Multi-modal gated recurrent units for image description

Using a natural language sentence to describe the content of an image is a challenging but very important task. It is challenging because a description must not only capture objects contained in the image and the relationships among them, but also be relevant and grammatically correct. In this paper a multi-modal embedding model based on gated recurrent units (GRU) which can generate variable-length description for a given image. In the training step, we apply the convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract the image feature. Then the feature is imported into the multi-modal GRU as well as the corresponding sentence representations. The multi-modal GRU learns the inter-modal relations between image and sentence. And in the testing step, when an image is imported to our multi-modal GRU model, a sentence which describes the image content is generated. The experimental results demonstrate that our multi-modal GRU model obtains the state-of-the-art performance on Flickr8K, Flickr30K and MS COCO datasets.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, magazin

Preparing and characterizing Fe3O4@cellulose nanocomposites for effective isolation of cellulose-decomposing microorganisms

This study developed Fe3O4@cellulose nanocomposites by co-precipitation synthesis for bacteria capture and isolation. By surface modification with cellulose, the Fe3O4@cellulose nanocomposites have 20 nm average particle size and 3.3–24.9 emu/g saturation magnetization. Living bacteria could be captured by the Fe3O4@cellulose nanocomposites and harvested by magnetic field, with high efficiency (95.1%) and stability (>99.99%). By metabolizing cellulose and destroying the Fe3O4@cellulose@bacteria complex, cellulose-decomposing microorganisms lost the magnetism. They were therefore able to be isolated from the inert microbial community and the separation efficiency achieved over 99.2%. This research opened a door to cultivate the uncultivable cellulose-decomposing microorganisms in situ and further characterize their ecological functions in natural environment

The Study of Noncollectivity by the Forward-Backward Multiplicity Correlation Function

We propose a forward-backward multiplicity correlation function $C^N_{FB}$, which is experimentally accessible, to measure the noncollectivity contribution. We find that $C^N_{FB}$ is sensitive to the jet contribution for the particle-rich case. Surprisingly, it will automatically decrease for the particle-rare case. Our study indicates that similar decreasing trend observed previously is mainly driven by particle scarcity instead of jets. The function is studied in Au+Au collision at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV with a multiphase transport model (AMPT). We find that the jet fraction is about 10% at transverse momentum ($p_T$) around 2.5 GeV/$c$ and reaches up to 30% at 3.5 GeV/$c$. The implication of this study in the investigation of the noncollectivity contribution in elliptic anisotropy parameter $v_2$ is also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Resveratrol regulates insulin resistance to improve the glycolytic pathway by activating SIRT2 in PCOS granulosa cells

ScopeInsulin resistance (IR) has a close relationship with the main clinical manifestations of patients with PCOS; hence, the research and development of new drugs to treat PCOS by improving IR is a desiderate task at present. Resveratrol (RES) possesses a variety of beneficial pharmacological functions, such as antioxidation, anti-inflammatory, regulating glucose, and lipid metabolism. However, whether RES could improve IR and the underlying mechanisms remained unclear in PCOS.Methods and resultsSD rats received a high-fat diet and letrozole for 30 days to establish the PCOS model and then intervened with RES for 30 days. The results demonstrated that RES played a protective role on the IR in PCOS rats, which significantly decreased the levels of blood glucose and serum insulin, up regulated the expression of IGF1R, and down regulated the expression of IGF1. In vitro, KGN cells were treated with insulin, RES, and AGK2, respectively. We found that a high dose of insulin (4μg/mL) significantly inhibited KGN cell viability, decreased the level of lactic acid, and increased the level of pyruvate, while RES (25μM) attenuated the growth-inhibitory effect, as well as increased the level of lactic acid and decreased the level of pyruvate after high levels of insulin treatment. Simultaneously, RES up regulated the expression level of the crucial rate-limiting enzymes relating to glycolytic pathways, such as LDHA, HK2, and PKM2. Furthermore, AGK2 remarkably inhibited the expression level of SIRT2, which was similar to the same negative effects processed by insulin. Meanwhile, RES overtly repaired the glycolysis process by reversing the levels of lactic acid and pyruvate, together with up regulating the expression level of LDHA, HK2, and PKM2, after AGK2 treatment.ConclusionRES could effectively improve insulin resistance and restore the glycolysis pathway by regulating SIRT2, which may contribute to attenuating the ovarian damage of PCOS rats and provide a potential treatment for patients with PCOS

Comparative performance evaluation of basalt fiber–modified hot in-place (HIP) recycling asphalt mixtures: site mixture versus lab mixture

The performance improvement of hot in-place recycling asphalt mixtures has been a hot topic recently due to the widespread application of HIP recycling technology. Based on the maintenance project of the provincial pavement G233 Baoying section, basalt fibers were introduced into HIP recycling mixtures. The effect of basalt fiber on the comprehensive performance of recycled mixtures was investigated using high temperature stability tests, cracking resistance tests, water stability tests, and dynamic modulus tests. Moreover, the performance of site mixtures was comparatively investigated with that of lab-made mixtures to further explore the site mixing effect on the mixture performance. The results showed that the recycled mixtures without basalt fiber presented unqualified cracking resistance even though proper mixture design was performed. The addition of basalt fibers could greatly enhance the rutting resistance, low-temperature cracking resistance, and stripping resistance of HIP recycled mixtures by 105.2%, 102.3%, and 46.9%, respectively. Moreover, the mixing method also had a significant impact on the properties of mixtures. The recycled mixtures produced by the site re-mixing method showed inferior performance compared to that of mixtures produced by the lab mixing method. Specifically, the dynamic stability, low temperature failure strain, and stripping point values reduced by 44.1%, 16.2%, and 11.7%, respectively, indicating that the site re-mixing process was not as effective as the lab mixing process due to the weaker blending and mixing procedures of the site equipment. The results could be beneficial for the utilization of basalt fiber in HIP recycling technology

Hepatitis B virus inhibition in mice by lentiviral vector mediated short hairpin RNA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an important cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The major challenges for current therapies are the low efficacy of current drugs and the occurrence of drug resistant HBV mutations. RNA interference (RNAi) of virus-specific genes offers the possibility of developing a new anti-HBV therapy. Recent reports have shown that lentiviral vectors based on HIV-1 are promising gene delivery vehicles due to their ability to integrate transgenes into non-dividing cells. Herein, a lentivirus-based RNAi system was developed to drive expression and delivery of HBV-specific short hairpin RNA (shRNA) in a mouse model for HBV replication.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) in the sera of the mice were analyzed by quantitative sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique, hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) and HBsAg in the livers of the mice were detected by immunohistochemical assay, HBV DNA and HBV mRNA were measured by fluorogenic quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) and quantitative real-time PCR respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Co-injection of HBV plasmids together with the lentivirus targeting HBV shRNA induced an RNAi response. Secreted HBsAg was reduced by 89% in mouse serum, and HBeAg was also significantly inhibited, immunohistochemical detection of HBcAg or HBsAg in the liver tissues also revealed substantial reduction. Lentiviral mediated shRNA caused a significant suppression in the levels of viral mRNA and DNA synthesis compared to the control group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Lentivirus-based RNAi can be used to suppress HBV replication in vivo, it might become a potential therapeutic strategy for treating HBV and other viral infections.</p

Experimental Demonstration of Quantum Entanglement Between Frequency-Nondegenerate Optical Twin Beams

The quantum entanglement of amplitude and phase quadratures between two intense optical beams with the total intensity of 22mW and the frequency difference of 1nm, which are produced from an optical parametric oscillator operating above threshold, is experimentally demonstrated with two sets of unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers. The measured quantum correlations of intensity and phase are in reasonable agreement with the results calculated based on a semi-classical analysis of the noise characteristics given by C. Fabre et al.Comment: Accepted in Opt. Let

Exome sequencing revealed PDE11A as a novel candidate gene for early-onset Alzheimer\u27s disease

To identify novel risk genes and better understand the molecular pathway underlying Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), whole-exome sequencing was performed in 215 early-onset AD (EOAD) patients and 255 unrelated healthy controls of Han Chinese ethnicity. Subsequent validation, computational annotation and in vitro functional studies were performed to evaluate the role of candidate variants in EOAD. We identified two rare missense variants in the phosphodiesterase 11A (PDE11A) gene in individuals with EOAD. Both variants are located in evolutionarily highly conserved amino acids, are predicted to alter the protein conformation and are classified as pathogenic. Furthermore, we found significantly decreased protein levels of PDE11A in brain samples of AD patients. Expression of PDE11A variants and knockdown experiments with specific short hairpin RNA (shRNA) for PDE11A both resulted in an increase of AD-associated Tau hyperphosphorylation at multiple epitopes in vitro. PDE11A variants or PDE11A shRNA also caused increased cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels, protein kinase A (PKA) activation and cAMP response element-binding protein phosphorylation. In addition, pretreatment with a PKA inhibitor (H89) suppressed PDE11A variant-induced Tau phosphorylation formation. This study offers insight into the involvement of Tau phosphorylation via the cAMP/PKA pathway in EOAD pathogenesis and provides a potential new target for intervention