In Vivo Evaluation of the Nitroimidazole-Based Thioflavin-T Derivatives as Cerebral Ischemia Markers

Timely imaging and accurate interpretation of cerebral ischemia are required to identify patients who might benefit from more aggressive therapy, and nuclear medicine offers a noninvasive method for demonstrating cerebral ischemia. Three nitroimidazole-based thioflavin-T derivatives, N-[4-(benzothiazol-2-yl)phenyl]-3-(4-nitroimidazole-1-yl) propanamide (4NPBTA), N-[4-(benzothiazol-2-yl)phenyl]-3-(4-nitroimidazole-1-yl)-N-methylpropanamide (4NPBTA-1), and N-[4-(benzothiazol-2-yl)phenyl]-3-(2-nitroimidazole-1-yl) propanamide (2NPBTA), were radioiodinated and evaluated as possible cerebral ischemia markers. In normal mice, these compounds showed good permeation of the intact blood-brain barrier (BBB), high initial brain uptake, and rapid washout. In gerbil stroke models that had been subjected to right common carotid artery ligation to produce cerebral ischemia, [131I]2NPBTA, uptake in the right cerebral hemisphere decreased more slowly than that of the left, and the right/left hemisphere uptake ratios increased with time. Also, the right/left hemisphere uptake ratios correlated positively with the severity of the stroke. The results showed that [131I]2NPBTA had a specific location in the cerebral ischemic tissue. This represented a first step in finding new drugs and might provide a possible cerebral ischemic marker

CoAnnotating: Uncertainty-Guided Work Allocation between Human and Large Language Models for Data Annotation

Annotated data plays a critical role in Natural Language Processing (NLP) in training models and evaluating their performance. Given recent developments in Large Language Models (LLMs), models such as ChatGPT demonstrate zero-shot capability on many text-annotation tasks, comparable with or even exceeding human annotators. Such LLMs can serve as alternatives for manual annotation, due to lower costs and higher scalability. However, limited work has leveraged LLMs as complementary annotators, nor explored how annotation work is best allocated among humans and LLMs to achieve both quality and cost objectives. We propose CoAnnotating, a novel paradigm for Human-LLM co-annotation of unstructured texts at scale. Under this framework, we utilize uncertainty to estimate LLMs' annotation capability. Our empirical study shows CoAnnotating to be an effective means to allocate work from results on different datasets, with up to 21% performance improvement over random baseline. For code implementation, see https://github.com/SALT-NLP/CoAnnotating

Can Language Model Moderators Improve the Health of Online Discourse?

Human moderation of online conversation is essential to maintaining civility and focus in a dialogue, but is challenging to scale and harmful to moderators. The inclusion of sophisticated natural language generation modules as a force multiplier aid moderators is a tantalizing prospect, but adequate evaluation approaches have so far been elusive. In this paper, we establish a systematic definition of conversational moderation effectiveness through a multidisciplinary lens that incorporates insights from social science. We then propose a comprehensive evaluation framework that uses this definition to asses models' moderation capabilities independently of human intervention. With our framework, we conduct the first known study of conversational dialogue models as moderators, finding that appropriately prompted models can provide specific and fair feedback on toxic behavior but struggle to influence users to increase their levels of respect and cooperation.Comment: 9 page

The Influence of Aortic Valve Disease on Coronary Hemodynamics: A Computational Model-Based Study

Aortic valve disease (AVD) often coexists with coronary artery disease (CAD), but whether and how the two diseases are correlated remains poorly understood. In this study, a zero–three dimensional (0-3D) multi-scale modeling method was developed to integrate coronary artery hemodynamics, aortic valve dynamics, coronary flow autoregulation mechanism, and systemic hemodynamics into a unique model system, thereby yielding a mathematical tool for quantifying the influences of aortic valve stenosis (AS) and aortic valve regurgitation (AR) on hemodynamics in large coronary arteries. The model was applied to simulate blood flows in six patient-specific left anterior descending coronary arteries (LADs) under various aortic valve conditions (i.e., control (free of AVD), AS, and AR). Obtained results showed that the space-averaged oscillatory shear index (SA-OSI) was significantly higher under the AS condition but lower under the AR condition in comparison with the control condition. Relatively, the overall magnitude of wall shear stress was less affected by AVD. Further data analysis revealed that AS induced the increase in OSI in LADs mainly through its role in augmenting the low-frequency components of coronary flow waveform. These findings imply that AS might increase the risk or progression of CAD by deteriorating the hemodynamic environment in coronary arteries

A 2:1 Dicationic Complex of Tetraethyl Methylenebisphosphonate with Uranyl Ion in Acetonitrile and Ionic Liquids

A new 2:1 dicationic complex formed by TEMBP with uranyl ion in acetonitrile and two hydrophobic ILs, [BMIm]­[NTf₂] and [N₄₁₁₁]­[NTf₂], has been identified with combination of optical spectroscopic and mass spectrometric studies. With excess of TEMBP ligand (L/U > 2.0), the uranyl is completely coordinated by two ligands to form a dicationic complex [UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺. The UV–vis spectra of [UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ in acetonitrile and in the two ILs are similar. The vibronic fine structures in UV–vis spectrum of [UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ show characters of tetragonal coordination in the uranyl equatorial plane. The symmetry of proposed structure of [UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ is <i>D</i>_2<i>h</i>, and its UV–vis spectrum is tentatively interpreted based on the structural similarity to the well studied [UO₂Cl₄]^2– complex. The luminescence emission spectrum of [UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ shows typical vibronic bands, having a mirror relationship with the 455–500 nm region of the corresponding absorption spectrum. The stoichiometry of [UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ is confirmed by electrospray ionization–ion trap mass spectrometry (ESI-ITMS) studies with acetonitrile as solvent. The “naked” dication (<i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 423) is characterized by the remarkable eight peaks with interval of 14 <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> units in its tandem mass spectra, representing the fragmentation of ligands by losing C₂H₄ units from their ethoxy groups. However, the dication tends to exist as a weak adduct with either an additional ligand or an anion in the ESI mass spectrum. The adducts {[UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ + TEMBP} (<i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 567) and {[UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ + [ClO₄]⁻} (<i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 945) are favorable in pure acetonitrile, while only one adduct {[UO₂(TEMBP)₂]²⁺ + [NTf₂]⁻} (<i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 1126) is predominant in [BMIm]­[NTf₂] (diluted with acetonitrile). The results of ESI-ITMS study are consistent with those of optical spectroscopic studies

Numerical Simulation of Ethanol Air Diffusion Flame Quenching under Transverse AC Electric Field

The electric field fire extinguishing technology is an efficient, clean, and new fire extinguishing technology that can be operated at a long distance. In order to study the synergistic mechanism of &ldquo;electric-flow-heat&rdquo; in the process of transverse AC electric field fire extinguishing, the ionic wind formed by the influence of electric field on each charged particle during the burning process of ethanol&ndash;air diffusion flame is simulated by the non-premixed combustion model, and the experimental phenomenon of flame quenching in the transverse AC electric field is reproduced by means of numerical simulation. The accuracy of the numerical model was verified by comparing the temperature and flow velocity in the region obtained from the simulation with the data measured in the experiment. According to both simulated and experimental phenomena, we present a hypothesis of how the flame is quenched under the influence of an electric field. The next research directions are: (1) improving the accuracy of numerical simulation by building fine models; (2) studying the dynamic mechanism of real flames by particle image velocimetry technology

Comparison of Benefits of Different Tobacco Loading Methods and Matching Baking Processes in Intensive Curing Houses[ ]*

[Objectives] Benefits of different tobacco loading methods and supporting baking processes in intensive curing houses were compared. [Methods] Flue-cured tobacco variety K326 was taken as material, and comparative experiment on baking effects of six tobacco loading methods (traditional hanging pole, loose leaf stacking, loose leaf binding and inserting, loose leaf inserting, loose leaf net basket, loose leaf grid) was conducted. [Results] Cost of dry tobacco loading equipment for hanging pole and loose leaf stacking was 0.01 and 0.1 yuan/kg, and cost of tobacco loading by loose leaf basket reached 0.36 yuan/kg. Labor cost for baking dry tobacco by direct stacking of loose leaves reached 2.02 yuan/kg, which was the lowest, while labor cost for binding and inserting loose leaves reached 2.44 yuan/kg, which was the highest. Energy consumption cost of dry tobacco baking with loose leaf grid was 1.06 yuan/kg, which was the lowest, while baking energy consumption cost of loose leaf stacking reached 1.23 yuan/kg, which was the highest. From the perspective of baking income, loose leaf inserting reached 21.36 yuan/kg, which was the lowest, while net basket reached 27.79 yuan/kg, which was the highest, followed by grid (23.46 yuan/kg) and loose leaf binding and inserting (22.5 yuan/kg). [Conclusions] It is worth popularizing the loose leaf binding and inserting and the loose leaf grid baking

Prolonged exposure to the herbicide atrazine suppresses immune cell functions by inducing spleen cell apoptosis in rats

Atrazine (ATR) is a herbicide used widely worldwide. Because of its prolonged persistence in the environment and accumulation in the body, ATR exposure is a potential threat to human health. Our previous study showed that subacute exposure to ATR suppresses cellular immune function in mice. In this study, the effects of long-term exposure to ATR on rat immunological system function were measured. Four-week-old female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were treated with 0.4 μmol/L, 2 μmol/L and 10 μmol/L ATR for 24 weeks. The results showed that the spleen index increased, white blood cells decreased, and monocytes and eosinophils increased. No obvious changes were detected in the numbers of neutrophils and lymphocytes. Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells decreased significantly, while Treg cells increased after long-term ATR exposure. Moreover, serum levels of cytokines, including TNF-α, INF-γ, IL-6, and IL-12, decreased, while IL-1, IL-4, and IL-5 increased. Degenerative changes and cell apoptosis were found in the spleen; Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 were upregulated, and Bcl-2 was downregulated. These results suggested that long-term ATR exposure may inhibit immune system function

Bleeding due to successive duodenal and rectal ulcers in an 81-year-old patient with severe COVID-19: a case report

Abstract Background In the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, the most widely recognised symptoms of the disease were fever, cough, shortness of breath, myalgia, and fatigue. However, in addition to these symptoms, COVID-19 can cause systemic symptoms outside the lungs. Older patients with severe COVID-19 often require admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Acute rectal ulcer bleeding, characterised by painless, profuse haematochezia, caused by solitary or multiple rectal ulcers, is one of the main causes of severe haematochezia in patients with COVID-19 in the ICU. However, recurrent duodenal ulcer bleeding followed by rectal ulcer bleeding has not previously been reported in older patients during ICU treatment for severe COVID-19. Cases presentation Herein, we report the case of an 81-year-old woman admitted to the emergency department due to severe COVID-19 and transferred to the ICU 2 days later for treatment. During treatment in the ICU, the patient developed recurrent duodenal ulcer bleeding and underwent endoscopic electrocoagulation haemostasis and gastroduodenal artery embolisation. However, the night after the final haemostatic operation, due to rectal ulcer bleeding, the patient discharged bloody stools intermittently, which was effectively controlled using endoscopic electrocoagulation, topical medication, blood transfusion, and haemostatic drugs. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of duodenal ulcer bleeding followed by rectal ulcer bleeding in an older patient with severe COVID-19 infection. This report creates awareness for clinicians about the multiple and complex gastrointestinal symptoms that may occur during COVID-19 treatment