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Since the 1980s, biblical scholars have started to employ the framework of “honor and shame” to study the culture of the ancient Mediterranean region. However, this application of the social–scientific honor–shame model has led to “massive generalizations of ‘honor’ and ‘shame’”. In particular, when focusing on the concept of honor/shame rather than its lexemes, the social–scientific school ignores the nuanced nature of each Greek word group related to shame. By studying classical Greek literature, Douglas Cairns further points out a puzzling situation that the word group αἰδώς contains polarized meanings of both “to shame” and “to respect”. In this paper, we examine the puzzling double meanings of “to shame/to respect” by focusing on the use of the word group ἐντροπή in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. This paper argues that the word group ἐντροπὴ serves a rhetorical purpose of protecting the church’s identity by rejecting beliefs/customs that are unacceptable to Christianity and promoting unity in the churches through obedience to church authorities. This paper also explores the fundamental epistemological issue of understanding emotion words in its ancient context. It provides a provisional definition for ἐντροπή, that it is a self-inhibitory emotion of sensitivity to one’s proper place in social interaction to protect one’s self-image.

Machine learning techniques may suffer from adversarial attack in which an attacker misleads a learning process by manipulating training samples. Data sanitization is one of countermeasures against poisoning attack. It is a data pre-processing method which filters suspect samples before learning. Recently, a number of data sanitization methods are devised for label flip attack, but their flexibility is limited due to specific assumptions. It is observed that abrupt label flip caused by attack changes complexity of classification. A data sanitization method based on data complexity, which is a measure of the difficulty of classification on a dataset, is proposed in this paper. Our method measures the data complexity of a training set after removing a sample and its nearest samples. Contaminated samples are then distinguished from untainted samples according to their data complexity values. Experimental results support the idea that data complexity can be used to identify attack samples. The proposed method achieves a better result than the current sanitization method in terms of detection accuracy for well known security application problems.

Background Preliminary evidence suggests osteoarthritis is a risk factor for cognitive decline. One potential reason is 87% of adults with osteoarthritis are inactive, and low moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and high sedentary behaviour are each risk factors for cognitive decline. Thus, we investigated whether a community-based intervention to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour could improve cognitive function among adults with osteoarthritis. Methods This was a secondary analysis of a six month, proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial of a community-based, technology-enabled counselling program to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour among adults with knee osteoarthritis. The Immediate Intervention ( n  = 30) received a Fitbit® Flex™ and four bi-weekly activity counselling sessions; the Delayed Intervention ( n  = 31) received the same intervention two months later. We assessed episodic memory and working memory using the National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognition Battery. Between-group differences (Immediate Intervention vs. Delayed Intervention) in cognitive performance were evaluated following the primary intervention (i.e., Baseline – 2 Months) using intention-to-treat. Results The intervention did not significantly improve cognitive function; however, we estimated small average improvements in episodic memory for the Immediate Intervention vs. Delayed Intervention (estimated mean difference: 1.27; 95% CI [− 9.27, 11.81]; d  = 0.10). Conclusion This small study did not show that a short activity promotion intervention improved cognitive health among adults with osteoarthritis. However, the effects of increased moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and reduced sedentary behaviour are likely to be small and thus we recommend subsequent studies use larger sample sizes and measure changes in cognitive function over longer intervals. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration System: NCT02315664 ; registered 12 December, 2014; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02315664?cond=NCT02315664&rank=1

Ensemble reinforcement learning, which combines the decisions of a set of base agents, is proposed to enhance the decision making process and speed up training time. Many studies indicate that an ensemble model may achieve better results than a single agent because of the complement of base agents, in which the error of an agent may be corrected by others. However, the fusion method is a fundamental issue in ensemble. Currently, existing studies mainly focus on static fusion which either assumes all agents have the same ability or ignores the ones with poor average performance. This assumption causes current static fusion methods to overlook base agents with poor overall performance, but excellent results in select scenarios, which results in the ability of some agents not being fully utilized. This study aims to propose a dynamic fusion method which utilizes each base agent according to its local competence on test states. The performance of a base agent on the validation set is measured in terms of the rewards achieved by the agent in next n steps. The similarity between a validation state and a new state is quantified by Euclidian distance in the latent space and the weights of each base agent are updated according to its performance on validation states and their similarity to a new state. The experimental studies confirm that the proposed dynamic fusion method outperforms its base agents and also the static fusion methods. This is the first dynamic fusion method proposed for deep reinforcement learning, which extends the study on dynamic fusion from classification to reinforcement learning.

Although collaborative filtering achieves satisfying performance in recommender systems, many studies suggest that it is vulnerable by shilling attack aimed to manipulate the recommending frequency of a target item by injecting malicious user profiles. The existing attack methods usually generate malicious profiles by rating the item selected randomly. However, as these rating patterns are different from the real users, who have their own preferences on items, these attack methods can be easily detected by shilling attack detection, which significantly reduces the attack ability. Although some attack methods consider disguise ability, these methods require too much information from real users. This study proposes a shilling attack which generates malicious samples with strong attack ability and similarity to real users. To imitate the rating behavior of genuine users, our attack model considers both rated item correlation and item popularity when choosing items to rate. The profiles generated by our attack model is expected to be more similar to real user profiles, which increases the disguise ability. We also investigate whether and how rated item correlation of real user profiles is different from the ones generated by our method and the existing shilling attack. The experimental results confirm that our method achieves the highest attack ability after removing the suspected profiles identified by PCA-based and SVM-based shilling attack detection. The study confirms the correlation of rated item is a critical factor of the robustness of recommender systems.

Background Mutations in certain genes are known to increase breast cancer risk. We study the relevance of rare protein-truncating variants (PTVs) that may result in loss-of-function in breast cancer susceptibility genes on tumor characteristics and survival in 8852 breast cancer patients of Asian descent. Methods Gene panel sequencing was performed for 34 known or suspected breast cancer predisposition genes, of which nine genes ( ATM , BRCA1 , BRCA2 , CHEK2 , PALB2 , BARD1 , RAD51C , RAD51D , and TP53 ) were associated with breast cancer risk. Associations between PTV carriership in one or more genes and tumor characteristics were examined using multinomial logistic regression. Ten-year overall survival was estimated using Cox regression models in 6477 breast cancer patients after excluding older patients (≥75years) and stage 0 and IV disease. Results PTV 9genes carriership ( n = 690) was significantly associated ( p < 0.001) with more aggressive tumor characteristics including high grade (poorly vs well-differentiated, odds ratio [95% confidence interval] 3.48 [2.35–5.17], moderately vs well-differentiated 2.33 [1.56–3.49]), as well as luminal B [HER−] and triple-negative subtypes (vs luminal A 2.15 [1.58–2.92] and 2.85 [2.17–3.73], respectively), adjusted for age at diagnosis, study, and ethnicity. Associations with grade and luminal B [HER2−] subtype remained significant after excluding BRCA1/2 carriers. PTV 25genes carriership ( n = 289, excluding carriers of the nine genes associated with breast cancer) was not associated with tumor characteristics. However, PTV 25genes carriership, but not PTV 9genes carriership, was suggested to be associated with worse 10-year overall survival (hazard ratio [ CI ] 1.63 [1.16–2.28]). Conclusions PTV 9genes carriership is associated with more aggressive tumors. Variants in other genes might be associated with the survival of breast cancer patients. The finding that PTV carriership is not just associated with higher breast cancer risk, but also more severe and fatal forms of the disease, suggests that genetic testing has the potential to provide additional health information and help healthy individuals make screening decisions.

Introduction In the USA, lumbar discectomy is one of the most commonly performed spinal procedures. As certain sports are considered to be major risk factors for disc herniation, the question remains as to when highly active patients should return to their previous level of activity. This study aimed to analyze spine surgeons’ opinions on when patients may return to activities following discectomy as well as their underlying rationale for their decision. Methods A questionnaire was designed by five different fellowship-trained spine surgeons for the 168 members of the Spine Society of Australia. Questions on the surgeons experience, decision making, preferred surgical technique, the postoperative rehabilitation and the response to patient expectations were included. Results In total, 83.9% of surgeons discuss the postoperative level of activity with their patients. Sport is considered as an important contributor for good functional outcome by 71.0% of surgeons. Surgeons recommend avoiding, often permanently, weightlifting (35.7%) of the time, rugby (21.4%), horseback riding (17.9%) as well as martial arts (14.3%) postoperatively even with previous training. The return to high levels of activity is considered as a major risk factor for disc herniation recurrence by 25.8% of surgeons. Return to high level of activity is typically recommended after 3 months by 48.4% of surgeons. Conclusion So far no consensus on the rehabilitation protocol and return to level of activity exists. Recommendations depend on personal experience as well as the individuals’ training, and typically, a period of avoidance of sport for up to 3 months is recommended. Level of evidence: Level III, therapeutic and prognostic study.

Background Current evidence suggests that good quality sleep is associated with preserved cognitive function and reduced dementia risk in older adults. Sleep complaints are especially common among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and this may contribute to their increased risk for progression to dementia. Thus, improving their sleep may be important for maintaining their cognitive health. Chronotherapy is a set of intervention strategies that can improve sleep quality through strengthening the entrainment of the biological clock to the solar light-dark cycle, and includes strategies such as (1) bright light therapy (BLT); (2) physical activity (PA); and (3) good sleep hygiene. Of these strategies, BLT is the most potent and is based on providing individualized timing to entrain circadian rhythms. Thus, a personalized chronotherapy intervention of individually timed BLT and individually tailored PA promotion, in conjunction with general sleep hygiene education may promote older adult sleep quality. We therefore aim to carry out a proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine the efficacy of such a personalized chronotherapy intervention to improve sleep quality among older adults with MCI. Methods/design This was a 24-week RCT of a personalized chronotherapy intervention aimed to primarily improve sleep quality as measured by the MotionWatch8©. Participants in the personalized chronotherapy group (INT) will receive four once-weekly, general sleep hygiene education classes, followed by 20 weeks of (1) individually timed BLT and (2) bi-weekly, individually tailored PA counseling phone calls in conjunction with receiving a consumer-available PA tracker—the Fitbit® Flex™. Ninety-six adults (aged 65–85 years) classified as having MCI (i.e., Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) ≥ 24; Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) ≤ 26; without dementia or significant functional impairment) will be randomized to either INT or a waitlist control group (CON). Discussion The results of this trial will help determine if a personalized chronotherapy intervention that includes individually timed BLT and individually tailored PA promotion, along with general sleep hygiene education can promote sleep quality among older adults at increased risk for dementia. Our results will help inform best practices for promoting sleep quality among older adults with MCI. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT02926157 . Registered on 6 October 2016.

This paper proposes a convex hull algorithm for high dimensional point set, which is faster than the well-known Quickhull algorithm in many cases. The main idea of the proposed algorithm is to exclude inner points by early detection of global topological properties. The algorithm firstly computes an initial convex hull of 2∗d+2d\\(2*d + 2^{d}\\) extreme points. Then, it discards all the inner points which are inside the inscribed ball of the initial convex hull. The other inner points are processed recursively according to the relationships of points and facets. Maximum inscribed circle affine transformations are also designed to accelerate the computation of the convex hull. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves a significant saving of computation time in comparison with the Quickhull algorithm in 3, 4 and 5 dimensional space. The space efficiency of the proposed algorithm is also demonstrated by experimental results.

The innate immune system provides hosts with a crucial first line of defense against pathogens. While immune genes are often among the fastest evolving genes in the genome, in Drosophila , antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are notable exceptions. Instead, AMPs may be under balancing selection, such that over evolutionary timescales, multiple alleles are maintained in populations. In this study, we focus on the Drosophila AMP Diptericin A, which has a segregating amino acid polymorphism associated with differential survival after infection with the Gram-negative bacteria Providencia rettgeri . Diptericin A also helps control opportunistic gut infections by common Drosophila gut microbes, especially those of Lactobacillus plantarum . In addition to genotypic effects on gut immunity, we also see strong sex-specific effects that are most prominent in flies without functional diptericin A . To further characterize differences in microbiomes between different diptericin genotypes, we used 16S metagenomics to look at the microbiome composition. We used both lab-reared and wild-caught flies for our sequencing and looked at overall composition as well as the differential abundance of individual bacterial families. Overall, we find flies that are homozygous for one allele of diptericin A are better equipped to survive a systemic infection from P. rettgeri , but in general have a shorter lifespans after being fed common gut commensals. Our results suggest a possible mechanism for the maintenance of genetic variation of diptericin A through the complex interactions of sex, systemic immunity, and the maintenance of the gut microbiome.