To Talk or to Work: Energy Efficient Federated Learning over Mobile Devices via the Weight Quantization and 5G Transmission Co-Design

Federated learning (FL) is a new paradigm for large-scale learning tasks across mobile devices. However, practical FL deployment over resource constrained mobile devices confronts multiple challenges. For example, it is not clear how to establish an effective wireless network architecture to support FL over mobile devices. Besides, as modern machine learning models are more and more complex, the local on-device training/intermediate model update in FL is becoming too power hungry/radio resource intensive for mobile devices to afford. To address those challenges, in this paper, we try to bridge another recent surging technology, 5G, with FL, and develop a wireless transmission and weight quantization co-design for energy efficient FL over heterogeneous 5G mobile devices. Briefly, the 5G featured high data rate helps to relieve the severe communication concern, and the multi-access edge computing (MEC) in 5G provides a perfect network architecture to support FL. Under MEC architecture, we develop flexible weight quantization schemes to facilitate the on-device local training over heterogeneous 5G mobile devices. Observed the fact that the energy consumption of local computing is comparable to that of the model updates via 5G transmissions, we formulate the energy efficient FL problem into a mixed-integer programming problem to elaborately determine the quantization strategies and allocate the wireless bandwidth for heterogeneous 5G mobile devices. The goal is to minimize the overall FL energy consumption (computing + 5G transmissions) over 5G mobile devices while guaranteeing learning performance and training latency. Generalized Benders' Decomposition is applied to develop feasible solutions and extensive simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.Comment: submitted to MOBIHO

Genetic influences on creativity: an exploration of convergent and divergent thinking

Previous studies on the genetic basis of creativity have mainly focused on the biological mechanisms of divergent thinking, possibly limiting the exploration of possible candidate genes. Taking a cognition-based perspective, the present study investigated the genetic basis for both the divergent and the convergent thinking components of creativity. A total of 321 Chinese university students were recruited to complete the Guildford Unusual Using Test (UUT) for divergent thinking capability and the Remote Associates Test (RAT) for convergent thinking capability. The polymorphism of rs2576037 in KATNAL2 was related to the fluency and originality component scores of UUT, and the polymorphism of rs5993883 in COMT, rs362584 in SNAP25 was related to the RAT performance. These effects remained significant after considering the influence of age, gender and intelligence. Our results provide new evidence for the genetic basis of creativity and reveal the important role of gene polymorphisms in divergent and convergent thinking

Inhibition of Phosphodiesterase-4 Reverses Aβ-Induced Memory Impairment by Regulation of HPA Axis Related cAMP Signaling

Beta amyloid peptides (Aβ) are found to be associated with dysfunction of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) that leads to memory and cognitive deficits in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitors increase the intracellular cAMP activities, which may ameliorate cognitive deficits associated with AD. However, it remains unclear whether PDE4-mediated reversal of cognitive impairment in mouse model of AD is related to HPA axis and downstream cAMP-dependent pathway. The present study investigated the effects of PDE4 inhibitor rolipram on Aβ1-42-induced cognitive dysfunction and its underlying mechanisms. The step-down passive avoidance (PA) and Morris water-maze (MWM) tests were conducted 1 week (1 W), 2 months (2 M), and 6 months (6 M) after intracerebroventricular microjection (i.c.v.) of Aβ1-42. The results suggested that memory impairment emerged as early as 1 W, peaked at 2 M, and lasted until 6 M after injection. Chronic treatment with rolipram (0.1, 0.5, 1.0 mg/kg/d, i.p.) for 2 weeks (i.e., treatment started at 1.5 months after Aβ1-42 microinjection) dose-dependently improved memory performance in both MWM and PA tests. Moreover, rolipram reversed the Aβ-induced increases in serum corticosterone (CORT), corticotropin-releasing factor, and glucocorticoid receptors (CRF-R and GR) levels, whereas it decreases in brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) and the ratio of pCREB to CREB expression. These effects of rolipram were prevented by pre-treatment with PKA inhibitor H89. The findings indicated that the protective effects of rolipram against Aβ1-42-induced memory deficits might involve HPA axis and cAMP-CREB-BDNF signaling

Optimization of Fermentation Technology of Malus doumeri (Bois) Chevalier and Zizyphus jujube Mill. Compound Fruit Wine by Response Surface Methodology and Its Antioxidant Activity Analysis

In order to develop a new brewing technology of compound fruit wine and analyze its antioxidant activity, the compound fruit wine was prepared from Malus doumeri (Bois) Chevalier and Ziziphus jujube Mill. as main raw material, the medicine-food homologous foods, and fermentation process of it was optimized through single factor experiments and response surface test, as well as its antioxidant capacity in vitro was measured. The results showed that the best fermentation technology parameter were as follows: Malus doumeri (Bois) Chevalier juice and Ziziphus jujube Mill. juice mass ratio was 1:2, with initial sugar content 21°Bx, yeast inoculum 0.3%, fermentation temperature 19 ℃, SO2 addition 55 mg/L, and fermentation time 7 d. On this condition, the compound fruit wine was light yellow with mellow body and no impurities, provided with the unique fragrance of Malus doumeri (Bois) Chevalier and Ziziphus jujube Mill., both refreshing and pleasant. The alcohol content of compound fruit wine was 11.50%vol±0.10%vol, the soluble solid content was 7.80%±0.08%, the sugar content was 3.40±0.13 g/L, the acid content was 7.13±0.03 g/L, the extraction content was 22.40±0.15 g/L, the SO2 content was 0.074±0.006 g/L, the sensory score was 93.80±0.40, and its physicochemical and hygiene indicators reached the national standard of fruit wine. Meanwhile, the maximum scavenging capacity of DPPH· and ABTS+· could reach 85.7% and 88.8%, respectively, and the antioxidant capacity was significantly higher than that of compound juice, but less than that of vitamin C. The compound fruit wine developed by this study has a unique flavor and a good specific antioxidant activity, which would provide a scientific basis for the development and application of Malus doumeri (Bois) Chevalier and Ziziphus jujube Mill

Acidic Polysaccharide from Angelica sinensis

Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) is the second most prevalent anemia and frequently occurs in patients with acute or chronic immune activation. In the current study, we evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of Angelica sinensis polysaccharide (ASP) against ACD in rats and the potential mechanisms involved. The results showed that ASP inhibited inflammatory hepcidin in both HepG2 cells and ACD rats by blocking the IL-6/STAT3 and BMP/SMAD pathways. In ACD rats, the administration of ASP increased ferroportin expression, mobilized iron from the liver and spleen, increased serum iron levels, caused an elevation of serum EPO, and effectively relieved the anemia. Furthermore, ASP inhibited NF-κB p65 activation via the IκB kinases- (IKKs-) IκBα pathway, thereby reducing the secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and TNF-α, which is known to inhibit erythropoiesis. Our findings indicate that ASP is a potential treatment option for patients suffering from ACD