Decentralized Learning over Wireless Networks with Broadcast-Based Subgraph Sampling

This work centers on the communication aspects of decentralized learning over wireless networks, using consensus-based decentralized stochastic gradient descent (D-SGD). Considering the actual communication cost or delay caused by in-network information exchange in an iterative process, our goal is to achieve fast convergence of the algorithm measured by improvement per transmission slot. We propose BASS, an efficient communication framework for D-SGD over wireless networks with broadcast transmission and probabilistic subgraph sampling. In each iteration, we activate multiple subsets of non-interfering nodes to broadcast model updates to their neighbors. These subsets are randomly activated over time, with probabilities reflecting their importance in network connectivity and subject to a communication cost constraint (e.g., the average number of transmission slots per iteration). During the consensus update step, only bi-directional links are effectively preserved to maintain communication symmetry. In comparison to existing link-based scheduling methods, the inherent broadcasting nature of wireless channels offers intrinsic advantages in speeding up convergence of decentralized learning by creating more communicated links with the same number of transmission slots.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted for possible conference publicatio

Recent Developments in OCL and Textual Modelling

The panel session of the 16th OCL workshop featured a lightning talk session for discussing recent developments and open questions in the area of OCL and textual modelling. During this session, the OCL community discussed, stimulated through short presentations by OCL experts, tool support, potential future extensions, and suggested initiatives to make the textual modelling community even more successful. This collaborative paper, to which each OCL expert contributed one section, summarises the discussions as well as describes the recent developments and open questions presented in the lightning talks

Toward an integrative understanding of social behavior: new models and new opportunities.

Social interactions among conspecifics are a fundamental and adaptively significant component of the biology of numerous species. Such interactions give rise to group living as well as many of the complex forms of cooperation and conflict that occur within animal groups. Although previous conceptual models have focused on the ecological causes and fitness consequences of variation in social interactions, recent developments in endocrinology, neuroscience, and molecular genetics offer exciting opportunities to develop more integrated research programs that will facilitate new insights into the physiological causes and consequences of social variation. Here, we propose an integrative framework of social behavior that emphasizes relationships between ultimate-level function and proximate-level mechanism, thereby providing a foundation for exploring the full diversity of factors that underlie variation in social interactions, and ultimately sociality. In addition to identifying new model systems for the study of human psychopathologies, this framework provides a mechanistic basis for predicting how social behavior will change in response to environmental variation. We argue that the study of non-model organisms is essential for implementing this integrative model of social behavior because such species can be studied simultaneously in the lab and field, thereby allowing integration of rigorously controlled experimental manipulations with detailed observations of the ecological contexts in which interactions among conspecifics occur

Implementación de un control no lineal para el seguimiento robot-humano con un sensor 3D

At present more adult persons need of mechatronic devices that facilitate and help them in his daily activities. The mobile robots turned into a good alternative due to the fact that nowadays the technology has allowed that they can recognize and make the tracking of a person. In this work, is used the Robotics platform Pionner 3-AT® and a sensor of depth Kinect® to making the tracking of a person. Sequences of images of depth and an algorithm of recognition of skeletons, supplied by the Kinect®, it allows to know and to estimate the coordinates and speed of a person, that to be introduced to the non-linear control based on linearization by feedback, it generates the command of linear and angular speed that will made that the robot keep an orientation and distance wished to a person. Finally, we introduce and argue the results achieved after carry out the validation of the algorithm with a series of experimental tests.En la actualidad más personas adultas requieren de dispositivos mecatrónicos que faciliten y ayuden en sus actividades diarias. Los robots móviles se convirtieron en una buena alternativa debido a que actualmente la tecnología, permite que puedan reconocer y realizar el seguimiento de una persona. En este trabajo, se emplea la plataforma robótica Pionner 3-AT® y un sensor de profundidad Kinect® para realizar el seguimiento de una persona. Secuencias de imágenes de profundidad y un algoritmo de reconocimiento de esqueletos, suministrados por el Kinect®, permite conocer y estimar las coordenadas y velocidad de una persona, que al ser introducidas al control no lineal basado en linealización por realimentación, genera los comandos de velocidad lineal y angular que hacen que el robot mantenga una orientación y distancia deseadas a la persona. Finalmente, se presenta y discute los resultados obtenidos después de realizar la validación del algoritmo con una serie de pruebas experimentales

Contribution to van der Waerden's conjecture

AbstractIn this paper, we give two different elementary proofs for the inequality which states that the permanent of doubly stochastic matrices is greater than or equal to (n!/nn). This inequality was proved earlier by the author, and independently by Egorychev and Falikman

The Prevalence of Latent Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infection Based on an Interferon-γ Release Assay: A Cross-Sectional Survey Among Urban Adults in Mwanza, Tanzania.

One third of the world's population is estimated to be latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (LTBI). Surveys of LTBI are rarely performed in resource poor TB high endemic countries like Tanzania although low-income countries harbor the largest burden of the worlds LTBI. The primary objective was to estimate the prevalence of LTBI in household contacts of pulmonary TB cases and a group of apparently healthy neighborhood controls in an urban setting of such a country. Secondly we assessed potential impact of LTBI on inflammation by quantitating circulating levels of an acute phase reactant: alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) in neighborhood controls. The study was nested within the framework of two nutrition studies among TB patients in Mwanza, Tanzania. Household contacts- and neighborhood controls were invited to participate. The study involved a questionnaire, BMI determination and blood samples to measure AGP, HIV testing and a Quantiferon Gold In tube (QFN-IT) test to detect signs of LTBI. 245 household contacts and 192 neighborhood controls had available QFN-IT data. Among household contacts, the proportion of QFT-IT positive was 59% compared to 41% in the neighborhood controls (p = 0.001). In a linear regression model adjusted for sex, age, CD4 and HIV, a QFT-IT positive test was associated with a 10% higher level of alpha-1-acid glycoprotein(AGP) (10(B) 1.10, 95% CI 1.01; 1.20, p = 0.03), compared to individuals with a QFT-IT negative test. LTBI is highly prevalent among apparently healthy urban Tanzanians even without known exposure to TB in the household. LTBI was found to be associated with elevated levels of AGP. The implications of this observation merit further studies

Comunicar ciencia en México. Discursos y espacios sociales

La generación y divulgación de la ciencia y la tecnología es una tarea que implica contribuir al desarrollo de una cultura que vaya más allá del registro y difusión de los hechos y nombres científicos, al suponer la comprensión crítica de la labor propia como proceso socialmente contextualizado, enraizado en factores históricos, políticos, económicos y éticos. Los trabajos aquí presentados proponen asumir que la comunicación pública del conocimiento expresa también las controversias socio–científicas y la relación social de ciencia y tecnología en las condiciones imperantes de transición vertiginosa en la producción cultural, científica y tecnológica.ITESO, A.C.Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología del Estado de Jalisc

A novel gene cluster allows preferential utilization of fucosylated milk oligosaccharides in Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum SC596

La microbiota intestinal infantil es a menudo colonizada por dos subespecies de Bifidobacterium longum: subsp. infantis (B. infantis) y subsp. longum (B. longum). El crecimiento competitivo de B. infantis en el intestino del neonato ha sido vinculado a la utilización de oligosacáridos (HMO) en la leche humana. Sin embargo, poco se sabe sobre cómo B. longum en el consumo de HMO. En este estudio, las cepas B. longum transmitidas mostraron diferentes fenotipos de crecimiento de HMO. Mientras que todas las cepas utilizadas eficientemente con lacto-N-tetraosa, focalizaron ciertas cepas, que, además, metabolizaron el HMO. El B. longum SC596 creció vigorosamente en el HMO, y la glycocaracterización reveló una preferencia por el consumo de HMO fucosilados. El transcriptomes SC596 durante la etapa temprana de crecimiento sobre HMO se asemeja más al crecimiento de la fucosilactosa, pasando más tarde a un patrón similar al crecimiento en el HMO neutro. El B. longum SC596 contiene un gen novedoso cerrado dedicado a la utilización de HMO fucosilado, incluyendo los genes para la importación de moléculas fucosiladas, metabolismo fucoso y dos α-fucosidasas. Este grupo mostró una inducción modular durante el crecimiento temprano de HMO y fucosilactosa. Este trabajo aclara el genoma y la variabilidad fisiológica del bebé portador de B. longum en el consumo de HMO, que se asemeja a B. infantis. La capacidad de consumir preferentemente HMO fucosilado sugiere una ventaja competitiva para estas singulares de las cepas de B. longum en el lactante alimentado con tripa.The infant intestinal microbiota is often colonized by two subspecies of Bifidobacterium longum: subsp. infantis (B. infantis) and subsp. longum (B. longum). Competitive growth of B. infantis in the neonate intestine has been linked to the utilization of human milk oligosaccharides (HMO). However, little is known how B. longum consumes HMO. In this study, infant-borne B. longum strains exhibited varying HMO growth phenotypes. While all strains efficiently utilized lacto-N-tetraose, certain strains additionally metabolized fucosylated HMO. B. longum SC596 grew vigorously on HMO, and glycoprofiling revealed a preference for consumption of fucosylated HMO. Transcriptomes of SC596 during early-stage growth on HMO were more similar to growth on fucosyllactose, transiting later to a pattern similar to growth on neutral HMO. B. longum SC596 contains a novel gene cluster devoted to the utilization of fucosylated HMO, including genes for import of fucosylated molecules, fucose metabolism and two α-fucosidases. This cluster showed a modular induction during early growth on HMO and fucosyllactose. This work clarifies the genomic and physiological variation of infant-borne B. longum to HMO consumption, which resembles B. infantis. The capability to preferentially consume fucosylated HMO suggests a competitive advantage for these unique B. longum strains in the breast-fed infant gut.• National Institutes of Health Awards AT007079, HD065122 y AT008759 • Peter J. Shields Endowed Chair in Dairy Food Science • Conicyt Fondecyt: Beca de iniciación 11130518 • Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia y Universidad de Extremadura.peerReviewe

DUVET Survey: Mapping Outflows in the Metal-Poor Starburst Mrk 1486

We present a method to characterize star-formation driven outflows from edge-on galaxies and apply this method to the metal-poor starburst galaxy, Mrk 1486. Our method uses the distribution of emission line flux (from H$\beta$ and [OIII] 5007) to identify the location of the outflow and measure the extent above the disk, the opening angle, and the transverse kinematics. We show that this simple technique recovers a similar distribution of the outflow without requiring complex modelling of line-splitting or multi-Gaussian components, and is therefore applicable to lower spectral resolution data. In Mrk 1486 we observe an asymmetric outflow in both the location of the peak flux and total flux from each lobe. We estimate an opening angle of $17-37^{\circ}$ depending on the method and assumptions adopted. Within the minor axis outflows, we estimate a total mass outflow rate of $\sim2.5$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, which corresponds to a mass loading factor of $\eta=0.7$. We observe a non-negligible amount of flux from ionized gas outflowing along the edge of the disk (perpendicular to the biconical components), with a mass outflow rate $\sim0.9$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. Our results are intended to demonstrate a method that can be applied to high-throughput, low spectral resolution observations, such as narrow band filters or low spectral resolution IFS that may be more able to recover the faint emission from outflows.Comment: 12 Pages, 6 Figure