MODIFICATION OF COLLAGEN FOR HIGH Cr (III) ADSORPTION

Collagen has an ability to coordinate with chromium (III) salts which is mostly determined by the amount of pendent carboxyl groups on the backbone of collagen. Based on this principle, when an oxazolidine derivative which contains carboxyl group and oxazolidine ring was synthesized and used as a modification agent, a novel collagen fiber-based high Cr (III) adsorption material was developed. In contrast to unmodified collagen fiber, the hydrothermal stability of the modified collagen fiber increased from 63.1°C to 78.8°C and the maximum adsorption capacity (Amax) of Cr3+ increased from 41mg/g to 143mg/g (Cr3+/ collagen) with a pH value of 4.0. In the waste water from a leather tannery treated with the modified collagen fiber, the Cr2O3 content decreased from 1.76g/L to 0.06g/L. Investigation of high chromium adsorption mechanism indicates that the increased number of carboxyl groups attached to the backbone of collagen and the intrinsic carboxyl groups of collagen coordinate together with chromium (III) and form uni- or multi-point bound chromium complexes, which seems to contribute to the modified collagen high chromium (III) adsorption.ResumenEl colágeno tiene la habilidad de coordinar con sales de cromo (III) determinada principalmente por la cantidad de grupos carboxilo pendientes en la columna vertebral del colágeno. Basándose en este principio, cuando fue sintetizado un derivado de la oxazolidina, el cual contiene grupos carboxilos y un anillo de oxazolidina, y utilizado como agente de modificación, una novedosa fibra de colágeno basada en alta adsorción de Cr (III) fue desarrollada. En contraste con la fibra de colágeno no modificada, la estabilidad hidrotérmica de la fibra de colágeno modificada aumentó de 63.1°C a 78.8°C y la capacidad máxima de adsorción (Amax) del Cr3+ aumentó de 41mg/g a 143mg/g (Cr3+/ colageno), a un valor pH de 4.0. En las aguas residuales procedentes de una curtiembre, cuyos cueros fueron tratados con esta modificación de la fibra de colágeno, el contenido de Cr2O3 decreció de 1.76g/l a 0.06g/l. La investigación del mecanismo de la alta adsorción del cromo indica que el aumento del número de grupos carboxilo unidas a la columna vertebral de colágeno y los grupos carboxilos intrínsecos del colágeno se coordinan juntos con el cromo (III) y forma enlaces uni o multi-punto con el complejo de cromo, lo que parece contribuir a modificar la alta adsorción de cromo (III) por el colágeno

GumbelSoft: Diversified Language Model Watermarking via the GumbelMax-trick

Large language models (LLMs) excellently generate human-like text, but also raise concerns about misuse in fake news and academic dishonesty. Decoding-based watermark, particularly the GumbelMax-trick-based watermark(GM watermark), is a standout solution for safeguarding machine-generated texts due to its notable detectability. However, GM watermark encounters a major challenge with generation diversity, always yielding identical outputs for the same prompt, negatively impacting generation diversity and user experience. To overcome this limitation, we propose a new type of GM watermark, the Logits-Addition watermark, and its three variants, specifically designed to enhance diversity. Among these, the GumbelSoft watermark (a softmax variant of the Logits-Addition watermark) demonstrates superior performance in high diversity settings, with its AUROC score outperforming those of the two alternative variants by 0.1 to 0.3 and surpassing other decoding-based watermarking methods by a minimum of 0.1

Dynamic proteomic changes in soft wheat seeds during accelerated ageing

Previous research demonstrated that soft wheat cultivars have better post-harvest storage tolerance than harder cultivars during accelerated ageing. To better understand this phenomenon, a tandem mass tag-based quantitative proteomic analysis of soft wheat seeds was performed at different storage times during accelerated ageing (germination ratios of 97%, 45%, 28%, and 6%). A total of 1,010 proteins were differentially regulated, of which 519 and 491 were up- and downregulated, respectively. Most of the differentially expressed proteins were predicted to be involved in nutrient reservoir, enzyme activity and regulation, energy and metabolism, and response to stimulus functions, consistent with processes occurring in hard wheat during artificial ageing. Notably, defense-associated proteins including wheatwin-2, pathogenesis-related proteins protecting against fungal invasion, and glutathione S-transferase and glutathione synthetase participating in reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification, were upregulated compared to levels in hard wheat during accelerated ageing. These upregulated proteins might be responsible for the superior post-harvest storage-tolerance of soft wheat cultivars during accelerated ageing compared with hard wheat. Although accelerated ageing could not fully mimic natural ageing, our findings provided novel dynamic proteomic insight into soft wheat seeds during seed deterioration

TRACE: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Continual Learning in Large Language Models

Aligned large language models (LLMs) demonstrate exceptional capabilities in task-solving, following instructions, and ensuring safety. However, the continual learning aspect of these aligned LLMs has been largely overlooked. Existing continual learning benchmarks lack sufficient challenge for leading aligned LLMs, owing to both their simplicity and the models' potential exposure during instruction tuning. In this paper, we introduce TRACE, a novel benchmark designed to evaluate continual learning in LLMs. TRACE consists of 8 distinct datasets spanning challenging tasks including domain-specific tasks, multilingual capabilities, code generation, and mathematical reasoning. All datasets are standardized into a unified format, allowing for effortless automatic evaluation of LLMs. Our experiments show that after training on TRACE, aligned LLMs exhibit significant declines in both general ability and instruction-following capabilities. For example, the accuracy of llama2-chat 13B on gsm8k dataset declined precipitously from 28.8\% to 2\% after training on our datasets. This highlights the challenge of finding a suitable tradeoff between achieving performance on specific tasks while preserving the original prowess of LLMs. Empirical findings suggest that tasks inherently equipped with reasoning paths contribute significantly to preserving certain capabilities of LLMs against potential declines. Motivated by this, we introduce the Reasoning-augmented Continual Learning (RCL) approach. RCL integrates task-specific cues with meta-rationales, effectively reducing catastrophic forgetting in LLMs while expediting convergence on novel tasks

Advancing crush syndrome management: the potent role of Sodium zirconium cyclosilicate in early hyperkalemia intervention and survival enhancement in a rat model

Background: Crush Syndrome (CS), a severe trauma resulting from prolonged muscle compression, is commonly seen in large-scale disasters such as earthquakes. It not only causes localized tissue damage but also triggers electrolyte imbalances, particularly hyperkalemia, increasing the risk of early mortality. This study aims to assess the early intervention effects of Sodium Zirconium Cyclosilicate (SZC) on hyperkalemia in rat CS model.Methods: A rat CS model was established using a self-developed multi-channel intelligent small-animal crush injury platform. Rats in the experimental groups were treated with varying doses of SZC before compression and immediately post-decompression. The efficacy of SZC was evaluated by continuous monitoring of blood potassium levels and survival rates. Serum creatinine (Cre) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels were analyzed, and renal damage was assessed through histopathological examination.Results: SZC treatment significantly reduced blood potassium levels and improved survival rates in rats. Compared to the placebo group, the SZC-treated rats showed a significant decrease in blood potassium levels at 6 and 12 h post-decompression, maintaining lower levels at 24 h. Biochemical analysis indicated no significant impact of SZC on renal function, with no notable differences in Cre and BUN levels between groups. Histopathological findings revealed similar levels of renal damage in both groups.Conclusion: SZC demonstrates significant early intervention effects on hyperkalemia in a rat model of crush injury, effectively improving survival rates without adverse effects on renal function. These results provide a new strategic direction for the clinical treatment of Crush Syndrome and lay the foundation for future clinical applications

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

GLI-Net: A global and local interaction network for accurate classification of gastrointestinal diseases in endoscopic images

The accurate classification of gastrointestinal diseases from endoscopic images is essential for early detection and treatment. However, current methods face challenges in effectively integrating both global and local features, which limits their ability to capture both broad semantic information and subtle lesion details, ultimately affecting classification performance. To address this issue, this study introduces a novel deep learning framework, the Global and Local Interaction Network (GLI-Net). The GLI-Net consists of four main components: a Global Branch Module (GB) designed to extract global image features, a Local Branch Module (LB) focused on capturing detailed lesion features, an Information Exchange Module (LEM) that facilitates bidirectional information exchange and fusion between the global and local features, and an Adaptive Feature Fusion and Enhancement Module (AFE) aimed at optimizing the fused features. By integrating these modules, GLI-Net effectively captures and combines multi-level feature information, which improves both the accuracy and robustness of endoscopic image classification. Experiments conducted using the Kvasir and Hyper-Kvasir public datasets demonstrate that GLI-Net outperforms existing state-of-the-art models across several metrics, including accuracy, F1 score, precision, and recall. Additionally, ablation studies confirm the contribution of each module to the overall system performance. In summary, GLI-Net’s advanced feature extraction and fusion techniques significantly enhance medical endoscopic image classification, highlighting its potential for use in complex medical image analysis tasks