A Geometrically Constrained Point Matching based on View-invariant Cross-ratios, and Homography

In computer vision, finding point correspondence among images plays an important role in many applications, such as image stitching, image retrieval, visual localization, etc. Most of the research worksfocus on the matching of local feature before a sampling method is employed, such as RANSAC, to verify initial matching results via repeated fitting of certain global transformation among the images. However, incorrect matches may still exist, while careful examination of such problems is often skipped. Accordingly, a geometrically constrained algorithm is proposed in this work to verify the correctness of initially matched SIFT keypoints based on view-invariant cross-ratios (CRs). By randomly forming pentagons from these keypoints and matching their shape and location among images with CRs, robust planar region estimation can be achieved efficiently for the above verification, while correct and incorrect matches of keypoints can be examined easily with respect to those shape and location matched pentagons. Experimental results show that satisfactory results can be obtained for various scenes with single as well as multiple planar regions

Does income influence rational decisions?

This study explores the impact of income on customer loyalty so as to verify whether consumer decision-making is bounded by rationality or not. The empirical findings show that income positively affects customer loyalty in choosing leisure parks. Specifically, high-income customers prefer to reduce the time cost of information collection. Therefore, they are more inclined to choose a specific resort or a leisure activity park of a particular brand rather than spend their time searching and planning for the most appropriate location of a leisure activity park. This result supports the notion that customers’ consumption decisions are bounded by rationality, not for the purpose of making the optimal decision, but in order to pursue satisfying their own needs instead

Nkx2.7 and Nkx2.5 Function Redundantly and Are Required for Cardiac Morphogenesis of Zebrafish Embryos

Nkx2.7 is the tinman-related gene, as well as orthologs of Nkx2.5 and Nkx-2.3. Nkx2.7 and Nkx2.5 express in zebrafish heart fields of lateral plate mesoderm. The temporal and spatial expression patterns of Nkx2.7 are similar to those of Nkx2.5, but their functions during cardiogenesis remain unclear.Here, Nkx2.7 is demonstrated to compensate for Nkx2.5 loss of function and play a predominant role in the lateral development of the heart, including normal cardiac looping and chamber formation. Knocking down Nkx2.5 showed that heart development was normal from 24 to 72 hpf. However, when knocking down either Nkx2.7 or Nkx2.5 together with Nkx2.7, it appeared that the heart failed to undergo looping and showed defective chambers, although embryos developed normally before the early heart tube stage. Decreased ventricular myocardium proliferation and defective myocardial differentiation appeared to result from late-stage up-regulation of bmp4, versican, tbx5 and tbx20, which were all expressed normally in hearts at an early stage. We also found that tbx5 and tbx20 were modulated by Nkx2.7 through the heart maturation stage because an inducible overexpression of Nkx2.7 in the heart caused down-regulation of tbx5 and tbx20. Although heart defects were induced by overexpression of an injection of 150-pg Nkx2.5 or 5-pg Nkx2.7 mRNA, either Nkx2.5 or Nkx2.7 mRNA rescued the defects induced by Nkx2.7-morpholino(MO) and Nkx2.5-MO with Nkx2.7-MO.Therefore, we conclude that redundant activities of Nkx2.5 and Nkx2.7 are required for cardiac morphogenesis, but that Nkx2.7 plays a more critical function, specifically indicated by the gain-of-function and loss-of- function experiments where Nkx2.7 is observed to regulate the expressions of tbx5 and tbx20 through the maturation stage

Zebrafish arl6ip1 Is Required for Neural Crest Development during Embryogenesis

BACKGROUND:Although the embryonic expression pattern of ADP ribosylation factor-like 6 interacting protein 1 (Arl6ip1) has been reported, its function in neural crest development is unclear. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We found that knockdown of Arl6ip1 caused defective embryonic neural crest derivatives that were particularly severe in craniofacial cartilages. Expressions of the ectodermal patterning factors msxb, dlx3b, and pax3 were normal, but the expressions of the neural crest specifier genes foxd3, snai1b, and sox10 were greatly reduced. These findings suggest that arl6ip1 is essential for specification of neural crest derivatives, but not neural crest induction. Furthermore, we revealed that the streams of crestin- and sox10-expressing neural crest cells, which migrate ventrally from neural tube into trunk, were disrupted in arl6ip1 morphants. This migration defect was not only in the trunk neural crest, but also in the enteric tract where the vagal-derived neural crest cells failed to populate the enteric nervous system. We found that this migration defect was induced by dampened Shh signaling, which may have resulted from defective cilia. These data further suggested that arl6ip1 is required for neural crest migration. Finally, by double-staining of TUNEL and crestin, we confirmed that the loss of neural crest cells could not be attributed to apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Therefore, we concluded that arl6ip1 is required for neural crest migration and sublineage specification

Global burden of metabolic diseases, 1990-2021

BACKGROUND: Common metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hypertension, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), have become a global health burden in the last three decades. The Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) data enables the first insights into the trends and burdens of these metabolic diseases from 1990 to 2021, highlighting regional, temporal and differences by sex.METHODS: Global estimates of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and deaths from GBD 2021 were analyzed for common metabolic diseases (T2DM, hypertension, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and MASLD). Age-standardized DALYs (mortality) per 100,000 population and annual percentage change (APC) between 1990 and 2021 were estimated for trend analyses. Estimates are reported with uncertainty intervals (UI).RESULTS: In 2021, among five common metabolic diseases, hypertension had the greatest burden (226 million [95 % UI: 190-259] DALYs), whilst T2DM (75 million [95 % UI: 63-90] DALYs) conferred much greater disability than MASLD (3.67 million [95 % UI: 2.90-4.61]). The highest absolute burden continues to be found in the most populous countries of the world, particularly India, China, and the United States, whilst the highest relative burden was mostly concentrated in Oceania Island states. The burden of these metabolic diseases has continued to increase over the past three decades but has varied in the rate of increase (1.6-fold to 3-fold increase). The burden of T2DM (0.42 % [95 % UI: 0.34-0.51]) and obesity (0.26 % [95 % UI: 0.17-0.34]) has increased at an accelerated rate, while the rate of increase for the burden of hypertension (-0.30 % [95 % UI: -0.34 to -0.25]) and hypercholesterolemia (-0.33 % [95 % UI: -0.37 to -0.30]) is slowing. There is no significant change in MASLD over time (0.05 % [95 % UI: -0.06 to 0.17]).CONCLUSION: In the 21st century, common metabolic diseases are presenting a significant global health challenge. There is a concerning surge in DALYs and mortality associated with these conditions, underscoring the necessity for a coordinated global health initiative to stem the tide of these debilitating diseases and improve population health outcomes worldwide.</p

The Adoption and Promotion of Environment Protection in Government Procurement: A Comparative Study on the Legislation of Taiwan and EU

　　政府採購向來金額龐大，以民國 103 年為例，該年度機關辦理逾 10 萬元之採購決標總金額為 1 兆 1367 億餘元，同年度中央政府總預算歲出合計為 1 兆 9162 億餘元，政府採購金額約為總預算歲出的 60%，故就政府採購所制定之法規範具有實務上之重要性。復因政府之採購金額龐大，政府之採購偏好足以影響經濟運作與競爭秩序，因此各國政府經常藉以達成特定政策目標。 　　我國政府採購法第 96 條訂有採購環境保護產品之特別規定，環境保護在國家政策中、甚至國際社會中向來為重要議題，民國 90 年起，行政院核定實施之「機關綠色採購推動方案」、國家永續發展委員會提出之「台灣二十一世紀議程國家永續發展願景與策略綱領」和「永續發展政策綱領」等政策方案，都希望藉由政府採購達成環境保護的目標，我國簽屬之「政府採購協定」（Agreement on Government Procurement）亦於 2012 年修訂環境保護相關條款，然而我國政府採購「環保」之成效卻十分有限，同樣以民國 103 年為例，該年政府採購納入環境考量之比例，約僅為政府採購總金額的 0.5%、總預算歲出的 0.3%。因此，本論文嘗試探討我國政府採購納入環境考量之現行法規，是否符合憲法誡命、或是否存有更佳的立法方式，以回應國內政策的需求、並善盡國際義務。 　　本論文以憲法就環境保護和經濟秩序之規定探討為始，界定立法者具體化相關法令規定之立法形成界限，復以此為前理解，檢視現行規範是否妥適，初步認為政府採購法第 96 條之相關子法，有不當限縮環境保護範圍之嫌，因而手段不足以落實國家對環境的保護義務，可能係實務上納入環境考量比例不足的原因之一；因此以綠色政府採購（Green Public Procurement）成效顯著、且為「政府採購協定」修訂環境保護相關條款之原始提案國──即歐洲聯盟為研究對象，探討其政府採購法制設計，作為我國法制修正之參考。 　　本論文參酌歐洲聯盟採購法制，認為我國應放寬政府採購納入環境考量的範圍、增加可資運用之手段、於採購時計算產品生命週期費用並妥適運用環境標誌與宣告，進而提出初步修法解決之框架建議，以期環境保護能夠確切、妥適地於政府採購中落實。Government procurement has been constantly adopted as a policy tool in many countries for its profound effect on a nation’s economic performance and market competition. Legislation concerning government procurement becomes therefore important. According to Article 96 of Taiwan’s Government Procurement Act and other related regulations, procuring entities subjected to those provisions may provide preference to environmentally friendly products. Furthermore, as the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) was revised and come into force in 2014, it suggested that environment protection can be promoted via government procurement. As a consequence, the Executive Yuan formulated several policies to enhance environmentally friendly procurement. Nevertheless, such policies were not as effective as expected. Official statistics show that as government procurement value accounted for 60% of annual expenditures in 2014, the adoption and promotion of environment protection in that value merely accounted for 0.5%. Recognizing the problem, the thesis raises two questions: Is current legislation concerning environment protection in government procurement in accordance with the Constitution? Is there any better way to legislate? To begin with, the thesis first discusses the Constitution’s stipulation of environment protection and economic system to figure out the limit of legislative discretion. Secondly, by reviewing current legislation based on such limit, the thesis finds that neither the definition of “environment protection” nor the methods of priority procurement are appropriate. The thesis hence concludes that such inappropriateness of current legislation may be one of the reasons why those policies did not work out. Last but not least, the thesis has done a comparative study on government procurement legislation of the European Union (EU) to see how legislation in Taiwan may improve. While it is the first party to propose to amend the GPA by adding environment protection into the provisions, EU has also achieved remarkably in “Green Public Procurement” (GPP). In conclusion, the thesis has the following legislative suggestions: First, redefine “environment protection” in the Government Procurement Act and other related regulations. Second, add additional ways in current legislation for procuring entities to better adopt and promote of environment protection in government procurement, including using life-cycle costing and eco-labels

Ventricle becomes smaller and consists of a single layer in the Nkx2.5 and Nkx2.7 double knockdown morphants (Nkx2.5/2.7-MO).

<p>Ventricular myosin heavy chain (<i>vmhc</i>) was used as a probe to detect the ventricle morphology in (A) wild-type (WT) and (B) Nkx2.5/2.7-MO embryos at 72 hpf. The ventricle of Nkx2.5/2.7-MO embryos was smaller than that of WT embryos (indicated by arrows). Hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that ventricular myocardium of WT was two or more cell layers in thickness. However, only one cell layer was retained in the ventricular myocardium of the Nkx2.5/2.7-MO embryos. In addition, compared to wild-type embryos, the endocardium of Nkx2.5/2.7-MO-injected embryos did not form endocardial cushion (indicated by arrowheads in C and D). Like WT embryos, TUNEL assay did not display the increase of TUNEL-positive cells in the heart region of Nkx2.5/2.7-MO embryos at 40 hpf (indicated by boxes in E and F). Embryos were observed ventrally (A–B) or laterally (C–F). v: ventricle; a: atrium.</p

The defective phenotypes of zebrafish embryo heart injected with Nkx2.5-MO, Nkx2.7-MO and Nkx2.5/2.7-MO.

<p>Eight nanograms of MO were injected into one-cell stage embryos derived from transgenic line Tg (<i>cmlc2</i>::GFP) to knock down the Nkx protein specifically. The embryos are shown at 36 hpf (A, B, C), 48 hpf (D, E, F), and 72 hpf (G, H, I). The heart phenotype of Nkx2.5-MO embryos was similar to that of control embryos whose ventricle is located at the right side of the atrium when embryos were observed at 36 hpf, 48 hpf and 72 hpf from the ventral view under fluorescence microscope (A, D, G). However, embryos injected with Nkx2.7-MO displayed an unlooping defect from 36 hpf to 72 hpf (B, E, H). Embryos injected with Nkx2.5/2.7-MO displayed a shrunken ventricle and an expanding atrium (C, F, I). v: ventricle; a: atrium.</p

Early cardiac markers express normally in the Nkx2.5 and Nkx2.7 double knockdown morphants (Nkx2.5/2.7-MO).

<p>Whole mount <i>in situ</i> hybridization showed that the expression patterns of <i>hand2</i> and <i>tbx5</i>, lateral plate mesoderm markers, were similar between wild-type (WT) and Nkx2.5/2.7-MO embryos at 10 hpf (A vs. B; C vs. D, respectively). Arrows: heart field.</p

Nkx2.5 was overexpressed in the Nkx2.7-knockdown embryos.

<p>Nine nanograms of Nkx2.7-MO were injected into one-cell stage of embryos. <i>Nkx2.5</i> was expressed predominantly in ventricle (v) and weakly in atrium (a) of wild-type (WT) embryos at 48 hpf (A), but only minimally and weakly in ventricle at 72 hpf (C). However, the Nkx2.7-MO-injected embryos retained robust <i>Nkx2.5</i> expression in ventricle both at 48 and 72 hpf (B and D). The embryonic stages were as indicated, and embryos were observed ventrally. v: ventricle; a: atrium.</p