SGUIE-Net: Semantic Attention Guided Underwater Image Enhancement with Multi-Scale Perception

Due to the wavelength-dependent light attenuation, refraction and scattering, underwater images usually suffer from color distortion and blurred details. However, due to the limited number of paired underwater images with undistorted images as reference, training deep enhancement models for diverse degradation types is quite difficult. To boost the performance of data-driven approaches, it is essential to establish more effective learning mechanisms that mine richer supervised information from limited training sample resources. In this paper, we propose a novel underwater image enhancement network, called SGUIE-Net, in which we introduce semantic information as high-level guidance across different images that share common semantic regions. Accordingly, we propose semantic region-wise enhancement module to perceive the degradation of different semantic regions from multiple scales and feed it back to the global attention features extracted from its original scale. This strategy helps to achieve robust and visually pleasant enhancements to different semantic objects, which should thanks to the guidance of semantic information for differentiated enhancement. More importantly, for those degradation types that are not common in the training sample distribution, the guidance connects them with the already well-learned types according to their semantic relevance. Extensive experiments on the publicly available datasets and our proposed dataset demonstrated the impressive performance of SGUIE-Net. The code and proposed dataset are available at: https://trentqq.github.io/SGUIE-Net.htm

RNAa-mediated overexpression of WT1 induces apoptosis in HepG2 cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Aim</p> <p>Recent studies have reported that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) can activate gene expression by targeting promoter sequence in a process termed RNA activation. The present study was conducted to evaluate the potential of WT1 induction by small activating RNA targeting the WT1 promoter (dsWT1) in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 was transfected with dsRNA by liposomes. The expression of mRNA and protein in cells were investigated using real-time reverse real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot, respectively. Cell viability and clonogenicity were determined by MTT assay and clonogenicity assay, respectively. Cell apoptosis was evaluated by flow-cytometric analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Expressions of WT1 mRNA and protein in dsWT1 treated HepG2 cells were significantly elevated. Inhibition of cell viability by dsWT1 was dose-dependent and time-dependent. Reduction of the number and size of colonies formed were found in dsWT1 treated cells. dsWT1 induced significant apoptosis in HepG2 cells. The decreased anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and elevated pro-apoptotic protein Bak expression were detected in dsWT1 treated cells. The level of pro-caspase-3 remarkably decreased and cleaved caspase-3 and PARP fragment were also detected in dsWT1 treated cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data show that RNAa-mediated overexpression of WT1 may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.</p

Usnic acid ameliorates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice via inhibition of inflammatory responses and oxidative stress

Purpose: To Investigate the effect of usnic acid (UA) on bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice, and the underlying mechanism. Methods: Male Kunming mice with bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis (PF) were exposed to different concentrations of usnic acid. Lung coefficient and histopathological changes were determined, while MDA, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and expression levels of hydroxyproline, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukins-1β &amp; 6, and transforming growth factor-β1 were assayed in lung homogenates. Results: UA significantly mitigated lung coefficient and histopathological changes in mice. Compared to the bleomycin group, MDA level was significantly reduced while the content of SOD markedly increased after UA pretreatment (p &lt; 0.05). Moreover, UA significantly reduced the expression levels of all the parameters, relative to bleomycin group (p &lt; 0.05). Conclusion: These results indicate that UA protects mice against bleomycin-induced PF via a mechanism associated with attenuation of pro-oxidant stress and inflammation. Therefore, UA has therapeutic potential for the management of pulmonary fibrosis