13 research outputs found
Collaborative Multi-Agent Video Fast-Forwarding
Multi-agent applications have recently gained significant popularity. In many
computer vision tasks, a network of agents, such as a team of robots with
cameras, could work collaboratively to perceive the environment for efficient
and accurate situation awareness. However, these agents often have limited
computation, communication, and storage resources. Thus, reducing resource
consumption while still providing an accurate perception of the environment
becomes an important goal when deploying multi-agent systems. To achieve this
goal, we identify and leverage the overlap among different camera views in
multi-agent systems for reducing the processing, transmission and storage of
redundant/unimportant video frames. Specifically, we have developed two
collaborative multi-agent video fast-forwarding frameworks in distributed and
centralized settings, respectively. In these frameworks, each individual agent
can selectively process or skip video frames at adjustable paces based on
multiple strategies via reinforcement learning. Multiple agents then
collaboratively sense the environment via either 1) a consensus-based
distributed framework called DMVF that periodically updates the fast-forwarding
strategies of agents by establishing communication and consensus among
connected neighbors, or 2) a centralized framework called MFFNet that utilizes
a central controller to decide the fast-forwarding strategies for agents based
on collected data. We demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of our proposed
frameworks on a real-world surveillance video dataset VideoWeb and a new
simulated driving dataset CarlaSim, through extensive simulations and
deployment on an embedded platform with TCP communication. We show that
compared with other approaches in the literature, our frameworks achieve better
coverage of important frames, while significantly reducing the number of frames
processed at each agent.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 2023. arXiv admin note: text overlap
with arXiv:2008.0443
Opportunistic Intermittent Control with Safety Guarantees for Autonomous Systems
Control schemes for autonomous systems are often designed in a way that anticipates the worst case in any situation. At runtime, however, there could exist opportunities to leverage the characteristics of specific environment and operation context for more efficient control. In this work, we develop an online intermittent-control framework that combines formal verification with model-based optimization and deep reinforcement learning to opportunistically skip certain control computation and actuation to save actuation energy and computational resources without compromising system safety. Experiments on an adaptive cruise control system demonstrate that our approach can achieve significant energy and computation savings
Mechanical Force Modulates Alveolar Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Cells Characteristics for Bone Remodeling during Orthodontic Tooth Movement through Lactate Production
Orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) relies on mechanical force-induced bone remodeling. As a metabolic intermediate of glycolysis, lactate has recently been discovered to participate in bone remodeling by serving as a signaling molecule. However, whether lactate could respond to mechanical stimulus during OTM, as well as whether lactate has an impact on the alveolar bone remodeling during orthodontics, remain to be further elucidated. In the current study, we observed physiologically elevated production of lactate along with increased osteogenic differentiation, proliferation, and migration of alveolar bone marrow mesenchymal cells (ABMMCs) under mechanical force. Inhibition of lactate, induced by cyclic mechanical stretch by GNE-140, remarkably suppressed the osteogenic differentiation, proliferation, and migration, yet enhanced apoptosis of ABMMCs. Mechanistically, these regulatory effects of lactate were mediated by histone lactylation. Taken together, our results suggest that force-induced lactate is involved in controlling bone remodeling-related cellular activities in ABMMCs and plays a vital role in the alveolar bone remodeling during OTM. Our findings indicate that lactate might be a critical modulator for alveolar bone remodeling during OTM, providing a novel therapeutic target for the purpose of more effectively controlling tooth movement and improving the stability of orthodontic results
Tamoxifen Exerts Anticancer Effects on Pituitary Adenoma Progression via Inducing Cell Apoptosis and Inhibiting Cell Migration
Although pituitary adenomas are histologically benign, they are often accompanied by multiple complications, such as cardiovascular disease and metabolic dysfunction. In the present study, we repositioned the Food and Drug Administration -approved immune regulator tamoxifen to target STAT6 based on the genomics analysis of PAs. Tamoxifen inhibited the proliferation of GH3 and AtT-20 cells with respective IC50 values of 9.15 and 7.52 μM and increased their apoptotic rates in a dose-dependent manner. At the molecular level, tamoxifen downregulated phosphorylated PI3K, phosphorylated AKT and the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and increased the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins p53 and Bax in GH3 and AtT-20 cells. Furthermore, tamoxifen also inhibited the migration of both cell lines by reprogramming tumor-associated macrophages to the M1 phenotype through STAT6 inactivation and inhibition of the macrophage-specific immune checkpoint SHP1/SHP. Finally, administration of tamoxifen (20, 50, 100 mg·kg−1·d−1, for 21 days) inhibited the growth of pituitary adenomas xenografts in nude mice in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, tamoxifen is likely to be a promising combination therapy for pituitary adenomas and should be investigated further
A Novel Co-Crystal of Bexarotene and Ligustrazine Improves Pharmacokinetics and Tissue Distribution of Bexarotene in SD Rats
Bexarotene (BEX), a specific retinoic acid X receptor (RXR) agonist granted by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the clinical treatment of T cell lymphoma, has now been found to exert pharmacological effects in the nervous system, with low bioavailability and poor cerebral distribution limiting its application in treatment on neurological disorders. Pharmaceutical co-crystal was a helpful method to improve the bioavailability and tissue distribution of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Here, 2bexarotene-ligustrazine (2BEX-LIG), a novel co-crystal system of BEX and ligustrazine (LIG) of which with BEX is an API, was constructed with satisfactory stability and enhanced solubility. The pharmacokinetics characteristics of BEX were detected, and the results showed that the absolute bioavailability and the cerebral concentration of BEX in rats administrated with 2BEX-LIG were enhanced from 22.89% to 42.86% and increased by 3.4-fold, respectively, compared with those in rats administrated an equivalent of BEX. Hence, our present study indicated that the novel co-crystal of 2BEX-LIG contributed to improving BEX oral bioavailability and cerebral distribution, thereby providing significant advantages for clinical application of brain tumors and other neurological diseases