Boosting Factual Consistency and High Coverage in Unsupervised Abstractive Summarization

Abstractive summarization has gained attention because of the positive performance of large-scale, pretrained language models. However, models may generate a summary that contains information different from the original document. This phenomenon is particularly critical under the abstractive methods and is known as factual inconsistency. This study proposes an unsupervised abstractive method for improving factual consistency and coverage by adopting reinforcement learning. The proposed framework includes (1) a novel design to maintain factual consistency with an automatic question-answering process between the generated summary and original document, and (2) a novel method of ranking keywords based on word dependency, where keywords are used to examine the coverage of the key information preserved in the summary. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the reinforcement learning baseline on both the evaluations for factual consistency and coverage

Effects of natto extract on endothelial injury in a rat model

Vascular endothelial damage has been found to be associated with thrombus formation, which is considered to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A diet of natto leads to a low prevalence of cardiovascular disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of natto extract on vascular endothelia damage with exposure to laser irradiation. Endothelial damage both in vitro and in vivo was induced by irradiation of rose bengal using a DPSS green laser. Cell viability was determined by MTS assay, and the intimal thickening was verified by a histological approach. The antioxidant content of natto extract was determined for the free radical scavenging activity. Endothelial cells were injured in the presence of rose bengal irradiated in a dose-dependent manner. Natto extract exhibits high levels of antioxidant activity compared with purified natto kinase. Apoptosis of laser-injured endothelial cells was significantly reduced in the presence of natto extract. Both the natto extract and natto kinase suppressed intimal thickening in rats with endothelial injury. The present findings suggest that natto extract suppresses vessel thickening as a synergic effect attributed to its antioxidant and anti-apoptosis properties

Nitroprusside modulates pulmonary vein arrhythmogenic activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pulmonary veins (PVs) are the most important sources of ectopic beats with the initiation of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, or the foci of ectopic atrial tachycardia and focal atrial fibrillation. Elimination of nitric oxide (NO) enhances cardiac triggered activity, and NO can decrease PV arrhythmogensis through mechano-electrical feedback. However, it is not clear whether NO may have direct electrophysiological effects on PV cardiomyocytes. This study is aimed to study the effects of nitroprusside (NO donor), on the ionic currents and arrhythmogenic activity of single cardiomyocytes from the PVs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Single PV cardiomyocytes were isolated from the canine PVs. The action potential and ionic currents were investigated in isolated single canine PV cardiomyocytes before and after sodium nitroprusside (80 μM,) using the whole-cell patch clamp technique.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nitroprusside decreased PV cardiomyocytes spontaneous beating rates from 1.7 ± 0.3 Hz to 0.5 ± 0.4 Hz in 9 cells (P < 0.05); suppressed delayed afterdepolarization in 4 (80%) of 5 PV cardiomyocytes. Nitroprusside inhibited L-type calcium currents, transient outward currents and transient inward current, but increased delayed rectified potassium currents.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Nitroprusside regulates the electrical activity of PV cardiomyocytes, which suggests that NO may play a role in PV arrhythmogenesis.</p

Primary Urothelial Carcinoma of the Ureter: 11-Year Experience in Taipei Veterans General Hospital

BackgroundUrothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract is relatively rare, occurring in 5% of all urothelial tumors. Ureteral urothelial carcinoma is even less common than that of the renal pelvis, accounting for about 25% of all upper urinary tract tumors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical behavior, survival, recurrence and prognostic information of primary ureteral urothelial carcinoma from our 11 years of experience at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 111 patients with ureteral urothelial carcinoma who had been treated in our hospital between January 1993 and December 2003. Tumor staging was according to the 2002 AJCC TNM classification and stage groupings. Patients with stage 0a and stage 0is were categorized as stage 0a/is, and patients with pathologic T stage pTa and pTis were categorized as pTa/is for statistical analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis.ResultsThere were 69 males and 42 females, with a mean age of 70.5 ± 9.4 years at diagnosis. Of the 111 patients, 5 presented with stage 0a/is, 38 with stage I, 23 with stage II, 21 with stage III, and 24 with stage IV. Nephroureterectomy with bladder cuff excision was performed in 78 patients, 12 patients received segmental resection of the ureter, 4 received ureteroscopic laser coagulation, and 17 underwent chemotherapy or radiotherapy or both. Tumors were located on the left side in 53 patients, on the right in 53, and bilaterally in 5. The most frequent initial presenting symptom was gross hematuria (65%). The mean postoperative follow-up period was 49.3 months. Disease recurrence in the nephroureterectomy group occurred in 36 patients (46.2%), with 17 (21.8%) at the urinary bladder, 2 (2.6%) at the retroperitoneum, 1 (1.3%) at the contralateral ureter, 6 (7.7%) with distant metastases to the lung, bone, distant lymph nodes or liver, and 10 (12.8%) at multiple sites. The 5-year cancer-specific survival rate was 100% for pTa/is, 95.2% for pT1, 69.4% for pT2, and 43.8% for pT3. All 3 pT4 cases died of cancer in a median of 12 months. Significant prognostic factors for cancer-specific survival by univariate analysis were pT (p = 0.00001), stage (p = 0.00001), type of treatment (p = 0.00001) and grade (p = 0.0001). On multivariate analysis, only stage (p = 0.0001) and grade (p = 0.014) were significant for cancer-specific and overall survival. Stage (p = 0.0001), pT (p =0.0001) and grade (p = 0.026) were also significant prognostic factors of recurrence in multivariate analysis.ConclusionOur experience showed that patients with pTa/is and pT1 tumors treated with radical surgery have excellent prognoses. Tumor stage and grade are the only significant prognostic factors for both cancer-specific and overall survival

Chitosan Encapsulation of Ferrateᵛᶦ for Controlled Release to Water: Mechanistic Insights and Degradation of Organic Contaminant

Tetraoxy-anion of iron in +6 oxidation state (FeVIO42−, FeVI) commonly called ferrate, has shown tremendous potential as a green oxidative agent for decontaminating water and air. Encapsulation of solid potassium salt of ferrate (K2FeO4) circumvents the inherent drawbacks of the instability of ferrate under humid conditions. In the encapsulated strategy, controlled release without exposing the solid ferrate to the humid environment avoids self-decomposition of the oxidant by water in the air, and the ferrate is mostly used to decontaminate water efficiently. This study demonstrated the formulation of oxidative microcapsules with natural materials present in chitosan, whose release rate of the core material can be controlled by the type of intermediate hydrocarbon layer and the pH-dependent swelling of chitosan shell. The pH played a pivotal role in swelling chitosan shell and releasing the core oxidant. In a strong acidic solution, chitosan tended to swell quickly and release FeVI at a faster rate than under neutral conditions. Additionally, among the several long-chain hydrocarbon compounds, oleic acid exhibited the strongest “locking” effect when applied as the intermediate layer, giving rise to the slow release of FeVI . Coconut oil and mineral oil, in comparison, allowed FeVI to penetrate the layer within shorter lengths of time and showed comparable degrees of degradation of target contaminant, methylene orange, under ambient temperature and near-neutral conditions. These findings have practical ramifications for remediating environmental and industrial processes