Search results for: cell recognition

Authors: Federico Cevoli

Abstract:

Purinergic P2X7 receptors (P2X7R) are ligand-gated non-selective cation channels involved in several physiological and pathological processes. They are particularly promising pharmacological targets as they are present in an increasing number of different cells types. P2X7R activation is triggered following elevated concentrations of extracellular ATP, similarly to those observed in tissues injury, chronic inflammation and T-cell activation, as well as in the scrambling of phospholipids leading to membrane blebbing and apoptosis. Another hallmark of P2X7 is cell permeabilization, commonly known as “macropore” formation allowing the passage of nanometer-sized molecules up to 900Da. Recently, full-length P2X7 Cryo-EM structures revealed unique functional sites, including two cytoplasmic domains - the cytoplasmic "anchor" and "ballast". To date, the molecular units/complex by which P2X7R exerts its pathophysiological functions are unknown. Using custom-made cell-penetrating HIV-1 TAT peptides, we show for the first-time potential implications of P2X7 cytoplasmic anchor in the regulation of caspase3/7 activation as well as TNFα regulation.

Keywords: P2X7R, immunology, TAT-peptide, cell death

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Nishanth Venugopal Menon, Chuah Yon Jin, Samantha Phey, Wu Yingnan, Zhang Ying, Vincent Chan, Kang Yuejun

Abstract:

Cell Migration is a vital phenomenon that the cells undergo in various physiological processes like wound healing, disease progression, embryogenesis, etc. Cell migration depends primarily on the chemical and physical cues available in the cellular environment. The chemical cue involves the chemokines secreted and gradients generated in the environment while physical cues indicate the impact of matrix properties like nanotopography and stiffness on the cells. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have been shown to have a role wound healing in vivo and its migration to the site of the wound has been shown to have a therapeutic effect. In the field of stem cell based tissue regeneration of bones and cartilage, one approach has been to introduce scaffold laden with MSCs into the site of injury to enable tissue regeneration. In this work, we have studied the combinatorial impact of the substrate physical properties on MSC migration. A microfluidic in vitro model was created to perform the migration studies. The microfluidic model used is a three compartment device consisting of two cell seeding compartments and one migration compartment. Four different PDMS substrates with varying substrate roughness, stiffness and hydrophobicity were created. Its surface roughness and stiffness was measured using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) while its hydrphobicity was measured from the water contact angle using an optical tensiometer. These PDMS substrates are sealed to the microfluidic chip following which the MSCs are seeded and the cell migration is studied over the period of a week. Cell migration was quantified using fluorescence imaging of the cytoskeleton (F-actin) to find out the area covered by the cells inside the migration compartment. The impact of adhesion proteins on cell migration was also quantified using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT PCR). These results suggested that the optimal substrate for cell migration would be one with an intermediate level of roughness, stiffness and hydrophobicity. A higher or lower value of these properties affected cell migration negatively. These observations have helped us in understanding that different substrate properties need to be considered in tandem, especially while designing scaffolds for tissue regeneration as cell migration is normally impacted by the combinatorial impact of the matrix. These observations may lead us to scaffold optimization in future tissue regeneration applications.

Keywords: cell migration, microfluidics, in vitro model, stem cell migration, scaffold, substrate properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 555

Authors: Amit Kumar Baghel, Sisir Kumar Nayak

Abstract:

The proposed metamaterial design help to increase the radiation efficiency at 2.9 GHz by reducing the side and back lobes by making the phase difference of the waves emerging from the phase center of the horn antenna same after passing through metamaterial array. The unit cell of the metamaterial is having concentric ring structure made of copper of 0.035 mm thickness on both sides of FR4 sheet. The inner ring diameter is kept as 3 mm, and the outer ring diameters are changed according to the path and tramission phase difference of the unit cell from the phase center of the antenna in both the horizontal and vertical direction, i.e., in x- and y-axis. In this case, the ring radius varies from 3.19 mm to 6.99 mm with the respective S21 phase difference of -62.25° to -124.64°. The total phase difference can be calculated by adding the path difference of the respective unit cell in the array to the phase difference of S21. Taking one of the unit cell as the reference, the total phase difference between the reference unit cell and other cells must be integer multiple of 360°. The variation of transmission coefficient S21 with the ring radius is greater than -6 dB. The array having 5 x 5 unit cell is kept inside the pyramidal horn antenna (L X B X H = 295.451 x 384.233 x 298.66 mm3) at a distance of 36.68 mm from the waveguide throat. There is an improvement in side lobe level in E-plane by 14.6 dB when the array is used. The front to back lobe ration is increased by 1 dB by using the array. The proposed antenna with metamaterial array can be used in beam shaping for wireless power transfer applications.

Keywords: metamaterial, side lobe level, front to back ratio, beam forming

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: María de los Ángeles Cerda González, Itzel Arriaga Hurtado, Pascacio José Martínez Pichardo

Abstract:

In México, the recognition of refugee condition is a fundamental right which, as host State, has the obligation of respect, protect, and fulfill to the foreigners – where we can find the figure of immigrants in irregular situation-, that cannot return to their country of origin for humanitarian reasons. The recognition of the refugee condition as a fundamental right in the Mexican law system proceeds under these situations: 1. The immigrant applies for the refugee condition, even without the necessary proving elements to accredit the humanitarian character of his departure from his country of origin. 2. The immigrant does not apply for the recognition of refugee because he does not know he has the right to, even if he has the profile to apply for. 3. The immigrant who applies fulfills the requirements of the administrative procedure and has access to the refugee recognition. Of the three situations above, only the last one is contemplated for the national indexes of the status refugee; and the first two prove the inefficiency of the governmental system viewed from its lack of sensibility consequence of the no education in human rights matter and which results in the legal vulnerability of the immigrants in irregular situation because they do not have access to the procuration and administration of justice. In the aim of determining the causes and consequences of the no recognition of the refugee status, this investigation was structured from a systemic analysis which objective is to show the advances in Central American humanitarian emergency investigation, the Mexican States actions to protect, respect and fulfil the fundamental right of refugee of immigrants in irregular situation and the social and legal vulnerabilities suffered by Central Americans in Mexico. Therefore, to achieve the deduction of the legal nature of the humanitarian emergency from the Human Rights as a branch of the International Public Law, a conceptual framework is structured using the inductive deductive method. The problem statement is made from a legal framework to approach a theoretical scheme under the theory of social systems, from the analysis of the lack of communication of the governmental and normative subsystems of the Mexican legal system relative to the process undertaken by the Central American immigrants to achieve the recognition of the refugee status as a human right. Accordingly, is determined that fulfilling the obligations of the State referent to grant the right of the recognition of the refugee condition, would mean a guideline for a new stage in Mexican Law, because it would enlarge the constitutional benefits to everyone whose right to the recognition of refugee has been denied an as consequence, a great advance in human rights matter would be achieved.

Keywords: central American immigrants in irregular situation, humanitarian emergency, human rights, refugee

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Harshit Mittal, Neeraj Garg

Abstract:

Hand symbol recognition is a pivotal component in the domain of computer vision, with far-reaching applications spanning sign language interpretation, human-computer interaction, and accessibility. This research paper discusses the approach with the integration of the Canny Edge algorithm and convolutional neural network. The significance of this study lies in its potential to enhance communication and accessibility for individuals with hearing impairments or those engaged in gesture-based interactions with technology. In the experiment mentioned, the data is manually collected by the authors from the webcam using Python codes, to increase the dataset augmentation, is applied to original images, which makes the model more compatible and advanced. Further, the dataset of about 6000 coloured images distributed equally in 5 classes (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) are pre-processed first to gray images and then by the Canny Edge algorithm with threshold 1 and 2 as 150 each. After successful data building, this data is trained on the Convolutional Neural Network model, giving accuracy: 0.97834, precision: 0.97841, recall: 0.9783, and F1 score: 0.97832. For user purposes, a block of codes is built in Python to enable a window for hand symbol recognition. This research, at its core, seeks to advance the field of computer vision by providing an advanced perspective on hand sign recognition. By leveraging the capabilities of the Canny Edge algorithm and convolutional neural network, this study contributes to the ongoing efforts to create more accurate, efficient, and accessible solutions for individuals with diverse communication needs.

Keywords: hand symbol recognition, computer vision, Canny edge algorithm, convolutional neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: Amina Ben Abla, Sylvie Changotade, Geraldine Rohman, Guilhem Boeuf, Cyrine Dridi, Ahmed Elmarjou, Florence Dufour, Didier Lutomski, Abdellatif Elm’semi

Abstract:

Understanding cell adhesion and interaction with the extracellular matrix is essential for biomedical and biotechnological applications, including the development of biomaterials. In recent years, numerous biomaterials have emerged and were used in the field of tissue engineering. Nevertheless, the lack of interaction of biomaterials with cells still limits their bio-integration. Thus, the design of bioactive biomaterials to improve cell attachment and proliferation is of growing interest. In this study, bio-functionalized material was developed combining a synthetic polymer scaffold surface with selected domains of type III human fibronectin (FNIII-DOM) to promote cell adhesion and proliferation. Bioadhesive ligand includes cell-binding domains of human fibronectin, a major ECM protein that interacts with a variety of integrins cell-surface receptors, and ECM proteins through specific binding domains were engineered. FNIII-DOM was produced in bacterial system E. coli in 5L fermentor with a high yield level reaching 20mg/L. Bioactivity of the produced fragment was validated by studying cellular adhesion of human cells. The adsorption and immobilization of FNIII-DOM onto the polymer scaffold were evaluated in order to develop an innovative biomaterial.

Keywords: biomaterials, cellular adhesion, fibronectin, tissue engineering

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Tomasz Sapiński, Dorota Kamińska, Adam Pelikant, Egils Avots, Cagri Ozcinar, Gholamreza Anbarjafari

Abstract:

People express emotions through different modalities. Integration of verbal and non-verbal communication channels creates a system in which the message is easier to understand. Expanding the focus to several expression forms can facilitate research on emotion recognition as well as human-machine interaction. In this article, the authors present a Polish emotional database composed of three modalities: facial expressions, body movement and gestures, and speech. The corpora contains recordings registered in studio conditions, acted out by 16 professional actors (8 male and 8 female). The data is labeled with six basic emotions categories, according to Ekman’s emotion categories. To check the quality of performance, all recordings are evaluated by experts and volunteers. The database is available to academic community and might be useful in the study on audio-visual emotion recognition.

Keywords: body movement, emotion recognition, emotional corpus, facial expressions, gestures, multimodal database, speech

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: Aleksandra Zysk, Pawel Badura

Abstract:

Recognizing and controlling vocal registers during singing is a difficult task for beginner vocalist. It requires among others identifying which part of natural resonators is being used when a sound propagates through the body. Thus, an application has been designed allowing for sound recording, automatic vocal register recognition (VRR), and a graphical user interface providing real-time visualization of the signal and recognition results. Six spectral features are determined for each time frame and passed to the support vector machine classifier yielding a binary decision on the head or chest register assignment of the segment. The classification training and testing data have been recorded by ten professional female singers (soprano, aged 19-29) performing sounds for both chest and head register. The classification accuracy exceeded 93% in each of various validation schemes. Apart from a hard two-class clustering, the support vector classifier returns also information on the distance between particular feature vector and the discrimination hyperplane in a feature space. Such an information reflects the level of certainty of the vocal register classification in a fuzzy way. Thus, the designed recognition and training application is able to assess and visualize the continuous trend in singing in a user-friendly graphical mode providing an easy way to control the vocal emission.

Keywords: classification, singing, spectral analysis, vocal emission, vocal register

Procedia PDF Downloads 300

Authors: Dimitrie Marinceu, Alan Murchison

Abstract:

The Canadian Used Fuel Container (UFC) is a mid-size hemispherical headed copper coated steel container measuring 2.5 meters in length and 0.5 meters in diameter containing 48 used fuel bundles. The contained used fuel produces significant gamma radiation requiring automated assembly processes to complete the assembly. The design throughput of 2,500 UFCs per year places constraints on equipment and hot cell design for repeatability, speed of processing, robustness and recovery from upset conditions. After UFC assembly, the UFC is inserted into a Buffer Box (BB). The BB is made from adequately pre-shaped blocks (lower and upper block) and Highly Compacted Bentonite (HCB) material. The blocks are practically ‘sandwiching’ the UFC between them after assembly. This paper identifies one possible approach for the BB automatic assembly cell and processes. Automation of the BB assembly will have a significant positive impact on nuclear safety, quality, productivity, and reliability.

Keywords: used fuel packing plant, automatic assembly cell, used fuel container, buffer box, deep geological repository

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Mansha Kotwani

Abstract:

The specific spatio-temporal calcium concentration patterns are required by the fibroblasts to maintain its structure and functions. Thus, calcium concentration is regulated in cell at different levels in various activities of the cell. The variations in cytosolic calcium concentration largely depend on the buffers present in cytosol and influx of calcium into cytosol from ER through IP3Rs or Raynodine receptors followed by reuptake of calcium into ER through sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum ATPs (SERCA) pump. In order to understand the mechanisms of wound repair, tissue remodeling and growth performed by fibroblasts, it is of crucial importance to understand the mechanisms of calcium concentration regulation in fibroblasts. In this paper, a model has been developed to study calcium distribution in NRK fibroblast in the presence of buffers and ER flux with SERCA pump. The model has been developed for two dimensional unsteady state case. Appropriate initial and boundary conditions have been framed along with physiology of the cell. Finite element technique has been employed to obtain the solution. The numerical results have been used to study the effect of buffers, ER flux and source amplitude on calcium distribution in fibroblast cell.

Keywords: buffers, IP3R, ER flux, SERCA pump, source amplitude

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: Asghar Ebrahimi, Elyas Lakzian

Abstract:

For the analysis of flow inside micro geometries, classical CFD methods can not accurately predict the behavior of flow. Alternatively, the gas flow through micro geometries can be investigated precisely using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. In the present paper, a pressure boundary condition is utilized to simulate a gaseous flow inside a micro channel using the DSMC method. Accuracy of simulation is guaranteed by choosing proper cell dimension and number of particle per cell analysis. Also, results of simulation are compared with the results of reliable references. Good agreement with results certifies the correctness of new boundary condition implemented on the micro channel.

Keywords: pressure boundary condition, DSMC, micro channel, cell dimension, particle per cell

Procedia PDF Downloads 476

Authors: Kkochorong Park, Keun Cheon Kim, Hyoban Lee, Eun Ju Lee, Bongsoo Kim

Abstract:

Introduction of biomaterials such as DNA, RNA, proteins is important for many research areas. There are many methods to introduce biomaterials into living organisms like tissue and cells. To introduce biomaterials, several indirect methods including virus‐mediated delivery, chemical reagent (i.e., lipofectamine), electrophoresis have been used. Such methods are passive delivery using an endocytosis process of cell, reducing an efficiency of delivery. Unlike the indirect delivery method, it has been reported that a direct delivery of exogenous biomolecules into nucleus have been more efficient to expression or integration of biomolecules. Nano-sized material is beneficial for detect signal from cell or deliver stimuli/materials into the cell at cellular and molecular levels, due to its similar physical scale. Especially, because 1 dimensional (1D) nanomaterials such as nanotube, nanorod and nanowire with high‐aspect ratio have nanoscale geometry and excellent mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties, they could play an important role in molecular and cellular biology. In this study, by using single crystalline 1D noble metal nanowire, we fabricated nano-sized 1D injector which can successfully interface with living cells and directly deliver biomolecules into several types of cell line (i.e., stem cell, mammalian embryo) without inducing detrimental damages on living cell. This nano-bio technology could be a promising and robust tool for introducing exogenous biomaterials into living organism.

Keywords: DNA, gene delivery, nanoinjector, nanowire

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Debabrata Auddya, Bradley J. Roth

Abstract:

The mechanical bidomain model is used to describe a colony of cells growing on a substrate. Analytical expressions are derived for the intracellular and extracellular displacements. Mechanotransduction events are driven by the difference between the displacements in the two spaces, corresponding to the force acting on integrins. The equation for the displacement consists of two terms: one proportional to the radius that is the same in the intracellular and extracellular spaces (the monodomain term) and one that is proportional to a modified Bessel function that is responsible for mechanotransduction (the bidomain term). The model predicts that mechanotransduction occurs within a few length constants of the colony’s edge, and an expression for the length constant contains the intracellular and extracellular shear moduli and the spring constant of the integrins coupling the two spaces. The model predictions are qualitatively consistent with experiments on human embryonic stem cell colonies, in which differentiation is localized near the edge.

Keywords: cell colony, integrin, mechanical bidomain model, stem cell, stress-strain, traction force

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Yemima Dani Riani, Anggraini Barlian

Abstract:

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is one of well known long-lived turtle. Its age can reach 100 years old. Senescence in green turtle is an interesting process to study because until now no clear explanation has been established about senescence at cellular or molecular level in this species. Since 1999, green turtle announced as an endangered species. Hence, establishment of fibroblast skin cell culture of green turtle may be material for future study of senescence. One common marker used for detecting senescence is telomere shortening. Reduced telomerase activity, the reverse transcriptase enzyme which adds TTAGGG DNA sequence to telomere end, may also cause senescence. The purpose of this research are establish and identify green turtle fibroblast skin cell culture and also compare telomere length and telomerase activity from passage 5 and 14. Primary cell culture made with primary explant method then cultured in Leibovitz-15 (Sigma) supplemented by 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (Sigma) and 100 U/mL Penicillin/Streptomycin (Sigma) at 30 ± 1oC. Cells identified with Rabbit Anti-Vimentin Polyclonal Antibody (Abcam) and Goat Polyclonal Antibody (Abcam) using confocal microscope (Zeiss LSM 170). Telomere length obtained using TeloTAGGG Telomere Length Assay (Roche) while telomerase activity obtained using TeloTAGGG Telomerase PCR ElisaPlus (Roche). Primary cell culture from green turtle skin had fibroblastic morphology and immunocytochemistry test with vimentin antibody proved the culture was fibroblast cell. Measurement of telomere length and telomerase activity showed that telomere length and telomerase activity of passage 14 was greater than passage 5. However, based on morphology, green turtle fibroblast skin cell culture showed senescent morphology. Based on the analysis of telomere length and telomerase activity, suspected fibroblast skin cell culture of green turtles is not undergo aging through telomere shortening.

Keywords: cell culture, chelonia mydas, telomerase, telomere, senescence

Procedia PDF Downloads 423

Authors: Narges Farokhshad, Milad Molazadeh, Saman Jamalabbasi, Hamed Babaei Giglou, Saeed Bibak

Abstract:

The Persian language is an inflectional subject-object-verb language. This fact makes Persian a more uncertain language. However, using techniques such as Zero-Width Non-Joiner (ZWNJ) recognition, punctuation restoration, and Persian Ezafe construction will lead us to a more understandable and precise language. In most of the works in Persian, these techniques are addressed individually. Despite that, we believe that for text refinement in Persian, all of these tasks are necessary. In this work, we proposed a ViraPart framework that uses embedded ParsBERT in its core for text clarifications. First, used the BERT variant for Persian followed by a classifier layer for classification procedures. Next, we combined models outputs to output cleartext. In the end, the proposed model for ZWNJ recognition, punctuation restoration, and Persian Ezafe construction performs the averaged F1 macro scores of 96.90%, 92.13%, and 98.50%, respectively. Experimental results show that our proposed approach is very effective in text refinement for the Persian language.

Keywords: Persian Ezafe, punctuation, ZWNJ, NLP, ParsBERT, transformers

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Azza T. Tahera, Eman M. Ahmeda, Nadia A. Khalila, Yassin M. Nissanb

Abstract:

New 3-(pyridin-4-yl)-[1,2,4] triazolo [4,3-b] pyridazine derivatives 2a-i, 4a,b and 6a,b were designed, synthesized and evaluated as cytotoxic agents. All compounds were investigated for their in vitro cytotoxicity at a single dose 10-5M concentration towards 60 cancer cell lines according to USA NCI protocol. The preliminary screening results showed that the majority of tested compounds exhibited remarkable activity against SR (leukemia) cell panel. Molecular docking for all synthesized compounds was performed on the active site of c-Met kinase. The most active compounds, 2f and 4a were further evaluated at a seven dose level screening and their IC50 as a c-Met kinase inhibitors were determined in vitro.

Keywords: triazolopyridazines, pyridazines, cytotoxic activity, cell panel

Procedia PDF Downloads 532

Authors: Irshad U. Khan, Tanmay Paul, Murali Mohan Seepana

Abstract:

This paper presents a study on synthesizing and characterizing a Copper oxide doped Carbon (CuO-C) electrocatalyst for the negative half-cell reactions of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB). The CuO was synthesized using a microreactor. The electrocatalyst was characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical performance was assessed by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The findings suggest that the synthesized CuO exhibited favorable crystallinity, morphology, and surface area, which reflects improved cell performance.

Keywords: ECSA, electrocatalyst, energy storage, Tafel

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Yingjeng James Li, Chiao-Chih Hu

Abstract:

Membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications were prepared by using 10 and 15 um PEMs. Except for different membrane thicknesses, these MEAs were prepared by the same conditions. They were prepared by using catalyst coated membrane (CCM) process. The catalyst employed is 40% Pt/C, and the Pt loading is 0.5mg/cm² for the sum of anode and cathode. Active area of the MEAs employed in this study is 5cm*5cm=25cm². In polarization measurements, the flow rates were always set at 1.2 stoic for anode and 3.0 stoic for cathode. The outlets were in open-end mode. The flow filed is tri-serpentine design. The cell temperatures and the humidification conditions were varied for the purpose of MEA performance observations. It was found that the performance of these two types of MEAs is about the same at fully or partially humidified operation conditions; however, 10um MEA exhibits higher current density in dry or low humidified conditions. For example, at 70C cell, 100% RH, and 0.6V condition, both MEAs have similar current density which is 1320 and 1342mA/cm² for 15um and 10um product, respectively. However, when in operation without external humidification, 10um MEA can produce 1085mA/cm²; whereas 15um MEA produces only 720mA/cm².

Keywords: fuel cell, membrane electrode assembly, PEFC, PEMFC, proton exchange membrane

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: A. Hamieh, Z. Olama, H. Holail

Abstract:

Drinking Water Distribution Systems provide opportunities for microorganisms that enter the drinking water to develop into biofilms. Antimicrobial agents, mainly chlorine, are used to disinfect drinking water, however, there are not yet standardized disinfection strategies with reliable efficacy and development of novel anti-biofilm strategies is still of major concern. In the present study the ability of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Streptomyces sp. cell free supernatants to inhibit the bacterial biofilm formation in Drinking Water Distribution System in Lebanon was investigated. Treatment with cell free supernatants of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Streptomyces sp. at 20% concentration resulted in average biofilm inhibition (52.89 and 39.66% respectively). A preliminary investigation about the mode of action of biofilm inhibition revealed that cell free supernatants showed no bacteriostatic or bactericidal activity against all the tested isolates. Pre-coating wells with supernatants revealed that Lactobacillus acidophilus cell free supernatant inhibited average biofilm formation (62.53%) by altering the adhesion of bacterial isolates to the surface, preventing the initial attachment step, which is important for biofilm production.

Keywords: biofilm, cell free supernatant, distribution system, drinking water, lactobacillus acidophilus, streptomyces sp, adhesion

Procedia PDF Downloads 433

Authors: Shaode Yu, Jiajian Meng, Bing Zhu, Hang Yu, Qiurui Sun

Abstract:

Speech emotion recognition (SER) is for recognizing human subjective emotions through audio data in-depth analysis. From speech audios, how to comprehensively extract emotional information and how to effectively fuse extracted features remain challenging. This paper presents a dual-stream SER framework that embraces both full training and transfer learning of different networks for thorough feature encoding. Besides, a plug-and-play cross-attention fusion (CAF) module is implemented for the valid integration of the dual-stream encoder output. The effectiveness of the proposed CAF module is compared to the other three fusion modules (feature summation, feature concatenation, and feature-wise linear modulation) on two databases (RAVDESS and IEMO-CAP) using different dual-stream encoders (full training network, DPCNN or TextRCNN; transfer learning network, HuBERT or Wav2Vec2). Experimental results suggest that the CAF module can effectively reconcile conflicts between features from different encoders and outperform the other three feature fusion modules on the SER task. In the future, the plug-and-play CAF module can be extended for multi-branch feature fusion, and the dual-stream SER framework can be widened for multi-stream data representation to improve the recognition performance and generalization capacity.

Keywords: speech emotion recognition, cross-attention fusion, dual-stream, pre-trained

Procedia PDF Downloads 73

Authors: Archana Sharma, Vijayashree Nayak, Ashok Kumar

Abstract:

Three-dimensional matrices were fabricated from blend of natural-natural polymers like carrageenan-gelatin and synthetic -natural polymers such as PEG- gelatin (PEG of different molecular weights (2,000 and 6,000) using two different crosslinkers; glutaraldehyde and EDC-NHS by cryogelation technique. Blends represented a feasible approach to design 3-D scaffolds with controllable mechanical, physical and biochemical properties without compromising biocompatibility and biodegradability. These matrices possessed interconnected porous structure, good mechanical strength, biodegradable nature, constant swelling kinetics, ability to withstand high temperature and visco-elastic behavior. Hemocompatibility of cryogel matrices was determined by coagulation assays and hemolytic activity assay which demonstrated that these cryogels have negligible effects on coagulation time and have excellent blood compatibility. In vitro biocompatibility (cell-matrix interaction) inferred good cell adhesion, proliferation, and secretion of ECM on matrices. These matrices provide a microenvironment for the growth, proliferation, differentiation and secretion of ECM of different cell types such as IMR-32, C2C12, Cos-7, rat bone marrow derived MSCs and human bone marrow MSCs. Hoechst 33342 and PI staining also confirmed that the cells were uniformly distributed, adhered and proliferated properly on the cryogel matrix. An ideal scaffold used for tissue engineering application should allow the cells to adhere, proliferate and maintain their functionality. Neurotransmitter analysis has been done which indicated that IMR-32 cells adhered, proliferated and secreted neurotransmitters when they interacted with these matrices which showed restoration of their functionality. The cell-matrix interaction up to molecular level was also evaluated so to check genotoxicity and protein expression profile which indicated that these cryogel matrices are non-genotoxic and maintained biofunctionality of cells growing on these matrices. All these cryogels, when implanted subcutaneously in balb/c mice, showed no adverse systemic or local toxicity effects at implantation site. There was no significant increase in inflammatory cell count has otherwise been observed after scaffold implantation. These cryogels are supermacroporous and this porous structure allows cell infiltration and proliferation of host cells. This showed the integration and presence of infiltrated cells into the cryogel implants. Histological analysis confirmed that the implanted cryogels do not have any adverse effect in spite of host immune system recognition at the site of implantation, on its surrounding tissues and other vital host organs. In vivo biocompatibility study after in vitro biocompatibility analysis has also concluded that these synthesized cryogels act as important biological substitutes, more adaptable and appropriate for transplantation. Thus, these cryogels showed their potential for soft tissue engineering applications.

Keywords: cryogelation, hemocompatibility, in vitro biocompatibility, in vivo biocompatibility, soft tissue engineering applications

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: S. Cheragh Dar, M. Saljooghi, A. Babrgir

Abstract:

In the last couple of decades researchers' attitudes were focused on developing and enhancing heat transfer processes by using new components or cellular solids that divide into stochastic structures and periodic structures. Open-cell metal foams are part of stochastic structures families that they can be considered as an avant-garde technology and they have unique properties, this porous media can have tremendous achievements in thermal processes. This paper argues and surveys postulating possible in industrial thermal issues which include: compact electronic cooling, heat exchanger, aerospace, fines, turbo machinery, automobiles, crygen tanks, biomechanics, high temperature filters and etc. Recently, by surveying exponential rate of publications in thermal open-cell metal foams, all can be demonstrated in a holistic view which can lead researchers to a new level of understanding in different industrial thermal sections.

Keywords: heat transfer, industrial thermal, cellular solids, open cell metal foam

Procedia PDF Downloads 291

Authors: Seyede Sanaz Seyedebrahimi, Shima Rahimi, Shohreh Fakhari, Ali Jalili

Abstract:

Background: CXCR4, as a chemokine receptor, plays well-known roles in various types of cancers. Several studies have been conducted to overcome CXCR4 axis acts in multiple myeloma (MM) pathogenesis and progression. Dexamethasone, a standard treatment for multiple myeloma, has been shown to increase CXCR4 levels in multiple myeloma cell lines. Herein, we focused on the effects of metformin and dexamethasone on CXCR4 at the cellular level and the migration rate of cell lines after exposure to a combination compared to single-agent models. Materials and Method: Multiple myeloma cell lines (U266 and RPMI8226) were cultured with different metformin and dexamethasone concentrations in single-agent and combination models. The simultaneous combination doses were calculated by CompuSyn software. Cell surface and mRNA expression of CXCR4 were determined using flow cytometry and the quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay, respectively. The Transwell cell migration assay evaluated the migration ability. Results: In concurred with previous studies, our results showed a dexamethasone up-regulation effect on CXCR4 in a dose-dependent manner. Although, the metformin single-agent model could reduce CXCR4 expression of U266 and RPMI8226 in cell surface and mRNA expression level. Moreover, the administration of metformin and dexamethasone simultaneously exerted a higher suppression effect on CXCR4 expression than the metformin single-agent model. The migration rate through the combination model's matrigel membrane was remarkably lower than the metformin and dexamethasone single-agent model. Discussion: According to our findings, the combination of metformin and dexamethasone effectively inhibited dexamethasone-induced CXCR4 expression in multiple myeloma cell lines. As a result, metformin may be counted as an alternative medicine combined with other chemotherapies to combat multiple myeloma. However, more research is required.

Keywords: CXCR4, dexamethasone, metformin, migration, multiple myeloma

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: A. C. Khor, M. R. Mohamed, M. H. Sulaiman, M. R. Daud

Abstract:

Packaging for vanadium redox flow battery is one of the key elements for successful implementation of flow battery in the electrical energy storage system. Usually the bulky battery size and low energy densities make this technology not available for mobility application. Therefore RFB with improved packaging size and energy capacity are highly desirable. This paper focuses on the study of packaging improvement for unit cell V-RFB to the application on Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle. Two different designs of 25 cm2 and 100 cm2 unit cell V-RFB at same current density are used for the sample in this investigation. Further suggestions on packaging improvement are highlighted.

Keywords: electric vehicle, redox flow battery, packaging, vanadium

Procedia PDF Downloads 430

Authors: Annika Stechemesser, Rachel Pounds, Emma Lucas, Chris Dawson, Julia Lipecki, Pavle Vrljicak, Jan Brosens, Sean Kehoe, Jason Yap, Lawrence Young, Sascha Ott

Abstract:

Advances in technology make it now possible to retrieve the genetic information of thousands of single cancerous cells. One of the key challenges in single cell analysis of cancerous tissue is to determine the number of different cell types and their characteristic genes within the sample to better understand the tumors and their reaction to different treatments. For this analysis to be possible, it is crucial to filter out background noise as it can severely blur the downstream analysis and give misleading results. In-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art filtering methods for single cell data showed that they do, in some cases, not separate noisy and normal cells sufficiently. We introduced an algorithm that filters and clusters single cell data simultaneously without relying on certain genes or thresholds chosen by eye. It detects communities in a Shared Nearest Neighbor similarity network, which captures the similarities and dissimilarities of the cells by optimizing the modularity and then identifies and removes vertices with a weak clustering belonging. This strategy is based on the fact that noisy data instances are very likely to be similar to true cell types but do not match any of these wells. Once the clustering is complete, we apply a set of evaluation metrics on the cluster level and accept or reject clusters based on the outcome. The performance of our algorithm was tested on three datasets and led to convincing results. We were able to replicate the results on a Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells dataset. Furthermore, we applied the algorithm to two samples of ovarian cancer from the same patient before and after chemotherapy. Comparing the standard approach to our algorithm, we found a hidden cell type in the ovarian postchemotherapy data with interesting marker genes that are potentially relevant for medical research.

Keywords: cancer research, graph theory, machine learning, single cell analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Anderson Rocha, Pedro Miguel de Figueiredo Dinis Oliveira Gaspar

Abstract:

Machine vision has been widely used in recent years in agriculture, as a tool to promote the automation of processes and increase the levels of productivity. The aim of this work is the development of a path recognition algorithm based on image processing to guide a terrestrial robot in-between tree rows. The proposed algorithm was developed using the software MATLAB, and it uses several image processing operations, such as threshold detection, morphological erosion, histogram equalization and the Hough transform, to find edge lines along tree rows on an image and to create a path to be followed by a mobile robot. To develop the algorithm, a set of images of different types of orchards was used, which made possible the construction of a method capable of identifying paths between trees of different heights and aspects. The algorithm was evaluated using several images with different characteristics of quality and the results showed that the proposed method can successfully detect a path in different types of environments.

Keywords: agricultural mobile robot, image processing, path recognition, hough transform

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Md. Imran H. Khan, T. Farrell, M. A. Karim

Abstract:

Highly porous and hygroscopic characteristics of pear make it complex to understand the cellular level water distribution. In pear tissue, water is mainly distributed in three different spaces namely, intercellular water, intracellular water, and cell wall water. Understanding of these three types of water in pear tissue is crucial for predicting actual heat and mass transfer during drying. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the proportion of intercellular water, intracellular water, and cell wall water inside the pear tissue. During this study, Green Anjou Pear was taken for the investigation. The experiment was performed using 1H-NMR- T2 relaxometry. Various types of water component were calculated by using multi-component fits of the T2 relaxation curves. The experimental result showed that in pear tissue 78-82% water exist in intracellular space; 12-16% water in intercellular space and only 2-4% water exist in the cell wall space. The investigated results quantify different types of water in plant-based food tissue. The highest proportion of water exists in intracellular spaces. It was also investigated that the physical properties of pear and the proportion of the different types of water has a strong relationship. Cell wall water depends on the proportion of solid in the sample tissue whereas free water depends on the porosity of the material.

Keywords: intracellular water, intercellular water, cell wall water, physical property, pear

Procedia PDF Downloads 251

Authors: Chargui Abderrahman, Nehdi Afef , BelaïD Amine , Djerbi Nadir, Tauc Michel, Hofman Paul, Mograbi Baharia, El May MichèLe

Abstract:

K63-linked ubiquitination — i.e. conjugation of a chain of ubiquitins (Ub) linked through lys63 — has emerged as a key mechanism regulating signalling transduction pathways. Although critical, very little information is currently available about how subversion of K63 ubiquitination might contribute to cancers and inflammatory diseases. The present study provides the first evidence that Cadmium (Cd), a widespread environmental carcinogen and toxicant, is a powerful activator of K63 ubiquitination. Indeed, Cd induces accumulation of K63 polyUb proteins. Importantly, Cd-induced ubiquitination does not stem on oxidative damage or proteasome impairment. Rather, we demonstrate that Cd not only activates K63 ubiquitination but also amplifies their accumulation by overloading the capacity of autophagy pathway. At molecular level, Cd-induced ubiquitination is correlated with stabilization of HIF-1 and the activation of NF-B, two transcription factors. Strikingly, prolonged cell exposure to high Cd concentrations induces an exaggerated K63 ubiquitination that fosters aggresome formation, thus precluding these proteins from interacting with their downstream nuclear targets. We therefore propose that the aberrant activation of K63 ubiquitination by the carcinogen Cadmium could promote cell proliferation and inflammation at low levels while high levels committed cell to death.

Keywords: cadmium, environmental exposure, Lysine-63-ubiquitination, kidney, apoptosis, proliferation, autophagy

Procedia PDF Downloads 207

Authors: Shiuh-Jer Huang, Chen-Zon Yan, C. K. Huang, Chun-Chien Ting

Abstract:

Since the vision system application in industrial environment for autonomous purposes is required intensely, the image recognition technique becomes an important research topic. Here, deep learning algorithm is employed in image system to recognize the industrial object and integrate with a 7A6 Series Manipulator for object automatic gripping task. PC and Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) are chosen to construct the 3D Vision Recognition System. Depth Camera (Intel RealSense SR300) is employed to extract the image for object recognition and coordinate derivation. The YOLOv2 scheme is adopted in Convolution neural network (CNN) structure for object classification and center point prediction. Additionally, image processing strategy is used to find the object contour for calculating the object orientation angle. Then, the specified object location and orientation information are sent to robotic controller. Finally, a six-axis manipulator can grasp the specific object in a random environment based on the user command and the extracted image information. The experimental results show that YOLOv2 has been successfully employed to detect the object location and category with confidence near 0.9 and 3D position error less than 0.4 mm. It is useful for future intelligent robotic application in industrial 4.0 environment.

Keywords: deep learning, image processing, convolution neural network, YOLOv2, 7A6 series manipulator

Procedia PDF Downloads 248

Authors: Maxime Moreau, Silvère Baron, Jean-Marc Lobaccaro, Karine Charlet, Sébastien Menecier, Frédéric Perisse

Abstract:

Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) is an ionized gas generated at atmospheric pressure with the temperature of heavy particles (molecules, ions, atoms) close to the room temperature. Recent studies have shown that both in-vitro and in-vivo plasma exposition to many cancer cell lines are efficient to induce the apoptotic way of cell death. In some other works, normal cell lines seem to be less impacted by plasma than cancer cell lines. This is called selectivity of plasma. It is highly likely that the generated RNOS (Reactive Nitrogen Oxygen Species) in the plasma jet, but also in the medium, play a key-role in this selectivity. In this study, two CAP devices will be compared to electrical power, chemical species composition and their efficiency to kill cancer cells. A particular focus on the action of hydrogen peroxide will be made. The experiments will take place as described next for both devices: electrical and spectroscopic characterization for different voltages, plasma treatment of normal and cancer cells to compare the CAP efficiency between cell lines and to show that death is induced by an oxidative stress. To enlighten the importance of hydrogen peroxide, an inhibitor of H2O2 will be added in cell culture medium before treatment and a comparison will be made between the results of cell viability in this case and those from a simple plasma exposition. Besides, H2O2 production will be measured by only treating medium with plasma. Cell lines will also be exposed to different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide in order to characterize the cytotoxic threshold for cells and to make a comparison with the quantity of H2O2 produced by CAP devices. Finally, the activity of catalase for different cell lines will be quantified. This enzyme is an important antioxidant agent against hydrogen peroxide. A correlation between cells response to plasma exposition and this activity could be a strong argument in favor of the predominant role of H2O2 to explain the selectivity of plasma cancer treatment by cold atmospheric plasma.

Keywords: cold atmospheric plasma, hydrogen peroxide, prostate cancer, selectivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 147