Low-Rank Subspace Override for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation

Current supervised learning models cannot generalize well across domain boundaries, which is a known problem in many applications, such as robotics or visual classification. Domain adaptation methods are used to improve these generalization properties. However, these techniques suffer either from being restricted to a particular task, such as visual adaptation, require a lot of computational time and data, which is not always guaranteed, have complex parameterization, or expensive optimization procedures. In this work, we present an approach that requires only a well-chosen snapshot of data to find a single domain invariant subspace. The subspace is calculated in closed form and overrides domain structures, which makes it fast and stable in parameterization. By employing low-rank techniques, we emphasize on descriptive characteristics of data. The presented idea is evaluated on various domain adaptation tasks such as text and image classification against state of the art domain adaptation approaches and achieves remarkable performance across all tasks

Phytoestrogens

Collectively, plants contain several different families of natural products among which are compounds with weak estrogenic or antiestrogenic activity toward mammals. These compounds, termed phytoestrogens, include certain isoflavonoids, flavonoids, stilbenes, and lignans. The best-studied dietary phytoestrogens are the soy isoflavones and the flaxseed lignans. Their perceived health beneficial properties extend beyond hormone-dependent breast and prostate cancers and osteoporosis to include cognitive function, cardiovascular disease, immunity and inflammation, and reproduction and fertility. In the future, metabolic engineering of plants could generate novel and exquisitely controlled dietary sources with which to better assess the potential health beneficial effects of phytoestrogens

Pion and Vector Meson Form Factors in the Kuperstein-Sonnenschein holographic model

We study phenomenological aspects of the holographic model of chiral symmetry breaking recently introduced by Kuperstein and Sonnenschein (KS). As a first step, we calculate the spectrum of vector and axial-vector mesons in the KS model. We numerically compute various coupling constants of the mesons and pions. Our analysis indicates that vector meson dominance is realized in this model. The pion, vector meson and axial-vector meson form factors are obtained and studied in detail. We find good agreement with QCD results. In particular, the pion form factor closely matches available experimental data.Comment: v1: 27 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables; v2: minor changes, added more general discussion of vector meson dominance; v3: minor changes and additions, version accepted for publication in JHE

Regulation of pituitary MT1 melatonin receptor expression by gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and early growth response factor-1 (Egr-1) : in vivo and in vitro studies

Copyright: © 2014 Bae et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This work was funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC; grant BB/F020309/1; http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/home/home.aspx). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Temporal Development of Autonomic Dysfunction in Heart Failure: Effects of Age in an Ovine Rapid-pacing Model.

Heart failure (HF) is predominantly a disease of older adults and characterized by extensive sympatho-vagal imbalance leading to impaired reflex control of heart rate (HR). However, whether aging influences the development or extent of the autonomic imbalance in HF remains unclear. To address this, we used an ovine model of aging with tachypacing-induced HF to determine whether aging affects the chronotropic and inotropic responses to autonomic stimulation and reduction in heart rate variability (HRV) in HF. We find that aging is associated with increased cardiac dimensions and reduced contractility before the onset of tachypacing, and these differences persist in HF. Additionally, the chronotropic response to β-adrenergic stimulation was markedly attenuated in HF, and this occurred more rapidly in aged animals. By measuring HR during sequential autonomic blockade, our data are consistent with a reduced parasympathetic control of resting HR in aging, with young HF animals having an attenuated sympathetic influence on HR. Time-domain analyses of HR show a reduction in HRV in both young and aged failing animals, although HRV is lowest in aged HF. In conclusion, aging is associated with altered autonomic control and β-adrenergic responsiveness of HR, and these are exacerbated with the development of HF

Monte Carlo simulation of expected outcomes with the AcrySof® toric intraocular lens

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To use a Monte Carlo simulation to predict postoperative results with the AcrySof^®Toric lens, evaluating the likelihood of over- or under-correction using various toric lens selection criteria.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Keratometric data were obtained from a large patient population with preoperative corneal astigmatism <= 2.50D (2,000 eyes). The probability distributions for toric marking accuracy, surgically induced astigmatism and lens rotation were estimated using available data. Anticipated residual astigmatism was calculated using a Monte Carlo simulation under two different lens selection scenarios.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This simulation demonstrated that random errors in alignment, surgically induced astigmatism and lens rotation slightly reduced the overall effect of the toric lens. Residual astigmatism was statistically significantly higher under the simulation of surgery relative to an exact calculation (p < 0.05). The simulation also demonstrated that more aggressive lens selection criteria could produce clinically significant reductions in residual astigmatism in a high percentage of patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Monte Carlo simulation suggests that surgical variability and lens orientation/rotation variability may combine to produce small reductions in the correction achieved with the AcrySof^®Toric^®IOL. Adopting more aggressive lens selection criteria may yield significantly lower residual astigmatism values for many patients, with negligible overcorrections. Surgeons are encouraged to evaluate their AcrySof^®Toric^®outcomes to determine if they should modify their individual lens selection criteria, or their default surgically induced astigmatism value, to benefit their patients.</p

Unidimensional scales for fears of cancer recurrence and their psychometric properties : the FCR4 and FCR7

Funding: Support was received from SUPAC (NCRI) Early Career Fund to complete this study. NCRI Supportive & Palliative Care (SuPaC) Research Collaboratives Capacity Building Grant Scheme: G Ozakinci (PI), G Humphris, M Sharpe.Background:  The assessment of fear of recurrence (FCR) is crucial for understanding an important psychological state in patients diagnosed and treated for cancer. The study aim was to determine psychometric details of a seven question self-report scale (FCR7) and a short form (FCR4) based upon items already used in various extensive measures of FCR. Methods:  Two consecutive samples of patients (breast and colorectal) were recruited from a single specialist cancer centre. The survey instrument contained the FCR7 items, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and demographic details. Clinical information was obtained from patient hospital records. Statistical analyses were performed using classical test and item response theory approaches, to demonstrate unidimensional factor structure and testing key parameters. Construct validity was inspected through nomological and theoretical prediction. Results:  Internal consistency was demonstrated by alpha coefficients (FCR4: 0.93 and FCR7: 0.92). Both scales (FCR7 & FCR4) were associated with the HADs subscales as predicted. Patients who experienced chemotherapy, minor aches/pains, thought avoidance of cancer and high cancer risk belief were more fearful. Detailed inspection of item responses profile provided some support for measurement properties of scales. Conclusion: The internal consistency, and pattern of key associations and discriminability indices provided positive psychometric evidence for these scales. The brief measures of FCR may be considered for audit, screening or routine use in clinical service and research investigations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Comparison of various microbial inocula for the efficient anaerobic digestion of Laminaria hyperborea

Background: The hydrolysis of seaweed polysaccharides is the rate limiting step in anaerobic digestion (AD) of seaweeds. Seven different microbial inocula and a mixture of these (inoculum 8) were therefore compared in triplicate, each grown over four weeks in static culture for the ability to degrade Laminaria hyperborea seaweed and produce methane through AD. Results: All the inocula could degrade L. hyperborea and produce methane to some extent. However, an inoculum of slurry from a human sewage anaerobic digester, one of rumen contents from seaweed-eating North Ronaldsay sheep and inoculum 8 used most seaweed volatile solids (VS) (means ranged between 59 and 68% used), suggesting that these each had efficient seaweed polysaccharide digesting bacteria. The human sewage inoculum, an inoculum of anaerobic marine mud mixed with rotting seaweed and inoculum 8 all developed to give higher volumes of methane (means between 41 and 62.5 ml g-1 of seaweed VS by week four) ,compared to other inocula (means between 3.5 and 27.5 ml g-1 VS). Inoculum 8 also gave the highest acetate production (6.5 mmol g-1 VS) in a single-stage fermenter AD system and produced most methane (8.4 mL mmol acetate-1) in phase II of a two-stage AD system. Conclusions: Overall inoculum 8 was found to be the most efficient inoculum for AD of seaweed. The study therefore showed that selection and inclusion of efficient polysaccharide hydrolysing bacteria and methanogenic archaea in an inoculum offer increased methane productivity in AD of L. hyperborea. This inoculum will now being tested in larger scale (10L) continuously stirred reactors optimised for feed rate and retention time to determine maximum methane production under single-stage and two-stage AD systems.Marie Curie Senior Researcher Fellowship (SEAWEED AD

Analyzing three-player quantum games in an EPR type setup

We use the formalism of Clifford Geometric Algebra (GA) to develop an analysis of quantum versions of three-player non-cooperative games. The quantum games we explore are played in an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) type setting. In this setting, the players' strategy sets remain identical to the ones in the mixed-strategy version of the classical game that is obtained as a proper subset of the corresponding quantum game. Using GA we investigate the outcome of a realization of the game by players sharing GHZ state, W state, and a mixture of GHZ and W states. As a specific example, we study the game of three-player Prisoners' Dilemma.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure