ChatHome: Development and Evaluation of a Domain-Specific Language Model for Home Renovation

This paper presents the development and evaluation of ChatHome, a domain-specific language model (DSLM) designed for the intricate field of home renovation. Considering the proven competencies of large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 and the escalating fascination with home renovation, this study endeavors to reconcile these aspects by generating a dedicated model that can yield high-fidelity, precise outputs relevant to the home renovation arena. ChatHome's novelty rests on its methodology, fusing domain-adaptive pretraining and instruction-tuning over an extensive dataset. This dataset includes professional articles, standard documents, and web content pertinent to home renovation. This dual-pronged strategy is designed to ensure that our model can assimilate comprehensive domain knowledge and effectively address user inquiries. Via thorough experimentation on diverse datasets, both universal and domain-specific, including the freshly introduced "EvalHome" domain dataset, we substantiate that ChatHome not only amplifies domain-specific functionalities but also preserves its versatility.Comment: ChatHome,DSLM for home renovatio

Using interictal seizure-free EEG data to recognise patients with epilepsy based on machine learning of brain functional connectivity

Most seizures in adults with epilepsy occur rather infrequently and as a result, the interictal EEG plays a crucial role in the diagnosis and classification of epilepsy. However, empirical interpretation, of a first EEG in adult patients, has a very low sensitivity ranging between 29-55%. Useful EEG information remains buried within the signals in seizure-free EEG epochs, far beyond the observational capabilities of any specialised physician in this field. Unlike most of the existing works focusing on either seizure data or single-variate method, we introduce a multi-variate method to characterise sensor level brain functional connectivity from interictal EEG data to identify patients with generalised epilepsy. A total of 9 connectivity features based on 5 different measures in time, frequency and time frequency domains have been tested. The solution has been validated by the K-Nearest Neighbour algorithm, classifying an epilepsy group (EG) vs healthy controls (HC) and subsequently with another cohort of patients characterised by non-epileptic attacks (NEAD), a psychogenic type of disorder. A high classification accuracy (97%) was achieved for EG vs HC while revealing significant spatio temporal deficits in the frontocentral areas in the beta frequency band. For EG vs NEAD, the classification accuracy was only about 73%, which might be a reflection of the well-described coexistence of NEAD with epileptic attacks. Our work demonstrates that seizure-free interictal EEG data can be used to accurately classify patients with generalised epilepsy from HC and that more systematic work is required in this direction aiming to produce a clinically useful diagnostic method

Natural Coevolution of Tumor and Immunoenvironment in Glioblastoma.

Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild-type glioblastoma (GBM) has a dismal prognosis. A better understanding of tumor evolution holds the key to developing more effective treatment. Here we study GBM\u27s natural evolutionary trajectory by using rare multifocal samples. We sequenced 61,062 single cells from eight multifocal IDH wild-type primary GBMs and defined a natural evolution signature (NES) of the tumor. We show that the NES significantly associates with the activation of transcription factors that regulate brain development, including MYBL2 and FOSL2. Hypoxia is involved in inducing NES transition potentially via activation of the HIF1A-FOSL2 axis. High-NES tumor cells could recruit and polarize bone marrow-derived macrophages through activation of the FOSL2-ANXA1-FPR1/3 axis. These polarized macrophages can efficiently suppress T-cell activity and accelerate NES transition in tumor cells. Moreover, the polarized macrophages could upregulate CCL2 to induce tumor cell migration. SIGNIFICANCE: GBM progression could be induced by hypoxia via the HIF1A-FOSL2 axis. Tumor-derived ANXA1 is associated with recruitment and polarization of bone marrow-derived macrophages to suppress the immunoenvironment. The polarized macrophages promote tumor cell NES transition and migration. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 2711

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Role of cerebral ischemia in cognitive impairment: clinical and experimental study

abstractpublished_or_final_versionMedicineDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph

Evolution Wave Condition Using WAVEWATCH III for Island Sheltered Area in the South China Sea

Wave conditions around islands in the South China Sea (SCS) are of significant interest due to their importance for marine operations and coastal engineering. Understanding and accurately predicting wave characteristics in this region are crucial. In this study, the third-generation wave model WAVEWATCH III is employed to examine wave conditions around islands in the SCS. According to the water depth and significant wave height, the sea state around the island was classified into two categories: typhoon sea state and moderate sea state. Several popular wind input–dissipation source terms (ST2, ST4 and ST6) are used to assess the typhoon sea state and the moderate sea state separately. The results are validated by field wave data. ST4 and ST6 show good performance in significant wave height for moderate sea states, while ST2 is good at the mean wave period. For the typhoon sea state, ST2 gives the best results in significant wave height with larger correlation coefficients and a smaller RMSE. The above results provide valuable insights into the effects of different source terms on the accuracy of wave simulations for different sea states. The spatial distribution of the significant wave heights is also demonstrated with ST2, which may be useful for assessing the wave conditions of marine structures from the large scale of the SCS to the island scale of the Yongle Atoll

A MIMO Radar Signal Processing Algorithm for Identifying Chipless RFID Tags

In this paper, the multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) radar signal processing algorithm is efficiently employed as an anticollision methodology for the identification of multiple chipless radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. Tag-identifying methods for conventional chipped RFID tags rely mostly on the processing capabilities of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). In cases where more than one chipless tag exists in the same area, traditional methods are not sufficient to successfully read and distinguish the IDs, while the direction of each chipless tag can be obtained by applying MIMO technology to the backscattering signal. In order to read the IDs of the tags, beamforming is used to change the main beam direction of the antenna array and to receive the tag backscattered signal. On this basis, the RCS of the tags can be retrieved, and associated IDs can be identified. In the simulation, two tags with different IDs were placed away from each other. The IDs of the tags were successfully identified using the presented algorithm. The simulation result shows that tags with a distance of 0.88 m in azimuth can be read by a MIMO reader with eight antennas from 3 m away

Persistent oxygen-glucose deprivation induces astrocytic death through two different pathways and calpain-mediated proteolysis of cytoskeletal proteins during astrocytic oncosis

Astrocytes are thought to play a role in the maintenance of homeostasis and the provision of metabolic substrates for neurons as well as the coupling of cerebral blood flow to neuronal activity. Accordingly, astrocytic death due to various types of injury can critically influence neuronal survival. The exact pathway of cell death after brain ischemia is under debate. In the present study, we used astrocytes from rat primary culture treated with persistent oxygen-glucose-deprivation (OGD) as a model of ischemia to examine the pathway of cell death and the relevant mechanisms. We observed changes in the cellular morphology, the energy metabolism of astrocytes, and the percentage of apoptosis or oncosis of the astrocytes induced by OGD. Electron microscopy revealed the co-existence of ultrastructural features in both apoptosis and oncosis in individual cells. The cellular ATP content was gradually decreased and the percentages of apoptotic and oncotic cells were increased during OGD. After 4h of OGD. ATP depletion to less than 35\% of the control was observed, and oncosis became the primary pathway for astrocytic death. Increased plasma membrane permeability due to oncosis was associated with increased calpain-mediated degradation of several cytoskeletal proteins, including paxillin, vinculin, vimentin and GFAP. Pre-treatment with the calpain inhibitor 3-(4-iodophenyl)-2-mercapto-(Z)-2-propenoic acid (PD150606) could delay the OGD-induced astrocytic oncosis. These results suggest that there is a narrow range of ATP that determines astrocytic oncotic death induced by persistent OGD and that calpain-mediated hydrolysis of the cytoskeletal-associated proteins may contribute to astrocytes oncosis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Comparison of the two surgery methods combined with accelerated rehabilitation in the treatment of lateral compression type 1 pelvic fractures in the elderly

Abstract Background Treating lateral compression type 1 (LC1) pelvic ring injuries in older patients is controversial. This study evaluated surgical treatments combined with ERAS for treating LC1 pelvic fractures in the elderly. Methods In this retrospective study, patients who underwent surgery with INFIX (supra-acetabular spinal pedicle screws, and a subcutaneous connecting rod; the experimental group) or superior pubic ramus cannulated screw (the control group) fixation of LC1 pelvic fracture from January 2019 to January 2022 were reviewed. Injury radiography and computed tomography were performed to determine the Young–Burgess classification. All patients performed standardized early rehabilitation exercises after surgery and were followed up for > 12 months. After surgery, the Matta score and the visual analog scale (VAS) were evaluated, and the postoperative weight-bearing time and the length of stay (LOS) were recorded. The Barthel index and the Majeed score were evaluated at 4 months after surgery and at the last follow-up. Results Fifty-three patients were included. Thirty-two patients included in the experimental group had a mean age of 75.0 ± 6.2 (range, 66–86) years, and the other 21 patients in the control group had a mean age of 74.6 ± 4.6 (range, 68–83) years. The mean follow-up time was 13.1 ± 1.6 (range, 12–18) months in the experimental group and 13.4 ± 1.3 (range, 12–16) months in the control group. There were no significant differences in follow-up time between the groups (P > 0.05). The mean VAS score, time to weight-bearing, and LOS were 2.0 ± 0.7 (range, 1–3), 1.1 ± 0.3 (range, 1–2) d, and 5.8 ± 0.9 (range, 4–7) d in the experimental group and 2.3 ± 1.2 (range, 1–5), 2.5 ± 1.6 (range, 1–7) d, and 6.1 ± 1.6 (range, 5–11) d in the control group, respectively. Between the two groups, there was a significant difference in the postoperative time to weight-bearing (P  0.05). No bedrest-related complications occurred in either group. The Matta score was 90.6% in the experimental group and 90.4% in the control group (P > 0.05). At the 4-months follow-up, the experimental group had a better Barthel index and Majeed score compared with the control group, which were 86.1 ± 6.2 (range, 70–95) vs. 81.2 ± 4.1 (range, 75–90) and 86.3 ± 3.3 (range, 78–91) vs. 80.3 ± 3.9 (range, 76–86), respectively. The experimental group had better early rehabilitation effect than the control group. There was no significant difference in Barthel index and Majeed score between the two groups at the last follow-up (P > 0.05). Conclusion Both INFIX and intramedullary superior pubic ramus cannulated screws can successfully treat LC1 pelvic fractures and reduce bed rest complications among older patients

A Revised Hilbert-Huang Transformation to Track Non-Stationary Association of Electroencephalography Signals

The time-varying cross-spectrum method has been used to effectively study transient and dynamic brain functional connectivity between non-stationary electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Wavelet-based cross-spectrum is one of the most widely implemented methods, but it is limited by the spectral leakage caused by the finite length of the basic function that impacts the time and frequency resolutions. This paper proposes a new time-frequency brain functional connectivity analysis framework to track the non-stationary association of two EEG signals based on a Revised Hilbert-Huang Transform (RHHT). The framework can estimate the cross-spectrum of decomposed components of EEG, followed by a surrogate significance test. The results of two simulation examples demonstrate that, within a certain statistical confidence level, the proposed framework outperforms the wavelet-based method in terms of accuracy and time-frequency resolution. A case study on classifying epileptic patients and healthy controls using interictal seizure-free EEG data is also presented. The result suggests that the proposed method has the potential to better differentiate these two groups benefiting from the enhanced measure of dynamic time-frequency association.Not heldAccepted versio