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Conventional voxel-based algorithms for labeling connected components in 3D binary images use the same mask to process all object voxels. To reduce the number of times that neighboring voxels are checked when object voxels are processed, we propose an algorithm that uses two different masks for processing two different types of object voxels. One type of mask is used when the voxel preceding the object voxel being processed is an object voxel, and the other type is used otherwise. In either case, an optimal order is used for checking the voxels in the corresponding mask. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm checked fewer voxels, and was more efficient than conventional algorithms.

Abstract The visibility of outdoor images is usually significantly degraded by haze. Existing dehazing algorithms, such as dark channel prior (DCP) and colour attenuation prior (CAP), have made great progress and are highly effective. However, they all suffer from the problems of dark distortion and detailed information loss. This paper proposes an improved algorithm for single‐image haze removal based on dark channel prior with weighted guided coefficient and union self‐adaptive image enhancement. First, a weighted guided coefficient method with sampling based on guided image filtering is proposed to refine the transmission map efficiently. Second, the k‐means clustering method is adopted to calibrate the original image into bright and non‐bright colour areas and form a transmission constraint matrix. The constraint matrix is then marked by connected‐component labelling, and small bright regions are eliminated to form an atmospheric light constraint matrix, which can suppress the halo effect and optimize the atmospheric light. Finally, an adaptive linear contrast enhancement algorithm with a union score is proposed to optimize restored images. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can overcome the problems of image distortion and detailed information loss and is more efficient than conventional dehazing algorithms.

Objective Conflicting results existed about the role of prognostic nutritional index (PNI) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who received curative hepatectomy. The aim of this study is to identify the predictive capacity of PNI for survival after hepatectomy. Methods Preoperative PNI, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), tumor feature and clinical information of 187 patients with HCC from Sir Run Run Shaw hospital were evaluated. We also conducted a meta-analysis of seven cohort studies. Results Our study showed that HCC patients with a low PNI of

The aim of our study was to explore the relationship between the methylation status of the alpha-1A adrenergic receptor (ADRA1A) gene and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We combined our in-house data-set with the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data-set to screen and identify the methylation status and expression of adrenergic receptor (AR) genes in HCC. Immunohistochemistry and western blot were performed to assess the expression of ADRA1A in HCC cell lines and tissues. We further evaluated the methylation levels of the ADRA1A promoter region in 160 HCC patients using the Sequenom MassARRAY® platform and investigated the association between methylation of ADRA1A and clinical characteristics. The expression levels of ADRA1A mRNA and protein were significantly decreased in HCC tissues. Compared with that in paired normal tissues, the mean methylation level of the ADRA1A promoter region was significantly increased in tumour tissues from 160 HCC patients (25.2% vs. 17.0%, P

Abstract Background This study aims to investigate the mechanism underlying the high level of long non-coding RNA FOXD3-AS1 in cisplatin-resistant NSCLC cells. Methods Cisplatin-resistant cells were generated from A549 cells. CCK-8 were used to evaluate cell proliferation. The FOXD3-AS1, miR-127-3p, MDM2 and MRP1 mRNA expression levels were confirmed by qRT-PCR. Protein levels of MDM2 and MRP1 were determined by western blot assay. Luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays were evaluated the relationship between miR-127-3p and FOXD3-AS1/MDM2. In vivo tumor growth was evaluated in a xenograft nude mice model. Results FOXD3-AS1 was up-regulated in cisplatin-resistant NSCLC cells (A549/DDP and H1299/DDP cells) in comparison with their parental cell lines. Overexpression of FOXD3-AS1 promoted cisplatin-resistance in A549 and H1299 cells; while FOXD3-AS1 knockdown sensitized A549/DDP and H1299/DDP cells to cisplatin treatment. FOXD3-AS1 regulated miR-127-3p expression by acting as a competing endogenous RNA, and miR-127-3p repressed MDM2 expression via targeting the 3′UTR. MiR-127-3p overexpression and MDM2 knockdown both increased the chemo-sensitivity in A549/DDP cells; while miR-127-3p knockdown and MDM2 overexpression both promoted chemoresistance in A549 cells. Further rescue experiments revealed that miR-127-3p knockdown or MDM2 overexpression counteracted the suppressive effects of FOXD3-AS1 knockdown on chemo-resistance and MRP1 expression in A549/DDP cells. In vivo studies showed that FOXD3-AS1 knockdown potentiated the antitumor effects of cisplatin treatment. Inspection of clinical samples showed the upregulation of FOXD3-AS1 and MDM2, and down-regulation of miR-127-3p in NSCLC tissues compared to normal adjacent tissues. Conclusion In conclusion, our results suggest that LncRNA FOXD3-AS1 promotes chemo-resistance of NSCLC cells via directly acting on miR-127-3p/MDM2 axis. Our findings may provide novel perspectives for the treatment of NSCLC in patients resistant to chemotherapy.

BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly lethal disease. Effective prognostic tools to guide clinical decision-making for HCC patients are lacking.ObjectiveWe aimed to establish a robust prognostic model based on differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in HCC.MethodsUsing datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and the International Genome Consortium (ICGC), DEGs between HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were identified. Using TCGA dataset as the training cohort, we applied the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm and multivariate Cox regression analyses to identify a multi-gene expression signature. Proportional hazard assumptions and multicollinearity among covariates were evaluated while building the model. The ICGC cohort was used for validation. The Pearson test was used to evaluate the correlation between tumor mutational burden and risk score. Through single-sample gene set enrichment analysis, we investigated the role of signature genes in the HCC microenvironment.ResultsA total of 274 DEGs were identified, and a six-DEG prognostic model was developed. Patients were stratified into low- or high-risk groups based on risk scoring by the model. Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed significant differences in overall survival and progression-free interval. Through univariate and multivariate Cox analyses, the model proved to be an independent prognostic factor compared to other clinic-pathological parameters. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed satisfactory prediction of overall survival, but not progression-free interval. Functional enrichment analysis showed that cancer-related pathways were enriched, while immune infiltration analyses differed between the two risk groups. The risk score did not correlate with levels of PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA4, or tumor mutational burden.ConclusionsWe propose a six-gene expression signature that could help to determine HCC patient prognosis. These genes may serve as biomarkers in HCC and support personalized disease management.

Abstract Background Diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate (DA-6), a plant growth regulator, has many beneficial effects on agricultural production. DA-6 has been applied to many plant species, but the molecular mechanism by which spraying DA-6 after anthesis regulates wheat grain filling is still unknown. Results In this study, we used four DA-6 concentrations: C0 (0 g/L), C2 (2 g/L), C4 (4 g/L), and C6 (6 g/L). The results showed that C4 and C6 led to a significantly higher 1000-grain weight and seed protein content than C0 during two wheat growing seasons. We then subjected samples at 24 days after anthesis (at which point the grain weight increased rapidly) to transcriptome analysis. Flag leaf (L), seed (S), and stem (T) samples under C6 and C0 were used for RNA-seq. The seed samples under C6 compared with C0 (S6vsS0) presented the most differentially expressed genes (DEGs; 2164). Plant hormone signal transduction (p = 1.97 × 10− 4), protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER; p = 9.04 × 10− 11) and starch and sucrose metabolism (p = 1.90 × 10− 10) pathways were the most markedly enriched pathways in the flag leaves, stems, and seeds, respectively. DEGs involved in sucrose synthesis in the flag leaves, protein processing in ER in the stems, and starch synthesis and protein processing in ER in the seeds were significantly upregulated under C6 compared with C0. Conclusions Overall, we propose a model for spraying DA-6 after anthesis to regulate metabolic pathways in wheat, which provides new insights into wheat in response to DA-6.

Abstract A clear stele image of ancient Chinese calligraphy pieces is very useful for studying ancient Chinese calligraphy. However, due to hundreds of or even thousands of years of natural or artificial damage on stele, images of ancient Chinese stele calligraphy works usually suffer from a large amount of image noise, and which usually leads to a poor visibility. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a de-noising method based on L0 gradient minimization and guided filter. It consists of two main operations in sequence: First, L0 gradient minimization is utilized to obtain a random-noise free map, and then the random-noise free map is used as a guided image, and convoluted with its corresponding original noised stele image by a guided filter to obtain an edge preserved random-noise free image. Finally, the eight-connection region-based de-noising technique is followed to remove ant-like isolated blocks. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to several recent published stele image de-noising techniques in terms of preserving the character structures.

The images that are captured in sand storms often suffer from low contrast and serious color cast that are caused by sand dust, and these issues will have significant negative effects on the performance of an outdoor computer vision system. To address these problems, a method based on halo-reduced dark channel prior (DCP) dehazing for sand dust image enhancement is proposed in this paper. It includes three components in sequence: color correction in the LAB color space based on gray world theory, dust removal using a halo-reduced DCP dehazing method, and contrast stretching in the LAB color space using a Gamma function improved contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE), in which a guided filter is used to improve the artifacts of the histogram equalization. Experiments on a large number of real sand dust images demonstrate that the proposed method can well remove the overall yellowing tone and dust haze effect and obtain normal visual colors and a detailed clear image.

In order to achieve reliable communication in multi-relay cooperative communication，the directional antenna combining multi-relay cooperative communication system and optimal relay selection decode-and-forward cooperative strategy was presented.Firstly，the theoretical closed form of outage probability of the communication system using directional antenna operating in the three modes of DT-DR，DT-OR and OT-OR were presented.Then for three kinds mode，the collaboration communication system interrupt probability and signal-to-noise ratio，the number of relay nodes，the antenna gain channel fading efficiency and relationship between the channel capacity were analyzed in numerical simulation.These findings reveal that excellent performance of cooperative communication system with directional antennas could be achieved such as smaller outage probability and improved by best relay nodes and optimal power allocation coefficient.

TD-LTE is deployed in the same frequency band to improve spectral usage，which also makes the inter-cell interference（ICI）become one of the main bottlenecks of the network capacity. The test results of the large scale TD-LTE field trial demonstrate more than 70% UE could detect signals from multiple cells. The coordinated multi-point processing（CoMP）technology adopts several cell to jointly transmit/receive signals for UE，which could effectively reduce ICI. Several kinds of uplink CoMP scheme were studied. Especially，the field trial of the uplink CoMP in the realistic TD-LTE network was introduced. The test results show that the ce11-edge UE could achieve 50%～100% throughput gain via the uplink CoMP technology，which significantly improves the user experience.

The objective of our study was to investigate the effect of Aliskiren, a renin inhibitor, on the deoxycorticosterone (DOCA) induced myocardial fibrosis in a rat model and its underlying mechanism. A total of 45 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats underwent right nephrectomy and were randomly assigned into 3 groups: control group (CON group: silicone tube was embedded subcutaneously); DOCA treated group (DOC group: 200 mg of DOCA was subcutaneously administered); DOCA and Aliskiren (ALI) treated group (ALI group: 200 mg of DOCA and 50 mg/kg/d ALI were subcutaneously and intragastrically given, respectively). Treatment was done for 4 weeks. Sirius red staining was employed to detect the expression of myocardial collagen, and the myocardial collagen volume fraction (CVF) and perivascular collagen volume area (PVCA) were calculated. Radioimmunoassay was carried out to measure the renin activity (RA) and content of angiotensin II (Ang II) in the plasma and ventricle. Western blot assay was done to detect the expressions of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), phosphorylated ERK1/2 (PERK1/2) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9). In the DOC group and ALI group, the CVF and PVCA were significantly increased; the RA and Ang II levels in the plasma and ventricle were remarkably lowered when compared with the CON group. The RA and Ang II levels in the ventricle of the ALI group were significantly lower than those in the DOC group. Moreover, the expressions of ERK1/2, PERK1/2 and MMP9 were the lowest in the CON group, but those in the ALI group were significantly reduced as compared to the DOC group. ALI can inhibit the DOCA induced myocardial fibrosis independent of its pressure-lowing effect, which may be related to the suppression of RA and Ang II production, inhibition of ERK1/2 phosphorylation and MMP9 expression in the heart.

High-power laser induced shocks generated by “ShenGuang II” laser facility has been used to study spall fracture of polycrystalline aluminum at strain rates more than 106/s. The free surface velocity histories of shock-loaded samples, 150 μm thick and with initial temperature from 293 K to 873 K, have been recorded using velocity interferometer system for any reflector (VISAR). From the free surface velocity profile, spall strength and yield stress are calculated, it demonstrates that spall strength will decline and yield strength increase with initial temperature. The loaded samples are recovered to obtain samples' section and free surface metallographic pictures through Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy. It is found that there are more micro-voids and more opportunity to appear bigger voids near the spall plane and the grain size increases with temperature slowly but smoothly except the sharply change at 893 K (near melting point). Besides, the fracture mechanisms change from mainly intergranular fracture to transgranular fracture with the increase of initial temperature.