Modeling Temporal Evidence from External Collections

Newsworthy events are broadcast through multiple mediums and prompt the crowds to produce comments on social media. In this paper, we propose to leverage on this behavioral dynamics to estimate the most relevant time periods for an event (i.e., query). Recent advances have shown how to improve the estimation of the temporal relevance of such topics. In this approach, we build on two major novelties. First, we mine temporal evidences from hundreds of external sources into topic-based external collections to improve the robustness of the detection of relevant time periods. Second, we propose a formal retrieval model that generalizes the use of the temporal dimension across different aspects of the retrieval process. In particular, we show that temporal evidence of external collections can be used to (i) infer a topic's temporal relevance, (ii) select the query expansion terms, and (iii) re-rank the final results for improved precision. Experiments with TREC Microblog collections show that the proposed time-aware retrieval model makes an effective and extensive use of the temporal dimension to improve search results over the most recent temporal models. Interestingly, we observe a strong correlation between precision and the temporal distribution of retrieved and relevant documents.Comment: To appear in WSDM 201

Effects of verbenalin on prostatitis mouse model

AbstractThe aim of this study was to observe the treatment characteristics of verbenalin on a prostatitis mouse model. Give Xiaozhiling injection in the prostate locally to make a prostatitis mouse model. High, medium and low doses of verbenalin were each given to different mouse groups. The amount of water was determined in 14th, 28th. The number of white cells and lecithin corpuscle density in prostatic fluid were determined. Morphological changes in the prostate, testis, epididymis and kidney were detected. Compared with the model control group, the mice treated with high, medium and low doses of verbenalin had significantly increased amounts of water, and prostate white blood cell count and prostate volume density (Vv) were decreased significantly, the density of lecithin corpuscle score increased, and pathologic prostatitis changes were significantly reduced. Pathological change in the testis was significantly reduced and the change in the epididymis was obviously reduced. The thymic cortex thickness and the number of lymphocytes increased significantly and could reduce the renal pathological changes in potential. Verbenalin has a good therapeutic effect on the prostatitis mouse model

Semisupervised hypergraph discriminant learning for dimensionality reduction of hyperspectral image.

Semisupervised learning is an effective technique to represent the intrinsic features of a hyperspectral image (HSI), which can reduce the cost to obtain the labeled information of samples. However, traditional semisupervised learning methods fail to consider multiple properties of an HSI, which has restricted the discriminant performance of feature representation. In this article, we introduce the hypergraph into semisupervised learning to reveal the complex multistructures of an HSI, and construct a semisupervised discriminant hypergraph learning (SSDHL) method by designing an intraclass hypergraph and an interclass graph with the labeled samples. SSDHL constructs an unsupervised hypergraph with the unlabeled samples. In addition, a total scatter matrix is used to measure the distribution of the labeled and unlabeled samples. Then, a low-dimensional projection function is constructed to compact the properties of the intraclass hypergraph and the unsupervised hypergraph, and simultaneously separate the characteristics of the interclass graph and the total scatter matrix. Finally, according to the objective function, we can obtain the projection matrix and the low-dimensional features. Experiments on three HSI data sets (Botswana, KSC, and PaviaU) show that the proposed method can achieve better classification results compared with a few state-of-the-art methods. The result indicates that SSDHL can simultaneously utilize the labeled and unlabeled samples to represent the homogeneous properties and restrain the heterogeneous characteristics of an HSI

Effect of topical application of two Polygala tenuifolia species decoction on guinea pig skin

Purpose: To investigate the effect of the topical decoction of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. and Polygala sibirica L. on a guinea pig model of sore and ulcer.Method: A guinea pig model of sore and ulcer was produced by Staphylococcus aureus, and 80 guinea pigs were evenly divided into eight groups, consisting of five males and five females in each group. Another 10 (5 male and 5 female) guinea pigs were used as the control group. The corresponding liquid medicine was applied to the ulcer site of the animals in each group, and administered the medicine for 6h daily with a continuous applicator for 12 d. Lysozyme content in serum was measured to determine its effects on body tissue morphology.Results: Compared with the control group, the sore skin score of guinea pigs in each dose group of decoction of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. and Polygala sibirica L. was significantly decreased. The skin showed apparent positive pathological changes and serum lysozyme concentration increased significantly (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Decoctions of the two Polygala tenuifolia species exert a good therapeutic effect on the guinea pig model of sore and ulcer for topical use.Keywords: Polygala species, Topical application, Guinea pig, Skin diseases, Lysozyme, Decoctio

Surgical analysis for 106 cases with A-V patterns strabismus

AIM: To analyze the causes and evaluate the surgical effect of A-V patterns strabismus.<p>METHODS: Clinical data of 106 caseswith A-V patterns strabismus in our hospital from January 2011 to December 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. Seventy patients with oblique muscle overaction were performed weakening oblique muscle surgery to treat A-V pattern. Twenty-six patients with no abnormality of oblique muscle and superior and inferior rectus muscle, and with >20^△between gaze up 25° and down 25° in V pattern and with >15^△between gaze up 25° and down 25° in A pattern were performed horizontal rectus muscle transposition to half to one muscle tendon. While ten patients with no obvious abnormality of oblique muscle and vertical rectus muscle, and with ≤20^△between gaze up 25° and down 25° in V pattern and with ≤15^△between gaze up 25°and down 25° in A pattern were only performed horizontal rectus muscle surgery.<p>RESULTS: No A-V patterns was defined asnormotopia and A-V patterns >10^△ was defined as overcorrection or undercorrection after surgery. In 106 cases, V pattern was corrected in 75 cases, overcorrected in 5 cases, undercorrected in 4 cases. A pattern was corrected in 15 cases, overcorrected in 3 cases, undercorrected in 4 cases. Horizontal strabismus >±10^△was defined as overcorrection or undercorrection after surgery. Eighty-five cases were corrected, 11 cases were undercorrected, and 10 cases were overcorrected.<p>CONCLUSION: A-V patterns strabismus was caused mainly by abnormal extraocular muscle. A-V patterns with abnormal oblique movement were treated by oblique surgery and A-V patterns with normal oblique and vertical rectus movement were treated by horizontal rectus muscle transposition, both which corrected A-V patterns. Patients had good distance and near stereopsis postoperation. Binocular weakening oblique muscle surgery can correct primary ocular position, so surgical design of horizontal deviation about A-V patterns strabismus with abnormal oblique muscle was considered

SEPTIN2 suppresses an IFN-γ-independent, proinflammatory macrophage activation pathway

Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) signaling is necessary for the proinflammatory activation of macrophages but IFN-γ-independent pathways, for which the initiating stimuli and downstream mechanisms are lesser known, also contribute. Here we identify, by high-content screening, SEPTIN2 (SEPT2) as a negative regulation of IFN-γ-independent macrophage autoactivation. Mechanistically, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress induces the expression of SEPT2, which balances the competition between acetylation and ubiquitination of heat shock protein 5 at position Lysine 327, thereby alleviating ER stress and constraining M1-like polarization and proinflammatory cytokine release. Disruption of this negative feedback regulation leads to the accumulation of unfolded proteins, resulting in accelerated M1-like polarization, excessive inflammation and tissue damage. Our study thus uncovers an IFN-γ-independent macrophage proinflammatory autoactivation pathway and suggests that SEPT2 may play a role in the prevention or resolution of inflammation during infection

Performance of Photosensors in the PandaX-I Experiment

We report the long term performance of the photosensors, 143 one-inch R8520-406 and 37 three-inch R11410-MOD photomultipliers from Hamamatsu, in the first phase of the PandaX dual-phase xenon dark matter experiment. This is the first time that a significant number of R11410 photomultiplier tubes were operated in liquid xenon for an extended period, providing important guidance to the future large xenon-based dark matter experiments.Comment: v3 as accepted by JINST with modifications based on reviewers' comment

Screening of patients with tuberculosis for diabetes mellitus in China.

Objective  There is a high burden of both diabetes (DM) and tuberculosis (TB) in China, and this study aimed to assess feasibility and results of screening patients with TB for DM within the routine healthcare setting of six health facilities. Method  Agreement on how to screen, monitor and record was reached in May 2011 at a stakeholders' meeting, and training was carried out for staff in the six facilities in July 2011. Implementation started in September 2011, and we report on 7 months of activities up to 31 March 2012. Results  There were 8886 registered patients with TB. They were first asked whether they had DM. If the answer was no, they were screened with a random blood glucose (RBG) followed by fasting blood glucose (FBG) in those with RBG ≥ 6.1 mm (one facility) or with an initial FBG (five facilities). Those with FBG ≥ 7.0 mm were referred to DM clinics for diagnostic confirmation with a second FBG. Altogether, 1090 (12.4%) patients with DM were identified, of whom 863 (9.7%) had a known diagnosis of DM. Of 8023 patients who needed screening for DM, 7947 (99%) were screened. This resulted in a new diagnosis of DM in 227 patients (2.9% of screened patients), and of these, 226 were enrolled to DM care. In addition, 575 (7.8%) persons had impaired fasting glucose (FBG 6.1 to <7.0 mm). Prevalence of DM was significantly higher in patients in health facilities serving urban populations (14.0%) than rural populations (10.6%) and higher in hospital patients (13.5%) than those attending TB clinics (8.5%). Conclusion  This pilot project shows that it is feasible to screen patients with TB for DM in the routine setting, resulting in a high yield of patients with known and newly diagnosed disease. Free blood tests for glucose measurement and integration of TB and DM services may improve the diagnosis and management of dually affected patients

Sialylation of vasorin by ST3Gal1 facilitates TGF-β1-mediated tumor angiogenesis and progression.

ST3Gal1 is a key sialyltransferase which adds α2,3-linked sialic acid to substrates and generates core 1 O-glycan structure. Upregulation of ST3Gal1 has been associated with worse prognosis of breast cancer patients. However, the protein substrates of ST3Gal1 implicated in tumor progression remain elusive. In our study, we demonstrated that ST3GAL1-silencing significantly reduced tumor growth along with a notable decrease in vascularity of MCF7 xenograft tumors. We identified vasorin (VASN) which was shown to bind TGF-β1, as a potential candidate that links ST3Gal1 to angiogenesis. LC-MS/MS analysis of VASN secreted from MCF7, revealed that more than 80% of its O-glycans are sialyl-3T and disialyl-T. ST3GAL1-silencing or desialylation of VASN by neuraminidase enhanced its binding to TGF-β1 by 2- to 3-fold and thereby dampening TGF-β1 signaling and angiogenesis, as indicated by impaired tube formation of HUVECs, suppressed angiogenesis gene expression and reduced activation of Smad2 and Smad3 in HUVEC cells. Examination of 114 fresh primary breast cancer and their adjacent normal tissues showed that the expression levels of ST3Gal1 and TGFB1 were high in tumor part and the expression of two genes was positively correlated. Kaplan Meier survival analysis showed a significantly shorter relapse-free survival for those with lower expression VASN, notably, the combination of low VASN with high ST3GAL1 yielded even higher risk of recurrence (p = 0.025, HR = 2.967, 95% CI = 1.14-7.67). Since TGF-β1 is known to transcriptionally activate ST3Gal1, our findings illustrated a feedback regulatory loop in which TGF-β1 upregulates ST3Gal1 to circumvent the negative impact of VASN