Co-movement Pattern Mining from Videos

Co-movement pattern mining from GPS trajectories has been an intriguing subject in spatial-temporal data mining. In this paper, we extend this research line by migrating the data source from GPS sensors to surveillance cameras, and presenting the first investigation into co-movement pattern mining from videos. We formulate the new problem, re-define the spatial-temporal proximity constraints from cameras deployed in a road network, and theoretically prove its hardness. Due to the lack of readily applicable solutions, we adapt existing techniques and propose two competitive baselines using Apriori-based enumerator and CMC algorithm, respectively. As the principal technical contributions, we introduce a novel index called temporal-cluster suffix tree (TCS-tree), which performs two-level temporal clustering within each camera and constructs a suffix tree from the resulting clusters. Moreover, we present a sequence-ahead pruning framework based on TCS-tree, which allows for the simultaneous leverage of all pattern constraints to filter candidate paths. Finally, to reduce verification cost on the candidate paths, we propose a sliding-window based co-movement pattern enumeration strategy and a hashing-based dominance eliminator, both of which are effective in avoiding redundant operations. We conduct extensive experiments for scalability and effectiveness analysis. Our results validate the efficiency of the proposed index and mining algorithm, which runs remarkably faster than the two baseline methods. Additionally, we construct a video database with 1169 cameras and perform an end-to-end pipeline analysis to study the performance gap between GPS-driven and video-driven methods. Our results demonstrate that the derived patterns from the video-driven approach are similar to those derived from groundtruth trajectories, providing evidence of its effectiveness

SPATIO-TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF DIATOM COMMUNITIES IN FRONT OF THE THREE GORGES DAM: EVIDENCE OF THE EFFECTS OF HYDRODYNAMICS

The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) has a peculiar hydrological regime in China, with water level fluctuations of 30 m annually. In order to investigate the effects of hydrodynamic conditions on the diatom communities, limnological investigations were conducted monthly in front of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) in 2013. We identified 18 diatom genera from two classes. The spatio-temporal patterns of diatoms showed an apparent heterogeneity. During the flood season (May October), high flows, high velocity, low water level, and high turbidity in the main stream indicated strong mixing and made Melosira sp. the dominant species, while the lower velocity in the bay near the TGD indicated weak mixing and made Cyclotella sp., Melosira sp., and Synedra sp. the dominant species. Meanwhile, the strong mixing and high turbidity resulted in a low diatom abundance. During the dry season (the other months), the water level was stable, water flow and velocity were low in both the bay and the main stream, which led to weak mixing and low turbidity, and Cyclotella sp. dominated in the front region of the TGD. Spring was the transitional season and water level decreased gradually, but in spite of the weak mixing and low turbidity conditions, the diatom abundance increased along with the increase of water temperature and water flow. It could be concluded that the spatio-temporal heterogeneity determined by hydrodynamics was a characteristic of the diatom communities' dynamics in front of the TGD

Prefrontal cortex dysfunction during verbal fluency task after atypicalantipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia: A near-infrared Chock for spectroscopy imaging study

A number of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) studies in schizophrenia have shown that there is a significant dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in patients with schizophrenia, but it remains unclear how atypical antipsychotics affect the function of the PFC. To investigate the changes in brain activation patterns in schizophrenia who accepted antipsychotic treatment, we used NIRS to measure the hemodynamic changes of the PFC in patients with schizophrenia at the time of enrollment and after 4 weeks of treatment during a verbal fluency task (VFT). We included 16 schizophrenia and 17 sex- and age- matched healthy controls. Compared with the healthy controls, the VFT performance was significantly worse in patients with schizophrenia, as was the activation of the PFC. Furthermore, after 4 weeks of treatment, there was no significant improvement in VFT performance and the activation of the PFC in schizophrenia. Our results suggest that the function of the PFC and cognitive skills in schizophrenia were significantly impaired and do not improve from a short-term treatment of atypical antipsychotics

Increased half-life and enhanced potency of Fc-modified human PCSK9 monoclonal antibodies in primates.

Blocking proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) binding to low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) can profoundly lower plasma LDL levels. Two anti-PCKS9 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), alirocumab and evolocumab, were approved by the FDA in 2015. The recommended dose is 75 mg to 150 mg every two weeks for alirocumab and 140mg every two weeks or 420 mg once a month for evolocumab. This study attempted to improve the pharmacokinetic properties of F0016A, an IgG1 anti-PCKS9 mAb, to generate biologically superior molecules. We engineered several variants with two or three amino acid substitutions in the Fc fragment based on prior knowledge. The Fc-modified mAbs exhibited increased binding to FcRn, resulting in prolonged serum half-life and enhanced efficacy in vivo. These results demonstrate that Fc-modified anti-PCKS9 antibodies may enable less frequent or lower dosing of antibodies by improved recycling into the blood

MicroRNA-410 Reduces the Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Inhibits Oxygen-Induced Retinal Neovascularization

<div><p>Retinal neovascularization (RNV) is an eye disease that can cause retinal detachment and even lead to blindness. RNV mainly occurs in the elderly population. The pathogenesis of RNV has been previously reported to be highly related to the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and other angiogenic factors. It has also been reported that VEGFA and other factors associated with RNV could be regulated by certain microRNAs (miRNA), a group of small non-coding RNAs which are able to regulate the expression of many genes <i>in vivo</i>. Here, we demonstrate that the miRNA miR-410 is highly expressed in mice within two weeks after birth. miR-410 could suppress VEGFA expression through interaction with the 3′UTR of the VEGFA messenger RNA. Overexpressing a miR-410 mimic effectively suppresses VEGFA expression in various cell lines. Further experiments on oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) in mice revealed that eye drops containing large amounts of miR-410 efficiently downregulate VEGFA expression, prevent retinal angiogenesis and effectively treat RNV. These results not only show the underlying mechanism of how miR-410 targets VEGFA but also provide a potential treatment strategy for RNV that might be used in the near future.</p></div

T0001, a variant of TNFR2-Fc fusion protein, exhibits improved Fc effector functions through increased binding to membrane-bound TNFα.

T0001 is a recombinant human TNFR-Fc fusion protein mutant; it exhibits higher affinity to TNFα than etanercept and is now being tested in a Phase 1 study in China (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02481180). T0001 can inhibit the binding of soluble TNFα (sTNFα) or membrane-bound TNFα (mTNFα) to TNF receptors. When bound to mTNFα, the Fc-bearing TNFα antagonists have the potential to induce Fc-mediated effects, such as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-mediated cytotoxicity (CDC) as well as outside-to-inside signals (apoptosis mainly). Recent studies have shown that ADCC may also play an important role in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). In this study, T0001 presented a higher binding activity on mTNFα than etanercept and similar binding activity with adalimumab and infliximab. Upon the addition of sTNFα, adalimumab and infliximab showed significantly increased binding to FcγRIIIa and C1q than T0001 and etanercept. T0001 exhibited significantly higher ADCC and CDC activity than etanercept, and the potency and the reporter response of T0001 were very close to adalimumab and infliximab in ADCC reporter gene assays. And the similar potency of T0001 was also corroborated by PMBC-based ADCC assay. T0001, but not etanercept could induce apoptosis, while adalimumab and infliximab were more effective. These results suggest that T0001 may not only exert improved efficacy in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) because of its high affinity to sTNFα but also has a therapeutic potential in CD and UC due to its increased binding to mTNFα with resultant Fc-associated functions (ADCC, in particular) and improved apoptosis

miR-410 suppresses VEGFA expression through binding to the 3′UTR of VEGFA mRNA.

<p>A. Co-immunoprecipitation assay for VEGFA in the retinas of newborn mice. VEGFA mRNA in the retinas of newborn mice bound to AGO1, the core component of RISC, indicating a regulatory role of miRNAs in VEGFA expression in these tissues. <b>B</b>. Bioinformatic analysis of the VEGFA mRNA sequence. Three miRNAs were specifically complementary to the 3′UTR of VEGFA mRNA among 177 miRNAs that were highly expressed in newborn mice. <b>C</b>. qPCR analysis for VEGFA expression after the three miRNAs mimics were transfected into HUVECs and HRCECs. VEGFA expression was suppressed by miR-410 at the molecular level compared with miR-200b and miR-590-5p transfection. *P<0.05 <b>D</b>. Western blot assay for VEGFA expression after the three miRNAs mimics were transfected into HUVECs and HRCECs. VEGFA expression was suppressed by miR-410 at the protein level. <b>E</b>. Luciferase reporter gene experiment on HUVECs and HRCECs after transfection with miR-410 and miR-410-Mut. Luminescence of the reporter gene in cells transfected with miR-410 was much lower compared with the mutated group. *P<0.05.</p

Sequences of miRNA-mimics.

<p>Sequences of miRNA-mimics.</p

mRNA sequences of primers for VEGFA detection.

<p>mRNA sequences of primers for VEGFA detection.</p