Search

An underwater image enhancement technique based on weighted guided filter image fusion is proposed to address challenges, including optical absorption and scattering, color distortion, and uneven illumination. The method consists of three stages: color correction, local contrast enhancement, and fusion algorithm methods. In terms of color correction, basic correction is achieved through channel compensation and remapping, with saturation adjusted based on histogram distribution to enhance visual richness. For local contrast enhancement, the approach involves box filtering and a variational model to improve image saturation. Finally, the method utilizes weighted guided filter image fusion to achieve high visual quality underwater images. Additionally, our method outperforms eight state-of-the-art algorithms in no-reference metrics, demonstrating its effectiveness and innovation. We also conducted application tests and time comparisons to further validate the practicality of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous development of smart industrial parks has imposed increasingly stringent requirements on safety helmet detection in environments such as factories, construction sites, rail transit, and fire protection. Current models often suffer from issues like false alarms or missed detections, especially when dealing with small and densely packed targets. This study aims to enhance the YOLOv5 target detection method to provide real-time alerts for individuals not wearing safety helmets in complex scenarios. Our approach involves incorporating the ECA channel attention mechanism into the YOLOv5 backbone network, allowing for efficient feature extraction while reducing computational load. We adopt a weighted bi-directional feature pyramid network structure (BiFPN) to facilitate effective feature fusion and cross-scale information transmission. Additionally, the introduction of a decoupling head in YOLOv5 improves detection performance and convergence rate. The experimental results demonstrate a substantial improvement in the YOLOv5 model's performance. The enhanced YOLOv5 model achieved an average accuracy of 95.9% on a custom-made helmet dataset, a 3.0 percentage point increase compared to the original YOLOv5 model. This study holds significant implications for enhancing the accuracy and robustness of helmet-wearing detection in various settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to investigate the consistency and diversity between metabolic and structural brain networks at individual level constructed with divergence-based method in healthy Chinese population. The 18F-FDG PET and T1-weighted images of brain were collected from 209 healthy participants. The Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD) was used to calculate metabolic or structural connectivities between any pair of brain regions and then individual brain networks were constructed. The global and regional topological properties of both networks were analyzed with graph theoretical analysis. Regional properties including nodal efficiency, degree, and betweenness centrality were used to define hub regions of networks. Cross-modality similarity of brain connectivity was analyzed with differential power (DP) analysis. The default mode network (DMN) had the largest number of brain connectivities with high DP values. The small-worldness indexes of metabolic and structural networks in all participants were greater than 1. The structural network showed higher assortativity and local efficiency than metabolic network, while hierarchy and global efficiency were greater in the metabolic network (all P < 0.001). Most of hubs in both networks were symmetrically spatial distributed in the regions of the DMN and subcortical nuclei including thalamus and amygdala, etc. The human brain presented small-world architecture both in perspective of individual metabolic and structural networks. There was a structural substrate that supported the brain to globally and efficiently integrate and process metabolic interaction across brain regions. The cross-modality cooperation or specialization in both networks might imply mechanisms of achieving higher-order brain functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-cellular organisms such as humans contain hundreds of cell types that share the same genetic information (DNA sequences), and yet have different cellular traits and functions. While how genetic information is passed through generations has been extensively characterized, it remains largely obscure how epigenetic information encoded by chromatin regulates the passage of certain traits, gene expression states and cell identity during mitotic cell divisions, and even through meiosis. In this review, we will summarize the recent advances on molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance, discuss the potential impacts of epigenetic inheritance during normal development and in some disease conditions, and outline future research directions for this challenging, but exciting field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wireless blockchain network (WBN), it is necessary to study the impact of delay performance on blockchain technology with different data rates, because the throughput performance is not the only goal. We propose an analysis model to evaluate network performance based on both delay performance and network performance. Firstly, we separate the communication process from business process in WBN, and package the business data into the payload in a frame. Secondly, we define throughput-time S V as a ratio of throughput to data transmission rate and propose a ratio model of S V to network delay. Then, we analyze the ratio model with the parameter of payload transmission time, which is defined as a ratio of payload in a frame to data transmission rate. Using the DATA/ACK type in IEEE 802.11, we learn that the optimal payload transmission time is independent of node number and only determined by some interframe space of access mechanism and propagation time. Finally, we analyze the performance of network delay and throughput between DATA/ACK type and RTS/CTS/DATA/ACK type based on payload transmission time. The simulation data verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer is a major cause of death in males. Cyproterone acetate (CPA), the steroidal anti-androgen for part of androgen deprivation therapy, may block the androgen-receptor interaction and then reduce serum testosterone through its weak anti-gonadotropic action. In addition to CPA inducing hepatitis, CPA is known to cause liver tumors in rats also. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a cytoplasmic receptor and regulates multiple physiological functions. CYP1A1 is an AhR-targeted gene. We found that CPA induced CYP1A1 expression, transcriptional activity of the aryl hydrocarbon response element (AHRE), and the nuclear localization of AhR in mouse Hepa-1c1c7 cells. However, CPA suppressed CYP1A1 mRNA expression and the transcriptional activity of AHRE in human HepG2 and MCF7 cells, and also decreased AhR ligand-induced CYP1A1 protein expression and transcriptional activity of AHRE in HepG2 cells. In summary, CPA is an AhR agonist in mouse cells, but an AhR antagonist in human cells. Accordingly, CPA potentially plays a role as an endocrine disruptor of the AhR. This study helps us to understand why CPA induces acute hepatitis, gene mutation, and many other side effects. In addition, it may trigger further studies investigating the relationships between CPA, glucocorticoid receptor and castration-resistant prostate cancer in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online object tracking under complex environments is an important but challenging problem in computer vision, especially for illumination changing and occlusion conditions. With the emergence of commercial real-time depth cameras like Kinect, depth image-based object tracking, which is insensitive to illumination changing, gains more and more attentions. In this paper, we propose an online depth image-based object tracking method with sparse representation and object detection. In this framework, we combine tracking and detection to leverage precision and efficiency under heavy occlusion conditions. For tracking, objects are represented by sparse representations learned online with update. For detection, we apply two different strategies based on tracking-learning-detection and wider search window approaches. We evaluate our methods on both the subset of the public dataset Princeton Tracking Benchmark and our own driver face video in a simulated driving environment. The quantitative evaluations of precision and running time on these two datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed object tracking algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Static analysis can be classified into intra-procedural analysis and inter-procedural analysis-by-analysis objects. Inter-procedural analysis need to analyze the whole program adopting bottom-up parsing algorithms. Inter-procedural analysis can be converted to intra-procedural analysis by logging the context of follower's function call in bottom-up analysis. However, the existence of recursive function calls in program increases the difficulty of inter-procedural analysis, which affects the detection accuracy of static analysis to some extent. An optimal method for analyzing the recursive function calls of program is presented in this paper. This method can lift the recursive function calls in function call graph of the program to be analyzed on the premise that vital function calls will be preserved. In this way, the false negative rate and false positive rate of program static analysis can be reduced and the accuracy of program security check can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic monitoring of landslides in engineering geology has focused on the correlation among landslide stability, rainwater infiltration, and subsurface hydrogeology. However, the understanding of this complicated correlation is still poor and inadequate. Thus, in this study, we investigated a typical landslide in southwestern China via time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (TLERT) in November 2013 and August 2014. We studied landslide mechanisms based on the spatiotemporal characteristics of surface water infiltration and flow within the landslide body. Combined with borehole data, inverted resistivity models accurately defined the interface between Quaternary sediments and bedrock. Preferential flow pathways attributed to fracture zones and fissures were also delineated. In addition, we found that surface water permeates through these pathways into the slipping mass and drains away as fissure water in the fractured bedrock, probably causing the weakly weathered layer to gradually soften and erode, eventually leading to a landslide. Clearly, TLERT dynamic monitoring can provide precursory information of critical sliding and can be used in landslide stability analysis and prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC) is the most frequent salivary gland malignancy with a unique characteristic that has been named perineural invasion (PNI). EMMPRIN is a transmembrane glycoprotein that has been demonstrated to promote PNI in SACC. Slug, one of the most effective promoters of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), has been found to be associated with PNI in SACC. The aim of the present study was to investigate the roles and relationships of Slug, EMMPRIN, and E-cadherin in the PNI process of SACC. The expression levels of Slug, EMMPRIN, and E-cadherin in 115 primary SACC cases were statistically analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Simultaneously, the SACC cell line SACC-83 was transfected with recombinant plasmids of silencing Slug (si-Slug) and/or silencing EMMPRIN (si-EMMPRIN). The functions of Slug and EMMPRIN in the EMT and PNI process were assessed by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), western blotting, morphological observation, scratch test, migration assay, and in vitro perineural invasion assay. The immunohistochemical statistics revealed that the high expression of Slug and EMMPRIN and the low expression of E-cadherin were significantly associated with the PNI of SACC ( P < 0.05). Slug expression was significantly associated with EMMPRIN expression ( P < 0.05), and Slug expression and EMMPRIN expression were both significantly negatively associated with E-cadherin expression ( P < 0.05). Slug and EMMPRIN silencing both significantly inhibited EMMPRIN expression but promoted E-cadherin expression in SACC-83 cells ( P < 0.01). The series of in vitro assays revealed that silencing of Slug, EMMPRIN, or both induced cell morphology changes and inhibited tumor cell motility and PNI ability in SACC-83 cells ( P < 0.01). These results suggested that Slug silencing could inhibit the EMT process by downregulating EMMPRIN and then upregulating E-cadherin in the PNI process of SACC. The present study indicated that Slug and EMMPRIN are potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the diagnosis and treatment of PNI in human SACC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initiators caspase-9 ( CASP9) and caspase-10 ( CASP10) are two key controllers of apoptosis and play important roles in carcinogenesis. This study aims to explore the association between CASPs gene polymorphisms and colorectal cancer (CRC) susceptibility in a population-based study. A two-stage designed population-based case-control study was carried out, including a testing set with 300 cases and 296 controls and a validation set with 206 cases and 845 controls. A total of eight tag selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CASP9 and CASP10 were chosen based on HapMap and the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) datasets and genotyped by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay. Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to evaluate the association of SNPs with CRC risk. In the first stage, from eight tag SNPs, three polymorphisms rs4646077 (odds ratio (OR): 0.654, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.406-1.055; P=0.082), rs4233532 (OR: 1.667, 95% CI: 0.967-2.876; OR: 1.435, 95% CI: 0.998-2.063; P=0.077), and rs2881930 (OR: 0.263, 95% CI: 0.095-0.728, P=0.036) showed possible association with CRC risk. However, none of the three SNPs, rs4646077 (OR: 1.233, 95% CI: 0.903-1.683), rs4233532 (OR: 0.892, 95% CI: 0.640-1.243; OR: 1.134, 95% CI: 0.897-1.433), and rs2881930 (OR: 1.096, 95% CI: 0.620-1.938; OR: 1.009, 95% CI: 0.801-1.271), remained significant with CRC risk in the validation set, even after stratification for different tumor locations (colon or rectum). In addition, never tea drinking was associated with a significantly increased risk of CRC in testing set together with validation set (OR: 1.755, 95% CI: 1.319-2.334). Our results found that polymorphisms of CASP9 and CASP10 genes may not contribute to CRC risk in Chinese population and thereby the large-scale case-control studies might be in consideration. In addition, tea drinking was a protective factor for CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of image morphology in detecting and extracting the initial welding position during the autonomous welding process is described. During the process, firstly visual sensing technology is used to capture the straight seam image, and secondly the image edges are detected by morphological corrosion edge detection algorithm, with which can retain the critical information while filter other interferences effectively at the same time. Then morphological processing algorithm is used to conduct the direction of filter by selecting the multidirectional linear structuring elements and finally get the initial weld position point coordinates with the Hough transform. The algorithm is simple, rapid, self-adaptability with high accuracy for interferences except long lines so as to accomplish the entire process of detecting the initial welding position. It can meet the practical demands of automatic guidance for robotic welding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

new carbonaceous catalyst with sulfonic acid group (-SOH) was prepared by incomplete carbonization of β-cyclodextrin followed by sulfonation. The sulfonated amorphous carbon was characterized by IR, elemental analysis, DSC-TGA and PXRD, and the catalytic activity was investigated to be an efficient catalyst for the esterification reactions with maximum yield of 87%. The sulfonated carbonaceous catalyst was readily separated from the reaction solution and keeps approximately equal catalytic activity. The results confirm that the active centre is the hydrophilic sulfonic acid functional group in the esterification reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extrapontine myelinolysis and pure word deafness are very uncommon disorders. Here, we report a case of a 19-year-old woman who suffered from osmotic demyelination syndrome with coincidence of typical pure word deafness. As a consequence of rapid correction of hyponatremia, the patient demonstrated an initial onset of cortical deafness, and then progressed to generalized auditory agnosia, which eventually developed into confined verbal auditory agnosia (pure word deafness). Bilateral extrapontine myelinolysis was confirmed using brain magnetic resonance imaging. This case suggests that verbal and nonverbal stimuli may involve separate thalamocortical pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

n approach for parameter estimation of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control system using a new nonlinear programming (NLP) algorithm was proposed. SQP/IIPM algorithm is a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) based algorithm that derives its search directions by solving quadratic programming (QP) subproblems via an infeasible interior point method (IIPM) and evaluates step length adaptively via a simple line search and/or a quadratic search algorithm depending on the termination of the IIPM solver. The task of tuning PI/PID parameters for the first- and second-order systems was modeled as constrained NLP problem. SQP/IIPM algorithm was applied to determining the optimum parameters for the PI/PID control systems. To assess the performance of the proposed method, a Matlab simulation of PID controller tuning was conducted to compare the proposed SQP/IIPM algorithm with the gain and phase margin (GPM) method and Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) method. The results reveal that, for both step and impulse response tests, the PI/PID controller using SQP/IIPM optimization algorithm consistently reduce rise time, settling-time and remarkably lower overshoot compared to GPM and ZN methods, and the proposed method improves the robustness and effectiveness of numerical optimization of PID control systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to clarify the fauna of the tribe Archipini, which belongs to the family Tortricidae in Northeast China. In the present study, fifty-four species of the tribe were recognized and enumerated. Based on the present study, two species, Archips viola Falkovitsh and Choristoneura evanidana (Kennel), are reported for the first time from China. Also five species, archips dichotomus Falkovitsh, Archips similis (Butler), Argyrotaenia angustilineata (Walsingham), Choristoneura longicellana (Walsingham), and Gnorismoneura orientis (Filipjev), are newly recorded from Northeast China. All available information, including host plant, distributional range, and biological information, are listed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four-armed airflow olfactometer was used to determining the foraging behavior of Pteroptrix longgiclava (Girault) (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) and Encarsia gigas (Tshumakova) (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) to the essential oils which emitted from the healthy bark of Populus pseudo-simonii×P. nigra, the infested bark injured by Quadraspidiotus gigas (Thiem & Gerneck), the body and scale of fixed 1st-instar-nymph of Q. gigas. The results from these experiments showed that the volatile oils produced from the injured bark and from the scale of fixed 1st-instar-nymph had a higher attractive ability to female adults of the two species of wasps. The essential oil produced from the scale of the pest at dosages of 3–7 μL and the essential oil emitted by injured bark at dosages of 5–9 μL had a stronger alluring effect on the host searching behavior of Pteroptrix longgiclava. The essential oil from the body of fixed 1st-instar-nymph of Q. gigas also had certain effect on the host locating effort of Pteroptrix longgiclava and Encarsia gigas. Those two wasps did not shown any reaction to the essential oil produced by the healthy bark of poplar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genus Eurydoxa Filipjev in China is reviewed and noted for the first time. Based on the present study, two species are recognized, including rhodopa Diakonoff and advena Filipjev. All available information for the species is reviewed and provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histone H3 lysine 36 methylation (H3K36me) is critical for epigenetic regulation and mutations at or near H3K36 are associated with distinct types of cancers. H3K36M dominantly inhibits H3K36me on wild-type histones, whereas H3G34R/V selectively affects H3K36me on the same histone tail. Here we report the crystal structures of SETD2 SET domain in complex with an H3K36M peptide and SAM or SAH. There are large conformational changes in the substrate binding regions of the SET domain, and the K36M residue interacts with the catalytic pocket of SETD2. H3G34 is surrounded by a very narrow tunnel, which excludes larger amino acid side chains. H3P38 is in the trans configuration, and the cis configuration is incompatible with SETD2 binding. Finally, mutations of H3G34 or H3P38 alleviate the inhibitory effects of H3K36M on H3K36me, demonstrating that the stable interaction of H3K36M with SETD2 is critical for its inhibitory effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the two cultivated species of allopolyploid cotton, Gossypium barbadense produces extra-long fibers for the production of superior textiles. We sequenced its genome (AD)2 and performed a comparative analysis. We identified three bursts of retrotransposons from 20 million years ago (Mya) and a genome-wide uneven pseudogenization peak at 11-20 Mya, which likely contributed to genomic divergences. Among the 2,483 genes preferentially expressed in fiber, a cell elongation regulator, PRE1, is strikingly At biased and fiber specific, echoing the A-genome origin of spinnable fiber. The expansion of the PRE members implies a genetic factor that underlies fiber elongation. Mature cotton fiber consists of nearly pure cellulose. G. barbadense and G. hirsutum contain 29 and 30 cellulose synthase (CesA) genes, respectively; whereas most of these genes (>25) are expressed in fiber, genes for secondary cell wall biosynthesis exhibited a delayed and higher degree of up-regulation in G. barbadense compared with G. hirsutum, conferring an extended elongation stage and highly active secondary wall deposition during extra-long fiber development. The rapid diversification of sesquiterpene synthase genes in the gossypol pathway exemplifies the chemical diversity of lineage-specific secondary metabolites. The G. barbadense genome advances our understanding of allopolyploidy, which will help improve cotton fiber quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater images are affected by light scattering and absorption in the water. It usually faces challenges such as color distortion, loss of details, and low contrast. To address the above problems, this paper proposes a dual-color space color correction and histogram segmentation optimized strategy for underwater image enhancement. Specifically, this paper first calculates the quantile for adjusting the pixel distribution and performs histogram stretching to correct the image’s overall color. Then, a LAB color balancing strategy is designed to eliminate the color deviation resulting from the color correction process. Finally, histogram segmentation and adaptive pixel allocation methods are proposed to improve overall contrast. Experimental studies on three benchmark datasets for comparison with six state-of-the-art algorithms are conducted. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the mechanism proposed in this paper. Meanwhile, the proposed approach proves effective for key point and saliency detection. Additionally, the proposed approach exhibits promising results for images captured under challenging conditions such as low illumination, haze, and dust storms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]