Quantifying identifiability in independent component analysis

We are interested in consistent estimation of the mixing matrix in the ICA model, when the error distribution is close to (but different from) Gaussian. In particular, we consider $n$ independent samples from the ICA model $X = A\epsilon$, where we assume that the coordinates of $\epsilon$ are independent and identically distributed according to a contaminated Gaussian distribution, and the amount of contamination is allowed to depend on $n$. We then investigate how the ability to consistently estimate the mixing matrix depends on the amount of contamination. Our results suggest that in an asymptotic sense, if the amount of contamination decreases at rate $1/\sqrt{n}$ or faster, then the mixing matrix is only identifiable up to transpose products. These results also have implications for causal inference from linear structural equation models with near-Gaussian additive noise.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

PRISTINA'S DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF 2013-2016: AN ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL, CULTURAL, YOUTH, AND SPORT SECTOR

Sustainable economic development is done through Development Strategy. Development strategies have some priorities which include encouraging other participants, stakeholders, and those that have impact on the investment to act in accordance with the vision. This is accomplished by working together to establish priorities in the correct way. Also, this is undoubtedly the key to success. Economic development is essential for the survival of all municipalities. Economic growth which is accomplished as a result of an economic development plan, promotes new capital in municipalities. Hence, this is becoming an integral part of the strategic process at the national level. This enables the creation of a better environment and economic competition locally. Local economic development is the process by which local communities (public, businesses, and non-governmental organizations) are working towards the achievement of sustainable economic development and provides an increased level of employment, welfare, and quality of life for all (World Bank, 2009). Local economic development is one of the most important areas to increase the quality of life of the citizens and create a favourable environment for business development (Riinvest, 2002). Development Strategy comes as a response to rapid changes, keeping containment conditions by which interest groups will have the constructive approach in evaluating the situation. Also, the position towards the strategy which takes the specific actions is placed into consideration. This therefore ensures that the changes in the city are not dramatic. Municipalities must learn how to compete and how to deploy themselves in order to ensure quality of life, jobs, and services, which then influences the attraction of investments. Strategy is often a prerequisite for financing municipal projects through government grants, FDI, banks, publicprivate partnerships, or EU funds. During this process, the municipality creates partnerships, both within and outside the municipality. The stronger these partnerships are, the greater the chances of a municipality to secure future development. The strategy in itself provides the opportunity for the community to continuously improve the investment climate. It is a general observation that development strategy should have no overarching plan. Furthermore, it must contain some strategic steps in order for it to increase the system as a whole. Thus, this is done through the mechanisms of different national levels such as changes in the status of the city, public and private investment, public-private initiatives etc

PRISTINA'S DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF 2013-2016: AN ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL, CULTURAL, YOUTH, AND SPORT SECTOR

Sustainable economic development is done through Development Strategy. Development strategies have some priorities which include encouraging other participants, stakeholders, and those that have impact on the investment to act in accordance with the vision. This is accomplished by working together to establish priorities in the correct way. Also, this is undoubtedly the key to success. Economic development is essential for the survival of all municipalities. Economic growth which is accomplished as a result of an economic development plan, promotes new capital in municipalities. Hence, this is becoming an integral part of the strategic process at the national level. This enables the creation of a better environment and economic competition locally. Local economic development is the process by which local communities (public, businesses, and non-governmental organizations) are working towards the achievement of sustainable economic development and provides an increased level of employment, welfare, and quality of life for all (World Bank, 2009). Local economic development is one of the most important areas to increase the quality of life of the citizens and create a favourable environment for business development (Riinvest, 2002). Development Strategy comes as a response to rapid changes, keeping containment conditions by which interest groups will have the constructive approach in evaluating the situation. Also, the position towards the strategy which takes the specific actions is placed into consideration. This therefore ensures that the changes in the city are not dramatic. Municipalities must learn how to compete and how to deploy themselves in order to ensure quality of life, jobs, and services, which then influences the attraction of investments. Strategy is often a prerequisite for financing municipal projects through government grants, FDI, banks, publicprivate partnerships, or EU funds. During this process, the municipality creates partnerships, both within and outside the municipality. The stronger these partnerships are, the greater the chances of a municipality to secure future development. The strategy in itself provides the opportunity for the community to continuously improve the investment climate. It is a general observation that development strategy should have no overarching plan. Furthermore, it must contain some strategic steps in order for it to increase the system as a whole. Thus, this is done through the mechanisms of different national levels such as changes in the status of the city, public and private investment, public-private initiatives etc

A Logistic Regression/Markov Chain Model for NCAA Basketball

Each year, more than $3 billion is wagered on the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Most of that money is wagered in pools where the object is to correctly predict winners of each game, with emphasis on the last four teams remaining (the Final Four). In this paper, we present a combined logistic regression/Markov chain model for predicting the outcome of NCAA tournament games given only basic input data. Over the past 6 years, our model has been significantly more successful than the other common methods such as tournament seedings, the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, the RPI, and the Sagarin ratings

Quantum Critical Scaling in a Moderately Doped Antiferromagnet

Using high temperature expansions for the equal time correlator $S(q)$ and static susceptibility $\chi(q)$ for the t-J model, we present evidence for quantum critical (QC), $z\!=\!1$, behavior at intermediate temperatures in a broad range of $t/J$ ratio, doping, and temperatures. We find that the dynamical susceptibility is very close to the universal scaling function computable for the asymptotic QC regime, and that the dominant energy scale is temperature. Our results are in excellent agreement with measurements of the spin-echo decay rate, $1/T_{\rm 2G}$, in La$_2$CuO$_4$, and provide qualitative understanding of both $1/T_1$ and $1/T_{\rm 2G}$ nuclear relaxation rates in doped cuprates.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX v3.0, PostScript file for 3 figures is attached, UIUC-P-93-07-068. In this revised version, we calculate the scaling functions and thus present new and more direct evidence in favor of our original conclusion

Hermiticity Correlation Study

No abstract availabl

Pan-squamous genomic profiling stratified by anatomic tumor site and viral association

Background: Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) have diverse anatomic etiologies but may share common genomic biomarkers. We profiled 7,871 unique SCCs across nine anatomic sites to investigate commonality in genomic alterations (GA), tumor mutational burden (TMB), human papillomavirus (HPV) association, and mutational signatures. Methods: Tissue from over 8,100 unique SCC samples originating from nine anatomic sites (anogenital (anus, cervix, penis, vagina, vulva), esophagus, head and neck, lung, and skin) were sequenced by hybrid capture-based comprehensive genomic profiling to evaluate GA and TMB. About 3% of non-cutaneous SCC samples had UV signatures, indicative of potential primary site misdiagnoses, and were filtered from the analysis. Detection of HPV, including high-risk strains 16, 18, 31, 33, and 45, was implemented through de novo assembly of non-human sequencing reads and BLASTn comparison against all viral nucleotide sequences in the NCBI database. Results: The proportion of HPV+ patients by anatomic site varied, with the highest being anal (91%) and cervical (83%). The mutational landscape of each cohort was similar, regardless of anatomic origin, but clustered based on HPV status. The largest differences in GA frequency as stratified by HPV- vs. HPV+ were TP53 (87% vs. 12%), CDKN2A (45% vs. 6%), and PIK3CA (22% vs. 33%). The median TMB in cases originating from HPV-associated sites was similar, regardless of HPV status. Higher median TMB was observed in lung and skin cases, which exhibited significant enrichment of mutational signatures indicative of tobacco- and UV-induced DNA damage, respectively. Conclusions: HPV+ and HPV- SCC populations have distinct genomic profiles and, for the latter, anatomic site is correlated with TMB distribution, secondary to associated carcinogen exposure. As such, biomarkers such as TMB and UV signature can provide unexpected insight into site of origin misdiagnoses and may correlate with benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors

First Detection of the White-Dwarf Cooling Sequence of the Galactic Bulge

We present Hubble Space Telescope data of the low-reddening Sagittarius window in the Galactic bulge. The Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search field (3'x3'), together with three more Advanced Camera for Surveys and eight Wide Field Camera 3 fields, were observed in the F606W and F814W filters, approximately every two weeks for two years, with the principal aim of detecting a hidden population of isolated black holes and neutron stars through astrometric microlensing. Proper motions were measured with an accuracy of ~0.1 mas/yr (~4 km/s) at F606W~25.5 mag, and better than ~0.5 mas/yr (20 km/s) at F606W~28 mag, in both axes. Proper-motion measurements allowed us to separate disk and bulge stars and obtain a clean bulge color-magnitude diagram. We then identified for the first time a white dwarf (WD) cooling sequence in the Galactic bulge, together with a dozen candidate extreme horizontal branch stars. The comparison between theory and observations shows that a substantial fraction of the WDs (30%) are systematically redder than the cooling tracks for CO-core H-rich and He-rich envelope WDs. This evidence would suggest the presence of a significant number of low-mass WDs and WD - main sequence binaries in the bulge. This hypothesis is further supported by the finding of two dwarf novae in outburst, two short-period (P < 1 d) ellipsoidal variables, and a few candidate cataclysmic variables in the same field.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication on Ap