The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming an attractive system paradigm, in which physical perceptions, cyber interactions, social correlations, and even cognitive thinking can be intertwined in the ...ubiquitous things’ interconnections. It realizes a perfect integration of a new cyber–physical–social–thinking (CPST) hyperspace, which has profound implications for the future IoT. In this article, a novel concept Cybermatics is put forward as a broader vision of the IoT (called hyper IoT) to address science and technology issues in the heterogeneous CPST hyperspace. This article covers a broaden research field and presents a preliminary study focusing on its three main features (i.e., interconnection, intelligence, and greenness). Concretely, interconnected Cybermatics refers to the variants of Internet of anything, such as physical objects, cyber services, social people, and human thinking; intelligent Cybermatics considers the cyber–physical–social–thinking computing to provide algorithmic support for system infrastructures; green Cybermatics addresses energy issues to ensure efficient communications and networking. Finally, open challenging science and technology issues are discussed in the field of Cybermatics.
•We establish a cyber–physical–social–thinking (CPST) hyperspace architecture to explain the Cybermatics.•Interconnected Cybermatics refers to dynamics and variability of Internet of anything.•Intelligent Cybermatics considers computing algorithms for system infrastructure.•Green Cybermatics addresses energy issues to ensure efficient communications and networking.
A model describing the wide variety of human behaviours called personality, is becoming increasingly popular among researchers due to the widespread availability of personal big data generated from ...the use of prevalent digital devices, e.g., smartphones and wearables. Such an approach can be used to model an individual and even digitally clone a person, e.g., a Cyber-I (cyber individual). This work is aimed at establishing a unique and comprehensive description for an individual to mesh with various personalized services and applications. An extensive research literature on or related to psychological modelling exists, i.e., into automatic personality computing. However, the integrity and accuracy of the results from current automatic personality computing is insufficient for the elaborate modeling in Cyber-I due to an insufficient number of data sources. To reach a comprehensive psychological description of a person, it is critical to bring in heterogeneous data sources that could provide plenty of personal data, i.e., the physiological data, and the Internet data. In addition, instead of calculating personality traits from personal data directly, an approach to a personality model derived from the theories of Carl Gustav Jung is used to measure a human subject's persona. Therefore, this research is focused on designing an archetype-based modeling of persona covering an individual's facets in different situations to approach a comprehensive personality model. Using personal big data to measure a specific persona in a certain scenario, our research is designed to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the generated personality model.
Previous studies have shown that by minimizing the total variation (TV) of the to-be-estimated image with some data and/or other constraints, a piecewise-smooth X-ray computed tomography image can be ...reconstructed from sparse-view projection data. However, due to the piecewise constant assumption for the TV model, the reconstructed images are frequently reported to suffer from the blocky or patchy artifacts. To eliminate this drawback, we present a total variation-stokes-projection onto convex sets (TVS-POCS) reconstruction method in this paper. The TVS model is derived by introducing isophote directions for the purpose of recovering possible missing information in the sparse-view data situation. Thus the desired consistencies along both the normal and the tangent directions are preserved in the resulting images. Compared to the previous TV-based image reconstruction algorithms, the preserved consistencies by the TVS-POCS method are expected to generate noticeable gains in terms of eliminating the patchy artifacts and preserving subtle structures. To evaluate the presented TVS-POCS method, both qualitative and quantitative studies were performed using digital phantom, physical phantom and clinical data experiments. The results reveal that the presented method can yield images with several noticeable gains, measured by the universal quality index and the full-width-at-half-maximum merit, as compared to its corresponding TV-based algorithms. In addition, the results further indicate that the TVS-POCS method approaches to the gold standard result of the filtered back-projection reconstruction in the full-view data case as theoretically expected, while most previous iterative methods may fail in the full-view case because of their artificial textures in the results.
Cerebral perfusion x-ray computed tomography (PCT) imaging, which detects and characterizes the ischemic penumbra, and assesses blood-brain barrier permeability with acute stroke or chronic ...cerebrovascular diseases, has been developed extensively over the past decades. However, due to its sequential scan protocol, the associated radiation dose has raised significant concerns to patients. Therefore, in this study we developed an iterative image reconstruction algorithm based on the maximum a posterior (MAP) principle to yield a clinically acceptable cerebral PCT image with lower milliampere-seconds (mA s). To preserve the edges of the reconstructed image, an edge-preserving prior was designed using a normal-dose pre-contrast unenhanced scan. For simplicity, the present algorithm was termed as 'MAP-ndiNLM'. Evaluations with the digital phantom and the simulated low-dose clinical brain PCT datasets clearly demonstrate that the MAP-ndiNLM method can achieve more significant gains than the existing FBP and MAP-Huber algorithms with better image noise reduction, low-contrast object detection and resolution preservation. More importantly, the MAP-ndiNLM method can yield more accurate kinetic enhanced details and diagnostic hemodynamic parameter maps than the MAP-Huber method.
Abstract Objective Dapagliflozin is a highly selective, orally active inhibitor of renal sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 that reduces hyperglycemia by increasing urinary glucose excretion. The goal of ...this study was to evaluate dapagliflozin as monotherapy in drug-naive Asian patients with type 2 diabetes whose disease was inadequately controlled with diet and exercise. Methods In this Phase III, multicenter, parallel-group, double-blind study, drug-naive patients with glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c ) levels ≥7.0% to ≤10.5% (≥53–≤91 mmol/mol) were randomized (by using an interactive voice response system) to receive placebo (n = 132), dapagliflozin 5 mg (n = 128), or dapagliflozin 10 mg (n = 133). The primary end point was mean change from baseline in HbA1c level at week 24 (last-observation-carried-forward). Secondary end points included changes in fasting plasma glucose, 2-hour postprandial glucose, body weight, and other glycemic parameters. Results Baseline characteristics were balanced across groups. Most patients (89%) were Chinese, median disease duration was 0.2 year, and mean HbA1c level was 8.26%. Most patients (87%) completed the study. At week 24, mean reductions in HbA1c were −0.29% for placebo versus −1.04% and −1.11% for dapagliflozin 5 and 10 mg, respectively ( P < 0.0001 for both doses). Changes in fasting plasma glucose were 2.5, −25.1, and –31.6 mg/dL (0.14, −1.39, and −1.75 mmol/L) for placebo, dapagliflozin 5 mg, and dapagliflozin 10 mg. Changes in 2-hour postprandial glucose were 1.1, −46.8, and −54.9 mg/dL (0.06, −2.60, and −3.05 mmol/L). Reductions in body weight were −0.27, −1.64, and −2.25 kg. Proportions of patients achieving HbA1c levels <7.0% (53 mmol/mol) were 21.3%, 42.6%, and 49.8%. Adverse events (AEs) occurred in 63.6%, 61.7%, and 60.9% of patients, and serious AEs occurred in 1.5%, 3.9%, and 3.0% of patients. No deaths occurred. Hypoglycemia was uncommon (1.5%, 0.8%, and 0.8%); no hypoglycemic event led to discontinuation. Genital infections occurred in 0.8%, 3.1%, and 4.5% of patients and urinary tract infections in 3.0%, 3.9%, and 5.3% of patients. No AEs of renal infection or pyelonephritis were reported. No changes in renal function or AEs of renal failure occurred. Conclusions Compared with placebo, dapagliflozin 5 and 10 mg demonstrated clinically and statistically significant improvements in HbA1c levels after 24 weeks of treatment. Dose-dependent, statistically significant reductions in fasting plasma glucose, postprandial glucose, and weight were also observed for both doses compared with placebo. AEs and serious AEs were balanced across groups, with low rates of hypoglycemia and no increase in renal events. Genital infections and urinary tract infections were more common with dapagliflozin. Dapagliflozin as monotherapy in these drug-naive Asian patients was well tolerated, significantly improving glycemic control with the additional benefit of weight loss.
Myocardial infarction (MI) has emerged as the primary cause of global mortality. Managing blood sugar levels could play a vital role in the treatment of MI. Dapagliflozin (DPG), a commonly used ...hypoglycemic drug, has demonstrated efficacy in treating heart failure. However, the impact of DPG on MI remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of DPG in relation to MI.
DPG administration alleviated MI-induced cardiac dysfunction and myocardial fibrosis. We also found that DPG administration mitigated cardiomyocyte apoptosis through TUNEL staining. CD31 and α-Sma staining revealed that DPG promotes post-MI angiogenesis in mice. In vitro, using scratch assays, transwell assays, and tube formation assays, we discovered that DPG enhanced HUVEC proliferation capacity. Mechanistically, DPG promoted the expression of extracellular matrix genes and mitochondrial function-related genes. Additionally, molecular docking identified the interaction between DPG and PXR, which activated PXR and recruited it to the promoters of Pgam2 and Tcap, promoting their expressions, thus facilitating angiogenesis and post-MI heart repair.
DPG promotes angiogenesis by activating PXR, thereby alleviating cardiac dysfunction and fibrosis after myocardial infarction. This study provides new strategies and targets for the treatment of ischemic disease.
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•Dapagliflozin exerts cardioprotective effects in myocardial infarction.•Dapagliflozin promotes endothelial cell proliferation and migration.•Cardioprotective effects of Dapagliflozin is via interacting and activating PXR.•PXR upregulates genes related to ECM and mitochondrial function to repair infarcted hearts.
We prepared a new p–n heterojunction photocatalysts p-CuBi2O4/n-NaTaO3 by a simple grinding–annealing method. The photocatalysts showed high photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation. ...Display omitted
► A novel p–n heterojunction photocatalyst p-CuBi2O4/n-NaTaO3 was prepared. ► The photocatalyst was prepared by a simple and safe grinding–annealing method. ► High activity for the photodegradation of MB under visible light irradiation.
In this study, a series of p-CuBi2O4/n-NaTaO3 heteronanostructures were synthesized with the grinding–annealing method. The photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The photocatalysts exhibit enhanced photocatalytic activity for methyl blue dye degradation under visible-light irradiation. The highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency was observed when the sample calcined at 500°C with 50wt.% CuBi2O4 content. On the basis of the calculated energy band positions, the mechanism of enhanced photocatalytic activity was discussed.
In low dose computed tomography (LDCT) imaging, the data inconsistency of measured noisy projections can significantly deteriorate reconstruction images. To deal with this problem, we propose here a ...new sinogram restoration approach, the sinogram- discriminative feature representation (S-DFR) method. Different from other sinogram restoration methods, the proposed method works through a 3-D representation-based feature decomposition of the projected attenuation component and the noise component using a well-designed composite dictionary containing atoms with discriminative features. This method can be easily implemented with good robustness in parameter setting. Its comparison to other competing methods through experiments on simulated and real data demonstrated that the S-DFR method offers a sound alternative in LDCT.
Social Internet of Things comes as a new paradigm of Internet of Things to solve the problems of network discovery, navigability, and service composition. It aims to socialize the IoT devices and ...shape the interconnection between them into social interaction just like human beings. In IoT scenarios, a device can offer multiple services and different devices can offer the same services with different parameters and interest factors. The proliferation of offered services led to difficulties during service filtering and customization, this problem is known as services explosion. The selection of a suitable service that fits the requirements of the applications and devices is a challenging task. Several works have addressed service discovery, composition, and selection in IoT. However, these works did not emphasize on the fact that incorporating the users' social features can increase the efficiency of the recommended services and help us to offer context-aware services. In this article, we present a service recommendation system that takes advantage of the social relationships between devices' owners, where the recommendation is based on the different relationships between the service requester and service provider. Experimental results show, in the context of IoT, that incorporating the users' social relationships in service recommendation increases the accuracy and diversity of the offered services.
Low-dose X-ray computed tomography (CT) simulation from a high-dose scan is required in optimizing radiation dose to patients. In this paper, we propose a simple low-dose CT simulation strategy in ...the sinogram domain using the raw data from high-dose scan. Specially, a relationship between the incident fluxes of low- and high-dose scans is first determined according to the repeated projection measurements and analysis. Second, the incident flux level of the simulated low-dose scan is generated by properly scaling the incident flux level of the high-dose scan via the determined relationship in the first step. Third, the low-dose CT transmission data by energy integrating detection is simulated by adding a statistically independent Poisson noise distribution plus a statistically independent Gaussian noise distribution. Finally, a filtered back-projection (FBP) algorithm is implemented to reconstruct the resultant low-dose CT images. The present low-dose simulation strategy is verified on the simulations and real scans by comparing it with the existing low-dose CT simulation tool. Experimental results demonstrated that the present low-dose CT simulation strategy can generate accurate low-dose CT sinogram data from high-dose scans in terms of qualitative and quantitative measurements.
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