Semi-Supervised Deep Learning for Multi-Tissue Segmentation from Multi-Contrast MRI

Journal of Signal Processing Systems - Segmentation of thigh tissues (muscle, fat, inter-muscular adipose tissue (IMAT), bone, and bone marrow) from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans is useful...     

Experimental and numerical studies on the determination of twist drill temperature in dry drilling: A new approach

In this paper, the influences of the spindle speed and feed rate on the drill temperature responses have been investigated. A new experimental approach was developed to measure drill temperature in drilling process. Drill temperatures were measured by inserting standard thermocouples through the coolant (oil) hole of TiAlN-coated carbide drills. Experimental parameters used in the study has based on Taguchi’s method. Experimental study was conducted by using two different workpiece materials, AISI 1040 steel and Al 7075-T651. The drill bit temperature was predicted using a numerical calculation with Third Wave AdvantEdge^TM Lagrangian based on explicit finite element analysis software. The results obtained from experimental study and finite element analyses (FEA) were compared. Good agreement between the measured and analyzed temperature results was found in dry drilling process.     

Conducting carbon/polymer composites as a catalyst support for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Carbon/poly(3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene) (C/PEDOT) composites are synthesized by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of EDOT monomer on carbon black in order to decrease carbon corrosion that occurred in carbon‐supported catalysts used in proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The effects of different dopants including polystyrene sulfonic acid, p‐toluenesulfonic acid and camphorsulfonic acid with the addition of ethylene glycol or dimethyl sulfoxide on the properties of the composites are investigated. The synthesized composites are characterized by X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, surface area analysis and scanning electron microscope. Electrical conductivity is determined by using the four‐point probe technique. Electrochemical oxidation characteristics of the synthesized C/PEDOT composites are investigated by cyclic voltammetry by applying 1.2 V for 24 h. The composite prepared at 25 °C with p‐toluenesulfonic acid and ethylene glycol shows the best carbon corrosion resistance. Platinum‐supported catalyst by using this composite was prepared using microwave irradiation technique, and it was seen that the prepared catalyst did not significantly lose its hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction activities after electrochemical oxidation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A microfluidic toolbox for cell fusion

Cellular fusion is a key process in many fields ranging from historical gene mapping studies and monoclonal antibody production, through to cell reprogramming. Traditional methodologies for cell fusion rely on the random pairing of different cell types and generally result in low and variable fusion efficiencies. These approaches become particularly limiting where substantial numbers of bespoke one‐to‐one fusions are required, for example, for in‐depth studies of nuclear reprogramming mechanisms. In recent years, microfluidic technologies have proven valuable in creating platforms where the manipulation of single cells is highly efficient, rapid and controllable. These technologies also allow the integration of different experimental steps and characterisation processes into a single platform. Although the application of microfluidic methodologies to cell fusion studies is promising, current technologies that rely on static trapping are limited both in terms of the overall number of fused cells produced and their experimental accessibility. Here we review some of the most exciting breakthroughs in core microfluidic technologies that will allow the creation of integrated platforms for controlled cell fusion at high throughput. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry     

A hybrid discrete particle swarm optimization for vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery

Vehicle routing problem (VRP) is an important and well-known combinatorial optimization problem encountered in many transport logistics and distribution systems. The VRP has several variants depending on tasks performed and on some restrictions, such as time windows, multiple vehicles, backhauls, simultaneous delivery and pick-up, etc. In this paper, we consider vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (VRPSPD). The VRPSPD deals with optimally integrating goods distribution and collection when there are no precedence restrictions on the order in which the operations must be performed. Since the VRPSPD is an NP-hard problem, we present a heuristic solution approach based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) in which a local search is performed by variable neighborhood descent algorithm (VND). Moreover, it implements an annealing-like strategy to preserve the swarm diversity. The effectiveness of the proposed PSO is investigated by an experiment conducted on benchmark problem instances available in the literature. The computational results indicate that the proposed algorithm competes with the heuristic approaches in the literature and improves several best known solutions.     

Symmetric positive solutions of fourth order integral BVP for an increasing homeomorphism and homomorphism with sign-changing nonlinearity on time scales

In this paper, we consider the eigenvalue problems for fourth order integral boundary value problems on time scales for an increasing homeomorphism and homomorphism with sign changing nonlinearities. By using a fixed point index theorem, we give the existence of eigenvalue intervals in which there exist one symmetric positive solution to the problem. An example is also given to demonstrate the main results.     

GC–MS analysis of oxysterols and their formation in cultivated liver cells (HepG2)

Oxysterols play a key role in many (patho)physiological processes and they are potential biomarkers for oxidative stress in several diseases. Here we developed a rapid gas chromatographic-mass spectrometry-based method for the separation and quantification of 11 biologically relevant oxysterols bearing hydroxy, epoxy, and dihydroxy groups. Efficient chromatographic separation (resolution ≥ 1.9) was achieved using a medium polarity 35%-diphenyl/65%-dimethyl polysiloxane stationary phase material (30 m × 0.25 mm inner diameter and 0.25 μm film thickness). Based on thorough analysis of the fragmentation during electron ionization we developed a strategy to deduce structural information of the oxysterols. Optimized sample preparation includes (i) extraction with a mixture of n-hexane/iso-propanol, (ii) removal of cholesterol by solid phase extraction with unmodified silica, and (iii) trimethylsilylation. The method was successfully applied on the analysis of brain samples, showing consistent results with previous studies and a good intra- and interday precision of ≤20%. Finally, we used the method for the investigation of oxysterol formation during oxidative stress in HepG2 cells. Incubation with tert-butyl hydroperoxide led to a massive increase in free radical formed oxysterols (7-keto-chol > 7β-OH-chol >> 7α-OH-chol), while 24 h incubation with the glutathione peroxidase 4 inhibitor RSL3 showed no increase in oxidative stress based on the oxysterol pattern. Overall, the new method described here enables the robust analysis of a biologically meaningful pattern of oxysterols with high sensitivity and precision allowing us to gain new insights in the biological formation and role of oxysterols.     

Evaluation of ISSR markers for genetic diversity analysis in Anatolian water buffaloes

BACKGROUND: The utilisation of molecular markers has increased in molecular research recently. Inter‐simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers allow the analysis of genomes without preliminary sequence information, since random primers are used. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate ISSR markers for assessing the genetic diversity of indigenous Anatolian Water Buffaloes reared in Afyon, Konya and Sivas provinces of Turkey, with a view to conservation of the gene resources. RESULTS: The 11 ISSR primers chosen for the analysis revealed a total of 110 bands, of which 76 (69.09%) were polymorphic. Also, genetic similarity, polymorphic information content (PIC), resolving power (R_p) and mean resolving power (R_p ), heterozygosity (H) and Shannon index (I) were calculated as 0.9479–0.9562, 0.35 ± 0.20, 2.73, 0.27, 0.18 ± 0.07 and 0.28 ± 0.11, respectively. CONCLUSION: The ISSR markers were found to be promising for assessing the genetic diversity in buffalo populations. Potential genetic parameters such as PIC, R_p, R_p , H and I were effectively used in this study. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry