Knowledge Distilled Ensemble Model for sEMG-based Silent Speech Interface

Voice disorders affect millions of people worldwide. Surface electromyography-based Silent Speech Interfaces (sEMG-based SSIs) have been explored as a potential solution for decades. However, previous works were limited by small vocabularies and manually extracted features from raw data. To address these limitations, we propose a lightweight deep learning knowledge-distilled ensemble model for sEMG-based SSI (KDE-SSI). Our model can classify a 26 NATO phonetic alphabets dataset with 3900 data samples, enabling the unambiguous generation of any English word through spelling. Extensive experiments validate the effectiveness of KDE-SSI, achieving a test accuracy of 85.9\%. Our findings also shed light on an end-to-end system for portable, practical equipment.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Ovarian Toxicity in Female Rats after Oral Administration of Melamine or Melamine and Cyanuric Acid.

Although the toxicity of melamine to the kidneys and testes is well known, few studies have investigated the effects of melamine on female reproductive organs. Therefore, this study explores the effects of oral administration melamine or melamine and cyanuric acid for 28 days on the ovaries of female rats. Rats that were exposed to the mixture exhibited reduced ovarian and uterine weights, a shorter estrous cycle, and reduced serum estrogen and progesterone levels compared to rats that were exposed to melamine and control rats. Furthermore, morphological analysis revealed pathological changes in the ovaries of rats exposed to melamine or the mixture, such as more atretic follicles and necrosis of oocytes and granulosa cells. TUNEL staining revealed that the exposed groups had a higher proportion of TUNEL-positive granulosa cells than the control group, and the mRNA expressions of SOD1, GPX1, GPX2, P450scc, 17β-HSD I, and 17β-HSD II were reduced in the exposure groups compared with the control group. These results indicated that exposure to melamine alone or to the melamine-cyanuric acid mixture could damage the ovaries in rats

H/ACA box small nucleolar RNA 7B acts as an oncogene and a potential prognostic biomarker in breast cancer

Abstract Background Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent malignancy occurring in women worldwide. Emerging evidence indicates that small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) play a role in tumor development. In the current study, we evaluated expression profiles and functions of snoRNAs associated with BC. Methods We analyzed the expression levels of snoRNAs between breast cancer and normal tissues in TCGA database and found that SNORA7B is upregulated in BC. We confirmed this result in clinical cancer tissues and BC cell lines via qRT-PCR. Then, we investigated clinical significance in public datasets and biological function of SNORA7B using a series of in vitro gain- and loss-of-function experiments. Results SNORA7B expression was significantly upregulated in samples from patients with BC in both public database and our clinical tissues compared to its expression in normal tissues. Meanwhile, patients with high SNORA7B expression have worse prognosis. Inhibition of SNORA7B expression impaired cell growth, proliferation, migration, and invasion via inducing apoptosis. Conclusions SNORA7B functions as an important oncogenic snoRNA in BC and may serve as a potential prognosis biomarker for BC

Molecular Mechanism of HSF1-Upregulated ALDH2 by PKC in Ameliorating Pressure Overload-Induced Heart Failure in Mice

Evidences abound that HSF1 and ALDH2 are of cardioprotective effect, yet there is still no report on whether HSF1 can regulate ALDH2 to delay the occurrence of heart failure. We first established the pressure overload-induced heart failure model of mice by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and discovered that, in the forming period of heart failure, changes of HSF1 and ALDH2 expression recorded the consistent trend. When HSF1 was upregulated/downregulated to delay/promote the occurrence of heart failure, PKC and ALDH2 also showed increased/decreased expression. And when ALDH2 was upregulated/downregulated, the role of HSF1 in delaying the occurrence of heart failure strengthened/weakened. Next, we used mechanical stretch to establish a pressure-stimulated myocardial hypertrophy model and discovered an increased expression of both HSF1 and ALDH2. When HSF1 was upregulated/downregulated to increase/decrease the expression of myocardial hypertrophy gene beta-MHC, PKC and ALDH2 recorded an increased/decreased expression. When an inhibitor was used to downregulate the expression of PKC in cardiomyocytes, we found that the role of HSF1 in upregulating ALDH2 beta-MHC weakened. These findings suggest that HSF1 can upregulate the expression of ALDH2 via PKC to promote pressure-stimulated myocardial compensatory hypertrophy, which is an important molecular pathway for HSF1 to ameliorate heart failure

Estrous cycles of rats exposed to different doses of melamine (MA) and melamine and cyanuric acid (MC).

<p>Values are expressed as means ± SD, n = 5. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01: MA group versus control group and MC group versus control group.</p

The Evolution in Catalytic Activity Driven by Periodic Transformation in the Inner Sites of Gold Clusters

It is extremely difficult to distinguish the contributions of different sites on the surface and in the inner sites of a catalyst to the overall catalytic performance, as the observed catalytic results reflect an ensemble average from almost all the active sites. How do the inner sites of a catalyst that seem to be not directly involved in a catalytic process exactly contribute to the catalytic performance? Toward this goal, herein the studies not only provide fundamental insights into how the alteration of Au8n+4(SR)(4n+8) clusters by only the inner structure can dramatically change the intrinsic catalytic properties, where Au8n+4(SR)(4n+8) (n = 3, 4, 5) clusters have the same surface motifs but share a periodic kernel structure, but also further demonstrate that the evolution in catalytic activity can potentially be determined by periodic transformation in the inner kernels

Photomicrographs of ovary sections.

<p>Hematoxylin-eosin staining illustrating the necrosis of granulosa cells (white arrows).</p

Absolute and relative ovary and uterus weights of rats exposed to different doses of melamine (MA) and melamine and cyanuric acid (MC).

<p>Values are expressed as means ± SD, n = 5. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01: MA group versus control group and MC group versus control group.</p

Body weights of rats after exposure to different doses of melamine (MA) and melamine and cyanuric acid (MC).

<p>Values are expressed as means ± SD, n = 5. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01: MA group versus control group and MC group versus control group.</p