560 research outputs found
Panoramic Human Structure Maintenance based on Invariant Features of Video Frames
[[abstract]]Panoramic photography is becoming a very popular and commonly available feature in the mobile handheld devices nowadays. In traditional panoramic photography, the human structure often becomes messy if the human changes position in the scene or during the combination step of the human structure and natural background. In this paper, we present an effective method in panorama creation to maintain the main structure of human in the panorama. In the proposed method, we use an automatic method of feature matching, and the energy map of seam carving is used to avoid the overlapping of human with the natural background. The contributions of this proposal include automated panoramic creation method and it solves the human ghost generation problem in panorama by maintaining the structure of human by energy map. Experimental results prove that the proposed system can be effectively used to compose panoramic photographs and maintain human structure in panorama.[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]é»ć
Neuropilin 1 is an entry factor that promotes EBV infection of nasopharyngeal epithelial cells
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is implicated as an aetiological factor in B lymphomas and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The mechanisms of cell-free EBV infection of nasopharyngeal epithelial cells remain elusive. EBV glycoprotein B (gB) is the critical fusion protein for infection of both B and epithelial cells, and determines EBV susceptibility of non-B cells. Here we show that neuropilin 1 (NRP1) directly interacts with EBV gB 23-431. Either knockdown of NRP1 or pretreatment of EBV with soluble NRP1 suppresses EBV infection. Upregulation of NRP1 by overexpression or EGF treatment enhances EBV infection. However, NRP2, the homologue of NRP1, impairs EBV infection. EBV enters nasopharyngeal epithelial cells through NRP1-facilitated internalization and fusion, and through macropinocytosis and lipid raft-dependent endocytosis. NRP1 partially mediates EBV-activated EGFR/RAS/ERK signalling, and NRP1-dependent receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signalling promotes EBV infection. Taken together, NRP1 is identified as an EBV entry factor that cooperatively activates RTK signalling, which subsequently promotes EBV infection in nasopharyngeal epithelial cells. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio
Long-term structural performance monitoring system for the Shanghai Tower
Author name used in this manuscript: You-Lin Xu2012-2013 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe
Experimental signatures of the mixed axial-gravitational anomaly in the Weyl semimetal NbP
Weyl semimetals are materials where electrons behave effectively as a kind of
massless relativistic particles known asWeyl fermions. These particles occur in
two flavours, or chiralities, and are subject to quantum anomalies, the
breaking of a conservation law by quantum fluctuations. For instance, the
number of Weyl fermions of each chirality is not independently conserved in
parallel electric and magnetic field, a phenomenon known as the chiral anomaly.
In addition, an underlying curved spacetime provides a distinct contribution to
a chiral imbalance, an effect known as the mixed axial-gravitational anomaly,
which remains experimentally elusive. However, the presence of a mixed
gauge-gravitational anomaly has recently been tied to thermoelectrical
transport in a magnetic field, even in flat spacetime, opening the door to
experimentally probe such type of anomalies in Weyl semimetals. Using a
temperature gradient, we experimentally observe a positive longitudinal
magnetothermoelectric conductance (PMTC) in the Weyl semimetal NbP for
collinear temperature gradients and magnetic fields (DT || B) that vanishes in
the ultra quantum limit. This observation is consistent with the presence of a
mixed axial-gravitational anomaly. Our work provides clear experimental
evidence for the existence of a mixed axial-gravitational anomaly of Weyl
fermions, an outstanding theoretical concept that has so far eluded
experimental detection
Shot noise in mesoscopic systems
This is a review of shot noise, the time-dependent fluctuations in the
electrical current due to the discreteness of the electron charge, in small
conductors. The shot-noise power can be smaller than that of a Poisson process
as a result of correlations in the electron transmission imposed by the Pauli
principle. This suppression takes on simple universal values in a symmetric
double-barrier junction (suppression factor 1/2), a disordered metal (factor
1/3), and a chaotic cavity (factor 1/4). Loss of phase coherence has no effect
on this shot-noise suppression, while thermalization of the electrons due to
electron-electron scattering increases the shot noise slightly. Sub-Poissonian
shot noise has been observed experimentally. So far unobserved phenomena
involve the interplay of shot noise with the Aharonov-Bohm effect, Andreev
reflection, and the fractional quantum Hall effect.Comment: 37 pages, Latex, 10 figures (eps). To be published in "Mesoscopic
Electron Transport," edited by L. P. Kouwenhoven, G. Schoen, and L. L. Sohn,
NATO ASI Series E (Kluwer Academic Publishing, Dordrecht
Nonmuscle myosin heavy chain IIA mediates Epstein-Barr virus infection of nasopharyngeal epithelial cells
EBV causes B lymphomas and undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Although the mechanisms by which EBV infects B lymphocytes have been extensively studied, investigation of the mechanisms by which EBV infects nasopharyngeal epithelial cells (NPECs) has only recently been enabled by the successful growth of B lymphoma Mo-MLV insertion region 1 homolog (BMI1)-immortalized NPECs in vitro and the discovery that neuropilin 1 expression positively affects EBV glycoprotein B (gB)-mediated infection and tyrosine kinase activations in enhancing EBV infection of BMI1-immortalized NPECs. We have now found that even though EBV infected NPECs grown as a monolayer at extremely low efficiency (<3%), close to 30% of NPECs grown as sphere-like cells (SLCs) were infected by EBV. We also identified nonmuscle myosin heavy chain IIA (NMHC-IIA) as another NPEC protein important for efficient EBV infection. EBV gH/gL specifically interacted with NMHC-IIA both in vitro and in vivo. NMHC-IIA densely aggregated on the surface of NPEC SLCs and colocalized with EBV. EBV infection of NPEC SLCs was significantly reduced by NMHC-IIA siRNA knock-down. NMHC-IIA antisera also efficiently blocked EBV infection. These data indicate that NMHC-IIA is an important factor for EBV NPEC infection. © 2015 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio
New insight into kinetics behavor of the structural formation process in Agar gelation
A time-resolved experimental study on the kinetics and relaxation of the
structural formation process in gelling Agar-water solutions was carried out
using our custom-built torsion resonator. The study was based on measurements
of three naturally cooled solutions with agar concentrations of 0.75%, 1.0% and
2.0% w/w. It was found that the natural-cooling agar gelation process could be
divided into three stages, sol stage (Stage I), gelation zone (Stage II) and
gel stage (Stage III), based on the time/temperature evolutions of the
structural development rate (SDR). An interesting fluctuant decaying behavior
of SDR was observed in Stage II and III, indicative of a sum of multiple
relaxation processes and well described by a multiple-order Gaussisn-like
equation: . More interestingly, the temperature dependences of the fitted
values of Wn in Stage II and Stage III were found to follow the different
Arrhenius laws, with different activation energies of EaII= 39-74 KJ/mol and
EaIII~7.0 KJ/mol. The two different Arrhenius-like behaviors respectively
suggest that dispersions in Stage II be attributed to the relaxation of the
self-assembly of agar molecules or the growth of junction zones en route to
gelation, in which the formation or fission of hydrogen bonding interactions
plays an important role; and that dispersions in Stage III be attributed to the
relaxation dynamics of water released from various size domains close to the
domain of the viscous flow of water during the syneresis process.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Unravelling the role of the interface for spin injection into organic semiconductors
Whereas spintronics brings the spin degree of freedom to electronic devices,
molecular/organic electronics adds the opportunity to play with the chemical
versatility. Here we show how, as a contender to commonly used inorganic
materials, organic/molecular based spintronics devices can exhibit very large
magnetoresistance and lead to tailored spin polarizations. We report on giant
tunnel magnetoresistance of up to 300% in a (La,Sr)MnO3/Alq3/Co nanometer size
magnetic tunnel junction. Moreover, we propose a spin dependent transport model
giving a new understanding of spin injection into organic materials/molecules.
Our findings bring a new insight on how one could tune spin injection by
molecular engineering and paves the way to chemical tailoring of the properties
of spintronics devices.Comment: Original version. Revised version to appear in Nature Physics
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