Branching and circular features in high dimensional data

Large observations and simulations in scientific research give rise to high-dimensional data sets that present many challenges and opportunities in data analysis and visualization. Researchers in application domains such as engineering, computational biology, climate study, imaging and motion capture are faced with the problem of how to discover compact representations of high-dimensional data while preserving their intrinsic structure. In many applications, the original data is projected onto low-dimensional space via dimensionality reduction techniques prior to modeling. One problem with this approach is that the projection step in the process can fail to preserve structure in the data that is only apparent in high dimensions. Conversely, such techniques may create structural illusions in the projection, implying structure not present in the original high-dimensional data. Our solution is to utilize topological techniques to recover important structures in high-dimensional data that contains non-trivial topology. Specifically, we are interested in high-dimensional branching structures. We construct local circle-valued coordinate functions to represent such features. Subsequently, we perform dimensionality reduction on the data while ensuring such structures are visually preserved. Additionally, we study the effects of global circular structures on visualizations. Our results reveal never-before-seen structures on real-world data sets from a variety of applications.     

Effect of roasting on the radical scavenging activity of cocoa beans

The free-radical scavenging activity of cocoa samples subjected to different roasting treatments has been determined. The samples (raw, pre-roasted and roasted) were separated into four molecular weight fractions per sample (>30, 30–10, 10–5, and <5 kDa). The free-radical scavenging activity was determined with the DPPH^• (1,1-dipheny-2-picrylhydrazyl), and ABTS^•+ [2,2’-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)] free-radical scavenging assays for all samples. Both tests were compared in terms of sensitivity and measurement precision, at different reaction times. Comparing the results from each test, the free-radical scavenging activity trends were similar for each fraction but with notable differences in the sensitivity of the assays. Analysis of the concentration of reducing substances, such as water soluble phenolics, melanoidins, carbohydrates, etc, in these fractions by the photometric Folin–Ciocalteu assay, showed a similar pattern to the free-radical scavenging activity trend. Moreover, this comparison showed that there were significantly (P < 0.05) more reducing substances and free-radical scavenging activity in the 10–5 kDa roasted cocoa bean fraction.     

Optimal method of urgent decompression of the collecting system for obstruction and infection due to ureteral calculi

PURPOSE: We compare the efficacy of percutaneous nephrostomy with retrograde ureteral catheterization for renal drainage in cases of obstruction and infection associated with ureteral calculi. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We randomized 42 consecutive patients presenting with obstructing ureteral calculi and clinical signs of infection (temperature greater than 38 C and/or white blood count greater than 17,000/mm.3) to drainage with percutaneous nephrostomy or retrograde ureteral catheterization. Preoperative patient and stone characteristics, procedural parameters, clinical outcomes and costs were assessed for each group. RESULTS: Urine cultures obtained at drainage were positive in 62.9% of percutaneous nephrostomy and 19.1% of retrograde ureteral catheterization patients. There was no significant difference in the time to treatment between the 2 groups. Procedural and fluoroscopy times were significantly shorter in the retrograde ureteral catheterization (32.7 and 5.1 minutes, respectively) compared with the percutaneous nephrostomy (49.2 and 7.7 minutes, respectively) group. One treatment failure occurred in the percutaneous nephrostomy group, which was successfully salvaged with retrograde ureteral catheterization. Time to normal temperature was 2.3 days in the percutaneous nephrostomy and 2.6 in the retrograde ureteral catheterization group, and time to normal white blood count was 2 days in the percutaneous nephrostomy and 1.7 days in the retrograde ureteral catheterization group (p not significant). Length of stay was 4.5 days in the percutaneous nephrostomy group compared with 3.2 days in the retrograde ureteral catheterization group (p not significant). Cost analysis revealed that retrograde ureteral catheterization was twice as costly as percutaneous nephrostomy. CONCLUSIONS: Retrograde ureteral catheterization and percutaneous nephrostomy effectively relieve obstruction and infection due to ureteral calculi. Neither modality demonstrated superiority in promoting a more rapid recovery after drainage. Percutaneous nephrostomy is less costly than retrograde ureteral catheterization. The decision of which mode of drainage to use may be based on logistical factors, surgeon preference and stone characteristics.     

Vanadium promoted Ni(Mg,Al)O hydrotalcite-derived catalysts for CO2 methanation

A series of V-promoted hydrotalcite-derived nickel catalysts (1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 wt%) were tested in CO₂ methanation. Ni–I–V2.0 with 2.0 wt% vanadium loading showed the highest catalytic activity, achieving 74.7% of CO₂ conversion and 100% of CH₄ selectivity at 300 °C. XRD and XANES analyses showed that the smallest Ni⁰ particles in Ni–I–V2.0 were consistent with the improved textural features observed for this catalyst. Moreover, CO₂-TPD revealed the highest sum of weak and medium basic sites in Ni–I–V2.0 that can positively influence catalytic behavior. For the studied catalysts, a clear correlation was demonstrated between the catalytic activity and specific surface area, as well as the basic properties.     

Spatial distribution of doubly scattered polarized laser radiation in the focal plane of a lidar receiver

Depolarization lidars are widely used to study clouds and aerosols because of their ability to discriminate between spherical particles and particles of irregular shape. Depolarization of cloud backscattered radiation can be caused also by multiple scattering events. One of the ways to gain information about particle parameters in the presence of strong multiple scattering is the measurement of radial and azimuthal dependence of the polarization patterns in the focal plane of receiver. We present an algorithm for the calculation of corresponding polarized patterns in the frame of double scattering approximation. Computations are performed for various receiver field of views, for different parameters of the scattering geometry, e.g., cloud base and sounding depth, as well as for different values of cloud particle size and refractive index. As the spatial distribution of cross-polarized radiation is of cross shape and rotated at 45 degrees with respect to laser polarization, the use of a properly oriented cross-shaped mask in the receiver focal plane allows the removal of a significant portion of the depolarized component of the backscattered radiation produced by double scattering. This has been verified experimentally based on cloud depolarization measurements performed at different orientations of the cross-shaped mask. Results obtained from measurements are in agreement with model predictions.     

Impact of the roasting degree of coffee on the in vitro radical scavenging capacity and content of acrylamide

Due to the recognized toxicity of acrylamide, intensive efforts have been made to reduce the concentration of this undesired Maillard by-product in food. This work reports the results obtained from a series of experiments aimed at determining the concentration of acrylamide and the in vitro radical scavenging capacity in the same roasted and ground coffee samples, as it is well established that a significant part of the antioxidant activity in coffee is linked to the melanoidins, which are also considered as Maillard reaction products (MRPs). The radical scavenging capacity was measured using electroparamagnetic resonance (EPR). Coffee samples from the Robusta and Arabica varieties were roasted at 236 °C over different time periods to obtain very light, light, medium and dark roast. Color analyses were performed on all samples. Increasing the roasting degree led to a decrease in acrylamide concentration as well as radical scavenging capacity. The results of this work indicate that any mitigation efforts must also take into account the potential loss of desired food constituents and consequently changes to the risk/benefit characteristics of foods.     

Visualizing the Uncertainty of Graph‐based 2D Segmentation with Min‐path Stability

This paper presents a novel approach to visualize the uncertainty in graph‐based segmentations of scalar data. Segmentation of 2D scalar data has wide application in a variety of scientific and medical domains. Typically, a segmentation is presented as a single unambiguous boundary although the solution is often uncertain due to noise or blur in the underlying data as well as imprecision in user input. Our approach provides insight into this uncertainty by computing the “min‐path stability”, a scalar measure analyzing the stability of the segmentation given a set of input constraints. Our approach is efficient, easy to compute, and can be generally applied to either graph cuts or live‐wire (even partial) segmentations. In addition to its general applicability, our new approach to graph cuts uncertainty visualization improves on the time complexity of the current state‐of‐the‐art with an additional fast approximate solution. We also introduce a novel query enabled by our approach which provides users with alternate segmentations by efficiently extracting local minima of the segmentation optimization. Finally, we evaluate our approach and demonstrate its utility on data from scientific and medical applications.     

Paint and Click: Unified Interactions for Image Boundaries

Image boundaries are a fundamental component of many interactive digital photography techniques, enabling applications such as segmentation, panoramas, and seamless image composition. Interactions for image boundaries often rely on two complementary but separate approaches: editing via painting or clicking constraints. In this work, we provide a novel, unified approach for interactive editing of pairwise image boundaries that combines the ease of painting with the direct control of constraints. Rather than a sequential coupling, this new formulation allows full use of both interactions simultaneously, giving users unprecedented flexibility for fast boundary editing. To enable this new approach, we provide technical advancements. In particular, we detail a reformulation of image boundaries as a problem of finding cycles, expanding and correcting limitations of the previous work. Our new formulation provides boundary solutions for painted regions with performance on par with state‐of‐the‐art specialized, paint‐only techniques. In addition, we provide instantaneous exploration of the boundary solution space with user constraints. Finally, we provide examples of common graphics applications impacted by our new approach.     

Streaming‐Enabled Parallel Dataflow Architecture for Multicore Systems

We propose a new framework design for exploiting multi‐core architectures in the context of visualization dataflow systems. Recent hardware advancements have greatly increased the levels of parallelism available with all indications showing this trend will continue in the future. Existing visualization dataflow systems have attempted to take advantage of these new resources, though they still have a number of limitations when deployed on shared memory multi‐core architectures. Ideally, visualization systems should be built on top of a parallel dataflow scheme that can optimally utilize CPUs and assign resources adaptively to pipeline elements. We propose the design of a flexible dataflow architecture aimed at addressing many of the shortcomings of existing systems including a unified execution model for both demand‐driven and event‐driven models; a resource scheduler that can automatically make decisions on how to allocate computing resources; and support for more general streaming data structures which include unstructured elements. We have implemented our system on top of VTK with backward compatibility. In this paper, we provide evidence of performance improvements on a number of applications.