24,503 research outputs found
Temporal Relational Reasoning in Videos
Temporal relational reasoning, the ability to link meaningful transformations
of objects or entities over time, is a fundamental property of intelligent
species. In this paper, we introduce an effective and interpretable network
module, the Temporal Relation Network (TRN), designed to learn and reason about
temporal dependencies between video frames at multiple time scales. We evaluate
TRN-equipped networks on activity recognition tasks using three recent video
datasets - Something-Something, Jester, and Charades - which fundamentally
depend on temporal relational reasoning. Our results demonstrate that the
proposed TRN gives convolutional neural networks a remarkable capacity to
discover temporal relations in videos. Through only sparsely sampled video
frames, TRN-equipped networks can accurately predict human-object interactions
in the Something-Something dataset and identify various human gestures on the
Jester dataset with very competitive performance. TRN-equipped networks also
outperform two-stream networks and 3D convolution networks in recognizing daily
activities in the Charades dataset. Further analyses show that the models learn
intuitive and interpretable visual common sense knowledge in videos.Comment: camera-ready version for ECCV'1
Contribution of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 to Cerebral Edema and Functional Outcome following Experimental Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Background: Cerebral edema is an important risk factor for death and poor outcome following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). However, underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 is held responsible for the degradation of microvascular basal lamina proteins leading to blood-brain barrier dysfunction and, thus, formation of vasogenic cerebral edema. The current study was conducted to clarify the role of MMP-9 for the development of cerebral edema and for functional outcome after SAH. Methods: SAH was induced in FVB/N wild-type (WT) or MMP-9 knockout (MMP-9(-/-)) mice by endovascular puncture. Intracranial pressure (ICP), regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), and mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) were continuously monitored up to 30 min after SAH. Mortality was quantified for 7 days after SAH. In an additional series neurological function and body weight were assessed for 3 days after SAH. Subsequently, ICP and brain water content were quantified. Results: Acute ICP, rCBF, and MABP did not differ between WT and MMP-9(-/-) mice, while 7 days' mortality was lower in MMP-9(-/-) mice (p = 0.03; 20 vs. 60%). MMP-9(-/-) mice also exhibited better neurological recovery, less brain edema formation, and lower chronic ICP. Conclusions: The results of the current study suggest that MMP-9 contributes to the development of early brain damage after SAH by promoting cerebral edema formation. Hence, MMP-9 may represent a novel molecular target for the treatment of SAH. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base
Stem Cell Therapies for Retinal Repair and Regeneration (Chapter 12)
Neural cell damage is the main feature of retinal degenerative disorders and constitutes the major cause of blindness in patients affected by retinal disease. Present treatments aim to prevent disease progression but do not reverse lost vision, for which stem cell-based therapies are the only hope for restoration or maintenance of visual function in individuals affected by severe disease. This chapter summarizes recent progress in the stem cell field and describes advances made on the clinical application of these cells for treatment of retinal degeneration. In addition, it highlights research being actively pursued to promote endogenous regeneration of the neural retinaas an alternative to transplantation
Relationships of trace gases and aerosols and the emission characteristics at Lin'an, a rural site in eastern China, during spring 2001
We present measurements of trace gases and fine aerosols obtained from a rural site in eastern China during 18 February to 30 April 2001. The field program aimed to characterize the variations in aerosol and gaseous pollutant concentrations and the emission signatures from the inland region of eastern China in the spring season. The data included O3, CO, NO, NOy*, SO2, methane, C2-C8 nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs), C 1-C2 halocarbons, and the chemical composition of PM2.5. The average hourly mixing ratios (±standard deviation) of CO, SO2, and NOy* were 677 (±315) ppbv, 15.9 (±14.6) ppbv, and 13.8 (±7.2) ppbv, respectively. The mean daytime ozone mixing ratio was 41 (± 19) ppbv. The most abundant NMHC was ethane (3189 ± 717 pptv), followed by ethyne (2475 ± 1395 pptv), ethene (1679 ± 1455 pptv), and toluene (1529 ± 1608 pptv). Methyl chloride was the most abundant halocarbon (1108 ± 653 pptv). The average concentrations of particulate organic matter (POM, as organic carbon, OC, times 1.4) and elemental carbon (EC) in PM2.5 were 21.5 (±7) μg/m3 and 2.5 (±0.7) μg/m3, respectively, and sulfate and nitrate levels were 17.3 (±6.6) and 6.5 (±4) μg/m3, respectively. CO showed moderate to good correlation with NOy* (r2 = 0.59), OC (r2 = 0.65), CH3Cl (r2 = 0.59), soluble potassium (r2 = 0.53), and many NMHCs, indicating contributions from the burning of biofuel/biomass. CO also correlated with an industrial tracer, C2Cl4, indicative of some influence from industrial sources. SO2, on the other hand, correlated well with EC (r2 = 0.56), reflecting the contribution from the burning of coal. Ammonium was sufficiently abundant to fully neutralize sulfate and nitrate, indicating that there were strong emissions of ammonia from agricultural activities. Silicon and calcium had poor correlations with iron and aluminum, revealing the presence of source(s) for Si and Ca other than from soil. Examination of C2H2/CO, C3H8/C 2H6, nitrate/(nitrate + NOy* , and sulfate/(SO2 + sulfate) suggested that relatively fresh air masses had been sampled at the study site in the spring season. Comparison of the observed ratios/slopes with those derived from emission inventories showed that while the observed SO2/NO y* ratio (1.29 ppbv/ppbv) in March was comparable (within 20%) to the inventory-derived ratio for the study region, the measured CO/NOy* slope (37 ppbv/ppbv) was about 200% larger. The observed slope of CO relative to NMHC (including ethane, propane, butanes, ethene, and ethyne) also indicated the presence of excess CO, compared to the ratios from the inventories. These results strongly suggest that emissions of CO in eastern China have been underrepresented. The findings of this study highlight the importance of characterizing trace gases and aerosols within source regions of the Asian continent. The springtime results were also compared with data previously collected at the site in 1999-2000 and with those obtained on the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) aircraft and from a coastal site in South China for the same study period. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union
A simplified biomimetic temperature logger for recording intertidal barnacle body temperatures
published_or_final_versio
Noncommutative geometry and stochastic processes
The recent analysis on noncommutative geometry, showing quantization of the
volume for the Riemannian manifold entering the geometry, can support a view of
quantum mechanics as arising by a stochastic process on it. A class of
stochastic processes can be devised, arising as fractional powers of an
ordinary Wiener process, that reproduce in a proper way a stochastic process on
a noncommutative geometry. These processes are characterized by producing
complex values and so, the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation resembles the
Schroedinger equation. Indeed, by a direct numerical check, one can recover the
kernel of the Schroedinger equation starting by an ordinary Brownian motion.
This class of stochastic processes needs a Clifford algebra to exist. In four
dimensions, the full set of Dirac matrices is needed and the corresponding
stochastic process in a noncommutative geometry is easily recovered as is the
Dirac equation in the Klein-Gordon form being it the Fokker--Planck equation of
the process.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. Updated a reference. A version of this paper
will appear in the proceedings of GSI2017, Geometric Science of Information,
November 7th to 9th, Paris (France
Hidden attractors in fundamental problems and engineering models
Recently a concept of self-excited and hidden attractors was suggested: an
attractor is called a self-excited attractor if its basin of attraction
overlaps with neighborhood of an equilibrium, otherwise it is called a hidden
attractor. For example, hidden attractors are attractors in systems with no
equilibria or with only one stable equilibrium (a special case of
multistability and coexistence of attractors). While coexisting self-excited
attractors can be found using the standard computational procedure, there is no
standard way of predicting the existence or coexistence of hidden attractors in
a system. In this plenary survey lecture the concept of self-excited and hidden
attractors is discussed, and various corresponding examples of self-excited and
hidden attractors are considered
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