Africa
It's a bird! It's a head! No, it's a mummified foot.
CT scans help a museum examine mummified remains that were sitting in its collections for half a century. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Multiple mummy specimens have been stored in the museum since it opened in 1965. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Not every mummy is treated equally.
BOAT: Navigating the Sea of In Silico Predictors for Antibody Design via Multi-Objective Bayesian Optimization
Rao, Jackie, Hernandez, Ferran Gonzalez, Gerard, Leon, Gessner, Alexandra
Antibody lead optimization is inherently a multi-objective challenge in drug discovery. Achieving a balance between different drug-like properties is crucial for the development of viable candidates, and this search becomes exponentially challenging as desired properties grow. The ever-growing zoo of sophisticated in silico tools for predicting antibody properties calls for an efficient joint optimization procedure to overcome resource-intensive sequential filtering pipelines. We present BOAT, a versatile Bayesian optimization framework for multi-property antibody engineering. Our `plug-and-play' framework couples uncertainty-aware surrogate modeling with a genetic algorithm to jointly optimize various predicted antibody traits while enabling efficient exploration of sequence space. Through systematic benchmarking against genetic algorithms and newer generative learning approaches, we demonstrate competitive performance with state-of-the-art methods for multi-objective protein optimization. We identify clear regimes where surrogate-driven optimization outperforms expensive generative approaches and establish practical limits imposed by sequence dimensionality and oracle costs.
Robust Low-Rank Tensor Completion based on M-product with Weighted Correlated Total Variation and Sparse Regularization
Karmakar, Biswarup, Behera, Ratikanta
The robust low-rank tensor completion problem addresses the challenge of recovering corrupted high-dimensional tensor data with missing entries, outliers, and sparse noise commonly found in real-world applications. Existing methodologies have encountered fundamental limitations due to their reliance on uniform regularization schemes, particularly the tensor nuclear norm and $\ell_1$ norm regularization approaches, which indiscriminately apply equal shrinkage to all singular values and sparse components, thereby compromising the preservation of critical tensor structures. The proposed tensor weighted correlated total variation (TWCTV) regularizer addresses these shortcomings through an $M$-product framework that combines a weighted Schatten-$p$ norm on gradient tensors for low-rankness with smoothness enforcement and weighted sparse components for noise suppression. The proposed weighting scheme adaptively reduces the thresholding level to preserve both dominant singular values and sparse components, thus improving the reconstruction of critical structural elements and nuanced details in the recovered signal. Through a systematic algorithmic approach, we introduce an enhanced alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) that offers both computational efficiency and theoretical substantiation, with convergence properties comprehensively analyzed within the $M$-product framework.Comprehensive numerical evaluations across image completion, denoising, and background subtraction tasks validate the superior performance of this approach relative to established benchmark methods.
Identifiability of Potentially Degenerate Gaussian Mixture Models With Piecewise Affine Mixing
Xu, Danru, Lachapelle, Sรฉbastien, Magliacane, Sara
Causal representation learning (CRL) aims to identify the underlying latent variables from high-dimensional observations, even when variables are dependent with each other. We study this problem for latent variables that follow a potentially degenerate Gaussian mixture distribution and that are only observed through the transformation via a piecewise affine mixing function. We provide a series of progressively stronger identifiability results for this challenging setting in which the probability density functions are ill-defined because of the potential degeneracy. For identifiability up to permutation and scaling, we leverage a sparsity regularization on the learned representation. Based on our theoretical results, we propose a two-stage method to estimate the latent variables by enforcing sparsity and Gaussianity in the learned representations. Experiments on synthetic and image data highlight our method's effectiveness in recovering the ground-truth latent variables.
Not all naked mole-rat queens go out in a blaze of bloody violence
Surprising study reveals peaceful succession is possible. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Naked mole-rats are among the only eusocial mammals. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Queen bees may get most of the glory, but there is another queen of the animal kingdom who is the linchpin of her entire society.
Information-Geometric Decomposition of Generalization Error in Unsupervised Learning
We decompose the Kullback--Leibler generalization error (GE) -- the expected KL divergence from the data distribution to the trained model -- of unsupervised learning into three non-negative components: model error, data bias, and variance. The decomposition is exact for any e-flat model class and follows from two identities of information geometry: the generalized Pythagorean theorem and a dual e-mixture variance identity. As an analytically tractable demonstration, we apply the framework to $ฮต$-PCA, a regularized principal component analysis in which the empirical covariance is truncated at rank $N_K$ and discarded directions are pinned at a fixed noise floor $ฮต$. Although rank-constrained $ฮต$-PCA is not itself e-flat, it admits a technical reformulation with the same total GE on isotropic Gaussian data, under which each component of the decomposition takes closed form. The optimal rank emerges as the cutoff $ฮป_{\mathrm{cut}}^{*} = ฮต$ -- the model retains exactly those empirical eigenvalues exceeding the noise floor -- with the cutoff reflecting a marginal-rate balance between model-error gain and data-bias cost. A boundary comparison further yields a three-regime phase diagram -- retain-all, interior, and collapse -- separated by the lower Marchenko--Pastur edge and an analytically computable collapse threshold $ฮต_{*}(ฮฑ)$, where $ฮฑ$ is the dimension-to-sample-size ratio. All claims are verified numerically.
Co-AI-chella! AI influencers cash in on the California music festival - as experts predict the staggering amount the people behind them could be making
Vance grounded at White House as Iran peace talks in turmoil and Trump declares: 'I expect to be bombing' New'Hollywood dose' pill: A-listers hooked on'youth elixir' that dermatologists say is anti-ageing, shrinks pores, smooths wrinkles... and even banishes rosacea Days after we got engaged, the love of my life told me he'd killed a man and buried him in a bog. I reported him to police... but then I made this irreversible mistake Ark of the Covenant's final resting place pinpointed by archaeologists as fresh search begins Ritzy Bay Area town torn apart after teacher's daughter, 16, crashed car while speeding and killed four friends... then posted a TikTok video that poured fuel on the flames Jordon Hudson extends her control over Bill Belichick's empire with secret move that is set to leave his family and friends furious Life-threatening cantaloupe recall in four states upgraded to FDA's highest risk level... 'reasonable probability of death' AMANDA PLATELL: Why Sarah Ferguson - with the ghost of Princess Diana at her side - is ready to sensationally blow up the Royal Family. She knows ALL their secrets... Trump confronts Xi as US forces seize Chinese ship carrying mysterious'gift' to Iran Sydney Sweeney's role is cut from The Devil Wears Prada 2 Humiliating moment runner celebrates winning marathon... only to be pipped at the line by rival in brutal finish Patriots coach Mike Vrabel reveals'difficult conversations' with his wife as he speaks out for the first time since Dianna Russini photo scandal Nancy Mace fires back after accused sexual extorter Cory Mills tries to expel her from Congress: 'Bring it on' How to lose weight when perimenopause sabotages your metabolism: I'm a trainer but when I hit 46, I piled on the pounds overnight. The new'posh' drug that's easier to order than Uber Eats - and why all my middle-class friends have ditched booze and cocaine for it: JANA HOCKING Grieving mother says she went to LA school every day to complain daughter was being bullied... then tragedy struck when the lead tormentor, 12, hurled metal water bottle at victim's head Autistic woman, 24, worked hard to build independent life for herself... now she's PARALYZED thanks to selfishness of stranger READ MORE: Conjoined twin'influencers' are revealed to be AI AI influencers are cashing in on Coachella, with some set to make tens of thousands from their content. Among the celebrities and content creators, you may have noticed a surge in festival content from digital influencers.
That's one way to avoid boring meetings! Mark Zuckerberg is building an AI CLONE to replace him, report claims
Ritzy Bay Area town torn apart after teacher's daughter, 16, was behind wheel when four friends died in high-speed crash... then she posted a TikTok video that poured fuel on the flames Two CIA officers killed in Mexico when their car skidded off ravine and exploded after meeting about bust of'largest ever drug lab' Insiders claim failed AI rollout could be to blame for Tim Cook's departure from Apple - as one says'the AI era requires a different kind of leadership' Trump confronts Xi as US forces seize Chinese ship carrying mysterious'gift' to Iran New'Hollywood dose' pill: A-listers hooked on'youth elixir' that dermatologists say is anti-ageing, shrinks pores, smooths wrinkles... and even banishes rosacea Days after we got engaged, the love of my life told me he'd killed a man and buried him in a bog. I reported him to police... but then I made this irreversible mistake Life-threatening cantaloupe recall in four states upgraded to FDA's highest risk level... 'reasonable probability of death' Fury as murderer marries pen pal behind bars... as teenage victim's mom says: 'I'm serving a life sentence without my son' Kate and William join Charles and Camilla in celebrating British centenarians at Buckingham Palace as Royal Family marks the late Queen's 100th birthday US troops board second tanker as Trump accuses Iran of violating ceasefire'numerous times' - Live updates AMANDA PLATELL: Why Sarah Ferguson - with the ghost of Princess Diana at her side - is ready to sensationally blow up the Royal Family. She knows ALL their secrets... Team USA Olympics star Noah Lyles slammed for'horrible' reaction to his wife's wedding dress reveal How to lose weight when perimenopause sabotages your metabolism: I'm a trainer but when I hit 46, I piled on the pounds overnight. I was losing hair so fast a bald spot the size of an orange appeared. I owe my life to a $1 at-home treatment that REVERSED the damage in a month.
Slithering Through Gaps: Capturing Discrete Isolated Modes via Logistic Bridging
High-dimensional and complex discrete distributions often exhibit multimodal behavior due to inherent discontinuities, posing significant challenges for sampling. Gradient-based discrete samplers, while effective, frequently become trapped in local modes when confronted with rugged or disconnected energy landscapes. This limits their ability to achieve adequate mixing and convergence in high-dimensional multimodal discrete spaces. To address these challenges, we propose \emph{Hyperbolic Secant-squared Gibbs-Sampling (HiSS)}, a novel family of sampling algorithms that integrates a \emph{Metropolis-within-Gibbs} framework to enhance mixing efficiency. HiSS leverages a logistic convolution kernel to couple the discrete sampling variable with the continuous auxiliary variable in a joint distribution. This design allows the auxiliary variable to encapsulate the true target distribution while facilitating easy transitions between distant and disconnected modes. We provide theoretical guarantees of convergence and demonstrate empirically that HiSS outperforms many popular alternatives on a wide variety of tasks, including Ising models, binary neural networks, and combinatorial optimization.
Deep Learning for Sequential Decision Making under Uncertainty: Foundations, Frameworks, and Frontiers
Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving increasingly beyond prediction to support decisions in complex, uncertain, and dynamic environments. This shift creates a natural intersection with operations research and management sciences (OR/MS), which have long offered conceptual and methodological foundations for sequential decision-making under uncertainty. At the same time, recent advances in deep learning, including feedforward neural networks, LSTMs, transformers, and deep reinforcement learning, have expanded the scope of data-driven modeling and opened new possibilities for large-scale decision systems. This tutorial presents an OR/MS-centered perspective on deep learning for sequential decision-making under uncertainty. Its central premise is that deep learning is valuable not as a replacement for optimization, but as a complement to it. Deep learning brings adaptability and scalable approximation, whereas OR/MS provides the structural rigor needed to represent constraints, recourse, and uncertainty. The tutorial reviews key decision-making foundations, connects them to the major neural architectures in modern AI, and discusses leading approaches to integrating learning and optimization. It also highlights emerging impact in domains such as supply chains, healthcare and epidemic response, agriculture, energy, and autonomous operations. More broadly, it frames these developments as part of a wider transition from predictive AI toward decision-capable AI and highlights the role of OR/MS in shaping the next generation of integrated learning--optimization systems.