Efficient spatial and channel net for lane marker detection based on self-attention and row anchor.

Lane detection is an important component of advanced driving aided system (ADAS). It is a combined component of the planning and control algorithms. Therefore, it has high standards for the detection accuracy and speed. Recently several researchers have worked extensively on this topic. An increasing number of researchers have been interested in self-attention-based lane detection. In difficult situations such as shadows, bright lights, and nights extracting global information is effective. Regardless of channel or spatial attention, it cannot independently extract all global information until a complicated model is used. Furthermore, it affects the run-time. However trading in this contradiction is challenging. In this study, a new lane identification model that combines channel and spatial self-attention was developed. Conv1d and Conv2d were introduced to extract the global information. The model is lightweight and efficient avoiding difficult model calculations and massive matrices, In particular obstacles can be overcome under certain difficult conditions. We used the Tusimple and CULane datasets as verification standards. The accuracy of the Tusimple benchmark was the highest at 95.49%. In the CULane dataset, the proposed model achieved 75.32% in F1, which is the highest result, particularly in difficult scenarios. For the Tusimple and CULane datasets, the proposed model achieved the best performance in terms of accuracy and speed.

Cyasterone inhibits IL-1ß-mediated apoptosis and inflammation via the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways in rat chondrocytes and ameliorates osteoarthritisin vivo.

Osteoarthritis is a prevalent global joint disease, which is characterized by inflammatory reaction and cartilage degradation. Cyasterone, a sterone derived from the roots of Cyathula officinalis Kuan, exerts protective effect against several inflammation-related diseases. However, its effect on osteoarthritis remains unclear. The current study was designed to investigate the potential anti-osteoarthritis activity of cyasterone. Primary chondrocytes isolated from rats induced by interleukin (IL)-1ß and a rat model stimulated by monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) were used for in vitro and in vivo experiments, respectively. The results of in vitro experiments showed that cyasterone apparently counteracted chondrocyte apoptosis, increased the expression of collagen II and aggrecan, and restrained the production of the inflammatory factors inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs-5 (ADAMTS-5), metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3), and metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) induced by IL-1ß in chondrocytes. Furthermore, cyasterone ameliorated the inflammation and degenerative progression of osteoarthritis potentially by regulating the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. For in vivo experiments, cyasterone significantly alleviated the inflammatory response and cartilage destruction of rats induced by monosodium iodoacetate, where dexamethasone was used as the positive control. Overall, this study laid a theoretical foundation for developing cyasterone as an effective agent for the alleviation of osteoarthritis.

Iterative optical diffraction tomography with embedded regularization.

Total-variation regularization is applied at each iteration of an iterative framework for optical diffraction tomography. Numerical and experimental tests are performed using various highly scattering objects, and significant improvement in reconstruction SNR are demonstrated.

Chicoric acid attenuates tumor necrosis factor-α-induced inflammation and apoptosis via the Nrf2/HO-1, PI3K/AKT and NF-κB signaling pathways in C28/I2 cells and ameliorates the progression of osteoarthritis in a rat model.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common arthritis, and is characterized by inflammation and cartilage degradation. Chicoric acid (CA), a bioactive caffeic acid derivative isolated from the root of Taraxacum mongolicumHand. - Mazz., has been reported to have anti-inflammatory effects. However, the therapeutic effects of CA on chondrocyte inflammation remain unknown. Our study aimed to explore the effect of CA on OA both in vivo and in vitro. In vitro, CA treatment significantly suppressed the overproduction of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1ß), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-12 in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α)-induced human C28/I2 chondrocytes. Moreover, CA attenuated TNF-α induced degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) by upregulating the expression of collagen Ⅱ and aggrecan, and downregulating ADAMTS-5 and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Additionally, CA treatment inhibited apoptosis in C28/I2 cells by upregulating of Bcl-2 levels, downregulating Bax and ROS levels, and activating the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway. Mechanistically, CA exerted an anti-inflammatory effect by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT and NF-κB signaling pathways, enhancing Nrf-2/HO-1 to limit the activation of NF-κB. In vivo experiments also proved the therapeutic effects of CA on OA in rats. These findings indicate that CA may become a new drug for the treatment of OA.

Optimization-based optical diffraction tomography using iODT initialization.

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) is a label-free and noninvasive technique for biological imaging. However, ODT is only applicable to weakly scattering objects. To extend ODT to the multiple-scattering regime, more advanced inversion algorithms have been developed, including optimization-based ODT (Opti-ODT) and iterative ODT (iODT). In this paper, we propose a combined strategy, namely, an iODT initialization for Opti-ODT, based on the observed complementarity of their individual advantages. This study numerically demonstrates that under this combined strategy, the reconstruction can accurately converge to a better local minimum, especially in the case of multiply scattering objects with large optical path differences.

Iterative optical diffraction tomography for illumination scanning configuration.

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) is used to reconstruct refractive-index distributions from multiple measurements in the object rotating configuration (ORC) or the illumination scanning configuration (ISC). Because of its fast data acquisition and stability, ISC-based ODT has been widely used for biological imaging. ODT typically fails to reconstruct multiply-scattering samples. The previously developed iterative ODT (iODT) was for the multiply-scattering objects in ORC, and could not be directly applied to ISC. To resolve this mismatch, we developed an ISC update and numerically demonstrated its accuracy. With the same prior knowledge, iODT-ISC outperforms conventional ODT in resolving the missing-angle problem.

Scalable Hermite-Gaussian mode-demultiplexing hybrids.

We propose a Hermite-Gaussian (HG) mode-demulti-plexing hybrid (MDH) for coherent detection of mode-division multiplexed signals. The MDH, which performs multiple functionalities, including demultiplexing, local oscillator splitting, and optical 90-deg mixing, is realized based on the multi-plane light conversion technique. An isosceles right triangle output layout is employed to reduce the number of phase masks to fewer than the number of modes, significantly simplifying the construction of the MDH. A 10-Hermite-Gaussian (HG) mode MDH with only five phase masks is demonstrated by numerical simulation, achieving an insertion loss (IL) and mode dependent loss as low as ${-}{2.3}$-2.3 and 1.7 dB, respectively. The IL was further reduced to ${-}{1.5}\;{\rm dB}$-1.5dB through optimization of MDH parameters, such as the beam waists of the input HG modes and the output spots.

Reconstructing complex refractive-index of multiply-scattering media by use of iterative optical diffraction tomography.

Conventional optical diffraction tomography (ODT) techniques fail in the presence of multiple scattering, and the problem becomes even more challenging when the medium is also lossy. Iterative ODT (iODT), which was shown recently to be more tolerant to multiple scattering than conventional ODT, is here augmented with an error-subtraction (ES) module. Numerical results demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of iODT with ES for reconstructing multiply-scattering objects with complex refractive index.

Low-crosstalk few-mode EDFAs using retro-reflection for single-mode fiber trunk lines and networks.

Few-mode EDFAs with low channel crosstalk can replace multiple parallel single-mode EDFAs in single-mode fiber trunk lines and networks. Here we proposed a low-crosstalk few-mode EDFA by exploiting the unitary property of the coupling matrix of a symmetric photonic lantern. We experimentally demonstrated a 3-channel few-mode EDFA using retro-reflection of a 3-mode symmetric photonic lantern. The small signal gain for all three channels are measured to be larger than 25 dB over the entire C-band and the crosstalks are below -10 dB.

[Risk factors of non-surgical vertebral fracture after percutaneous kyphoplasty of single segment thoracolumbar fracture].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk factors of non-surgical vertebral fracture after percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) in patients with single segment thoracolumbar osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture(OVCF). METHODS: The clinical data of 219 patients with single segment thoracolumbar osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture underwent percutaneous kyphoplasty from January 2010 to December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 29 cases in non-surgical vertebral body fracture group with 7 males and 22 females aged (67.35±9.92) years. Bone mineral density was(-3.89±0.72)SD, fracture compressed degree was (0.57±0.35)%, bone cement injected volume was (4.53±1.64) ml, and vertebral height recovery was (0.49±0.86)% on average. Ten cases were with vertebral body space fracture, 7 cases with bone cement leakage to the intervertebral disc, 9 cases with bone cement leakage to the peripheral tissue and 14 cases were treated by systemic anti-osteoporosis treatment after operation. Other 190 cases in non-surgical vertebral body without fracture group, and there were 42 males and 148 females, aged (66.98±7.55) years. Bone mineral density was (-3.13±0.59) SD, fracture compressed degree was (0.39±0.60)%, bone cement injected volume was (4.72±1.28) ml, and vertebral height recovery was (0.46±0.94)% on average. Among them, 13 cases were with vertebral body space fracture, 5 cases with bone cement leakage to the intervertebral disc, 29 cases with bone cement leakage to the peripheral tissue and 129 cases were treated by systemic anti-osteoporosis treatment after operation. The factors of gender, age, fracture compressed degree, fractured type, bone mineral density, bone cement injected volume, bone cement leakage, vertebral height recovery, adjacent vertebral fractures, and systemic anti-osteoporosis treatment were studied in the two groups for single factor analysis. For the results with significant differences among above factors, the multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to research the non-surgical vertebral fracture risk factors. RESULTS: Among the 219 patients with single thoracolumbar fractures, 29 cases occurred non-surgical vertebral fractures. The single factor analysis results showed that there was no significant correlation between non-surgical vertebral fracture occurrecne with age, sex, fracture compressed degree, bone cement injected volume, and vertebral height recovery(P>0.05), but there was a significant correlation between non-surgical vertebral fracture occurrence with fractured type, bone cement leakage, systemic anti-osteoporosis treatment, and bone mineral density (P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that fractured type(OR=0.135), whether systemic anti-osteoporosis treatment (OR=3.793), bone cement leakage (OR=8.975), and bone density (OR=57.079) are risk factors for postoperative non-surgical vertebral fractures. CONCLUSIONS: Improving the quality of the people, systemic preventing and treating the osteoporosis, improving the surgical skills and decreasing the bone cement leakage during operation are effective methods to prevent postoperative non-surgical vertebral fractures.

A study of stereo microscope measurements based on interpolated feature matching.

Recently, digital stereo microscopes have been becoming increasingly popular in fields such as biomedicine and biotechnology. As such, being able to precisely match left/right feature pairs is critical, which is an important step in stereo matching. We hereby propose a dynamic interpolation method that combines two dimensional calibration and depth information to achieve stereo matching. In this experiment, we obtained the original scale-invariant feature transform feature point pairs and selected a pair of matching units. Based on the selected pair of matching elements and interpolated feature points shown in the left view of stereo microscope image, the dynamically interpolated feature points in the right view were developed to perform stereo measurements. The experimental results revealed that the proposed method can realize stereo microscopic measurements; results with high reliability can be achieved with a large quantity of matching elements.

A depth estimation method based on geometric transformation for stereo light microscope.

Stereo light microscopes (SLM) with narrow vision and shallow depth of field are widely used in micro-domain research. In this paper, we propose a depth estimation method of micro objects based on geometric transformation. By analyzing the optical imaging geometry, the definition of geometric transformation distance is given and the depth-distance relation express is obtained. The parameters of geometric transformation and express are calibrated with calibration board images captured in aid of precise motorized stage. The depth of micro object can be estimated by calculating the geometric transformation distance. The proposed depth-distance relation express is verified using an experiment in which the depth map of an Olanzapine tablet surface is reconstructed.