Preferred Pairs Research Articles

제어가능한 부엌공간 LED조명에서의 색온도, 조도, 제어속도 추출에 관한 연구

This study has found out appropriate scopes of correlated color temperature and illuminance value with regard to general diffused lighting and work in the kitchen. It also has presented appropriate photometric quantity control speed for behavioral change with the following results. 1)For general diffused lighting, the appropriate photometric quantity has turned out to be 4,000 to 4,500K in color temperature and illuminance value of 300 to 400lx. And 300lx at 4,500K has proven to be the most comfortable, behavior-appropriate, and preferred pair. 2)As far as appropriate photometric quantity for work is concerned, color temperature of 4,000 to 5,000K and illuminance value of 600 to 800lx are appropriate, while 700lx at 4,500 to 5,000K are the most comfortable, behavior-appropriate, and preferred set. 3)As for appropriate photometric quantity control speed in behavioral change, 3 to 5 seconds has proven the most comfortable, appropriate, and preferred for behavioral change from entry to general areas and 1 to 3 seconds for change from general to work.

A note on precise tracking of suckling position by piglets

Abstract. Piglets establish a relatively stable teat order after the first week of lactation, when each piglet chooses a preferred teat or teat pair where they tend to suckle permanently. The mechanism underlying the choice that leads each piglet to the same suckling position is still not clarified. In the present case study, piglets with different preferred suckling positions (anterior, posterior) were transferred to a foster sow after completion of the regular 4 weeks of lactation by their biological mother. For both sows, which were identical based on parity, litter size and farrowing date, we examined the suckling positions of the experimental piglets. Piglets occupied exactly the same suckling positions on both sows. Thus, piglets precisely track positions on the mammary complex of a sows udder even when previously learned discriminable stimuli have been changed, such as odours, tastes, morphologies (of sows udder or the sow itself), vocalizations, and neighbouring littermates. Our observation indicates that the spatial configuration of the mammary complex, which is determined by two parallel rows of teats arranged in pairs, can hypothetically be proposed as an important cue for piglet suckling orientation. Therefore, additional attention should be given to the exact spatial position of piglets (and vacant positions) on the mammary complex of biological and foster mothers in order to reduce stress from cross-fostering, which is standard practice in contemporary piglet production.

Learning the Gain Values and Discount Factors of Discounted Cumulative Gains

Evaluation metric is an essential and integral part of a ranking system. In the past, several evaluation metrics have been proposed in information retrieval and web search, among them Discounted Cumulative Gain (DCG) has emerged as one that is widely adopted for evaluating the performance of ranking functions used in web search. However, the two sets of parameters, the gain values and discount factors, used in DCG are usually determined in a rather ad-hoc way, and their impacts have not been carefully analyzed. In this paper, we first show that DCG is generally not coherent, i.e., comparing the performance of ranking functions using DCG very much depends on the particular gain values and discount factors used. We then propose a novel methodology that can learn the gain values and discount factors from user preferences over rankings, modeled as a special case of learning linear utility functions. We also discuss how to extend our methods to handle tied preference pairs and how to explore active learning to reduce preference labeling. Numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods. Moreover, experiments are also conducted over a side-by-side comparison data set from a commercial search engine to validate the proposed methods on real-world data.

Large-Scale Linear RankSVM

Linear rankSVM is one of the widely used methods for learning to rank. Although its performance may be inferior to nonlinear methods such as kernel rankSVM and gradient boosting decision trees, linear rankSVM is useful to quickly produce a baseline model. Furthermore, following its recent development for classification, linear rankSVM may give competitive performance for large and sparse data. A great deal of works have studied linear rankSVM. The focus is on the computational efficiency when the number of preference pairs is large. In this letter, we systematically study existing works, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and propose an efficient algorithm. We discuss different implementation issues and extensions with detailed experiments. Finally, we develop a robust linear rankSVM tool for public use.

Deterministic Sensing Matrices Based on Multidimensional Pseudo-Random Sequences

An approach is proposed for producing compressed sensing (CS) matrices via multidimensional pseudo-random sequences. The columns of these matrices are binary Gold code vectors where zeros are replaced by ?1. This technique is mainly applied to restore sub-Nyquist-sampled sparse signals, especially image reconstruction using block CS. First, for the specific requirements of message length and compression ratio, a set ? which includes all preferred pairs of m-sequences is obtained by a searching algorithm. Then a sensing matrix A M×N is produced by using structured hardware circuits. In order to better characterize the correlation between any two columns of A, the average coherence is defined and the restricted isometry property (RIP) condition is described accordingly. This RIP condition has strong adaptability to different sparse signals. The experimental results show that with constant values of N and M, the sparsity bound of A is higher than that of a random matrix. Also, the recovery probability may have a maximum increase of 20 % in a noisy environment.

RankCNN: When learning to rank encounters the pseudo preference feedback

Learning to rank has received great attentions in the field of text retrieval for several years. However, a few researchers introduce the topic into visual reranking due to the special nature of image presentation. In this paper, a novel unsupervised visual reranking is proposed, termed rank via the convolutional neural networks (RankCNN). This approach integrates deep learning with pseudo preference feedback. The optimal set of pseudo preference pairs is first detected from initial list by a modified graph-based method. Ranking is then reduced to pairwise classification in the architecture of CNN. In addition, Accelerated Mini-Batch Stochastic Dual Coordinate Ascent (ASDCA) is introduced to the framework to accelerate the training. The experiments indicate the competitive performance on the LETOR 4.0, the Paris and the Francelandmark dataset.

Biased usage and preferred pairing of α- and β-chains of TCRs specific for an immunodominant gluten epitope in coeliac disease

CD4⁺ T cells that recognize dietary gluten antigens presented by the disease-associated HLA-DQ2 or DQ8 molecules are central players in coeliac disease. Unbiased sequencing of the human TCRα variable (TRAV) and humanTCRβ variable (TRBV) genes of 68 HLA-DQ2.5-glia-α2-specific T cells from coeliac disease patients confirmed previous reports of over-usage of the TRBV7-2 gene segment, a conserved Arg residue in the complementarity-determining region (CDR) 3β loop and prevalent usage of the canonical ASSxRxTDTQY CDR3β loop among T cells with this specificity. In 30 clones that had the canonical TCRβ chain, we found a strict usage of the TRAV26-1 gene segment in the TCRα chain. There was variable usage of the TRAJ genes and diverse CDR3α sequences with no apparent conserved motifs. This study extends previous reports on biased TCR usage in both HLA-DQ2.5- and DQ8-restricted gluten-specific TCRs and provides data for further studies on TRAV and TRBV pairing.

Toward encoding reactivity using double-stranded DNA. Sequence-dependent native chemical ligation of DNA binding polyamides

The coupling reaction between distamycin-related polyamides equipped with cysteine and thioester groups can be accelerated in the presence of double-stranded (ds) oligonucleotides with selected sequences. While the coupling reaction of reactive partners containing three pyrrole units is accelerated by dsDNAs containing ATTTTA or ATGTTA sites, the heterodimeric coupling between a tripyrrole and a polyamide equipped with two pyrroles and one imidazole, is accelerated by the latter DNA, but not by the other containing the A/T rich tract. These differences can be exploited for selecting preferred coupling pairs from a mixture of reactive monomers; therefore the reaction outcome depends on the instructions provided by the dsDNA sequence.

Assigning volunteer tasks: The relation between task preferences and functional motives of youth volunteers

In this paper we aim to explore the relationship between volunteer motives and task preferences in order to provide volunteer managers with better insight in how tasks can be assigned to keep youth volunteers satisfied. Earlier seminal contributions have either taken a pure functional approach – where various types of motives are supposed to be at the base of any type of volunteer work – or a differentiated approach, where particular motives relate to specific task preferences. However, empirical results reported in the literature do not justify the preference of one approach above the other. To investigate whether one of the approaches is superior, or whether a combination of both is more appropriate, we perform a canonical correlation analysis for a set of functional motives and a set of task preferences (N = 2158). Five distinct relationships (canonical variate pairs) of motives and preferences are found. Results show that a ‘functional basis’ exists where all motives relate to a basic set of tasks. Additionally, a more differentiated approach towards volunteer motives and task preferences has to be taken, as we find four other relationships where specific motives are satisfied by assigning particular sets of tasks.

Supporting immunoassay design with biophysical tools

In this article, we demonstrate how the application of biophysical tools facilitates the design of robust immunoassays. The binding characteristics of the reagents used in an immunoassay determine the assay response to the analyte concentrations. We applied several biophysical methods to obtain pertinent equilibrium and kinetic coefficients and used this information in the design of a microparticle-based immunoassay for detection of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), which is a new diagnostic marker of acute kidney injury (AKI). We characterized the conformational stability of recombinant human NGAL and the solution phase binding properties of six monoclonal antibodies. A preferred antibody pair was selected on the basis of the affinities of the antibodies and their sandwich pairing capabilities. One of the antibodies was coated on magnetic microparticles, and the second antibody was conjugated with a reporter group. The apparent kinetic rates of the immobilized and conjugated antibodies were measured and used to compute the assay calibration plot for the target concentration range of the analyte at specific incubation times. The experimental assay results were found to be in good agreement with the computed data, confirming that applying biophysical tools provides a solid foundation for immunoassay design and optimization.

Update monotone preference rules

Collective decisions are modeled by preference correspondences (rules). In particular, we focus on a new condition: “update monotonicity” for preference rules. Although many so-called impossibility theorems for the choice rules are based on–or related to–monotonicity conditions, this appealing condition is satisfied by several non-trivial preference rules. In fact, in the case of pairwise, Pareto optimal, neutral, and consistent rules, the Kemeny–Young rule is singled out by this condition. In the case of convex valued, Pareto optimal, neutral and replication invariant rules, strong update monotonicity implies that the rule equals the union of preferences which extend all preference pairs unanimously agreed upon by k agents, where k is related to the number of alternatives and agents. In both cases, it therewith provides a characterization of these rules.

The hedonic response to chocolate and beverage pairing: A preliminary study

The objective of this study was to provide some general recommendations for selecting a befitting beverage to accompany chocolates with different cocoa contents. Eighteen beverages and three chocolates with 30%, 70%, and 99% cocoa solids were hedonically rated by eighty regular chocolate consumers. The beverages were then paired with each chocolate, and the consumers were asked to indicate hedonic liking of the chocolates, beverages, and chocolate and beverage pairs, and to indicate whether the chocolate or beverage flavour dominated the pair. The results of this study showed that liking of chocolate and beverage pairs significantly varied (p<0.001). Consumers preferred pairs with chocolate containing 30 and 70% cocoa solids over pairs with chocolate containing 99% cocoa solids. Beverages, such as balsamic vinegar, liqueur wine, coffee, and Port wine, generally appeared to be more proper and versatile partners for chocolate. According to the factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), the chocolate and beverage pair liking depended more on the beverage liking than the chocolate liking and the level of match. Omega squared indicated a medium effect for the beverage liking and a small effect for the chocolate liking, and the level of match. Although exploratory, this study outlined that when chocolate dominated the pair, a drop in acceptance is generally observed, whereas when the beverage dominates the chocolate a drop or a gain in acceptance can occur. Further investigations are required to complement the results with specific pieces of information on the flavour interactions that occur when chocolate and beverages are consumed according to a mixed tasting technique.

Low Fidelity Bypass of O2-(3-Pyridyl)-4-oxobutylthymine, the Most Persistent Bulky Adduct Produced by the Tobacco Specific Nitrosamine 4-(Methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone by Model DNA Polymerases

4-(Methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) is one of the most important human carcinogens. It is metabolized to produce a variety of methyl and 4-(3-pyridyl)-4-oxo-butyl (POB) DNA adducts. A potentially important POB adduct is O(2)-[4-(3-pyridyl)-4-oxobut-1-yl]thymidine (O(2)-POB-dT) because it is the most abundant POB adduct in NNK-treated rodents. To evaluate the mutagenic properties of O(2)-POB-dT, we measured the rate of insertion of dNTPs opposite and extension past both O(2)-POB-dT and O(2)-methylthymidine (O(2)-Me-dT) by two model polymerases, E. coli DNA polymerase I (Klenow fragment) with the proofreading exonuclease activity inactivated (Kf) and Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase IV (Dpo4). We found that the size of the alkyl chain only marginally affected the reactivity and that the specificity of adduct bypass was very low. The k(cat)/K(m) for the Kf catalyzed incorporation opposite and extension past the adducts was reduced ∼10(6)-fold when compared to undamaged DNA. Dpo4 catalyzed the incorporation opposite and extension past the adducts approximately 10(3)-fold more slowly than undamaged DNA. The dNTP specificity was less for Dpo4 than for Kf. In general, dA was the preferred base pair partner for O(2)-Me-dT and dT the preferred base pair partner for O(2)-POB-dT. With enzyme in excess over DNA, the time courses of the reactions showed a biphasic kinetics that indicates the formation inactive binary and ternary complexes.

Stochasticity in Sexual Selection Enables Divergence: Implications for Moth Pheromone Evolution

Sexual selection has long been hypothesized to lead to allopatric speciation, and one possible mechanism for this is that its interaction with stochasticity, which perturbs the trait and preference equilibria, can result in different traits being preferred in different populations. Here we specifically examine the role that stochastic changes in sexual selection strength plays in the shift of predominance between pairs of preferences and traits within a single population. We first create a single-locus null model of stochasticity during frequency dependent selection and then compare it to a two-locus population genetic model with stochastic strengths of female preferences for male traits. We find some interesting differences between the two models, primarily that in the two-locus sexual selection model shifts between preference and trait regimes occur more often with both weak and strong preferences, compared to intermediate preference strengths. We discuss the implications of our results for the evolution of pheromone blends and male responses during speciation in moths, a case that seems to match the assumptions of our model.

Congestion-based leadtime quotation and pricing for revenue maximization with heterogeneous customers

This paper studies a queuing model where two customer classes compete for a given resource and each customer is dynamically quoted a menu of price and leadtime pairs upon arrival. Customers select their preferred pairs from the menu and the server is obligated to meet the quoted leadtime. Customers have convex–concave delay costs. The firm does not have information on a given customer’s type, so the offered menus must be incentive compatible. A menu quotation policy is given and proven to be asymptotically optimal under traditional large-capacity heavy-traffic scaling.

Evaluation of Individual Fiber Wear Resistance Using Accelerated Life Testing

Three-dimensional woven materials have recently been suggested as cartilage replacements due to their advantageous mechanical properties. Interfiber abrasion is important for the longevity of the implant as well as the minimization of wear debris. Due to the large material design space, a rapid screening process is desired to identify fibers with high abrasion resistance. A potential screening process is explored by direct wear investigation of orthogonal fibers. Wear volumes, wear coefficients, and debris morphology are investigated for polyester (PET), poly-ether ether ketone (PEEK), titanium, nylon, and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers. A novel test apparatus was developed to allow direct observation of fiber–fiber wear. Wear coefficients were found to be dependent on translating fiber material and were used to deduce a relative ranking of abrasion resistance. This method shows potential for distinguishing preferred fiber pairings for cartilage replacements and provides valuable information about debris formation.

Male mate choice by chemical cues leads to higher reproductive success in a bark beetle

Darwin’s sexual selection theory predicts that males should compete to gain access to females, while females should choose the best possible male. However, males can also be choosy, especially in monogamous mating systems with female-biased sex ratios and biparental care. A few studies show that in systems in which males are highly selective, chemical cues can lead to mating of individuals with high reproductive success. Using Dendroctonus valens, a monogamous bark beetle with typical biparental care, and Y-tube olfactometers, we provided males with a choice between two females and found strong evidence of odour-based male mate preference. We then tested whether this preference led to successful matings and if it had consequences for courtship displays and offspring fitness. Male and preferred female pairs had less aggressive courtship interactions, longer copulation times, constructed galleries faster, and had cleaner galleries. Preferred females had faster oviposition rates and larval development. Our study shows that, in D. valens, males choose females based on chemical cues and that the resulting male–female pairs have superior reproductive success.

A new residue‐nucleotide propensity potential with structural information considered for discriminating protein‐RNA docking decoys

Understanding the key factors that influence the preferences of residue-nucleotide interactions in specific protein-RNA interactions has remained a research focus. We propose an effective approach to derive residue-nucleotide propensity potentials through considering both the types of residues and nucleotides, and secondary structure information of proteins and RNAs from the currently largest nonredundant and nonribosomal protein-RNA interaction database. To test the validity of the potentials, we used them to select near-native structures from protein-RNA docking poses. The results show that considering secondary structure information, especially for RNAs, greatly improves the predictive power of pair potentials. The success rate is raised from 50.7 to 65.5% for the top 2000 structures, and the number of cases in which a near-native structure is ranked in top 50 is increased from 7 to 13 out of 17 cases. Furthermore, the exclusion of ribosomes from the database contributes 8.3% to the success rate. In addition, some very interesting findings follow: (i) the protein secondary structure element π-helix is strongly associated with RNA-binding sites; (ii) the nucleotide uracil occurs frequently in the most preferred pairs in which the unpaired and non-Watson-Crick paired uracils are predominant, which is probably significant in evolution. The new residue-nucleotide potentials can be helpful for the progress of protein-RNA docking methods, and for understanding the mechanisms of protein-RNA interactions.

A deeper look into transcription regulatory code by preferred pair distance templates for transcription factor binding sites

Modern experimental methods provide substantial information on protein-DNA recognition. Studying arrangements of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) of interacting transcription factors (TFs) advances understanding of the transcription regulatory code. We constructed binding motifs for TFs forming a complex with HIF-1α at the erythropoietin 3(')-enhancer. Corresponding TFBSs were predicted in the segments around transcription start sites (TSSs) of all human genes. Using the genome-wide set of regulatory regions, we observed several strongly preferred distances between hypoxia-responsive element (HRE) and binding sites of a particular cofactor protein. The set of preferred distances was called as a preferred pair distance template (PPDT). PPDT dramatically depended on the TF and orientation of its binding sites relative to HRE. PPDT evaluated from the genome-wide set of regulatory sequences was used to detect significant PPDT-consistent binding site pairs in regulatory regions of hypoxia-responsive genes. We believe PPDT can help to reveal the layout of eukaryotic regulatory segments. ivan.kulakovskiy@gmail.com Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

4,4-Difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene as a Bright Fluorescent Label for DNA

4,4-Difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) as a fluorescent label can be incorporated into DNA by two conceptually different ways: the non-nucleosidic DNA base surrogate Bo exhibits high brightness but no preferential base-pairing properties, whereas the BODIPY-modified uridine BodU has reduced quantum yields but shows preferred Watson-Crick base pairing with adenine.