Response to comments on "Differential Sensitivity to Human Communication in Dogs, Wolves, and Human Infants."

The comments by Fiset and Marshall-Pescini et al. raise important methodological issues and propose alternative accounts for our finding of perseverative search errors in dogs. Not denying that attentional processes and local enhancement are involved in such object search tasks, we provide here new evidence and argue that dogs’ behavior is affected by a combination of factors, including specific susceptibility to human communicative signals

Where to Make the Transition from Open-pit to Underground?: Using Integer Programming

The transition from open pit (OP) to underground (UG) is one of the challenging mining engineering issues. The mines which have the potential to make transition from OP mining to UG mining will eventually come to a point introduced as a ‘Transition Point’ where it needs to determine whether to extend the pit or switch to UG mining. This research proposes a new integer programming (IP) formulation to obtain the optimal transition point from OP to UG mining. The proposed model has been implemented on a three-dimensional (3-D) gold deposit and a two-dimensional (2-D) case study has been used to demonstrate the validity of the model. Due to the large number of variables, strategies have been proposed to shorten the solution time. The proposed model has successfully determined the optimal transition point and generated significantly better undiscounted profit than that of the traditional approach

Finding the sweet spot for frame aggregation in 802.11 WLANs

This letter proposes an algorithm for the dynamic tuning of the maximum size of aggregated frames in 802.11 WLANs. Traffic flows with opposed requirements may coexist in these networks: traditional services as web browsing or file download that need high throughput, and services with real-time requirements that need low latency. The proposed algorithm allows the network manager to find an optimal balance (i.e. the ''sweet spot'' between throughput and latency: a ''delay budget'' can be assigned to real-time flows, with the objective of keeping the latency as close as possible to that budget, while penalizing the throughput of traditional services as little as possible. © 1997-2012 IEEE

Integration Results

The H2020 What to do With the Wi-Fi Wild West (Wi-5) project combines research and innovation to propose a Software Defined Networking (SDN) architecture based on an integrated and coordinated set of smart Wi-Fi networking solutions. In this document, we present the integration methodologies and provide the integration test results of the developed functionalities of Wi-5. The integration of the functionalities is being developed within Work Package 5. First, the smart and cooperative solutions provided by the SDN based Wi-5 architecture will be briefly described. Next, we will define and explain the modular approach to be applied in Wi-5 APs and the Wi-5 controller. According to this approach, we will describe the functionalities of both the Wi-5 APs that are modelled as a combination of the monitoring and network configuration modules, and the Wi-5 controller which is composed of the monitoring, decision, and network configuration modules. Following this, we will define and explain the Wi-5 integration strategy that was utilized to integrate the smart and cooperative functionalities in terms of assembly of the modules utilized to model the Wi-5 AP and the Wi-5 controller. The integration approach and steps of the proposed functionalities are then given and the limitations that have been faced during the integration progress of the functionalities are clearly explained in each subsection. Moreover, the design criteria and possible evaluation approaches of such nonintegrated functionalities are explicitly provided. During the integration process, coordinated work between WP3 and WP4 was carried out and, after the feedback was shared for WP5-WP3 and WP5WP4, some novel innovations and contributions are introduced. The online integration approach for the channel assignment algorithm of the radio resource management solution is proposed, and integrated as a product of this mutual feedback. Also, the proactive handover application for seamless handover functionality is another product of this collaboration. After the integration process, the test definitions and evaluation results of the integrated functionalities are presented. Also, the available test metrics and network deployments for each of the functionality tests are provided. The test results prove that the proposed functionalities perform well in meeting the design objectives. We observe that the Wi-5 solutions give the expected performance gains in most of the conducted test cases

Lentiviral Gene Transfer Corrects Immune Abnormalities in XIAP Deficiency

BACKGROUND: X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) deficiency is a severe immunodeficiency with clinical features including hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) due to defective NOD2 responses. Management includes immunomodulatory therapies and hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). However, this cohort is particularly susceptible to the chemotherapeutic regimens and acutely affected by graft-vs-host disease (GvHD), driving poor long-term survival in transplanted patients. Autologous HSC gene therapy could offer an alternative treatment option and would abrogate the risks of alloreactivity. METHODS: Hematopoietic progenitor (Lin-ve) cells from XIAPy/- mice were transduced with a lentiviral vector encoding human XIAP cDNA before transplantation into irradiated XIAP y/- recipients. After 12 weeks animals were challenged with the dectin-1 ligand curdlan and recovery of innate immune function was evaluated though analysis of inflammatory cytokines, body weight, and splenomegaly. XIAP patient-derived CD14+ monocytes were transduced with the same vector and functional recovery was demonstrated using in vitro L18-MDP/NOD2 assays. RESULTS: In treated XIAPy/- mice, ~40% engraftment of gene-corrected Lin-ve cells led to significant recovery of weight loss, splenomegaly, and inflammatory cytokine responses to curdlan, comparable to wild-type mice. Serum IL-6, IL-10, MCP-1, and TNF were significantly reduced 2-h post-curdlan administration in non-corrected XIAPy/- mice compared to wild-type and gene-corrected animals. Appropriate reduction of inflammatory responses was observed in gene-corrected mice, whereas non-corrected mice developed an inflammatory profile 9 days post-curdlan challenge. In gene-corrected patient CD14+ monocytes, TNF responses were restored following NOD2 activation with L18-MDP. CONCLUSION: Gene correction of HSCs recovers XIAP-dependent immune defects and could offer a treatment option for patients with XIAP deficiency

A first look into the carbon footprint of federated learning

Despite impressive results, deep learning-based technologies also raise severe privacy and environmental concerns induced by the training procedure often conducted in datacenters. In response, alternatives to centralized training such as Federated Learning (FL) have emerged. Perhaps unexpectedly, FL, in particular, is starting to be deployed at a global scale by companies that must adhere to new legal demands and policies originating from governments and civil society for privacy protection. However, the potential environmental impact related to FL remains unclear and unexplored. This paper offers the first-ever systematic study of the carbon footprint of FL. First, we propose a rigorous model to quantify the carbon footprint, hence facilitating the investigation of the relationship between FL design and carbon emissions. Then, we compare the carbon footprint of FL to traditional centralized learning. Our findings show that FL, despite being slower to converge in some cases, may result in a comparatively greener impact than a centralized equivalent setup. We performed extensive experiments across different types of datasets, settings, and various deep learning models with FL. Finally, we highlight and connect the reported results to the future challenges and trends in FL to reduce its environmental impact, including algorithms efficiency, hardware capabilities, and stronger industry transparency.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2010.0653

The PDGFRα-laminin B1-keratin 19 cascade drives tumor progression at the invasive front of human hepatocellular carcinoma

Human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) expressing the biliary/hepatic progenitor cell marker keratin 19 (K19) have been linked with a poor prognosis and exhibit an increase in platelet-derived growth factor receptor a (PDGFR alpha) and laminin beta 1 (LAMB1) expression. PDGFR alpha has been reported to induce de novo synthesis of LAMB1 protein in a Sjogren syndrome antigen B (La/SSB)-dependent manner in a murine metastasis model. However, the role of this cascade in human HCC remains unclear. This study focused on the functional role of the PDGFR alpha-La/SSB-LAMB1 pathway and its molecular link to K19 expression in human HCC. In surgical HCC specimens from a cohort of 136 patients, PDGFR alpha expression correlated with K19 expression, microvascular invasion and metastatic spread. In addition, PDGFR alpha expression in pre-operative needle biopsy specimens predicted poor overall survival during a 5-year follow-up period. Consecutive histological staining demonstrated that the signaling components of the PDGFR alpha-La/SSB-LAMB1 pathway were strongly expressed at the invasive front. K19-positive HCC cells displayed high levels of alpha 2 beta 1 integrin (ITG) receptor, both in vitro and in vivo. In vitro activation of PDGFR alpha signaling triggered the translocation of nuclear La/SSB into the cytoplasm, enhanced the protein synthesis of LAMB1 by activating its internal ribosome entry site, which in turn led to increased secretion of laminin-111. This effect was abrogated by the PDGFR alpha-specific inhibitor crenolanib. Importantly LAMB1 stimulated ITG-dependent focal adhesion kinase/Src proto-oncogene non-receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. It also promoted the ITG-specific downstream target Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinase 2, induced K19 expression in an autocrine manner, invadopodia formation and cell invasion. Finally, we showed that the knockdown of LAMB1 or K19 in subcutaneous xenograft mouse models resulted in significant loss of cells invading the surrounding stromal tissue and reduced HepG2 colonization into lung and liver after tail vein injection. The PDGFR alpha-LAMB1 pathway supports tumor progression at the invasive front of human HCC through K19 expression