Trends in overweight among US adults from 1987 to 1993: a multistate telephone survey

OBJECTIVES: Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, this study describes trends in the prevalence of overweight between 1987 and 1993. METHODS: Data were examined from 33 states participating in an ongoing telephone survey of health behaviors of adults (n = 387,704). Self-reported weights and heights were used to calculate sex-specific prevalence estimates of overweight for each year from 1987 to 1993. Time trends were evaluated with the use of linear regression. RESULTS: Between 1987 and 1993, the age-adjusted prevalence of overweight increased by 0.9% per year for both sexes (from 21.9% to 26.7% among men and from 20.6% to 25.4% among women). The increasing linear trend was observed in all subgroups of the population but was most notable for Black men (1.5% per year) and men living in the Northeast (1.4% per year). Secular changes in smoking and leisure-time physical activity did not entirely account for the increase in overweight. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of overweight among American adults increased by 5% between 1987 and 1993. Efforts are needed to explore the causes of this adverse trend and to find effective strategies to prevent obesity.     

Exochelin genes in Mycobacterium smegmatis: identification of an ABC transporter and two non-ribosomal peptide synthetase genes

Many strains of mycobacteria produce two ferric chelating substances that are termed exochelin (an excreted product) and mycobactin (a cell-associated product). These agents may function as iron acquisition siderophores. To examine the genetics of the iron acquisition system in mycobacteria, ultraviolet (UV) and transposon (Tn611) mutagenesis techniques were used to generate exochelin-deficient mutants of Mycobacterium smegmatis strains ATCC 607 and LR222 respectively. Mutants were identified on CAS siderophore detection agar plates. Comparisons of the amounts of CAS-reactive material excreted by the possible mutant strains with that of the wild-type strains verified that seven UV mutant strains and two confirmed transposition mutant strains were deficient in exochelin production. Cell-associated mycobactin production in the mutants appeared to be normal. From the two transposon mutants, the mutated gene regions were cloned and identified by colony hybridization with an IS6100 probe, and the DNA regions flanking the transposon insertion sites were then used as probes to clone the wild-type loci from M. smegmatis LR222 genomic DNA. Complementation assays showed that an 8 kb PstI fragment and a 4.8 kb PstI/SacI subclone of this fragment complemented one transposon mutant (LUN2) and one UV mutant (R92). A 10.1 kb SacI fragment restored exochelin production to the other transposon mutant (LUN1). The nucleotide sequence of the 15.3 kb DNA region that spanned the two transposon insertion sites overlapped the 5' region of the previously reported exochelin biosynthetic gene fxbA and contained three open reading frames that were transcribed in the opposite orientation to fxbA. The corresponding genes were designated exiT, fxbB and fxbC. The deduced amino acid sequence of ExiT suggested that it was a member of the ABC transporter superfamily, while FxbB and FxbC displayed significant homology with many enzymes (including pristinamycin I synthetase) that catalyse non-ribosomal peptide synthesis. We propose that the peptide backbone of the siderophore exochelin is synthesized in part by enzymes resembling non-ribosomal peptide synthetases and that the ABC transporter ExiT is responsible for exochelin excretion.     

KWTA networks and their applications

Winner-Take-All (WTA) or K-Winner-Take-All (KWTA) networks have been frequently used as the basic building blocks of complex neural networks. This paper introduces a new selection rule for network connections that implements stable KWTA networks. To widen the applications of WTA networks, a new class of WTA networks is proposed, and their efficient design methods are presented. We demonstrate the properties of the generalized class of WTA networks, through three application examples.     

Visual tracking using convolutional features with sparse coding

Artificial Intelligence Review - Visual object tracking has become one of the most active research topics in computer vision, and it has been applied in several commercial...     

The squash-and-stretch stylization for character motions

The squash-and-stretch describes the rigidity of the character. This effect is the most important technique in traditional cartoon animation. In this paper, we introduce a method that applies the squash-and-stretch effect to character motion. Our method exaggerates the motion by sequentially applying the spatial exaggeration technique and the temporal exaggeration technique. The spatial exaggeration technique globally deforms the pose in order to make the squashed or stretched pose by modeling it as a covariance matrix of joint positions. Then, the temporal exaggeration technique computes a time-warping function for each joint, and applies it to the position of the joint allowing the character to stretch its links appropriately. The motion stylized by our method is a sequence of squashed and stretched poses with stretching limbs. By performing a user survey, we prove that the motion created using our method is similar to that used in 2D cartoon animation and is funnier than the original motion for human observers who are familiar with 2D cartoon animation.     

Advanced partial encryption using watermarking and scrambling in MP3

In this paper, we propose an advanced partial encryption of watermarking and scrambling using the magnitude information of Modifed Discrete Cosine Transform (MDCT). In MPEG-1/Audio Layer III (MP3), the magnitude and phase information of modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) coefficients is encrypted. The proposed method uses both watermarking and scrambling, and aims at protecting the contents against eavesdropping and moreover against illegal mass distribution after descrambled. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve higher security and less computational complexity by reusing the MDCT coefficients obtained in MP3.     

Predictive simulation of human walking transitions using an optimization formulation

A general optimization formulation for transition walking prediction using 3D skeletal model is presented. The formulation is based on a previously presented one-step walking formulation (Xiang et al., Int J Numer Methods Eng 79:667–695, 2009b). Two basic transitions are studied: walk-to-stand and slow-to-fast walk. The slow-to-fast transition is used to connect slow walk to fast walk by using a step-to-step transition formulation. In addition, the speed effects on the walk-to-stand motion are investigated. The joint torques and ground reaction forces (GRF) are recovered and analyzed from the simulation. For slow-to-fast walk transition, the predicted ground reaction forces in step transition is even larger than that of the fast walk. The model shows good correlation with the experimental data for the lower extremities except for the standing ankle profile. The optimal solution of transition simulation is obtained in a few minutes by using predictive dynamics method.     

Clinical Significance of Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Association with Hormone Receptor Expression Patterns in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Hormone receptor expression patterns often correlate with infiltration of specific lymphocytes in tumors. Specifically, the presence of specific tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) with particular hormone receptor expression is reportedly associated with breast cancer, however, this has not been revealed in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Therefore, we investigated the association between hormone receptor expression and TILs in EOC. Here we found that ERα, AR, and GR expression increased in EOC, while PR was significantly reduced and ERβ expression showed a reduced trend compared to normal epithelium. Cluster analysis indicated poor disease-free survival (DFS) in AR+/GR+/PR+ subgroup (triple dominant group); while the Cox proportional-hazards model highlighted the triple dominant group as an independent prognostic factor for DFS. In addition, significant upregulation of FoxP3+ TILs, PD-1, and PD-L1 was observed in the triple dominant group compared to other groups. NanoString analyses further suggested that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and/or NF-κB signaling pathways were activated with significant upregulation of RELA, MAP3K5, TNFAIP3, BCL2L1, RIPK1, TRAF2, PARP1, and AKT1 in the triple dominant EOC group. The triple dominant subgroup correlates with poor prognosis in EOC. Moreover, the TNF and/or NF-κB signaling pathways may be responsible for hormone-mediated inhibition of the immune microenvironment.     

Novel blue‐light‐emitting polymers based on a diphenylanthracene moiety

New luminescent copolyethers with diphenylanthracene‐emitting segments and electron‐transporting benzoxazole phenyl were successfully synthesized by aromatic nucleophilic substitution. The polymers, characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy, were obtained in high yields, showed good solubility in various organic solvents, and had high thermal stability with high glass‐transition temperatures (125–129). The number‐average molecular weights of the polymers were 10,000–20,000, and they had polydispersity indices of 1.2–1.4. The optical and electrochemical properties of the polymers were also investigated. The pure blue emission for the polymers (maximum wavelength = 430–440 nm) was obtained with high photoluminescence quantum efficiency (76–78%) in a chloroform solution. The blue electroluminescence for the poly(TDPB) (maximum wavelength = 440 nm) was obtained with a turn‐on voltage of 15–20 V when simple light‐emitting diodes (indium tin oxide/polymer/Al) were fabricated. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 2151–2157, 2006