Search

Transmission line (TL) inspection is important for ensuring a stable supply of electricity to rural areas. Currently, there are several TL detection approaches based on computer vision; however, they have limitations owing to background clutter in visible light images. This article presents a novel multimodal image feature fusion module that utilizes both visible light and infrared images to enhance the TL-detection performance. The proposed module consists of a multibranch feature extraction (MFE) block followed by a channelwise attention (CA) block. The first block extracts the representative features of each modal input using multiple branches. The outputs of the MFE block are jointly aggregated into an attention vector in the CA block. Finally, the attention vector recalibrates each input feature of the proposed module. To reduce the number of additional parameters due to the insertion of the module, we introduced a channel-shrink factor in the MFE block and utilized a $1\times {1}$ convolution in the CA block. Comparison experiments with various augmented conditions of day, night, fog, and snow were conducted on a real-world dataset, which we constructed by visible light and infrared images. The results showed that the proposed module outperformed not only the case of single modal input but also the state-of-the-art fusion methods, regardless of the baseline networks. Additionally, the proposed module showed effectiveness in terms of capacity when the baseline network has a large number of weight parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rejuran® is a new filler product made from purified polynucleotides. Here we present data from an animal study and a clinical trial to examine the durability, efficacy and safety of the Rejuran® on crow's feet. For the animal study, 25 mice were divided into three groups: Group 1 received phosphate buffered saline (PBS); Group 2 were treated with Yvoire®; and Group 3 were treated with Rejuran®. The durability and efficacy of each treatment were assessed by microscopy and staining. In the clinical trial, 72 patients were randomized to receive Rejuran® treatment for crow's feet on one side and Yvoire-Hydro® on the contralateral side, at a ratio of 1:1. Repeated treatments were performed every two weeks for a total of three times, over a total of 12 weeks' observation. All injections and observations of efficacy and safety were performed by the same two investigators. In the animal study, the Rejuran® group showed similar durability and inflammatory response to the Yvoire® group. Upon efficacy assessment, the Rejuran® group showed the greatest elasticity and collagen composition, and a significant difference in skin surface roughness and wrinkle depth. In the clinical trial, the primary and secondary objective efficacy outcome measure showed no statistical significance between the two groups, and in safety outcomes there were no unexpected adverse effects. Our data suggest that the Rejuran®, as a new regenerative filler, can be useful to reduce wrinkles, by showing evidence for its efficacy and safety.

Although caspase-2 is believed to be involved in death receptor-mediated apoptosis, the exact function, mode of activation, and regulation of caspase-2 remain unknown. Here we show that protein kinase (PK) CK2 phosphorylates procaspase-2 directly at serine-157. When intracellular PKCK2 activity is low or downregulated by specific inhibitors, procaspase-2 is dephosphorylated, dimerized, and activated in a PIDDosome-independent manner. The activated caspase-2 then processes procaspase-8 monomers between the large and small subunits, thereby priming cancer cells for TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-mediated apoptosis. The processed procaspase-8 that is recruited to death-inducing signaling complex by TRAIL engagement becomes fully activated, and cancer cells undergo apoptosis. PKCK2 activity is low in TRAIL-sensitive cancer cell lines but high in TRAIL-resistant cancer cell lines. Thus, downregulating PKCK2 activity is required for TRAIL-mediated apoptosis to occur in TRAIL-resistant cancer cells. Our data provide novel insights into the regulation, mode of activation, and function of caspase-2 in TRAIL-mediated apoptosis.