One Model for All: Large Language Models are Domain-Agnostic Recommendation Systems

The purpose of sequential recommendation is to utilize the interaction history of a user and predict the next item that the user is most likely to interact with. While data sparsity and cold start are two challenges that most recommender systems are still facing, many efforts are devoted to utilizing data from other domains, called cross-domain methods. However, general cross-domain methods explore the relationship between two domains by designing complex model architecture, making it difficult to scale to multiple domains and utilize more data. Moreover, existing recommendation systems use IDs to represent item, which carry less transferable signals in cross-domain scenarios, and user cross-domain behaviors are also sparse, making it challenging to learn item relationship from different domains. These problems hinder the application of multi-domain methods to sequential recommendation. Recently, large language models (LLMs) exhibit outstanding performance in world knowledge learning from text corpora and general-purpose question answering. Inspired by these successes, we propose a simple but effective framework for domain-agnostic recommendation by exploiting the pre-trained LLMs (namely LLM-Rec). We mix the user's behavior across different domains, and then concatenate the title information of these items into a sentence and model the user's behaviors with a pre-trained language model. We expect that by mixing the user's behaviors across different domains, we can exploit the common knowledge encoded in the pre-trained language model to alleviate the problems of data sparsity and cold start problems. Furthermore, we are curious about whether the latest technical advances in nature language processing (NLP) can transfer to the recommendation scenarios.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 6 table

Diagnosis and surgical management of testicular seminoma in captive giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

A captive adult male giant panda (Guangzhou Chimelong Safari Park, CHINA) presented with azoospermia and enlarged left testicle. A tentative diagnosis of testicular neoplasia was made, and confirmed as testicular seminoma cases by testicular ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), testicular biopsy, and tumor marker examination findings. Based on the diagnostic results, the treatment of choice was surgical resection of the testicular tumor under general anesthesia. And the histopathological findings of the excised neoplasm were consistent with those of testicular seminoma. In addition, no tumor recurrence was observed after surgery, which indicates that our surgical and post-operative treatments were effective. The surgical treatment adopted in this case report is safe for patients and provides the best solution for the diagnosis and treatment of giant panda testicular seminoma. To our knowledge this is the first detailed report of surgical resection of testicular seminoma in the giant panda

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Sn–58Bi eutectic alloy with Cu/P addition

Sn–(58-x) Bi–x Cu/P ternary alloys were prepared by downward continuous casting, and the microstructure of the alloy was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffractometry (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results show that the addition of Cu and P can refine the eutectic structure and form rod-shaped Cu _6 Sn _5 and P _3 Sn _4 phases distributed in Sn matrix. The refined eutectic structure can be observed in Sn–(58-x) Bi–x Cu/P alloys, and this results in the elongation at break increases up. In addition, the wettability of Sn–58Bi alloy increases on Cu substrate with the addition of Cu and P elements. The improvement of the wettability of Sn–58Bi alloy by the addition of Cu element can be attributed to the increase of Cu-Sn IMC nucleation and growth rate. The addition of P element in Sn–58Bi alloy can improve its anti-oxidation performance, which is beneficial to the improvement of its wettability

Antioxidant Activity of Extract and Its Major Constituents from Okra Seed on Rat Hepatocytes Injured by Carbon Tetrachloride

The antioxidant activities and protective effects of total phenolic extracts (TPE) and their major components from okra seeds on oxidative stress induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in rat hepatocyte cell line were investigated. The major phenolic compounds were identified as quercetin 3-O-glucosyl (1→6) glucoside (QDG) and quercetin 3-O-glucoside (QG). TPE, QG, and QDG from okra seeds exhibited excellent reducing power and free radical scavenging capabilities including α, α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), superoxide anions, and hydroxyl radical. Overall, DPPH radical scavenging activity and reducing power of QG and QDG were higher than those of TPE while superoxide and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities of QG and TPE were higher than those of QDG. Furthermore, TPE, QG, and QDG pretreatments significantly alleviated the cytotoxicity of CCl4 on rat hepatocytes, with attenuated lipid peroxidation, increased SOD and CAT activities, and decreased GPT and GOT activities. The protective effects of TPE and QG on rat hepatocytes were stronger than those of QDG. However, the cytotoxicity of CCl4 on rat hepatocytes was not affected by TPE, QG, and QDG posttreatments. It was suggested that the protective effects of TPE, QG, and QDG on rat hepatocyte against oxidative stress were related to the direct antioxidant capabilities and the induced antioxidant enzymes activities

Mechanism of Hypoxia-Mediated Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation Leading to Vascular Remodeling

Vascular remodeling refers to changes in the size, contraction, distribution, and flow rate of blood vessels and even changes in vascular function. Vascular remodeling can cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It can also lead to other systemic diseases, such as pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary atherosclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, and ascites of broilers. Hypoxia is one of the main causes of vascular remodeling. Prolonged hypoxia or intermittent hypoxia can lead to loss of lung ventilation, causing respiratory depression, irregular respiratory rhythms, and central respiratory failure. Animals that are unable to adapt to the highland environment are also prone to sustained constriction of the small pulmonary arteries, increased resistance to pulmonary circulation, and impaired blood circulation, leading to pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure if they live in a highland environment for long periods of time. However, limited studies have been found on the relationship between hypoxia and vascular remodeling. Therefore, this review will explore the relationship between hypoxia and vascular remodeling from the aspects of endoplasmic reticulum stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, abnormal calcium channel, disordered cellular metabolism, abnormal expression of miRNA, and other factors. This will help to understand the detailed mechanism of hypoxia-mediated smooth muscle cell proliferation and vascular remodeling for the better treatment and management of diseases due to vascular remodeling

ICPMS-Based Specific Quantification of Phosphotyrosine: A Gallium-Tagging and Tyrosine-Phosphatase Mediated Strategy

Low-abundance tyrosine phosphorylation is crucial to not only normal but also aberrant life processes. We designed and synthesized a photocleavable magnetic nanoparticle-based gallium tag for tagging and enrichment as well as UV-release of the phosphate-bearing molecules/ions in cells. HPLC/⁷¹Ga species-unspecific isotope dilution (⁷¹Ga-SUID) ICPMS was subsequently developed for specific and absolute quantification of phosphotyrosine (<b>pY</b>) under the assistance of a protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B (PTP-1B). <b>pY</b> quantification was thus achieved via determination of Ga in the Ga-phosphate complexes that come exclusively from the Ga-tagged <b>pY</b>. In this way, the method detection limit of <b>pY</b> reached down to 30 amol with the RSD lower than 5.70% (<i>n</i> = 5 at pmol level). Feasibility of this proposed method was validated using VNQI­GTLSE­<b>pY</b>IK, VNQI­GTL<b>pS</b>E­<b>pY</b>IK, and extracellular regulated protein kinase 1 peptide (-<b>pT</b>E<b>pY</b>-) standards with the recovery of more than 96% (<i>n</i> = 5). It was applied to the absolute quantification of <b>pY</b> in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells, indicating that <b>pY</b> increased by 1.60 nmol (61.1%) in 3.0 × 10⁶ MCF-7 cells after 100 nM insulin stimulation. We believe that, not limited to <b>pY</b> quantification, this element-tagging and protease-specific reaction mediated ICPMS methodology will pave a simple path for ever more applications of ICPMS to the studies of quantitative protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) when suitable element-tags are designed and specific proteases are available toward targeted PTMs

Mitochondrial Protein Profile in Mice with Low or Excessive Selenium Diets

Dietary selenium putatively prevents oxidative damage, whereas excessive selenium may lead to animal disorder. In this study, we investigated the effects of low and excessive levels of dietary selenium on oxidative stress and mitochondrial proteins in mouse liver. Six to eight week old mice were fed a diet with low, excessive, or moderate (control) levels of selenium (sodium selenite). The selenium concentration and oxidative stress-related parameters in hepatic mitochondria were evaluated. Two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry were applied to identify the differentially-expressed proteins associated with dietary selenium. The selenium content of the livers in mice with the low selenium diet was significantly lower than that of the control, while that of mice fed excessive levels was significantly higher. In both groups oxidative stress in hepatic mitochondria was found; accompanied by lower superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) levels and higher malondialdehyde (MDA) content, compared with the control group. Furthermore, ten proteins in the hepatic mitochondria of the selenium-low or -excessive groups with more than two-fold differences in abundance compared with the control group were identified. The differentially-expressed proteins in hepatic mitochondria may be associated with dietary (low or excessive) selenium-induced oxidative stress

Determinants of health insurance ownership in Jordan: a cross-sectional study of population and family health survey 2017–2018

Objectives With about one-third of the population living below the poverty line, Jordan faces major healthcare, social and national development issues. Low insurance coverage among the poor and high out-of-pocket expenditure worsens the financial insecurity especially for the marginalised population. The Government of Jordan aims to achieve universal coverage of health insurance—a bold plan that requires research evidence for successful implementation. In this study, we aimed to assess the proportion of the population covered by any health insurance, and the determinants owing a health insurance.Design A population-based prospective cohort study.Setting Jordan.Methods Data for this study were derived from the Jordan Population and Family Health Survey, which was implemented by the Department of Statistics from early October 2017 to January 2018. Sample characteristics were described as percentages with 95% CIs. Binary logistic regression models were used to estimate OR of health insurance ownership. Parsimonious model was employed to assess the sex and geographical differences.Results Data revealed that in 2017–2018, 73.13% of the 12 992 men and women had health insurance. There was no indication of age of sex difference in health insurance ownership; however, marital status and socioeconomic factors such as wealth and education as well as internet access and geographical location appeared to be the important predictors of non-use of health insurance. The associations differed by sex and urbanicity for certain variables. Addressing these inequities may help achieve universal coverage in health insurance ownership in the population.Conclusions More than one-quarter of the population in Jordan were not insured. Efforts to decrease disparities in insurance coverage should focus on minimising socioeconomic and geographical disparities to promote equity in terms of healthcare services