An improved saliency detection algorithm based on Itti’s model

Kad ljudi promatraju slike, mehanizam vizualne pažnje (VAM) automatski zanemaruje nepotrebnu informaciju i pažnju usmjerava na najvažnije predmete. Postoje brojni računalni modeli za otkrivanje najistaknutijeg područja slike usmjeravanjem pažnje od dna slike prema gore. U ovom se radu predlaže poboljšani računalni model vizualne pažnje zasnovan na Itti modelu, a sastoji se od tri komponente. Najprije se s značajke nižeg nivoa osnovne slike izdvajaju iz područja boje CIELa*b* umjesto područja boje RGB; poslije toga se značajke slike rastavljaju u valićaste piramide pomoću valićaste osnove višeskalne pretvorbe. Kao treće, primjenjuje se nova strategija za sastavljanje svih upadljivih linija u završnu mapu istaknutih elemenata s različitim težinama, koje su proporcionalne doprinosu svake pojedinačne istaknute karakteristike. U usporedbi s Itti modelom, exsperimenti dokazuju da je pristup predložen u ovome radu učinkovitiji.Visual attention mechanism (VAM) automatically ignores the superfluous information and pays attention to the most significant objects when people are watching the pictures. There are numerous bottom-up visual attention computational models to detect the salient area of an image. In this paper, an improved visual attention computational model based on Itti’s model is proposed, which is comprised of three components. Firstly, the lower-level primitive image features s are extracted from CIELa*b* color space instead of RGB color space; secondly, the feature images are decomposed into wavelet pyramids by wavelet-based multi-scale transform. Thirdly, a new strategy is used to combine all conspicuity maps into a final saliency map with different weights, which are proportional to the contribution of each conspicuity map. Compared with Itti’s models, subjective experiments prove that the approach proposed in this paper is more effective

An improved saliency detection algorithm based on Itti’s model

Kad ljudi promatraju slike, mehanizam vizualne pažnje (VAM) automatski zanemaruje nepotrebnu informaciju i pažnju usmjerava na najvažnije predmete. Postoje brojni računalni modeli za otkrivanje najistaknutijeg područja slike usmjeravanjem pažnje od dna slike prema gore. U ovom se radu predlaže poboljšani računalni model vizualne pažnje zasnovan na Itti modelu, a sastoji se od tri komponente. Najprije se s značajke nižeg nivoa osnovne slike izdvajaju iz područja boje CIELa*b* umjesto područja boje RGB; poslije toga se značajke slike rastavljaju u valićaste piramide pomoću valićaste osnove višeskalne pretvorbe. Kao treće, primjenjuje se nova strategija za sastavljanje svih upadljivih linija u završnu mapu istaknutih elemenata s različitim težinama, koje su proporcionalne doprinosu svake pojedinačne istaknute karakteristike. U usporedbi s Itti modelom, exsperimenti dokazuju da je pristup predložen u ovome radu učinkovitiji.Visual attention mechanism (VAM) automatically ignores the superfluous information and pays attention to the most significant objects when people are watching the pictures. There are numerous bottom-up visual attention computational models to detect the salient area of an image. In this paper, an improved visual attention computational model based on Itti’s model is proposed, which is comprised of three components. Firstly, the lower-level primitive image features s are extracted from CIELa*b* color space instead of RGB color space; secondly, the feature images are decomposed into wavelet pyramids by wavelet-based multi-scale transform. Thirdly, a new strategy is used to combine all conspicuity maps into a final saliency map with different weights, which are proportional to the contribution of each conspicuity map. Compared with Itti’s models, subjective experiments prove that the approach proposed in this paper is more effective

Genomic characterization of putative allergen genes in peach/almond and their synteny with apple

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fruits from several species of the Rosaceae family are reported to cause allergic reactions in certain populations. The allergens identified belong to mainly four protein families: pathogenesis related 10 proteins, thaumatin-like proteins, lipid transfer proteins and profilins. These families of putative allergen genes in apple (<it>Mal d 1 </it>to <it>4</it>) have been mapped on linkage maps and subsequent genetic study on allelic diversity and hypoallergenic traits has been carried out recently. In peach (<it>Prunus persica</it>), these allergen gene families are denoted as <it>Pru p 1 </it>to <it>4 </it>and for almond (<it>Prunus dulcis</it>)<it>Pru du 1 </it>to <it>4</it>. Genetic analysis using current molecular tools may be helpful to establish the cause of allergenicity differences observed among different peach cultivars. This study was to characterize putative peach allergen genes for their genomic sequences and linkage map positions, and to compare them with previously characterized homologous genes in apple (<it>Malus domestica</it>).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eight <it>Pru p/du 1 </it>genes were identified, four of which were new. All the <it>Pru p/du 1 </it>genes were mapped in a single bin on the top of linkage group 1 (G1). Five <it>Pru p/du 2 </it>genes were mapped on four different linkage groups, two very similar <it>Pru p/du 2.01 </it>genes (<it>A </it>and <it>B</it>) were on G3, <it>Pru p/du 2.02 </it>on G7,<it>Pru p/du 2.03 </it>on G8 and <it>Pru p/du 2.04 </it>on G1. There were differences in the intron and exon structure in these <it>Pru p/du 2 </it>genes and in their amino acid composition. Three <it>Pru p/du 3 </it>genes (3.01–3.03) containing an intron and a mini exon of 10 nt were mapped in a cluster on G6. Two <it>Pru p/du 4 </it>genes (<it>Pru p/du 4.01 </it>and <it>4.02</it>) were located on G1 and G7, respectively. The <it>Pru p/du 1 </it>cluster on G1 aligned to the <it>Mal d 1 </it>clusters on LG16; <it>Pru p/du 2.01A </it>and <it>B </it>on G3 to <it>Mal d 2.01A </it>and <it>B </it>on LG9; the <it>Pru p/du 3 </it>cluster on G6 to <it>Mal d 3.01 </it>on LG12; <it>Pru p/du 4.01 </it>on G1 to <it>Mal d 4.03 </it>on LG2; and <it>Pru p/du 4.02 </it>on G7 to <it>Mal d 4.02 </it>on LG2.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A total of 18 putative peach/almond allergen genes have been mapped on five linkage groups. Their positions confirm the high macro-synteny between peach/almond and apple. The insight gained will help to identify key genes causing differences in allergenicity among different cultivars of peach and other <it>Prunus </it>species.</p

Remnant cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular mortality

Background: Genetic, observational, and clinical intervention studies indicate that circulating levels of remnant cholesterol (RC) are associated with cardiovascular diseases. However, the predictive value of RC for cardiovascular mortality in the general population remains unclear. Methods: Our study population comprised 19,650 adults in the United States from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (1999–2014). RC was calculated from non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) minus low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) determined by the Sampson formula. Multivariate Cox regression, restricted cubic spline analysis, and subgroup analysis were applied to explore the relationship of RC with cardiovascular mortality. Results: The mean age of the study cohort was 46.4 ± 19.2 years, and 48.7% of participants were male. During a median follow-up of 93 months, 382 (1.9%) cardiovascular deaths occurred. In a fully adjusted Cox regression model, log RC was significantly associated with cardiovascular mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 2.82; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17–6.81]. The restricted cubic spline curve indicated that log RC had a linear association with cardiovascular mortality (p for non-linearity = 0.899). People with higher LDL-C (≥130 mg/dL), higher RC [≥25.7/23.7 mg/dL in males/females corresponding to the LDL-C clinical cutoff point (130 mg/dL)] and abnormal HDL-C (<40/50 mg/dL in males/females) levels had a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality (HR 2.18; 95% CI 1.13–4.21 in males and HR 2.19; 95% CI 1.24–3.88 in females) than the reference group (lower LDL-C, lower RC and normal HDL-C levels). Conclusions: Elevated RC levels were associated with cardiovascular mortality independent of traditional risk factors

Crystal structure of the lipopolysaccharide outer core galactosyltransferase WaaB involved in pathogenic bacterial invasion of host cells

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is essential for most gram-negative bacteria and plays an important role in serum resistance, pathogenesis, drug resistance, and protection from harsh environments. The outer core oligosaccharide of LPS is involved in bacterial recognition and invasion of host cells. The D-galactosyltransferase WaaB is responsible for the addition of D-galactose to the outer core oligosaccharide of LPS, which is essential for Salmonella typhimurium invasion. Here we report the first crystal structures of WaaB and WaaB in complex with UDP to resolutions of 1.8 and 1.9 Å, respectively. Mutagenesis and enzyme activity assays confirmed that residues V186, K195, I216, W243, E276, and E269 of WaaB are essential for the binding and hydrolysis of UDP-galactose. The elucidation of the catalytic mechanism of WaaB is of great importance and could potentially be used for the design of novel therapeutic reagents

Converging Cooperative Functions into the Nanospace of Covalent Organic Frameworks for Efficient Uranium Extraction from Seawater

Article reports a new strategy for efficient extraction of uranium from seawater via converging the cooperative functions of adsorption–photocatalysis into the nanospace of covalent organic frameworks (COFs). This study establishes multicomponent COFs as promising candidates for efficient uranium extraction from seawater

Optimizing expression and purification of an ATP-binding gene gsiA from Escherichia coli k-12 by using GFP fusion

The cloning, expression and purification of the glutathione (sulfur) import system ATP-binding protein (gsiA) was carried out. The coding sequence of Escherichia coli gsiA, which encodes the ATP-binding protein of a glutathione importer, was amplified by PCR, and then inserted into a prokaryotic expression vector pWaldo-GFPe harboring green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene. The resulting recombinant plasmid pWaldo-GFP-GsiA was transformed into various E. coli strains, and expression conditions were optimized. The effect of five E. coli expression strains on the production of the recombinant gsiA protein was evaluated. E. coli BL21 (DE3) was found to be the most productive strain for GsiA-GFP fusion-protein expression, most of which was insoluble fraction. However, results from in-gel and Western blot analysis suggested that expression of recombinant GsiA in Rosetta (DE3) provides an efficient source in soluble form. By using GFP as reporter, the most suitable host strain was conveniently obtained, whereby optimizing conditions for overexpression and purification of the proteins for further functional and structural studies, became, not only less laborious, but also time-saving

Intergenic and Repeat Transcription in Human, Chimpanzee and Macaque Brains Measured by RNA-Seq

Transcription is the first step connecting genetic information with an organism's phenotype. While expression of annotated genes in the human brain has been characterized extensively, our knowledge about the scope and the conservation of transcripts located outside of the known genes' boundaries is limited. Here, we use high-throughput transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) to characterize the total non-ribosomal transcriptome of human, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque brain. In all species, only 20–28% of non-ribosomal transcripts correspond to annotated exons and 20–23% to introns. By contrast, transcripts originating within intronic and intergenic repetitive sequences constitute 40–48% of the total brain transcriptome. Notably, some repeat families show elevated transcription. In non-repetitive intergenic regions, we identify and characterize 1,093 distinct regions highly expressed in the human brain. These regions are conserved at the RNA expression level across primates studied and at the DNA sequence level across mammals. A large proportion of these transcripts (20%) represents 3′UTR extensions of known genes and may play roles in alternative microRNA-directed regulation. Finally, we show that while transcriptome divergence between species increases with evolutionary time, intergenic transcripts show more expression differences among species and exons show less. Our results show that many yet uncharacterized evolutionary conserved transcripts exist in the human brain. Some of these transcripts may play roles in transcriptional regulation and contribute to evolution of human-specific phenotypic traits

Functional variants regulating LGALS1 (Galectin 1) expression affect human susceptibility to influenza A(H7N9)

The fatality of avian influenza A(H7N9) infection in humans was over 30%. To identify human genetic susceptibility to A(H7N9) infection, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 102 A(H7N9) patients and 106 heavily-exposed healthy poultry workers, a sample size critically restricted by the small number of human A(H7N9) cases. To tackle the stringent significance cutoff of GWAS, we utilized an artificial imputation program SnipSnip to improve the association signals. In single-SNP analysis, one of the top SNPs was rs13057866 of LGALS1. The artificial imputation (AI) identified three non-genotyped causal variants, which can be represented by three anchor/partner SNP pairs rs13057866/rs9622682 (AI P = 1.81 × 10-7), rs4820294/rs2899292 (2.13 × 10-7) and rs62236673/rs2899292 (4.25 × 10-7) respectively. Haplotype analysis of rs4820294 and rs2899292 could simulate the signal of a causal variant. The rs4820294/rs2899292 haplotype GG, in association with protection from A(H7N9) infection (OR = 0.26, P = 5.92 × 10-7) correlated to significantly higher levels of LGALS1 mRNA (P = 0.050) and protein expression (P = 0.025) in lymphoblast cell lines. Additionally, rs4820294 was mapped as an eQTL in human primary monocytes and lung tissues. In conclusion, functional variants of LGALS1 causing the expression variations are contributable to the differential susceptibility to influenza A(H7N9).link_to_OA_fulltex