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Showing papers by "Yu Huang published in 2008"


Journal ArticleDOI
22 Feb 2008-Langmuir
TL;DR: The effective mesoporous nanocrystalline C-doped TiO(2) photocatalysts synthesized through a direct solution-phase carbonization showed a more effective removal efficiency than commercial photocatalyst (P25) on the degradation of the common indoor pollutant NO.
Abstract: Effective mesoporous nanocrystalline C-doped TiO2 photocatalysts were synthesized through a direct solution-phase carbonization using titanium tetrachloride and diethanolamine as precursors. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results revealed that oxygen sites in the TiO2 lattice were substituted by carbon atoms and formed a C−Ti−O−C structure. The absorption region of the as-prepared TiO2 was extended to the visible light region in view of the substitution for oxygen sites by carbon atoms. The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared samples were tested in a flow system on the degradation of NO at typical indoor air levels under simulated solar-light irradiation. The samples showed a more effective removal efficiency than commercial photocatalyst (P25) on the degradation of the common indoor pollutant NO. The parameters significantly affecting the mesoporous structure and removal efficiency on indoor air were also investigated.

291 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review examines the benefits of exercise in mitigating pre-eclampsia during pregnancy by mechanisms that include improved blood flow, reduced blood pressure, enhanced placental growth and vascularity, increased activity of antioxidant enzymes, reduced oxidative stress and restored vascular endothelial dysfunction.
Abstract: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality in both women and men in most industrialized countries, and has for some time also established a prominent role in developing nations. In fact, obesity, diabetes mellitus and hypertension are now commonplace even in children and youths. Regular exercise is rapidly gaining widespread advocacy as a preventative measure in schools, medical circles and in the popular media. There is overwhelming evidence garnered from a number of sources, including epidemiological, prospective cohort and intervention studies, suggesting that CVD is largely a disease associated with physical inactivity. A rapidly advancing body of human and animal data confirms an important beneficial role for exercise in the prevention and treatment of CVD. In Part 1 of this review we discuss the impact of exercise on CVD, and we highlight the effects of exercise on (i) endothelial function by regulation of endothelial genes mediating oxidative metabolism, inflammation, apoptosis, cellular growth and proliferation, increased superoxide dismutase (SOD)-1, down-regulation of p67phox, changes in intracellular calcium level, increased vascular endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), expression and eNOS Ser-1177 phosphorylation; (ii) vascular smooth muscle function by either an increased affinity of the Ca2+ extrusion mechanism or an augmented Ca2+ buffering system by the superficial sarcoplasmic reticulum to increase Ca2+ sequestration, increase in K+ channel activity and/or expression, and increase in L-type Ca2+ current density; (iii) antioxidant systems by elevation of Mn-SOD, Cu/Zn-SOD and catalase, increases in glutathione peroxidase activity and activation of vascular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate [(NAD(P)H] oxidase and p22phox expression; (iv) heat shock protein (HSP) expression by stimulating HSP70 expression in myocardium, skeletal muscle and even in human leucocytes, probably through heat shock transcription factor 1 activity; (v) inflammation by reducing serum inflammatory cytokines such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hCRP), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-18 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha and by regulating Toll-like receptor 4 pathway. Exercise also alters vascular remodelling, which involves two forms of vessel growth including angiogenesis and arteriogenesis. Angiogenesis refers to the formation of new capillary networks. Arteriogenesis refers to the growth of pre-existent collateral arterioles leading to formation of large conductance arteries that are well capable to compensate for the loss of function of occluded arteries. Another aim of this review is to focus on exercise-related cardiovascular protection against CVD and associated risk factors such as aging, coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart failure, diabetes mellitus and peripheral arterial diseases mediated by vascular remodelling. Lastly, this review examines the benefits of exercise in mitigating pre-eclampsia during pregnancy by mechanisms that include improved blood flow, reduced blood pressure, enhanced placental growth and vascularity, increased activity of antioxidant enzymes, reduced oxidative stress and restored vascular endothelial dysfunction.

213 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Electrical measurements show nearly perfect p-channel enhancement mode transistor behavior with a normalized transconductance of 0.3 mS/microm, field-effect hole mobility of 168 cm2/V.s, and on/off ratio>10(7), demonstrating the best performing device from intrinsic silicon nanowires.
Abstract: We report the formation of PtSi nanowires, PtSi/Si/PtSi nanowire heterostructures, and nanodevices from such heterostructures. Scanning electron microscopy studies show that silicon nanowires can be converted into PtSi nanowires through controlled reactions between lithographically defined platinum pads and silicon nanowires. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies show that PtSi/Si/PtSi heterostructure has an atomically sharp interface with epitaxial relationships of Si[110]//PtSi[010] and Si(111)//PtSi(101). Electrical measurements show that the pure PtSi nanowires have low resistivities approximately 28.6 microOmega.cm and high breakdown current densities>1x10(8) A/cm2. Furthermore, using single crystal PtSi/Si/PtSi nanowire heterostructures with atomically sharp interfaces, we have fabricated high-performance nanoscale field-effect transistors from intrinsic silicon nanowires, in which the source and drain contacts are defined by the metallic PtSi nanowire regions, and the gate length is defined by the Si nanowire region. Electrical measurements show nearly perfect p-channel enhancement mode transistor behavior with a normalized transconductance of 0.3 mS/microm, field-effect hole mobility of 168 cm2/V.s, and on/off ratio>10(7), demonstrating the best performing device from intrinsic silicon nanowires.

170 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The current knowledge of SOCE as a regulator of vascular smooth muscle tone is summarized and its possible role in the cardiovascular function and disease is discussed.
Abstract: In non-excitable cells, activation of G-protein-coupled phospholipase C (PLC)-linked receptors causes the release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores, which is followed by transmembrane Ca2+ entry. This Ca2+ entry underlies a small and sustained phase of the cellular [Ca2+]i increases and is important for several cellular functions including gene expression, secretion and cell proliferation. This form of transmembrane Ca2+ entry is supported by agonist-activated Ca2+-permeable ion channels that are activated by store depletion and is referred to as store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) and represents a major pathway for agonist-induced Ca2+ entry. In excitable cells such as smooth muscle cells, Ca2+ entry mechanisms responsible for sustained cellular activation are normally considered to be mediated via either voltage-operated or receptor-operated Ca2+ channels. Although SOCE occurs following agonist activation of smooth muscle, this was thought to be more important in replenishing Ca2+ stores rather than acting as a source of activator Ca2+ for the contractile process. This review summarizes our current knowledge of SOCE as a regulator of vascular smooth muscle tone and discusses its possible role in the cardiovascular function and disease. We propose a possible hypothesis for its activation and suggest that SOCE may represent a novel target for pharmacological therapeutic intervention. British Journal of Pharmacology (2008) 153, 846–857; doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0707455; published online 17 September 2007

116 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It was concluded that AP favorably improved distribution of cholesterol in lipoproteins, most likely, by its inhibition on CETP activity.
Abstract: Previous reports demonstrated that hypocholesterolemic activity of apple was associated with its pectin and fiber. This report was to investigate the effect of apple polyphenols (AP) on blood cholesterol level and gene expression of cholesterol-regulating enzymes in Golden Syrian hamsters maintained on a 0.1% cholesterol diet. It was found that dietary supplementation of 0.3 or 0.6% of AP did not affect plasma total cholesterol (TC), but it increased HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and decreased non-HDL-C, thus leading to a lower ratio of non-HDL-C to HDL-C. Plasma total triacylglycerol (TG) level was also significantly reduced when hamsters were fed a diet supplemented with 0.6% AP. Western blot analysis did not find any effect of AP on sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP-2), LDL receptor (LDLR), 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), and cholesterol-7alpha-hydroxylase (CYP7A). Most interesting was that supplementation of AP had no effect on protein abundance of plasma cholesteryl ester transport protein (CETP), but it suppressed plasma CETP activity. A series of in vitro assays confirmed that AP inhibited CETP in a dose dependent manner. It was concluded that AP favorably improved distribution of cholesterol in lipoproteins, most likely, by its inhibition on CETP activity.

83 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A chain pattern (sometimes called a flush pattern) is a pattern consisting of shift-in and shift-out operations without pulsing capture clocks, and the purpose of chain patterns is to test scan chain integrity.
Abstract: Scan-based testing has proven to be a cost-effective method for achieving good test coverage in digital circuits. The Achilles heel in the application of scan-based testing is the integrity of the scan chains. The amount of die area consumed by scan elements, chain connections, and control circuitry varies with different designs. Typically, each scan cell in a scan chain has an index number. The cells in the chain are sequentially numbered from scan output to scan input, starting with 0. A chain pattern (sometimes called a flush pattern) is a pattern consisting of shift-in and shift-out operations without pulsing capture clocks. The purpose of chain patterns is to test scan chain integrity. A scan pattern (also known as a logic test pattern) is a pattern consisting of a shift-in operation, one or multiple capture clock cycles, and a shift-out operation. The purpose of scan patterns is to test system logic. The scan cells between the scan chain input and a scan cell's scan input terminal are called the upstream cells of that scan cell. The scan cells between the scan chain output and a scan cell's scan output terminal are called the downstream cells of that scan cell.

82 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of Ang (1-7) administration on a diabetic animal model and the modulation on local renin-angiotensin system (RAS) was investigated.
Abstract: Aim: The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a critical role in blood pressure control and body fluid and electrolyte homeostasis. In the past few years, angio-tensin (Ang) (1–7) has been reported to counteract the effects of Ang II and was even considered as a new therapeutical target in RAS. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of Ang (1–7) administration on a diabetic animal model and the modulation on local RAS. Methods: Streptozotocin (STZ) injection-induced diabetic rats were used in the experiment. The animals were divided into 3 groups: (1) control; (2) STZ-induced diabetes; and (3) STZ-induced diabetes with chronic Ang (1–7) treatment [D+Ang(1–7)]. In the D+Ang(1–7) group, a dose of 25 μg·kg−1·h−1 of Ang (1–7) was continually injected through the jugular vein by embedding mini-osmotic pump for 6 weeks. Plasma glucose, ratio of kidney to body weight, and 24 h urine protein and serum creatinine were monitored by conventional measurement. Plasma and renal Ang II levels were measured by radioimmunoassay. Ang-converting enzyme (ACE), ACE2, Ang II type 1 (AT1) receptor, Ang II type 2 (AT2) receptor, Ang (1–7) Mas receptor, and TGF-β1 mRNA levels were measured by real time PCR; ACE, ACE2, and TGF-β1 protein levels were analyzed by Western blotting. Results: The renal function of diabetic rats was significantly retrogressed when compared with that of control rats. After the treatment by constant Ang (1–7) vein injection for 6 weeks, renal function was found to be even worse than diabetic rats, and both TGF-β1 mRNA and protein levels were elevated in the D+Ang(1–7) group compared with the diabetic rats. The real-time PCR result also showed an increase in ACE mRNA expression and decrease in ACE2 mRNA level in the D+Ang(1–7) group when compared with diabetic rats. The number of AT1 receptors increased in the Ang (1–7)-injected group, while the number of AT2 and Mas receptors decreased. Conclusion: Exogenous Ang (1–7) injection did not ameliorate STZ-induced diabetic rat renal injury; on the contrary, it accelerated the progressive diabetic nephropathies.

64 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review focuses on cardiovascular benefits of tea polyphenols based on in vitro and in vivo studies on experimental animal models and on studies of human subjects in four areas: vasorelaxant effect; protective effect against endothelial dysfunction; antioxidant effect and hypolipidemic effect.
Abstract: Tea, the most popular beverage worldwide, is consumed in three basic forms; green tea, black tea and oolong tea. Tea contains over 4,000 chemicals some of which are bioactive. In recent years there has been a mounting interest in understanding the cardiovascular and metabolic benefits of polyphenolic flavonoids in tea, which can be used as a supplement among patients. Diverse cardioprotective effects of consuming tea or tea polyphenols have been described on pathological conditions, e. g. hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetics, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and are attributed to antioxidative, anti-thrombogenic, anti-inflammatory, hypotensive and hypocholesterolemic properties of tea polyphenols. This review focuses on cardiovascular benefits of tea polyphenols based on in vitro and in vivo studies on experimental animal models and on studies of human subjects in four areas: (1) vasorelaxant effect; (2) protective effect against endothelial dysfunction; (3) antioxidant effect and (4) hypolipidemic effect. We will briefly discuss the effects of tea on atherosclerosis and hypertension.

59 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It was concluded that GTC and BE reversed the fat-induced mortality in D. melanogaster, most likely but necessarily solely, by up-regulation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes.
Abstract: Dietary fat accelerates the ageing process and causes a greater mortality by accumulating lipid hydroperoxide (LPO) in Drosophila melanogaster. The present study found that the life span of D. melanogaster was shortened from 54 to 6 days in a dose-dependent manner when fat in diet increased from 0% to 25%. The results showed that supplementation of both green tea catechins (GTC) and broccoli extract (BE) reversed partially the fat-induced mortality. The maximum life span was 44 days for the control group fed with a 5% fat, whereas it increased to 50 and 59 days in the GTC- and BE-supplemented groups, respectively. The 50% survival time for the control flies fed with a 5% fat diet was 30 days. In contrast, it increased to 32 and 48 days when GTC and BE were supplemented in the diet. This was consistent with a significant reduction in total body LPO level in D. melanogaster maintained on the GTC- and BE-supplemented diet. Accordingly, catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities increased significantly in the flies fed with a GTC or a BE diet compared with those fed with a control 5% fat diet. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated that the increase in enzymatic activities of catalase and SOD was accompanied by up-regulation of genes for catalase, copper-zinc containing SOD and manganese-containing SOD. It was concluded that GTC and BE reversed the fat-induced mortality in D. melanogaster, most likely but necessarily solely, by up-regulation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes.

46 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: CNG channels, CNGA2 in particular, mediate beta-adrenoceptor agonist-induced endothelial Ca(2+) influx and subsequent vascular dilation.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It was concluded that the varying effects of CLA, LN, LA and CLN on blood cholesterol were mediated, at least in part, by their inhibition on intestinal ACAT activity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study tested the hypothesis that raloxifene, a selective oestrogen receptor modulator, can prevent endothelial dysfunction under oxidative stress.
Abstract: Background and purpose: Maintaining a delicate balance between the generation of nitric oxide (NO) and removal of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within the vascular wall is crucial to the physiological regulation of vascular tone. Increased production of ROS reduces the effect and/or bioavailability of NO, leading to an impaired endothelial function. This study tested the hypothesis that raloxifene, a selective oestrogen receptor modulator, can prevent endothelial dysfunction under oxidative stress. Experimental approach: Changes in isometric tension were measured in rat aortic rings. The content of cyclic GMP in aortic tissue was determined by radioimmunoassay. Phosphorylation of endothelial NOS (eNOS) and Akt was assayed by Western blot analysis. Key results: In rings with endothelium, ACh-induced relaxations were attenuated by a ROS-generating reaction (hypoxanthine plus xanthine oxidase, HXXO). The impaired relaxations were ameliorated by acute treatment with raloxifene. HXXO suppressed the ACh-stimulated increase in cyclic GMP levels; this effect was antagonized by raloxifene. The improved endothelial function by raloxifene was abolished by ICI 182,780, and by wortmannin or LY294002. Raloxifene also protected endothelial cell function against H2O2. Raloxifene increased the phosphorylation of eNOS at Ser-1177 and Akt at Ser-473; this effect was blocked by ICI 182,780. Finally, raloxifene was not directly involved in scavenging ROS, and neither inhibited the activity of xanthine oxidase nor stimulated that of superoxide dismutase. Conclusion and implications: Raloxifene is effective against oxidative stress-induced endothelial dysfunction in vitro through an ICI 182,780-sensitive mechanism that involves the increased phosphorylation and activity of Akt and eNOS in rat aortae. British Journal of Pharmacology (2008) 155, 326–334; doi:10.1038/bjp.2008.262; published online 23 June 2008

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this feature article, recent progress in using protein structure based scaffolds in creating material structures is reviewed.
Abstract: Assembly of nanoscale materials and functional hierarchical structures is a big challenge now faced by nanotechnology. Learning from biology, using proteins and protein assembled structures as scaffolds to control the synthesis and organization of materials like living tissues provides the perfect solution to this problem. Proteins can function as versatile building blocks with genetically programmed properties and also offer the capability of hierarchical assembly with nanoscale precision. In this feature article we will review recent progress in using protein structure based scaffolds in creating material structures.

Journal ArticleDOI
Xijiang Lin1, Yu Huang1
TL;DR: It is shown that not every scan cell contributes equally to the power consumption during scan-based test, and additional hardware is added to freeze the outputs of power sensitive scan cells during scan shifting in order to reduce the shift power consumption.
Abstract: In this paper, we show that not every scan cell contributes equally to the power consumption during scan-based test. The transitions at some scan cells cause more toggles at the internal signal lines of a circuit than the transitions at other scan cells. Hence the transitions at these scan cells have a larger impact on the power consumption during test application. We call these scan cells power sensitive scan cells. A signal probability based approach is proposed to identify a set of power sensitive scan cells. Additional hardware is added to freeze the outputs of power sensitive scan cells during scan shifting in order to reduce the shift power consumption. Experimental results on industrial circuits show that on average more than 45% of the scan shift power can be eliminated when freezing only 5% of power sensitive scan cells.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2008
TL;DR: An efficient method of small object localization is proposed that integrates detection and tracking in soccer game videos and effectively handles heavy clutter, occlusion and motion blur.
Abstract: In this paper an efficient method of small object localization is proposed that integrates detection and tracking. The system is initialized using a strong detector and then it locates the object over time using a weak detector and a temporal tracker. Both of strong and weak detectors are based on foreground-background segmentation. The strong detector is created from shape analysis of foreground blobs and used to trigger the object tracker. The weak detector is built with outputs from the foreground detection likelihood and integrated into the trackerpsilas observation likelihood. In the particle filter-based object tracker, motion estimation is embedded to generate a better proposal distribution and a mixture model is tailored to handle the ambiguity of template matching due to cluttered background. As a case study, the proposed scheme is applied to ball detection and tracking in soccer game videos. Promising results are presented to illustrate the proposed method effectively handles heavy clutter, occlusion and motion blur.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is likely that adenosine acts through A2B receptors and adenylyl cyclases to stimulate CNGA2, which plays a key role inadenosine-induced endothelial Ca2+ influx and vasorelaxation.
Abstract: Objectives— Adenosine is a cAMP-elevating vasodilator that induces both endothelium-dependent and -independent vasorelaxation. An increase in cytosolic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) is a crucial early signal in the endothelium-dependent relaxation elicited by adenosine. This study explored the molecular identity of channels that mediate adenosine-induced Ca2+ influx in vascular endothelial cells. Methods and Results— Adenosine-induced Ca2+ influx was markedly reduced by L- cis -diltiazem and LY-83583, two selective inhibitors for cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels, in H5V endothelial cells and primary cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs). The Ca2+ influx was also inhibited by 2 adenylyl cyclase inhibitors MDL-12330A and SQ-22536, and by 2 A2B receptor inhibitors MRS-1754 and 8-SPT, but not by an A2A receptor inhibitor SCH-58261 or a guanylyl cyclase inhibitor ODQ. Patch clamp experiments recorded an adenosine-induced current that could be inhibited by L- cis -diltiazem and LY-83583. A CNGA2-specific siRNA markedly decreased the Ca2+ influx and the cation current in H5V cells. Furthermore, L- cis -diltiazem inhibited the endothelial Ca2+ influx in mouse aortic strips, and it also reduced 5- N -ethylcarboxamidoadenosine (NECA, an A2 adenosine receptor agonist)-induced vasorelaxation. Conclusion— CNGA2 channels play a key role in adenosine-induced endothelial Ca2+ influx and vasorelaxation. It is likely that adenosine acts through A2B receptors and adenylyl cyclases to stimulate CNGA2.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A comparative study of the newly synthesized polymer with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), one of the most widely investigated optoelectronic materials, is presented and the effect of double bond on the side chain toward thermal stability and optical and electronic properties is presented.
Abstract: A polythiophene derivative with the simplest conjugated side chain, poly(3-hexy-1-enylthiophene) (P3HET), was synthesized by Stille self-coupling reaction. A comparative study of the newly synthesized polymer with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), one of the most widely investigated optoelectronic materials, is presented. The effect of double bond (C═C) on the side chain toward thermal stability and optical and electronic properties was fully characterized by TGA, UV−vis absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. The hole mobility of P3HET determined by the space−charge-limited current (SCLC) model is 6.7 × 10−3 cm2/V s, which is comparable to P3HT with similar molecular weight and regularity and 1 order of magnitude higher than most conjugated-side-chain polythiophene derivatives. Polymer solar cells (PSCs) and field effect transistors (FETs) were fabricated respectively to exploit its potential applications in optoelectronic devices.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Mar 2008-Steroids
TL;DR: The present results suggest that inhibition of K(+) channels may contribute in part to its reported antagonism against 17beta-estradiol-mediated vascular relaxation via BK(Ca) channels.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
08 Dec 2008
TL;DR: This paper uses SPICE simulation to understand how a scan cell internal defect impacts the operation of a single scan cell and proposes a new diagnosis algorithm to improve scan cellInternal defect diagnostic resolution using scan cellinternal fault model.
Abstract: In this paper, we study the impact, detection and diagnosis of the defect inside a scan cell, which is called scan cell internal defect. We first use SPICE simulation to understand how a scan cell internal defect impacts the operation of a single scan cell. To study the detectability and diagnosability of a scan cell internal defect in a production test environment, we inject scan cell internal defects into a scan-based industrial design and perform fault simulation by using production scan test patterns. Next, we evaluate how effective an existing scan chain diagnosis technique based on traditional fault models can diagnose scan cell internal defect. We finally propose a new diagnosis algorithm to improve scan cell internal defect diagnostic resolution using scan cell internal fault model. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed scan cell internal fault diagnosis technique.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: SIE at a range of 50-1000 times of human intake level affects not only growth but also development of reproductive system in growing rats, and at high doses exhibited hepatotoxicity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It was concluded that OxC was much more hypercholesterolaemic and atherogenic than cholesterol.
Abstract: The present study was to test the relative hypercholesterolaemic and atherogenic potency of oxidised cholesterol (OxC) and non-oxidised cholesterol in hamsters. An OxC mixture, prepared by heating pure cholesterol (100 g) at 160 degrees C in air for 72 h, contained 78 % cholesterol and 22 % OxC. Fifty Golden Syrian hamsters were randomly divided into five groups of ten animals and fed the control diet, a 0.05 % cholesterol diet (C-0.05), a 0.10 % cholesterol diet (C-0.1), a 0.05 % OxC mixture diet (OxC-0.05) or a 0.10 % OxC mixture diet (OxC-0.1), respectively. The OxC-0.05 and OxC-0.1 groups were more hypercholesterolaemic and had serum total cholesterol 22 and 12 % higher than the corresponding C-0.05 and C-0.1 hamsters (P < 0.05). The OxC-0.1 group demonstrated greater deposition of cholesterol and had a larger area of atherosclerotic plaque in the aorta than the corresponding C-0.1 hamsters (P < 0.05). Similarly, the aorta in the OxC-0.1 group showed greater inhibition on acetylcholine-induced relaxation compared with that in the C-0.1 hamsters. It was concluded that OxC was much more hypercholesterolaemic and atherogenic than cholesterol.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
Fei Wang1, Yu Hu1, Huawei Li1, Xiaowei Li1, Jing Ye1, Yu Huang2 
08 Dec 2008
TL;DR: Experimental results show that the diagnostic resolution and precision are not degraded even with dozens of faults injected into the system logic.
Abstract: Scan chain failure diagnosis has become an important means for silicon debug and yield improvement. Although plenty of prior work discussed how to perform scan chain diagnosis, most of the previously proposed techniques made an assumption that the system logic is fault-free, which could be an impractical assumption leading to incorrect diagnostic results. In this paper, we propose a scan chain deterministic diagnostic pattern generation (DDPG) method that can tolerate the faults in the system logic without degradation of chain diagnostic resolution and precision. The entire flow includes three steps. In the first step, patterns are created to propagate the state of a targeted scan cell to as many reliable observation points as possible. In the second step, the load error probability of each targeted scan cell is calculated based on the hamming distances between the observed responses and the expected good or faulty responses. In the last step, a suspect profile is plotted, which can be used to identify the suspect scan cell(s) based on ranking scores. Experimental results show that the diagnostic resolution and precision are not degraded even with dozens of faults injected into the system logic.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2008
TL;DR: A layered method to resolve the visibility problem in depth image-based rendering using a novel three-layer representation for each reference view, i.e. the main layer, background layer and the boundary layer, is proposed.
Abstract: A layered method is presented in this paper to resolve the visibility problem in depth image-based rendering. A novel three-layer representation for each reference view, i.e. the main layer, background layer and the boundary layer, is proposed. A spatial-temporal method is designed to generate the boundary layer for pixel-based rendering (splatting). Meanwhile, a temporal background model is built for each frame by searching backward and forward for uncovered background information based on depth variance in the reference video. Promising results of view synthesis using the multiple-view 3d data from Microsoft Research, ldquobreak dancerrdquo and ldquoballetrdquo, are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.

Patent
29 Feb 2008
TL;DR: In this article, software-based techniques that can be used to improve scan chain test pattern generation and scan chain failure diagnosis resolution are described. But they do not address the problem of scan chain defect detection.
Abstract: Embodiments of the disclosed technology comprise software-based techniques that can be used to improve scan chain test pattern generation and scan chain failure diagnosis resolution. For example, certain embodiments can be used to generate high quality chain diagnosis test patterns that are able to isolate a scan chain defect to a single scan cell. Such embodiments can be used to generate a “complete” test set—that is, a set of chain diagnosis test patterns that is able to isolate any scan chain defect in a faulty scan chain to a single scan cell.

Patent
25 Apr 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, a method for processing a video sequence having a plurality of frames includes the steps of: extracting features from each of the frames, determining correspondences between the extracted features from two frames, estimating motion in the video sequence based on the determined correspondences, generating a background mosaic for the video sequences based on estimated motion, and performing foreground-background segmentation on each of these frames based on background mosaic.
Abstract: A method for processing a video sequence having a plurality of frames includes the steps of: extracting features from each of the frames, determining correspondences between the extracted features from two of the frames, estimating motion in the video sequence based on the determined correspondences, generating a background mosaic for the video sequence based on the estimated motion, and performing foreground-background segmentation on each of the frames based on the background mosaic.

Journal ArticleDOI
26 Mar 2008-Heredity
TL;DR: These results provide essential information for the isolation of the Ekp-1 locus, which may shed light on the mechanism of proleg development in the silkworm and possibly in Lepidoptera.
Abstract: The silkworm homeotic mutant E(kp) has a pair of rudimentary abdominal legs, called prolegs, in its A2 segment. This phenotype is caused by a single dominant mutation at the E(kp)-1 locus, which was previously mapped to chromosome 6. To explore the possible association of Hox genes with proleg development in the silkworm, a map-based cloning strategy was used to isolate the E(kp)-1 locus. Five E(kp)-1-linked simple sequence repeat markers on chromosome 6 were used to generate a low-resolution map with a total genetic distance of 39.5 cM. Four additional cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence markers were developed based on the initial map. The closest marker to E(kp)-1 was at a genetic distance of 2.7 cM. A high-resolution genetic map was constructed using nine BC1 segregating populations consisting of 2396 individuals. Recombination suppression was observed in the vicinity of E(kp)-1. Four molecular markers were tightly linked to E(kp)-1, and three were clustered with it. These markers were used to screen a BAC library. A single bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone spanning the E(kp)-1 locus was identified, and E(kp)-1 was delimited to a region less than 220 kb long that included the Hox gene abdominal-A and a non-coding locus, iab-4. These results provide essential information for the isolation of this locus, which may shed light on the mechanism of proleg development in the silkworm and possibly in Lepidoptera.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Comparisons between the differential expressions of NOS isoforms in HCMC to the changes in NOS expressions in asthma models suggest that the mast cell is a source of NO in asthmatic airways.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
Yu Huang1, J. Llach1
07 Jul 2008
TL;DR: An adaptive particle filter with effective proposal distribution to handle cluttered background and occlusion in tracking and a mixture model to account for multiple hypotheses in the template correlation surface when estimating the appearance likelihood is proposed.
Abstract: Cluttered background and occlusion cause large ambiguity in the tracking of video objects. When the object is small (like a soccer ball in broadcast game video signals), the ambiguity gets even more severe. In this paper, we propose an adaptive particle filter with effective proposal distribution to handle these situations. In the proposed tracking approach, motion estimation is embedded into the state transition to tackle abrupt motion changes and generate good proposal distributions. We also propose a mixture model to account for multiple hypotheses in the template correlation surface when estimating the appearance likelihood. In addition, motion continuity and trajectory smoothness are combined with template correlation in the observation likelihood to further filter out visual distracters. As an example of small object tracking, promising results of the ball tracking (as small as 30 pixels) in soccer game videos are presented to illustrate that the proposed scheme handles the cluttered background and occlusion effectively.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The free-radical scavenging activity of BE in Drosophila melanogaster was mediated, at least in part, by up-regulation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes at both the transcriptional and translational level.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:The fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is commonly used as an ageing model. It is unknown if commonly consumed vegetables can affect the survival of fruit fly. The present study was to investigate effect of broccoli, cabbage, Chinese cabbage and carrot on the survival time of Drosophila melanogaster, when the flies were challenged with superoxide anion (paraquat) and hydrogen peroxide. RESULTS:The paraquat and hydrogen peroxide survival tests found that broccoli extracts (BE) was most effective in prolonging the mean survival time compared with the control and other three vegetable extracts. The prolongation of survival time by BE was dose-dependent in range of 1–50 mg mL−1 diet. Supplementation of BE reduced not only total body lipid hydroperoxide level (LPO) but also increased the activity of copper-zinc containing superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), manganese containing SOD (MnSOD) and catalase. RT-PCR analysis indicated that the increase in enzymatic activities of SOD and catalase was mediated by up-regulation of genes for CuZnSOD, MnSOD and catalase. CONCLUSION:The free-radical scavenging activity of BE in Drosophila melanogaster was mediated, at least in part, by up-regulation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes at both the transcriptional and translational level. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry