antGLasso: An Efficient Tensor Graphical Lasso Algorithm

The class of bigraphical lasso algorithms (and, more broadly, 'tensor'-graphical lasso algorithms) has been used to estimate dependency structures within matrix and tensor data. However, all current methods to do so take prohibitively long on modestly sized datasets. We present a novel tensor-graphical lasso algorithm that analytically estimates the dependency structure, unlike its iterative predecessors. This provides a speedup of multiple orders of magnitude, allowing this class of algorithms to be used on large, real-world datasets.Comment: 9 pages (21 including supplementary material), 8 figures, submitted to the GLFrontiers workshop at NeurIPS 202

Quantitative assessment of pulmonary edema by nuclear magnetic resonance methods

Journal ArticleConsiderable progress has been made in the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging and nonimaging techniques to the quantitative assessment of pulmonary edema. NMR measurements offer the advantages of being noninvasive, relatively rapid, and easily repeatable. In addition, NMR imaging is suitable for the determination of lung water distribution. Studies of various animal models have shown that NMR techniques can adequately detect and quantify relative changes in lung water content and distribution in various types of experimental lung injury. Preliminary observations in humans suggest that NMR measurement of relative lung water changes in clinical pulmonary edema should be feasible. Although the application of NMR to the assessment of pulmonary edema appears to be very promising, it also poses significant problems that must be solved before it can be established as a standard experimental and clinical method

Determination of lung water content and distribution by nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

Journal ArticleNMR imaging techniques are applicable to the assessment of lung water content and distribution because the NMR signal is, under certain conditions, proportional to tissue proton density. NMR imaging is noninvasive, easily repeatable, free from ionizing radiation, and particularly suitable for the assessment of spatial lung water distribution. Lung water content and distribution have been estimated in excised animal lungs and in intact dead or living animals, under normal conditions and in various types of experimental pulmonary edema. Excised human lungs arid human subjects have also been studied. Published data indicate that measurements of lung water content by NMR imaging techniques are feasible. These techniques estimate lung water spatial distribution with satisfactory accuracy and excellent resolving power. The application of NMR imaging techniques poses several problems and limitations, but available data suggest that most of the problems can be solved. NMR imaging has the potential to become a powerful tool for lung water research. Prospects of clinical application are also encouraging; numerous applications can be foreseen, although lack of mobility of NMR imaging systems may be a significant limitation in critical care medicine

On the Security and Feasibility of Safebook: A Distributed Privacy-Preserving Online Social Network

International audienceSafebook tackles the security and privacy problems of online social networks. It puts a special emphasis on the privacy of users with respect to the application provider and provides defenses against intruders or malicious users. In order to assure privacy in the face of potential violations by the provider, Safebook is designed in a decentralized architecture. It relies on the cooperation among the independent parties that represent the users of the online social network at the same time. Safebook addresses the problem of building secure and privacypreserving data storage and communication mechanisms in a peer-topeer system by leveraging trust relationships akin to social networks in real life. This paper resumes the contributions of [7, 9, 8], and extends the first performance and security evaluation of Safebook

Chemistry and phytotoxicity of secondary metabolites from Mediterranean plants

[ENGLISH] During the three years of my PhD studies, three Mediterranean plants have been analysed, Brassica fruticulosa, Chenopodium album and Malva silvestris. The metabolites obtained by infusion and by using a new extraction procedure, have been purified by different chromatographic techniques (CC, TLC, HLPC, DCCC), while their structural characterisation has been performed by spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques (1H and 13C NMR, UV, IR, CD, ESI MS, MALDI MS, GC MS). The investigation of the three Mediterranean plants has led to the identification of: seven lignans, four neolignans, five sesquilignans, one dilignan, eight C-13 nor-terpenes, three degraded carotenoids, two monoterpenes, one sesquiterpene, one diterpene, nineteen phenol derivatives, one triptammine, one benzaldeid derivative, three allenes and eight cinnamic amides. Among them, thirteen compounds have been isolated for the first time. Absolute stereochemistry of some compounds has been defined through the application of Mosher’s method. Some of the isolated compounds have been tested on seeds of standard plants [Lactuca sativa L (lettuce), Lycopersicon esculentum M. (tomato), Allium cepa L. (onion)] to evaluate their biological activity. The results reported have shown a strong inhibiting effect of many lignans, which inhibit germination and growth of the standard species down to 1 nM concentration. At these concentrations commercial herbicides are usually inactive. Such a potent bioactivity for very diluted solution of lignans suggests further in vitro and in fields investigations, to fully evaluate the potential use of these molecules as natural herbicides. In this thesis the use of FTICR mass spectrometry is also described. In a research project of a nine-months Marie Curie fellowship, this technique has been employed for studying the charge states distribution of Calmodulin and modalities of interaction of the protein in a biological environment. / [ITALIANO] Tre piante spontanee dell’area Mediterranea, Brassica fruticulosa, Chenopodium album e Malva silvestris, sono state sottoposte ad indagine sistematica, allo scopo di definire la natura e le caratteristiche chimiche dei metaboliti secondari prodotti dai tre organismi vegetali. I metaboliti, ottenuti dalle tre piante mediante metodiche infusive ed estrattive, sono stati purificati attraverso tecniche cromatografiche (CC, TLC, DCCC, HPLC) e caratterizzati mediante spettroscopia (UV, IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, CD) e spettrometria di massa (GC-MS, MALDI-MS, ESI-MS). Sono stati in tal modo isolati: sette lignani, quattro neolignani, cinque sesquilignani, un dilignano, otto C-13 nor-terpeni, tre carotenoidi degradati, due monoterpeni, un sesquiterpene, un diterpene, diciannove derivati fenolici, un derivato triptamminico e uno benzaldeidico, tre alleni e otto ammidi cinnamiche. Tredici di questi composti sono stati isolati per la prima volta. Molti dei metaboliti isolati sono stati sottoposti a saggi di fitotossicità su organismi vegetali di riferimento, allo scopo di definirne l’eventuale bioattività. Fra tutti, i composti aventi una struttura di tipo lignanico, hanno mostrato un’intensa attività inibente la germinazione delle specie vegetali testate. E’ inoltre riportato lo studio della modalità di interazione della Calmodulina con il peptide RS20, realizzato durante un periodo speso presso l’Università di Warwick (UK). Tale analisi è stata svolta adoperando uno spettrometro di massa FTICR accoppiato ad una sorgente ESI

Tubulo-interstitial lesions mediate renal damage in adriamycin glomerulopathy

Tubulo-interstitial lesions mediate renal damage in adriamycin glomerulopathy. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between proteinuria, focal sclerosis, and tubulo-interstitial changes in the evolution of renal damage in experimental nephrosis. We utilized an accelerated unilateral model of adriamycin (ADR) nephrosis characterized by morphological changes more severe than in the classical model. The first events in ADR-induced glomerulopathy were epithelial cell damage and proteinuria. Subsequently, tubular casts were formed at the distal level. The cast formation preceded the development of interstitial damage, which was determined by tubular obstruction and breaking of tubular basement membrane (TBM), which in turn promoted an interstitial inflammatory reaction. Despite the severity of tubulo-interstitial damage observed after a long period of heavy proteinuria, the incidence of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSG) was very low. The results of the present study indicate that chronic proteinuria is not necessarily accompanied by the development of focal sclerosis Tubulo-interstitial lesions appear to be the most important determinant for the progression of renal damage in this model

Tbx1 is a negative modulator of Mef2c

The developmental role of the T-box transcription factor Tbx1 is exquisitely dosage-sensitive. In this study, we performed a microarray-based transcriptome analysis of E9.5 embryo tissues across a previously generated Tbx1 mouse allelic series. This analysis identified several genes whose expression was affected by Tbx1 dosage. Interestingly, we found that the expression of the gene encoding the cardiogenic transcription factor Mef2c was negatively correlated to Tbx1 dosage. In vivo data revealed Mef2c up-regulation in the second heart field (SHF) of Tbx1 null mutant embryos compared with wild-type littermates at E9.5. Conversely, Mef2c expression was decreased in the SHF and in somites of Tbx1 gain-of-function mutants. These results are consistent with the described role of Tbx1 in suppressing cardiac progenitor cell differentiation and indicate also a negative effect of Tbx1 on Mef2c during skeletal muscle differentiation. We show that Tbx1 occupies conserved regulatory regions of the Mef2c locus, suggesting a direct effect on Mef2c transcription. However, we also show that Tbx1 interferes with the Gata4→ Mef2c regulatory pathway. Overall, our study uncovered a target of Tbx1 with critical developmental roles, so highlighting the power of the dosage gradient approach that we used

A Pipeline to Evaluate the Effects of Noise on Machine Learning Detection of Laryngeal Cancer

Cases of laryngeal cancer are rising, with diagnosis often involving invasive biopsy procedures. An alternate approach is to identify high-risk patients by analysis of voice recordings which can alert clinical teams to those patients that need prioritisation. We propose a pipeline for evaluating speech classifier performance in the presence of noise. We perform experiments using the pipeline with several classifiers and denoising techniques. Random forest classifier performed best with an accuracy of 81.2% on clean data dropping to 63.8% when noise was added to recordings. The accuracy of all classifiers was reduced by added noise, signal denoising improved classifier accuracy but could not fully reverse the effects of noise. The effects of noise on classification is a complex issue which must be resolved for these detection systems to be implemented in clinical practice. We show that the proposed pipeline allows for the evaluation of classifier performance in the presence of noise

Mild clinical course of covid-19 in 3 patients receiving therapeutic monoclonal antibodies targeting c5 complement for hematologic disorders

© Am J Case Rep, 2020. Objective: Rare co-existance of disease or pathology Background: Patients receiving immunosuppressive therapies might be more susceptible to COVID-19. Conversely, an exaggerated inflammatory response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection might be blunted by certain forms of immunosuppression, which could be protective. Indeed, there are data from animal models demonstrating that complement may be a part of the pathophysiology of coronavirus infections. There is also evidence from an autopsy series demonstrating complement deposition in the lungs of patients with COVID-19. This raises the question of whether patients on anti-complement therapy could be protected from COVID-19. Case Reports: Case 1 is a 39-year-old woman with an approximately 20-year history of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), who had recently been switched from treatment with eculizumab to ravulizumab prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Case 2 is a 54-year-old woman with a cadaveric renal transplant for lupus nephritis, complicated by thrombotic microangiopathy, who was maintained on eculizumab, which she started several months before she developed the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Case 3 is a 60-year-old woman with a 14-year history of PNH, who had been treated with eculizumab since 2012, and was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the time of her scheduled infusion. All 3 patients had a relatively mild course of COVID-19. Conclusions: We see no evidence of increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 in these patients on anti-complement therapy, which might actually have accounted for the mild course of infection. The effect of anti-complement therapy on COVID-19 disease needs to be determined in clinical trials