This paper presents a robust foreground detection method capable of adapting to different motion speeds in scenes. A key contribution of this paper is the background estimation using a proposed novel ...algorithm, neighbor-based intensity correction (NIC), that identifies and modifies the motion pixels from the difference of the background and the current frame. Concretely, the first frame is considered as an initial background that is updated with the pixel intensity from each new frame based on the examination of neighborhood pixels. These pixels are formed into windows generated from the background and the current frame to identify whether a pixel belongs to the background or the current frame. The intensity modification procedure is based on the comparison of the standard deviation values calculated from two pixel windows. The robustness of the current background is further measured using pixel steadiness as an additional condition for the updating process. Finally, the foreground is detected by the background subtraction scheme with an optimal threshold calculated by the Otsu method. This method is benchmarked on several well-known data sets in the object detection and tracking domain, such as CAVIAR 2004, AVSS 2007, PETS 2009, PETS 2014, and CDNET 2014. We also compare the accuracy of the proposed method with other state-of-the-art methods via standard quantitative metrics under different parameter configurations. In the experiments, NIC approach outperforms several advanced methods on depressing the detected foreground confusions due to light artifact, illumination change, and camera jitter in dynamic scenes.
Strategies involving metastable phases have been the basis of the design of numerous alloys, yet research on metastable high-entropy alloys is still in its infancy. In dual-phase high-entropy alloys, ...the combination of local chemical environments and loading-induced crystal structure changes suggests a relationship between deformation mechanisms and chemical atomic distribution, which we examine in here in a Cantor-like Cr
Mn
Fe
Co
Ni
alloy, comprising both face-centered cubic (fcc) and hexagonal closed packed (hcp) phases. We observe that partial dislocation activities result in stable three-dimensional stacking-fault networks. Additionally, the fraction of the stronger hcp phase progressively increases during plastic deformation by forming at the stacking-fault network boundaries in the fcc phase, serving as the major source of strain hardening. In this context, variations in local chemical composition promote a high density of Lomer-Cottrell locks, which facilitate the construction of the stacking-fault networks to provide nucleation sites for the hcp phase transformation.
Objectives
The purpose of this study was to identify the age, period and cohort effects on the changes in oral health status in South Koreans.
Methods
The age, period and cohort analysis (APC ...analysis) of the oral health status was conducted using an aggregated age‐by‐time period table. The age‐by‐time period table was formulated using data from the Korea National Oral Health Survey (KNOHS) 2000 and 2006, and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2010 and 2015. Two oral health outcomes were measured: the number of teeth and Decayed‐Missing‐Filled Teeth (DMFT) index. Descriptive analysis by graphical representation and partial least square (PLS) regression was used for APC analysis.
Results
Both graphical description and PLS regression showed age and cohort effects in oral health status with the number of teeth decreasing and the DMFT index increasing with age. No period effects were found in either index. The number of teeth increased in the recent birth cohorts. However, the DMFT index showed a reverse J‐shaped trend, which worsened in recent birth cohorts. The DMFT index increase in the recent cohort was mainly attributed by an increase in the FT index.
Conclusions
The effects of age on the number of teeth and caries highlight the importance of oral health in adulthood. The increased caries experience in recent cohorts may indicate the limitations of the current oral health policy. It would be relevant to explore what determinants cause the changes in oral health status. Future oral health policies should address the new directions to reduce the burden of oral diseases.
Currently, polypropylene (PP) is used in various products, thus leading to high daily exposure in humans. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate the toxicological effects, biodistribution, and ...accumulation of PP microplastics in the human body. In this study, administration of two particle sizes of PP microplastics (approximately 5 and 10-50 µm) did not lead to any significant changes in several toxicological evaluation parameters, including body weight and pathological examination, compared with the control group in ICR mice. Therefore, the approximate lethal dose and no-observed-adverse-effect level of PP microplastics in ICR mice were established as ≥2000 mg/kg. Furthermore, we manufactured cyanine 5.5 carboxylic acid (Cy5.5-COOH)-labeled fragmented PP microplastics to monitor real-time in vivo biodistribution. After oral administration of the Cy5.5-COOH-labeled microplastics to the mice, most of the PP microplastics were detected in the gastrointestinal tract and observed to be out of the body after 24 h in IVIS Spectrum CT. Therefore, this study provides a new insight into the short-term toxicity, distribution, and accumulation of PP microplastics in mammals.
Flow Induced Motions (FIMs) of rigid circular cylinders, and particularly VIV (Vortex Induced Vibrations) and galloping, are induced by alternating lift. The VIVACE (VIV for Aquatic Clean Energy) ...Converter uses single or multiple cylinders, in tandem, on elastic end-supports, in synergistic FIM, to convert MHK energy to electricity. Selectively distributed surface roughness is applied to enhance FIM and increase efficiency. In this paper, two cylinders are used in tandem with center-to-center spacing of 1.57, 2.0 and 2.57 diameters, harnessing damping ratio 0.00<ζ < 0.24, for Reynolds number 30,000 ≤ Re ≤ 120,000. The virtual spring-damping system Vck in the Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory (MRELab) enables embedded computer-controlled change of viscous-damping and spring-stiffness for fast and mathematically correct oscillator realization, without including the hydrodynamic force in the closed control loop. Experimental results for oscillatory response, energy harvesting, and efficiency are presented and the envelope of optimal power is derived. All the experiments were conducted in the Low Turbulence Free Surface Water (LTFSW) Channel of the MRELab of the University of Michigan. The main conclusions are: (1) For the tested cylinder spacing, two cylinders harness power is between 2.56 and 13.49 times the power of a single cylinder, the efficiency of two cylinders is between 2.0 and 6.68 of a single cylinder. (2) The MHK power harnessed by the upstream cylinder is increased by up to 100%, affected by the downstream cylinder. (3) The MHK power harnessed by the downstream cylinder and its FIM are affected to a lesser extent by the interaction. (4) VIVACE can harness energy from flows as slow as 0.4 m/s with no upper limit in flow velocity. (5) Close spacing and high spring stiffness yield highest harnessed power. (6) The optimal harnessed power shifts to softer springs as spacing increases.
•The effects of tandem spacing, spring stiffness, and damping on power harness by two circular cylinders with passive turbulence control are studied experimentally.•The Vck based oscillator enables embedded computer-controlled change of viscous-damping and spring-stiffness for precise oscillator modeling and fast parametric testing.•Amplitude response, frequency response, harnessed power, and efficiency are presented vs. flow velocity with spring stiffness, damping, and spacing as parameters.•In the galloping range, two cylinders in synergistic flow induced motion can produce more power than the same cylinders in isolation.•All the experiments were conducted in the TrSL3 (20,000<Re<300,000) flow regime.
Some neoplastic lesions remain undetected on colonoscopy. To date, no studies have investigated whether combining cap-assisted colonoscopy with chromoendoscopy increases the adenoma detection rate ...(ADR). This study aimed to compare cap-assisted chromoendoscopy (CAP/CHROMO) with standard colonoscopy (SC) with respect to their efficacy in detecting adenomas.
This prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial included asymptomatic subjects aged 45-75 years who underwent colonoscopy for the first time at 14 university hospitals. Subjects were randomized to either the CAP/CHROMO group (with 0.09% indigo carmine spraying using a cap-mounted catheter at the tip of the colonoscope) or the SC group. All polyps were resected, but only histologically confirmed neoplastic lesions were considered for analysis. The primary outcome was ADR, defined as the proportion of subjects with at least 1 adenoma.
A total of 1,905 subjects were randomized to the CAP/CHROMO (n = 948) or SC (n = 957) group at 14 centers. Subjects' demographic characteristics were similar between both groups. The CAP/CHROMO group had significantly higher ADR than the SC group (54.4% vs 44.9%, P < 0.001). Significantly, more subjects with at least 1 proximal colon adenoma were identified by CAP/CHROMO (38.6%) than by SC (31.2%) (P = 0.001). The proximal serrated polyp detection rate by CAP/CHROMO was significantly higher in the female subgroup vs SC. However, advanced ADR was not different between the CAP/CHROMO and SC groups (9.3% vs 7.6%, P = 0.180).
CAP/CHROMO markedly improved the ADR and enhanced the detection of proximal adenoma. CAP/CHROMO is feasible for routine application and will allow for a more effective surveillance program.
Nanophotonic devices enabled by aluminum plasmonics are saliently advantageous in terms of their low cost, outstanding sustainability, and affordable volume production. We report, for the first time, ...aluminum plasmonics based highly transmissive polarization-independent subtractive color filters, which are fabricated just with single step electron-beam lithography. The filters feature selective suppression in the transmission spectra, which is realized by combining the propagating and nonpropagating surface plasmons mediated by an array of opaque and physically thin aluminum nanopatches. A broad palette of bright, high-contrast subtractive colors is successfully demonstrated by simply varying the pitches of the nanopatches. These subtractive color filters have twice the photon throughput of additive counterparts, ultimately providing elevated optical transmission and thus stronger color signals. Moreover, the filters are demonstrated to conspicuously feature a dual-mode operation, both transmissive and reflective, in conjunction with a capability to exhibit micron-scale colors in arbitrary shapes. They are anticipated to be diversely applied to digital display, digital imaging, color printing, and sensing.
Stress is the physical and psychological tension felt by an individual while adapting to difficult situations. Stress is known to alter the expression of stress hormones and cause neuroinflammation ...in the brain. In this study, miRNAs in serum-derived neuronal exosomes (nEVs) were analyzed to determine whether differentially expressed miRNAs could be used as biomarkers of acute stress. Specifically, acute severe stress was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats via electric foot-shock treatment. In this acute severe-stress model, time-dependent changes in the expression levels of stress hormones and neuroinflammation-related markers were analyzed. In addition, nEVs were isolated from the serum of control mice and stressed mice at various time points to determine when brain damage was most prominent; this was found to be 7 days after foot shock. Next-generation sequencing was performed to compare neuronal exosomal miRNA at day 7 with the neuronal exosomal miRNA of the control group. From this analysis, 13 upregulated and 11 downregulated miRNAs were detected. These results show that specific miRNAs are differentially expressed in nEVs from an acute severe-stress animal model. Thus, this study provides novel insights into potential stress-related biomarkers.
The production, use, and waste of plastics increased worldwide, which resulted in environmental pollution and a growing public health problem. In particular, microplastics have the potential to ...accumulate in humans and mammals through the food chain. However, the toxicity of microplastics is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the toxicity of 10-50 μm polyethylene microplastics following single- and 28-day repeated oral administration (three different doses of microplastics of 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg/day) in ICR mice. For the investigation, we administered the microplastics orally for single- and 28-day repeated. Then, the histological and clinical pathology evaluations of the rodents were performed to evaluation of the toxicity test, and Raman spectroscopy was used to directly confirm the presence of polyethylene microplastics. In the single oral dose toxicity experiments, there were no changes in body weight and necropsy of the microplastics-treated group compared with that of controls. However, a histopathological evaluation revealed that inflammation from foreign bodies was evident in the lung tissue from the 28-day repeated oral dose toxicity group. Moreover, polyethylene microplastics were detected in the lung, stomach, duodenum, ileum, and serum by Raman spectroscopy. Our results corroborated the findings of lung inflammation after repeated oral administration of polyethylene microplastics. This study provides evidence of microplastic-induced toxicity following repeated exposure to mice.
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