Generative modeling using samples drawn from the probability distribution constitutes a powerful approach for unsupervised machine learning. Quantum mechanical systems can produce probability ...distributions that exhibit quantum correlations which are difficult to capture using classical models. We show theoretically that such quantum-inspired correlations provide a powerful resource for generative modeling. In particular, we provide an unconditional proof of separation in expressive power between a class of widely used generative models, known as Bayesian networks, and its minimal quantum-inspired extension. We show that this expressivity enhancement is associated with quantum nonlocality and quantum contextuality. Furthermore, we numerically test this separation on standard machine-learning data sets and show that it holds for practical problems. The possibility of quantum-inspired enhancement demonstrated in this work not only sheds light on the design of useful quantum machine-learning protocols but also provides inspiration to draw on ideas from quantum foundations to improve purely classical algorithms.
Aryl azide formation: The copper‐catalyzed coupling reaction of boronic esters and acids with TMSN3 have been presented as a highly efficient, simple, broadly applicable, and less hazardous ...methodology for the practical synthesis of aryl azides with structural diversity (see scheme).
To assess the genotoxic effect of airborne particulate matter on corneal epithelial cells and investigate the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation in this process.
Immortalized human ...corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) and primary bovine corneal epithelial cells were exposed to airborne particulate matter collected from Guangzhou for 24 hours. The cell viability and toxicity were measured by the CCK-8 test and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, respectively. The DNA breaks and DNA repair were examined by alkaline comet assay and by immunofluorescence staining of the phosphorylated histone variant H2AX (γH2AX), respectively. Reactive oxygen species production was assessed by the fluorescent probe, CM-H2DCFDA. Cell senescence was evaluated with senescence-associated β-Galactosidase staining, and cell ultrastructure was observed with transmission electron microscopy.
Exposure to PM2.5 at the concentration of 20 μg/mL to 200 μg/mL decreased cell viability and increased LDH release. Remarkably increased DNA double-stand breaks, increased expression of DNA repair-related protein γH2AX, elevated ROS formation, and altered cell ultrastructure were observed in HCECs after treatment with PM2.5. The genotoxic effect of PM2.5 was attenuated by the ROS inhibitor N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC).
Particulate matter 2.5 could induce DNA damage and cell senescence in corneal epithelial cells, probably by promoting ROS formation. Thus, whether long-term exposure of PM2.5 might be related to potential risk of abnormality in corneal epithelium renewal and regeneration should be further investigated.
Quantum computing promises to speed up machine-learning algorithms. However, noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices pose engineering challenges to realizing quantum machine-learning (QML) ...advantages. Recently, a series of QML computational models inspired by the noise-tolerant dynamics of the brain has emerged as a means to circumvent the hardware limitations of NISQ devices. In this paper, we introduce a quantum version of a recurrent neural network (RNN), a well-known model for neural circuits in the brain. Our quantum RNN (qRNN) makes use of the natural Hamiltonian dynamics of an ensemble of interacting spin-1/2 particles as a means for computation. In the limit where the Hamiltonian is diagonal, the qRNN recovers the dynamics of the classical version. Beyond this limit, we observe that the quantum dynamics of the qRNN provide it with quantum computational features that can aid it in computation. To this end, we study a fixed-geometry qRNN, i.e., a quantum reservoir computer, based on arrays of Rydberg atoms and show that the Rydberg reservoir is indeed capable of replicating the learning of several cognitive tasks such as multitasking, decision making, and long-term memory by taking advantage of several key features of this platform such as interatomic species interactions and quantum many-body scars.
•A screening method using thrombin-coated magnetic beads was developed.•The method with UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS was used to screen the inhibitors from Danshen injection.•Two bound compounds were confirmed by ...conventional inhibitory assay.•A new inhibitor of thrombin, protocatechuic aldehyde, was reported.
Thrombin was immobilized on dynabeads®M-270 epoxy by direct covalent binding method for the first time. The enzyme coated magnetic beads were combined with ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry technique to establish a simple, rapid and reliable approach for screening thrombin inhibitors from Danshen preparation. The conjugation of thrombin to the magnetic beads was characterized using scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and infrared spectroscopy, and the enzyme activity was determined by the analysis of enzyme-bead ratio and peak areas of target compounds. Several factors including amount of magnetic beads, type of elution solvent, incubation temperature and time were optimized. Additionally, two thrombin-bound compounds (protocatechuic aldehyde and salvianolic acid C) in Danshen injection were validated by conventional inhibitory assay and the IC50 values were 286.11 and 66.09μg/mL, respectively. Our findings suggested that the proposed method was efficient in screening active compounds from medicinal plants.
A new method for the Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling of phenols and arylboronic acids through in situ phenol activation mediated by PyBroP is presented. The reaction proceeds efficiently by using ...cost‐effective, markedly stable NiCl2(dppp) (dppp=1,3‐bis(diphenylphosphino)propane) as the catalyst in only 5 mol % loading, as well as in the absence of extra ligands. The method exhibits broad applicability and high efficiency towards a wide range of both phenols and boronic acids, including activated, nonactivated, deactivated, and heteroaromatic coupling partners. In addition, various functional groups, such as ether, amino, cyano, ester, and ketone groups, are compatible with this transformation. Notably, arylboronic acids containing an unprotected NH2 group and 2‐heterocyclic boronic acids, which are generally problematic for coupling under conventional conditions, are also viable substrates, although moderate yields were obtained for sterically hindered substrates. Consequently, the in situ cross‐coupling methodology coupled with the use of an inexpensive and stable nickel catalyst provides a rapid and efficient pathway for the assembly of biaryls and heterobiaryls with structural diversity from readily available phenol compounds.
Phenol gets active…︁with nickel: A new method for the cross‐coupling of phenols and arylboronic acids through in situ phenol activation is presented. The reaction proceeds efficiently by using cost‐effective, markedly stable NiCl2(dppp) (dppp=1,3‐bis(diphenylphosphino)propane) as the catalyst in only 5 mol % loading, in the absence of extra ligands (see scheme). The method provides a rapid, straightforward pathway for the Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling of phenol compounds.
OBJECTIVES:Sepsis is a devastating condition with a high mortality rate and limited treatments. Sepsis is characterized by a failed host immune response to contain the infection, resulting in organ ...dysfunction. Interleukin-34 is new cytokine involved in infection and immunity. Whether interleukin-34 is beneficial or deleterious to sepsis and the underlying mechanisms remains unknown.
DESIGN:Prospective randomized animal investigation and in vitro studies.
SETTING:Research laboratory at a university hospital.
SUBJECTS:Wild-type C57BL/6 mice were used for in vivo studies, and septic human patients and healthy human subjects were used to obtain blood for in vitro studies.
INTERVENTIONS:Interleukin-34 concentrations were measured in human sepsis patients and healthy individuals. The effects of interleukin-34 administration on survival, bacterial burden, organ injury, and inflammatory response were assessed in a murine model of cecal ligation and puncture–induced polymicrobial sepsis.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:Interleukin-34 levels were significantly elevated in human sepsis and cecal ligation and puncture–induced experimental sepsis. Interleukin-34 administration improved survival and bacterial clearance, although suppressed vascular leakage and organ injury after cecal ligation and puncture–induced polymicrobial sepsis. Neutralization of interleukin-34 increased mortality rate and decreased bacterial clearance in septic mice. An increased neutrophil and macrophage influx were developed in interleukin-34–treated mice at the site of infection, accompanied by elevated production of neutrophil chemokine chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 and macrophage chemokine C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 in the peritoneal cavity. Depletion of neutrophils or macrophages reversed interleukin-34–mediated protection against polymicrobial sepsis.
CONCLUSIONS:We reported for the first time a potential therapeutic role for interleukin-34 in sepsis and suggested that interleukin-34 is a novel target for the development of therapeutic agents against sepsis.
Interleukin-37 (IL-37) is a newly discovered member of IL-1 family. The cytokine was proved to have extensive protective effects in infectious diseases, allergic diseases, metabolic diseases, ...autoimmune diseases and tumors since its discovery. IL-37 was mainly produced by immune and some non-immune cells in response to inflammatory stimulus. The IL-37 precursors can convert into the mature forms after caspase-1 cleavage and activation intracellularly, and then bind to Smad-3 and transfer to the nucleus to inhibit the production and functions of proinflammatory cytokines; extracellularly, IL-37 binds to cell surface receptors to form IL-37/IL-18Rα/IL-1R8 complex to exert immunosuppressive function via inhibiting/activating multiple signal pathways. In addition, IL-37 can attenuate the pro-inflammatory effect of IL-18 through directly or forming an IL-37/IL-18BP/IL-18Rβ complex. Therefore, IL-37 has the ability to suppress innate and acquired immunity of the host, and effectively control inflammatory stimulation, which was considered as a new hallmark of cancer. Specifically, it is concluded that IL-37 can inhibit the growth and migration of tumor cells, prohibit angiogenesis and mediate the immunoregulation in tumor microenvironment, so as to exert effective anti-tumor effects. Importantly, latest studies also showed that IL-37 may be a novel therapeutic target for cancer monitoring. In this review, we summarize the immunoregulation roles and mechanisms of IL-37 in anti-tumor process, and discuss its progress so far and potential as tumor immunotherapy.
Unlike single geospatial objects extraction from high-resolution remote sensing images, the task of road extraction faces more challenges, including its narrowness, sparsity, diversity, multiscale ...characteristics, and class imbalance. Focusing on these challenges, this paper proposes an end-to-end framework called the multiple feature pyramid network (MFPN). In MFPN, we design an effective feature pyramid and a tailored pyramid pooling module, taking advantage of multilevel semantic features of high-resolution remote sensing images. In the optimization stage, a weighted balance loss function is presented to solve the class imbalance problem caused by the sparseness of roads. The proposed novel loss function is more sensitive to the misclassified and the sparse real labeled pixels and helps to focus on the spare set of hard pixels in the training stage. Compared with the cross-entropy loss function, the weighted balance loss can reduce training time dramatically for the same precision. Experiments on two challenging datasets of high-resolution remote sensing images which illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm have achieved significant improvements, especially for narrow rural roads.
A protocol for the copper‐mediated direct aryl CH halogenation is presented. Highly selective mono‐ and di‐halogenations are achieved by using acyl hypohalites, generated in situ from the readily ...available carboxylic acid and N‐halosuccinimides (NXS; X=Br and Cl) as powerful halogenating reagents. The correct choice of carboxylic acid additives and solvents is essential for both high yield and selectivity. Consequently, the use of inexpensive Cu catalyst and the new strategy for the in situ generation of acyl hypohalite halogenating reagents from the readily affordable and easily‐to‐handle carboxylic acid and NXS (X=Br and Cl) offers advantages for practical application.
The halogen protocol: A protocol for the copper‐mediated direct aryl CH halogenation is presented. Highly selective mono‐ and di‐halogenation were achieved efficiently by using acyl hypohalites, generated in situ from the readily available carboxylic acid and NXS (X=Br and Cl), as the powerful halogenating reagents.
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