Wasserstein Generative Regression

In this paper, we propose a new and unified approach for nonparametric regression and conditional distribution learning. Our approach simultaneously estimates a regression function and a conditional generator using a generative learning framework, where a conditional generator is a function that can generate samples from a conditional distribution. The main idea is to estimate a conditional generator that satisfies the constraint that it produces a good regression function estimator. We use deep neural networks to model the conditional generator. Our approach can handle problems with multivariate outcomes and covariates, and can be used to construct prediction intervals. We provide theoretical guarantees by deriving non-asymptotic error bounds and the distributional consistency of our approach under suitable assumptions. We also perform numerical experiments with simulated and real data to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our approach over some existing approaches in various scenarios.Comment: 50 pages, including appendix. 5 figures and 6 tables in the main text. 1 figure and 7 tables in the appendi

H2S-based fluorescent imaging for pathophysiological processes

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), as an important endogenous signaling molecule, plays a vital role in many physiological processes. The abnormal behaviors of hydrogen sulfide in organisms may lead to various pathophysiological processes. Monitoring the changes in hydrogen sulfide is helpful for pre-warning and treating these pathophysiological processes. Fluorescence imaging techniques can be used to observe changes in the concentration of analytes in organisms in real-time. Therefore, employing fluorescent probes imaging to investigate the behaviors of hydrogen sulfide in pathophysiological processes is vital. This paper reviews the design strategy and sensing mechanisms of hydrogen sulfide-based fluorescent probes, focusing on imaging applications in various pathophysiological processes, including neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, apoptosis, oxidative stress, organ injury, and diabetes. This review not only demonstrates the specific value of hydrogen sulfide fluorescent probes in preclinical studies but also illuminates the potential application in clinical diagnostics

Content analysis of systematic reviews on the effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate evidence for the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in systematic reviews.MethodsChinese (TCMPeriodical Literature Database, Chinese Biological Medicine database, Chinese Medical Current Contents, China Hospital Knowledge Database journal fulltext database, Virtual Machining and Inspection System, and Wanfang) and English (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PubMed and Embase) databases were searched.ResultsThree thousand, nine hundred and fifty-five articles were initially identified, 606 of which met the inclusion criteria, including 251 in English (83 from the Cochrane Database) and 355 in Chinese. The number of articles published each year increased between 1989 and 2009. Cardiocerebrovascular disease was the most studied target disease. Intervention measures includedTCM preparations (177 articles), acupuncture (133 articles) and combinations of TCM and western medicine (38 articles). Control measures included positive medical (177 articles), basic treatment (100 articles), placebo (219 articles), and blank and mutual (107 articles). All articles included at least one reference; the greatest number was 268. Six of 10 articles with high quality references demonstrated curative effectsagainst target diseasesincludingupper respiratory tract infection, dementia and depression. Interventions that were not recommendedwere tripterygium for rheumatoid arthritis andTCM syndrome differentiation for pediatric nocturia. In 10.4% of the studies, the authors concluded that the intervention had a curative effect. The assessors agreed with the authors' conclusions in 88.32% of cases, but rejected 8.94% (54 articles).Conclusion1) Training in systematic review methods, including topic selection, study design, methods and technology, should be improved. 2) Upper respiratory tract infection, dementia and depression may become the predominant diseases treatedby TCM, and the corresponding interventions could be developed into practical applications. 3) Use of non-recommended interventions should be controlled, and there should be more research on side effects

EMONA: Event-level Moral Opinions in News Articles

Most previous research on moral frames has focused on social media short texts, little work has explored moral sentiment within news articles. In news articles, authors often express their opinions or political stance through moral judgment towards events, specifically whether the event is right or wrong according to social moral rules. This paper initiates a new task to understand moral opinions towards events in news articles. We have created a new dataset, EMONA, and annotated event-level moral opinions in news articles. This dataset consists of 400 news articles containing over 10k sentences and 45k events, among which 9,613 events received moral foundation labels. Extracting event morality is a challenging task, as moral judgment towards events can be very implicit. Baseline models were built for event moral identification and classification. In addition, we also conduct extrinsic evaluations to integrate event-level moral opinions into three downstream tasks. The statistical analysis and experiments show that moral opinions of events can serve as informative features for identifying ideological bias or subjective events.Comment: Accepted to NAACL 202

Enzyme Biosensors for Point-of-Care Testing

Biosensors are devices that integrate a variety of technologies, containing biology, electronics, chemistry, physics, medicine, informatics, and correlated technology. Biosensors act as transducer with a biorecognition element and transform a biochemical reaction on the transducer surface directly into a measurable signal. The biosensors have the advantages of rapid analysis, low cost, and high precision, which are widely used in many fields, such as medical care, disease diagnosis, food detection, environmental monitoring, and fermentation industry. The enzyme biosensors show excellent application value owing to the development of fixed technology and the characteristics of specific identification, which can be combined with point-of-care testing (POCT) technology. POCT technology is attracting more and more attention as a very effective method of clinic detection. We outline the recent advances of biosensors in this chapter, focusing on the principle and classification of enzyme biosensor, immobilization method of biorecognition layers, and fabrication of amperometric biosensors, as well as the applications of POCT. A summary of glucose biosensor development and integrated setups is included. The latest applications of enzyme biosensors in diagnostic applications focusing on POCT of biomarkers in real samples were described

Effects of Mongolian Medicine Modified Sugmul-7 on Hyperplasia of the Breast

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the mechanism of regulating the endocrine function of hyperplasia breast in rats with Mongolian Medicine Modified Sugmul-7 (MMMS-7) by Proteomics and provide an experimental basis for its development and clinical application. Methods: Ninety female SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: the intact group – the animal group that was injected with neither estradiol, nor progesterone, nor administered Mongolian Medicine Modified Sugmul-7; the negative control group – the group injected with estradiol and progesterone; the positive control group - injected with estradiol, progesterone and administered mastodynon 0.06 g/kg; and the treatment groups – injected with estradiol and progesterone, each in their respective dose groups. After the start of the experiment, each rat except the intact group was intra peritoneally injected with estradiol 25d and progesterone 6d at a standard dose of 0.3 mg / kg for a total of 31 days. Results: Four differential proteins were found through proteomic analysis, namely Ppp3cb, Cacybp, Gstz1, and Nmd3 and their 5 related pathways. Conclusions: The above pathways are all known to be related to the treatment of breast hyperplasia caused by endocrine disorders. Treatment with Mongolian Medicine Modified Sugmul-7 is completed through regulation of the gastrointestinal and endocrine systems

Renin–angiotensin system inhibition is associated with reduced risk of left atrial appendage thrombosis formation in patients with atrial fibrillation

Background: Inhibition of the renin–angiotensin axis can reduce the likelihood of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the effects of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) on thrombogenicity in AF remain incompletely elucidated. Thisretrospective case-control study was conducted to evaluate whether the use of ACEI or ARB could reduce the incidence of left atrial appendage thrombus (LAAT) and spontaneous echocardiographic contrast (SEC) in patients with AF. Methods: A total of 199 AF patients who received both transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) and transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) successively on the same day from 2012 to 2016 were enrolled. Left atrial dimension, maximal left atrial volume (LAVmax), left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, left ventricular ejection fraction, and the ratio of the early transmitral flow velocity and the early mitral annular velocity (E/e’) were determined. Longitudinal LA strain was evaluated using two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging at each LA segment. Peak systolic strain was calculated by averaging total segments. LAAT, LAA emptying flow velocity (LAAeV) and SEC were evaluated by TEE. Risk factors for LAAT and usage of ACEIs or ARBs were recorded. Results: The incidence of LAAT was 27.6%. Among the patients with renin–angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, 20.5% were demonstrated to have LAAT, compared with 33.3% in the nonuser group (p = 0.044). LA peak systolic strain and LAAeV were significantly increased in patients with RAS inhibitors compared to the nonuser group (p = 0.002, p = 0.047, respectively). Patients with LAAT had higher CHA2DS2-VASc scores and evident SEC comparedwith those without LAAT (p = 0.000, p = 0.000, respectively). Usage of ACEIs/ARBs and antiplatelet drugs were frequent in patients with LAAT than in those without LAAT (p = 0.044, p = 0.000, respectively). Even after controlling for LAAT-related risk factors (age, body mass index, AF type, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, prior stroke or transient ischemic attack, drinking history and usage of antiplatelet drugs and LAVmax), use of RAS inhibitors remained significantly associated with a lower risk of LAAT (OR = 0.222; 95% CI 0.084–0.585, p = 0.002). Conclusions: This study shows that RAS inhibitors may be effective in reducing the risk of LAAT in patients with AF through atrial reverse remodeling