Distinctive-attribute Extraction for Image Captioning

Image captioning, an open research issue, has been evolved with the progress of deep neural networks. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are employed to compute image features and generate natural language descriptions in the research. In previous works, a caption involving semantic description can be generated by applying additional information into the RNNs. In this approach, we propose a distinctive-attribute extraction (DaE) which explicitly encourages significant meanings to generate an accurate caption describing the overall meaning of the image with their unique situation. Specifically, the captions of training images are analyzed by term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), and the analyzed semantic information is trained to extract distinctive-attributes for inferring captions. The proposed scheme is evaluated on a challenge data, and it improves an objective performance while describing images in more detail.Comment: 14 main pages, 4 supplementary page

Do Rotational Shifts Affect Micturition Patterns in Real Practice? A Pilot Study in Healthy, Young Female Nurses

Purpose Healthy, young individuals are known to exhibit circadian variation in urinary functions. However, the effects of chronic circadian disturbance on voiding functions are largely unknown. The present work compared the effects of rotational shifts on the micturition patterns of female nurses to that in female nurses with routine daytime shifts. Methods A total of 19 nurses without lower urinary tract symptoms who worked rotational shifts for an average duration of 2 years were recruited. A voiding diary was kept for 9 consecutive days, and the overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS) questionnaire was completed three times, starting 3 days before their night duties until 3 days after completion of their night duties. For comparison, seven nurses with regular shifts completed a 3-day voiding diary and the OABSS questionnaire. Results Female nurses working rotational shifts had lower overall urine production and had decreased urination frequency and nocturia than female nurses working regular shifts, even when the nurses who worked rotational shifts had a regular night's sleep for at least 7 days. Upon reinitiation of night duty, overall urine production increased significantly, with no significant changes in urgency and frequency. When these nurses returned to daytime duty, the volume of urine decreased but nocturnal urine production remained high, and the incidence of nocturia also increased significantly. However, the effects on OABSS score were not significant under the study design used. Conclusions Long-term rotational shifts resulted in adaptive changes such as decreased urine production and frequency in healthy, young female nurses. In addition, their micturition patterns were significantly affected by abrupt changes in their work schedules. Although working in shifts did not increase urgency or frequency of urination in healthy, young female nurses working rotational shifts for an average 2 years, large-scale studies are needed to systematically analyze the influence of shift work timings on micturition in humans

Radiologic Differentiation between Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis and Its Mimics Involving the Skull Base in Humans Using High-Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) can involve the skull base or the Eustachian tubes. GPA is diagnosed on the basis of clinical manifestations and serological tests, although it is challenging to discriminate GPA from infectious processes driving skull base osteomyelitis (SBO) and malignant processes such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Moreover, current serological tests have a low sensitivity and cannot distinguish GPA from these other conditions. We hypothesized that certain MRI characteristics would differ significantly among conditions and aimed to evaluate whether the features could differentiate between GPA, SBO, and NPC involving the skull base. We retrospectively evaluated the MRI findings of patients with GPA, SBO, and NPC. We performed univariable logistic regression analyses to identify the predictive variables for differentiating between conditions and evaluated their diagnostic values. We showed, for the first time, that certain MRI findings significantly differed between patients with GPA and those with SBO or NPC, including the lesion morphology and extent, the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values, the contrast enhancement patterns, the presence or absence of necrosis, and retropharyngeal lymphadenopathy. In conclusion, utilizing certain MRI features can improve the diagnostic performance of MRI by differentiating GPA with skull base involvement from other conditions with similar radiologic findings, including SBO and NPC, facilitating treatment plans and, thus, improving patient outcomes

Nonvolatile Electric Double-Layer Transistor Memory Devices Embedded with Au Nanoparticles

We present nonvolatile transistor memory devices that rely on the formation of electric double layer (EDL) at the semiconductor–electrolyte interface. The two critical functional components of the devices are the ion gel electrolyte and gold nanoparticles (NPs). The ion gel electrolyte contains ionic species for EDL formation that allow inducing charges in the semiconductor–electrolyte interface. The gold NPs inserted between the ion gel and the channel layer serve as trapping sites to the induced charges to store the electrical input signals. Two different types of gold NPs were used: one prepared using direct thermal evaporation and the other prepared using a colloidal process. The organic ligands attached onto the colloidal gold NPs prevented the escape of the trapped charges from the particles and thus enhanced the retention characteristics of the programmed/erased signals. The low-voltage-driven EDL formation resulted in a programmed/erased memory signal ratio larger than 10³ from the nonvolatile indium–gallium–zinc oxide transistor memory devices at voltages below 10 V, which could be held for >10⁵ s. The utility of the electrolytes to operate memory devices demonstrated herein should provide an alternative strategy to realize cheap, portable electronic devices powered with thin-film batteries

Critical role of elemental copper for enhancing conversion kinetics of sulphur cathodes in rechargeable magnesium batteries

Despite recent remarkable progress associated with the electrolyte, understanding of the reaction mechanism of magnesium-sulphur batteries is not yet mature. In particular, the lethargic redox reactions involved in the electrochemical conversion of sulphur and MgS in the cathode need to be overcome. Here, we unveil the reaction mechanism involving copper (Cu) metal, a common current collector for electrodes in rechargeable batteries. Specifically, Cu can undergo chemical reactions with polysulphides produced from the reaction of sulphur or MgS with Mg2+. Throughout the conversion reaction, these Cu-polysulphide reactions play a critical role to improve reaction kinetics markedly. The present investigation opens new avenues to the emerging Mg-S battery technology, that is, the incorporation of various metals that can speed up the conversion reaction between sulphur and Mg.

Quantum dot-engineered M13 virus layer-by-layer composite films for highly selective and sensitive turn-on TNT sensors

We developed quantum dot-engineered M13 virus layer-by-layer hybrid composite films with incorporated fluorescence quenchers. TNT is designed to displace the quenchers and turn on the quantum dot fluorescence. TNT was detected at the sub ppb level with a high selectivity.open111516sciescopu

Discontinuous pn-Heterojunction for Organic Thin Film Transistors

Utilization of discontinuous pn-oragnic heterojunction is introduced as a versatile method to improve charge transport in organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). The method is demonstrated by depositing n-type dioctyl perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C₈) discontinuously onto base p-type pentacene OTFTs. A more pronounced impact of the discontinuous upper layer is obtained on the transistor performances when thinner base layers are employed; a >100-fold enhancement in hole mobility and a >20 V shift in threshold voltage are achieved after applying PTCDI-C₈ discontinuously onto 2 nm thick pentacene thin films. Local surface potential measurements (Kelvin-probe force microscopy) and temperature-dependent transport measurements (77–300 K) reveal that the interfacial dipole formed at the pn-heterostructures effectively dopes the base pentacene films p-type and leads to a reduction in transport activation energy