Rapid Hormetic Responses of Photosystem II Photochemistry of Clary Sage to Cadmium Exposure

Five-day exposure of clary sage (Salvia sclarea L.) to 100 μM cadmium (Cd) in hydroponics was sufficient to increase Cd concentrations significantly in roots and aboveground parts and affect negatively whole plant levels of calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), since Cd competes for Ca channels, while reduced Mg concentrations are associated with increased Cd tolerance. Total zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and iron (Fe) uptake increased but their translocation to the aboveground parts decreased. Despite the substantial levels of Cd in leaves, without any observed defects on chloroplast ultrastructure, an enhanced photosystem II (PSII) efficiency was observed, with a higher fraction of absorbed light energy to be directed to photochemistry (Φ_PSΙΙ). The concomitant increase in the photoprotective mechanism of non-photochemical quenching of photosynthesis (NPQ) resulted in an important decrease in the dissipated non-regulated energy (Φ_NO), modifying the homeostasis of reactive oxygen species (ROS), through a decreased singlet oxygen (¹O₂) formation. A basal ROS level was detected in control plant leaves for optimal growth, while a low increased level of ROS under 5 days Cd exposure seemed to be beneficial for triggering defense responses, and a high level of ROS out of the boundaries (8 days Cd exposure), was harmful to plants. Thus, when clary sage was exposed to Cd for a short period, tolerance mechanisms were triggered. However, exposure to a combination of Cd and high light or to Cd alone (8 days) resulted in an inhibition of PSII functionality, indicating Cd toxicity. Thus, the rapid activation of PSII functionality at short time exposure and the inhibition at longer duration suggests a hormetic response and describes these effects in terms of “adaptive response” and “toxicity”, respectively.     

Special Issue on Deep Learning for Robotic Vision

International Journal of Computer Vision -     

Volatile organic compound profiles of yoghurt produced from cow's milk with different somatic cell counts

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of somatic cell count (SCC) of raw cow's milk on the volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles of yoghurt. Test yoghurt samples were produced from three batches of cow's milk with low, medium and high SCC, respectively. The VOCs were determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. A lower diacetyl and acetoin content and a higher content of 2‐heptanone, and butanoic and hexanoic acids were established in the yoghurt samples from batches with high SCC of above 1 000 000 cells/cm³. The increased SCC of cow's milk had a negative effect on the volatile organic compound profiles of yoghurt.     

Connected by media [vision and views]

Advertising campaigns and highly popular government programs have for many years trumpeted the need to get people connected to the Internet. That meant solving the technological and sociological issues involved in providing network access to the population and turning them into regular users. The message echoes today in a slightly muted form. Except in developing parts of the world, getting people connected is no longer a major challenge. The challenge today is to create and support experiences that users continue to value. The recent drop in the overheated valuations of networking-oriented businesses serves as a useful reminder that people don't really care about being connected to the Internet per se. They use the Internet to connect to other people or things. In the case of, connecting to people, a valuable question to ask might be, How can connected applications identify communities, support their activities, and evolve to meet their needs? With respect to things, let's consider the increasingly popular situation in which those things are multimedia content. In particular, let's think about how multimedia content might be the glue that connects, defines, and supports communities. Irrespective of views on intellectual property issues or business models, even a cursory reading of recent events makes it undeniable that the Web is becoming a remarkably effective-if not yet efficient-multimedia content distribution platform. While this may not have been a design goal earlier, it's now a significant driving force in the evolution of network technology, user services, and access devices. Given media content, people, and the Internet, there are three sorts of connectedness pairings to consider: people-to-people; people-to-media; and media-to-media     

Subjective evaluation of terry fabrics handle

Based on a survey among specialists, the impact of criteria such as thickness, bulkiness, smoothness, stiffness, extensibility and elasticity on the handle of terry fabrics is evaluated and ranked. A methodology was developed to determine the weight coefficient of the factors involved in the evaluation. A relation was determined providing a connection between the examined factors and the handle rated on the Kawabata scale. A manual evaluation of terry fabric with different mass per unit area, structural features and finishing treatments was performed. Two methods were used – by ranking and by assigning a numerical score (from 0 to 5). The opinion of the evaluators has proven consistency, as the ranking of the samples, regardless of the method, was the same. The obtained results will be used to create a complex evaluation of terry fabrics handle.     

Online Journalism and the War in Cyberspace: A Comparison Between U.S. and International Newspapers

The 2003 Iraq War was the first military conflict in which online media played a significant role. Traditional news organizations from around the world provided extensive coverage of the conflict on their websites, reaching global audiences and adding new dimensions to traditional war reporting. This study explores how the Internet disseminated news about the war by comparing 26 international newspaper sites (N = 791) and their use of Web‐specific features such as hyperlinks, animations, multimedia content, and interactive elements. By proposing a three‐stage model of online journalism and applying it to the online war coverage, the analysis suggests that online journalism has not yet reached the state of convergence. The differences in online news coverage between the United States and international websites and their implications are also discussed.     

Population pharmacokinetics of ciprofloxacin in patients with liver impairments analyzed by NPEM2 algorithm--a retrospective study

In order to develop a population pharmacokinetic model for ciprofloxacin after single oral dosing in patients with liver impairments, a retrospective population analysis of already published data was undertaken. The purpose of the study was to compare the population model parameter estimates for ciprofloxacin obtained with the non-parametric expectation maximization (NPEM2) algorithm based on a full data set (NPEM2-FULL) with those based on a set of 3 randomly chosen time/concentrations data (NPEM2-3RPs). Parameter values generated by the standard two-stage (STS) approach using traditional data-rich situation were used as a "gold standard" for comparative purposes. There was no significant difference between parameter means at p < 0.05 for Gauss-Newton and maximum a posteriori Bayesian (MAPB) estimators. The values of k(s) (min/ml/h) as estimated by STS and NPEM2-FULL models, on the one hand, and by STS and NPEM2-3RPs population models on the other hand (0.001, 0.00095, and 0.001, respectively), were not significantly different (p = 0.1457, respectively p = 0.6276). The population models values of k(s) suggest that good approximation between ciprofloxacin renal clearance and creatinine clearance could be expected for most of the patients and support previous observations that creatinine clearance is a meaningful predictor for ciprofloxacin elimination from the body. The 3 population models estimated Vs/F (l/kg) without significant difference. The predictive performance of these population models was subsequently assessed using internal validation approach. The 3 population models demonstrated comparable accuracy and precision in Bayesian forecasting of drug plasma levels of validation group patients based on 1 random and 2 suboptimal prior drug concentrations. There was, however, a one-order of magnitude decrease in population models bias when 2 suboptimal data points were used as Bayesian priors.     

A Language for Content-Based Video Retrieval

We present an effective technique for automatic extraction, representation, and classification of digital video, and a visual language for formulation of queries to access the semantic information contained in digital video. We have devised an algorithm that extracts motion information from a video sequence. This algorithm provides a low-cost extension to the motion compensation component of the MPEG compression algorithm. In this paper, we present a visual language called VEVA for querying multimedia information in general, and video semantic information in particular. Unlike many other proposals that concentrate on browsing the data, VEVA offers a complete set of capabilities for specifying relationships between the image components and formulating queries that search for objects, their motions and their other associated characteristics. VEVA has been shown to be very expressive in this context mainly due to the fact that many types of multimedia information are inherently visual in nature.     

GeD spline estimation of multivariate Archimedean copulas

A new multivariate Archimedean copula estimation method is proposed in a non-parametric setting. The method uses the so-called Geometrically Designed splines (GeD splines) to represent the cdf of a random variable W_θ, obtained through the probability integral transform of an Archimedean copula with parameter θ. Sufficient conditions for the GeD spline estimator to possess the properties of the underlying theoretical cdf, K(θ,t), of W_θ, are given. The latter conditions allow for defining a three-step estimation procedure for solving the resulting non-linear regression problem with linear inequality constraints. In the proposed procedure, finding the number and location of the knots and the coefficients of the unconstrained GeD spline estimator and solving the constraint least-squares optimisation problem are separated. Thus, the resulting spline estimator is used to recover the generator and the related Archimedean copula by solving an ordinary differential equation. The proposed method is truly multivariate, it brings about numerical efficiency and as a result can be applied with large volumes of data and for dimensions d≥2, as illustrated by the numerical examples presented.