Structure–Function Relationship of Retinal Ganglion Cells in Multiple Sclerosis

The retinal ganglion cells (RGC) may be considered an easily accessible pathophysiological site of degenerative processes in neurological diseases, such as the RGC damage detectable in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with (HON) and without a history of optic neuritis (NON). We aimed to assess and interrelate RGC functional and structural damage in different retinal layers and retinal sites. We included 12 NON patients, 11 HON patients and 14 healthy controls for cross-sectional multifocal pattern electroretinography (mfPERG) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements. Amplitude and peak times of the mfPERG were assessed. Macula and disc OCT scans were acquired to determine macular retinal layer and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness. In both HON and NON patients the foveal N2 amplitude of the mfPERG was reduced compared to controls. The parafoveal P1 peak time was significantly reduced in HON only. For OCT, parafoveal (pfGCL) and perifoveal (pGCL) ganglion cell layer thicknesses were decreased in HON vs. controls, while pRNFL in the papillomacular bundle sector (PMB) showed reductions in both NON and HON. As the mfPERG derived N2 originates from RGC axons, these findings suggest foveal axonal dysfunction not only in HON, but also in NON patients.     

Development of surface reconstruction algorithms for optical interferometric measurement

Optical interferometry is a powerful tool for measuring and characterizing areal surface topography in precision manufacturing. A variety of instruments based on optical interferometry have been developed to meet the measurement needs in various applications, but the existing techniques are simply not enough to meet the ever-increasing requirements in terms of accuracy, speed, robustness, and dynamic range, especially in on-line or on-machine conditions. This paper provides an in-depth perspective of surface topography reconstruction for optical interferometric measurements. Principles, configurations, and applications of typical optical interferometers with different capabilities and limitations are presented. Theoretical background and recent advances of fringe analysis algorithms, including coherence peak sensing and phase-shifting algorithm, are summarized. The new developments in measurement accuracy and repeatability, noise resistance, self-calibration ability, and computational efficiency are discussed. This paper also presents the new challenges that optical interferometry techniques are facing in surface topography measurement. To address these challenges, advanced techniques in image stitching, on-machine measurement, intelligent sampling, parallel computing, and deep learning are explored to improve the functional performance of optical interferometry in future manufacturing metrology.     

Clinical significance of contact lens related changes of ocular surface tissue observed on optical coherence images

PurposeTo investigate the relationship between the real contact lens imprint into the conjunctival tissue, observed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and conjunctival staining and contact lens wearing comfort.Methods17 participants (mean age = 26.6 SD ± 3.6 years; 7 females) were fitted with three different contact lenses base curves of the same silicone hydrogel custom lens type (Visell 50; Hecht Contactlinsen, Au, Germany) in a randomised order. One lens was optimally fitted according to the manufacturer's recommendation, one fitted 0.4 mm flatter and one fitted 0.4 mm steeper. After 4 h of lens wear the contact lens edge in the area of the conjunctiva was imaged nasally and temporally using OCT (Optovue iVue SD-OCT). To correct the artefact due to optical distortion with OCT, the imprint of all worn lenses was measured on a glass plate afterwards. Conjunctival staining in the limbal region after 4 h of lens wear was classified using the CCLRU Grading Scale. Comfort scoring was based on visual analog scales from 0 (very poor) to 100 (excellent).ResultsThe mean conjunctival imprint of all contact lens edges was 32.0 ± 8.1 μm before and 7.3 ± 6.5 μm after distortion correction of the OCT images. The distortion corrected conjunctival imprint with the 0.4 mm steeper lens (11.5 ± 6.2 μm) was statistically significantly greater compared to the optimally fitted lens (6.5 ± 5.9 μm) (One-way ANOVA followed Tukey-test; p = 0.017) and greater compared to the 0.4 mm flatter lens (3.9 ± 5.3 μm) (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between the optimally fitted lens and the 0.4 mm flatter lens (p = 0.209). The nasally measured imprint (11.4 ± 9.0 μm) was significantly greater than the temporally measured (3.3 ± 7.6 μm) (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant correlation between the amount of conjunctival imprint and the graded conjunctival staining (p = 0.346) or the wearer’s comfort (p = 0.735).ConclusionsContact lens edges imaged by OCT exhibited displacement artefacts. The observed conjunctival imprints are a combination of real conjunctival compression and artefacts. A deeper imprint of the contact lens into the conjunctiva caused by a steeper base curve was not related to clinically significant staining or changes in comfort after 4 h of lens wear. The observed differences between nasal and temporal imprint are likely to be caused by variations of conjunctival thickness and the shape of the underlying sclera.     

Sequential alignment attention model for scene text recognition

Scene text recognition has been a hot research topic in computer vision due to its various applications. The state-of-the-art solutions usually depend on the attention-based encoder-decoder framework that learns the mapping between input images and output sequences in a purely data-driven way. Unfortunately, there often exists severe misalignment between feature areas and text labels in real-world scenarios. To address this problem, this paper proposes a sequential alignment attention model to enhance the alignment between input images and output character sequences. In this model, an attention gated recurrent unit (AGRU) is first devised to distinguish the text and background regions, and further extract the localized features focusing on sequential text regions. Furthermore, CTC guided decoding strategy is integrated into the popular attention-based decoder, which not only helps to boost the convergence of the training but also enhances the well-aligned sequence recognition. Extensive experiments on various benchmarks, including the IIIT5k, SVT, and ICDAR datasets, show that our method substantially outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.     

ATSP:时态网络可视化的自适应时间片划分方法

现有的时态网络可视化方法大多采用等量时间片来可视化网络的演变，不利于时态模式的快速挖掘和发现。为此，根据时态网络固有的特征提出自适应时间片划分方法（Adaptive Time Slice Partition method，ATSP）。在时态网络的两种表示方式（基于事件的表示方式和基于快照的表示方式）的基础上，构建了ATSP的基础模型，同时提出了一种改进模型用来描述事件间隔时间服从长尾分布的时态网络。为了实现时间片的不等量划分，针对探索任务的不同提出了基于时态模式的ATSP规则和基于中心节点的ATSP规则，并提出了实现算法--层次划分算法（Hierarchical Partition algorithm，HP）和增量划分算法（Incremental Partition algorithm，IP）。实验结果表明，ATSP方法比传统的时间片划分方法更能准确地表示网络的时态特征，且该方法应用于可视化时，能有效归纳并展示网络的特征，明显提高了视觉分析的效率。     

时态神经网络模型及其在股票分类预测上应用

对具有时间属性的数据进行数据挖掘称为时态数据挖掘，用以发现数据在时间上的知识，当数据变化不规律时，如股票交易数据,就很难发现有价值的规律与规则。而神经网络具有并行、容错、可以硬件实现以及自我学习的优点,可作为股票分类预测应用的一种方法。通过将股票数据与时态型相结合，将股票数据转换成时态型股票数据，提出时态神经网络模型的分类方法，对收集的若干上市公司十年内的股票数据进行分析，构建了时态股票数据神经网络分类器对股票进行分类预测。经过实验验证，相比改进前的神经网络和支持向量机方法，该分类器具有更高的分类准确率。结果证明，这种时态数据神经网络模型对于多只股票的分类预测是非常有效的，可以很好地运用到股票市场的分类预测中。     

Cloud resource prediction model based on triple exponential smoothing method and temporal convolutional network

The container cloud represented by Docker and Kubernetes has the advantages of less additional resource overhead and shorter start-up and destruction time.However there are still resource management issues such as over-supply and under-supply.In order to allow the Kubernetes cluster to respond “in advance” to the resource usage of the applications deployed on it,and then to schedule and allocate resources in a timely,accurate and dynamic manner based on the predicted value,a cloud resource prediction model based on triple exponential smoothing method and temporal convolutional network was proposed,based on historical data to predict future demand for resources.To find the optimal combination of parameters,the parameters were optimized using TPOT thought.Experiments on the CPU and memory of the Google dataset show that the model has better prediction performance than other models.     

微地震事件解释实例

微地震事件是储层对水力压裂的响应，其分布特征与压裂工艺、储层性质、区域构造应力等密切相关。因此，微地震事件解释须结合地质、油藏、工程等信息才能全面、准确地理解水力压裂裂缝延伸过程，提高压裂改造效果评价的可靠性及对储层和压裂工艺的认识，以指导井位部署和压裂设计。针对辽河探区Q1块和S268块三个微地震事件监测实例，利用微地震联合测井岩性分层、三维地震剖面以及三维地震数据相干体属性，探讨了影响微地震事件分布特征的因素，得到以下认识：1天然裂隙是影响微地震事件分布的重要地质因素，储层天然裂隙发育表现为微地震事件重叠，易于形成复杂的裂缝网络，储层天然裂隙不发育表现为微地震事件不重叠且集中分布，也可实现造长裂缝的目的，形成对称缝网；2对致密砂岩储层进行水力压裂时可将在全区稳定分布的煤层作为稳定隔挡层，控制缝高，提高改造效果；3进行井位部署时，要考虑邻近井的影响，采用合理的井间距和压裂工艺，最大限度地降低邻近井对压裂造成的影响；4地层变形形成的局部高应力区域可对水力压裂裂缝形成阻挡，影响改造效果，结合地震资料综合解释有助于微地震监测识别地层变形对压裂的影响。     

Differences between oculomotor and perceptual artifacts for temporally limited head mounted displays

We used perceptual and oculomotor measures to understand the negative impacts of low (phantom array) and high (motion blur) duty cycles with a high‐speed, AR‐likehead‐mounted display prototype. We observed large intersubject variability for the detection of phantom array artifacts but a highly consistent and systematic effect on saccadic eye movement targeting during low duty cycle presentations. This adverse effect on saccade endpoints was also related to an increased error rate in a perceptual discrimination task, showing a direct effect of display duty cycle on the perceptual quality. For high duty cycles, the probability of detecting motion blur increased during head movements, and this effect was elevated at lower refresh rates. We did not find an impact of the temporal display characteristics on compensatory eye movements during head motion (e.g., VOR). Together, our results allow us to quantify the tradeoff of different negative spatiotemporal impacts of user movements and make subsequent recommendations for optimized temporal HMD parameters.     

Unraveling the film-formation kinetics of interfacial polymerization via low coherence interferometry

Interfacial polymerization (IP) is one of the most important methods for fabricating thin film composite (TFC) membranes. Understanding the film-formation mechanisms is of great value for developing membranes with enhanced performance. This work proposed a novel method to in situ characterize the film-formation kinetics via low coherence interferometry (LCI). The polyamide film formed at the liquid–substrate interface was scanned in real time; the polymerization induced significant variations in the optical properties around the reaction zone. After mitigating the effects of the perturbed interface, the surface-averaged intensity profiles provide a solid basis for analyzing the film-formation kinetics at various depths. In particular, the effects of the monomer concentrations were investigated to reveal the asymmetric growth and development of irregular substructures. All the characterization results confirm that the LCI-based characterization is a powerful tool for studying the structural evolution of the IP layer and thereby providing deeper insights for optimizing TFC membranes.