Finger Vein Image Deblurring Using Neighbors-Based Binary-GAN (NB-GAN)

Vein contraction and venous compression typically caused by low temperature and excessive placement pressure can blur the captured finger vein images and severely impair the quality of extracted features. To improve the quality of captured finger vein image, this paper proposes a 26-layer generator network constrained by Neighbors-based Binary Patterns (NBP) texture loss to recover the clear image (guessing the original clear image). Firstly, by analyzing various types and degrees of blurred finger vein images captured in real application scenarios, a method to mathematically model the local and global blurriness using a pair of defocused and mean blur kernels is proposed. By iteratively and alternatively convoluting clear images with both kernels in a multi-scale window, a polymorphic blur training set is constructed for network training. Then, NBP texture loss is used for training the generator to enhance the deblurring ability of the network on images. Lastly, a novel network structure is proposed to retain more vein texture feature information, and two residual connections are added on both sides of the residual module of the 26-layer generator network to prevent degradation and overfitting. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed neighbors-based binary-GAN (NB-GAN) can achieve better deblurring performance than the the-state-of-the-art approaches

Evaluation of the anti-biofilm activities of bacterial cellulose-tannic acid-magnesium chloride composites using an in vitro multispecies biofilm model

Chronic wounds are a serious worldwide problem, which are often accompanied by wound infections. In this study, bacterial cellulose (BC)-based composites introduced with tannic acid (TA) and magnesium chloride (BC-TA-Mg) were fabricated for anti-biofilm activities. The prepared composites' surface properties, mechanical capacity, thermal stability, water absorption and retention property, releasing behavior, anti-biofilm activities and potential cytotoxicity were tested. Results showed that TA and MgCl2 particles closely adhered to the nanofibers of BC membranes, thus increasing surface roughness and hydrophobicity of the membranes. While the introduction of TA and MgCl2 did not influence the transparency of the membranes, making it beneficial for wound inspection. BC-TA and BC-TA-Mg composites displayed increased tensile strength and elongation at break compared to pure BC. Moreover, BC-TA-Mg exhibited higher water absorption and retention capacity than BC and BC-TA, suitable for the absorption of wound exudates. BC-TA-Mg demonstrated controlled release of TA and good inhibitory effect on both singly cultured Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm and co-cultured biofilm of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity grade of BC-TA-6Mg membrane was eligible based on standard toxicity classifications. These indicated that BC-TA-Mg is potential to be used as wound dressings combating biofilms in chronic wounds.Peer reviewe

Component analysis of errors in satellite-based precipitation estimates

Satellite-based precipitation estimates have great potential for a wide range of critical applications, but their error characteristics need to be examined and understood. In this study, six (6) high-resolution, satellite-based precipitation data sets are evaluated over the contiguous United States against a gauge-based product. An error decomposition scheme is devised to separate the errors into three independent components, hit bias, missed precipitation, and false precipitation, to better track the error sources associated with the satellite retrieval processes. Our analysis reveals the following. (1) The three components for each product are all substantial, with large spatial and temporal variations. (2) The amplitude of individual components sometimes is larger than that of the total errors. In such cases, the smaller total errors are resulting from the three components canceling one another. (3) All the products detected strong precipitation (\u3e40 mm/d) well, but with various biases. They tend to overestimate in summer and underestimate in winter, by as much as 50% in either season, and they all miss a significant amount of light precipitation (\u3c10 mm/d), up to 40%. (4) Hit bias and missed precipitation are the two leading error sources. In summer, positive hit bias, up to 50%, dominates the total errors for most products. (5) In winter, missed precipitation over mountainous regions and the northeast, presumably snowfall, poses a common challenge to all the data sets. On the basis of the findings, we recommend that future efforts focus on reducing hit bias, adding snowfall retrievals, and improving methods for combining gauge and satellite data. Strategies for future studies to establish better links between the errors in the end products and the upstream data sources are also proposed

Elevated Serum Human Epididymis Protein 4 Is Associated With Disease Activity and Systemic Involvements in Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome

BackgroundWe aimed to investigate the clinical utility of human epididymis protein 4, a tumor biomarker being widely utilized in clinical practice in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer, in primary Sjögren’s Syndrome (pSS).MethodsA total of 109 pSS patients and 113 healthy controls (HCs) were included in the study. HE4 were determined by Roche Cobas E601 electrochemical luminescence analyzer. Clinical and laboratory findings were reviewed, and the relationships between HE4 and clinical parameters were determined by Spearman’s correlation test. The European league against rheumatism Sjögren’s syndrome disease activity index (ESSDAI) was utilized to evaluate disease activity.FindingsThe levels of HE4 were significantly elevated in patients with pSS compared to HCs (103.65 pmol/L vs. 46.52 pmol/L, p<0.001). The levels of HE4 were positively correlated with ESSDAI scores (r=0.462, p<0.001). Significant positive correlations between the levels of HE4 with pulmonary involvements (r=0.442, p<0.001) and renal involvements (r=0.320, p=0.001) were observed. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis revealed an optimal cut-off value of 104.90 pmol/L and 128.05 pmol/L for distinguishing patients with pulmonary and renal involvements, with the areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) of 0.778 (95%CI 0.685-0.870, p<0.001) and 0.768 (95%CI 0.646-0.891, p=0.001), respectively. Among patients with pulmonary involvement, the levels of HE4 were positively correlated with the semiquantitative HRCT grade (r=0.417, p=0.016), and negatively correlated with the percentage of forced vital capacity (FVC) (r= -0.460, p=0.047) and diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLco) (r= -0.623, p=0.004). For patients with renal involvement, HE4 was positively correlated with creatinine (r=0.588, p=0.021) and negatively correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (r= -0.599, p=0.030).ConclusionsOur findings demonstrated a novel role of HE4 in clinical stratification of pSS, suggesting that introducing HE4 to the current pSS test panel may provide additional diagnostic value, particularly in evaluating disease activity and pulmonary/renal involvements