Forecasting with time series imaging

Feature-based time series representations have attracted substantial attention in a wide range of time series analysis methods. Recently, the use of time series features for forecast model averaging has been an emerging research focus in the forecasting community. Nonetheless, most of the existing approaches depend on the manual choice of an appropriate set of features. Exploiting machine learning methods to extract features from time series automatically becomes crucial in state-of-the-art time series analysis. In this paper, we introduce an automated approach to extract time series features based on time series imaging. We first transform time series into recurrence plots, from which local features can be extracted using computer vision algorithms. The extracted features are used for forecast model averaging. Our experiments show that forecasting based on automatically extracted features, with less human intervention and a more comprehensive view of the raw time series data, yields highly comparable performances with the best methods in the largest forecasting competition dataset (M4) and outperforms the top methods in the Tourism forecasting competition dataset

An Identity Perspective on Online Healthcare Communities

Online healthcare communities often experience high churn rates. Our study investigates this phenomenon by integrating the concepts of social stigma, psychological capital, and social identity. Based on survey data from an online community serving lymphoma patients, we found that 1) users’ positive social identity increased their participation and recommendation intentions through enhanced psychological capital empowered by the online community; 2) stigmatized social identity hampered participation and recommendation intentions through decreased psychological capital; 3) users’ personal identity moderated the mediated impacts of positive and stigmatized social identities on participation and recommendation intentions through psychological capital, and 4) participation intention positively influenced recommendation intention. Our study applied the identity theory with a novel approach and offered insights on the development and management of online healthcare communities for both researchers and practitioners

The latest spreading periods of the south china sea: new constraints from macrostructure analysis of IODP expedition 349 cores and geophysical data

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth 124 (2019): 9980– 9998, doi:10.1029/2019JB017584.Macrostructures preserved in deformed rocks are essential for the understanding of their evolution, especially when the deformation is weak and hard to discriminate in regional scale or purely through geophysical data. In order to resolve the inconsistency between NS trending fracture zones and NE oriented spreading fabrics of the South China Sea during the latest spreading stage, we analyzed macrostructures identifiable from the basalt and consolidated sediment samples of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Sites U1431 and U1433. These two sites are close to the East and Southwest relict spreading ridges and provide critical information on the latest spreading stages. The structures in the basalt of both sites suggest two dominant orientations of NS and NE. At U1431, sediments show mainly WNW trending slickensides, different from that of basalt. At U1433, no structures were found in postspreading sediment. Thus, NE and NS trending structures in basalt are most possibly formed by seafloor spreading. Crosscutting relationship suggests that NE trending structures formed first, followed by NS and finally WNW trending structures. These observations are consistent with geophysical features. Magnetic anomalies and ocean bottom seismometer velocity suggest that the latest relict ridge of the East Subbasin coincides with the EW trending seamount chain. Located between the relict ridges of East and Southwest Subbasins, NS trending Zhongnan‐Liyue Fracture Zone had acted as the latest transform fault. Based on the above evidences, we proposed that the South China Sea may have experienced a short period of NS oriented spreading after earlier SE spreading. These results resolve the previous inconsistencies.We appreciate Anne Replumaz and other anonymous reviewers for the constructive suggestions, which improve this paper to a great extent. This research was supported by Guangdong NSF research team project (2017A030312002), K. C. Wong Education Foundation (GJTD‐2018‐13), the IODP‐China Foundation, the NSFC Projects (91628301, 41376027, 41576070, 41576068, 41430962, 41674069, 91528302, and 20153410), U.S. National Science Foundation through Grant EAR‐1250444, the Guangdong Province Foundation (41576068), and the Joint Foundation of the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Guangdong Province (U1301233). Fucheng Li is thanked for helping with the earthquake epicenter figure for the study area. All the sample photos can be accessed via web address (http://www.iodp.tamu.edu). The archive halves of samples are kept in the Kochi repository. The paleomag data will be published by Xixi Zhao separately. All the other geophysical data have been published; for example, the multichannel seismic could be referenced to Li et al. (2015a), and the gravity data and magnetic anomaly data are from Sandwell et al. (2014) and Ishihara and Kisimoto (1996).2020-02-2

Effect of Non-sodium Salt Substitution on the Properties and Flavor of Coix Starch-Myofibrillar Protein Composite Gel

Objective: To investigate the effect of calcium, magnesium and potassium salts on the properties of coix seed starch-myofibrillar protein (CSS-MP) composite gel with low sodium content. Methods: Based on the results of previous research, the effects of partial substitution of NaCl by CaCl2, MgCl2 or KCl on the gel strength, water holding capacity (WHC), rheological properties, surface hydrophobicity, sulfhydryl group content, gel microstructure and sensory evaluation of CSS-MP composite gel were investigated. Results: The texture and rheological properties of the CaCl2 substitution group were better than those of the control group (3% NaCl), and the WHC and whiteness of the KCl substitution group were not significantly different from those of the control group, but the gel strength was decreased by MgCl2 or KCl substitution. The total sulfhydryl content of the CaCl2 and MgCl2 replacement groups was significantly lower than that of the control group, and the surface hydrophobicity of the CaCl2 replacement group was significantly higher than that of the other three groups. The addition of MgCl2 promoted the formation of hydrogen bonds, enhanced the hydrophobic interaction, while CaCl2 substitution had the opposite effect. In terms of sensory properties, the substitution of 1.0% CaCl2 and 0.5% MgCl2 could attain a saltiness perception similar to 3% NaCl. However, the comprehensive sensory score showed that the substitution of the three chlorine salts caused no significant difference in sensory properties of CSS-MP composite gel. Conclusion: Calcium, magnesium and potassium salts can improve the properties of CSS-MP composite gel in different degrees. The results of this study lay a theoretical foundation for the development of low-sodium composite surimi gel products

The stress regulator FKBP51 drives chronic pain by modulating spinal glucocorticoid signaling

Polymorphisms in FKBP51 are associated with stress-related psychiatric disorders and influence the severity of pain symptoms experienced after trauma. We report that FKBP51 (FK506 binding protein 51) is crucial for the full development and maintenance of long-term pain states. Indeed, FKBP51 knockout mice, as well as mice in which silencing of FKBP51 is restricted to the spinal cord, showed reduced hypersensitivity in several persistent pain models in rodents. FKBP51 deletion did not compromise the detection of acute painful stimuli, a critical protective mechanism. Moreover, the intrathecal administration of the specific FKBP51 inhibitor SAFit2 reduced the severity of an established pain state, confirming the crucial role of spinal FKBP51 in nociceptive processing. Finally, glucocorticoid signaling, which is known to modulate persistent pain states in rodents, was impaired in FKBP51 knockout mice. This finding suggested that FKBP51 regulates chronic pain by modulation of glucocorticoid signaling. Thus, FKBP51 is a central mediator of chronic pain, likely in humans as well as rodents, and is a new pharmacologically tractable target for the treatment of long-term pain states

An investigation of a food poisoning by Galerina sulciceps

Objective To investigate a food poisoning caused by wild mushrooms and to identify the risk factors. Methods Epidemiological investigation, morphological and phylogenetic identification, and laboratory testing were taken to analyze the poisoning event. Results All the three cases complained of abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea after ingesting the poisonous mushrooms, and liver function impairment was found later. One case died after 5 days. The mushroom was identified as Galerina sulciceps by morphological and phylogenetic identification. Three kinds of toxins, include α-amanitin, β-amanitin and γ-amanitin were detected in laboratory. Conclusion The incident was caused by ingesting the poisonous mushroom, Galerina sulciceps. Public education, market supervision, foodborne disease surveillance should be enhanced, and the ability of medical institutions to diagnose and treat poisonous mushrooms should be improved

Pharmacological Modulation of the Psychiatric Risk Factor FKBP51 Alters Efficiency of Common Antidepressant Drugs

Despite a growing body of research over the last few decades, mental disorders, including anxiety disorders or depression, are still one of the most prevalent and hardest to treat health burdens worldwide. Since pharmacological treatment with a single drug is often rather ineffective, approaches such as co-medication with functionally diverse antidepressants (ADs) have been discussed and tried more recently. Besides classical ADs, there is a growing number of candidate targets identified as potential starting points for new treatment methods. One of these candidates, the FK506 binding protein 51 (FKBP51) is linked to a number of psychiatric disorders in humans. In this study, we used SAFit2-a newly developed modulator of FKBP51, which has shown promising results in rodent models for stress-related disorders delivered in a depot formulation. We combined SAFit2 with the commonly prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram and performed basic behavioral characterization in a mouse model. Remarkably, co-application of SAFit2 lowered the efficacy of escitalopram in anxiety-related tests but improved stress coping behavior. Given the fact that mental diseases such as anxiety disorders or depression can be divided into different sub-categories, some of which more or less prone to stress, SAFit2 could indeed be a highly beneficial co-medication in very specific cases. This study could be a first, promising step towards the use of FKBP51 modulators as potent and specific enhancers of AD efficiency for subclasses of patients in the future