Phase error model and compensation method for reflectivity and distance discontinuities in fringe projection profilometry.

Phase shifting fringe projection profilometry is a widely used optical 3D surface measurement method due to its high resolution, high speed, and full-field inspection. However, the measurement accuracy decreases in regions with a reflectivity or distance discontinuity. To this end, first, a general continuous quasi-one-dimensional phase error model is proposed for discontinuity representation. Second, the discontinuities are further divided into degenerate and nondegenerate discontinuities to improve the computational speed. Third, a phase error compensation algorithm is proposed with a parameter estimation method to improve the measurement accuracy. Simulations and experiments demonstrate that the proposed methods are effective.

Virucidal activity and the antiviral mechanism of acidic polysaccharides against Enterovirus 71 infection in vitro.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is the predominant pathogen for severe hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in children younger than 5 years, and currently no effective drugs are available for EV71. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new drugs for the control of EV71 infection. In this study, LJ04 was extracted from Laminaria japonica using diethylaminoethyl cellulose-52 with 0.4 mol/l NaCl as the eluent, and its virucidal activity was evaluated based on its cytopathic effects on a microplate. LJ04 is composed of fucose, galactose, and mannose and mainly showed good virucidal activity against EV71. The antiviral mechanisms of LJ04 were the direct inactivation of the virus, the blockage of virus binding, disruptions to viral entry, and weak inhibitory activity against the nonstructural protein 3C. The two most important findings from this study were that LJ04 inhibited EV71 proliferation in HM1900 cells, which are a human microglia cell line, and that LJ04 can directly inactivate EV71 within 2 hr at 37°C. This study demonstrates for the first time the ability of a polysaccharide from L. japonica to inhibit viral and 3C activity; importantly, the inhibition of 3C might have a minor effect on the antiviral effect of LJ04. Consequently, our results identify LJ04 as a potential drug candidate for the control of severe EV71 infection in clinical settings.

A Depth-Based Weighted Point Cloud Registration for Indoor Scene.

Point cloud registration plays a key role in three-dimensional scene reconstruction, and determines the effect of reconstruction. The iterative closest point algorithm is widely used for point cloud registration. To improve the accuracy of point cloud registration and the convergence speed of registration error, point pairs with smaller Euclidean distances are used as the points to be registered, and the depth measurement error model and weight function are analyzed. The measurement error is taken into account in the registration process. The experimental results of different indoor scenes demonstrate that the proposed method effectively improves the registration accuracy and the convergence speed of registration error.

Micro RNA-518 inhibits gastric cancer cell growth by inducing apoptosis via targeting MDM2.

Gastric cancer is a most common malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. So it is important to identify the prognostic markers and effective therapeutic targets against gastric cancer. miRNA plays an important role in tumor cell cycle, differentiation, apoptosis, invasion and metastasis. Many studies devote to the mechanism of miRNA regulates gastric cancer carcinoma and progression. In the present study, we found that the level of miR-518 in gastric cancer and cell lines were lower than the control or the adjacent tissues by qRT-PCR. Transfected with miR-518 mimic trigger apoptosis in MKN45 and HGC27 gastric cancer cell in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we found that MDM2 was negatively regulated by miR-518 via targeting 26-32 site of 3'UTR using luciferase reporter assay. The western blot assay showed that miR-518 up-regulated the expression of p53, pro-apoptotic protein Bax and active the activity of cleaved caspase-3, down-regulated expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 via targeting MDM2. Thus, our study suggested that miR-518 acted as a new tumor suppressor by targeting MDM2 gene and trigger apoptosis in vivo and in vitro. The findings of the study first established the role of miR-518 in gastric cancer and may be a potential therapeutic target against gastric cancer in the further.

MiR-422a targets MAPKK6 and regulates cell growth and apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells.

The important role of miR-422a in tumor has been reported in several studies. Recent research discovered that the expression of miR-422a was significantly decreased in colorectal cancer tissues, providing miR-422a as a tumor suppressor in CRC. However, the concrete mechanism of miR-422a regulating CRC cell is still unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that miR-422a could inhibit CRC cell growth and promote cell apoptosis via in vitro analyses. Moreover, computational methods were adopted to identify the targets of miR-422a. We found MAPKK6 was the direct target of miR-422a. Consequently, we further elucidated that miR-422a inhibited CRC cell growth and induced cell apoptosis by inhibiting p38/MAPK pathway. Besides that, we established the tumor xenograft model using nude mice and the inhibitory effects on tumor volumes and weights by miR-422a mimic transfection were also detected. Taken together, these findings demonstrated miR-422a exerted anti-cancer activities on CRC, which could be potentially used for CRC prognosis prediction and treatment.

Self-recalibration of a robot-assisted structured-light-based measurement system.

The structured-light-based measurement method is widely employed in numerous fields. However, for industrial inspection, to achieve complete scanning of a work piece and overcome occlusion, the measurement system needs to be moved to different viewpoints. Moreover, frequent reconfiguration of the measurement system may be needed based on the size of the measured object, making the self-recalibration of extrinsic parameters indispensable. To this end, this paper proposes an automatic self-recalibration and reconstruction method, wherein a robot arm is employed to move the measurement system for complete scanning; the self-recalibration is achieved using fundamental matrix calculations and point cloud registration without the need for an accurate calibration gauge. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of our method.

Antiviral activity of a polysaccharide from Laminaria japonica against enterovirus 71.

This in vitro study investigated the antiviral activity of an acidic polysaccharide from Laminaria japonica against enterovirus 71 (EV71) as well as its mechanism of action. The LJ04 polysaccharide was purified from Laminaria japonica by affinity chromatography. To investigate its antiviral activity, an MTT assay, q-PCR, immunofluorescent staining and western-blot analysis were performed. To define its mechanism of action, ELISA, q-PCR and flow cytometry were conducted. LJ04 had a low EC50, high CC50 and high SI. LJ04 inhibited not only JN200804, but also JN200803 in RD cells, and viral proliferation was strongly inhibited, whereas LJ04 suppressed viral-induced apoptosis as detected by flow cytometry. In conclusion, LJ04 was found to have robust antiviral activity by inhibiting apoptosis and inducing IFN-ß expression. Our findings indicate that LJ04 is a good candidate for the treatment of EV71.

Antiviral activity of polysaccharide extract from Laminaria japonica against respiratory syncytial virus.

This study was designed to investigate the inhibition activity of polysaccharide extract from Laminaria japonica against RSV. The polysaccharide from Laminaria japonica was isolated by ethanol precipitation. HEK293 cells were infected with RVS, and the antiviral activity of polysaccharide extract against RSV in host cells was tested. By using ELISA and western blot assay, the expression level of IFN-α and IRF3 and their functional roles in polysaccharide-mediated antiviral activity against RSV were investigated. The polysaccharide extract from Laminaria japonica had low toxicity to HEK293 cell. The TC50 to HEK293 cells was up to 1.76mg/mL. Furthermore, the EC50 of polysaccharide extract to RSV was 5.27µg/mL, and TI was 334. The polysaccharide extract improved IRF-3 expression which promoted the level of IFN-α. IN CONCLUSION: Polysaccharide extract from Laminaria japonica elicits antiviral activity against RSV by up-regulation of IRF3 signaling-mediated IFN-α production.