918 research outputs found
eyeSelfie: Self Directed Eye Alignment using Reciprocal Eye Box Imaging
Eye alignment to the optical system is very critical in many modern devices, such as for biometrics, gaze tracking, head mounted displays, and health. We show alignment in the context of the most difficult challenge: retinal imaging. Alignment in retinal imaging, even conducted by a physician, is very challenging due to precise alignment requirements and lack of direct user eye gaze control. Self-imaging of the retina is nearly impossible.
We frame this problem as a user-interface (UI) challenge. We can create a better UI by controlling the eye box of a projected cue. Our key concept is to exploit the reciprocity, "If you see me, I see you", to develop near eye alignment displays. Two technical aspects are critical: a) tightness of the eye box and (b) the eye box discovery comfort. We demonstrate that previous pupil forming display architectures are not adequate to address alignment in depth. We then analyze two ray-based designs to determine efficacious fixation patterns. These ray based displays and a sequence of user steps allow lateral (x, y) and depth (z) wise alignment to deal with image centering and focus. We show a highly portable prototype and demonstrate the effectiveness through a user study.Vodafone Americas FoundationUnited States. Army Research OfficeDeshpande Center for Technological Innovatio
Growth of superconducting MgB2 thin films via postannealing techniques
We report the effect of annealing on the superconductivity of MgB2 thin films
as functions of the postannealing temperature in the range from 700 C to 950 C
and of the postannealing time in the range from 30 min to 120 min. On annealing
at 900 C for 30 min, we obtained the best-quality MgB2 films with a transition
temperature of 39 K and a critical current density of ~ 10^7 A/cm^2. Using the
scanning electron microscopy, we also investigated the film growth mechanism.
The samples annealed at higher temperatures showed the larger grain sizes,
well-aligned crystal structures with preferential orientations along the
c-axis, and smooth surface morphologies. However, a longer annealing time
prevented the alignment of grains and reduced the superconductivity, indicating
a strong interfacial reaction between the substrate and the MgB2 film.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures include
The Dendritic magnetic avalanches in carbon-free MgB thin films with and without a deposited Au layer
From the magneto optics images (MOI), the dendritic magnetic avalanche is
known to appear dominantly for thin films of the newly discovered MgB. To
clarify the origin of this phenomenon, we studied in detail the MOI of
carbon-free MgB thin films with and without a deposited gold layer. The MOI
indicated carbon contamination was not the main source of the avalanche. The
MOI clearly showed that the deposition of metallic gold deposition on top of a
MgB thin film improved its thermal stability and suppressed the sudden
appearance of the dendritic flux avalanche. This is consistent with the
previous observation of flux noise in the magnetization.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figeure
Face-PAST: Facial Pose Awareness and Style Transfer Networks
Facial style transfer has been quite popular among researchers due to the
rise of emerging technologies such as eXtended Reality (XR), Metaverse, and
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Furthermore, StyleGAN methods along with
transfer-learning strategies have reduced the problem of limited data to some
extent. However, most of the StyleGAN methods overfit the styles while adding
artifacts to facial images. In this paper, we propose a facial pose awareness
and style transfer (Face-PAST) network that preserves facial details and
structures while generating high-quality stylized images. Dual StyleGAN
inspires our work, but in contrast, our work uses a pre-trained style
generation network in an external style pass with a residual modulation block
instead of a transform coding block. Furthermore, we use the gated mapping unit
and facial structure, identity, and segmentation losses to preserve the facial
structure and details. This enables us to train the network with a very limited
amount of data while generating high-quality stylized images. Our training
process adapts curriculum learning strategy to perform efficient and flexible
style mixing in the generative space. We perform extensive experiments to show
the superiority of Face-PAST in comparison to existing state-of-the-art
methods.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 2 table
Neuroprotective Effects of a Traditional Multi-Herbal Medicine Kyung-Ok-Ko in an Animal Model of Parkinson's Disease: Inhibition of MAPKs and NF-κB Pathways and Activation of Keap1-Nrf2 Pathway
Kyung-Ok-Ko (KOK), a traditional multi-herbal medicine, has been widely used in Oriental medicine as a restorative that can enforce vitality of whole organs and as a medicine that can treat age-related symptoms including lack of vigor and weakened immunity. However, the beneficial effect of KOK on neurological diseases such as Parkinson's diseases (PD) is largely unknown. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the protective effect of KOK on neurotoxicity in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced mouse model of PD. Pre-treatment with KOK at 1 or 2 g/kg/day (p.o.) showed significant mitigating effects on neurological dysfunction (motor and welfare) based on pole, rotarod, and nest building tests. It also showed effects on survival rate. These positive effects of KOK were related to inhibition of loss of tyrosine hydroxylase–positive neurons, reduction of MitoSOX activity, increased apoptotic cells, microglia activation, and upregulation of inflammatory factors [interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, cyclooxygenase-2, and inducible nitric oxide], and reduced blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and/or striatum after MPTP intoxication. Interestingly, these effects of KOK against MPTP neurotoxicity were associated with inhibition of phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases and nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathways along with up-regulation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 pathways in SNpc and/or striatum. Collectively, our findings suggest that KOK might be able to mitigate neurotoxicity in MPTP-induced mouse model of PD via multi-effects, including anti-neuronal and anti-BBB disruption activities through its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activities. Therefore, KOK might have potential for preventing and/or treating PD
Simulated microgravity with floating environment promotes migration of non-small cell lung cancers
A migration of cancer is one of the most important factors affecting cancer therapy. Particularly, a cancer migration study in a microgravity environment has gained attention as a tool for developing cancer therapy. In this study, we evaluated the proliferation and migration of two types (adenocarcinoma A549, squamous cell carcinoma H1703) of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) in a floating environment with microgravity. When we measured proliferation of two NSCLCs in the microgravity (MG) and ground-gravity (CONT), although initial cell adhesion in MG was low, a normalized proliferation rate of A549 in MG was higher than that in CONT. Wound healing results of A549 and H1703 showed rapid recovery in MG; particularly, the migration rate of A549 was faster than that of H1703 both the normal and low proliferating conditions. Gene expression results showed that the microgravity accelerated the migration of NSCLC. Both A549 and H1703 in MG highly expressed the migration-related genes MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2 compared to CONT at 24 h. Furthermore, analysis of MMP-2 protein synthesis revealed weaker metastatic performance of H1703 than that of A549. Therefore, the simulated microgravity based cancer culture environment will be a potential for migration and metastasis studies of lung cancers
Flux Dendrites of Opposite Polarity in Superconducting MgB rings observed with magneto-optical imaging
Magneto-optical imaging was used to observe flux dendrites with opposite
polarities simultaneously penetrate superconducting, ring-shaped MgB films.
By applying a perpendicular magnetic field, branching dendritic structures
nucleate at the outer edge and abruptly propagate deep into the rings. When
these structures reach close to the inner edge, where flux with opposite
polarity has penetrated the superconductor, they occasionally trigger anti-flux
dendrites. These anti-dendrites do not branch, but instead trace the triggering
dendrite in the backward direction. Two trigger mechanisms, a non-local
magnetic and a local thermal, are considered as possible explanations for this
unexpected behaviour. Increasing the applied field further, the rings are
perforated by dendrites which carry flux to the center hole. Repeated
perforations lead to a reversed field profile and new features of dendrite
activity when the applied field is subsequently reduced.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev.
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