Robust Affinity Propagation using Preference Estimation

Affinity propagation is a novel unsupervised learning algorithm for exemplar-based clustering without the priori knowledge of the number of clusters (NC). In this article, the influence of the “preference” on the accuracy of AP output is addressed. We present a robust AP clustering method, which estimates what preference value could possibly yield an optimal clustering result. To demonstrate the performance promotion, we apply the robust AP on picture clustering, using local SIFT, global MPEG-7 CLD, and the proposed preference as the input of AP. The experimental results show that over 40% enhancement of ARI accuracy for several image datasets

Value Co-creation in Live Streaming E-Commerce Platforms: A Microfoundations Perspective of Actor Engagement

Investigating value co-creation in live streaming e-commerce (LSEC) from a microfoundations perspective of actor engagement is important because (1) The value of LSEC is phenomenologically defined by the unique interaction experience co-created by participating actors of sellers, shoppers, Internet influencers, and sponsors; (2) value co-creation in LSEC is a resource integration process generating unique experience through actor engagement; (3) viewing the value co-creation process from the microfoundational view of actor engagement clarifies how value emerges in the resource integration process and leads to LSEC’s competitive advantage. Through an interpretive case study design, this study contributes to the microfoundations and information systems literature by offering a contextualized actor engagement perspective on value co-creation in LSEC. This study enriches the literature on theorizing about service-dominant logic from the microfoundations perspective and responds to the call for research to understand the role of actor engagement as a microfoundation for value co-creation in LSEC

Phase and Amplitude Responses of Narrow-Band Optical Filter Measured by Microwave Network Analyzer

The phase and amplitude responses of a narrow-band optical filter are measured simultaneously using a microwave network analyzer. The measurement is based on an interferometric arrangement to split light into two paths and then combine them. In one of the two paths, a Mach-Zehnder modulator generates two tones without carrier and the narrow-band optical filter just passes through one of the tones. The temperature and environmental variations are removed by separated phase and amplitude averaging. The amplitude and phase responses of the optical filter are measured to the resolution and accuracy of the network analyzer

High-resolution Ultrasonography in Superficial Soft Tissue Tumors

Surgical removal and clinical follow-up of soft tissue masses are easily managed in clinical practice but are dependent on the experience of the clinician. Occasionally, however, a patient is referred from a local clinician to our clinic with an inoperable mass following a surgical procedure. We consider it important to fully understand the nature of the mass prior to surgery, thus avoiding unnecessary surgery in some cases. High-resolution ultrasonography has been widely applied in the musculoskeletal system over the past two decades and is very useful in evaluating the nature of superficial soft tissue masses. It enables the differentiation of benign and malignant masses and the detection of many different types of histology in superficial soft tissue masses. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate the characteristic findings of high-resolution ultrasonography and color Doppler ultrasonography in superficial soft tissue tumors

Correlation of histopathologic and dynamic tissue perfusion measurement findings in transplanted kidneys

BACKGROUND: Cortical perfusion of the renal transplant can be non-invasively assessed by color Doppler ultrasonography. We performed the Dynamic Tissue Perfusion Measurement (DTPM) of the transplant’s renal cortex using color Doppler ultrasonography (PixelFlux technique), and compared the results with the histopathological findings of transplant biopsies. METHODS: Ninety-six DTPM studies of the renal transplant’s cortex followed by transplant biopsies were performed in 78 patients. The cortical perfusion data were compared with the parameter of peritubular inflammatory cell accumulation (PTC 0 to 3) based on Banff-classification system. RESULTS: A significant decrease of cortical perfusion could be demonstrated as the inflammatory cells accumulation in peritubular capillaries increased. Increasing peritubulitis caused a perfusion loss from central to distal layers of 79% in PTC 0, of 85% in PTC 1, of 94% in PTC 2, and of 94% in PTC 3. Furthermore, the perfusion loss due to peritubular inflammation was more prominent in the distal cortical layer. The extent of perfusion decline with increasing peritubulitis (from PTC 0 to PTC 3) was 64% in proximal 20% cortical layer (p20), 63% in proximal 50% cortical layer (p50), increased to 76% in distal 50% cortical layer (d50), and peaked at 90% in the distal 20% cortical layer (d20). For those without peritubulitis (PTC 0), the increase in the the Interstitial Fibrosis/Tubular Atrophy (IF/TA) score was accompanied by a significantly increased cortical perfusion. A Polyomavirus infection was associated with an increased cortical perfusion. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that the perfusion of the renal transplant is associated with certain pathological changes within the graft. DTPM showed a significant reduction of cortical perfusion in the transplant renal cortex related to peritubular capillary inflammation

[4-(1-Benzofuran-2-yl)phen­yl]diphenyl­amine

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C26H19NO, contains two mol­ecules. The dihedral angles between the benzofuran and benzene rings are 5.09 (8), 59.02 (8) and 67.74 (8)° in one mol­ecule and 18.70 (8), 52.78 (8) and 41.74 (8)° in the other. Weak inter­molecular C—H⋯π inter­actions help to stabilize the molecular structure

Ultrasonography-guided Percutaneous Interventional Procedures of the Spleen

Since the introduction of real-time ultrasonography (US) to the medicine in late 1970s, the unique benefit of the real-time cross-sectional imaging has made US one of the most widely used imaging modalities to guide interventional procedures. Among the intra-abdominal solid organs, the spleen is the least common solid organ considered for interventional procedures. Although splenic puncture for splenoportography was performed as early as the 1950s and has had a low complication rate, traditionally a direct splenic puncture is still avoided due to the risk of hemorrhage or laceration. US-guided percutaneous drainage of splenic abscesses has been used as a safe alternative procedure for more than 20 years, however, only a few series reporting such an interventional procedure have been published. This review describes briefly the usefulness, technique, safety, and the outcome of US-guided interventional procedures of the spleen

Lexical Retrieval Hypothesis in Multimodal Context

Multimodal corpora have become an essential language resource for language science and grounded natural language processing (NLP) systems due to the growing need to understand and interpret human communication across various channels. In this paper, we first present our efforts in building the first Multimodal Corpus for Languages in Taiwan (MultiMoco). Based on the corpus, we conduct a case study investigating the Lexical Retrieval Hypothesis (LRH), specifically examining whether the hand gestures co-occurring with speech constants facilitate lexical retrieval or serve other discourse functions. With detailed annotations on eight parliamentary interpellations in Taiwan Mandarin, we explore the co-occurrence between speech constants and non-verbal features (i.e., head movement, face movement, hand gesture, and function of hand gesture). Our findings suggest that while hand gestures do serve as facilitators for lexical retrieval in some cases, they also serve the purpose of information emphasis. This study highlights the potential of the MultiMoco Corpus to provide an important resource for in-depth analysis and further research in multimodal communication studies

Exploring Affordance and Situated Meaning in Image Captions: A Multimodal Analysis

This paper explores the grounding issue regarding multimodal semantic representation from a computational cognitive-linguistic view. We annotate images from the Flickr30k dataset with five perceptual properties: Affordance, Perceptual Salience, Object Number, Gaze Cueing, and Ecological Niche Association (ENA), and examine their association with textual elements in the image captions. Our findings reveal that images with Gibsonian affordance show a higher frequency of captions containing 'holding-verbs' and 'container-nouns' compared to images displaying telic affordance. Perceptual Salience, Object Number, and ENA are also associated with the choice of linguistic expressions. Our study demonstrates that comprehensive understanding of objects or events requires cognitive attention, semantic nuances in language, and integration across multiple modalities. We highlight the vital importance of situated meaning and affordance grounding in natural language understanding, with the potential to advance human-like interpretation in various scenarios.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

The Vertebrate Codex Gene Breaking Protein Trap Library For Genomic Discovery and Disease Modeling Applications

The zebrafish is a powerful model to explore the molecular genetics and expression of the vertebrate genome. The gene break transposon (GBT) is a unique insertional mutagen that reports the expression of the tagged member of the proteome while generating Cre-revertible genetic alleles. This 1000+ locus collection represents novel codex expression data from the illuminated mRFP protein trap, with 36% and 87% of the cloned lines showcasing to our knowledge the first described expression of these genes at day 2 and day 4 of development, respectively. Analyses of 183 molecularly characterized loci indicate a rich mix of genes involved in diverse cellular processes from cell signaling to DNA repair. The mutagenicity of the GBT cassette is very high as assessed using both forward and reverse genetic approaches. Sampling over 150 lines for visible phenotypes after 5dpf shows a similar rate of discovery of embryonic phenotypes as ENU and retroviral mutagenesis. Furthermore, five cloned insertions were in loci with previously described phenotypes; embryos homozygous for each of the corresponding GBT alleles displayed strong loss of function phenotypes comparable to published mutants using other mutagenesis strategies (ryr1b, fras1, tnnt2a, edar and hmcn1). Using molecular assessment after positional cloning, to date nearly all alleles cause at least a 99+% knockdown of the tagged gene. Interestingly, over 35% of the cloned loci represent 68 mutants in zebrafish orthologs of human disease loci, including nervous, cardiovascular, endocrine, digestive, musculoskeletal, immune and integument systems. The GBT protein trapping system enabled the construction of a comprehensive protein codex including novel expression annotation, identifying new functional roles of the vertebrate genome and generating a diverse collection of potential models of human disease