Robust Ordinal Embedding from Contaminated Relative Comparisons

Existing ordinal embedding methods usually follow a two-stage routine: outlier detection is first employed to pick out the inconsistent comparisons; then an embedding is learned from the clean data. However, learning in a multi-stage manner is well-known to suffer from sub-optimal solutions. In this paper, we propose a unified framework to jointly identify the contaminated comparisons and derive reliable embeddings. The merits of our method are three-fold: (1) By virtue of the proposed unified framework, the sub-optimality of traditional methods is largely alleviated; (2) The proposed method is aware of global inconsistency by minimizing a corresponding cost, while traditional methods only involve local inconsistency; (3) Instead of considering the nuclear norm heuristics, we adopt an exact solution for rank equality constraint. Our studies are supported by experiments with both simulated examples and real-world data. The proposed framework provides us a promising tool for robust ordinal embedding from the contaminated comparisons.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 201

Chemical composition and anti-arthritic activity of the essential oil from Litsea cubeba against Type II collagen rheumatoid arthritis in rat collagen

Purpose: To study the curative effect of the volatile oil from Litsea cubeba (EOL) on type II collagen (CII) induced arthritic (CIA) rat. Methods: The chemical constituents of EOL were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The analgesic effect of the oil was assessed by acetic acid-stimulated torsion and hot plate methods, while antiinflammatory potential was further assessed by in an ear oedema model induced by dimethylbenzene in mice. The anti-rheumatoid arthritis (RA) activity of EOL in mice was evaluated in terms of paw volume, arthritis index, thymus and spleen index, and serum inflammatory factor levels. Results: GC-MS showed that α-citral (26.42 %), β-citral (21.94 %), and limonene (12.79 %) were the main components of EOL. Different doses of EOL (50, 100, 200 mg/kg) exerted varying inhibitory effects on torsion in mice induced by acetic acid (p < 0.01) but had no significant effect on thermal stimulation-induced pain. EOL reduced ear oedema in mice (p < 0.01). In addition, EOL (50, 100, 200 mg/kg) reduced the mouse paw volume, arthritis index, and thymus and spleen index (p < 0.01). Furthermore, EOL reduced proinflammatory cytokines in serum but increased antiinflammatory cytokines (p < 0.01). Conclusion: EOL ameliorates symptoms of inflammation in CIA rats by inhibiting inflammatory reactions, suggesting it could be further developed as an anti-arthritic drug. Keywords: Litsea cubeba, Essential oil, Rrheumatoid arthritis, Pro-inflammatory cytokine

Possible role of estrogen receptor-alpha in the signaling mechanism of progesterone receptor membrane component-1 in human breast cancer cells

Menopause Hormontherapie (MHT) ist eine Behandlung, die häufig postmenopausalen Frauen empfohlen wird, um postmenopausale Symptome wie Hitzewallungen und Schweißausbrüche zu lindern, und um langfristige biologische Veränderungen wie Knochenschwund zu behandeln. Doch seit den frühen 1940er Jahren, als Östrogene erstmalig in der klinischen Praxis eingeführt wurden, existierte die Sorge, dass MHT Brustkrebs verursachen konnte. Daher wurden verschiedene Methoden angewandt, einschließlich Fallberichten, Fallkontrollstudien und einigen großen prospektiven Kohortenstudien, um den Zusammenhang zwischen MHT und einem erhöhten Brustkrebsrisiko zu untersuchen. Nach den bisherigen Forschungsergebnissen aus unserem Labor, vermuten wir, dass außer den traditionellen intrazellulären Hormonrezeptoren auch membranassoziierte Signalwege, die über Progesteronrezeptor-Membrankomponente 1 (PGRMC1) aktiviert werden können, in Bezug auf das mit MHT verbundene mögliche Brustkrebsrisiko wichtig sein können. Um das mögliche Brustkrebsrisiko und die zusammenhängenden Mechanismen weiter zu verstehen, wurden MCF-7 und T47D Zellen jeweils mit PGRMC1 und Mutanten stabil transfiziert. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Wirkung verschiedener Östrogene und Gestagene auf die Proliferation dieser PGRMC1-Varianten untersucht. Als Vertreter für mögliche Signalwege wurde die Caseinkinase 2 (CK2) herangezogen, die vermutlich an der Phosphorylierung von PGRMC1 beteiligt ist. Weiterhin wurde die Transkription eines ER-Reportergens, Kleeblatt-Factor 1 (TFF1, ehemals PS2), gemessen, um eine Interaktion zwischen PGRMC1 und Östrogenrezeptor (ER) am Östrogen/Gestagen-vermittelten Brustkrebs zu untersuchen. Die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Studie zeigen deutlich, dass verschiedene Gestagene sowie Östrogene die Proliferation beider PGRMC1-überexprimierenden Mammakarzinomzell-Linien steigern kann. Aufgrund bestimmter PGRMC1 Phosphorylierungsstellen reagierten die verschiedenen PGRMC1 Mutanten unterschiedlich auf die Steroidhormone. Wir konnten beobachten, dass sowohl ER-als auch CK2-Inhibitoren die proliferativen Effekte von Östrogenen und Gestagenen signifikant eliminierten, was darauf hindeutet, dass der ER-Status und CK2 eine Schlüsselrolle in den membranassoziierten PGRMC1 Signalwegen spielen könnte. Obgleich PGRMC1 durch Stimulationen von Östrogenen und Gestagenen phosphoryliert wird, können die im Western Blot erhaltenen Daten nicht zwingend darauf hinweisen, dass CK2 bei der PGRMC1 Phosphorylierung notwendig ist. Darum wurde entweder eine Verbesserung der derzeitigen Methoden oder eine gründliche Suche nach der richtigen Kinase, die die Phosphorylierung von PGRMC1 verursachen kann, in weiterer Studie erforderlich. Außerdem können wir zeigen, dass sich die Transkription des Östrogen-induzierten ER Reportergens, TFF1, von PGRMC1-überexprimierenden Mammakarzinomzell-Linien durch Stimulation mit Östrogenen und Gestagenen signifikant verstärkt wurde, was die Bedeutung von ER an membranassoziierten PGRMC1 Signalwegen unterstreicht. Wir konnten hierbei beobachten, dass die Zunahme der TFF1-Expression von PGRMC1-überexprimierenden Mamma-karzinomzell-Linien durch drei Inhibitoren (ER-, PGRMC1 und CK2-Inhibitor) signifikant reduziert werden konnte, was auf eine Korrelation zwischen PGRMC1, CK2 und ER-Status hindeutet. Somit ist eine ER-Blockade zur Reduzierung für die beobachtete proliferative Effekt von Östrogenen und Gestagenen erfordlich wäre, würde die Stilllegung von ER die PGRMC1- vermittelte Proliferation auf jeden Fall verringern, was eine interessante Richtung für unsere zukünftige Studien wäre. Alle Östrogene und Gestagene, die in dieser Studie untersucht wurden, sind üblicherweise als MHT bei postmenopausalen Frauen in Anwendung. Unsere Untersuchungen deuten daraufhin, dass das Brustkrebsrisiko bei Frauen mit erhöhter PGRMC1-Expression durch Art und Dosierung der verwendeten Östrogene und Gestagene beeinflusst werden könnte

Less but Better: Generalization Enhancement of Ordinal Embedding via Distributional Margin

In the absence of prior knowledge, ordinal embedding methods obtain new representation for items in a low-dimensional Euclidean space via a set of quadruple-wise comparisons. These ordinal comparisons often come from human annotators, and sufficient comparisons induce the success of classical approaches. However, collecting a large number of labeled data is known as a hard task, and most of the existing work pay little attention to the generalization ability with insufficient samples. Meanwhile, recent progress in large margin theory discloses that rather than just maximizing the minimum margin, both the margin mean and variance, which characterize the margin distribution, are more crucial to the overall generalization performance. To address the issue of insufficient training samples, we propose a margin distribution learning paradigm for ordinal embedding, entitled Distributional Margin based Ordinal Embedding (\textit{DMOE}). Precisely, we first define the margin for ordinal embedding problem. Secondly, we formulate a concise objective function which avoids maximizing margin mean and minimizing margin variance directly but exhibits the similar effect. Moreover, an Augmented Lagrange Multiplier based algorithm is customized to seek the optimal solution of \textit{DMOE} effectively. Experimental studies on both simulated and real-world datasets are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 201

Purification and the Secondary Structure of Fucoidanase from Fusarium sp. LD8

The fucoidanase from Fusarium sp. (LD8) was obtained by solid-state fermentation. The fermented solid medium was extracted by citric acid buffer, and the extracts were precipitated by acetone and purified by Sephadex G-100 successively. The results showed that the specific fucoidanase activity of purified enzyme was 22.7-fold than that of the crude enzyme. The recovery of the enzyme was 23.9%. The purified enzyme gave a single band on SDS-PAGE gel, and the molecular weight of fucoidanase was about 64 kDa. The isoelectric point of the enzyme was 4.5. The enzyme properties were also studied. The results showed that the optimum temperature and pH were 60°C and 6.0, respectively; the temperature of half inactivation was 50°C, and the most stable pH for the enzyme was 6.0. KM, and the Vmax of the enzyme was 8.9 mg·L−1 and 2.02 mg·min−1·mL−1 by using fucoidan from Fucus vesiculosus as substrate. The compositions of the secondary structure of fucoidanase were estimated by FTIR, the second derivative spectra, and the curve-fitting analysis of the amide I bands in their spectra. The results showed that β-sheet was the dominant component (58.6%) and α-helix was the least (12%); the content of β-turn and random coil were 15.39% and 14.5%, respectively

Effects of Glyphosate-Resistant Genetically Modified Soybean on Blood Biochemical Indexes, Hepatopancreatic Antioxidant Capacity and Tissue Morphology of Cyprinus carpio

The juvenile carps (Cyprinus carpio) were fed diets with four protein sources (15% and 30% glyphosate-resistant genetically modified (GM) named GM 15 and GM 30, respectively, and 15% and 30% non-genetically modified (NGM) soybean named NGM 15 and NGM 30) for 180 days. Results showed that alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity for the GM30 group was significantly lower than that of the NGM30 group. The activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the hepatopancreas of carp for the GM30 group was significantly higher than that of the NGM15 group (P0.05). This study indicates that it may aggravate the damage degree of intestinal epithelial cells of carp and more easily cause liver cell damage in the short term when the amount of GM soybean in the feeds was 30%. Therefore, higher glyphosate-resistant GM soybean may have adverse effects on the carp's serum, intestinal, and hepatopancreas and considerably reduce the hepatopancreatic carp's antioxidant capacity

Immediate Antiretroviral Therapy Decreases Mortality Among Patients With High CD4 Counts in China: A Nationwide, Retrospective Cohort Study.

BackgroundClinical trials have demonstrated that immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces AIDS-related morbidity and mortality. We tested the hypothesis that initiating ART ≤30 days after human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis would be associated with reduced mortality among people living with HIV (PLWH) with CD4 counts >500 cells/μL.MethodsPLWH enrolled in the Chinese National HIV Information System between January 2012 and June 2014 with CD4 counts >500 cells/μL were followed for 12 months. Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine hazard ratios (HRs) for PLWH who initiated ART after HIV diagnosis. ART initiation was treated as a time-dependent variable.ResultsWe enrolled 34581 PLWH with CD4 >500 cells/μL; 1838 (5.3%) initiated ART ≤30 days after diagnosis (immediate ART group), and 19 deaths were observed with a mortality rate of 1.04 per 100 person-years (PY). Fifty-eight deaths were documented among the 5640 PLWH in the delayed ART group with a mortality rate of 2.25 per 100 PY. There were 713 deaths among the 27103 PLWH in the no ART group with a mortality rate of 2.39 per 100 PY. After controlling for potential confounding factors, ART initiation at ≤30 days (adjusted HR, 0.37 [95% confidence interval, .23-.58]) was a statistically significant protective factor.ConclusionsWe found that immediate ART is associated with a 63% reduction in overall mortality among PLWH with CD4 counts >500 cells/μL in China, supporting the recommendation to initiate ART immediately following HIV diagnosis