Sampling is Matter: Point-guided 3D Human Mesh Reconstruction

This paper presents a simple yet powerful method for 3D human mesh reconstruction from a single RGB image. Most recently, the non-local interactions of the whole mesh vertices have been effectively estimated in the transformer while the relationship between body parts also has begun to be handled via the graph model. Even though those approaches have shown the remarkable progress in 3D human mesh reconstruction, it is still difficult to directly infer the relationship between features, which are encoded from the 2D input image, and 3D coordinates of each vertex. To resolve this problem, we propose to design a simple feature sampling scheme. The key idea is to sample features in the embedded space by following the guide of points, which are estimated as projection results of 3D mesh vertices (i.e., ground truth). This helps the model to concentrate more on vertex-relevant features in the 2D space, thus leading to the reconstruction of the natural human pose. Furthermore, we apply progressive attention masking to precisely estimate local interactions between vertices even under severe occlusions. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that the proposed method efficiently improves the performance of 3D human mesh reconstruction. The code and model are publicly available at: https://github.com/DCVL-3D/PointHMR_release.Comment: Accepted by CVPR 202

Relationship between early development of plant community and environmental condition in abandoned paddy terraces at mountainous valleys in Korea

In Korea, many paddy fields in mountainous area have been abandoned because of their low accessibility and rice priceand the abandoned paddy terraces have changed into natural lentic wetlands. To understand the relationship betweencharacteristics of environmental conditions and early development of plant community in abandoned paddy terraces,we investigated at four well-maintained abandoned paddy terraces in 3 different climatic zones in Korea. Soil texture ofabandoned paddy terraces was mostly kinds of loam and electric conductivity of soil was also similar among abandonedpaddy terraces. On the other hand, contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium insoil were relatively low and significantly different among abandoned paddy terraces. Water depth was different withinsites and inter-sites. Although environmental conditions including climate, soil condition and water depth were differentamong abandoned paddy terraces, the compositions of plant communities were relatively similar in all abandonedpaddy terraces. 55 dominant taxa out of 141 recorded species were commonly recorded over sites and they were mostlyperennial obligate wetland plants and facultative wetland plants. 8 taxa out of 55 dominant taxa were occurred at allabandoned paddy terraces with over 10% coverage. Several site-specific species were occurred at site, which have somearea with deep water level. This result indicates that early development of plant community in abandoned paddy terracesof similar water regime is similar in the entire area of Korea even though environmental conditions such as climate, biogeographichistory and soil are different.upported by the Center for Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration(CAER) of the Eco-STAR project from the Ministry of Environment (MOE), Republic of Korea (EW33-08-12) and Korea Ministry of Environment as The Eco-Innovation project (416-111-010) and Brain Korea 21.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2013-01/102/0000026049/6SEQ:6PERF_CD:SNU2013-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:0000026049ADJUST_YN:NEMP_ID:A075900DEPT_CD:719CITE_RATE:0FILENAME:2013jecoenv36(2).pdfDEPT_NM:생물교육과EMAIL:[email protected]:

Tribological characteristics of high strength low alloy steel under various environmental conditions

High strength low alloy steel has excellent heat resistance and high strength. As it is commonly used as gun barrel material, a long service life and superior wear resistance are necessary for steel components. Here we investigated the wear characteristics of high strength low alloy steel surfaces under various environmental conditions, using a pin-on-disk wear test. Oxidation and wear debris effects on the coefficient of friction (COF) of the alloy steel were examined under air and argon (Ar) gas flow at atmospheric conditions

A Protein Profile of Visceral Adipose Tissues Linked to Early Pathogenesis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Adipose tissue is increasingly recognized as an endocrine organ playing important pathophysiological roles in metabolic abnormalities, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In particular, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), as opposed to subcutaneous adipose tissue, is closely linked to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and T2DM. Despite the importance of VAT, its molecular signatures related to the pathogenesis of T2DM have not been systematically explored. Here, we present comprehensive proteomic analysis of VATs in drug-naïve early T2DM patients and subjects with normal glucose tolerance. A total of 4,707 proteins were identified in LC-MS/MS experiments. Among them, 444 increased in abundance in T2DM and 328 decreased. They are involved in T2DM-related processes including inflammatory responses, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling, oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation, and glucose metabolism. Of these proteins, we selected 11 VAT proteins that can represent alteration in early T2DM patients. Among them, up-regulation of FABP4, C1QA, S100A8, and SORBS1 and down-regulation of ACADL and PLIN4 were confirmed in VAT samples of independent early T2DM patients using Western blot. In summary, our profiling provided a comprehensive basis for understanding the link of a protein profile of VAT to early pathogenesis of T2DM. © 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.1

Genome shotgun sequencing and development of microsatellite markers for gerbera (Gerbera hybrida H.) by 454 GS-FLX

The objective of this research was to develop and characterize microsatellite markers for gerbera. We used shotgun sequencing with Roche 454 GS-FLX Titanium technology to identify microsatellite loci in gerbera genomic DNA (Gerbera hybrida). The total length of non-redundant sequences obtained was 22,527,019 bp, which consisted of 3,085 contigs and 28,249 singletons. We assembled 61,958 reads into 3,085 contigs, of which 114 (3.70%) contained microsatellite repeats. The average G+C content was 39.3%. Functional annotation to known sequences yielded 14.7% unigenes in the ‘Raon’ cultivar. Analysis of the gerbera genome DNA (‘Raon’) general library showed that sequences of (AT), (AG), (AAG) and (AAT) repeats appeared most often, whereas (AC), (AAC) and (ACC) were the least frequent. Primer pairs were designed for 80 loci. Only eight primer pairs produced reproducible polymorphic bands in the 28 gerbera accessions analyzed. A total of 30 alleles were identified from the eight polymorphic SSR loci, with two to eight alleles per locus (average level of 3.75). These markers will be useful for investigating genetic diversity and differentiation in gerbera. Keywords: Genetic diversity, genomics, microsatellite isolation, pyrosequencing, SSRs. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7388-7396, 10 April, 201

Integrated analysis of global proteome, phosphoproteome, and glycoproteome enables complementary interpretation of disease-related protein networks

Multi-dimensional proteomic analyses provide different layers of protein information, including protein abundance and post-translational modifications. Here, we report an integrated analysis of protein expression, phosphorylation, and N-glycosylation by serial enrichments of phosphorylation and N-glycosylation (SEPG) from the same tissue samples. On average, the SEPG identified 142,106 unmodified peptides of 8,625 protein groups, 18,846 phosphopeptides (15,647 phosphosites), and 4,019 N-glycopeptides (2,634 N-glycosites) in tumor and adjacent normal tissues from three gastric cancer patients. The combined analysis of these data showed that the integrated analysis additively improved the coverages of gastric cancer-related protein networks; phosphoproteome and N-glycoproteome captured predominantly low abundant signal proteins, and membranous or secreted proteins, respectively, while global proteome provided abundances for general population of the proteome. Therefore, our results demonstrate that the SEPG can serve as an effective approach for multi-dimensional proteome analyses, and the holistic profiles of protein expression and PTMs enabled improved interpretation of disease-related networks by providing complementary information.1

Assessment of the viability of integrating virtual reality programs in practical tests for the Korean Radiological Technologists Licensing Examination: a survey study

Purpose The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of incorporating virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) programs into practical tests administered as part of the Korean Radiological Technologists Licensing Examination (KRTLE). This evaluation is grounded in a comprehensive survey that targeted enrolled students in departments of radiology across the nation. Methods In total, 682 students from radiology departments across the nation were participants in the survey. An online survey platform was used, and the questionnaire was structured into 5 distinct sections and 27 questions. A frequency analysis for each section of the survey was conducted using IBM SPSS ver. 27.0. Results Direct or indirect exposure to VR/AR content was reported by 67.7% of all respondents. Furthermore, 55.4% of the respondents expressed that VR/AR could be integrated into their classes, which signified a widespread acknowledgment of VR among the students. With regards to the integration of a VR/AR or mixed reality program into the practical tests for purposes of the KRTLE, a substantial amount of the respondents (57.3%) exhibited a positive inclination and recommended its introduction. Conclusion The application of VR/AR programs within practical tests of the KRTLE will be used as an alternative for evaluating clinical examination procedures and validating job skills

OpenFlow-Based Mobility Management Scheme and Data Structure for the Mobility Service at Software Defined Networking

The network-based mobility management is adapted to the OpenFlow architecture for mobility service at Software Defined Networking (SDN), and data structure for mobility service is proposed. SDN is a newly proposed Internet architecture which decouples the data and control planes, and mobility management is one of the most important issues in SDN. In order to provide mobility management service by utilizing the mobility scheme proposed earlier in a new network environment, the existing mobility schemes need to be modified. Particularly, the characters of the network environment need to be considered when designing the function of the network entities and data structure. Our proposed mobility management scheme is focused on the centralized control mechanism of SDN. We referred to Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) and OpenFlow-based PMIPv6 with a centralized mobility management controller (OPMIPv6-C). It has a merged data structure for the mobility service on SDN controller and minimizes the number of switches which need flow table modification at handover. At the performance analysis chapter, we compare the signaling cost at the registration and handover phase, packet delivery cost, and handover latency between the proposed scheme and OPMIPv6-C

The Economic Viability of Renewable Portfolio Standard Support for Offshore Wind Farm Projects in Korea

Offshore wind farm (WF) projects have been promoted by support schemes as part of the expansion of renewable energy resources in Korea. This paper examines in detail how the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which was adopted post the Feed-in-Tariff scheme in 2012, has had a profound impact on the economic benefits of offshore WFs in Korea. A framework for analyzing the economic viability of RPS is presented and applied to the sixth basic plan for long-term electricity supply and demand in Korea. The electricity market price is forecast using a reformulated probabilistic production cost (PPC) model, and the renewable energy certificate (REC) price is calculated using its determination rule. The results show that the existing RPS will be ineffective in increasing the penetration of offshore WFs in Korea; however, they also indicate that the economic viability of offshore WFs could be improved by adjusting the existing RPS