Attribute Simulation for Item Embedding Enhancement in Multi-interest Recommendation

Although multi-interest recommenders have achieved significant progress in the matching stage, our research reveals that existing models tend to exhibit an under-clustered item embedding space, which leads to a low discernibility between items and hampers item retrieval. This highlights the necessity for item embedding enhancement. However, item attributes, which serve as effective and straightforward side information for enhancement, are either unavailable or incomplete in many public datasets due to the labor-intensive nature of manual annotation tasks. This dilemma raises two meaningful questions: 1. Can we bypass manual annotation and directly simulate complete attribute information from the interaction data? And 2. If feasible, how to simulate attributes with high accuracy and low complexity in the matching stage? In this paper, we first establish an inspiring theoretical feasibility that the item-attribute correlation matrix can be approximated through elementary transformations on the item co-occurrence matrix. Then based on formula derivation, we propose a simple yet effective module, SimEmb (Item Embedding Enhancement via Simulated Attribute), in the multi-interest recommendation of the matching stage to implement our findings. By simulating attributes with the co-occurrence matrix, SimEmb discards the item ID-based embedding and employs the attribute-weighted summation for item embedding enhancement. Comprehensive experiments on four benchmark datasets demonstrate that our approach notably enhances the clustering of item embedding and significantly outperforms SOTA models with an average improvement of 25.59% on [email protected]: This paper has been accepted by the 17th ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM 2024). The camera-ready version will be available in the conference proceeding

A Mild Dyssynchronous Contraction Pattern Detected by SPECT Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Predicts Super-Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Background: Using single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (SPECT MPI) with phase analysis (PA), we aimed to identify the predictive value of a new contraction pattern in cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) response. Methods: Left ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony (LVMD) was evaluated using SPECT MPI with PA in non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB) indicated for CRT. CRT super-response was defined as LV ejection fraction (EF) ≥50% or an absolute increase of LVEF \u3e15%. The LV contraction was categorized as the mild dyssynchronous pattern when the phase standard deviation (PSD) ≤ 40.3° and phase histogram bandwidth (PBW) ≤ 111.9°, otherwise it was defined as severe dyssynchronous pattern which was further characterized as U-shaped, heterogeneous or homogenous pattern. Results: The final cohort comprised 74 patients, including 32 (43.2%) in mild dyssynchronous group, 17 (23%) in U-shaped group, 19 (25.7%) in heterogeneous group, and 6 (8.1%) in homogenous group. The mild dyssynchronous group had lower PSD and PBW than U-shaped, heterogeneous, and homogenous groups ( \u3c 0.0001). Compared to patients with the heterogeneous pattern, the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for CRT super-response were 10.182(2.43-42.663), 12.8(2.545-64.372), and 2.667(0.327-21.773) for patients with mild dyssynchronous, U-shaped, and homogenous pattern, respectively. After multivariable adjustment, mild dyssynchronous group remained associated with increased CRT super-response (adjusted OR 5.709, 95% CI 1.152-28.293). Kaplan-Meier curves showed that mild dyssynchronous group demonstrated a better long-term prognosis. Conclusions: The mild dyssynchronous pattern in patients with DCM is associated with an increased CRT super-response and better long-term prognosis

Time trends in Tuberculosis mortality across the BRICS: An age-period-cohort analysis for the GBD 2019

There were 549,522 tuberculosis deaths across the BRICS in 2019, accounting for 39.3% of global deaths. Among HIV-negative populations, the age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) of tuberculosis in BRICS remained far higher than that of high-income Asia Pacific countries, especially in India (36.1 per 100 000 in 2019, 95% UI [30.7, 42.6]) and South Africa (40.1 per 100 000 in 2019, 95% UI [36.8, 43.7]). China had the fastest ASMR reduction across the BRICS, while India maintained the largest tuberculosis death numbers with an annual decrease much slower than China’s (-4.1 vs -8.0%). Among HIV-positive populations, the ASMR in BRICS surged from 0.24 per 100 000 in 1990 to 5.63 per 100 000 in 2005, and then dropped quickly to 1.70 per 100 000 in 2019. Brazil was the first country to reverse the upward trend of HIV/AIDS-tuberculosis (HIV-TB) mortality in 1995, and achieved the most significant reduction (-3.32% per year). The HIV-TB mortality in South Africa has realised much progress since 2006, but still has the heaviest HIV-TB burden across the BRICS (ASMR: 70.0 per 100 000 in 2019). We also found unfavourable trends among HIV-negative middle-aged (35-55) adults of India, men over 50 in the HIV-negative population and whole HIV-positive population of South Africa, and women aged 45-55 years of Russia. China had little progress in its HIV-positive population with worsening period risks from 2010 to 2019, and higher risks in the younger cohorts born after 1980

DASA: Difficulty-Aware Semantic Augmentation for Speaker Verification

Data augmentation is vital to the generalization ability and robustness of deep neural networks (DNNs) models. Existing augmentation methods for speaker verification manipulate the raw signal, which are time-consuming and the augmented samples lack diversity. In this paper, we present a novel difficulty-aware semantic augmentation (DASA) approach for speaker verification, which can generate diversified training samples in speaker embedding space with negligible extra computing cost. Firstly, we augment training samples by perturbing speaker embeddings along semantic directions, which are obtained from speaker-wise covariance matrices. Secondly, accurate covariance matrices are estimated from robust speaker embeddings during training, so we introduce difficultyaware additive margin softmax (DAAM-Softmax) to obtain optimal speaker embeddings. Finally, we assume the number of augmented samples goes to infinity and derive a closed-form upper bound of the expected loss with DASA, which achieves compatibility and efficiency. Extensive experiments demonstrate the proposed approach can achieve a remarkable performance improvement. The best result achieves a 14.6% relative reduction in EER metric on CN-Celeb evaluation set.Comment: Accepted by ICASSP 202

Transcriptome Analysis of Aedes aegypti Transgenic Mosquitoes with Altered Immunity

The mosquito immune system is involved in pathogen-elicited defense responses. The NF-κB factors REL1 and REL2 are downstream transcription activators of Toll and IMD immune pathways, respectively. We have used genome-wide microarray analyses to characterize fat-body-specific gene transcript repertoires activated by either REL1 or REL2 in two transgenic strains of the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Vitellogenin gene promoter was used in each transgenic strain to ectopically express either REL1 (REL1+) or REL2 (REL2+) in a sex, tissue, and stage specific manner. There was a significant change in the transcript abundance of 297 (79 up- and 218 down-regulated) and 299 (123 up- and 176 down-regulated) genes in fat bodies of REL1+ and REL2+, respectively. Over half of the induced genes had predicted functions in immunity, and a large group of these was co-regulated by REL1 and REL2. By generating a hybrid transgenic strain, which ectopically expresses both REL1 and REL2, we have shown a synergistic action of these NF-κB factors in activating immune genes. The REL1+ immune transcriptome showed a significant overlap with that of cactus (RNAi)-depleted mosquitoes (50%). In contrast, the REL2+ -regulated transcriptome differed from the relatively small group of gene transcripts regulated by RNAi depletion of a putative inhibitor of the IMD pathway, caspar (35 up- and 140 down-regulated), suggesting that caspar contributes to regulation of a subset of IMD-pathway controlled genes. Infections of the wild type Ae. aegypti with Plasmodium gallinaceum elicited the transcription of a distinct subset of immune genes (76 up- and 25 down-regulated) relative to that observed in REL1+ and REL2+ mosquitoes. Considerable overlap was observed between the fat body transcriptome of Plasmodium-infected mosquitoes and that of mosquitoes with transiently depleted PIAS, an inhibitor of the JAK-STAT pathway. PIAS gene silencing reduced Plasmodium proliferation in Ae. aegypti, indicating the involvement of the JAK-STAT pathway in anti-Plasmodium defense in this infection model

The ratio between digestible protein and digestible energy affects accumulation and depuration of geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) in Japanese seabass (Lateolabrax japonicus) raised in a recirculated aquaculture system

acceptedVersio

Autologous Ilium Grafts: Long‐Term Results on Immediate or Staged Functional Rehabilitation of Mandibular Segmental Defects Using Dental Implants after Tumor Resection

BackgroundIt is a challenge for clinicians to restore oral function in patients with segmental defects of the mandible because of tumor extirpation. Dental implant therapy following vascularized autologous ilium grafts is an effective method to restore oral function in patients with mandibular segmental defects.PurposeThe aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the long‐term clinical outcomes of ilium grafts combined with immediate or staged mandibular dental implant therapy to restore craniofacial defects resulting from tumor resection.Materials and MethodsOver a 5‐year period (2000–2004), 32 patients who underwent mandibular segmental resection for tumors were treated with vascularized ilium grafts to augment bone volume. Seventeen patients received phase I therapy (immediate placement of implants), and 15 patients underwent phase II therapy (delayed placement of implants). A total of 110 dental implants were placed in these patients for mandibular restoration of the defective areas. Information regarding implant success and survival rates, marginal bone loss, soft tissue inflammation, complications of prosthesis, and patient satisfaction for the 8 to 12 years following oral reconstruction was obtained from patient records.ResultsAlthough there was mild evidence of bone graft resorption, the vascularized autogenous ilium bone grafts were successful in all patients. The cumulative patient survival and success rate of the implants were 96.4% and 91.8%, respectively. The mean peri‐implant bone resorption ranged from 1.0 to 1.2 mm over the 8‐ to 12‐year follow‐up period. The annual mean number of complications/repairs was from 0.11 to 0.07 per patient during the 8‐ to 12‐year follow‐up. Over 80% of the patients were fully satisfied with their restoration of oral function.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that reconstruction of mandibular segmental defects because of resection of mandibular tumors using dental implants therapy combined with vascularized autogenous ilium grafts is an effective method to restore oral function.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112185/1/cid12169.pd