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3,700 | From Peptide Nucleic Acids to Supramolecular Structures of Nucleic Acid Derivatives | Nucleic acids play a pivotal role in life processes. The endeavours to shed light on the essential properties of these intriguing building blocks led us to the synthesis of different analogues and the investigation of their properties. First various peptide nucleic acid monomers and oligomers have been synthesized, using an Fmoc/acyl protecting group strategy, and their properties studied. The serendipitous discovery of a side reaction of coupling agents led us to the elaboration of a peptide sequencing method. The capricious behaviour of guanine derivatives spurred the determination of their substitution pattern using 13 C, 15 N NMR, and mass spectrometric methods. The properties of guanines initiated the logical transition to the study of supramolecular systems composed of purine analogues. Thus, xanthine and uracil derivatives have been obtained and their supramolecular self-assembly properties scrutinized in gas, solid, and liquid states and at solid-liquid interfaces. |
3,701 | Implicit Negative Sub-Categorization and Sink Diversion for Object Detection | In this paper, we focus on improving the proposal classification stage in the object detection task and present implicit negative sub-categorization and sink diversion to lift the performance by strengthening loss function in this stage. First, based on the observation that the "background" class is generally very diverse and thus challenging to be handled as a single indiscriminative class in existing state-of-the-art methods, we propose to divide the background category into multiple implicit sub-categories to explicitly differentiate diverse patterns within it. Second, since the ground truth class inevitably has low-value probability scores for certain images, we propose to add a "sink" class and divert the probabilities of wrong classes to this class when necessary, such that the ground truth label will still have a higher probability than other wrong classes even though it has low probability output. Additionally, we propose to use dilated convolution, which is widely used in the semantic segmentation task, for efficient and valuable context information extraction. Extensive experiments on PASCAL VOC 2007 and 2012 data sets show that our proposed methods based on faster R-CNN implementation can achieve state-of-the-art mAPs, i.e., 84.1%, 82.6%, respectively, and obtain 2.5% improvement on ILSVRC DET compared with that of ResNet. |
3,702 | Profiling transcriptional heterogeneity of epithelium, fibroblasts, and immune cells in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by single-cell RNA sequencing | Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies with complex tumor microenvironment (TME) which has been proven to be associated with therapeutic failure or resistance. A deeper understanding of the complex TME and cellular heterogeneity is urgently needed in ESCC. Here, we generated single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of 25 796 immune and 8197 non-immune cells from three primary tumor and paired normal samples in ESCC patients. The results revealed intratumoral and intertumoral epithelium heterogeneity and tremendously differences in tumor and normal epithelium. The infiltration of myofibroblasts, one subtype of fibroblasts, might play important roles in the progression of ESCC. We also found that some differentially expressed genes and markers in epithelium and fibroblast subtypes showed prognostic values for ESCC. Diverse cell subtypes of T cells and myeloid cells were identified, including tumor-enriched HAVCR2+ CD4+ T cells with significantly exhausted signature. The epithelium and myeloid cells had more frequent cell-cell communication compared with epithelium and T cells. Taken together, this study provided in-depth insights into the cellular heterogeneity of TME in ESCC and highlighted potential therapeutic targets including for immunotherapy. |
3,703 | Statistical Iterative CBCT Reconstruction Based on Neural Network | Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) plays an important role in radiation therapy. Statistical iterative reconstruction (SIR) algorithms with specially designed penalty terms provide good performance for low-dose CBCT imaging. Among others, the total variation (TV) penalty is the current state-of-the-art in removing noises and preserving edges, but one of its well-known limitations is its staircase effect. Recently, various penalty terms with higher order differential operators were proposed to replace the TV penalty to avoid the staircase effect, at the cost of slightly blurring object edges. We developed a novel SIR algorithm using a neural network for CBCT reconstruction. We used a data-driven method to learn the "potential regularization term" rather than design a penalty term manually. This approach converts the problem of designing a penalty term in the traditional statistical iterative framework to designing and training a suitable neural network for CBCT reconstruction. We proposed using transfer learning to overcome the data deficiency problem and an iterative deblurring approach specially designed for the CBCT iterative reconstruction process during which the noise level and resolution of the reconstructed images may change. Through experiments conducted on two physical phantoms, two simulation digital phantoms, and patient data, we demonstrated the excellent performance of the proposed network-based SIR for CBCT reconstruction, both visually and quantitatively. Our proposed method can overcome the staircase effect, preserve both edges and regions with smooth intensity transition, and provide reconstruction results at high resolution and low noise level. |
3,704 | Impact of Cell-surface Antigen Expression on Target Engagement and Function of an Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor × c-MET Bispecific Antibody | The efficacy of engaging multiple drug targets using bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) is affected by the relative cell-surface protein levels of the respective targets. In this work, the receptor density values were correlated to the in vitro activity of a BsAb (JNJ-61186372) targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and hepatocyte growth factor receptor (c-MET). Simultaneous binding of the BsAb to both receptors was confirmed in vitro. By using controlled Fab-arm exchange, a set of BsAbs targeting EGFR and c-MET was generated to establish an accurate receptor quantitation of a panel of lung and gastric cancer cell lines expressing heterogeneous levels of EGFR and c-MET. EGFR and c-MET receptor density levels were correlated to the respective gene expression levels as well as to the respective receptor phosphorylation inhibition values. We observed a bias in BsAb binding toward the more highly expressed of the two receptors, EGFR or c-MET, which resulted in the enhanced in vitro potency of JNJ-61186372 against the less highly expressed target. On the basis of these observations, we propose an avidity model of how JNJ-61186372 engages EGFR and c-MET with potentially broad implications for bispecific drug efficacy and design. |
3,705 | The effects of laser repetition rate on femtosecond laser ablation of dry bone: a thermal and LIBS study | The aim of this study is to understand the effect of varying laser repetition rate on thermal energy accumulation and dissipation as well as femtosecond Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (fsLIBS) signals, which may help create the framework for clinical translation of femtosecond lasers for surgical procedures. We study the effect of repetition rates on ablation widths, sample temperature, and LIBS signal of bone. SEM images were acquired to quantify the morphology of the ablated volume and fsLIBS was performed to characterize changes in signal intensity and background. We also report for the first time experimentally measured temperature distributions of bone irradiated with femtosecond lasers at repetition rates below and above carbonization conditions. While high repetition rates would allow for faster cutting, heat accumulation exceeds heat dissipation and results in carbonization of the sample. At repetition rates where carbonization occurs, the sample temperature increases to a level that is well above the threshold for irreversible cellular damage. These results highlight the importance of the need for careful selection of the repetition rate for a femtosecond laser surgery procedure to minimize the extent of thermal damage to surrounding tissues and prevent misclassification of tissue by fsLIBS analysis. |
3,706 | Hybrid buffers based coarse-grained power gated network on chip router microarchitecture | With the failure of Dennard's Scaling, we cannot power on all the transistors of an circuit simultaneously for a given thermal design power. In this paper, we propose coarse-grained power gated hybrid buffer based Network on Chip router microarchitecture which a large amount of Network on Chip router power and area is consumed by the FIFO buffers. State of the art NoC router buffers is composed of SRAM, which is neither power efficient nor area efficient. We have proposed hybrid buffers based coarse-grained power gated Network on Chip router microarchitecture. As STT-MRAM (Spin Transfer Torque Magneto-resistive Random Access Memory) provides an improved solution having near zero leakage power and higher package density. Our proposed router microarchitecture improves 12.3% average packet latency as compared to state of the art power gated SRAM based router and 4.90% as compared to the fine-grained power gated hybrid buffer based router respectively for PARSEC benchmarks. We have achieved 65% and 21.34% total network energy saving for PARSEC benchmarks as compared with one without power gating and state of the art power gated SRAM based router respectively. Our hybrid router is 35.10% area efficient as compare to pure SRAM based power gated router at 32nm technology node. |
3,707 | Biological and Chemical Transformation of the Six-Carbon Polyfluoroalkyl Substance N-Dimethyl Ammonio Propyl Perfluorohexane Sulfonamide (AmPr-FHxSA) | Sites impacted by aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) contain co-contaminants that can stimulate biotransformation of polyfluoroalkyl substances. Here, we compare how microbial enrichments from AFFF-impacted soil amended with diethyl glycol monobutyl ether (found in AFFF), aromatic hydrocarbons (present in co-released fuels), acetate, and methane (substrates used or formed during bioremediation) impact the aerobic biotransformation of an AFFF-derived six-carbon electrochemical fluorination (ECF) precursor N-dimethyl ammonio propyl perfluorohexane sulfonamide (AmPr-FHxSA). We found that methane- and acetate-oxidizing cultures resulted in the highest yields of identifiable products (38 and 30%, respectively), including perfluorohexane sulfonamide (FHxSA) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS). Using these data, we propose and detail a transformation pathway. Additionally, we examined chemical oxidation products of AmPr-FHxSA and FHxSA to provide insights on remediation strategies for AmPr-FHxSA. We demonstrate mineralization of these compounds using the sulfate radical and test their transformation during the total oxidizable precursor (TOP) assay. While perfluorohexanoic acid accounted for over 95% of the products formed, we demonstrate here for the first time two ECF-based precursors, AmPr-FHxSA and FHxSA, that produce PFHxS during the TOP assay. These findings have implications for monitoring poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances during site remediation and application of the TOP assay at sites impacted by ECF-based precursors. |
3,708 | Trypanosoma rangeli infection impairs reproductive success of Rhodnius prolixus | Trypanosoma rangeli is a protozoan that infects triatomines and mammals in Central and South America. Although it does not cause disease to humans, this parasite produces different levels of pathogenicity to its invertebrate host, mainly in species of the genus Rhodnius. In this study, we followed T. rangeli-infected and uninfected pairs throughout their adult lives and measured the amount of blood ingested, number of eggs laid, number of eggs hatched and proportion of infertile eggs, as well as female life expectancy. We found that all reproductive parameters were drastically decreased during infection, mainly due to the reduced amount of blood the infected insects ingested throughout their lives. Reproductive parameters were also affected by the reduction of the life expectancy of infected females, as survival was positively correlated with the number of eggs laid. The strategies used by the parasite to be transmitted are discussed in view of the pathological effects it causes in the insect. |
3,709 | Comparison and application of SOFM, fuzzy c-means and k-means clustering algorithms for natural soil environment regionalization in China | Soil attributes and their environmental drivers exhibit different patterns in different geographical directions, along with distinct regional characteristics, which may have important effects on substance migration and transformation such as organic matter and soil elements or the environmental impacts of pollutants. Therefore, regional soil characteristics should be considered in the process of regionalization for environmental management. However, no comprehensive evaluation or systematic classification of the natural soil environment has been established for China. Here, we established an index system for natural soil environmental regionalization (NSER) by combining literature data obtained based on bibliometrics with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Based on the index system, we collected spatial distribution data for 14 indexes at the national scale. In addition, three clustering algorithms-self-organizing feature mapping (SOFM), fuzzy c-means (FCM) and k-means (KM)-were used to classify and define the natural soil environment. We imported four cluster validity indexes (CVI) to evaluate different models: Davies-Bouldin index (DB), Silhouette index (Sil) and Calinski-Harabasz index (CH) for FCM and KM, clustering quality index (CQI) for SOFM. Analysis and comparison of the results showed that when the number of clusters was 13, the FCM clustering algorithm achieved the optimal clustering results (DB = 1.16, Sil = 0.78, CH = 6.77 × 106), allowing the natural soil environment of China to be divided into 12 regions with distinct characteristics. Our study provides a set of comprehensive scientific research methods for regionalization research based on spatial data, it has important reference value for improving soil environmental management based on local conditions in China. |
3,710 | Zoning the suitability of the western Mekong Delta for paddy rice cultivation and aquaculture under current and future environmental conditions | Ca Mau and Kien Giang, the two provinces of the Mekong Delta bordering the Gulf of Thailand, are facing major environmental challenges affecting the agriculture and aquaculture sectors upon which many livelihoods in this region depend on. This study maps the suitability of these two provinces for paddy rice cultivation and shrimp farming according to soil characteristics and current and future environmental conditions for variables found to significantly influence the yield of those two sectors, i.e., the level of saltwater intrusion, water availability for rainfed agriculture, and the length of the growing period. Future environmental conditions were simulated using the MIKE 11 hydrodynamic model forced by four hydrodynamic scenarios, each one representing different extents of saltwater intrusion during both the dry and rainy seasons, while also considering the availability of water resources for rainfed agriculture. The suitability zoning was performed using a GIS-based analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach, resulting in the categorisation of the land according to four suitability levels for each sector. The analysis reveals that paddy rice cultivation will become more suitable to Kien Giang province while shrimp farming will be more suitable to Ca Mau province if the simulated future environmental conditions materialise. A suitability analysis is essential for optimal utilisation of the land. The approach presented in this study will inform the regional economic development master plan and provide guidance to other delta regions experiencing severe environmental changes and wishing to consider potential future climatic and sea level changes, and their associated impacts, in their land use planning. |
3,711 | Paper-based colorimetric glucose sensor using Prussian blue nanoparticles as mimic peroxidase | A novel paper-based colorimetric glucose sensor was proposed employing Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB NPs) as mimic peroxidase. The sensor was manufactured by spraying solution containing PB NPs, glucose oxidase and chromogenic agents into a paper, then coating the filter layer and spreading layer on the top. The layer-by-layer structure enabled the sensor detect glucose in whole blood, as well as elimination of the coffee-ring effect which ensure the performance. As a powerful alternative to natural peroxidase, PB NPs showed the mimic enzymatic activity well preserved in dry environment. The manufacture process of the sensor is easy to be industrialized. Under optimal conditions, the sensor exhibited a linear range from 2.5 mM to 25 mM for glucose in blood with satisfactory reproducibility (the coefficient of variant <4%), great storage stability (1 month at 45 °C) and excellent linearity compared with those commercial kits (R > 0.99). Coupled with a handhold device, the PB NPs-based test strip realized the goal of personal operation, user-friendly control, automatic readouts, and data storage, and able to link the Cloud, showing unique potential in clinical application, especially in community-level medical scenarios. |
3,712 | Assessment of the state of the art of technologies for the processing of digestate residue from anaerobic digesters | Anaerobic digestion is widely used as an important source of renewable energy. With the increasing number and capacity of biogas plants also, adequate treatment technologies for whole digestate - the residue from anaerobic digestion - are gaining attention. In this study the state of the art of digestate processing is analysed, and currently used treatment schemes and the various technological processes involved are evaluated. The study combines data and experiences from existing large-scale digestate processing facilities in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, as well as know-how from technology providers and relevant research projects. However, the field of digestate processing is still quite new and little detailed information about the performance of different technologies at industrial scale is available. Digestate processing is gaining importance since digestate utilisation can become an important bottleneck when increasing biogas production. In addition, the production of renewable fertiliser from digestate is increasingly of interest to replace fossil fertilisers. This study is the first profound attempt to establish an assessment of the state-of-the-art technologies in use. |
3,713 | Shape geodesics for robust sign language recognition | In this study, a novel method of pattern recognition for static gesture recognition is proposed. To deal with this application, the authors should tackle the problem of low variability among shape classes in the gestures databases. The authors' method is based on robust registration and shape geodesics in shape space with a preliminary step of pose estimation accelerating the processing time. The different gestures are considered individual points in a non-linear shape space. Similarity between any two considered shapes can be measured by a distance metric on the shape space. For shape comparison, three distances with and without robust norm are proposed and evaluated for the target application. To cope with low shape variability among classes, the best scheme is to use robust norm in shape matching but not in shape comparison. Experiments are conducted on reference databases used in the literature to evaluate static gesture recognition. These experiments show the outperformance of the proposed scheme compared to state-of-the art methods. |
3,714 | The State of the Art of Microwave CAD: EM-Based Optimization and Modeling | We briefly review the current state of the art of microwave CAD technologies. We look into the history of design optimization and CAD-oriented modeling of microwave circuits as well as electromagnetics-based optimization techniques. We emphasize certain direct approaches that utilize efficient sensitivity evaluations as well as surrogate-based optimization approaches that greatly enhance electromagnetics-based optimization performance. On the one hand, we review recent ad joint methodologies, on the other we focus on space mapping implementations, including the original, aggressive, implicit, output, tuning, and related developments. We illustrate our presentation with suitable examples and applications. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals. Inc Int J RF and Microwave CAE 20475-491, 2010 |
3,715 | Hunting scenes in Spanish Levantine rock art: An unequivocal chrono-cultural marker of Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic Iberian societies? | In the framework of the long-standing debate regarding the chronology of Spanish Levantine rock art, the hypotheses proposing its cultural affiliation to the Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic societies are largely based on the socio-economic activities depicted in the Levantine scenes, in particular hunting. This position is closely related to the belief that there is a radical opposition between hunter-gatherers and agropastoralist - wild vs. domestic - where hunting is not envisaged to have neither a complementary economic purpose nor a significant social and symbolic role during the settlement and expansion of the "Neolithic package". In order to assess the validity of Levantine hunting scenes as a chrono-cultural marker of Epipalaeolithic-Mesolithic societies, this paper explores the role of hunting in Neolithic societies of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin (6th-3rd millennium cal BC). To do this, economic data, from archae-ozoological and isotopic studies permitting the evaluation of wild and domestic animals consumption patterns, along with other social, identity-related and symbolic elements, such as the funerary record, personal ornaments and Levantine iconography itself, will be taking into account. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. |
3,716 | Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) Access Networks: Challenges and Opportunities | Hybrid fiber-wireless (FiWi) access networks aim at combining the huge amount of available bandwidth of optical networks and the ubiquity and mobility of wireless access networks with the objective to reduce their cost and complexity. This article highlights key enabling optical as well as wireless technologies and explains their role in emerging FiWi networks. After briefly reviewing previous art, important challenges and imperatives for the design of future FiWi network architectures, protocols, and algorithms are identified and discussed in detail. |
3,717 | Dyadic response facilitation of object play in Balinese long-tailed macaques | Social influence is at the core of the emergence and maintenance of behavioral traditions in various animal taxa. Response facilitation is a mechanism of social influence whereby observing a demonstrator performing a behavior temporarily increases the probability that the observer will perform the same behavior. We focused on stone handling (SH) behavior, a form of object-directed play routinely displayed by free-ranging long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. We tested whether the expression of SH was subject to dyadic response facilitation. We compared video-recorded focal samples of an individual immediately after they had witnessed a SH bout performed by a conspecific, and matched-control focal samples of the same witness in the absence of any surrounding SH bouts. We found converging evidence that SH was facilitated within pairs of individuals. First, SH occurred significantly more often and lasted significantly longer in the post-witnessing condition than in the matched-control condition. Second, a monkey initiated SH more rapidly in the former than in the latter, and this significant facilitation effect mainly occurred during the first two minutes after witnessing SH. By demonstrating that the expression of SH was socially mediated, we provided further support for the cultural nature of this behavior. |
3,718 | An endoplasmic reticulum-targeting fluorescent probe for the visualization of the viscosity fluctuations during ferroptosis in live cells | Ferroptosis is an unique iron-dependent cell death form and currently has been shown to closely relate with ER. Revealing the viscosity fluctuations of ER during ferroptosis is of great significance not only to monitor the occurrence and development of iron poisoning, but also to deeply understand the biological effects of ER in ferroptosis. Herein, we present an ER-targeting fluorescent probe (PV1) to detect viscosity changes of ER during ferroptosis. PV1 utilized a rotatable C-C bond to connect the two rigid π-systems, and responded viscosity by the regulation of the coplanarity of these two planes. PV1 displayed desirable sensitivity and selectivity to viscosity. The biological imaging results suggested that PV1 mainly distributed at ER in live cells, and the viscosity of ER exhibited an evident increase in the process of erastin-induced ferroptosis. After the simultaneous incubation of cells with erastin and Fer-1 or VE, the viscosity of ER showed no marked change, and it suggested that the erastin-induced ferroptosis could be inhibited by Fer-1 and VE. We expect that the developed probe could provide a feasible and rapid method for the in-depth study of the ferroptosis-based disease treatment and drug design. |
3,719 | Developmental and mechanical roles of Reichert's membrane in mouse embryos | Embryonic development and growth in placental mammals proceeds in utero with the support of exchanges of gases, nutrients and waste products between maternal tissues and offspring. Murine embryos are surrounded by several extraembryonic membranes, parietal and visceral yolk sacs, and amnion in the uterus. Notably, the parietal yolk sac is the most outer membrane, consists of three layers, trophoblasts and parietal endoderm (PaE) cells, and is separated by a thick basal lamina termed Reichert's membrane (RM). RM is composed of extracellular matrix (ECM) initially formed as the basement membrane of the trophectoderm of pre-implanted embryos and followed by the heavy deposition of ECM mainly produced in PaE cells of post-implanted embryos. In addition to the physiological roles of RM, such as gas and nutrient exchange, it also plays a crucial role in cushioning and dispersing intrauterine pressures exerted on embryos for normal egg-cylinder morphogenesis. Mechanistically, such intrauterine pressures generated by uterine smooth muscle contractions appear to be involved in the elongation of the egg-cylinder shape, along with primary axis formation, as an important biomechanical element in utero. This review focuses on our current views of the roles of RM in properly buffering intrauterine mechanical forces for mouse egg-cylinder morphogenesis. This article is part of the theme issue 'Extraembryonic tissues: exploring concepts, definitions and functions across the animal kingdom'. |
3,720 | The influence of self-relevant materials on working memory in dysphoric undergraduates | Difficulties in updating working memory (WM) may underlie problems with regulating emotions that contribute to depression. To examine the ability of updating affective materials in WM, 33 dysphoric and 34 non-dysphoric participants were asked to evaluate the self-descriptiveness of emotional adjectives and provide answers to self-relevant questions. Within 3-7 days, they completed a two-back task with a series of self-irrelevant or self-relevant emotional words (they had generated previously) and four conditions (match-set, break-set, perseveration-set, and no-set). After the WM task, an unexpected recall task was administered; controls recalled more positive self-relevant words and intrusions while dysphoric participants recalled more negative self-relevant words and intrusions. In break-set trials of the two-back task, dysphoric individuals showed slower response to self-relevant words regardless of valence. In the match-set and perseveration-set trials, dysphoric participants showed delayed response to self-related negative words. Moreover, longer reaction times for self-relevant negative words were correlated with higher rumination and worse depression. The results suggest that dysphoric undergraduates are interfered more by and have a better memory of self-relevant negative stimuli in WM, which is closely correlated with rumination. This study is among the first to confirm the potential mechanism that could underwrite the involvement of self-schema in effectively regulating negative affect. |
3,721 | Heteropentanuclear Oxalato-Bridged nd-4f (n=4, 5) Metal Complexes with NO Ligand: Synthesis, Crystal Structures, Aqueous Stability and Antiproliferative Activity | A series of heteropentanuclear oxalate-bridged Ru(NO)-Ln (4d-4f) metal complexes of the general formula (nBu4N)5[Ln{RuCl3(μ-ox)(NO)}4], where Ln=Y (2), Gd (3), Tb (4), Dy (5) and ox=oxalate anion, were obtained by treatment of (nBu4N)2[RuCl3(ox)(NO)] (1) with the respective lanthanide salt in 4:1 molar ratio. The compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry, while 1, 2, and 5 were in addition analyzed by X-ray crystallography, 1 by Ru K-edge XAS and 1 and 2 by (13)C NMR spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction showed that in 2 and 5 four complex anions [RuCl3(ox)(NO)](2-) are coordinated to Y(III) and Dy(III), respectively, with formation of [Ln{RuCl3(μ-ox)(NO)}4](5-) (Ln=Y, Dy). While Y(III) is eight-coordinate in 2, Dy(III) is nine-coordinate in 5, with an additional coordination of an EtOH molecule. The negative charge is counterbalanced by five nBu4N(+) ions present in the crystal structure. The stability of complexes 2 and 5 in aqueous medium was monitored by UV/Vis spectroscopy. The antiproliferative activity of ruthenium-lanthanide complexes 2-5 were assayed in two human cancer cell lines (HeLa and A549) and in a noncancerous cell line (MRC-5) and compared with those obtained for the previously reported Os(NO)-Ln (5d-4f) analogues (nBu4N)5[Ln{OsCl3(ox)(NO)}4] (Ln=Y (6), Gd (7), Tb (8), Dy (9)). Complexes 2-5 were found to be slightly more active than 1 in inhibiting the proliferation of HeLa and A549 cells, and significantly more cytotoxic than 5d-4f metal complexes 6-9 in terms of IC50 values. The highest antiproliferative activity with IC50 values of 20.0 and 22.4 μM was found for 4 in HeLa and A549 cell lines, respectively. These cytotoxicity results are in accord with the presented ICP-MS data, indicating five- to eightfold greater accumulation of ruthenium versus osmium in human A549 cancer cells. |
3,722 | Detection and genetic analysis of Escherichia coli from Tonle Sap Lake and its tributaries in Cambodia: Spatial distribution, seasonal variation, pathogenicity, and antimicrobial resistance | As an indicator of fecal contamination, Escherichia coli was monitored in Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia, and its tributaries during low- and high-water seasons, focusing on the impacts on floating villagers inhabiting boathouses. E. coli concentrations in the floating villages (3.6 × 103 and 5.7 × 103 CFU/100 mL during the low- and high-water seasons, respectively) were significantly higher than those in other lake sites (4.0 × 101 and 7.0 × 100 CFU/100 mL during the low- and high-water seasons, respectively) and rivers (3.3 × 102 and 8.9 × 102 CFU/100 mL during the low- and high-water seasons, respectively), most likely because fecal materials from the boathouses were discharged without treatment. At most of the lake sampling sites remote from the boathouses, the E. coli concentration was lower during the high-water season than that during the low-water season, due to dilution by lake water. E. coli colonies detected during monitoring were isolated for pathotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, beta-lactamase gene detection, and multilocus sequencing typing (MLST). Of the 659 E. coli isolates, 101 (15.3%) were diarrheagenic E. coli (DEC). The prevalence of DEC (52.2%) in the floating villages during the low-water season was higher than that during the high-water season (4.2%) and that in other sites during both seasons (10.6-21.3%). The DEC isolates from the floating villages during the low-water season showed high antimicrobial resistance, including ampicillin (83.4%) and ciprofloxacin (83.4%), and frequently possessed a beta-lactamase gene (blaTEM) (83.4%). MLST analysis indicated that the predominant sequence type (ST) of DEC isolates from the floating villages possibly originated from humans, whereas more diverse STs were detected in isolates from other sites. We revealed the wide presence of diarrheagenic and antimicrobial-resistant E. coli in Tonle Sap Lake and identified a considerable infection risk in floating villages, especially during the low-water season. |
3,723 | Real-time acoustic monitoring with telemetry to mitigate potential effects of seismic survey sounds on marine mammals: a case study offshore Sakhalin Island | Exxon Neftegas Ltd. (ENL) carried out three 4D seismic surveys during the summer of 2015. Seismic operations in two of these fields (Odoptu and Chayvo) ensonified the nearshore feeding area of Korean-Okhotsk (western) gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), potentially disturbing feeding activities. Following model-based optimization of the source design to minimize its lateral acoustic footprint, pre-season modeling was used to compute the acoustic exposure along each survey line. Real-time acoustic data facilitated implementation of mitigation measures aimed to minimize disturbance of whales. Acoustic data originated from underwater recorders deployed on the seafloor. Two complementary approaches were used to transmit recorded sound data to a computer housed at the Central Post (CP), where decisions regarding mitigation shut downs were made. In the first approach, a limited bandwidth (2-2000 Hz) sampling of the data was transmitted via cable to a surface buoy, which relayed these data to a shore station up to 15 km away via digital VHF telemetry. At the shore station, acoustic impulses from the seismic surveys were processed to compute impulse characteristics in the form of estimates of sound exposure level and peak sound pressure level, as well as one-minute-average 1/3-octave power spectral density coefficients, which were then transmitted to the CP via the internet. In the second, the pulse characteristics were computed through algorithms running on an onboard processor in each recorder's surface buoy and sent directly to the CP computer via an Iridium satellite uplink. Both methods of data transfer proved viable, but Iridium transmission achieved the goal without the need for any shore based relay stations and is therefore more operationally efficient than VHF transmission. At the CP, analysts used the real-time acoustic data to calibrate and adjust the output of pre-season acoustical model runs. The acoustic footprint for the active seismic source, advancing synchronously with the motion of the seismic vessel and changing as the sound propagation environment changed, was computed from the calibrated and adjusted model output and integrated through the software Pythagoras with locations of gray whales provided by shore-based observers. This enabled analysts to require air gun array shutdowns before whales were exposed to mean square sound pressure levels greater than the behavioral response threshold of 163 dB re 1 μPa2. The method described here provides a realistic means of mitigating the possible effects of air guns at a behavioral response level, whereas most seismic surveys rely on pre-established mitigation radii to manage the risk of injury to a whale. |
3,724 | Development of zinc ferrite nanoparticles with enhanced photocatalytic performance for remediation of environmentally toxic pharmaceutical waste diclofenac sodium from wastewater | Diclofenac sodium is an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used to cure pain in various treatments. The remarkable potential of this pain-killer leads to its excessive use and, therefore, a persistent water contaminant. Its presence in aqueous bodies is hazardous for both humans and the environment because it causes the growth of harmful drug-resistant bacteria in water. Herein, we present a comparative study of the ZnO and ZnFe2O4 as photocatalysts for the degradation of diclofenac sodium, along with their structural and morphological studies. A simple co-precipitation method was used for the synthesis of ZnO and ZnFe2O4 and characterized by various analytical techniques. For instance, the UV-Vis study revealed the absorption maxima of ZnO at 320 nm, which was shifted to a longer wavelength region at 365 nm for zinc ferrite. The optical band gaps obtained from the Tauc plot indicated that the incorporation of iron has led to a decreased band gap of zinc ferrite (2.89 eV) than pure ZnO (3.14 eV). The metal-oxygen linkages shown by FTIR indicated the formation of desired ZnO and ZnFe2O4, which was further confirmed by XRD. It elucidated the typical hexagonal structure for ZnO and spinel cubic structure for ZnFe2O4 with an average crystallite of 31 nm and 44 nm for ZnO and ZnFe2O4, respectively. The micrographs obtained by SEM showed rough spherical particles of ZnO, whereas for ZnFe2O4 flower-like clustered particles were observed. The photocatalytic investigation against diclofenac sodium revealed the higher degradation efficiency of ZnFe2O4 (61.4%) in only 120 min, whereas ZnO degraded only 48.9% of the drug. Moreover, zinc ferrite has shown good recyclability and was stable up to five runs of photodegradation with a small loss (3.9%) of photocatalytic activity. The comparison of two catalysts has suggested the promising role of zinc ferrite in wastewater remediation to eliminate hazardous pharmaceuticals. |
3,725 | Scalable Static Detection of Use-After-Free Vulnerabilities in Binary Code | The number of use-after-free vulnerabilities has been increasing rapidly in recent years, which is a serious threat to computer systems. However, few effective mitigations exist for large-scale binary code. In this study, the authors propose a scalable static approach for detecting use-after-free vulnerabilities in binary code. First, the use-after-free feature model is proposed to provide guidance for detection. Then, the binary code of the target program is converted to an intermediate representation, and CFGs (control flow graphs) are constructed. Finally, lightweight pointer tracking is performed to identify the use-after-free vulnerable point. Compared with state-of-the-art approaches, this approach uses function summaries rather than naive in-lining technique for the inter-procedural analysis in the vulnerability detection. Therefore, our approach has the ability to avoid redundant repeat analysis caused by the in-lining technique in the existing approaches and reduce the unnecessary performance overhead. The authors have implemented a prototype called UAFDetector and evaluated it using standard benchmarks and real-world programs. The experimental results show that this approach is effective in detecting use-after-free vulnerabilities in binary code and is more efficient and scalable than state-of-the-art static solutions. |
3,726 | Real-Time Hierarchical Supervoxel Segmentation via a Minimum Spanning Tree | Supervoxel segmentation algorithm has been applied as a preprocessing step for many vision tasks. However, existing supervoxel segmentation algorithms cannot generate hierarchical supervoxel segmentation well preserving the spatiotemporal boundaries in real time, which prevents the downstream applications from accurate and efficient processing. In this paper, we propose a real-time hierarchical supervoxel segmentation algorithm based on the minimum spanning tree (MST), which achieves state-of-the-art accuracy meanwhile at least 11x faster than existing methods. In particular, we present a dynamic graph updating operation into the iterative construction process of the MST, which can geometrically decrease the numbers of vertices and edges. In this way, the proposed method is able to generate arbitrary scales of supervoxels on the fly. We prove the efficiency of our algorithm that can produce hierarchical supervoxels in the time complexity of O(n), where n denotes the number of voxels in the input video. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations on public benchmarks demonstrate that our proposed algorithm significantly outperforms the state-ofthe-art algorithms in terms of supervoxel segmentation accuracy and computational efficiency. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on a downstream application of video object segmentation. |
3,727 | Art Design of Urban Public Space Based on Marine Culture | China's marine cultural industry is the key for the economic growth of coastal cities. The development of urban culture is synchronized with marine culture, and urban culture of coastal cities is more or less mixed, with some marine cultural elements. This study attempts to explore the overall design of public space art in coastal cities from the perspective of marine culture look deeply into the relationship between the artistic design of urban public space and marine culture and urban image building. The research results show that both the urban culture and marine culture have the characteristics of agglomeration, diversity, regionality, and radiation; the design of public art is an important factor in the design of urban image, and the design concepts of public space sculptures in coastal cities are closely related to marine culture; the public art system is a system with a sequence and hierarchical relationship; the design of art forms not only depends on their own artistic value but also echoes the surrounding cultural ideas. This study provides a theoretical basis for the rapid integration of marine and urban cultures. |
3,728 | Improving the Quality of Delay-Based PUFs via Optical Proximity Correction | Silicon physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are circuits that exploit modern manufacturing variations to generate unique signatures for chip authentication and cryptographic key generation. Existing research has focused on improving PUF quality at architectural or design levels, but has ignored opportunities available during fabrication, which is the source of systematic and random variation in (ICs)/PUFs. For typical ICs (where security is not a concern), optical proximity correction (OPC) is used to suppress both these types of variations. However, several prior works have shown that only systematic variations negatively impact PUF quality and random variations are beneficial for PUFs. In this paper, we propose two PUF-aware OPC cost functions: 1) P-OPC generates a PUF lithography mask that increases all variations in PUF circuitry (the opposite of state-of-the-art OPC), and 2) SVC-OPC generates mask patterns that reduce the systematic variation found in PUFs for better quality. Simulation results for ring oscillator (RO) PUFs show that the proposed techniques can improve PUF signature quality compared to current state-of-the-art OPC. |
3,729 | Color and sharpness assessment of single image dehazing | Image dehazing is the process of enhancing a color image of a natural scene that contains an undesirable veil of fog for visualization or as a pre-processing step for computer vision systems. In this work, we investigate the performances of eleven state-of-the-art image quality metrics in evaluating dehazed images, and discuss challenges in designing an efficient dehazing evaluation metric. This is done through a composite study based on the agreement between subjective and objective evaluations. Accordingly, we evaluate five state-of-the-art dehazing algorithms. We use two semi-indoor scenes, degraded with several levels of fog. One important aspect of these scenes is that the fog-free images are available and can therefore serve as ground-truth data for dehazing methods evaluation. This study shows that the best working dehazing method depends on the density of fog. There seems to be a clear distinction between what people perceive as good quality in terms of color restoration and in terms of sharpness restoration. Most metrics show limitations in providing proper quality prediction of dehazing. According to the introduction and analysis, a contribution of this work is to point out the flaws in the evaluation and development of dehazing methods. Our observations might be considered when designing efficient methods and metrics dedicated to image dehazing. |
3,730 | Bruno Schulz's 1933 Monograph: On the Hereditary Etiology of Schizophrenia | In his 1933 article, Bruno Schulz reported a follow-up and reanalysis of the schizophrenic probands and their relatives first studied by Rüdin 20 years earlier that sought to clarify whether schizophrenia was a valid "unit-character" for Mendelian genetic analysis. He proposed a range of subgroupings of probands, particularly traditional subtyping, presence or absence of identifiable causal influences, and outcome. He then compared those subgroupings in several ways, most commonly by the risk for schizophrenia in their siblings and by the level of resemblance among proband-sibling affected pairs. Of his many findings, those of greatest interest included (1) probands with possible and probable physical causes, particularly those with head trauma, had substantially lower risk of illness in siblings, (2) probands with a hebephrenic subtype had a striking elevation of risk for schizophrenia in siblings, (3) probands with psychological causes had higher rates of good outcome, (4) proband-sibling pairs resembled one another for the classical schizophrenic subtypes, and (5) an absence of any cases of schizophrenia in siblings of a small group of schizophrenic probands with birth complications, convulsions, and skull deformities. Schulz used this sample in a fundamentally different way than Rüdin. Rather than seeking for Mendelian transmission patterns, Schulz used family data to evaluate hypothesis about clinical/etiological heterogeneity, thereby presaging many subsequent family studies of psychiatric disorders. While Schulz did not claim to have proved the etiologic heterogeneity of schizophrenia, he raised important questions, still unanswered, about whether schizophrenia is a legitimate "unit-character" appropriate for genetic analysis. |
3,731 | Investigation of androgen receptor-dependent alternative splicing has identified a unique subtype of lethal prostate cancer | A complete proteomics study characterizing active androgen receptor (AR) complexes in prostate cancer (PCa) cells identified a diversity of protein interactors with tumorigenic annotations, including known RNA splicing factors. Thus, we chose to further investigate the functional role of AR-mediated alternative RNA splicing in PCa disease progression. We selected two AR-interacting RNA splicing factors, Src associated in mitosis of 68 kDa (SAM68) and DEAD (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp) box helicase 5 (DDX5) to examine their associative roles in AR-dependent alternative RNA splicing. To assess the true physiological role of AR in alternative RNA splicing, we assessed splicing profiles of LNCaP PCa cells using exon microarrays and correlated the results to PCa clinical datasets. As a result, we were able to highlight alternative splicing events of clinical significance. Initial use of exon-mini gene cassettes illustrated hormone-dependent AR-mediated exon-inclusion splicing events with SAM68 or exon-exclusion splicing events with DDX5 overexpression. The physiological significance in PCa was investigated through the application of clinical exon array analysis, where we identified exon-gene sets that were able to delineate aggressive disease progression profiles and predict patient disease-free outcomes independently of pathological clinical criteria. Using a clinical dataset with patients categorized as prostate cancer-specific death (PCSD), these exon gene sets further identified a select group of patients with extremely poor disease-free outcomes. Overall, these results strongly suggest a nonclassical role of AR in mediating robust alternative RNA splicing in PCa. Moreover, AR-mediated alternative spicing contributes to aggressive PCa progression, where we identified a new subtype of lethal PCa defined by AR-dependent alternative splicing. |
3,732 | Insights into microbial interactive mechanism regulating dissimilatory nitrate reduction processes in riparian freshwater aquaculture sediments | Aquaculture can substantially alter the accumulation and cycling of nutrients in sediments. However, the microbial mechanisms mediating sediment dissimilatory nitrate (NO3-) reduction in freshwater aquaculture ponds are still unclear, which rule the removal and retention of N element. In the present study, three microbial NO3- reduction processes in riparian aquaculture pond sediments (i.e., crab, shrimp and fish ponds) and natural freshwater sediments (i.e., lakes and rivers) were investigated via isotopic tracing and molecular analyses. The potential rates of denitrification, anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) significantly increased in the aquaculture ponds compared with the natural freshwaters. Denitrification contributed 90.40-94.22% to the total NO3- reduction (product as N2), followed by 2.49-5.82% of anammox (product as N2) and 2.09-5.18% of DRNA (product as NH4+). The availability of C and N substrates, rather than functional gene abundance, regulated the activities of NO3- reductions and microbiome composition. Microbial mechanism based on network analysis indicated that heterotrophic denitrifiers and DNRA bacteria (e.g., Bacillus, Micromonospora, Mycobacterium and Brachybacterium) determined the community structure and function for N conversions in aquaculture ponds, whereas the such microbial network in natural freshwater sediments was manipulated by autotrophic denitrifiers (e.g., Desulfuromonas, Polaromonas, Solitalea). Collectively, this study provides an in-depth exploration of microbial nitrogen removal in freshwater aquaculture areas and supports management strategies for N pollution caused by reclamation for aquaculture in riparian zones. |
3,733 | Indication criteria for monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 in the era of vaccination: is an update needed? | This study describes a cohort of 223 patients who received anti-S protein monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment for COVID-19 after having met the indication criteria set by the national guidelines in the Czech Republic at the time. The authors compare the vaccinated and unvaccinated subpopulations of this cohort. The results show that most of the patients (73.5%) already had significant circulating levels of anti-S antibodies detectable at the time of treatment. The authors confirm a positive correlation between number of vaccine doses and S-protein antibody levels. The data show, that vaccinated patients are overall less likely to be hospitalized than unvaccinated ones. The authors recommend a change in the national guidelines for mAb treatment in the Czech Republic. |
3,734 | Deep Hashing With Multi-Central Ranking Loss for Multi-Label Image Retrieval | With the explosive growth of various images, large-scale image retrieval has attracted ever-growing attention. Deep hashing methods have achieved great success on single-label retrieval. However, the multi-level similarities between samples in multi-label scenarios have not been fully explored. In this letter, based on the in-depth analysis of the complex semantic similarities of multi-label images, the Multi-Central Ranking Loss (MCR Loss) for deep hashing is proposed to construct a powerful metric space that not only preserves the fine-grained similarities of multi-label images but also has low quantization error. The proposed MCR Loss utilizes learnable hash centers and similarities of data-to-data pairs to optimize the metric space, which greatly alleviates the embedding conflict caused by proxy-based supervision, and reduces the quantization error. The proposed method is compared with several existing state-of-the-art hashing methods on two public multi-label benchmarks. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance on several ranking evaluation metrics. |
3,735 | 被撤回的出版物: Recent Advances in 3D Object Detection in the Era of Deep Neural Networks: A Survey (Retracted Article) | With the rapid development of deep learning technology and other powerful tools, 3D object detection has made great progress and become one of the fastest growing field in computer vision. Many automated applications such as robotic navigation, autonomous driving, and virtual or augmented reality system require estimation of accurate 3D object location and detection. Under this requirement, many methods have been proposed to improve the performance of 3D object localization and detection. Despite recent efforts, 3D object detection is still a very challenging task due to occlusion, viewpoint variations, scale changes, and limited information in 3D scenes. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of recent state-of-the-art approaches in 3D object detection technology. We start with some basic concepts, then describe some of the available datasets that are designed to facilitate the performance evaluation of 3D object detection algorithms. Next, we will review the state-of-the-art technologies in this area, highlighting their contributions, importance, and limitations as a guide for future research. Finally, we provide a quantitative comparison of the results of the state-of-the-art methods on the popular public datasets. |
3,736 | Sexually transmitted infection screening and reproductive health counseling in adolescent renal transplant recipients: Perceptions and practice patterns. A study from the Midwest Pediatric Nephrology Consortium | We wanted to identify practice patterns and perceived barriers among pediatric nephrologists regarding STI screening and reproductive health counseling in adolescent renal transplant recipients. We created an online Likert-scaled survey. Response rate was 54%. The majority (83%) believed STI risk in their patients was similar to or higher than healthy teens. Interestingly, while 67% felt moderately or very confident in asking about sexual activity and counseling about safer sex, only 43% routinely or always inquired about sexual activity, and only 42% routinely or always counseled about safer sex. Fifty-four percent routinely or always discussed contraceptive options and implications of unintentional pregnancy. Fifty-one percent routinely or always referred patients to a gynecologist or adolescent provider for contraception prescription. The most common counseling mechanism was informal discussions in clinic (87%). Ten percent had no mechanism in place. Major barriers included time limitations, adolescents' fear regarding confidentiality, and lack of professional training. This is the first report of perceptions and practice patterns of pediatric nephrologists regarding STI screening and reproductive health counseling. Providers seem to recognize the importance of counseling; however, translation into practice remains low. Professional training in this area and increased encounter time could improve counseling delivery and thereby reduce risk in this population. |
3,737 | Transform Coding Based on Source Filter Model in the MDCT Domain | State-of-the-art voice codecs have been developed to extend the input bandwidth to enhance quality while maintaining interoperability with a legacy codec. Most of them employ a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) for coding their extended band We propose a source filter model-based coding algorithm of MDCT spectral coefficients, apply it to the ITU-T G.711.1 super wideband (SWB) extension codec, and subjectively test it to validate the model. A subjective test shows abetter quality over the standardized SWB codec. |
3,738 | A Novel Ionic Conductive Polyurethane Based on Deep Eutectic Solvent Continuing Traditional Merits | Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly popular along with the development of the bionic neural system. Ionic conductors play an important role in the AI system due to the ability of bionic sensing and signal transporting. Traditional low-polarity elastomers possess outstanding mechanical strength and stability, such as polyurethane, which is difficult to be directly endowed with ionic conductivity without impairing its properties. Herein, we have first put forward a new approach to synthesize a liquid-free ionic conductive polyurethane (CPU) through one-step copolymerization between a green deep eutectic solvent (DES) and a prepolymer of polyurethane. The as-prepared CPU can retain the native properties of the traditional polyurethane (PU) such as the homogeneous phase, ease of molding, high transparency (about 93.3%), and excellent mechanical properties. By introducing the DES as the covalent cross-linking agent and ionic conductor at the same time, the CPU also has fine ionic conductivity (3.78 × 10-5 S cm-1), environmental resistance like anti-freezing (-20 °C), and solvent resistance. Based on the excellent conductivity and mechanical strength, the flexible CPU can be applied as a sensing element in pressure sensors. The CPU-based sensor has presented long-term stability, high sensitivity, and wide-ranging response (0.17-3.28 MPa) to the applied pressure, which will be suitable for the industrial demands for practical applications. |
3,739 | FrWF-Based LMBTC: Memory-Efficient Image Coding for Visual Sensors | After the successful development of JPEG2000, many state-of-the-art wavelet-based image coding algorithms have been developed. However, the traditional discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is implemented with memory intensive and time-consuming algorithms and, therefore, has very high system resource requirements. In particular, the very large requirement of memory poses a serious limitation for multimedia applications on memory-constrained portable devices, such as digital cameras and sensor nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel wavelet-based image coder with low memory requirements and low complexity that preserves the compression efficiency. Our encoder employs the fractional wavelet filter (FrWF) to calculate the DWT coefficients, which are quantized and encoded with a novel low memory block tree coding (LMBTC) algorithm. The LMBTC is a listless form of the wavelet block tree coding algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed coder significantly reduces memory requirements and computational complexity and has competitive coding efficiency in comparison with other state-of-the-art coders. The FrWF combined with the LMBTC is, thus, a viable option for image communication over wireless sensor networks. |
3,740 | A decision support model for scheduling exhibition projects in art museums | The main purpose of scheduling exhibition projects for art museums is to provide the visitors with more exhibitions and to utilize the galleries as fully as possible Because the combinations of possible exhibitions for all galleries at any given time are numerous, it is difficult for the art museum's planner to make an optimal decision. Therefore, this paper developed a decision support model with genetic algorithms, called SCHEMA (SCHeduling Exhibitions for Museum of Art). In the model the galleries are the resource which the exhibitions utilize in the sequence of their priority values The model's evaluation shows to be significantly effective in planning time, percent usage of the gallery. and the number of exhibitions scheduled. Because all the complex computations are done by the model. the decision making process of the scheduling stage is speeded up considerably. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
3,741 | An efficient approach for scene categorization based on discriminative codebook learning in bag-of-words framework | This paper proposes an efficient technique for learning a discriminative codebook for scene categorization. A state-of-the-art approach for scene categorization is the Bag-of-Words (BoW) framework, where codebook generation plays an important role in determining the performance of the system. Traditionally, the codebook generation methods adopted in the BoW techniques are designed to minimize the quantization error, rather than optimize the classification accuracy. In view of this, this paper tries to address the issue by careful design of the codewords such that the resulting image histograms for each category will retain strong discriminating power, while the online categorization of the testing image is as efficient as in the baseline BoW. The codewords are refined iteratively to improve their discriminative power offline. The proposed method is validated on UIUC Scene-15 dataset and NTU Scene-25 dataset and it is shown to outperform other state-of-the-art codebook generation methods in scene categorization. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
3,742 | A survey study on trust-based security in Internet of Things: Challenges and issues | The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging communication technology which connects all of the network-enabled devises in all of the world. It is being pervasively utilized in the variety in-dustrial applications such as infrastructure monitoring, utilities, controlling, mission-critical, and security-sensitive applications. Similar to other conventional networks, the IoT applications are also vulnerable to the different kinds of security breaches, threats, and attacks. To mitigate such related problems, various cryptographic, trust-based approaches, and models have been pre-sented in the literature. To address the issue, this paper presents a subjective survey study on IoT trust security and challenges to investigate solutions provided for trust management & handling in the IoT context. The subjective survey is designed based on the commonalities and differences of the presented state-of-the-arts in literature. Then, it classifies the studied state-of-the-art schemes that are based on the trust handling method and summarizes their main contributions and properties. A comparison on the various published papers of these trust-based schemes is tabulated based on the relevant concepts and evaluation metrics derived from literature. Therefore, the paper highlights potentials, existing gaps, and the future research direction in the trust management of the IoT context for further processing and improvement. |
3,743 | Intensity Values of Terrestrial Laser Scans Reveal Hidden Black Rock Art Pigment | The intensity values of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) can be used to reveal painted black rock art behind graffiti and moss. The effect was observed in Gumahon cave in Penablanca, Philippines where previously unnoticed black pigment was exposed underneath moss, red and white painted graffiti, and etched name graffiti. The application of TLS intensity values for this purpose has not, to our knowledge, been previously reported. The significance of this finding is that archaeologists are provided a new method of detecting obfuscated rock art that can aid interpretation. The method can be applied in similar contexts as black painted rock art is common in limestone caves across Southeast Asia and Micronesia, but also ubiquitous globally. |
3,744 | Fabrication of a novel electrochemical immunosensor for the sensitive detection of carcinoembryonic antigen using a double signal attenuation strategy | Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), an acidic protein, is a characteristic antigen produced by the tumor of various cancers (eg, breast, cervical, rectal, lung, etc.). Therefore, the detection of cancer antigens is very important for the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In this study, a novel of "signal off" strategy for electrochemical immunosensor was developed to detect CEA. To this end, Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB NPs), an electroactive substance, were used as the immunological platform. In addition, CuO2@SiO2 nanocomposites, which release Cu2+ and H2O2 under acidic conditions, were synthesized. The generated Cu2+ can replace the high spin iron (FeIII) in PB NPs, which in turn reduces the oxidation peak current of PB NPs. Due to the peroxidase-like nature of PB NPs, they can react with self-generated H2O2 to generate hydroxyl radicals (·OH), which can further convert 4-chloro-1 naphthol (4-CN) into a non-conductive polymer that accumulates on the electrode surface, this leads to a further reduction in the electrical signal of the PB NPs. Moreover, the self-generated Cu2+ and H2O2 can reduce the introduction of exogenous substances and improve the detection accuracy. Square wave voltammetry (SWV) revealed that the electrical signal of PB NPs gradually decreased with increasing CEA concentration. In addition, the electrical signal of PB NPs exhibited a good linearity in the range from 0.01 pg mL-1 to 80 ng mL-1, where in the logarithm of CEA concentration and the detection limit was as low as 0.0032 pg mL-1. |
3,745 | Stability in Software Engineering: Survey of the State-of-the-Art and Research Directions | With the increasing dependence on software systems, their longevity is becoming a pressing need. Stability is envisioned as a primary property to achieve longevity. Stability has been defined and treated in many different ways in the literature. We conduct a systematic literature review to analyse the state-of-the-art related to stability as a software property. We formulate a taxonomy for characterising the notion, analyse the definitions found in the literature, and present research studies dealing with stability. Also, as architecture is one of the software artefacts with profound effects throughout the software lifecycle, we focus on software engineering practices for realising architectural stability. The analysis results show a wide variation in dimensions when dealing with stability. The state-of-the-art indicates the need for a shift towards a multi-dimensional concept that could cope with runtime dynamics and emerging software paradigms. More research efforts should be directed toward the identified gaps. The presented taxonomy and analysis of the literature aim to help the research community in consolidating the existing research efforts and deriving future developments. |
3,746 | Small molecule inhibitors targeting the cancers | Compared with traditional therapies, targeted therapy has merits in selectivity, efficacy, and tolerability. Small molecule inhibitors are one of the primary targeted therapies for cancer. Due to their advantages in a wide range of targets, convenient medication, and the ability to penetrate into the central nervous system, many efforts have been devoted to developing more small molecule inhibitors. To date, 88 small molecule inhibitors have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to treat cancers. Despite remarkable progress, small molecule inhibitors in cancer treatment still face many obstacles, such as low response rate, short duration of response, toxicity, biomarkers, and resistance. To better promote the development of small molecule inhibitors targeting cancers, we comprehensively reviewed small molecule inhibitors involved in all the approved agents and pivotal drug candidates in clinical trials arranged by the signaling pathways and the classification of small molecule inhibitors. We discussed lessons learned from the development of these agents, the proper strategies to overcome resistance arising from different mechanisms, and combination therapies concerned with small molecule inhibitors. Through our review, we hoped to provide insights and perspectives for the research and development of small molecule inhibitors in cancer treatment. |
3,747 | Spatiotemporal Activity Modeling via Hierarchical Cross-Modal Embedding | With the ever-increasing urbanization process, modeling people's spatiotemporal activities from their online traces has become a crucial task. State-of-the-art methods for this task rely on cross-modal embedding, which maps items from different modalities (e.g., location, time, text) into the same latent space. Despite their inspiring results, existing cross-modal embedding methods merely capture co-occurrences between items without modeling their high-order interactions. In this paper, we first construct two graphs from raw data records to represent the user interaction graph layer and activity graph layer and propose a hierarchical cross-modal embedding method that takes the high-order relationships into consideration. The key notion behind our method is a novel hierarchical embedding framework with meta-graphs connecting different layers. We introduce both inter-record and intra-record meta-graph structures, which enable learning distributed representations that preserve high-order proximities across graphs from different layers. Our empirical experiments on three real-world datasets demonstrate that our method not only outperforms state-of-the-art methods for spatiotemporal activity prediction, but also captures cross-modal proximity at a finer granularity. |
3,748 | Enhancing distance transform computation by leveraging the discrete nature of images | This paper presents a major reformulation of a widely used solution for computing the exact Euclidean distance transform of n-dimensional discrete binary shapes. Initially proposed by Hirata, the original algorithm is linear in time, separable, and easy to implement. Furthermore, it accounts for the fastest existing solutions, leading to its widespread use in the state of the art, especially in real-time applications. In particular, we focus on the second step of this algorithm, where the lower envelope of a set of parabolas has to be computed. By leveraging the discrete nature of images, we show that some of those parabolas can be merged into line segments. It reduces the computational cost of the algorithm by about 20% in most practical cases, while maintaining its exactness. To evaluate the proposed improvement on different cases, two state-of-the art benchmarks are implemented and discussed. |
3,749 | Mining consistent correspondences using co-occurrence statistics | In this paper, we propose a mismatch removal method, which mines consistent image feature correspon-dences using co-occurrence statistics. The proposed method relies on a co-occurrence matrix that counts the number of pixel value pairs co-occurring within the images. Specifically, we propose to integrate the co-occurrence statistics with local spatial information, to preserve the consensus of neighborhood ele-ments. Then, a new measure based on co-occurrence statistics is defined for correspondence similarity, to preserve the consensus of neighborhood topology. After that, with the consensus of neighborhood el-ements and neighborhood topology, the mismatch removal problem is formulated into a mathematical model, which has a closed-form solution. Extensive experiments show that the proposed method is able to achieve superior or competitive performance on matching accuracy over several state-of-the-art com-peting methods. In addition, we further exploit the consensus of neighborhood elements and neighbor-hood topology to propose a novel guided sampling method, which can significantly improve the quality of sampling minimal subsets over state-of-the-arts for two-view geometric model fitting. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
3,750 | Can erythema multiforme be an immune sequela of IgM nephropathy? A case report | A 13-year-old Chinese girl attended to our Pediatric Dermatology Unit for the appearance of itchy targetoid lesions on the trunk, face and upper limbs. A skin biopsy showed histological findings typical of erythema multiforme minor. A month earlier she was admitted for the onset of a nephrotic syndrome and the renal biopsy showed an IgM nephropathy with a diffuse mesangial cell proliferation. There was no medical history of recent infections, fever, muscle or joint pain, drugs intake related to erythema multiforme and viral serology were negative.The role of antibodies in erythema multiforme could be more relevant than suspected and the severity of erythema multiforme was reported to be proportional to the antibody-mediated complement-dependent cytotoxicity, supporting the potential pathogenetic role for humoral immunity in this subtype of erythema multiforme.We reported the first association of erythema multiforme and IgM nephropathy in a pediatric patient providing an additional hint that an antibody-mediated process, rather than T-cell cytotoxicity, might represent the main pathogenetic mechanism in certain subtypes of erythema multiforme. |
3,751 | TAKer: Fine-Grained Time-Aware Microblog Search with Kernel Density Estimation | Temporal information has been widely used to promote the information retrieval (IR) performance, especially for microblog search which usually prefers the latest news and events. Previous studies mainly focused on incorporating the document-level temporal information into retrieval, while the temporal relevance of each query word was not well investigated. In this paper, we propose a word temporal predictor to characterize the word-level temporal relevance by fine-grained time-aware kernel density estimation over the feedback documents. In addition, we present a fine-grained time-aware framework to integrate the proposed word temporal predictor with the traditional document temporal predictor for retrieval. Finally, we incorporate the framework into two state-of-the-art retrieval models, namely language model (LM) and BM25. The experimental results on the TREC 2011-2014 Microblog collections, show that our proposed word temporal predictor is effective to boost the retrieval performance within both LM and BM25 frameworks. In particular, we achieve significant improvements over the strong baselines with optimized settings in most cases. Furthermore, our fine-grained time-aware models with word temporal predictor are comparable to if not better than the state-of-the-art temporal retrieval models. |
3,752 | Ambient air pollution on fecundity and live birth in women undergoing assisted reproductive technology in the Yangtze River Delta of China | Background: Ambient air pollution has adverse effects on the reproductive system. However, inconsistent con-clusions were reached from different studies with regard to air pollutants and pregnancy outcomes, especially the livebirth rate in assisted reproductive technology (ART) in different windows of exposure.& nbsp;Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 12,665 women who underwent first fresh or frozen embryo transfer cycle in the Yangtze River Delta of China. Daily average levels of six air pollutants in four different periods were obtained: Period 1 and 2: 90 days or one year prior to oocyte retrieval; Period 3 and 4: the day of oocyte retrieval or one year prior to oocyte retrieval to the day of serum hCG test or to the end of the pregnancy. A multiple logistic regression model was used to investigate the association between air pollutant exposure and pregnancy outcomes. Stratified analyses were conducted to explore potential modifier effects.& nbsp;Results: The one year exposure window (Period 2) before oocyte retrieval had a more evident negative associ-ation with pregnancy outcomes. Each IQR increase in ambient PM10 (OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.84-0.93), PM2.5 (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.77-0.87), SO2 (OR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.83-0.91) and CO (OR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.87-0.96) was associated with a respective 11%, 18%, 13% and 9% decrease in the likelihood of live birth. In entire exposure window of Period 4, all air pollutants except for O-3 were associated with a decreased likelihood of live birth. Stratified analyses showed that women undergoing frozen embryo transfer cycles, especially those with two embryos transferred, were more vulnerable to air pollutant exposure.& nbsp;Conclusion: This study indicates a negative association between air pollutant exposure before oocyte retrieval and livebirth rate in ART. The adverse impact was more evident in one year exposure compared to three-month refresh cycle of the gametes. Additional protection from air pollution should be undertaken at least one year before ART, particularly for those with frozen embryo transfer cycles. |
3,753 | Analysis of the importance of art elements in the construction of ecological environment in the new era | With the development of economy, people have higher and higher requirements for living art. A good ecological environment is the guarantee of creating an aesthetic environment. Taking the ecological environment construction of ecological town as an example, this paper analyses the importance of integrating artistic elements into the ecological environment construction in the new era from the perspective of environmental aesthetics. Based on the concept of "three life integration" and "garden city theory", this paper creatively puts forward the construction methods and models of ecological environment in contemporary small towns. Based on the height of environmental aesthetics, this paper analyses the planning and construction process of characteristic town and the evaluation and acceptance criteria of ecological environment design, summarises its successful experience and main problems, and makes a retrospective summary and reflection. This paper analyses the importance of the integration of art elements into the ecological town in the new era. The results show that in the new era of ecological environment construction, the integration of art elements can not only improve the quality of ecological environment construction, but also improve the common people's cognition of ecological beauty. |
3,754 | TCR signaling to NF-κB and mTORC1: Expanding roles of the CARMA1 complex | Naïve T-cell activation requires signals from both the T-cell receptor (TCR) and the costimulatory molecule CD28. A central mediator of the TCR and CD28 signals is the scaffold protein CARMA1, which functions by forming a complex with partner proteins, Bcl10 and MALT1. A well-known function of the CARMA1 signaling complex is to mediate activation of IκB kinase (IKK) and its target transcription factor NF-κB, thereby promoting T-cell activation and survival. Recent evidence suggests that CARMA1 also mediates TCR/CD28-stimulated activation of the IKK-related kinase TBK1, which plays a role in regulating the homeostasis and migration of T cells. Moreover, the CARMA1 complex connects the TCR/CD28 signals to the activation of mTORC1, a metabolic kinase regulating various aspects of T-cell functions. This review will discuss the mechanism underlying the activation of the CARMA1-dependent signaling pathways and their roles in regulating T-cell functions. |
3,755 | EEPROM endurance degradation at different temperatures: State of the art TCAD simulation | Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) is a widely used memory device, nowadays implemented in submicron technology nodes. In this paper we show how the well-known trapping power law found in the literature can be retrieved by combining well calibrated state of the art Technology Computer AidedDesign (TCAD) simulations with a compact model for tunnel oxide degradation during EEPROM cycling. We pinpoint how this approach can be used to predictively assess the programming window closure and consequently, considerably reduce the time-consuming cycling test procedure. Finally, we show how this methodology can cover a wide range of temperatures, making it very attractive for high demanding applications such as automotive. |
3,756 | Mortality prediction of the frailty syndrome in patients with severe mitral regurgitation | In this prospective observational study, we investigated the impact of geriatric syndromes and frailty on mortality and evaluated the prognostic value of different frailty, nutritional, and geriatric assessment tools in high-risk patients with severe mitral valve regurgitation (MR) who were evaluated for mitral valve therapies including surgical, interventional, and conservative treatment options. We prospectively assessed multiple parameters including the CONUT Score, the Katz Index of independence in activities of daily living (ADL), the Fried Frailty Phenotype (FFP), and the Essential Frailty Toolset (EFT) Score in 127 patients with severe symptomatic MR requiring surgical/interventional treatment versus conservative monitoring. We compared their predictive value on mortality including multivariate regression analysis to identify the most suitable tool to predict outcomes in these patient groups. The frailty syndrome as assessed with the CONUT Score, Katz Index, EFT Score, and FFP was associated with higher rates of comorbidities, significantly higher risk scores such as logistic EuroSCORE, EuroSCORE II, and STS-PROM, and significantly higher mortality rates. The EFT Score and FFP were independent predictors of one-year all-cause mortality in our study cohort (EFT Score: HR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.2; p = 0.01; FFP: HR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.1; p = 0.015). Geriatric syndromes and frailty are associated with increased mortality in high-risk patients with symptomatic severe MR. The EFT Score and the FFP were independent predictors of one-year all-cause mortality. |
3,757 | Evaluation of Hierarchical Watersheds | This paper aims to understand the practical features of hierarchies of morphological segmentations, namely the quasi-flat zones hierarchy and watershed hierarchies, and to evaluate their potential in the context of natural image analysis. We propose a novel evaluation framework for the hierarchies of partitions designed to capture various aspects of those representations: precision of their regions and contours, possibility to extract high quality horizontal cuts and optimal non-horizontal cuts for image segmentation, and the ease of finding a set of regions representing a semantic object. This framework is used to assess and to optimize hierarchies with respect to the possible pre- and post-processing steps. We show that, used in conjunction with a state-of-the-art contour detector, watershed hierarchies are competitive with the complex state-of-the-art methods for hierarchy construction. In particular, the proposed framework allows us to identify a watershed hierarchy based on a novel extinction value, the number of parent nodes that outperforms the other hierarchies of morphological segmentations. This coupled with the fact that watershed hierarchies satisfy clear global optimality properties and can be efficiently computed on large data, make them valuable candidates for various computer vision tasks. |
3,758 | Monocular Pedestrian Detection: Survey and Experiments | Pedestrian detection is a rapidly evolving area in computer vision with key applications in intelligent vehicles, surveillance, and advanced robotics. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of the art from both methodological and experimental perspectives. The first part of the paper consists of a survey. We cover the main components of a pedestrian detection system and the underlying models. The second (and larger) part of the paper contains a corresponding experimental study. We consider a diverse set of state-of-the-art systems: wavelet-based AdaBoost cascade [74], HOG/linSVM [11], NN/LRF [75], and combined shape-texture detection [23]. Experiments are performed on an extensive data set captured onboard a vehicle driving through urban environment. The data set includes many thousands of training samples as well as a 27-minute test sequence involving more than 20,000 images with annotated pedestrian locations. We consider a generic evaluation setting and one specific to pedestrian detection onboard a vehicle. Results indicate a clear advantage of HOG/linSVM at higher image resolutions and lower processing speeds, and a superiority of the wavelet-based AdaBoost cascade approach at lower image resolutions and (near) real-time processing speeds. The data set (8.5 GB) is made public for benchmarking purposes. |
3,759 | A quantitative analysis of phenotypic variations of Metrosideros polymorpha within and across populations along environmental gradients on Mauna Loa, Hawaii | Metrosideros polymorpha, a dominant tree species in the Hawaiian Islands, shows an extreme phenotypic polymorphism both across gradients of climatic/edaphic conditions and within populations, making it a potentially useful model species for evolutionary study. In order to understand how the phenotypic diversity is maintained within populations as well as across populations, we examined the diversities of several leaf and stem functional traits across five elevations and two soil substrates on the volcanic mountain of Mauna Loa, on the island of Hawaii. Leaf dry mass per area (LMA), a key leaf functional trait, was particularly focused on and analyzed in relation to its underlying components-namely, tissue LMA and trichome LMA (LMA = tissue LMA + trichome LMA). Across populations, tissue LMA increased linearly with elevation while trichome LMA showed unimodal patterns with elevation, which were better correlated with temperature and rainfall, respectively. Substantial phenotypic variations were also found within populations. Interestingly, the variations of tissue LMA were often negatively correlated to trichome LMA within populations, which contrasts with the cross-populations pattern, where a strong positive correlation between tissue LMA and trichome LMA was found. This suggests that phenotypic variations within populations were substantially influenced by local ecological processes. Soil depth (an indicator of local water availability) and tree size (an indicator of colonized timing) modestly explained the within-population variations, implying other local environmental factors and/or random processes are also important in local phenotypic diversity. This study provides an insight about how phenotypic diversity of plant species is maintained from local to landscape levels. |
3,760 | A Conceptual Framework for Interacting Landscape Architects and Urban Designers: Professionals' Perspectives | Urban design and landscape Architecture are considered as modem Art (knowledge) which are developed through integration of various Art and science fields of studies. Formal emergence of urban design in 60s and landscape design is occurred at the beginning of 20th century. The success of these two fields is because of their attention to environmental qualities upgrade in public and opal spaces all over cities. Indeed, these two fields have got similar approaches to designing open spaces; this article is looking forward to deliver proposals regarding suitable integration among experts of these two fields.This research is based on a qualitative and quantitative approach; using 'grounded theory method' and applying 'content analysis' in questions extractions analyze the practical mechanisms among everts in these two fields in Iran. The emphasis of this research in procedural aspect is based on the four-level order of relations among design component including: design-planning, management-guidance, control-policy and conservation-catalyzing, as the most important common role of urban design and landscape architecture, is to achieve an effective interaction pattern. In addition, to substantial aspect designing urban landscape and urban spaces is considered as a common subject among landscape architects and urban designers. At the end, based on incorporation of substantial and procedural components, a system of correlation between these two fields is proposed. |
3,761 | Pattern of associated brain injury in maxillofacial trauma: a retrospective study from a high-volume centre | The incidence of head injury in maxillofacial trauma patients varies widely in the literature. A good understanding of the patterns of association between these injuries would aid in efficient multidisciplinary treatment. The aim of this study therefore was to understand the associations between head injury and facial trauma by retrospectively analysing the records of patients seen at a tertiary care trauma centre. Demographic data were also described. Records of 4350 facial trauma patients over a five-year period were reviewed. A total of 3564 (81.9%) patients were victims of motor vehicle accidents (MVA). Male patients predominated, comprising 3711 (85.3%), and 36.6% were in the third decade of life. Facial fractures were seen in 2120 (48.7%), the most common being zygomatic fractures (60%). At the time of trauma, 2383 (57.3%) patients were under the influence of alcohol, and 2821 (87.8%) victims of two-wheeler MVAs were not using their helmet. Of all patients, 29.75% sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Midface fractures were strongly associated with TBI. Maxillofacial injury may be considered a risk factor for TBI, and as such should immediately be suspected and investigated in all patients. Prompt recognition and management can improve outcomes in these patients. |
3,762 | Rock varnish on petroglyphs from the Hima region, southwestern Saudi Arabia: Chemical composition, growth rates, and tentative ages | We investigated rock varnish formed on sandstone and petroglyphs in the Hima area, southwestern Saudi Arabia. To characterize the rock varnish, we made in-situ measurements by portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and analyzed samples by femtosecond laser-ablation inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (fs LA-ICP-MS). Detailed chemical analysis of the rock varnish samples and adjacent soil or aeolian dust yielded information about the varnish's geochemical context and formation mechanism. Untypically low positive Ce anomalies in the rock varnish samples correlated with negative Ce anomalies in the dust, supporting the hypothesis that the dust is the source of the varnish material. To study the varnish development, we made use of the fact that engraving the petroglyphs exposes a fresh bare sandstone surface without varnish, on which varnish regrows subsequently. We determined by pXRF the areal density of manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe) that had been deposited as rock varnish since the creation of the rock art. The rates of Mn deposition in the newly formed varnish were then estimated by correlating the areal density of Mn in Ancient Arabian and Old Arabic inscriptions with their known age ranges. The observed deposition rates showed substantial variability resulting from differences in exposure conditions of the rock surface, but were in a range comparable with that of our previous measurements in northwestern Arabia. This variability could be reduced significantly by referencing the measurements to the intact varnish adjacent to the individual petroglyphs. This normalization provided a much clearer relationship between varnish deposition and age, and enabled tentative ages to be assigned to rock art motifs without previously known ages. These tentative ages spanned most of the Holocene period and were consistent with the culturally or ecologically derived ages of the animal and human figures depicted in the rock art and the styles of scripts used in different periods. |
3,763 | Differential interactions of resting, activated, and desensitized states of the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor with lipidic modulators | The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor is a pentameric ligand-gated ion channel that modulates neuronal excitability, largely by allowing Ca2+ permeation. Agonist binding promotes transition from a resting state to an activated state, and then rapidly to a desensitized state. Recently, cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of the human α7 receptor in nanodiscs were reported in multiple conformations. These were selectively stabilized by inhibitory, activating, or potentiating compounds. However, the functional annotation of these structures and their differential interactions with unresolved lipids and ligands remain incomplete. Here, we characterized their ion permeation, membrane interactions, and ligand binding using computational electrophysiology, free-energy calculations, and coarse-grained molecular dynamics. In contrast to nonconductive structures in apparent resting and desensitized states, the structure determined in the presence of the potentiator PNU-120596 was consistent with an activated state permeable to Ca2+. Transition to this state was associated with compression and rearrangement of the membrane, particularly in the vicinity of the peripheral MX helix. An intersubunit transmembrane site was implicated in selective binding of either PNU-120596 in the activated state or cholesterol in the desensitized state. This substantiates functional assignment of all three lipid-embedded α7-receptor structures with ion-permeation simulations. It also proposes testable models of their state-dependent interactions with lipophilic ligands, including a mechanism for allosteric modulation at the transmembrane subunit interface. |
3,764 | Machine learning in additive manufacturing: State-of-the-art and perspectives | Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as a disruptive digital manufacturing technology. However, its broad adoption in industry is still hindered by high entry barriers of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), limited materials library, various processing defects, and inconsistent product quality. In recent years, machine learning (ML) has gained increasing attention in AM due to its unprecedented performance in data tasks such as classification, regression and clustering. This article provides a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art of ML applications in a variety of AM domains. In the DfAM, ML can be leveraged to output new high-performance metamaterials and optimized topological designs. In AM processing, contemporary ML algorithms can help to optimize process parameters, and conduct examination of powder spreading and in-process defect monitoring. On the production of AM, ML is able to assist practitioners in pre-manufacturing planning, and product quality assessment and control. Moreover, there has been an increasing concern about data security in AM as data breaches could occur with the aid of ML techniques. Lastly, it concludes with a section summarizing the main findings from the literature and providing perspectives on some selected interesting applications of ML in research and development of AM. |
3,765 | PTHrP attenuates osteoblast cell death and apoptosis induced by a novel class of anti-cancer agents | The effectiveness of chemotherapeutic agents often limits their use due to their negative effects on normal cells. Apoptosis regulatory protein (CARP)-1 functional mimetics (CFMs) belong to a novel class of compounds that possess anti-cancer properties with potential utility in breast and other cancers. In this study, we investigated the growth inhibitory action of CFM-4 and -5 in bone-forming osteoblasts and role of a skeletal regulator, parathyroid hormone (PTH)-related peptide (PTHrP), which is frequently associated with oncologic pathologies. MC3T3E1-clone4 (MC-4) or primary osteoblasts were treated with CFMs. Western blots were performed to determine specific protein expressions. MTT, TUNEL assay, ethidium bromide/acridine orange staining, and ApoAlert caspase profiling were used to investigate cell viability and apoptosis of osteoblasts. Immunofluorescence staining was performed to observe intracellular localization of CARP-1. Our studies revealed that CFM-4 and -5 suppressed growths of mature differentiated, but not proliferating, MC-4 cells and PTHrP attenuated this effect. Mechanistically, induction of CARP-1 protein by CFM-4 and -5 was partially decreased by PTHrP. While CARP-1 increased by CFM-4 or -5 correlated with activated caspase-3, PTHrP remarkably blocked caspase-3 activation. PTHrP also influenced translocation of CFM-induced CARP-1 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Our data identify a new function of PTHrP in maintaining osteoblast homeostasis in chemotherapy and define a role of CARP-1 in this process. The crosstalk of PTHrP and CFM-4 and -5 signaling highlights the importance of CFMs as potential anti-cancer therapeutics in breast and other cancers which adversely affect bone. |
3,766 | Intraoperative cell salvage using swab wash and serial thromboelastography in elective abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery involving massive blood loss | The loss of 50% blood volume is one accepted definition of massive haemorrhage, which ordinarily would trigger the massive transfusion protocol, involving the administration of high ratios of fresh frozen plasma and platelets to allogeneic red cells. We investigated 53 patients who experienced >50% blood loss during open elective abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery to assess allogeneic blood component usage and coagulopathy. Specialist patient blood management practitioners used a tailored cell salvage technique including swab wash to maximise blood return. We assessed the proportion of patients who did not require allogeneic blood components and develop evidence of coagulopathy by thromboelastography (TEG) parameters. Blood loss was 50%-174% (mean [SD] 68% [27%]) of blood volume. The mean (SD) intraoperative decrease in haemoglobin concentration, assessed by arterial blood gas analysis, was 5 (13) g/l. No patient received allogeneic red cells intraoperatively. Four of the 53 (8%) patients received blood components in the first 24 h postoperatively at the anaesthetists' discretion. No patient had intraoperative TEG changes indicative of fibrinolysis or coagulopathy. The 30-day mortality was 2% (one of 53). Reduction of allogeneic transfusion is one aim of patient blood management techniques. We have demonstrated virtual avoidance of allogeneic blood product transfusion despite massive blood loss. These data show possible alternatives to the current massive transfusion protocols to the management of elective vascular surgical patients. |
3,767 | A Gradient Intensity-Adapted Algorithm With Adaptive Selection Strategy for the Fast Decision of H.264/AVC Intra-Prediction Modes | H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) is well known for its superiority of finding an optimal tradeoff between the visual quality and the bit-rate expense. Nevertheless, the highly complex procedures of finding an optimal intra-or interprediction mode can degrade the run-time performance of the coding process. To speed up the run-time performance during the encoding of H.264/AVC intra-prediction mode, we apply in this paper a simple yet effective gradient evaluation approach so that the texture orientation inside the coding block can be evaluated efficiently. Moreover, we propose an adaptive selection strategy in this paper so that only a subset with a variable number of the intra-prediction modes will be sent for the rate-distortion optimization process. With the proposed gradient evaluation and adaptive selection strategy, a noticeable speedup on the run-time performance can be achieved with only a minor degradation on the visual quality and the bit-rate expense. When compared with the existing state-of-the-art fast decision algorithms, a significant improvement over prior arts on the proposed cost performance metric can be obtained, which demonstrates the superiority of the proposed approach. |
3,768 | [Ronald D. Laing's "Radical Trip". Reflection on the Relationship Between Psychiatry, Anti-Psychiatry, and Science in the 1960s] | Inspired by American research on the role of the family environment in the development of schizophrenia, the Scottish psychiatrist Ronald D. Laing, now known as the figurehead of British antipsychiatry, began his own research project with his colleague Aaron Esterson in the late 1950s. In the process, he became convinced that those diagnosed as "schizophrenic" were far more rational than bourgeois families alienated from themselves. Driven by this perspective, Laing pushed harder into the public arena and began to become politically active. This article analyzes Laing's development into an anti-psychiatrist and star of the counterculture in the course of the 1960s and asks about the reasons and conditions of possibility for this transformation from scientist to "scientific political activist". |
3,769 | MMSE-Directed Linear Image Interpolation Based on Nonlocal Geometric Similarity | In this letter, we propose a minimum mean square error (MMSE) directed linear interpolation to compose the highresolution image from a single low-resolution image. We build up our interpolation model by using some similar image patches selected according to the nonlocal geometric similarity. First, we use a two-stage search scheme to collect the matched patches inside the whole image. Second, a similarity scaling factor is used in the second search to refine the collected patches so as to help find a robust solution to the MMSE-directed interpolation. Third, our MMSE-directed interpolation is regularized by the involved reference patches to make the solved interpolation coefficients more reliable. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art MMSE-directed linear interpolation schemes andworks competitively with the state-of-the-art learningbased ones. |
3,770 | Central Saharan rock art: Considering the kettles and cupules | All the main Central Saharan mountainous massifs present rock art from various periods, stretching from prehistory until the recent historical era. The paintings and engravings have been documented, described, and classified into the chronological-stylistic groups. However, a special group of carvings called kettles and cupules have been given little or no attention in the rock art studies. Since these artificial formations are abundantly present in the Central Sahara their systematic study is needed. After a short presentation of the Saharan rock art groups, this paper examines kettles and cupules situated in the territory dominated by the earliest paintings called Round Heads, in the mountains of the Algerian Tassili, Algerian Tadrart and the Libyan Acacus. The results of the author's prolonged fieldwork are presented here, namely the quantity and distribution of kettles/cupules in the study area, their presumed relationship to the Round Head paintings, and their possible function. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
3,771 | Using a Measurement Model to Reconceptualize the Church Experiences of Black Men who have Sex with Men | Religious spaces have proven to be effective sites of health intervention among Black Americans. Less is known about how religious environments impact the health of subgroups of Black Americans, specifically Black men who have sex with men (MSM). Using data from the Promoting Our Worth, Equality, and Resilience study, we explored the factor structure of a 10-item religious environment scale among Black MSM (N = 2,482). Exploratory factor analysis revealed three distinct factors: (1) visibility of MSM, (2) structural support, and (3) structural homonegativity. The relationship between Black MSM and their religious environments is complex and should be investigated using measures that accurately reflect their lived experiences. |
3,772 | Real-time prediction of water level change using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system | Accurate water levels modelling and prediction is essential for maritime applications. Water prediction is traditionally developed using the least-squares- based harmonic analysis method based on water level change (WLC) measurements. If long water level measurements are not obtained from the tide gauge, accurate water levels prediction cannot be estimated. To overcome the above limitations, the wavelet neural network (WNN) has recently been developed for the WLC prediction from short water level measurements. However, a new adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model is proposed and developed in this paper. The ANFIS model is utilized to predict and select the WLC models of one month of hourly WLC for Yarmouth, Sain-John and Charlottetown stations in Canadian waters and compared with the current-state-of-the-art WNN model. The statistical analysis is applied to analyse the performance of the developed model in training and testing stages. The results showed an accurate modelling level using ANFIS technique for each station in training and testing stage. A comparison between the developed ANFIS method and the current-state-of-the-art WNN method shows that the accuracy of the developed ANFIS model is superior to the current-state-of-the-art model by 21.5% in average. |
3,773 | Assessing sex differences in behavioural flexibility in an endangered bird species: the Southern ground-hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri) | Since ecology influences the expression of cognitive traits, intra-specific variation in ecological demands can drive differences in cognition. This is often the case, for instance, when sexes face different ecological challenges. However, so far, most studies have focused on few cognitive domains (i.e., spatial cognition), which limits our understanding of the evolution of sexually dimorphic cognition in animals. Endangered Southern ground-hornbills (Bucorvus leadbeateri), for example, show sex-specific ecological differences in age at dispersal, where females disperse from their natal group earlier than males. Based on this potential sex-specific source of selection, females and males may differ in their capacity to behave flexibly. Here, we used the reversal-learning paradigm in ten Southern ground-hornbills in two conditions: spatial and colour. During the pre-test (learning phase), regardless the sex, all subjects were faster at associating the food reward with spatial rather than with colour cues. Similarly, during the test (reversal-learning phase), both sexes learned the new association quicker with spatial cues. There were no sex differences in learning or reversal learning during both experimental phases. This possibility, however, requires further observation and experimentation. We hope our study will provide the impetus to assess further the cognitive capacities of this still overlooked species. |
3,774 | Phoneme Level Lyrics Alignment and Text-Informed Singing Voice Separation | The goal of singing voice separation is to recover the vocals signal from music mixtures. State-of-the-art performance is achieved by deep neural networks trained in a supervised fashion. Since training data are scarce and music signals are extremely diverse, it remains challenging to achieve high separation quality across various recording and mixing conditions as well as music styles. In this paper, we investigate to which extent the separation can be improved when lyrics transcripts are used as additional information. To this end, we propose a joint approach to phoneme level lyrics alignment and text-informed singing voice separation. It is based on DTW-attention, a new monotonic attention mechanism including a differentiable approximation of dynamic time warping. Experimental results show that the method can align phonemes with mixed singing voice with high precision given accurate transcripts. It also achieves competitive results on challenging word level alignment test sets using less training data than state-of-the-art methods. Sequential alignment and informed separation lead to improved separation quality according to objective measures. Text information helps preserving spectral phoneme properties in the separated voice signals. |
3,775 | A Framework for the Generation of Realistic Synthetic Cardiac Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Sequences From the Same Virtual Patients | The use of synthetic sequences is one of the most promising tools for advanced in silico evaluation of the quantification of cardiac deformation and strain through 3-D ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. In this paper, we propose the first simulation framework which allows the generation of realistic 3-D synthetic cardiac US and MR (both cine and tagging) image sequences from the same virtual patient. A state-of-the-art electromechanical (E/M) model was exploited for simulating groundtruth cardiac motion fields ranging from healthy to various pathological cases, including both ventricular dyssynchrony and myocardial ischemia. The E/M groundtruth along with template MR/US images and physical simulators were combined in a unified framework for generating synthetic data. We efficiently merged several warping strategies to keep the full control of myocardial deformations while preserving realistic image texture. In total, we generated 18 virtual patients, each with synthetic 3-D US, cine MR, and tagged MR sequences. The simulated images were evaluated both qualitatively by showing realistic textures and quantitatively by observing myocardial intensity distributions similar to real data. In particular, the US simulation showed a smoother myocardium/background interface than the state-of-the-art. We also assessed the mechanical properties. The pathological subjects were discriminated from the healthy ones by both global indexes (ejection fraction and the global circumferential strain) and regional strain curves. The synthetic database is comprehensive in terms of both pathology and modality, and has a level of realism sufficient for validation purposes. All the 90 sequences are made publicly available to the research community via an open-access database. |
3,776 | Blueshifting the Absorption of a Small -Molecule Donor and Using it as the Third Component to Achieve High-Efficiency Ternary Organic Solar Cells | Adding a small-molecule donor (SMD) to state-of-the-art nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) is demonstrated as a useful strategy to construct ternary organic solar cells, as SMDs typically have high crystallinity and can tune charge transport properties of OSCs. However, the absorption of most SMDs overlaps with typical donor polymers (e.g., PM6), which is against the general guidelines of adopting materials with complementary absorption in ternary OSCs. Herein, the absorption of state-of-art SMDs (BTR-CI) by linking the beta position of the outer thiophene to the alpha position of the inner thiophene unit is intentionally blueshifted. The resulting molecule beta-S1 shows a maximum absorption peak at 505 nm in the film state, which exhibits wider bandgap and shows complementary absorption with the host system (PM6:Y6). The corresponding ternary OSCs with 20%wt beta-S1 show significantly enhanced efficiency from 16.2% to 17.1% due to the increased short-circuit current (J(sc)) and improved fill factor (FF). Herein, an effective strategy to design SMDs with both wider bandgaps and higher crystallinity for high-performance ternary OSCs is presented. |
3,777 | Rock, pigments, and weathering. A preliminary assessment of the challenges and potential of physical and biochemical studies on rock art from southern Ethiopia | Over the past decade, physical and chemical analyses have been widely applied to the study of rock art contexts, particularly to examine the composition of rock art paintings and for direct radiometric dating. Different sampling and analytical methods have been applied to rock art from different parts of the world. However, in Africa these analyses are still at an embryonic stage. The results are often problematic in terms of reliability, mainly as concerns the chronology. This is due to a wide range of fossil and active biodegradation processes affecting rock surfaces and pigments; such processes are still widely underestimated. This paper aims to discuss the state of the art of the physical and chemical analyses undertaken on African rock art contexts, and the urgent need to establish protocols and best practices for sampling and analysis. The preliminary results of a new project in southern Ethiopia are presented here as an example of an integrated study of a rock art context, combining Archaeology and Earth Sciences. Preliminary field observations and SEM-EDS analyses, run on samples from two rock shelters in the Borana area, reveal the presence of a complex set of physical, chemical, and biological weathering processes with manifold effects on the rock art evidence. |
3,778 | A fuzzy rule based multimodal framework for face sketch-to-photo retrieval | Facial sketches are widely used by law enforcement agencies to assist in the identification and apprehension of suspects involved in criminal activities. Sketches used in forensic investigations are drawn by forensic artists following the verbal description provided by an eyewitness or the victim. In a forensic sketch, the facial description depends on the memory of the eyewitness, therefore, there is uncertainty in facial attributes. Most of the existing sketch-photo retrieval methods have ignored the uncertainty of facial attributes. In this paper, we have proposed a novel multimodal framework for sketch-photo retrieval. We have fused the facial attributes and the semantic color information using a fuzzy rule based layered classifier. We have also performed a survey to rank the importance of different facial attributes in the identification of a person. We have performed experiments using viewed, semi-forensic and forensic sketches dataset and results are compared with state-of-the-art methods. Experimental results show that the proposed fuzzy rule based method achieves promising performance as compared to state-of-art methods specifically in case of forensic sketches. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
3,779 | Implementation of a Novel TABGD-BBCO Controlling Mechanism Used in EV Systems | Solar energy-based Electric Vehicles (EVs) are becoming more popular in recent days due to their massive profits. The existing PV-based EV application systems comprise the major problems of increased computational complexity, reduced efficiency, incompetent speed control and high error rate. Thus, this research work intends to develop a novel controlling mechanism named Tuple Accelerated Batch Gradient Descent (TABGD) for enhancing the speed control of EVs with a high battery power support. The main contribution of this technique is to control the converter and inverter circuits by optimally tuning the parameters of the controlling mechanism. Also, it generates the switching control signal with regulated DC output and motor current. Moreover, an improved Batched Bee Colony Optimization (BBCO) algorithm is employed to provide optimal battery power support to the EV system. The experimental results validate the performance of the proposed mechanism and compare it with other state-of-the-art methods. |
3,780 | Human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (hIAPP) Protofibril-Specific Antibodies for Detection and Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes | Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is a major public health concern and is characterized by sustained hyperglycemia due to insulin resistance and destruction of insulin-producing β cells. One pathological hallmark of T2D is the toxic accumulation of human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) aggregates. Monomeric hIAPP is a hormone normally co-secreted with insulin. However, increased levels of hIAPP in prediabetic and diabetic patients can lead to the formation of hIAPP protofibrils, which are toxic to β cells. Current therapies fail to address hIAPP aggregation and current screening modalities do not detect it. Using a stabilizing capping protein, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can be developed against a previously nonisolatable form of hIAPP protofibrils, which are protofibril specific and do not engage monomeric hIAPP. Shown here are two candidate mAbs that can detect hIAPP protofibrils in serum and hIAPP deposits in pancreatic islets in a mouse model of rapidly progressing T2D. Treatment of diabetic mice with the mAbs delays disease progression and dramatically increases overall survival. These results demonstrate the potential for using novel hIAPP protofibril-specific mAbs as a diagnostic screening tool for early detection of T2D, as well as therapeutically to preserve β cell function and target one of the underlying pathological mechanisms of T2D. |
3,781 | Transcriptome sequencing reveals the difference in the expression of biofilm and planktonic cells between two strains of Salmonella Typhimurium | Salmonela enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is a food-borne pathogen that can form biofilms to increase its resistance to the external environment. Through the detection of biofilm of several S. Typhimurium strains in this study, strain CDC3 with strong biofilm forming capacity and strain CVCC3384 with weak biofilm forming capacity were identified. The genes expressed in planktonic and biofilm cells of two S. Typhimurium strains were analysed by transcriptome sequencing. Results showed that the genes related to the signal transduction pathway were upregulated and genes related to motility were downregulated in strain CDC3. By comparing biofilms and planktonic cells of the two strains, we found that CDC3 regulates biofilm formation mainly through the two-component system kdpABC, while strain CVCC3384 does so mainly through motility and quorum sensing. This study revealed regulation mechanism of biofilms formation between different biofilm forming capacity strains, and provided a theoretical basis for subsequent research. |
3,782 | African trypanosome infection patterns in cattle in a farm setting in Southern Ghana | African Trypanosomiasis is a debilitating disease in both humans and animals that occurs in sub-Saharan Africa and has a severe negative impact on the livelihood of people in the affected areas. The disease is caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Trypanosoma, which is often described simply as blood-borne; however, a number of studies have shown the parasite inhabits many different environments within the host. Control of the disease involves measures that include the use of trypanocidal drugs to which there are growing number of reported cases of resistance. Here, the patterns of trypanosome DNA presence during a diminazene aceturate treatment round on a cohort of cattle in Adidome, Ghana were assessed. A group of 24 cows were selected irrespective of age and sex and the infecting trypanosome species followed for 18 days before and after treatment with diminazene aceturate in the blood and skin of the animals using a diagnostic nested PCR that targeted the alpha-beta tubulin gene array. Persistence of trypanosome DNA was observed over the period and parasite DNA was readily detected in both the skin and blood, with parasite DNA disappearing and reappearing in both across the study. Moreover, there was limited correlation between the parasite DNA detected in the skin and blood. Overall, the data show the patterns of a natural trypanosome infection during drug treatment. In addition, the diagnostic potential of sampling the skin for African trypanosomiasis is highlighted. |
3,783 | The Multimodal Brain Tumor Image Segmentation Benchmark (BRATS) | In this paper we report the set-up and results of the Multimodal Brain Tumor Image Segmentation Benchmark (BRATS) organized in conjunction with the MICCAI 2012 and 2013 conferences. Twenty state-of-the-art tumor segmentation algorithms were applied to a set of 65 multi-contrast MR scans of low-and high-grade glioma patients-manually annotated by up to four raters-and to 65 comparable scans generated using tumor image simulation software. Quantitative evaluations revealed considerable disagreement between the human raters in segmenting various tumor sub-regions (Dice scores in the range 74%-85%), illustrating the difficulty of this task. We found that different algorithms worked best for different sub-regions (reaching performance comparable to human inter-rater variability), but that no single algorithm ranked in the top for all sub-regions simultaneously. Fusing several good algorithms using a hierarchical majority vote yielded segmentations that consistently ranked above all individual algorithms, indicating remaining opportunities for further methodological improvements. The BRATS image data and manual annotations continue to be publicly available through an online evaluation system as an ongoing benchmarking resource. |
3,784 | Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Caring for Chinese American Patients | The Chinese American population is one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States, composed of ∼5.4 million people, and represents ∼5.5% of overseas Chinese populations. With an expected exponential population rise, Chinese American patients who experience serious illness or approach end-of-life (EOL) may find their cultural values influencing the medical care they receive. Palliative care clinicians must recognize diverse cultural beliefs and preferences of Chinese American patients and their families. In this study, we provide 10 cultural pearls to guide the provision of palliative and EOL care for Chinese American patients, including discussions of Chinese traditions, communication strategies for Chinese patients and families, advance care planning, and EOL care beliefs. |
3,785 | Fuzzy-ART based adaptive digital watermarking scheme | In this paper, a novel transform domain digital watermarking scheme that uses visually meaningful binary image as watermark has been developed. The method embeds the watermark information adaptively with localized embedding strength according to the noise sensitivity level of the host image. Fuzzy adaptive resonance theory (Fuzzy-ART) classification is used to identify appropriate locations for watermark insertion and its control parameters add agility to the clustering results to thwart counterfeiting attacks. The scalability of visually recognizable watermark is exploited to devise a robust weighted recovery method with composite watermark. The proposed watermarking schemes can also be employed for oblivious detection. Unlike most oblivious watermarking schemes, our methods allow the use of visually meaningful image as watermark. For automation friendly verification, a normalized correlation metric that suits well with the statistical property of our methods is used. The experimental results show that the proposed techniques can survive several kinds of image processing attacks and the JPEG lossy compression. |
3,786 | Pruning strategies for mining high utility itemsets | High utility itemset mining problem involves the use of internal and external utilities of items (such as profits, margins) to discover interesting patterns from a given transactional database. It is an extension of the basic frequent itemset mining problem and is proven to be considerably hard and intractable. This is due to the lack of inherent structural properties of high utility itemsets that can be exploited. Several heuristic methods have been suggested in the literature to limit the large search space. This paper aims to improve the state-of-the-art and proposes a high utility mining method that employs novel pruning strategies. The utility of the proposed method is demonstrated through rigorous experimentation on several real and synthetic benchmark sparse and dense datasets. A comparative evaluation of the method against a state-of-the-art method is also presented. Our experimental results reveal that the proposed method is very effective in pruning unpromising candidates, especially for sparse transactional databases. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
3,787 | Design considerations of channel buffer amplifiers for low-power area-efficient column drivers in active-matrix LCDs | The performance criteria and corresponding design specifications for channel buffer amplifiers in state-of-the-art column driver ICs of active-matrix LCD (AMLCD) applications are presented. And the relationships between the amplifier characteristics and the display image quality are defined. In addition, several display patterns and their driving waveforms that enable the prediction of the performance of channel buffer amplifiers in real panel applications are presented(1). |
3,788 | Superpixel Hierarchy | Superpixel segmentation has been one of the most important tasks in computer vision. In practice, an object can be represented by a number of segments at finer levels with consistent details or included in a surrounding region at coarser levels. Thus, a superpixel segmentation hierarchy is of great importance for applications that require different levels of image details. However, there is no method that can generate all scales of superpixels accurately in real time. In this paper, we propose the superhierarchy algorithm which is able to generate multiscale superpixels as accurately as the state-of-the-art methods but with one to two orders of magnitude speed-up. The proposed algorithm can be directly integrated with recent efficient edge detectors to significantly outperform the state-of-the-art methods in terms of segmentation accuracy. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations on a number of applications demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is accurate and efficient in generating a hierarchy of superpixels. |
3,789 | Comprehensive Assessment of Coronary Calcification in Intravascular OCT Using a Spatial-Temporal Encoder-Decoder Network | Coronary calcification is a strong indicator of coronary artery disease and a key determinant of the outcome of percutaneous coronary intervention. We propose a fully automated method to segment and quantify coronary calcification in intravascular OCT (IVOCT) images based on convolutional neural networks (CNN). All possible calcified plaques were segmented from IVOCT pullbacks using a spatial-temporal encoder-decoder network by exploiting the 3D continuity information of the plaques, which were then screened and classified by a DenseNet network to reduce false positives. A novel data augmentation method based on the IVOCT image acquisition pattern was also proposed to improve the performance and robustness of the segmentation. Clinically relevant metrics including calcification area, depth, angle, thickness, volume, and stent-deployment calcification score, were automatically computed. 13844 IVOCT images with 2627 calcification slices from 45 clinical OCT pullbacks were collected and used to train and test the model. The proposed method performed significantly better than existing state-of-the-art 2D and 3D CNN methods. The data augmentation method improved the Dice similarity coefficient for calcification segmentation from 0.615 +/- 0.332 to 0.756 +/- 0.222, reaching human-level inter-observer agreement. Our proposed region-based classifier improved image-level calcification classification precision and F1-score from 0.725 +/- 0.071 and 0.791 +/- 0.041 to 0.964 +/- 0.002 and 0.883 +/- 0.008, respectively. Bland-Altman analysis showed close agreement between manual and automatic calcification measurements. Our proposed method is valuable for automated assessment of coronary calcification lesions and in-procedure planning of stent deployment. |
3,790 | Generation of Anatomically Inspired Human Airway Tree Using Electrical Impedance Tomography: A Method to Estimate Regional Lung Filling Characteristics | The purpose of lung recruitment is to improve and optimize the air exchange flow in the lungs by adjusting the respiratory settings during mechanical ventilation. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a monitoring tool that permits measurement of regional pulmonary filling characteristics or filling index (FI) during ventilation. The conventional EIT system has limitations which compromise the accuracy of the FI. This paper proposes a novel and automated methodology for accurate FI estimation based on EIT images of recruitable regional collapse and hyperdistension during incremental positive end-expiratory pressure. It identifies details of the airway tree (AT) to generate a correction factor to the FIs providing an accurate measurement. Multi-scale image enhancement followed by identification of the AT skeleton with a robust and self-exploratory tracing algorithm is used to automatically estimate the FI. AT tracing was validated using phantom data on a ground-truth lung. Based on generated phantom EIT images, including an established reference, the proposed method results in more accurate FI estimation of 65% in all quadrants compared with the current state-of-the-art. Measured regional filling characteristics were also examined by comparing regional and global impedance variations in clinically recorded data from ten different subjects. Clinical tests on filling characteristics based on extraction of the AT from the resolution enhanced EIT images indicated a more accurate result compared with the standard EIT images. |
3,791 | Enzymatic Late-Stage Halogenation of Peptides | The late-stage site-selective derivatisation of peptides has many potential applications in structure-activity relationship studies and postsynthetic modification or conjugation of bioactive compounds. The development of orthogonal methods for C-H functionalisation is crucial for such peptide derivatisation. Among them, biocatalytic methods are increasingly attracting attention. Tryptophan halogenases emerged as valuable catalysts to functionalise tryptophan (Trp), while direct enzyme-catalysed halogenation of synthetic peptides is yet unprecedented. Here, it is reported that the Trp 6-halogenase Thal accepts a wide range of amides and peptides containing a Trp moiety. Increasing the sequence length and reaction optimisation made bromination of pentapeptides feasible with good turnovers and a broad sequence scope, while regioselectivity turned out to be sequence dependent. Comparison of X-ray single crystal structures of Thal in complex with d-Trp and a dipeptide revealed a significantly altered binding mode for the peptide. The viability of this bioorthogonal approach was exemplified by halogenation of a cyclic RGD peptide. |
3,792 | Magnetotransport in Graphene/Pb0.24Sn0.76Te Heterostructures: Finding a Way to Avoid Catastrophe | While heterostructures are ubiquitous tools enabling new physics and device functionalities, the palette of available materials has never been richer. Combinations of two emerging material classes, two-dimensional materials and topological materials, are particularly promising because of the wide range of possible permutations that are easily accessible. Individually, both graphene and Pb1-xSnxTe (PST) are widely investigated for spintronic applications because graphene's high carrier mobility and PST's topologically protected surface states are attractive platforms for spin transport. Here, we combine monolayer graphene with PST and demonstrate a hybrid system with properties enhanced relative to the constituent parts. Using magnetotransport measurements, we find carrier mobilities up to 20 000 cm2/(V s) and a magnetoresistance approaching 100%, greater than either material prior to stacking. We also establish that there are two distinct transport channels and determine a lower bound on the spin relaxation time of 4.5 ps. The results can be explained using the polar catastrophe model, whereby a high mobility interface state results from a reconfiguration of charge due to a polar/nonpolar interface interaction. Our results suggest that proximity induced interface states with hybrid properties can be added to the still growing list of behaviors in these materials. |
3,793 | Risk of venous thromboembolism during the use of oral estrogen-progestogen hormone therapies in light of most recent research findings | Two important studies evaluating the safety profile of oral estrogen-progestogen hormonal therapies conducted in standard clinical practice with respect to the venous system were recently published. A large prospective controlled cohort study (PRO-E2) based on the non-inferiority design has shown that the relative risk of developing venous thrombosis (VTE) in women using combined oral hormonal contraceptives (COHC) containing 17β-estradiol (1.5 mg) and nomegestrol acetate (2.5 mg) (E2/NOMAC) was not statistically different from that in users of COHC containing ethinylestradiol and levonorgestrel (EE/LNG). The aim of the recently presented study was to compare the risk of VTE in patients treated with a product for oral continuous combined menopausal hormone therapy containing 1 mg of 17ß-estradiol and 100 mg of micronized progesterone (1 mgE2/100 mgP4) with patients taking conjugated equine estrogens and medroxyprogesterone acetate (CEE/MPA). The study was based on an analysis of records retrieved from a US health insurance database, and was therefore concerned the real-life clinical practice. The hazard ratio of VTE when comparing 1 mgE2/100 mgP4 with CEE/MPA was 0.70 (95% CI: 0.53-0.92). The difference was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). The rewieved studies provide further evidence that the use of hormones bioidentical with endogenous steroids in oral contraception and menopausal hormone therapy creates an opportunity to combine high efficacy with a favorable safety profile. |
3,794 | [Establishment of Evaluation System for Medical Optical Radiation Protective Eyewears] | As a kind of class II medical device, medical optical radiation protective eyewears should meet the requirements of safety and effectiveness. In this study, the evaluation system of medical optical radiation protective eyewears is established. Combined with the medical device registration unit division guidelines, the classification method of medical optical radiation protective eyewears is given. Medical optical radiation protective eyewears are not only assembled spectacles, but also have special optical radiation protection performance. The performance evaluation method of medical optical radiation protective eyewears and the evaluation method of shelf life for medical optical radiation protective eyewears are given. |
3,795 | Characterization of the Individual Short-Term Frequency Stability of Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillators at the 10(-16) Level | We present the characterization of three cryogenic sapphire oscillators (CSOs) using the three-cornered-hat method. Easily implemented with commercial components and instruments, this method reveals itself very useful to analyze the fractional frequency stability limitations of these state-of-the-art ultrastable oscillators. The best unit presents a fractional frequency stability better than 5 x 10(-16) at 1 s and below 2 x 10(-16) for tau < 5000 s. |
3,796 | Improving the Computational Cost of Image Reconstruction in Biomedical Magnetic Induction Tomography Using a Volume Integral Equation Approach | Magnetic induction tomography is a novel imaging method with promising biomedical applications. The image reconstruction problem suffers from a high computation cost because of its inherent nonlinearity. Current state-of-the-art numerical methods are based on the finite element method (FEM). To avoid artifacts at the boundaries, this method requires the discretization of a volume much larger than the actual volume of interest. A numerical model based on volume integrals only requires the discretization of the volume of interest, which greatly reduces the number of unknowns. Fewer unknowns generally imply a lower computation cost. However, a naive implementation of the volume integral equation does not yield a lower computation cost due to the bad conditioning arising from the high dielectric property values of biological tissues at low frequencies. To tackle this problem, a model based on inhomogeneous Green's function is proposed. The forward model is validated with the Mie scattering theory. Through the resolution of the inverse problem, it is found that the reconstruction limits compare well with current state-of-the-art methods. By reducing the number of unknowns and maintaining a similar computational complexity, the proposed model offers a computation cost reduction when compared with the FEM. |
3,797 | Art Meets Sport: What Can Actor Training Bring to Physical Literacy Programs? | The aim of this communication is to highlight synergies and opportunities between the fields of education, sport and health and the performing arts for the promotion of physical literacy. First, physical literacy is introduced and then defined according to the definition used in this communication. Secondly, we highlight the gap in physical literacy interventions, in that they do not address learning based on a holistic comprehensive definition of physical literacy. Then we provide examples of interventions that do borrow from the arts, such as circus arts, and show how these approaches explicitly link to the discipline of arts. This is followed by program examples, which approach motor and language development from discipline-specific perspectives. Then we introduce actor training (within the discipline of arts) in terms of how this approach may be useful to our understanding of physical literacy and how to expand the conception of physical literacy to include affective meaning making, and tolerance for ambiguity and discomfort in not-knowing. Finally, we conclude with the next step for the bridging of disciplines in order to further our journey to understand and improve physical literacy. |
3,798 | Enantiopure β-isocyano-boronic esters: synthesis and exploitation in isocyanide-based multicomponent reactions | Various boron-containing isocyanides have been efficiently synthesized from the corresponding enantiopure β-substituted β-amino boronic acid pinacol esters, without need for protecting group interconversion, through a two-step, purification-free procedure. They were employed in a variety of isocyanide-based multicomponent reactions, proving to be reliable components for all of them and allowing the efficient synthesis of unprecedented, boron-containing peptidomimetics and heteroatom-rich small molecules, including biologically relevant cyclic boronates. Jointing together the β-amido boronic acid moiety, deriving from the isocyanide component, with prominent pharmacophoric rings emerging from the multicomponent process, a successful application of the molecular hybridization concept could be realized. |
3,799 | Orphan Medical Devices and Pediatric Cardiology - What Interventionists in Europe Need to Know, and What Needs to be Done | Medical devices include a great diversity of technologies, which are evaluated and approved in the European Union (EU) according to a revised law that came into effect on 26 May 2021, known as the Medical Device Regulation or MDR (EU 745/2017). It has a transition period that allows products that were approved under the previous rules (the EU Medical Device Directives) to continue to be marketed until 26 May 2024 at the latest. As a result of a series of unforeseen factors, there is a possibility that the MDR may result in products becoming unavailable, with the consequent risk of a loss of some interventions that are reliant upon those devices. Devices that are used for orphan or pediatric indications are particularly vulnerable to this. There is an urgent need for policy to be developed to protect essential medical devices for orphan indications and for use in children, to ensure that necessary interventions can continue, and to ensure a more sustainable system in Europe over the longer term. Pediatric cardiologists in Europe need to be aware that particular medical devices may become unavailable over the next two years, and they should contribute to plans to mitigate this risk, so that they can continue to deliver the best possible care for their patients. This commentary examines the factors which have contributed to this issue and suggests ways that policy can be developed to address it.Article title: Kindly check and confirm the edit made in the title.Title is okay. |
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