Symbolic learning is the logic-based approach to machine learning, and its mission is to provide algorithms and methodologies to extract logical information from data and express it in an ...interpretable way. Interval temporal logic has been recently proposed as a suitable tool for symbolic learning, specifically via the design of an interval temporal logic decision tree extraction algorithm. In order to improve their performances, interval temporal decision trees can be embedded into interval temporal random forests, mimicking the corresponding schema at the propositional level. In this article we consider a dataset of cough and breath sample recordings of volunteer subjects, labeled with their COVID-19 status, originally collected by the University of Cambridge. By interpreting such recordings as multivariate time series, we study the problem of their automated classification using interval temporal decision trees and forests. While this problem has been approached with the same dataset as well as with other datasets, in all cases, non-symbolic learning methods (usually, deep learning-based) have been applied to solve it; in this article we apply a symbolic approach, and show that it does not only outperform the state-of-the-art obtained with the same dataset, but its results are also superior to those of most non-symbolic techniques applied on other datasets. As an added bonus, thanks to the symbolic nature of our approach, we are also able to extract explicit knowledge to help physicians characterize typical COVID-positive cough and breath.
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•Symbolic learning technique applied to breath and cough samples.•COVID-19 automated classification with very high accuracy.•Logical rules that describe COVID-19 acoustic characteristics.
Understanding the pharmacokinetic profile of an opioid drug is vital to therapeutic success, and mutations in human PK genes can drastically alter therapeutic efficacy of opioids. We observed that at ...30 min post‐oxycodone administration (1.25 mg/kg, i.p.) BALB/cJ mice showed a higher whole brain concentration of oxycodone, and female specific increase in noroxycodone, and oxymorphone compared to BALB/cByJ. This observation could explain the sex‐specific increase in oxycodone state‐dependent conditioned place preference in BALB/cJ female mice. To potentially link behavioral differences with PK differences, we conducted quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping of whole brain oxycodone and metabolite concentrations in a reduced complexity cross (RCC). Because BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ substrains differ by ~8,500 SNPs/indels, large genetic loci identified in an F2 cross are offset by a dramatic reduction in potentially causal variants. QTL mapping in 133 BALB/cJ x BALB/cByJ F2 mice (68F, 65M) revealed a single QTL on chromosome 15 associated with brain oxymorphone concentration that explained 29% of the phenotypic variance in females. Oxymorphone is a full agonist at the mu opioid receptor, with 8x the potency of oxycodone, and likely contributes to oxycodone addictive properties. Hippocampal and striatal cis‐eQTL analysis revealed genetically regulated expression of Zhx2, a transcriptional inhibitor known to harbor a private BALB/cJ retroviral insertion that dramatically reduces protein expression and leads to sex specific dysregulation of CYP450 genes within the liver. Whole brain mass spectroscopy proteomics in the parental strains corroborated these eQTL findings. We hypothesize that decreased Zhx2 expression leads to increased CYP450 expression, increased brain oxymorphone, and increased oxycodone‐induced behaviors. Interestingly, human GWAS of nicotine consumption identified a nominal association (10^‐7) with ZHX2, indicating that this transcriptional repressor could influence metabolism of multiple drugs of abuse.
Although opportunistic data collected from wildlife ecotours can provide useful information on marine mammal distribution and behavior, concerns exist about whether resultant analyses have diminished ...accuracy due to spatial bias. To address these concerns, this study compared common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) habitat use results derived from standardized boat-based photographic-identification surveys and opportunistic photographic-identification surveys conducted during wildlife ecotours in Roanoke Sound, North Carolina. The main objectives of this study were to (1) identify areas of importance to dolphins, (2) identify activities (feed, mill, social, and travel) most often observed in these areas, and (3) determine the consistency of habitat use results between standardized and opportunistic surveys. Standardized survey hot spots for feeding and travel were located in southern Roanoke Sound according to the hot spot (Getis-Ord Gi*) spatial statistic. Conversely, opportunistic survey hot spots for feeding and travel were detected in central Roanoke Sound near the wildlife ecotour launch site. Opportunistic survey effort was concentrated around the ecotour launch site which introduced spatial bias by overestimating dolphin density in this area. These hot spot location differences between survey methods indicate that opportunistic survey results are affected by spatial bias which can lead to inaccurate conclusions about dolphin habitat use. Hot spot results of standardized data without survey effort supported the conclusion that spatial bias affected opportunistic habitat use results. This study provides a direct comparison of standardized and opportunistic datasets and demonstrates the importance of controlling for survey effort when examining marine mammal distribution and habitat use. Key Words: habitat utilization, marine mammal distribution, platform of opportunity, presence-only data, spatial bias, cetacean, hot spot (Getis-Ord Gi*) spatial statistic
(1) Background: The relationship between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is bidirectional: NAFLD increases the risk of T2DM, and T2DM promotes the ...progression of the disease into non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). (2) Material and methods: We performed a retrospective, open study that included 59 patients with NAFLD and T2DM who were distributed into two groups: 44 (74.57%) patients were diagnosed with hepatic steatosis (HS) and 15 (25.42%) patients were diagnosed with NASH. (3) Results: Among the non-specific inflammatory biomarkers, serum ferritin (SF) and the neutrophil-percentage-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) showed higher and statistically significant mean values (p = 0.003 respectively p = 0.03) in the group of patients with NASH and T2DM. Conclusions: Consequently, it is essential to identify alternative markers for the inflammatory process, particularly in individuals with diabetes, as it is a key characteristic of NASH. This need arises from the desire to avoid the risks associated with liver biopsy procedures (LBP) and to prevent the unpredictable and unfavorable progression of NAFLD in patients with T2DM.
▶ The wettability of electrospun poly(ɛ-caprolactone) nanofiber tissue scaffolds was modified by femtosecond laser irradiation in air and with O2 and CF4 gas flows. ▶ Surface water contact angle ...continuously decreased with increased oxygen atomic percentage and oxygen-containing group fraction. ▶ Of the three gas atmospheres, O2 gas flow was the most favorable environment for increasing surface oxidization, resulting in the largest water contact angle decrease for given laser power.
The effect of femtosecond laser irradiation in air and in O2 and CF4 gas flows on the wettability of electrospun poly(ɛ-caprolactone) fiber tissue scaffolds was studied. Laser power, focus spot size, raster scan spacing and gas atmosphere were varied in experiments. SEM imaging showed the average fiber diameter and surface porosity sizes were both altered by ablation. The micro-scale surface roughness measured by scanning laser profilometry was found to have a non-monotonic relationship to the surface wettability measured by the contact angle of sessile water droplets. In contrast, surface water contact angle continuously decreased with increased oxygen atomic percentage and oxygen-containing group fraction as measured by XPS. Further, the oxygen content was larger for more extensively ablated fiber surfaces, regardless of whether the increased ablation was caused by high laser power, smaller scanning space or smaller defocusing distance. Of the three gas atmospheres, O2 gas flow was the most favorable environment for increasing surface oxidization, resulting in the largest water contact angle decrease for given laser power. For CF4 gas flow, the least oxidization occurred, and the magnitude of water contact angle decrease was smallest for treatment at a given laser power.
An analysis of the linear and nonlinear acoustic responses from an interface between rough surfaces in elastoplastic contact is presented as a model of the ultrasonic wave interactions with imperfect ...interfaces and closed cracks. A micromechanical elastoplastic contact model predicts the linear and second order interfacial stiffness from the topographic and mechanical properties of the contacting surfaces during a loading–unloading cycle. The effects of those surface properties on the linear and nonlinear reflection/transmission of elastic longitudinal waves are shown. The second order harmonic amplitudes of reflected/transmitted waves decrease by more than an order of magnitude during the transition from the elastic contact mode to the elastoplastic contact mode. It is observed that under specific loading histories the interface between smooth surfaces generates higher elastoplastic hysteresis in the interfacial stiffness and the acoustic nonlinearity than interfaces between rough surfaces. The results show that when plastic flow in the contacting asperities is significant, the acoustic nonlinearity is insensitive to the asperity peak distribution. A comparison with existing experimental data for the acoustic nonlinearity in the transmitted waves is also given with a discussion on its contact mechanical implication.
Background:
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (ACEI) are widely used in the management of cardiovascular diseases but with significant interindividual variability in the patient’s ...response.
Objectives:
To investigate whether interindividual variability in the response to ACE inhibitors is explained by the “ACE phenotype”—for example, variability in plasma ACE concentration, activity, and conformation and/or the degree of ACE inhibition in each individual.
Methods:
The ACE phenotype was determined in plasma of 14 patients with hypertension treated chronically for 4 weeks with 40 mg enalapril (E) or 20 mg E + 16 mg candesartan (EC) and in 20 patients with hypertension treated acutely with a single dose (20 mg) of E with or without pretreatment with hydrochlorothiazide. The ACE phenotyping included (1) plasma ACE concentration; (2) ACE activity (with 2 substrates: Hip-His-Leu and Z-Phe-His-Leu and calculation of their ratio); (3) detection of ACE inhibitors in patient’s blood (indicator of patient compliance) and the degree of ACE inhibition (ie, adherence); and (4) ACE conformation.
Results:
Enalapril reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure in most patients; however, 20% of patients were considered nonresponders. Chronic treatment results in 40% increase in serum ACE concentrations, with the exception of 1 patient. There was a trend toward better response to ACEI among patients who had a higher plasma ACE concentration.
Conclusion:
Due to the fact that “20% of patients do not respond to ACEI by blood pressure drop,” the initial blood ACE level could not be a predictor of blood pressure reduction in an individual patient. However, ACE phenotyping provides important information about conformational and kinetic changes in ACE of individual patients, and this could be a reason for resistance to ACE inhibitors in some nonresponders.
Fractal scaling patterns, which entail a power-law relationship between magnitude of fluctuations in a variable and the scale at which the variable is measured, have been found in many aspects of ...human behavior. These findings have led to advances in behavioral models (e.g. providing empirical support for cascade-driven theories of cognition) and have had practical medical applications (e.g. providing new methods for early diagnosis of medical conditions). In the present paper, fractal analysis is used to investigate whether similar fractal scaling patterns exist in inter-click interval and peak–peak amplitude measurements of bottlenose dolphin click trains. Several echolocation recordings taken from two male bottlenose dolphins were analyzed using Detrended Fluctuation Analysis and Higuchi’s (1988) method for determination of fractal dimension. Both animals were found to exhibit fractal scaling patterns near what is consistent with persistent long range correlations. These findings suggest that recent advances in human cognition and medicine may have important parallel applications to echolocation as well.
•We investigate fractal scaling behavior in two aspects of dolphin echolocation.•We employ two widely used fractal analysis methods and compare their results.•Results indicate persistent fractal scaling in both echolocation measures.•Possible explanations for observed between-subject differences are discussed.
Where are we in the study of animal emotions? de Vere, Amber J.; Kuczaj II, Stan A.
Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science,
09/2016, Volume:
7, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The study of emotion is rife with debate over issues as fundamental as how to define emotion, and such disputes are particularly common in the nonhuman animal emotion literature. Here, we seek to ...address some of these issues, especially in terms of how they relate to animal research. Definitional issues are prevalent; clear definitions are often not given of crucial terms, including ‘emotion,’ and even where provided, such terms may be used inconsistently throughout a single paper. Further disagreement over the structure of emotions, and the nature of conscious experiences involved, leads to consistent differences in authors’ criteria for emotions. We concur with those who believe that animals experience emotions and believe that animal emotions should be studied in their own right, not only as they compare to those of humans. We also propose several avenues for future research that we believe will further our understanding of animal emotions. First, the use of multiple measurement methods to assess emotional responses is most likely to provide the information necessary to distinguish between various states and opens the field to more research in harder‐to‐study species, such as marine mammals. Second, researchers should also endeavor to increase the range of emotions studied, particularly positive ones, in order to move toward a more balanced range of studied states. Finally, we believe that several aspects of personality research would prove beneficial to the study of animal emotions, particularly the distinction between trait and state emotion and the use of the rating method. WIREs Cogn Sci 2016, 7:354–362. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1399
This article is categorized under:
Psychology > Comparative Psychology
Psychology > Emotion and Motivation
An experimental device conducts thermal analysis and volume change measurements in a single ceramic cup with cast iron quality as the variable. The recorded data are processed using specialized ...software. Experiments compare solidification patterns for white WI, grey GI and ductile DI irons, to correlate the most important events between the cooling curves and contraction curves, to evaluate the sensitivity to shrinkage formation. All of the irons have similar values for initial expansion up to the start of eutectic freezing 0.437 - 0.443%. Graphite formation promotes expansion WI-0.002%, GI-0.109%, DI-0.596%, resulting a difference in the reached maximum expansion WI-0.465%, GI-0.552%, DI-1.032%, placed between the end of eutectic recalescence and the end of solidification. Higher graphite expansion, greater the shrinkage sensitivity: open shrinkage increased while the density of a casting when considering total shrinkage and micro-shrinkage formation decreased. Prolonged graphitization at the beginning of eutectic reaction increased the expansion and, consequently, shrinkage sensitiveness. More graphite formation at the end of this stage also increased expansion, but this phenomena contributed to reduce of shrinkage level, due to the better access of liquid iron to compensate contraction holes. Special metallurgical treatments can favour a strong graphitization process at the end of solidification, with beneficial effects on the castings soundness.
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