Unsupervised Holistic Image Generation from Key Local Patches

We introduce a new problem of generating an image based on a small number of key local patches without any geometric prior. In this work, key local patches are defined as informative regions of the target object or scene. This is a challenging problem since it requires generating realistic images and predicting locations of parts at the same time. We construct adversarial networks to tackle this problem. A generator network generates a fake image as well as a mask based on the encoder-decoder framework. On the other hand, a discriminator network aims to detect fake images. The network is trained with three losses to consider spatial, appearance, and adversarial information. The spatial loss determines whether the locations of predicted parts are correct. Input patches are restored in the output image without much modification due to the appearance loss. The adversarial loss ensures output images are realistic. The proposed network is trained without supervisory signals since no labels of key parts are required. Experimental results on six datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm performs favorably on challenging objects and scenes.Comment: 16 page

Bulk transport and oxygen surface exchange of the mixed ionic electronic conductor Ce1-xTbxO2-δ (x= 1⁄4, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5)

Bulk ionic and electronic transport properties and the rate of oxygen surface exchange of Tb-doped ceria have been evaluated as a function of Tb concentration, aiming to assess the potential use of the materials as high-temperature oxygen-transport membranes and oxygen reduction catalysts. The materials were synthesized by the co-precipitation method. Cobalt oxide (2 mol%) was added in order to improve sinterability and conductivity. The materials were studied by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperatureprogrammed desorption (TPD), thermogravimetry (TG), DC-conductivity and UV-vis spectrophotometry. The results indicate that the extent of mixed ionic–electronic conductivity is a function of temperature and can be tuned by modifying the Tb- (and Co-doping) concentration. Low Tb-content materials (x ¼ 0.1 and 0.2) are predominant ionic conductors, but the materials with 50 mol% Tb show both p-type electronic and ionic conductivity. The enhanced electronic conduction in Ce0.5Tb0.5O2 d is associated with narrowing of the band gap upon doping ceria with Tb. In addition, the surface chemistry of the samples was investigated by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and pulse isotopic exchange (PIE). The surface exchange rate is found to increase on increasing the level of Tb doping. The highest surface exchange rates in this study are found for materials doped with 50 mol% Tb

Electroweak phase transition in a nonminimal supersymmetric model

The Higgs potential of the minimal nonminimal supersymmetric standard model (MNMSSM) is investigated within the context of electroweak phase transition. We investigate the allowed parameter space yielding correct electroweak phase transitoin employing a high temperature approximation. We devote to phenomenological consequences for the Higgs sector of the MNMSSM for electron-positron colliders. It is observed that a future $e^+ e^-$ linear collider with $\sqrt{s} = 1000$ GeV will be able to test the model with regard to electroweak baryogenesis.Comment: 28 pages, 5 tables, 12 figure

Anti-oxidant and anti-hypercholesterolemic activities of Wasabia japonica

The effects of Wasabia japonica (WJ) were investigated in vitro and in vivo for their anti-oxidant and anti-hypercholesterolemic activities. It was found that the aqueous extracts of WJ leaves (WJL) had strong scavenging activities towards 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO) free radicals in cell free systems. WJL also inhibited NO production and the expressions of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) mRNA and enzyme protein, determined by Griess reactions, RT-PCR or Western blotting respectively in Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages cells. The anti-hypercholesterolemic effects of WJ diet were investigated in hypercholesterolemia rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups and were fed with either normal diet (Group 1), or diet containing 1%(w/w) cholesterol (Groups 2, 3 and 4). After 4 weeks, Group 2 was changed to normal diet, Groups 3 and 4 were changed to the diet containing 5% WJ leaf and or 5% WJ root, respectively. 3 weeks after WJ diets, Serum HDL-cholesterol levels were significantly increased in WJ diet groups compared with the normal diet hypercholesterolemia rats. In contrast, the serum LDL-cholesterol levels and liver xanthine oxidase (XO) activity in WJ diet groups were significantly decreased. The results indicate that the WJ extracts have significant anti-oxidant activities, and the WJ diet exhibited anti-hypercholesterolemic action in high cholesterol diet rats, which was companied with modulations of cholesterol metabolism and decrease in liver XO activity

Acute Oral Toxicity Test of Nicotiana tabacum L. Bio-Oil Against Female Winstar Rats

Tobacco plants are notably known for its pesticidal properties, particularly due to its nicotine content. In this study, Nicotiana tabacum L. bio-oil was obtained using pyrolysis technique. The safety of the bio-oil to be used as bioinsecticide was analyzed through acute oral toxicity test by administering 5000 mg bio-oil/kg body weight of female winstar rats that were analogous to humans. It was concluded that the bio-oil was not toxic due to absence of mortality and no significant change in the body weight and behavior of the rats

The Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 complex mediates activation of TopBP1 by ATM

The activation of ATR-ATRIP in response to double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs) depends upon ATM in human cells and Xenopus egg extracts. One important aspect of this dependency involves regulation of TopBP1 by ATM. In Xenopus egg extracts, ATM associates with TopBP1 and thereupon phosphorylates it on S1131. This phosphorylation enhances the capacity of TopBP1 to activate the ATR-ATRIP complex. We show that TopBP1 also interacts with the Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 (MRN) complex in egg extracts in a checkpoint-regulated manner. This interaction involves the Nbs1 subunit of the complex. ATM can no longer interact with TopBP1 in Nbs1-depleted egg extracts, which suggests that the MRN complex helps to bridge ATM and TopBP1 together. The association between TopBP1 and Nbs1 involves the first pair of BRCT repeats in TopBP1. In addition, the two tandem BRCT repeats of Nbs1 are required for this binding. Functional studies with mutated forms of TopBP1 and Nbs1 suggested that the BRCT-dependent association of these proteins is critical for a normal checkpoint response to DSBs. These findings suggest that the MRN complex is a crucial mediator in the process whereby ATM promotes the TopBP1-dependent activation of ATR-ATRIP in response to DSBs

First Demonstration of Monolithic Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuit 32×32 Thin-CLOS AWGR for All-to-All Interconnections

We designed, fabricated, and demonstrated the first monolithic silicon photonic Thin-CLOS AWGR. The fabricated Thin-CLOS has 32 ports and four 16-port silicon nitride AWGRs integrated by compact multilayer waveguide routing. Experimental results show 4 dB insertion loss and-20 dB crosstalk