Emerging strengths in Asia Pacific bioinformatics

The 2008 annual conference of the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation set up in 1998, was organized as the 7th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), jointly with the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology in Taiwan (BIT 2008) Conference, Oct. 20–23, 2008 at Taipei, Taiwan. Besides bringing together scientists from the field of bioinformatics in this region, InCoB is actively involving researchers from the area of systems biology, to facilitate greater synergy between these two groups. Marking the 10th Anniversary of APBioNet, this InCoB 2008 meeting followed on from a series of successful annual events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand), Busan (South Korea), New Delhi (India) and Hong Kong. Additionally, tutorials and the Workshop on Education in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (WEBCB) immediately prior to the 20th Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists (FAOBMB) Taipei Conference provided ample opportunity for inducting mainstream biochemists and molecular biologists from the region into a greater level of awareness of the importance of bioinformatics in their craft. In this editorial, we provide a brief overview of the peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication herein, grouped into thematic areas. As the regional research expertise in bioinformatics matures, the papers fall into thematic areas, illustrating the specific contributions made by APBioNet to global bioinformatics efforts

Dynamic BFECC Characteristic Mapping method for fluid simulations

In this paper, we present a new numerical method for advection in fluid simulation. The method is built on the Characteristic Mapping method. Advection is solved via grid mapping function. The mapping function is maintained with higher order accuracy BFECC method and dynamically reset to identity mapping whenever an error criterion is met. Dealing with mapping function in such a way results in a more accurate mapping function and more details can be captured easily with this mapping function. Our error criterion also allows one to control the level of details of fluid simulation by simply adjusting one parameter. Details of implementation of our method are discussed and we present several techniques for improving its efficiency. Both quantitative and visual experiments were performed to test our method. The results show that our method brings significant improvement in accuracy and is efficient in capturing fluid details. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.In this paper, we present a new numerical method for advection in fluid simulation. The method is built on the Characteristic Mapping method. Advection is solved via grid mapping function. The mapping function is maintained with higher order accuracy BFECC method and dynamically reset to identity mapping whenever an error criterion is met. Dealing with mapping function in such a way results in a more accurate mapping function and more details can be captured easily with this mapping function. Our error criterion also allows one to control the level of details of fluid simulation by simply adjusting one parameter. Details of implementation of our method are discussed and we present several techniques for improving its efficiency. Both quantitative and visual experiments were performed to test our method. The results show that our method brings significant improvement in accuracy and is efficient in capturing fluid details. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Real-time depth-of-field rendering using single-layer composition

In this paper, we propose a single-layer post-processing method for real-time depth-of-field rendering that uses single-layer composition. In the proposed method, blurring is achieved by gathering background pixels and scattering foreground pixels. Major artifacts in post-filtering techniques such as intensity leakage and blurring discontinuity are reduced by using two different blurring functions and the controllable parameter in the gathering process. The method can be entirely implemented in GPU parallelization to achieve the real-time performance required for virtual reality. The results of comparisons of our method with recent post-processing methods in terms of rendering quality and rendering performance indicate that our method generates realistic natural images and is also the fastest in terms of frames per second. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.In this paper, we propose a single-layer post-processing method for real-time depth-of-field rendering that uses single-layer composition. In the proposed method, blurring is achieved by gathering background pixels and scattering foreground pixels. Major artifacts in post-filtering techniques such as intensity leakage and blurring discontinuity are reduced by using two different blurring functions and the controllable parameter in the gathering process. The method can be entirely implemented in GPU parallelization to achieve the real-time performance required for virtual reality. The results of comparisons of our method with recent post-processing methods in terms of rendering quality and rendering performance indicate that our method generates realistic natural images and is also the fastest in terms of frames per second. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Accurate gaze tracking from single camera using gabor corner detector

Most of the existing gaze tracking schemes with high accuracy and high speed depend on infra-red (IR) lights and multi-cameras, which leads to high complexity of apparatus and high cost. Besides, many proposed approaches hardly offer a full discussion and solution of eye blink issue. In this paper, we propose a novel gaze tracking scheme which is capable of tracking eye movements in high accuracy. Our scheme incorporates the eye corner information extracted using a novel eye corner detector. This detector is developed based on the Gabor Wavelet Transform and the Structure Tensor. Gabor Wavelet Transform decomposes an image in multi-scales and multi-orientations, thus is robust against lighting variation and tiny shift. We abstract the distribution statistics of the feature points in the eye region and re-express it as a connectivity graph. Based on such abstraction we propose a novel solution to the eye blink issue which obtains a high successful detection rate. After implementation, our scheme is proven to be accurate compared with the state of the art. Notably, only one web camera is employed in our scheme without any auxiliary light source or cameras.Most of the existing gaze tracking schemes with high accuracy and high speed depend on infra-red (IR) lights and multi-cameras, which leads to high complexity of apparatus and high cost. Besides, many proposed approaches hardly offer a full discussion and solution of eye blink issue. In this paper, we propose a novel gaze tracking scheme which is capable of tracking eye movements in high accuracy. Our scheme incorporates the eye corner information extracted using a novel eye corner detector. This detector is developed based on the Gabor Wavelet Transform and the Structure Tensor. Gabor Wavelet Transform decomposes an image in multi-scales and multi-orientations, thus is robust against lighting variation and tiny shift. We abstract the distribution statistics of the feature points in the eye region and re-express it as a connectivity graph. Based on such abstraction we propose a novel solution to the eye blink issue which obtains a high successful detection rate. After implementation, our scheme is proven to be accurate compared with the state of the art. Notably, only one web camera is employed in our scheme without any auxiliary light source or cameras

Image-based non-photorealistic rendering for realtime virtual sculpting

This paper discusses a real-time virtual sculpting system in a non-photorealistic manner. Up till now, a majority of researchers pursuing virtual sculpting have highlighted the physical fidelity of simulation, with approaches for realizing photorealism being principal specialized contributions. We aim at capitalizing on the strengths of non-photorealistic rendering with respect to aesthetics, expression and computing expense. By means of touch-enabled manipulation, the haptic interaction is conducted to form the deformable surfaces, and the edge extraction is employed to stress boundaries. Afterwards, we utilize anisotropic diffusion to lessen unimportant details as well as a fresh inverse Gaussian bilateral filter for spot removal. Processed in a spatiotemporal style, the non-photorealistic rendering works to maintain coherence in time. Moreover, the parallel realization of the system put forward on graphics hardware (GPU) guarantees real-time behavior. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.This paper discusses a real-time virtual sculpting system in a non-photorealistic manner. Up till now, a majority of researchers pursuing virtual sculpting have highlighted the physical fidelity of simulation, with approaches for realizing photorealism being principal specialized contributions. We aim at capitalizing on the strengths of non-photorealistic rendering with respect to aesthetics, expression and computing expense. By means of touch-enabled manipulation, the haptic interaction is conducted to form the deformable surfaces, and the edge extraction is employed to stress boundaries. Afterwards, we utilize anisotropic diffusion to lessen unimportant details as well as a fresh inverse Gaussian bilateral filter for spot removal. Processed in a spatiotemporal style, the non-photorealistic rendering works to maintain coherence in time. Moreover, the parallel realization of the system put forward on graphics hardware (GPU) guarantees real-time behavior. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Real-Time Characterization of Particle-Bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at a Heavily Trafficked Roadside Site

A continuous photo-electric aerosol sensor (PAS) was used to characterize the particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (p-PAHs) content at a heavily trafficked roadside site in Hong Kong. The measurements at the roadside station were performed for nine months from January to September 2005. For the total quantified p-PAHs, the PAS output shows good correlations to the data obtained with the offline quartz-fiber aerosol filter collection method. The average concentration of corrected p-PAHs was 5.3 +/- 3.7 ng/m(3), ranging from 0.2 to 22.0 ng/m(3). The p-PAHs concentrations increased in the daytime in accordance with the heavy amount of road traffic, and decreased in the nighttime due to less traffic. Hourly p-PAHs concentrations had high correlation coefficients with all goods vehicles (&gt;0.9) and large buses (similar to 0.8), showing that diesel vehicle emissions are the primary source of p-PAHs. The day-to-day variation of p-PAHs is significant, because it was influenced by various factors (e. g., traffic levels, mixing height, and potential pollution sources).</p

The patient-reported outcome of age-related cataract using Catquest-8SF questionnaire

AIM: To assess the patient-reported outcome of phacoemulsification with posterior chamber single focus foldable intraocular lens(SIOL)using the Chinese version of Catquest-8SF questionnaire. We would mainly evaluate the applicability of Catquest-8SF scale in northern Chinese and evaluate its sensitivity to cataract surgery.METHODS:Prospective clinical case follow-up study. The patients were recruited from The Central Hospital of Tai'an and completed the Catquest-8SF questionnaire by face-to-face interviews before and 3mo after surgery at the hospital.RESULTS: A total of 120 cataract patients completed the Catquest-8SF at baseline. The preoperative score of the Catquest-8SF-CN had a significant negative correlation with preoperative binocular mean weighted logMAR visual acuity and age(PPPt=10.404, PPPCONCLUSION: The Chinese version of Catquest-8SF questionnaire is suitable for the age-related cataract population in northern China. It is highly responsive to cataract surgery and brief, so it may have the potential to become part of a routine clinical assessment for cataract surgery in China