Img2Logo:Generating Golden Ratio Logos from Images

Logos are one of the most important graphic design forms that use an abstracted shape to clearly represent the spirit of a community. Among various styles of abstraction, a particular golden-ratio design is frequently employed by designers to create a concise and regular logo. In this context, designers utilize a set of circular arcs with golden ratios (i.e., all arcs are taken from circles whose radii form a geometric series based on the golden ratio) as the design elements to manually approximate a target shape. This error-prone process requires a large amount of time and effort, posing a significant challenge for design space exploration. In this work, we present a novel computational framework that can automatically generate golden ratio logo abstractions from an input image. Our framework is based on a set of carefully identified design principles and a constrained optimization formulation respecting these principles. We also propose a progressive approach that can efficiently solve the optimization problem, resulting in a sequence of abstractions that approximate the input at decreasing levels of detail. We evaluate our work by testing on images with different formats including real photos, clip arts, and line drawings. We also extensively validate the key components and compare our results with manual results by designers to demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework. Moreover, our framework can largely benefit design space exploration via easy specification of design parameters such as abstraction levels, golden circle sizes, etc

The enhancement of electrochemical capacitance of biomass-carbon by pyrolysis of extracted nanofibers

Biomass-derived carbons have been extensively researched as electrode material for energy storage and conversion recently. However, most of the previous works convert crude biomass directly into carbon and the electrochemical capacitances for the resultant carbons are quite often underestimated as well as large variations in capacitances exist in literatures due to the complex nature of biomass, which practically hinder their applications. In this work, polysaccharide nanofibers were extracted from an inexpensive natural fungus using a hydrothermal method and were converted to porous carbon nanofibers (CNFs) by potassium hydroxide activation. The porous carbons were assembled into symmetric supercapacitors using both potassium hydroxide and an ionic liquid (IL) as electrolytes. Solid state nuclear magnetic resonance characterization showed that the micropores of the as-prepared carbons are accessible to the IL electrolyte when uncharged and thus high capacitance is expected. It is found in both electrolytes the electrochemical capacitances of CNFs are significantly higher than those of the porous carbon derived directly from the crude fungus. Furthermore, the CNFs delivered an extraordinary energy density of 92.3 Wh kg−1 in the IL electrolyte, making it a promising candidate for electrode materials for supercapacitors.<br/

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel bi-gold mitocans in lung cancer cells

Mitochondria are promising drug target for cancer treatment. We previously demonstrated that a bi-gold compound BGC2a was more potent than the mono-gold drug auranofin in suppressing cancer cells due to increased gold atom number that led to higher drug accumulation in and thereby inhibition of mitochondria. To exploit the potential of this new strategy, we further designed and synthesized a series of bi-gold mitocans, the compounds targeting mitochondria. The results showed that most of the newly synthesized mitocans exhibited obviously lower IC50 than auranofin, an old drug that is repurposed in clinical trials for cancer treatment. The best mitocan C3P4 was nearly 2-fold more potent than BGC2a in human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells and mantle cell lymphoma Jeko-1 cells, exhibiting substantial colony formation-suppressing and tumor-suppressing effects in A549 cells xenograft model. C3P4 induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner and arrested cell cycle at G0/G1 phase. The mechanistic study showed that C3P4 significantly increased the global reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial superoxide level, and reduced the mitochondrial membrane potential. C3P4 preferentially accumulated in mitochondria as measured by the gold content and substantially inhibited oxygen consumption rate and ATP production. These results further validated our hypothesis that targeting mitochondria would be promising to develop more potent anticancer agents. C3P4 may be further evaluated as a drug candidate for lung cancer treatment

Genome dynamics and diversity of Shigella species, the etiologic agents of bacillary dysentery

The Shigella bacteria cause bacillary dysentery, which remains a significant threat to public health. The genus status and species classification appear no longer valid, as compelling evidence indicates that Shigella, as well as enteroinvasive Escherichia coli, are derived from multiple origins of E.coli and form a single pathovar. Nevertheless, Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 causes deadly epidemics but Shigella boydii is restricted to the Indian subcontinent, while Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei are prevalent in developing and developed countries respectively. To begin to explain these distinctive epidemiological and pathological features at the genome level, we have carried out comparative genomics on four representative strains. Each of the Shigella genomes includes a virulence plasmid that encodes conserved primary virulence determinants. The Shigella chromosomes share most of their genes with that of E.coli K12 strain MG1655, but each has over 200 pseudogenes, 300∼700 copies of insertion sequence (IS) elements, and numerous deletions, insertions, translocations and inversions. There is extensive diversity of putative virulence genes, mostly acquired via bacteriophage-mediated lateral gene transfer. Hence, via convergent evolution involving gain and loss of functions, through bacteriophage-mediated gene acquisition, IS-mediated DNA rearrangements and formation of pseudogenes, the Shigella spp. became highly specific human pathogens with variable epidemiological and pathological features

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Influence Analysis of Liquefiable Interlayer on Seismic Response of Underground Station Structure

To study the influence law of the seismic response of underground station structures at liquifiable interlayer sites, a two-dimensional numerical model of the interaction between the soil and station structure was established based on the finite difference software FLAC3D. The nonlinear dynamic response of the station structure located at the liquifiable interlayer site was analyzed considering the location distribution, relative density, and thickness of the liquifiable interlayer. The results show that the deformation of the structure is greatest when the liquifiable interlayer is distributed on both sides of the station side walls, while the interlayer has an energy-dissipating and damping effect on the upper station structure when it is located at the bottom of the structure. The lower the relative density of the liquifiable interlayer is, the stronger the internal dynamic response of the structure will be, and the more unfavorable it will be to the seismic resistance of the structure. When the liquefiable interlayer is only present in the lateral foundation of the station, an increase in its thickness results in a stronger shear effect on the structure and a higher probability of damage. However, when the thickness of the liquifiable interlayer reaches a point where the entire station is placed within it, the lateral force and deformation of the structure are significantly reduced

Relationship between hemodynamic parameters and portal venous pressure in cirrhosis patients with portal hypertension

Cirrhosis caused by viral and alcoholic hepatitis is an essential cause of portal hypertension (PHT). The incidence of PHT complication is directly proportional to portal venous pressure (PVP), and the clinical research of PVP and its hemodynamic indexes is of great significance for deciding the treatment strategy of PHT. Various techniques are currently being developed to decrease portal pressure but hemodynamic side effects may occur. In this article, the hemodynamic indexes of cirrhotic PHT patients were studied to explore the correlation between the index and PVP and to evaluate the clinical value of Doppler ultrasound in measuring PVP in patients with PHT. This was achieved by selecting 90 cirrhotic PHT patients who underwent transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt in our hospital from June 2015 to September 2019. Fifty healthy people who had a physical examination in the hospital in the same period were selected as the control group. The liver hemodynamic parameters of two groups were measured by Doppler ultrasound, and the cirrhotic PHT patients were graded by the Child–Pugh grading method to evaluate the liver function and measure the PVP value. The results showed that both the central portal vein velocity (PVV) and splenic vein velocity (SVV) of the PHT group were lower than those of the control group. Also, the portal vein diameter (PVD), portal venous flow and splenic vein diameter (SVD) were higher than those of the control group (all Ps < 0.05). Among liver function graded PHT patients, the PVD, PVV, SVD and SVV were significantly different (all Ps < 0.05). Furthermore, the PVP of patients with liver function grades A, B and C was 38.9 ± 1.4, 40.6 ± 5.1 and 42.5 ± 4.8 cmH2O, respectively, with a significant difference. It can be concluded from this study that Doppler ultrasound can be used as a tool for clinical assessment of PHT in cirrhosis patients. Doppler ultrasound showed a good prospect in noninvasive detection of PHT in cirrhosis; however, this technique needs application on large sample population study to validate the results

Association among peripatellar fat pad edema and related patellofemoral maltracking parameters: a case-control magnetic resonance imaging study

Abstract Background The peripatellar fat pads are critical for protective cushioning during movement, and their endocrine function has been shown to affect osteoarthritis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is frequently used to visualize edema of the peripatellar fat pads due to injury. In this study, we aimed to assess the relationship between peripatellar fat pad edema and patellofemoral maltracking MRI parameters and investigate the association among cases of peripatellar fat pad edema. Methods Age- and sex-matched peripatellar fat pad edema cases were identified and divided into superolateral Hoffa, quadriceps, and prefemoral groups. Images were assessed according to tibial tuberosity lateralization, trochlear dysplasia, patellar alta, patellar tilt, and bisect offset. McNemar’s test or paired t-tests and Spearman’s correlation were used for statistical analysis. Interobserver agreement was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient. Results Of 1210 MRI scans, 50, 68, and 42 cases were in the superolateral Hoffa, quadriceps, and prefemoral groups, respectively. Subjects with superolateral Hoffa fat pad edema had a lower lateral trochlear inclination (p = 0.028), higher Insall-Salvati (p < 0.001) and modified Insall-Salvati (p = 0.021) ratios, and lower patellotrochlear index (p < 0.001) than controls. The prefemoral group had a lower lateral trochlear inclination (p = 0.014) and higher Insall-Salvati (p < 0.001) and modified Insall-Salvati (p = 0.004) ratios compared with the control group. In contrast, the patellotrochlear index (p = 0.001) was lower. Mean patellar tilt angle (p = 0.019) and mean bisect offset (p = 0.005) were significantly different between cases and controls. The quadriceps group showed no association. Superolateral Hoffa was positively correlated with prefemoral (p < 0.001, r = 0.408) and negatively correlated with quadriceps (p < 0.001, r = -0.500) fat pad edema. Conclusions Superolateral Hoffa and prefemoral fat pad edemas were associated with patellar maltracking parameters. Quadriceps fat pad edema and maltracking parameters were not associated. Superolateral Hoffa fat pad edema was positively correlated with prefemoral and negatively correlated with quadriceps fat pad edema