Location-based Mobile Games in mHealth: A Preliminary Study of Pokémon Go in Promoting Health Exercising

Location-based mobile games such as Pokémon Go might improve players’ physical activities (e.g., walking) and social interactions. With a limited research on mobile exergaming activities, this study examined relationships among Pokémon Go players’ gaming activities, willingness to communicate, and the likelihood of engaging in exercises. Our study showed that the longer participants had been playing the game, the higher the likelihood that they would engage in exercises. Our findings revealed a positive relationship between exercise during gameplay and willingness to communicate with other players. Our study provides implications to the use of location-based mobile games to promote health campaigns and improve the general health of the population

Upper triangular Toeplitz matrices and real parts of quasinilpotent operators

We show that every self--adjoint matrix B of trace 0 can be realized as B=T+T^* for a nilpotent matrix T of norm no greater than K times the norm of B, for a constant K that is independent of matrix size. More particularly, if D is a diagonal, self--adjoint n-by-n matrix of trace 0, then there is a unitary matrix V=XU_n, where X is an n-by-n permutation matrix and U_n is the n-by-n Fourier matrix, such that the upper triangular part, T, of the conjugate V^*DV of D has norm no greater than K times the norm of D. This matrix T is a strictly upper triangular Toeplitz matrix such that T+T^*=V^*DV. We apply this and related results to give partial answers to questions about real parts of quasinilpotent elements in finite von Neumann algebras.Comment: 19 pages; for version 2 a few relatively minor corrections were made and the abstract improved; for version 3, a few comments and minor changes were mad

The carpenter and Schur--Horn problems for masas in finite factors

Two classical theorems in matrix theory, due to Schur and Horn, relate the eigenvalues of a self-adjoint matrix to the diagonal entries. These have recently been given a formulation in the setting of operator algebras as the Schur-Horn problem, where matrix algebras and diagonals are replaced respectively by finite factors and maximal abelian self-adjoint subalgebras (masas). There is a special case of the problem, called the carpenter problem, which can be stated as follows: for a masa A in a finite factor M with conditional expectation E_A, can each x in A with 0 <= x <= 1 be expressed as E_A(p) for a projection p in M? In this paper, we investigate these problems for various masas. We give positive solutions for the generator and radial masas in free group factors, and we also solve affirmatively a weaker form of the Schur-Horm problem for the Cartan masa in the hyperfinite factor.Comment: 15 page

Decentralised Learning MACs for Collision-free Access in WLANs

By combining the features of CSMA and TDMA, fully decentralised WLAN MAC schemes have recently been proposed that converge to collision-free schedules. In this paper we describe a MAC with optimal long-run throughput that is almost decentralised. We then design two \changed{schemes} that are practically realisable, decentralised approximations of this optimal scheme and operate with different amounts of sensing information. We achieve this by (1) introducing learning algorithms that can substantially speed up convergence to collision free operation; (2) developing a decentralised schedule length adaptation scheme that provides long-run fair (uniform) access to the medium while maintaining collision-free access for arbitrary numbers of stations

Epstein-Barr Virus-Positive Natural Killer/T-Cell Lymphoma

Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL), is a rare malignancy of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma characterized by an aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis. It shows strong association with Epstein-Barr virus infection and occurs more commonly in Asia and Latin America. Various genetic alterations have been identified in ENKL by gene expression profiling and sequencing techniques. The frequent deletion of chromosome 6q21 was reported to lead to the silence of several tumor suppressor genes. Also, there have been novel genetic mutations that were recently uncovered and were found to frequently activate several oncogenic pathways, including the JAK/STAT, NF-κB, and MAPK pathways. Besides, we believe that deregulated single genes and epigenetic dysregulation might be relevant to the mechanism of this disease and thus, may have the potential to shed lights on the development of new therapeutic strategies. The consensus on the standard treatment for ENKL has not yet been currently established. For localized ENKL patients, radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy and sequential patterns of chemotherapy and radiotherapy are recommended as first-line therapy. As for advanced or relapsed/refractory ENKL patients, the application of non-anthracycline-containing regimens have significantly improved the clinical outcome, contributing to higher response rate, longer overall survival and progression-free survival. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is widely recommended for consolidation after a complete remission or partial remission has been achieved. The anti-programmed death 1 antibody, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, has demonstrated favorable results in treating relapsed or refractory ENKL. Of the current ENKL treatment, researchers are still striving to validate how radiotherapy and chemotherapy should be optimally combined and which of the non-anthracycline-containing regimens is superior. In this review, we summarize the main genetic alterations frequently found in ENKL and their role in providing new insights into the therapeutic targets of this disease, and highlight the recent findings regarding new biologic markers, novel therapeutic strategies applied to this intriguing neoplasm

MEDALT: Single-cell copy number lineage tracing enabling gene discovery

We present a Minimal Event Distance Aneuploidy Lineage Tree (MEDALT) algorithm that infers the evolution history of a cell population based on single-cell copy number (SCCN) profiles, and a statistical routine named lineage speciation analysis (LSA), whichty facilitates discovery of fitness-associated alterations and genes from SCCN lineage trees. MEDALT appears more accurate than phylogenetics approaches in reconstructing copy number lineage. From data from 20 triple-negative breast cancer patients, our approaches effectively prioritize genes that are essential for breast cancer cell fitness and predict patient survival, including those implicating convergent evolution.The source code of our study is available at https://github.com/KChen-lab/MEDALT

Noncommutative geometry and nonabelian Berry phase in the wave-packet dynamics of Bloch electrons

Motivated by a recent proposal on the possibility of observing a monopole in the band structure, and by an increasing interest on the role of Berry phase in spintronics, we studied the adiabatic motion of a wave packet of Bloch functions, under a perturbation varying slowly and incommensurately to the lattice structure. We show using only the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics that its effective wave-packet dynamics is conveniently described by a set of equations of motion (EOM) for a semiclassical particle coupled to a nonabelian gauge field associated with a geometric Berry phase. Our EOM can be viewed as a generalization of the standard Ehrenfest's theorem, and their derivation was asymptotically exact in the framework of linear response theory. Our analysis is entirely based on the concept of local Bloch bands, a good starting point for describing the adiabatic motion of a wave packet. One of the advantages of our approach is that the various types of gauge fields were classified into two categories by their different physical origin: (i) projection onto specific bands, (ii) time-dependent local Bloch basis. Using those gauge fields, we write our EOM in a covariant form, whereas the gauge-invariant field strength stems from the noncommutativity of covariant derivatives along different axes of the reciprocal parameter space. The degeneracy of Bloch bands makes the gauge fields nonabelian. We applied our formalism to the analyses on various types of Hall and polarization currents. We highlighted their behavior under time reversal (T) and space inversion (I). The concept of parity polarization current was also introduced. Together with charge/spin Hall/polarization currents, this type of orbital current is expected to be a potential probe for detecting and controling Berry phase.Comment: 39 pages. Typos corrected in the revised versio