Pedestrian lane detection for assistive navigation of blind people

Navigating safely in outdoor environments is a challenging activity for vision-impaired people. This paper is a step towards developing an assistive navigation system for the blind. We propose a robust method for detecting the pedestrian marked lanes at traffic junctions. The proposed method includes two stages: regions of interest (ROI) extraction and lane marker verification. The ROI extraction is performed by using colour and intensity information. A probabilistic framework employing multiple geometric cues is then used to verify the extracted ROI. The experimental results have shown that the proposed method is robust under challenging illumination conditions and obtains superior performance compared to the existing methods. © 2012 ICPR Org Committee

Pedestrian lane detection in unstructured scenes for assistive navigation

Automatic detection of the pedestrian lane in a scene is an important task in assistive and autonomous navigation. This paper presents a vision-based algorithm for pedestrian lane detection in unstructured scenes, where lanes vary significantly in color, texture, and shape and are not indicated by any painted markers. In the proposed method, a lane appearance model is constructed adaptively from a sample image region, which is identified automatically from the image vanishing point. This paper also introduces a fast and robust vanishing point estimation method based on the color tensor and dominant orientations of color edge pixels. The proposed pedestrian lane detection method is evaluated on a new benchmark dataset that contains images from various indoor and outdoor scenes with different types of unmarked lanes. Experimental results are presented which demonstrate its efficiency and robustness in comparison with several existing methods

Towards green business process management

There is a global consensus on the need to reduce our collective carbon footprint. While much research attention has focused on developing alternative energy sources, automotive technologies or waste disposal techniques, we often ignore the fact that the ability to optimize (existing) operations to reduce their emissions impact is fundamental to this exercise. We believe that by transforming the problem into the domain of Business Process Management (BPM) we can leverage the rich expertise in this field to address issues associated with identifying areas for improvement, understanding the implication and performing carbon footprint minimization. We will use the term “Green BPM” to describe a novel class of technologies that leverage and extend existing BPM technology to enable process design, analysis, execution and monitoring in a manner informed by the carbon footprint of process designs and instances. This article describes the first steps in the development of this class of technologies

Two-Phase Defect Detection Using Clustering and Classification Methods

Autonomous fault management of network and distributed systems is a challenging research problem and attracts many research activities. Solving this problem heavily depends on expertise knowledge and supporting tools for monitoring and detecting defects automatically. Recent research activities have focused on machine learning techniques that scrutinize system output data for mining abnormal events and detecting defects. This paper proposes a two-phase defect detection for network and distributed systems using log messages clustering and classification. The approach takes advantage of K-means clustering method to obtain abnormal messages and random forest method to detect the relationship of the abnormal messages and the existing defects. Several experiments have evaluated the performance of this approach using the log message data of Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and the bug report data of Bug Tracking System (BTS). Evaluation results have disclosed some remarks with lessons learned

PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF OPHIOCORDYCEPS SOBOLIFERA

The aim of study was to determine preliminary phytochemical analysis and the antioxidant potential of Ophiocordyceps sobolifera. The antioxidant activity of Ophiocordyceps sobolifera was evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and total antioxidant activity methods. Phytochemical analyses revealed the presence of steroids, triterpenoids, alkaloids, phenolics, flavoinods, protein, carbohydarte and saponins. The antioxidant activity of the ethanol extracts and water extracts showed high antioxidant activity with the lowest half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values to 0.70 from 0.95mg/mL, realtively. Total antioxidant capacity of the O. sobolifera showed contained from 5.52 ± 0.14 to 12,71 ± 0.23 mg GA/g or from 3.55 ± 0.15 to 7.87 ± .05 μmol AS/g. These data suggest that O. sobolifera is a natural source of antioxidants

TỔNG HỢP VÀ ĐẶC TRƯNG hydrogel glucomannan – poly(acrylic acid) NHẠY pH ĐỊNH HƯỚNG ỨNG DỤNG TRONG HỆ THỐNG PHÂN PHỐI 5-aminosalicylic acid CÓ KIỂM SOÁT

In this study, glucomannan-poly(acrylic acid) hydrogels were synthesized under different conditions. The hydrogels consist of glucomannan and acrylic acid and are crosslinked by N,N-methylene-bis-(acrylamide). The structure and morphology of the hydrogels were investigated by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The swelling ratio, biodegradation and pH-sensitive properties, relationship between hydrogel swelling rate and 5-ASA adsorption-desorption capacity, influence of medium pH on 5-ASA desorption, and 5-ASA adsorption kinetics were studied. The swelling ratio of the synthesized hydrogel samples is 16.70–56.21 times. This ratio is low in the pH 1.0 media and increases significantly in the pH 7,4 media. The hydrogels are biodegradable in the presence of cellulase (400 U·mg–1) in a pH 7.4 phosphate buffer at 37 °C (69.8% after ten days; the cellulase concentration 1.5 g·L­–1). The hydrogels exhibit high adsorption and desorption capacities for 5-ASA. The adsorption kinetics follows the pseudo-first-order model. These hydrogels can be applied to smart drug delivery systems.Trong nghiên cứu này, hydrogel glucomannan-poly(acrylic acid) đã được tổng hợp ở các điều kiện khác nhau với mục đích ứng dụng vào hệ thống phân phối thuốc 5-amiosalicylic acid (5-ASA) có kiểm soát. Hydrogel được tạo thành từ glucomannan và acrylic acid với tác nhân liên kết N,N-methylene-bis-(acrylamide). Cấu trúc và hình thái của hydrogel được nghiên cứu bằng phổ hồng ngoại chuyển dịch Fourier (FT-IR) và kính hiển vi điện tử quét (SEM). Tỷ lệ trương nở, tính chất phân huỷ sinh học và nhạy pH, mối quan hệ giữa tỷ lệ trương nở của hydrogel và khả năng hấp phụ-giải hấp 5-ASA, ảnh hưởng của pH môi trường để khả năng giải hấp 5-ASA và động học hấp phụ 5-ASA đã được nghiên cứu. Kết quả cho thấy tỷ lệ trương nở của các mẫu hydrogel là 16,70–56,21 lần. Tỷ lệ trương nở của hydrogel thấp ở môi trường pH 1 và tăng lên đáng kể trong môi trường pH 7,4.  Cellulase (400 U·mg–1) trong môi trường đệm pH 7,4 ở 37 °C có khả năng phân hủy sinh học hydrogel (69,8% sau 10 ngày; nồng độ cellulase 1,5 g·L–1). Hydrogel có cả khả năng hấp phụ và giải hấp tốt 5-ASA. Động học quá trình hấp phụ tuân theo mô hình biểu kiến bậc 1. Đây là vật liệu có tiềm năng ứng dụng trong phát triển hệ thống phân phối thuốc thông minh

In vitro antioxidant activity and bioactive compounds from Calocybe indica

Nowadays, the use of mushrooms in medicine is ubiquitous and has achieved particular success. The antioxidants in mushrooms can deactivate free radicals. This study assesses the antioxidant potential of mushroom Calocybe indica with the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging methods and the total antioxidant capacity. The mushroom’s ethanol extract exhibits acceptable activity with a low IC50 value (240.11 μg/mL), approximately 2.9 times lower than that of the mushroom Ophiocordyceps sobolifera extract. The ABTS scavenging rate of the extract is around 60% at 500 µg/mL, and the total antioxidant capacity is equivalent to 64.94 ± 1.03 mg of GA/g or 77.42 ± 0.42 μmol of AS/g.  The total phenolics, flavonoids, polysaccharides, and triterpenoids are equivalent to 29.33 ± 0.16 mg of GAE/g, 17.84 ± 0.11 mg of QUE/g (5.04 ± 0.04%), and 4.96 ± 0.04 mg of oleanolic acid/g, respectively. Specifically, the total triterpenoid content has been reported for the first time. The mushroom can have potential biomedical applications

Transcriptome Analyses of a Salt-Tolerant Cytokinin-Deficient Mutant Reveal Differential Regulation of Salt Stress Response by Cytokinin Deficiency

Soil destruction by abiotic environmental conditions, such as high salinity, has resulted in dramatic losses of arable land, giving rise to the need of studying mechanisms of plant adaptation to salt stress aimed at creating salt-tolerant plants. Recently, it has been reported that cytokinins (CKs) regulate plant environmental stress responses through two-component systems. A decrease in endogenous CK levels could enhance salt and drought stress tolerance. Here, we have investigated the global transcriptional change caused by a reduction in endogenous CK content under both normal and salt stress conditions. Ten-day-old Arabidopsis thaliana wild-type (WT) and CK-deficient ipt1,3,5,7 plants were transferred to agar plates containing either 0 mM (control) or 200 mM NaCl and maintained at normal growth conditions for 24 h. Our experimental design allowed us to compare transcriptome changes under four conditions: WT-200 mM vs. WT-0 mM, ipt1,3,5,7-0 mM vs. WT-0 mM, ipt1,3,5,7-200 mM vs. ipt1,3,5,7-0 mM and ipt1,3,5,7-200 mM vs. WT-200 mM NaCl. Our results indicated that the expression of more than 10% of all of the annotated Arabidopsis genes was altered by CK deficiency under either normal or salt stress conditions when compared to WT. We found that upregulated expression of many genes encoding either regulatory proteins, such as NAC, DREB and ZFHD transcription factors and the calcium sensor SOS3, or functional proteins, such as late embryogenesis-abundant proteins, xyloglucan endo-transglycosylases, glycosyltransferases, glycoside hydrolases, defensins and glyoxalase I family proteins, may contribute to improved salt tolerance of CK-deficient plants. We also demonstrated that the downregulation of photosynthesis-related genes and the upregulation of several NAC genes may cause the altered morphological phenotype of CK-deficient plants. This study highlights the impact of CK regulation on the well-known stress-responsive signaling pathways, which regulate plant adaptation to high salinity as well as other environmental stresses

Direct Observation of Exceptional Points in Photonic Crystal by Cross-Polarization Imaging in Momentum Space

This study explores exceptional points (EPs) in photonic crystals (PhCs) and introduces a novel method for their single-shot observation. Exceptional points are spectral singularities found in non-Hermitian systems, such as leaky PhC slabs. However, directly observing EPs in PhC systems using regular reflectivity spectroscopy is a considerable challenge due to interference between guided resonances and background signals. In this work, we present a simple, nondestructive technique that employs crossed polarizations to directly observe EPs in momentum-resolved resonant scattering. This approach effectively suppresses the background signal, enabling exclusive probing of the guided resonances where EPs manifest. Our results demonstrate the formation of EPs in both energy-momentum mapping and isofrequency imaging. All experimental findings align seamlessly with numerical simulations and analytical models. Our approach holds great potential as a robust tool for studying non-Hermitian physics in PhC platform

Comparative analysis of root transcriptomes from two contrasting drought-responsive Williams 82 and DT2008 soybean cultivars under normal and dehydration conditions

The economically important DT2008 and the model Williams 82 (W82) soybean cultivars were reported to have differential drought-tolerant degree to dehydration and drought, which was associated with root trait. Here, we used 66K Affymetrix Soybean Array GeneChip to compare the root transcriptomes of DT2008 and W82 seedlings under normal, as well as mild (2h treatment) and severe (10h treatment) dehydration conditions. Out of the 38172 soybean genes annotated with high confidence, 822 (2.15%) and 632 (1.66%) genes showed altered expression by dehydration in W82 and DT2008 roots, respectively, suggesting that a larger machinery is required to be activated in the drought-sensitive W82 cultivar to cope with the stress. We also observed that long-term dehydration period induced expression change of more genes in soybean roots than the short-term one, independently of the genotypes. Furthermore, our data suggest that the higher drought tolerability of DT2008 might be attributed to the higher number of genes induced in DT2008 roots than in W82 roots by early dehydration, and to the expression changes of more genes triggered by short-term dehydration than those by prolonged dehydration in DT2008 roots vs. W82 roots. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that could be predicted to have a known function were further analyzed to gain a basic understanding on how soybean plants respond to dehydration for their survival. The higher drought tolerability of DT2008 vs. W82 might be attributed to differential expression in genes encoding osmoprotectant biosynthesis-, detoxification- or cell wall-related proteins, kinases, transcription factors and phosphatase 2C proteins. This research allowed us to identify genetic components that contribute to the improved drought tolerance of DT2008, as well as provide a useful genetic resource for in-depth functional analyses that ultimately leads to development of soybean cultivars with improved tolerance to drought