Controlling the Morphology of Barrel-Shaped Nanostructures Grown via CuZn Electro-Oxidation

Herein, we report a feasible method for forming barrel-like hybrid Cu(OH)2-ZnO structures on α-brass substrate via low-potential electro-oxidation in 1 M NaOH solution. The presented study was conducted to investigate the electrochemical behavior of CuZn in a passive range (−0.2 V–0.5 V) and its morphological changes that occur under these conditions. As found, morphology and phase composition of the grown layer strongly depend on the applied potential, and those material characteristics can be tuned by varying the operating conditions. To the best of our knowledge, the yielded morphology of barrel-like structure has not been previously observed for brass anodizing. Additionally, photoactivity under both UV and daylight irradiation-induced degradation of organic dye (methyl orange) using Cu(OH)2-ZnO composite was explored. Obtained results proved photocatalytic activity of the material that led to degradation of 43% and 36% of the compound in UV and visible light, respectively. The role of Cu(OH)2 in improving ZnO photoactivity was recognized and discussed. As implied by both the undertaken research and the literature on the subject, cupric hydroxide can act as a trap for photoexcited electrons, and thus contributes to stabilizing electron-hole recombination. This resulted in improved light-absorbing properties of the photoactive component, ZnO.Team Peyman Taher

Interactions among myeloid regulatory cells in cancer

Mounting evidence has accumulated on the critical role of the different myeloid cells in the regulation of the cancerous process, and in particular in the modulation of the immune reaction to cancer. Myeloid cells are a major component of host cells infiltrating tumors, interacting with each other, with tumor cells and other stromal cells, and demonstrating a prominent plasticity. We describe here various myeloid regulatory cells (MRCs) in mice and human as well as their relevant therapeutic targets. We first address the role of the monocytes and macrophages that can contribute to angiogenesis, immunosuppression and metastatic dissemination. Next, we discuss the differential role of neutrophil subsets in tumor development, enhancing the dual and sometimes contradicting role of these cells. A heterogeneous population of immature myeloid cells, MDSCs, was shown to be generated and accumulated during tumor progression as well as to be an important player in cancer-related immune suppression. Lastly, we discuss the role of myeloid DCs, which can either contribute to effective anti-tumor responses or play a more regulatory role. We believe that MRCs play a critical role in cancer-related immune regulation and suggest that future anti-cancer therapies will focus on these abundant cells

A Selective Weighted Late Fusion for Visual Concept Recognition

International audienceWe propose a novel multimodal approach to automatically predict the visual concepts of images through an effective fusion of visual and textual features. It relies on a Selective Weighted Late Fusion (SWLF) scheme which, in optimizing an overall Mean interpolated Average Precision (MiAP), learns to automatically select and weight the best features for each visual concept to be recognized. Experiments were conducted on the MIR Flickr image collection within the ImageCLEF Photo Annotation challenge. The results have brought to the fore the effectiveness of SWLF as it achieved a MiAP of 43.69% in 2011 which ranked 2nd out of the 79 submitted runs, and a MiAP of 43.67% that ranked 1st out of the 80 submitted runs in 2012

On the Perceptual Organization of Image Databases Using Cognitive Discriminative Biplots

A human-centered approach to image database organization is presented in this study. The management of a generic image database is pursued using a standard psychophysical experimental procedure followed by a well-suited data analysis methodology that is based on simple geometrical concepts. The end result is a cognitive discriminative biplot, which is a visualization of the intrinsic organization of the image database best reflecting the user's perception. The discriminating power of the introduced cognitive biplot constitutes an appealing tool for image retrieval and a flexible interface for visual data mining tasks. These ideas were evaluated in two ways. First, the separability of semantically distinct image classes was measured according to their reduced representations on the biplot. Then, a nearest-neighbor retrieval scheme was run on the emerged low-dimensional terrain to measure the suitability of the biplot for performing content-based image retrieval (CBIR). The achieved organization performance when compared with the performance of a contemporary system was found superior. This promoted the further discussion of packing these ideas into a realizable algorithmic procedure for an efficient and effective personalized CBIR system

Triassic metasediments in the internal Dinarides (Kopaonik area, southern Serbia) : stratigraphy, paleogeographic and tectonic significance

Strongly deformed and metamorphosed sediments in the Studenica Valley and Kopaonik area in southern Serbia expose the easternmost occurrences of Triassic sediments in the Dinarides. In these areas, Upper Paleozoic terrigenous sediments are overlain by Lower Triassic siliciclastics and limestones and by Anisian shallow-water carbonates. A pronounced facies change to hemipelagic and distal turbiditic, cherty metalimestones (Kopaonik Formation) testifies a Late Anisian drowning of the former shallow-water carbonate shelf. Sedimentation of the Kopaonik Formation was contemporaneous with shallow-water carbonate production on nearby carbonate platforms that were the source areas of diluted turbidity currents reaching the depositional area of this formation. The Kopaonik Formation was dated by conodont faunas as Late Anisian to Norian and possibly extends into the Early Jurassic. It is therefore considered an equivalent of the grey Hallstatt facies of the Eastern Alps, the Western Carpathians, and the Albanides—Hellenides. The coeval carbonate platforms were generally situated in more proximal areas of the Adriatic margin, whereas the distal margin was dominated by hemipelagic/pelagic and distal turbiditic sedimentation, facing the evolving Neotethys Ocean to the east. A similar arrangement of Triassic facies belts can be recognized all along the evolving Meliata-Maliac- Vardar branch of Neotethys, which is in line with a ‘one-ocean-hypothesis’ for the Dinarides: all the ophiolites presently located southwest of the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik thrust sheets are derived from an area to the east, and the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik units emerge in tectonic windows from below this ophiolite nappe. On the base of the Triassic facies distribution we see neither argument for an independent Dinaridic Ocean nor evidence for isolated terranes or blocks