Browsing by Author "Huang J.-Y."

The saliency map simulates human perception and is useful for several image-processing applications. Many advanced saliency detection algorithms applied superpixel-based features instead of pixel-based features for saliency map generation. With superpixels, the high-level features can be extracted and a better saliency detection performance can be achieved. Recently, the convolutional neural network (CNN) has been thrived in computer vision. However, it was difficult to integrate it directly with superpixel-based method since the CNN required grid-like input while a superpixel generally has an irregular size and shape. In this work, several strategies are adopted to well apply machine learning techniques for superpixel-based saliency detection. First, instead of applying the CNN directly, the support vector machine (SVM) is applied as the classifier to well process the feature information. Instead, we apply the CNN ass the pre-processing procedure of superpixel merging. Moreover, several advanced superpixel-based features, including boundary connectivity and manifold rank features, are proposed to improve the accuracy of saliency detection. The simulation results on four datasets show that the proposed algorithm outperform both conventional and learning-based saliency detection methods. ? 2020 IEEE

Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is an active component of the spice turmeric and has a diversity of antitumor activities. In this study, we found that curcumin can inhibit cancer cell invasion and metastasis through activation of the tumor suppressor DnaJ-like heat shock protein 40 (HLJ1). Human lung adenocarcinoma cells (CL1-5) treated with curcumin (1-20 μmol/L) showed a concentration-dependent reduction in cell migration, invasion, and metastatic ability, and this was associated with increased HLJ1 expression. Knockdown of HLJ1 expression by siRNA was able to reverse the curcumin-induced anti-invasive and antimetastasis effects in vitro and in vivo. The HLJ1 promoter and enhancer in a luciferase reporter assay revealed that curcumin transcriptionally upregulates HLJ1 expression through an activator protein (AP-1) site within the HLJ1 enhancer. JunD, one of the AP-1 components, was significantly up-regulated by curcumin (1-20 μmol/L) in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Knockdown of JunD expression could partially reduce the curcumin-induced HLJ1 activation and diminish the anti-invasive effect of curcumin, indicating that JunD would seem to be involved in curcumin-induced HLJ1 expression. Curcumin was able to induce c-Jun NH2-kinase (JNK) phosphorylation, whereas the JNK inhibitor (SP-600125) could attenuate curcumin-induced JunD and HLJ1 expression. Activation of HLJ1 by curcumin further leads to up-regulation of E-cadherin and a suppression of cancer cell invasion. Our results show that curcumin induces HLJ1, through activation of the JNK/JunD pathway, and inhibits lung cancer cell invasion and metastasis by modulating E-cadherin expression. This is a novel mechanism and supports the application of curcumin in anti-cancer metastasis therapy. ?2008 American Association for Cancer Research.

Because of its outstanding characteristics, bioglass is considered a potential bone substitute; however, it is difficult to be fabricated into a scaffold because of insufficient strength. Although there are several methods for producing a three-dimensional ceramic scaffold, most of these methods cannot completely mimic the bone structure. In this study, a bioglass scaffold was fabricated through selective laser sintering (SLS) with the addition of the iron element that could ascend the laser absorption rate with the improvement of the formability and mechanical strength of scaffolds. As a result, the laser absorption proficiency improved with an increase in the amount of iron added; a competent bioglass scaffold could be successfully manufactured with a 5% iron element addition at the energy density of 2.5 cal/cm2 (3-W power and 120 mm/s scan speed). In a comparison of scaffolds sintered with various parameters of the heat treatment, scaffolds that had favourable mechanical strength and cell survival rate could be acquired after sintering at 1100 °C. According to the result of the present study, a competent biocompatible bioglass scaffold could be obtained using the SLS process with the addition of the iron element and suitable post-processing parameters. ? 2020 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.

Saliency detection is to detect the unique region of an image that may attract human attention. It is widely used in image/video segmentation, image enhancement, and image compression. Conventionally, saliency detection problem was solved by graph-based method cooperate with low-level features and heuristic rules. Recently, the convolutional neural networks (CNNs) based methods have been thrived in computer vision area and graph convolutional networks (GCNs), which are extended from the CNN, have been used in many graph data representations and also shown promising result in node classification problem. We proposed a novel saliency detection neural network model called the Graph Saliency Network (GSN), which use the Graph Convolutional Network as main architecture and the Jumping Knowledge Network as our backbone. For the graph creation, the Region Adjacency Graph is adopted as the image-graph transformation in the proposed architecture to propagate information through edges from the spatial boundary. We also revisit several graph-based saliency detection methods for our node feature representation. The propagation model of the GSN maintain the spatial relation of the CNN with a more flexible way and has less parameters to be optimized than the CNN from the advantage of information compression in superpixel and graph. Simulations showed that, using the proposed GCN-based model together with low-level features and heuristic rules, a saliency detection result with very less mean absolute error (MAE) can be achieved. ? 2020 IEEE.

Background: The combination of biliary stent with photodynamic and chemotherapy seemed to be a beneficial palliative treatment of unresectable cholangiocarcinoma. However, by intravenous delivery to the target tumor the distribution of the drug had its limitations and caused serious side effect on non-target organs. Therefore, in this study, we are going to develop a localized eluting stent, named PDT-chemo stent, covered with gemcitabine (GEM) and hematoporphyrin (HP). Methods: The prototype of PDT-chemo stent was made through electrospinning and electrospraying dual-processes with an electrical charge to cover the stent with a drug-storing membrane from polymer liquid. The design of prototype used PU as the material of the backing layer, and PCL/PEG blends in different molar ratio of 9:1 and of 1:4 were used in two drug-storing layers with GEM and HP loaded respectively. Results: The optical microscopy revealed that the backing layer was formed in fine fibers from electrospinning, while drug-storing layers, attributed to the droplets from electrospraying process. The covered membrane, the morphology of which was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), covered the stent surface homogeneously without crack appearances. The GEM had almost 100% of electrosprayed efficiency than 70% HP loaded on the covered membrane due to the different solubility of drug in PEG/PCL blends. Drug release study confirmed the two-phased drug release pattern by regulating in different molar ratio of PEG/PCL blends polymer. Conclusions: The result proves that the PDT-chemo stent is composed of a first burst-releasing phase from HP and a later slow-releasing phase from GEM eluting. This two-phase of drug eluting stent may provide a new prospect of localized and controlled release treatment for cholangiocarcinoma disease. ? 2014 Chen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Patients with schizophrenia do not usually achieve remission state even after adequate antipsychotics treatment. Previous studies found significant difference in white matter integrity between patients with good outcomes and those with poor outcomes, but difference is still unclear at individual tract level. This study aimed to use a systematic approach to identify the tracts that were associated with remission state in patients with schizophrenia. We evaluated 91 patients with schizophrenia (remitted, 50; nonremitted, 41) and 50 healthy controls through diffusion spectrum imaging. White matter tract integrity was assessed through an automatic tract-specific analysis method to determine the mean generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) values of the 76 white matter tract bundles in each participant. Analysis of covariance among the 3 groups revealed 12 tracts that were significantly different in GFA values. Post-hoc analysis showed that compared with the healthy controls, the nonremission group had reduced integrity in all 12 tracts, whereas the remission group had reduced integrity in only 4 tracts. Comparison between the remission and nonremission groups revealed 4 tracts with significant difference (i.e., the right fornix, bilateral uncinate fasciculi, and callosal fibers connecting the temporal poles) even after adjusting age, sex, education year, illness duration, and medication dose. Furthermore, all the 4 tracts were correlated with negative symptoms scores of the positive and negative syndrome scale. In conclusion, our study identified the tracts that were associated with remission state of schizophrenia. These tracts might be a potential prognostic marker for the symptomatic remission in patients with schizophrenia. ? 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Importance Corneal abrasion is the most common ocular complication associated with nonocular surgery, but toxic keratopathy is rare. OBSERVATION Three patients developed severe toxic keratopathy after orofacial surgery on the left side with general anesthesia. All patients underwent surgery in the right lateral tilt position with ocular protection but reported irritation and redness in their right eyes after the operation. Alcohol-containing antiseptic solutions were used for presurgical preparation. Ophthalmic examination showed decreased visual acuity ranging from 20/100 to 20/400, corneal edema and opacity, anterior chamber reaction, or stromal neovascularization in the patients' right eyes. Confocal microscopy showed moderate to severe loss of corneal endothelial cells in all patients. Despite prompt treatment with topical corticosteroids, these 3 patients eventually required cataract surgery, endothelial keratoplasty, or penetrating keratoplasty, respectively. After the operation, the patients' visual acuity improved to 20/30 or 20/40. Data analysis was conducted from December 6, 2010, to June 15, 2015. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Alcohol-containing antiseptic solutions may cause severe toxic keratopathy; this possibility should be considered in orofacial surgery management. Using alcohol-free antiseptic solutions in the periocular region and taking measures to protect the dependent eye in the lateral tilt position may reduce the risk of severe corneal injury. ? 2016 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.