Morphological filtering on hypergraphs

The focus of this article is to develop computationally efficient mathematical morphology operators on hypergraphs. To this aim we consider lattice structures on hypergraphs on which we build morphological operators. We develop a pair of dual adjunctions between the vertex set and the hyper edge set of a hypergraph H, by defining a vertex-hyperedge correspondence. This allows us to recover the classical notion of a dilation/erosion of a subset of vertices and to extend it to subhypergraphs of H. Afterward, we propose several new openings, closings, granulometries and alternate sequential filters acting (i) on the subsets of the vertex and hyperedge set of H and (ii) on the subhypergraphs of a hypergraph

Image gathering and coding for digital restoration: Information efficiency and visual quality

Image gathering and coding are commonly treated as tasks separate from each other and from the digital processing used to restore and enhance the images. The goal is to develop a method that allows us to assess quantitatively the combined performance of image gathering and coding for the digital restoration of images with high visual quality. Digital restoration is often interactive because visual quality depends on perceptual rather than mathematical considerations, and these considerations vary with the target, the application, and the observer. The approach is based on the theoretical treatment of image gathering as a communication channel (J. Opt. Soc. Am. A2, 1644(1985);5,285(1988). Initial results suggest that the practical upper limit of the information contained in the acquired image data range typically from approximately 2 to 4 binary information units (bifs) per sample, depending on the design of the image-gathering system. The associated information efficiency of the transmitted data (i.e., the ratio of information over data) ranges typically from approximately 0.3 to 0.5 bif per bit without coding to approximately 0.5 to 0.9 bif per bit with lossless predictive compression and Huffman coding. The visual quality that can be attained with interactive image restoration improves perceptibly as the available information increases to approximately 3 bifs per sample. However, the perceptual improvements that can be attained with further increases in information are very subtle and depend on the target and the desired enhancement

समुद्रातील पिंजऱ्यात करावयाच्या मत्स्यशोतिसाठी स्थळ आणि प्रजाती यांची निवड

Cage culture is an utilisation of existing water bodies with little or no economic costs. The selection of a suitable site for a cage farm is indispensible for their effective function, particularly in relation to proper water quality within the cage and reduced environmental impacts around the cage and for the economic viability of the cage farm. The natural tolerance of species should be studied for assessment of suitable site

Implementation of lean manufacturing and lean audit system in an auto parts manufacturing industry – an industrial case study

Lean manufacturing is one of the innovative manufacturing concepts being applied in many industries to avoid the wastages of resources and improving the quality of products and help the company to become more effective and productive. It also focuses on continuous improvements with the total involvement of all employees with optimum utilization of man power and machine by reducing idle time and reducing lead time with help of lean tools like value stream mapping and kaizen. This paper presents a case study carried out in a foundry division of an auto parts manufacturing industry, where lean tools are implemented for the defect reduction and productivity improvement. In this paper, a conceptualized implementation of total productive maintenance practices of lean tools: Kaizen or continuous improvement and value stream map in an auto parts industry are presented. The result shows improved performance in terms of average core rejections, sand leakage and air lock problem

Noninflammatory Changes of Microglia Are Sufficient to Cause Epilepsy.

Microglia are well known to play a critical role in maintaining brain homeostasis. However, their role in epileptogenesis has yet to be determined. Here, we demonstrate that elevated mTOR signaling in mouse microglia leads to phenotypic changes, including an amoeboid-like morphology, increased proliferation, and robust phagocytosis activity, but without a significant induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines. We further provide evidence that these noninflammatory changes in microglia disrupt homeostasis of the CNS, leading to reduced synapse density, marked microglial infiltration into hippocampal pyramidal layers, moderate neuronal degeneration, and massive proliferation of astrocytes. Moreover, the mice thus affected develop severe early-onset spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRSs). Therefore, we have revealed an epileptogenic mechanism that is independent of the microglial inflammatory response. Our data suggest that microglia could be an opportune target for epilepsy prevention

Invariance and plasticity in the Drosophila melanogaster metabolomic network in response to temperature

BACKGROUND: Metabolomic responses to extreme thermal stress have recently been investigated in Drosophila melanogaster. However, a network level understanding of metabolomic responses to longer and less drastic temperature changes, which more closely reflect variation in natural ambient temperatures experienced during development and adulthood, is currently lacking. Here we use high-resolution, non-targeted metabolomics to dissect metabolomic changes in D. melanogaster elicited by moderately cool (18°C) or warm (27°C) developmental and adult temperature exposures. RESULTS: We find that temperature at which larvae are reared has a dramatic effect on metabolomic network structure measured in adults. Using network analysis, we are able to identify modules that are highly differentially expressed in response to changing developmental temperature, as well as modules whose correlation structure is strongly preserved across temperature. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the effect of temperature on the metabolome provides an easily studied and powerful model for understanding the forces that influence invariance and plasticity in biological networks. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12918-014-0139-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Aquatic plant Azolla as the universal feedstock for biofuel production

Background: The quest for sustainable production of renewable and cheap biofuels has triggered an intensive search for domestication of the next generation of bioenergy crops. Aquatic plants which can rapidly colonize wetlands are attracting attention because of their ability to grow in wastewaters and produce large amounts of biomass. Representatives of Azolla species are some of the fastest growing plants, producing substantial biomass when growing in contaminated water and natural ecosystems. Together with their evolutional symbiont, the cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae, Azolla biomass has a unique chemical composition accumulating in each leaf including three major types of bioenergy molecules: cellulose/hemicellulose, starch and lipids, resembling combinations of terrestrial bioenergy crops and microalgae. Results: The growth of Azolla filiculoides in synthetic wastewater led up to 25, 69, 24 and 40 % reduction of NH4-N, NO3-N, PO4-P and selenium, respectively, after 5 days of treatment. This led to a 2.6-fold reduction in toxicity of the treated wastewater to shrimps, common inhabitants of wetlands. Two Azolla species, Azolla filiculoides and Azolla pinnata, were used as feedstock for the production of a range of functional hydrocarbons through hydrothermal liquefaction, bio-hydrogen and bio-ethanol. Given the high annual productivity of Azolla, hydrothermal liquefaction can lead to the theoretical production of 20.2 t/ha-year of bio-oil and 48 t/ha-year of bio-char. The ethanol production from Azolla filiculoides, 11.7 × 103 L/ha-year, is close to that from corn stover (13.3 × 103 L/ha-year), but higher than from miscanthus (2.3 × 103 L/ha-year) and woody plants, such as willow (0.3 × 103 L/ha-year) and poplar (1.3 × 103 L/ ha-year). With a high C/N ratio, fermentation of Azolla biomass generates 2.2 mol/mol glucose/xylose of hydrogen, making this species a competitive feedstock for hydrogen production compared with other bioenergy crops

Common polymorphisms in human lysyl oxidase genes are not associated with the adolescent idiopathic scoliosis phenotype

BACKGROUND: Although adolescent idiopathic scoliosis affects approximately 3% of adolescents, the genetic contributions have proven difficult to identify. Work in model organisms, including zebrafish, chickens, and mice, has implicated the lysyl oxidase family of enzymes in the development of scoliosis. We hypothesized that common polymorphisms in the five human lysyl oxidase genes (LOX, LOXL1, LOXL2, LOXL3, and LOXL4) may be associated with the phenotype of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. METHODS: This was a case-control genetic association study. A total of 112 coding and tag SNPs in LOX, LOXL1, LOXL2, LOXL3, and LOXL4 were genotyped in a discovery cohort of 138 cases and 411 controls. Genotypes were tested for association with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis by logistic regression with a two degree of freedom genotypic model and gender as a covariate. Fourteen SNPs with p < 0.1 in the discovery phase were genotyped in an independent replication cohort of 400 cases and 506 controls. RESULTS: No evidence for significant association was found between coding or tag SNPs in LOX, LOXL1, LOXL2, LOXL3, and LOXL4 and the phenotype of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. CONCLUSIONS: Despite suggestive evidence in model organisms, common variants and known coding SNPs in the five human lysyl oxidase genes do not confer increased genotypic risk for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The above methodology does not address rare variants or individually private mutations in these genes, and future research may focus on this area

Molecular inversion probe-based SPR biosensing for specific, label-free and real-time detection of regional DNA methylation

DNA methylation has the potential to be a clinically important biomarker in cancer. This communication reports a real-time and label-free biosensing strategy for DNA methylation detection in the cancer cell line. This has been achieved by using surface plasmon resonance biosensing combined with the highly specific molecular inversion probe based amplification method, which requires only 50 ng of bisulfite treated genomic DNA

Evaluation of Economic Impact on Juvenile Landings of Cephalopods in Mumbai Waters, Northwest Coast of India

Economic assessment of juvenile landings of 5 dominant cephalopods at New Ferry Wharf (NFW) landing centre, Mumbai was carried out during January to December, 2013. Dominant cephalopod fishery recorded include one species of squid, Uroteuthis (P) duvaucelii, three species of cuttlefishes, Sepia elliptica, Sepia pharaonis, Sepiella inermis and a species of octopus, Cistopus indicus together contributing 98% of total cephalopod landings. Estimated total annual economic gain calculated using bioeconomic model was Rs. 33.22 crores with estimated biomass gain of 4995 t per annum, if juveniles are allowed to grow up to length at first maturity (Lm)/Lmean. Among five species, C. indicus contribute maximum with 64.07 % of average juvenile catch followed by U. (P) duvaucelii (26 %), S. elliptica (23.63 %), S. inermis (23.27 %), and S. pharaonis (12.85 %). On these resources, while in S. inermis, both Lm equals Lmean indicates breakeven point for the species. The study revealed that peak spawning season of these species coincides with peak juvenile landings which may result in reduction of overall size range thus will lead to loss of fishery in economic as well as ecosystem regime. The study indicates the improvement of harvest biomass by 2.95 times which would result in generating additional revenue to the fishers by a margin of 3.71 times; if juveniles are allowed to grow up to Lm/ Lmean whichever is greater. Based on finding of present study management measures such as temporary fishing holidays at juveniles fishing grounds, feeding grounds and spawner abundance grounds which in turn allow these high valued species to contribute to the fishery with high economic gain and sustainable utilization of the resources may be adopted