A Study on Differentiable Logic and LLMs for EPIC-KITCHENS-100 Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Challenge for Action Recognition 2023

In this technical report, we present our findings from a study conducted on the EPIC-KITCHENS-100 Unsupervised Domain Adaptation task for Action Recognition. Our research focuses on the innovative application of a differentiable logic loss in the training to leverage the co-occurrence relations between verb and noun, as well as the pre-trained Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate the logic rules for the adaptation to unseen action labels. Specifically, the model's predictions are treated as the truth assignment of a co-occurrence logic formula to compute the logic loss, which measures the consistency between the predictions and the logic constraints. By using the verb-noun co-occurrence matrix generated from the dataset, we observe a moderate improvement in model performance compared to our baseline framework. To further enhance the model's adaptability to novel action labels, we experiment with rules generated using GPT-3.5, which leads to a slight decrease in performance. These findings shed light on the potential and challenges of incorporating differentiable logic and LLMs for knowledge extraction in unsupervised domain adaptation for action recognition. Our final submission (entitled `NS-LLM') achieved the first place in terms of top-1 action recognition accuracy.Comment: Technical report submitted to CVPR 2023 EPIC-Kitchens challenge

Risk factors associated with postoperative respiratory failure after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer

Aim: Respiratory failure is common after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer (EC). This study aimed to identify the risk factors associated with postoperative respiratory failure following esophagectomy for EC. Methods: A single-center observational study from China was conducted on 262 patients with EC who underwent thoracoscopic esophagectomy between April 2014 and June 2016. The patients were divided into two groups: group I (respiratory failure) and group II (without respiratory failure). Demographic and perioperative variables, tumor-related factors, surgical factors, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores, and clinical course were compared between the groups. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the risk factors of postoperative respiratory failure after esophagectomy. Results: Among the 262 patients, 24 (9.2%) developed respiratory failure. Univariable analysis revealed several risk factors, including age, smoking, comorbidities, partial pressure of oxygen (PO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), forced vital capacity (FVC), FVC percentage (FVC%), urine volume during surgery, and APACHE II score. Multivariable analysis showed that age, comorbidities of diabetes mellitus (DM), FVC%, urine volume during surgery, and APACHE II score were independent predictors of respiratory failure. Specifically, elderly patients (> 65 years) with comorbidities of DM, lower FVC%, higher urine volume during surgery, and elevated APACHE II score were found to be more susceptible to respiratory failure, resulting in prolonged hospitalization and increased healthcare burden. These findings emphasize the importance of considering these factors in the management and care of patients at risk of respiratory failure. Conclusions: As a common complication following esophagectomy for EC. Respiratory failure is significantly associated with age, comorbidities of DM, FVC%, urine volume during surgery, and APACHE II score in the dataset. The findings will contribute to the evaluation of the risk of respiratory failure and guide early intervention strategies in clinical decision-making

Optical bulk-boundary dichotomy in a quantum spin Hall insulator

The bulk-boundary correspondence is a key concept in topological quantum materials. For instance, a quantum spin Hall insulator features a bulk insulating gap with gapless helical boundary states protected by the underlying Z2 topology. However, the bulk-boundary dichotomy and distinction are rarely explored in optical experiments, which can provide unique information about topological charge carriers beyond transport and electronic spectroscopy techniques. Here, we utilize mid-infrared absorption micro-spectroscopy and pump-probe micro-spectroscopy to elucidate the bulk-boundary optical responses of Bi4Br4, a recently discovered room-temperature quantum spin Hall insulator. Benefiting from the low energy of infrared photons and the high spatial resolution, we unambiguously resolve a strong absorption from the boundary states while the bulk absorption is suppressed by its insulating gap. Moreover, the boundary absorption exhibits a strong polarization anisotropy, consistent with the one-dimensional nature of the topological boundary states. Our infrared pump-probe microscopy further measures a substantially increased carrier lifetime for the boundary states, which reaches one nanosecond scale. The nanosecond lifetime is about one to two orders longer than that of most topological materials and can be attributed to the linear dispersion nature of the helical boundary states. Our findings demonstrate the optical bulk-boundary dichotomy in a topological material and provide a proof-of-principal methodology for studying topological optoelectronics.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure

Molecular Dynamics Analysis Reveals Structural Insights into Mechanism of Nicotine N-Demethylation Catalyzed by Tobacco Cytochrome P450 Mono-Oxygenase

CYP82E4, a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, has nicotine N-demethylase (NND) activity, which mediates the bioconversion of nicotine into nornicotine in senescing tobacco leaves. Nornicotine is a precursor of the carcinogen, tobacco-specific nitrosamine. CYP82E3 is an ortholog of CYP82E4 with 95% sequence identity, but it lacks NND activity. A recent site-directed mutagenesis study revealed that a single amino acid substitution, i.e., cysteine to tryptophan at the 330 position in the middle of protein, restores the NND activity of CYP82E3 entirely. However, the same amino acid change caused the loss of the NND activity of CYP82E4. To determine the mechanism of the functional turnover of the two molecules, four 3D structures, i.e., the two molecules and their corresponding cys–trp mutants were modeled. The resulting structures exhibited that the mutation site is far from the active site, which suggests that no direct interaction occurs between the two sites. Simulation studies in different biological scenarios revealed that the mutation introduces a conformation drift with the largest change at the F-G loop. The dynamics trajectories analysis using principal component analysis and covariance analysis suggests that the single amino acid change causes the opening and closing of the transfer channels of the substrates, products, and water by altering the motion of the F-G and B-C loops. The motion of helix I is also correlated with the motion of both the F-G loop and the B-C loop and; the single amino acid mutation resulted in the curvature of helix I. These results suggest that the single amino acid mutation outside the active site region may have indirectly mediated the flexibility of the F-G and B-C loops through helix I, causing a functional turnover of the P450 monooxygenase

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Efficacy and Safety of Cinobufacin Combined with Chemotherapy for Advanced Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background. Cinobufacin is a Chinese patent medicine widely used for breast cancer in China. However, no systematic review and meta-analysis have been published to validate its effects in breast cancer treatment. We, therefore, summarize the efficacy and safety of Cinobufacin combined with chemotherapy in order to provide rigid evidence for its clinical application. Methods. By searching multiple databases incepted to December 2019, the RCTs of breast cancer patients treated with Cinobufacin were screened according to the inclusion criteria, and the meta-analysis and sensitivity analysis were conducted using RevMan5.3. Results. A total of 1163 articles were retrieved, and 16 studies were included. The total sample size was 1331 cases, including 666 cases in the treatment group receiving Cinobufacin combined with chemotherapy and 665 cases in the control group receiving chemotherapy alone. Our study found that the ORR (overall response rate) (RR = 1.35, 95% CI: [1.23, 1.49], P<0.00001), CBR (clinical benefit rate) (RR = 1.14, 95% CI: [1.08, 1.21], P<0.00001), KPS scores (RR = 1.98, 95% CI: [1.45, 2.68], P<0.0001), and pain relief rate (RR = 1.34, 95% CI: [1.01, 1.78] P=0.04 of the Cinobufacin combined with chemotherapy group were better than those of the chemotherapy group, and the difference was statistically significant. Our study also discovered that the tumor markers (CA125, CA153, and CEA) in the Cinobufacin combined with chemotherapy group were lower than those in the chemotherapy group, which heterogeneity was derived from the low-quality literature included in the study, but the results were robust. In addition, in terms of safety, we found that the incidences of gastrointestinal reactions (RR = 0.58, 95% CI: [0.48, 0.70], P<0.00001), liver and kidney damage (RR = 0.57, 95% CI: [0.38, 0.84], P=0.004), and hair loss (RR = 0.61, 95% CI: [0.40, 0.92], P=0.02) in the Cinobufacin combined chemotherapy group were lower than those in the chemotherapy group, and the difference was statistically significant, but the incidences of peripheral neurotoxicity (RR = 0.69, 95% CI: [0.26, 1.85], P=0.46) and myelosuppression (RR = 0.78, 95% CI: [0.46, 1.34], P=0.37) in the combined group were similar to those of the chemotherapy group, and the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions. Cinobufacin combined with chemotherapy can improve the clinical efficacy of breast cancer patients, enhance the quality of life of the patients, reduce the value of tumor markers such as CA125, CA153, and CEA, and lower the occurrence of adverse reactions such as gastrointestinal reactions, liver and kidney damage, and hair loss

WCA-Based Low-PSLL and Wide-Nulling Beampattern Synthesis for Radar Applications

There are many unavoidable array errors in practical scenarios, which would drastically increase the sidelobe level (SLL) and distort the performance of radar systems accordingly. In this paper, an effective beampattern synthesis approach is proposed to realize a low peak sidelobe level (PSLL) and wide-nulling in the presence of array errors, thus improving the consequent performance of the radar. In particular, the covariance matrix of the sidelobe region (CMSR) is incorporated into the optimization. Considering the randomness of array errors, the statistical mean method is adopted to obtain a more accurate calculation of the CMSR in the presence of array errors based on a Monte Carlo trial. To efficiently and effectively solve the optimization problem, an advanced metaheuristic algorithm, i.e., the water cycle algorithm (WCA), is adopted when seeking the corresponding optimal weight vectors. Numerical results are provided and discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach including the results based on a wideband linearly spaced magneto-electric (ME) dipole array