Target-oriented sentiment classification aims at classifying sentiment polarities over individual opinion targets in a sentence. RNN with attention seems a good fit for the characteristics of this task, and indeed it achieves the state-of-the-art performance. After re-examining the drawbacks of attention mechanism and the obstacles that block CNN to perform well in this classification task, we propose a new model to overcome these issues. Instead of attention, our model employs a CNN layer to extract salient features from the transformed word representations originated from a bi-directional RNN layer. Between the two layers, we propose a component to generate target-specific representations of words in the sentence, meanwhile incorporate a mechanism for preserving the original contextual information from the RNN layer. Experiments show that our model achieves a new state-of-the-art performance on a few benchmarks. 1
We study the reinforcement learning problem of complex action control in the Multi-player Online Battle Arena (MOBA) 1v1 games. This problem involves far more complicated state and action spaces than those of traditional 1v1 games, such as Go and Atari series, which makes it very difficult to search any policies with human-level performance. In this paper, we present a deep reinforcement learning framework to tackle this problem from the perspectives of both system and algorithm. Our system is of low coupling and high scalability, which enables efficient explorations at large scale. Our algorithm includes several novel strategies, including control dependency decoupling, action mask, target attention, and dual-clip PPO, with which our proposed actor-critic network can be effectively trained in our system. Tested on the MOBA game Honor of Kings, the trained AI agents can defeat top professional human players in full 1v1 games.
Semen samples from men after a short ejaculatory abstinence show improved sperm quality and result in increased pregnancy rates, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Herein, we report that ejaculates from short (1-3 hours) compared with long (3-7 days) periods of abstinence showed increases in motile sperm count, sperm vitality, normal sperm morphology, acrosome reaction capacity, total antioxidant capacity, sperm mitochondrial membrane potential, high DNA stainability, and a decrease in the sperm DNA fragmentation index (P < 0.05). Sperm proteomic analysis showed 322 differentially expressed proteins (minimal fold change of ±1.5 or greater and P < 0.05), with 224 up-regulated and 98 down-regulated. These differentially expressed proteins are profoundly involved in specific cellular processes, such as motility and capacitation, oxidative stress, and metabolism. Interestingly, protein trimethyllysine modification was increased, and butyryllysine, propionyllysine, and malonyllysine modifications were decreased in ejaculates from a short versus long abstinence (P < 0.05). Finally, the rates of implantation, clinical pregnancy, and live births from in vitro fertilization treatments were significantly increased in semen samples after a short abstinence. Our study provides preliminary mechanistic insights into improved sperm quality and pregnancy outcomes associated with spermatozoa retrieved after a short ejaculatory abstinence.
STUDY QUESTION Is minimally invasive chromosome screening (MICS) using blastocyst culture medium (BCM) sufficiently fast and accurate for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) SUMMARY ANSWER A new assay for MICS, named MICS-Inst achieved high-resolution, comprehensive chromosome ploidy detection using BCM. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY BCM is a viable source of genomic DNA for use in PGT. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Forty-one vitrified blastocysts donated by 22 couples known to carry a chromosome rearrangement and 21 vitrified blastocysts donated from 8 couples with normal karyotypes were used in this study. Good-quality blastocysts, defined as Day 5 and Day 6 embryos ≥ BB (AA, AB, BA, BB) based on the Gardner system were used for analysis. Recruitment took place from May 2018 to August 2018. We performed PGT for structural rearrangements (PGT-SR) on 41 BCM, trophectoderm (TE) biopsy and blastocyst-stage embryo (BE) samples as well as PGT for aneuploidies (PGT-A) on 21 BCM, TE biopsy and BE samples. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS We made several significant modifications to the BCM composition (mixing blastocoel fluid and spent blastocyst medium) as well as the pre-existing multiple annealing and looping-based amplification cycles (MALBAC) techniques and library generation procedures. The design of a quasilinear preamplification (Pre-AMP) primer and AMP primers 1 and 2 enables the preparation of a next-generation sequencing library after the exponential amplification stage by introducing the Illumina P5 and P7 primers into the final products, which are then ready for sequencing. Sequencing was performed on the Illumina Hiseq 2500 platform with 2.0 Mb raw reads generated for each sample. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE For PGT-A, BCM and TE biopsy samples showed 90% and 86% clinical concordance with the corresponding BE samples, respectively. In addition, both BCM and TE biopsy samples showed 76% karyotype concordance with the corresponding BE samples. For PGT-SR, we successfully obtained ploidy information for all 23 chromosomes with the exception of any rearrangements involving the Y chromosome. Both BCM and TE biopsy samples showed 100% clinical concordance with the corresponding BE samples in detecting chromosomal rearrangements. BCM and TE biopsy samples showed 90% and 100% karyotype concordance with the corresponding BE samples, respectively. Additionally, no statistically significant differences were detected in the aforementioned values of the BCM and TE biopsy samples in either PGT-A or PGT-SR (P > 0.05). Moreover, we achieved accurate quantification of segmental abnormalities using BCM samples. In addition, MICS-Inst reduced the number of steps required for library preparation through the use of new primer designs, resulting in an overall time reduction of 7.5 h. This time reduction allows for the performance of fresh blastocyst transfers. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION The main limitation is that BE, rather the inner cell mass, was used as the standard to evaluate the chromosome screening results. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS These results show that MICS-Inst is effective in procedure and precision for PGT, and that it is possible to achieve fresh blastocyst transfer following PGT. The implications are significant, as these findings may lead to minimally invasive PGT methods in the future. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81671423 and No. 81402130), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFC1003100), Liaoning Provincial Key Research and Development Program (No. 2018225090), the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation (No. 151039) and Distinguished Talent Program of Shengjing Hospital (No. ME76). No competing interests declared.
Exposure to continuous life stress often causes gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. Studies have shown that neuropeptide Y (NPY) counteracts the biological actions of corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) and is involved in the termination of the stress response. However, in chronic repeated restraint stress (CRS) conditions, the actions of NPY on GI motility remain controversial. To evaluate the role of NPY in mediation of the adaptation mechanism and GI motility in CRS conditions, a CRS rat model was set up. Central CRF and NPY expression levels were analyzed, serum corticosterone and NPY concentrations were measured, and GI motor function was evaluated. The NPY Y1 receptor antagonist BIBP-3226 was centrally administered before stress loading, and on days 1 through 5 of repeated stress, the central CRF and the serum corticosterone concentrations were measured. In addition, gastric and colonic motor functions were evaluated. The elevated central CRF expression and corticosterone concentration caused by acute stress began to fall after 3 days of stress loading, whereas central NPY expression and serum NPY began to increase. GI dysmotility also returned to a normal level. Pretreatment with BIBP-3226 abolished the adaptation mechanism and significantly increased CRF expression and the corticosterone concentration, which resulted in delayed gastric emptying and accelerated fecal pellet output. Inhibited gastric motility and enhanced distal colonic motility were also recorded. CRS-produced adaptation, overexpressed central CRF, and GI dysmotility observed in acute restraint stress were restored to normal levels. Central NPY via the Y1 receptor plays an important role in mediating the adaptation mechanism against chronic stress.
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