Real-world Works Research Articles

Density estimation for ordinal biological sequences and its applications.

Biological sequences do not come at random. Instead, they appear with particular frequencies that reflect properties of the associated system or phenomenon. Knowing how biological sequences are distributed in sequence space is thus a natural first step toward understanding the underlying mechanisms. Here we propose a method for inferring the probability distribution from which a sample of biological sequences were drawn for the case where the sequences are composed of elements that admit a natural ordering. Our method is based on Bayesian field theory, a physics-based machine learning approach, and can be regarded as a nonparametric extension of the traditional maximum entropy estimate. As an example, we use it to analyze the aneuploidy data pertaining to gliomas from The Cancer Genome Atlas project. In addition, we demonstrate two follow-up analyses that can be performed with the resulting probability distribution. One of them is to investigate the associations among the sequence sites. This provides a way to infer the governing biological grammar. The other is to study the global geometry of the probability landscape, which allows us to look at the problem from an evolutionary point of view. It can be seen that this methodology enables us to learn from a sample of sequences about how a biological system or phenomenon in the real world works.

Mind-Brain-Behavior (MBB), in Economic Inflation

Everyone has beliefs about how the world works and how they behave depends heavily on their beliefs about how the real world works. Cognitive psychologists believe that the mind actively represents the outside world and the way people interact with and behave with the environment is the result of these changes and manipulations that occur in mental representations. Scientists also believe that in the face of the phenomena of the outside world, there is an interactive relationship between the mind and behavior with the brain; So that the occurrence of a phenomenon, along with the entry of information into the brain, and the analysis and processing of that information by the mind, results in conscious or unconscious behavior in the human. In other words, there is an interactive relationship between the brain, mind, and behavior (MBB). Therefore, the present study attempts to examine MBB in the case of human exposure to economic inflation. This is applied and developmental research with the type of library study and uses the new findings of cognitive science to explain this relationship. The findings indicate that following inflationary shocks and the transfer information of about monetary loss to the mind, the activity of the striatum, the ACC, the MPFC, and the amygdala increase, and information about emotional actions that are contrary to mental habits transmit to the highest cognitive unit of the brain (PFC). Consequently, it leads to cognitive and behavioral changes in humans. Thus, in the face of economic inflation, the MBB relationship is also confirmed.

Natural music evokes correlated EEG responses reflecting temporal structure and beat

The brain activity of multiple subjects has been shown to synchronize during salient moments of natural stimuli, suggesting that correlation of neural responses indexes a brain state operationally termed ‘engagement’. While past electroencephalography (EEG) studies have considered both auditory and visual stimuli, the extent to which these results generalize to music—a temporally structured stimulus for which the brain has evolved specialized circuitry—is less understood. Here we investigated neural correlation during natural music listening by recording EEG responses from N=48 adult listeners as they heard real-world musical works, some of which were temporally disrupted through shuffling of short-term segments (measures), reversal, or randomization of phase spectra. We measured correlation between multiple neural responses (inter-subject correlation) and between neural responses and stimulus envelope fluctuations (stimulus-response correlation) in the time and frequency domains. Stimuli retaining basic musical features, such as rhythm and melody, elicited significantly higher behavioral ratings and neural correlation than did phase-scrambled controls. However, while unedited songs were self-reported as most pleasant, time-domain correlations were highest during measure-shuffled versions. Frequency-domain measures of correlation (coherence) peaked at frequencies related to the musical beat, although the magnitudes of these spectral peaks did not explain the observed temporal correlations. Our findings show that natural music evokes significant inter-subject and stimulus-response correlations, and suggest that the neural correlates of musical ‘engagement’ may be distinct from those of enjoyment.

Mind- Brain – Behavior (MBB), in Economic Inflation

Everyone has beliefs about how the world works and how they behave depends heavily on their beliefs about how the real world works. Cognitive psychologists believe that the mind actively represents the outside world and the way people interact with and behave with the environment is the result of these changes and manipulations that occur in mental representations. Scientists also believe that in the face of the phenomena of the outside world, there is an interactive relationship between the mind and behavior with the brain; So that the occurrence of a phenomenon, along with the entry of information into the brain, and the analysis and processing of that information by the mind, results in conscious or unconscious behavior in the human. In other words, there is an interactive relationship between brain, mind, and behavior (MBB). Therefore, the present study attempts to examine MBB in the case of human exposure to economic inflation. This is an applied and developmental research with the type of library study and uses the new findings of cognitive science to explain this relationship. The findings indicate that following inflationary shocks and the transfer information of monetary loss to the mind, the activity of the striatum, the ACC, the MPFC, and the amygdala increase and information about emotional actions that are contrary to mental habits transmit to the highest cognitive unit of the brain. Consequently, it leads to cognitive and behavioral changes in humans. Thus, in the face of economic inflation, the MBB relationship is also confirmed.

A Broader Look: Camera-Based Vital Sign Estimation across the Spectrum.

Summary Objectives : Camera-based vital sign estimation allows the contactless assessment of important physiological parameters. Seminal contributions were made in the 1930s, 1980s, and 2000s, and the speed of development seems ever increasing. In this suivey, we aim to overview the most recent works in this area, describe their common features as well as shortcomings, and highlight interesting “outliers”. Methods : We performed a comprehensive literature research and quantitative analysis of papers published between 2016 and 2018. Quantitative information about the number of subjects, studies with healthy volunteers vs. pathological conditions, public datasets, laboratory vs. real-world works, types of camera, usage of machine learning, and spectral properties of data was extracted. Moreover, a qualitative analysis of illumination used and recent advantages in terms of algorithmic developments was also performed. Results : Since 2016, 116 papers were published on camera-based vital sign estimation and 59% of papers presented results on 20 or fewer subjects. While the average number of participants increased from 15.7 in 2016 to 22.9 in 2018, the vast majority of papers (n=100) were on healthy subjects. Four public datasets were used in 10 publications. We found 27 papers whose application scenario could be considered a real-world use case, such as monitoring during exercise or driving. These include 16 papers that dealt with non-healthy subjects. The majority of papers (n=61) presented results based on visual, red-green-blue (RGB) information, followed by RGB combined with other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (n=18), and thermography only (n=12), while other works (n=25) used other mono- or polychromatic non-RGB data. Surprisingly, a minority of publications (n=39) made use of consumer-grade equipment. Lighting conditions were primarily uncontrolled or ambient. While some works focused on specialized aspects such as the removal of vital sign information from video streams to protect privacy or the influence of video compression, most algorithmic developments were related to three areas: region of interest selection, tracking, or extraction of a one-dimensional signal. Seven papers used deep learning techniques, 17 papers used other machine learning approaches, and 92 made no explicit use of machine learning. Conclusion : Although some general trends and frequent shortcomings are obvious, the spectrum of publications related to camera-based vital sign estimation is broad. While many creative solutions and unique approaches exist, the lack of standardization hinders comparability of these techniques and of their performance. We believe that sharing algorithms and/ or datasets will alleviate this and would allow the application of newer techniques such as deep learning.

An overview of digital speech watermarking

Digital speech watermarking is a robust way to hide and thus secure data like audio and video from any intentional or unintentional manipulation through transmission. In terms of some signal characteristics including bandwidth, voice/non-voice and production model, digital speech signal is different from audio, music and other signals. Although, various review articles on image, audio and video watermarking are available, there are still few review papers on digital speech watermarking. Therefore this article presents an overview of digital speech watermarking including issues of robustness, capacity and imperceptibility. Other issues discussed are types of digital speech watermarking, application, models and masking methods. This article further highlights the related challenges in the real world, research opportunities and future works in this area, yet to be explored fully.

My year in the lab: lessons for the student researcher

S tudent lab research projects, even when unsuccessful in a conventional sense, can provide a valuable window into how real-world research science works. Here, I discuss five general observations, made while conducting my own independent research project, that might be helpful to prospective student researchers. I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct an independent research project with my microbiology professor at Montgomery College, Dr. Margaret Birney, from June 2011 through May 2012. This project sought to combine a few fundamental ideas: since bacteria use chemical messages to coordinate simple behaviors, since a number of organisms have evolved anti-predator chemical warning systems, and since bacteriophages (viral predators of bacteria) have been shaping bacterial evolution for billions of years, I wanted to see if bacteria might be able to utilize an anti-phage warning system to collectively defend against phage attack. For most of the project, it seemed that such a warning system did indeed exist. We found that bacterial populations pre-treated with an ‘‘infected filtrate’’ (molecules fromother bacteria exposed to phage) survived better against phage attack than did control populations pre-treated with an ‘‘uninfected filtrate,’’ or molecules from normal bacteria not exposed to phage. After exploring further aspects of this antiphage warning system, I prepared a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal, but on the advice of a mentor, I decided to run a few more controls before sending it in. It soon became clear that we had missed something from almost the very beginning: an overlooked control snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, rendering our conclusions unsupportable and my manuscript unpublishable. Even though the project didn’t ultimately succeed in a conventional sense, my time in the lab was far from unproductive. To the contrary, working on this project gave me a year-long window into how real-world science works and the planning, diligence, critical thinking, and people skills that are required for successful research. The goal of this piece, then, is to share with the readers of BIOS some of the most important things I learned during my year as a student researcher.

Distributed representation of word by using Elman network

This paper presents a novel training method for Elman network to encode the words in literary works. This network has been used in studying limited simple artificial sentences with varying degrees of success. This paper shows how to use it to process real-world works. Both word codes and network weights can be accomplished by the method. Each trained code is a distributed representation of its word. The training error can be drastically reduced by iteratively re-encoding the representations. Several distinct findings and results during the training process are reported.

Invention [Software Patents 101

The four pillars of intellectual property-patents, copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets all play roles in protecting software. No wonder this is one of the most slippery subjects for an engineer's lawyer. To protect your intellectual property, choose the best tool for each stage in its creation. Luckily, the courts have established a framework that matches the way the real world works (up to a point). The framework begins by considering three milestones in software development: function, design, and code.

The Role of Advanced Placement in Talent Development

Introduction As a field, gifted education has never fully embraced or endorsed Advanced Placement programs as a viable program option for secondary gifted learners. I believe that this position is untenable, given the role that Advanced Placement options play in responding to the needs of gifted learners within specific academic and arts areas and the high regard with which these programs are viewed by selective colleges. At my own institution, now rated sixth in the country among public institutions, no student is likely to be admitted without evidence of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or dual-enrollment coursework. This standard is now fairly typical of the top 300 selective colleges in this country. In this essay, I would like to discuss the benefits of Advanced Placement (AP) work for gifted learners, establish the relationship between AP and our current understanding of the talent development process, and delineate special issues and concerns that educators of the gifted must be cognizant of in enc ouraging their students to participate in AP. The arguments used against Advanced Placement are important to acknowledge. One such argument is that the program only offers advanced-level work without sufficient differentiation for the gifted in areas like depth and complexity. Another argument focuses on the heavy emphasis on core content at the expense of studying ideas and principles that have interdisciplinary applications closer to how the real world works. A third argument suggests that AP is designed only for students who think convergently and can study factual material well. These arguments, however, are not buttressed by the evidence regarding the efficacy of other types of gifted programs at the secondary level that is reported in the research literature. In fact, the evidence we do have suggests that AP is the most popular secondary program among gifted students, their parents, and their schools (AAGE, 1974; Kolitch & Brody, 1992). Rationale I would argue that AP is critical to promoting the academic talent development process in gifted adolescents and other students electing for such coursework. AP represents coursework calibrated to selective college curriculum with suggested syllabi and training available to teachers interested in teaching a specific AP course. And student exams are assessed holistically by teams of secondary and university faculty. As such, the program represents the best gauge we have in American education of successful curricular collaboration across K-12 and higher education. It also represents the hallmark program for judging the quality of student learning at the secondary level through the use of recommended course syllabi and standardized exams. AP is also an important part of state education policy in 23 states, providing support for training of teachers, test fees for students, and support for school district participation. The program has gained such favor among policy makers because of its proven effectiveness in enhancing the quality of educational experiences for college-bound populations over the past 40 years. More recently in the current reform climate, it is seen as a model for implementing high standards at all levels of the school curriculum. It has grown from offering a few courses to now providing 33; from serving a few thousand students to serving over 700,000 per year; from being offered in selected states to now being offered in all states and internationally (College Board, 1999). The success of AP, however, cannot be measured only in numbers. It also can be measured in the benefits it has produced for gifted students over the years. Dr. Julian Stanley once remarked that AP was the best friend gifted students will ever have in their K-12 educational years. He may well be right, for it offers an array of benefits not found in many other educational options. Thus, its role in the talent development process is central as can be seen from situating it as an example of differentiated curriculum. …