Can Contextual Biasing Remain Effective with Whisper and GPT-2?

End-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR) and large language models, such as Whisper and GPT-2, have recently been scaled to use vast amounts of training data. Despite the large amount of training data, infrequent content words that occur in a particular task may still exhibit poor ASR performance, with contextual biasing a possible remedy. This paper investigates the effectiveness of neural contextual biasing for Whisper combined with GPT-2. Specifically, this paper proposes integrating an adapted tree-constrained pointer generator (TCPGen) component for Whisper and a dedicated training scheme to dynamically adjust the final output without modifying any Whisper model parameters. Experiments across three datasets show a considerable reduction in errors on biasing words with a biasing list of 1000 words. Contextual biasing was more effective when applied to domain-specific data and can boost the performance of Whisper and GPT-2 without losing their generality.Comment: To appear in Interspeech 202

A Whole Cell Assay to Measure Caspase-6 Activity by Detecting Cleavage of Lamin A/C

Caspase-6 is a cysteinyl protease implicated in neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease making it an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. A greater understanding of the role of caspase-6 in disease has been hampered by a lack of suitable cellular assays capable of specifically detecting caspase-6 activity in an intact cell environment. This is mainly due to the use of commercially available peptide substrates and inhibitors which lack the required specificity to facilitate development of this type of assay. We report here a 384-well whole-cell chemiluminescent ELISA assay that monitors the proteolytic degradation of endogenously expressed lamin A/C during the early stages of caspase-dependent apoptosis. The specificity of lamin A/C proteolysis by caspase-6 was demonstrated against recombinant caspase family members and further confirmed in genetic deletion studies. In the assay, plasma membrane integrity remained intact as assessed by release of lactate dehydrogenase from the intracellular environment and the exclusion of cell impermeable peptide inhibitors, despite the induction of an apoptotic state. The method described here is a robust tool to support drug discovery efforts targeting caspase-6 and is the first reported to specifically monitor endogenous caspase-6 activity in a cellular context

Ten-eleven translocation protein 1 modulates medulloblastoma progression

Background: Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor that originates in the cerebellum and brainstem. Frequent somatic mutations and deregulated expression of epigenetic regulators in MB highlight the substantial role of epigenetic alterations. 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is a highly abundant cytosine modification in the developing cerebellum and is regulated by ten-eleven translocation (TET) enzymes. Results: We investigate the alterations of 5hmC and TET enzymes in MB and their significance to cerebellar cancer formation. We show total abundance of 5hmC is reduced in MB, but identify significant enrichment of MB-specific 5hmC marks at regulatory regions of genes implicated in stem-like properties and Nanog-binding motifs. While TET1 and TET2 levels are high in MBs, only knockout of Tet1 in the smoothened (SmoA1) mouse model attenuates uncontrolled proliferation, leading to a favorable prognosis. The pharmacological Tet1 inhibition reduces cell viability and platelet-derived growth factor signaling pathway-associated genes. Conclusions: These results together suggest a potential key role of 5hmC and indicate an oncogenic nature for TET1 in MB tumorigenesis, suggesting it as a potential therapeutic target for MBs

Conditional Adversarial Domain Adaptation Neural Network for Motor Imagery EEG Decoding

Decoding motor imagery (MI) electroencephalogram (EEG) signals for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) is a challenging task because of the severe non-stationarity of perceptual decision processes. Recently, deep learning techniques have had great success in EEG decoding because of their prominent ability to learn features from raw EEG signals automatically. However, the challenge that the deep learning method faces is that the shortage of labeled EEG signals and EEGs sampled from other subjects cannot be used directly to train a convolutional neural network (ConvNet) for a target subject. To solve this problem, in this paper, we present a novel conditional domain adaptation neural network (CDAN) framework for MI EEG signal decoding. Specifically, in the CDAN, a densely connected ConvNet is firstly applied to obtain high-level discriminative features from raw EEG time series. Then, a novel conditional domain discriminator is introduced to work as an adversarial with the label classifier to learn commonly shared intra-subjects EEG features. As a result, the CDAN model trained with sufficient EEG signals from other subjects can be used to classify the signals from the target subject efficiently. Competitive experimental results on a public EEG dataset (High Gamma Dataset) against the state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed framework in recognizing MI EEG signals, indicating its effectiveness in automatic perceptual decision decoding

Headspace Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry for Volatile Components Analysis in Ipomoea Cairica (L.) Sweet Leaves: Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents as Green Extraction and Dilution Matrix

In this study, natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) were used as both the extraction and dilution matrix in static headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SHS-GC-MS) for the analysis of volatile components in Ipomoea cairica (L). Sweet (ICS) leaves. Six NADESs were prepared and the NADESs composed of choline chloride and glucose with a 1:1 molar ratio containing 15% water were preferred due to the better peak responses. A total of 77 volatiles in ICS leaves were detected and tentatively identified by mass spectral matching with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, 2014) Mass Spectral Library and the retention index-assisted qualitative method. These 77 volatile components were mainly terpenoids, aromatics, and aliphatics. Among them, β-elemene, β-caryophyllene, α-humulene, and 2, 4-di-tert-butylphenol were found to be the main components. This investigation verified that the use of NADESs is an efficient green extraction and dilution matrix of the SHS-GC-MS method for direct volatile component analysis of plant materials without extra extraction work

Study on the turn structure of polypeptides containing glycine and L-proline

The formation of turn structure in peptide chains has direct relations with intramolecular hydrogen bonds, therefore the existence of this bond can be tested to research the turn structure. Herein, two tripeptides and three tetrapeptides are synthesized by using glycine and L-proline as raw materials, t-butoxycarbonyl and aniline as capping groups, and HBTU and HATU as condensation reagents. 1H NMR, IR and MS are adopted to characterize the structure of the products. Constant-gradient and variable-temperature 1H NMR spectra test is used to detect the intramolecular hydrogen bond of the synthesized polypeptides, and 1H-1H NOE is used for the speculation of the carbonyl group location of intramolecular hydrogen bond. The test illustrates that intramolecular hydrogen bond is found in three out of the five synthesized polypeptides, and it is not found in the other two. The polypeptides with intramolecular hydrogen bond formed all have the "-Gly-L-Pro-Gly-" segment, while the polypeptides with only "-L-Pro-Gly-" segment or "-Gly-L-Pro-" segment do not have intramolecular hydrogen bond formed. The carbonyl group forming of intramolecular hydrogen bond is attached to the amino group of the capping aniline, and amino group involved in hydrogen bond formation is linked to t-butoxycarbonyl

Corin: A Key Mediator in Sodium Homeostasis, Vascular Remodeling, and Heart Failure

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a crucial element of the cardiac endocrine function that promotes natriuresis, diuresis, and vasodilation, thereby protecting normal blood pressure and cardiac function. Corin is a type II transmembrane serine protease that is highly expressed in the heart, where it converts the ANP precursor to mature ANP. Corin deficiency prevents ANP activation and causes hypertension and heart disease. In addition to the heart, corin is expressed in other tissues, including those of the kidney, skin, and uterus, where corin-mediated ANP production and signaling act locally to promote sodium excretion and vascular remodeling. These results indicate that corin and ANP function in many tissues via endocrine and autocrine mechanisms. In heart failure patients, impaired natriuretic peptide processing is a common pathological mechanism that contributes to sodium and body fluid retention. In this review, we discuss most recent findings regarding the role of corin in non-cardiac tissues, including the kidney and skin, in regulating sodium homeostasis and body fluid excretion. Moreover, we describe the molecular mechanisms underlying corin and ANP function in supporting orderly cellular events in uterine spiral artery remodeling. Finally, we assess the potential of corin-based approaches to enhance natriuretic peptide production and activity as a treatment of heart failure

Recycle the dental fairy’s package: overview of dental pulp stem cells

Abstract Adult stem cells are excellent cell resource for cell therapy and regenerative medicine. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have been discovered and well known in various application. Here, we reviewed the history of dental pulp stem cell study and the detail experimental method including isolation, culture, cryopreservation, and the differentiation strategy to different cell lineage. Moreover, we discussed the future potential application of the combination of tissue engineering and of DPSC differentiation. This review will help the new learner to quickly get into the DPSC filed

Rhein Improves Renal Fibrosis by Restoring Cpt1a-Mediated Fatty Acid Oxidation through SirT1/STAT3/twist1 Pathway

The latest progress in the field of renal fibrosis mainly focuses on the new concept of “partial epithelial-mesenchymal transition (pEMT)” to explain the contribution of renal tubular epithelial (RTE) cells to renal fibrosis and the crucial role of fatty acid oxidation (FAO) dysfunction in RTE cells for the development of renal fibrosis. FAO depression is considered to be secondary or occur simultaneously with pEMT. We explored the relationship between pEMT and FAO and the effect of rhein on them. Intragastric administration of rhein significantly improved the levels of BUN, Scr, α-SMA, collagen 1A and histopathological changes in UUO-rats. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses revealed that abnormal signaling pathways were involved in EMT and FAO disorders. RTE cell experiments showed that TGF-β could inhibit the activity of Cpt1a, resulting in ATP depletion and lipid deposition. Cpt1a inhibitor induced EMT, while Cpt1 substrate or rhein inhibited EMT, indicating that Cpt1a-mediated FAO dysfunction is essential for RTE cells EMT. Further studies showed that Cpt1a activity were regulated by SirT1/STAT3/Twist1 pathway. Rhein inhibits RTE cell EMT by promoting Cpt1a-mediated FAO through the SirT1/STAT3/Twist1 pathway. Surprisingly and importantly, our experiments showed that FAO depression occurs before EMT, and EMT is one of the results of FAO depression