4,385 research outputs found
Laplacian-Steered Neural Style Transfer
Neural Style Transfer based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) aims to
synthesize a new image that retains the high-level structure of a content
image, rendered in the low-level texture of a style image. This is achieved by
constraining the new image to have high-level CNN features similar to the
content image, and lower-level CNN features similar to the style image. However
in the traditional optimization objective, low-level features of the content
image are absent, and the low-level features of the style image dominate the
low-level detail structures of the new image. Hence in the synthesized image,
many details of the content image are lost, and a lot of inconsistent and
unpleasing artifacts appear. As a remedy, we propose to steer image synthesis
with a novel loss function: the Laplacian loss. The Laplacian matrix
("Laplacian" in short), produced by a Laplacian operator, is widely used in
computer vision to detect edges and contours. The Laplacian loss measures the
difference of the Laplacians, and correspondingly the difference of the detail
structures, between the content image and a new image. It is flexible and
compatible with the traditional style transfer constraints. By incorporating
the Laplacian loss, we obtain a new optimization objective for neural style
transfer named Lapstyle. Minimizing this objective will produce a stylized
image that better preserves the detail structures of the content image and
eliminates the artifacts. Experiments show that Lapstyle produces more
appealing stylized images with less artifacts, without compromising their
"stylishness".Comment: Accepted by the ACM Multimedia Conference (MM) 2017. 9 pages, 65
figure
Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-α Activation Decreases Mean Arterial Pressure, Plasma Interleukin-6, and COX-2 While Increasing Renal CYP4A Expression in an Acute Model of DOCA-Salt Hypertension
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPAR-α) activation by fenofibrate reduces blood pressure and sodium retention during DOCA-salt hypertension. PPAR-α activation reduces the expression of inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6). Fenofibrate also induces cytochrome P450 4A (CYP4A) and increases 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) production. This study tested whether the administration of fenofibrate would reduce blood pressure by attenuating plasma IL-6 and renal expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), while increasing expression of renal CYP4A during 7 days of DOCA-salt hypertension. We performed uni-nephrectomy on 12–14 week old male Swiss Webster mice and implanted biotelemetry devices in control, DOCA-salt (1.5 mg/g) treated mice with or without fenofibrate (500 mg/kg/day in corn oil, intragastrically). Fenofibrate significantly decreased mean arterial pressure and plasma IL-6. In kidney homogenates, fenofibrate increased CYP4A and decreased COX-2 expression. There were no differences in renal cytochrome P450, family 2, subfamily c, polypeptide 23 (CYP2C23) and soluble expoxide hydrolase (sEH) expression between the groups. Our results suggest that the blood pressure lowering effect of PPAR-α activation by fenofibrate involves the reduction of plasma IL-6 and COX-2, while increasing CYP4A expression during DOCA-salt hypertension. Our results may also suggest that PPAR-α activation protects the kidney against renal injury via decreased COX-2 expression
Metacognitive Performance, the Tip-of-Tongue Experience, Is Not Disrupted in Parkinsonian Patients
The present study investigated whether a form of metamemory, the tip-of-tongue phenomenon (TOT), was affected in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The PD patient (n = 22), age-matched elderly control (n = 22), and college student control (n = 46) groups were compared on a motor timing task and TOT measures. Motor timing was assessed using a cued hand-clapping task, whereas TOT was assessed using general knowledge questions. The results indicated that motor timing was significantly impaired in the PD group relative to both control groups. However, all of the TOT metacognitive measures: frequency, strength, and accuracy were statistically equivalent between the PD patients and elderly control groups, both of whom showed significantly better memory performance than college controls. These findings demonstrate that TOT metamemory is not compromised in PD patients, and that further insight into TOT mechanisms in PD may prove helpful in developing novel intervention strategies to enhance memory and general cognitive functions in these patients
Applicability of the Linear delta Expansion for the lambda phi^4 Field Theory at Finite Temperature in the Symmetric and Broken Phases
The thermodynamics of a scalar field with a quartic interaction is studied
within the linear delta expansion (LDE) method. Using the imaginary-time
formalism the free energy is evaluated up to second order in the LDE. The
method generates nonperturbative results that are then used to obtain
thermodynamic quantities like the pressure. The phase transition pattern of the
model is fully studied, from the broken to the symmetry restored phase. The
results are compared with those obtained with other nonperturbative methods and
also with ordinary perturbation theory. The results coming from the two main
optimization procedures used in conjunction with the LDE method, the Principle
of Minimal Sensitivity (PMS) and the Fastest Apparent Convergence (FAC) are
also compared with each other and studied in which cases they are applicable or
not. The optimization procedures are applied directly to the free energy.Comment: 13 pages, 10 eps figures, revtex, replaced with published versio
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An ANGPTL4-ceramide-protein kinase Cζ axis mediates chronic glucocorticoid exposure-induced hepatic steatosis and hypertriglyceridemia in mice.
Chronic or excess glucocorticoid exposure causes lipid disorders such as hypertriglyceridemia and hepatic steatosis. Angptl4 (angiopoietin-like 4), a primary target gene of the glucocorticoid receptor in hepatocytes and adipocytes, is required for hypertriglyceridemia and hepatic steatosis induced by the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone. Angptl4 has also been shown to be required for dexamethasone-induced hepatic ceramide production. Here, we further examined the role of ceramide-mediated signaling in hepatic dyslipidemia caused by chronic glucocorticoid exposure. Using a stable isotope-labeling technique, we found that dexamethasone treatment induced the rate of hepatic de novo lipogenesis and triglyceride synthesis. These dexamethasone responses were compromised in Angptl4-null mice (Angptl4-/-). Treating mice with myriocin, an inhibitor of the rate-controlling enzyme of de novo ceramide synthesis, serine palmitoyltransferase long-chain base subunit 1 (SPTLC1)/SPTLC2, decreased dexamethasone-induced plasma and liver triglyceride levels in WT but not Angptl4-/- mice. We noted similar results in mice infected with adeno-associated virus-expressing small hairpin RNAs targeting Sptlc2. Protein phosphatase 2 phosphatase activator (PP2A) and protein kinase Cζ (PKCζ) are two known downstream effectors of ceramides. We found here that mice treated with an inhibitor of PKCζ, 2-acetyl-1,3-cyclopentanedione (ACPD), had lower levels of dexamethasone-induced triglyceride accumulation in plasma and liver. However, small hairpin RNA-mediated targeting of the catalytic PP2A subunit (Ppp2ca) had no effect on dexamethasone responses on plasma and liver triglyceride levels. Overall, our results indicate that chronic dexamethasone treatment induces an ANGPTL4-ceramide-PKCζ axis that activates hepatic de novo lipogenesis and triglyceride synthesis, resulting in lipid disorders
Theory of a Continuous H Normal-to-Superconducting Transition
I study the transition within the Ginzburg-Landau model, with
-component order parameter . I find a renormalized fixed point free
energy, exact in limit, suggestive of a nd-order
transition in contrast to a general belief of a st-order transition. The
thermal fluctuations for force one to consider an infinite set of
marginally relevant operators for . I find , predicting
that the ODLRO does not survive thermal fluctuations in . The result is
a solution to a critical fixed point that was found to be inaccessible within
-expansion, previously considered in E.Brezin, D.R.Nelson,
A.Thiaville, Phys.Rev.B {\bf 31}, 7124 (1985), and was interpreted as a
st-order transition.Comment: 4 pages, self-unpacking uuencoded compressed postscript file with a
figure already inside text; to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett
Quasiparticle density of states in dirty high-T_c superconductors
We study the density of quasiparticle states of dirty d-wave superconductors.
We show the existence of singular corrections to the density of states due to
quantum interference effects. We then argue that the density of states actually
vanishes in the localized phase as or depending on whether time
reversal is a good symmetry or not. We verify this result for systems without
time reversal symmetry in one dimension using supersymmetry techniques. This
simple, instructive calculation also provides the exact universal scaling
function for the density of states for the crossover from ballistic to
localized behaviour in one dimension. Above two dimensions, we argue that in
contrast to the conventional Anderson localization transition, the density of
states has critical singularities which we calculate in a
expansion. We discuss consequences of our results for various experiments on
dirty high- materials
A path integral approach to the dynamics of a random chain with rigid constraints
In this work the dynamics of a freely jointed random chain which fluctuates
at constant temperature in some viscous medium is studied. The chain is
regarded as a system of small particles which perform a brownian motion and are
subjected to rigid constraints which forbid the breaking of the chain. For
simplicity, all interactions among the particles have been switched off and the
number of dimensions has been limited to two. The problem of describing the
fluctuations of the chain in the limit in which it becomes a continuous system
is solved using a path integral approach, in which the constraints are imposed
with the insertion in the path integral of suitable Dirac delta functions. It
is shown that the probability distribution of the possible conformations in
which the fluctuating chain can be found during its evolution in time coincides
with the partition function of a field theory which is a generalization of the
nonlinear sigma model in two dimensions. Both the probability distribution and
the generating functional of the correlation functions of the positions of the
beads are computed explicitly in a semiclassical approximation for a
ring-shaped chain.Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX + REVTeX4 + graphicx, minor changes in the
text, reference adde
Evaluation of Steel Bridges, Volumes I & II
This report is divided into two volumes. Volume I summarizes a structural health monitoring (SHM) system that was developed for the Iowa DOT to remotely and continuously monitor fatigue critical bridges (FCB) to aid in the detection of crack formation. The developed FCB SHM system enables bridge owners to remotely monitor FCB for gradual or sudden damage formation. The SHM system utilizes fiber bragg grating (FBG) fiber optic sensors (FOSs) to measure strains at critical locations. The strain-based SHM system is trained with measured performance data to identify typical bridge response when subjected to ambient traffic loads, and that knowledge is used to evaluate newly collected data. At specified intervals, the SHM system autonomously generates evaluation reports that summarize the current behavior of the bridge. The evaluation reports are collected and distributed to the bridge owner for interpretation and decision making. This volume (Volume II) summarizes the development and demonstration of an autonomous, continuous SHM system that can be used to monitor typical girder bridges. The developed SHM system can be grouped into two main categories: an office component and a field component. The office component is a structural analysis software program that can be used to generate thresholds which are used for identifying isolated events. The field component includes hardware and field monitoring software which performs data processing and evaluation. The hardware system consists of sensors, data acquisition equipment, and a communication system backbone. The field monitoring software has been developed such that, once started, it will operate autonomously with minimal user interaction. In general, the SHM system features two key uses. First, the system can be integrated into an active bridge management system that tracks usage and structural changes. Second, the system helps owners to identify damage and deterioration
Field theoretical representation of the Hohenberg-Kohn free energy for fluids
To go beyond Gaussian approximation to the Hohenberg-Kohn free energy playing
the key role in the density functional theory (DFT), the density functional
\textit{integral} representation would be relevant, because field theoretical
approach to perturbative calculations becomes available. Then the present
letter first derives the associated Hamiltonian of density functional,
explicitly including logarithmic entropy term, from the grand partition
function expressed by configurational integrals. Moreover, two things are done
so that the efficiency of the obtained form may be revealed: to demonstrate
that this representation facilitates the field theoretical treatment of the
perturbative calculation, and further to compare our perturbative formulation
with that of the DFT.Comment: 5 pages, revtex, modified on 13 April 2000 [see eqs. (3), (6), and
(13)
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