A New Multistage Medical Segmentation Method Based on Superpixel and Fuzzy Clustering

The medical image segmentation is the key approach of image processing for brain MRI images. However, due to the visual complex appearance of image structures and the imaging characteristic, it is still challenging to automatically segment brain MRI image. A new multi-stage segmentation method based on superpixel and fuzzy clustering (MSFCM) is proposed to achieve the good brain MRI segmentation results. The MSFCM utilizes the superpixels as the clustering objects instead of pixels, and it can increase the clustering granularity and overcome the influence of noise and bias effectively. In the first stage, the MRI image is parsed into several atomic areas, namely, superpixels, and a further parsing step is adopted for the areas with bigger gray variance over setting threshold. Subsequently, designed fuzzy clustering is carried out to the fuzzy membership of each superpixel, and an iterative broadcast method based on the Butterworth function is used to redefine their classifications. Finally, the segmented image is achieved by merging the superpixels which have the same classification label. The simulated brain database from BrainWeb site is used in the experiments, and the experimental results demonstrate that MSFCM method outperforms the traditional FCM algorithm in terms of segmentation accuracy and stability for MRI image

Molecular Catalytic Hydrogenation of Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Hydrotreating of Coal Liquids.

This report presents the results of research on the development of new catalytic pathways for the hydrogenation of multiring aromatic hydrocarbons and the hydrotreating of coal liquids at The University of Chicago under DOE Contract No. DE-AC22-91PC91056. The work, which is described in three parts, is primarily concerned with the research on the development of new catalytic systems for the hydrogenation of aromatic hydrocarbons and for the improvement of the quality of coal liquids by the addition of dihydrogen. Part A discusses the activation of dihydrogen by very basic molecular reagents to form adducts that can facilitate the reduction of multiring aromatic hydrocarbons. Part B examines the hydrotreating of coal liquids catalyzed by the same base-activated dihydrogen complexes. Part C concerns studies of molecular organometallic catalysts for the hydrogenation of monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons under mild conditions

CIBZ, a Novel BTB Domain-Containing Protein, Is Involved in Mouse Spinal Cord Injury via Mitochondrial Pathway Independent of p53 Gene

Spinal cord injury (SCI) induces both primary uncontrollable mechanical injury and secondary controllable degeneration, which further results in the activation of cell death cascades that mediate delayed tissue damage. To alleviate its impairments and seek for an effective remedy, mRNA differential display was used to investigate gene mRNA expression profiling in mice following SCI. A specific Zinc finger and BTB domain-containing protein, CIBZ, was discovered to implicate in the SCI process for the first time. Further researches indicated that CIBZ was extensively distributed in various tissues, and the expression level was highest in muscle, followed by spinal cord, large intestine, kidney, spleen, thymus, lung, cerebrum, stomach, ovary and heart, respectively. After injury, the CIBZ expression decreased dramatically and reached the lowest level at 8 h, but it gradually increased to the maximal level at 7 d. Caspase-3 and C-terminal-binding protein (CtBP), two CIBZ-related proteins, showed similar tendency. Interestingly, p53 expression remained constant in all groups. Via flow cytometry (FCM) analysis, it was found that the cell death rate in SCI group markedly increased and reached the highest value 1 d after surgery and the mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) at 1 d was the lowest in all groups. Taken together, it is suggested that: (i) in the presence of CtBP, CIBZ gene is involved in secondary injury process and trigger the activation of apoptotic caspase-3 and bax genes independent of p53; (ii) abrupt down-regulation of CtBP at 8 h is a sign of mitochondria dysfunction and the onset of cell death; (iii) it could be used as an inhibitor or target drug of caspase-3 gene to improve spinal cord function

Modulation of Field Emission Resonance on photodetachment of negative ions on surface

The interaction between the field emission resonance states and the photodetached electron in an electric field is studied by semiclassical theory. An analytical expression of the photodetachment cross section is derived in the framework. It is found that the Stark shifted image state modulates the photodetachment cross section by adding irregular staircase or smooth oscillation in the spectrum. When the photodetached electron is trapped in Stark shifted image potential well, the detachment spectrum displays an irregular staircase structure which corresponds to the modified Rydberg series. While the photodetached electron is not bound by the surface potential well, the cross secton contains only a smooth oscillation due to the reflection of electronic wave by the field or the surface.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figure

The General Solution of Differential Equations with Caputo-Hadamard Fractional Derivatives and Noninstantaneous Impulses

Based on some recent works about the general solution of fractional differential equations with instantaneous impulses, a Caputo-Hadamard fractional differential equation with noninstantaneous impulses is studied in this paper. An equivalent integral equation with some undetermined constants is obtained for this fractional order system with noninstantaneous impulses, which means that there is general solution for the impulsive systems. Next, an example is given to illustrate the obtained result