DCASE 2019 Task 2: Multitask Learning, Semi-supervised Learning and Model Ensemble with Noisy Data for Audio Tagging

This paper describes our approach to the DCASE 2019 challenge Task 2: Audio tagging with noisy labels and minimal supervision. This task is a multi-label audio classification with 80 classes. The training data is composed of a small amount of reliably labeled data (curated data) and a larger amount of data with unreliable labels (noisy data). Additionally, there is a difference in data distribution between curated data and noisy data. To tackle this difficulty, we propose three strategies. The first is multitask learning using noisy data. The second is semi-supervised learning using noisy data and labels that are relabeled using trained models’ predictions. The third is an ensemble method that averages models trained with different time length. By using these methods, our solution was ranked in 3rd place on the public leaderboard (LB) with a label-weighted label-ranking average precision (lwlrap) score of 0.750 and ranked in 4th place on the private LB with a lwlrap score of 0.75787. The code of our solution is available at https://github.com/OsciiArt/Freesound-Audio-Tagging-2019.252

The Mechanisms of Telomere and Telomerase Regulation in Hematologic Malignancies

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The Mechanisms of Telomere and Telomerase Regulation in Hematologic Malignancies

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Teaching Rapid Reading Materials in High School : How Rewritten Texts and Questions on the Text Influence Comprehension

The reading materials in the English textbooks for Japanese high school students are often the rewritten version of the originals. In many cases, post-reading activities are added to those adapted materials. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and to analyse the effectiveness of the rewritten materials for the readers. Also, this paper discusses what postreading activities should be like. There are some suggestions for these activities that have been introduced and tried in actual classes. Considering the fact that most of the reading materials on the text are rewritten, studying the materials through comparison with the originals can be rewarding for teachers

Studies on Sphingomyelins in Human Erythrocytes and Plasma.

Two sphingophospholipids, that is, the fast moving and the slow moving on TLC, were separated from each other by Silica Gel G TLC of the alkali- and acid-stable phospholipids isolated from human erythrocytes and plasma. The examination and the comparison of the chemical structures of thus separated lipids were studied by IR analysis and by paper chromatography, TLC and GLC of the products from acid hydrolysis, performic acid-HIO4 cleavage and KMnO4 oxidation. From the results both substances were found to be sphingomyelins of ordinary type. A distinguished difference between two lipids was in the composition of fatty acid component. The GLC of fatty acids indicated that, in erythrocytes as well as in plasma, fatty acids higher than C20 predominated and concentrated in the fast moving sphingomyelin, whereas major fatty acids in the slow moving one were palmitic acid and stearic acid. The ratios of phosphorus amounts of the fast moving sphingomyelin to the slow moving one were 2.6 in plasma and 3.2 in erythrocytes respectively

Postischemic infusion of sivelestat sodium hydrate, a selective neutrophil elastase inhibitor, protects against myocardial stunning in swine.

PURPOSE: It seems controversial whether or not neutrophil elastase inhibitors are effective in attenuating myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury. We thus investigated possible protective effects of sivelestat, a neutrophil elastase inhibitor, against myocardial stunning i.e., prolonged myocardial dysfunction following a brief episode of ischemia. METHODS: Swine were divided into control group (group C), low-dose sivelestat group (group L), and high-dose sivelestat group (group H) (n = 7 for each group). All the swine were subjected to myocardial ischemia through ligation of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery for 12-min, followed by 90-min reperfusion. Sivelestat was infused intracoronally at concentrations of 6 and 60 mg/ml throughout the reperfusion period in groups L and H, respectively, while saline was infused in the group C. Heart rate (HR), left ventricular developed pressure (LVdP), maximum rate of LVdP (LVdP/dt (max)), LV end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), percentage of segment shortening (%SS, an index of regional myocardial contractility), and coronary venous interleukin-6 concentration in the LAD perfusion area were measured before ischemic induction and during reperfusion. RESULTS: The ischemia/reperfusion insult did not cause any significant changes in HR, LVdP, LVdP/dt (max), and LVEDP in all groups. However, it significantly reduced %SS in the LAD perfusion area and increased the interleukin-6 concentration in group C. Those changes in %SS and the interleukin-6 concentration were both greatly attenuated, but not prevented, in groups L and H. CONCLUSION: Sivelestat presumably attenuates myocardial contractile dysfunction due to myocardial stunning by inhibiting neutrophil-derived elastase, thereby suppressing the production of interleukin-6 in activated neutrophils

Multifaceted Analyses of Epidermal Serine Protease Activity in Patients with Atopic Dermatitis

The serine proteases kallikrein-related peptidase (KLK) 5 and KLK7 cleave cell adhesion molecules in the epidermis. Aberrant epidermal serine protease activity is thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis (AD). We collected the stratum corneum (SC) from healthy individuals (n = 46) and AD patients (n = 63) by tape stripping and then measuring the trypsin- and chymotrypsin-like serine protease activity. We also analyzed the p.D386N and p.E420K of SPINK5 variants and loss-of-function mutations of FLG in the AD patients. The serine protease activity in the SC was increased not only in AD lesions but also in non-lesions of AD patients. We found, generally, that there was a positive correlation between the serine protease activity in the SC and the total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels, serum thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) levels, and peripheral blood eosinophil counts. Moreover, the p.D386N or p.E420K in SPINK5 and FLG mutations were not significantly associated with the SC's serine protease activity. Epidermal serine protease activity was increased even in non-lesions of AD patients. Such activity was found to correlate with a number of biomarkers of AD. Further investigations of serine proteases might provide new treatments and prophylaxis for AD

Genome-wide association studies identify polygenic effects for completed suicide in the Japanese population

Suicide is a significant public health problem worldwide, and several Asian countries including Japan have relatively high suicide rates on a world scale. Twin, family, and adoption studies have suggested high heritability for suicide, but genetics lags behind due to difficulty in obtaining samples from individuals who died by suicide, especially in non-European populations. In this study, we carried out genome-wide association studies combining two independent datasets totaling 746 suicides and 14,049 non-suicide controls in the Japanese population. Although we identified no genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we demonstrated significant SNP-based heritability (35–48%; P < 0.001) for completed suicide by genomic restricted maximum-likelihood analysis and a shared genetic risk between two datasets (P best = 2.7 × 10−13) by polygenic risk score analysis. This study is the first genome-wide association study for suicidal behavior in an East Asian population, and our results provided the evidence of polygenic architecture underlying completed suicide

Mechanistic insights into intramembrane proteolysis by E. coli site-2 protease homolog RseP

細胞膜の中ではたらく特殊なタンパク質分解酵素の構造を解明 --細菌感染症の新たな治療法の開発へ期待--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-25.Site-2 proteases are a conserved family of intramembrane proteases that cleave transmembrane substrates to regulate signal transduction and maintain proteostasis. Here, we elucidated crystal structures of inhibitor-bound forms of bacterial site-2 proteases including Escherichia coli RseP. Structure-based chemical modification and cross-linking experiments indicated that the RseP domains surrounding the active center undergo conformational changes to expose the substrate-binding site, suggesting that RseP has a gating mechanism to regulate substrate entry. Furthermore, mutational analysis suggests that a conserved electrostatic linkage between the transmembrane and peripheral membrane-associated domains mediates the conformational changes. In vivo cleavage assays also support that the substrate transmembrane helix is unwound by strand addition to the intramembrane β sheet of RseP and is clamped by a conserved asparagine residue at the active center for efficient cleavage. This mechanism underlying the substrate binding, i.e., unwinding and clamping, appears common across distinct families of intramembrane proteases that cleave transmembrane segments