The Learning Process: Inspiration for Computer Scientists

The human brain is capable of tasks with which the most com­plex computers have trouble. Comprehending language, a task that chil­dren can begin to develop by their second or third birthday, has only just reached a consistently usable level. Even with years of research, IBM\u27s Wat­son, which competed against two all-time Jeopardy! contestants, was un­able to detect many of the nuances of human communication. Puns, con­text clues, and more are critical parts of communication, but given several of Watson\u27s confused answers, they were clearly misinterpreted.1 From this, an important question becomes apparent, What makes a human able to understand this type of question (or problem), and how do we make computers capable of doing the same? This question is not only applicable to language recognition, but also chess, packing a bag, finding an efficient route, and many other daily problems. These are all skills that we learn, practice, and than improve upon. This general concept can be extended to computers for computationally difficult and expensive problems like these. Teaching computers to learn and to apply previous results, like humans do, can be an effective model for one of their main functions, problem solving. This is the foundation of the field now known as Machine learning

Tunnel Vision: A Problem in Academics

Inspiration is just as important to scientists as it is to artists. Ein­stein\u27s theories of special relativity were famously drawn from his boyhood question, What would riding upon a beam of light be like? Archime­des came to his famous eureka moment, and uncovered the principle of buoyancy, in a bath. Without moments of inspiration like these, humanity would not have made the progress that it has. Taking a broad view of the world has historically been a large part of the academic world; however, there is still a constant struggle with academic tunnel vision. When one becomes obsessed with a singular field,failure to recognize the potential applications of the problems, methods, ideas, and inspirations from other fields becomes an even greater possibility

The Issue Of Internet Polling

Surveys, polls, and focus groups are common phenomena in our daily lives. We live in a world where big data is big business. Large decisions hinge on the accuracy and predicative power of these numbers. Therefore, it should not be surprising that there is a market for the malicious manipu-1ation of data. Extreme care must be taken in the collection, checking, and processing of data to prevent decisions from being made on incorrect as­sumptions. In order to demonstrate the full potential and possible impact of these attacks, I shall provide the following example: John Doe is a member of the United States Senate. In recent years, the political pressure to make a preemptive strike against a potential nu­clear threat has grown exponentially. In some of the more extreme cases, several senators have begun asking for support to make a motion to the President for military intervention. Eventually, Senator Doe is asked to sign a petition for their cause. Senator Doe decides that he must take the concerns, priorities, and beliefs of the voters in his state into account be­fore he can make a decision as their representative

Elitist Schema Overlays: A Multi-Parent Genetic Operator

Genetic Algorithms are programs inspired by natural evolution used to solve difficult problems in Mathematics and Computer Science. The theoretical foundations of Genetic Algorithms, the schema theorem and the building-block hypothesis, state that the success of Genetic Algorithms stems from the propagation of fit genetic subsequences. Multi-parent operators were shown to increase the performance of Genetic Algorithms by increasing the disruptivity of genetic operations. Disruptive genetic operators help prevent suboptimal genetic sequences from propagating into future generations, which leads to an improved fitness for the population over time. In this paper we explore the use of a novel multi-parent genetic operator, the elitist schema overlay, which propagates the matching segments in the genetic sequences of the elite subpopulation to bias the global search towards the best known solutions. We investigate the parameters that drive the behavior of elitist schema overlays to determine the most successful model, and we compare this to successful multi-parent and traditional genetic operators from the literature

liCTLA-4 is not linked to diabetes protection

CTLA-4 is a critical "checkpoint" regulator in autoimmunity. Variation in CTLA-4 isoform expression has been linked to type 1 diabetes development in human and NOD mouse studies. In the NOD mouse, a causative link between increased expression of the minor isoform ligand-independent CTLA-4 and a reduction in diabetes has become widely accepted. Altered splicing of CTLA-4 has been attributed to a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in Ctla4 exon2 (e2_77A/G). To investigate this link, we have used NOD embryonic stem (ES) cells to generate a novel NOD transgenic line with the 77A/G SNP. This strain phenocopies the increase in splicing toward the liCTLA4 isoform seen in B10 Idd5.1 mice. Crucially, the SNP does not alter the spontaneous incidence of diabetes, the incidence of cyclophosphamide-induced diabetes, or the activation of diabetogenic T-cell receptor transgenic CD4(+) T cells after adoptive transfer. Our results show that one or more of the many other linked genetic variants between the B10 and NOD genome are required for the diabetes protection conferred by Idd5.1. With the NOD mouse model closely mimicking the human disease, our data demonstrate that knock-in transgenic mice on the NOD background can test causative mutations relevant in human diabetes.FJ was supported by an MRC Studentship and we acknowledge the support of the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Pathology.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from American Diabetes Association via http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/db15-117

Sit-to-Stand Symmetry

Asymmetric sit-to-stand (STS) and static standing mechanics may be related to fall risk and function after hip fracture. Even in those individuals who achieve an independent status in rising from STS, asymmetric movement strategies are frequently adopted. Previous research has revealed that the asymmetry is not fully explained by strength deficits alone. Stroke literature suggests that STS asymmetry is a function of perceptual deficits, such as sense of effort, however, this concept has not yet been explored following a hip fracture

Associations between fitness, physical activity and mental health in a community sample of young British adolescents: baseline data from the Fit to Study trial

Objectives. To examine relationships between fitness, physical activity and psychosocial problems among English secondary school pupils and to explore how components of physically active lifestyles are associated with mental health and well-being. Methods. A total of 7385 participants aged 11–13 took a fitness test and completed self-reported measures of physical activity, attitudes to activity, psychosocial problems and self-esteem during the Fit to Study trial. Multilevel regression, which modelled school-level cluster effects, estimated relationships between activity, fitness and psychosocial problems; canonical correlation analysis (CCA) explored modes of covariation between active lifestyle and mental health variables. Models were adjusted for covariates of sex, free school meal status, age, and time and location of assessments. Results. Higher fitness was linked with fewer internalising problems (β=−0.23; 95% CI −0.26 to −0.21; p<0.001). More activity was also related to fewer internalising symptoms (β=−0.24; 95% CI −0.27 to −0.20; p<0.001); the relationship between activity and internalising problems was significantly stronger for boys than for girls. Fitness and activity were also favourably related to externalising symptoms, with smaller effect sizes. One significant CCA mode, with a canonical correlation of 0.52 (p=0.001), was characterised high cross-loadings for positive attitudes to activity (0.46) and habitual activity (0.42) among lifestyle variables; and for physical and global self-esteem (0.47 and 0.42) among mental health variables. Conclusion. Model-based and data-driven analysis methods indicate fitness as well as physical activity are linked to adolescent mental health. If effect direction is established, fitness monitoring could complement physical activity measurement when tracking public health

Epidemiology report:Trends in sex-specific cerebrovascular disease mortality in Europe based on WHO mortality data

Aims: There have been substantial declines in cerebrovascular disease mortality across much of Europe, mirroring trends in deaths from cardiovascular disease as a whole. No study has investigated trends in cerebrovascular disease, and its subtypes within all European countries. This study aimed to examine sex-specific trends in cerebrovascular disease, and three of its sub-types: ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, and subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), in Europe between 1980 and 2016. Methods and results: Sex-specific mortality data for each country of the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe region were extracted from the WHO global mortality database and analysed using Joinpoint software to examine trends. The number and location of significant joinpoints for each country by sex and subtype was determined using a log-linear model. The annual percentage change within each segment was calculated along with the average annual percentage change over the duration of all available data. The last 35&thinsp;years have seen large overall declines in cerebrovascular disease mortality rates in the majority of European countries. While these declines have continued steadily in more than half of countries, this analysis has revealed evidence of recent plateauing and even increases in stroke mortality in a number of countries, in both sexes, and in all four geographical sub-regions of Europe. Analysis by stroke sub-type revealed that recent plateauing was most common for haemorraghic stroke and increases were most common for ischaemic stroke. Conclusion: These findings highlight the need for continued research into the inequalities in both current stroke mortality outcomes and trends across Europe, as well as the causes behind any recent plateauing of total cerebrovascular disease or its subtypes

Structure of the PII signal transduction protein of Neisseria meningitidis at 1.85 Å resolution

The structure of the PII signal transduction protein of N. meningitidis at 1.85 Å resolution is described