Sequential Recommendation Based on Multivariate Hawkes Process Embedding With Attention.

Recommender systems are important approaches for dealing with the information overload problem in the big data era, and various kinds of auxiliary information, including time and sequential information, can help improve the performance of retrieval and recommendation tasks. However, it is still a challenging problem how to fully exploit such information to achieve high-quality recommendation results and improve users' experience. In this work, we present a novel sequential recommendation model, called multivariate Hawkes process embedding with attention (MHPE-a), which combines a temporal point process with the attention mechanism to predict the items that the target user may interact with according to her/his historical records. Specifically, the proposed approach MHPE-a can model users' sequential patterns in their temporal interaction sequences accurately with a multivariate Hawkes process. Then, we perform an accurate sequential recommendation to satisfy target users' real-time requirements based on their preferences obtained with MHPE-a from their historical records. Especially, an attention mechanism is used to leverage users' long/short-term preferences adaptively to achieve an accurate sequential recommendation. Extensive experiments are conducted on two real-world datasets (lastfm and gowalla), and the results show that MHPE-a achieves better performance than state-of-the-art baselines

Universal critical properties of the Eulerian bond-cubic model

We investigate the Eulerian bond-cubic model on the square lattice by means of Monte Carlo simulations, using an efficient cluster algorithm and a finite-size scaling analysis. The critical points and four critical exponents of the model are determined for several values of $n$. Two of the exponents are fractal dimensions, which are obtained numerically for the first time. Our results are consistent with the Coulomb gas predictions for the critical O($n$) branch for $n < 2$ and the results obtained by previous transfer matrix calculations. For $n=2$, we find that the thermal exponent, the magnetic exponent and the fractal dimension of the largest critical Eulerian bond component are different from those of the critical O(2) loop model. These results confirm that the cubic anisotropy is marginal at $n=2$ but irrelevant for $n<2$

Efficient inhibition of lung cancer in murine model by plasmid-encoding VEGF short hairpin RNA in combination with low-dose DDP

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>VEGF is a well-validated target for antiangiogenic intervention in cancer. To date, RNAi technology has been proven to be a promising approach for targeted therapy. DDP is frequently used as a first-line drug in chemotherapy for lung cancer but usually causes severe toxicity. In this study, we investigated a novel strategy of administering and combining RNAi mediated VEGF-targeted therapy with DDP for treatment of lung cancer, with the aim of increasing efficacy and decreasing toxicity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, a plasmid encoding VEGF shRNA was constructed to knockdown VEGF both in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, specificity and potency of the targeting sequence were validated in A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells by RT-PCR and ELISA assays. In vivo, therapy experiments were conducted on nude mice bearing A549 xenograft tumors. The VEGF shRNA expressing plasmids were administered systemically in combination with low-dose DDP on a frequent basis. The tumor volume and weight were measured. MVD, the number of apoptotic cells and proliferation index in tumor tissues were assessed by CD31, TUNEL and PCNA immunostaining.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The VEGF shRNA was highly effective in attenuating VEGF expression both in vitro and in vivo. The treatment with the VEGF shRNA alone reduced the mean tumor weight by 49.40% compared with the blank control (P < 0.05). The treatment with the VEGF shRNA plus DDP yielded maximal benefits by reducing the mean tumor weight by 83.13% compared with the blank control (P < 0.01). The enhanced antitumor efficacy was associated with decreased angiogenesis and increased induction of apoptosis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study demonstrated synergistic antitumor activity of combined VEGF shRNA expressing plasmids and low-dose DDP with no overt toxicity, suggesting potential applications of the combined approach in the treatment of lung cancer.</p

Increased co-expression of genes harboring the damaging de novo mutations in Chinese schizophrenic patients during prenatal development

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Rare damaging variants in DNA repair and cell cycle pathways are associated with hippocampal and cognitive dysfunction: a combined genetic imaging study in first-episode treatment-naive patients with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder where changes in both hippocampus and memory-related cognitive functions are central. However, the exact relationship between neurodevelopmental-genetic factors and hippocampal-cognitive dysfunction remains unclear. The general aim of our study is to link the occurrence of rare damaging mutations involved in susceptibility gene pathways to the structure and function of hippocampus in order to define genetically and phenotypically based subgroups in schizophrenia. In the present study, by analyzing the exome sequencing and magnetic resonance imaging data in 94 first-episode treatment-naive schizophrenia patients and 134 normal controls, we identified that a cluster of rare damaging variants (RDVs) enriched in DNA repair and cell cycle pathways was present only in a subgroup including 39 schizophrenic patients. Furthermore, we found that schizophrenic patients with this RDVs show increased resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between left hippocampus (especially for left dentate gyrus) and left inferior parietal cortex, as well as decreased rsFC between left hippocampus and cerebellum. Moreover, abnormal rsFC was related to the deficits of spatial working memory (SWM; that is known to recruit the hippocampus) in patients with the RDVs. Taken together, our data demonstrate for the first time, to our knowledge, that damaging rare variants of genes in DNA repair and cell cycle pathways are associated with aberrant hippocampal rsFC, which was further relative to cognitive deficits in first-episode treatment-naive schizophrenia. Therefore, our data provide some evidence for the occurrence of phenotypic alterations in hippocampal and SWM function in a genetically defined subgroup of schizophrenia.published_or_final_versio