Asymptotic pairs, stable sets and chaos in positive entropy systems

We consider positive entropy $G$-systems for certain countable, discrete, infinite left-orderable amenable groups $G$. By undertaking local analysis, the existence of asymptotic pairs and chaotic sets will be studied in connecting with the stable sets. Examples are given for the case of integer lattice groups, the Heisenberg group, and the groups of integral unipotent upper triangular matrices

NPRF: A Neural Pseudo Relevance Feedback Framework for Ad-hoc Information Retrieval

Pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF) is commonly used to boost the performance of traditional information retrieval (IR) models by using top-ranked documents to identify and weight new query terms, thereby reducing the effect of query-document vocabulary mismatches. While neural retrieval models have recently demonstrated strong results for ad-hoc retrieval, combining them with PRF is not straightforward due to incompatibilities between existing PRF approaches and neural architectures. To bridge this gap, we propose an end-to-end neural PRF framework that can be used with existing neural IR models by embedding different neural models as building blocks. Extensive experiments on two standard test collections confirm the effectiveness of the proposed NPRF framework in improving the performance of two state-of-the-art neural IR models.Comment: Full paper in EMNLP 201

Development of a monoclonal antibody to ITPRIPL1 for immunohistochemical diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancers: accuracy and correlation with CD8+ T cell infiltration

Introduction: Cancer biomarkers are substances or processes highly associated with the presence and progression of cancer, which are applicable for cancer screening, progression surveillance, and prognosis prediction in clinical practice. In our previous studies, we discovered that cancer cells upregulate inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor-interacting protein-like 1 (ITPRIPL1), a natural CD3 ligand, to evade immune surveillance and promote tumor growth. We also developed a monoclonal ITPRIPL1 antibody with high sensitivity and specificity. Here, we explored the application of anti-ITPRIPL1 antibody for auxiliary diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods: NSCLC patient tissue samples (n = 75) were collected and stained by anti-ITPRIPL1 or anti-CD8 antibodies. After excluding the flaked samples (n = 15), we evaluated the expression by intensity (0-3) and extent (0-100%) of staining to generate an h-score for each sample. The expression status was classified into negative (h-score < 20), low-positive (20-99), and high-positive (≥ 100). We compared the h-scores between the solid cancer tissue and stroma and analyzed the correlation between the h-scores of the ITPRIPL1 and CD8 expression in situ in adjacent tissue slices.Results: The data suggested ITPRIPL1 is widely overexpressed in NSCLC and positively correlates with tumor stages. We also found that ITPRIPL1 expression is negatively correlated with CD8 staining, which demonstrates that ITPRIPL1 overexpression is indicative of poorer immune infiltration and clinical prognosis. Therefore, we set 50 as the cutoff point of ITPRIPL1 expression H scores to differentiate normal and lung cancer tissues, which is of an excellent sensitivity and specificity score (100% within our sample collection).Discussion: These results highlight the potential of ITPRIPL1 as a proteomic immunohistochemical NSCLC biomarker with possible advantages over the existing NSCLC biomarkers, and the ITPRIPL1 antibody can be applied for accurate diagnosis and prognosis prediction

The relationship between coffee-related factors and cortical and hippocampal structure: a triangulation of evidence approach and Mendelian randomization research

ObjectiveExisting studies have reported sustained changes in the cortical structure of rats due to coffee-related factors, which are speculated to occur in the human body. However, there is a lack of research on this topic. Additionally, previous observational studies have found the impact of diseases on cortical structure and the potential therapeutic effects of coffee on these diseases. Our aim was to study the causal effects of coffee-related factors on the human brain using SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). We will connect these discovered causal effects to the impact of diseases on the brain. Through triangulating evidence, we will reveal the potential active areas of coffee in preventing diseases.MethodsWe utilized GWAS data from multiple cohorts and their databases, selecting instrumental variables for genetic prediction of coffee intake and plasma levels of caffeine and its direct metabolites. We applied these instrumental variables to individual data on cortical thickness and surface area, as well as hippocampal volume, from the ENIGMA and CHARGE consortium for Mendelian randomization analysis (MR). Triangular evidence was obtained by integrating existing evidence through a specified retrieval strategy, calculating the overlap between coffee's effects on brain regions and disease-related brain regions to identify potential regions of action.ResultsThe MR analysis yielded 93 positive results for 9 exposures, among which theobromine, a metabolite in the caffeine pathway, was found to be associated with increased hippocampal volume. For cortical structure, theobromine in the caffeine pathway was associated with a decrease in total surface area, while theobromine and caffeine in the pathway were associated with an increase in total thickness. The overlap rate of triangular evidence showed no difference in both overall and subgroup analyses, indicating a high overlap between the effects of coffee on brain regions and disease.ConclusionsFrom predicted outcomes from causal effects, coffee intake-related factors may have lasting effects on cortical structure. Additionally, theobromine and theophylline have the greatest impact on certain brain gyri, rather than caffeine. Triangulation evidence indicates that disease and coffee intake-related factors act on the same cortical regions, suggesting the presence of potential shared or antagonistic pathways

Effectiveness of Whole-course Management in the Practice of Standardized Training of General Practitioners

Background Whole-course management refers to a patient-centered care model over the entire course of patients, aimed at patients' satisfaction with medical care, improving the whole course management of the disease. The whole-course management model has achieved significant success in various medical fields, such as the treatment of mental health disorders. However, its application in the general practitioner training has been rarely studied. Objective To investigate the practical effectiveness of the whole-course management teaching model in standardized training for general practitioners. Methods A total of 60 general practitioners of grades 2020, 2021 and 2022 who received national standardized training at Xiangya Second Hospital of Central South University. Additionally, 30 mentors specializing in total disease management were selected, with each mentor supervising two general practitioners, one from the research group and one from the control group, in order to minimize the impact of personal factors of mentors and ensure more objective research results. All levels of general practitioners of grades 2020, 2021 and 2022 were randomly divided into the research and control groups. The research group adopted whole-course management teaching mode while the control group followed the traditional lecture-based learning (LBL) model, with one team leader selected from each grade. After a nine-month training period (July 2022 to March 2023) , participants were evaluated on 6 items of diagnostic capability, treatment effect evaluation, patient management ability, teamwork ability, self-learning capability, and teaching ability. Simultaneously, a self-designed satisfaction questionnaire was also used to investigate patients under the care of these general practitioners. The average score was calculated based on ratings from three patients per general practitioner. Results Diagnostic capability, patient management ability, self-learning capability, and teaching ability scores of grade 2020 in the research group were high than those of the control group (P<0.05) ; diagnostic capability, teamwork ability, self-learning capability and teaching ability scores of grade 2021 in the research group were high than those of the control group (P<0.05) ; the research group of grade 2022 achieved higher scores than the control group in diagnostic capability, patient management ability, teamwork ability, self-learning capability, and teaching ability, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05) . The research groups of grades 2020 and 2021 received higher patient satisfaction scores than the control group in various aspects, including communication style, privacy protection, formulation of diagnosis and treatment plan/examination of patients informed, explaining and educating before operation or administration, treatment effectiveness and operation skills, addressing patients' inquiries patiently, responsibility/service attitude, integrity in medical practice, medical fairness, and discharge guidance satisfaction, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05) . The research groups of grade 2022 received higher patient satisfaction scores than the control group in communication style, privacy protection, formulation of diagnosis and treatment plan/examination of patients informed, explaining and educating before operation or administration, treatment effectiveness and operation skills, addressing patients' inquiries patiently, responsibility/service attitude, integrity in medical practice, etiquette dress code and discharge guidance, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05) . Conclusion The whole-course management teaching model demonstrated advantages in enhancing the diagnostic capabilities, patient management ability, teamwork ability, self-learning capability, and teaching ability of general practitioners. Additionally, patients expressed higher satisfaction with general practitioners trained in whole-course management teaching mode in terms of communication style, privacy protection, formulation of diagnosis and treatment plan/examination of patients informed, explaining and educating before operation or administration, treatment effectiveness and operation skills, addressing patients' inquiries patiently, responsibility/service attitude, integrity in medical practice and discharge guidance