31 research outputs found
Saliency-guided video classification via adaptively weighted learning
Video classification is productive in many practical applications, and the
recent deep learning has greatly improved its accuracy. However, existing works
often model video frames indiscriminately, but from the view of motion, video
frames can be decomposed into salient and non-salient areas naturally. Salient
and non-salient areas should be modeled with different networks, for the former
present both appearance and motion information, and the latter present static
background information. To address this problem, in this paper, video saliency
is predicted by optical flow without supervision firstly. Then two streams of
3D CNN are trained individually for raw frames and optical flow on salient
areas, and another 2D CNN is trained for raw frames on non-salient areas. For
the reason that these three streams play different roles for each class, the
weights of each stream are adaptively learned for each class. Experimental
results show that saliency-guided modeling and adaptively weighted learning can
reinforce each other, and we achieve the state-of-the-art results.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, accepted by ICME 201
Activation of Interleukin-1β Release by the Classical Swine Fever Virus Is Dependent on the NLRP3 Inflammasome, Which Affects Virus Growth in Monocytes
Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) is a classic Flavivirus that causes the acute, febrile, and highly contagious disease known as classical swine fever (CSF). Inflammasomes are molecular platforms that trigger the maturation of proinflammatory cytokines to engage innate immune defenses that are induced upon cellular infection or stress. However, the relationship between the inflammasome and CSFV infection has not been thoroughly characterized. To understand the function of the inflammasome response to CSFV infection, we infected porcine peripheral blood monocytes (PBMCs) with CSFV. Our results indicated that CSFV infection induced both the generation of pro-interleukin-1β (pro-IL-1β) and its processing in monocytes, leading to the maturation and secretion of IL-1β through the activation of caspase 1. Moreover, CSFV infection in PBMCs induced the production and cleavage of gasdermin D (GSDMD), which is an inducer of pyroptosis. Additional studies showed that CSFV-induced IL-1β secretion was mediated by NLRP3 and that CSFV infection could sufficiently activate the assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome in monocytes. These results revealed that CSFV infection inhibited the expression of NLRP3, and knockdown of NLRP3 enhanced the replication of CSFV. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the NLRP3 inflammasome plays an important role in the innate immune response to CSFV infection
Molecular characterization and antimicrobial susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from children hospitalized with respiratory infections in Suzhou, China.
BACKGROUND: Dissemination of antibiotic resistant clones is recognized as an important factor in the emergence and prevalence of resistance in pneumococcus. This study was undertaken to survey the antimicrobial susceptibility and serotypes distribution of pneumococci and to explore the circulating clones in hospitalized children in Suzhou, China. METHODS: The pneumococci were isolated from the nasopharyngeal aspirates of children less than 5 years of age admitted to Soochow-University-Affiliated-Children's-Hospital with respiratory infections. The capsular serotypes were identified by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by E-test. The presence of ermB, mefA/E genes were detected by PCR and the genotypes were explored by Multilocus sequence typing (MLST). RESULTS: From July 2012 to July 2013, a total of 175 pneumococcal isolates were collected and all strains were resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin, about 39.4% strains were non-susceptible to penicillin G. Overall, 174 (99.4%) isolates were resistant to ≥ 3 types of antibiotics. Serotypes 19F (28.1%), 6B (19.7%), 19A (18.0%), and 23F (17.4%) were the most common serotypes in all identified strains. The serotypes coverage of PCV7 and PCV13 were 71.9% and 89.9%, respectively. Four international antibiotic-resistant clones, including Taiwan19F-14 (n = 79), Spain23F-1(n = 25), Taiwan23F-15(n = 7) and Spain6B-2(n = 7), were identified. The Taiwan19F-14 clones have a higher non-susceptibility rate in β-lactams than other clones and non-clone isolates (p<0.001). In addition, 98.7% Taiwan19F-14 clones were positive of both ermB and mefA/E genes, compare to 33.3% in other clones and non-clone strains. CONCLUSIONS: The spread of international antibiotic-resistant clones, especially Taiwan19F-14 clones, played a predominant role in the dissemination of antimicrobial resistant isolates in Suzhou, China. Considering the high prevalence of PCV7 serotypes and serotype 19A, the introduction of PCV13 may be a promising preventive strategy to control the increasing trend of clonal spread in China
Relationship Between Nicotine Dependence Scores and Nicotine, Cotinine, 3′-Hydroxycotinine and Nicotine Metabolite Ratio in Chinese Male Smokers
Smoking is mainly sustained by nicotine dependence (ND), which varies across ethnic groups principally due to genetic as well as environmental factors. The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and biomarkers of tobacco exposure are two important approaches to assess ND. However, the relationship between ND and FTND of Chinese smokers has not been studied. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between FTND scores and nicotine, cotinine, 3′-hydroxycotinine (3HC) and nicotine metabolite ratio (NMR, the concentration ratio of 3HC to cotinine) in Chinese smokers. FTND was carried out and general characteristics were collected using a self-administered smoking questionnaire with 289 smokers. Nicotine, cotinine and 3HC in urine were simultaneously determined by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The concentrations of nicotine, cotinine and 3HC in the urine of smokers with a high FTND score were higher than in the urine of those with a low FTND score. There were significant correlations between urinary biomarker and FTND scores. Except for FTND item 2 (difficulty to refrain), the other items showed significant associations with the urinary biomarkers. No relationship was found between the nicotine metabolite ratio (NMR, 3′-hydroxycotinine/cotinine) and FTND scores or general characteristics of the participants. In conclusion, biomarkers of tobacco exposure levels are significantly associated with FTND scores. However, FTND Item 2 and NMR were not found to be associated with nicotine dependence in Chinese smokers
Remediation Performance and Mechanism of Heavy Metals by a Bottom Up Activation and Extraction System Using Multiple Biochemical Materials
Soil
contamination with heavy metals has caused serious environmental problems
and increased the risks to humans and biota. Herein, we developed
an effective bottom up metals removal system based on the synergy
between the activation of immobilization metal-resistant bacteria
and the extraction of bioaccumulator material (<i>Stropharia
rugosoannulata</i>). In this system, the advantages of biochar
produced at 400 °C and sodium alginate were integrated to immobilize
bacteria. Optimized by response surface methodology, the biochar and
bacterial suspension were mixed at a ratio of 1:20 (w:v) for 12 h
when 2.5% sodium alginate was added to the mixture. Results demonstrated
that the system significantly increased the proportion of acid soluble
Cd and Cu and improved the soil microecology (microbial counts, soil
respiration, and enzyme activities). The maximum extractions of Cd
and Cu were 8.79 and 77.92 mg kg<sup>–1</sup>, respectively.
Moreover, details of the possible mechanistic insight into the metal
removal are discussed, which indicate positive correlation with the
acetic acid extractable metals and soil microecology. Meanwhile, the
“dilution effect” in <i>S. rugosoannulata</i> probably plays an important role in the metal removal process. Furthermore,
the metal-resistant bacteria in this system were successfully colonized,
and the soil bacteria community were evaluated to understand the microbial
diversity in metal-contaminated soil after remediation