A grid-point detection method based on U-net for a structured light system

Accurate detection of the feature points of the projected pattern plays an extremely important role in one-shot 3D reconstruction systems, especially for the ones using a grid pattern. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a grid-point detection method based on U-net. A specific dataset is designed that includes the images captured with the two-shot imaging method and the ones acquired with the one-shot imaging method. Among them, the images in the first group after labeled as the ground truth images and the images captured at the same pose with the one-shot method are cut into small patches with the size of 64x64 pixels then feed to the training set. The remaining of the images in the second group is the test set. The experimental results show that our method can achieve a better detecting performance with higher accuracy in comparison with the previous methods.Comment: http://airccse.org/csit/V10N16.htm

Simultaneous Segmentation of Leukocyte and Erythrocyte in Microscopic Images Using a Marker-Controlled Watershed Algorithm

The density or quantity of leukocytes and erythrocytes in a unit volume of blood, which can be automatically measured through a computer-based microscopic image analysis system, is frequently considered an indicator of diseases. The segmentation of blood cells, as a basis of quantitative statistics, plays an important role in the system. However, many conventional methods must firstly distinguish blood cells into two types (i.e., leukocyte and erythrocyte) and segment them in independent procedures. In this paper, we present a marker-controlled watershed algorithm for simultaneously extracting the two types of blood cells to simplify operations and reduce computing time. The method consists of two steps, that is, cell nucleus segmentation and blood cell segmentation. An image enhancement technique is used to obtain the leukocyte marker. Two marker-controlled watershed algorithms are based on distance transformation and edge gradient information to acquire blood cell contour. The segmented leukocytes and erythrocytes are obtained simultaneously by classification. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is fast, robust, and efficient

Agricultural Education for Sustainable Rural Development in Developing Countries – Challenges and Policy Options

Governments all over the world have focused upon sustainable rural development in an organized way. Rural locations, in particular, need more economic development in order to match urban centric development. Poverty in rural areas has remained by and large, the main focal point of governments and development agencies. Sustainable rural development is the most effective way to eliminate this curse. Environment friendly growth stimulators have been provided to rural populations. This paper aims to: (a) give an insight into the linkages between the agricultural education and sustainable rural development, and (b) present strategies for sustainable rural development. Challenges in sustainable rural development for developing countries in the 21st century have also been looked into. The paper concludes that agricultural education institutions in developing countries will need to address not only immediate production needs, but also long-term food security, sustainable agriculture and rural development needs

Comparing algorithms for automated vessel segmentation in computed tomography scans of the lung: the VESSEL12 study

The VESSEL12 (VESsel SEgmentation in the Lung) challenge objectively compares the performance of different algorithms to identify vessels in thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans. Vessel segmentation is fundamental in computer aided processing of data generated by 3D imaging modalities. As manual vessel segmentation is prohibitively time consuming, any real world application requires some form of automation. Several approaches exist for automated vessel segmentation, but judging their relative merits is difficult due to a lack of standardized evaluation. We present an annotated reference dataset containing 20 CT scans and propose nine categories to perform a comprehensive evaluation of vessel segmentation algorithms from both academia and industry. Twenty algorithms participated in the VESSEL12 challenge, held at International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2012. All results have been published at the VESSEL12 website http://vessel12.grand-challenge.org. The challenge remains ongoing and open to new participants. Our three contributions are: (1) an annotated reference dataset available online for evaluation of new algorithms; (2) a quantitative scoring system for objective comparison of algorithms; and (3) performance analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various vessel segmentation methods in the presence of various lung diseases.Rudyanto, RD.; Kerkstra, S.; Van Rikxoort, EM.; Fetita, C.; Brillet, P.; Lefevre, C.; Xue, W.... (2014). Comparing algorithms for automated vessel segmentation in computed tomography scans of the lung: the VESSEL12 study. Medical Image Analysis. 18(7):1217-1232. doi:10.1016/j.media.2014.07.003S1217123218

Color Structured Light Stripe Edge Detection Method Based on Generative Adversarial Networks

The one-shot structured light method using a color stripe pattern can provide a dense point cloud in a short time. However, the influence of noise and the complex characteristics of scenes still make the task of detecting the color stripe edges in deformed pattern images difficult. To overcome these challenges, a color structured light stripe edge detection method based on generative adversarial networks, which is named horizontal elastomeric attention residual Unet-based GAN (HEAR-GAN), is proposed in this paper. Additionally, a De Bruijn sequence-based color stripe pattern and a multi-slit binary pattern are designed. In our dataset, selecting the multi-slit pattern images as ground-truth images not only reduces the labor of manual annotation but also enhances the quality of the training set. With the proposed network, our method converts the task of detecting edges in color stripe pattern images into detecting centerlines in curved line images. The experimental results show that the proposed method can overcome the above challenges, and thus, most of the edges in the color stripe pattern images are detected. In addition, the comparison results demonstrate that our method can achieve a higher performance of color stripe segmentation with higher pixel location accuracy than other edge detection methods

Inhibition of CDC20 potentiates anti-tumor immunity through facilitating GSDME-mediated pyroptosis in prostate cancer

Abstract Background Increasing evidence suggests that immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), has the potential to facilitate long-term survival in various cancer besides prostate cancer. Emerging evidence indicated that pyroptosis, an immunogenic form of cell death, could trigger an anti-tumor immune microenvironment and enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy. Nevertheless, the mechanism underlying the regulation of pyroptosis signaling in prostate cancer remains unclear. Methods The differential expression of human E3 ligases in prostate cancer was integratedly analyzed from five independent public datasets. Moreover, the immunohistochemistry analysis of a tissue microarray derived from prostate cancer patients confirmed the results from the bioinformatic analysis. Furthermore, prostate cancer cell lines were evaluated via the next-generation RNA sequencing to assess transcriptomic profile upon CDC20 depletion. Next, qRT-PCR, Western blotting, cycloheximide assay, immunoprecipitation, and ubiquitination assay were employed to explore the correlation and interaction between CDC20 and GSDME. Both immune-deficient and immune-competent murine models were utilized to examine the anti-tumor efficacy of CDC20 inhibition with or without the anti-PD1 antibodies, respectively. To analyze the immune microenvironment of the xenografts, the tumor tissues were examined by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. Results The analysis of multiple prostate cancer cohorts suggested that CDC20 was the most significantly over-expressed E3 ligase. In addition, CDC20 exerted a negative regulatory effect on the pyroptosis pathway by targeting GSDME for ubiquitination-mediated proteolysis in a degron-dependent manner. Knockdown of CDC20 leads to increased GSDME abundance and a transition from apoptosis to pyroptosis in response to death signals. Furthermore, in our syngeneic murine models, we found that depletion of CDC20 significantly enhances the anti-tumor immunity by promoting the infiltration of CD8+ T lymphocytes dependent on the existence of GSDME, as well as reducing myeloid immune cells. More importantly, Apcin, a small molecular inhibitor that targets CDC20, exhibited synergistic effects with anti-PD1-based immunotherapy in murine models of prostate cancer. Conclusions Overall, these findings provide new insights into the upstream regulation of GSDME-mediated pyroptosis by CDC20, which specifically interacts with GSDME and facilitates its ubiquitination in a degron-dependent manner. Importantly, our data highlight novel molecular pathways for targeting cellular pyroptosis and enhancing the effectiveness of anti-PD1-based immunotherapy

Synthesis, Larvicidal Activities and Antifungal Activities of Novel Chlorantraniliprole Derivatives and Their Target in the Ryanodine Receptor

In order to identify novel chlorantraniliprole derivatives as potential insecticides or fungicides, 25 analogues of chlorantraniliprole were synthesized. The insecticidal activities against oriental armyworm and the antifungal activities against five typical fungi of these derivatives were tested. Compounds 2u, 2x and 2y exhibited good activities against oriental armyworm, especially compounds 2u and 2x which showed higher larvicidal activities than indoxacarb. Moreover, all of the tested compounds exhibited activities against five typical fungi. The Ki values of all synthesized compounds were calculated using AutoDock4. The relationship between the Ki values and the results of insecticidal activities against oriental armyworm further indicated that the membrane-spanning domain protein of the ryanodine receptor might contain chlorantraniliprole binding sites