Extended analysis of motion-compensated frame difference for block-based motion prediction error

2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

New pixel-DCT domain coding technique for object based and frame based prediction error

2004-2005 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Japanese direct investment in China

This paper uses survey data to study the characteristics of Japanese direct investment in China as compared to those in the newly industrializing economies (NIEs) and in the member countries of ASEAN. Japanese firms invest in China for cost reasons as well as to expand their market shares. This paper also examines the determinants of Japanese direct investment in China using a regional data set from 1990 to 2000. To form a basis of comparison we run similar regressions for the largest foreign direct investor in China: Hong Kong. Local demands affect significantly the inflow of investment from both sources. Wage costs exert a larger influence on Hong Kong investment than on Japanese investment, which can be explained by the difference in the characteristics of investment projects from Hong Kong and those from Japan. Japanese firms appear to be attracted to Economic and Technology Development Zones, whereas Hong Kong firms are more attracted to Special Economic Zones and Open Coastal Cities. The quality of infrastructure matters more for firms from Hong Kong than from Japan. Distance does not affect Japanese direct investment significantly. This may reflect Japan's extensive experience in managing its operations in the global marketplace. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.preprin

New adaptive partial distortion search using clustered pixel matching error characteristic

2003-2004 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Block motion estimation using adaptive partial distortion search

Centre for Multimedia Signal Processing, Department of Electronic and Information EngineeringRefereed conference paper2002-2003 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Priority search technique for MPEG-4 motion estimation of arbitrarily shaped video object

2001-2002 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Diabetic nephropathy and endothelial dysfunction: Current and future therapies, and emerging of vascular imaging for preclinical renal-kinetic study

© 2016 The Authors An explosion in global epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus poses major rise in cases with vascular endothelial dysfunction ranging from micro- (retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy) to macro-vascular (atherosclerosis and cardiomyopathy) condition s. Functional destruction of endothelium is regarded as an early event that lays the groundwork for the development of renal microangiopathy and subsequent clinical manifestation of nephropathic symptoms. Recent research has shed some light on the molecular mechanisms of type 2 diabetes-associated comorbidity of endothelial dysfunction and nephropathy. Stemming from currently proposed endothelium-centered therapeutic strategies for diabetic nephropathy, this review highlighted some most exploited pathways that involve the intricate coordination of vasodilators, vasoconstrictors and vaso-modulatory molecules in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. We also emphasized the emerging roles of oxidative and epigenetic modifications of microvasculature as our prospective therapeutics for diabetic renal diseases. Finally, this review in particular addressed the potential use of multispectral optoacoustic tomography in real-time, minimally-invasive vascular imaging of small experimental animals for preclinical renal-kinetic drug trials.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Prognostic implications of surrogate markers of atherosclerosis in low-to-intermediate risk patients with type 2 diabetes

Poster PresentationINTRODUCTION: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular events. Unfortunately traditional risk assessment scores, including the Framingham Risk Score (FRS), have only modest accuracy in cardiovascular risk prediction in these patients. METHODS: We sought to determine the prognostic values of different non-invasive markers of atherosclerosis, including brachial artery endothelial function, carotid artery atheroma burden, ankle-brachial index, arterial stiffness and computed tomography coronary artery calcium score (CACS) in 151 T2DM Chinese patients who were identified low-intermediate risk from the FRS recalib…published_or_final_versio

Stroke Patients with a Past History of Cancer Are at Increased Risk of Recurrent Stroke and Cardiovascular Mortality

published_or_final_versio

Performance of the new automated Abbott RealTime MTB assay for rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in respiratory specimens

The automated high-throughput Abbott RealTime MTB real-time PCR assay has been recently launched for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) clinical diagnosis. This study would like to evaluate its performance. We first compared its diagnostic performance with the Roche Cobas TaqMan MTB assay on 214 clinical respiratory specimens. Prospective analysis of a total 520 specimens was then performed to further evaluate the Abbott assay. The Abbott assay showed a lower limit of detection at 22.5 AFB/ml, which was more sensitive than the Cobas assay (167.5 AFB/ml). The two assays demonstrated a significant difference in diagnostic performance (McNemar’s test; P = 0.0034), in which the Abbott assay presented significantly higher area under curve (AUC) than the Cobas assay (1.000 vs 0.880; P = 0.0002). The Abbott assay demonstrated extremely low PCR inhibition on clinical respiratory specimens. The automated Abbott assay required only very short manual handling time (0.5 h), which could help to improve the laboratory management. In the prospective analysis, the overall estimates for sensitivity and specificity of the Abbott assay were both 100 % among smear-positive specimens, whereas the smear-negative specimens were 96.7 and 96.1 %, respectively. No cross-reactivity with non-tuberculosis mycobacterial species was observed. The superiority in sensitivity of the Abbott assay for detecting MTBC in smear-negative specimens could further minimize the risk in MTBC false-negative detection. The new Abbott RealTime MTB assay has good diagnostic performance which can be a useful diagnostic tool for rapid MTBC detection in clinical laboratories. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.postprin