Feature engineering has been the key to the success of many prediction models. However, the process is nontrivial and o en requires manual feature engineering or exhaustive searching. DNNs are able to automatically learn feature interactions; however, they generate all the interactions implicitly, and are not necessarily e cient in learning all types of cross features. In this paper, we propose the Deep & Cross Network (DCN) which keeps the bene ts of a DNN model, and beyond that, it introduces a novel cross network that is more e cient in learning certain bounded-degree feature interactions. In particular, DCN explicitly applies feature crossing at each layer, requires no manual feature engineering, and adds negligible extra complexity to the DNN model. Our experimental results have demonstrated its superiority over the state-of-art algorithms on the CTR prediction dataset and dense classi cation dataset, in terms of both model accuracy and memory usage.

Heart rate variability (beat-to-beat changes in the RR interval) has attracted considerable attention over the last 30+ years (PubMed currently lists >17,000 publications). Clinically, a decrease in heart rate variability is correlated to higher morbidity and mortality in diverse conditions, from heart disease to foetal distress. It is usually attributed to fluctuation in cardiac autonomic nerve activity. We calculated heart rate variability parameters from a variety of cardiac preparations (including humans, living animals, Langendorff-perfused heart and single sinoatrial nodal cell) in diverse species, combining this with data from previously published papers. We show that regardless of conditions, there is a universal exponential decay-like relationship between heart rate variability and heart rate. Using two biophysical models, we develop a theory for this, and confirm that heart rate variability is primarily dependent on heart rate and cannot be used in any simple way to assess autonomic nerve activity to the heart. We suggest that the correlation between a change in heart rate variability and altered morbidity and mortality is substantially attributable to the concurrent change in heart rate. This calls for re-evaluation of the findings from many papers that have not adjusted properly or at all for heart rate differences when comparing heart rate variability in multiple circumstances.

August 2018 CANCER DISCOVERY | OF2 abstRactWe evaluated the safety and activity of autologous T cells expressing NY- , an affinity-enhanced T-cell receptor (TCR) recognizing an HLA-A2-restricted NY-ESO-1/LAGE1a-derived peptide, in patients with metastatic synovial sarcoma (NY-ESO-1 c259 T cells). Confirmed antitumor responses occurred in 50% of patients (6/12) and were characterized by tumor shrinkage over several months. Circulating NY-ESO-1 c259 T cells were present postinfusion in all patients and persisted for at least 6 months in all responders. Most of the infused NY-ESO-1 c259 T cells exhibited an effector memory phenotype following ex vivo expansion, but the persisting pools comprised largely central memory and stem-cell memory subsets, which remained polyfunctional and showed no evidence of T-cell exhaustion despite persistent tumor burdens. Next-generation sequencing of endogenous TCRs in CD8+ NY-ESO-1 c259 T cells revealed clonal diversity without contraction over time. These data suggest that regenerative pools of NY-ESO-1 c259 T cells produced a continuing supply of effector cells to mediate sustained, clinically meaningful antitumor effects. SIGNIFICANCE:Metastatic synovial sarcoma is incurable with standard therapy. We employed engineered T cells targeting NY-ESO-1, and the data suggest that robust, self-regenerating pools of CD8T cells produce a continuing supply of effector cells over several months that mediate clinically meaningful antitumor effects despite prolonged exposure to antigen. Cancer Discov;8(8);

Highlights Psychological disturbances of frontline medical staff are more than those of general population. Daily working hours are a risk factor for all measured psychological disturbances in frontline medical staff. Some other factors may be involved in certain psychological disturbances of frontline medical staff.

Mutations in PINK1 (PTEN-induced putative kinase 1) cause early onset familial Parkinson's disease (PD). PINK1 accumulates on the outer membrane of damaged mitochondria followed by recruiting parkin to promote mitophagy. Here, we demonstrate that BCL2/adenovirus E1B 19-kDa interacting protein 3 (BNIP3), a mitochondrial BH3-only protein, interacts with PINK1 to promote the accumulation of full-length PINK1 on the outer membrane of mitochondria, which facilitates parkin recruitment and PINK1/parkin-mediated mitophagy. Inactivation of BNIP3 in mammalian cells promotes PINK1 proteolytic processing and suppresses PINK1/parkin-mediated mitophagy. Hypoxia-induced BNIP3 expression results in increased expression of full-length PINK1 and mitophagy. Consistently, expression of BNIP3 in Drosophila suppresses muscle degeneration and the mitochondrial abnormality caused by PINK1 inactivation. Together, the results suggest that BNIP3 plays a vital role in regulating PINK1 mitochondrial outer membrane localization, the proteolytic process of PINK1 and PINK1/parkin-mediated mitophagy under physiological conditions. Functional up-regulation of BNIP3 may represent a novel therapeutic strategy to suppress the progression of PD.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading worldwide, with a staggering number of cases and deaths. However, available data on the psychological impacts of COVID-19 on pregnant women are limited. The purposes of this study were to assess the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among pregnant women, and to compare them with non-pregnant women. From February 28 to March 12, 2020, a cross-sectional study of pregnant and non-pregnant women was performed in China. The online questionnaire was used to collect information of participants. The mental health status was assessed by patient health questionnaire, generalized anxiety disorder scale, insomnia severity index, somatization subscale of the symptom checklist 90, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) checklist-5. Totally, 859 respondents were enrolled, including 544 pregnant women and 315 non-pregnant women. In this study, 5.3%, 6.8%, 2.4%, 2.6%, and 0.9% of pregnant women were identified to have symptoms of depression, anxiety, physical discomfort, insomnia, and PTSD, respectively. However, the corresponding prevalence rates among non-pregnant women were 17.5%, 17.5%, 2.5%, 5.4%, 5.7%, respectively. After adjusting for other covariates, we observed that pregnancy was associated a reduced risk of symptoms of depression (OR = 0.23; 95% CI: 0.12–0.45), anxiety (OR = 0.26; 95% CI: 0.16–0.42), insomnia (OR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.06–0.58), and PTSD (OR = 0.15; 95% CI: 0.04–0.53) during the COVID-19 epidemic. Our results indicate that during the COVID-19 epidemic in China, pregnant women have an advantage of facing mental problems caused by COVID-19, showing fewer depression, anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD symptoms than non-pregnant women.

The results of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed that there were double tan δ peaks in the poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA)/silica nanocomposite samples at low frequencies. The two relaxations attribute to glass transition for PVA matrix and motions of segments for PVA chains confined by the surface of silica nanoparticles, respectively. The thickness of the interfacial immobilized layer was calculated, and schematic models were founded, which can well interpret the results. The changes of the two relaxations with various silica contents at different frequencies are discussed. It is considered that most of the interfacial PVA chains probably span the two layers. The peak position of the first relaxation moves to high temperature with the increase of frequency for strain lag of the sample whereas the second one shifts to low temperature for the "drag effect" between the intrinsic and interfacial segments of the spanned PVA chains.

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