) approaches for optimizing Transformer models by adapting the architecture using neural architecture search. Finally, we perform a case study by applying the surveyed optimizations on Gemmini, the open-source, full-stack DNN accelerator generator, and we show how each of these approaches can yield improvements, compared to previous benchmark results on Gemmini. Among other things, we find that a full-stack co-design approach with the aforementioned methods can result in up to 88.7x speedup with a minimal performance degradation for Transformer inference

Clinical evaluation of a novel protocol for supportive periodontal care: A randomized controlled clinical trial.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy and the patient perception of subgingival debridement with either guided biofilm management (GBM) or conventional scaling and root planing (SRP) during supportive periodontal care (SPC). METHODS Forty-one patients in SPC were randomly assigned to either treatment with GBM or SRP every 6 months. The primary outcome was the percentage of bleeding on probing (BoP) at 1 year. Moreover, pocket probing depths (PPD), recession, and furcation involvements were also measured. Full-mouth and specific site analyzes were performed at baseline, 6 and 12 months of SPC. Patient comfort was evaluated using a visual analogue scale (VAS) at 12 months. RESULTS At 1 year, mean BoP percentage decreased from 12.2% to 9.0% (p = 0.191) and from 14.7% to 7.9% (p = 0.004) for the GBM and SRP groups, respectively. Furcation involved multirooted teeth but no through-and-through lesions were significantly fewer in the GBM than in the SRP group after 12 months (p = 0.015). The remaining parameters showed slight improvement in both groups without any statistically significant differences between the two groups after 1 year. Pain evaluation as patient reported outcome measures (pain evaluation) was in favor (p = 0.347) of the SRP group, while overall satisfaction was similar for both groups. Treatment time was not statistically significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.188). CONCLUSION In well-maintained SPC patients, SRP protocols resulted in significant clinical improvements in terms of BoP; however, for the other clinical improvements, similar efficacy for both GBM and SRP was observed

Transimperial Networks: East Asia and the ‘Victorian’ World: Introduction

Traditionally, East Asia has been on the margins of Victorian Studies, eclipsed by sites of formal imperialism such as South Asia. However, the region was deeply intertwined with the “Victorian” world through transimperial networks of trade, migration, and geopolitical competition. Rather than locating East Asia at the margins, this cluster of lesson plans explores the figurative and historical centrality of East Asia to Victorian Studies