Anahita: A System for 3D Video Streaming with Depth Customization

Producing high-quality stereoscopic 3D content requires significantly more effort than preparing regular video footage. In order to assure good depth perception and visual comfort, 3D videos need to be carefully adjusted to specific viewing conditions before they are shown to viewers. While most stereoscopic 3D content is designed for viewing in movie theaters, where viewing conditions do not vary significantly, adapting the same content for viewing on home TV-sets, desktop displays, laptops, and mobile devices requires additional adjustments. To address this challenge, we propose a new system for 3D video streaming that provides automatic depth adjustments as one of its key features. Our system takes into account both the content and the display type in order to customize 3D videos and maximize their perceived quality. We propose a novel method for depth adjustment that is well-suited for videos of field sports such as soccer, football, and tennis. Our method is computationally efficient and it does not introduce any visual artifacts. We have implemented our 3D streaming system and conducted two user studies, which show: (i) adapting stereoscopic 3D videos for different displays is beneficial, and (ii) our proposed system can achieve up to 35% improvement in the perceived quality of the stereoscopic 3D content

Effects of Preoperative Sublingual Misoprostol on Uterine Tone during Isoflurane Anesthesia for Cesarean Section

SummaryBackground and objectivesMisoprostol would reduce the uterine bleeding after cesarean delivery without harmful effects on either mother or baby. We aimed to evaluate the effects of preoperative misoprostol on maternal blood loss, uterine tone, and the need for additional oxytocin after cesarean delivery under isoflurane anesthesia.MethodsAfter ethical approval, 366 patients scheduled for elective cesarean delivery were randomly allocated to receive either sublingual misoprostol 400μg (n=179) or placebo tablet (n=187) after intubation. Anesthesia was maintained with 0.5–0.7 MAC isoflurane with nitrous oxide. All patients received intravenous infusion of 10IU of oxytocin after placental delivery. Perioperative estimated blood loss, uterine tone, need for supplementary oxytocin, hematocrit, Apgar scores at 1 and 5 min and adverse effects were recorded.ResultsAfter induction, patients receiving sublingual misoprostol had significant less perioperative estimated blood loss (202±383.1 vs. 708±204.3mL, p<0.001), need for oxytocin (p<0.001), higher hematocrit levels (p<0.001) and uterine tone (p<0.02). The incidence of shivering was higher in the misoprostol group (p=0.04). There were no differences between the two groups as regarding Apgar scores, nausea and vomiting, gastrointestinal disturbances and pyrexia.ConclusionPreoperative administration of sublingual misoprostol 400μg is safe and effective in attenuating the maternal bleeding and uterine atony from isoflurane anesthesia for cesarean delivery

Quasi two-level PWM operation of a nine-arm modular multilevel converter for six-phase medium-voltage motor drives

This paper proposes a hybrid converter for medium-voltage six-phase machine drive systems that mixes the operation of a traditional two-level voltage-source inverter and the modular multilevel converter (MMC) to enable operation over a wide frequency range. Topologically, the proposed converter consists of nine arms resembling two sets of three-phase MMCs with three common arms, yielding a nine-arm MMC with a 25% reduction in the number of employed arms compared to a traditional dual three-phase MMC. The multilevel property of a standard MMC is emulated in the proposed converter, however on a two-level basis, resulting in a stepped two-level output voltage waveform. The proposed converter has a reduced footprint with advantages of small voltage steps, modular structure, and ease of scalability. Further, it is able to drive high-power six-phase machines within low operating frequencies at the rated torque. The operating principle of the converter is elaborated, and its modulation scheme is discussed. The features of the proposed converter are verified through simulations and experimentally

Longitudinal Hierarchy Co3O4 Mesocrystals with High-dense Exposure Facets and Anisotropic Interfaces for Direct-Ethanol Fuel Cells

Novel electrodes are needed for direct ethanol fuel cells with improved quality. Hierarchical engineering can produce catalysts composed of mesocrystals with many exposed active planes and multi-diffused voids. Here we report a simple, one-pot, hydrothermal method for fabricating Co 3 O 4 /carbon/substrate electrodes that provides control over the catalyst mesocrystal morphology (i.e., corn tubercle pellets or banana clusters oriented along nanotube domains, or layered lamina or multiple cantilevered sheets). These morphologies afforded catalysts with a high density of exposed active facets, a diverse range of mesopores in the cage interior, a window architecture, and vertical alignment to the substrate, which improved efficiency in an ethanol electrooxidation reaction compared with a conventional platinum/carbon electrode. On the atomic scale, the longitudinally aligned architecture of the Co 3 O 4 mesocrystals resulted in exposed low- and high-index single and interface surfaces that had improved electron transport and diffusion compared with currently used electrodes

Analyses of Highway Project Construction Risks, Performance, and Contingency

Past studies have highlighted the importance of risk assessment and management in construction projects and transportation industry, and have identified cost and time as the most important risks that transportation professionals want to understand and manage. The main focus of this study is to comprehensively analyze transportation construction risk drivers and identify the correlation of the significant risk drivers with project characteristics, cost growth, schedule growth, and project contingency. This study has adopted 31 relevant and significant programmatic and project-specific risk drivers from different past studies. These risk drivers have been analyzed and evaluated using survey responses from professionals in the context of highway transportation projects. Risk assessments including rating of the encountered risk drivers and their correlation with project characteristics have been carried out within the context of highway construction projects in the United States. Correlations of the construction project performance or risk measures, cost growth percentage, and schedule growth percentage, with the rating values of identified risk drivers values have enabled a better understanding of the impacts of risks and the risk assessment process for highway transportation projects. The impact of significant risk drivers on reported construction cost contingency amounts has also been analyzed. The purpose of this effort was to assess impact of ratings for cost impact, schedule impact, and relative importance of the identified risk drivers on contingency amounts. Predetermined method is the common way to calculate contingency amount in transportation projects. In this study parametric modeling has been used to analyze the relationship between predetermined contingency amounts in transportation projects with perceived risk rating values in order to understand how the expert judgments regarding risk ratings can be used in determination of contingency amounts

The role of PLK1 in Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection of the liver

With 250 million reported chronic infections globally, Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) is a major human health issue, linked to increased risk for development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Current treatments to control chronic HBV infection remain ineffective. New and effective therapies that target the persisting viral molecules are needed in order to clear infection. My research aims to understand the role of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in inducing HCC and identify novel host molecules that are targeted by HBV. Understanding how HBV modifies and manipulates host cellular pathways is critical for the development of mechanism based therapeutics. Here, I provide a review for the HBV core protein (HBc), its function and the host molecules it usurps during infection and pathogenesis. I also identify Polo-like-kinase 1 (PLK1) as a proviral factor in HBV pathogenesis. I demonstrate by loss of function as well as gain of function approaches that PLK1 inhibition suppresses viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. I also show that HBc is a phosphorylation substrate for PLK1 in vitro and I mapped the PLK1 phosphorylation sites to HBc residues S168, S176 and S178. Finally, I used a global proteomics approach to study human HBc interactome identifying potential interacting partners with interesting links to viral pathogenesis. Collectively, my research expands our understanding of the role of HBc in HBV pathogenesis and the ensuing transformation of the liver