Improve deep learning with unsupervised objective

We propose a novel approach capable of embedding the unsupervised objective into hidden layers of the deep neural network (DNN) for preserving important unsupervised information. To this end, we exploit a very simple yet effective unsupervised method, i.e. principal component analysis (PCA), to generate the unsupervised “label" for the latent layers of DNN. Each latent layer of DNN can then be supervised not just by the class label, but also by the unsupervised “label" so that the intrinsic structure information of data can be learned and embedded. Compared with traditional methods which combine supervised and unsupervised learning, our proposed model avoids the needs for layer-wise pre-training and complicated model learning e.g. in deep autoencoder. We show that the resulting model achieves state-of-the-art performance in both face and handwriting data simply with learning of unsupervised “labels"

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY ANALYSIS OF EXTRACT OF PORTULACA QUADRIFIDA LINN.

Objective: Portulaca quadrifida L. is an herbal medicinal plant known for its therapeutics values in urinary and inflammatory disorders. Leaves areuseful in dysentery; the plant can also act as an antihelminthic. The current study dealt to provide details information about Portulaca quadrifida L.including pharmacognostic and phytochemical analysis.Methods: Current investigation involve quality control characterization of plant Portulaca quadrifida L. The plant extract evaluated for phytochemicaland chromatographic analysis. HPLC fingerprint was carried out, which can be used for correct identification of the plant.Results: The plant extract contains alkaloids, tannins, terpenoid and steroid. The present study provides evidence that solvent extract of Portulacaquadrifida L. contain medicinally important bioactive compounds.Conclusion: The present study provides evidence that solvent extract of plant contains medicinally important bioactive compounds and this justifiesthe use of plant species as traditional medicine for treatment of various diseases.Keywords: Portulaca quadrifida L., Phytochemical, Medicinal plant, High-performance liquid chromatography

Navigating Copper-Atom-Pair Structural Effect inside a Porous Organic Polymer Cavity for Selective Hydrogenation of Biomass-Derived 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural

In recent times, selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) to produce the novel difuranic polyol scaffold 2,5-dihydroxymethylfuran (DHMF) has attracted the interest of the many researchers due to its peculiar symmetrical structure and its widespread application as a monomer for the preparation of cross-linked polyesters and polyurethane. Copper-based catalysts have been explored for selective catalytic hydrogenation; however, hurdles are still associated with the strongly reducing H2 atmosphere and oxidizing C–O bond that make the Cu0 and Cux+ surface active species unstable, limiting the rational design of highly efficient integrated catalyst systems. To address this, herein, we built catalytic systems for 5-HMF hydrogenation with stable and balanced Cu0 and Cux+ active surface species inside the nanocage of a catechol-based porous organic polymer (POP) endowed with large surface areas, impressive stabilities, and spatial restriction inhibiting nanoparticle aggregation. Batch reactor screening identified that a superior catalytic performance (DHMF selectivity of 98%) has been achieved with our newly designed Cu@C-POP at 150 °C temperature and 20 bar H2 pressure, which was also higher than that of other reported copper catalysts. Comprehensive characterization understanding with H2-TPR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study revealed that substantially boosted activity is induced by the presence of the bulk CuOx phase and atomically dispersed Cu species incorporating isolated Cu ions, which are further confirmed through the positive binding energy shift of Cu 2p3/2 XPS spectra (∼0.4 eV). The Cu environment in our catalytic systems comprises a predominantly square planar geometry (probably Jahn–Teller distorted OH), which we gleaned from the extended X-ray absorption for fine structure (EXAFS) analysis featuring two adjacent copper atoms with the valence state in between of 0 and +2, as validated by XANES absorption edge positions. EXAFS studies further revealed a lowering of the Cu coordination number for the most active Cu@C-POP-B catalyst, suggesting the presence of metal vacancies. Density functional theory calculations showed that the presence of Cu metal vacancies stabilized the reaction intermediates formed during 5-HMF hydrogenation and decreased the hydrogenation barriers, resulting in an enhanced catalytic activity of the Cu@C-POP-B catalyst

Development and evaluation of a new fully automatic motion detection and correction technique in cardiac SPECT imaging

In cardiac SPECT perfusion imaging, motion correction of the data is critical to the minimization of motion introduced artifacts in the reconstructed images. Software-based (data-driven) motion correction techniques are the most convenient and economical approaches to fulfill this purpose. However, the accuracy is significantly affected by how the data complexities, such as activity overlap, non-uniform tissue attenuation, and noise are handled. We developed STASYS, a new, fully automatic technique, for motion detection and correction in cardiac SPECT. We evaluated the performance of STASYS by comparing its effectiveness of motion correcting patient studies with the current industry standard software (Cedars-Sinai MoCo) through blind readings by two readers independently. For 204 patient studies from multiple clinical sites, the first reader identified (1) 69 studies with medium to large axial motion, of which STASYS perfectly or significantly corrected 86.9% and MoCo 72.5%; and (2) 20 studies with medium to large lateral motion, of which STASYS perfectly or significantly corrected 80.0% and MoCo 60.0%. The second reader identified (1) 84 studies with medium to large axial motion, of which STASYS perfectly or significantly corrected 82.2% and MoCo 76.2%; and (2) 34 studies with medium to large lateral motion, of which STASYS perfectly or significantly corrected 58.9% and MoCo 50.0%. We developed a fully automatic software-based motion correction technique, STASYS, for cardiac SPECT. Clinical studies showed that STASYS was effective and corrected a larger percent of cardiac SPECT studies than the current industrial standard software

PHYTOCHEMICAL STANDARDIZATION AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF AYURVEDA FORMULATION DARVYADI RASKRIYA

The study represents phytochemical standardization and antioxidant potential of ayurveda formulation Darvyadi Raskriya. The study involves development of high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method for analysis of formulation. The study utilizes analysis of glycyrrhizin in formulation which is the phytoconstituent of Glycyrrhiza glabra one of the component of formulation. The sample in ethanol was applied on aluminium TLC plates using Linomat 5 spray (CAMAG). Linear ascending development was performed in twin trough glass chamber saturated with mobile phase. The mobile phase consisted of ethyl acetate-methanol-formic acid (10:5:1 v/v/v). The spectrodensitometric detection was performed at the wavelength of 254 nm. The regression analysis was found to be linear with r2=0.997 in the concentration range 5-25 ppm. The antioxidant activity of formulation was also found to be significant as compared to control. Keywords: Standardization, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Glycyrrhizin, HPTLC, Antioxidant

Growth of catalyst-free high-quality ZnO nanowires by thermal evaporation under air ambient

ZnO nanowires have been successfully fabricated on Si substrate by simple thermal evaporation of Zn powder under air ambient without any catalyst. Morphology and structure analyses indicated that ZnO nanowires had high purity and perfect crystallinity. The diameter of ZnO nanowires was 40 to 100 nm, and the length was about several tens of micrometers. The prepared ZnO nanowires exhibited a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. The growth of the ZnO nanostructure was explained by the vapor-solid mechanism. The simplicity, low cost and fewer necessary apparatuses of the process would suit the high-throughput fabrication of ZnO nanowires. The ZnO nanowires fabricated on Si substrate are compatible with state-of-the-art semiconductor industry. They are expected to have potential applications in functional nanodevices

Genetic Modulation of Rpd3 Expression Impairs Long-Term Courtship Memory in Drosophila

There is increasing evidence that regulation of local chromatin structure is a critical mechanism underlying the consolidation of long-term memory (LTM), however considerably less is understood about the specific mechanisms by which these epigenetic effects are mediated. Furthermore, the importance of histone acetylation in Drosophila memory has not been reported. The histone deacetylase (HDAC) Rpd3 is abundant in the adult fly brain, suggesting a post-mitotic function. Here, we investigated the role of Rpd3 in long-term courtship memory in Drosophila. We found that while modulation of Rpd3 levels predominantly in the adult mushroom body had no observed impact on immediate recall or one-hour memory, 24-hour LTM was severely impaired. Surprisingly, both overexpression as well as RNAi-mediated knockdown of Rpd3 resulted in impairment of long-term courtship memory, suggesting that the dose of Rpd3 is critical for normal LTM

Search for Charged Higgs Bosons in e+e- Collisions at \sqrt{s} = 189 GeV

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons is performed with the L3 detector at LEP using data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 176.4 pb^-1. Higgs decays into a charm and a strange quark or into a tau lepton and its associated neutrino are considered. The observed events are consistent with the expectations from Standard Model background processes. A lower limit of 65.5 GeV on the charged Higgs mass is derived at 95 % confidence level, independent of the decay branching ratio Br(H^{+/-} -> tau nu)