1,986 research outputs found
Prediction of protein secondary structures with a novel kernel density estimation based classifier
THE ELECTROMYOGRAPHY CHARACTERISTICS BETWEEN DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SOCCER PLAYER ON INSTEP KICKING
This study improves kicking performance by comparing muscle activity between different levels of players. Twelve soccer players in the college cup in division I and division II volunteered to participate in this study. A VlCON motion capture system (200 Hz) was used to capture the kicking motion including back-swing and forward-swing. The Noraxon electromyography system was used to collect and analyze the percentage of maximum voluntary contraction on rectus femoris, bicepsfemoris, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius. The Mann-Whilney U (a = -05) test was applied to assess significant differences in this study. The results indicated that division II players had a greater percentage maximum voluntary contraction in tibialis anterior in the back-swing. To avoid stiff movements in soccer kicks, division II players should decrease muscle contraction in the tiblalis anterior In the back-swing
The role of nitric oxide in the outgrowth of trophoblast cells on human umbilical vein endothelial cells
AbstractObjectiveEmbryo implantation is a complex process that requires coordinated trophoblastâendometrial interactions. Previous studies demonstrated that the identification of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in trophoblast cells and the remodeling of the implantation process by nitric oxide (NO) support the important role of NO during implantation. However, the role of NO in trophoblastâendometrial interactions is unclear and is therefore examined in this study.Materials and methodsWe cocultured BeWo trophoblast spheroids with human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) monolayers to mimic the trophoblastâendometrial interaction. NÏ-Nitro-l-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (l-NAME), a competitive inhibitor of NOS, and sodium nitroprusside (SNP), an NO donor, were used to test the role of NO in the trophoblastâendometrial interaction.Resultsl-NAME diminished spheroid expansion on HUVEC monolayers in a concentration-dependent manner (p < 0.05). However, trophoblast spreading on HUVEC-free culture surfaces was unaffected by l-NAME treatment (p > 0.05). Significant suppression of spheroid expansion was found at the higher dose (1mM) of SNP (p < 0.05).ConclusionNO may be needed in the process of implantation, and an adequate but not overly NO-containing environment might be an important factor for successful implantation. This finding is worthy of further investigation
A Study of Low-Resource Speech Commands Recognition based on Adversarial Reprogramming
In this study, we propose a novel adversarial reprogramming (AR) approach for
low-resource spoken command recognition (SCR), and build an AR-SCR system. The
AR procedure aims to modify the acoustic signals (from the target domain) to
repurpose a pretrained SCR model (from the source domain). To solve the label
mismatches between source and target domains, and further improve the stability
of AR, we propose a novel similarity-based label mapping technique to align
classes. In addition, the transfer learning (TL) technique is combined with the
original AR process to improve the model adaptation capability. We evaluate the
proposed AR-SCR system on three low-resource SCR datasets, including Arabic,
Lithuanian, and dysarthric Mandarin speech. Experimental results show that with
a pretrained AM trained on a large-scale English dataset, the proposed AR-SCR
system outperforms the current state-of-the-art results on Arabic and
Lithuanian speech commands datasets, with only a limited amount of training
data.Comment: Submitted to ICASSP 202
Ludwigia octovalvis extract improves glycemic control and memory performance in diabetic mice
Ethnopharmacological relevance
Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) P.H. Raven (Onagraceae) extracts have historically been consumed as a healthful drink for treating various conditions, including edema, nephritis, hypotension and diabetes.
Aim of the study
We have previously shown that Ludwigia octovalvis extract (LOE) can significantly extend lifespan and improve age-related memory deficits in Drosophila melanogaster through activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Since AMPK has become a critical target for treating diabetes, we herein investigate the anti-hyperglycemic potential of LOE.
Materials and methods
Differentiated C2C12 muscle cells, HepG2 hepatocellular cells, streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice and high fat diet (HFD)-induced diabetic mice were used to investigate the anti-hyperglycemic potential of LOE. The open field test and novel object recognition test were used to evaluate spontaneous motor activity and memory performance of HFD-induced diabetic mice.
Results
In differentiated C2C12 muscle cells and HepG2 hepatocellular cells, treatments with LOE and its active component (ÎČ-sitosterol) induced significant AMPK phosphorylation. LOE also enhanced uptake of a fluorescent glucose derivative (2-NBDG) and inhibited glucose production in these cells. The beneficial effects of LOE were completely abolished when an AMPK inhibitor, dorsomorphin, was added to the culture system, suggesting that LOE requires AMPK activation for its action in vitro. In streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice, we found that both LOE and ÎČ-sitosterol induced an anti-hyperglycemic effect comparable to that of metformin, a drug that is commonly prescribed to treat diabetes. Moreover, LOE also improved glycemic control and memory performance of mice fed a HFD.
Conclusions
These results indicate that LOE is a potent anti-diabetic intervention that may have potential for future clinical applications
RVSL: Robust Vehicle Similarity Learning in Real Hazy Scenes Based on Semi-supervised Learning
Recently, vehicle similarity learning, also called re-identification (ReID),
has attracted significant attention in computer vision. Several algorithms have
been developed and obtained considerable success. However, most existing
methods have unpleasant performance in the hazy scenario due to poor
visibility. Though some strategies are possible to resolve this problem, they
still have room to be improved due to the limited performance in real-world
scenarios and the lack of real-world clear ground truth. Thus, to resolve this
problem, inspired by CycleGAN, we construct a training paradigm called
\textbf{RVSL} which integrates ReID and domain transformation techniques. The
network is trained on semi-supervised fashion and does not require to employ
the ID labels and the corresponding clear ground truths to learn hazy vehicle
ReID mission in the real-world haze scenes. To further constrain the
unsupervised learning process effectively, several losses are developed.
Experimental results on synthetic and real-world datasets indicate that the
proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art performance on hazy vehicle ReID
problems. It is worth mentioning that although the proposed method is trained
without real-world label information, it can achieve competitive performance
compared to existing supervised methods trained on complete label information.Comment: Accepted by ECCV 202
Major interventions are associated with survival of out of hospital cardiac arrest patients - a population based survey
Background. The overall survival rate of
out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)
in Taiwan or even in the whole of Asia
is relatively low. Major interventions,
such as target temperature management
(TTM), coronary artery angiography, and
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
(ECMO), have been associated with better
patient outcome. However, studies in Taiwan
revealing evidence of the benefits of
these interventions are limited.
Methods. A population-based study used
an 8-year database to analyze overall survival
and risk factors Ëamong OHCA patients.
All adult non-trauma OHCA patients
were identified through diagnostic
and procedure codes. Hospital survival
and return of spontaneous circulation
(ROSC) were primary and secondary outcomes.
Logistic regression and Cox regression
analyses were conducted.
Results. There was a relationship between
major interventions (including TTM,
coronary artery angiography, and ECMO)
and better hospital survival. Age, income,
major interventions, and acute myocardial
infarction history were associated with
hospital survival. The adjusted hazard
ratios (HRs) were 0.406 (95% CI, 0.295
to 0.558), 1.109 (95% CI, 1.027 to 1.197),
1.075 (95% CI, 1.002 to 1.154), 1.097 (95%
CI, 1.02 to 1.181) and 0.799(95% CI, 0.677
to 0.942) for patients with major interventions,
ageâ„50, medium low and low income,
middle income, and acute myocardial
infarction history, respectively.
Conclusion. This population-based study
in Taiwan revealed that older age (â„50),
medium low and low income were associated
with a lower rate of survival. Major
interventions, including TTM, coronary
angiography, and ECMO, were related to
better survival
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