Object-based 2D-to-3D video conversion for effective stereoscopic content generation in 3D-TV applications

Three-dimensional television (3D-TV) has gained increasing popularity in the broadcasting domain, as it enables enhanced viewing experiences in comparison to conventional two-dimensional (2D) TV. However, its application has been constrained due to the lack of essential contents, i.e., stereoscopic videos. To alleviate such content shortage, an economical and practical solution is to reuse the huge media resources that are available in monoscopic 2D and convert them to stereoscopic 3D. Although stereoscopic video can be generated from monoscopic sequences using depth measurements extracted from cues like focus blur, motion and size, the quality of the resulting video may be poor as such measurements are usually arbitrarily defined and appear inconsistent with the real scenes. To help solve this problem, a novel method for object-based stereoscopic video generation is proposed which features i) optical-flow based occlusion reasoning in determining depth ordinal, ii) object segmentation using improved region-growing from masks of determined depth layers, and iii) a hybrid depth estimation scheme using content-based matching (inside a small library of true stereo image pairs) and depth-ordinal based regularization. Comprehensive experiments have validated the effectiveness of our proposed 2D-to-3D conversion method in generating stereoscopic videos of consistent depth measurements for 3D-TV applications

mFISHER: a new approach for discovering protein motifs

Motif recognition is a powerful homology based sequence analysis tool for clustering new protein sequences into different families based on characteristic motifs. Compared to BLAST, these approaches typically have lower false positive rates and can reveal more remotely related family members. However, the current motif databases do not cover all the sequences in protein sequence databases. One of the major reasons for the low coverage of motif databases is that there is only a small set of known member sequences available for constructing protein motifs for many gene families. I have designed a new algorithm, mFISHER , to detect protein motifs from only 2-5 known member sequences by artificial evolution of given sequences based on a position specific PAM evolution model. Based on my test results on 160 motif families, the overall average recall rate or sensitivity (true/(true + false negative)) and specificity (true/(true + false positive)) are 88% and 95%, respectively. Compared with MEME (Multiple EM for Motif Extraction), mFISHER is better based on the recall rate, especially when only 2 or 3 members are available. Both approaches have the similar sensitivity. MFISHER is promising for constructing protein motifs when only a few known members

Effects of taurine on male reproduction in rats of different ages

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has been demonstrated that taurine is one of the most abundant free amino acids in the male reproductive system, and can be biosynthesized by male reproductive organs. But the effect of taurine on male reproduction is poorly understood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Taurine and β-alanine (taurine transport inhibitor) were offered in water to male rats of different ages. The effects of taurine on reproductive hormones, testis marker enzymes, antioxidative ability and sperm quality were investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The levels of T and LH were obviously increased by taurine supplementation in rats of different ages, and the level of E was also significantly elevated in baby rats. The levels of SOD, ACP, SDH and NOS were obviously increased by taurine administration in adult rats, but the levels of AKP, AST, ALT and NO were significantly decreased. The levels of SOD, ACP, LDH, SDH, NOS, NO and GSH were significantly elevated by taurine administration in aged rats, but the levels of AST and ALT were significantly decreased. The motility of spermatozoa was obviously increased by taurine supplement in adult rats. The numbers and motility of spermatozoa, the rate of live spermatozoa were significantly increased by taurine supplement in aged rats.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The present study demonstrated that a taurine supplement could stimulate the secretion of LH and T, increase the levels of testicular marker enzymes, elevate testicular antioxidation and improve sperm quality. The results imply that taurine plays important roles in male reproduction especially in aged animals.</p

Scanning tunneling microscopy study of the possible topological surface states in BiTeCl

Recently, the non-centrosymmetric bismuth tellurohalides such as BiTeCl are being studied as possible candidates of topological insulators. While some photoemission studies showed that BiTeCl is an inversion asymmetric topological insulator, others showed that it is a normal semiconductor with Rashba splitting. Meanwhile, first-principle calculationsfailed to confirm the existence of topological surface states in BiTeCl so far. Therefore, the topological nature of BiTeCl requires further investigation. Here we report low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy study on the surface states of BiTeCl single crystals. On the tellurium-terminated surfaces with low defect density, strong evidences for topological surface states are found in the quasi-particle interference patterns generated by the scattering of these states, both in the anisotropy of the scattering vectors and the fast decay of the interference near step edges. Meanwhile, on samples with much higher defect densities, we observed surface states that behave differently. Our results help to resolve the current controversy on the topological nature of BiTeCl.Comment: 13pages,4figure

OR-020 High-intensitive training leads to increasing apoptosis of podocyte in kidneys of rats

Objective Athletes often choose high-intensitive training load to improve athletic ability in their training cycle, its purpose is to pursue the super-compensation after training, but athletes and coaches frequently ignore the balance between load and reasonable recovery, which produce a sustained decline in athletic ability and physical function, and cause the viscera function disorder. High-intensitive training damages the structure of renal filtration barrier in rats, especially the destruction and fracture of Silt diaphragm ultrastructure, as well as the partial fusion of foot processes, etc., so that the large amount of macromolecular proteins in the blood leak out far beyond the threshold of renal tubular reabsorption and form exercise-induced proteinuria. Podocyte is one of the most important. This research establishes a model of rats which simulates the progressive-load training in the cycle of athletes. Observe the apoptosis of renal cells in rats by bioimaging. Determine whether long-term intensive training causes apoptosis in kidney of rats or podocytes, and detect the expression and distribution of Bcl-2 and Bax, and the protein expression of Caspase-3, which is the final regulatory factor of apoptosis pathway. Study the mechanism of the abnormal podocyte due to intensive training from the characterization of kidney to the molecular level, providing experimental basis for explaining the relationship between intensive-training and exercise-induced proteinuria to guide of scientific training. Methods This study selects 36 Sprague-Dawley rats, which are randomly divided into 3 groups: a control group (group C, 12), a group drawn immediately after exercise(group EI, 12), a group drawn 24 h after exercise(group EA, 12). Group C does not train. The rats in group EI and EA train on the treadmill with an increasing load for 6 weeks(10% grade, 6 d/w): in the first week, the rats run for 10 min at 10 m/min. Starting from the second week, the running speed increases by 5m/min/w, and the training time increases by 30min/w. In the last week the rats run to exhaustion if they could not maintain the target intensity. Record the exhausting time of rats, then group EI and group EA are respectively drawn immediately and 24 hours after exercise. Detect the apoptosis of renal cell apoptosis in rats by TUNEL, observe the ultrastructure of podocytes by TEM, detect urine total protein by BCA, serum and urine creatinine by Jaffe, serum urea by two-point dynamic method, the expression and distribution of Bcl-2 and Bax by immunohistochemistry, and the expression of Caspase-3 by western-blot. Results The rats in group EI and EA gradually lose weight at the first weekend of training, and their weight drop significantly from the third weekend to the end, it shows a significant difference compared with group C(p&lt;0.01). There is no significant difference between group EI and EA. Total protein/ creatinine in urine of rats 30 min and 24 h after exercise is significantly higher than that of group C(p&lt;0.01), and group EA is slightly retuned and lower than group EI(p&lt;0.05). The H-SCORE of group EI and EA is significantly higher than group C(p&lt;0.05), while that of group EA is higher than group EI(p&lt;0.05). It shows by fluorescence microscopy that the positive cells in the group EI are close to the glomerulus and more than group EA. The results of TEM show that group C is normal, and the podocytes own normal chromatin and regular nucleus; Group EI: there are podocytes with apoptosis characteristics, cell chromatin aggregation in nucleus, cell volume reduction, concentration of cytoplasm, cell membrane integrity, but foot processes significantly disappear. Group EA: there are podocytes with apoptosis characteristics, the chromatin of the podocyte nucleus ruptures into several fragments, the cell volume decreases, the cytoplasm concentres, the pseudopod decreases, the cell membrane is intact, and the vacuole in the cytoplasm increases obviously. Compared with group C, serum corticosterone is significantly decreased in group EI and EA, and there is a significant difference (p&lt;0.01), while group EA is significantly decreased but still significantly lower than that in group EI(p&lt;0.01). The Bcl-2 histological mean optical density in group EI and EA is lower than that of group C, and there is a very significant difference (p&lt;0.05), while there is no significant difference between the two groups. But Bax in group EI and EA has no significant difference with group C. The distribution of Bax is significantly different: group C is distributed in the entire field of vision, and little in glomerulus, while the Bax distribution in glomerulus of group EI and EA became extremely rich, and the aggregation trend of group EI is the most obvious. Only the ratio of kidney Bax/ bcl-2 in group EA shows a significant difference compared with group C (p&lt;0.01). The expression of Caspase-3 in group EI has no significant difference with group C(p&gt;0.05), while group EA is higher than group C and EI(p&lt;0.05). Conclusions Persistent proteinuria is observed in rats after intensitive training, their renal function is disordered and cannot be effectively recovered after 24 h rest, and renal cell apoptosis increases. High-intensitive training reduces the expression of Bcl-2, and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio increases with the prolongation of recovery time. Caspase-3 shows the same trend. It is suggested that the change in the expression and ratio of Bax and Bcl-2 in renal under excessive training stress is an important regulatory mechanism for the occurrence of apoptosis in renal cells. Meanwhile the apoptosis of renal cells increases in rats after training, and the apoptosis characteristics of podocyte in the glomerulus are obvious at 30 min and 24 h after exercise, and the structure and function of Slit diaphragm are damaged

Equivalent Force Extraction Methodology For Electrical Component Induced PCB Vibration

On-board electrical components can cause printed circuit board (PCB) vibration, thus generating audio noise if the electrical noise is in the audible frequency range. The electrical component-induced vibration can be equated to an external force applied to the PCB. This article presents a novel methodology to extract the equivalent force of electrical components on a PCB to study board vibration and potential acoustic noise problems. The method is based on a combination of measurement and simulation, wherein PCB vibration is used as the medium in the extraction process. The methodology is validated by the correlation of PCB vibration pattern, frequency, and amplitude with a known electromagnetic force applied to the PCB

Weak Magnetic Field Accelerates Chromate Removal by Zero-Valent Iron

Weak magnetic field (WMF) was employed to improve the removal of Cr(VI) by zero-valent iron (ZVI) for the first time. The removal rate of Cr(VI) was elevated by a factor of 1.12-5.89 due to the application of a WMF, and the WMF-induced improvement was more remarkable at higher Cr(VI) concentration and higher pH. Fe2+ was not detected until Cr(VI) was exhausted, and there was a positive correlation between the WMF-induced promotion factor of Cr(VI) removal rate and that of Fe2+ release rate in the absence of Cr(VI) at pH 4.0-5.5. These phenomena imply that ZVI corrosion with Fe2+ release was the limiting step in the process of Cr(VI) removal. The superimposed WMF had negligible influence on the apparent activation energy of Cr(VI) removal by ZVI, indicating that WMF accelerated Cr(VI) removal by ZVI but did not change the mechanism. The passive layer formed with WMF was much more porous than without WMF, thereby facilitating mass transport. Therefore, WMF could accelerate ZVI corrosion and alleviate the detrimental effects of the passive layer, resulting in more rapid removal of Cr(VI) by ZVI. Exploiting the magnetic memory of ZVI, a two-stage process consisting of a small reactor with WMF for ZVI magnetization and a large reactor for removing contaminants by magnetized ZVI can be employed as a new method of ZVI-mediated remediation