Toward explainable AI-empowered cognitive health assessment

Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is of paramount importance to various domains, including healthcare, fitness, skill assessment, and personal assistants, to understand and explain the decision-making process of the artificial intelligence (AI) model. Smart homes embedded with smart devices and sensors enabled many context-aware applications to recognize physical activities. This study presents XAI-HAR, a novel XAI-empowered human activity recognition (HAR) approach based on key features identified from the data collected from sensors located at different places in a smart home. XAI-HAR identifies a set of new features (i.e., the total number of sensors used in a specific activity), as physical key features selection (PKFS) based on weighting criteria. Next, it presents statistical key features selection (SKFS) (i.e., mean, standard deviation) to handle the outliers and higher class variance. The proposed XAI-HAR is evaluated using machine learning models, namely, random forest (RF), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), decision tree (DT), naive Bayes (NB) and deep learning models such as deep neural network (DNN), convolution neural network (CNN), and CNN-based long short-term memory (CNN-LSTM). Experiments demonstrate the superior performance of XAI-HAR using RF classifier over all other machine learning and deep learning models. For explainability, XAI-HAR uses Local Interpretable Model Agnostic (LIME) with an RF classifier. XAI-HAR achieves 0.96% of F-score for health and dementia classification and 0.95 and 0.97% for activity recognition of dementia and healthy individuals, respectively.This research was supported by Qatar National Library and Qatar University's Internal Grant IRCC-2021-010

Interaction of 6 mercaptopurine with calf thymus DNA--deciphering the binding mode and photoinduced DNA damage.

DNA is one of the major intracellular targets for a wide range of anticancer and antibiotic drugs. Elucidating the binding between small molecules and DNA provides great help in understanding drug-DNA interactions and in designing of new and promising drugs for clinical use. The ability of small molecules to bind and interfere with DNA replication and transcription provides further insight into how the drugs control the expression of genes. Interaction of an antimetabolite anticancer drug 6 mercaptopurine (6MP) with calf thymus DNA was studied using various approaches like UV-visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, CD, viscosity and molecular docking. UV-visible spectroscopy confirmed 6MP-DNA interaction. Steady state fluorescence experiments revealed a moderate binding constant of 7.48 × 10(3) M(-1) which was consistent with an external binding mode. Competitive displacement assays further confirmed a non-intercalative binding mode of 6MP which was further confirmed by CD and viscosity experiments. Molecular docking further revealed the minimum energy conformation (-119.67 kJ/mole) of the complex formed between DNA and 6MP. Hence, the biophysical techniques and in-silico molecular docking approaches confirmed the groove binding/electrostatic mode of interaction between 6MP and DNA. Further, photo induced generation of ROS by 6MP was studied spectrophotometrically and DNA damage was assessed by plasmid nicking and comet assay. There was a significant increase in ROS generation and consequent DNA damage in the presence of light

Exosome nanovesicles as potential biomarkers and immune checkpoint signaling modulators in lung cancer microenvironment: recent advances and emerging concepts

Abstract Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, and the survival rate remains low despite advances in diagnosis and treatment. The progression of lung cancer is a multifaceted and dynamic phenomenon that encompasses interplays among cancerous cells and their microenvironment, which incorporates immune cells. Exosomes, which are small membrane-bound vesicles, are released by numerous cell types in normal and stressful situations to allow communication between cells. Tumor-derived exosomes (TEXs) possess diverse neo-antigens and cargoes such as proteins, RNA, and DNA and have a unique molecular makeup reflecting tumor genetic complexity. TEXs contain both immunosuppressive and immunostimulatory factors and may play a role in immunomodulation by influencing innate and adaptive immune components. Moreover, they transmit signals that contribute to the progression of lung cancer by promoting metastasis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), angiogenesis, and immunosuppression. This makes them a valuable resource for investigating the immune environment of tumors, which could pave the way for the development of non-invasive biomarkers that could aid in the prognosis, diagnosis, and immunotherapy of lung cancer. While immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) immunotherapy has shown promising results in treating initial-stage cancers, most patients eventually develop adaptive resistance over time. Emerging evidence demonstrates that TEXs could serve as a prognostic biomarker for immunotherapeutic response and have a significant impact on both systemic immune suppression and tumor advancement. Therefore, understanding TEXs and their role in lung cancer tumorigenesis and their response to immunotherapies is an exciting research area and needs further investigation. This review highlights the role of TEXs as key contributors to the advancement of lung cancer and their clinical significance in lung immune-oncology, including their possible use as biomarkers for monitoring disease progression and prognosis, as well as emerging shreds of evidence regarding the possibility of using exosomes as targets to improve lung cancer therapy

Effects of natural environment on reproductive histo-morphometric dynamics of female dromedary camel

International audienceCamel shows a seasonal breeding pattern with enhanced reproductive activity during the period of low climatic temperature, high rainfall and better food conditions. Therefore, the study was conducted to explore the underlying seasonal effects on histological dimensions of reproductive tract in adult female one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) kept in the natural environment of Pakistan. A total 25 reproductive tracts were collected during spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons and were analysed for histo-morphometric parameters during different environmental conditions. A significant increase in number (p<0.05) and size (p<0.05) of surface with secondary and tertiary ovarian follicles was observed in winter season. The epithelial height (p<0.05) and luminal diameter (p<0.05) of infundibulum, ampulla and isthmus of uterine tubes were also significantly increased during winter season. Moreover, significantly increased length (p<0.05) and circumference (p<0.05) of uterine cornua, increased number (p<0.001) and diameter (p<0.001) of endometrial glands with enlarged surface and glandular epithelia (p<0.001) were found in winter compared to summer season. Therefore, we concluded that quiescent ovarian follicular and uterine glandular activities are the main reason of camel low breeding during summer season

Interaction of 6MP with CT-DNA studied using fluorescence spectroscopy.

<p>Fluorescence emission spectra of 6MP (50 μM) in the presence of increasing concentrations of CT-DNA. Increase in the fluorescent intensity was observed with increasing DNA concentration. Excitation wavelength was 280 nm and emission was recorded as shown in figure.</p

Role of ionic strength.

<p>To study the role of electrostatic effect on 6MP-DNA binding, NaCl was used. Maximum emission intensity plot of 6MP-DNA was plotted with increasing concentration of NaCl (0–70mM). Excitation wavelength was 280 nm. Increase in fluorescence intensity suggests for a possible electrostatic interaction between 6MP and CT-DNA.</p

Molecular docked structure of 6MP complex with DNA.

<p>Dodecamer duplex sequence (CGCGAATTCGCG)₂ (PDB ID: 1BNA) was used in the docking studies. The binding energy of the complex system was found to be −116.97 kJ/mole.</p

Interaction of 6MP with CT-DNA.

<p>UV-visible absorption spectra of 6MP (25 μM) in presence of increasing concentrations of CT-DNA in Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.2). Hyperchromism was observed with increasing concentration of CT-DNA confirming the interaction of 6MP and DNA. Structure of 6 Mercaptopurine is shown in the inset.</p

Stern-Volmer plot for interaction of 6MP with CT-DNA.

<p>The fluorescent intensity was found to be directly proportional to DNA concentration. Binding constant of 7.8×10³M⁻¹ was obtained from the slope.</p