Familial DNA search evaluates the genetic relatedness of two individuals by comparing the likelihood of their observed DNA profiles under two competing hypotheses-the null hypothesis that the individuals are unrelated and the alternative hypothesis that they are related-most commonly through the likelihood ratio (LR). Standard LR-based approaches typically assume a uniform genetic background; however, this assumption is rarely valid due to population substructure, where allele frequencies vary among subpopulations and can bias relationship inference. Existing modifications-such as LR calculations based on average allele frequencies (LRLAF) and strategies using maximum, minimum, or average likelihood ratios (LRMAX, LRMIN, LRAVG)-help mitigate these challenges but remain limited in their ability to fully address subpopulation differences. This study introduces a new LR-based statistic, LRCLASS, which incorporates a classification step using the Naive Bayes classifier to account for nuisance parameters associated with unknown subpopulation origins. In LRCLASS, the two DNA profiles being compared are jointly assigned to a subpopulation group via Naive Bayes before LR computation. Empir
Neural scaling laws have become foundational for optimizing large language model (LLM) training, yet they typically assume a single dense model output. This limitation effectively overlooks "Familial models, a transformative paradigm essential for realizing ubiquitous intelligence across heterogeneous device-edge-cloud hierarchies. Transcending static architectures, familial models integrate early exits with relay-style inference to spawn G deployable sub-models from a single shared backbone. In this work, we theoretically and empirically extend the scaling law to capture this "one-run, many-models" paradigm by introducing Granularity (G) as a fundamental scaling variable alongside model size (N) and training tokens (D). To rigorously quantify this relationship, we propose a unified functional form L(N, D, G) and parameterize it using large-scale empirical runs. Specifically, we employ a rigorous IsoFLOP experimental design to strictly isolate architectural impact from computational scale. Across fixed budgets, we systematically sweep model sizes (N) and granularities (G) while dynamically adjusting tokens (D). This approach effectively decouples the marginal cost of granularity fr
DNA databases are widely used in forensic science to identify unknown offenders. When no exact match is found, familial DNA searches can help by identifying first-degree relatives using likelihood ratios. If multiple subpopulations are relevant, likelihood ratios can be computed separately based on allele frequency estimates. Various strategies exist to combine these ratios, such as averaging allele frequencies or taking the average, maximum, or minimum likelihood ratio. While some comparisons have been made in populations like those in the U.S., their effectiveness in other regions remains unclear. This study evaluates likelihood ratio-based strategies in Southeast Asian populations, specifically Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Our findings align with previous research, showing that statistical power varies across strategies. Among Thai subpopulations, the minimum likelihood ratio strategy is preferred, as it maintains high power while minimizing differences between subpopulations.
Women's health in Bangladesh faces risks due to an alarming rise in cesarean section (CS) rates, exceeding 72% in hospital-based deliveries, far surpassing the WHO's recommended limit of 15%. This study, guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), explored socio-cultural factors influencing childbirth mode decisions. Among 503 survey participants, 91% of CS cases occurred against initial preferences, revealing a disconnect between health beliefs and behavior. Subjective norms, particularly family influence and social expectations, emerged as more critical in shaping CS decisions than physician recommendations.
Originally enriched categories were defined over a monoidal category, but it was gradually realized that important examples can only be included when one enriches over more general structures such as bicategories and virtual double categories. We show that, as well as allowing more examples, working over virtual double categories also gives better formal properties. We study the 2-functor sending a virtual double category to the 2-category of categories enriched over it. We show that this is a parametric right 2-adjoint, and in fact is familial. We also show how a ``families construction'' for virtual double categories can be used to give a formal construction of the 2-category of categories enriched over a virtual double category.
Familial cerebral cavernous malformation (FCCM) is a hereditary disorder characterized by abnormal vascular structures within the central nervous system. The FCCM lesions are often numerous and intricate, making quantitative analysis of the lesions a labor-intensive task. Consequently, clinicians face challenges in quantitatively assessing the severity of lesions and determining whether lesions have progressed. To alleviate this problem, we propose a quantitative statistical framework for FCCM, comprising an efficient annotation module, an FCCM lesion segmentation module, and an FCCM lesion quantitative statistics module. Our framework demonstrates precise segmentation of the FCCM lesion based on efficient data annotation, achieving a Dice coefficient of 93.22\%. More importantly, we focus on quantitative statistics of lesions, which is combined with image registration to realize the quantitative comparison of lesions between different examinations of patients, and a visualization framework has been established for doctors to comprehensively compare and analyze lesions. The experimental results have demonstrated that our proposed framework not only obtains objective, accurate, and
Statistical hypotheses are translations of scientific hypotheses into statements about one or more distributions, often concerning their centre. Tests that assess statistical hypotheses of centre implicitly assume a specific centre, e.g., the mean or median. Yet, scientific hypotheses do not always specify a particular centre. This ambiguity leaves the possibility for a gap between scientific theory and statistical practice that can lead to rejection of a true null. In the face of replicability crises in many scientific disciplines, significant results of this kind are concerning. Rather than testing a single centre, this paper proposes testing a family of plausible centres, such as that induced by the Huber loss function (the Huber family). Each centre in the family generates a testing problem, and the resulting family of hypotheses constitutes a familial hypothesis. A Bayesian nonparametric procedure is devised to test familial hypotheses, enabled by a novel pathwise optimization routine to fit the Huber family. The favourable properties of the new test are demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. Two examples from psychology serve as real-world case studies.
A classical result due to Diers shows that a copresheaf $F\colon\mathcal{A}\to\mathbf{Set}$ on a category $\mathcal{A}$ is a coproduct of representables precisely when each connected component of $F$'s category of elements has an initial object. Most often, this condition is imposed on a copresheaf of the form $\mathcal{B}\left(X,T-\right)$ for a functor $T\colon\mathcal{A}\to\mathcal{B}$, in which case this property says that $T$ admits generic factorizations at $X$, or equivalently that $T$ is familial at $X$. Here we generalize these results to the two-dimensional setting, replacing $\mathcal{A}$ with an arbitrary bicategory $\mathscr{A}$, and $\mathbf{Set}$ with $\mathbf{Cat}$. In this two-dimensional setting, simply asking that a pseudofunctor $F\colon\mathscr{A}\to\mathbf{Cat}$ be a coproduct of representables is often too strong of a condition. Instead, we will only ask that $F$ be a lax conical colimit of representables. This in turn allows for the weaker notion of lax generic factorizations (and lax familial representability) for pseudofunctors of bicategories $T\colon\mathscr{A}\to\mathscr{B}$. We also compare our lax familial pseudofunctors to Weber's familial 2-functors
Background: A wide range of diseases show some degree of clustering in families; family history is therefore an important aspect for clinicians when making risk predictions. Familial aggregation is often quantified in terms of a familial relative risk (FRR), and although at first glance this measure may seem simple and intuitive as an average risk prediction, its implications are not straightforward. Methods: We use two statistical models for the distribution of disease risk in a population: a dichotomous risk model that gives an intuitive understanding of the implication of a given FRR, and a continuous risk model that facilitates a more detailed computation of the inequalities in disease risk. Published estimates of FRRs are used to produce Lorenz curves and Gini indices that quantifies the inequalities in risk for a range of diseases. Results: We demonstrate that even a moderate familial association in disease risk implies a very large difference in risk between individuals in the population. We give examples of diseases for which this is likely to be true, and we further demonstrate the relationship between the point estimates of FRRs and the distribution of risk in the populat
Familial Searching is the process of searching in a DNA database for relatives of a certain individual. It is well known that in order to evaluate the genetic evidence in favour of a certain given form of relatedness between two individuals, one needs to calculate the appropriate likelihood ratio, which is in this context called a Kinship Index. Suppose that the database contains, for a given type of relative, at most one related individual. Given prior probabilities for being the relative for all persons in the database, we derive the likelihood ratio for each database member in favour of being that relative. This likelihood ratio takes all the Kinship Indices between the target individual and the members of the database into account. We also compute the corresponding posterior probabilities. We then discuss two methods to select a subset from the database that contains the relative with a known probability, or at least a useful lower bound thereof. One method needs prior probabilities and yields posterior probabilities, the other does not. We discuss the relation between the approaches, and illustrate the methods with familial searching carried out in the Dutch National DNA Datab
We investigate the consequences of adopting the criteria used by the state of California, as described by Myers et al. (2011), for conducting familial searches. We carried out a simulation study of randomly generated profiles of related and unrelated individuals with 13-locus CODIS genotypes and YFiler Y-chromosome haplotypes, on which the Myers protocol for relative identification was carried out. For Y-chromosome sharing first degree relatives, the Myers protocol has a high probability (80 - 99%) of identifying their relationship. For unrelated individuals, there is a low probability that an unrelated person in the database will be identified as a first-degree relative. For more distant Y-haplotype sharing relatives (half-siblings, first cousins, half-first cousins or second cousins) there is a substantial probability that the more distant relative will be incorrectly identified as a first-degree relative. For example, there is a 3 - 18% probability that a first cousin will be identified as a full sibling, with the probability depending on the population background. Although the California familial search policy is likely to identify a first degree relative if his profile is in t
Background: A therapeutic intervention in psychiatry can be viewed as an attempt to influence the brain's large-scale, dynamic network state transitions underlying cognition and behavior. Building on connectome-based graph analysis and control theory, Network Control Theory is emerging as a powerful tool to quantify network controllability - i.e., the influence of one brain region over others regarding dynamic network state transitions. If and how network controllability is related to mental health remains elusive. Methods: From Diffusion Tensor Imaging data, we inferred structural connectivity and inferred calculated network controllability parameters to investigate their association with genetic and familial risk in patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD, n=692) and healthy controls (n=820). Results: First, we establish that controllability measures differ between healthy controls and MDD patients while not varying with current symptom severity or remission status. Second, we show that controllability in MDD patients is associated with polygenic scores for MDD and psychiatric cross-disorder risk. Finally, we provide evidence that controllability varies with famili
Robots are increasingly entering the daily lives of families, yet their successful integration into domestic life remains a challenge. We explore family routines as a critical entry point for understanding how robots might find a sustainable role in everyday family settings. Together with each of the ten families, we co-designed robot interactions and behaviors, and a plan for the robot to support their chosen routines, accounting for contextual factors such as timing, participants, locations, and the activities in the environment. We then designed, prototyped, and deployed a mobile social robot as a four-day, in-home user study. Families welcomed the robot's reminders, with parents especially appreciating the offloading of some reminding tasks. At the same time, interviews revealed tensions around timing, authority, and family dynamics, highlighting the complexity of integrating robots into households beyond the immediate task of reminders. Based on these insights, we offer design implications for robot-facilitated contextual reminders and discuss broader considerations for designing robots for family settings.
We discuss a shift in perspective from traditional approaches to breast cancer risk prediction: modelling families rather than individuals as unit of analysis. By investigating the latent familial risk underlying breast cancer diagnoses, we introduce a Multivariate Shared Frailty Cure-Rate model. This model captures the familial risk as a shared frailty among members and explicitly accounts for a fraction of women not susceptible to breast cancer. We aim at identifying the high-risk families to better target screening and prevention, ultimately improving early detection. A comparative analysis with Cox models and univariate models - where a binary risk indicator acts as best guess for the latent high-risk group - is conducted using simulation studies and data from the Swedish Multi-Generational Breast Cancer registry. We demonstrate the critical importance of using complete family history of breast cancer to accurately identify high-risk families and show that the Multivariate Shared Frailty Cure-Rate model, capturing both the fraction of non-susceptible subjects and the survival distribution among susceptibles, enhances explanatory power, improves prediction accuracy, and offers a
This paper introduces the art project The Dream Within Huang Long Cave, an AI-driven interactive and immersive narrative experience. The project offers new insights into AI technology, artistic practice, and psychoanalysis. Inspired by actual geographical landscapes and familial archetypes, the work combines psychoanalytic theory and computational technology, providing an artistic response to the concept of the non-existence of the Big Other. The narrative is driven by a combination of a large language model (LLM) and a realistic digital character, forming a virtual agent named YELL. Through dialogue and exploration within a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE), the audience is invited to unravel the language puzzles presented by YELL and help him overcome his life challenges. YELL is a fictional embodiment of the Big Other, modeled after the artist's real father. Through a cross-temporal interaction with this digital father, the project seeks to deconstruct complex familial relationships. By demonstrating the non-existence of the Big Other, we aim to underscore the authenticity of interpersonal emotions, positioning art as a bridge for emotional connection and understanding w
We extend Gromov's conjecture on the sharp width estimate for Riemannian bands with positive scalar curvature to the family case and prove that it holds for fiber bundles with infinite family A-hat area. The method we employ is based on Dirac operators and the family index theory. Our proof relies on a product formula for index bundles established in this paper.
Given a contact fibration, we construct smooth families of Szegö projections on the fibers. This allows us to define smooth families of Toeplitz operators. We apply these operators to construct a deformation quantization of prequantizable symplectic fibrations, recovering a result of Kravchenko in an analytic way. We also derive a family index for these families of Toeplitz operators. To this end, we generalize an index formula of Baum and van Erp to families.
We construct a number of topologically trivial but smoothly non-trivial families of embeddings of 3-manifolds in 4-manifolds. These include embeddings of homology spheres in $S^4$ that are not isotopic but have diffeomorphic complements, and families (parameterized by high-dimensional spheres) of embeddings of any 3-manifold that embeds in a blown-up K3 surface. In each case, the families are constructed so as to be topologically trivial in an appropriate sense. We also illustrate a general technique for converting a non-trivial family of embeddings into a non-trivial family of submanifolds.
Online fraud substantially harms individuals and seniors are disproportionately targeted. While family is crucial for seniors, little research has empirically examined how they protect seniors against fraud. To address this gap, we employed an inductive thematic analysis of 124 posts and 16,872 comments on RedNote (Xiaohongshu), exploring the family support ecosystem for senior-targeted online fraud in China. We develop a taxonomy of senior-targeted online fraud from a familial perspective, revealing younger members often spot frauds hard for seniors to detect, such as unusual charges. Younger family members fulfill multiple safeguarding roles, including preventative measures, fraud identification, fraud persuasion, loss recovery, and education. They also encounter numerous challenges, such as seniors' refusal of help and considerable mental and financial stress. Drawing on these, we develop a conceptual framework to characterize family support in senior-targeted fraud, and outline implications for researchers and practitioners to consider the broader stakeholder ecosystem and cultural aspects.
For Van Douwen families, maximal families of eventually different permutations and maximal ideal independent families we show that the existence of a $Σ^1_2$ family implies the existence of a $Π^1_1$ family of the same size. We also prove a similar, but slightly weaker result for generating sets of cofinitary groups.