Global versus Localized Generative Adversarial Nets

In this paper, we present a novel localized Generative Adversarial Net (GAN) to learn on the manifold of real data. Compared with the classic GAN that {\em globally} parameterizes a manifold, the Localized GAN (LGAN) uses local coordinate charts to parameterize distinct local geometry of how data points can transform at different locations on the manifold. Specifically, around each point there exists a {\em local} generator that can produce data following diverse patterns of transformations on the manifold. The locality nature of LGAN enables local generators to adapt to and directly access the local geometry without need to invert the generator in a global GAN. Furthermore, it can prevent the manifold from being locally collapsed to a dimensionally deficient tangent subspace by imposing an orthonormality prior between tangents. This provides a geometric approach to alleviating mode collapse at least locally on the manifold by imposing independence between data transformations in different tangent directions. We will also demonstrate the LGAN can be applied to train a robust classifier that prefers locally consistent classification decisions on the manifold, and the resultant regularizer is closely related with the Laplace-Beltrami operator. Our experiments show that the proposed LGANs can not only produce diverse image transformations, but also deliver superior classification performances

Mercury, Cadmium and Lead Biogeochemistry in the Soil–Plant–Insect System in Huludao City

Mercury, cadmium, and lead concentrations of ashed plants and insects samples were investigated and compared with those of soil to reveal their biogeochemical processes along food chains in Huludao City, Liaoning Province, China. Concentration factors of each fragments of the soil–plant–the herbivorous insect–the carnivorous insect food chain were 0.18, 6.57, and 7.88 for mercury; 6.82, 2.01, and 0.48 for cadmium; 1.47, 2.24, and 0.57 for lead, respectively. On the whole, mercury was the most largely biomagnified, but cadmium and lead were not greatly accumulated in the carnivorous insects as expected when the food chain extended to the secondary consumers. Results indicated that concentration factors depended on metals and insects species of food chains

Acute exposure to fine particulate matter and cardiovascular hospital emergency room visits in Beijing, China

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution outbreaks have recently occurred frequently in China. However, evidence of the associations between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and cardiovascular morbidity is still limited in China. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between PM2.5 and hospital emergency room visits (ERVs) for cardiovascular diseases in urban areas in Beijing. Daily counts of cardiovascular ERVs were collected from ten large general hospitals from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2013. Air pollution data were obtained from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau including 17 monitoring stations. A generalized additive Poisson model was used to examine the associations between PM2.5 and cardiovascular ERVs after controlling for seasonality, day of the week, public holidays, influenza outbreaks, and weather conditions. In total, there were 56,221 cardiovascular ERVs during the study period. The daily mean PM2.5 concentration was 102.1 μg/m3, ranging from 6.7 μg/m3 to 508.5 μg/m3. Per 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with a 0.14% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.01%–0.27%) increase in cardiovascular ERVs at lag3. Cumulative delayed estimates were greatest at lag0–5 (0.30%, 95% CI: 0.09%–0.52%). The estimates of percentage change in daily ERVs per 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 were 0.56% (95%CI: 0.16%–0.95%) for ischemic heart disease (IHD) at lag0–1, 0.81% (95%CI: 0.05%–1.57%) for heart rhythm disturbances (HRD) at lag0–1 and 1.21% (95%CI: 0.27%–2.15%) for heart failure (HF) at lag0, respectively. The effects of PM2.5 on IHD ERVs during high temperature days (\u3e11.01 °C) were significantly higher than that on low temperature days (≤11.01 °C) at lag0, lag0–1, lag0–3 and lag0–5 (P \u3c 0.05). The study suggests that PM2.5 has acute impacts on cardiovascular ERVs in Beijing, especially on IHD, HRD and HF. The effects of PM2.5 on IHD ERVs vary by temperature

Identification of microRNAs Involved in the Host Response to Enterovirus 71 Infection by a Deep Sequencing Approach

Role of microRNA (miRNA) has been highlighted in pathogen-host interactions recently. To identify cellular miRNAs involved in the host response to enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection, we performed a comprehensive miRNA profiling in EV71-infected Hep2 cells through deep sequencing. 64 miRNAs were found whose expression levels changed for more than 2-fold in response to EV71 infection. Gene ontology analysis revealed that many of these mRNAs play roles in neurological process, immune response, and cell death pathways, which are known to be associated with the extreme virulence of EV71. To our knowledge, this is the first study on host miRNAs expression alteration response to EV71 infection. Our findings supported the hypothesis that certain miRNAs might be essential in the host-pathogen interactions

Prevention of Paclitaxel-induced allodynia by Minocycline: Effect on loss of peripheral nerve fibers and infiltration of macrophages in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although paclitaxel is a frontline antineoplastic agent for treatment of solid tumors, the paclitaxel-evoked pain syndrome is a serious problem for patients. There is currently no valid drug to prevent or treat the paclitaxel-induced allodynia, partly due to lack of understanding regarding the cellular mechanism. Studies have shown that minocycline, an inhibitor of microglia/macrophage, prevented neuropathic pain and promoted neuronal survival in animal models of neurodegenerative disease. Recently, Cata <it>et al </it>also reported that minocycline inhibited allodynia induced by low-dose paclitaxel (2 mg/kg) in rats, but the mechanism is still unclear.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we investigate by immunohistochemistry the change of intraepidermal nerve fiber (IENF) in the hind paw glabrous skin, expression of macrophage and activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) in DRG at different time points after moderate-dose paclitaxel treatment (cumulative dose 24 mg/kg; 3 × 8 mg/kg) in rats. Moreover, we observe the effect of minocycline on the IENF, macrophages and ATF3. The results showed that moderate-dose paclitaxel induced a persisted, gradual mechanical allodynia, which was accompanied by the loss of IENF in the hind paw glabrous skin and up-regulation of macrophages and ATF3 in DRG in rats. The expressions of ATF3 mainly focus on the NF200-positive cells. More importantly, we observed that pretreatment of minocycline at dose of 30 mg/kg or 50 mg/kg, but not 5 mg/kg, prevented paclitaxel-evoked allodynia. The evidence from immunohistochemistry showed that 30 mg/kg minocycline rescued the degeneration of IENF, attenuated infiltration of macrophages and up-regulation of ATF3 induced by paclitaxel treatment in rats.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Minocycline prevents paclitaxel-evoked allodynia, likely due to its inhibition on loss of IENF, infiltration of macrophages and up-regulation of ATF3 in rats. The finding might provide potential target for preventing paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain.</p

Relationship between low-density lipoprotein levels on admission and 1-year outcome in patients with acute ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction

AbstractThis study assessed the relationship between low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels on admission and the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with acute ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (ASTEMI). Patients with ASTEMI who had a lipid profile tested within 24 hours of symptom onset were enrolled. They were stratified into high and low LDL-C groups according to whether their LDL-C was above (n = 501) or below (n = 575) the median level, respectively. The incidence of MACE, cardiovascular death, non-fatal MI, revascularization, and stroke was compared between the groups at 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year. Survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard analysis were performed. In-hospital use of beta blockers was better in the high than in the low LDL-C group (76.6% vs. 69.7%, p = 0.01). Statin use was significantly higher in the high than in the low LDL-C group during follow-up (86.8% vs. 80.0%, p = 0.003 at1 month; 71.6% vs. 62.4%, p = 0.002 at 6 months; 67.8% vs. 61.2%, p = 0.03 at 1 year). The incidence of MACE on follow-up at 1 month was higher in the low than in the high LDL-C group (12.0% vs. 8.1%, p = 0.04). At 1 year, survival was not significantly different between the groups. Cox proportional hazards analysis indicated that the incidence of MACE was significantly associated with hypertension, current smoking, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), in-hospital use of beta blockers, and statin use on follow-up (p < 0.01). LDL-C levels on admission in patients with ASTEMI had no significant effect on the 6-month and 1-year incidence of MACE, but the incidence of MACE was significantly higher in the low LDL-C group at 1 month. It would be relevant to further investigate the HDL-C level on admission, in-hospital use of beta blockers, and statin use during follow-up in relation to MACE

THE EFFECTS OF SUPPLEMENTAL MICROBIAL PHYTASE IN DIETS ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND MINERAL EXCRETION OF REX-RABBITS

ABSTRACT To investigate the effects of supplemental microbial phytase (Natuphos 5000) in diets on performance and mineral excretion, fifty three-month old healthy rex-rabbits with similar weight was assigned randomly into 5 groups for a 6-week trial. Group I-V rex-rabbits were fed with basal diet supplement with 0(I), 400(II), 600(III), 800 U⁄Kg (IV) phytase and 1.8％ CaHPO 4 (V) respectively. The basal diet contained normal levels of Ca (0.9%) and total phosphorus (TP ) (0.35%), other nutrients and energy levels were close to the rabbit requirements, without phytase and dicalcium phosphate (CaHPO 4 ). The results indicated that: (1) In comparison to negative control of Group I, the average daily gain of Group II, III, IV and V increased by 1.65% (p&lt;0.05), 5.77% (p&lt;0.05), 11.48% (p&lt;0.05) and 5.57% (p&lt;0.05) respectively. Among the treatments, the average daily gain in Group IV was the highest, but the difference is not significant when compared with Group III and V (p&gt;0.05). However, no significant effect on the average daily feed intake and the feed-gain ratio of rabbits (p&gt;0.05) were observed in the dietary phytase experiment. (2) Dietary phytase remarkably reduced the excretion of total phosphorus (TP) and phytate phosphorus (PP), are slightly decreased the excretion of Ca. The excretion of Ca, TP, PP of Group I, II, III, and IV were lower than that in Group V. Compared with Group V, fecal TP decreased by 28.24% (P&lt;0.01), 30.59% (P&lt;0.01), 42.35%(P&lt;0.01), 47.00% (P&lt;0.01) respectively and it was shown significant difference between Group and (P&lt;0.05) fecal PP decreased by 11.1% (P&gt;0.05), 19.4% (P&gt;0.05), 25% (P&lt;0.05), 33.3% (P&lt;0.01), respectively, the forth group was much lower than other three groups (P&lt;0.01) fecal Ca decreased by 14.50% (P&gt;0.05), 9.92% (P&gt;0.05), 12.21% (P&gt;0.05), 19.08% (P&lt;0.05), there were no significant difference between Group II, III, IV and Group I (P&gt;0.05).As the dietary phytase increased, the excretion of Cu increased and the excretion of Zn and Mn were decreased slightly (P&gt;0.05). In addition, it shown no regular varying trend in fecal Fe. In conclusion, the difference of faecal Cu, Fe, Zn, and Mn among treatments were not significant (P&gt;0.05)