E2VIDX: improved bridge between conventional vision and bionic vision.

Common RGBD, CMOS, and CCD-based cameras produce motion blur and incorrect exposure under high-speed and improper lighting conditions. According to the bionic principle, the event camera developed has the advantages of low delay, high dynamic range, and no motion blur. However, due to its unique data representation, it encounters significant obstacles in practical applications. The image reconstruction algorithm based on an event camera solves the problem by converting a series of "events" into common frames to apply existing vision algorithms. Due to the rapid development of neural networks, this field has made significant breakthroughs in past few years. Based on the most popular Events-to-Video (E2VID) method, this study designs a new network called E2VIDX. The proposed network includes group convolution and sub-pixel convolution, which not only achieves better feature fusion but also the network model size is reduced by 25%. Futhermore, we propose a new loss function. The loss function is divided into two parts, first part calculates the high level features and the second part calculates the low level features of the reconstructed image. The experimental results clearly outperform against the state-of-the-art method. Compared with the original method, Structural Similarity (SSIM) increases by 1.3%, Learned Perceptual Image Patch Similarity (LPIPS) decreases by 1.7%, Mean Squared Error (MSE) decreases by 2.5%, and it runs faster on GPU and CPU. Additionally, we evaluate the results of E2VIDX with application to image classification, object detection, and instance segmentation. The experiments show that conversions using our method can help event cameras directly apply existing vision algorithms in most scenarios.

Esophageal arteriovenous malformation, a rare cause of significant upper gastrointestinal bleeding: Case report and review of literature.

Gastrointestinal (GI) arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are a well-known source of bleeding with colon being the most common site, but they can also occur in rare locations like the esophagus which may present with life threatening bleeding. We report the case of a 51-year-old male with end stage renal disease (ESRD) presenting with hematemesis and acute on chronic anemia. Further investigation showed an esophageal AVM which is an unusual location and it was successfully treated with an endoscopic clip instead of argon plasma coagulation (APC) due to its challenging location and esophageal wall motion from breathing. The patient continued to be asymptomatic without any upper and lower GI bleeding during his 20 months follow up period after the endoscopic management. Review of literature showed only 10 cases of AVMs involving esophagus and the average age of presentation was 52 years with a male predominance. We also provide an overview of those cases in the discussion section below.

Graph-Based Cooperative Localization Using Symmetric Measurement Equations.

Precise localization is a key requirement for the success of highly assisted or autonomous vehicles. The diminishing cost of hardware has resulted in a proliferation of the number of sensors in the environment. Cooperative localization (CL) presents itself as a feasible and effective solution for localizing the ego-vehicle and its neighboring vehicles. However, one of the major challenges to fully realize the effective use of infrastructure sensors for jointly estimating the state of a vehicle in cooperative vehicle-infrastructure localization is an effective data association. In this paper, we propose a method which implements symmetric measurement equations within factor graphs in order to overcome the data association challenge with a reduced bandwidth overhead. Simulated results demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach in comparison with our previously proposed approach of topology factors.

Overestimate of Fibrosis by FIBROSpect® II in African Americans Complicates the Management of their Chronic Hepatitis C.

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of advanced fibrosis in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is used to facilitate decisions on treatment strategy and to initiate additional screening measures. Unfortunately, most studies have predominately Caucasian (Cau) patients and may not be as relevant for African Americans (AA). AIMS: This study specifically addresses the issue of defining minimal vs. significant fibrosis in African Americans (AA) with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) using noninvasive assays. METHODS: All patients (n = 319) seen between 1 January 2008 and 30 June 2013 for whom a FibroSpect II® (FSII) assay was performed and had data for calculation of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) platelet ratio index (APRI) and Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) were identified using the medical records. RESULTS: When liver biopsy score and FSII assay results for the AA patients with CHC were compared, 31% of AA had advanced FSII fibrosis scores (F2-F4) despite a biopsy score of F0-F1. In contrast, 10% of Cau over-scored. The AA false positive rate was 14% for APRI and 34% for FIB-4. Combining FSII with either APRI (7% false positive) or FIB-4 (10% false positive) improved the false positive rate in AA to 7% (FSII + APRI) and 10% (FSII + FIB-4) but reduced the sensitivity for significant fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: The FSII assay overestimates fibrosis in AA and should be used with caution since these patients may not have significant fibrosis. If the APRI or FIB-4 assay is combined with the FSII assay, minimal fibrosis in AA can be defined without subjecting the patients to a subsequent biopsy.

Intracardiac lead endocarditis due to Staphylococcus lugdunensis.

Staphylococcus Lugdunensis is a rare but potentially aggressive pathogen in the family of coagulase negative staphylococcus (CoNS). It can cause a wide variety of infections ranging from superficial skin to fulminant infections like endocarditis. Both native and prosthetic valve endocarditis due to S. lugdunensis have been documented in the English literature. Eight cases of pacemaker lead endocarditis due to S. lugdunensis have been described so far. We present the ninth case of pacemaker lead and first case of automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) lead endocarditis due to S. lugdunensis.

Primary Sjogren's syndrome with anticentromere antibodies--a clinically distinct subset.

Primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) is a chronic autoimmune disorder of the exocrine glands. The diagnosis is largely based on keratoconjunctivitis sicca and xerostomia in the presence of anti-SS-A and/or SS-B antibodies. Anticentromere antibodies (ACA) have occasionally been reported in patients with pSS. We describe two patients with pSS associated with ACA, initially diagnosed as limited systemic sclerosis. Symptoms at the time of initial presentation were dry eyes and mouth, arthralgias, and Raynaud's phenomenon. Both patients developed small vessel cutaneous vasculitis, parotid enlargement, low C4 complement levels, positive rheumatoid factor, and lymphoma. These findings suggest that patients with pSS who have ACA may be a subgroup of patients at increased risk of extraglandular systemic manifestations and lymphoma.