Nonparametric Detection of Anomalous Data Streams

A nonparametric anomalous hypothesis testing problem is investigated, in which there are totally n sequences with s anomalous sequences to be detected. Each typical sequence contains m independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) samples drawn from a distribution p, whereas each anomalous sequence contains m i.i.d. samples drawn from a distribution q that is distinct from p. The distributions p and q are assumed to be unknown in advance. Distribution-free tests are constructed using maximum mean discrepancy as the metric, which is based on mean embeddings of distributions into a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. The probability of error is bounded as a function of the sample size m, the number s of anomalous sequences and the number n of sequences. It is then shown that with s known, the constructed test is exponentially consistent if m is greater than a constant factor of log n, for any p and q, whereas with s unknown, m should has an order strictly greater than log n. Furthermore, it is shown that no test can be consistent for arbitrary p and q if m is less than a constant factor of log n, thus the order-level optimality of the proposed test is established. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that our tests outperform (or perform as well as) the tests based on other competitive approaches under various cases.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 201

DIAMOND AND PARYLENE COMPOSITE BONDING: A POWERFUL METHOD FOR ELECTRONIC THIN FILM DEVICE FABRICATION

A new and powerful method for electronic device fabrication is presented. A diamond and parylene composite thin film layer bonding process is described. Two sizes of diamond particles, nominally 0~0.5µm and 0~2µm were used to form different composite bonding layers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show good bonding quality with no observed voids within the approximately 10 micron thickness of the bonding layer and along about 1 cm of bonded length. In addition, a thin film IV-VI semiconductor material grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) was used to perform thermal conductivity measurements. The technique involved flip chip bonding the IV-VI epitaxial layer to one side of two silicon chips bonded together with the parylene composite film, attaching the other side of silicon chip assembly to a heat sink, and measuring the blue shift in the photoluminescence (PL) emission from the IV-VI epitaxial layer while being illuminated (and heated) with a diode laser. The PL data provided an accurate temperature measurement of the laser-heated surface. This measurement procedure accurately simulates the use of a parylene/diamond composited material in the packaging of high power electronic devices. The amount of heating with a parylene/diamond composite bonding material was 19.5°C, which was significantly lower than the 36.3°C observed for a control sample that was parylene bonded without diamond. These results clearly show that incorporation of diamond particles in parylene can significantly reduce hot spot temperatures in electronic devices. Finite element thermal modeling was used to determine the thermal conductivity of the parylene/diamond composite material using the hot spot temperatures obtained from the PL measurements as boundary conditions. Modeling results showed an improvement factor of 3.6 with incorporation of diamond. This corresponds to a thermal conductivity increase from 0.083 W/mK for bulk parylene to 0.30 W/mK for the parylene/diamond composite material. Moreover, the ability to from a thin bond with a thickness of 10 microns or less provides additional thermal management benefits over other device packaging techniques that involve much thicker bonding layers. Two conclusions can be drawn from this work. The first is that a proof-of-concept has been established for the opportunity to develop an improved electronic device packaging material based on thin film parylene/diamond composites. The second is that thermal conductivities of experimental thin film materials for thermal management applications can be obtained by using photoluminescence measurements of IV-VI semiconductor thin films to determine the boundary conditions for finite element thermal modeling analysis. Continued work using this new method for measuring thin film thermal conductivity and further refinement of parylene/diamond composite materials should result in a new class of electrically insulting materials that can be used to improve the thermal management of high power electronic devices

Acidification of the Oxygen Scavenging System in Single-Molecule Fluorescence Studies: In Situ Sensing with a Ratiometric Dual-Emission Probe

For most of the single-molecule fluorescence studies to date, biomolecules of interest are labeled with small organic dyes which suffer from their limited photostability evidenced by blinking and photobleaching. An enzymatic oxygen scavenging system of glucose oxidase and catalase is widely used to improve the dye photostability but with the unfavorable side effect of producing gluconic acid. It is known that accumulation of this byproduct in solution can lead to considerable acidification, but the uncertainty in its severity under experimentally relevant conditions has been a long-standing area of concern due to the lack of a suitable assay. In this paper we report a fluorescence-based analytical assay for quantitatively assessing the acidification of oxygen scavenging systems in situ. By using a ratiometric, dual-emission dye, SNARF-1, we observed the presence and, for the first time, measured the severity of solution acidification due to the oxygen scavenging system for a number of conditions relevant to single-molecule studies. On the basis of the quantitative analysis of the acidification profile under these conditions, practical guidelines for optimizing the oxygen scavenging system are provided. This in situ assay should be applicable to a large variety of future single-molecule fluorescence studies

Facilitating dynamic web service composition with fine-granularity context management

Context is an important factor for the success of dynamic service composition. Although many contextbased AI or workflow approaches have been proposed to support dynamic service composition, there is still an unaddressed issue of the support of fine-granularity context management. In this paper, we propose a granularity-based context model together with an approach to supporting the intelligent context-aware service composing problem. The corresponding case study is provided to show the validity of our approach.<br /

Family association study between INSR gene polymorphisms and PCOS in Han Chinese

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex disease having both genetic and environmental components. Candidate genes with insulin metabolism have been hypothesized to be involved in the etiology of this syndrome. In the present study, we investigated the genetic association between polymorphisms in the insulin receptor (INSR) gene and PCOS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 260 family trios were recruited and performed a family-based analysis to assess linkage and association between four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs1799817, rs2059807, rs8108622 and rs10500204) of INSR gene and PCOS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT), we failed to find that rs1799817 (p = 0.486), rs2059807 (p = 0.195), rs8108622 (p = 0.866) and rs10500204 (p = 1.0) were significantly overtransmitted to PCOS offspring from their parents.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>No significant evidence of association or linkage was found in the four tested markers, indicating that our family samples did not support susceptibility of the INSR gene to PCOS.</p

Protective effect of GLP-1 analog liraglutide on podocytes in mice with diabetic nephropathy

Protection of podocytes is one of the important means to delay the progression of diabetic nephropathy (DN), and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) has been shown to have a protective effect on the kidney in DN models, but whether it h as a protective effect on podocytes and the potential mechanisms of action remain largely unknown. In the present study, we established a type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) mouse model by high-fat diet feeding combined with streptozotocin (STZ) induction and admini stered the intervention for 14 weeks. We found that liraglutide significantly ameliorate d podocyte injury in DN mice. Mechanistically, we detected glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) protein expression levels in kidney tissues by immunohistochemical stai ning, immunofluorescence staining, and western blotting and found that podocytes could express GLP-1R and liraglutide treatment could restore GLP-1R expression in the kidney tissues of DN mice. Furthermore, we found that NLRP3-induced inflammation and pyropt osis were positively correlated with podocyte injury in DN mice, and liraglutide inh ibited the expression of NLRP3-induced inflammation and pyroptosis-related proteins. Our results suggest that liraglutide protects DN mouse podocytes by regulating GLP-1R in renal tissues and by regulating NLRP3-induced inflammation and pyroptosis

Aphrodisiac Use Associated with HIV Infection in Elderly Male Clients of Low-Cost Commercial Sex Venues in Guangxi, China: A Matched Case-Control Study

Background: Rising HIV infection rates have been observed among elderly people in Guangxi, China. Inexpensive aphrodisiacs are available for purchase in suburban and rural areas. This study aims to investigate the association between aphrodisiac use and increased HIV risk for middle-aged and elderly men in Guangxi. Methods: A matched case-control study of aphrodisiac use-associated HIV infection was performed among male subjects over 50 years old who were clients of low-cost commercial sex venues in Guangxi. The cases were defined as clients who were HIV-positive and two controls were selected for each case. The cases and the controls were matched on the visited sex venue, age (±3 years), number of years of purchasing sex (±3 years), and educational attainment. Subjects were interviewed and tested for HIV. Paired t-test or McNemar Chi-squared test were used to compare the characteristics between the cases and controls. A stepwise conditional logistic regression was used to identify risk factors associated with HIV infection. Findings: This study enrolled 103 cases and 206 controls. Aphrodisiac use (P = 0.02, odds ratio (OR) = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.08–3.04), never using condom during commercial sex encounter (P = 0.03, odds ratio (OR) = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.08–3.07), and lacking a stable partner (P = 0.03, odds ratio (OR) = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.05–2.98) were found to be risk factors for HIV infection among the study groups. For subjects reporting aphrodisiac use, the frequency of purchasing sex was positively correlated with the frequency of aphrodisiac use (r = 0.3; p = 0.02). Conclusions: Aphrodisiac use was significantly associated with increased HIV infection risk in men over 50 years old who purchased commercial sex in the suburban and rural areas of Guangxi. Further research and interventions should address the links between aphrodisiac use, commercial sex work, condom use, and increased HIV transmission

Effect of arsenic stress on the intestinal structural integrity and intestinal flora abundance of Cyprinus carpio

Aquatic organisms such as fish can accumulate high concentrations of arsenic (As), which has toxic effects on fish. However, whether the intestinal flora are involved in As damage to fish intestinal tissues and the underlying process are unclear. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) were exposed to As (2.83 mg/L) in water for 30 days, and blood, muscle, intestine, and intestine samples were collected. Intestinal pathological sections were observed, and the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels in serum and the levels of As accumulation and tight junction-related factors in intestinal tissues were measured. The gut microbiota was analysed by 16S rRNA sequencing. The results showed that As treatment decreased the abundance of microbiota, increased the number of harmful bacteria, and decreased the number of beneficial bacteria in the intestine. In our experiment, the top 30 harmful and beneficial bacteria with the highest relative abundance were identified. Among the top 30 harmful and beneficial bacteria, As treatment resulted in a significant (P &lt; 0.05) increase in harmful bacteria (such as Fusobacteriota, Bacteroidota (LPS-producing bacteria), Verrucomicrobiota, Bacteroides, Aeromonas, and Stenotrophomonas) and a significant (P &lt; 0.05) decrease in beneficial bacteria (such as Actinobacteriota, Planctomycetota, Firmicutes, Reyranella, Akkermansia, and Pseudorhodobacter), which further demonstrated that As affects the abundance of intestinal flora. In addition, As exposure increased the LPS level in serum and the abundance of Bacteroidota (LPS-producing bacteria) in the intestine. Bacteroidota exhibits the six highest relative abundance at the phylum level, which indicates that LPS produced by Bacteroidota can increase the LPS level in serum. Additionally, the protein and gene levels of the tight junction markers ZO-1 and occludin in the intestine were reduced by As treatment, which further indicated that As exposure impaired the structural integrity of the intestine. In conclusion, the results obtained in our study indicate that the intestinal flora, LPS, and tight junctions participate in the impairment of the structural integrity of the common carp intestine resulting from As exposure

A two-graph guided multi-task lasso approach for eQTL mapping.

Abstract Learning a small number of genetic variants associated with multiple complex genetic traits is of practical importance and remains challenging due to the highdimensional nature of data. In this paper, we proposed a two-graph guided multi-task Lasso to address this issue with an emphasis on estimating subnetwork-to-subnetwork associations in expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping. The proposed model can learn such subnetworkto-subnetwork associations and therefore can be seen as a generalization of several state-of-the-art multi-task feature selection methods. Additionally, this model has a nice property of allowing flexible structured sparsity on both feature and label domains. Simulation study shows the improved performance of our model and a human eQTL data set is analyzed to further demonstrate the applications of the model