On Generalization and Computation of Tukey's Depth: Part I

Tukey's depth offers a powerful tool for nonparametric inference and estimation, but also encounters serious computational and methodological difficulties in modern statistical data analysis. This paper studies how to generalize and compute Tukey-type depths in multi-dimensions. A general framework of influence-driven polished subspace depth, which emphasizes the importance of the underlying influence space and discrepancy measure, is introduced. The new matrix formulation enables us to utilize state-of-the-art optimization techniques to develop scalable algorithms with implementation ease and guaranteed fast convergence. In particular, half-space depth as well as regression depth can now be computed much faster than previously possible, with the support from extensive experiments. A companion paper is also offered to the reader in the same issue of this journal

A review of argasid ticks and associated pathogens of China

It has been recorded 221 species of soft ticks in the world. However, the classification system of Argasidae is still unclear with nearly two-third controversial species in genus level. Therefore, comprehensive research is still necessary. In 2016, Wen and Chen overviewed the valid species of soft ticks in China for the first time. Up to now, the soft tick fauna of China remains poorly known. Although several studies have been undertaken, the information regarding soft ticks and associated diseases are fragmentary. To facilitate the future study of this group, the scattered information on soft ticks of China is herein synthesized. Toward the end of 2021, 15 valid species of argasid ticks have been reported, of these, 9 species (60%) including Argas beijingensis, A. japonicus, A. persicus, A. sinensis, A. vespertilionis, A. vulgaris, Ornithodoros lahorensis, O. tartakovskyi, and O. papillipes have been recorded biting humans. Argas persicus is the most common species, and its borne pathogens are widely investigated, while most other argasid ticks are not sufficiently studied in China. Here, we summarize detailed information regarding hosts, geographical distribution, molecular data, and vector roles of argasid ticks in China

Influence of Croton tiglium seeds on the pharmacokinetics of anthraquinones in Radix et Rhizoma Rhei

In this study, the influence of Croton tiglium seeds on the pharmacokinetic of rhein in Radix et Rhizoma Rhei was performed to elucidate the compatibility relationship of these two herbs. The pharmacokinetics of rhein was studied following oral administration of pure rhein, Radix et Rhizoma Rhei methanol extract (RE) and Radix et Rhizoma Rhei and seeds of Croton tiglium mathanol extract (RCE), with approximately the same dose of 10mg/kg. It was found that comparing with that in monomer, both AUC and Cmax of rhein in RE and different proportion of RCE were significantly different. The results indicated that comparing with the monomer, the concentration of rhein in the plasma was increased in the group of RE whereas the tendency of AUC and Cmax of rhein in RCE presented quite discrepancy depending on the different proportion of RCE.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Biotransformation of rhizoma Paridis saponins by rat intestinal microflora

Rhizoma Paridis saponins (RPS) were considered to be the principal bioactive components of Paris polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis. Intestinal microflora-mediated metabolism may affect their pharmacological activities in vivo. In this study, the biotransformation of RPS by rat intestinal microflora in vitro was investigated. A high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization combined with mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) method was developed to identify RPS and their metabolites. The metabolism of RPS by rat intestinal microflora was mainly based on cleavage of the oligosaccharide chains which is connected to the C-3 or C-22 position. However, the elimination of the glucose molecule at C-26 and F-ring closure occurred firstly in prototype saponins. In addition, the biotransformation routes of RPS in the presence of rat intestinal microflora were elaborated, from which RPS were presumed primarily responsible for the metabolism via α-rhamnosidase and β-glycosidase activities. These results would contribute to understanding of the mechanisms in bioavailability of herbal drugs and their metabolites.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Influence of Croton tiglium seeds on the pharmacokinetics of anthraquinones in Radix et Rhizoma Rhei

In this study, the influence of Croton tiglium seeds on the pharmacokinetic of rhein in Radix et Rhizoma Rhei was performed to elucidate the compatibility relationship of these two herbs. The pharmacokinetics of rhein was studied following oral administration of pure rhein, Radix et Rhizoma Rhei methanol extract (RE) and Radix et Rhizoma Rhei and seeds of Croton tiglium mathanol extract (RCE), with approximately the same dose of 10mg/kg. It was found that comparing with that in monomer, both AUC and Cmax of rhein in RE and different proportion of RCE were significantly different. The results indicated that comparing with the monomer, the concentration of rhein in the plasma was increased in the group of RE whereas the tendency of AUC and Cmax of rhein in RCE presented quite discrepancy depending on the different proportion of RCE.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Move as You Say, Interact as You Can: Language-guided Human Motion Generation with Scene Affordance

Despite significant advancements in text-to-motion synthesis, generating language-guided human motion within 3D environments poses substantial challenges. These challenges stem primarily from (i) the absence of powerful generative models capable of jointly modeling natural language, 3D scenes, and human motion, and (ii) the generative models' intensive data requirements contrasted with the scarcity of comprehensive, high-quality, language-scene-motion datasets. To tackle these issues, we introduce a novel two-stage framework that employs scene affordance as an intermediate representation, effectively linking 3D scene grounding and conditional motion generation. Our framework comprises an Affordance Diffusion Model (ADM) for predicting explicit affordance map and an Affordance-to-Motion Diffusion Model (AMDM) for generating plausible human motions. By leveraging scene affordance maps, our method overcomes the difficulty in generating human motion under multimodal condition signals, especially when training with limited data lacking extensive language-scene-motion pairs. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach consistently outperforms all baselines on established benchmarks, including HumanML3D and HUMANISE. Additionally, we validate our model's exceptional generalization capabilities on a specially curated evaluation set featuring previously unseen descriptions and scenes.Comment: CVPR 2024; 16 page

Species delimitation of the Dermacentor ticks based on phylogenetic clustering and niche modeling

Three species belonging to the genus Dermacentor (Acari: Ixodidae), D. marginatus, D. nuttalli and D. silvarum are well known as vectors for a great variety of infection pathogens. All three of them are host ticks, which are very similar in morphology characteristics, life cycle, seasonal variation and ecological conditions, making it difficult to distinguish the three species. In the present study, these three species were delimitated based on molecular data and ecological niche. The molecular analysis showed that the three species can be distinguished by COI and ITS2 sequences. We created future potential distribution maps for the three species under climate changes with MaxEnt, which highlighted the different levels of the suitable habitats for each tick species. In addition, niche comparisons among the three species in Dermacentor were conducted, and the analysis suggested that niche overlap was relatively high with D. nuttalli and D. silvarum compared to the other species pairs, which was consistent with the molecular data. Niche equivalency and similarity test confirmed that these Dermacentor species were closely related but distinct species. In conclusion, delimitation of these three species within Dermacentor was supported by molecular phylogeny and quantitative ecological space. This study will provide deep insights into the biology, ecology, and diversification processes within Dermacentor species, and for the development of effective control for ticks

Glycyrrhizic acid-phospholipid complex: preparation process optimization and therapeutic and pharmacokinetic evaluation in rats

The purpose of the present study was to prepare glycyrrhizic acid-phospholipid complex (GL-PLC) as to improve the oral bioavailability of glycyrrhizic acid (GL), enhance the drug efficacy and reduce the side effects. The uniform experimental design approach was utilized for the process optimization in order to obtain the satisfactory complex. The results of comparison between GL-PLC and free GL indicated that the anti-inflammatory activity of the phospholipid complex was significantly higher than that of free GL at the same dose. The results of pharmacokinetic study displayed that the plasma concentration of glycyrrhetic acid, the metabolite of GL in vivo, increased after oral administration of GL-PLC. The Cmax of GL-PLC was 2.14 times higher than that of free glycyrrhizic acid, while the AUC of GL-PLC was 1.74 times higher than that of free GL. The results proved that GL-PLC improved the lipophilic property of GL, increased the bioavailability and anti-inflammatory activity.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Seasonal variations affect the ecosystem functioning and microbial assembly processes in plantation forest soils

While afforestation mitigates climate concerns, the impact of afforestation on ecological assembly processes and multiple soil functions (multifunctionality) in afforested areas remains unclear. The Xiong’an New Area plantation forests (Pinus and Sophora forests) in North China were selected to examine the effects of plantation types across four distinct seasons on soil microbiomes. Three functional categories (nutrient stocks, organic matter decomposition, and microbial functional genes) of multifunctionality and the average (net) multifunctionality were quantified. All these categories are directly related to soil functions. The results showed that net soil multifunctionality as a broad function did not change seasonally, unlike other narrow functional categories. Bacterial communities were deterministically (variable selection and homogenous selection) structured, whereas the stochastic process of dispersal limitation was mainly responsible for the assembly and turnover of fungal and protist communities. In Pinus forests, winter initiates a sudden shift from deterministic to stochastic processes in bacterial community assembly, accompanied by decreased Shannon diversity and heightened nutrient cycling (nutrient stocks and organic matter decomposition). This indicates the potential vulnerability of deterministic assembly to seasonal fluctuations, particularly in environments rich in nutrients. The results predicted that protist community composition was uniquely structured with C-related functional activities relative to bacterial and fungal β-diversity variations, which were mostly explained by seasonal variations. Our study highlighted the importance of the protist phagocytosis process on soil microbial interactions through the predicted impact of protist α-diversity on microbial cooccurrence network parameters. This association might be driven by the high abundance of protist consumers as the main predators of bacterial and fungal lineages in our sampling plots. Our findings reveal that the complexity of microbial co-occurrence interactions was considerably higher in spring, perhaps attributing thermal variability and increased resource availability within spring that foster microbial diversity and network complexity. This study contributes to local ecosystem prospects to model the behavior of soil biota seasonally and their implied effects on soil functioning and microbial assembly processes, which will benefit global-scale afforestation programs by promoting novel, precise, and rational plantation forests for future environmental sustainability and self-sufficiency