Congener Host Selection by the Pre-Dispersal Seed Predator, \u3ci\u3eApion Rostrum\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Apionidae)

Apion rostrum Say (Coleoptera: Apionidae) is the major seed predator of the wild indigo congeners, Baptisia alba and B. bracteata in the Russell Kirt Tallgrass Prairie, a reconstructed prairie located at College of DuPage, Illinois. This study, conducted during 2006, investigated factors attracting A. rostrum to each congener. The two Baptisia differ in developmental period, stature, and patterns of dispersion. B. bracteata flowers and initiates pods usually along a single raceme during late spring, and is a shorter plant that grows in clusters. In contrast, B. alba flowers and initiates pods beginning a month after B. bracteata, produces a tall central raceme with often several satellite racemes, and does not grow in dense clusters. Mating and ovipositing A. rostrum were observed on B. bracteata during the first half of June, and with greater abundance on B. alba from early June through mid July. Results of stepwise multiple regression showed a positive relationship of weevil counts per plant to raceme counts per cluster for B. bracteata and to inflated pod counts per plant for B. alba. The developmental synchrony between A. rostrum and pods of B. alba is evidence of a closer evolutionary relationship than the seed predator has with B. bracteata. This can explain the greater number of reproductive weevils seen on B. alba as well as the higher levels of pod infestations

Congener Host Selection by the Pre-Dispersal Seed Predator, \u3ci\u3eApion Rostrum\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Apionidae)

Apion rostrum Say (Coleoptera: Apionidae) is the major seed predator of the wild indigo congeners, Baptisia alba and B. bracteata in the Russell Kirt Tallgrass Prairie, a reconstructed prairie located at College of DuPage, Illinois. This study, conducted during 2006, investigated factors attracting A. rostrum to each congener. The two Baptisia differ in developmental period, stature, and patterns of dispersion. B. bracteata flowers and initiates pods usually along a single raceme during late spring, and is a shorter plant that grows in clusters. In contrast, B. alba flowers and initiates pods beginning a month after B. bracteata, produces a tall central raceme with often several satellite racemes, and does not grow in dense clusters. Mating and ovipositing A. rostrum were observed on B. bracteata during the first half of June, and with greater abundance on B. alba from early June through mid July. Results of stepwise multiple regression showed a positive relationship of weevil counts per plant to raceme counts per cluster for B. bracteata and to inflated pod counts per plant for B. alba. The developmental synchrony between A. rostrum and pods of B. alba is evidence of a closer evolutionary relationship than the seed predator has with B. bracteata. This can explain the greater number of reproductive weevils seen on B. alba as well as the higher levels of pod infestations

A Plug-and-Play Defensive Perturbation for Copyright Protection of DNN-based Applications

Wide deployment of deep neural networks (DNNs) based applications (e.g., style transfer, cartoonish), stimulating the requirement of copyright protection of such application's production. Although some traditional visible copyright techniques are available, they would introduce undesired traces and result in a poor user experience. In this paper, we propose a novel plug-and-play invisible copyright protection method based on defensive perturbation for DNN-based applications (i.e., style transfer). Rather than apply the perturbation to attack the DNNs model, we explore the potential utilization of perturbation in copyright protection. Specifically, we project the copyright information to the defensive perturbation with the designed copyright encoder, which is added to the image to be protected. Then, we extract the copyright information from the encoded copyrighted image with the devised copyright decoder. Furthermore, we use a robustness module to strengthen the decoding capability of the decoder toward images with various distortions (e.g., JPEG compression), which may be occurred when the user posts the image on social media. To ensure the image quality of encoded images and decoded copyright images, a loss function was elaborately devised. Objective and subjective experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. We have also conducted physical world tests on social media (i.e., Wechat and Twitter) by posting encoded copyright images. The results show that the copyright information in the encoded image saved from social media can still be correctly extracted.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Biscarbamate cross-linked polyethylenimine derivative with low molecular weight, low cytotoxicity, and high efficiency for gene delivery

Polyethylenimine (PEI), especially PEI 25 kDa, has been widely studied for delivery of nucleic acid drugs both in vitro and in vivo. However, it lacks degradable linkages and is too toxic for therapeutic applications. Hence, low-molecular-weight PEI has been explored as an alternative to PEI 25 kDa. To reduce cytotoxicity and increase transfection efficiency, we designed and synthesized a novel small-molecular-weight PEI derivative (PEI-Et, Mn: 1220, Mw: 2895) with ethylene biscarbamate linkages. PEI-Et carried the ability to condense plasmid DNA (pDNA) into nanoparticles. Gel retardation assay showed complete condensation of pDNA at w/w ratios that exceeded three. The particle size of polymer/pDNA complexes was between 130 nm and 180 nm and zeta potential was 5–10 mV, which were appropriate for cell endocytosis. The morphology of PEI-Et/pDNA complexes observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) was spherically shaped with diameters of 110–190 nm. The transfection efficiency of polymer/pDNA complexes as determined with the luciferase activity assay as well as fluorescence-activated cell-sorting analysis (FACS) was higher than commercially available PEI 25 kDa and Lipofectamine 2000 in various cell lines. Also, the polymer exhibited significantly lower cytotoxicity compared to PEI 25 kDa at the same concentration in three cell lines. Therefore, our results indicated that the PEI-Et would be a promising candidate for safe and efficient gene delivery in gene therapy

Machine learning versus classical electrocardiographic criteria for echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy in a pre-participation cohort

Background: Classical electrocardiographic (ECG) criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) are well studied in older populations and patients with hypertension. Their utility in young pre-participation cohorts is unclear.Aims: We aimed to develop machine learning models for detection of echocardiogram-diagnosed LVH from ECG, and compare these models with classical criteria.Methods: Between November 2009 and December 2014, pre-participation screening ECG and subsequent echocardiographic data was collected from 17 310 males aged 16 to 23, who reported for medical screening prior to military conscription. A final diagnosis of LVH was made during echocardiography, defined by a left ventricular mass index >115 g/m2. The continuous and threshold forms of classical ECG criteria (Sokolow–Lyon, Romhilt–Estes, Modified Cornell, Cornell Product, and Cornell) were compared against machine learning models (Logistic Regression, GLMNet, Random Forests, Gradient Boosting Machines) using receiver-operating characteristics curve analysis. We also compared the important variables identified by machine learning models with the input variables of classical criteria.Results: Prevalence of echocardiographic LVH in this population was 0.82% (143/17310). Classical ECG criteria had poor performance in predicting LVH. Machine learning methods achieved superior performance: Logistic Regression (area under the curve [AUC], 0.811; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.738–0.884), GLMNet (AUC, 0.873; 95% CI, 0.817–0.929), Random Forest (AUC, 0.824; 95% CI, 0.749–0.898), Gradient Boosting Machines (AUC, 0.800; 95% CI, 0.738–0.862).Conclusions: Machine learning methods are superior to classical ECG criteria in diagnosing echocardiographic LVH in the context of pre-participation screening

Antihypertensive Effect of Galegine from Biebersteinia heterostemon in Rats

The aerial part of Biebersteinia heterostemon Maxim. (Geraniaceae Biebersteiniaceae) known as ming jian na bao in Chinese, has been traditionally used in Tibetan folk medicine for treatment of diabetes and hypertension. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of galegine obtained from an ethanol extract of the entire Biebersteinia heterostemon plant on the rat’s cardiovascular system in order to characterize its contributions as an antihypertensive agent. The antihypertensive effect of galegine was investigated in pentobarbital-anesthetized hypertensive rats at three dose levels based on the LD50 of galegine. Meanwhile a positive control group received dimaprit with the same procedure. Dimaprit infusion induced a significant hypotension which declined by an average margin of 20%. Simultaneously, single administration of galegine at the doses of 2.5, 5, and 10 mg/kg by intraperitoneal injection induced an immediate and dose-dependent decrease in mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) by an average margin of 40% with a rapid increase in heart rate (HR). We demonstrated that galegine is effective in reducing blood pressure in anesthetized hypertensive rats with rapid onset and a dose-related duration of the effects. The results indicate that galegine was the bioactive compound which can be used as a pharmacophore to design new hypertensive agents

道路交通シミュレータに用いる車両走行モデルの構築に関する研究

By now there are many car-following models have been proposed in the field. In the processof constructing those models, many parameters need to be set and configured. Besides, itrequires plenty of manual labor work in constructing different car-following models that reflectvarious motion of vehicles. On the other hand, the experience of model builder influences tothe data of the simulator. We integrate the fuzzy neural network in the construction ofcar-following model (FMV), thus the construction of FMV won’t depend on the experience ofthe model builder, but the actual driving can be simulated through learning the vehicle’smovement data, and the motion which is close to the actual movement of the vehicle can bereproduced.By using the neural network, some parts of the model will become black box. So wecouldn’t explain which characteristics of the succeeding driving operation have beenreproduced. Though FMV model can reproduce the motion that was learned accuratelybecause it can’t correspond to the motion that hasn’t learned yet, it is not to say that it is aflexible model. To make FMV model applicable to road traffic simulator, it must correspond toall status of road traffic. However, it is too difficult to collect the learning data from all roadtraffic status.This thesis is about the study of constructing car-following model that is able to correspondto various needs in road traffic simulators. The key focuses of this thesis are as follows:1. Introduction: describing the background and other related researches. The position ofthe research is also clarified.2. Road traffic simulation model and FMV: discussing the validity and the problems ofthe FMV.3. The study of the characteristics of actual running data on the condition of thenon-collision of a preceding vehicle: proposing to model car-following with newparameter (keeping distance, following distance and target speed), and to make thecharacteristics of actual running data more specific and accurate.4. Proposing simple hypothesis data utilized in constructing the model: By consideringcommon characteristics, proposing to use formularized hypothesis data instead ofactual running data to construct car-following model, and proving that FMVconstructed with hypothesis data is a high flexibility model that closes to the actualrunning data.5. Realization of non-car-following motion with FMV model: proposing to classify alldriving conditions into two, namely car-following condition simulated by FMV onlyand non-car-following condition simulated by both FMV and the concept of ImaginaryPreceding Vehicle.6. Conclusions.電気通信大学200