Showing papers by "Xiaohui Xie published in 2023"

T2Ranking: A large-scale Chinese Benchmark for Passage Ranking

Abstract: Passage ranking involves two stages: passage retrieval and passage re-ranking, which are important and challenging topics for both academics and industries in the area of Information Retrieval (IR). However, the commonly-used datasets for passage ranking usually focus on the English language. For non-English scenarios, such as Chinese, the existing datasets are limited in terms of data scale, fine-grained relevance annotation and false negative issues. To address this problem, we introduce T2Ranking, a large-scale Chinese benchmark for passage ranking. T2Ranking comprises more than 300K queries and over 2M unique passages from real-world search engines. Expert annotators are recruited to provide 4-level graded relevance scores (fine-grained) for query-passage pairs instead of binary relevance judgments (coarse-grained). To ease the false negative issues, more passages with higher diversities are considered when performing relevance annotations, especially in the test set, to ensure a more accurate evaluation. Apart from the textual query and passage data, other auxiliary resources are also provided, such as query types and XML files of documents which passages are generated from, to facilitate further studies. To evaluate the dataset, commonly used ranking models are implemented and tested on T2Ranking as baselines. The experimental results show that T2Ranking is challenging and there is still scope for improvement. The full data and all codes are available at https://github.com/THUIR/T2Ranking/

Differential expression profiling of tRNA-Derived small RNAs and their potential roles in methamphetamine self-administered rats

Abstract: Transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) are a novel class of short, non-coding RNAs that are closely associated with the pathogenesis of various diseases. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated their critical functional roles as regulatory factors in gene expression regulation, protein translation regulation, regulation of various cellular activities, immune mediation, and response to stress. However, the underlying mechanisms by which tRFs & tiRNAs affect methamphetamine-induced pathophysiological processes are largely unknown. In this study, we used a combination of small RNA sequencing, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT‒PCR), bioinformatics, and luciferase reporter assays to screen the expression profiles and identify the functional roles of tRFs and tiRNAs in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of methamphetamine self-administration rat models. A total of 461 tRFs & tiRNAs were identified in the NAc of rats after 14 days of methamphetamine self-administration training. Of those, 132 tRFs & tiRNAs were significantly differentially expressed: 59 were significantly upregulated, whereas 73 were significantly downregulated in the rats with methamphetamine self-administration. Decreased expression levels of tiRNA-1-34-Lys-CTT-1 and tRF-1-32-Gly-GCC-2-M2, as well as increased expression levels of tRF-1-16-Ala-TGC-4 in the METH group compared with the saline control were validated by using RT‒PCR. Then, bioinformatic analysis was performed to analyse the possible biological functions of tRFs & tiRNAs in methamphetamine-induced pathogenesis. Furthermore, tRF-1-32-Gly-GCC-2-M2 was identified to target BDNF using the luciferase reporter assay. An altered tsRNA expression pattern was proven, and tRF-1-32-Gly-GCC-2-M2 was shown to be involved in methamphetamine-induced pathophysiologic processes by targeting BDNF. The current study provides new insights for future investigations to explore the mechanisms and therapeutic methods for methamphetamine addiction.

Effects of Tiaopi Xiezhuo decoction on constipation and gut dysbiosis in patients with peritoneal dialysis

Abstract: Abstract Context A Chinese herbal formula, Tiaopi Xiezhuo decoction (TXD), is developed from a classical Chinese prescription Sanhuang Xiexin decoction. Objective To investigate the regulatory effect of TXD on gut dysbiosis, as a treatment of constipation in patients with peritoneal dialysis (PD). Materials and methods The chemical content of TXD was assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography. A total of 29 PD patients were enrolled and treated with TXD orally (3 g crude drug/each/twice/day) for 3 months. Blood and faecal samples were collected at the beginning and end, to determine the changes in biochemical characteristics and gut microbial composition. The stool conditions were asked to be scored. Additional 30 healthy individuals were recruited as a control for the analysis of gut microbiota. Results Although having no significant effects on serum biochemical characteristics, 3-month TXD intervention improved constipation in PD patients: decreased 80% abdominal distention (p < 0.01), increased 2.6-fold sloppy stools (p < 0.05) and eliminated hard stool completely (p < 0.01). The analysis of gut microbiota showed that, compared to the healthy group, the microbial richness was reduced in PD patients. After a 3-month TXD treatment, this reduced richness was raised, and Paraprevotella clara, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 2-146FA, Phascolarctobaterium succinatutens, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 2-1-58FAA, Fusobacterium mortiferum, and Prevotella copri were accumulated in the intestinal flora. Furthermore, the bacterial species enriched by TXD correlated with the improvement of constipation. Discussion and conclusions TXD treatment may improve constipation by modulating gut dysbiosis in PD patients. These findings provide data to support the further application of TXD in the adjuvant treatment of PD.

Long-term outcomes of combined radiofrequency ablation and multipronged ethanol ablation for the treatment of unfavorable hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract: PURPOSE To evaluate the local efficacy, safety, and long-term outcomes of combined radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and multipronged ethanol ablation (EA) in the treatment of unfavorable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to determine the prognostic factors for survival. METHODS Between August 2009 and December 2017, 98 patients with 110 unfavorable HCC nodules who underwent combined RFA and multipronged EA were retrospectively enrolled in the study. Unfavorable HCC was defined as a medium (3.1-5.0 cm) or large (5.1-7.0 cm) HCC nodule, a tumor located at a high-risk site, or a perivascular tumor. The treatment response, overall survival (OS), and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to evaluate the prognostic factors. RESULTS Complete ablation was obtained in 80.9% (89/110) of the tumors after initial treatment. Major complications were observed in 3 (3.1%) patients. The cumulative incidence of local tumor progression (LTP) was 23.5% at five years, and no variable was found to be an independent predictive factor for LTP. The five-year OS and RFS rates were 41.9% and 34.0%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that the serum alpha-fetoprotein level, tumor size, presence of residual tumor after ablation, and extrahepatic metastases were significant prognostic factors for OS (P = 0.023, P = 0.030, P = 0.001, and P = 0.010, respectively). Tumor type and the number of tumors were predictive factors for RFS (P = 0.029 and P = 0.001, respectively). A perivascular tumor was not an independent predictive factor for OS or RFS. CONCLUSION Combined RFA and multipronged EA is a safe and effective treatment for unfavorable HCC, especially for perivascular tumors.

Predictors for quitting smoking in smoking cessation clinics among female smokers in China

Abstract: INTRODUCTION The number of cessation clinics in China have been increasing ever since the Chinese government supported the establishment of smoking cessation clinics (SCCs) in each province in 2014. Many studies have examined smoking cessation behaviors among male smokers, but few of female smokers. This study aimed to understand female smokers’ quitting behaviors in SCCs and identify predictors of successful cessation. METHODS This study used data of the SCCs Platform in China from 2018 to 2020. The self-reported 7-day point prevalence of abstinence rate (PPAR) at 1 month and at 3 months follow-up and the continuous abstinence rate (CAR) at 3 months follow-up are reported based on smokers’ characteristics and intention to treat analysis. A multiple logistic regression model was used to identify predictors of continuous abstinence at 3 months follow-up. RESULTS The 7-day PPAR of female outpatients in SCCs was 29.20% at 1 month follow-up and 28.36% at 3 months follow-up. The CAR at 3 months follow-up was 19.88%. Female smokers who were prepared to quit within 7 days (AOR=2.86; 95% CI: 1.53–5.32), today (AOR=4.01; 95% CI: 2.35–6.85), had started to quit (AOR=7.11; 95% CI: 4.12–12.27), and used a combination of counseling and drugs (AOR=2.41; 95% CI: 1.73–3.35) were more likely to quit smoking. Associated with lower quitting rates were: living in the central region of China (AOR=0.47; 95% CI: 0.31–0.73) and the west region (AOR=0.48; 95% CI: 0.31–0.73); being aged 30–39 years (AOR=0.39; 95% CI: 0.23–0.64), and 40–49 years (AOR=0.41; 95% CI:0.24–0.69); being unemployed (AOR=0.64; 95% CI: 0.45–0.91); having a fair perceived health status at the first visit (AOR=0.65; 95% CI: 0.47–0.91) and a poor one (AOR=0.37; 95% CI: 0.21–0.64); having a moderate nicotine dependence (AOR=0.64; 95% CI: 0.44–0.92) and a severe one (AOR=0.50; 95% CI: 0.34–0.72). CONCLUSIONS In our study, the region of residence, age, employment, perceived health status, Fagerström test for nicotine dependence (FTND), readiness to quit, and intervention model were independent predictors of quitting for female smokers. Improving the motivation to quit, providing intensive psychological interventions and equipping SCCs with cessation medication would assist female smokers to quit.

Representation Recovering for Self-Supervised Pre-training on Medical Images

Abstract: Advances in self-supervised learning have drawn attention to developing techniques to extract effective visual representations from unlabeled images. Contrastive learning (CL) trains a model to extract consistent features by generating different views. Recent success of Masked Autoencoders (MAE) highlights the benefit of generative modeling in self-supervised learning. The generative approaches encode the input into a compact embedding and empower the model’s ability of recovering the original input. However, in our experiments, we found vanilla MAE mainly recovers coarse high level semantic information and is inadequate in recovering detailed low level information. We show that in dense downstream prediction tasks like multi-organ segmentation, directly applying MAE is not ideal. Here, we propose RepRec, a hybrid visual representation learning framework for self-supervised pre-training on large-scale unlabelled medical datasets, which takes advantage of both contrastive and generative modeling. To solve the aforementioned dilemma that MAE encounters, a convolutional encoder is pre-trained to provide low-level feature information, in a contrastive way; and a transformer encoder is pre-trained to produce high level semantic dependency, in a generative way – by recovering masked representations from the convolutional encoder. Extensive experiments on three multi-organ segmentation datasets demonstrate that our method outperforms current state-of-the-art methods.

Clinical Efficacy of 755 nm Laser Treatment of Lip Mucosal Pigmentation in Children with Peutz–Jeghers Syndrome

Abstract: Peutz–Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by multiple gastrointestinal polyps and mucocutaneous pigmentation. Abnormal pigmentation typically develops in infancy or childhood. As PJS-related facial pigmentation can lead to psychological burden due to its effects on esthetics, treatment is required. Herein, we report on the efficacy and safety of treatment of lip mucosal pigmentation using a Q-switched 755 nm Alexandrite Laser in children with PJS, aged 2–12 years of age. A topical anesthetic was used prior to the application of laser therapy. A treatment efficacy of 100% was achieved with one to three treatments, with an excellent outcome achieved in five cases (62.5%) and a good outcome in three (37.5%). Recurrent pigmentation was observed in one case over the 6-month follow-up period. There were no adverse effects, such as scarring or hyperpigmentation or hypopigmentation. The treatment did cause pain, apprehension, and crying in some children, requiring special attention. Although our sample size is small, our findings do provide support of the high efficacy and safety of the Q-switched 755 nm Alexandrite Laser for the treatment of lip mucosal pigmentation in children with PJS. Further studies are required to confirm these findings.

Parameterization of Chinese Ancient Architecture on the Basis of Modulo Relationships

Abstract: Contemporary systems are trending toward 3D computer-aided design systems that integrate, network, and exhibit intelligence. The integration of parametric technology with ancient Chinese architecture can enhance the efficiency and quality of managing information on ancient buildings, thereby expanding the application scenarios of ancient architectural information models. By analyzing the construction characteristics of ancient Chinese carpentry work and modular systems, this research outlines the logic and methods for generating Chinese ancient architecture. The program’s parametric technology allows for adjusting variable parameters to produce carpentry work structures of varying scales and forms. Furthermore, this research establishes a library of parametric 3D components for ancient architecture, which can simplify the design process of contemporary antique architecture. Additionally, the parametrization of Chinese ancient architectures can function as an auxiliary tool for maintenance and repair techniques, serving as a storage mechanism for whole-life cycle information. This can enable the digital archiving of component information and model entities in an informative manner for managing existing ancient architectures.

Along-slope bottom currents driven by dissipation of internal tides in the northeastern South China Sea

Abstract: Recent mooring observations on the continental slope on the east side of the Dongsha Island in the northeastern South China Sea (SCS) showed that an along-slope bottom current can be generated when internal tides obliquely incident to the slope are dissipated near the seafloor. In this study, new mooring data collected on the south side of the Dongsha Island are used to explore the universality of internal wave driven the bottom currents and test the ability of the previous theory in estimating the along-slope current. The data show strong near-bottom energy dissipation due to the critical reflection of diurnal internal tides on the continental slope, with a time-mean depth-integrated dissipation rate of ~4.8×10-3 W/m2. Because of the obliquely incident of diurnal internal tides to the slope, near-bottom dissipation of internal tides generates a southwestward along-slope current, with the maximum velocity exceeding 6 cm/s. By comparing the observations, the previous theory for internal wave induced mean flows developed by Thorpe (1999) shows a good ability to estimate the along-slope bottom current velocity. Based on the theory, as well as modelled energy dissipation on the entire continental slope in the northeastern SCS, a map is obtained to quantitatively describe the along-slope bottom flow caused by internal tide breaking on the slope.

Configuration of the active region for the Ge-on-Si photodetector based on carrier mobility

Abstract: The design of vertical and lateral PIN Ge-on-Si photodetectors was motivated by the disparity in electron and hole mobilities. In the case of vertical PIN junction detectors, configuring the slab region as n-type doping leads to a notable increase in the bandwidth of approximately 20 GHz compared to utilizing p-type doping for the slab. For lateral PIN junction detectors, we determined that setting the length of the n-type slab region to be 2.8 times that of the p-type slab region, based on the carrier saturation drift rate ratio, does not compromise the bandwidth. This configuration enhances the bandwidth while minimizing light absorption loss from the electrode. The proposed design in this study enhances the performance of Ge-on-Si photodetectors without adding complexity to the fabrication process. The principles applied in this study serve as instructive references for the conceptualization of other photonic or electronic devices, reinforcing the widespread applicability of these design strategies.

Electrochemical assembling of nano-MOFs at carbon fiber for the high-performance uric acid sensing

Abstract: Recently, deposition and growth of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) nanostructures at conductive substrate has been revealed as the very inspiring strategy for developing novel sensing platform. Herein, by using facile electrochemical assembling method, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), typical MOFs formed by Zn2+ and 2-methylimidazole, were introduced onto carbon fiber cloth, leading to a sword-like nano-ZIFs modified carbon fiber (SN-ZIFs/CF) platform. The unique morphology, structure, and composition of SN-ZIFs/CF were characterized. Notably, SN-ZIFs/CF could significantly promote the direct electrooxidation of uric acid (UA) with less overpotential and enhanced current density. SN-ZIFs/CF sensor display a superb sensing performance with very broad detection range (0.01-2800 μM) and low detection limit (5.6 nM, S/N = 3). Excellent selectivity, reliability, and stability were also observed. Besides, SN-ZIFs/CF sensor could be regenerated by a simple electrochemical procedure. Moreover, in the UA measurement of normal or hyperuricemia serum, SN-ZIFs/CF sensor showed an extremely reliable and accurate detection results, comparing with the hospital reports. Our results indicated that potentiostatic assembling method could be a preferable electrochemical strategy for the nano-MOFs growing at conductive substrate, which could be used to design and build captivating electrochemical platform for the notable sensors or other electrochemical applications.

UKnow: A Unified Knowledge Protocol for Common-Sense Reasoning and Vision-Language Pre-training

Abstract: This work presents a unified knowledge protocol, called UKnow, which facilitates knowledge-based studies from the perspective of data. Particularly focusing on visual and linguistic modalities, we categorize data knowledge into five unit types, namely, in-image, in-text, cross-image, cross-text, and image-text, and set up an efficient pipeline to help construct the multimodal knowledge graph from any data collection. Thanks to the logical information naturally contained in knowledge graph, organizing datasets under UKnow format opens up more possibilities of data usage compared to the commonly used image-text pairs. Following UKnow protocol, we collect, from public international news, a large-scale multimodal knowledge graph dataset that consists of 1,388,568 nodes (with 571,791 vision-related ones) and 3,673,817 triplets. The dataset is also annotated with rich event tags, including 11 coarse labels and 9,185 fine labels. Experiments on four benchmarks demonstrate the potential of UKnow in supporting common-sense reasoning and boosting vision-language pre-training with a single dataset, benefiting from its unified form of knowledge organization. Code, dataset, and models will be made publicly available.

Hybrid Neural Diffeomorphic Flow for Shape Representation and Generation via Triplane

Abstract: Deep Implicit Functions (DIFs) have gained popularity in 3D computer vision due to their compactness and continuous representation capabilities. However, addressing dense correspondences and semantic relationships across DIF-encoded shapes remains a critical challenge, limiting their applications in texture transfer and shape analysis. Moreover, recent endeavors in 3D shape generation using DIFs often neglect correspondence and topology preservation. This paper presents HNDF (Hybrid Neural Diffeomorphic Flow), a method that implicitly learns the underlying representation and decomposes intricate dense correspondences into explicitly axis-aligned triplane features. To avoid suboptimal representations trapped in local minima, we propose hybrid supervision that captures both local and global correspondences. Unlike conventional approaches that directly generate new 3D shapes, we further explore the idea of shape generation with deformed template shape via diffeomorphic flows, where the deformation is encoded by the generated triplane features. Leveraging a pre-existing 2D diffusion model, we produce high-quality and diverse 3D diffeomorphic flows through generated triplanes features, ensuring topological consistency with the template shape. Extensive experiments on medical image organ segmentation datasets evaluate the effectiveness of HNDF in 3D shape representation and generation.

Case report: A rare case of synchronous mucinous neoplasms of the renal pelvis and the appendix

Abstract: Background Mucinous neoplasms are tumors arising in the epithelial tissue, characterized by excessive mucin secretion. They mainly emerge in the digestive system and rarely in the urinary system. They also seldom develop in the renal pelvis and the appendix asynchronously or simultaneously. The concurrence of this disease in these two regions has not yet been reported. In this case report, we discuss the diagnosis and treatment of synchronous mucinous neoplasms of the right renal pelvis and the appendix. The mucinous neoplasm of the renal pelvis was preoperatively misdiagnosed as pyonephrosis caused by renal stones, and the patient underwent laparoscopic nephrectomy. Herein, we summarize our experience with this rare case in combination with related literature. Case presentation In this case, A 64‐year‐old female was admitted to our hospital with persistent pain in the right lower back for over a year. Computer tomography urography (CTU) showed that the patient was confirmed as right kidney stone with large hydronephrosis or pyonephrosis, and appendiceal mucinous neoplasm (AMN). Subsequently, the patient was transferred to the gastrointestinal surgery department. Simultaneously, electronic colonoscopy with biopsy suggested AMN. Open appendectomy plus abdominal exploration was performed after obtaining informed consent. Postoperative pathology indicated low-grade AMN (LAMN) and the incisal margin of the appendix was negative. The patient was re‐admitted to the urology department, and underwent laparoscopic right nephrectomy because she was misdiagnosed with calculi and pyonephrosis of the right kidney according to the indistinctive clinical symptoms, standard examination of the gelatinous material, and imaging findings. Postoperative pathology suggested a high‐grade mucinous neoplasm of the renal pelvis and mucin residing partly in the interstitium of the cyst walls. Good follow-up results were obtained for 14 months. Conclusion Synchronous mucinous neoplasms of the renal pelvis and the appendix are indeed uncommon and have not yet been reported. Primary renal mucinous adenocarcinoma is very rare, metastasis from other organs should be first considered, especially in patients with long-term chronic inflammation, hydronephrosis, pyonephrosis, and renal stones, otherwise, misdiagnosis and treatment delay may occur. Hence, for patients with rare diseases, strict adherence to treatment principles and close follow‐up are necessary to achieve favorable outcomes.

Fibulin2: a negative regulator of BMSC osteogenic differentiation in infected bone fracture healing

Abstract: Abstract Bone fracture remains a common occurrence, with a population-weighted incidence of approximately 3.21 per 1000. In addition, approximately 2% to 50% of patients with skeletal fractures will develop an infection, one of the causes of disordered bone healing. Dysfunction of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) plays a key role in disordered bone repair. However, the specific mechanisms underlying BMSC dysfunction caused by bone infection are largely unknown. In this study, we discovered that Fibulin2 expression was upregulated in infected bone tissues and that BMSCs were the source of infection-induced Fibulin2. Importantly, Fibulin2 knockout accelerated mineralized bone formation during skeletal development and inhibited inflammatory bone resorption. We demonstrated that Fibulin2 suppressed BMSC osteogenic differentiation by binding to Notch2 and inactivating the Notch2 signaling pathway. Moreover, Fibulin2 knockdown restored Notch2 pathway activation and promoted BMSC osteogenesis; these outcomes were abolished by DAPT, a Notch inhibitor. Furthermore, transplanted Fibulin2 knockdown BMSCs displayed better bone repair potential in vivo. Altogether, Fibulin2 is a negative regulator of BMSC osteogenic differentiation that inhibits osteogenesis by inactivating the Notch2 signaling pathway in infected bone.

Clogging mechanism of bioretention cell with fine-grained soil medium

Abstract: In order to explore the clogging mechanism of bioretention cells containing fine-grained soil medium, four groups of bioretention cell were constructed. The clogging process was studied in bioretention cells, under simulated runoff conditions with varying suspended solid (SS) concentrations, determining the microbial clogging process at different degrees of SS clogging. Results showed that SS caused clogging in the upper and shallow layers of the filler material. When the concentration of SS was low, clogging of the bioretention column occurred mainly in the shallow layer of the filler, while at SS concentrations higher than 300 mg/L, clogging mainly occurred in the upper layer of the filler. Microbial clogging caused by continuous rainfall occurred in all filler layers. Furthermore, bioretention cells suffering from severe clogging by SS were more likely to also suffer from microbial clogging. Microbial clogging can be effectively mitigated by ensuring that the bioretention cell has adequate drying periods, although this approach has a limited effect on the restoration of bioretention cells with a submerged zone. In bioretention cells exhibiting serious physical clogging, the proportion of microbial clogging can reach 44 %. In the practical application of bioretention cells, replacement of the upper filler layer is the most direct method to effectively relieve clogging, while setting a drying period is effective for alleviating microbial clogging. The experimental results revealed the clogging mechanism in the bioretention cell from two aspects, establishing effective approaches for the reduction of filler clogging and providing a theoretical basis for the practical operation of bioretention cells.

Circulating plasma and exosome levels of the miR-320 family as a non-invasive biomarker for methamphetamine use disorder

Abstract: The neurobiological mechanism underlying methamphetamine (MA) use disorder was still unclear, and no specific biomarker exists for clinical diagnosis of this disorder. Recent studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the pathological process of MA addiction. The purpose of this study was to identify novel miRNAs for the diagnosis biomarkers of MA user disorder. First, members of the miR-320 family, including miR-320a-3p, miR-320b, and miR-320c, were screened and analyzed in the circulating plasma and exosomes by microarray and sequencing. Secondly, plasma miR-320 was quantified by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in eighty-two MA patients and fifty age-gender-matched healthy controls. Meanwhile, we also analyzed exosomal miR-320 expression in thirty-nine MA patients and twenty-one age-matched healthy controls. Furthermore, the diagnostic power was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The expression of miR-320 significantly increased in plasma and exosomes of MA patients compared with healthy controls. The AUC of the ROC curves of miR-320 in plasma and exosomes of MA patients were 0.751 and 0.962, respectively. And the sensitivities of miR-320 were 0.900 and 0.846, respectively, whereas the specificities of miR-320 were 0.537 and 0.952, respectively, in plasma and exosomes in MA patients. And the increased plasma miR-320 was positively correlated with cigarette smoking, age of onset, and daily use of MA in MA patients. Finally, cardiovascular disease, synaptic plasticity, and neuroinflammation were predicted to be the target pathways related to miR-320. Taken together, our findings indicated that plasma and exosomal miR-320 might be used as a potential blood-based biomarker for diagnosing MA use disorder.

RNA-Seq and 16S rRNA Reveals That Tian–Dong–Tang–Gan Powder Alleviates Environmental Stress-Induced Decline in Immune and Antioxidant Function and Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis in Litopenaeus vannami

Abstract: Ammonia stress and nitrite stress can induce immune depression and oxidative stress in Litopenaeus vannami (L. vannamei). Earlier reports showed that L. vannamei immunity, resistance to ammonia stress, and resistance to nitrite stress improved after Tian–Dong–Tang–Gan Powder (TDTGP) treatment, but the mechanism is not clear. In this study, three thousand L. vannamei were fed different doses of TDTGP for 35 days and then subjected to ammonia and nitrite stress treatments for 72 h. Transcriptome and 16-Seq ribosomal RNA gene sequencing (16S rRNA-seq) were used to analyze hepatopancreas gene expression and changes in gut microbiota abundance in each group. The results showed that after TDTGP treatment, hepatopancreas mRNA expression levels of immunity- and antioxidant-related genes were increased, the abundance of Vibrionaceae in the gut microbiota was decreased, and the abundance of Rhodobacteraceae and Flavobacteriaceae was increased. In addition, after TDTGP treatment, the effects of ammonia and nitrite stress on the mRNA expression of Pu, cat-4, PPAF2, HO, Hsp90b1, etc. were reduced and the disruption of the gut microbiota was alleviated. In short, TDTGP can regulate the immunity and antioxidant of L. vannamei by increasing the expression levels of immunity- and antioxidant-related genes and regulating the abundance of Rhodobacteraceae and Flavobacteriaceae in the gut microbiota.

The effect of refined nursing education on improving the urination of patients after renal biopsy.

Abstract: BACKGROUND To investigate the clinical effect of better nursing education on patients' postoperative urination after renal biopsy. METHODS In this study, patients who underwent renal biopsy in the Department of Nephrology at our hospital were selected as the observation group (July-December 2018, n = 120) and control group (January-June 2018, n = 110) and received refined nursing education and routine nursing education, respectively. Postoperatively, the causes of dysuria after puncture, the degree of postoperative pain, and the urination mode were compared between the two groups. RESULTS Six patients in the observation group and 23 patients in the control group needed urethral catheterization, accounting for about 5% and 15.2%, respectively. Therefore, the postoperative catheterization rate in the observation group was significantly lower than the control group, with a statistically significant difference. CONCLUSION The refined nursing education proposed in this study can effectively improve urinary dysfunction after renal biopsy and has a clinical promotional value.

[Research progress on chemical structures and pharmacological effects of natural cytisine and its derivatives].

Abstract: Cytisine derivatives are a group of alkaloids containing the structural core of cytisine, which are mainly distributed in Fabaceae plants with a wide range of pharmacological activities, such as resisting inflammation, tumors, and viruses, and affecting the central nervous system. At present, a total of 193 natural cytisine and its derivatives have been reported, all of which are derived from L-lysine. In this study, natural cytisine derivatives were classified into eight types, namely cytisine type, sparteine type, albine type, angustifoline type, camoensidine type, cytisine-like type, tsukushinamine type, and lupanacosmine type. This study reviewed the research progress on the structures, plant sources, biosynthesis, and pharmacological activities of alkaloids of various types.

Dermoscopic features of children scabies

Abstract: Scabies is a common skin disorder, caused by the ectoparasite Sarcoptes scabiei. The scabies mites burrow is highly diagnostic but illegible by the naked eye, because it is tiny and may completely be obscured by scratch and crust. The classic technique is opening the end of an intact mite burrow with a sharp instrument and inspecting its contents in the light microscope under loupe vision. Dermatoscope is a new method to diagnose scabies, with the advantages of non-invasive and more sensitive. This study verified the characteristic manifestations of scabies under dermoscopy. Under the closer examination of the curvilinear scaly burrow, the scabies mite itself may be seen as a dark equilateral triangular structure, which is often referred to as a “jet with contrail.” Besides, this study found that the positive detection rate of microscopic characteristic manifestations under the dermoscopy ordered by the external genitals, the finger seams and the trunk, which were statistically different (P-value < 0.05). Of note, this is the first study to explore the regional distribution of the characteristic dermoscopic manifestations of scabies. We are the first to propose to focus on examining the external genitalia and finger seams with dermoscopy.

Logic Diffusion for Knowledge Graph Reasoning

Abstract: Most recent works focus on answering first order logical queries to explore the knowledge graph reasoning via multi-hop logic predictions. However, existing reasoning models are limited by the circumscribed logical paradigms of training samples, which leads to a weak generalization of unseen logic. To address these issues, we propose a plug-in module called Logic Diffusion (LoD) to discover unseen queries from surroundings and achieves dynamical equilibrium between different kinds of patterns. The basic idea of LoD is relation diffusion and sampling sub-logic by random walking as well as a special training mechanism called gradient adaption. Besides, LoD is accompanied by a novel loss function to further achieve the robust logical diffusion when facing noisy data in training or testing sets. Extensive experiments on four public datasets demonstrate the superiority of mainstream knowledge graph reasoning models with LoD over state-of-the-art. Moreover, our ablation study proves the general effectiveness of LoD on the noise-rich knowledge graph.

Pure Inertial Waves Radiating From Low‐Frequency Flows Over Large‐Scale Topography

Abstract: Mooring data collected at a flat‐topped seamount suggest the generation of pure inertial waves (PIWs; waves with a dominant frequency equal to the local inertial frequency f) by low‐frequency flows over large‐scale topography. Energetic PIWs were observed within a narrow depth range (∼100 m) near the seafloor at the edge of the summit. These waves could be associated with low‐frequency flows. A two‐dimensional nonhydrostatic model was used to show that the observed PIWs are most likely internal wave beams generated by low‐frequency flows over the seamount. Two types of PIWs were identified via observation and model. The first is a PIW that can only travel horizontally. The other propagates upward, with super‐inertial intrinsic frequency that is Doppler‐shifted by the flows to f. Nonlinear triadic interactions among waves with the frequencies [0, f, f] may transfer energy from mean flows to PIWs, promoting energy decay of geostrophic flows over large‐scale topography.