Resource-Efficient Hardware Implementation of Perspective Transformation Based on Central Projection

Perspective correction of images is an important preprocessing task in computer vision applications, which can resolve distortions caused by shooting angles, etc. This paper proposes a hardware implementation of perspective transformation based on central projection, which is simpler than the homography transformation method. In particular, it does not need to solve complex equations, thus no software assistance is required. The design can be flexibly configured with different degrees of parallelism to meet different speed requirements. Implemented on the Xilinx Zynq-7000 platform, 2893 Look-up Tables (LUTs) are required when the parallelism is one, and it can process a 20 Hz video with a resolution of 640 × 480 in real time. When the parallelism is eight, it can process 157 Hz video and requires 11,223 LUTs. The proposed design can well meet the actual needs

Honokiol Eliminates Glioma/Glioblastoma Stem Cell-Like Cells Via JAK-STAT3 Signaling and Inhibits Tumor Progression by Targeting Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor

Malignant gliomas are the most aggressive forms of brain tumors; whose metastasis and recurrence contribute to high rates of morbidity and mortality. Glioma stem cell-like cells are a subpopulation of tumor-initiating cells responsible for glioma tumorigenesis, metastasis, recurrence and resistance to therapy. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been reported to be dysregulated in most cancers, including gliomas and its functions are closely linked to initiating tumor metastasis and a very poor prognosis. In search for compounds that may reduce the tumorigenic potential of gliomas/glioblastomas honokiol attracted our attention. Honokiol, purified from the bark of traditional Chinese herbal medicine Magnolia species, is beneficial in vitro and in animal models via a variety of pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenetic, anti-arrhythmic and antioxidant activities, as well as anti-proliferative and proapoptotic effects in a wide range of human cancer cells. However, its effects on glioma cells are unknown. Here, we used different concentrations of honokiol in treating U251 and U-87 MG human glioma/glioblastoma cells in cell culture. Results showed that honokiol inhibited glioma cell viability and colony formation and promoted apoptosis. It also inhibited glioma cell migration/proliferation and invasion. In addition, honokiol promoted apoptosis and reduced Bcl-2 expression, accompanied by increase in Bax expression. Honokiol reduced expression of EGFR, CD133 and Nestin. Moreover, honokiol inhibited the activation of both AKT and ERK signaling pathways, increased active caspase-3 level and reduced phosphorylation of STAT3. U-87 MG xenografts in nude mice and in immunotolerant zebrafish yolk sac showed that honokiol inhibits tumor growth and metastasis. Altogether, results indicate that honokiol reduces tumorigenic potentials, suggesting hopes for honokiol to be useful in the clinical management of glioma/glioblastoma

Resource-Efficient Hardware Implementation of Perspective Transformation Based on Central Projection

Perspective correction of images is an important preprocessing task in computer vision applications, which can resolve distortions caused by shooting angles, etc. This paper proposes a hardware implementation of perspective transformation based on central projection, which is simpler than the homography transformation method. In particular, it does not need to solve complex equations, thus no software assistance is required. The design can be flexibly configured with different degrees of parallelism to meet different speed requirements. Implemented on the Xilinx Zynq-7000 platform, 2893 Look-up Tables (LUTs) are required when the parallelism is one, and it can process a 20 Hz video with a resolution of 640 × 480 in real time. When the parallelism is eight, it can process 157 Hz video and requires 11,223 LUTs. The proposed design can well meet the actual needs

Proteomic Analysis Reveals the Association between the Pathways of Glutathione and α-Linolenic Acid Metabolism and Lanthanum Accumulation in Tea Plants

Lanthanum can affect the growth and development of the tea plant. Tieguanyin (TGY) and Shuixian (SX) cultivars of Camellia sinensis were selected to explore the mechanism underlying the accumulation of lanthanum (tea plants’ most accumulated rare earth element) through proteomics. Roots and fresh leaves of TGY and SX with low- and high-accumulation potential for lanthanum, respectively, were studied; 845 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified. Gene ontology analysis showed that DEPs were involved in redox processes and related to molecular functions. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes metabolic pathway analysis showed that DEPs were associated with glutathione (GSH) and α-linolenic acid metabolism, plant pathogen interaction, and oxidative phosphorylation. Thirty-seven proteins in the GSH metabolism pathway showed significant differences, wherein 18 GSH S-transferases showed differential expression patterns in the root system. Compared with the control, expression ratios of GST (TEA004130.1) and GST (TEA032216.1) in TGY leaves were 6.84 and 4.06, respectively, after lanthanum treatment; these were significantly higher than those in SX leaves. The LOX2.1 (TEA011765.1) and LOX2.1 (TEA011776.1) expression ratios in the α-linolenic acid metabolic pathway were 2.44 and 6.43, respectively, in TGY roots, which were significantly higher than those in SX roots. The synthesis of specific substances induces lanthanum-associated defense responses in TGY, which is of great significance for plant yield stability

Selection of continuous features based on distribution of objects

A novel feature selection approach is proposed for data space defined over continuous features, which obtains a subset of features,such that it can discriminate class labels of objects and its discriminant ability is not inferior to that of the original features,so to effectively improve the learning performance and intelligibility of the classification model.According to the spatial distribution of objects and their classification labels,a data space with continuous features is partitioned into subspaces,each with a clear edge and a single classification label.Then these labelled subspaces are projected to each continuous feature.The measurement of each feature is estimated for a subspace against all other subspace-projected features by means of statistical significance.Through the construction of a matrix of the measurements of the subspaces by all features,the subspace-projected features are ranked in a descending order based on the discriminant ability of each feature in the matrix.After evaluating a gain function of the discriminant ability defined by the best-so-far feature subset,the resulting feature subset can be incrementally determined. Our comprehensive experiments on the UCI Repository data sets have demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach of feature selection

Bag of Geomorphological Words: A Framework for Integrating Terrain Features and Semantics to Support Landform Object Recognition from High-Resolution Digital Elevation Models

High-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) and its derivatives (e.g., curvature, slope, aspect) offer a great possibility of representing the details of Earth’s surface in three-dimensional space. Previous research investigations concerning geomorphological variables and region-level features alone cannot precisely characterize the main structure of landforms. However, these geomorphological variables are not sufficient to represent a complex landform object’s whole structure from a high-resolution DEM. Moreover, the amount of the DEM dataset is limited, including the landform object. Considering the challenges above, this paper reports an integrated model called the bag of geomorphological words (BoGW), enabling automatic landform recognition via integrating point and linear geomorphological variables, region-based features (e.g., shape, texture), and high-level landform descriptions. First, BoGW semantically characterizes the composition of geomorphological variables and meaningful parcels of each type of landform. Based on a landform’s semantics, the proposed method then integrates geomorphological variables and region-level features (e.g., shape, texture) to create the feature vector for the landform. Finally, BoGW classifies a region derived from high-resolution DEM into a predefined type of landform by the feature vector. The experimental results on crater and cirque detection indicated that the proposed BoGW could support landform object recognition from high-resolution DEMs

Ad Hoc Solid Electrolyte On Acidized Carbon Nanotube Paper Improves Cycle Life Of Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

The performance of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries is greatly improved by using acidized carbon nanotube paper (ACNTP) to induce in situ polymerization of ether-based DOL/DME liquid to grow an ion-selective solid barrier, to seal in soluble polysulfides on the cathode side. The Li-S battery with the in situ barrier showed an initial specific capacity of 683 mA h g-1 at a high current density of 1675 mA g-1, and maintained a discharge capacity of 454 mA h g-1 after 400 cycles. The capacity decay rate was 0.1% per cycle and a high Coulombic efficiency of 99% was achieved. Experimental characterizations and theoretical models demonstrate the in situ polymerized solid barrier stops sulfur transport while still allowing bidirectional Li+ transport, alleviating the shuttle effect and increasing the cycling performance. The soft and sticky nature of the solid electrolyte barrier makes it a good sealant, forming an enclosed catholyte chamber on the sulfur side

Sintering Of High-Performance Silicon Nitride Ceramics Under Vibratory Pressure

To improve mechanical behaviors of silicon nitride ceramics, here we introduced a novel external field - vibratory pressure into the sintering of Si3N4 ceramics with advantages of higher density, more uniform distribution of interfacial phase, higher sintering motivation in the width direction, and therefore more favorable mechanical properties than traditional sintering methods. Grain size and aspect ratio of the two ceramics were investigated with linear intercept method. Flexural strength of the vibratory-assisted hot-pressing (VAHP) specimen increased from 936 ± 27.2 MPa to 1247 ± 28.9 MPa, and an increase of 10% was achieved in fracture toughness. It is believed that such VAHP method can provide a universal approach and new opportunities for the fabrication of covalent-bonded ceramics or composites with enhanced performances