Decision-Based Marginal Total Variation Diffusion for Impulsive Noise Removal in Color Images

Impulsive noise removal for color images usually employs vector median filter, switching median filter, the total variation L1 method, and variants. These approaches, however, often introduce excessive smoothing and can result in extensive visual feature blurring and thus are suitable only for images with low density noise. A marginal method to reduce impulsive noise is proposed in this paper that overcomes this limitation that is based on the following facts: (i) each channel in a color image is contaminated independently, and contaminative components are independent and identically distributed; (ii) in a natural image the gradients of different components of a pixel are similar to one another. This method divides components into different categories based on different noise characteristics. If an image is corrupted by salt-and-pepper noise, the components are divided into the corrupted and the noise-free components; if the image is corrupted by random-valued impulses, the components are divided into the corrupted, noise-free, and the possibly corrupted components. Components falling into different categories are processed differently. If a component is corrupted, modified total variation diffusion is applied; if it is possibly corrupted, scaled total variation diffusion is applied; otherwise, the component is left unchanged. Simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness

Investigating Attitudes toward Diversity among Engineering and Management Students

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, students and professionals face growing challenges related to working across national and cultural boundaries. A related concern for today’s educators and researchers is a lack of effective assessment tools to measure global competency among students in engineering, management, and other professional fields. To begin addressing this gap, two previously validated measures of personal attitudes and perceptions toward diversity were administered to students in multiple professional fields, as it was hypothesized that a positive attitude toward diversity is likely one of the major qualities that makes engineers and other professionals perform more sensitively and effectively in cross-national/cultural work environments. The first such measure is the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale-Short form (MGUDS-S), a 15-item survey designed to evaluate a construct called Universal-Diverse Orientation (UDO) across three dimensions (Diversity of Contact, Relativistic Appreciation, and Comfort with Difference). The second measure consists of a 9-item Tolerance subscale taken from a larger Openness to Experience questionnaire. This study focuses on how the MGUDS-S and Tolerance tests are potentially related to one another, as well as to various demographic variables. It addresses these themes by first generating hypotheses based on previously published results for MGUDS-S, Tolerance, and related constructs. It then analyzes MGUDS-S, Tolerance, and demographic data collected from undergraduate students in engineering and management (n=1761) using appropriate statistical techniques (e.g. Spearman correlation analysis, Canonical correlation analysis, one way and two way ANOVA test). Demographic variables analyzed in this study include gender, academic level (first-year vs. sophomore or higher), major (engineering vs. management), and citizenship (U.S. vs. other). The results show that students’ scores on MGUDS-S and Tolerance are highly correlated. Additionally, our research shows that the engineering students have significantly higher scores in subscale 3 (Comfort with Differences) of MGUDS-S, and total scores in both tests; first-year students have significantly higher scores in subscale 1 (Diversity in Contact) of MGUDS-S; and international students have significantly higher scores in all 3 subscales of MUGUDS-S, and higher total scores in both tests. Finally, our study indicates that women scored significantly higher on MGUDS-S subscale 1 (Diversity of Contact), subscale 2 (Relativist Appreciation), and total score. This study sets the stage for a number of future studies, including: 1) examining how perceptions of and attitudes toward diversity are potentially related to individual performance on a situational judgment test (SJT) designed to measure global engineering competency, 2) Using factor analysis to create a short form Tolerance test, and 3) identifying relevant literature to help better understand and explain how the four demographic variables are related to MGUDS-S and Tolerance scores (e.g., Jesiek, Shen, & Haller, 2012)

Study on Effect of Product Liability to Inherent Safety

AbstractMany industry accidents and product liability problems occur in China in recent years. The safety of products not only influents public daily life, also affects industrial production. Product safety concept reflects the attitude of people to product safety, and is reflected in product liability system. The influences of different product liability system to the status of inherent safety were studied based on the analysis of the doctrine of liability fixation in different technology development period. It can be seen that there were still many problems in the product liability acts such as the standard and identification of product defects, compensation liability, which were not beneficial to improve the industry safety though strict liability has been accepted in our country. Therefore, product liability system should be improved, and the method of design defect determination should be established. At the same time, carrying out the risk evaluation of the products, increasing the amount and scope of compensation are also important to realize the product safety and industrial inherent safety

The risk factors and preventive measures for the recurrence of endometrial polyps

Endometrial polyps (EPs) are a frequently encountered gynecologic disease with abnormal uterine bleeding and infertility being the two common presenting problems, and hysteroscopic polypectomy is an effective method to remove them. The postoperative polyp recurrence might result in reappearance of abnormal uterine bleeding or infertility, whereas factors influencing the postoperative recurrence potential have limited data. Endometrial polyp recurrence remains a concern with recurrence rates of 2.5% to 43.6%. As such, it is critical to identify the risk factors and the preventive measures for endometrial recurrence, especially in reproductive-age women desiring future conception, to aid in clinical counselling and decision making. The recurrence of EPs is related to estrogen stimulation and endometrial hyperplasia. The progesterone-containing drugs are currently the most commonly used method to prevent the recurrence of EPs. In this article, authors aim to discuss the high-risk factors of EPs recurrence and the preventive measures for EPs recurrence. The preventive measures will focus on the combined oral contraceptives (COCs) and the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS)

Remediation of Copper Contaminated Kaolin by Electrokinetics Coupled with Permeable Reactive Barrier

AbstractElectrokinetics is an in situ soil remediation technique by which the flow direction of the pollutants can be controlled and the soil with low permeability can be treated. In this study, the remediation of copper contaminated kaolin by electrokinetic process coupled with activated carbon permeable reactive barrier (PRB) was investigated. The experimental results showed that the integration of PRB with electrokinetics successfully removed copper from kaolin with pH control of the catholyte. The average removal rate reached the highest of 96.60% when the initial Cu2+ concentration was 2000mg/kg. Compared to the electrokinetic process without PRB, the application of the coupled system could reduce the pollution of the electrolyte

Photoelectrochemical and electrochemical ratiometric aptasensing: a case study of streptomycin

There has been much interest in constructing ratiometric sensors using different sensing techniques because of their synergistic effect, although the simultaneous collection of the signals is challenging. Herein, we propose a ratiometric aptasensing strategy based on the dual-detection model with a photoelectrochemical (PEC) “signalon” and an electrochemical (EC) “signal-off”. As a proof-of-concept study, CdTe quantum dots (CdTe QDs) and a methylene blue-labeled aptamer (MB-Apt) were used to generate PEC and EC signals in the sensing system. The target-induced conformational change of MB-Apt pushed MB away from the electrode, thereby decreasing the EC signal; at the same time, the reduced steric hindrance favored the restoration of the PEC signal from the CdTe QDs. Thus, this PEC-EC strategy can achieve the PEC “signal-on” and EC “signal-off” states simultaneously, as well as allowing quantitative analysis of the target based on the ratio of the current intensities. As a model application, an aptasensor fabricated for streptomycin detection showed a wide linear range from 0.03 to 100 μM with a detection limit of 10 nM (S/N = 3). The proposed sensing platform displayed superior analytical properties compared with methods based on PEC or EC alone. Our work provides an efficient dual-detection modelbased ratiometric strategy for advanced analysis, and paves the way to the simultaneous acquisition of signals

miR-203 Expression in Exfoliated Cells of Tongue Coating Represents a Sensitive and Specific Biomarker of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Background and Aim. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the pathophysiology of numerous human diseases including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The objective of this study was to investigate the miRNA expression of exfoliated cells of the tongue in patients with GERD versus healthy controls (Ctrls). Methods. Using quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR), expression levels of six candidate miRNAs (miR-143, miR-145, miR-192, miR-194, miR-203, and miR-205) were examined across a discovery cohort of patients with GERD (n=24) versus Ctrls (n=24). These findings were confirmed across a validation cohort (GERD, n=142; Ctrls, n=48). Differences in miRNA expression levels were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U test while the specificity and sensitivity were obtained using receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curves. Results. miR-203 was significantly downregulated in GERD patients as compared to Ctrls (P<0.0001) with ROC curve of 0.94 (95% CI: 0.90–0.97). The sensitivity and the specificity of miR-203 were 91.7% and 87.3%, respectively, in the GERD and Ctrls. These results suggest that miR-203 may be a useful diagnostic marker for discriminating GERD from Ctrls. Conclusions. miR-203 testing may assist in the diagnosis of patients with symptoms suggestive of GERD

Polyketides From the Endophytic Fungus Cladosporium sp. Isolated From the Mangrove Plant Excoecaria agallocha

Five new polyketides (2–6) and ten known compounds (1 and 7–15) were obtained from the fermentation products of the endophytic fungus Cladosporium sp. OUCMDZ-302 with the mangrove plant, Excoecaria agallocha (Euphorbiaceae). The new structures of 2–6 were established on the basis of ECD, specific rotation and spectroscopic data as well as the chemical calculation. Compound 7 showed cytotoxicity against H1975 cell line with an IC50 value of 10.0 μM. Compounds 4 and 8–10 showed radical scavenging activity against DPPH with the IC50 values of 2.65, 0.24, 5.66, and 6.67 μM, respectively. In addition, the absolute configuration of compound 1 was solidly determined by X-ray and sugar analysis of the acidic hydrolysates for the first time as well as those of compounds 8–10 in this paper