A simple parameter-free and adaptive approach to optimization under a minimal local smoothness assumption

We study the problem of optimizing a function under a \emph{budgeted number of evaluations}. We only assume that the function is \emph{locally} smooth around one of its global optima. The difficulty of optimization is measured in terms of 1) the amount of \emph{noise} $b$ of the function evaluation and 2) the local smoothness, $d$, of the function. A smaller $d$ results in smaller optimization error. We come with a new, simple, and parameter-free approach. First, for all values of $b$ and $d$, this approach recovers at least the state-of-the-art regret guarantees. Second, our approach additionally obtains these results while being \textit{agnostic} to the values of both $b$ and $d$. This leads to the first algorithm that naturally adapts to an \textit{unknown} range of noise $b$ and leads to significant improvements in a moderate and low-noise regime. Third, our approach also obtains a remarkable improvement over the state-of-the-art SOO algorithm when the noise is very low which includes the case of optimization under deterministic feedback ($b=0$). There, under our minimal local smoothness assumption, this improvement is of exponential magnitude and holds for a class of functions that covers the vast majority of functions that practitioners optimize ($d=0$). We show that our algorithmic improvement is borne out in experiments as we empirically show faster convergence on common benchmarks

El mal nombre de Anquincruz como generador de geografía sagrada

En el marco de una serie de excavaciones arqueológicas en Bañado del Pantano, norte de La Rioja, advertimos la trascendencia semántica del término Anquincruz en relación con la producción de geografía sagrada. Este trabajo relaciona el significado actual de la palabra con un relato inédito de Eric Boman de su relevamiento de 1914 donde consigna valiosa información sobre el tema, confrontando ambas versiones. Estas relaciones corroboran la importante condensación de situaciones que actualmente posee Anquincruz para una extensa región del norte riojano donde su vigencia, profundidad temporal e importancia contribuyen a la conformación de geografía sagrada a partir del imaginario indígena.With an archaeological excavation in Bafiado del Pantano (northem La Rioja) as background, we may notice the importance of the word Anquincruz in relation to the production of sacred geography. This work relates the present meaning of the word with an unpublished story by Eric Boman about his investigation of 1914 in which he includes valuable infomation about this subject, in which both meanings confront each other. These relations prove the important summing up of situations that at the present Anquincruz possesses for a wide area of northem La Rioja where its significance, temporal depth and importance contribute to the structure of sacred geography based on the native imagery

IN SILICO METHODS FOR DRUG DESIGN AND DISCOVERY

Computer-aided drug design (CADD) methodologies are playing an ever-increasing role in drug discovery that are critical in the cost-effective identification of promising drug candidates. These computational methods are relevant in limiting the use of animal models in pharmacological research, for aiding the rational design of novel and safe drug candidates, and for repositioning marketed drugs, supporting medicinal chemists and pharmacologists during the drug discovery trajectory.Within this field of research, we launched a Research Topic in Frontiers in Chemistry in March 2019 entitled “In silico Methods for Drug Design and Discovery,” which involved two sections of the journal: Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. For the reasons mentioned, this Research Topic attracted the attention of scientists and received a large number of submitted manuscripts. Among them 27 Original Research articles, five Review articles, and two Perspective articles have been published within the Research Topic. The Original Research articles cover most of the topics in CADD, reporting advanced in silico methods in drug discovery, while the Review articles offer a point of view of some computer-driven techniques applied to drug research. Finally, the Perspective articles provide a vision of specific computational approaches with an outlook in the modern era of CADD

Research of Rational Concentration of Oilseed Crops Meals in the Sandy Dough Semi-finished Product

The work studies the rational concentration of meals of soya, sunflower and milk thistle in a sandy dough semi-product for improving healthy properties of ready products (biological value, stomach peristalsis, metabolism, saturation with vitamins and mineral substances). Analytic studies were conducted and advantages of using meals in dough products were determined. The chemical composition of meals was determined, and the optimal composition for satisfying the human need that is in ratio 3:4:3 was calculated. The quality of meals was estimated, and their organoleptic parameters were analyzed. The sensor analysis of sandy semi-products of oilseed crops meals was realized. It was established, that adding of the meal composition instead of flour in amount 20 % is an optimal solution for using in a sandy dough semi-product.There was established the influence of meals of oilseed crops on organoleptic parameters of developed sandy semi-products. Advantages and defects of using the aforesaid meals were established. Ways of improving the outlook and consistence of shortcakes were offered. Ways of further studies were established

Using augmented reality technologies for STEM education organization

Modernization of the education system and the emergence of innovative learning technologies can improve the educational process. The use of augmented reality technology improves the learning of individual students, their motivation, as well as helps in organizing teamwork, group cooperation. As the topic of augmented reality in education is quite new and little studied for STEM education, the study reviews publications on this topic, describes the concept of augmented reality, the analysis of augmented reality technologies is carried out, which are adapted to the teaching of natural and mathematical disciplines. The role of STEM approach with augmented reality in the educational process is determined. An example of the use of augmented reality as part of a robotics project is given

Half-Hop: A graph upsampling approach for slowing down message passing

Message passing neural networks have shown a lot of success on graph-structured data. However, there are many instances where message passing can lead to over-smoothing or fail when neighboring nodes belong to different classes. In this work, we introduce a simple yet general framework for improving learning in message passing neural networks. Our approach essentially upsamples edges in the original graph by adding "slow nodes" at each edge that can mediate communication between a source and a target node. Our method only modifies the input graph, making it plug-and-play and easy to use with existing models. To understand the benefits of slowing down message passing, we provide theoretical and empirical analyses. We report results on several supervised and self-supervised benchmarks, and show improvements across the board, notably in heterophilic conditions where adjacent nodes are more likely to have different labels. Finally, we show how our approach can be used to generate augmentations for self-supervised learning, where slow nodes are randomly introduced into different edges in the graph to generate multi-scale views with variable path lengths.Comment: Published as a conference paper at ICML 202

Increased sleep need and daytime sleepiness 6 months after traumatic brain injury: a prospective controlled clinical trial

In a controlled, prospective, electrophysiological study, Imbach et al. demonstrate increased sleep need and excessive daytime sleepiness 6 months after traumatic brain injury. Sleep is more consolidated after brain trauma, and an increase in sleep need is associated with intracranial haemorrhage. Trauma patients underestimate their increased sleep need and sleepines

Reduced Regional NREM Sleep Slow-Wave Activity Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson Disease

Growing evidence implicates a distinct role of disturbed slow-wave sleep in neurodegenerative diseases. Reduced non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep slow-wave activity (SWA), a marker of slow-wave sleep intensity, has been linked with age-related cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease pathology. However, it remains debated if SWA is associated with cognition in Parkinson disease (PD). Here, we investigated the relationship of regional SWA with cognitive performance in PD. In the present study, 140 non-demented PD patients underwent polysomnography and were administered the Montréal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to screen for cognitive impairment. We performed spectral analysis of frontal, central, and occipital sleep electroencephalography (EEG) derivations to measure SWA, and spectral power in other frequency bands, which we compared to cognition using linear mixed models. We found that worse MoCA performance was associated with reduced 1–4 Hz SWA in a region-dependent manner (F2, 687 =11.67, p < 0.001). This effect was driven by reduced regional SWA in the lower delta frequencies, with a strong association of worse MoCA performance with reduced 1–2 Hz SWA (F2, 687 =18.0, p < 0.001). The association of MoCA with 1–2 Hz SWA (and 1–4 Hz SWA) followed an antero-posterior gradient, with strongest, weaker, and absent associations over frontal (rho = 0.33, p < 0.001), central (rho = 0.28, p < 0.001), and occipital derivations, respectively. Our study shows that cognitive impairment in PD is associated with reduced NREM sleep SWA, predominantly in lower delta frequencies (1–2 Hz) and over frontal regions. This finding suggests a potential role of reduced frontal slow-wave sleep intensity in cognitive impairment in PD