MHSCNet: A Multimodal Hierarchical Shot-aware Convolutional Network for Video Summarization

Video summarization intends to produce a concise video summary by effectively capturing and combining the most informative parts of the whole content. Existing approaches for video summarization regard the task as a frame-wise keyframe selection problem and generally construct the frame-wise representation by combining the long-range temporal dependency with the unimodal or bimodal information. However, the optimal video summaries need to reflect the most valuable keyframe with its own information, and one with semantic power of the whole content. Thus, it is critical to construct a more powerful and robust frame-wise representation and predict the frame-level importance score in a fair and comprehensive manner. To tackle the above issues, we propose a multimodal hierarchical shot-aware convolutional network, denoted as MHSCNet, to enhance the frame-wise representation via combining the comprehensive available multimodal information. Specifically, we design a hierarchical ShotConv network to incorporate the adaptive shot-aware frame-level representation by considering the short-range and long-range temporal dependency. Based on the learned shot-aware representations, MHSCNet can predict the frame-level importance score in the local and global view of the video. Extensive experiments on two standard video summarization datasets demonstrate that our proposed method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. Source code will be made publicly available

Perspectives on Privacy in the Post-Roe Era: A Mixed-Methods of Machine Learning and Qualitative Analyses of Tweets

Abortion is a controversial topic that has long been debated in the US. With the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, access to safe and legal reproductive care is once again in the national spotlight. A key issue central to this debate is patient privacy, as in the post-HITECH Act era it has become easier for medical records to be electronically accessed and shared. This study analyzed a large Twitter dataset from May to December 2022 to examine the public's reactions to Roe v. Wade's overruling and its implications for privacy. Using a mixed-methods approach consisting of computational and qualitative content analysis, we found a wide range of concerns voiced from the confidentiality of patient-physician information exchange to medical records being shared without patient consent. These findings may inform policy making and healthcare industry practices concerning medical privacy related to reproductive rights and women's health.Comment: Paper accepted for the proceedings of the 2023 American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium (AMIA

Quantitative detection and attribution of groundwater level variations in the Amu Darya Delta

In the past few decades, the shrinkage of the Aral Sea is one of the biggest ecological catastrophes caused by human activity. To quantify the joint impact of both human activities and climate change on groundwater, the spatiotemporal groundwater dynamic characteristics in the Amu Darya Delta of the Aral Sea from 1999 to 2017 were analyzed, using the groundwater level, climate conditions, remote sensing data, and irrigation information. Statistics analysis was adopted to analyze the trend of groundwater variation, including intensity, periodicity, spatial structure, while the Pearson correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to quantify the impact of climate change and human activities on the variabilities of the groundwater level. Results reveal that the local groundwater dynamic has varied considerably. From 1999 to 2002, the groundwater level dropped from -189 cm to -350 cm. Until 2017, the groundwater level rose back to -211 cm with fluctuation. Seasonally, the fluctuation period of groundwater level and irrigation water was similar, both were about 18 months. Spatially, the groundwater level kept stable within the irrigation area and bare land but fluctuated drastically around the irrigation area. The Pearson correlation analysis reveals that the dynamic of the groundwater level is closely related to irrigation activity within the irrigation area (Nukus: -0.583), while for the place adjacent to the Aral Sea, the groundwater level is closely related to the Large Aral Sea water level (Muynak: 0.355). The results of PCA showed that the cumulative contribution rate of the first three components exceeds 85%. The study reveals that human activities have a great impact on groundwater, effective management, and the development of water resources in arid areas is an essential prerequisite for ecological protection

In situ photo-crosslinked hydrogel promotes oral mucosal wound healing through sustained delivery of ginsenoside Rg1

Oral mucosal wounds exhibit an increased susceptibility to inflammation as a consequence of their direct exposure to a diverse range of microorganisms. This causes pain, slow healing, and other complications that interfere with patients’ daily activities like eating and speaking. Consequently, patients experience a significant decline in their overall quality of life. Therefore, the pursuit of novel treatment approaches is of great importance. In this study, ginsenoside Rg1, a natural active substance extracted from ginseng root, was chosen as a therapeutic agent. It was encapsulated in a screened photo-crosslinked hydrogel scaffold for the treatment of mucosal defects in the rat palate. The results demonstrated that Rg1-hydrogel possessed excellent physical and chemical properties, and that oral mucosa wounds treated with Rg1-hydrogel exhibited the greatest healing performance, as evidenced by more pronounced wound re-epithelialization, increased collagen deposition, and decreased inflammatory infiltration. Subsequent investigations in molecular biology confirmed that Rg1-hydrogel stimulated the secretion of repair-related factors and inhibited the secretion of inflammatory factors. This study demonstrated that the hydrogel containing ginsenoside Rg1 significantly promotes oral mucosal tissue healing in vivo. Based on the findings, it can be inferred that the Rg1-hydrogel has promising prospects for the therapeutic management of oral mucosal wounds

Exome sequencing in fetuses with short long bones detected by ultrasonography: A retrospective cohort study

Background: Prenatal diagnosis of fetal short long bones (SLBs) was reported to be associated with skeletal dysplasias, chromosomal abnormalities, and genetic syndromes. This study aims to identify the genetic causes for fetal short long bones, and retrospectively evaluate the additional diagnostic yield of exome sequencing (ES) for short long bones following the use of conventional genetic testing.Methods: A cohort of ninety-four fetuses with sonographically identified short long bones was analyzed by trio-exome sequencing between January 2016 and June 2021. Fetuses with abnormal results of karyotype or chromosomal microarray analysis were excluded. Variants were interpreted based on ACMG/AMP guidelines. All diagnostic de novo variants were validated by Sanger sequencing.Results: Of the 94 fetuses, 38 (40.4%) were found to carry causal genetic variants (pathogenic or likely pathogenic) in sixteen genes with 38 variants. Five fetuses (5.3%) had variant(s) of uncertain significance. Thirty-five cases (37.2%) were diagnosed as genetic skeletal dysplasias including 14 different diseases that were classified into 10 groups according to the Nosology and Classification of Genetic Skeletal Disorders. The most common disease in the cohort was achondroplasia (28.9%), followed by osteogenesis imperfecta (18.4%), thanatophoric dysplasia (10.5%), chondrogenesis (7.9%), and 3-M syndrome (5.3%). The diagnostic yield in fetuses with isolated short long bones was lower than the fetuses with non-isolated short long bones, but not reached statistical significance (27.3% vs. 44.4%; p = 0.151). Whereas, the rate in the fetuses with other skeletal abnormalities was significantly higher than those with non-skeletal abnormalities (59.4% vs. 32.5%, p = 0.023), and the diagnostic rate was significantly higher in femur length (FL) below -4SDs group compared with FL 2-4SDs below GA group (72.5% vs. 16.7%; p < 0.001). A long-term follow-up showed that outcomes for fetuses with FL 2-4SDs below GA were significantly better than those with FL below -4SDs. Additionally, fourteen (36.8%) novel short long bones-related variants were identified in the present study.Conclusion: The findings suggest that in fetuses with short long bones routine genetic tests failed to determine the underlying causes, exome sequencing could add clinically relevant information that could assist the clinical management of pregnancies. Novel pathogenic variants identified may broaden the mutation spectrum for the disorders and contributes to clinical consultation and subsequent pregnancy examination

Positive response to trastuzumab deruxtecan in a patient with HER2-mutant NSCLC after multiple lines therapy, including T-DM1: a case report

Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) mutations are uncommon in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and the lack of established, effective, targeted drugs has resulted in a persistently poor prognosis. Herein, we report the case of a non-smoking, 58-year-old man diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma (cT3N0M1c, stage IVB) harboring a HER2 mutation (Y772_A775dupYVMA) and PD-L1 (-). The patient’s Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS) score was assessed as 1. He commenced first-line treatment with chemotherapy, followed by immuno-chemotherapy, and with disease progression, he received HER2-targeted therapy and chemotherapy with an anti-angiogenic agent. However, HER2-targeted therapy, including pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitors (afatinib, pyrotinib, and pozitinib) and antibody–drug conjugate (T-DM1), produced only stable disease (SD) as the best response. After the previously described treatment, primary tumor recurrence and multiple brain metastases were observed. Despite the patient’s compromised overall physical condition with a PS score of 3-4, he was administered T-DXd in addition to whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Remarkably, both intracranial metastases and primary lesions were significantly reduced, he achieved a partial response (PR), and his PS score increased from 3-4 to 1. He was then treated with T-DXd for almost 9 months until the disease again progressed, and he did not discontinue the drug despite the occurrence of myelosuppression during this period. This is a critical case as it exerted an effective response to T-DXd despite multiple lines therapy, including T-DM1. Simultaneously, despite the occurrence of myelosuppression in the patient during T-DXd, it was controlled after aggressive treatment

A Splice Isoform of DNedd4, DNedd4-Long, Negatively Regulates Neuromuscular Synaptogenesis and Viability in Drosophila

Neuromuscular (NM) synaptogenesis is a tightly regulated process. We previously showed that in flies, Drosophila Nedd4 (dNedd4/dNedd4S) is required for proper NM synaptogenesis by promoting endocytosis of commissureless from the muscle surface, a pre-requisite step for muscle innervation. DNedd4 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase comprised of a C2-WW(x3)-Hect domain architecture, which includes several splice isoforms, the most prominent ones are dNedd4-short (dNedd4S) and dNedd4-long (dNedd4Lo).We show here that while dNedd4S is essential for NM synaptogenesis, the dNedd4Lo isoform inhibits this process and causes lethality. Our results reveal that unlike dNedd4S, dNedd4Lo cannot rescue the lethality of dNedd4 null (DNedd4(T121FS)) flies. Moreover, overexpression of UAS-dNedd4Lo specifically in wildtype muscles leads to NM synaptogenesis defects, impaired locomotion and larval lethality. These negative effects of dNedd4Lo are ameliorated by deletion of two regions (N-terminus and Middle region) unique to this isoform, and by inactivating the catalytic activity of dNedd4Lo, suggesting that these unique regions, as well as catalytic activity, are responsible for the inhibitory effects of dNedd4Lo on synaptogenesis. In accord with these findings, we demonstrate by sqRT-PCR an increase in dNedd4S expression relative to the expression of dNedd4Lo during embryonic stages when synaptogenesis takes place.Our studies demonstrate that splice isoforms of the same dNedd4 gene can lead to opposite effects on NM synaptogenesis

Locating Infectious Sources Using Bluetooth System of Smart Devices

Infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, may have a significant impact on human daily life and social activities. One effective method to prevent and control the spread of such diseases is to accurately locate the sources of infection and limit the possible exposure to the virus. This paper presents a method, system, big data storage and analysis to control the infection based on Bluetooth technology. GPS and Bluetooth positioning are combined to track the movement trajectory of each person with a smart device, locally store the location information and close contacts, as well as periodically update it on the cloud platform. Based on the related algorithms of big data, this method can provide personal and regional risk levels, providing an alarm function which can be triggered by being close enough to a high-risk area or if the infected person’s risk level is greater than the set threshold within the Bluetooth interconnection range. The system can provide a wealth of data on the location of infection sources and close contacts, offering valuable technical support for rapid and efficient epidemic prevention and control

Experimental Study on Flexural Performance of the Prestressed Glulam Continuous Beam after Long-Term Loading

The study of the long-term behavior of the prestressed continuous beam is vital for the design and the appliance of wood structures in engineering. In this study, long-term experiments were first conducted to determine the long-term creep behavior. Afterward, the prestress of the long-term beam was regulated to the initial state, and we carried out short-term flexural experiments to explore the effect of prestressing regulation. The influences of prestressed value and the number of prestressed steel wires on the mechanical properties of the continuous beam were investigated and discussed. The experimental results demonstrate that the creep reduced the stress in the steel wires, weakened the effect of prestressing, and increased the tensile stress at the bottom of the beam, which led to a reduction in the bearing capacity of the beam. The prestressing regulation could increase the moment arm, so the bearing capacity of the beam was improved