LASER RANGE IMAGING FOR ON-LINE MAPPING OF 3D IMAGES TO PSEUDO-X-RAY IMAGES FOR POULTRY BONE FRAGMENT DETECTION

A laser ranging image system was developed for on-line high-resolution 3D shape recovery of poultry fillets. The range imaging system in conjunction with X-ray imaging was used to provide synergistic imaging detection of bone fragments in poultry fillets. In this research, two 5 mW diode lasers coupled with two CCD cameras were used to produce 3D information based on structured lights and triangulation. A laser scattering phenomenon on meat tissues was studied when calculating the object thickness. To obtain the accurate 3D information, the cameras were calibrated to correct for camera distortions. For pixel registrations of the X-ray and laser 3D images, the range imaging system was calibrated, and noises and signal variations in the X-ray and laser 3D images were analyzed. Furthermore, the relationship between the X-ray absorption and 3D thickness of fillets was obtained, and a mapping function based on this relationship was applied to convert the fillet 3D images into the pseudo-X-ray images. For the on-line system implementation, the imaging hardware and software engineering issues, including the data flow optimization and the operating system task scheduling, were also studied. Based on the experimental on-line test, the range imaging system developed was able to scan poultry fillets at a speed of 0.2 m/sec at a resolution of 0.8(X) x 0.7(Y) x 0.7(Z) mm3. The results of this study have shown great potential for non-invasive detection of hazardous materials in boneless poultry meat with uneven thickness

Tracing the Pace of COVID-19 research : topic modeling and evolution

COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly around the world. With the growing attention on the deadly pandemic, discussions and research on COVID-19 are rapidly increasing to exchange latest findings with the hope to accelerate the pace of finding a cure. As a branch of information technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has greatly expedited the development of human society. In this paper, we investigate and visualize the on-going advancements of early scientific research on COVID-19 from the perspective of AI. By adopting the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model, this paper allocates the research articles into 50 key research topics pertinent to COVID-19 according to their abstracts. We present an overview of early studies of the COVID-19 crisis at different scales including referencing/citation behavior, topic variation and their inner interactions. We also identify innovative papers that are regarded as the cornerstones in the development of COVID-19 research. The results unveil the focus of scientific research, thereby giving deep insights into how the academic society contributes to combating the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Jing Ren and Feng Xia" is provided in this record*

Novel Common Genetic Susceptibility Loci for Colorectal Cancer

BACKGROUND: Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 42 loci (P < 5 × 10-8) associated with risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Expanded consortium efforts facilitating the discovery of additional susceptibility loci may capture unexplained familial risk. METHODS: We conducted a GWAS in European descent CRC cases and control subjects using a discovery-replication design, followed by examination of novel findings in a multiethnic sample (cumulative n = 163 315). In the discovery stage (36 948 case subjects/30 864 control subjects), we identified genetic variants with a minor allele frequency of 1% or greater associated with risk of CRC using logistic regression followed by a fixed-effects inverse variance weighted meta-analysis. All novel independent variants reaching genome-wide statistical significance (two-sided P < 5 × 10-8) were tested for replication in separate European ancestry samples (12 952 case subjects/48 383 control subjects). Next, we examined the generalizability of discovered variants in East Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics (12 085 case subjects/22 083 control subjects). Finally, we examined the contributions of novel risk variants to familial relative risk and examined the prediction capabilities of a polygenic risk score. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: The discovery GWAS identified 11 variants associated with CRC at P < 5 × 10-8, of which nine (at 4q22.2/5p15.33/5p13.1/6p21.31/6p12.1/10q11.23/12q24.21/16q24.1/20q13.13) independently replicated at a P value of less than .05. Multiethnic follow-up supported the generalizability of discovery findings. These results demonstrated a 14.7% increase in familial relative risk explained by common risk alleles from 10.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.9% to 13.7%; known variants) to 11.9% (95% CI = 9.2% to 15.5%; known and novel variants). A polygenic risk score identified 4.3% of the population at an odds ratio for developing CRC of at least 2.0. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight into the architecture of common genetic variation contributing to CRC etiology and improves risk prediction for individualized screenin

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Spatial Association characteristics of facilities around scenic spots considering distance and orientation: A case study of 3A and above scenic spots in Beijing

In the urban tourism and service industry, the POI data with coordinate and attribute information of the major map platforms constitute one of the important data sources of the urban tourism and service industry. In this paper, the spatial data transaction database under four distances was established based on the gate buffer of 3A and above scenic spots in Beijing. The Apriori algorithm was used to calculate the lifting degree to obtain the distance for mining the best association features of 3A, 4A and 5A scenic spots, and then the association features of the three scenic spots in different directions were analysed

Towards neat methanol operation of direct methanol fuel cells: A novel self-assembled proton exchange membrane

10.1039/c4cc09420dChemical Communications51306556-655

Fibronectin Overexpression Modulates Formation of Macrophage Foam Cells by Activating SREBP2 Involved in Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Aims: To explore the explicit role of fibronectin (FN) isforms in atherosclerotic lesions and the underlying mechanisms. Methods and Results: Inducible stable expression was performed, and similar results were observed between EDA+FN (FN containing EDA domain) and EDA-FN (FN devoid of EDA domain). FN isforms could trigger endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, thereby leading to lipid accumulation in cultured Raw264.7 cells. FN isforms-induced gene expression and lipid accumulation were inhibited by a chemical chaperone 4-phenyl butyric acid (PBA) or by overexpression of the ER chaperone, GRP78/BiP, demonstrating a direct role of ER stress in activation of cholesterol/triglyceride biosynthesis. Moreover, activation of the sterol regulatory element binding protein-2 (SREBP2) was found to be downstream of ER stress, and this activation was affirmed to account for the intracellular accumulation of cholesterol using RNAi technique. Conclusion: our study suggests that enhanced FN in lesions facilitates foam cell formation due to dysregulation of the endogenous sterol response pathway by activation of ER stress, and confirms that EDA+FN has no more pro-atherogenic role than EDA-FN in triggering ER stress

Karst Aquifer Water Inflow into Tunnels: An Analytical Solution

This study gives two new analytical solutions to the tunnel by high-pressure water in the cavern. Firstly, it deals with the analytical solution for the seepage inflow in unsupported karst aquifer tunnels considering the boundary condition. Secondly, it focuses on the study of the seepage force and gives the reduction coefficient of lining water pressure. A comparison of the analytical solution and the finite element software shows a curve relationship as the relevant permeability coefficient β increases. The results show that the analytical solution and numerical solution are consistent. As d increases, β decreases gradually. β increases as rw increases or the grouting circle and initial support become thinner or the secondary lining becomes thicker. In summary, the analytical solution of β can be used to predict the seepage inflow and the seepage force of the actual engineering