AN IMAGE THRESHOLDING METHOD BASED ON THE TARGET EXTRACTION

Zhang, Yunjie,Li, Yi,Gao, Zhijun,Wang, Weina Korean Society of Computational and Applied Mathem 2008 Journal of applied mathematics & informatics Vol.26 No.3-4

In this paper an algorithm, based on extracting a certain target of an image, is proposed that is capable of performing bilevel thresholding of image with multimodal distribution. Each pixel in the image has a membership value which is used to denote the characteristic relationship between the pixel and its belonging region (i.e. the object or background). Using the membership values of image set, a new measurement, which simultaneously measures the measure of fuzziness and the conditional entropy of the image, is calculated. Then, thresholds are found by optimally minimizing calculated measurement. In addition, a fuzzy range is defined to improve the threshold values. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can select the thresholds automatically and effectively extract the meaningful target from the input image. The resulting image can preserve the object region we target very well.

Characterization of Enterobacter cloacae under Phoxim Stress by Two-dimensional Gel Electrophoresis

Dijun Zhang,Jiajie Xu,Weina He,Qianqian Tong,Liping Chen,Jun Zhou,Xiurong Su 한국생물공학회 2015 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.20 No.3

Phoxim, an organophosphorus pesticide, was widely used in agriculture but was banned because of its associated toxic runoff, which accumulated in surrounding water outlets. Here, Enterobacter cloacae was isolated from water outlets adjacent to industrial, agricultural and residential sewage having high organic phosphorus contents. To investigate the ability of E. cloacae to respond and survive under phoxim stress, both at the proteomic and transcriptional level, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS/MS) and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) were used. A 2-DE analysis showed that 12 h post phoxim exposure, 46 proteins were differentially expressed and 21 protein spots were selected for MALDI-TOF-MS/MS identification. This resulted in the successful identification of 16 spots, nine up-regulated and seven down-regulated. Of these, stress response proteins, including the chaperone protein DnaK, GroEL, F0F1 ATP synthase subunit beta, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and outer membrane channel protein, were only expressed in the phoxim-treated experimental group. To validate these findings, seven genes were selected and positively confirmed using qPCR. The results suggest that the identified expression patterns relate to E. cloacae resistance and tolerance to high phoxim concentrations.

Illuminating the hepatotoxic mechanism of norcantharidin in rats using metabolomics analysis

Cheng Weina,Chen Qihong,Wang Xiaoning,Liu Liu,Li Xiaofei,Duan Cancan,Zhang Jianyong 대한독성 유전단백체 학회 2023 Molecular & cellular toxicology Vol.19 No.3

Norcantharidin (NCTD) has multiple antitumor effects. However, NCTD can induce significant hepatotoxicity and the mechanism of hepatotoxicity is not clear for now.This study aimed to explore the hepatotoxicity of NCTD in rat by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF)-MS (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS) metabolomics.Serum biochemical indices including alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and total bilirubin (T-BIL) were significantly increased. Histopathological and ultrastructure results revealed that hepatocytes were damaged. Furthermore, the metabolomics results showed that 11 metabolites in serum and 8 metabolites in liver were differential metabolites for NCTD hepatotoxicity. Four metabolic pathways including the sphingolipid metabolism, purine metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism were the key metabolic pathways related to NCTD hepatotoxicity.The metabolomics analysis in this study reveal new clues on the hepatotoxicity mechanism of NCTD in rats. These findings have potential applications in the toxicity study of NCTD.

An image thresholding method based on the target extraction

Yunjie Zhang,Yi Li,Zhijun Gao,Weina Wang 한국전산응용수학회 2008 Journal of applied mathematics & informatics Vol.26 No.3-4

In this paper an algorithm, based on extracting a certain target of an image, is proposed that is capable of performing bilevel threshold- ing of image with multimodal distribution. Each pixel in the image has a membership value which is used to denote the characteristic relationship between the pixel and its belonging region (i.e. the object or background). Using the membership values of image set, a new measurement, which simultaneously measures the measure of fuzziness and the conditional en- tropy of the image, is calculated. Then, thresholds are found by optimally minimizing calculated measurement. In addition, a fuzzy range is defined to improve the threshold values. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can select the thresholds automatically and ef- fectively extract the meaningful target from the input image. The resulting image can preserve the object region we target very well. In this paper an algorithm, based on extracting a certain target of an image, is proposed that is capable of performing bilevel threshold- ing of image with multimodal distribution. Each pixel in the image has a membership value which is used to denote the characteristic relationship between the pixel and its belonging region (i.e. the object or background). Using the membership values of image set, a new measurement, which simultaneously measures the measure of fuzziness and the conditional en- tropy of the image, is calculated. Then, thresholds are found by optimally minimizing calculated measurement. In addition, a fuzzy range is defined to improve the threshold values. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can select the thresholds automatically and ef- fectively extract the meaningful target from the input image. The resulting image can preserve the object region we target very well.

A Facile Green Synthesis of Sm2O3 Nanoparticles via Microwave-Assisted Urea Precipitation Route and Their Optical Properties

Hansong Xue,Weina Zhang,Xinyu Li,Xiaochang You,Jinsong Rao,Fusheng Pan 대한금속·재료학회 2017 ELECTRONIC MATERIALS LETTERS Vol.13 No.3

Samarium oxide (Sm2O3) nanoparticles with a narrow sizedistribution were successfully synthesized by microwaveassistedusing urea as precipitant without surfactant ortemplate. The Sm2O3 particles were characterized using X-raydiffraction analysis, field-emission scanning electronmicroscopy, field-emission transmission electron microscopyand ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectrophotometer. Theresults showed that the samples prepared with differentconcentration of urea had different particle sizes. When theconcentration of urea was 1.2 mol/L, the sample had thesmallest particle size. A possible mechanism for the formationof the nanoparticles was proposed. Optical properties ofSm2O3 nanoparticles showed that the nanoparticles had astrong absorption property in the deep ultraviolet regionbetween 200 nm and 270 nm.

Sodium ferulate inhibits high-fat diet-induced inflammatory factors expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells

Junliang Tao,Dongxian Zhang,Yonghong Man,Weina Wang,Yongyi Bi,Yongyi Bi 대한독성 유전단백체 학회 2016 Molecular & cellular toxicology Vol.12 No.2

Vascular inflammation is an important hallmark of high-fat-induced atherosclerosis. Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is a key initiator of inflammation as it induces inflammatory gene expression in vascular endothelial cells. Sodium ferulate (SF), an active component from Chinese medicine, demonstrated anti-atherosclerotic potency. However, the mechanism is unknown. Here we investigated how SF changed the cellular gene expression profile and restored ox-LDL-triggered inflammation in HUVECs. Gene expression profile, inflammatory gene expression and NF-κB activation were investigated in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with or without SF (5 μM) treatment after precondition with ox-LDL (50 μg/mL). Ox-LDL treatment increased the production of IL-1β, CCL20, IL-6, IL-8 and CXCL1. SF stimulation modulated the translocation of NF-κB between cytoplasm and nucleus, and alleviated the inflammatory response induced by ox-LDL. Collectively, SF could suppress the expression of inflammatory factors in ox-LDL-stimulated endothelial cells, and transcription factor NF-κB might be involved in such process.

Whole RNA-sequencing and gene expression analysis of Trichoderma harzianum Tr-92 under chlamydospore-producing condition

Min Yuan,Yuanyuan Huang,Zhenhua Jia,Weina Ge,Lan Zhang,Qian Zhao,Shuishan Song,Yali Huang 한국유전학회 2019 Genes & Genomics Vol.41 No.6

Background Trichoderma is one of the most important biocontrol fungi, which could produce mycelia, conidiospores, and chlamydospores three types of propagules under different conditions. Chlamydospores are produced in harsh conditions in various fungi, and may be more resistant to adverse conditions. However, the knowledge associated with the mechanism of chlamydospore formation remained unclear in Trichoderma. Objectives This study is aimed to explore the essential genes and regulatory pathways associated with chlamydospore formation in Trichoderma. Methods The culture condition, survival rate, and biocontrol effects of chlamydospores and conidiospores from Trichoderma. harzianum Tr-92 were determined. Furthermore, the whole transcriptome profiles of T. harzianum Tr-92 under chlamydospore-producing and chlamydospore-nonproducing conditions were performed. Results T. harzianum Tr-92 produced chlamydospores under particular conditions, and chlamydospore-based formulation of T. harzianum Tr-92 exhibited higher biocontrol ability against Botrytis cinerea in cucumber than conidoiospore-based formulation. In the transcriptome analysis, a total of 2,029 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in T. harzianum Tr-92 under chlamydospore-producing condition, compared to that under chlamydospore-nonproducing condition. GO classification indicated that the DEGs were significantly enriched in 284 terms among biological process, cellular components and molecular function categories. A total of 19 pathways were observed with DEGs by KEGG analysis. Furthermore, fifteen DEGs were verified by quantitative real-time PCR, and the expression profiles were consistent with the transcriptome data. Conclusion The results would provide a basis on the molecular mechanisms underlying Trichoderma sporulation, which would assist the development and application of fungal biocontrol agents.

Inhibition of mouse SP2/0 myeloma cell growth by the B7-H4 protein vaccine

( Nan Mu ),( Nannan Liu ),( Qiang Hao ),( Yujin Xu ),( Jialin Li ),( Weina Li ),( Shouzhen Wu ),( Cun Zhang ),( Haichuan Su ) 생화학분자생물학회(구 한국생화학분자생물학회) 2014 BMB Reports Vol.47 No.7

B7-H4 is a member of B7 family of co-inhibitory molecules and B7-H4 protein is found to be overexpressed in many human cancers and which is usually associated with poor survival. In this study, we developed a therapeutic vaccine made from a fusion protein composed of a tetanus toxoid (TT) T-helper cell epitope and human B7-H4IgV domain (TT-rhB7-H4IgV). We investigated the anti-tumor effect of the TT-rhB7-H4IgV vaccine in BALB/c mice and SP2/0 myeloma growth was significantly suppressed in mice. The TT-rhB7-H4IgV vaccine induced high-titer specific antibodies in mice. Further, the antibodies induced by TT-rhB7-H4IgV vaccine were capable of depleting SP2/0 cells through complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) in vitro. On the other hand, the poor cellular immune response was irrelevant to the therapeutic efficacy. These results indicate that the recombinant TT-rhB7-H4IgV vaccine might be a useful candidate of immunotherapy for the treatment of some tumors associated with abnormal expression of B7-H4. [BMB Reports 2014; 47(7): 399-404]