Computing robust viewpoints with multi-constraints using tree annealing

In order to compute camera viewpoints during sensor planning, Tarabanis et al. (1991) present a group of feature detectability constraints which include six nonlinear inequalities in an eight-dimensional real space. It is difficult to compute robust viewpoints which satisfy all feature detectability constraints. In this paper, the viewpoint setting is formulated as an unconstrained optimization problem. Then a tree annealing algorithm, which is a general-purpose technique for finding minima of functions of continuously-valued variables, is applied to solve this nonlinear multiconstraint optimization problem. Our results show that the technique is quite effective to get robust viewpoints even in the presence of considerable amounts of noise

ESTIMATION OF LOWER LIMB KINETICS FROM LANDMARKS DURING SIDESTEPPING VIA ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of kinetics estimated from 3D coordinates of landmarks during sidestepping by artificial neural networks (ANN). 71 male college professional soccer athletes performed sidestepping with two directions (left and right) and two cutting angles (45° and 90°) 3times for every task, totally 12 times. Coordinates of reflective markers, ground reaction forces (GRF) and lower limb joint moments were measured. All 18 body landmarks such as joints center were obtained by reflective markers as inputs to estimate GRF and lower joint moments in the ANN whose type was multilayer perceptron. The most of kinetics estimated by ANN showed strong correlation(r\u3e0.9) with measured results. Just few kinetic curves of ANN existed significant differences in a few time points compared to measured results. ANN could accurately estimate kinetics from the coordinates of body landmarks druing sidestepping

An empirical study on university students' continuous utilization of fitness apps in China

University students in China faced great health challenges. Fitness apps based on smartphones have the potential to provide an innovative approach to the university students to increase physical activities and conduct health management. This study examined how confirmed usefulness and confirmed ease of use of fitness Apps affect the attitudes, intention of recommendation, and continuous use of fitness apps among Chinese university students. The study took a quantitative approach, using online questionnaire to collect data from 552 university students who had experiences using fitness Apps. All data analyses were conducted in R. Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression were used to examine associations.Results. Both confirmed usefulness and confirmed ease of use were positively associated with attitude towards fitness Apps and intention of recommending fitness apps to others. However, only confirmed usefulness was positively related to frequency of using fitness apps. Confirmed ease of use was not significantly related to frequency of using fitness apps. We recommend future app-based health interventions targeting on university students to pay more attention to the functionality of the apps and integrate professional instructions into the program designs to help users achieve their goal more effectively.Peer Reviewe

HELIPORT PAVEMENT DESIGNING FEATURES

In recent years, there has been a significant progress in helicopter traffic, its volume increasing every year. To solve the transport problem of megacities, first of all heliports should be built in the largest cities, with the corporate sector as the customers, and the possibility of excursion transport flights not excluded. UTair-Ukraine (the world’s largest airline in terms of helicopter fleet operating more than 300 helicopters of various models) plans to actively develop the helicopter business in Ukraine. To date, only one modern helipad has been built in the capital of Ukraine – Dnipro-1. Kyiv needs at least 19 helicopter pads located in such a way as to reduce the traffic load on roads and provide an opportunity to evacuate the population in case of an emergency. The article considers the history of the development of designing hard surface airfields and heliports design, the main heliport parts, determination of the helipad geometric parameters, helicopters classification by their impact on the covering.In recent years, there has been a significant progress in helicopter traffic, its volume increasing every year. To solve the transport problem of megacities, first of all heliports should be built in the largest cities, with the corporate sector as the customers, and the possibility of excursion transport flights not excluded. UTair-Ukraine (the world’s largest airline in terms of helicopter fleet operating more than 300 helicopters of various models) plans to actively develop the helicopter business in Ukraine. To date, only one modern helipad has been built in the capital of Ukraine – Dnipro-1. Kyiv needs at least 19 helicopter pads located in such a way as to reduce the traffic load on roads and provide an opportunity to evacuate the population in case of an emergency. The article considers the history of the development of designing hard surface airfields and heliports design, the main heliport parts, determination of the helipad geometric parameters, helicopters classification by their impact on the covering

РОЗРАХУНОК ТА ПРОЕКТУВАННЯ ОПТИМАЛЬНОГО ВЕРТОДРОМНОГО ПОКРИТТЯ

The article considers the calculation of rigid helipad coverings, singlelayer covering modeling in PC LIRA CAD, FEAFAA; calculation of cement-concrete covering, temporary coverings of metal plates, the differential equation of the membrane curved surface. A great contribution to this work was made by the master of construction T.V. Blyznyuk.У статті розглянуто розрахунок жорстких гелікоптерних покриттів, моделювання одношарового покриття в ПК ЛІРА САПР, FEAFAA, розрахунок цементобетонного покриття, тимчасового покриття з металевих пластин, диференціальне рівняння криволінійної поверхні мембрани. Дана робота виконана майстром будівництва Близнюк Т.В

Chaotic Control and Generalized Synchronization for a Hyperchaotic Lorenz-Stenflo System

This paper is devoted to investigate the tracking control and generalized synchronization of the hyperchaotic Lorenz-Stenflo system using the tracking model and the feedback control scheme. We suppress the chaos to unstable equilibrium via three feedback methods, and we achieve three globally generalized synchronization controls. Novel tracking controllers with corresponding parameter update laws are designed such that the Lorenz-Stenflo systems can be synchronized asymptotically. Moreover, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness, through the contrast between the orbits before being stabilized and the ones after being stabilized

CCR2 expression correlates with prostate cancer progression

Although the primary role of chemokines and their receptors is controlling the trafficking of leukocytes during inflammatory responses, they also play pleoitropic roles in cancer development. There is emerging evidence that cancer cells produce chemokines that induce tumor cell proliferation or chemotaxis in various cancer types. We have previously reported that MCP-1 acts as a paracrine and autocrine factor for prostate cancer (PCa) growth and invasion. As the cellular effects of MCP-1 are mediated by CC chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), we hypothesized that CCR2 may contribute PCa progression. Accordingly, we first determined CCR2 mRNA and protein expression in various cancer cell lines, including PCa and other cancer types. All cells expressed CCR2 mRNA and protein, but in PCa, more aggressive cancer cells such as C4-2B, DU145, and PC3 expressed a higher amount of CCR2 compared with the less aggressive cancer cells such as LNCaP or non-neoplastic PrEC and RWPE-1 cells. Further, we found a positive correlation between CCR2 expression and PCa progression by analyzing an ONCOMINE gene array database. We confirmed that CCR2 mRNA was highly expressed in PCa metastatic tissues compared with the localized PCa or benign prostate tissues by real-time RT-PCR. Finally, CCR2 protein expression was examined by immunohistochemical staining on tissue microarray specimens from 96 PCa patients and 31 benign tissue controls. We found that CCR2 expression correlated with Gleason score and clinical pathologic stages, whereas lower levels of CCR2 were expressed in normal prostate tissues. These results suggest that CCR2 may contribute to PCa development. J. Cell. Biochem. 101: 676–685, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56008/1/21220_ftp.pd

Use of top-down and bottom-up fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry for mapping calmodulin sites modified by platinum anticancer drugs

Calmodulin (CaM) is a highly conserved, ubiquitous, calcium-binding protein; it binds to and regulates many different protein targets, thereby functioning as a calcium sensor and signal transducer. CaM contains 9 methionine (Met), 1 histidine (His), 17 aspartic acid (Asp), and 23 glutamine acid (Glu) residues, all of which can potentially react with platinum compounds; thus, one-third of the CaM sequence is a possible binding target of platinum anticancer drugs, which represents a major challenge for identification of specific platinum modification sites. Here, top-down electron capture dissociation (ECD) was used to elucidate the transition metal–platinum(II) modification sites. By using a combination of top-down and bottom-up mass spectrometric (MS) approaches, 10 specific binding sites for mononuclear complexes, cisplatin and [Pt(dien)Cl]Cl, and dinuclear complex [{cis-PtCl2(NH3)}2(μ-NH2(CH2)4NH2)] on CaM were identified. High resolution MS of cisplatin-modified CaM revealed that cisplatin mainly targets Met residues in solution at low molar ratios of cisplatin–CaM (2:1), by cross-linking Met residues. At a high molar ratio of cisplatin:CaM (8:1), up to 10 platinum(II) bind to Met, Asp, and Glu residues. [{cis-PtCl2(NH3)}2(μ-NH2(CH2)4NH2)] forms mononuclear adducts with CaM. The alkanediamine linker between the two platinum centers dissociates due to a trans-labilization effect. [Pt(dien)Cl]Cl forms {Pt(dien)}2+ adducts with CaM, and the preferential binding sites were identified as Met51, Met71, Met72, His107, Met109, Met124, Met144, Met145, Glu45 or Glu47, and Asp122 or Glu123. The binding of these complexes to CaM, particularly when binding involves loss of all four original ligands, is largely irreversible which could result in their failure to reach the target DNA or be responsible for unwanted side-effects during chemotherapy. Additionally, the cross-linking of cisplatin to CaM might lead to the loss of the biological function of CaM or CaM–Ca2+ due to limiting the flexibility of the CaM or CaM–Ca2+ complex to recognize target proteins or blocking the binding region of target proteins to CaM