Design and simulation of autonomous military vehicle control system based on machine vision and ensemble movement approach

The Journal of Supercomputing - On the battlefield, early detection of armored vehicles can have a positive effect. Because according to this issue, timely and appropriate reactions can be done....     

Mitochondrial Dysfunction Plays Central Role in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a global pandemic that affects one-quarter of the world’s population. NAFLD includes a spectrum of progressive liver disease from steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, and cirrhosis and can be complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma. It is strongly associated with metabolic syndromes, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, and it has been shown that metabolic dysregulation is central to its pathogenesis. Recently, it has been suggested that metabolic- (dysfunction) associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a more appropriate term to describe the disease than NAFLD, which puts increased emphasis on the important role of metabolic dysfunction in its pathogenesis. There is strong evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role in the development and progression of NAFLD. Impaired mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation and, more recently, a reduction in mitochondrial quality, have been suggested to play a major role in NAFLD development and progression. In this review, we provide an overview of our current understanding of NAFLD and highlight how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to its pathogenesis in both animal models and human subjects. Further we discuss evidence that the modification of mitochondrial function modulates NAFLD and that targeting mitochondria is a promising new avenue for drug development to treat NAFLD/NASH.     

Localized Heat Therapy Improves Mitochondrial Respiratory Capacity but Not Fatty Acid Oxidation

AIM: Mild heat stress can improve mitochondrial respiratory capacity in skeletal muscle. However, long-term heat interventions are scarce, and the effects of heat therapy need to be understood in the context of the adaptations which follow the more complex combination of stimuli from exercise training. The purpose of this work was to compare the effects of 6 weeks of localized heat therapy on human skeletal muscle mitochondria to single-leg interval training. METHODS: Thirty-five subjects were assigned to receive sham therapy, short-wave diathermy heat therapy, or single-leg interval exercise training, localized to the quadriceps muscles of the right leg. All interventions took place 3 times per week. Muscle biopsies were performed at baseline, and after 3 and 6 weeks of intervention. Mitochondrial respiratory capacity was assessed on permeabilized muscle fibers via high-resolution respirometry. RESULTS: The primary finding of this work was that heat therapy and exercise training significantly improved mitochondrial respiratory capacity by 24.8 ± 6.2% and 27.9 ± 8.7%, respectively (p < 0.05). Fatty acid oxidation and citrate synthase activity were also increased following exercise training by 29.5 ± 6.8% and 19.0 ± 7.4%, respectively (p < 0.05). However, contrary to our hypothesis, heat therapy did not increase fatty acid oxidation or citrate synthase activity. CONCLUSION: Six weeks of muscle-localized heat therapy significantly improves mitochondrial respiratory capacity, comparable to exercise training. However, unlike exercise, heat does not improve fatty acid oxidation capacity.     

Insight into the Impact of Oxidative Stress on the Barrier Properties of Lipid Bilayer Models

As a new field of oxidative stress-based therapy, cold physical plasma is a promising tool for several biomedical applications due to its potential to create a broad diversity of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Although proposed, the impact of plasma-derived RONS on the cell membrane lipids and properties is not fully understood. For this purpose, the changes in the lipid bilayer functionality under oxidative stress generated by an argon plasma jet (kINPen) were investigated by electrochemical techniques. In addition, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was employed to analyze the plasma-induced modifications on the model lipids. Various asymmetric bilayers mimicking the structure and properties of the erythrocyte cell membrane were transferred onto a gold electrode surface by Langmuir-Blodgett/Langmuir-Schaefer deposition techniques. A strong impact of cholesterol on membrane permeabilization by plasma-derived species was revealed. Moreover, the maintenance of the barrier properties is influenced by the chemical composition of the head group. Mainly the head group size and its hydrogen bonding capacities are relevant, and phosphatidylcholines are significantly more susceptible than phosphatidylserines and other lipid classes, underlining the high relevance of this lipid class in membrane dynamics and cell physiology.     

A back-projection autofocus algorithm based on flight trajectory optimization for synthetic aperture radar imaging

In this paper, a new autofocus algorithm is presented for back-projection (BP) image formation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging. The approach is based on maximizing a cost function obtained by prominent points in different sub-apertures of constructed SAR image by varying the flight trajectory parameters. While image-quality-based autofocus approach together with BP algorithm can be computationally intensive, we use approximations that allow optimal corrections to be derived. The approach is applicable for focusing different signal processing algorithms by obtaining modified flight trajectory parameters. Different examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the new autofocus approach applied to the frequency modulated continuous wave mode SAR dataset.     

An Improved Chaotic Cryptosystem for Image Encryption and Digital Watermarking

Wireless Personal Communications - In this article, enhanced chaotic range map is used for data hiding and multimedia security. By using complex properties of improved chaotic logistic map that...     

A Novel Algebraic Technique for the Construction of Strong Substitution Box

Magnetic induction applications mostly rely on resonance for inducing maximum magnetic fields to system loads and hence for each resonant frequency dedicated circuits are required. Unfortunately, the frequency responses of such inductive systems manifest several peaks (frequency splitting) when their coupling coefficients are equal to or larger than critical coupling. Such frequency responses with several peaks are detrimental when the objective is to transfer maximum energy. Frequency splitting between inductive coils have been seen to date as detrimental to wireless power transfer and inductive communication systems. In this paper it is demonstrated that frequency splitting is a welcome phenomenon with advantage in the design of inductive filter banks and multi-frequency inductive systems. The centre frequencies of the filter banks result from split bands of inductive systems. This phenomenon is applied in conjunction with an innovative recursive algorithm to design inductive filter banks. The filters straddle both sides of the resonant frequency position and can be resolved individually.     

Restoration of images degraded by compound noise sources using Markov random field models

The main theme of this paper is the derivation of a new algorithm for restoring digitized images degraded by both additive and multiplicative noise sources. In order to keep the derivation sufficiently general, the authors also include degradation caused by blur and a class of nonlinearities. The images under consideration are modeled as Markov random fields, while the additive and multiplicative noise sources are assumed to be Gaussian processes with known means and variances. Blurring of images is accomplished by a shift-invariant point-spread function. Test results with degraded images indicate that the algorithm is effective in restoring images degraded by high levels of additive and multiplicative noise.     

SD‐WLB: An SDN‐aided mechanism for web load balancing based on server statistics

Software‐defined networking (SDN) is a modern approach for current computer and data networks. The increase in the number of business websites has resulted in an exponential growth in web traffic. To cope with the increased demands, multiple web servers with a front‐end load balancer are widely used by organizations and businesses as a viable solution to improve the performance. In this paper, we propose a load‐balancing mechanism for SDN. Our approach allocates web requests to each server according to its response time and the traffic volume of the corresponding switch port. The centralized SDN controller periodically collects this information to maintain an up‐to‐date view of the load distribution among the servers, and incoming user requests are redirected to the most appropriate server. The simulation results confirm the superiority of our approach compared to several other techniques. Compared to LBBSRT, round robin, and random selection methods, our mechanism improves the average response time by 19.58%, 33.94%, and 57.41%, respectively. Furthermore, the average improvement of throughput in comparison with these algorithms is 16.52%, 29.72%, and 58.27%, respectively.