Blind Image Deblurring via Reweighted Graph Total Variation

Blind image deblurring, i.e., deblurring without knowledge of the blur kernel, is a highly ill-posed problem. The problem can be solved in two parts: i) estimate a blur kernel from the blurry image, and ii) given estimated blur kernel, de-convolve blurry input to restore the target image. In this paper, by interpreting an image patch as a signal on a weighted graph, we first argue that a skeleton image---a proxy that retains the strong gradients of the target but smooths out the details---can be used to accurately estimate the blur kernel and has a unique bi-modal edge weight distribution. We then design a reweighted graph total variation (RGTV) prior that can efficiently promote bi-modal edge weight distribution given a blurry patch. However, minimizing a blind image deblurring objective with RGTV results in a non-convex non-differentiable optimization problem. We propose a fast algorithm that solves for the skeleton image and the blur kernel alternately. Finally with the computed blur kernel, recent non-blind image deblurring algorithms can be applied to restore the target image. Experimental results show that our algorithm can robustly estimate the blur kernel with large kernel size, and the reconstructed sharp image is competitive against the state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 5 pages, submitted to IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, April, 201

Documentation of endangered Cosao “green codes” in Yunnan, China

The Cosao people, a small ethnic group living in Yunnan, southwest China, have a population of 149 people, living in 47 households (2013).The local government grouped them together with the Hani nationality in 2004. Cosao has no ISO code yet for it has not been previously reported in the literature. The Cosao people，speaking a southern Yi language of the Tibeto-Burman language family in Sino-Tibetan language phylum , do not have a written language. According to their oral history, they moved around in the borderlands between China and Laos and practiced slash-and-burn agriculture in the tropical forest. They practice traditional religion. They observe certain plant traits, and use these traits to encode and decode meanings and feelings to communicate with each other. The locals call this phenomenon “green codes” because they use plants to deliver messages and communicate within the tribe. The indigenous elders indicate that they used to utilize approximately 400 plants to express meanings and feelings covering love, ethics, prayer, number, birth, offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, etc. This paper describes the Cosao people’s unique green codes: the plant messages, natural and cultural traits, highlighting linguistic encoding and decoding, and their domains of usage. Data discussed in this paper were collected by digital recording equipment, interviews, observation and description. The findings will provide evidence that biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate with the destruction of the local forests. Facing an economic transition, cultural shift and increased mobile phone usage, the majority of the Cosao have become bilingual or multi-lingual, giving up their mother tongue and their unique green codes. The stories, culture and traditional knowledge about the plants are disappearing due to the development of rubber plantations and the deterioration of their ecology. Therefore, only a few Cosao elders can still recall some of the names of plants in their mother tongue. Some plants can only be found within a few dozen kilometers because of the loss of forests. Hence, it is extremely urgent that the endangered language and green codes of the Cosao people be documented

A Rapid Method for Detection of Salmonella in Milk Based on Extraction of mRNA Using Magnetic Capture Probes and RT-qPCR

Magnetic separation is an efficient method for target enrichment and elimination of inhibitors in the molecular detection systems for foodborne pathogens. In this study, we prepared magnetic capture probes by modifying oligonucleotides complementary to target sequences on the surface of amino-modified silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles and optimized the conditions and parameters of probe synthesis and hybridization. We innovatively put the complexes of magnetic capture probes and target sequences into qPCR without any need for denaturation and purification steps. This strategy can reduce manual steps and save time. We used the magnetic capture probes to separate invA mRNA from Salmonella in artificially contaminated milk samples. The detection sensitivity was 104 CFU/ml, which could be increased to 10 CFU/ml after a 12 h enrichment step. The developed method is robust enough to detect live bacteria in a complex environmental matrix

How are the energy waves blocked on the way from hot to cold?

Representing the Center for Materials Science of Nuclear Fuel (CMSNF), this document is one of the entries in the Ten Hundred and One Word Challenge. As part of the challenge, the 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers were invited to represent their science in images, cartoons, photos, words and original paintings, but any descriptions or words could only use the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language, with the addition of one word important to each of the EFRCs and the mission of DOE energy. The mission of CMSNF to develop an experimentally validated multi-scale computational capability for the predictive understanding of the impact of microstructure on thermal transport in nuclear fuel under irradiation, with ultimate application to UO2 as a model syste

Overexpression of DHX32 contributes to the growth and metastasis of colorectal cancer

Our previous work demonstrates that DHX32 is upregulated in colorectal cancer (CRC) compared to its adjacent normal tissues. However, how overexpressed DHX32 contributes to CRC remains largely unknown. In this study, we reported that DHX32 was overexpressed in human colon cancer cells. Overexpressed DHX32 promoted SW480 cancer cells proliferation, migration, and invasion, as well as decreased the susceptibility to chemotherapy agent 5-Fluorouracil. Furthermore, PCR array analyses revealed that depleting DHX32 in SW480 colon cancer cells suppressed expression of WISP1, MMP7 and VEGFA in the Wnt pathway, and anti-apoptotic gene BCL2 and CA9, however, elevated expression of pro-apoptotic gene ACSL5. The findings suggested that overexpressed DHX32 played an important role in CRC progression and metastasis and that DHX32 has the potential to serve as a biomarker and a novel therapeutic target for CRC