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Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibition is associated with reduced risk of Sjögren’s disease
No full textZero-Shot Human-Object Interaction Recognition via Affordance Graphs
No full textWe propose a new approach for Zero-Shot Human-Object Interaction Recognition in the challenging setting that involves interactions with unseen actions (as opposed to just unseen combinations of seen actions and objects). Our approach makes use of knowledge external to the image content in the form of a graph that models affordance relations between actions and objects, i.e., whether an action can be performed on the given object or not. We propose a loss function with the aim of distilling the knowledge contained in the graph into the model, while also using the graph to regularise learnt representations by imposing a local structure on the latent space. We evaluate our approach on several datasets (including the popular HICO and HICO-DET) and show that it outperforms the current state of the art
Impact of abolishing primary care financial incentives on selected indicators of quality-of-care in Scotland: national controlled interrupted time series analysis
No full textObjectives: The UK Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) primary care scheme pays financial incentives for achieving performance targets in chronic disease and was abolished in Scotland in 2016. We determined the impact of financial incentive withdrawal in Scotland on selected recorded quality-of-care, compared to England where financial incentives continued.Design: Interrupted time-series regression study of QOF indicator data.Setting: General practices in Scotland and England.Participants: People registered at general practices in Scotland and England.Intervention: Withdrawal of QOF financial incentives in Scotland at the end of the 2015-2016 financial year.Main outcome measures: Changes in quality-of-care at 1-year and 3-years post-abolition for 16 indicators measured annually from 2013-2014 to 2018-2019 financial years.Results: In Scotland, performance reduced significantly compared to England on 12 of the 16 quality-of-care indicators 1-year after QOF was abolished, and on 10 of 16 indicators 3-years after abolition. At 3-years, the absolute percentage-point difference in Scotland compared to England was largest for ‘tick-box’ recording of mental health care planning (-40.2 percentage-points, 95%CI -45.5 to -35.0) and diabetic foot screening (-22.8 percentage-points, 95%CI 33.9 to -11.7). However, there were also substantial reductions for intermediate outcomes including blood pressure control in patients with peripheral arterial disease (-18.5 percentage-points, 95%CI -22.1 to -14.9), stroke (-16.6 percentage-points, 95%CI -20.6 to -12.7), diabetes (-10.4 percentage-points, 95%CI -13.0 to -7.8), coronary heart disease (-12.8 percentage-points, 95%CI -14.9 to -10.8) and hypertension (-13.7 percentage points, 95% CI -19.4 to 7.9), and for HbA1c control in diabetes (-5.0 percentage-points, 95%CI 8.4 to -1.5 for HbA1c less than 75mmol/l). There were no significant differences between Scotland and England 3-years after incentive withdrawal for treatment indicators (influenza immunisation and antiplatelet/anticoagulant treatment).Conclusion: Removal of financial incentives in Scotland was associated with reductions in recorded quality of care for most indicators. Changes to pay-for-performance should be carefully designed and implemented to monitor and respond to any reductions in care quality. <br/
Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Healthcare Utilization in the General Population
No full textObjectives Due to increasing pressure on healthcare resources, knowledge of factors that affect healthcare utilization (HCU) is important. However, the evidence of a longitudinal association between loneliness and social isolation respectively, and HCU is limited. The present prospective cohort study investigated the association of loneliness and social isolation with HCU in the general population over time. Methods Data from the 2013 Danish “How are you?" survey (n = 27.501) were combined with individual-level register data with almost complete follow-up over a 6-year follow-up period (2013-2018). Negative binomial regression analyses were performed while adjusting for baseline demographics and pre-existing chronic disease. Results Loneliness measured was significantly associated with more general practice contacts (incident-rate ratio (IRR) = 1.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.02, 1.04]), more emergency treatments (IRR = 1.06, 95% CI [1.03, 1.10]), more emergency admissions (IRR = 1.06, 95% CI [1.03, 1.06]), and hospital admission days (IRR=1.05, 95% CI [1.00, 1.11]) across the 6-year follow-up period. No significant associations were found between social isolation and HCU with one minor exception, in which social isolation was associated with fewer planned outpatient treatments (IRR = .97, 95% CI [.94, .99]). Wald test demonstrated that the association of loneliness with emergency admissions and hospital admissions days was not significantly different from the effects of social isolation on those outcomes. Conclusions Our findings suggest that loneliness slightly increased the number of general practice contacts and emergency room treatments. Overall, the effects of loneliness and social isolation on HCU were small
Concurrent multi-scale modeling of granular materials: Role of coarse-graining in FEM-DEM coupling
No full textThe finite element method (FEM) is commonly used for modeling continuum media, while particle simulation methods like the so-called discrete element method (DEM) are used for discrete systems. Coupling the discrete (DEM) and continuum (FEM) methods is conventionally achieved through a direct mapping between discrete particles and finite elements. Coarse-graining (CG) is a micro-macro transition method (discrete to continuum) that maps discrete particle data onto smooth, differentiable fields that satisfy the continuum equations. By choosing an appropriate length scale (the coarse-graining width c), the coarse-grained fields are then homogenized and projected onto a FEM spatial discretization.This concept is utilized here to reformulate FEM-DEM coupling methods, both surface and volume, where in the limiting case of c → 0, the classical coupling is recovered. For surface coupling, the discrete particle-surface contact forces are first mapped onto a continuous surface traction field (using CG) which is then coupled to the continuum FEM model. For volume coupling (also known as the Arlequin framework), the homogenization operators are enriched with CG functions, offering a non-local coupling approach between discrete particles, their continuum fields, and the finite element formulation.The CG enrichment represents a new strategy that consists of (1) a particle-to-continuum mapping and (2) a continuum-to-continuum coupling based on “CG-enriched homogenization” (CGH). It is shown for surface coupling that the CG-enriched formulation not only leads to more accurate results, conserving symmetry, but also reduces energies generated by the coupling. For volume coupling, there is consistently less numerical dissipation with than without CG-enrichment, especially when the load contains high-frequency content. Finally, the optimal CG widths are identified for very simple test cases, with which the surface/volume coupling performs best.CGH can be potentially extended beyond the present examples, by considering other continuum fields (e.g., higher-order) and equations (e.g., multi-physics), and used to formulate other concurrent multi-scale modeling methods
Translating CPS with Shared-Variable Concurrency in SpaceEx
No full textCyber-physical systems (CPS), combining continuous physical behavior and discrete control behavior, have been widely utilized in recent years. However, the traditional modeling languages used to specify discrete systems are no longer applicable to CPS, since CPS subsume the combination of the cyber and the physical. To address this, a modeling language for CPS based on shared variables is proposed. In this paper, we present an implementation of this language in SpaceEx. Thus, a bridge between our language and hybrid automata is established.<br/
Potentials and Limits of Using Preconfigured Spatial Beams as Bandwidth Resources: Beam Selection vs Beam Aggregation
No full textThis letter studies how to use spatial beams preconfigured in a legacy spatial division multiple access (SDMA) network as bandwidth resources via the implementation of nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA). Two different beam management schemes, namely beam selection and beam aggregation, are developed to improve the overall system throughput without consuming extra spectrum or changing the performance of the legacy network. Analytical and simulation results are presented to show that the two schemes realize different tradeoffs between system performance and complexity
First discoveries and localisations of Fast Radio Bursts with MeerTRAP: a real-time, commensal MeerKAT survey
No full textWe report on the discovery and localization of fast radio bursts (FRBs) from the MeerTRAP project, a commensal fast radiotransient-detection programme at MeerKAT in South Africa. Our hybrid approach combines a coherent search with an averagefield-of-view of 0.4 deg2 with an incoherent search utilizing a field-of-view of 1.27 deg2 (both at 1284 MHz). Here, wepresent results on the first three FRBs: FRB 20200413A (DM=1990.05 pc cm􀀀3), FRB 20200915A (DM=740.65 pc cm􀀀3),and FRB 20201123A (DM=433.55 pc cm􀀀3). FRB 20200413A was discovered only in the incoherent beam. FRB 20200915A(also discovered only in the incoherent beam) shows speckled emission in the dynamic spectrum which cannot be explained byinterstellar scintillation in our Galaxy or plasma lensing, and might be intrinsic to the source. FRB 20201123A shows a faintpost-cursor burst about 200 ms after the main burst and warrants further follow-up to confirm whether it is a repeating FRB.FRB 20201123A also exhibits significant temporal broadening consistent with scattering by a turbulent medium. The broadeningexceeds that predicted for medium along the sightline through our Galaxy.We associate this scattering with the turbulent mediumin the environment of the FRB in the host galaxy. Within the approximately 10 localization region of FRB 20201123A , weidentify one luminous galaxy (A 15•67; J173438.35􀀀504550.4) that dominates the posterior probability for a host association.The galaxy’s measured properties are consistent with other FRB hosts with secure associations
Stein's Method Meets Computational Statistics: A Review of Some Recent Developments
No full textStein's method compares probability distributions through the study of a class of linear operators called Stein operators. While mainly studied in probability and used to underpin theoretical statistics, Stein's method has led to significant advances in computational statistics in recent years. The goal of this survey is to bring together some of these recent developments and, in doing so, to stimulate further research into the successful field of Stein's method and statistics. The topics we discuss include tools to benchmark and compare sampling methods such as approximate Markov chain Monte Carlo, deterministic alternatives to sampling methods, control variate techniques, parameter estimation and goodness-of-t testing.<br/