Resource-efficient portable video communication system design for wildlife monitoring and interaction tracking

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on May 31, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Zhihai HeVita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011."December 2011"In this research, we focus on algorithm development and system design for resource-efficient portable video communication system design and their application in wildlife monitoring and interaction tracking. The capability of seeing what an animal sees in the field is very important for wildlife activity monitoring and research. We design an integrated video and sensor system, called DeerCam and mount it on free-ranging animals so as to collect important video and sensor data about their activities in the field. From the video and sensor data collected by DeerCam, wildlife researchers will be able to extract a wealth of sciatic data for studying the behavior patterns of wildlife species and understanding the dynamic of wildlife systems. In this dissertation, we focus on the following four tightly coupled research issues: (1) Energy minimization. We develop joint power-rate-distortion (P-R-D) methods and algorithms for complexity control and energy minimization of portable video encoders. (2) Intelligent resource allocation and utility maximization. We develop methods to maximize the utility function under resource constraints. (3) Efficient image encoder. In DeerCam, a significant amount of video frames and image regions are encoded with the INTRA mode. We explore various image compression approaches to efficiently encode those frames and image regions. (4) Animal interaction detection for event-driven wildlife monitoring. We develop an animal interaction detection method using supervised learning methods to significantly reduce the amount of video data to be encoded and provide important reference for wildlife behavior analysis for wildlife researchers.Includes bibliographical reference

Lossless Image Compression Using Super-Spatial Structure Prediction

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LSP.2010.2040925We recognize that the key challenge in image compression is to efficiently represent and encode high-frequency image structure components, such as edges, patterns, and textures. In this work, we develop an efficient lossless image compression scheme called super-spatial structure prediction. This super-spatial prediction is motivated by motion prediction in video coding, attempting to find an optimal prediction of structure components within previously encoded image regions. We find that this super-spatial prediction is very efficient for image regions with significant structure components. Our extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is very competitive and even outperforms the state-of-the-art lossless image compression methods

Quantification of cardiac capillarization in single-immunostained myocardial slices using weakly supervised instance segmentation

Decreased myocardial capillary density has been reported as an important histopathological feature associated with various heart disorders. Quantitative assessment of cardiac capillarization typically involves double immunostaining of cardiomyocytes (CMs) and capillaries in myocardial slices. In contrast, single immunostaining of basement membrane components is a straightforward approach to simultaneously label CMs and capillaries, presenting fewer challenges in background staining. However, subsequent image analysis always requires manual work in identifying and segmenting CMs and capillaries. Here, we developed an image analysis tool, AutoQC, to automatically identify and segment CMs and capillaries in immunofluorescence images of collagen type IV, a predominant basement membrane protein within the myocardium. In addition, commonly used capillarization-related measurements can be derived from segmentation masks. AutoQC features a weakly supervised instance segmentation algorithm by leveraging the power of a pre-trained segmentation model via prompt engineering. AutoQC outperformed YOLOv8-Seg, a state-of-the-art instance segmentation model, in both instance segmentation and capillarization assessment. Furthermore, the training of AutoQC required only a small dataset with bounding box annotations instead of pixel-wise annotations, leading to a reduced workload during network training. AutoQC provides an automated solution for quantifying cardiac capillarization in basement-membrane-immunostained myocardial slices, eliminating the need for manual image analysis once it is trained

FeatureExplorer: Interactive Feature Selection and Exploration of Regression Models for Hyperspectral Images

Feature selection is used in machine learning to improve predictions, decrease computation time, reduce noise, and tune models based on limited sample data. In this article, we present FeatureExplorer, a visual analytics system that supports the dynamic evaluation of regression models and importance of feature subsets through the interactive selection of features in high-dimensional feature spaces typical of hyperspectral images. The interactive system allows users to iteratively refine and diagnose the model by selecting features based on their domain knowledge, interchangeable (correlated) features, feature importance, and the resulting model performance.Comment: To appear in IEEE VIS 2019 Short Paper

A novel curcumin oil solution can better alleviate the motor activity defects and neuropathological damage of a Parkinson’s disease mouse model

Curcumin has been reported to improve or prevent movement disorders in Parkinson’s disease (PD); however, its low bioavailability is the biggest obstacle to its application. To optimize the limited efficacy of curcumin and to improve its protective effects against PD, we prepared and tested a novel curcumin oil solution. In vivo imaging was used to confirm that the curcumin oil solution has higher bioavailability than curcumin alone. To test its motor effects on 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced movement disorders, behavioral tests, including the open-field test, pole test, rotarod test, and automated gait analysis were used. Finally, pathological evaluation using immunohistochemistry and western blotting analysis was done. Encouragingly, the behavioral test findings exhibited a better protective effect against MPTP-induced movement disorders. In addition, it had a greater protective effect on dopaminergic neurons in the compact part of the substantia nigra along with the PD process according to pathological evaluation. This novel curcumin oil solution may provide a new choice for PD prevention as a dietary supplement or clinically assisted treatment based on its better bioavailability and efficiency

Multi-grained Temporal Prototype Learning for Few-shot Video Object Segmentation

Few-Shot Video Object Segmentation (FSVOS) aims to segment objects in a query video with the same category defined by a few annotated support images. However, this task was seldom explored. In this work, based on IPMT, a state-of-the-art few-shot image segmentation method that combines external support guidance information with adaptive query guidance cues, we propose to leverage multi-grained temporal guidance information for handling the temporal correlation nature of video data. We decompose the query video information into a clip prototype and a memory prototype for capturing local and long-term internal temporal guidance, respectively. Frame prototypes are further used for each frame independently to handle fine-grained adaptive guidance and enable bidirectional clip-frame prototype communication. To reduce the influence of noisy memory, we propose to leverage the structural similarity relation among different predicted regions and the support for selecting reliable memory frames. Furthermore, a new segmentation loss is also proposed to enhance the category discriminability of the learned prototypes. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed video IPMT model significantly outperforms previous models on two benchmark datasets. Code is available at https://github.com/nankepan/VIPMT.Comment: ICCV 202

HPV E6 induces eIF4E transcription to promote the proliferation and migration of cervical cancer

AbstractIncreasing evidence has placed eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) at the hub of tumor development and progression. Several studies have reported that eIF4E is over-expressed in cervical cancer; however, the mechanism remains elusive. The results of this study further confirm over-expression of eIF4E in cervical cancer tumors and cell lines, and we have discovered that the transcription of eIF4E is induced by protein E6 of the human papillomavirus (HPV). Moreover, regulation of eIF4E by E6 significantly influences cell proliferation, the cell cycle, migration, and apoptosis. Therefore, eIF4E emerges as a key player in tumor development and progression and a potential target for CC treatment and prevention

The Efficacy and Safety of Diyushengbai Tablet on Preventing and Treating Leukopenia Caused by Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy Against Tumor: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Leukopenia is one of the side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Diyushengbai tablet (DYT) is used to prevent and treat leukopenia caused by various reasons. A meta-analysis was performed to systematically analyze the therapeutic effects of DYT on preventing and treating leukopenia caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.Objectives: This study aimed to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of DYT in preventing and treating leukopenia caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature search of electronic databases such as PubMed, The Cochrane Library, China Knowledge Network (CNKI), China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, and VIP, through November of 2021. The scanning reports deadline is until November 2021. The bias risk evaluation criteria developed by the Cochrane collaborative organization were used to evaluate the literature quality of the included studies. The RevMan5.4 software was used to analyze the data, and the Stata16.0 was used to perform the Egger test.Results: After selecting all the databases, a total of 41 reports which involved 3,793 cases were analyzed. Meta-analysis showed that DYT could significantly reduce the white blood cell (WBC) suppression caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy and improve the patients’ WBC counts and neutrophils, compared with the efficacy of other oral WBC-elevating drugs such as Leucogen tablets and Batilol tablets and additional utilization of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). The results of meta-analysis showed that for preventive medication purpose, the overall incidence of leukocyte suppression was [RR = 0.74, 95%CI (0.59, 0.92), p = 0.006], and the white blood cell count was [MD = 1.12, 95%CI (0.95, 1.29), p < 0.00001]; while for therapeutic purpose, the incidence of overall leukocyte suppression was [RR = 0.61, 95%CI (0.38, 0.95), p = 0.03], and the white blood cell count was [MD = 1.20, 95%CI (0.77, 1.62), p < 0.00001]. More importantly, the additional use of DYT can reduce the application amount of G-CSF. The results showed that the application of G-CSF can be reduced by an average of 1.57 from the beginning of treatment to return normal white blood cells around 2.23 in two cycles of chemotherapy.Conclusion: DYT is more effective in preventing and treating leukopenia caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy than other oral WBC-elevating drugs, which have a high clinical value

Study on properties of polypropylene fiber-modified ultrafine cement composite grouting materials

In order to obtain high performance cement-based grouting materials for mining and expand the application of staple fiber in the field of full-length anchorage, Utilizing ultrafine silica cement as the binder material, with the addition of accelerator, expansion agent, and polycarboxylate superplasticizer as additives, a single-factor experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of polypropylene fibers (PPF) content on the mechanical properties, pumpability, bleeding, setting time, volume shrinkage, and microstructure of cement-based grouting materials. For ultrafine cement-based slurries modified with PPF selected as anchor materials, the mechanical load bearing properties and acoustic emission characteristics of the full-length anchoring system were studied under similar pull-out condition. The results revealed that PPF content significantly impacted the slurry characteristics and mechanical property of ultrafine cement grouting materials. It notably enhanced the compressive performance and material toughness while shortening the initial setting time and reducing fluidity. Particularly, there was a positive correlation between flexural strength and PPF content. When the PPF content was 0.1%, the comprehensive performance of composite grouting material S1 was optimal. The compressive strength of the hardened specimens at 3 d and 28 d was 60.1 MPa and 83.7 MPa, respectively, which is 23.4% and 23.2% higher than the reference group S0 without PPF. Microscopic characterizations including XRD, SEM, and FTIR confirmed that the suitable PPF not only facilitated hydration reaction but also improved internal cracks within the hardened body. It acted as a bridge, transferred stress, and delayed crack propagation. Pull-out tests indicated that the mechanical property, residual bearing capacity, and maximum deformation of the full-length anchoring system based on this composite grouting material were significantly enhanced. The maximum pull-out strength was 1.356 times the reference group S0, and the occurrence of acoustic emission events was delayed. It improved the stability of roadway surrounding rocks, providing valuable insights for the similar full-length anchoring applications