Solving multi-armed bandit problems using a chaotic microresonator comb

The Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) problem, foundational to reinforcement learning-based decision-making, addresses the challenge of maximizing rewards amidst multiple uncertain choices. While algorithmic solutions are effective, their computational efficiency diminishes with increasing problem complexity. Photonic accelerators, leveraging temporal and spatial-temporal chaos, have emerged as promising alternatives. However, despite these advancements, current approaches either compromise computation speed or amplify system complexity. In this paper, we introduce a chaotic microresonator frequency comb (chaos comb) to tackle the MAB problem, where each comb mode is assigned to a slot machine. Through a proof-of-concept experiment, we employ 44 comb modes to address an MAB with 44 slot machines, demonstrating performance competitive with both conventional software algorithms and other photonic methods. Further, the scalability of decision making is explored with up to 512 slot machines using experimentally obtained temporal chaos in different time slots. Power-law scalability is achieved with an exponent of 0.96, outperforming conventional software-based algorithms. Moreover, we find that a numerically calculated chaos comb accurately reproduces experimental results, paving the way for discussions on strategies to increase the number of slot machines

PEZY-SC3: A MIMD Many-core Processor for Energy-efficient Computing

PEZY-SC3 is a highly energy- and area-efficient processor for supercomputers developed using TSMC 7nm process technology. It is the third generation of the PEZY-SCx series developed by PEZY Computing, K.K. Supercomputers equipped with the PEZY-SCx series have been deployed at several research centers and are used for large scale scientific calculations. PEZY-SC3 outperforms previous PEZY-SCx and other processors in terms of energy and area efficiency. To achieve high efficiency, PEZY-SC3 employs a MIMD many-core, fine-grained multithreading, and non-coherent cache, focusing on applications involving high thread-level parallelism. Our MIMD many-core-based architecture achieves high efficiency while providing higher programmability than existing architectures based on specialized tensor units with limited functionality or wide-SIMD. Another key point of this architecture is to achieve both high efficiency and high throughput without using complex and expensive units such as out-of-order schedulers. Moreover, our novel non-coherent and hierarchical cache system enables high scalability on many-core without compromising programmability. The energy efficiency of a system equipped with PEZY-SC3 is approximately 24.6 GFlops/W, and it ranked 12th in the Green500 (November 2021), which measures the energy efficiency of supercomputers. In terms of processor architecture, all the systems ranked higher than the PEZY-SC3 system are equipped with NVIDIA A100 or Preferred Networks NM-Core, and thus PEZY-SC3 is the third-ranked processor after them. While A100 and NM-Core achieve high energy efficiency with tensor units specialized for specific functions, PEZY-SC3 does not have such specialized tensor units and thus has higher programmability

GPCR-mediated calcium and cAMP signaling determines psychosocial stress susceptibility and resiliency

ストレスに強い脳と弱い脳のメカニズム解明 --うつ病の脳のしくみ解明へ前進--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-04-06.Chronic stress increases the risk of developing psychiatric disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders. Although behavioral responses to repeated stress vary across individuals, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we perform a genome-wide transcriptome analysis of an animal model of depression and patients with clinical depression and report that dysfunction of the Fos-mediated transcription network in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) confers a stress-induced social interaction deficit. Critically, CRISPR-Cas9–mediated ACC Fos knockdown causes social interaction deficits under stressful situation. Moreover, two classical second messenger pathways, calcium and cyclic AMP, in the ACC during stress differentially modulate Fos expression and regulate stress-induced changes in social behaviors. Our findings highlight a behaviorally relevant mechanism for the regulation of calcium- and cAMP-mediated Fos expression that has potential as a therapeutic target for psychiatric disorders related to stressful environments

Zinc transport via ZNT5-6 and ZNT7 is critical for cell surface glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein expression

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins play crucial roles in various enzyme activities, cell signaling and adhesion, and immune responses. While the molecular mechanism underlying GPI-anchored protein biosynthesis has been well studied, the role of zinc transport in this process has not yet been elucidated. Zn transporter (ZNT) proteins mobilize cytosolic zinc to the extracellular space and to intracellular compartments. Here, we report that the early secretory pathway ZNTs [ZNT5-ZNT6 heterodimers (ZNT5-6) and ZNT7-ZNT7 homodimers (ZNT7)], which supply zinc to the lumen of the early secretory pathway compartments are essential for GPI-anchored protein expression on the cell surface. We show, using overexpression and gene disruption/re-expression strategies in cultured human cells, that loss of ZNT5-6 and ZNT7 zinc transport functions results in significant reduction in GPI-anchored protein levels similar to that in mutant cells lacking phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis (PIG) genes. Furthermore, medaka fish with disrupted Znt5 and Znt7 genes show touch-insensitive phenotypes similar to zebrafish Pig mutants. These findings provide a previously unappreciated insight into the regulation of GPI-anchored protein expression and protein quality control in the early secretory pathway

Molecular basis for the dosing time-dependency of anti-allodynic effects of gabapentin in a mouse model of neuropathic pain

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuropathic pain is characterized by hypersensitivity to innocuous stimuli (tactile allodynia) that is nearly always resistant to NSAIDs or even opioids. Gabapentin, a GABA analogue, was originally developed to treat epilepsy. Accumulating clinical evidence supports the effectiveness of this drug for diverse neuropathic pain. In this study, we showed that the anti-allodynic effect of gabapentin was changed by the circadian oscillation in the expression of its target molecule, the calcium channel α2δ-1 subunit.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mice were underwent partial sciatic nerve ligation (PSL) to create a model of neuropathic pain. The paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) in PSL mice significantly decreased and fluctuated with a period length about 24 h. The PWT in PSL mice was dose-dependently increased by intraperitoneal injection of gabapentin, but the anti-allodynic effects varied according to its dosing time. The protein levels of α2δ-1 subunit were up-regulated in the DRG of PSL mice, but the protein levels oscillated in a circadian time-dependent manner. The time-dependent oscillation of α2δ-1 subunit protein correlated with fluctuations in the maximal binding capacity of gabapentin. The anti-allodynic effect of gabapentin was attenuated at the times of the day when α2δ-1 subunit protein was abundant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings suggest that the dosing time-dependent difference in the anti-allodynic effects of gabapentin is attributable to the circadian oscillation of α2δ-1 subunit expression in the DRG and indicate that the optimizing its dosing schedule helps to achieve rational pharmacotherapy for neuropathic pain.</p

STARSS23: An Audio-Visual Dataset of Spatial Recordings of Real Scenes with Spatiotemporal Annotations of Sound Events

While direction of arrival (DOA) of sound events is generally estimated from multichannel audio data recorded in a microphone array, sound events usually derive from visually perceptible source objects, e.g., sounds of footsteps come from the feet of a walker. This paper proposes an audio-visual sound event localization and detection (SELD) task, which uses multichannel audio and video information to estimate the temporal activation and DOA of target sound events. Audio-visual SELD systems can detect and localize sound events using signals from a microphone array and audio-visual correspondence. We also introduce an audio-visual dataset, Sony-TAu Realistic Spatial Soundscapes 2023 (STARSS23), which consists of multichannel audio data recorded with a microphone array, video data, and spatiotemporal annotation of sound events. Sound scenes in STARSS23 are recorded with instructions, which guide recording participants to ensure adequate activity and occurrences of sound events. STARSS23 also serves human-annotated temporal activation labels and human-confirmed DOA labels, which are based on tracking results of a motion capture system. Our benchmark results demonstrate the benefits of using visual object positions in audio-visual SELD tasks. The data is available at https://zenodo.org/record/7880637.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in NeurIPS 2023 Track on Datasets and Benchmark

Antidepressant Response and Stress Resilience Are Promoted by CART Peptides in GABAergic Neurons of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex

[Background] A key challenge in the understanding and treatment of depression is identifying cell types and molecular mechanisms that mediate behavioral responses to antidepressant drugs. Because treatment responses in clinical depression are heterogeneous, it is crucial to examine treatment responders and nonresponders in preclinical studies. [Methods] We used the large variance in behavioral responses to long-term treatment with multiple classes of antidepressant drugs in different inbred mouse strains and classified the mice into responders and nonresponders based on their response in the forced swim test. Medial prefrontal cortex tissues were subjected to RNA sequencing to identify molecules that are consistently associated across antidepressant responders. We developed and used virus-mediated gene transfer to induce the gene of interest in specific cell types and performed forced swim, sucrose preference, social interaction, and open field tests to investigate antidepressant-like and anxiety-like behaviors. [Results] Cartpt expression was consistently upregulated in responders to four types of antidepressants but not in nonresponders in different mice strains. Responder mice given a single dose of ketamine, a fast-acting non–monoamine-based antidepressant, exhibited high CART peptide expression. CART peptide overexpression in the GABAergic (gamma-aminobutyric acidergic) neurons of the anterior cingulate cortex led to antidepressant-like behavior and drove chronic stress resiliency independently of mouse genetic background. [Conclusions] These data demonstrate that activation of CART peptide signaling in GABAergic neurons of the anterior cingulate cortex is a common molecular mechanism across antidepressant responders and that this pathway also drives stress resilience

Leaf traits of polar willow colonizing in a glacier foreland, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard

第2回極域科学シンポジウム/第33回極域生物シンポジウム 11月18日（金） 統計数理研究所 3階セミナー室

「自律的セルフ・エスティーム」を育成するユニバーサル予防教育の開発

近年，セルフ・エスティーム（Self-Esteem：SE）の適応的側面として自律的SE（autonomous SE）（山崎他，２０１７）の概念が提唱されている。本研究では，小学校５年生から中学校１年生を対象にした自律的SEを高める予防教育プログラムの開発を行った。本プログラムは，山崎他（２０１８）の自律的SEの概念理論とユニバーサル予防教育「『いのちと友情』の学校予防教育（Trial Of Prevention School Education for Life and Friendship : TOP SELF）」の理論が基盤となっている。本文では，まず自律的SEの概念と発達プロセスとTOP SELFの理論，および自律的SEの開発の観点をまとめた。授業の内容は，授業の展開部分を中心とし，プログラム実施容易性向上の具体を説明している。展望では，適応的SEを伸ばす教育プログラムとしての教育効果の検証の必要性とその方法について述べた。The purpose of this study was to develop an educational program to cultivate autonomous selfesteem for 5th- to 7th- grades children as one of the programs called "Trial Of Prevention School Education for Life and Friendship (TOP SELF)". In developing the program, the concept and developmental process of autonomous self-esteem (Yamasaki et al., 2018), the background theory and running procedures of the TOP SELF are utilized. Specifically, preparation and implementation with little burden for teachers were underscored. The completed program is expected to effectively increase autonomous self-esteem and decrease heteronomous one, keeping the basic characteristics of the TOP SELF, along with easily manageable implementation. The necessity for examining the effectiveness of the program using appropriate assessment designs and tools is discussed as a future research topic

Synergistic Formation of Radicals by Irradiation with Both Vacuum Ultraviolet and Atomic Hydrogen: A Real-Time In Situ Electron Spin Resonance Study

We report on the surface modification of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as an example of soft- and bio-materials that occur under plasma discharge by kinetics analysis of radical formation using in situ real-time electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements. During irradiation with hydrogen plasma, simultaneous measurements of the gas-phase ESR signals of atomic hydrogen and the carbon dangling bond (C-DB) on PTFE were performed. Dynamic changes of the C-DB density were observed in real time, where the rate of density change was accelerated during initial irradiation and then became constant over time. It is noteworthy that C-DBs were formed synergistically by irradiation with both vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and atomic hydrogen. The in situ real-time ESR technique is useful to elucidate synergistic roles during plasma surface modification.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure