AdaDiff: Adaptive Step Selection for Fast Diffusion

Diffusion models, as a type of generative models, have achieved impressive results in generating images and videos conditioned on textual conditions. However, the generation process of diffusion models involves denoising for dozens of steps to produce photorealistic images/videos, which is computationally expensive. Unlike previous methods that design ``one-size-fits-all'' approaches for speed up, we argue denoising steps should be sample-specific conditioned on the richness of input texts. To this end, we introduce AdaDiff, a lightweight framework designed to learn instance-specific step usage policies, which are then used by the diffusion model for generation. AdaDiff is optimized using a policy gradient method to maximize a carefully designed reward function, balancing inference time and generation quality. We conduct experiments on three image generation and two video generation benchmarks and demonstrate that our approach achieves similar results in terms of visual quality compared to the baseline using a fixed 50 denoising steps while reducing inference time by at least 33%, going as high as 40%. Furthermore, our qualitative analysis shows that our method allocates more steps to more informative text conditions and fewer steps to simpler text conditions.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Triptolide induces cell apoptosis in human stomach cancer cell via caspase 3-dependent cascade pathway

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of triptolide on the induction of cell apoptosis in human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells.Methods: The cytotoxicity of triptolide was evaluated by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The effect of triptolide on cell proliferation was measured using lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay. Cell apoptosis was determined by Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) double-staining assay.Results: MTT results indicate that triptolide significantly decreased cancer cell numbers in dose- and time-dependent manners in MTT assay. Data from LDH assay showed that triptolide markedly induced cytotoxicity in gastric cancer cells. Triptolide also remarkably induced both early and late apoptotic process in BGC-823 cells. In addition, the compound down-regulated the expression of anti-apoptotic Bcell lymphoma-2 (bcl-2) and up-regulated the expression of pro-apoptotic BCL-2-associated X (bax) in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the pro-apoptotic activity of triptolide was involved in the activation of caspase-3 pathway in BGC-823 cells.Conclusion: Taken together, the findings strongly indicates that the pro-apoptotic activity of triptolide is regulated by caspase 3-dependent cascade pathway, and thus needs to be further developed for cancer therapy.Keywords: Triptolide, Gastric cancer therapy, Apoptosis, Cytotoxicity, Caspas

PLOD1 contributes to proliferation and glycolysis in hepatocellular carcinoma by regulating E2F1

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of procollagen-lysine 1,2-oxoglutarate 5-dioxygenase 1 (PLOD1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: HCC cells were subjected to loss of function assays via transfection with siRNA targeting PLOD1. Colony formation and cell counting kit 8 (CCK8) were used to determine cell proliferation. Cell cycle was evaluated by flow cytometry while extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) levels, glucose consumption, and lactate production were determined to investigate aerobic glycolysis. Results: PLOD1 was significantly up-regulated in HCC tissues and cells compared to normal tissues and cells (p < 0.001). Silencing of PLOD1 significantly repressed cell proliferation (p < 0.001) and induced cell cycle arrest in HCC at the G1 phase. ECAR levels, glucose consumption, and lactate production in HCC were reduced by knockdown of PLOD1. Loss of PLOD1 down-regulated the expression of E2F1, while over-expression of E2F1 attenuated PLOD1 knockdown-induced decreases in cell viability, glucose consumption, and lactate production in HCC. Conclusion: Knockdown of PLOD1 inhibits cell proliferation and aerobic glycolysis in HCC via down-regulation of E2F1. Thus, PLOD1 may help in developing an effective strategy for the management of liver cancer

Layer-dependent transport properties in the Moir\'e of strained homobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides

Bilayer moir\'e structures have attracted significant attention recently due to their spatially modulated layer degrees of freedom. However, the layer-dependent transport mechanism in the moir\'e structures is still a problem to be explored. Here we investigate the layer-dependent transport properties regulated by the strain, the interlayer bias and the number of moir\'e periods in a strained moir\'e homobilayer TMDs nanoribbon based on low-energy efficient models. The charge carriers can pass perfectly through the scattering region with the moir\'e potential. While, it is noted that the overall transmission coefficient is mainly contributed from either intralayer or interlayer transmissions. The transition of transport mechanism between intralayer and interlayer transmissions can be achieved by adjusting the strain. The intralayer transmissions are suppressed and one of the interlayer transmissions can be selected by a vertical external electric field, which can cause a controllable layer polarization. Moreover, the staggered intralayer and interlayer minigaps are formed as the number of moir\'e periods increases in the scattering region due to the overlap of the wave functions in two adjacent moir\'e periods. Our finding points to an opportunity to realize layer functionalities by the strain and electric field.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Susceptibility of kuruma shrimp to the infection with Decapod iridescent virus 1

Infection with Decapod iridescent virus 1 (iDIV1), an important emerging disease of shrimps and crabs, has been included in the Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Report (QAAD) by the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and listed by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). China has classified iDIV1 as a Class II animal pandemic disease. In the present study, to determine the susceptibility of Penaeus japonicus to Decapod iridescent virus 1 (DIV1), healthy kuruma shrimp were artificially infected with DIV1 (isolate SHIV 20141215) by per os (the pathway that mimics natural transmission) and intramuscular injection (invasive pathway). The infected P. japonicus showed clinical signs such as anorexia, retardation, evident reddish body, swollen and whitish lymphoid organs, and mortalities of almost 100%. Real-time PCR showed that all the challenged individuals by per os or intramuscular routes were DIV1-positive with an average virus load between 10(9.09 ± 0.58) and 10(8.94 ± 0.45) copies/μg-DNA, respectively. Histological examination revealed karyopyknosis, and eosinophilic inclusions and minute basophilic stains were combined in lymphoid organs, hematopoietic tissue and gills of diseased individuals. In addition, lymphoid organs showed disorganization of the tubule matrix. In situ DIG-labeling loop-mediated isothermal amplification (ISDL) also demonstrated the presence of DIV1 signals existed in lymphoid organs, hemopoietic tissue, gills, epithelial tissue, hepatopancreas and muscle. Ultrathin sections examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the presence of DIV1 virions, the virogenic stroma, and the nucleocapsid production process in infected cells. In addition, pathogen surveillance of cultured samples showed that the DIV1 detection rate of farmed P. japonicus samples from five coastal provinces in China was 5.3% (9/157) in 2022. The results mentioned above support that P. japonicus is a newly confirmed susceptible host for DIV1, enhancing the pathogen ecological understanding of pathogens and giving more support for developing DIV1 preventive and control strategies

Surface-Based Regional Homogeneity in First-Episode, Drug-Naive Major Depression: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Background. Previous volume-based regional homogeneity (ReHo) studies neglected the intersubject variability in cortical folding patterns. Recently, surface-based ReHo was developed to reduce the intersubject variability and to increase statistical power. The present study used this novel surface-based ReHo approach to explore the brain functional activity differences between first-episode, drug-naive MDD patients and healthy controls. Methods. Thirty-three first-episode, drug-naive MDD patients and 32 healthy controls participated in structural and resting-state fMRI scans. MDD patients were rated with a 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression prior to the scan. Results. In comparison with the healthy controls, MDD patients showed reduced surface-based ReHo in the left insula. There was no increase in surface-based ReHo in MDD patients. The surface-based ReHo value in the left insula was not significantly correlated with the clinical information or the depressive scores in the MDD group. Conclusions. The decreased surface-based ReHo in the left insula in MDD may lead to the abnormal top-down cortical-limbic regulation of emotional and cognitive information. The surface-based ReHo may be a useful index to explore the pathophysiological mechanism of MDD.</p