Correspondence Estimation from Non-Rigid Motion Information

The DIET (Digital Image Elasto Tomography) system is a novel approach to screen for breast cancer using only optical imaging information of the surface of a vibrating breast. 3D tracking of skin surface motion without the requirement of external markers is desirable. A novel approach to establish point correspondences using pure skin images is presented here. Instead of the intensity, motion is used as the primary feature, which can be extracted using optical flow algorithms. Taking sequences of multiple frames into account, this motion information alone is accurate and unambiguous enough to allow for a 3D reconstruction of the breast surface. Two approaches, direct and probabilistic, for this correspondence estimation are presented here, suitable for different levels of calibration information accuracy. Reconstructions show that the results obtained using these methods are comparable in accuracy to marker-based methods while considerably increasing resolution. The presented method has high potential in optical tissue deformation and motion sensing

Automated Intelligent Monitoring and the Controlling Software System for Solar Panels

The inspection of the solar panels on a periodic basis is important to improve longevity and ensure performance of the solar system. To get the most solar potential of the photovoltaic (PV) system is possible through an intelligent monitoring & controlling system. The monitoring & controlling system has rapidly increased its popularity because of its user-friendly graphical interface for data acquisition, monitoring, controlling and measurements. In order to monitor the performance of the system especially for renewable energy source application such as solar photovoltaic (PV), data-acquisition systems had been used to collect all the data regarding the installed system. In this paper the development of a smart automated monitoring & controlling system for the solar panel is described, the core idea is based on IoT (the Internet of Things). The measurements of data are made using sensors, block management data acquisition modules, and a software system. Then, all the real-time data collection of the electrical output parameters of the PV plant such as voltage, current and generated electricity is displayed and stored in the block management. The proposed system is smart enough to make suggestions if the panel is not working properly, to display errors, to remind about maintenance of the system through email or SMS, and to rotate panels according to a sun position using the Ephemeral table that stored in the system. The advantages of the system are the performance of the solar panel system which can be monitored and analyzed

Quantitative model for inferring dynamic regulation of the tumour suppressor gene p53

Background: The availability of various "omics" datasets creates a prospect of performing the study of genome-wide genetic regulatory networks. However, one of the major challenges of using mathematical models to infer genetic regulation from microarray datasets is the lack of information for protein concentrations and activities. Most of the previous researches were based on an assumption that the mRNA levels of a gene are consistent with its protein activities, though it is not always the case. Therefore, a more sophisticated modelling framework together with the corresponding inference methods is needed to accurately estimate genetic regulation from "omics" datasets. Results: This work developed a novel approach, which is based on a nonlinear mathematical model, to infer genetic regulation from microarray gene expression data. By using the p53 network as a test system, we used the nonlinear model to estimate the activities of transcription factor (TF) p53 from the expression levels of its target genes, and to identify the activation/inhibition status of p53 to its target genes. The predicted top 317 putative p53 target genes were supported by DNA sequence analysis. A comparison between our prediction and the other published predictions of p53 targets suggests that most of putative p53 targets may share a common depleted or enriched sequence signal on their upstream non-coding region. Conclusions: The proposed quantitative model can not only be used to infer the regulatory relationship between TF and its down-stream genes, but also be applied to estimate the protein activities of TF from the expression levels of its target genes

Coronary angiography enhancement for visualization

High quality visualization on X-ray angiograms is of great significance both for the diagnosis of vessel abnormalities and for coronary interventions. Algorithms for improving the visualization of detailed vascular structures without significantly increasing image noise are currently demanded in the market. A new algorithm called stick-guided lateral inhibition (SGLI) is presented for increasing the visibility of coronary vascular structures. A validation study was set up to compare the SGLI algorithm with the conventional unsharp masking (UM) algorithm on 20 still frames of coronary angiographic images. Ten experienced QCA analysts and nine cardiologists from various centers participated in the validation. Sample scoring value (SSV) and observer agreement value (OAV) were defined to evaluate the validation result, in terms of enhancing performance and observer agreement, respectively. The mean of SSV was concluded to be 77.1 ± 11.9%, indicating that the SGLI algorithm performed significantly better than the UM algorithm (P-value < 0.001). The mean of the OAV was concluded to be 70.3%, indicating that the average agreement with respect to a senior cardiologist was 70.3%. In conclusion, this validation study clearly demonstrates the superiority of the SGLI algorithm in the visualization of coronary arteries from X-ray angiograms

Time warping of evolutionary distant temporal gene expression data based on noise suppression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Comparative analysis of genome wide temporal gene expression data has a broad potential area of application, including evolutionary biology, developmental biology, and medicine. However, at large evolutionary distances, the construction of global alignments and the consequent comparison of the time-series data are difficult. The main reason is the accumulation of variability in expression profiles of orthologous genes, in the course of evolution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We applied Pearson distance matrices, in combination with other noise-suppression techniques and data filtering to improve alignments. This novel framework enhanced the capacity to capture the similarities between the temporal gene expression datasets separated by large evolutionary distances. We aligned and compared the temporal gene expression data in budding (<it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</it>) and fission (<it>Schizosaccharomyces pombe</it>) yeast, which are separated by more then ~400 myr of evolution. We found that the global alignment (time warping) properly matched the duration of cell cycle phases in these distant organisms, which was measured in prior studies. At the same time, when applied to individual ortholog pairs, this alignment procedure revealed groups of genes with distinct alignments, different from the global alignment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our alignment-based predictions of differences in the cell cycle phases between the two yeast species were in a good agreement with the existing data, thus supporting the computational strategy adopted in this study. We propose that the existence of the alternative alignments, specific to distinct groups of genes, suggests presence of different synchronization modes between the two organisms and possible functional decoupling of particular physiological gene networks in the course of evolution.</p

Use of tobacco and alcohol by Swiss primary care physicians: a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: Health behaviours among doctors has been suggested to be an important marker of how harmful lifestyle behaviours are perceived. In several countries, decrease in smoking among physicians was spectacular, indicating that the hazard was well known. Historical data have shown that because of their higher socio-economical status physicians take up smoking earlier. When the dangers of smoking become better known, physicians began to give up smoking at a higher rate than the general population. For alcohol consumption, the situation is quite different: prevalence is still very high among physicians and the dangers are not so well perceived. To study the situation in Switzerland, data of a national survey were analysed to determine the prevalence of smoking and alcohol drinking among primary care physicians. METHODS: 2'756 randomly selected practitioners were surveyed to assess subjective mental and physical health and their determinants, including smoking and drinking behaviours. Physicians were categorised as never smokers, current smokers and former smokers, as well as non drinkers, drinkers (AUDIT-C < 4 for women and < 5 for men) and at risk drinkers (higher scores). RESULTS: 1'784 physicians (65%) responded (men 84%, mean age 51 years). Twelve percent were current smokers and 22% former smokers. Sixty six percent were drinkers and 30% at risk drinkers. Only 4% were never smokers and non drinkers. Forty eight percent of current smokers were also at risk drinkers and 16% of at risk drinkers were also current smokers. Smoking and at risk drinking were more frequent among men, middle aged physicians and physicians living alone. When compared to a random sample of the Swiss population, primary care physicians were two to three times less likely to be active smokers (12% vs. 30%), but were more likely to be drinkers (96% vs. 78%), and twice more likely to be at risk drinkers (30% vs. 15%). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of current smokers among Swiss primary care physicians was much lower than in the general population in Switzerland, reflecting that the hazards of smoking are well known to doctors. However, the opposite was found for alcohol use, underlining the importance of making efforts in this area to increase awareness among physicians of the dangers of alcohol consumption