Exploring semantic information in disease: Simple Data Augmentation Techniques for Chinese Disease Normalization

The disease is a core concept in the medical field, and the task of normalizing disease names is the basis of all disease-related tasks. However, due to the multi-axis and multi-grain nature of disease names, incorrect information is often injected and harms the performance when using general text data augmentation techniques. To address the above problem, we propose a set of data augmentation techniques that work together as an augmented training task for disease normalization. Our data augmentation methods are based on both the clinical disease corpus and standard disease corpus derived from ICD-10 coding. Extensive experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of our proposed methods. The results demonstrate that our methods can have up to 3\% performance gain compared to non-augmented counterparts, and they can work even better on smaller datasets

Co-Check: Collaborative Outsourced Data Auditing in Multicloud Environment

With the increasing demand for ubiquitous connectivity, wireless technology has significantly improved our daily lives. Meanwhile, together with cloud-computing technology (e.g., cloud storage services and big data processing), new wireless networking technology becomes the foundation infrastructure of emerging communication networks. Particularly, cloud storage has been widely used in services, such as data outsourcing and resource sharing, among the heterogeneous wireless environments because of its convenience, low cost, and flexibility. However, users/clients lose the physical control of their data after outsourcing. Consequently, ensuring the integrity of the outsourced data becomes an important security requirement of cloud storage applications. In this paper, we present Co-Check, a collaborative multicloud data integrity audition scheme, which is based on BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) signature and homomorphic tags. According to the proposed scheme, clients can audit their outsourced data in a one-round challenge-response interaction with low performance overhead. Our scheme also supports dynamic data maintenance. The theoretical analysis and experiment results illustrate that our scheme is provably secure and efficient

Case study of a rhizosphere microbiome assay on a bamboo rhizome with excessive shoots.

Peer reviewe

The efficacy of homestyle rehabilitation on negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial

ObjectiveSchizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder with a high disability rate that is characterized by negative symptoms such as apathy, hyperactivity, and anhedonia that can make daily life challenging and impair social functioning. In this study, we aim to investigate the effectiveness of homestyle rehabilitation in mitigating these negative symptoms and associated factors.MethodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of hospital rehabilitation and homestyle rehabilitation for negative symptoms in 100 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. The participants were divided randomly into two groups, each persisting for 3 months. The primary outcome measures were the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). The secondary outcome measures included the Positive Symptom Assessment Scale (SAPS), Calgary Schizophrenia Depression Scale (CDSS), Simpson-Angus Scale (SAS), and Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS). The trial aimed to compare the effectiveness of the two rehabilitation methods.ResultsHomestyle rehabilitation for negative symptoms was found to be more effective than hospital rehabilitation, according to the changes in SANS (T = 2.07, p = 0.04). Further analysis using multiple regression indicated that improvements in depressive symptoms (T = 6.88, p < 0.001) and involuntary motor symptoms (T = 2.75, p = 0.007) were associated with a reduction in negative symptoms.ConclusionHomestyle rehabilitation may have greater potential than hospital rehabilitation in improving negative symptoms, making it an effective rehabilitation model. Further research is necessary to investigate factors such as depressive symptoms and involuntary motor symptoms, which may be associated with the improvement of negative symptoms. Additionally, more attention should be given to addressing secondary negative symptoms in rehabilitation interventions

Fine-Tuning Stomatal Movement Through Small Signaling Peptides

As sessile organisms, plants are continuously exposed to a wide range of environmental stress. In addition to their crucial roles in plant growth and development, small signaling peptides are also implicated in sensing environmental stimuli. Notably, recent studies in plants have revealed that small signaling peptides are actively involved in controlling stomatal aperture to defend against biotic and abiotic stress. This review illustrates our growing knowledge of small signaling peptides in the modulation of stomatal aperture and highlights future challenges to decipher peptide signaling pathways in guard cells

The mediating role of negative symptoms in “secondary factors” determining social functioning in chronic schizophrenia

BackgroundChronic schizophrenia is significantly influenced by negative symptoms, with several known contributors to secondary negative symptoms. However, the impact of these factors and negative symptoms on social functioning warrants further exploration.MethodsWe assessed the clinical symptoms, antipsychotic adverse reactions, and social functioning of 283 hospitalized patients with chronic schizophrenia using various standardized interviews and scales. We conducted multiple regression and mediation analyses to elucidate the impact of secondary factors on negative symptoms, and the relationship among these “secondary factors,” negative symptoms, and social functioning.ResultsOur findings identified depressive symptoms, extrapyramidal symptoms, and positive symptoms as significant contributors to secondary negative symptoms. We found that negative symptoms play a notable mediating role in the effect of depressive and positive symptoms on social functioning. However, the relationship between positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and social functioning proved to be intricate.ConclusionOur findings propose that negative symptoms act as pivotal mediators in the correlation between “secondary factors” (including the depressive symptoms and positive symptoms) and social functioning. The treatment of chronic schizophrenia necessitates focusing on key factors such as depressive and positive symptoms, which might significantly contribute to the development of secondary negative symptoms. Further research is essential to clarify the complex relationship among positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and social functioning in schizophrenia

Active ingredients from Chinese medicine plants as therapeutic strategies for asthma: Overview and challenges

Although considerable advance has been made in diagnosing and treating, asthma is still a serious public health challenge. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an effective therapy of complementary and alternative medicine. More and more scientific evidences support the use of TCM for asthma treatment, and active ingredients from Chinese medicine plants are becoming a hot issue. Purpose of review: To summarize the frontier knowledge on the function and underlying mechanisms of the active ingredients in asthma treatments and provide a fully integrated, reliable reference for exploring innovative treatments for asthma. Methods: The cited literature was obtained from the PubMed and CNIK databases (up to September 2020). Experimental studies on the active ingredients of Chinese medicine and their therapeutic mechanisms were identified. The key words used in the literature retrieval were “asthma” and “traditional Chinese medicine” or “Chinese herbal medicine”. The literature on the active ingredients was then screened manually. Results: We summarized the effect of these active ingredients on asthma, primarily including the effect through which these ingredients can regulate the immunologic equilibrium mechanism by acting on a number of signalling pathways, such as Notch, JAK-STAT-MAPK, adiponectin-iNOS-NF-κB, PGD2-CRTH2, PI3K/AKT, Keap1-Nrf2/HO-1, T-bet/Gata-3 and Foxp3-RORγt, thereby regulating the progression of asthma. Conclusion: The active ingredients from Chinese medicine have multilevel effects on asthma by regulating the immunologic equilibrium mechanism or signalling pathways, giving them great clinical value. However, the safety and functional mechanism of these ingredients still must be further determined

Molecular classification of small cell lung cancer subtypes: Characteristics, prognostic factors, and clinical translation

Abstract. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly malignant tumor with a very poor prognosis; therefore, more effective treatments are urgently needed for patients afflicted with the disease. In recent years, emerging molecular classifications based on key transcription factors of SCLC have provided more information on the tumor pathophysiology, metastasis, immune microenvironment, and acquired therapeutic resistance and reflected the intertumoral heterogeneity of the various SCLC phenotypes. Additionally, advances in genomics and single-cell sequencing analysis have further revealed the high intratumoral heterogeneity and plasticity of the disease. Herein, we review and summarize these recent lines of evidence and discuss the possible pathogenesis of SCLC

TIPE2 negatively regulates inflammation by switching arginine metabolism from nitric oxide synthase to arginase.

TIPE2, the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-induced protein 8-like 2 (TNFAIP8L2), plays an essential role in maintaining immune homeostasis. It is highly expressed in macrophages and negatively regulates inflammation through inhibiting Toll-like receptor signaling. In this paper, we utilized RAW264.7 cells stably transfected with a TIPE2 expression plasmid, as well as TIPE2-deficient macrophages to study the roles of TIPE2 in LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) and urea production. The results showed that TIPE2-deficiency significantly upregulated the levels of iNOS expression and NO production in LPS-stimulated macrophages, but decreased mRNA levels of arginase I and urea production. However, TIPE2 overexpression in macrophages was capable of downregulating protein levels of LPS-induced iNOS and NO, but generated greater levels of arginase I and urea production. Furthermore, TIPE2-/- mice had higher iNOS protein levels in lung and liver and higher plasma NO concentrations, but lower levels of liver arginase I compared to LPS-treated WT controls. Interestingly, significant increases in IκB degradation and phosphorylation of JNK, p38, and IκB were observed in TIPE2-deficient macrophages following LPS challenge. These results strongly suggest that TIPE2 plays an important role in shifting L-arginase metabolism from production of NO to urea, during host inflammatory response