Multidimensional long-term time-lapse microscopy of in vitro peripheral nerve regeneration

In order to test the effectiveness of a new advanced time-lapse microscopy imaging and image processing and analysis system, and to do quantitative and qualitative temporal analyses of in vitro peripheral nerve regeneration, long-term time-lapse imaging of cultures of mouse dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) was performed. DRGs were placed in a Petri dish, covered with collagen gel, their attached peripheral nerves were cut in the middle, creating a gap, and the dish was filled with culture medium. Six preparations were kept on the time-lapse imaging system, which provides a suitable incubation environment and enables to capture images from multiple coordinates at x,y,z axes at desired time intervals for 13 days. In general, the time-lapse imaging system proved quite stable and efficient, although some improvements are certainly required. Two main components of peripheral nerve regeneration, outgrowth of axons and activities of resident cells, were examined. Axons started to grow during the first hour of incubation with a 16.5 microm/h rate and showed the slowest rates (0.7 microm/h) on days 8 and 9, after which they resumed higher speeds again. The first cell came out of the proximal end of the cut nerve on the second day and it was a Schwann cell (SC), which was the prominent cell type in the preparations throughout the experiment. SCs were higher in number (83.15% of all cells) but slower in migration (3.4 vs. 7.3 microm/h, P < 0.001) than other cells. Other observed characteristics of axonal outgrowth and cellular activity and interactions between axons and the cells are discussed.     

Isolation of proteins with complex forming agents]

Taking vegetable albumins for models, the authors report of the possibilities of isolating proteins (which cannot be precipitated isoelectrically) by using their property of forming complexes with tannin or poly-anions. The precipitation of proteins with dextran sulphate or polyphosphates, which is due to electrostatic interaction, depends on the pH value and the electrolyte content of the solution. Under appropriate experimental conditions, protein yields of 100% are achieved. By means of tannin, the proteins are completely precipitated in a wide range of pH. The protein component of the poly-anion-containing complexes is isolated by precipitation with salt or by thermal coagulation after dissolving of the complexes. The isolation of protein from the tannin complexes is preferably realized by reaction with coffeine.     

Analysis of the type II robotic mixed-model assembly line balancing problem

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend towards using robots in production systems. Robots are used in different areas such as packaging, transportation, loading/unloading and especially assembly lines. One important step in taking advantage of robots on the assembly line is considering them while balancing the line. On the other hand, market conditions have increased the importance of mixed-model assembly lines. Therefore, in this article, the robotic mixed-model assembly line balancing problem is studied. The aim of this study is to develop a new efficient heuristic algorithm based on beam search in order to minimize the sum of cycle times over all models. In addition, mathematical models of the problem are presented for comparison. The proposed heuristic is tested on benchmark problems and compared with the optimal solutions. The results show that the algorithm is very competitive and is a promising tool for further research.     

Uniform Luminous Perovskite Nanofibers with Color‐Tunability and Improved Stability Prepared by One‐Step Core/Shell Electrospinning

A one‐step core/shell electrospinning technique is exploited to fabricate uniform luminous perovskite‐based nanofibers, wherein the perovskite and the polymer are respectively employed in the core and the outer shell. Such a coaxial electrospinning technique enables the in situ formation of perovskite nanocrystals, exempting the needs of presynthesis of perovskite quantum dots or post‐treatments. It is demonstrated that not only the luminous electrospun nanofibers can possess color‐tunability by simply tuning the perovskite composition, but also the grain size of the formed perovskite nanocrystals is largely affected by the perovskite precursor stoichiometry and the polymer solution concentration. Consequently, the optimized perovskite electrospun nanofiber yields a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 30.9%, significantly surpassing the value of its thin‐film counterpart. Moreover, owing to the hydrophobic characteristic of shell polymer, the prepared perovskite nanofiber is endowed with a high resistance to air and water. Its photoluminescence intensity remains constant while stored under ambient environment with a relative humidity of 85% over a month and retains intensity higher than 50% of its initial intensity while immersed in water for 48 h. More intriguingly, a white light‐emitting perovskite‐based nanofiber is successfully fabricated by pairing the orange light‐emitting compositional perovskite with a blue light‐emitting conjugated polymer.     

Accuracy and longitudinal reproducibility of quantitative femorotibial cartilage measures derived from automated U-Net-based segmentation of two different MRI contrasts: data from the osteoarthritis initiative healthy reference cohort

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - To evaluate the agreement, accuracy, and longitudinal reproducibility of quantitative cartilage morphometry from 2D U-Net-based...     

Evaluation of the NDVI in plant community composition mapping: a case study of Tersakan Valley,Amasya County,Turkey

Mapping the composition of plant community types requires reliable spatial data obtained from field surveys and satellite‐derived indices. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is the simplest and most frequently used index in plant applications. If relationships between the NDVI and plant cover abundance are determined, this information can be used in the mapping process. In this study, we investigated these possible connections for mapping the plant community composition of Tersakan Valley in Turkey. We collected georeferenced cover‐abundance (Braun‐Blanquet, BB) data from 1077 quadrats in the field, and derived an NDVI raster map from a Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) image. Then we classified this NDVI map by using various methods and class numbers. Using bivariate correlation analysis, we explored the relationships between 26 classified NDVI maps and BB, and chose the classified NDVI map with the strongest correlation. We further examined this relationship by using scatter plots, histograms and paired samples t‐tests. According to the results, the NDVI (equal‐interval 15) classes between 4 and 8 corresponded with the BB classes between 1 and 5, respectively. Using this relationship, the spatial distribution of 43 different plant community compositions were determined in geographic information systems (GIS). The results indicate that the NDVI has the potential to map plant community composition reliably.     

A case study of memetic algorithms for constraint optimization

There is a variety of knapsack problems in the literature. Multidimensional 0–1 knapsack problem (MKP) is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem having many application areas. Many approaches have been proposed for solving this problem. In this paper, an empirical investigation of memetic algorithms (MAs) that hybridize genetic algorithms (GAs) with hill climbing for solving MKPs is provided. Two distinct sets of experiments are performed. During the initial experiments, MA parameters are tuned. GA and four MAs each using a different hill climbing method based on the same configuration are evaluated. In the second set of experiments, a self-adaptive (co-evolving) multimeme memetic algorithm (MMA) is compared to the best MA from the parameter tuning experiments. MMA utilizes the evolutionary process as a learning mechanism for choosing the appropriate hill climbing method to improve a candidate solution at a given time. Two well-known MKP benchmarks are used during the experiments.     

MIMO controller synthesis with integral-action integrity

A controller synthesis method is presented for closed-loop stability and asymptotic tracking of step input references with zero steady-state error. Integral-action is achieved in two design steps starting with any stabilizing controller and adding a PID-controller in a configuration that guarantees robust stability and tracking. The proposed design has integral-action integrity, where closed-loop stability is maintained even when any of the proportional, integral, or derivative terms are removed or the entire PID-controller is limited by a constant gain matrix. The integral constant can be switched off when integral-action is not wanted.     

Elimination of vesicular sounds from pulmonary crackle waveforms

Pulmonary crackles and their parameters are very useful in the diagnosis of pulmonary disorders. A new automatic method has been proposed for the elimination of background vesicular sound from crackle signal with a view to introduce minimum distortion to crackle parameters. A region of interest is designated and a distortion metric based on the correlation between raw and filtered waveforms in that region is defined. Filter cut-off frequency is estimated based on the distortion metric. To reduce computational cost, a regression analysis is also realized which predicts a new fitted cut-off frequency from the estimated cut-off frequency. As a comparison basis, wavelet filtering is also applied on the same data. The algorithm is validated on simulated crackles superimposed on recorded vesicular sound with results indicating that filtering is achieved with minimal distortion of crackle parameters. The algorithm is also applied on real crackles from subjects with various respiratory disorders. The results show the extent of the effect of vesicular sound on crackle parameters, emphasizing the significance of proper filtering in crackle studies.