80 research outputs found
MedDiffusion: Boosting Health Risk Prediction via Diffusion-based Data Augmentation
Health risk prediction is one of the fundamental tasks under predictive
modeling in the medical domain, which aims to forecast the potential health
risks that patients may face in the future using their historical Electronic
Health Records (EHR). Researchers have developed several risk prediction models
to handle the unique challenges of EHR data, such as its sequential nature,
high dimensionality, and inherent noise. These models have yielded impressive
results. Nonetheless, a key issue undermining their effectiveness is data
insufficiency. A variety of data generation and augmentation methods have been
introduced to mitigate this issue by expanding the size of the training data
set through the learning of underlying data distributions. However, the
performance of these methods is often limited due to their task-unrelated
design. To address these shortcomings, this paper introduces a novel,
end-to-end diffusion-based risk prediction model, named MedDiffusion. It
enhances risk prediction performance by creating synthetic patient data during
training to enlarge sample space. Furthermore, MedDiffusion discerns hidden
relationships between patient visits using a step-wise attention mechanism,
enabling the model to automatically retain the most vital information for
generating high-quality data. Experimental evaluation on four real-world
medical datasets demonstrates that MedDiffusion outperforms 14 cutting-edge
baselines in terms of PR-AUC, F1, and Cohen's Kappa. We also conduct ablation
studies and benchmark our model against GAN-based alternatives to further
validate the rationality and adaptability of our model design. Additionally, we
analyze generated data to offer fresh insights into the model's
interpretability
Self-organized Voids Revisited: Experimental Verification of the Formation Mechanism*
In this paper, several experiments were conducted to further clarify the
formation mechanism of self organized void array induced by a single laser
beam, including energy-related experiments, refractive-index-contrast-related
experiments, depth-related experiments and effective-numerical-aperture
experiment. These experiments indicate that the interface spherical aberration
is indeed responsible for the formation of void arrays
Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in premature ovarian failure: Mechanisms and prospects
Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a common female reproductive disorder and characterized by menopause, increased gonadotropin levels and estrogen deficiency before the age of 40 years old. The etiologies and pathogenesis of POF are not fully clear. At present, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is the main treatment options for POF. It helps to ameliorate perimenopausal symptoms and related health risks, but can’t restore ovarian function and fertility fundamentally. With the development of regenerative medicine, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have shown great potential for the recovery of ovarian function and fertility based on the advantages of abundant sources, high capacity for self-renewal and differentiation, low immunogenicity and less ethical considerations. This systematic review aims to summarize the possible therapeutic mechanisms of BMSCs for POF. A detailed search strategy of preclinical studies and clinical trials on BMSCs and POF was performed on PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science and Embase database. A total of 21 studies were included in this review. Although the standardization of BMSCs need more explorations, there is no doubt that BMSCs transplantation may represent a prospective therapy for POF. It is hope to provide a theoretical basis for further research and treatment for POF
Vitamin B12 Levels in Methamphetamine Addicts
Objective: It has been established that reduced vitamin B12 serum levels are associated with cognitive decline and mental illness. The chronic use of methamphetamine (MA), which is a highly addictive drug, can induce cognitive impairment and psychopathological symptoms. There are few studies addressing the association of MA with vitamin B12 serum levels. This study examined whether the serum levels of B12 are associated with MA addiction.Methods: Serum vitamin B12, homocysteine (Hcy), glucose and triglyceride concentrations were measured in 123 MA addicts and 108 controls. In addition, data were collected on their age, marital status, level of education and Body Mass Index (BMI) for all participants. In the patient group, the data for each subject were collected using the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and a drug use history, which included the age of onset, total duration of MA use, the number of relapses and addiction severity.Results: Our results showed that MA addicts had lower vitamin B12 levels (p < 0.05) than those of healthy controls, but Hcy levels were not significantly different between the two groups (p > 0.05). Serum B12 levels were negatively correlated with the number of relapses in the MA group. Furthermore, binary logistics regression analysis indicated that the B12 was an influencing factor contributing to addiction severity.Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that some MA addicts might have vitamin B12 deficiency, and serum B12 levels may be involved in the prognosis of MA addiction
Porous hierarchical TiO2/MoS2/RGO nanoflowers as anode material for sodium ion batteries with high capacity and stability
To enhance the reversible capacity and cycle stability of MoS2 as anode materials for sodium ion batteries (SIBs), we constructed a hybrid architecture composed of MoS2 and TiO2 nanosheets, linking with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to another TiO2/MoS2 to form a nanoflower structure. Owing to layered RGO coupled with TiO2/MoS2 hybrid, such a composite offered interconnected conductive channels to short shuttle path of Na+ ions and favorable transport kinetics under charge/discharge cycling. Moreover, this unique structure showed a porous and hierarchical architecture, which not only buffered volume changes but also provided more electrochemical active sites during insertion/deintercalation processes of Na ions. Outstanding electrochemical performances were identified by the component matching effect among TiO2, MoS2 and RGO with a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected network, exhibiting a good reversible capacity of 616 mA h g-1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 A g-1, an excellent rate capability of 250 mA h g-1 even at 5A g-1 and a long cycling stability of 460 mA h g-1 with a capacity fluctuation of 0.03% per cycle within 350 cycles at 1 A g-1
- …