ContrastNER: Contrastive-based Prompt Tuning for Few-shot NER

Prompt-based language models have produced encouraging results in numerous applications, including Named Entity Recognition (NER) tasks. NER aims to identify entities in a sentence and provide their types. However, the strong performance of most available NER approaches is heavily dependent on the design of discrete prompts and a verbalizer to map the model-predicted outputs to entity categories, which are complicated undertakings. To address these challenges, we present ContrastNER, a prompt-based NER framework that employs both discrete and continuous tokens in prompts and uses a contrastive learning approach to learn the continuous prompts and forecast entity types. The experimental results demonstrate that ContrastNER obtains competitive performance to the state-of-the-art NER methods in high-resource settings and outperforms the state-of-the-art models in low-resource circumstances without requiring extensive manual prompt engineering and verbalizer design.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, COMPSAC202

Association between vitamin A and E and apolipoprotein A and B levels in type 2 diabetes

Objective. To determine the relationship between serum vitamin A and E and apolipoprotein levels in type 2 diabetic patients. Setting. Shariati Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Subjects and methods. One hundred and seventeen eligible type 2 diabetic patients who attended the Endocrine Research and Metabolism Center between 2002 and 2004 were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were collected after a 12 - 14-hour overnight fast for the measurement of serum levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), apolipoprotein (apo) A1 and apoB, and vitamins A and E. Anthropometric indices were determined by physical examination. Data were analysed statistically using Pearson's coefficient, multiple regression, and partial and bivariate correlations. Results. The mean body mass index (BMI) of the subjects was 27.4 ± 3.7 kg/m2. The mean (± standard deviation (SD)) serum levels of vitamins A and E were 0.5 ± 0.1 &#956;g/ml and 9.5 ± 2.6 &#956;g/ml, respectively. There were no significant differences in the plasma levels of vitamins A and E in males and females. Mean serum levels of vitamins A and E were within the normal range for both sexes. Serum lipid levels (total cholesterol, triglyceride and apoB) correlated with serum levels of vitamin E (p < 0.05). Serum levels of vitamins A and E were also correlated (p < 0.05). Standardised vitamin E levels showed significant negative correlation with most studied lipid profiles (p < 0.05). Conclusion. This study found that mean serum levels of the natural antioxidants vitamin E, and especially vitamin A, were close to the lower end of the normal range of these antioxidants in type 2 diabetics. Also, serum vitamin E and standardised vitamin E levels were important predictors of serum apoA1 levels in these patients. South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 19(1) 2006: 39-4

Sequential targeted exome sequencing of 1001 patients affected by unexplained limb-girdle weakness

Several hundred genetic muscle diseases have been described, all of which are rare. Their clinical and genetic heterogeneity means that a genetic diagnosis is challenging. We established an international consortium, MYO-SEQ, to aid the work-ups of muscle disease patients and to better understand disease etiology. Exome sequencing was applied to 1001 undiagnosed patients recruited from more than 40 neuromuscular disease referral centers; standardized phenotypic information was collected for each patient. Exomes were examined for variants in 429 genes associated with muscle conditions. We identified suspected pathogenic variants in 52% of patients across 87 genes. We detected 401 novel variants, 116 of which were recurrent. Variants in CAPN3, DYSF, ANO5, DMD, RYR1, TTN, COL6A2, and SGCA collectively accounted for over half of the solved cases; while variants in newer disease genes, such as BVES and POGLUT1, were also found. The remaining well-characterized unsolved patients (48%) need further investigation. Using our unique infrastructure, we developed a pathway to expedite muscle disease diagnoses. Our data suggest that exome sequencing should be used for pathogenic variant detection in patients with suspected genetic muscle diseases, focusing first on the most common disease genes described here, and subsequently in rarer and newly characterized disease genes

Tegumentary leishmaniasis and coinfections other than HIV

<div><p>Background</p><p>Tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL) is a disease of skin and/or mucosal tissues caused by <i>Leishmania</i> parasites. TL patients may concurrently carry other pathogens, which may influence the clinical outcome of TL.</p><p>Methodology and principal findings</p><p>This review focuses on the frequency of TL coinfections in human populations, interactions between <i>Leishmania</i> and other pathogens in animal models and human subjects, and implications of TL coinfections for clinical practice. For the purpose of this review, TL is defined as all forms of cutaneous (localised, disseminated, or diffuse) and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection, superinfection with skin bacteria, and skin manifestations of visceral leishmaniasis are not included. We searched MEDLINE and other databases and included 73 records: 21 experimental studies in animals and 52 studies about human subjects (mainly cross-sectional and case studies). Several reports describe the frequency of <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i> coinfection in TL patients in Argentina (about 41%) and the frequency of helminthiasis in TL patients in Brazil (15% to 88%). Different hypotheses have been explored about mechanisms of interaction between different microorganisms, but no clear answers emerge. Such interactions may involve innate immunity coupled with regulatory networks that affect quality and quantity of acquired immune responses. Diagnostic problems may occur when concurrent infections cause similar lesions (e.g., TL and leprosy), when different pathogens are present in the same lesions (e.g., <i>Leishmania</i> and <i>Sporothrix schenckii</i>), or when similarities between phylogenetically close pathogens affect accuracy of diagnostic tests (e.g., serology for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease). Some coinfections (e.g., helminthiasis) appear to reduce the effectiveness of antileishmanial treatment, and drug combinations may cause cumulative adverse effects.</p><p>Conclusions and significance</p><p>In patients with TL, coinfection is frequent, it can lead to diagnostic errors and delays, and it can influence the effectiveness and safety of treatment. More research is needed to unravel how coinfections interfere with the pathogenesis of TL.</p></div

Treatment of American tegumentary leishmaniasis in special populations : a summary of evidence

We aimed to assess and synthesize the information available in the literature regarding the treatment of American tegumentary leishmaniasis in special populations. We searched MEDLINE (via PubMed), EMBASE, LILACS, SciELO, Scopus, Cochrane Library and mRCT databases to identify clinical trials and observational studies that assessed the pharmacological treatment of the following groups of patients: pregnant women, nursing mothers, children, the elderly, individuals with chronic diseases and individuals with suppressed immune systems. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach. The available evidence suggests that the treatments of choice for each population or disease entity are as follows: nursing mothers and children (meglumine antimoniate or pentamidine), patients with renal disease (amphotericin B or miltefosine), patients with heart disease (amphotericin B, miltefosine or pentamidine), immunosuppressed patients (liposomal amphotericin), the elderly (meglumine antimoniate), pregnant women (amphotericin B) and patients with liver disease (no evidence available). The quality of evidence is low or very low for all groups. Accurate controlled studies are required to fill in the gaps in evidence for treatment in special populations. Post-marketing surveillance programs could also collect relevant information to guide treatment decision-making

Diagnostic Value of C-Reactive Protein and Interleukin-6 in Prevention of Negative Appendectomy

Background and Objective: Acute appendicitis is one of the common reasons for abdominal surgery in any age group, and most cases are rarely diagnosed, which causes unnecessary surgery (negative appendectomy). The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic value of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the prevention of negative appendectomy. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 208 patients with acute abdominal surgery and primary diagnosis of acute appendicitis at Fatemi Hospital in Ardabil in a period of 6 months. C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were measured before surgery in all patients. Patients were divided into positive and negative groups based on pathology results. Then the laboratory results were compared with histopathological findings after surgery. Findings: The level of IL-6 in the positive group was 107.25±3.54 and in the negative group was 75.50±2.41, and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.032). The mean CRP was 35.5±12.1 in the positive group and 11.1±5.3 in the negative group (p<0.001). There was a statistically significant relationship between IL-6 in normal patients and IL-6 in positive patients with purulent (p=0.006) and gangrene (p<0.001) pathology. There was a significant relationship between IL-6 positive patients with follicular hyperplasia pathology and IL-6 positive patients with purulent and gangrene pathology (p<0.001). Moreover, there was a statistically significant relationship between IL-6 positive patients with inflammatory pathology response and IL-6 positive gangrene patients (p<0.001). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value for IL-6 were 83, 88, 86, 79 and for CRP were 83, 85, 89, 81, respectively. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the simultaneous measurement of CRP and IL-6 are useful biomarkers in the diagnosis and prevention of negative appendectomy

A new method for the purification of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase from human erythrocytes

The human erythrocyte is a rich raw material for the purification of Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD). We applied a simple and rapid procedure for the purification of SOD from human erythrocytes by ion exchange chromatography. The purified SOD had a specific activity of 2285.6 u/mg protein and gave a single band on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and each of its to subunit has a molecular weight about 18600 daltons (SOD molecular weight is 37200 daltons). The physicochemical properties of the enzyme obtained by this method are identical to those of the native protein. This procedure appears, therefore, to be a convenient and easily method for isolating this enzyme