Forecasting COVID-19 pandemic Severity in Asia

Four months into the ongoing novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, this work provides a simple and direct projection of the outbreak spreading potential and the pandemic cessation dates in China, Iran, the Philippines and Taiwan, using the generalized logistic model (GLM). The short-term predicted number of cumulative COVID-19 cases matched the confirmed reports of those who were infected across the four countries, suggesting GLM as a valuable tool for characterizing the transmission dynamics process and the trajectory of COVID-19 pandemic along with the impact of interventions.

Superior colliculus modulates cortical coding of somatosensory information

The cortex sends a direct projection to the superior colliculus. What is largely unknown is whether (and if so how) the superior colliculus modulates activity in the cortex. Here, we directly investigate this issue, showing that optogenetic activation of superior colliculus changes the input-output relationship of neurons in somatosensory cortex during whisker movement, enhancing responses to low amplitude whisker deflections. While there is no direct pathway from superior colliculus to somatosensory cortex, we found that activation of superior colliculus drives spiking in the posterior medial (POm) nucleus of the thalamus via a powerful monosynaptic pathway. Furthermore, POm neurons receiving input from superior colliculus provide excitatory input to somatosensory cortex. Silencing POm abolished the capacity of superior colliculus to modulate cortical whisker responses. Our findings indicate that the superior colliculus, which plays a key role in attention, modulates sensory processing in somatosensory cortex via a powerful disynaptic pathway through the thalamus.

Dual-View Three-Dimensional Display Based on Direct-Projection Integral Imaging with Convex Mirror Arrays

Dual three-dimensional (3-D) view displays have been attracting much attention in many practical application fields since they can provide two kinds of realistic 3-D images with different perspectives to the viewer. Thus, in this paper, a new type of the dual-view 3-D display system based on direct-projection integral imaging using a convex-mirror-array (CMA) is proposed. Two elemental image arrays (EIAs) captured from each of the two 3-D objects are synthesized into a single dual-view EIA (DV-EIA) with a selective sub-image mapping scheme. The divergent beam of the projector containing the information of the DV-EIA is projected onto the CMA. On each convex mirror of the CMA, left and right-view components of the DV-EIA are separated and reflected back into their viewing directions. Two different 3-D scene images are then integrated and displayed on their respective viewing zones. Ray-optical analysis with the parallel-ray-approximation method and experiments with the test 3-D objects on the implemented 22″ DV 3-D display prototype confirm the feasibility of the proposed system in the practical application

To the problem of choosing a hip implant

Endoprosthetics is often the only way out for a patient with severe hip joint pathology. An important step, in many ways ensuring successful replacement, is the correct choice of implant. When installing the hip joint implant, one of its parts - the leg - is placed in the marrow canal of the femur. Moreover, the installation must be done in a way that ensures, that on one hand, the leg fits tightly against the walls of the channel and on the other hand, no critical stress appears in the channel. Otherwise, serious postoperative complications are possible. Proper fit of the prosthesis is ensured by the correct choice from a given standard set of implants. To date the choice of the implant is realized using x-ray images of the canal in the direct and lateral projections. The implant images on a transparent film are sequentially applied to the hip and thighbone images in a straight and lateral projection, and thus a suitable implant is selected. In this regard, the problem of constructing an al-gorithm for choosing an implant based on quantitative characteristics arises. The method of optimal implant selection based on the quantitative characteristics of the implant and of the difference between the width of the channel in the direct projection and the width of the implant in a direct projection is a possible solution. The best for this channel in a direct projection is the implant for which the average distance between the upper wall of the canal and the implant is the smallest. The quantitative characteristic of the placement quality of the implant in the lateral projection is introduced in a similar way. The implants that fit in the channel are considered. It also must be taken into account that the implant should have contact with the channel in at least three points in the lateral projection. “The best for a given channel on the lateral projection is the implant for which the difference between the minimum distance from the anterior wall of the canal to the posterior wall of the implant and the width of the implant in this section is minimal. In best case, the best implant is the one that fits best in both projections. However, this does not always happen. Finally, for a given channel the choice of an implant from a given set of implants, generally speaking, is ambiguous. In addition to the characteristics and quality of an implant placement proposed here, other methods are possible