Deployment of a cloud pipeline for real-time visual inspection using fast streaming high-definition images

We investigate the challenges of building an end-to-end cloud pipeline for real-time intelligent visual inspection system for use in automotive manufacturing. Current methods of visual detection in automotive assembly are highly labor intensive, and thus prone to errors. An automated process is sought that can operate within the real-time constraints of the assembly line and can reduce errors. Components of the cloud pipeline include capture of a large set of high-definition images from a camera setup at the assembly location, transfer and storage of the images as needed, execution of object detection, and notification to a human operator when a fault is detected. The end-to-end execution must complete within a fixed time frame before the next car arrives in the assembly line. In this article, we report the design, development, and experimental evaluation of the tradeoffs of performance, accuracy, and scalability for a cloud system.     

Glycosylation in Indolent,Significant and Aggressive Prostate Cancer by Automated High-Throughput N-Glycan Profiling

The diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) is a major health-care concern worldwide. This cancer can manifest itself in many distinct forms and the transition from clinically indolent PCa to the more invasive aggressive form remains poorly understood. It is now universally accepted that glycan expression patterns change with the cellular modifications that accompany the onset of tumorigenesis. The aim of this study was to investigate if differential glycosylation patterns could distinguish between indolent, significant, and aggressive PCa. Whole serum N-glycan profiling was carried out on 117 prostate cancer patients’ serum using our automated, high-throughput analysis platform for glycan-profiling which utilizes ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) to obtain high resolution separation of N-linked glycans released from the serum glycoproteins. We observed increases in hybrid, oligomannose, and biantennary digalactosylated monosialylated glycans (M5A1G1S1, M8, and A2G2S1), bisecting glycans (A2B, A2(6)BG1) and monoantennary glycans (A1), and decreases in triantennary trigalactosylated trisialylated glycans with and without core fucose (A3G3S3 and FA3G3S3) with PCa progression from indolent through significant and aggressive disease. These changes give us an insight into the disease pathogenesis and identify potential biomarkers for monitoring the PCa progression, however these need further confirmation studies.     

CFD Modeling of Active Volume Creation in a Non‐Newtonian Fluid Agitated by Submerged Recirculating Jets

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models were employed to investigate flow conditions inside a model reactor in which yield stress non‐Newtonian liquid is mobilized using submerged recirculating jets. The simulation results agree well with the experimental results of active volume in the reactor obtained using flow visualization by the authors in a previous study. The models developed are capable of predicting a critical jet velocity (v_c) that determines the extent of active volume obtained due to jet mixing. The v_c values are influenced both by the rheological properties of the liquid and the nozzle orientation. The liquid with higher effective viscosity leads to higher v_c for a downward facing injection nozzle. However, an upward facing injection nozzle along with a downward facing suction nozzle generates enhanced complementary flow fields which overcome the rheological constraints of the liquid and lead to lower v_c.     

Dewatered alum sludge: a potential adsorbent for phosphorus removal.

Alum sludge refers to the by-product from the processing of drinking water in water treatment works. In this study, groups of batch experiments were designed to identify the characteristics of dewatered alum sludge for phosphorus adsorption. Air-dried alum sludge (moisture content 10.2%), which was collected from a water treatment works in Dublin, was subjected to artificial P-rich wastewater adsorption tests using KH2PO4 as a model P source. Adsorption behaviours were investigated as a function of amount and particle size of alum sludge, pH of solution and adsorption time. The results have shown that pH plays a major role not only in the adsorption process but also in the adsorption capacity. With regard to adsorption capacity, this study reveals the Langmuir adsorption isotherm being the best fit with experimental data (R2 = 0.98-0.99). The maximum adsorption capacities range from 0.7 to 3.5 mg-P/g when the pH of the synthetic P solution was varied from 9.0 to 4.3, accordingly. The outcome of this study indicated that alum sludge is suitable for use as an adsorbent for removal of phosphate from wastewater.     

Quantitative pharmacophore models with inductive logic programming

Three-dimensional models, or pharmacophores, describing Euclidean constraints on the location on small molecules of functional groups (like hydrophobic groups, hydrogen acceptors and donors, etc.), are often used in drug design to describe the medicinal activity of potential drugs (or ‘ligands’). This medicinal activity is produced by interaction of the functional groups on the ligand with a binding site on a target protein. In identifying structure-activity relations of this kind there are three principal issues: (1) It is often difficult to “align” the ligands in order to identify common structural properties that may be responsible for activity; (2) Ligands in solution can adopt different shapes (or `conformations’) arising from torsional rotations about bonds. The 3-D molecular substructure is typically sought on one or more low-energy conformers; and (3) Pharmacophore models must, ideally, predict medicinal activity on some quantitative scale. It has been shown that the logical representation adopted by Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) naturally resolves many of the difficulties associated with the alignment and multi-conformation issues. However, the predictions of models constructed by ILP have hitherto only been nominal, predicting medicinal activity to be present or absent. In this paper, we investigate the construction of two kinds of quantitative pharmacophoric models with ILP: (a) Models that predict the probability that a ligand is “active”; and (b) Models that predict the actual medicinal activity of a ligand. Quantitative predictions are obtained by the utilising the following statistical procedures as background knowledge: logistic regression and naive Bayes, for probability prediction; linear and kernel regression, for activity prediction. The multi-conformation issue and, more generally, the relational representation used by ILP results in some special difficulties in the use of any statistical procedure. We present the principal issues and some solutions. Specifically, using data on the inhibition of the protease Thermolysin, we demonstrate that it is possible for an ILP program to construct good quantitative structure-activity models. We also comment on the relationship of this work to other recent developments in statistical relational learning. Editors: Tamás Horváth and Akihiro Yamamoto     

An aldose reductase inhibitor and aminoguanidine prevent vascular endothelial growth factor expression in rats with long-term galactosemia

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of an aldose reductase inhibitor (ARI-509, Wyeth-Ayerst, Princeton, NJ) and aminoguanidine (AMG), agents that have been reported to prevent or delay diabetic retinopathy, on retinal vascular abnormalities and the immunocytochemical expression in the retina of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in rats maintained for up to 2 years on a 50% galactose diet. METHODS: Albino rats were placed on a control diet, a diet containing 50% galactose, or the 50% galactose diet containing either ARI-509 or AMG. Treatment with ARI-509 or AMG was initiated at the beginning of the experiment or after 12 months of galactose feeding. After 22 to 24 months, the rats were killed and the retinal vasculature from half of one eye was isolated by trypsin-elastase digestion for semiquantitative evaluation of retinal vascular lesions. The other half of the retina was prepared for immunocytochemistry and stained for the presence of VEGF, factor VIII, vimentin, and glial fibrillary acidic protein. Red blood cells, sciatic nerves, and a portion of the retina from the second eye were assayed for glucose, galactose, fructose, sorbitol, galactitol, and myo-inositol. Red blood cells were also assayed for galactosylated hemoglobin. RESULTS: Galactose-fed animals developed a vascular retinopathy characterized by severe cellular loss in the retinal capillaries and intensification of periodic acid-Schiff staining of the vascular basement membranes. Some animals also displayed dilation and hypercellularity of vessels in the posterior retina. These changes were substantially reduced in animals receiving ARI-509 from the beginning of the galactose diet, but were unaffected in all of the other treatment groups. None of the rats receiving ARI-509 or AMG treatment, whether initiated from the onset or after 12 months of galactosemia, demonstrated VEGF immunoreactivity. With the exception of the animals receiving ARI-509 from the beginning of the experiment, all of the galactose-fed animals developed dense cataracts within 6 weeks of the beginning of the galactose diet. Galactitol levels in animals receiving ARI-509 were 86% to 93% lower in red blood cells, retina, and sciatic nerve than those in the other galactose-fed groups. CONCLUSIONS: Although ARI-509 and AMG have different abilities to delay or prevent the diabetic-like retinopathy in galactosemic rats, even when substantial retinal microvascular acellularity occurs, both drugs prevent the immunocytochemical expression of VEGF. These results suggest that factors other than hypoxia may be responsible for VEGF expression in the retina, and that aldose reductase inhibitors and AMG have potential roles in preventing such expression and, thus, perhaps preventing retinal neovascularization.     

MANAGING DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING Five Practices for Success

Management of distributed environments requires corporate IS managers to shift from being operators of a central utility to facilitators who can recognize the synergy among loosely related groups of users. Success depends on the development of new ways of visualizing and measuring the service delivery process.