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2,100 | An Improved Linear Model for High-Frequency Class-DE Resonant Converter Using the Generalized Averaging Modeling Technique | As the operating frequency of power converters increases, the passive component values likewise decrease. This results in the effect of the parasitic components becoming more prominent, leading to significant modeling errors if not considered. For resonant converters, this especially becomes a problem at high frequencies. This article presents a reduced model for a class-DE series resonant converter based on generalized averaging that incorporates the relevant parasitics and uses multiple harmonics to obtain an accurate linear model. Comparison between the proposed model, a prior art, and a prototype converter running at 1 MHz is conducted, and a PI controller is designed based on each model and tested. The results show that the parasitics have a significant impact on the dc gain and dynamics of the converter and that the proposed model improves on the prior art by reducing the dc-gain error by more than 7 dB, and the error in the low-frequency pole from 168% to 16.9%. Furthermore, the PI controller designed on the prior art was found to have more than 40 times larger overshoot in the control signal when measured compared with the model prediction, while the controller based on the proposed model showed correct performance when simulated and measured. |
2,101 | We're Not Gonna Break It! Consistency-Preserving Operators for Efficient Product Line Configuration | When configuring a software product line, finding a good trade-off between multiple orthogonal quality concerns is a challenging multi-objective optimisation problem. State-of-the-art solutions based on search-based techniques create invalid configurations in intermediate steps, requiring additional repair actions that reduce the efficiency of the search. In this work, we introduce consistency-preserving configuration operators (CPCOs)-genetic operators that maintain valid configurations throughout the entire search. CPCOs bundle coherent sets of changes: the activation or deactivation of a particular feature together with other (de)activations that are needed to preserve validity. In our evaluation, our instantiation of the IBEA algorithm with CPCOs outperforms two state-of-the-art tools for optimal product line configuration in terms of both speed and solution quality. The improvements are especially pronounced in large product lines with thousands of features. |
2,102 | Electrostatic Adsorption Enables Layer Stacking Thickness-Dependent Hollow Ti3 C2 Tx MXene Bowls for Superior Electromagnetic Wave Absorption | Although transition metal carbides/carbonitrides (MXenes) exhibit immense potential for electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption, their absorbing ability is hindered by facile stacking and high permittivity. Layer stacking and geometric structures are expected to significantly affect the conductivity and permittivity of MXenes. However, it is still a formidable task to simultaneously regulate layer stacking and microstructure of MXenes to realize high-performance EMW absorption. Herein, a simple and viable strategy using electrostatic adsorption is developed to integrate 2D Ti3 C2 Tx MXene nanosheets into 3D hollow bowl-like structures with tunable layer stacking thickness. Density functional theory calculations indicate an increase in the density of states of the d orbital from the Ti atom near the Fermi level and the generation of additional electrical dipoles in the MXene nanosheets constituting the bowl walls upon reducing the layer stacking thickness. The hollow MXene bowls exhibit a minimum reflection loss (RLmin ) of -53.8 dB at 1.8 mm. The specific absorbing performance, defined as RLmin (dB)/thickness (mm)/filler loading (wt%), exceeds 598 dB mm-1 , far surpassing that of the most current MXene and bowl-like materials reported in the literature. This work can guide future exploration on designing high-performance MXenes with "lightweight" and "thinness" characteristics for superior EMW absorption. |
2,103 | Role of Inorganic Amorphous Constituents in Highly Mineralized Biomaterials and Their Imitations | A highly mineralized biomaterial is one kind of biomaterial that usually possesses a high content of crystal minerals and hierarchical microstructure, exhibiting excellent mechanical properties to support the living body. Recent studies have revealed the presence of inorganic amorphous constituents (IAC) either during the biomineralization process or in some mature bodies, which heavily affects the formation and performance of highly mineralized biomaterials. These results are surprising given the preceding intensive research into the microstructure design of these materials. Herein, we highlight the role of IAC in highly mineralized biomaterials. We focused on summarizing works demonstrating the presence or phase transformation of IAC and discussed in detail how IAC affects the formation and performance of highly mineralized biomaterials. Furthermore, we described some imitations of highly mineralized biomaterials that use IAC as the synthetic precursor or final strengthening phase. Finally, we briefly summarized the role of IAC in biomaterials and provided an outlook on the challenges and opportunities for future IAC and IAC-containing bioinspired materials researches. |
2,104 | In-Hardware Training Chip Based on CMOS Invertible Logic for Machine Learning | Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have recently shown state-of-the-art results on various applications, such as computer vision and recognition tasks. DNN inference engines can be implemented in hardware with high energy efficiency as the computation can be realized using a low-precision fixed point or even binary precision with sufficient cognition accuracies. On the other hand, training DNNs using the well-known back-propagation algorithm requires high-precision floating-point computations on a CPU and/or GPU causing significant power dissipation (more than hundreds of kW) and long training time (several days or more). In this paper, we demonstrate a training chip fabricated using a commercial 65-nm CMOS technology for machine learning. The chip performs training without back propagation by using invertible logic with stochastic computing that can directly obtain weight values using input/output training data with low precision suitable for inference. When training neurons that compute the weighted sum of all inputs and then apply a non-linear activation function, our chip demonstrates a reduction of power dissipation and latency by 99.98% and 99.95%, respectively, in comparison with a state-of-the-art software implementation. |
2,105 | HF-UNet: Learning Hierarchically Inter-Task Relevance in Multi-Task U-Net for Accurate Prostate Segmentation in CT Images | Accurate segmentation of the prostate is a key step in external beam radiation therapy treatments. In this paper, we tackle the challenging task of prostate segmentation in CT images by a two-stage network with 1) the first stage to fast localize, and 2) the second stage to accurately segment the prostate. To precisely segment the prostate in the second stage, we formulate prostate segmentation into a multi-task learning framework, which includes a main task to segment the prostate, and an auxiliary task to delineate the prostate boundary. Here, the second task is applied to provide additional guidance of unclear prostate boundary in CT images. Besides, the conventional multi-task deep networks typically share most of the parameters (i.e., feature representations) across all tasks, which may limit their data fitting ability, as the specificity of different tasks are inevitably ignored. By contrast, we solve them by a hierarchically-fused U-Net structure, namely HF-UNet. The HF-UNet has two complementary branches for two tasks, with the novel proposed attention-based task consistency learning block to communicate at each level between the two decoding branches. Therefore, HF-UNet endows the ability to learn hierarchically the shared representations for different tasks, and preserve the specificity of learned representations for different tasks simultaneously. We did extensive evaluations of the proposed method on a large planning CT image dataset and a benchmark prostate zonal dataset. The experimental results show HF-UNet outperforms the conventional multi-task network architectures and the state-of-the-art methods. |
2,106 | Spatial pattern and co-occurrence network of microbial community in response to extreme environment of salt lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau | Microbial communities are important components of alpine lakes, especially in extreme environments such as salt lakes. However, few studies have examined the co-occurrence network of microbial communities and various environmental factors in the water of salt lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. From May to June 2019, nine samples from seven salt lakes with water salinity ranges from 13 to 267‰ on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were collected. There were great differences between low-salinity samples and high-salinity samples in the inorganic salt ion concentration, pH, and biodiversity. In addition, the microbial community sturcture in low-salinity samples and high-salinity samples differed, suggesting that each sample has its own specific species. The co-occurrence network suggests that salinity was the most important forcing factor. We believe that salinity and inorganic salt ions can result in differences in microbial community in different salt lakes. This sequencing survey of multiple salt lakes with various salinities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau enhances our understanding of the response of microbial communities to environmental heterogeneity. |
2,107 | Technologies for large scale seawater desalination using concentrated solar radiation | This paper shows the principles and the present state of the art of concentrating solar power technology and explains the option for seawater desalination, either using electricity or steam generated in such plants. The economic potential of this technology in the MENA region can cope with the present and the expected future demand of electricity and water. First projects are now being realized, for electricity and also for combined heat and power for desalination, electricity and cooling |
2,108 | Adaptive Decision Forest: An incremental machine learning framework | In this study, we present an incremental machine learning framework called Adaptive Decision Forest (ADF), which produces a decision forest to classify new records. Based on our two novel theorems, we introduce a new splitting strategy called iSAT, which allows ADF to classify new records even if they are associated with previously unseen classes. ADF is capable of identifying and handling concept drift; it, however, does not forget previously gained knowledge. Moreover, ADF is capable of handling big data if the data can be divided into batches. We evaluate ADF on nine publicly available natural datasets and one synthetic dataset, and compare the performance of ADF against the performance of eight state-of-the-art techniques. We also examine the effectiveness of ADF in some challenging situations. Our experimen-tal results, including statistical sign test and Nemenyi test analyses, indicate a clear superiority of the proposed framework over the state-of-the-art techniques. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
2,109 | Harvest of Bombax ceiba for the Aboriginal arts industry, central Arnhem Land, Australia | Aboriginal people in remote Australian communities have limited opportunity to participate in the market economy. The Aboriginal arts and craft industry offers an important option to generate cash income and the sustained supply of native plants used in production is vital. We assessed the current harvest of a rainforest tree species commonly used for sculpture, Bombax ceiba. Information from field surveys, a regional rainforest inventory and sales figures from the Maningrida region were used to estimate the population size and structure of B. ceiba, the harvest intensity of. patches and the economic value of the harvest. We estimate the density of B. ceiba to be 105.10 +/- 12.32 stems ha(-1) and a regional population of 76615 +/- 14063 stems. A cumulative harvest over 20 years of 6% suggests approximately 4596 stems harvested, and the harvest was worth about $200,000 over the last three years. The majority (80%) of harvested stems coppiced and were suitable for harvesting. Logistic regression suggests both distance to outstation and township influence harvesting intensity, with some localised over-harvest. Rainforests provide a valuable resource to Aboriginal artists in Maningrida and their maintenance provides important conservation benefits to the Australian community. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. |
2,110 | Poliomyelitis is a current challenge: long-term sequelae and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus | For more than 20 years, the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region (WPR) has been polio-free. However, two current challenges are still polio-related. First, around half of poliomyelitis elderly survivors suffer late poliomyelitis sequelae with a substantial impact on daily activities and quality of life, experiencing varying degrees of residual weakness as they age. The post-polio syndrome as well as accelerated aging may be involved. Second, after the worldwide Sabin oral poliovirus (OPV) vaccination, the recent reappearance of strains of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) circulating in the environment is worrisome and able to persistent person-to-person transmission. Such VDPV strains exhibit atypical genetic characteristics and reversed neurovirulence that can cause paralysis similarly to wild poliovirus, posing a significant obstacle to the elimination of polio. Immunization is essential for preventing paralysis in those who are exposed to the poliovirus. Stress the necessity of maintaining high vaccination rates because declining immunity increases the likelihood of reemergence. If mankind wants to eradicate polio in the near future, measures to raise immunization rates and living conditions in poorer nations are needed, along with strict observation. New oral polio vaccine candidates offer a promissory tool for this goal. |
2,111 | The synthetic lethality of targeting cell cycle checkpoints and PARPs in cancer treatment | Continuous cell division is a hallmark of cancer, and the underlying mechanism is tumor genomics instability. Cell cycle checkpoints are critical for enabling an orderly cell cycle and maintaining genome stability during cell division. Based on their distinct functions in cell cycle control, cell cycle checkpoints are classified into two groups: DNA damage checkpoints and DNA replication stress checkpoints. The DNA damage checkpoints (ATM-CHK2-p53) primarily monitor genetic errors and arrest cell cycle progression to facilitate DNA repair. Unfortunately, genes involved in DNA damage checkpoints are frequently mutated in human malignancies. In contrast, genes associated with DNA replication stress checkpoints (ATR-CHK1-WEE1) are rarely mutated in tumors, and cancer cells are highly dependent on these genes to prevent replication catastrophe and secure genome integrity. At present, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) operate through "synthetic lethality" mechanism with mutant DNA repair pathways genes in cancer cells. However, an increasing number of patients are acquiring PARP inhibitor resistance after prolonged treatment. Recent work suggests that a combination therapy of targeting cell cycle checkpoints and PARPs act synergistically to increase the number of DNA errors, compromise the DNA repair machinery, and disrupt the cell cycle, thereby increasing the death rate of cancer cells with DNA repair deficiency or PARP inhibitor resistance. We highlight a combinational strategy involving PARP inhibitors and inhibition of two major cell cycle checkpoint pathways, ATM-CHK2-TP53 and ATR-CHK1-WEE1. The biological functions, resistance mechanisms against PARP inhibitors, advances in preclinical research, and clinical trials are also reviewed. |
2,112 | IL-8 signaling is up-regulated in alcoholic hepatitis and DDC fed mice with Mallory Denk Bodies (MDBs) present | Chemokines and their receptors are involved in oncogenesis and in tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis. Various chemokines also promote cell proliferation and resistance to apoptosis of stressed cells. The chemokine CXCL8, also known as interleukin-8 (IL-8), is a proinflammatory molecule that has functions within the tumor microenvironment. Deregulation of IL-8 signaling is shown to play pivotal roles in tumorigenesis and progression. Mallory-Denk Bodies (MDBs) are prevalent in various liver diseases including alcoholic hepatitis (AH) and are formed in mice livers by feeding DDC. By comparing AH livers where MDBs had formed with normal livers, there were significant changes of IL-8 signaling by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analyses. Real-time PCR analysis of CXCR2 further shows a 6-fold up-regulation in AH livers and a 26-fold up-regulation in the livers of DDC re-fed mice. IL-8 mRNA was also significantly up-regulated in AH livers and DDC re-fed mice livers. This indicates that CXCR2 and IL-8 may be crucial for liver MDB formation. MDB containing balloon hepatocytes in AH livers had increased intensity of staining of the cytoplasm for both CXCR2 and IL-8. Overexpression of IL-8 leads to an increase of the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade and exacerbates the inflammatory cycle. These observations constitute a demonstration of the altered regulation of IL-8 signaling in the livers of AH and mice fed DDC where MDBs formed, providing further insight into the mechanism of MDB formation mediated by IL-8 signaling in AH. |
2,113 | Interference of nuclear wavepackets in a pair of proton transfer reactions | Quantum mechanics revolutionized chemists' understanding of molecular structure. In contrast, the kinetics of molecular reactions in solution are well described by classical, statistical theories. To reveal how the dynamics of chemical systems transition from quantum to classical, we study femtosecond proton transfer in a symmetric molecule with two identical reactant sites that are spatially apart. With the reaction launched from a superposition of two local basis states, we hypothesize that the ensuing motions of the electrons and nuclei will proceed, conceptually, in lockstep as a superposition of probability amplitudes until decoherence collapses the system to a product. Using ultrafast spectroscopy, we observe that the initial superposition state affects the reaction kinetics by an interference mechanism. With the aid of a quantum dynamics model, we propose how the evolution of nuclear wavepackets manifests the unusual intersite quantum correlations during the reaction. |
2,114 | Perceived risk and attitude's mediating role between tourism knowledge and visit intention during the COVID-19 pandemic: implementation for coastal-ecotourism management | CMC Tiga Warna is one of the coastal area management for conservation and ecotourism in southern Malang, Indonesia. Despite fewer tourist visits, the COVID-19 pandemic did not dissuade locals from managing and protecting ecotourism in the coastal area. This study aims to: (a) to describe coastal ecosystem management; and (b) to analyze coastal ecotourist visit intention related to tourism knowledge, perceived health risk, and risk attitude in the post-COVID-19 era as a part of developing strategy for coastal ecosystem management in the study area from the perspective of ecotourists and destination management. CMC Tiga Warna management, community group supervisors, the local community, and a variety of experts were interviewed in order to gather data for the current strategy. Coastal ecotourist visit intention data from domestic ecotourists was gathered via online and offline surveys. Analyzing the visit intention data with Warp-PLS. Using the visit intention model and interview data, the coastline management strategy was described. This study found that the coastal environment management plan constantly involved ecotourists and locals. Tourism knowledge and risk attitude are positively related to the visit intention, however perceived health risk is negatively related to it. The significant positive relationship between tourism knowledge and ecotourist visit intention is mediated by perceived health risk and risk attitude. Development of the coastal ecosystem management plan could be supported by boosting visit intention, ecotourism visits, or economic incentive as a motive for sustaining the conservation program's consistency, and ecological and social rewards in a sustainable manner. This study added to the Theory of Reasoned Action by adding two additional factors, tourist knowledge and perceived health risk, in addition to the attitude to predict the visit intention. The ecotourism manager should provide varied tourist information and knowledge as needed, reduce COVID-19 exposure risk at tourist destinations, and increase risk attitude. |
2,115 | Exposing computer generated images by using deep convolutional neural networks | The recent computer graphics developments have upraised the quality of the generated digital content, astonishing the most skeptical viewer. Games and movies have taken advantage of this fact but, at the same time, these advances have brought serious negative impacts like the ones yielded by fake images produced with malicious intents. Digital artists can compose artificial images capable of deceiving the great majority of people, turning this into a very dangerous weapon in a timespan currently know as "Fake News/Post-Truth" Era. In this work, we propose a new approach for dealing with the problem of detecting computer generated images, through the application of deep convolutional networks and transfer learning techniques. We start from Residual Networks and develop different models adapted to the binary problem of identifying if an image was, or not, computer generated. Differently from the current state-of-the-art approaches, we do not rely on hand-crafted features, but provide to the model the raw pixel information, achieving the same 0.97 performance of state-of-the-art methods with three main advantages: (i) executes considerably faster than state-of-the-art methods with equivalent accuracy; (ii) eliminates the laborious and manual step of specialized features extraction and selection, and (iii) is very robust against image processing operations as noise addition, blur and JPEG compression. |
2,116 | Desalination by using alternative energy: Review and state-of-the-art | Energy is a critical parameter for economic and of vital importance in social and industrial development, as it is also quality water. Numerous low-density population areas lack not only fresh water availability, but in most of the cases electrical grid connection or any other energy source as well, except for renewable energy sources, mostly referring to solar radiation. For these regions desalination is a moderate solution for their needs. In using RE desalination there are two separate and different technologies involved: energy conversion and desalination systems. The real problem in these technologies is the optimum economic design and evaluation of the combined plants in order to be economically viable for remote or and regions. Conversion of renewable energies, including solar, requires high investment cost and though the intensive R&D effort technology is not yet enough mature to be exploited through large-scale applications. This paper presents a review of the highlights that have been achieved during the recent years and the state-of-the-art for most important efforts in the field of desalination by renewable energies, with emphasis on solar energy applications. |
2,117 | The complete plastid genome of Piper kadsura (Piperaceae), an East Asian woody vine | We sequenced the complete plastid genome (plastome) for Piper kadsura, a woody vine endemic to East Asia. This species is part of the largest genus within Piperaceae and its genome is almost identical to its congener P. cenocladum. The plastome for P. kadsura comprises 131 genes, including four unique rRNAs, 30 tRNAs, and 79 protein-coding genes. It retains ycf1 as an intact open reading frame. Our phylogenetic analysis demonstrated the monophyly of the Piper genus. The additional plastome sequence found in this evolutionarily and economically important genus will be a valuable, fundamental tool for future studies of phylogenetic relationships among basal angiosperms, and will provide a useful resource for molecular breeding programs. |
2,118 | An integrated content and metadata based retrieval system for art | A new approach to image retrieval is presented in the domain of museum and gallery image collections. Specialist algorithms, developed to address specific retrieval tasks, are combined with more conventional content and metadata retrieval approaches, and implemented within a distributed architecture to provide cross-collection searching and navigation in a seamless way. External systems can access the different collections using interoperability protocols and open standards, which were extended to accommodate content based as well as text based retrieval paradigms.. After brief overview of the complete system, we describe the novel design and evaluation of some of the specialist image analysis algorithms including a method for image retrieval based on sub-image queries, retrievals based on very low quality images and retrieval using canvas crack patterns. We show how effective retrieval results can be achieved by real end-users consisting of major museums and galleries, accessing the distributed but integrated digital collections. |
2,119 | Stimulus-Responsive Lanthanide MOF Materials Encapsulated with Viologen Derivatives: Characterization, Photophysical Properties and Sensing on Nitrophenols | Viologens (1,1'-disubstituted 4,4'-bipyridyls) possessing electron-deficient properties and redox activity are a class of suitable chromophores to assemble metal-organic hybrid photochromic materials. Thus, viologen-functionalized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted much attention for their photochromic properties; however, the syntheses of lanthanide-viologen hybrid crystalline photochromic materials still face many challenges. For example, the structures and properties of the final products are difficult to predict and are limited by molecular configurations. In this work, host-guest composite-material Ln-NH2 BDC-pbpy MOFs were constructed by encapsulating viologen derivative pbpyCl2 . The pbpy2+ moieties are uniformly embed by their π-π conjugation in the pores of the 3D structure by electrostatic interactions. Due to the encapsulation of the chromophore pbpy2+ moieties, Ln-NH2 BDC-pbpy MOFs have reversible photochromic properties: they can change color after irradiation and can return to the original color after being protected from light or heating. Interestingly, the fluorescence intensity decreases with illumination time and recovers in the dark. As a result, Ln-NH2 BDC-pbpy MOFs show both photochromic and photomodulated fluorescence. Based on the outstanding fluorescence performance of the Ln-NH2 BDC-pbpy MOFs, they also show a wonderful effect for detecting nitrophenols, especially TNP. |
2,120 | Image saliency detection for multiple objects | Traditional saliency detection methods are designed only for a single salient object and cannot detect multiple salient objects in the image. This paper proposes a novel method for detecting multiple salient objects in the image, which is based on both objectness estimation method and superpixel segmentation method. The present study shows that the proposed method can correctly detect the salient regions for multiple objects and outperforms the other three state-of-the-art saliency detection methods. |
2,121 | Sustainability and creativity through mail art: A case study with young artists in universities | Universities around the world are making considerable efforts to contribute to sustainable development through their institutional frameworks, education, research or community awareness. This article discusses how young artists connect with sustainability problems through an analysis of individual artistic creativity (visions, sources of inspiration, messages and communicative strategies) by means of a novel interpretive arts-based research methodology: mail art. A collection of mail art individually created by 29 young artists who also provide selfreports on the meaning of their work, the creation process and its intent are analyzed using a qualitative content analysis methodology complemented by an aesthetic inquiry into the artistic qualities and creative techniques of the collection. The research concludes that the collection reproduces but also produces messages promoting a sustainability culture. It promotes individual actions for sustainability with everyday creativity using expert knowledge and describes visions and attitudes expressed by young people to detect gaps and to develop a more informed education for sustainable development in universities. Although there are individual differences, the participants generally show appropriate values -such as universalism-, and a desire for ethical action within an ecocentric worldview, displaying constructive hope. However, the collection stands out for a collective, global and future-oriented, versus individual, local and present-oriented framing, running the risk of becoming visions that can delay transformative actions. Some of the most conclusive recommendations of the study are the need to work on the issues of equity and equality in universities today, to enhance the critical perspective of students and to change their current role from that of merely observers to agents for change. |
2,122 | Platinum@Hexaniobate Nanopeapods: A Directed Photocatalytic Architecture for Dye-Sensitized Semiconductor H2 Production under Visible Irradiation | Platinum@hexaniobate nanopeapods (Pt@HNB NPPs) are a nanocomposite photocatalyst that was selectively engineered to increase the efficiency of hydrogen production from visible light photolysis. Pt@HNB NPPs consist of linear arrays of high surface area Pt nanocubes encapsulated within scrolled sheets of the semiconductor HxK4-xNb6O17 and were synthesized in high yield via a facile one-pot microwave heating method that is fast, reproducible, and more easily scalable than multi-step approaches required by many other state-of-the-art catalysts. The Pt@HNB NPPs' unique 3D architecture enables physical separation of the Pt catalysts from competing surface reactions, promoting electron efficient delivery to the isolated reduction environment along directed charge transport pathways that kinetically prohibit recombination reactions. Pt@HNB NPPs' catalytic activity was assessed in direct comparison to representative state-of-the-art Pt/semiconductor nanocomposites (extPt-HNB NScs) and unsupported Pt nanocubes. Photolysis under similar conditions exhibited superior H2 production by the Pt@HNB NPPs, which exceeded other catalyst H2 yields (mu mol) by a factor of 10. Turnover number and apparent quantum yield values showed similar dramatic increases over the other catalysts. Overall, the results clearly demonstrate that Pt@HNB NPPs represent a unique, intricate nanoarchitecture among state-of-the-art heterogeneous catalysts, offering obvious benefits as a new architectural pathway toward efficient, versatile, and scalable hydrogen energy production. Potential factors behind the Pt@HNB NPPs' superior performance are discussed below, as are the impacts of systematic variation of photolysis parameters and the use of a non-aqueous reductive quenching photosystem. |
2,123 | Oriented objects as pairs of middle lines | Oriented object detection in remote sensing images is an active yet challenging task. State-of-the-art detectors adopt oriented bounding box as a basic representation of an object. The design of them always multiplies the number of anchor boxes with arbitrary angles. Coupled with the rotated Non-Maximum-Suppression (NMS) algorithm, their computational complexities and design difficulties are dramatically increased. In this paper, we propose a novel representation form of oriented objects as pairs of middle lines. Along with the new representation, Oriented Objects Detection Network (O-2-DNet) is proposed to encode and detect these paired middle lines. By eliminating the pre-designed set of anchor boxes and complicated rotated-NMS post-processing, our model runs in an anchor-free and NMS-free manner. Thereby, compared with state-of-the-art bounding-box and anchor-NMS based detectors, O-2-DNet is simpler and more efficient in the oriented object detection task. Experiments show that O-2-DNet achieves excellent performances on the DOTA dataset. In fact, the horizontal objects can also be regarded as a unique form of oriented ones with an angle of 90 degrees. O-2-DNet can also achieve competitive results on the horizontal box dataset, such as DIOR. |
2,124 | Imaging mass cytometry: High-dimensional and single-cell perspectives on the microenvironment of solid tumours | Imaging mass cytometry (IMC) is a new technology integrating mass spectrometry, high-resolution laser ablation and immunohistochemistry/cytochemistry. A unique high-dimensional perspective comprehensively and accurately depicts the complex interaction of phenotype, signalling pathway and tumour microenvironment and is widely used in solid tumours. However, the application scenarios of IMC in basic medicine and clinical research in solid tumours lack systematic introduction and classification. This paper reviews the application of IMC in depicting the panorama of the tumour microenvironment, revealing tumour spatial heterogeneity, clarifying tumour pharmacological mechanisms, assisting in new drug development, and dynamically evaluating the efficacy of immunotherapy in solid tumours. |
2,125 | Energy conservation in museums using different setpoint strategies: A case study for a state-of-the-art museum using building simulations | Museums are dedicated to protect their artwork collection and to display the collection as safely as possible. Amongst other things, the indoor climate is of utmost importance to minimize collection degradation. Many museums employ tight climate guidelines, allowing only small fluctuations of indoor temperature and relative humidity, resulting in the following problems: huge energy consumption, the need for high-capacity HVAC systems, additional stress on historical buildings. This simulation study investigates the energy-saving potential of different setpoint strategies. Damage functions were used to assess the degradation risk of the collection and an Adaptive Temperature Guideline was used to assess thermal comfort. A state-of-the-art museum in the Netherlands was modeled and the indoor climate and energy consumption were simulated, including heating, cooling, humidification and dehumidification. Maximum savings, compared to a reference situation, of 82% may be achieved. However, the optimum strategy yields a saving of 77%, significantly improves thermal comfort and decreases chemical degradation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
2,126 | A Deep Learning Perspective on Beauty, Sentiment, and Remembrance of Art | With the emergence of large digitized fine art collections and the successful performance of deep learning techniques, new research prospects unfold in the intersection of artificial intelligence and art. In order to explore the applicability of deep learning techniques in understanding art images beyond object recognition and classification, we employ convolutional neural networks (CNN) to predict scores related to three subjective aspects of human perception: aesthetic evaluation of the image, sentiment evoked by the image, and memorability of the image. For each concept, we evaluate several different CNN models trained on various natural image datasets and select the best performing model based on the qualitative results and the comparison with existing subjective ratings of artworks. Furthermore, we employ different decision tree-based machine learning models to analyze the relative importance of various image features related to the content, composition, and color in determining image aesthetics, visual sentiment, and memorability scores. Our findings suggest that content and image lighting have significant influence on aesthetics, in which color vividness and harmony strongly influence sentiment prediction, while object emphasis has a high impact on memorability. In addition, we explore the predicted aesthetic, sentiment, and memorability scores in the context of art history by analyzing their distribution in regard to different artistic styles, genres, artists, and centuries. The presented approach enables new ways of exploring fine art collections based on highly subjective aspects of art, as well as represents one step forward toward bridging the gap between traditional formal analysis and the computational analysis of fine art. |
2,127 | DFV-Aware Flip-Flops Using C-Elements | Advanced nanometer circuits are susceptible to errors caused by process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations or due to a single event upset (SEU). State-of-the-art design-for-variability (DFV)-aware flip-flops (FFs) suffer from their area and timing overheads. By utilizing C-element modules, two types of FFs are proposed for error detection and error correction. |
2,128 | Fast Text Placement Scheme for ASCII Art Synthesis | This study suggests an algorithm that creates ASCII art from a binary image. Our approach aims to generate ASCII art in a short period of time using multi-threaded local optimizations for a text placement method instead of a global optimization. To generate ASCII art from various images, the original image is first converted into a thinned black and white image suitable for generating ASCII art. We then extract the pixel orientations from the input image and introduce a character similarity scheme that considers these orientations. We also propose a novel text placement algorithm to complete ASCII art in a swift manner. Our final system suggested here can generate ASCII art using a variety of proportional fonts. The results of the experiments of this study show that the suggested system can generate ASCII art much faster than existing state-of-the-art techniques using proportional fonts. |
2,129 | Safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors in Asian type 2 diabetes populations | The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus continues to increase in many Asian countries, with possible contributing factors, such as younger-onset disease, diabetes development at lower body mass index, higher visceral fat accumulation and poorer β-cell function, among Asian populations. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors have been shown to confer favorable effects in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, such as improved glycemic control, weight and blood pressure reduction, and importantly, cardiorenal benefits. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors are generally well-tolerated, and have a well-defined safety profile based on evidence from numerous clinical trials and post-marketing pharmacovigilance reporting. To our knowledge, this review is the first to provide a comprehensive coverage of the adverse events of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, as well as their management and counseling aspects for Asian type 2 diabetes mellitus populations. |
2,130 | Internet of Things for Disaster Management: State-of-the-Art and Prospects | Disastrous events are cordially involved with the momentum of nature. As such mishaps have been showing off own mastery, situations have gone beyond the control of human resistive mechanisms far ago. Fortunately, several technologies are in service to gain affirmative knowledge and analysis of a disaster's occurrence. Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has opened a promising door toward catering of multitude problems related to agriculture, industry, security, and medicine due to its attractive features, such as heterogeneity, interoperability, light-weight, and fiexibility. This paper surveys existing approaches to encounter the relevant issues with disasters, such as early warning, notification, data analytics, knowledge aggregation, remote monitoring, real-time analytics, and victim localization. Simultaneous interventions with IoT are also given utmost importance while presenting these facts. A comprehensive discussion on the state-of-the-art scenarios to handle disastrous events is presented. Furthermore, IoT-supported protocols and market-ready deployable products are summarized to address these issues. Finally, this survey highlights open challenges and research trends in IoT-enabled disaster management systems. |
2,131 | Visual and Contextual Modeling for the Detection of Repeated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury | Currently, there is a lack of computational methods for the evaluation of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Further, the development of automated analyses has been hindered by the subtle nature of mTBI abnormalities, which appear as low contrast MR regions. This paper proposes an approach that is able to detect mTBI lesions by combining both the high-level context and low-level visual information. The contextual model estimates the progression of the disease using subject information, such as the time since injury and the knowledge about the location of mTBI. The visual model utilizes texture features in MRI along with a probabilistic support vector machine to maximize the discrimination in unimodal MR images. These two models are fused to obtain a final estimate of the locations of the mTBI lesion. The models are tested using a novel rodent model of repeated mTBI dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that the fusion of both contextual and visual textural features outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches. Clinically, our approach has the potential to benefit both clinicians by speeding diagnosis and patients by improving clinical care. |
2,132 | First Report of Rose Apple Leaf Spot Caused by Colletotrichum siamense in Thailand | The rose apple (Syzygium samarangense (Blume) Merr. & L.M.Perry) plant has been commonly cultivated in Thailand. In May of 2022, leaf spot disease of rose apple was discovered in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, with approximately 30% disease incidence. The typical symptoms initially showed brown spots (0.1 to 0.5 mm in diameter) with a yellow halo surrounding. These spots then expanded with black edges and the infected leaves appear blighted and desiccated. In humid conditions, pale yellow conidiomata formed on the lesions. Small pieces (5 × 5 mm2) of the margins between lesions and the healthy tissue were surface disinfected with 1% NaClO for 1 min, 70% ethanol for 30 s, and washed three times with sterile distilled water. Tissues were placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25 ºC for three days. Three fungal isolates (SDBR-CMU419, SDBR-CMU420, and SDBR-CMU421) were obtained that exhibited similar morphology. Fungal colonies appeared white to gray with cottony mycelia after incubation on PDA at 25 ºC for one week. All fungal isolates produced asexual morph on PDA. Setae were 5590 × 2.53.5 µm, brown with 13-septa, cylindrical base, and tip rounded. Conidiophores were hyaline to pale brown, septate, and branched. Conidiogenous cells were hyaline to pale brown, cylindrical to ampulliform, 2050 µm long (n = 50). Conidia were one-celled, hyaline, smooth-walled, aseptate, straight, cylindrical, end round, guttulate, 1017 × 35 µm (n = 50). Appressoria were mostly formed from mycelia, oval to irregular, brown to dark brown, smooth-walled, 610 × 57 µm (n = 50). Morphologically, all fungal isolates resembled to Colletotrichum (Weir et al. 2012; Jayawardena et al. 2021). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA, actin (act), β-tubulin (tub2), calmodulin (CAL), and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were amplified using primer pairs ITS5/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), ACT-512F/ACT-783R (Carbone and Kohn 1999), T1/T22 (O'Donnell and Cigelnik 1997), CL1C/CL2C (Weir et al. 2012), and GDF1/GDR1 (Templeton et al. 1992), respectively. The ITS (ON740892 to ON740894), act (ON759242 to ON759244), tub2 (ON759245 to ON759247), CAL (ON759248 to ON759250), and GAPDH (ON759251 to ON759253) sequences were deposited in GenBank. Multi-gene (combined data set of ITS, GAPDH, CAL, act, and tub2) maximum phylogenetic analyses indicated that all fungal isolates clustered with C. siamense ICMP 18578 (type strain) with strong statistical (99% ML) support. For pathogenicity test, asymptomatic leaves, stems and fruits detached from healthy plants were surface disinfected using 0.1% NaClO for 3 min, washed three times with sterile distilled water, and air-dried. A uniform wound (3 pores, 1 mm in width) was made at the equator of each leaf, stem and fruit using aseptic needles. Mycelial plugs (5 mm in diameter) and conidia suspensions (1 × 106 conidia/ml) of each fungal isolate grown on PDA at 25 ºC for one week were used to inoculate both wounded and unwounded samples by the detached method (Huda‑Shakirah et al. 2022; Suwannarach et al. 2022). Plugs of PDA and sterile distilled water were used as controls. Ten replications were performed for each treatment and the experiment was repeated twice. All inoculated samples were incubated in a moist chamber at 25 ºC with 90% relative humidity. The disease severity index was used to evaluate the specimens (Acar et al. 2008; Ngegba et al. 2017). After one week, both wounded and unwounded leaves that inoculated with mycelial plugs and conidia suspensions showed brown leaf spots and a weak infection. Mycelial plugs inoculated on both wounded and unwounded fruits revealed a moderate infection, but inoculation of conidia suspensions showed a weak infection. No symptoms of disease were observed on the inoculated stems. Control leaves, stems and fruits remained asymptomatic. The pathogen C. siamense was re-isolated from spot and rot lesions on PDA in order to fulfill Koch's postulates. Phoulivong et al. (2012) reported that C. siamense is a causal agent of fruit rot in rose apples cultivated in Lao and Thailand. To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. siamense causing leaf spots on rose apple plants in Thailand. Importantly, these findings will provide crucial information for epidemiologic studies and in the development of appropriate management strategies for this newly emerging disease. |
2,133 | Hierarchical morphological graph signal multi-layer decomposition for editing applications | The authors address the problem of editing signals such as 2D colour images or 3D coloured meshes that are represented under the general framework of graph signals. As state-of-the-art editing approaches decompose an image into several layers in order to manipulate them, they propose a hierarchical multi-layer decomposition of graph signals that relies on morphological filtering. Since morphological filtering operators require a complete lattice, a dedicated approach for the morphological processing of vectorial data on graphs is used. By iterating the application of morphological filterings of decreasing sizes, the graph signal is decomposed into several detail layers, each capturing a given detail level. Editing applications such as abstraction, sharpness enhancement and tone mapping are shown to illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach. |
2,134 | The Effects of Postacute Rehabilitation on Mortality, Chronic Care Dependency, Health Care Use, and Costs in Sepsis Survivors | Rationale: Sepsis often leads to long-term functional deficits and increased mortality in survivors. Postacute rehabilitation can decrease long-term sepsis mortality, but its impact on nursing care dependency, health care use, and costs is insufficiently understood. Objectives: To assess the short-term (7-12 months postdischarge) and long-term (13-36 months postdischarge) effect of inpatient rehabilitation within 6 months after hospitalization on mortality, nursing care dependency, health care use, and costs. Methods: An observational cohort study used health claims data from the health insurer AOK (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse). Among 23.0 million AOK beneficiaries, adult beneficiaries hospitalized with sepsis in 2013-2014 were identified by explicit codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision. The study included patients who were nonemployed presepsis, for whom rehabilitation is reimbursed by the AOK and thus included in the dataset, and who survived at least 6 months postdischarge. The effect of rehabilitation was estimated by statistical comparisons of patients with rehabilitation (treatment group) and those without (reference group). Possible differential effects were investigated for the subgroup of ICU-treated sepsis survivors. The study used inverse probability of treatment weighting based on propensity scores to adjust for differences in relevant covariates. Costs for rehabilitation in the 6 months postsepsis were not included in the cost analysis. Results: Among 41,918 6-month sepsis survivors, 17.2% (n = 7,224) received rehabilitation. There was no significant difference in short-term survival between survivors with and without rehabilitation. Long-term survival rates were significantly higher in the rehabilitation group (90.4% vs. 88.7%; odds ratio [OR] = 1.2; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.1-1.3; P = 0.003). Survivors with rehabilitation had a higher mean number of hospital readmissions (7-12 months after sepsis: 0.82 vs. 0.76; P = 0.014) and were more frequently dependent on nursing care (7-12 months after sepsis: 47.8% vs. 42.3%; OR = 1.2; 95% CI = 1.2-1.3; P < 0.001; 13-36 months after sepsis: 52.5% vs. 47.5%; OR = 1.2; 95% CI = 1.1-1.3; P < 0.001) compared with those without rehabilitation, whereas total health care costs at 7-36 months after sepsis did not differ between groups. ICU-treated sepsis patients with rehabilitation had higher short- and long-term survival rates (short-term: 93.5% vs. 90.9%; OR = 1.5; 95% CI = 1.2-1.7; P < 0.001; long-term: 89.1% vs. 86.3%; OR = 1.3; 95% CI = 1.1-1.5; P < 0.001) than ICU-treated sepsis patients without rehabilitation. Conclusions: Rehabilitation within the first 6 months after ICU- and non-ICU-treated sepsis is associated with increased long-term survival within 3 years after sepsis without added total health care costs. Future work should aim to confirm and explain these exploratory findings. |
2,135 | Online supervised hashing | Fast nearest neighbor search is becoming more and more crucial given the advent of large-scale data in many computer vision applications. Hashing approaches provide both fast search mechanisms and compact index structures to address this critical need. In image retrieval problems where labeled training data is available, supervised hashing methods prevail over unsupervised methods. Most state-of-the-art supervised hashing approaches employ batch-learners. Unfortunately, batch-learning strategies may be inefficient when confronted with large datasets. Moreover, with batch-learners, it is unclear how to adapt the hash functions as the dataset continues to grow and new variations appear over time. To handle these issues, we propose OSH: an Online Supervised Hashing technique that is based on Error Correcting Output Codes. We consider a stochastic setting where the data arrives sequentially and our method learns and adapts its hashing functions in a discriminative manner. Our method makes no assumption about the number of possible class labels, and accommodates new classes as they are presented in the incoming data stream. In experiments with three image retrieval benchmarks, our method yields state-of-the-art retrieval performance as measured in Mean Average Precision, while also being orders-of-magnitude faster than competing batch methods for supervised hashing. Also, our method significantly outperforms recently introduced online hashing solutions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
2,136 | The effects of fire on rock art: Microscopic evidence reveals the importance of weathering rinds | This paper presents results of the first study of pre-fire and post-fire samples collected from rock engravings and adjacent sandstone joint faces. A 2001 wildfire at Whoopup Canyon, Wyoming, stimulated a comparison of 1991 and 2003 samples. Optical microscopy of ultra-thin sections, backscattered electron microscopy, x-ray (energy dispersive and wavelength dispersive) analysis of cross sections, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveal that fires create some thermal fractures that enhance panel erosion, but most of the fire-induced erosion occurs along weathering rinds that form long before petroglyph manufacturing. In addition, rock varnish on top of petroglyphs experiences spalling, and fire ash with a clear potassium spike strongly adheres to rock varnish on petroglyphs and spalled sandstone. In the past, site managers assumed minimal damage away from massive spalls and other macrodamage on fire affected petroglyphs; an assumption no longer tenable. Since it is difficult to protect rock art after a fire starts, mitigation efforts can include identification of areas of intense weathering-rind development as locales most susceptible to erosion, and clearing trees and shrubs near rock art by hand. |
2,137 | Health promotion for older people with dementia living in the community | Dementia has physical, psychological, social and economic effects, not only on people with dementia but also on their families, carers and society as a whole. Health promotion interventions for older people with dementia living in the community can support their health and well-being, particularly early in the course of the condition. Nurses have an important role in working collaboratively with patients, family carers and the multidisciplinary team to develop health promotion activities that are tailored to the person and take into account the progressive nature of the condition. This article gives an overview of health promotion as an aspect of post-diagnosis dementia care and considers how nurses can work with older people with dementia living in the community to promote their health. |
2,138 | The relationship between chronotype and mood fluctuation in the general population | There is a lack of evidence for the relationship between chronotype and subthreshold mood fluctuation. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between chronotypes and mood fluctuation in the general population. Participants (n=302) who have had no experience of major mood episodes were included. The Korean version of the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) was used to classify participants according to three chronotypes. Mood fluctuation was measured using the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) and the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS). Mean scores achieved by the three chronotype groups on the MDQ and the BSDS were compared. There were no significant differences in the frequency of positive responses on the MDQ for the three chronotype groups. However, there was a significant group difference in total BSDS scores. The eveningness group had significantly higher BSDS-D scores than did either the morningness or the intermediate group have. In addition, the eveningness group had significantly higher BSDS-M scores than the morningness group. After adjusting for age by the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), there were still significant group differences in total BSDS scores. The present results suggest that eveningness may be more related to mood fluctuation than morningness. The eveningness may be an important factor related to soft bipolarity or mood fluctuation. |
2,139 | Effects of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Mixtures on the Susceptibility of Larval American Bullfrogs to Parasites | Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants known to adversely affect health and development in many taxa. Although PFAS generally occur as mixtures in the environment, little is known about the effects of PFAS mixtures on organisms compared to single chemical exposures. Moreover, PFAS exposure in nature occurs alongside biotic factors such as parasitism. Even though host-parasite interactions are common in natural systems, there is little information about how PFAS affect these interactions. Here, we examined the effects of PFAS mixtures on the susceptibility of larval American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) to echinostomes. Our PFAS treatments included perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) at 4 and 10 ppb, two mixtures without PFOS as a component at 6 and 10 ppb total PFAS, and a mixture containing PFOS at 10 ppb total PFAS. We found that a 62-day PFAS exposure increased parasite loads by 42-100% in all treatments relative to the control. Additionally, we found that the singular exposure to PFOS increased parasite loads by ∼40% compared to a mixture containing PFOS suggesting antagonism among PFAS in mixtures. Our results highlight the need for further investigation into the effects of PFAS mixtures on organisms and how PFAS affect common ecological interactions. |
2,140 | INTERPROFESSIONAL ROLES AND COLLABORATIONS TO ADDRESS COVID-19 PANDEMIC CHALLENGES IN NURSING HOMES | Nursing home experts and informatics nurses collaborated to develop guidelines for nursing homes that revealed partnership principles in action during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article describes efforts to define interprofessional nursing home staff roles within the partnership-based COVID-19 Response Guideline, and to examine changes in nursing practice compared to the pre-pandemic practice of nurses. The qualitative process of identification of nursing home staff roles revealed the extensive scope of interprofessional partnership needed to respond to the pandemic. Using the Omaha System structure, we compared these collective COVID-19 response interventions of Nursing Service roles with nursing interventions of RNs and LPN/LVNs defined in previous nursing home studies. This comparison showed the necessary transformation and collaboration among nurses needed for the pandemic response in nursing homes. The Omaha System Pandemic Guideline is available online and in the Omaha System Guidelines app for immediate use as COVID-19 response practice guidelines and references for interprofessional roles in nursing homes, as well as for multidisciplinary roles across diverse care settings. The guideline is an exemplar of how informatics can facilitate interprofessional and multidisciplinary partnership for nursing homes and other care settings. Future use of the guidelines for decision making and documentation related to infection prevention and control in nursing homes may improve care quality and health outcomes of residents and population. |
2,141 | Automatic segmentation of dermoscopy images using saliency combined with adaptive thresholding based on wavelet transform | Segmentation is the essential requirement in automated computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of skin diseases. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised skin lesion segmentation method to challenge the difficulties existing in the dermoscopy images such as low contrast, border indistinct, and skin lesion is close to the boundary. The proposed method combines the enhanced fusion saliency with adaptive thresholding based on wavelet transform to get the lesion regions. Firstly, a fusion saliency map increases the contract of the skin lesion and healthy skin, and then an adaptive thresholding method based on wavelet transform is used to obtain more accurate lesion regions. We compare the proposed method with seven state-of-the-art approaches using a series of evaluation metrics on both PH2 and ISBI2016 datasets. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method superior to the state-of-the-art approaches in accordance with quantitative results and visual effects. |
2,142 | Lack of ownership of mobile phones could hinder the rollout of mHealth interventions in Africa | Mobile health (mHealth) interventions, which require ownership of mobile phones, are being investigated throughout Africa. We estimate the percentage of individuals who own mobile phones in 33 African countries, identify a relationship between ownership and proximity to a health clinic (HC), and quantify inequities in ownership. We investigate basic mobile phones (BPs) and smartphones (SPs): SPs can connect to the internet, BPs cannot. We use nationally representative data collected in 2017-2018 from 44,224 individuals in Round 7 of the Afrobarometer surveys. We use Bayesian multilevel logistic regression models for our analyses. We find 82% of individuals in 33 countries own mobile phones: 42% BPs and 40% SPs. Individuals who live close to an HC have higher odds of ownership than those who do not (aOR: 1.31, Bayesian 95% highest posterior density [HPD] region: 1.24-1.39). Men, compared with women, have over twice the odds of ownership (aOR: 2.37, 95% HPD region: 1.96-2.84). Urban residents, compared with rural residents, have almost three times the odds (aOR: 2.66, 95% HPD region: 2.22-3.18) and, amongst mobile phone owners, nearly three times the odds of owning an SP (aOR: 2.67, 95% HPD region: 2.33-3.10). Ownership increases with age, peaks in 26-40 year olds, then decreases. Individuals under 30 are more likely to own an SP than a BP, older individuals more likely to own a BP than an SP. Probability of ownership decreases with the Lived Poverty Index; however, some of the poorest individuals own SPs. If the digital devices needed for mHealth interventions are not equally available within the population (which we have found is the current situation), rolling out mHealth interventions in Africa is likely to propagate already existing inequities in access to healthcare. |
2,143 | Computer Aided Theragnosis Using Quantitative Ultrasound Spectroscopy and Maximum Mean Discrepancy in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer | A noninvasive computer-aided-theragnosis (CAT) system was developed for the early therapeutic cancer response assessment in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The proposed CAT system was based on multi-parametric quantitative ultrasound (QUS) spectroscopic methods in conjunction with advanced machine learning techniques. Specifically, a kernel-based metric named maximum mean discrepancy (MMD), a technique for learning from imbalanced data based on random undersampling, and supervised learning were investigated with response-monitoring data from LABC patients. The CAT system was tested on 56 patients using statistical significance tests and leave-one-subject-out classification techniques. Textural features using state-of-the-art local binary patterns (LBP), and gray-scale intensity features were extracted from the spectral parametric maps in the proposed CAT system. The system indicated significant differences in changes between the responding and non-responding patient populations as well as high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity in discriminating between the two patient groups early after the start of treatment, i.e., on weeks 1 and 4 of several months of treatment. The proposed CAT system achieved an accuracy of 85%, 87%, and 90% on weeks 1, 4 and 8, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of developed CAT system for the same times was 85%, 95%, 90% and 85%, 85%, 91%, respectively. The proposed CAT system thus establishes a noninvasive framework for monitoring cancer treatment response in tumors using clinical ultrasound imaging in conjunction with machine learning techniques. Such a framework can potentially facilitate the detection of refractory responses in patients to treatment early on during a course of therapy to enable possibly switching to more efficacious treatments. |
2,144 | Amyloid-β induced astrocytosis and astrocyte death: Implication of FoxO3a-Bim-caspase3 death signaling | Astrocytes, the main element of the homeostatic system in the brain, are affected in various neurological conditions including Alzheimer's disease (AD). A common astrocytic reaction in pathological state is known as astrocytosis which is characterized by a specific change in astrocyte shape due to cytoskeletal remodeling, cytokine secretion and cellular proliferation. Astrocytes also undergo apoptosis in various neurological conditions or in response to toxic insults. AD is pathologically characterized by progressive deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) in senile plaques, intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles, synaptic dysfunction and neuron death. Astrocytosis and astrocyte death have been reported in AD brain as well as in response to Aβ in vitro. However, how astrocytes undergo both proliferation and death in response to Aβ remains elusive. In this study, we used primary cultures of cortical astrocytes and exposed them to various doses of oligomeric Aβ. We found that cultured astrocytes proliferate and manifest all signs of astrocytosis at a low dose of Aβ. However, at high dose of Aβ the activated astrocytes undergo apoptosis. Astrocytosis was also noticed in vivo in response to Aβ in the rat brain. Next, we investigated the mechanism of astrocyte apoptosis in response to a high dose of Aβ. We found that death of astrocyte induced by Aβ requires a set of molecules that are instrumental for neuron death in response to Aβ. It involves activation of Forkhead transcription factor Foxo3a, induction of its pro-apoptotic target Bim and activation of its downstream molecule, caspase3. Hence, this study demonstrates that the concentration of Aβ decides whether astrocytes do proliferate or undergo apoptosis via a mechanism that is required for neuron death. |
2,145 | Ultra-Narrow Linewidth Photo-Emitters in Polymorphic Selenium Nanoflakes | Photoluminescence (PL) in state-of-the-art 2D materials suffers from narrow spectral coverage, relatively broad linewidths, and poor room-temperature (RT) functionality. The authors report ultra-narrow linewidth photo-emitters (ULPs) across the visible to near-infrared wavelength at RT in polymorphic selenium nanoflakes (SeNFs), synthesized via a hot-pressing strategy. Photo-emitters in NIR exhibit full width at half maximum (Γ) of 330 ± 90 µeV, an order of magnitude narrower than the reported ULPs in 2D materials at 300 K, and decrease to 82 ± 70 µeV at 100 K, with coherence time (τc ) of 21.3 ps. The capping substrate enforced spatial confinement during thermal expansion at 250 °C is believed to trigger a localized crystal symmetry breaking in SeNFs, causing a polymorphic transition from the semiconducting trigonal (t) to quasi-metallic orthorhombic (orth) phase. Fine structure splitting in orth-Se causes degeneracy in defect-associated bright excitons, resulting in ultra-sharp emission. Combined theoretical and experimental findings, an optimal biaxial compressive strain of -0.45% cm-1 in t-Se is uncovered, induced by the coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch at the selenium/sapphire interface, resulting in bandgap widening from 1.74 to 2.23 ± 0.1 eV. This report underpins the underlying correlation between crystal symmetry breaking induced polymorphism and RT ULPs in SeNFs, and their phase change characteristics. |
2,146 | Comparative analysis of machine learning algorithms for prediction of smart grid stability(dagger) | The global demand for electricity has visualized high growth with the rapid growth in population and economy. It thus becomes necessary to efficiently distribute electricity to households and industries in order to reduce power loss. Smart Grids (SG) have the potential to reduce such power losses during power distribution. Machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques have been successfully implemented on SGs to achieve enhanced accuracy in customer demand prediction. There exists a dire need to analyze and evaluate the various machine learning algorithms, thereby identify the most suitable one to be applied to SGs. In the present work, several state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, namely Support Vector Machines (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Logistic Regression, Naive Bayes, Neural Networks, and Decision Tree classifier, have been deployed for predicting the stability of the SG. The SG dataset used in the study is publicly available collected from UC Irvine (UCI) machine learning repository. The experimentation results highlighted the superiority of the Decision Tree classification algorithm, which outperformed the other state of the art algorithms yielding 100% precision, 99.9% recall, 100% F1 score, and 99.96% accuracy. |
2,147 | Chromatic Art Gallery Problem with r-Visibility is NP-Complete | The art gallery problem is to find a set of guards who together can observe every point of the interior of a polygon P. We study a chromatic variant of the problem, where each guard is assigned one of k distinct colors. The chromatic art gallery problem is to find a guard set for P such that no two guards with the same color have overlapping visibility regions. We study the decision version of this problem for orthogonal polygons with r-visibility when the number of colors is k = 2. Here, two points are r-visible if the smallest axis-aligned rectangle containing them lies entirely within the polygon. In this paper, it is shown that determining whether there is an r-visibility guard set for an orthogonal polygon with holes such that no two guards with the same color have overlapping visibility regions is NP-hard when the number of colors is k = 2. |
2,148 | LSD: A Fast Line Segment Detector with a False Detection Control | We propose a linear-time line segment detector that gives accurate results, a controlled number of false detections, and requires no parameter tuning. This algorithm is tested and compared to state-of-the-art algorithms on a wide set of natural images. |
2,149 | Scaling Up Kernel SVM on Limited Resources: A Low-Rank Linearization Approach | Kernel support vector machines (SVMs) deliver state-of-the-art results in many real-world nonlinear classification problems, but the computational cost can be quite demanding in order to maintain a large number of support vectors. Linear SVM, on the other hand, is highly scalable to large data but only suited for linearly separable problems. In this paper, we propose a novel approach called low-rank linearized SVMto scale up kernel SVM on limited resources. Our approach transforms a nonlinear SVM to a linear one via an approximate empirical kernel map computed from efficient kernel low-rank decompositions. We theoretically analyze the gap between the solutions of the approximate and optimal rank-k kernel map, which in turn provides guidance on the sampling scheme of the Nystrom approximation. Furthermore, we extend it to a semisupervised metric learning scenario in which partially labeled samples can be exploited to further improve the quality of the low-rank embedding. Our approach inherits rich representability of kernel SVM and high efficiency of linear SVM. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach is more robust and achieves a better tradeoff between model representability and scalability against state-of-the-art algorithms for large-scale SVMs. |
2,150 | Transplant surgeons' perspective on antimicrobial stewardship: Experience with TransQIP | Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) have been shown to reduce the rates of antimicrobial resistance and improve morbidity and mortality in surgical patients. ASPs have largely been underutilized in solid organ transplant programs, and the current state of ASPs in transplantation is reviewed. Continued implementation of ASPs would likely significantly benefit transplant patients. Furthermore, coupling ASPs with robust programmatic metrics (such as transplant-specific NSQIP) will hopefully lead to improved outcomes including morbidity and mortality of solid organ transplant recipients. |
2,151 | Hierarchical deep belief networks based point process model for keywords spotting in continuous speech | Point process model keyword spotting (KWS) system has attracted considerable attentions in the areas of keyword spotting by its capacity that can generalize from a relatively small numbers of training examples. But unfortunately, the accuracy level of the point process model is not comparable with the state-of-the-art KWS systems because of the poor modeling capacity of the phoneme detector, which are based on Gaussian Mixture Models. In this paper, focus on improving the performance of detector in point process model, we propose an enhanced version of point process model, which is based on hierarchical deep belief networks (DBNs). Hierarchical DBNs are used as the phoneme detector in this system, and they combine the advantages of both the DBN and the hierarchical architecture for capturing complex statistical patterns in speech while overcoming the inherent flaws of conventional hidden Markov models and multilayer layer perceptron. Experiments results on TIMIT database show that the proposed method can yield 2% improvement. Furthermore, in the case when training examples are extremely limited, it can achieve better results over state-of-the-art KWS systems. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
2,152 | Achieving Integrated Daylighting and Electric Lighting Systems: Current State of the Art and Needed Research | This paper presents the results of a multi-disciplinary effort to clarify the state of the art and the state of practice, and necessary future research for creating the seamless integration and application of light in buildings, regardless of source, which is purposely modulated to illuminate surfaces and designed in a way that is comfortable, healthy, pleasing, cost-effective, and energy efficient. The authors unwrap the research, tools, and technical gaps preventing the full integration of electric lighting and daylighting with advanced facades through the coordination of lighting and windows research activities. The study and a stakeholder workshop captured current technology readiness levels (TRL), as well as research thrusts and implementation guidelines, and identified research priorities, presenting an analysis of the current landscape of lighting metrics-and which metrics are in the critical path for developing integrated daylighting and electric lighting systems, and their design, installation, and technology guidelines. In addition, the study defined stakeholder coordination, pathways to interoperable technology, and the value of viewing the work of the individual research areas holistically rather than in isolation. |
2,153 | High-PSR LDOs: Variations, Improvements, and Best Compromise | Low-Dropout Regulators (LDOs) are used to power noise sensitive applications. Power Supply Rejection (PSR) is a performance metric that measures the LDO's ability to reject noise. Improving PSR has been the focus of many research groups. However, the state of the art does not recognize the best PSR enhancement schemes and collate them under comparable grounds. Further, the pass transistor's diode connection (through the Gate-Drain capacitance) impacts the PSR, and this effect is not quantified in the state of the art. This research aims to bridge these gaps first by explicating the constitution of a high PSR LDO. Then, the impact of the pass transistor's parasitics on PSR are quantified. Following this, the best state of the art PSR enhancement schemes are analyzed and simulated over a high-PSR core under similar conditions. This study reveals the strengths and limitations of each scheme, which unfolds each technique's applications. Results convey that the LDO Filter yields the best PSR improvement at low frequencies, Series feedback at mid frequencies, and RC filter at high frequencies. Assessment concludes that Series Feedback provides the best compromise with respect to PSR enhancement. |
2,154 | The effect of inflammation management on pH, temperature, and bacterial burden | The aim of this feasibility study was to investigate the impact of inflammation management on wound pH, temperature, and bacterial burden, using the principles of TIME and Wound Bed Preparation. A quantitative non-comparative, prospective, descriptive observational design. Following ethical approval, 26 participants with 27 wounds of varying aetiologies were observed twice weekly for 2 weeks. Wounds were treated with cleansing, repeated sharp debridement, and topical cadexomer iodine. Wound pH (pH indicator strips), temperature (infrared camera), bacterial burden (fluorescence imaging) and size (ruler method) was monitored at each visit. The mean age of all participants was 47 years (SD: 20.3 years), and 79% (n = 19) were male, and most wounds were acute (70%; n = 19) and included surgical and trauma wounds, the remaining (30%; n = 8) were chronic and included vascular ulcers and non-healing surgical wounds. Mean wound duration was 53.88 days (SD: 64.49 days). Over the follow up period, pH values ranged from 6 to 8.7, temperature (centre spot) ranged from 28.4°C to 36.4°C and there was an average 39% reduction in wound size. Inflammation management had a positive effect on pH, temperature, bacterial burden, and wound size. This study demonstrated that it was feasible to practice inflammation management using a structured approach to enhance wound outcomes. |
2,155 | Scale Insects Support Natural Enemies in Both Landscape Trees and Shrubs Below Them | Scale insects are frequently abundant on urban trees. Although scales can worsen tree condition, some tree species tolerate moderate scale densities. Scales are prey for many natural enemies. Therefore, scale-infested trees may conserve natural enemies in their canopies and in nearby plants. We examined if scale-infested oaks-Quercus phellos L.-hosted more natural enemies than scale-uninfested oaks-Q. acutissima Carruth. and Q. lyrata Walter in Raleigh, NC. USA. We also tested if natural enemies were more abundant in holly shrubs (Ilex spp.) planted below scale-infested compared to scale-uninfested oaks. We collected natural enemies from the canopies of both tree types and from holly shrubs planted below these trees. To determine if tree type affected the abundance of natural enemies that passively dispersed to shrubs, we created hanging cup traps to collect arthropods as they fell from trees. To determine if natural enemies became more abundant on shrubs below scale-infested compared to scale-uninfested trees over short time scales, we collected natural enemies from holly shrubs below each tree type at three to six-day intervals. Scale-infested trees hosted more natural enemies than scale-uninfested trees and shrubs below scale-infested trees hosted more natural enemies than shrubs under scale-uninfested trees. Natural enemy abundance in hanging cup traps did not differ by tree type; however, shrubs underneath scale-infested trees accumulated more natural enemies than shrubs under scale-uninfested trees in six to nine days. Tolerating moderate pest densities in urban trees may support natural enemy communities, and thus biological control services, in shrubs below them. |
2,156 | Lysosomal positioning regulates Rab10 phosphorylation at LRRK2+ lysosomes | Genetic variation at the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) locus contributes to an enhanced risk of familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease. Previous data have demonstrated that recruitment to various membranes of the endolysosomal system results in LRRK2 activation. However, the mechanism(s) underlying LRRK2 activation at endolysosomal membranes and the cellular consequences of these events are still poorly understood. Here, we directed LRRK2 to lysosomes and early endosomes, triggering both LRRK2 autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of the direct LRRK2 substrates Rab10 and Rab12. However, when directed to the lysosomal membrane, pRab10 was restricted to perinuclear lysosomes, whereas pRab12 was visualized on both peripheral and perinuclear LRRK2+ lysosomes, suggesting that lysosomal positioning provides additional regulation of LRRK2-dependent Rab phosphorylation. Anterograde transport of lysosomes to the cell periphery by increasing the expression of ARL8B and SKIP or by knockdown of JIP4 blocked the recruitment and phosphorylation of Rab10 by LRRK2. The absence of pRab10 from the lysosomal membrane prevented the formation of a lysosomal tubulation and sorting process we previously named LYTL. Conversely, overexpression of RILP resulted in lysosomal clustering within the perinuclear area and increased LRRK2-dependent Rab10 recruitment and phosphorylation. The regulation of Rab10 phosphorylation in the perinuclear area depends on counteracting phosphatases, as the knockdown of phosphatase PPM1H significantly increased pRab10 signal and lysosomal tubulation in the perinuclear region. Our findings suggest that LRRK2 can be activated at multiple cellular membranes, including lysosomes, and that lysosomal positioning further provides the regulation of some Rab substrates likely via differential phosphatase activity or effector protein presence in nearby cellular compartments. |
2,157 | Biased Pressure: Cyclic Reinforcement Learning Model for Intelligent Traffic Signal Control | Existing inefficient traffic signal plans are causing traffic congestions in many urban areas. In recent years, many deep reinforcement learning (RL) methods have been proposed to control traffic signals in real-time by interacting with the environment. However, most of existing state-of-the-art RL methods use complex state definition and reward functions and/or neglect the real-world constraints such as cyclic phase order and minimum/maximum duration for each traffic phase. These issues make existing methods infeasible to implement for real-world applications. In this paper, we propose an RL-based multi-intersection traffic light control model with a simple yet effective combination of state, reward, and action definitions. The proposed model uses a novel pressure method called Biased Pressure (BP). We use a state-of-the-art advantage actor-critic learning mechanism in our model. Due to the decentralized nature of our state, reward, and action definitions, we achieve a scalable model. The performance of the proposed method is compared with related methods using both synthetic and real-world datasets. Experimental results show that our method outperforms the existing cyclic phase control methods with a significant margin in terms of throughput and average travel time. Moreover, we conduct ablation studies to justify the superiority of the BP method over the existing pressure methods. |
2,158 | Neurosteroids as stress modulators and neurotherapeutics: lessons from the retina | Neurosteroids are rapidly emerging as important new therapies in neuropsychiatry, with one such agent, brexanolone, already approved for treatment of postpartum depression, and others on the horizon. These steroids have unique properties, including neuroprotective effects that could benefit a wide range of brain illnesses including depression, anxiety, epilepsy, and neurodegeneration. Over the past 25 years, our group has developed ex vivo rodent models to examine factors contributing to several forms of neurodegeneration in the retina. In the course of this work, we have developed a model of acute closed angle glaucoma that involves incubation of ex vivo retinas under hyperbaric conditions and results in neuronal and axonal changes that mimic glaucoma. We have used this model to determine neuroprotective mechanisms that could have therapeutic implications. In particular, we have focused on the role of both endogenous and exogenous neurosteroids in modulating the effects of acute high pressure. Endogenous allopregnanolone, a major stress-activated neurosteroid in the brain and retina, helps to prevent severe pressure-induced retinal excitotoxicity but is unable to protect against degenerative changes in ganglion cells and their axons under hyperbaric conditions. However, exogenous allopregnanolone, at a pharmacological concentration, completely preserves retinal structure and does so by combined effects on gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptors and stimulation of the cellular process of macroautophagy. Surprisingly, the enantiomer of allopregnanolone, which is inactive at gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptors, is equally retinoprotective and acts primarily via autophagy. Both enantiomers are also equally effective in preserving retinal structure and function in an in vivo glaucoma model. These studies in the retina have important implications for the ongoing development of allopregnanolone and other neurosteroids as therapeutics for neuropsychiatric illnesses. |
2,159 | Lakes and society: Mirrors to our past, present and future | Ultimately most things are connected. The lessons we learn from our arts, our literature and our science all reflect an understanding of the human lot. Ecology is concerned with systems that include humans but are dominated by other organisms. Sociology and economics are concerned with systems that include non-human organisms but are dominated by humans. Principles derived from a. study of the first, it is argued, can be applied to the second (for they are both manifestations of the same thing) in an attempt to explain why we are failing to move toward a sustainable existence. A range of ideas that have emerged from ecological studies, and particularly the alternative states model of shallow lakes, is used to illuminate the current problems of human societies in relation to the global environment. |
2,160 | Constructive feedforward ART clustering networks - Part I | Part I of this paper proposes a definition of the adaptive resonance theory (ART) class of constructive unsupervised on-line learning clustering networks. Class ART generalizes several well-known clustering models, e.g., ART 1, improved ART 1, adaptive Hamming net (AHN), and Fuzzy ART, which are optimized in terms of memory storage and/or computation time. Next, the symmetric Fuzzy ART (S-Fuzzy ART) network is presented as a possible improvement over Fuzzy ART. As a generalization of S-Fuzzy ART, the simplified adaptive resonance theory (SART) group of ART algorithms is defined. Gaussian ART (GART), which is found in the literature, is presented as one more instance of class SART. In Part 11 of this work, a novel SART network, called fully self-organizing SART (FOSART), is proposed and compared with Fuzzy ART, S-Fuzzy ART, GART and other well-known clustering algorithms. Results of our comparison may easily extend to the ARTMAP supervised learning framework. |
2,161 | Citizen Action as a Driving Force of Change. The Meninas of Canido, Art in the Street as an Urban Dynamizer | The austerity policies imposed by the government in the wake of the 2007 crisis have deteriorated the welfare state and limited neighborhood recovery. Considering the inability and inefficiency on the part of administrations to carry out improvement actions in neighborhoods, it is the neighborhood action itself that has carried out a series of resilient social innovations to reverse the dynamics. In this article, we will analyze the Canido neighborhood in Ferrol, a city in north-western Spain. Canido is traditional neighborhood that was experiencing a high degree of physical and social deterioration, until a cultural initiative called "Meninas of Canido," promoted by one of its artist neighbors, recovered its identity and revitalized it from a physical, social, and economic point of view. Currently, the Meninas of Canido has become one of the most important urban art events in Spain and has receives international recognition. The aim of this article is to evaluate the impact that this action has had in the neighborhood. For this, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with the local administration, neighborhood association, the precursors of this idea, merchants, and some residents in general, in order to perceive the reception and evolution of this action. |
2,162 | A 28 nm CMOS Triple-Latch Feed-Forward Dynamic Comparator With < 27 ps / 1 V and < 70 ps / 0.6 V Delay at 5 mV-Sensitivity | This article 1 presents a fully dynamic latched comparator with a high-gain three-stage configuration and an extra 3 parallel feed-forward path, able to achieve a delay of 26.8 ps and 4 a data rate of 13.5 Gb/s with less than 10(-12) BER for a 5 mVpp 5 differential input (Delta V-I) at 0.5 V common-mode (V-CM) and 1V 6 supply (V-DD). Additionally, the reduced-stacking cascaded triple7 latch arrangement enables a <70ps delay down to 0.6 V V-DD. 8 The comparator is analyzed and compared against two prior art 9 circuits by means of derived delay and noise expressions, serving 10 as design guidelines. The prototype comparator and its prior art 11 are fabricated in 28 nm bulk CMOS, with delay, input-referred 12 noise, energy/comparison, and area measurements highlighting 13 the benefits and trade-offs of the proposed solution. |
2,163 | THE ROLE OF DIET IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS | Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS), characterized by chronic inflammation associated with autoimmune damage to myelin and axons leading to neurodegeneration. Although the etiology is not fully understood, some factors that increase the risk of disease have been identified. One of the key elements of multidisciplinary approach to the management of MS is a properly balanced diet, e.g. Swank diet. Its main assumption is to reduce the supply of animal fats in favor of fats of plant origin, which contain polyunsaturated fatty acids omega-3. One of the factors influencing the course of the disease is vitamin D deficiency. In 80-90% it is synthesized by exposure to the sun, while the other 10-20% may be supplied with ingested food. Although elevated plasma homocysteine levels have been demonstrated in MS patients, there is no need to modify the supply of B vitamins. Further studies are necessary to show the correlation between the supply of B vitamins and the course of the disease. Due to the antioxidant effect, it is recommended to include products that are sources of vitamin A, E and C, glutathione, coenzyme Q10. It is also beneficial to include compounds from the polyphenol group: quercetin, resveratrol and curcumin. Through proper nutrition model it is also possible to reduce side effects of applied medications, such as constipation, what improves patients' quality of life. Diet therapy is a key element supporting pharmacotherapy in patients with multiple sclerosis. |
2,164 | Child abuse linked to faith or belief: working towards recognition in practice | Child abuse linked to faith or belief (CALFB) is a worldwide issue that is linked to serious short-term and long-term consequences and even death. Children affected by CALFB may have undergone multiple abuses - such as ritual starvation, beatings, burns, stabbings and drowning - prompting concern in hospitals, schools and communities, including in emergency and primary care settings. Nurses have an important role in safeguarding children and young people, and their role in identifying and responding to CALFB is often challenging. This article uses a 'competemility' (cultural competence and cultural humility) approach to raise awareness of CALFB reporting and investigations in the UK. It examines medical evidence and psychosocial indicators of this form of abuse and explains the metaphorical language and thoughts associated with reported beliefs. The article aims to support nurses to be culturally sensitive to CALFB and to explore how they can contribute to preserve the safety of children in familial and community settings. |
2,165 | Energy harvesting on road pavements: state of the art | With the growing need for alternative energy sources, research into energy harvesting technologies has increased considerably in recent years. The particular case of energy harvesting on road pavements is a very recent area of research. This paper deals with the development of energy harvesting technologies for road pavements, identifies the technologies that are being studied and developed, examines how such technologies can be divided into different classes and gives a technical analysis and comparison of those technologies, using the results achieved with prototypes. |
2,166 | The impact of flooding on food security across Africa | Recent record rainfall and flood events have prompted increased attention to flood impacts on human systems. Information regarding flood effects on food security is of particular importance for humanitarian organizations and is especially valuable across Africa's rural areas that contribute to regional food supplies. We quantitatively evaluate where and to what extent flooding impacts food security across Africa, using a Granger causality analysis and panel modeling approaches. Within our modeled areas, we find that ∼12% of the people that experienced food insecurity from 2009 to 2020 had their food security status affected by flooding. Furthermore, flooding and its associated meteorological conditions can simultaneously degrade food security locally while enhancing it at regional spatial scales, leading to large variations in overall food security outcomes. Dedicated data collection at the intersection of flood events and associated food security measures across different spatial and temporal scales are required to better characterize the extent of flood impact and inform preparedness, response, and recovery needs. |
2,167 | Prevalence of HIV-1 infection among foreign applicant to residency in Shanghai, China, 2005-2016 | Shanghai is one of the largest cities in China and has the highest proportion of inbound travelers in the world. The HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection status of this population can reflect the global HIV epidemic trend to a certain extent. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective epidemic survey to clarify the prevalence and characteristics of HIV-1 infection among inbound travelers applying for Shanghai residency. The retrospective cohort analysis included a total of 50,830 inbound tourists/travelers who applied for Shanghai residency from 2005 to 2016. HIV-1 infection rates were determined based on HIV-1 antibody testing. Among all the recruited inbound travelers, 245 were HIV-1 positive, with an infection rate of 0.48%. The detection rate of HIV in males was significantly higher than in females (χ2 = 62.584, P < 0.0001). Those aged 18-30 years, 31-40 years, and >40 years accounted for 34.3%, 39.6%, and 26.1% of the infected population, respectively. Although the annual detection rates were different, the trend analysis results showed no increase in HIV-1 prevalence rates among the sampling years (Cochran-Armitage Z = 2.543, P = 0.111). Proportions of individuals infected through homosexual transmission increased over the study period (Cochran-Armitage Z = 5.41, P < 0.001), while the proportion infected through heterosexual declined over time (Cochran-Armitage Z = 3.38, P = 0.001). The rate and characteristics of HIV-1 infection among foreign applicants for residency in Shanghai were identified in the study. The results provide the necessary epidemiological data for monitoring the HIV-1 epidemic among international entry travelers and contribute to establishing relevant policies and regulations for HIV control and prevention. |
2,168 | The diagnosis, classification, and treatment of sarcoma in this era of artificial intelligence and immunotherapy | Soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) represent a group of rare and heterogeneous tumors associated with several challenges, including incorrect or late diagnosis, the lack of clinical expertise, and limited therapeutic options. Digital pathology and radiomics represent transformative technologies that appear promising for improving the accuracy of cancer diagnosis, characterization and monitoring. Herein, we review the potential role of the application of digital pathology and radiomics in managing patients with STS. We have particularly described the main results and the limits of the studies using radiomics to refine diagnosis or predict the outcome of patients with soft-tissue sarcomas. We also discussed the current limitation of implementing radiomics in routine settings. Standard management approaches for STS have not improved since the early 1970s. Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment; nonetheless, immuno-oncology agents have not yet been approved for patients with STS. However, several lines of evidence indicate that immunotherapy may represent an efficient therapeutic strategy for this group of diseases. Thus, we emphasized the remarkable potential of immunotherapy in sarcoma treatment by focusing on recent data regarding the immune landscape of these tumors. We have particularly emphasized the fact that the development of immunotherapy for sarcomas is not an aspect of histology (except for alveolar soft-part sarcoma) but rather that of the tumor microenvironment. Future studies investigating immunotherapy strategies in sarcomas should incorporate at least the presence of tertiary lymphoid structures as a stratification factor in their design, besides including a strong translational program that will allow for a better understanding of the determinants involved in sensitivity and treatment resistance to immune-oncology agents. |
2,169 | Value of SGLT-2 inhibitors in the treatment of chronic kidney disease : Clinical and practical implications | Chronic kidney disease (CKD) drastically increases the risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and its worldwide prevalence is still rising. Effective treatment slows CKD progression, prevents development of end-stage kidney disease and cardiovascular disease thereby prolonging survival of patients. Recently, several large-scale studies with sodium-glucose cotransport‑2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) have demonstrated profound nephroprotective and cardioprotective properties in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with both CKD and heart failure. Recently, the dapagliflozin and prevention of adverse outcomes in chronic kidney disease (DAPA-CKD) trial demonstrated that the selective SGLT-2i dapagliflozin reduced the hazard ratio for a composite renal and cardiovascular death endpoint in patients with CKD with or without type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, dapagliflozin exerted strong nephroprotection in CKD patients with diverse etiologies like IgA nephropathy. Furthermore, other promising CKD trials such as with empagliflozin are underway. Hence, individualized treatment with SGLT2i represents a promising therapeutic option for patients with both diabetic and non-diabetic CKD. Here we summarize the current knowledge on the treatment with SGLT-2i in CKD patients underscoring a strong rationale for SGLT2 inhibition to be incorporated into standard of care for most CKD patients also with non-diabetic kidney disease. Finally, we aim to translate the current evidence into recommendations for the clinical practice in the management of patients with CKD. |
2,170 | Defined Human Leukemic CD34+ Liquid Cultures to Study HDAC/Transcriptional Repressor Complexes | Defined human primary cell model systems with growth dependence on oncogenes are highly requested to investigate tumor pathogenesis and to validate pharmacological inhibitors that specifically target oncoproteins and their executing protein complex partners. In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), transcription factors such as RUNX1 and MLL1, which are important for normal blood cell development, frequently harbor mutations including chromosomal translocations with other coding genes, resulting in tumor-promoting gain-of-function fusion proteins. These oncoproteins completely modify transcriptional programs, thereby inducing malignant cell phenotypes. A common theme of the chimeric gene products is their physical interaction with a variety of chromatin-modifying effector molecules, including histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs). These aberrant multiprotein machineries disturb gene expression and promote malignant cell growth. In this chapter, we briefly summarize the current understanding regarding AML-associated oncogene-driven human CD34+ blood progenitor cell expansion in ex vivo liquid cultures. We provide a step-by-step protocol to establish oncogene-induced human CD34+ blood progenitor cell cultures suitable to analyze the impact of transcriptional repressor/HDAC activity in these human AML cell models. |
2,171 | Plasmonic-Thermoelectric Nanotweezers for Immersive SERS Mapping | Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technology usually uses metallic nanoparticles to enhance Raman scattering signals, thereby significantly adding to molecule-level recognition and detection. However, realization of nanometer-scaled SERS imaging in liquid environments is extremely difficult due to the requirements of both precise scanning of single metallic nanoparticle and high enhancement field and thus has never been achieved before. To overcome this obstacle, we demonstrate an immersive nanometer-scaled SERS mapping technology, based on dynamic scanning of a single metallic nanoparticle with a plasmonic-thermoelectric nanotweezers system. The technology offers greater stability in the plasmonic trapping of gold nanoparticles at relative low power, as well as generating higher electric fields in the gap region. Through its dynamics, two-dimensional nanometer-scaled SERS imaging is achieved successfully. In regard to in liquid environments, this technology provides a mapping method for label-free imaging of ultrathin materials, structures, and biological samples. |
2,172 | Depth Map Super-Resolution Using Guided Deformable Convolution | Depth maps acquired by low-cost sensors have low spatial resolution, which restricts their usefulness in many image processing and computer vision tasks. To increase the spatial resolution of the depth map, most state-of-the-art depth map super-resolution methods based on deep learning extract the features from a high-resolution guidance image and concatenate them with the features from the depth map. However, such simple concatenation can transfer unnecessary textures, known as texture copying artifacts, of the guidance image to the depth map. To address this problem, we propose a novel depth map super-resolution method using guided deformable convolution. Unlike standard deformable convolution, guided deformable convolution obtains 2D kernel offsets of the depth features from the guidance features. Because the guidance features are not explicitly concatenated with the depth features but are used only to determine the kernel offsets for the depth features, the proposed method can significantly alleviate the texture copying artifacts in the resultant depth map. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of qualitative and quantitative evaluations. |
2,173 | Characteristics of a new carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase NtCCD10 derived from Nicotiana tabacum | A new carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase NtCCD10 from tobacco was characterized. There is some difference between NtCCD10 and CCD1 in structure. NtCCD10 can cleave the C5-C6 (C5'-C6') and C9-C10 (C9'-C10') double bonds of carotenoids and has high catalytic activity. Carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases (CCDs) cleave carotenoids to produce a variety of apocarotenoids, which have important biological functions for organisms in nature. There are eleven CCDs subfamilies in the plant kingdom, many of which have been extensively characterized in their functions. However, as a newly classified subfamily, the function of CCD10 has rarely been studied. In this work, the function of an NtCCD10 gene from dicotyledonous Nicotiana tabacum was cloned and characterized, and its phylogeny, molecular structural modeling and protein structure were also systematically analyzed. Like other CCDs, NtCCD10 also possesses a seven bladed β-propeller with Fe2+ cofactor in its center constituting the active site of the enzyme. The Fe2+ is also coordinated bonding with four conserved histidine residues. Meanwhile, NtCCD10 also has many unique features, such as its α1 and α3 helixes are not anti-parallel, a special β-sheet and a longer access tunnel for substrates. When expressed in engineered Escherichia coli (producing phytoene, lycopene, β-carotene, and zeaxanthin) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (producing β-carotene), NtCCD10 could symmetrically cleave phytoene and β-carotene at the C9-C10 and C9'-C10' positions to produce geranylacetone and β-ionone, respectively. In addition, NtCCD10 could also cleave the C5-C6 and C5'-C6' double bonds of lycopene to generate 6-methyl-5-heptene-2-one (MHO). NtCCD10 has higher catalytic activity than PhCCD1 in yeast, which provides a good candidate CCD for biosynthesis of β-ionone and has potential applications in biotechnological industry. This study identified the taxonomic position and catalytic activity of the first NtCCD10 in dicotyledonous plants. This will provide a reference for the discovery and functional identification of CCD10 enzymes in dicotyledons. |
2,174 | An analytical process-based approach to predicting breach width in levees constructed from dilatant soils | An accurate prediction of the breach widening rate after the onset of a levee failure is essential for flood risk assessments. Current state-of-the-art analytical breach growth relations are empirical in nature. The large variety in loading conditions, levee design, and levee construction material, combined with the limited amount of accurate measurements of breach growth, make the development of accurate empirical breach growth relations challenging. In this paper, a process-based breach widening relation is presented for levees constructed of dilatant soils. The process-based relation is derived from the weir flow equation and a process-based erosion equation. The breach widening relation can account for the effects of variations in soil parameters. For those cases for which soil parameters are unknown, a calibrated catch-all-coefficient is provided. The relation is benchmarked against the state-of-the-art empirical breach growth relation used in the Netherlands and validated against data on historical levee failures and experimental data. |
2,175 | Experiment and calculation of deposition velocity of suspended particles in storm drainage | Deposition particles can lead to blockage, odor, and corrosion of pipes, and the deposition process of suspended particles is particularly complicated. In order to quantify the deposition process of suspended particles and mastered the critical conditions for the deposition in storm drainage, the process was simulated experimentally, and the deposition states of suspended particles under the different roughness of pipe wall, particle size, and density were analyzed. Two mathematical models of deposition critical velocity and easy deposition velocity were established. Results showed that with the increase of particle size and density, the gravity of particles increased and deposition was more likely to occur. In the rough pipeline, the kinetic energy consumption of water flow increased, the ability to carry particles was weakened, and the deposition rate would increase accordingly. The higher the flow velocity, the lower the deposition rate. The deposition states of particles in the pipeline could be divided into three types according to the deposition rates: "no deposition," "minor deposition," and "bulk deposition." Verification showed that the difference rates between the calculated values and measured values of the deposition critical velocity ranged from - 3.23 to 2.86%, and the difference rates of the easy deposition velocity were - 4.14-4.72%, showing good consistency. |
2,176 | Synthesis, Processing, and Function of N-Glycans in N-Glycoproteins | Many membrane-resident and secreted proteins, including growth factors and their receptors are N-glycosylated. The initial N-glycan structure is synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) as a branched structure on a lipid anchor (dolicholpyrophosphate) and then co-translationally, "en bloc" transferred and linked via N-acetylglucosamine to asparagine within a specific N-glycosylation acceptor sequence of the nascent recipient protein. In the ER and then the Golgi apparatus, the N-linked glycan structure is modified by hydrolytic removal of sugar residues ("trimming") followed by re-glycosylation with additional sugar residues ("processing") such as galactose, fucose or sialic acid to form complex N-glycoproteins. While the sequence of the reactions leading to biosynthesis, "en bloc" transfer and processing of N-glycans is well investigated, it is still not completely understood how N-glycans affect the biological fate and function of N-glycoproteins. This review will discuss the biology of N-glycoprotein synthesis, processing and function with specific reference to the physiology and pathophysiology of the immune and nervous system, as well as infectious diseases such as Covid-19. |
2,177 | RTHS: A Low-Cost High-Performance Real-Time Hardware Sorter, Using a Multidimensional Sorting Algorithm | This paper proposes a novel hardware-based multi-dimensional sorting algorithm and its respective architecture, called real-time hardware sorter (RTHS), for emerging data intensive processing applications where performance and resource conservation are serious concerns. The basic idea behind RTHS is to reduce the hardware complexity of parallel hardware sorting architectures (PHSAs) through a high-performance scalable matrix-based sorting method. The proposed method can also be used for implementing Min/Max queues or finding the largest/smallest records exclusively in the big data application. Implementing the RTHS design on a Virtex-7 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) reveals that the number of lookup tables (LUTs) of the proposed method has decreased by 66.3% and 87.3% compared to the conventional Bitonic sorting network (CBSN) and the state-of-the-art PHSA, respectively. In addition, the number of required registers for the proposed method has decreased by 94.8% compared to the state-of-the-art PHSA. |
2,178 | Cost-effective color filter array demosaicing using spatial correlation | In this paper, we propose a cost-effective color filter array (CFA) demosaicing method for digital still cameras in which a single CCD or CMOS image sensor is used. Since a CFA is adopted, we must interpolate missing color values in the red, green and blue channels at each pixel location. While most state-of-the-art algorithms invest a great deal of computational effort in the enhancement of the reconstructed image to overcome the color artifacts, we focus on eliminating the color artifacts with low computational complexity. Using spatial correlation of the adjacent pixels, the edge-directional information of the neighbor pixels is used for determining the edge direction of the current pixel. We apply our method to the state-of-the-art algorithms which use edge-directed methods to interpolate the missing color channels. The experiment results show that the proposed method enhances the demosaiced image quality, especially visually, by removing most of the color artifacts. |
2,179 | Performance of AlGaN/GaN High-Electron Mobility Transistors With AlSiN Passivation | The performance of AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors that were passivated with AlSiN and SiN and fabricated side by side has been studied. It is found that the AlSiN passivation produced state-of-the-art devices, improving both small- and large-signal performance over the SiN passivation, particularly at higher drain bias. With large-signal excitation at 10 GHz, the effects of second-harmonic termination on the load pull were also studied. Significant improvements in the power-added efficiency were demonstrated. |
2,180 | State-of-the-Art Review of Technologies for Pipe Structural Health Monitoring | Advances in electronics, sensor technology, information science, electrical and computer engineering give rise to emerging technologies, some of which could be applied to the inspection, monitoring, and condition assessment of buried water mains. This paper presents a state of the review of sensor technologies used for monitoring indicators pointing to pipe structural deterioration. The potential for multi-sensor system and sensor data fusion for condition-based maintenance are also discussed. |
2,181 | N-Heterocyclic Carbene Catalyzed Synthesis of δ-Sultones via α,β-Unsaturated Sulfonyl Azolium Intermediates | A limited array of reactive intermediates have enabled a wealth of discoveries in N-heterocyclic carbene organocatalysis. In this study, the viability of α,β-unsaturated sulfonyl azoliums as double electrophiles in new reactions is examined. Specifically, the (3+3) annulation of such species with the trimethylsilyl enol ethers of various 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds has been developed. This reaction provides access to a range of novel unsaturated δ-sultones (18 examples) in good yields (40-88 %) under mild reaction conditions. Mechanistic studies and the development of an enantioselective variant (55 % yield, 73:27 e.r.) support the intermediacy of an α,β-unsaturated sulfonyl azolium species. |
2,182 | Pearson syndrome: a multisystem mitochondrial disease with bone marrow failure | Pearson syndrome (PS) is a rare fatal mitochondrial disorder caused by single large-scale mitochondrial DNA deletions (SLSMDs). Most patients present with anemia in infancy. Bone marrow cytology with vacuolization in erythroid and myeloid precursors and ring-sideroblasts guides to the correct diagnosis, which is established by detection of SLSMDs. Non hematological symptoms suggesting a mitochondrial disease are often lacking at initial presentation, thus PS is an important differential diagnosis in isolated hypogenerative anemia in infancy. Spontaneous resolution of anemia occurs in two-third of patients at the age of 1-3 years, while multisystem non-hematological complications such as failure to thrive, muscle hypotonia, exocrine pancreas insufficiency, renal tubulopathy and cardiac dysfunction develop during the clinical course. Some patients with PS experience a phenotypical change to Kearns-Sayre syndrome. In the absence of curative therapy, the prognosis of patients with PS is dismal. Most patients die of acute lactic acidosis and multi-organ failure in early childhood. There is a great need for the development of novel therapies to alter the natural history of patients with PS. |
2,183 | User credit-based collaborative filtering | Memory-based collaborative filtering is the state-of-the-art method in recommender systems and has proven to be successful in various applications. In this paper we develop novel memory-based methods that incorporate the level of a user credit instead of using similarity between users. The user credit is the degree of one's rating reliability that measures how adherently the user rates items as others do. Preliminary simulation results show that the proposed methods outperform the conventional memory-based ones. The methods are effective in a cold-starting problem. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
2,184 | Rhetorics-based multi-document summarization | In this paper, a new multi-document summarization framework which combines rhetorical roles and corpus-based semantic analysis is proposed. The approach is able to capture the semantic and rhetorical relationships between sentences so as to combine them to produce coherent summaries. Experiments were conducted on datasets extracted from web-based news using standard evaluation methods. Results show the promise of our proposed model as compared to state-of-the-art approaches. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
2,185 | FAST Pre-Filtering-Based Real Time Road Sign Detection for Low-Cost Vehicle Localization | In order to overcome the limitations of GNSS/INS and to keep the cost affordable for mass-produced vehicles, a precise localization system fusing the estimated vehicle positions from low-cost GNSS/INS and low-cost perception sensors is being developed. For vehicle position estimation, a perception sensor detects a road facility and uses it as a landmark. For this localization system, this paper proposes a method to detect a road sign as a landmark using a monocular camera whose cost is relatively low compared to other perception sensors. Since the inside pattern and aspect ratio of a road sign are various, the proposed method is based on the part-based approach that detects corners and combines them to detect a road sign. While the recall, precision, and processing time of the state of the art detector based on a convolutional neural network are 99.63%, 98.16%, and 4802 ms respectively, the recall, precision, and processing time of the proposed method are 97.48%, 98.78%, and 66.7 ms, respectively. The detection performance of the proposed method is as good as that of the state of the art detector and its processing time is drastically reduced to be applicable for an embedded system. |
2,186 | Effects of liming on oxic and anoxic N2O and CO2 production in different horizons of boreal acid sulfate soil and non-acid soil under controlled conditions | In acid sulfate (AS) soils, organic rich topsoil and subsoil horizons with highly variable acidity and moisture conditions and interconnected reactions of sulfur and nitrogen make them potential sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Subsoil liming can reduce the acidification of sulfidic subsoils in the field. However, the mitigation of GHG production in AS subsoils by liming, and the mechanisms involved, are still poorly known. We limed samples from different horizons of AS and non-AS soils to study the effects of liming on the N2O and CO2 production during a 56-day oxic and subsequent 72-h anoxic incubation. Liming to pH ≥ 7 decreased oxic N2O production by 97-98 % in the Ap1 horizon, 38-50 % in the Bg1 horizon, and 34-36 % in the BC horizon, but increased it by 136-208 % in the C horizon, respectively. Liming decreased anoxic N2O production by 86-94 % and 78-91 % in Ap1 and Bg1 horizons, but increased it by 100-500 % and 50-162 % in BC and C horizons, respectively. Liming decreased N2O/(N2O + N2) in anoxic denitrification in most horizons of both AS and non-AS soils. Liming significantly increased the cumulative oxic and anoxic CO2 production in AS soil, but less so in non-AS soil due to the initial high soil pH. Higher carbon and nitrogen contents in AS soil compared to non-AS soil agreed with the respectively higher cumulative oxic N2O production in all horizons, and the higher CO2 production in the subsoil horizons of all lime treatments. Overall, liming reduced the proportion of N2O in the GHGs produced in most soil horizons under oxic and anoxic conditions but reduced the total GHG production (as CO2 equivalents) only in the Ap1 horizon of both soils. The results suggest that liming of subsoils may not always effectively mitigate GHG emissions due to concurrently increased CO2 production and denitrification. |
2,187 | Nonrigid Registration of Volumetric Images Using Ranked Order Statistics | Nonrigid image registration techniques using intensity based similarity measures are widely used in medical imaging applications. Due to high computational complexities of these techniques, particularly for volumetric images, finding appropriate registration methods to both reduce the computation burden and increase the registration accuracy has become an intensive area of research. In this paper, we propose a fast and accurate nonrigid registration method for intra-modality volumetric images. Our approach exploits the information provided by an order statistics based segmentation method, to find the important regions for registration and use an appropriate sampling scheme to target those areas and reduce the registration computation time. A unique advantage of the proposed method is its ability to identify the point of diminishing returns and stop the registration process. Our experiments on registration of end-inhale to end-exhale lung CT scan pairs, with expert annotated landmarks, show that the new method is both faster and more accurate than the state of the art sampling based techniques, particularly for registration of images with large deformations. |
2,188 | Effective dynamic dispatching rule and constructive heuristic for solving single-machine scheduling problems with a common due window | This study addresses the single-machine scheduling problem with a common due window (CDW) that has a constant size and position. The objective is to minimise the total weighted earliness-tardiness penalties for jobs completed out of the CDW. To determine a schedule as close to optimum as possible, this study develops a dynamic dispatching rule and an effective constructive heuristic. The better performance of the proposed heuristic is demonstrated by comparing the results of it with those of a state-of-the-art greedy heuristic on a well-known benchmark problem set. In addition, we incorporate the constructive heuristic into a best-so-far meta-heuristic to examine the benefit of the proposed heuristic. The results show that the best known solutions in 144 out of the 250 benchmark instances are improved. |
2,189 | Cyclododecane as a Contrast Improving Substance for the Terahertz Imaging of Artworks | This paper presents measurements of the terahertz properties of the art conservation substance cyclododecane, demonstrating that it can act as a contrast improving agent in the terahertz imaging of concealed wall paintings. Results are presented which show that the terahertz optical properties of cyclododecane are dependent on the rate at which it has cooled from the melt. Based on the results, a theoretical explanation of the contrast enhancement mechanism is postulated. The findings presented here may lead to the development of novel coating materials that could improve the quality of terahertz images in a variety of fields and not just in art conservation. |
2,190 | Optical coherence tomography for longitudinal monitoring of vasculature in scars treated with laser fractionation | This study presents the first in vivo longitudinal assessment of scar vasculature in ablative fractional laser treatment using optical coherence tomography (OCT). A method based on OCT speckle decorrelation was developed to visualize and quantify the scar vasculature over the treatment period. Through reliable co-location of the imaging field of view across multiple imaging sessions, and compensation for motion artifact, the study was able to track the same scar tissue over a period of several months, and quantify changes in the vasculature area density. The results show incidences of occlusion of individual vessels 3 days after the first treatment. The subsequent responses ˜20 weeks after the initial treatment show differences between immature and mature scars. Image analysis showed a distinct decrease (25 ± 13%, mean ± standard deviation) and increase (19 ± 5%) of vasculature area density for the immature and mature scars, respectively. This study establishes the feasibility of OCT imaging for quantitative longitudinal monitoring of vasculature in scar treatment. En face optical coherence tomography vasculature images pre-treatment (top) and ˜20 weeks after the first laser treatment (bottom) of a mature burn scar. Arrows mark the same vessel pattern. |
2,191 | A microbiome abundant environment remodels the intestinal microbiota and improves resistance to obesity induced by chlorpyrifos in mice | There is a growing consensus that the appropriate microbiome abundant environment actuates microbiota changes to influence human health. Whether living environment reacts on the threat of contaminants and the underlying mechanism remain largely unknown. Therefore, we constructed microbiome abundant environment models, focusing on their regulatory effects on the obesity induced by the exogenous chemical chlorpyrifos (CPF) and the related mechanisms. The results uncovered that the constructed farm and woodland microbiome abundant environment could protect mice against CPF-induced obesity effectively. The microbiome abundant environment regulated CPF-induced microbiota imbalance, characterized by an increase in Lactobacillus abundance. These altered microbiotas modified the intestinal immune system by increasing the expression of Foxp3 and IL-10, and mitigated intestinal barrier injury by upregulating the expression of IL-22 and intestinal tight junction proteins. Fecal microbiota transplantation could receive similar phenotypes on alleviating CPF-induced obesity development. Our results demonstrate that the microbiome abundant environment attenuates exogenous chemical-induced health risks by remodeling the intestinal microbiota, improving the intestinal ecosystem, and preventing intestinal epithelial leakage. |
2,192 | Ecotoxicological assessment of estuarine surface waters receiving treated and untreated sanitary wastewater | Pollution from sewage discharge is one of the most critical environmental problems worldwide, e.g., in Brazil, where basic sanitation is still scarce. As pollution can affect biomes, especially estuaries where intensive ecological and human activities occur, has caused widespread concern. This work aimed to study the water quality of the Jundiaí/Potengi Estuary (JPE) in an area close to the discharge of treated and untreated wastewater for 18 months. Physicochemical and microbiological parameters were measured and integrated using the Water Quality Index of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. Ecotoxicological tests were performed with Brazilian endemic organisms to assess the impact of water pollution on biota. A generalized linear regression model was applied to understand the effects of water quality on ecotoxicological responses. Concentrations of metals, dissolved oxygen, total ammonia nitrogen, nitrate, and thermotolerant coliforms did not comply with Brazilian environmental regulations. A significant increase in the mortality rate of Mysidopsis juniae and Nitocra sp. and a significant decrease in the reproductive rate of Nitocra sp. indicated the most affected areas related to the discharge of treated and untreated wastewater. Only 10% of the samples from sites without direct wastewater impact showed a toxic response in at least one organism. Both water quality and sampling sites were statistical predictors of ecotoxicological response, describing not only the pollutant load but also the type of effluent. This study demonstrated the degradation of the environmental quality of the JPE, particularly due to the discharge of sanitary wastewater, and highlights the importance of protection and remediation measures to preserve this protected area. |
2,193 | Neural Network Based Kalman Filters for the Spatio-Temporal Interpolation of Satellite-Derived Sea Surface Temperature | The forecasting and reconstruction of oceanic dynamics is a crucial challenge. While model driven strategies are still the state-of-the-art approaches in the reconstruction of spatio-temporal dynamics. The ever increasing availability of data collections in oceanography raised the relevance of data-driven approaches as computationally efficient representations of spatio-temporal fields reconstruction. This tools proved to outperform classical state-of-the-art interpolation techniques such as optimal interpolation and DINEOF in the retrievement of fine scale structures while still been computationally efficient comparing to model based data assimilation schemes. However, coupling this data-driven priors to classical filtering schemes limits their potential representativity. From this point of view, the recent advances in machine learning and especially neural networks and deep learning can provide a new infrastructure for dynamical modeling and interpolation within a data-driven framework. In this work we adress this challenge and develop a novel Neural-Network-based (NN-based) Kalman filter for spatio-temporal interpolation of sea surface dynamics. Based on a data-driven probabilistic representation of spatio-temporal fields, our approach can be regarded as an alternative to classical filtering schemes such as the ensemble Kalman filters (EnKF) in data assimilation. Overall, the key features of the proposed approach are two-fold: (i) we propose a novel architecture for the stochastic representation of two dimensional (2D) geophysical dynamics based on a neural networks, (ii) we derive the associated parametric Kalman-like filtering scheme for a computationally-efficient spatio-temporal interpolation of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) fields. We illustrate the relevance of our contribution for an OSSE (Observing System Simulation Experiment) in a case-study region off South Africa. Our numerical experiments report significant improvements in terms of reconstruction performance compared with operational and state-of-the-art schemes (e.g., optimal interpolation, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) based interpolation and analog data assimilation). |
2,194 | Butterfly network: a convolutional neural network with a new architecture for multi-scale semantic segmentation of pedestrians | The detection of multi-scale pedestrians is one of the challenging tasks in pedestrian detection applications. Moreover, the task of small-scale pedestrian detection, i.e., accurate localization of pedestrians as low-scale target objects, can help solve the issue of occluded pedestrian detection as well. In this paper, we present a fully convolutional neural network with a new architecture and an innovative, fully detailed supervision for semantic segmentation of pedestrians. The proposed network has been named butterfly network (BF-Net) because of its architecture analogous to a butterfly. The proposed BF-Net preserves the ability of simplicity so that it can process static images with a real-time image processing rate. The sub-path blocks embedded in the architecture of the proposed BF-Net provides a higher accuracy for detecting multi-scale objective targets including the small ones. The other advantage of the proposed architecture is replacing common batch normalization with conditional one. In conclusion, the experimental results of the proposed method demonstrate that the proposed network outperform the other state-of-the-art networks such as U-Net + + , U-Net3 + , Mask-RCNN, and Deeplabv3 + for the semantic segmentation of the pedestrians. |
2,195 | Generalizing Deep Learning for Medical Image Segmentation to Unseen Domains via Deep Stacked Transformation | Recent advances in deep learning for medical image segmentation demonstrate expert-level accuracy. However, application of these models in clinically realistic environments can result in poor generalization and decreased accuracy, mainly due to the domain shift across different hospitals, scanner vendors, imaging protocols, and patient populations etc. Common transfer learning and domain adaptation techniques are proposed to address this bottleneck. However, these solutions require data (and annotations) from the target domain to retrain the model, and is therefore restrictive in practice for widespread model deployment. Ideally, we wish to have a trained (locked) model that can work uniformly well across unseen domains without further training. In this paper, we propose a deep stacked transformation approach for domain generalization. Specifically, a series of n stacked transformations are applied to each image during network training. The underlying assumption is that the "expected" domain shift for a specific medical imaging modality could be simulated by applying extensive data augmentation on a single source domain, and consequently, a deep model trained on the augmented "big" data (BigAug) could generalize well on unseen domains. We exploit four surprisingly effective, but previously understudied, image-based characteristics for data augmentation to overcome the domain generalization problem. We train and evaluate the BigAug model (with n = 9 transformations) on three different 3D segmentation tasks (prostate gland, left atrial, left ventricle) covering two medical imaging modalities (MRI and ultrasound) involving eight publicly available challenge datasets. The results show that when training on relatively small dataset (n = 10 similar to 32 volumes, depending on the size of the avail- able datasets) from a single source domain: (i) BigAug models degrade an average of 11% (Dice score change)from source to unseen domain, substantially better than conventional augmentation (degrading 39%) and CycleGAN-based domain adaptation method (degrading 25%), (ii) BigAug is better than "shallower" stacked transforms (i.e. those with fewer transforms) on unseen domains and demonstrates modest improvement to conventional augmentation on the source domain, (iii) after training with BigAug on one source domain, performance on an unseen domain is similar to training a model from scratch on that domain when using the same number of training samples. When training on large datasets (n = 465 volumes) with BigAug, (iv) application to unseen domains reaches the performance of state-ofthe-art fully supervised models that are trained and tested on their source domains. These findings establish a strong benchmark for the study of domain generalization in medical imaging, and can be generalized to the design of highly robust deep segmentation models for clinical deployment. |
2,196 | Robust Central Difference Kalman Filter With Mixture Correntropy: A Case Study for Integrated Navigation | In this paper, a robust central difference Kalman filter is proposed to address the process uncertainty and non-Gaussian measurement noise induced by the vehicle's severe maneuver and abnormal measurements in MEMS-SINS/GNSS integrated navigation system. Compared with the state-of-the-art noise distribution based robust filter, in the proposed filter, the process uncertainty and measurement uncertainty are simultaneously suppressed based on a new constructed cost function, which is independent of noise distribution and more insensitive to the non-Gaussian noise. To be specific, the statistical linearization approach is first presented to derive a linear-like regression model. Then, by resorting to the innovation orthogonal theory and Cholesky triangular decomposition, the fading factor of cost function is adaptively and robustly determined in the process of iteration, where the filtering performance and the stability of the algorithm under the condition of process uncertainty are extremely enhanced. Furthermore, the correntropy using the mixture of two Gaussian functions as the kernel function is incorporated into the cost function to prevent the non-Gaussian measurement noise. Our extensive simulation and car-mounted experiment demonstrate that the proposed filter can achieve higher estimation accuracy and better robustness as compared with the related state-of-the-art methods. |
2,197 | Disc-Aware Ensemble Network for Glaucoma Screening From Fundus Image | Glaucoma is a chronic eye disease that leads to irreversible vision loss. Most of the existing automatic screening methods first segment the main structure and subsequently calculate the clinical measurement for the detection and screening of glaucoma. However, these measurement-based methods rely heavily on the segmentation accuracy and ignore various visual features. In this paper, we introduce a deep learning technique to gain additional image-relevant information and screen glaucoma from the fundus image directly. Specifically, a novel discaware ensemble network for automatic glaucoma screening is proposed, which integrates the deep hierarchical context of the global fundus image and the local optic disc region. Four deep streams on different levels and modules are, respectively, considered as global image stream, segmentation-guided network, local disc region stream, and disc polar transformation stream. Finally, the output probabilities of different streams are fused as the final screening result. The experiments on two glaucoma data sets (SCES and new SINDI data sets) show that our method outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms. |
2,198 | Comparative evaluation of the antifungal efficacy of sodium hypochlorite, chlorhexidine, and silver nanoparticles against Candida albicans | Candida albicans is a microorganism that causes root canal infections. However, it cannot be eliminated with conventional irrigation solutions. Recently, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have become popular for their superior antimicrobial effects. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antifungal effect of AgNPs to C. albicans comparing with 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and 2% chlorhexidine (CHX). Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical reduction method. Minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration of AgNPs against C. albicans strain were determined according to microdilution method reported by Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute. C. albicans biofilm layer was formed on the dentin blocks for 10 days. The biofilm structure was observed by scanning electron microscopy. Statistical analysis was performed with one way analysis of variance analysis and group comparisons were performed with Tukey test. AgNPs showed the highest antifungal effect among the groups. 5.25% NaOCl showed the lowest antifungal effect among the groups. While the 2% CHX solution had a statistically lower antifungal effect than AgNPs, it was found to have a higher effect than NaOCl (p < .016). Nanoparticles present a wide research field as an alternative irrigation solution in root canal treatment. The antifungal effect of AgNPs against C. albicans was confirmed in this study. Further in vivo studies should evaluate the conditions of use and long-term prognosis of AgNPs. |
2,199 | Precise endoballoon positioning for High-Risk sternal re-entry in an ascending aortic pseudoaneurysm with patent coronary grafts | Redo cardiac surgery can present a unique set of challenges even to the experienced surgeon. Although outcomes have steadily improved in the modern era; if an intraoperative adverse event occurs, there is a 5% incidence of mortality and 19% incidence of myocardial infarction, stroke or death. Overall, the modern incidence of mortality at reoperation varies but be segregated into low and higher risk cohorts depending on the planning computed tomography imaging and risk to substernal structures on re-entry. Patients with ascending aortic or root pseudoaneurysms represent a particularly difficult subset of high-risk patients requiring reoperative cardiac surgery due to the danger of exsanguination and air embolization. The gold standard for management of such cases remains the use of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) to achieve safe re-entry in such cases however this can result in unpredictable DHCA duration depending on the degree of pericardial adhesions. We report a case of aortic pseudoaneurysm in a patient with patent coronary grafts managed using an endoballoon precisely positioned relative to the proximal anastomoses resulting in a safe surgical re-entry and shorter DHCA time. |
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