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A method for assessing blood vessel stenosis using image data of a subject is disclosed. The image data represents a vascular structure of the subject. The method comprises: (a) segmenting, from the image data, a vessel segment representing a segment of a blood vessel, (b) obtaining, using the image data, a plurality of two-dimensional images of the vessel segment; said plurality of two-dimensional images representing respective cross-sections of the vessel segment, (c) identifying, for each of the plurality of two-dimensional images, a lumen area comprising lumen pixels representing a lumen of the corresponding cross-section, (d) obtaining a quantitative measure using the lumen areas of successive cross-sections of the vessel segment, and (e) assessing blood vessel stenosis using the quantitative measure. A computer system for performing the above method is disclosed.

A method for data stripping, allocation and reconstruction in an active drive storage system including a plurality of active object storage devices, each of the plurality of active object storage devices including one or more storage devices and a controller is provided. The method includes the controller of the identified one of the plurality of active object storage devices segmenting the received data into a plurality of data chunks and generating one or more parity chunks in response to the plurality of data chunks. The method further includes the controller of the identified one of the plurality of active object storage devices reorganizing the plurality of data chunks and the one or more parity chunks in response to a number of the plurality of data chunks and a number of the one or more of the plurality of active object storage devices into which the received data is to be stored. Finally, the method includes the step of the controller of the identified one of the plurality of active object storage devices storing the plurality of data chunks and the one or more parity chunks into the one or more of the plurality of active object storage devices.

A porous hollow silica particle with an interpolymer complex immobilized thereon is provided. The interpolymer complex comprises a first polymer immobilized to a surface of the silica particle, and a second polymer complexed with the first polymer. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising the silica particle, and methods of forming the silica particle are also provided.

The present invention provides a textured polymer substrate comprising nano-sized surface features that are arranged in a single array or in a hierarchical array, and at least one layer of an amorphous, hydrophilic layer deposited thereon. The disclosed textured polymer substrate is advantageously suited for providing anti-reflective, anti-fogging and anti-UV materials.

There is provided a method of screening for toxicity of a compound. The method comprises contacting a test compound with a test population of cells in which nuclear factor (NF)-?B has not been activated prior to the contacting; determining nuclear localization levels of NF-?B in the test population subsequent to the contacting; and comparing nuclear localization levels of NF-?B of a control population that has not been contacted with the test compound. An increase in nuclear localization levels of NF-?B as of the test population relative to the control population is indicative that the test compound injures the cells and/or induces a pro-inflammatory response and thus is toxic to the cell type used in the method.

A method of reducing the aggregate content in a preparation having a target protein includes contacting the preparation with an aryl anion to form a mixture and contacting the mixture with at least one electropositive solid to remove excess aryl anion.

Embodiments provide a method for recognizing a traffic sign from an input image. The method may include extracting image features from the input image; modifying the image features based on a predetermined image saliency map to determine modified image features; determining a plurality of traffic sign candidates by applying an adaptive boosting algorithm on the modified image features; determining a confidence score for each traffic sign candidate by applying a support vector regression algorithm; and recognizing a traffic sign based on the confidence score for each traffic sign candidate.

Disclosed are methods of differentiating stem cells in order to obtain hepatocyte-like cells, the method comprising the steps of a) subjecting definitive endoderm to at least one epigenetic modulator to obtain hepatoblasts and b) subjecting the hepatoblasts to at least one stem cell differentiation pathway inhibitor to obtain hepatocyte-like cells; wherein steps a) and b) do not comprise the use of a growth factor. In one preferred embodiment, the epigenetic modulator may be sodium butyrate and/or DMSO and the stem cell differentiation pathway inhibitor may be SB431542 and/or DMSO. Also disclosed are hepatocyte-like cells obtained from the method and uses of these cells such as drug screening.

A method of assessing the quality of an retinal image (such as a fundus image) includes selecting at least one region of interest within a retinal image corresponding to a particular structure of the eye (e.g. the optic disc or the macula), and a quality score is calculated in respect of the, or each, region-of-interest. Each region of interest is typically one associated with pathology, as the optic disc and the macula are. Optionally, a quality score may be calculated also in respect of the eye as a whole (i.e. over the entire image, if the entire image corresponds to the retina).

The present invention relates to an electrocatalyst comprising amorphous Ru nanoparticles, including its use in a method and system for hydrogen production.