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3,500 | Bullous lichen sclerosus-generalized morphea overlap syndrome improved by tofacitinib | We here report a case of a middle-aged man with an unusual case of bullous lichen sclerosus complicated with generalized morphea. He showed initial recurrent flaccid bullae, followed by ivory-white sclerotic plaques and extensive skin sclerosis, with additional walking disorder caused by knee-joint contracture, and ulcers on the lower extremities and back. The patient had no visceral involvement. After oral hydroxychloroquine and oral corticosteroids failed, the patient was given tofacitinib, which resolved his ulcers after 4 weeks and ameliorated his knee-joint contracture and skin sclerosis within 4 months. Owing to the occurrence of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, he stopped using tofacitinib, and the ulcer and walking disorder reappeared. This is rare case of bullous lichen sclerosus-generalized morphea overlap syndrome. The patient recovered well after treatment with tofacitinib. His symptoms recurred after discontinuation of tofacitinib. |
3,501 | Predictive Factors of HIV-1 Drug Resistance and Its Distribution among Female Sex Workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) | The predictive factors of HIV-1 drug resistance and its distribution are poorly documented in female sex workers (FSWs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). However, the identification of predictive factors can lead to the development of improved and effective antiretroviral therapy (ART). The objective of the current study was to determine the predictive factors of HIV-1 drug resistance and its distribution based on FSWs in the studied regions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). HIV-positive FSWs who were diagnosed as part of the DRC Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance Survey (IBBS) were included in this study. A total of 325 FSWs participated. The HIV-1 viral load (VL) was measured according to the Abbott m2000sp and m2000rt protocols. The homogeneity chi-square test was conducted to determine the homogeneity of HIV-1 drug resistance distribution. Using a significance level of 0.05, multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with HIV-1 drug resistance to ART. HIV drug resistance mutation (HIVDRM) distribution was homogeneous in the three study regions (p = 0.554) but differed based on the HIV-1 VLs of the FSWs. FSWs with high HIV-1 VLs harbored more HIVDRMs (p = 0.028) of predominantly pure HIV-1 strains compared with those that had low HIV-1 VLs. Sexually transmitted infection (STI) history (aOR [95%CI] = 8.51 [1.62, 44.74]), high HIV-1 VLs (aOR [95%CI] = 5.39 [1.09, 26.74]), and HIV-1-syphilis coinfection (aOR [95%CI] = 9.71 [1.84, 51.27]) were associated with HIV drug resistance among FSWs in the DRC. A history of STIs (e.g., abnormal fluid) in the 12 months prior to the survey, a high HIV-1 VL, and HIV-1-syphilis coinfection were associated with HIV-1 drug resistance among FSWs in the DRC. Efforts should be made to systematically test for other infections which increase the HIV-1 VL, in the case of HIV-1 coinfection, in order to maintain ART effectiveness across the DRC. |
3,502 | CB-Art Interventions Implemented with Mental Health Professionals Working in a Shared War Reality: Transforming Negative Images and Enhancing Coping Resources | Research on mental health professionals (MHPs) exposed to a shared war reality indicates that they are subject to emotional distress, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, and vicarious trauma. This article focuses on a CB-ART (cognitive behavioral and art-based) intervention implemented during the 2014 Gaza conflict with 51 MHPs who shared war-related experiences with their clients. The intervention included drawing pictures related to three topics: (1) war-related stressors, (2) coping resources, and (3) integration of the stressful image and the resources drawing. The major aims of the study were (1) to examine whether significant changes occurred in MHP distress levels after the intervention; (2) to explore the narratives of the three drawing and their compositional characteristics; and (3) to determine which of selected formats of the integrated drawing and compositional transformations of the stressful image are associated with greater distress reduction. Results indicate that MHP distress levels significantly decreased after the intervention. This stress-reducing effect was also reflected in differences between the compositional elements of the 'stress drawing' and the 'integrated drawing,' which includes elements of resources. Reduced distress accompanied compositional transformations of the stressful image. MHPs can further use the easily implemented intervention described here as a coping tool in other stressful situations. |
3,503 | SCRATCH: A Scalable Discrete Matrix Factorization Hashing Framework for Cross-Modal Retrieval | In this paper, we present a novel supervised cross-modal hashing framework, namely Scalable disCRete mATrix faCtorization Hashing (SCRATCH). First, it utilizes collective matrix factorization on original features together with label semantic embedding, to learn the latent representations in a shared latent space. Thereafter, it generates binary hash codes based on the latent representations. During optimization, it avoids using a large n x n similarity matrix and generates hash codes discretely. Besides, based on different objective functions, learning strategy, and features, we further present three models in this framework, i.e., SCRATCH-o, SCRATCH-t, and SCRATCH-d. The first one is a one-step method, learning the hash functions and the binary codes in the same optimization problem. The second is a two-step method, which first generates the binary codes and then learns the hash functions based on the learned hash codes. The third one is a deep version of SCRATCH-t, which utilizes deep neural networks as hash functions. The extensive experiments on two widely used benchmark datasets demonstrate that SCRATCH-o and SCRATCH-t outperform some state-of-the-art shallow hashing methods for cross-modal retrieval. The SCRATCH-d also outperforms some state-of-the-art deep hashing models. |
3,504 | artdaq: An Event-Building, Filtering, and Processing Framework | Several current and proposed experiments at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA, have novel data acquisition needs. These include 1) continuous digitization, using commercial high-speed digitizers, of signals from the detectors, 2) the transfer of all of the digitized waveform data to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, 3) the filtering or compression of the waveform data, or both, and 4) the writing of the resultant data to disk for later, more complete, analysis. To address these needs, members of the Accelerator and Detector Simulation and Support Department within the Scientific Computing Division at Fermilab are using parallel processing technologies in the development of artdaq, a generic data acquisition toolkit. The artdaq toolkit uses Message Passing Interface (MPI) and art, an established event-processing framework shared by new experiments at Fermilab. In an artdaq program, the digitized data are transferred into computing nodes using commodity Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) cards, and event fragments are transferred between distributed processes using MPI and assembled into complete events. These events are then processed by a configurable selection of user-specified algorithms, commonly including filtering and compression algorithms, using the art event-processing framework. This paper describes the architecture and implementation of the first phase of the artdaq toolkit and shows early performance results with configurations that match upcoming experiments both at Fermilab and elsewhere. |
3,505 | Differential Gene Expression in Liver, Gill, and Olfactory Rosettes of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) After Acclimation to Salinity | Most Pacific salmonids undergo smoltification and transition from freshwater to saltwater, making various adjustments in metabolism, catabolism, osmotic, and ion regulation. The molecular mechanisms underlying this transition are largely unknown. In the present study, we acclimated coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) to four different salinities and assessed gene expression through microarray analysis of gills, liver, and olfactory rosettes. Gills are involved in osmotic regulation, liver plays a role in energetics, and olfactory rosettes are involved in behavior. Between all salinity treatments, liver had the highest number of differentially expressed genes at 1616, gills had 1074, and olfactory rosettes had 924, using a 1.5-fold cutoff and a false discovery rate of 0.5. Higher responsiveness of liver to metabolic changes after salinity acclimation to provide energy for other osmoregulatory tissues such as the gills may explain the differences in number of differentially expressed genes. Differentially expressed genes were tissue- and salinity-dependent. There were no known genes differentially expressed that were common to all salinity treatments and all tissues. Gene ontology term analysis revealed biological processes, molecular functions, and cellular components that were significantly affected by salinity, a majority of which were tissue-dependent. For liver, oxygen binding and transport terms were highlighted. For gills, muscle, and cytoskeleton-related terms predominated and for olfactory rosettes, immune response-related genes were accentuated. Interaction networks were examined in combination with GO terms and determined similarities between tissues for potential osmosensors, signal transduction cascades, and transcription factors. |
3,506 | High hydrostatic pressure-assisted micellar media as an efficient and green strategy to extract artemisinin from Artemisia annua L. | With increasingly serious environmental pollution, the development of sustainable green technologies has attracted global attention. In the present study, we propose an efficient and eco-friendly strategy to obtain active ingredients from plant tissues. High hydrostatic pressure-assisted eco-friendly micellar media (alkyl polyglucoside, APG1214) was used to extract artemisinin (ART) from Artemisia annua L. leaves. ART accumulated in glandular secretory trichomes (GTs) on the surface of A. annua leaves. When the pressure increased, the GTs were crushed, broken, or deformed, resulting in full contact between ART and APG1214. At this time, the hydrogen bonding force between ART and APG1214 led to the formation of ART-APG1214 supramolecules, which were folded and self-assembled into micelles. The extraction process reached equilibrium under continuous pressure and was then carried out by pressure from the GTs during unloading. It is worth noting that the entire process occurred by fast washing and slow diffusion simultaneously, with fast washing as the main step. This method not only showed high efficiency and low energy consumption but also the potential recycling of APG1214, thereby providing an efficient, eco-friendly, safe, and cost-saving strategy for the industrial production of natural products. |
3,507 | A biodegradable magnesium surgical staple for colonic anastomosis: In vitro and in vivo evaluation | Staplers have been widely used in the clinical treatment of gastrointestinal reconstruction. However, the current titanium (Ti) staple will remain in the human body permanently, resulting in some adverse effects. In this study, we developed a type of biodegradable staple for colonic anastomosis using 0.3 mm diameter magnesium (Mg) alloy wires. The wire surface was modified by micro-arc oxidation treatment (MAO) and then coated with poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) to achieve a moderate degradation rate matching the tissue healing process. The results of tensile tests on isolated porcine colon tissue anastomosed by Mg and Ti staples showed that the anastomotic property of Mg staples was almost equal to that of Ti staples. The in vitro degradation tests indicated the dual-layer coating effectively enhanced the corrosion resistance and maintained the tensile force of the coated staple stable after 14-day immersion in the simulated colonic fluid (SCF). Furthermore, 24 beagle dogs were employed to conduct a comparison experiment using Mg-based and clinical Ti staples for 90-day implantation by ent-to-side anastomosis of the colon. The integrated structure of Mg-based staples was observed after 7 days and completely degraded after 90 days. All animals did not have anastomotic leakage and stenosis, and 12 dogs with Mg-based staples fully recovered after 90 days without differences in visceral ion levels and other side effects. The favorable performance makes this Mg-based anastomotic staple an ideal candidate for colon reconstruction. |
3,508 | The effect of electrolyte additives on both LaPO4-coated Li(Ni0.4Mn0.4Co0.2)O-2 and uncoated Li(Ni0.4Mn0.4Co0.2)O-2 in Li-ion pouch cells | The effectiveness of some selected electrolyte additive blends were systematically studied in Li [Ni0.4Mn0.4Co0.2]O-2/graphite and 3 wt% LaPO4-coated Li[Ni0.4Mn0.4Co0.2]O-2/graphite pouch cells using ex situ gas measurements, ultra high precision coulometry, automated storage experiments, long-term cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. For cells tested to an upper cutoff potential of 4.4 V the LaPO4-coating provided no benefit when state-of-the-art electrolyte additives were used. For cells tested to 4.5 V, the LaPO4 coating appeared to limit electrolyte oxidation slightly and resulted in better capacity retention compared to uncoated cells for cells with state-of-the-art electrolyte additives. However, even for cells tested to 4.5 V, the benefits of the additives far outweighed the benefits of the coating. This suggests literature papers that compare the impact of coatings on positive electrode materials in cells that contain electrolytes without electrolyte additives have limited value. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
3,509 | Single-dose pharmacokinetics of vancomycin in porcine cancellous and cortical bone determined by microdialysis | High treatment failure rates and the need for prolonged antimicrobial therapy for osteomyelitis and implant-associated infections suggest that antimicrobial bone penetration may be incomplete. Assessment of the bone pharmacokinetics of antimicrobials is challenged by a lack of validated methods. In this study, 1000 mg of vancomycin was administered as a single dose over 100 min to eight female pigs. Plasma, subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT) and bone pharmacokinetics were investigated over 12 h. Microdialysis was applied for collection of samples in bone and SCAT. The vancomycin concentration in microdialysates was determined using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography, whilst the free plasma concentration was determined using Cobas c501. The mean (95% CI) area under the concentration-time curve (AUC(0-last); minμg/mL) was 9375 (7445-11304), 9304 (7374-11233), 5998 (3955-8040) and 3451 (1522-5381) for plasma, SCAT, and cancellous and cortical bone, respectively (ANOVA P-value < 0.001). Both cortical and cancellous bone AUC0-last were lower than that of free plasma (P < 0.01). Peak drug concentrations (C(max)) in cortical and cancellous bone were also significantly lower than that of free plasma (P < 0.001). Moreover, both AUC(0-last) and C(max) were significantly lower in cortical bone than in cancellous bone (P < 0.025). Bone penetration of vancomycin was found to be incomplete and delayed. Significant differences in pharmacokinetics between cancellous and cortical bone suggest that bone may not be considered as one compartment. Future studies should focus on validating the applicability of microdialysis for assessment of antimicrobial bone pharmacokinetics. |
3,510 | Synergistic Degradation of Maize Straw Lignin by Manganese Peroxidase from Irpex lacteus | Lignocellulose in maize straw includes cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, and the degradation of lignocellulose is a complex process in which multiple enzymes are jointly involved. In exploring the co-degradation of a certain substrate by multiple enzymes, different enzymes are combined freely for the achievement of the effective synergism. Additionally, some organic acids and small molecule aromatic compounds can also increase the enzymatic activity of lignin enzymes and improve the degradation rate of lignin. In this study, manganese peroxidase (MnP) from Irpex lacteus (I. lacteus) was heterologously expressed in food-grade Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. pombe). The multiple enzymes co-fermentation conditions were initially screened by orthogonal tests: 0.5% CaCl2, 1% 10,000 U/g Laccase (Lac), 0.3% MnSO4, and 0.4% glucose oxidase (GOD). It was showed that the lignin degradation rate could reach 65.85% after 3 days of synergistic degradation with the addition of 0.02% Tween-80, 0.5 mM oxalic acid. This indicates that oxalic acid has a promoting effect on the activity of MnP, and the promoting effect is more significant when Tween-80 is complexed with oxalic acid. |
3,511 | Early-life adversity programs emotional functions and the neuroendocrine stress system: the contribution of nutrition, metabolic hormones and epigenetic mechanisms | Clinical and pre-clinical studies have shown that early-life adversities, such as abuse or neglect, can increase the vulnerability to develop psychopathologies and cognitive decline later in life. Remarkably, the lasting consequences of stress during this sensitive period on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and emotional function closely resemble the long-term effects of early malnutrition and suggest a possible common pathway mediating these effects. During early-life, brain development is affected by both exogenous factors, like nutrition and maternal care as well as by endogenous modulators including stress hormones. These elements, while mostly considered for their independent actions, clearly do not act alone but rather in a synergistic manner. In order to better understand how the programming by early-life stress takes place, it is important to gain further insight into the exact interplay of these key elements, the possible common pathways as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms that mediate their effects. We here review evidence that exposure to both early-life stress and early-life under-/malnutrition similarly lead to life-long alterations on the neuroendocrine stress system and modify emotional functions. We further discuss how the different key elements of the early-life environment interact and affect one another and next suggest a possible role for the early-life adversity induced alterations in metabolic hormones and nutrient availability in shaping later stress responses and emotional function throughout life, possibly via epigenetic mechanisms. Such knowledge will help to develop intervention strategies, which gives the advantage of viewing the synergistic action of a more complete set of changes induced by early-life adversity. |
3,512 | Investigating the allosteric response of the PICK1 PDZ domain to different ligands with all-atom simulations | The PDZ family is comprised of small modular domains that play critical roles in the allosteric modulation of many cellular signaling processes by binding to the C-terminal tail of different proteins. As dominant modular proteins that interact with a diverse set of peptides, it is of particular interest to explore how different binding partners induce different allosteric effects on the same PDZ domain. Because the PICK1 PDZ domain can bind different types of ligands, it is an ideal test case to answer this question and explore the network of interactions that give rise to dynamic allostery. Here, we use all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to explore dynamic allostery in the PICK1 PDZ domain by modeling two PICK1 PDZ systems: PICK1 PDZ-DAT and PICK1 PDZ-GluR2. Our results suggest that ligand binding to the PICK1 PDZ domain induces dynamic allostery at the αA helix that is similar to what has been observed in other PDZ domains. We found that the PICK1 PDZ-ligand distance is directly correlated with both dynamic changes of the αA helix and the distance between the αA helix and βB strand. Furthermore, our work identifies a hydrophobic core between DAT/GluR2 and I35 as a key interaction in inducing such dynamic allostery. Finally, the unique interaction patterns between different binding partners and the PICK1 PDZ domain can induce unique dynamic changes to the PICK1 PDZ domain. We suspect that unique allosteric coupling patterns with different ligands may play a critical role in how PICK1 performs its biological functions in various signaling networks. |
3,513 | Introducing skip mode in distributed video coding | Although it was proven in the 1970s already by Wyner and Ziv and Slepian and Wolf that, under certain conditions, the same rate-distortion boundaries exist for distributed video coding (DVC) systems as for traditional predicting systems, until now no practical DVC system has been developed that even comes close to the performance of state-of-the-art video codecs such as H.264/AVC in terms of rate-distortion. Some important factors for this are the lower accuracy of the motion estimation performed at the decoder, the inaccurate modeling of the correlation between the side information and the original frame, and the absence in most state-of-the-art DVC systems of anything conceptually similar to the notion of skipped macroblocks in predictive coding systems. This paper proposes an extension of a state-of-the-art transform domain residual DVC system with an implementation of skip mode. The skip mode has an impact at two different places: in the turbo decoder, more specifically the soft input, soft output (SISO) convolutional decoder, and in the puncturing of the parity bits. Results show average bitrate gains up to 39% (depending on the sequence) achieved by combining both approaches. Furthermore, a hybrid video codec is presented where the motion estimation task is shifted back to the encoder. This results in a drastic increase in encoder complexity, but also in a drastic performance gain in terms of rate-distortion, with average bitrate savings up to 60% relative to the distributed video codec. in the hybrid video codec, smaller but still important average bitrate gains are achieved by implementing skip mode: up to 24%. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
3,514 | One-Dimensional Deep Low-Rank and Sparse Network for Accelerated MRI | Deep learning has shown astonishing performance in accelerated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Most state-of-the-art deep learning reconstructions adopt the powerful convolutional neural network and perform 2D convolution since many magnetic resonance images or their corresponding k-space are in 2D. In this work, we present a new approach that explores the 1D convolution, making the deep network much easier to be trained and generalized. We further integrate the 1D convolution into the proposed deep network, named as One-dimensional Deep Low-rank and Sparse network (ODLS), which unrolls the iteration procedure of a low-rank and sparse reconstruction model. Extensive results on in vivo knee and brain datasets demonstrate that, the proposed ODLS is very suitable for the case of limited training subjects and provides improved reconstruction performance than state-of-the-art methods both visually and quantitatively. Additionally, ODLS also shows nice robustness to different undersampling scenarios and some mismatches between the training and test data. In summary, our work demonstrates that the 1D deep learning scheme is memory-efficient and robust in fast MRI. |
3,515 | Personalized Retrogress-Resilient Federated Learning Toward Imbalanced Medical Data | Clinically oriented deep learning algorithms, combined with large-scale medical datasets, have significantly promoted computer-aided diagnosis. To address increasing ethical and privacy issues, Federated Learning (FL) adopts a distributed paradigm to collaboratively train models, rather than collecting samples from multiple institutions for centralized training. Despite intensive research on FL, two major challenges are still existing when applying FL in the real-world medical scenarios, including the performance degradation (i.e., retrogress) after each communication and the intractable class imbalance. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel personalized FL framework to tackle these two problems. For the retrogress problem, we first devise a Progressive Fourier Aggregation (PFA) at the server side to gradually integrate parameters of client models in the frequency domain. Then, at the client side, we design a Deputy-Enhanced Transfer (DET) to smoothly transfer global knowledge to the personalized local model. For the class imbalance problem, we propose the Conjoint Prototype-Aligned (CPA) loss to facilitate the balanced optimization of the FL framework. Considering the inaccessibility of private local data to other participants in FL, the CPA loss calculates the global conjoint objective based on global imbalance, and then adjusts the client-side local training through the prototype-aligned refinement to eliminate the imbalance gap with such a balanced goal. Extensive experiments are performed on real-world dermoscopic and prostate MRI FL datasets. The experimental results demonstrate the advantages of our FL framework in real-world medical scenarios, by outperforming state-of-the-art FL methods with a large margin. The source code is available at < uri > https://github.com/CityU-AIM-Group/PRR-Imbalance. |
3,516 | A Spline-High Dimensional Model Representation for SRAM Yield Estimation in High sigma and High Dimensional Scenarios | Traditional Static Random-Access Memory (SRAM) yield estimation through Monte Carlo analysis is an extremely time-consuming process since it runs millions of expensive transistor-level simulations to get the yield results with the specified precision, especially for the large-scale circuits. In this paper, we develop an efficient yield analysis framework by integrating our novel performance metamodel into a state-of-art importance sampling method. The performance meta-model, named Spline-High Dimensional Model Representation (SP-HDMR), is used to substitute the expensive transistor-level simulations in yield estimation. The proposed SP-HDMR model provides a high computationally efficient formula expansion. It uses spline functions as the kernels to describe the various relations between the process parameters and SRAM read access delay. And an adaptive sampling method with sparsity analysis is developed to support SP-HDMR modeling. The experiments on the 40nm SRAM circuits validate the accuracy and the efficiency of the proposed yield analysis framework based on our SP-HDMR model with 1.3X similar to 5X speedup over the other state-of-art methods within 9% relative error. |
3,517 | A sustainable deep learning framework for fault detection in 6G Industry 4.0 heterogeneous data environments | The integration of 5G and Beyond 5G (B5G)/6G in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, is making Industry 4.0 smarter. However, the goal of having a sustainable self-monitored industry has not been reached yet. State-of-the-art deep learning-based Fault Detection algorithms cannot handle heterogeneous data, meaning that more than one fault detection computational device has to be used for each data format, in addition to the inability to take advantage of the combination of all the information available in different formats to derive more accurate conclusions. Moreover, these algorithms rely on inefficient hyper-parameters tuning strategies. In this paper, we propose an Advanced Deep Learning framework for Fault Diagnosis in Industry 4.0 (ADL-FDI4), which combines Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and graph CNN (GNN), to handle heterogeneous data. Furthermore, our novel framework uses a Branch-and-Bound procedure to guide the learning process. Our experimental results show that ADL-FDI4 outperforms the state-of-the-art solutions in terms of detection rate and running time, and for that, it consumes less energy. In addition to handling heterogeneous data, which implies that one computational device is sufficient to handle all data formats. |
3,518 | A trauma-informed approach to understanding firearm decision-making among Black adolescents: Implications for prevention | Firearm violence remains a public health crisis in marginalized, urban communities, with Black adolescents bearing the burden of firearm homicides and injuries. As such, the prevention of firearm violence among adolescents has moved to a high priority of the U.S. public health agenda. The current paper reviews recent literature to highlight the heterogeneity in firearm behavior among Black adolescents and underscore the need for additional research on decision-making and firearm behavior to better understand how adolescents make decisions to acquire, carry, and use firearms. Through a discussion of the disproportionate levels of trauma exposure and trauma symptoms experienced by Black adolescents, the current paper also proposes a trauma-informed approach to understanding decision-making for risky firearm behavior. We discuss the broader impacts of this approach, including the development of a more comprehensive and contextually relevant understanding of the variability in risky firearm behavior and improvements in risk screening capabilities and preventive intervention strategies. |
3,519 | Comparison study of pattern-synthesis techniques using neural networks | In this paper, a comparison study among three neural-network algorithms for the synthesis of array patterns is presented. The neural networks are used to estimate the array elements' excitations for an arbitrary pattern. The architecture of the neural networks is discussed and simulation results art presented. Two new neural networks, based on radial basis functions (RBFs) and wavelet neural networks (WNNs), are introduced. The proposed networks offer a more efficient synthesis procedure, as compared to other available techniques. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
3,520 | Age-invariant face recognition using gender specific 3D aging modeling | The age-invariant face recognition (AIFR) is a relatively new area of research in the face recognition domain which has recently gained substantial attention due to its great potential and importance in real-world applications. However, the AIFR is still in the process of emergence and development, offering a large room for further investigation and accuracy improvement. The key challenges in the AIFR are considerable changes of appearance of facial skin (wrinkles, jaw lines), facial shape, and skin tone in combination with the variations of pose and illumination. These challenges impose limitations on the current AIFR systems and complicate the recognition task for identity verification especially for temporal variation. In order to address this problem, we need a temporally invariant face verification system that would be robust vis-a-vis several factors, such as aging (shape, texture), pose, and illumination. In this study, we present a 3D gender-specific aging model that is robust to aging and pose variations and provides a better recognition performance than the conventional state-of-the-art AIFR systems. The gender-specific age modeling is performed in a 3D domain from 2D facial images of various datasets, such as PCSO, BROWNS, Celebrities, Private, and FG-NET. The evaluation of the proposed approach is performed on FG-NET (the most referred database in the AIFR studies) and MORPH-Album2 (the largest aging database) by using the VGG face CNN descriptor for matching. In addition, we also test the effects of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and principal component analysis (PCA) subspaces learning in our face verification experiments. The proposed AIFR system is evaluated both on the pose corrected and background composited age-simulated images. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system provides state-of-the-art performance on FG-NET (83.89% of rank-1, 43.24% of TAR) and comparable performance to the state-of-the-art on MORPH-Album2 (75.27% of rank-1, 96.93% of TAR). |
3,521 | The use of cerebral oximetry in cardiac surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials | High prevalence of cerebral desaturation is associated with postoperative neurological complications in cardiac surgery. However, the evidence use of cerebral oximetry by correcting cerebral desaturation in the reduction of postoperative complications remains uncertain in the literature. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the effect of cerebral oximetry on the incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction in cardiac surgery. Databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL were searched from their inception until April 2021. All randomized controlled trials comparing cerebral oximetry and blinded/no cerebral oximetry in adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery were included. Observational studies, case series, and case reports were excluded. A total of 14 trials (n = 2,033) were included in this review. Our pooled data demonstrated that patients with cerebral oximetry were associated with a lower incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction than the control group (studies = 4, n = 609, odds ratio [OR]: 0.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.04 to 0.54, P = 0.003, I2 = 88%; certainty of evidence = very low). In terms of postoperative delirium (OR: 0.75, 95%CI: 0.50-1.14, P = 0.18, I2 = 0%; certainty of evidence = low) and postoperative stroke (OR: 0.81 95%CI: 0.37-1.80, P = 0.61, I2 = 0%; certainty of evidence = high), no significant differences (P > 0.05) were reported between the cerebral oximetry and control groups. In this meta-analysis, the use of cerebral oximetry monitoring in cardiac surgery demonstrated a lower incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction. However, this finding must be interpreted with caution due to the low level of evidence, high degree of heterogeneity, lack of standardized cognitive assessments, and cerebral desaturation interventions. |
3,522 | Pulmonary Artery-Vein Classification in CT Images Using Deep Learning | Recent studies show that pulmonary vascular diseases may specifically affect arteries or veins through different physiologic mechanisms. To detect changes in the two vascular trees, physicians manually analyze the chest computed tomography (CT) image of the patients in search of abnormalities. This process is time consuming, difficult to standardize, and thus not feasible for large clinical studies or useful in real-world clinical decision making. Therefore, automatic separation of arteries and veins in CT images is becoming of great interest, as it may help physicians to accurately diagnose pathological conditions. In this paper, we present a novel, fully automatic approach to classify vessels from chest CT images into arteries and veins. The algorithm follows three main steps: first, a scale-space particles segmentation to isolate vessels; then a 3-D convolutional neural network (CNN) to obtain a first classification of vessels; finally, graph-cuts' optimization to refine the results. To justify the usage of the proposed CNN architecture, we compared different 2-D and 3-D CNNs that may use local information from bronchus-and vessel-enhanced images provided to the network with different strategies. We also compared the proposed CNN approach with a randomforests (RFs) classifier. The methodology was trained and evaluated on the superior and inferior lobes of the right lung of 18 clinical cases with noncontrast chest CT scans, in comparison with manual classification. The proposed algorithm achieves an overall accuracy of 94%, which is higher than the accuracy obtained using other CNN architectures and RF. Our method was also validated with contrast-enhanced CT scans of patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension to demonstrate that our model generalizes well to contrast-enhanced modalities. The proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods, paving the way for future use of 3-D CNN for artery/vein classification in CT images. |
3,523 | Adaptive Scaling of Cluster Boundaries for Large-Scale Social Media Data Clustering | The large scale and complex nature of social media data raises the need to scale clustering techniques to big data and make them capable of automatically identifying data clusters with few empirical settings. In this paper, we present our investigation and three algorithms based on the fuzzy adaptive resonance theory (Fuzzy ART) that have linear computational complexity, use a single parameter, i.e., the vigilance parameter to identify data clusters, and are robust to modest parameter settings. The contribution of this paper lies in two aspects. First, we theoretically demonstrate how complement coding, commonly known as a normalization method, changes the clustering mechanism of Fuzzy ART, and discover the vigilance region (VR) that essentially determines how a cluster in the Fuzzy ART system recognizes similar patterns in the feature space. The VR gives an intrinsic interpretation of the clustering mechanism and limitations of Fuzzy ART. Second, we introduce the idea of allowing different clusters in the Fuzzy ART system to have different vigilance levels in order to meet the diverse nature of the pattern distribution of social media data. To this end, we propose three vigilance adaptation methods, namely, the activation maximization (AM) rule, the confliction minimization (CM) rule, and the hybrid integration (HI) rule. With an initial vigilance value, the resulting clustering algorithms, namely, the AM-ART, CM-ART, and HI-ART, can automatically adapt the vigilance values of all clusters during the learning epochs in order to produce better cluster boundaries. Experiments on four social media data sets show that AM-ART, CM-ART, and HI-ART are more robust than Fuzzy ART to the initial vigilance value, and they usually achieve better or comparable performance and much faster speed than the state-of-the-art clustering algorithms that also do not require a predefined number of clusters. |
3,524 | A Germline-Specific Regulator of Mitochondrial Fusion is Required for Maintenance and Differentiation of Germline Stem and Progenitor Cells | Maintenance and differentiation of germline stem and progenitor cells (GSPCs) is important for sexual reproduction. Here, the authors identify zebrafish pld6 as a novel germline-specific gene by cross-analyzing different RNA sequencing results, and find that pld6 knockout mutants develop exclusively into infertile males. In pld6 mutants, GSPCs fail to differentiate and undergo apoptosis, leading to masculinization and infertility. Mitochondrial fusion in pld6-depleted GSPCs is severely impaired, and the mutants exhibit defects in piRNA biogenesis and transposon suppression. Overall, this work uncovers zebrafish Pld6 as a novel germline-specific regulator of mitochondrial fusion, and highlights its essential role in the maintenance and differentiation of GSPCs as well as gonadal development and gametogenesis. |
3,525 | Driving forces of China's provincial bilateral carbon emissions and the redefinition of corresponding responsibilities | The carbon transfers caused by inter-provincial commodity flows account for about 35 % of the total carbon emissions in China. There are great differences between the production-side and consumption-side carbon emissions for each province. Therefore, under the constraints of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, bilateral carbon emissions management is crucial to mitigate carbon emissions and the driving forces of bilateral carbon emissions must first be identified. Based on China's inter-provincial input-output data and carbon emissions data released by China Emissions Accounts and Datasets (CEADs), this paper uses a multi-regional input-output model (MRIO) to calculate the bilateral carbon emissions in 30 China's provinces from 2007 to 2017 and then apply structural decomposition analysis (SDA) to measure the influencing factors of these emissions. We also use counterfactual analysis to investigate the adjustment of provincial responsibilities for carbon emissions. The results show that the provinces in central and northern China undertake major net carbon inflows from other provinces in the eastern and southern coastal region. According to the results of SDA, the technological effect is an important factor in curbing the bilateral carbon emissions and the demand effect promotes the bilateral carbon emissions, but their contribution rates show a downward trend. By contrast, the variation in structural effect has significantly restrictive effects on the bilateral carbon emissions. Based on the provincial contribution to emissions mitigation, the adjusted consumption-side carbon emission embodies the principle of "more emission reduction, more compensation". We suggest implementing differentiated bilateral carbon emission management, taking the adjusted consumption-side carbon emission as the evaluation standard, and promoting inter-provincial carbon compensation. |
3,526 | Orbital Venolymphatic Malformation Treated With Sodium Tetradecyl Sulfate: A Case Report | Orbital and periorbital venolymphatic malformations (VLMs) are benign congenital vascular lesions and constitute 1%-3% of all orbital masses. Widespread facial venous malformations have a high incidence of associated intracranial developmental venous anomalies (DVAs). In such cases, there can be a sudden increase in proptosis following upper respiratory infection or minor trauma. Numerous percutaneous intralesional sclerosing agents like sodium tetradecyl sulfate (STS), bleomycin, doxycycline, ethanol, and OK-432 (Picibanil) have been used for treating VLMs. We hereby report a rare case of retro-orbital VLM treated successfully with STS injection and an isolated dural arterio-venous (AV) fistula in the same patient. |
3,527 | Identification of a novel homozygous SPG7 mutation by whole exome sequencing in a Greek family with a complicated form of hereditary spastic paraplegia | We report the clinical description and genetic analyses of a Greek family with four individuals affected with a complicated form of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) and a recessive pattern of inheritance. Exome sequencing of all affected individuals led to the identification of a homozygous 25 bp deletion predicted to lead to a frameshift and premature stop codon in the SPG7 gene, encoding paraplegin. This deletion, which is located in the first exon of the SPG7 gene, has not been previously reported and likely lead to the complete absence of the SPG7 protein. Interestingly, this family shows significant phenotypic heterogeneity further highlighting the clinical variability associated with SPG7 mutations. Our findings emphasize the clinical utility of whole exome sequencing for the molecular diagnosis of HSPs. |
3,528 | Antiplasmodial and Antimalarial Activity of 3,5-Diarylidenetetrahydro-2H-pyran-4(3H)-ones via Inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum Pyridoxal Synthase | A series of 22 different 3,5-diarylidenetetrahydro-2H-pyran-4(3H)-ones (DATPs) were synthesized, characterized, and screened for their in vitro antiplasmodial activities against chloroquine (CQ)-sensitive Pf3D7, CQ-resistant PfINDO, and artemisinin-resistant PfMRA-1240 strains of Plasmodium falciparum. DATP 19 (3,5-bis(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzylidene)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4(3H)-one) was found to be the most potent (IC50 1.07 μM) against PfMRA-1240, whereas 21 (3,5-bis(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzylidene)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4(3H)-one) showed IC50 values of 1.72 and 1.44 μM against Pf3D7 and PfINDO, respectively. Resistance indices (RI) as low as 0.2 to 0.5 for 10 (3,5-bis(4-nitrobenzylidene)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4(3H)-one) and 20 (3,5-bis(3-nitrobenzylidene)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4(3H)-one), and <1 for most other DATPs reveals their greater potency against resistant strains than the sensitive one. The single-crystal XRD data for DATP 21 are reported. In silico support was obtained through docking studies. Killing all three strains within 4-8 h, these DATPs showed rapid kill kinetics toward the trophozoite stage. Furthermore, DATP 18 (3,5-bis(quinolin-4-ylmethylene)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4(3H)-one) inhibited PfPdx1 enzyme activity with IC50 20.34 μM, which is about twofold lower than that (IC50 43 μM) for an already known inhibitor 4PEHz. At an oral dose of 300 mg/kg body weight, DATPs 19 and 21 were found to be nontoxic to mice, and at 100 mg/kg body weight, DATP 19 was found to suppress parasitaemia, which led to an increase in median survival time by three days relative to untreated control mice in a malaria curative study. |
3,529 | Age Estimation in Short Speech Utterances Based on LSTM Recurrent Neural Networks | Age estimation from speech has recently received increased interest as it is useful for many applications such as user-profiling, targeted marketing, or personalized call-routing. This kind of applications need to quickly estimate the age of the speaker and might greatly benefit from real-time capabilities. Long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks (RNN) have shown to outperform state-of the-art approaches in related speech-based tasks, such as language identification or voice activity detection, especially when an accurate real-time response is required. In this paper, we propose a novel age estimation system based on LSTM-RNNs. This system is able to deal with short utterances (from 3 to 10 s) and it can be easily deployed in a real-time architecture. The proposed system has been tested and compared with a state-of-the-art i-vector approach using data from NIST speaker recognition evaluation 2008 and 2010 data sets. Experiments on short duration utterances show a relative improvement up to 28% in terms of mean absolute error of this new approach over the baseline system. |
3,530 | The Effects of COVID-19 on Physicians' Perceived Ability to Provide Care for Patients With Type II Diabetes Mellitus | Background and objective The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), presents multiple, diverse challenges to providing appropriate medical care, especially in terms of medication and treatment adherence for chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these barriers by potentially forcing physicians to modify their treatment plans due to limitations on in-person visits and changes to patients' financial and social support systems. It remains uncertain whether physicians believe they can provide the same standard of care using telehealth technology or other means to their patients during the pandemic. The goal of this study was to explore physician perceptions about their ability to provide care to patients with T2DM during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology This cross-sectional study collected data between January 25, 2021, and February 2, 2021, using an anonymous, self-administered online survey involving DO and MD physicians including residents treating patients with T2DM. The survey was administered via REDCap and collected data on participant demographics, attitudes, perceptions, knowledge, and prior and current (COVID-19-era) experience with care for T2DM patients. Physicians registered with the Florida Department of Health with publicly available emails were invited to participate. Results The survey showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, 57.9% of physicians (n=48) believed that their patients have a weaker social support system; 68.7% (n=57) modified their patient care plans due to patients' financial difficulties; 78.4% (n=65) believed a regular physical exam is necessary to properly treat patients; 48.2% (n=40) did not believe they had a more complete picture of the case with remote consultations; 47.0% (n=39) were not as satisfied with remote consultations as with face-to-face patient visits; 68.7% (n=57) believed telehealth is necessary to adequately treat patients; 38.5% (n=32) have been less likely to refer their patients to other providers or specialists; 45.8% (n=38) reported concerns over admitting their patients to the hospital for acute medical care; 61.5% (n=51) reported having more patients delay scheduling their routine follow-up care; 61.5% (n=51) believed their patients have been less compliant with the healthcare plans recommended to them. Conclusions The study showed that COVID-19 has significantly impacted physicians' perceptions and abilities to provide care for patients with T2DM. COVID-19 has negatively impacted several crucial aspects of diabetes management, including consistent in-person examinations, social support, and referral to other required services, which could result in long-term consequences for these patients. Furthermore, our study suggests that physicians may not be as satisfied with the care they are able to provide via remote consultations as they are with in-person visits, which has significant implications as we move toward a more telehealth-driven healthcare delivery system. |
3,531 | Privileged Modality Distillation for Vessel Border Detection in Intracoronary Imaging | Intracoronary imaging is a crucial imaging technology in coronary disease diagnosis as it visualizes the internal tissue morphologies of coronary arteries. Vessel border detection in intracoronary images (VBDI) is desired because it can help the succeeding procedures of computer-aided disease diagnosis. However, existing VDBI methods suffer from the challenge of vessel-environment variability (i.e. high intra- and inter-subject diversity of vessels and their surrounding tissues appeared in images). This challenge leads to the ineffectiveness in the vessel region representation for hand-crafted features, in the receptive field extraction for deeply-represented features, as well as performance suppression derived from clinical data limitation. To solve this challenge, we propose a novel privileged modality distillation (PMD) framework for VBDI. PMD transforms the single-input-single-task (SIST) learning problem in the single-mode VBDI to a multiple-input-multiple-task (MIMT) problem by using the privileged image modality to help the learning model in the target modality. This learns the enriched high-level knowledge with similar semantics and generalizes PMD on diversity-increased low-level image features for improving the model adaptation to diverse vessel environments. Moreover, PMD refines MIMT to SIST by distilling the learned knowledge from multiple to one modality. This eliminates the reliance on privileged modality in the test phase, and thus enables the applicability to each of different intracoronary modalities. A structure-deformable neural network is proposed as an elaborately-designed implementation of PMD. It expands a conventional SIST network structure to the MIMT structure, and then recovers it to the final SIST structure. The PMD is validated on intravascular ultrasound imaging and optical coherence tomography imaging. One modality is the target, and the other one can be considered as the privileged modality owing to their semantic relatedness. The experiments show that our PMD is effective in VBDI (e.g. the Dice index is larger than 0.95), as well as superior to six state-of-the-art VBDI methods. |
3,532 | Person re-identification using selective transformation learning | Applications like video surveillance, anomaly detection, ego-motion, recognition and re-identification (Re-ID), largely depend upon the ability of the models to learn efficient representations of the input data. Applications like re-identification or similarity matching needs the representations which can handle transformations in the input data in a predictable way. Any change in perspective and viewpoint should not change the identity of the person in re-ID systems and also, it must capture the differences accurately to discriminate two different persons correctly. We propose a Selective Transformation Learning (STL) based model which very efficiently learns to transform the image to obtain the right amount of cropping required to generate feature maps which are invariant to affine transformations of the input image. The STL approach selectively trains each of the spatial transformer modules for specific transformation in an end-to-end framework. Proposed model has very low memory footprint compared to state-of-the-art models yet performs substantially. Compared to the ResNet based or other high capacity models it performs substantially better with such a low capacity. To establish the performance quantitatively it has been tested on three publicly available re-identification datasets and on all the datasets it gives an average of 6% improvement in the mean average precision score as compared to the closest sized state-of-the-art model. This approach can be easily adapted to any other model without any special requirements. |
3,533 | The Fuzzy ART algorithm: A categorization method for supplier evaluation and selection | For most of managers purchasing is a strategic issue. Thus. to select the suitable Suppliers has strategic importance for every company The objective Of Supplier selection is to reduce purchasing risk. maximize overall value to the purchaser and build a long term, reliable relationship between buyers and suppliers Many methods have been proposed and used for supplier evaluation and selection, most of them try to rank the Suppliers from the best to the worst and to choose the appropriate supplier(s). Supplier evaluation and selection is a complex and typical multi criteria decision-making problem. Because of human judgment needs in many area of supplier selection Such as preferences on alternatives or on the attributes Of Suppliers or the class number and borders supplier selection becomes more difficult and risky In this study, a new tool for supplier selection is proposed in this paper, we applied Fuzzy Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART)'s classification ability to the Supplier evaluation and selection area The proposed selection method. using Fuzzy ART not only selects the most appropriate supplier(s) and also clusters all of the vendors according to chosen criteria. To explain the Fuzzy ART method a real-life supplier selection problem is solved and suppliers are categorized according to their similarities The obtained results show that the proposed method is well suited as a decision-making tool for Supplier evaluation and selection problem. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved |
3,534 | Evaluation of surface water quality in basins of the Chilean Altiplano-Puna and implications for water treatment and monitoring | Water quality characterization and assessment are key to protecting human health and ecosystems, especially in arid areas such as northern Chile, where water resources are scarce and rich in pollutants. The objective of this study was to review and assess available official water quality data in the Chilean Altiplano-Puna basins for a 10-year period (2008-2018), including water treatment systems. Within the 43,600 km2 of Chilean Altiplano-Puna territory, only 16 official water quality monitoring stations had up-to-date data, and the sampling frequency was less than 3 per year. Most of the water samples collected at the evaluated stations exceeded the drinking and irrigation water Chilean standards for arsenic, boron, and electrical conductivity. Moreover, the characteristics of the Altiplano-Puna affect water quality inside and beyond the area, limiting water usage throughout the Altiplano-Puna basins. Drinking water treatment plants exist in urban and rural settlements; however, the drinking water supply in rural locations is limited due to the lack of adequate treatment and continuity of service. Wastewater treatment plants operate in some urban locations but rarely exist in rural locations. Limited data impede the proper assessment of water quality and thus the evaluation of the need for treatment systems. As such, the implementation of public policies that prioritize water with appropriate quantity and quality for local communities and ecosystems is imperative. |
3,535 | Colour image segmentation using the self-organizing map and adaptive resonance theory | We propose a new competitive-learning neural network model for colour image segmentation. The model, which is based on the adaptive resonance theory (ART) of Carpenter and Grossberg and on the self-organizing map (SOM) of Kohonen, overcomes the limitations of (i) the stability-plasticity trade-offs in neural architectures that employ ART; and (ii) the lack of on-line learning property in the SOM. In order to explore the generation of a growing feature map using ART and to motivate the main contribution, we first present a preliminary experimental model, SOMART, based on Fuzzy ART. Then we propose the new model, SmART, that utilizes a novel lateral control of plasticity to resolve the stability-plasticity problem. SmART has been experimentally found to perform well in RGB colour space, and is believed to be more coherent than Fuzzy ART. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
3,536 | Anatomic and Molecular MR Image Synthesis Using Confidence Guided CNNs | Data-driven automatic approaches have demonstrated their great potential in resolving various clinical diagnostic dilemmas in neuro-oncology, especially with the help of standard anatomic and advanced molecular MR images. However, data quantity and quality remain a key determinant, and a significant limit of the potential applications. In our previous work, we explored the synthesis of anatomic and molecular MR image networks (SAMR) in patients with post-treatment malignant gliomas. In this work, we extend this through a confidence-guided SAMR (CG-SAMR) that synthesizes data from lesion contour information to multi-modal MR images, including T1-weighted (T(1)w), gadolinium enhanced T(1)w (Gd- T(1)w), T2-weighted (T(2)w), and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), as well as the molecular amide proton transfer-weighted (APTw) sequence. We introduce a module that guides the synthesis based on a confidence measure of the intermediate results. Furthermore, we extend the proposed architecture to allow training using unpaired data. Extensive experiments on real clinical data demonstrate that the proposed model can perform better than current the state-of-the-art synthesis methods. Our code is available at https://github.com/guopengf/CG-SAMR. |
3,537 | Deep Interpretable Classification and Weakly-Supervised Segmentation of Histology Images via Max-Min Uncertainty | Weakly-supervised learning (WSL) has recently triggered substantial interest as it mitigates the lack of pixel-wise annotations. Given global image labels, WSL methods yield pixel-level predictions (segmentations), which enable to interpret class predictions. Despite their recent success, mostly with natural images, such methods can face important challenges when the foreground and background regions have similar visual cues, yielding high false-positive rates in segmentations, as is the case in challenging histology images. WSL training is commonly driven by standard classification losses, which implicitly maximize model confidence, and locate the discriminative regions linked to classification decisions. Therefore, they lack mechanisms for modeling explicitly non-discriminative regions and reducing false-positive rates. We propose novel regularization terms, which enable the model to seek both non-discriminative and discriminative regions, while discouraging unbalanced segmentations. We introduce high uncertainty as a criterion to localize non-discriminative regions that do not affect classifier decision, and describe it with original Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence losses evaluating the deviation of posterior predictions from the uniform distribution. Our KL terms encourage high uncertainty of the model when the latter inputs the latent non-discriminative regions. Our loss integrates: (i) a cross-entropy seeking a foreground, where model confidence about class prediction is high; (ii) a KL regularizer seeking a background, where model uncertainty is high; and (iii) log-barrier terms discouraging unbalanced segmentations. Comprehensive experiments and ablation studies over the public GlaS colon cancer data and a Camelyon16 patch-based benchmark for breast cancer show substantial improvements over state-of-the-art WSL methods, and confirm the effect of our new regularizers (our code is publicly available at https://github.com/sbelharbi/deep-wsl-histo-min-max-uncertainty). |
3,538 | Renewable Energy Devices and Systems - State-of-the-Art Technology, Research and Development, Challenges and Future Trends | In this paper, essential statistics demonstrating the increasing role of renewable energy generation are firstly discussed. A state of the art review section covers fundamentals of wind turbines and PV systems. Included are schematic diagrams illustrating the main components and system topologies and the fundamental and increasing role of power electronics as an enabler for renewable energy integration, and for the future power system and smart grid. Recent examples of research and development, including new devices and system installations for utility power plants, as well for as residential and commercial applications are provided. Fuel cells, solar thermal, wave generators, and energy storage systems are also briefly presented and illustrated. Challenges and future trends for 2025 are summarized in a table for on-shore and off-shore wind energy, solar power, including photovoltaic and concentering, wave energy, fuel cells, and storage with batteries and hydrogen, respectively. Recommended further readings on topics of electric power engineering for renewable energy are included in a final section. This paper also represents an editorial introduction for two special issues of the Electric Power Component and Systems Journal, 43(8-10) and 43(12), respectively. |
3,539 | Recent progress in flexible color reflective cholesteric displays | Highly flexible layered full-color cholesteric displays fabricated using ultra-thin substrates with encapsulation through the phase-separation approach is reported. Recent progress of the state of the art of cholesteric display technology will be discussed as well. |
3,540 | A comparison of a similarity-based and a feature-based 2-D-3-D registration method for neurointerventional use | Two-dimensional (2-D)-to-three-dimensional (3-D) registration can improve visualization which may aid minimally invasive neurointerventions. Using clinical and phantom studies, two state-of-the-art approaches to rigid registration are compared quantitatively: an intensity-based algorithm using the gradient difference similarity measure; and an iterative closest point (ICP)-based algorithm. The gradient difference approach was found to be more accurate, with an average registration accuracy of 1.7 mm for clinical data, compared to the ICP-based algorithm with an average accuracy of 2.8 mm. In phantom studies, the ICP-based algorithm proved more reliable, but with more complicated clinical data, the gradient difference algorithm was more robust. Average computation time for the ICP-based algorithm was 20 s per registration, compared with 14 min and 50 s for the gradient difference algorithm. |
3,541 | Design and analysis of an ultra-low-power LC quadrature VCO | This paper presents the design of an ultra-low-power LC quadrature VCO (QVCO). It is designed in a single-poly seven-metal 65-nm CMOS process. Several aspects of state-of-the-art QVCO design are addressed, for example tank design and circuit topologies in nano-meter CMOS technology. To minimize power dissipation, an inductor with a high LQ product of 188 nH at 2.4 GHz, and a self-resonant frequency (f(SR)) of 3.8 GHz, was designed. According to post-layout simulations, the power dissipation is below 300 mu W at a 0.6 V supply. At this supply, the simulated tuning range and phase noise at 1 MHz offset are 10.3% (2.26-2.5 GHz) and -109.6 dBc/Hz respectively. The phase noise figure of merit (FoM) is better than 182.5 dB at all supply voltages of interest, which is competitive to other state-of-the-art QVCOs. |
3,542 | High precision post-processing framework for industrial computed tomography detection | This paper presents a high-precision parameterless post-processing framework for industrial computed tomography (ICT) detection, which does not need parameter tuning for workpieces with different slice image conditions. The proposed framework contains three main steps: (1) adaptively calculate appropriate local window size for each pixel in all slice images by using inner and outer fitting energies to reduce the negative influence of inhomogeneity in subsequent contour extraction; (2) extract contours in all slice images via genetic algorithmbased self-optimizing multi-method combination to maximumly eliminate side effects of inhomogeneity, artifacts, noise, and low contrast; (3) use multi-resolution transformation to avoid point cloud breakpoints and dense final 3D post-processing results. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, its 2D contour extraction effects are compared with state-of-the-art algorithms, and its 3D detection accuracy is certified by comparing with the corresponding coordinate measuring machine (CMM) point clouds or CAD models of different industrial workpieces. The experimental results show that the framework's performance of dealing with negative effects in 2D contour extraction is better than a single state-of-the-art method, and that the deviation distributions in industrial workpiece detections are <= 0.02 mm for the simple workpiece and <= 0.05 mm for the complex workpiece. |
3,543 | A fast approach to deformable surface 3D tracking | Deformable surface 3D tracking is a severely under-constrained problem and great efforts have been made to solve it. A recent state-of-the-art approach solves this problem by formulating it as a second order cone programming (SOCP) problem. However, one drawback of this approach is that it is time-consuming. In this paper, we propose an effective method for 3D deformable surface tracking. First, we formulate the deformable surface tracking problem as a linear programming (LP) problem. Then, we solve the LP problem with an algorithm which converges superlinearly rather than bisection algorithm whose convergence speed is linear. Our experimental studies on synthetic and real data have demonstrated the proposed method can not only reliably recover 3D structures of surfaces but also run faster than the state-of-the-art method. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
3,544 | Automatic detection and localization of thighbone fractures in X-ray based on improved deep learning method | Deep learning is continuously promoting the development of fracture detection in medical images. In this study, we propose a novel two-stage region-based convolutional neural network for thighbone fractures detection. In this framework, the new network structure is designed to balance the information of each feature map in the feature pyramid of ResNeXt. In experiments, the pre-trained model is implemented on the dataset reported in the previous study, which includes 3842 thighbone X-ray radiographs. To compare the proposed framework with the latest detection techniques, transfer learning is employed to test all the state-of-the-art generic object detection algorithms on the same thighbone fracture dataset. Moreover, a few ablation experiments are given to demonstrate the effects of each component employed in the proposed framework and different hyperparameter settings on fracture detection. The experimental results show that the Average Precision of the proposed detection framework reaches 88.9% in thighbone fracture detection. This result proves the effectiveness of our framework and its superiority over other state-of-the-art methods. |
3,545 | Thermal Interaction for Improving Tactile Artwork Depth and Color-Depth Appreciation for Visually Impaired People | Visually impaired people can take advantage of multimodal systems in which visual information is communicated through different modes of interaction and types of feedback. Among the possible interaction modes, thermal interaction in the context of assistive devices for visually impaired people lacks research in spite of its potential. In this paper, we propose a temperature-depth mapping algorithm and a thermal display system to convey depth and depth-color of artworks' features in the context of tactile exploration by visually impaired people. Tests with a total of 18 sighted users and six visually impaired users were performed both during the mapping algorithm design and after developing a tactile temperature prototype artwork model to assess the potentials of thermal interaction for recognizing depth and color-depth in tactile art appreciation. These tests showed both an existing correlation between depth and temperature and that the mapping based on that correlation is appropriate for conveying depth during artwork tactile exploration. |
3,546 | A New 4-D Nonlocal Transform-Domain Filter for 3-D Magnetic Resonance Images Denoising | The simultaneous removal of noise and preservation of the integrity of 3-D magnetic resonance (MR) images is a difficult and important task. In this paper, we consider characterizing MR images with 3-D operators, and present a novel 4-D transform-domain method termed 'modified nonlocal tensor-SVD (MNL-tSVD)' for MR image denoising. The proposed method is based on the grouping, hard-thresholding and aggregation paradigms, and can be viewed as a generalized nonlocal extension of tensor-SVD (t-SVD). By keeping MR images in its natural three-dimensional form, and collaboratively filtering similar patches, MNL-tSVD utilizes both the self-similarity property and 3-D structure of MR images to preserve more actual details and minimize the introduction of new artifacts. We show the adaptability of MNL-tSVD by incorporating it into a two-stage denoising strategy with a few adjustments. In addition, analysis of the relationship between MNL-tSVD and current the state-of-the-art 4-D transforms is given. Experimental comparisons over simulated and real brain data sets at different Rician noise levels show that MNL-tSVD can produce competitive performance compared with related approaches. |
3,547 | Photocatalytic removal of organic dye using green synthesized zinc oxide coupled cadmium tungstate nanocomposite under natural solar light irradiation | In this work, zinc oxide coupled cadmium tungstate (ZnO-CT) was prepared as a nano-photocatalyst through a green synthesis route using lemon leaf extract and characterized based on diverse microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. To explore the applicabilties of the prepared nanocomposite (NC), its photocatalytic activity has been investigated against Congo red (CR) dye under natural solar light irradiation conditions. ZnO- CT nano-photocatalyst showcases 97% photocatalytic degradation of the CR after 90 min of natural solar light irradiation with quantum yield of 1.16 × 10-8 molecules photon-1. The ZnO-CT NC has shown the enhanced photocatalytic degradation performance against CR when compared to its pristine forms (e.g., ZnO (70%) or CT (44%)). According to the free radical trapping and quenching experiments, the photocatalytic activity of ZnO-CT NC appears to be driven efficiently by superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. The photocatalytic degradation kinetics for CR dye was also studied using the pseudo-first-order, diffusional, and Singh models. The high photocatalytic activity of ZnO-CT NC can be accounted for by the presence of electron-withdrawing functional groups like acids (-COOH) and aldehydes (-CHO) on its surface which helped maintain the prolonged recombination of charge carriers and enhanced stability of ZnO-CT (with moderately low leaching rate of cadmium ions (∼2-5%)). |
3,548 | Interventional Tool Tracking Using Discrete Optimization | This work presents a novel scheme for tracking of motion and deformation of interventional tools such as guide-wires and catheters in fluoroscopic X-ray sequences. Being able to track and thus to estimate the correct positions of these tools is crucial in order to offer guidance enhancement during interventions. The task of estimating the apparent motion is particularly challenging due to the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of fluoroscopic images and due to combined motion components originating from patient breathing and tool interactions performed by the physician. The presented approach is based on modeling interventional tools with B-splines whose optimal configuration of control points is determined through efficient discrete optimization. Each control point corresponds to a discrete random variable in a Markov random field (MRF) formulation where a set of labels represents the deformation space. In this context, the optimal curve corresponds to the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of the MRF energy. The main motivation for employing a discrete approach is the possibility to incorporate a multi-directional search space which is robust to local minima. This is of particular interest for curve tracking under large deformation. This work analyzes feasibility of employing efficient first-order MRFs for tracking. In particular it shows how to achieve a good compromise between energy approximations and computational efficiency. Experimental results suggest to define both the external and internal energy in terms of pairwise potential functions. The method was successfully applied to the tracking of guide-wires in fluoroscopic X-ray sequences of several hundred frames which requires extremely robust techniques. Comparisons with state-of-the-art guide-wire tracking algorithms confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method. |
3,549 | Alternating regimes of shallow and deep-sea diversification explain a species-richness paradox in marine fishes | The deep sea contains a surprising diversity of life, including iconic fish groups such as anglerfishes and lanternfishes. Still, >65% of marine teleost fish species are restricted to the photic zone <200 m, which comprises less than 10% of the ocean's total volume. From a macroevolutionary perspective, this paradox may be explained by three hypotheses: 1) shallow water lineages have had more time to diversify than deep-sea lineages, 2) shallow water lineages have faster rates of speciation than deep-sea lineages, or 3) shallow-to-deep sea transition rates limit deep-sea richness. Here we use phylogenetic comparative methods to test among these three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses. While we found support for all hypotheses, the disparity in species richness is better described as the uneven outcome of alternating phases that favored shallow or deep diversification over the past 200 million y. Shallow marine teleosts became incredibly diverse 100 million y ago during a period of warm temperatures and high sea level, suggesting the importance of reefs and epicontinental settings. Conversely, deep-sea colonization and speciation was favored during brief episodes when cooling temperatures increased the efficiency of the ocean's carbon pump. Finally, time-variable ecological filters limited shallow-to-deep colonization for much of teleost history, which helped maintain higher shallow richness. A pelagic lifestyle and large jaws were associated with early deep-sea colonists, while a demersal lifestyle and a tapered body plan were typical of later colonists. Therefore, we also suggest that some hallmark characteristics of deep-sea fishes evolved prior to colonizing the deep sea. |
3,550 | Deliberate control of facial expressions in a go/no-go task: An ERP study | In two studies we investigate the role of affective factors and top-down processes underlying production and deliberate control of emotional facial expressions and its neural underpinnings. In Study 1 we examine facial expressions of joy, fear and disgust depending on the emotional content of the visual stimuli (upright faces, inverted faces, emotion inducing pictures without faces). In Study 2 we focus on expressions of joy and disgust depending on gaze direction (with and without eye contact) in a more natural setting with a real person as stimulus. We hypothesized that the more automatic processes are induced by stimuli (e.g., arousal, mimicry or social cues like eye contact) the harder it is to control facial expressions; particularly expressions of joy compared to fear and disgust. In both studies we used go/no-go tasks and showed faster RTs for conditions with upright faces or eye contact, respectively. We also found faster RTs for expressions of joy than of fear and disgust. In Study 1 participants showed more errors in no-go trials for expressions of joy than for expressions of fear and disgust, indicating worse top-down control for expressions of joy than of fear or disgust. An ERP analysis of the no-go P3 in Study 1 revealed larger amplitudes for upright faces compared with both inverted faces and emotion inducing pictures and larger amplitudes for expressions of joy than for disgust. This indicates greater demand of top-down control when automatic mimicry processes are activated and some degree of specificity to particular facial expressions. In Study 2 more errors in no-go trials in conditions with eye contact only for expressions of joy indicate mimicry could be larger for expressions with high affiliative intent like expressions of joy, and reduced mimicry for negative expressions. All results indicate that facial expressions buffered by automatic processes (e.g., mimicry) have a greater need for top-down control, especially expressions of joy compared to expressions of fear and disgust. |
3,551 | On-Chip Integrated Distributed Amplifier and Antenna Systems in SiGe BiCMOS for Transceivers with Ultra-Large Bandwidth | This paper presents an overview of the research work currently being performed within the frame of project DAAB and its successor DAAB-TX towards the integration of ultra-wideband transceivers operating at mm-wave frequencies and capable of data rates up to 100 Gbits-1. Two basic system architectures are being considered: integrating a broadband antenna with a distributed amplifier and integrate antennas centered at adjacent frequencies with broadband active combiners or dividers. The paper discusses in detail the design of such systems and their components, from the distributed amplifiers and combiners, to the broadband silicon antennas and their single-chip integration. All components are designed for fabrication in a commercially available SiGe:C BiCMOS technology. The presented results represent the state of the art in their respective areas: 170 GHz is the highest reported bandwidth for distributed amplifiers integrated in Silicon; 89 GHz is the widest reported bandwidth for integrated-system antennas; the simulated performance of the two antenna integrated receiver spans 105 GHz centered at 148GHz, which would improve the state of the art by a factor in excess of 4 even against III-V implementations, if confirmed by measurements. |
3,552 | ALA-Net: Adaptive Lesion-Aware Attention Network for 3D Colorectal Tumor Segmentation | Accurate and reliable segmentation of colorectal tumors and surrounding colorectal tissues on 3D magnetic resonance images has critical importance in preoperative prediction, staging, and radiotherapy. Previous works simply combine multilevel features without aggregating representative semantic information and without compensating for the loss of spatial information caused by down-sampling. Therefore, they are vulnerable to noise from complex backgrounds and suffer from misclassification and target incompleteness-related failures. In this paper, we address these limitations with a novel adaptive lesion-aware attention network (ALA-Net) which explicitly integrates useful contextual information with spatial details and captures richer feature dependencies based on 3D attention mechanisms. The model comprises two parallel encoding paths. One of these is designed to explore global contextual features and enlarge the receptive field using a recurrent strategy. The other captures sharper object boundaries and the details of small objects that are lost in repeated down-sampling layers. Our lesion-aware attention module adaptively captures long-range semantic dependencies and highlights the most discriminative features, improving semantic consistency and completeness. Furthermore, we introduce a prediction aggregation module to combine multiscale feature maps and to further filter out irrelevant information for precise voxel-wise prediction. Experimental results show that ALA-Net outperforms state-of-the-art methods and inherently generalizes well to other 3D medical images segmentation tasks, providing multiple benefits in terms of target completeness, reduction of false positives, and accurate detection of ambiguous lesion regions. |
3,553 | Improving the Tourist's Perception of the Tourist Destinations Image: An Analysis of Chinese Kung Fu Film and Television | Cultural media, film, and television works can increase the popularity of the image of tourist destinations, thereby promoting the sustainable development of the tourism industry and obtaining economic benefits. This study takes Chinese kung fu film and television as examples to explore the mechanism of audience participation in the perception of tourist destinations. It further explores the mediating effect of cultural contact. The study took the image perception of tourist destinations as the dependent variable and audience participation as the independent variable. A total of 331 subjects were surveyed, and a multi-layer regression model was established to test the rationality and validity of the hypothetical theoretical model. The research results show that audience participation in martial arts films and television tourism can directly and indirectly affect the audience's perception of martial arts culture. At the same time, the viewer can achieve contact with martial arts culture through film and television, accordingly forming his or her perception of the destination. In other words, film and television audience participation can bring more cultural contact to the audience. In turn, cultural contact can enhance the image perception of tourist destinations and play an important intermediary role in the process of audience participation by enhancing the perception of tourist destinations. By confirming the variable relationship in Wushu film and television tourism, this research fills the gap between the two aspects, which contributes to promoting the two-way interaction between Wushu film and television works and tourism marketing and achieving the long-term sustainable development of tourism destinations. |
3,554 | Exploring the detailed spatiotemporal characteristics of PM2.5: Generating a full-coverage and hourly PM2.5 dataset in the Sichuan Basin, China | Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has received worldwide attention due to its threat to public health. In the Sichuan Basin (SCB), PM2.5 is causing heavy health burdens due to its high concentrations and population density. Compared with other heavily polluted areas, less effort has been made to generate a full-coverage PM2.5 dataset of the SCB, in which the detailed PM2.5 spatiotemporal characteristics remain unclear. Considering commonly existing spatiotemporal autocorrelations, the top-of-atmosphere reflectance (TOAR) with a high coverage rate and other auxiliary data were employed to build commonly used random forest (RF) models to generate accurate hourly PM2.5 concentration predictions with a 0.05° × 0.05° spatial resolution in the SCB in 2016. Specifically, with historical concentrations predicted from a spatial RF (S-RF) and observed at stations, an alternative spatiotemporal RF (AST-RF) and spatiotemporal RF (ST-RF) were built in grids with stations (type 1). The predictions from the AST-RF in grids without stations (type 2) and observations in type 1 formed the PM2.5 dataset. The LOOCV R2, RMSE and MAE were 0.94/0.94, 8.71/8.62 μg∕m3 and 5.58/5.57 μg∕m3 in the AST-RF/ST-RF, respectively. Using the produced dataset, spatiotemporal analysis was conducted for a detailed understanding of the spatiotemporal characteristics of PM2.5 in the SCB. The PM2.5 concentrations gradually increased from the edge to the center of the SCB in spatial distribution. Two high-concentration areas centered on Chengdu and Zigong were observed throughout the year, while another high-concentration area centered on Dazhou was only observed in winter. The diurnal variation had double peaks and double valleys in the SCB. The concentrations were high at night and low in daytime, which suggests that characterizing the relationship between PM2.5 and adverse health outcomes by daily means might be inaccurate with most human activities conducted in daytime. |
3,555 | Viterbi algorithm for chirp-rate and instantaneous frequency estimation | An instance of the Viterbi algorithm has been applied to the cubic phase function and chirp-rate estimation. The proposed algorithm has shown excellent performance for high noise environment. The obtained chirp-rate estimate is used in the instantaneous frequency estimation. The proposed instantaneous frequency estimator gives superior performance with respect to the state-of-the-art techniques for signals with non-linear instantaneous frequency. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
3,556 | Benthic studies adjacent to Sakhalin Island, Russia 2015 III: benthic energy density spatial models in the nearshore gray whale feeding area | Energy densities of six dominant benthic groups (Actinopterygii, Amphipoda, Bivalvia, Cumacea, Isopoda, and Polychaeta) and total prey energy were modeled for the nearshore western gray whale feeding area, Sakhalin Island, Russia, as part of a multi-disciplinary research program in the summer of 2015. Energy was modeled using generalized additive mixed models (GAMM) with accommodations for zero-inflation (logistic regression and hurdle models) and regression predictions combined with kriging to interpolate energy densities across the nearshore feeding area. Amphipoda energy density was the highest nearshore and in the south whereas Bivalvia energy density was the highest offshore and in the northern portion of the study area. Total energy was the highest in mid-range distances from shore and in the north. Amphipoda energy density was higher than minimum energy estimates defining gray whale feeding habitats (312-442 kJ/m2) in 13% of the nearshore feeding area whereas total prey energy density was higher than the minimum energy requirement in 49% of the habitat. Inverse distance-weighted interpolations of Amphipoda energy provided a broader scale representation of the data whereas kriging estimates were spatially limited but more representative of higher density in the southern portion of the study area. Both methods represented the general trend of higher Amphipoda energy density nearshore but with significant differences that highlight the value of using multiple methods to model patterns in highly complex environments. |
3,557 | Proprioception and Exteroception of a Soft Robotic Finger Using Neuromorphic Vision-Based Sensing | Equipping soft robotic grippers with sensing and perception capabilities faces significant challenges due to their high compliance and flexibility, limiting their ability to successfully interact with the environment. In this work, we propose a sensorized soft robotic finger with embedded marker pattern that integrates a high-speed neuromorphic event-based camera to enable finger proprioception and exteroception. A learning-based approach involving a convolutional neural network is developed to process event-based heat maps and achieve specific sensing tasks. The feasibility of the sensing approach for proprioception is demonstrated by showing its ability to predict the two-dimensional deformation of three points located on the finger structure, whereas the exteroception capability is assessed in a slip detection task that can classify slip heat maps at a temporal resolution of 2 ms. Our results show that our proposed approach can enable complete sensorization of the finger for both proprioception and exteroception using a single camera without negatively affecting the finger compliance. Using such sensorized finger in robotic grippers may provide safe, adaptive, and precise grasping for handling a wide category of objects. |
3,558 | Error-Aware Design Procedure to Implement Hardware-Efficient Logarithmic Circuits | State-of-the-art accurate logarithmic circuits involve shift-and-add operations which demand a high area cost. In this brief, a design procedure to implement a hardware-efficient logarithmic circuit is proposed which eliminate the use of shift operations. Logarithmic function curve is approximated using multiple regions of unity slope straight lines by adjusting the intercepts. The proposed procedure determines the number of regions and the corresponding intercepts to implement logarithmic circuit for a desired error constraint. Six logarithmic circuits were realized using the design procedure which exhibited maximum absolute error of 0.029, 0.0175, 0.0083, 0.0026, 0.0021 and 0.00179. The designs were synthesized using 65nm CMOS technology. The proposed designs showed up to 83.60%, 91.76% and 94.56% reduction in energy, energy-delay product and area-delay-power product when compared with those of state-of-the-art logarithmic circuits of comparable error. |
3,559 | Hardware-Efficient and Short Sensing-Time Multicoset-Sampling Based Wideband Spectrum Sensor for Cognitive Radio Network | This work proposes implementation friendly algorithm for multicoset sampling based wideband spectrum sensing that alleviates computational space and enables parallel execution, incurring lower latency. Based on this proposed algorithm, we provide a new hardware-efficient VLSI architecture of wideband spectrum sensor (WSSR), which offers short sensing time while sensing the wideband spectrum. Additionally, this paper presents a comprehensive discussion of all the submodule micro-architectures of the proposed WSSR. Subsequently, extensive performance analyses performed in the AWGN channel environment have demonstrated that our WSSR delivers adequate detection probability of 0.9 at -5 dB of SNR. Furthermore, the proposed WSSR design also uses a Zynq UltraScale $+$ FPGA board with a 14.16 $\mu$ s sensing time and a 2.63 GHz maximum sensing bandwidth. Comparison of our hardware implementation results has shown that the proposed WSSR achieves 38.5% higher sensing bandwidth and 90% shorter sensing time, in comparison to the state-of-the-art work. Eventually, this paper concludes by showing the ASIC synthesis and post-layout simulation results of the proposed WSSR in 90 nm-CMOS technology, which senses 5.4 $\times$ wider bandwidth than the state-of-the-art implementation. |
3,560 | PuRe: Robust pupil detection for real-time pervasive eye tracking | Real-time, accurate, and robust pupil detection is an essential prerequisite to enable pervasive eye-tracking and its applications - e.g., gaze-based human computer interaction, health monitoring, foveated rendering, and advanced driver assistance. However, automated pupil detection has proved to be an intricate task in real-world scenarios due to a large mixture of challenges such as quickly changing illumination and occlusions. In this paper, we introduce the Reconstructor (PuRe), a method for pupil detection in pervasive scenarios based on a novel edge segment selection and conditional segment combination schemes; the method also includes a confidence measure for the detected pupil. The proposed method was evaluated on over 316,000 images acquired with four distinct head-mounted eye tracking devices. Results show a pupil detection rate improvement of over 10 percentage points w.r.t. state-of-the-art algorithms in the two most challenging data sets (6.46 for all data sets), further pushing the envelope for pupil detection. Moreover, we advance the evaluation protocol of pupil detection algorithms by also considering eye images in which pupils are not present and contributing a new data set of mostly closed eyes images. In this aspect, PuRe improved precision and specificity w.r.t. state-of-the-art algorithms by 25.05 and 10.94 percentage points, respectively, demonstrating the meaningfulness of PuRe's confidence measure. PuRe operates in real-time for modern eye trackers (at 120 fps) and is fully integrated into EyeRecToo - an open-source state-of-the-art software for pervasive head-mounted eye tracking. The proposed method and data set are available at http://www.ti.uni-tuebingen.de/perception. |
3,561 | The rate and role of pseudogenes of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex | Whole-genome sequence analyses have significantly contributed to the understanding of virulence and evolution of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), the causative pathogens of tuberculosis. Most MTBC evolutionary studies are focused on single nucleotide polymorphisms and deletions, but rare studies have evaluated gene content, whereas none has comprehensively evaluated pseudogenes. Accordingly, we describe an extensive study focused on quantifying and predicting possible functions of MTBC and Mycobacterium canettii pseudogenes. Using NCBI's PGAP-detected pseudogenes, we analysed 25 837 pseudogenes from 158 MTBC and M. canetii strains and combined transcriptomics and proteomics of M. tuberculosis H37Rv to gain insights about pseudogenes' expression. Our results indicate significant variability concerning rate and conservancy of in silico predicted pseudogenes among different ecotypes and lineages of tuberculous mycobacteria and pseudogenization of important virulence factors and genes of the metabolism and antimicrobial resistance/tolerance. We show that in silico predicted pseudogenes contribute considerably to MTBC genetic diversity at the population level. Moreover, the transcription machinery of M. tuberculosis can fully transcribe most pseudogenes, indicating intact promoters and recent pseudogene evolutionary emergence. Proteomics of M. tuberculosis and close evaluation of mutational lesions driving pseudogenization suggest that few in silico predicted pseudogenes are likely capable of neofunctionalization, nonsense mutation reversal, or phase variation, contradicting the classical definition of pseudogenes. Such findings indicate that genome annotation should be accompanied by proteomics and protein function assays to improve its accuracy. While indels and insertion sequences are the main drivers of the observed mutational lesions in these species, population bottlenecks and genetic drift are likely the evolutionary processes acting on pseudogenes' emergence over time. Our findings unveil a new perspective on MTBC's evolution and genetic diversity. |
3,562 | Association Between Obesity and Blood Pressure Among Iranian Children and Adolescents: A Sub-analysis from the SHED LIGHT Study | Childhood obesity has become a major non-communicable disease worldwide. It is associated with an increased risk of cardiometabolic factors, including diabetes and hypertension (HTN). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between obesity and HTN among Iranian children and adolescents. Cross-sectional data from the SHED LIGHT study performed in Tehran urban area were used in this report. The anthropometric values and blood pressure were analyzed. The obesity status was identified based on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). The blood pressure status was defined using percentiles for height, age, and sex. A total of 14,641 children with a mean age of 12.28 ± 3.1 years (6-18) were assessed, and 52.8% of them were boys. The prevalence of HTN was higher among obese compared to healthy weight subjects (p < 0.001). HTN had the strongest association with the central obesity by WC (odds ratio [OR] 4.098, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.549-4.732), generalized obesity by BMI (OR 3.000, 95% CI 2.749-3.274), and central obesity by WHtR (OR 2.683, 95% CI 2.451-2.936). Moreover, parental university education, having studied in private schools, and the smaller number of household children increased the risk of obesity. The rate of HTN was high among children and adolescents with generalized and central obesities. HTN, elevated blood pressure, boy gender, and socioeconomic status were associated with obesity, emphasizing on the importance of screening and implementing lifestyle changes to decrease future risk of cardiovascular diseases. |
3,563 | IPSS-M has greater survival predictive accuracy compared with IPSS-R in persons ≥ 60 years with myelodysplastic syndromes | There are considerable new data on mutation topography in persons with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). These data have been used to update conventional risk models such as the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R). Whether the molecular IPSS (IPSS-M) which includes these data improves survival prediction accuracy is untested. To answer this question, we compared survival prediction accuracies of the IPSS-R and IPSS-M in 852 consecutive subjects with de novo MDS. Concordance statistics (C-statistics) of the IPSS-R and IPSS-M in the entire cohort were similar, 0.67 (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0.64, 0.71) and 0.68 (0.64, 0.71). Average numbers of mutations and of IPSS-M related mutations were greater in persons ≥ 60 years (2.0 [Interquartile Range [IQR], 1, 3] vs. 1.6 [0, 2], P = 0.003; 1.6 [0, 2] vs. 1.3 [0, 2], P = 0.006). Subjects ≥ 60 years had a higher incidence of mutations in RUNX1, TP53, TET2, SRSF2, DNMT3A, STAG2, EZH2 and DDX41. In contrast, mutations in U2AF1 were more common in persons < 60 years. Next we tested survival prediction accuracy based on age < or ≥ 60 years. C-statistics of the IPSS-R and IPSS-M in subjects ≥ 60 years were 0.66 (0.61, 0.71) and 0.69 (0.64, 0.73) whereas in subjects < 60 years they were 0.67 (0.61, 0.72) and 0.65 (0.59, 0.71). These data indicate an advantage for the IPSS-M over the IPSS-R in subjects ≥ 60 years but not in those < 60 years probably because of a great frequency of mutations correlated with survival in those ≥ 60 years. |
3,564 | Leveraging Spatial Correlation for Sensor Drift Calibration in Smart Building | Sensor drift is an intractable obstacle to practical temperature measurement in smart building. In this article, we propose a sensor spatial correlation model. Given prior knowledge, maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation is performed to calibrate drifts. MAP is formulated as a nonconvex problem with three hyper-parameters. An alternating-based method is proposed to solve this nonconvex formulation. Cross-validation, Gibbs expectation-maximization (EM) and variational Bayesian EM (VB-EM) are further exploited to determine hyper-parameters. Experimental results on widely used benchmarks from the simulator EnergyPlus demonstrate that compared with state-of-the-art methods, the proposed framework can achieve a robust drift calibration and a better tradeoff between accuracy and runtime. On average, compared with state-of-the-art, the proposed framework can achieve about 3x accuracy improvement. In order to attain the same drift calibration accuracy with VB-EM, Gibbs EM needs 10 000 samples, which will incur a 30x runtime overhead. |
3,565 | Joint Detection and Matching of Feature Points in Multimodal Images | In this work, we propose a novel Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture for the joint detection and matching of feature points in images acquired by different sensors using a single forward pass. The resulting feature detector is tightly coupled with the feature descriptor, in contrast to classical approaches (SIFT, etc.), where the detection phase precedes and differs from computing the descriptor. Our approach utilizes two CNN subnetworks, the first being a Siamese CNN and the second, consisting of dual non-weight-sharing CNNs. This allows simultaneous processing and fusion of the joint and disjoint cues in the multimodal image patches. The proposed approach is experimentally shown to outperform contemporary state-of-the-art schemes when applied to multiple datasets of multimodal images. It is also shown to provide repeatable feature points detections across multi-sensor images, outperforming state-of-the-art detectors. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first unified approach for the detection and matching of such images. |
3,566 | Flamenco Tourism from the Viewpoint of Its Protagonists: A Sustainable Vision Using Lean Startup Methodology | Flamenco is an art born in and inextricably associated with Andalusia in the south of Spain. The purity, the feelings it transmits, and the originality of its expression have made it known worldwide and it has been declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO. This declaration, combined with the Spain's tourist boom in the last years, has transformed this exclusive art into an important tourist industry with all the entailing perils for its survival. By means of the Lean Canvas model, combined with a survey of a panel of flamenco experts (especially artists), this study analyzed the fundamental factors that are key to developing a tourism product that, while respectful of its essence, offers tourists a genuine and quality product. |
3,567 | Real-time object recognition using local features on a DSP-based embedded system | In the last few years, object recognition has become one of the most popular tasks in computer vision. In particular, this was driven by the development of new powerful algorithms for local appearance based object recognition. So-called "smart cameras" with enough power for decentralized image processing became more and more popular for all kinds of tasks, especially in the field of surveillance. Recognition is a very important tool as the robust recognition of suspicious vehicles, persons or objects is a matter of public safety. This simply makes the deployment of recognition capabilities on embedded platforms necessary. In our work we investigate the task of object recognition based on state-of-the-art algorithms in the context of a DSP-based embedded system. We implement several powerful algorithms for object recognition, namely an interest point detector together with an region descriptor, and build a medium-sized object database based on a vocabulary tree, which is suitable for our dedicated hardware setup. We carefully investigate the parameters of the algorithm with respect to the performance on the embedded platform. We show that state-of-the-art object recognition algorithms can be successfully deployed on nowadays smart cameras, even with strictly limited computational and memory resources. |
3,568 | ILLUMINATION OF PAINTINGS, GRAPHIC ARTS, PRINTED PRODUCTS, PHOTOGRAPHS: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS | The article analyses the major problems of museum lighting. Possible technical solutions to the mentioned problems relating to each type of exhibited artworks are detailed. The results of the studies used as a basis for these solutions are described. |
3,569 | Successful treatment of a brachial artery pseudoaneurysm in a brachiobasilic arteriovenous fistula using ultrasound-guided manual compression | Pseudoaneurysm is a well-recognized complication seen in arteriovenous fistula (AVF) which usually involves the venous segments. Ultrasound-guided manual compression (UGMC) is a non-invasive and effective treatment for the management of pseudoaneurysms involving the venous segment. Pseudoaneurysm of the arterial segment of AVF is rare complication which usually needs surgical intervention. We report the first successful treatment case of a brachial artery pseudoaneurysm in a brachiobasilic arteriovenous fistula using ultrasound-guided manual compression. The patient presented with a 30 × 30 mm pulsatile swelling below the cubital fossa after second session of hemodialysis using an AVF created 8 weeks earlier. Ultrasound doppler demonstrated a brachial artery pseudoaneurysm in the non-transposed brachiobasilic fistula. Complete occlusion of the cavity with thrombus formation was accomplished after 55 min of compression and the psuedoaneurysm did not recur. UGMC can be an alternative treatment option for select cases of arterial segment pseudoaneurysm in AVF. |
3,570 | Efficient realization of reconfigurable FIR filter using the new coefficient representation | In this paper, efficient reconfigurable finite-impulse response (FIR) filter architecture is presented based on a new coefficient representation method. The proposed binary signed subcoefficient method increases the common subexpressions and decrease the hardware usage and complexity. FPGA synthesis results of the designed two reconfigurable FIR filter architectures show that 33% and 27% reductions in the resources usage are achievable over the previously reported two state of the art reconfigurable architectures. |
3,571 | Analyzing Gas Data Using Deep Learning and 2-D Gramian Angular Fields | The notion of employing deep learning (DL) for gas classification has kindled a revolution that has improved both data collection measures and classification performance. Yet, the current literature, with its vast contributions, has the potential in enhancing the current state of the art by employing both DL and novel visualization methods to boost classification performance and speed. Therefore, this article presents a dual classification system for high-performance gas classification: on 1-D time series data and 2-D Gramian Angular Field (GAF) data. For the GAF case study, 1-D data are converted into 2-D counterparts by means of normalization, segmentation, averaging, and color coding. The gas sensor array (GSA) dataset is used for evaluating the implemented AlexNet model for classifying 2-D GAF data and an improved version of GasNet for 1-D time-based data. Using a cloud-based architecture, the two models are evaluated and benchmarked with the state of the art. Evaluation results of the modified GasNet model on time series data signify the state-of-the-art accuracy of 96.5%, while AlexNet achieved 81.0% test accuracy of GAF classification with near real-time performance on edge computing platforms. |
3,572 | Isolated Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Site Metastasis From Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma | Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) is a relatively uncommon malignancy due to the human papillomavirus or environmental factors such as excessive alcohol or tobacco use. Its most common metastatic locations are the lungs, bone, and liver. We are reporting a much more exceedingly rare site, a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) site. HNSCC metastases and recurrences are commonly seen; however, they present complex challenges to manage successfully. Our presenting patient had an initial diagnosis of hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and then developed an isolated metachronous metastatic tumor at the site of his gastrostomy tract approximately one year later. |
3,573 | High-Throughput Variable-to-Fixed Entropy Codec Using Selective, Stochastic Code Forests | Efficient high-throughput (HT) compression algorithms are paramount to meet the stringent constraints of present and upcoming data storage, processing, and transmission systems. In particular, latency, bandwidth and energy requirements are critical for those systems. Most HT codecs are designed to maximize compression speed, and secondarily to minimize compressed lengths. On the other hand, decompression speed is often equally or more critical than compression speed, especially in scenarios where decompression is performed multiple times and/or at critical parts of a system. In this work, an algorithm to design variable-to-fixed (VF) codes is proposed that prioritizes decompression speed. Stationary Markov analysis is employed to generate multiple, jointly optimized codes (denoted code forests). Their average compression efficiency is on par with the state of the art in VF codes, e.g., within 1% of Yamamoto et al.'s algorithm. The proposed code forest structure enables the implementation of highly efficient codecs, with decompression speeds 3.8 times faster than other state-of-the-art HT entropy codecs with equal or better compression ratios for natural data sources. Compared to these HT codecs, the proposed forests yields similar compression efficiency and speeds. |
3,574 | Matrine induces hepatocellular carcinoma apoptosis and represses EMT and stemness through microRNA-299-3p/PGAM1 axis | This study explored the impacts of matrine on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell growth, metastasis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and stemness through regulating the microRNA (miR)-299-3p/phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1) axis. The association between miR-299-3p expression with the prognosis of HCC patients was studied. miR-299-3p and PGAM1 sequences were transfected into matrine-treated HCC cells, and cell proliferation, invasion, apoptosis, and stemness were detected, as well as protein expression of EMT- and stemness-related makers. The targeting relationship between miR-299-3p and PGAM1 was identified. Matrine elevated miR-299-3p expression, repressed proliferation, invasion, and anti-apoptosis of HCC cells, and constrained EMT and stemness in vitro. PGAM1 was a target of miR-299-3p. Repression of PGAM1 rescued the effects of miR-299-3p downregulation on HCC cells. Matrine stimulates HCC cell apoptosis and represses the process of EMT and stemness through the miR-299-3p/PGAM1 axis. |
3,575 | Localized radiation necrosis model in mouse brain using proton ion beams | Brain radiation necrosis is the most serious late adverse event that occurs after 6 months following radiation therapy. Effective treatment for this irreversible brain necrosis has not been established yet. This study tries to establish brain radiation necrosis mouse model using proton or helium beam. The right cerebral hemispheres of C57BL/6J mouse brains were irradiated at doses of 40, 50, 60 Gy with charged particles. In 60 Gy group, brain necrosis that recapitulates human disease was detected after 8 months. |
3,576 | The origin of carbonate mud and implications for global climate | Carbonate mud represents one of the most important geochemical archives for reconstructing ancient climatic, environmental, and evolutionary change from the rock record. Mud also represents a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Yet, there remains no consensus about how and where carbonate mud is formed. Here, we present stable isotope and trace-element data from carbonate constituents in the Bahamas, including ooids, corals, foraminifera, and algae. We use geochemical fingerprinting to demonstrate that carbonate mud cannot be sourced from the abrasion and mixture of any combination of these macroscopic grains. Instead, an inverse Bayesian mixing model requires the presence of an additional aragonite source. We posit that this source represents a direct seawater precipitate. We use geological and geochemical data to show that "whitings" are unlikely to be the dominant source of this precipitate and, instead, present a model for mud precipitation on the bank margins that can explain the geographical distribution, clumped-isotope thermometry, and stable isotope signature of carbonate mud. Next, we address the enigma of why mud and ooids are so abundant in the Bahamas, yet so rare in the rest of the world: Mediterranean outflow feeds the Bahamas with the most alkaline waters in the modern ocean (>99.7th-percentile). Such high alkalinity appears to be a prerequisite for the nonskeletal carbonate factory because, when Mediterranean outflow was reduced in the Miocene, Bahamian carbonate export ceased for 3-million-years. Finally, we show how shutting off and turning on the shallow carbonate factory can send ripples through the global climate system. |
3,577 | Cannabis Use and Heart Transplantation: Disparities and Opportunities to Improve Outcomes | Heart transplantation (HT) remains the optimal therapy for many patients with advanced heart failure. Use of substances of potential abuse has historically been a contraindication to HT. Decriminalization of cannabis, increasing cannabis use, clinician biases, and lack of consensus for evaluating patients with heart failure who use cannabis all have the potential to exacerbate racial and ethnic and regional disparities in HT listing and organ allocation. Here' we review pertinent pre-HT and post-HT considerations related to cannabis use' and relative attitudes between opiates and cannabis are offered for context. We conclude with identifying unmet research needs pertaining to the use of cannabis in HT that can inform a standardized evaluation process. |
3,578 | Quantum statistic based semi-supervised learning approach for industrial soft sensor development | Unlike process variables which can be easily measured online, quality variables are often hard to be collected. Therefore, only a small proportion of soft sensor inputs are attached with quality related output labels. The semi supervised learning mechanism can elegantly incorporate unlabeled input samples for soft sensor improvement and hence has become popular. In this work, a novel mechanism called quantum statistic is incorporated with semi-supervised learning by quantum states. The quantum states are constructed by superposing conventional pure states with composite states and the extended state space as the complements could be more desirable for representing state uncertainties of incomplete labels. Based on that, a quantum statistical based semi-supervised soft sensor is developed. The quantum statistic based model is comprehensively compared with the conventional state-of-the-art method in a numerical example and an industrial process. Results demonstrate that the proposed soft sensor is more effective and stable than the traditional state-of-art method. |
3,579 | Penetration of the posterior interosseous nerve fibers into the dorsal capsule of the wrist - a new perspective on wrist innervation | The dorsal capsule of the wrist and the DCSS may play a significant role in the conduction of nerve signals transmitted from proprioceptors present in SL to PIN, which is located above the dorsal capsule. Hence, this study aimed to determine if nerve fibers of PIN penetrate inside the dorsal capsule. The dorsal capsules of the wrist were dissected from both sides from 15 cadavers. Eventually, 30 dorsal capsules were dissected. It can be concluded that the PIN nerve fibers penetrate the dorsal capsule of the wrist, as the penetration was noticeable in every part evaluated. The present study proves that afferent fibers from the mechanoreceptors of the SLIL potentially pass through the DCSS and subsequently through the dorsal capsule of the wrist to the PIN. This knowledge can surely be of great use for hand surgeons that perform procedures on the dorsal wrist. |
3,580 | Geoelectric investigations into sandstone moisture regimes: Implications for rock weathering and the deterioration of San Rock Art in the Golden Gate Reserve, South Africa | The Clarens sandstone in the Golden Gate Reserve, South Africa, is the canvas for a collection of San (Bushmen) Rock Art, dating from Neolithic times until as recently as 150 years ago. This Rock Art is under threat from human interference but also, to a greater degree, from weathering processes on the rock surface. The dominant weathering processes occurring in the rock shelters which host the Rock Art are flaking and honeycombing. Two rock shelter sites in the Reserve have been investigated using electric resistivity tomography (ERT) and supportive methods for measuring surface moisture (Protimeter) and surface hardness (Equotip). These non-destructive techniques can be used in situ to assess the extent of weathering within a rock outcrop and are especially suited for investigations in sensitive areas such as Rock Art sites. Moisture movement has been mapped and related to the weathering processes observed on the surface. The aim of the study is to aid Rock Art conservation in the Golden Gate Reserve through a better understanding of the driving processes of surface weathering. The evidence shows that the extensive flaking and honeycombing found in the rock shelters is most likely caused by water pockets in the near-surface zone, which are replenished through internal moisture transport, driving the superficial weathering processes. These weathering processes pose a significant problem: Rock Art in the Golden Gate Reserve shows severe deterioration due to flaking. Conservation strategies should therefore take internal processes into account as much as their superficial expression. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
3,581 | Disruption of glucocorticoid receptors in the noradrenergic system leads to BDNF up-regulation and altered serotonergic transmission associated with a depressive-like phenotype in female GR(DBHCre) mice | Recently, we have demonstrated that conditional inactivation of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in the noradrenergic system, may evoke depressive-like behavior in female but not male mutant mice (GR(DBHCre) mice). The aim of the current study was to dissect how selective ablation of glucocorticoid signaling in the noradrenergic system influences the previously reported depressive-like phenotype and whether it might be linked to neurotrophic alterations or secondary changes in the serotonergic system. We demonstrated that selective depletion of GRs enhances brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in female but not male GR(DBHCre) mice on both the mRNA and protein levels. The possible impact of the mutation on brain noradrenergic and serotonergic systems was addressed by investigating the tissue neurotransmitter levels under basal conditions and after acute restraint stress. The findings indicated a stress-provoked differential response in tissue noradrenaline content in the GR(DBHCre) female but not male mutant mice. An analogous gender-specific effect was identified in the diminished content of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, the main metabolite of serotonin, in the prefrontal cortex, which suggests down-regulation of this monoamine system in female GR(DBHCre) mice. The lack of GR also resulted in an up-regulation of alpha2-adrenergic receptor (α2-AR) density in the female but not male mutants in the locus coeruleus. We have also confirmed the utility of the investigated model in pharmacological studies, which demonstrates that the depressive-like phenotype of GR(DBHCre) female mice can be reversed by antidepressant treatment with desipramine or fluoxetine, with the latter drug evoking more pronounced effects. Overall, our study validates the use of female GR(DBHCre) mice as an interesting and novel genetic tool for the investigation of the cross-connected mechanisms of depression that is not only based on behavioral phenotypes. |
3,582 | Lightweight Single Image Super-Resolution With Multi-Scale Spatial Attention Networks | Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) generally provide higher performance gain for single image super-resolution (SISR) as the depth and number of parameters are increasing. However, just increasing the layers of straightforward deep networks has a problem that it requires an impractically large number of parameters for obtaining state-of-the-art performance. Instead, some researchers proposed lightweight networks, which is designed with more sophisticated network structures for achieving better performance than the straightforward networks at the same parameter requirement. In this paper, we propose new lightweight Multi-scale Spatial Attention Networks (MSAN) for SISR, which attempt to bring out a better performance from the relatively small number of parameters. Specifically, we adopt a dense connection with feature fusion layers to broadcast abundant features to every level of layers, and propose a double residual structure that provides an additional skip-connection. We also design a Multi-scale Spatial Attention Block (MSAB) to exploit multi-scale spatial contextual information. Furthermore, we introduce a spatial attention module which adaptively focuses on the most informative feature scale in a given region of the image. In the experiments, we validate that the proposed MSAN achieves significant accuracy compared to recent lightweight models and comparable performance to the state-of-the-art methods. |
3,583 | Sedimentary and environmental conditions of Al-Rassafeh Badyieh (Area-2), Syria through aerial gamma ray spectrometry and multifractal techniques | The interpretation of aerial gamma ray spectrometry in term of geological and environmental analysis is undertaken herein through applying a specific methodology including different radioactive and statistical techniques for characterizing the sedimentary and environmental conditions of the Al-Rassafeh Badyieh (Area-2), Syria. The radioactive technique uses the uranium favorability index (UI) and alteration(F) parameters, that are evaluated through analyzing the relationships between eU, eTh, K and their ratios (eTh/eU, eU/eK, and eTh/eK) for the nine scored lithological units already determined in the study area. The statistical technique applies the non linear multifractal approach with the concentration-number model (C-N) and log-log graphs to differentiate between different radioactive ranges of UI and F parameters. The radioactive element re-distribution, the favorability as regards uranium potentiality, and the degree of uranium remobilization are separately estimated and documented for the nine scored lithological units. Those units show a limited uranium remobilization and redistribution. The sedimentary and environmental conditions of the Area-2 are clarified through analyzing the eTh/eU ratio, where marine and continental environments are indicated in the study region. |
3,584 | Fine metal mask material and manufacturing process for high-resolution active-matrix organic light-emitting diode displays | Manufacturing fine metal mask (FMM) is one of the biggest hurdles to realize the ultra-high definition (UHD) grade AMOLED displays for smartphone and augmented reality (AR). We have developed the state-of-the-art material and processing technology to achieve 800ppi or higher-resolution FMMs. The Invar thinning and the thermal damage-free laser ablation process realized us achieving the FMM for UHD displays. |
3,585 | Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on rheumatology trainees: an online survey | To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the training of rheumatology trainees. We conducted an observational cross-sectional study using an online survey-based questionnaire sent to rheumatology trainees in India. Rheumatology trainees from India, including DM/DNB residents and fellows, were included. A total of 78 trainees from 24 institutes in 12 states participated in the study. An overwhelming majority of residents (84%) felt COVID-19 Pandemic Negatively impacted their residency and their Physical (65%), Mental (74%) and Social well-being (80%); 79% of trainees felt burnt out. Majority of trainees felt the pandemic negatively impacted their training with clinical teaching (91%), Clinical examination skills (74%), current (80%) and future (70%) research opportunities suffering during the pandemic. Most had significant reduction in the overall footfall (72%) of patients in rheumatology including OPD (77%) and indoor (67%) admissions along with academics (35%), procedures (66%) and exposure to musculoskeletal ultrasound (71%). Almost 60% and 40% of trainees had OPDs, and indoor admissions stopped during COVID-19 pandemic of these 20% had OPDs, and Admissions closed for more than 6 months. 85% of participants had one or the other psychological symptoms with almost half experiencing anxiety (44%), low mood (47%) or lack of sleep (41%). We found The COVID-19 Pandemic has significantly affected the physical, social and mental well-being of Rheumatology trainees. Academic and clinical training reduced, current and future Research became difficult, disruptions in OPDs and Admissions, recurrent COVID postings and reduction in patient footfall, procedures and MSK-US have been detrimental to trainees. |
3,586 | A data-driven and topological mapping approach for the a priori prediction of stable molecular crystalline hydrates | Predictions of the structures of stoichiometric, fractional, or nonstoichiometric hydrates of organic molecular crystals are immensely challenging due to the extensive search space of different water contents, host molecular placements throughout the crystal, and internal molecular conformations. However, the dry frameworks of these hydrates, especially for nonstoichiometric or isostructural dehydrates, can often be predicted from a standard anhydrous crystal structure prediction (CSP) protocol. Inspired by developments in the field of drug binding, we introduce an efficient data-driven and topologically aware approach for predicting organic molecular crystal hydrate structures through a mapping of water positions within the crystal structure. The method does not require a priori specification of water content and can, therefore, predict stoichiometric, fractional, and nonstoichiometric hydrate structures. This approach, which we term a mapping approach for crystal hydrates (MACH), establishes a set of rules for systematic determination of favorable positions for water insertion within predicted or experimental crystal structures based on considerations of the chemical features of local environments and void regions. The proposed approach is tested on hydrates of three pharmaceutically relevant compounds that exhibit diverse crystal packing motifs and void environments characteristic of hydrate structures. Overall, we show that our mapping approach introduces an advance in the efficient performance of hydrate CSP through generation of stable hydrate stoichiometries at low cost and should be considered an integral component for CSP workflows. |
3,587 | A Power-Efficient Multichannel Neural Stimulator Using High-Frequency Pulsed Excitation From an Unfiltered Dynamic Supply | This paper presents a neural stimulator system that employs a fundamentally different way of stimulating neural tissue compared to classical constant current stimulation. A stimulation pulse is composed of a sequence of current pulses injected at a frequency of 1 MHz for which the duty cycle is used to control the stimulation intensity. The system features 8 independent channels that connect to any of the 16 electrodes at the output. A sophisticated control system allows for individual control of each channel's stimulation and timing parameters. This flexibility makes the system suitable for complex electrode configurations and current steering applications. Simultaneous multichannel stimulation is implemented using a high frequency alternating technique, which reduces the amount of electrode switches by a factor 8. The system has the advantage of requiring a single inductor as its only external component. Furthermore it offers a high power efficiency, which is nearly independent on both the voltage over the load as well as on the number of simultaneously operated channels. Measurements confirm this: in multichannel mode the power efficiency can be increased for specific cases to 40% compared to 20% that is achieved by state-of-the-art classical constant current stimulators with adaptive power supply. |
3,588 | Radiation-induced NF-κB activation is involved in cochlear damage in mice via promotion of a local inflammatory response | The radiation-induced inflammatory response is involved in radiation damage to the cochlea and causes sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). NF-κB, as the master switch of the inflammatory response, regulates the expression of many inflammation-related genes and thus the inflammatory response. Therefore, in this study we used a mouse model to determine whether radiation-induced NF-κB activation is involved in damage to the cochlea and to investigate the underlying mechanism. Eventually, we found that NF-κB was activated after radiation of the cochleae and the activation reached a maximum at 2-6 h after radiation. And morphological analysis showed severe damage to the cochleae after radiation, but this damage was significantly ameliorated by JSH-23 (an inhibitor of NF-κB) pretreatment. Along with these morphological changes, the expression levels of proinflammatory molecules (including proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, TNF-α, COX-2 and inflammation-related proteins VCAM-1, MIP-1β) in the cochlear tissues were significantly increased after radiation, but were significantly decreased by JSH-23 pretreatment compared to radiation alone. Therefore, these results indicated that radiation-induced NF-κB activation was involved in damage to the cochleae and resultant SNHL via its promotion of the inflammatory response mediated by overexpression of some proinflammatory molecules in cochlear tissues, and inhibition of radiation-induced NF-κB was conducive to preventing such damage. |
3,589 | Modified Aerotaxy for the Plug-in Manufacture of Cell-Penetrating Fenton Nanoagents for Reinforcing Chemodynamic Cancer Therapy | The assemblies of anisotropic nanomaterials have attracted considerable interest in advanced tumor therapeutics because of the extended surfaces for loading of active molecules and the extraordinary responses to external stimuli for combinatorial therapies. These nanomaterials were usually constructed through templated or seed-mediated hydrothermal reactions, but the lack of uniformity in size and morphology, as well as the process complexities from multiple separation and purification steps, impede their practical use in cancer nanotherapy. Gas-phase epitaxy, also called aerotaxy (AT), has been introduced as an innovative method for the continuous assembly of anisotropic nanomaterials with a uniform distribution. This process does not require expensive crystal substrates and high vacuum conditions. Nevertheless, AT has been used limitedly to build high-aspect-ratio semiconductor nanomaterials. With these considerations, a modified AT was designed for the continuous in-flight assembly of the cell-penetrating Fenton nanoagents (Mn-Fe CaCO3 (AT) and Mn-Fe SiO2 (AT)) in a single-pass gas flow because cellular internalization activity is essential for cancer nanotherapeutics. The modified AT of Mn-Fe CaCO3 and Mn-Fe SiO2 to generate surface nanoroughness significantly enhanced the cellular internalization capability because of the preferential contact mode with the cancer cell membrane for Fenton reaction-induced apoptosis. In addition, it was even workable for doxorubicin (DOX)-resistant cancer cells after DOX loading on the nanoagents. After combining with immune-checkpoint blockers (antiprogrammed death-ligand 1 antibodies), the antitumor effect was improved further with no systemic toxicity as chemo-immuno-chemodynamic combination therapeutics despite the absence of targeting ligands and external stimuli. |
3,590 | Potential human health risk assessment of microplastic exposure: current scenario and future perspectives | The vast usage of synthetic plastics has led to the global problem of plastic pollution which in turn has positively impacted the concerns regarding microplastic pollution. The major factor responsible for the increased level of pollution is the smaller size of microplastics which helps in its transportation across the globe. It has been found in most remote areas like glaciers and Antarctic regions where it is difficult for other contaminants to reach. This is ensured by the physicochemical cycle of plastic. They can either be produced for different applications or generated through the fragmentation of large plastic particles. Different studies have shown the accumulation of microplastics in different organisms, especially in aquatic animals leading to their entry into the food chain. The ultimate fate of the microplastics is accumulation inside the human body posing the risk of different health conditions like cancer, diabetes, and allergic reactions. The present review summarizes a detailed discussion on the current status of microplastic pollution, their effect on different organisms, and its impact on human health with a case study on the human health risk assessment for analyzing the global rate of microplastic ingestion. |
3,591 | Bi-Linear Modeling of Data Manifolds for Dynamic-MRI Recovery | This paper puts forth a novel bi-linear modeling framework for data recovery via manifold-learning and sparse-approximation arguments and considers its application to dynamic magnetic-resonance imaging (dMRI). Each temporal-domain MR image is viewed as a point that lies onto or close to a smooth manifold, and landmark points are identified to describe the point cloud concisely. To facilitate computations, a dimensionality reduction module generates low-dimensional/compressed renditions of the landmark points. Recovery of high-fidelity MRI data is realized by solving a non-convex minimization task for the linear decompression operator and affine combinations of landmark points which locally approximate the latent manifold geometry. An algorithm with guaranteed convergence to stationary solutions of the non-convex minimization task is also provided. The aforementioned framework exploits the underlying spatio-temporal patterns and geometry of the acquired data without any prior training on external data or information. Extensive numerical results on simulated as well as real cardiac-cine MRI data illustrate noteworthy improvements of the advocated machine-learning framework over state-of-the-art reconstruction techniques. |
3,592 | Halloween Educational Robotics | Today's society is facing new challenges and opportunities that demand professional profiles specialized in problem solving, with the ability to innovate and exploit the possibilities offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs). Far from being a novelty, the term STEM was coined in the mid-1990s. From then until now, there are a multitude of initiatives focusing on working STEM education with students. In recent years, the use of the arts as an enhancer of the educational experience has been incorporated into STEM education. There has also been a focus on involving the student in the educational process. Despite this, few experiences have been detected in which parents are involved in the educational process. Throughout this work, it is shown the pilot experience which has been developed to motivate parents to be part of the learning process in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) subjects. |
3,593 | Advancing the missed mutualist hypothesis, the under-appreciated twin of the enemy release hypothesis | Introduced species often benefit from escaping their enemies when they are transported to a new range, an idea commonly expressed as the enemy release hypothesis. However, species might shed mutualists as well as enemies when they colonize a new range. Loss of mutualists might reduce the success of introduced populations, or even cause failure to establish. We provide the first quantitative synthesis testing this natural but often overlooked parallel of the enemy release hypothesis, which is known as the missed mutualist hypothesis. Meta-analysis showed that plants interact with 1.9 times more mutualist species, and have 2.3 times more interactions with mutualists per unit time in their native range than in their introduced range. Species may mitigate the negative effects of missed mutualists. For instance, selection arising from missed mutualists could cause introduced species to evolve either to facilitate interactions with a new suite of species or to exist without mutualisms. Just as enemy release can allow introduced populations to redirect energy from defence to growth, potentially evolving increased competitive ability, species that shift to strategies without mutualists may be able to reallocate energy from mutualism toward increased competitive ability or seed production. The missed mutualist hypothesis advances understanding of the selective forces and filters that act on plant species in the early stages of introduction and establishment and thus could inform the management of introduced species. |
3,594 | Determination of the urban rooftop photovoltaic potential: A state of the art | In today's world, the necessity of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to meet the global warming regulations has increased the demand for renewable energy sources. A notable portion of energy consumption is dedicated to urban environments. While solar energy is the most promising sustainable energy, urban environments can be considered as high-potential electricity producers by using rooftop-mounted photovoltaic systems. However, effective guidelines for optimal installation of solar photovoltaics remains a challenge. Although in recent years there has been a vast development of methods as well as improvement in availability of data sources. Since it is not always possible to apply the same techniques, specific approaches are needed for local, regional, or continental scales. It still remains to develop a uniform accurate multi-factor method that uses uniform open data sources to determine urban rooftop's photovoltaic potential. The aim of this paper is to make a complete systematic review of various developed methodologies published in the current state of the art, and identify vital factors for urban rooftop solar photovoltaic potential assessment as well as to detect the best available methods to create a complete global basis for future studies. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
3,595 | Comparing the potential for maternal-fetal signalling in oviparous and viviparous lizards | The evolution of a placenta requires several steps including changing the timing of reproductive events, facilitating nutrient exchange, and the capacity for maternal-fetal communication. To understand the evolution of maternal-fetal communication, we used ligand-receptor gene expression as a proxy for the potential for cross-talk in a live-bearing lizard (Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii) and homologous tissues in a related egg-laying lizard (Lampropholis guichenoti). Approximately 70% of expressed ligand/receptor genes were shared by both species. Gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that there was no GO-enrichment in the fetal membranes of the egg-laying species, but live-bearing fetal tissues were significantly enriched for 50 GO-terms. Differences in enrichment suggest that the evolution of viviparity involved reinforcing specific signalling pathways, perhaps to support fetal control of placentation. One identified change was in transforming growth factor beta signalling. Using immunohistochemistry, we show the production of the signalling molecule inhibin beta B (INHBB) occurs in viviparous fetal membranes but was absent in closely related egg-laying tissues, suggesting that the evolution of viviparity may have involved changes to signalling via this pathway. We argue that maternal-fetal signalling evolved through co-opting expressed signalling molecules and recruiting new signalling molecules to support the complex developmental changes required to support a fetus in utero. This article is part of the theme issue 'Extraembryonic tissues: exploring concepts, definitions and functions across the animal kingdom'. |
3,596 | Platinum-Based TREM2 Inhibitor Suppresses Tumors by Remodeling the Immunosuppressive Microenvironment | Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2) is a key pro-tumorigenic marker of tumor-infiltrating macrophages, showing potent immunosuppressive activity in tumor microenvironment. A platinum(IV) complex OPA derived from oxaliplatin (OP) and artesunate (ART) exhibited direct cytotoxicity against human colon cancer cells and immunomodulatory activity to inhibit TREM2 on macrophages in vitro and vivo. Furthermore, OPA deterred the tumor growth in mouse models bearing MC38 colorectal tumor by reducing the number of CD206+ and CX3 CR1+ immunosuppressive macrophages; it also promoted the expansion and infiltration of immunostimulatory dendritic, cytotoxic T, and natural killer cells. OPA is the first small-molecular TREM2 inhibitor capable of relieving immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and enhancing chemical anticancer efficiency of a platinum drug, thus showing typical characteristics of a chemoimmunotherapeutic agent. |
3,597 | Can drawing instruction help students with low visuospatial ability in learning anatomy? | Visuospatial skills are considered important attributes when learning anatomy and there is evidence suggesting that this ability can be improved with training techniques including drawing. The Mental Rotations Test (MRT) has been routinely used to assess visuospatial ability. This study aimed to introduce students to drawing as a learning strategy for anatomy. Undergraduate speech science anatomy students took part in a drawing tutorial (n = 92), completed an MRT test, pre- and post-tutorial tests, and surveys regarding their use and attitudes toward drawing as a study tool. The impact on their examination performance was then assessed. Regardless of MRT score or attitude to drawing, students who participated in the drawing tutorial demonstrated immediate improvement in post-tutorial test scores. Students in the drawing group performed better in most anatomy components of the examination, but the result did not reach statistical significance. There was only a positive correlation between MRT score and one type of anatomy question (non-image-based) and speech physics questions (r = 0.315, p = 0.002). The unexpected finding may relate to the MRT which assesses spatial rather than object visualization skills. Students who liked drawing also performed significantly better in word-based and speech physics questions. It is likely that the style of identification question did not require the mental manipulation ability assessed in the MRT. This study demonstrated that students with lower MRT scores are not outperformed in all aspects of anatomy assessment. The study highlights the importance of a more nuanced understanding of visuospatial skills required in anatomy. |
3,598 | VARID: Viewpoint-Aware Re-IDentification of Vehicle Based on Triplet Loss | With the increasing prevalence of intelligent traffic control and monitoring, research on vehicle re-identification (Re-ID) draws substantial attention in recent years. Different from other cross-view searching tasks such as person Re-ID, the vehicle Re-ID problem is more challenging and unpredictable as viewpoint variations can greatly affect the appearance of vehicles. Existing studies mainly focus on extracting global features based on visual appearance to represent the identity of the target vehicle, while the impact of viewpoint variation is rarely considered. In this paper, we take the view information into account to boost vehicle Re-ID, and introduce latent view labels by clustering and incorporates view information into deep metric learning to tackle the challenge. We also develop a stricter center constraint to further improve the intra-class compactness of feature space. Moreover, we adopt an orthogonal regularization to increase the separability between different vehicles. VARID achieves 79.3% mAP on VeRi-776 and 88.5% mAP on VehicleID which surpasses state-of-the-arts a lot. More comprehensive experimental analyses and evaluations on four benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms significantly state-of-the-arts methods. |
3,599 | Acquisition of orthographic forms via spoken complex word training | This study used a novel word-training paradigm to examine the integration of spoken word knowledge when learning to read morphologically complex novel words. Australian primary school children including Grades 3-5 were taught the oral form of a set of novel morphologically complex words (e.g., (/vɪbɪŋ/, /vɪbd/, /vɪbz/), with a second set serving as untrained items. Following oral training, participants saw the printed form of the novel word stems for the first time (e.g., vib), embedded in sentences, while their eye movements were monitored. Half of the stems were spelled predictably and half were spelled unpredictably. Reading times were shorter for orally trained stems with predictable than unpredictable spellings and this difference was greater for trained than untrained items. These findings suggest that children were able to form robust orthographic expectations of the embedded morphemic stems during spoken word learning, which may have occurred automatically without any explicit control of the applied mappings, despite still being in the early stages of reading development. Following the sentence reading task, children completed a reading-aloud task where they were exposed to the novel orthographic forms for a second time. The findings are discussed in the context of theories of reading acquisition. |
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