Dynamic anoxic ferruginous conditions during the end-Permian mass extinction and recovery

The end-Permian mass extinction, ~252 million years ago, is notable for a complex recovery period of ~5 Myr. Widespread euxinic (anoxic and sulfidic) oceanic conditions have been proposed as both extinction mechanism and explanation for the protracted recovery period, yet the vertical distribution of anoxia in the water column and its temporal dynamics through this time period are poorly constrained. Here we utilize Fe–S–C systematics integrated with palaeontological observations to reconstruct a complete ocean redox history for the Late Permian to Early Triassic, using multiple sections across a shelf-to-basin transect on the Arabian Margin (Neo-Tethyan Ocean). In contrast to elsewhere, we show that anoxic non-sulfidic (ferruginous), rather than euxinic, conditions were prevalent in the Neo-Tethys. The Arabian Margin record demonstrates the repeated expansion of ferruginous conditions with the distal slope being the focus of anoxia at these times, as well as short-lived episodes of oxia that supported diverse biota

Fuzzy Free Path Detection from Disparity Maps by Using Least-Squares Fitting to a Plane

A method to detect obstacle-free paths in real-time which works as part of a cognitive navigation aid system for visually impaired people is proposed. It is based on the analysis of disparity maps obtained from a stereo vision system which is carried by the blind user. The presented detection method consists of a fuzzy logic system that assigns a certainty to be part of a free path to each group of pixels, depending on the parameters of a planar-model fitting. We also present experimental results on different real outdoor scenarios showing that our method is the most reliable in the sense that it minimizes the false positives rate.N. Ortigosa acknowledges the support of Universidad Politecnica de Valencia under grant FPI-UPV 2008 and Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grant MTM2010-15200. S. Morillas acknowledges the support of Universidad Politecnica de Valencia under grant PAID-05-12-SP20120696.Ortigosa Araque, N.; Morillas Gómez, S. (2014). Fuzzy Free Path Detection from Disparity Maps by Using Least-Squares Fitting to a Plane. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. 75(2):313-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-013-9997-1S313330752Cai, L., He, L., Xu, Y., Zhao, Y., Yang, X.: Multi-object detection and tracking by stereovision. Pattern Recognit. 43(12), 4028–4041 (2010)Hikosaka, N., Watanabe, K., Umeda, K.: Obstacle detection of a humanoid on a plane using a relative disparity map obtained by a small range image sensor. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, vol. 1, pp. 3048–3053 (2007)Benenson, R., Mathias, M., Timofte, R., Van Gool, L.: Fast stixel computation for fast pedestrian detection. In: ECCV, CVVT workshop, October (2012)Huang, Y., Fu, S., Thompson, C.: Stereovision-based object segmentation for automotive applications. EURASIP J. Appl. Signal Process. 2005(14), 2322–2329 (2005)Duan, B.B., Liu, W., Fu, P.Y., Yang, C.Y., Wen, X.Z., Yuan, H.: Real-time on-road vehicle and motorcycle detection using a single camera. In: IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, pp. 579–584. IEEE (2009)Oliveira L, Nunes, U.: On integration of features and classifiers for robust vehicle detection. In: IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, pp. 414–419. IEEE (2008)Sun, Z., Bebis, G., Miller, R.: On-road vehicle detection: A review. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 28(5), 694–711 (2006)Sun, H.J., Yang, J.Y.: Obstacle detection for mobile vehicle using neural network and fuzzy logic. Neural Netw. Distrib. Process. 4555(1), 99–104 (2001)Hui, N.B., Pratihar, D.K.: Soft computing-based navigation schemes for a real wheeled robot moving among static obstacles. J. Intell. Robot. Syst. 51(3), 333–368 (2008)Menon, A., Akmeliawati, R., Demidenko, S.: Towards a simple mobile robot with obstacle avoidance and target seeking capabilities using fuzzy logic. In: Proceedings IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, vol. 1–5, pp. 1003–1008 (2008)Moreno-Garcia, J., Rodriguez-Benitez, L., Fernandez-Caballero, A., Lopez, M.T.: Video sequence motion tracking by fuzzification techniques. Appl. Soft Comput. 10(1), 318–331 (2010)Nguyen, T.H., Nguyen, J.S., Pham, D.M., Nguyen, H.T.: Real-time obstacle detection for an autonomous wheelchair using stereoscopic cameras. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2007(1), 4775–4778 (2007)Nguyen, J.S., Nguyen, T.H., Nguyen, H.T.: Semi-autonomous wheelchair system using stereoscopic cameras. In: Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, vol. 1–20, pp. 5068–5071 (2009)Grosso, E., Tistarelli, M.: Active/dynamic stereo vision. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 17(9), 868–879 (1995)Kubota, S., Nakano, T., Okamoto, Y.: A global optimization for real-time on-board stereo obstacle detection systems. In: IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, pp. 7–12. IEEE (2007)Ortigosa, N., Morillas, S., Peris-Fajarnés, G., Dunai, L.: Fuzzy free path detection based on dense disparity maps obtained from stereo cameras. Int. J. Uncertain. Fuzziness Knowl.-Based Syst. 20(2), 245–259 (2012)Murray, D., Little, J.J.: Using real-time stereo vision for mobile robot navigation. Auton. Robot. 8(2), 161–171 (2000)Badino, H., Mester, R., Vaudrey, T., Franke, U.: Stereo-based free space computation in complex traffic scenarios. In: IEEE Southwest Symposium on Image Analysis & Interpretation, pp. 189–192 (2008)Hoilund, C., Moeslund, T.B., Madsen, C.L., Trivedi, M.M.: Free space computation from stochastic occupancy grids based on iconic kalman filtered disparity maps. In: Proceedings International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, vol. 1, pp. 164–167 (2010)Franke, U., Joos, A.: Real-time stereo vision for urban traffic scene understanding. In: IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, pp. 273–278. IEEE (2000)Wedel, A., Badino, H., Rabe, C., Loose, H., Franke, U., Cremers, D.: B-spline modeling of road surfaces with an application to free-space estimation. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 10(4), 572–583 (2009)Vergauwen, M., Pollefeys, M., Van Gool, L.: A stereo-vision system for support of planetary surface exploration. Mach. Vis. Appl. 14(1), 5–14 (2003)Tarel, J.P., Leng, S.S., Charbonnier, P.: Accurate and robust image alignment for road profile reconstruction. In: IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, pp. 365–368. IEEE (2007)Kostavelis, I., Gasteratos, A.: Stereovision-based algorithm for obstacle avoidance. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 195–204. Intelligent Robotics and Applications (2009)Cerri, P., Grisleri, P.: Free space detection on highways using time correlation between stabilized sub-pixel precision ipm images. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 2223–2228. IEEE (2005)Labayrade, R., Aubert, D., Tarel, J.P.: Real time obstacle detection in stereo vision on non-flat road geometry through v-disparity representation. In: IEEE Intelligent Vehicle Symposium, pp. 646–651. INRIA (2002)Ortigosa, N., Morillas, S., Peris-Fajarnés, G., Dunai, L.: Disparity maps for free path detection. In: Proceedings International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, vol. 1, pp. 310–315 (2010)Ortigosa, N., Morillas, S., Peris-Fajarnés, G.: Obstacle-free pathway detection by means of depth maps. J. Intell. Robot. Syst. 63(1), 115–129 (2011)http://www.casblip.comBach y Rita, P., Collins, C., Sauders, B., White, B., Scadden, L.: Vision substitution by tactile image projection. Nature 221, 963964 (1969)Sampaio, E., Maris, S., Bach y Rita, P.: Brain plasticity: visual acuity of blind persons via the tongue. Brain Res. 908, 204207 (2001)http://www.seeingwithsound.comCapelle, C., Trullemans, C., Arno, P., Veraart, C.: A real-time experimental prototype for enhancement of vision rehabilitation using auditory substitution. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 45, 12791293 (1998)Lee, S.W., Kang, S.K., Lee, S.A.: A walking guidance system for the visually impaired. Int. J. Pattern Recognit. 22, 11711186 (2008)Chen, C.L., Liao, Y.F., Tai, C.L.: Image-to-midi mapping based on dynamic fuzzy color segmentation for visually impaired people. Pattern Recognit. Lett. 32, 549–560 (2011)Lombardi, P., Zanin, M., Messelodi, S.: Unified stereovision for ground, road, and obstacle detection. In: Proceedings on the Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2005, pp. 783–788. IEEE (2005)Yu, Q., Araujo, H., Wang, H.: Stereo-vision based real time obstacle detection for urban environments. In: Proceedings on the International Conference of Advanced Robotics, vol. 1, pp. 1671–1676 (2003)Benenson, R., Timofte, R., Van Gool, L.: Stixels estimation without depth map computation. In: ICCV, CVVT workshop (2011)Li, X., Yao, X., Murphey, Y.L., Karlsen, R., Gerhart, G.: A real-time vehicle detection and tracking system in outdoor traffic scenes. In: Pattern Recognition, 2004. ICPR 2004. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on, vol. 2, pp. 761–764 (2004)Zhang, Z.Y.: A flexible new technique for camera calibration. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 22(11), 1330–1334 (2000)Dhond, U.R., Aggarwal, J.K.: Structure from stereo: a review. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 19, 1489–1510 (1989)Scharstein, D., Szeliski, R.: A taxonomy and evaluation of dense two-frame stereo correspondence algorithms. Int. J. Comput. Vis. 47(1/2/3), 7–42 (2002)Middlebury Stereo Vision Page. http://vision.middlebury.edu/stereo/Birchfield, S., Tomasi, C.: Depth discontinuities by pixel-to-pixel stereo. Int. J. Comput. Vis. 17(3), 269–293 (1999)Lawrence Zitnick, C., Bing Kang, S.: Stereo for image-based rendering using image over-segmentation. Int. J. Comput. Vis. 75(1), 49–65 (2007)Felzenszwalb, P.F., Huttenlocher, D.P.: Efficient belief propagation for early vision. Int. J. Comput. Vis. 70(1), 41–54 (2006)Yang, Q., Wang, L., Yang, R., Stewnius, H., Nistr, D.: Stereo matching with color-weighted correlation, hierarchical belief propagation, and occlusion handling. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 31(3), 492–504 (2009)Gehrig, S., Eberli, F., Meyer, T.: A real-time low-power stereo vision engine using semi-global matching. Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 5815/2009, 134–143 (2009)Wedel, A., Brox, T., Vaudrey, T., Rabe, C., Franke, U., Cremers, D.: Stereoscopic scene flow computation for 3d motion understanding. Int. J. Comput. Vis. 95, 29–51 (2011)Hirschmuller, H.: Stereo processing by semiglobal matching and mutual information. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 30(2), 328–341 (2008)Leung, C., Appleton, B., Sun, C.: Iterated dynamic programming and quadtree subregioning for fast stereo matching. Image Vis. Comput. 26(10), 1371–1383 (2008)Hartley, R.I., Zisserman, A.: Multiple view geometry in computer vision, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0521540518 (2004)Spiegel, M.R., Stepthens, L.J.: Statistics, 4th edn. Mc Graw Hill (2008)Kerre, E.E.: Fuzzy sets and approximate reasoning. Xian Jiaotong University Press (1998)Dubois, D., Prade, H.: Fuzzy sets and systems: theory and applications. Academic Press, New York (1980)Lee, C.C.: Fuzzy logic in control systems: Fuzzy logic controller-parts 1 and 2. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 20(2), 404–435 (1990)Fodor, J.C.: A new look at fuzzy-connectives. Fuzzy Sets Syst. 57(2), 141–148 (1993)Nalpantidis, L., Gasteratos, A.: Stereo vision for robotic applications in the presence of non-ideal lightning conditions. Image Vis. Comput. 28(6), 940–951 (2010

OPCML Is a Broad Tumor Suppressor for Multiple Carcinomas and Lymphomas with Frequently Epigenetic Inactivation

Background: Identification of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) silenced by CpG methylation uncovers the molecular mechanism of tumorigenesis and potential tumor biomarkers. Loss of heterozygosity at 11q25 is common multiple tumors including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). OPCML, located at 11q25, is one of the downregulated genes we identified through digital expression subtraction. Methodology/Principal Findings: Semi-quantitative RT-PCR showed frequent OPCML silencing in NPC and other common tumors, with no homozygous deletion detected by multiplex differential DNA-PCR. Instead, promoter methylation of OPCML was frequently detected in multiple carcinoma cell lines (nasopharyngeal, esophageal, lung, gastric, colon, liver, breast, cervix, prostate), lymphoma cell lines (non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma, nasal NK/T-cell lymphoma) and primary tumors, but not in any non-tumor cell line and seldom weakly methylated in normal epithelial tissues. Pharmacological and genetic demethylation restored OPCML expression, indicating a direct epigenetic silencing. We further found that OPCML is stress-responsive, but this response is epigenetically impaired when its promoter becomes methylated. Ecotopic expression of OPCML led to significant inhibition of both anchorage-dependent and -indendent growth of carcinoma cells with endogenous silencing. Conlusions/Significance: Thus, through functional epigenetics, we identified OPCML as a broad tumor suppressor, which is frequently inactivated by methylation in multiple malignancies. © 2008 Cui et al.published_or_final_versio

Particulate Matter Exposure Exacerbates High Glucose-Induced Cardiomyocyte Dysfunction through ROS Generation

Diabetes mellitus and fine particulate matter from diesel exhaust (DEP) are both important contributors to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Diabetes mellitus is a progressive disease with a high mortality rate in patients suffering from CVD, resulting in diabetic cardiomyopathy. Elevated DEP levels in the air are attributed to the development of various CVDs, presumably since fine DEP (<2.5 µm in diameter) can be inhaled and gain access to the circulatory system. However, mechanisms defining how DEP affects diabetic or control cardiomyocyte function remain poorly understood. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate cardiomyocyte function and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in isolated rat ventricular myocytes exposed overnight to fine DEP (0.1 µg/ml), and/or high glucose (HG, 25.5 mM). Our hypothesis was that DEP exposure exacerbates contractile dysfunction via ROS generation in cardiomyocytes exposed to HG. Ventricular myocytes were isolated from male adult Sprague-Dawley rats cultured overnight and sarcomeric contractile properties were evaluated, including: peak shortening normalized to baseline (PS), time-to-90% shortening (TPS90), time-to-90% relengthening (TR90) and maximal velocities of shortening/relengthening (±dL/dt), using an IonOptix field-stimulator system. ROS generation was determined using hydroethidine/ethidium confocal microscopy. We found that DEP exposure significantly increased TR90, decreased PS and ±dL/dt, and enhanced intracellular ROS generation in myocytes exposed to HG. Further studies indicated that co-culture with antioxidants (0.25 mM Tiron and 0.5 mM N-Acetyl-L-cysteine) completely restored contractile function in DEP, HG and HG+DEP-treated myocytes. ROS generation was blocked in HG-treated cells with mitochondrial inhibition, while ROS generation was blocked in DEP-treated cells with NADPH oxidase inhibition. Our results suggest that DEP exacerbates myocardial dysfunction in isolated cardiomyocytes exposed to HG-containing media, which is potentially mediated by various ROS generation pathways

Sensitization, energy transfer and infra-red emission decay modulation in Yb3+-doped NaYF4 nanoparticles with visible light through a perfluoroanthraquinone chromophore

The authors thank Dr. R. Wilson for XRD measurements. H.L., Y.P., H.Y., J.H. and H.G. are funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and Queen Mary University of London. H. L. also would like to thank the support from China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (2017M611440). I.H. acknowledges funding from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (grant MAT2016-80438-P), the EU FP7 (Marie Curie-CIG-Grant 303535). WPG would like to thank EPSRC for support (EP/K004484/1 and EP/L020114/1) and NSFC (61574095). X.C. was supported by the Centre of Excellence in Medical Engineering funded by the Wellcome Trust and EPSRC under grant number WT088641/Z/09/Z. We are grateful to the EPSRC UK NMSF at Swansea University for mass spectrometry

Crystalline TiO2 protective layer with graded oxygen defects for efficient and stable silicon-based photocathode

© 2018, The Author(s). The trade-offs between photoelectrode efficiency and stability significantly hinder the practical application of silicon-based photoelectrochemical devices. Here, we report a facile approach to decouple the trade-offs of silicon-based photocathodes by employing crystalline TiO2 with graded oxygen defects as protection layer. The crystalline protection layer provides high-density structure and enhances stability, and at the same time oxygen defects allow the carrier transport with low resistance as required for high efficiency. The silicon-based photocathode with black TiO2 shows a limiting current density of ~35.3 mA cm-2 and durability of over 100 h at 10 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M NaOH electrolyte, while none of photoelectrochemical behavior is observed in crystalline TiO2 protection layer. These findings have significant suggestions for further development of silicon-based, III–V compounds and other photoelectrodes and offer the possibility for achieving highly efficient and durable photoelectrochemical devices

Biocleavable Polycationic Micelles as Highly Efficient Gene Delivery Vectors

An amphiphilic disulfide-containing polyamidoamine was synthesized by Michael-type polyaddition reaction of piperazine to equimolar N, N′-bis(acryloyl)cystamine with 90% yield. The polycationic micelles (198 nm, 32.5 mV), prepared from the amphiphilic polyamidoamine by dialysis method, can condense foreign plasmid DNA to form nanosized polycationic micelles/DNA polyelectrolyte complexes with positive charges, which transfected 293T cells with high efficiency. Under optimized conditions, the transfection efficiencies of polycationic micelles/DNA complexes are comparable to, or even higher than that of commercially available branched PEI (Mw 25 kDa)

Bcl-2 protein family: Implications in vascular apoptosis and atherosclerosis

Apoptosis has been recognized as a central component in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, in addition to the other human pathologies such as cancer and diabetes. The pathophysiology of atherosclerosis is complex, involving both apoptosis and proliferation at different phases of its progression. Oxidative modification of lipids and inflammation differentially regulate the apoptotic and proliferative responses of vascular cells during progression of the atherosclerotic lesion. Bcl-2 proteins act as the major regulators of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis signalling pathways and more recently it has become evident that they mediate the apoptotic response of vascular cells in response to oxidation and inflammation either in a provocative or an inhibitory mode of action. Here we address Bcl-2 proteins as major therapeutic targets for the treatment of atherosclerosis and underscore the need for the novel preventive and therapeutic interventions against atherosclerosis, which should be designed in the light of molecular mechanisms regulating apoptosis of vascular cells in atherosclerotic lesions

Essential versus accessory aspects of cell death: recommendations of the NCCD 2015

Cells exposed to extreme physicochemical or mechanical stimuli die in an uncontrollable manner, as a result of their immediate structural breakdown. Such an unavoidable variant of cellular demise is generally referred to as ‘accidental cell death’ (ACD). In most settings, however, cell death is initiated by a genetically encoded apparatus, correlating with the fact that its course can be altered by pharmacologic or genetic interventions. ‘Regulated cell death’ (RCD) can occur as part of physiologic programs or can be activated once adaptive responses to perturbations of the extracellular or intracellular microenvironment fail. The biochemical phenomena that accompany RCD may be harnessed to classify it into a few subtypes, which often (but not always) exhibit stereotyped morphologic features. Nonetheless, efficiently inhibiting the processes that are commonly thought to cause RCD, such as the activation of executioner caspases in the course of apoptosis, does not exert true cytoprotective effects in the mammalian system, but simply alters the kinetics of cellular demise as it shifts its morphologic and biochemical correlates. Conversely, bona fide cytoprotection can be achieved by inhibiting the transduction of lethal signals in the early phases of the process, when adaptive responses are still operational. Thus, the mechanisms that truly execute RCD may be less understood, less inhibitable and perhaps more homogeneous than previously thought. Here, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death formulates a set of recommendations to help scientists and researchers to discriminate between essential and accessory aspects of cell death