In the weeks following the first imported case of Ebola in the U. S. on September 29, 2014, coverage of the very limited outbreak dominated the news media, in a manner quite disproportionate to the ...actual threat to national public health; by the end of October, 2014, there were only four laboratory confirmed cases of Ebola in the entire nation. Public interest in these events was high, as reflected in the millions of Ebola-related Internet searches and tweets performed in the month following the first confirmed case. Use of trending Internet searches and tweets has been proposed in the past for real-time prediction of outbreaks (a field referred to as "digital epidemiology"), but accounting for the biases of public panic has been problematic. In the case of the limited U. S. Ebola outbreak, we know that the Ebola-related searches and tweets originating the U. S. during the outbreak were due only to public interest or panic, providing an unprecedented means to determine how these dynamics affect such data, and how news media may be driving these trends.
We examine daily Ebola-related Internet search and Twitter data in the U. S. during the six week period ending Oct 31, 2014. TV news coverage data were obtained from the daily number of Ebola-related news videos appearing on two major news networks. We fit the parameters of a mathematical contagion model to the data to determine if the news coverage was a significant factor in the temporal patterns in Ebola-related Internet and Twitter data.
We find significant evidence of contagion, with each Ebola-related news video inspiring tens of thousands of Ebola-related tweets and Internet searches. Between 65% to 76% of the variance in all samples is described by the news media contagion model.
Baryon-driven decontraction in Milky Way-mass haloes Forouhar Moreno, Victor J; Benítez-Llambay, Alejandro; Cole, Shaun ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
02/2022, Letnik:
511, Številka:
3
Journal Article
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ABSTRACT
We select a sample of Milky Way (MW) mass haloes from a high-resolution version of the EAGLE simulation to study their inner dark matter (DM) content and how baryons alter it. As in previous ...studies, we find that all haloes are more massive at the centre compared to their dark matter-only (DMO) counterparts at the present day as a result of the dissipational collapse of baryons during the assembly of the galaxy. However, we identify two processes that can reduce the central halo mass during the evolution of the galaxy. First, gas blowouts induced by active galactic nuclei feedback can lead to a substantial decrease of the central DM mass. Secondly, the formation of a stellar bar and its interaction with the DM can induce a secular expansion of the halo; the rate at which DM is evacuated from the central region by this process is related to the average bar strength, and the time-scale on which it acts determines how much the halo has decontracted. Although the inner regions of the haloes we have investigated are still more massive than their DMO counterparts at z = 0, they are significantly less massive than in the past and less massive than expected from the classic adiabatic contraction model. Since the MW has both a central supermassive black hole and a bar, the extent to which its halo has contracted is uncertain. This may affect estimates of the mass of the MW halo and of the expected signals in direct and indirect DM detection experiments.
Galactic satellite systems in CDM, WDM and SIDM Forouhar Moreno, Victor J; Benítez-Llambay, Alejandro; Cole, Shaun ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
11/2022, Letnik:
517, Številka:
4
Journal Article
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ABSTRACT
We investigate the population of bright satellites ($M_{*} \ge 10^{5} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$) of haloes of mass comparable to that of the Milky Way in cosmological simulations in which the ...dark matter (DM) is either cold, warm, or self-interacting (CDM, WDM, and SIDM, respectively). The nature of the DM gives rise to differences in the abundance and structural properties of field haloes. In WDM, the main feature is a reduction in the total number of galaxies that form, reflecting a suppression of low-mass DM haloes and lower galaxy formation efficiency compared to CDM. For SIDM, the changes are structural, restricted to the central regions of haloes and dependent on the assumed self-interaction cross-section. We also consider different baryonic subgrid physics models for galaxy formation, in which supernova gas blowouts can or cannot induce the formation of a core in dwarf galaxies. Overall, the inclusion of baryons lessen the differences in the halo properties in the different DM models compared to DM-only simulations. This affects the satellite properties at infall and therefore their subsequent tidal stripping and survival rates. None the less, we find slightly less concentrated satellite radial distributions as the SIDM cross-section increases. Unfortunately, we also find that the satellite populations in simulations with baryon-induced cores in CDM and WDM can mimic the results found in SIDM, making the satellite stellar mass and maximum circular velocity functions heavily degenerate on the assumed nature of the DM and the adopted subgrid modelling. These degeneracies preclude using the brightest satellites of the Milky Way to constrain the nature of DM.
Grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverters employ an islanding-detection functionality in order to determine the status of the electrical grid. In fact, the inverter must be stopped once the ...islanding operating mode is detected according to standards and grid-code limits. Diverse islanding-detection algorithms have been proposed in literature to cope with this safety requirement. Among them, active methods based on the deliberate perturbation of the inverter behavior can minimize the so-called nondetection zone, which is a range of conditions in which the inverter does not recognize that it is operating in an undesired island. In most cases, the performances of these methods have been analyzed considering a highly dispersed generation scheme, where only one distributed-generation power system is connected to the local electrical power system (EPS). However, in some studies, it has been highlighted that if two or more PV inverters are connected to the same local EPS, their anti-islanding algorithms do not behave ideally and can fail in detecting the islanding condition. However, there is no systematic study that has investigated the overall capability of different anti-islanding methods employed on several inverters connected to the same EPS to detect islanding condition. This paper is a first attempt to carry out a systematic study of the performances of the most common active detection methods in a case of two inverters connected to the same EPS. In order to evaluate the global capability of the two systems to detect islanding condition, a new performance index is introduced and applied also to the case when the two inverters employ different anti-islanding algorithms.
Learning from demonstration is one of the most promising methods to counteract the challenging long-term trends in repetitive industrial assembly. It offers not only a programming technique that is ...accessible to workers on the shop floor, reducing the need for robot experts and the associated costs but also a possible solution to the observable shift from mass-production to mass-customisation through flexible and generalising systems. Since the emergence of the learning from demonstration idea in the 1980s, its methodologies, capabilities, and achievements have constantly evolved. However, despite reports of continued progress in academic publications, the concept has not yet robustly emerged across the assembly industry. In light of its great potential, this paper presents the findings from a systematic literature review following the updated Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) guidelines. It aims to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art learning from demonstration solutions developed for assembly-related tasks and offer a critical discussion of remaining obstacles in order to drive its progression towards meaningful deployments. The analysis includes a total of 61 papers over the period of 2013–2023 sourced from Scopus and Web of Science databases. Findings indicate that learning from demonstration has attained a significant level of maturity within the research environment, as evidenced by thorough experimental achievements, proving its great promise for industrial assembly applications. However, critical obstacles exist in the area of proven practicability, task complexity and diversity, generalisation, performance evaluation and integration concepts that require attention to promote its widespread adoption and create a seamless transition into industrial practices.
The number of microbiome-related studies has notably increased the availability of data on human microbiome composition and function. These studies provide the essential material to deeply explore ...host-microbiome associations and their relation to the development and progression of various complex diseases. Improved data-analytical tools are needed to exploit all information from these biological datasets, taking into account the peculiarities of microbiome data, i.e., compositional, heterogeneous and sparse nature of these datasets. The possibility of predicting host-phenotypes based on taxonomy-informed feature selection to establish an association between microbiome and predict disease states is beneficial for personalized medicine. In this regard, machine learning (ML) provides new insights into the development of models that can be used to predict outputs, such as classification and prediction in microbiology, infer host phenotypes to predict diseases and use microbial communities to stratify patients by their characterization of state-specific microbial signatures. Here we review the state-of-the-art ML methods and respective software applied in human microbiome studies, performed as part of the COST Action ML4Microbiome activities. This scoping review focuses on the application of ML in microbiome studies related to association and clinical use for diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics. Although the data presented here is more related to the bacterial community, many algorithms could be applied in general, regardless of the feature type. This literature and software review covering this broad topic is aligned with the scoping review methodology. The manual identification of data sources has been complemented with: (1) automated publication search through digital libraries of the three major publishers using natural language processing (NLP) Toolkit, and (2) an automated identification of relevant software repositories on GitHub and ranking of the related research papers relying on learning to rank approach.
For patients with recurrent SCLC, topotecan remains the only approved second-line treatment, and the outcomes are poor. CheckMate 032 is a phase 1/2, multicenter, open-label study of nivolumab or ...nivolumab plus ipilimumab in SCLC or other advanced/metastatic solid tumors previously treated with one or more platinum-based chemotherapies. We report results of third- or later-line nivolumab monotherapy treatment in SCLC.
In this analysis, patients with limited-stage or extensive-stage SCLC and disease progression after two or more chemotherapy regimens received nivolumab monotherapy, 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks, until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary end point was objective response rate. Secondary end points included duration of response, progression-free survival, overall survival, and safety.
Between December 4, 2013, and November 30, 2016, 109 patients began receiving third- or later-line nivolumab monotherapy. At a median follow-up of 28.3 months (from first dose to database lock), the objective response rate was 11.9% (95% confidence interval: 6.5–19.5) with a median duration of response of 17.9 months (range 3.0–42.1). At 6 months, 17.2% of patients were progression-free. The 12-month and 18-month overall survival rates were 28.3% and 20.0%, respectively. Grade 3 to 4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 11.9% of patients. Three patients (2.8%) discontinued because of treatment-related adverse events.
Nivolumab monotherapy provided durable responses and was well tolerated as a third- or later-line treatment for recurrent SCLC. These results suggest that nivolumab monotherapy is an effective third- or later-line treatment for this patient population.
This study aimed to assess the acute effect of a competitive football match on jump performance and kinematic parameters during jump landing in semiprofessional female football players. Twenty‐two ...semiprofessional players (20 ± 3 years) underwent a drop jump task for a posterior video analysis of the landing phase. These measurements were obtained at (1) baseline, (2) after, and (3) 48 h after a competitive football match. A one‐way ANOVA with repeated measures was employed to detect differences over the time. There was a main effect of time for maximal knee flexion angle during drop landing (p = 0.001). In comparison with baseline, maximal knee flexion angle was reduced immediately post‐match and was still reduced 48 h after the match (63.4 ± 8.6 vs 57.0 ± 11.7 vs 48.9 ± 19.1, p ≤ 0.038). There was also a main effect of time for drop jump height (p < 0.001). Drop jump height was reduced immediately post‐match and remained low 48 h after the match in comparison with baseline (27.3 ± 3.6 vs 24.5 ± 2.8 ~ 25.5 ± 3.0 cm, p ≤ 0.002). There was a main effect of time on hip flexion angle during landing (p = 0.001), but the pairwise comparison revealed that this variable was not affected immediately post‐match but was lower 48 h after the match than at baseline (50.1 ± 10.1 ~ 50.8 ± 13.2 vs 38.1 ± 17.8 °, p ≤ 0.005). A competitive football match worsened jump performance and several landing biomechanical parameters in female football players, which were still decreased in comparison with baseline even 48 h after the match.
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