Low-complexity face-assisted video coding

[[abstract]]This paper presents a novel face-assisted video coding scheme to enhance the visual quality of the face regions in video telephony applications. A skin-color based face detection and tracking scheme is proposed to locate the face regions in real-time. After classifying the macroblocks into the face and non-face regions, we present a dynamic distortion weighting adjustment (DDWA) scheme to drop the static non-face macroblocks, and the saved bits are used to compensate the face region by adjusting the distortion weighting of the face macroblocks. The quality of face regions will thus be enhanced. Moreover, the computation originally required for the skipped macroblocks can also be saved. The experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the PSNR and the subjective quality of face regions, while the degradation introduced on the non-face areas is relatively insensitive to human perception. The proposed algorithm is fully compatible with the H.263 standard, and the low complexity feature makes it well suited to implement for real-time applications[[fileno]]2030144030041[[department]]電機工程學

Realtime object extraction and tracking with an active camera using image mosaics

[[abstract]]Moving object extraction plays a key role in applications such as object-based videoconference, surveillance, and so on. The dimculties of moving object segmentation lie in the fact that physical objects are normally not homogeneous with to low-level features and it's usually tough to segment them accnrately and efficiently. Object segmentation based on prestored background information has proved to be effective and efficient in several applications such as videophone, video conferencing, and surveillance, etc. The previous works, however, were mainly concentrated on object segmentation with a static camera and in a stationary background. In this paper, we propose a robust and fast segmentation algorithm and a reliable tracking strategy without knowing the shape of the object in advance. The proposed system can real-time extract the foreground from the background and track the moving object with an active (pan-tilt) camera such that the moving object always stays around the center of images.[[fileno]]2030144030033[[department]]電機工程學

Effectiveness Comparison of Solution Approaches for Solving the Economic Lot Scheduling Problem

The most popular solution approaches for solving the economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP) include the common cycle (CC) approach, the extended basic period (EBP) approach and the time-varying lot sizing (TVLS) approach where both the CC and EBP approaches are the basic period-based approaches. Some studies claimed that the TVLS approach is able to obtain better solutions than the basic period-based approaches though without the support of extensive numerical experiments. Therefore, we are motivated to compare the performance of the CC, EBP and the TVLS approaches in this study. Interestingly, our random experiments show no one serves as a dominant solution approach among the three approaches, but the settings of setup cost and setup time could affect their performance significantly. Our results may be valuable for the decision makers before they choose a solution approach for solving the ELSP

Safety and Efficacy of Tien-Hsien Liquid Practical in Patients with Refractory Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel-Group, Phase IIa Trial

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of Tien-Hsien Liquid Practical (THL-P), a Chinese herbal mixture, in patients with refractory metastatic breast cancer, we performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, phase IIa pilot trial. Patients were randomly assigned to either receive THL-P or matching placebo and followed up every 4 weeks for 24 weeks. The primary endpoint was changes in the global health status/quality of life (GHS/QOL) scale. The secondary endpoints were changes in functional and symptom scales, immunomodulating effects, and adverse events. Sixty-three patients were enrolled between June 2009 and June 2011. The intent-to-treat population included 28 patients in the THL-P group and 11 patients in the placebo group. Compared to the placebo group, the THL-P group had significant improvement from baseline to last visit in GHS/QOL (41.7 versus −33.3; P < 0.05), CD3, CD4/CD8, CD19, CD16+56 positive cells (P < 0.05), and higher levels of physical, role, emotional, and cognitive functioning, as well as decreased fatigue and systemic side effects. Treatment-related adverse events were mild constipation and localized itching, and no serious adverse events were reported. THL-P appears to be a safe alternative adjuvant treatment for patients with refractory metastatic breast cancer, as it effectively improves QOL and palliates cancer-related symptoms

Text is All You Need: Personalizing ASR Models using Controllable Speech Synthesis

Adapting generic speech recognition models to specific individuals is a challenging problem due to the scarcity of personalized data. Recent works have proposed boosting the amount of training data using personalized text-to-speech synthesis. Here, we ask two fundamental questions about this strategy: when is synthetic data effective for personalization, and why is it effective in those cases? To address the first question, we adapt a state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition (ASR) model to target speakers from four benchmark datasets representative of different speaker types. We show that ASR personalization with synthetic data is effective in all cases, but particularly when (i) the target speaker is underrepresented in the global data, and (ii) the capacity of the global model is limited. To address the second question of why personalized synthetic data is effective, we use controllable speech synthesis to generate speech with varied styles and content. Surprisingly, we find that the text content of the synthetic data, rather than style, is important for speaker adaptation. These results lead us to propose a data selection strategy for ASR personalization based on speech content.Comment: ICASSP 202

Nitroprusside modulates pulmonary vein arrhythmogenic activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pulmonary veins (PVs) are the most important sources of ectopic beats with the initiation of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, or the foci of ectopic atrial tachycardia and focal atrial fibrillation. Elimination of nitric oxide (NO) enhances cardiac triggered activity, and NO can decrease PV arrhythmogensis through mechano-electrical feedback. However, it is not clear whether NO may have direct electrophysiological effects on PV cardiomyocytes. This study is aimed to study the effects of nitroprusside (NO donor), on the ionic currents and arrhythmogenic activity of single cardiomyocytes from the PVs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Single PV cardiomyocytes were isolated from the canine PVs. The action potential and ionic currents were investigated in isolated single canine PV cardiomyocytes before and after sodium nitroprusside (80 μM,) using the whole-cell patch clamp technique.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nitroprusside decreased PV cardiomyocytes spontaneous beating rates from 1.7 ± 0.3 Hz to 0.5 ± 0.4 Hz in 9 cells (P < 0.05); suppressed delayed afterdepolarization in 4 (80%) of 5 PV cardiomyocytes. Nitroprusside inhibited L-type calcium currents, transient outward currents and transient inward current, but increased delayed rectified potassium currents.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Nitroprusside regulates the electrical activity of PV cardiomyocytes, which suggests that NO may play a role in PV arrhythmogenesis.</p

A learning-based framework for depth ordering

Depth ordering is instrumental for understanding the 3D geometry of an image. We as humans are surprisingly good at depth ordering even with abstract 2D line drawings. In this paper we propose a learning based framework for dis-crete depth ordering inference. Boundary and junction characteristics are important clues for this task, and we have developed new features based on these attributes. Although each feature individ-ually can produce reasonable depth ordering results, they still have limitations, and we can achieve better perfor-mance by combining them. In practice, local depth order-ing inferences can be contradictory. Therefore, we propose a Markov Random Field model with terms that are more global than previous work, and use graph optimization to encourage a globally consistent ordering. In addition, to produce better object segmentation for the task of depth or-dering, we propose to explicitly enforce closed loops and long edges for the occlusion boundary detection. We collect a new depth-order dataset for this problem, including more than a thousand human-labeled images with different daily objects in various configurations. The pro-posed algorithm gives promising performance over conven-tional methods on both synthetic and real scenes. 1

Effect of Lower Extremity Bypass Surgery on Inflammatory Reaction and Endothelial Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia. The abnormalities in nutrient metabolism and elevated inflammatory mediators resulting from DM lead to impairment of wound healing and vulnerability to infection and foot ulcers. Diabetic lower limb ischemia often leads to limb necrosis. Lower extremity bypass surgery (LEBS) is indicated to prevent limb loss in patients with critical leg ischemia. This study investigated the alteration of inflammatory and endothelium dysfunction markers before and after LEBS in DM patients. Twenty one type 2 DM patients with LEBS were included. Blood was drawn before and at 1 day and 7 days after surgery in the patients. Plasma soluble cellular adhesion molecule levels and blood leukocyte integrin expressions were measured. Also, plasma concentrations of endothelin-1 and nitric oxide were analyzed to evaluate the vascular endothelial function. The results showed that there were no significant differences in plasma cellular adhesion molecules, endothelin-1 and nitric oxide levels, nor did any differences in leukocyte integrin expressions before and after the operation. These results suggest that the efficacy of LEBS on alleviating inflammatory reaction and improving endothelial function in DM patients was not obvious