In this paper, we present a compositional and dynamic model for face aging. The compositional model represents faces in each age group by a hierarchical And-Or graph, in which And nodes decompose a face into parts to describe details (e.g., hair, wrinkles, etc.) crucial for age perception and Or nodes represent large diversity of faces by alternative selections. Then a face instance is a transverse of the And-Or graph-parse graph. Face aging is modeled as a Markov process on the parse graph representation. We learn the parameters of the dynamic model from a large annotated face data set and the stochasticity of face aging is modeled in the dynamics explicitly. Based on this model, we propose a face aging simulation and prediction algorithm. Inversely, an automatic age estimation algorithm is also developed under this representation. We study two criteria to evaluate the aging results using human perception experiments: 1) the accuracy of simulation: whether the aged faces are perceived of the intended age group, and 2) preservation of identity: whether the aged faces are perceived as the same person. Quantitative statistical analysis validates the performance of our aging model and age estimation algorithm.

PURPOSE: To compare conventional radiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the assessment of epiphyseal and physeal injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventeen cases with epiphyseal and physeal injury were examined with conventional radiography and MRI. Two blinded experienced radiologists separately evaluated the results retrospectively. RESULTS: Two Salter-Harris II fractures showed displacement of epiphysis and metaphyseal fragment, as well as T1 hypointensity and T2 hyperintensity in the physis on MRI. Three Salter-Harris IV fractures showed a fracture line in the epiphysis and metaphysis on two modalities, as well as linear T2 hyperintensity in the physis. All five slipped epiphysis showed signal intensity abnormality in the physis on MRI aside from the physeal widening and epiphyseal displacement seen on radiographs. Seven patients with bony bridge formation showed premature closure of the physis, shortening, and remodeling of the end of bones involved. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional radiography and MRI are both useful in the diagnosis of epiphyseal and physeal injury. MRI can provide more detailed information, which could direct treatment planning and prognosis predicting.

The half-metallic behavior of Au-V(Cr) quantum wires adsorbed on an armchair (5, 5) boron nitride nanotube is obtained by performing spin-polarized density functional calculations. The density of states shows a metallic property at the Fermi level for the majority spin channel and a semiconductor gap in the minority spin channel. The half-metallic behavior of the quantum wire/nanotube complex originates from the half-metallic behavior of the free-standing Au-V(Cr) quantum wires. The calculations of spin-polarized transport indicate that such a one-dimensional half-metallic magnet can be used as a spin filter.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficiency and safety of transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy for the treatment of adrenal tumors and to describe surgical technique and management of intraoperative complications. METHODS: From February 2002 to April 2008, 24 male and 44 female consecutive patients with average age (53.4 +/- 12.1) years old were treated with transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy because of adrenal tumors. Of the patients, 27 cases had right adrenal tumors, 39 cases had left adrenal tumors and 2 cases had bilateral adrenal tumors. The average tumor size was (2.9 +/- 2.0) cm with the maximal diameter of 10 cm. We evaluated this technique in respect of operating time, estimated blood loss, complications during surgery, postoperative complications, duration of hospital stay and pathological results. RESULTS: All the surgeries had been completed successfully without conversion to open surgery. The average operating time was (157.7 +/- 51.5) min, the average estimated blood loss was (68.1 +/- 54.2) ml. No major complication happened during operation. The average drainage time was (2.6 +/- 1.5) days. The average post-operative hospital stay was (8.7 +/- 4.3) days. Four cases (6.0%) developed surgical field fluidify and 2 cases (2.9%) experienced delayed closure of the drainage wound. CONCLUSIONS: Transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy is feasible and safe in the treatment of adrenal tumor with low risk of intra-operative and post-operative complication.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the changes of the main clinic parameters in patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) treated by watchful waiting and to find out the risk factors contributing the progress of BPH. METHODS: According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria,61 patients diagnosed as BPH were recruited in the group of watchful waiting. Data on IPSS, prostate volume, prostate specific antigen (PSA), maxium flow rate, average flow rate and residual urine volume during follow-up period of 24 months, were recorded. RESULTS: At 0, 12, 24 months, the IPSS, prostate volume (ml), PSA(ng/ml), maxiumflowrate (ml/s) were 7 +/- 4, 4 +/- 3, 4 +/- 3; 33.0 +/- 9.0, 33.8 +/- 7.6, 30.9 +/- 6.8; 1.53 +/- 1.35, 1.43 +/- 0.95, 1.22 +/- 0.99; 17.1 +/- 5.0, 17.2 +/- 6.1, 19.2 +/- 8.0, respectively. At the end of the 24-months follow-up, all observed parameters had a little improvement except the average prostate volume in this group. Of the 61 patients, 42 (62%) progressed slowly or became better when comparing with baseline data of the study. Moreover, the difference between at 24-month and at baseline period, IPSS showed statistical significance (P < 0.0001) in t test. In the study of BPH progression risk factors by logistic regression analysis, prostate volume (P = 0.0910) and residual urine volume (P = 0.0780) showed a trend of becoming the risk factors. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that patients treated with watchful waiting had slow progression and majority of these patients did not need to alter their treatment options. Through data analysis, we noticed that the changes of data watchful waiting patients could help us to choose more precise and reasonable treatment option in clinical pratice.

This paper presents a simple attribute graph grammar as a generative representation for made-made scenes, such as buildings, hallways, kitchens, and living rooms, and studies an effective top-down/bottom-up inference algorithm for parsing images in the process of maximizing a Bayesian posterior probability or equivalently minimizing a description length (MDL). Given an input image, the inference algorithm computes (or constructs) a parse graph, which includes a parse tree for the hierarchical decomposition and a number of spatial constraints. In the inference algorithm, the bottom-up step detects an excessive number of rectangles as weighted candidates, which are sorted in certain order and activate top-down predictions of occluded or missing components through the grammar rules. In the experiment, we show that the grammar and top-down inference can largely improve the performance of bottom-up detection.

Microbacterium oxydans strain NJ 6 isolated from soil samples converted puerarin into two novel compounds, puerarin-7-O-glucoside and puerarin-7-O-isomaltoside, via an unreported O-glycosylation of the phenolic hydroxyl group at the 7-position of puerarin. Sucrose, maltotriose, and maltose could be used as glucosyl donors for glycosylation of puerarin, but uridine-diphosphate glucose, glucose, fructose, lactose, cyclodextrin, and starch could not. Regardless of the position of B-ring in the (iso)flavonoids core structure, the glycosylation of the phenolic hydroxyl group at the 7-position of (iso)flavonoids was governed by the presence or absence of a glucosyl residue at 8-C. The apparent solubility of puerarin-7-O-glucoside and puerarin-7-O-isomaltoside was approximately 18 and 100 times that of natural puerarin, respectively. Like parent puerarin, puerarin-7-O-glucoside maintained its physiological ability to relax the contractions of isolated rat thoracic aortic rings in vitro induced by phenylephrine. However, puerarin-7-O-glucoside was able to maintain higher plasma concentrations and have a longer mean residence time in the blood than the parent puerarin.

OBJECTIVE: To clone and express a membrane protein (Tetraspanin 2) gene of Schistosoma japonicum (SjTsp2). METHODS: A pair of primers was designed to amplify the SjTsp2 gene which was subcloned into prokaryotic plasmid pET28a(+). The recombinant plasmid was transformed into E. coli BL21(D3) and followed by expression of the protein induced by IPTG. The protein was purified by affinity chromatography and used to immunize BALB/c mice. Dilution of antibody against SjTsp2 was determined by ELISA. The protein was also identified by Western blotting. RESULTS: Big loop of SjTsp2-A, 228 bp, was amplified in vitro by PCR. Its deduced amino sequence shared 52% similarity with SmTsp2. The soluble recombinant SjTsp2-A was expressed in the experiment and high dilution antibody against the recombinant (1:32,000 in maximum) was produced in immunized mice. SjTsp2-A reacted positively with sera of acute and chronic schistosomiasis patients but not with sera from healthy persons by Western blotting. CONCLUSION: SjTsp2 has been expressed and shows certain antigenicity.

Previously we reported the results of Wave One of a genome-wide search for heroin dependence susceptibility loci in Han Chinese families from Yunnan Province, China, near Asia's "Golden Triangle". Our initial analysis of 194 independent affected sibling-pairs from 192 families identified two regions with nonparametric linkage (NPL) Z-scores greater than 2.0, which were suggestive of linkage. Presently we have supplemented our sample with additional individuals and families, bringing the total number of genotyped individuals to 1513 and the number of independent sibling-pairs to 397. Upon repeating our analyses with this larger sample, we found that the evidence for linkage at our most strongly implicated locus from Wave One (marker D17S1880; 53.4cM on 17q11.2; NPL Z=2.36; uncorrected p=0.009) was completely abolished (Z=-1.13; p=0.900). In contrast, the evidence for linkage at the second-most strongly implicated locus from Wave One (D4S1644; 143.3cM on 4q31.21; NPL Z=2.19; uncorrected p=0.014) increased in its magnitude and significance (Z=2.64; uncorrected p=0.004), becoming the most strongly implicated locus overall in our full sample. Other loci on chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 12, 16, and X also displayed nominally significant evidence for linkage (p</=0.05). These loci appear to be entirely distinct from opioid-linked loci reported by other groups; however, meta-analyses of all available linkage data may reveal common sites of interest and promising candidate genes that can be further evaluated as risk factors for the illness.

RNA interference (RNAi) mediated by short interfering RNA (siRNA) is a powerful reverse genetics tool and holds enormous therapeutic potential for various diseases, including parasite infections. siRNAs bind their complementary mRNA and lead to degradation of their specific mRNA targets. RNAi has been widely used for functional analysis of specific genes in various cells and organisms. In this paper, we tested the potential of silencing the expression of the Mago nashi gene in Schistosoma japonicum by siRNAs derived from shRNA expressed by mammalian Pol III promoter H1. Schistosomula, transformed from cercariae by mechanical shearing of the tails, were electroporated with Mago nashi shRNA expression vector. Aliquots of parasites were harvested at days 1, 3, and 5 after electroporation, respectively. Levels of Mago nashi mRNA and protein were determined by RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis. The results showed that shRNA expressed from mammalian Pol III promoter H1 specifically reduced the levels of Mago nashi mRNA and proteins in S. japonicum. Changes in testicular lobes were apparent when parasites were introduced into mammalian hosts. Thus, vector-mediated gene silencing is applicable to S. japonicum, which provides a means for the functional analysis of genes in this organism.