FFTPL: An Analytic Placement Algorithm Using Fast Fourier Transform for Density Equalization

We propose a flat nonlinear placement algorithm FFTPL using fast Fourier transform for density equalization. The placement instance is modeled as an electrostatic system with the analogy of density cost to the potential energy. A well-defined Poisson's equation is proposed for gradient and cost computation. Our placer outperforms state-of-the-art placers with better solution quality and efficiency

Multi-dimensional extension of the alternating minimization algorithm in x-ray computed tomography

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an important and effective tool in medical and industrial imaging applications. The state-of-the-art methods to reconstruct CT images have had great development but also face challenges. This dissertation derives novel algorithms to reduce bias and metal artifacts in a wide variety of imaging modalities and increase performance in low-dose scenarios. The most widely available CT systems still use the single-energy CT (SECT), which is good at showing the anatomic structure of the patient body. However, in SECT image reconstruction, energy-related information is lost. In applications like radiation treatment planning and dose prediction, accurate energy-related information is needed. Spectral CT has shown the potential to extract energy-related information. Dual-energy CT (DECT) is the first successful implementation of spectral CT. By using two different spectra, the energy-related information can be exported by reconstructing basis-material images. A sinogram-based decomposition method has shown good performance in clinical applications. However, when the x-ray dose level is low, the sinogram-based decomposition methods generate biased estimates. The bias increases rapidly when the dose level decreases. The bias comes from the ill-posed statistical model in the sinogram-decomposition method. To eliminate the bias in low-dose cases, a joint statistical image reconstruction (JSIR) method using the dual-energy alternating minimization (DEAM) algorithm is proposed. By correcting the ill-posed statistical model, a relative error as high as 15% in the sinogram-based decomposition method can be reduced to less than 1% with DEAM, which is an approximately unbiased estimation. Photon counting CT (PCCT) is an emerging CT technique that also can resolve the energy information. By using photon-counting detectors (PCD), PCCT keeps track of the energy of every photon received. Though PCDs have an entirely different physical performance from the energy-integrating detectors used in DECT, the problem of biased estimation with the sinogram-decomposition method remains. Based on DEAM, a multi-energy alternating minimization (MEAM) algorithm for PCCT is proposed. In the simulation experiments, MEAM can effectively reduce bias by more than 90%. Metal artifacts have been a concern since x-ray CT came into medical imaging. When there exist dense or metal materials in the scanned object, the image quality may suffer severe artifacts. The auxiliary sinogram alternating minimization (ASAM) algorithm is proposed to take advantages of two major categories of methods to deal with metal artifacts: the pre-processing method and statistical image reconstruction. With a phantom experiment, it has been shown that ASAM has better metal-artifact reduction performance compared with the current methods. A significant challenge in security imaging is that due to the large geometry and power consumption, low photon statistics are detected. The detected photons suffer high noise and heavy artifacts. Image-domain regularized iterative reconstruction algorithms can reduce the noise but also result in biased reconstruction. A wavelet-domain penalty is introduced which does not bring in bias and can effectively eliminate steaking artifacts. By combining the image-domain and wavelet-domain penalty, the image quality can be further improved. When the wavelet penalty is used, a concern is that no empirical way, like in the image-domain penalty, is available to determine the penalty weight. Laplace variational automatic relevance determination (Lap-VARD) method is proposed to reconstruct the image and optimal penalty weight choice at the same time

Coenzyme Q10 attenuates airway inflammation and oxidative stress in neonatal asthmatic rats

Purpose: To determine the therapeutic effect of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) on ovalbumin (OVA)-provoked asthma in neonatal rats.Methods: Asthma was induced by exposing neonatal rats to OVA. The levels of SOD, CAT, GPx, GSH, MDA and MPO were estimated using standard biochemical kits, while ELISA was used to measure the concentrations of Ig E and Th2 cytokines. Gene expressions were assayed with qRT-PCR, and protein expressions were determined with western blotting.Results: OVA treatment led to increases in levels of BALF inflammatory cells, lipid peroxidation, serum IgE and BALF Th2 cytokines, but it decreased antioxidant levels. Furthermore, the protein expression of NF-κB and mRNA expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were upregulated in the asthmatic rats (p < 0.05). However, coenzyme Q10 supplementation significantly decreased lipid peroxidation, and reduced inflammatory cells and IgE levels, while the antioxidant levels were enhanced (p < 0.05). Moreover, coenzyme Q10 reduced the levels of Th2 cytokines and downregulated the expressions of NF-κB, TNF-α, IL-6, and iNOS in the neonatal asthmatic rats (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Coenzyme Q10 attenuates airway inflammation and oxidative stress in neonatal asthmatic rats. Thus, coenzyme Q10 has promising therapeutic potential in the management of asthma. Keywords: Asthma, Neonatal, Coenzyme Q10, Th2, cytokines, Oxidative stress, Antiinflammatio

Microwave Diagnostics of Ultracold Neutral Plasma

We suggest an approach for using microwave radiation in diagnostics of ultracold neutral plasma. Microwave scattering from ultracold neutral plasma is calculated . Simple formulations are get and indicate that the dipole radiation power of ultracold neutral plasma does not depend on density profile $n_e(r)$ and $\omega$ when $\omega\gg\omega_{pe0}$, but on the total electron number $N_e$. This method provides the information of $N_e$ and from which we can get the three body recombination rate of the plasma, which is extremely important in the researches of ultracold neutral plasma

Two-Dimensional Controlled Syntheses of Polypeptide Molecular Brushes via N-Carboxyanhydride Ring-Opening Polymerization and Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization.

Well-defined molecular brushes bearing polypeptides as side chains were prepared by a "grafting through" synthetic strategy with two-dimensional control over the brush molecular architectures. By integrating N-carboxyanhydride ring-opening polymerizations (NCA ROPs) and ring-opening metathesis polymerizations (ROMPs), desirable segment lengths of polypeptide side chains and polynorbornene brush backbones were independently constructed in controlled manners. The N2 flow accelerated NCA ROP was utilized to prepare polypeptide macromonomers with different lengths initiated from a norbornene-based primary amine, and those macromonomers were then polymerized via ROMP. It was found that a mixture of dichloromethane and an ionic liquid were required as the solvent system to allow for construction of molecular brush polymers having densely-grafted peptide chains emanating from a polynorbornene backbone, poly(norbornene-graft-poly(β-benzyl-l-aspartate)) (P(NB-g-PBLA)). Highly efficient postpolymerization modification was achieved by aminolysis of PBLA side chains for facile installment of functional moieties onto the molecular brushes

The Effect of Altruistic Tendency on Fairness in Third-Party Punishment

Third-party punishment, as an altruistic behavior, was found to relate to inequity aversion in previous research. Previous researchers have found that altruistic tendencies, as an individual difference, can affect resource division. Here, using the event-related potential (ERP) technique and a third-party punishment of dictator game paradigm, we explored third-party punishments in high and low altruists and recorded their EEG data. Behavioral results showed high altruists (vs. low altruists) were more likely to punish the dictators in unfair offers. ERP results revealed that patterns of medial frontal negativity (MFN) were modulated by unfairness. For high altruists, high unfair offers (90:10) elicited a larger MFN than medium unfair offers (70:30) and fair offers (50:50). By contrast, for low altruists, fair offers elicited larger MFN while high unfair offers caused the minimal MFN. It is suggested that the altruistic tendency effect influences fairness consideration in the early stage of evaluation. Moreover, the results provide further neuroscience evidence for inequity aversion

The Effect of Altruistic Tendency on Fairness in Third-Party Punishment

Third-party punishment, as an altruistic behavior, was found to relate to inequity aversion in previous research. Previous researchers have found that altruistic tendencies, as an individual difference, can affect resource division. Here, using the event-related potential (ERP) technique and a third-party punishment of dictator game paradigm, we explored third-party punishments in high and low altruists and recorded their EEG data. Behavioral results showed high altruists (vs. low altruists) were more likely to punish the dictators in unfair offers. ERP results revealed that patterns of medial frontal negativity (MFN) were modulated by unfairness. For high altruists, high unfair offers (90:10) elicited a larger MFN than medium unfair offers (70:30) and fair offers (50:50). By contrast, for low altruists, fair offers elicited larger MFN while high unfair offers caused the minimal MFN. It is suggested that the altruistic tendency effect influences fairness consideration in the early stage of evaluation. Moreover, the results provide further neuroscience evidence for inequity aversion

Effect of directional solidification rate on the microstructure and properties of deformation-processed Cu-7Cr-0.1Ag in situ composites

The influence of directional solidification rate on the microstructure, mechanical properties and conductivity of deformation-processed Cu-7Cr-0.1Ag in situ composites produced by thermo-mechanical processing was systematically investigated. The microstructure was analyzed by optical microscopy and scanning electronic microscopy. The mechanical properties and conductivity were evaluated by tensile-testing machine and micro-ohmmeter, respectively. The results indicate that the size, shape and distribution of second-phase Cr grains are significantly different in the Cu-7Cr-0.1Ag alloys with different growth rates. At a growth rate of 200 μm s-1, the Cr grains transform into fine Cr fiber-like grains parallel to the pulling direction from the Cr dendrites. The tensile strength of the Cu-7Cr-0.1Ag in situ composites from the directional solidification (DS) alloys is significantly higher than that from the as-cast alloy, while the conductivity of the in situ composites from the DS alloys is slightly lower than that from the as-cast alloy. The following combinations of tensile strength, elongation to fracture and conductivity of the Cu-7Cr-0.1Ag in situ composites from the DS alloy with a growth rate of 200 μm s-1 and a cumulative cold deformation strain of 8 after isochronic aging treatment for 1 h can be obtained respectively as: (i) 1067 MPa, 2.9% and 74.9% IACS; or (ii) 1018 MPa, 3.0%, and 76.0% IACS or (iii) 906 MPa, 3.3% and 77.6% IACS