Progress of clinical therapies for dry age-related macular degeneration

Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive blinding disease that currently affects millions of people worldwide with no successful treatment available. Significant research efforts are currently underway to develop therapies aimed at slowing the progression of this disease or, more notably, reversing it. Here the therapies which have reached clinical trial for treatment of dry AMD were reviewed. A thorough search of PubMed, Embase, and Clinicaltrials.gov has led to a comprehensive collection of the most recent strategies being evaluated. This review also endeavors to assess the status and future directions of therapeutics for this debilitating condition.

Bare Skin Image Classification using Convolution Neural Network

Image classification is critical and significant research problems in computer vision applications such as facial expression classification, satellite image classification, and plant classification based on images. Here in the paper, the image classification model is applied for identifying the display of daunting pictures on the internet. The proposed model uses Convolution neural network to identify these images and filter them through different blocks of the network, so that it can be classified accurately. The model will work as an extension to the web browser and will work on all websites when activated. The extension will be blurring the images and deactivating the links on web pages. This means that it will scan the entire web page and find all the daunting images present on that page. Then we will blur those images before they are loaded and the children could see them. Keywords— Activation Function, CNN, Images Classification , Optimizers, VGG-19

Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates

The experience often described as feeling moved, understood chiefly as a social-relational emotion with social bonding functions, has gained significant research interest in recent years. Although listening to music often evokes what people describe as feeling moved, very little is known about the appraisals or musical features contributing to the experience. In the present study, we investigated experiences of feeling moved in response to music using a continuous rating paradigm. A total of 415 US participants completed an online experiment where they listened to seven moving musical excerpts and rated their experience while listening. Each excerpt was randomly coupled with one of seven rating scales (perceived sadness, perceived joy, feeling moved or touched, sense of connection, perceived beauty, warmth [in the chest], or chills) for each participant. The results revealed that musically evoked experiences of feeling moved are associated with a similar pattern of appraisals, physiological sensations, and trait correlations as feeling moved by videos depicting social scenarios (found in previous studies). Feeling moved or touched by both sadly and joyfully moving music was associated with experiencing a sense of connection and perceiving joy in the music, while perceived sadness was associated with feeling moved or touched only in the case of sadly moving music. Acoustic features related to arousal contributed to feeling moved only in the case of joyfully moving music. Finally, trait empathic concern was positively associated with feeling moved or touched by music. These findings support the role of social cognitive and empathic processes in music listening, and highlight the social-relational aspects of feeling moved or touched by music.

Recent Developments in Artificial Super-Wettable Surfaces Based on Bioinspired Polymeric Materials for Biomedical Applications

Inspired by nature, significant research efforts have been made to discover the diverse range of biomaterials for various biomedical applications such as drug development, disease diagnosis, biomedical testing, therapy, etc. Polymers as bioinspired materials with extreme wettable properties, such as superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces, have received considerable interest in the past due to their multiple applications in anti-fogging, anti-icing, self-cleaning, oil–water separation, biosensing, and effective transportation of water. Apart from the numerous technological applications for extreme wetting and self-cleaning products, recently, super-wettable surfaces based on polymeric materials have also emerged as excellent candidates in studying biological processes. In this review, we systematically illustrate the designing and processing of artificial, super-wettable surfaces by using different polymeric materials for a variety of biomedical applications including tissue engineering, drug/gene delivery, molecular recognition, and diagnosis. Special attention has been paid to applications concerning the identification, control, and analysis of exceedingly small molecular amounts and applications permitting high cell and biomaterial cell screening. Current outlook and future prospects are also provided.

Magnetic capsulate triboelectric nanogenerators

Triboelectric nanogenerators have received significant research attention in recent years. Structural design plays a critical role in improving the energy harvesting performance of triboelectric nanogenerators. Here, we develop the magnetic capsulate triboelectric nanogenerators (MC-TENG) for energy harvesting under undesirable mechanical excitations. The capsulate TENG are designed to be driven by an oscillation-triggered magnetic force in a holding frame to generate electrical power due to the principle of the freestanding triboelectrification. Experimental and numerical studies are conducted to investigate the electrical performance of MC-TENG under cyclic loading in three energy harvesting modes. The results indicate that the energy harvesting performance of the MC-TENG is significantly affected by the structure of the capsulate TENG. The copper MC-TENG systems are found to be the most effective design that generates the maximum mode of the voltage range is 4 V in the closed-circuit with the resistance of 10 GΩ. The proposed MC-TENG concept provides an effective method to harvest electrical energy from low-frequency and low-amplitude oscillations such as ocean wave.

Digital Video Tampering Detection and Localization: Review, Representations, Challenges and Algorithm

Digital videos are now low-cost, easy to capture and easy to share on social media due to the common feature of video recording in smart phones and digital devices. However, with the advancement of video editing tools, videos can be tampered (forged) easily for propaganda or to gain illegal advantages—ultimately, the authenticity of videos shared on social media cannot be taken for granted. Over the years, significant research has been devoted to developing new techniques for detecting different types of video tampering. In this paper, we offer a detailed review of existing passive video tampering detection techniques in a systematic way. The answers to research questions prepared for this study are also elaborated. The state-of-the-art research work is analyzed extensively, highlighting the pros and cons and commonly used datasets. Limitations of existing video forensic algorithms are discussed, and we conclude with research challenges and future directions.

Scoping review of existing funding sources for DCM research: opportunities and challenges for targeting the AO Spine RECODE-DCM research priorities (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) is a common, disabling condition of symptomatic cervical spinal cord compression that requires significant research advances to improve patient outcomes. AO Spine RECODE-DCM recently identified the top research priorities for DCM. To effectively address these priorities, appropriate funding of DCM research is essential. OBJECTIVE This review characterises current funding in DCM research to consider its significance and highlight future opportunities. METHODS A systematic review of Web of Science for “cervical” AND “myelopathy” was conducted. Papers exclusively studying DCM, with declared funding, and published between January 1, 1995 and March 21, 2020 were considered eligible. Funding sources were classified by country of origin and organisation type. A grant search was also conducted using Dimensions.ai (Digital Science Ltd, London, United Kingdom). RESULTS A total of 621 papers were included, with 300 unique funding bodies. The top funders were AO Spine (n=87), National Institutes of Health, USA (n=63) and National Natural Science Foundation, China (n=63). The USA (n=242) funded the most DCM research, followed by China (n=209) and Japan (n=116). Funding in the USA was primarily provided by corporate or non-profit organisations (60.3%); in China, by institutions (99.5%). Dimensions.ai data showed 180 DCM research grants explicitly awarded, with a total value of US$45.6 million since 1996. CONCLUSIONS DCM funding appears to be predominantly from USA, China and Japan, aligning with areas of high DCM research activity and underpinning the importance of funding to increasing research capacity. The existing funding sources differ from medical research in general, representing opportunities for future investment in DCM.

Semantic City Planning Systems (SCPS): A Literature Review

This review focuses on recent research literature on the use of Semantic Web Technologies (SWT) in city planning. The review foregrounds representational, evaluative, projective, and synthetical meta-practices as constituent practices of city planning. We structure our review around these four meta-practices that we consider fundamental to those processes. We find that significant research exists in all four metapractices. Linking across domains by combining various methods of semantic knowledge generation, processing, and management is necessary to bridge gaps between these meta-practices and will enable future Semantic City Planning Systems.

Homer and the Epic Cycle

How can the ancient relationship between Homer and the Epic Cycle be recovered? Using findings from the most significant research in the field, many ancient and modern assumptions are questioned and alternative perspectives offered that are better aligned with ancient epic performance realities and modern epic studies. This volume addresses a number of related issues: the misrepresentation of Cyclic (and Homeric) epic by Aristotle and his inheritors (including the part played by mythographers like Proclus); the role of the epic singer, patron/collector, and scribe/poet in the formation of memorialized songs; the relevance of shared patterns and devices and of other traditional connections between ancient epics; and the distinct fates of Homeric (Iliad, Odyssey) and Cyclic epic. The volume provides new answers to an age-old problem.

A systematic review on 1,8-naphthalimide derivatives as emissive materials in organic light-emitting diodes

Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) have garnered significant research attention owing to their immense application prospects in leading technologies for full-color flat panel displays and eco-friendly solid-state lighting. They demonstrate exceptional features such as mercury-free construction, wide viewing angle, superior color quality and captivating flexibility. The requirements of light-emitting organic materials pertaining to high stability, lifetime and luminescence quantum yield, combined with the fabrication of devices with high performance efficiency, are highly challenging. Rational molecular design of 1,8-naphthalimide (NI) derivatives can offer quite promising results in achieving standard-light-emitting materials with a wide range of colors for OLED applications. This review is mainly focused on the synthesis and usage of varyingly substituted NI frameworks as luminescent host, dopant, hole-blocking and electron-transporting materials for OLEDs that emit not only red, orange, green and blue colors, but also function as white emitters, which can really have an impact on reducing the energy consumption. The future prospects that could be explored to improve the research in the highly promising field of OLEDs are also discussed. Graphical abstract