The history of degenerate (bipartite) extremal graph problems

This paper is a survey on Extremal Graph Theory, primarily focusing on the case when one of the excluded graphs is bipartite. On one hand we give an introduction to this field and also describe many important results, methods, problems, and constructions.Comment: 97 pages, 11 figures, many problems. This is the preliminary version of our survey presented in Erdos 100. In this version 2 only a citation was complete

Single view silhouette fitting techniques for estimating tennis racket position

Stereo camera systems have been used to track markers attached to a racket, allowing its position to be obtained in three-dimensional (3D) space. Typically, markers are manually selected on the image plane, but this can be time-consuming. A markerless system based on one stationary camera estimating 3D racket position data is desirable for research and play. The markerless method presented in this paper relies on a set of racket silhouette views in a common reference frame captured with a calibrated camera and a silhouette of a racket captured with a camera whose relative pose is outside the common reference frame. The aim of this paper is to provide validation of these single view fitting techniques to estimate the pose of a tennis racket. This includes the development of a calibration method to provide the relative pose of a stationary camera with respect to a racket. Mean static racket position was reconstructed to within ±2 mm. Computer generated camera poses and silhouette views of a full size racket model were used to demonstrate the potential of the method to estimate 3D racket position during a simplified serve scenario. From a camera distance of 14 m, 3D racket position was estimated providing a spatial accuracy of 1.9 ± 0.14 mm, similar to recent 3D video marker tracking studies of tennis

Роль ферритина в оценке заболеваний печени

Background. Ferritin is an important integral and diagnostic marker of liver diseases. In 1/3 of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), manifestations of hyperferritinemia are revealed. Increased ferritin level indicates the severity of the disease course and affects the prognosis.Objective: to determine the prevalence and character of hyperferritinemia manifestations in NAFLD patients and to evaluate the effectiveness of its correction with human placenta hydrolysate.Material and methods. We examined 158 patients aged from 20 to 63 years (92 men and 66 women). There were no significant differences in age between men and women. The control group consisted of 20 practically healthy individuals. Molecular mechanisms of peptide components of human placenta hydrolysate (Laennec®) impact on pathophysiological processes of serum ferritin disorders, iron metabolism indicators, and inflammation manifestations were analyzed.Results. Nineteen peptides potentially important for regulation of iron homeostasis were identified in Laennec® composition. These peptides contribute to the elimination of iron metabolism disorders by regulating the levels of hepcidin (the main hormone of iron homeostasis), reducing ferritin synthesis, as well as exhibiting anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory effects. The efficacy of the drug monotherapy in patients with hyperferritinemia was shown.Conclusion. Laennec® was found to be one of the medicines contributing to the reduction of hyperferritinemia manifestations, iron metabolism disorders, and systemic inflammatory process in NAFLD.Актуальность. Ферритин является важным интегральным и диагностическим маркером заболеваний печени. У 1/3 пациентов с неалкогольной жировой болезнью печени (НАЖБП) выявлены проявления гиперферритинемии. Повышение уровня ферритина свидетельствует о тяжести течения и влияет на прогноз заболевания.Цель: определение частоты и характера проявлений гиперферритинемии у больных НАЖБП и оценка эффективности ее коррекции гидролизатом плаценты человека.Материал и методы. Обследованы 158 больных НАЖБП возрасте от 20 до 63 лет (92 мужчины и 66 женщин). Достоверных различий по возрасту между мужчинами и женщинами не выявлено. Группа контроля составила 20 практически здоровых лиц. Проведен анализ молекулярных механизмов действия пептидных компонентов гидролизата плаценты человека (препарат Лаеннек®) на патофизиологические процессы нарушения содержания ферритина в сыворотке крови, показатели обмена железа, проявления воспаления.Результаты. В составе препарата Лаеннек® идентифицированы 19 пептидов, потенциально важных для регулировки гомеостаза железа. Регулируя уровни гепцидина (основного гормона гомеостаза железа), снижая синтез ферритина, а также проявляя противовоспалительные и иммуномодулирующие эффекты, эти пептиды способствуют устранению нарушений обмена железа. Показана эффективность применения препарата у больных НАЖБП с гиперферритинемией в виде монотерапии.Заключение. Установлено, что Лаеннек® является одним из препаратов, способствующих уменьшению проявлений гиперферритинемии, нарушений обмена железа, системного воспалительного процесса при НАЖБП

Max-Margin Dictionary Learning for Multiclass Image Categorization

Abstract. Visual dictionary learning and base (binary) classifier train-ing are two basic problems for the recently most popular image cate-gorization framework, which is based on the bag-of-visual-terms (BOV) models and multiclass SVM classifiers. In this paper, we study new algo-rithms to improve performance of this framework from these two aspects. Typically SVM classifiers are trained with dictionaries fixed, and as a re-sult the traditional loss function can only be minimized with respect to hyperplane parameters (w and b). We propose a novel loss function for a binary classifier, which links the hinge-loss term with dictionary learning. By doing so, we can further optimize the loss function with respect to the dictionary parameters. Thus, this framework is able to further increase margins of binary classifiers, and consequently decrease the error bound of the aggregated classifier. On two benchmark dataset

Asymptotic Limits and Zeros of Chromatic Polynomials and Ground State Entropy of Potts Antiferromagnets

We study the asymptotic limiting function $W({G},q) = \lim_{n \to \infty}P(G,q)^{1/n}$, where $P(G,q)$ is the chromatic polynomial for a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices. We first discuss a subtlety in the definition of $W({G},q)$ resulting from the fact that at certain special points $q_s$, the following limits do not commute: $\lim_{n \to \infty} \lim_{q \to q_s} P(G,q)^{1/n} \ne \lim_{q \to q_s} \lim_{n \to \infty} P(G,q)^{1/n}$. We then present exact calculations of $W({G},q)$ and determine the corresponding analytic structure in the complex $q$ plane for a number of families of graphs ${G}$, including circuits, wheels, biwheels, bipyramids, and (cyclic and twisted) ladders. We study the zeros of the corresponding chromatic polynomials and prove a theorem that for certain families of graphs, all but a finite number of the zeros lie exactly on a unit circle, whose position depends on the family. Using the connection of $P(G,q)$ with the zero-temperature Potts antiferromagnet, we derive a theorem concerning the maximal finite real point of non-analyticity in $W({G},q)$, denoted $q_c$ and apply this theorem to deduce that $q_c(sq)=3$ and $q_c(hc) = (3+\sqrt{5})/2$ for the square and honeycomb lattices. Finally, numerical calculations of $W(hc,q)$ and $W(sq,q)$ are presented and compared with series expansions and bounds.Comment: 33 pages, Latex, 5 postscript figures, published version; includes further comments on large-q serie

Organometallic iridium(III) anticancer complexes with new mechanisms of action: NCI-60 screening, mitochondrial targeting, and apoptosis

Platinum complexes related to cisplatin, cis-[PtCl2(NH3)2], are successful anticancer drugs; however, other transition metal complexes offer potential for combating cisplatin resistance, decreasing side effects, and widening the spectrum of activity. Organometallic half-sandwich iridium (IrIII) complexes [Ir(Cpx)(XY)Cl]+/0 (Cpx = biphenyltetramethylcyclopentadienyl and XY = phenanthroline (1), bipyridine (2), or phenylpyridine (3)) all hydrolyze rapidly, forming monofunctional G adducts on DNA with additional intercalation of the phenyl substituents on the Cpx ring. In comparison, highly potent complex 4 (Cpx = phenyltetramethylcyclopentadienyl and XY = N,N-dimethylphenylazopyridine) does not hydrolyze. All show higher potency toward A2780 human ovarian cancer cells compared to cisplatin, with 1, 3, and 4 also demonstrating higher potency in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) NCI-60 cell-line screen. Use of the NCI COMPARE algorithm (which predicts mechanisms of action (MoAs) for emerging anticancer compounds by correlating NCI-60 patterns of sensitivity) shows that the MoA of these IrIII complexes has no correlation to cisplatin (or oxaliplatin), with 3 and 4 emerging as particularly novel compounds. Those findings by COMPARE were experimentally probed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of A2780 cells exposed to 1, showing mitochondrial swelling and activation of apoptosis after 24 h. Significant changes in mitochondrial membrane polarization were detected by flow cytometry, and the potency of the complexes was enhanced ca. 5× by co-administration with a low concentration (5 μM) of the γ-glutamyl cysteine synthetase inhibitor L-buthionine sulfoximine (L-BSO). These studies reveal potential polypharmacology of organometallic IrIII complexes, with MoA and cell selectivity governed by structural changes in the chelating ligands

Fast and Accurate Texture Recognition with Multilayer Convolution and Multifractal Analysis

International audienceA fast and accurate texture recognition system is presented. The new approach consists in extracting locally and globally invariant representations. The locally invariant representation is built on a multi-resolution convolutional net- work with a local pooling operator to improve robustness to local orientation and scale changes. This representation is mapped into a globally invariant descriptor using multifractal analysis. We propose a new multifractal descriptor that cap- tures rich texture information and is mathematically invariant to various complex transformations. In addition, two more techniques are presented to further im- prove the robustness of our system. The first technique consists in combining the generative PCA classifier with multiclass SVMs. The second technique consists of two simple strategies to boost classification results by synthetically augment- ing the training set. Experiments show that the proposed solution outperforms existing methods on three challenging public benchmark datasets, while being computationally efficient

Increased sensitivity to TRAIL-induced apoptosis occurs during the adenoma to carcinoma transition of colorectal carcinogenesis

The death ligand TRAIL (Apo2L) has potential for cancer therapy, since tumour cells are thought to be more sensitive than normal cells. We investigated whether sensitivity to TRAIL increases during the adenoma to carcinoma transition of colorectal carcinogenesis. Under the same culture conditions, we compared the extent of TRAIL-induced apoptosis in four premalignant adenoma and three carcinoma cell lines. Although TRAIL induced some apoptosis in adenoma cultures, the carcinoma cell lines were significantly more sensitive (P<0.001). This finding was recapitulated in an in vitro model of tumour progression in which conversion of the adenoma cell line AA/C1 to a tumorigenic phenotype was associated with increased TRAIL sensitivity (P<0.001). Increased TRAIL sensitivity during colorectal carcinogenesis has been previously attributed to changes in the balance between TRAIL receptors TRAIL-R1 and -R2 and ‘decoy' receptors TRAIL-R3 and -R4 during malignant progression. To address this, cell surface receptor expression was measured by flow cytometry. In summary, during colorectal carcinogenesis, there is a marked increase in sensitivity to TRAIL-induced apoptosis associated with progression from benign to malignant tumour that could be exploited for colon cancer therapy, but alterations in cell surface TRAIL receptor expression may not be the primary reason for this change