The Implantation and Transmission of Plague Culture by the Five Plague Gods in Shuilu Murals

The Five Plague Gods(五瘟神) in the Shuilu(水陆) murals from the Ming and Qing dynasties exemplify a distinctive manifestation of plague gods image developed under the pedigree of Taoist gods.As a significant system for expelling disasters in Shuilu,the depiction of the Five Plague Gods prominently merges human beings and livestock.This shape form to a large extent,draws on the image of Nuo(傩),a figure reflecting an imagination of the host of plague pathogens.In terms of the numbers of gods,it aligns with the conceptual framework of Wu Xing(五行 the five elements),a foundational principle in traditional Chinese medicine.The internal cultural connection highlights the means of plague prevention and control in China,as well as the external reflection of plague culture.Through multi-dimensional interpretations with the double proof method,this article dissects the formation,core elements,and cultural characteristics of the beliefs in the Five Plague Gods reflected in the Shuilu murals,and transcends mere visual semantics,offering a deeper understanding of these complex cultural symbols.

Exploration of the Inheritance and Innovation Carrier of National Culture in the Teaching Model of Art Design Major in Higher Vocational Colleges:Integrating Lijiang Baisha Murals into Higher Vocational Art Design Curriculum System

This study aims to further promote the inheritance and innovative development of intangible cultural heritage in Yunnan Province,promote the protection,inheritance,integration,and innovation of ethnic culture in Lijiang,strengthen the protection and inheritance of Baisha murals in Lijiang,and change the teaching of art design majors in vocational colleges in Yunnan.Given the lack of traditional Chinese culture and local ethnic culture,this article focuses on the teaching of art design majors in Yunnan vocational colleges.It explores the construction model of the cultural inheritance and innovation carrier of Lijiang Baisha murals to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the local people,and efforts will be made to promote the high-quality development of the Baisha ethnic area in Lijiang.

Application of STEEP and Interpretive Structural Modeling in the Design Imagery of Taiwan Public Ceramic Relief Murals

Ceramic relief mural is a contemporary landscape art that is carefully designed based on human nature,culture,and architectural wall space,combined with social customs,visual sensibility,and art.It may also become the main axis of ceramic art in the future.Taiwan public ceramic relief murals(PCRM)are most distinctive with the PCRM pioneered by Pan-Hsiung Chu of Meinong Kiln in 1987.In addition to breaking through the limitations of traditional public ceramic murals,Chu leveraged local culture and sensibility.The theme of art gives PCRM its unique style and innovative value throughout the Taiwan region.This study mainly analyzes and understands the design image of public ceramic murals,taking Taiwan PCRM’s design and creation as the scope,and applies STEEP analysis,that is,the social,technological,economic,ecological,and political-legal environments are analyzed as core factors;eight main important factors in the artistic design image of ceramic murals are evaluated.Then,interpretive structural modeling(ISM)is used to establish five levels,analyze the four main problems in the main core factor area and the four main target results in the affected factor area;and analyze the problem points and target points as well as their causal relationships.It is expected to sort out the relationship between these factors,obtain the hierarchical relationship of each factor,and provide a reference basis and research methods.

Research on Restoration of Murals Based on Diffusion Model and Transformer

Due to the limitations of a priori knowledge and convolution operation,the existing image restoration techniques cannot be directly applied to the cultural relics mural restoration,in order to more accurately restore the original appearance of the cultural relics mural images,an image restoration based on the denoising diffusion probability model(Denoising Diffusion Probability Model(DDPM))and the Transformer method.The process involves two steps:in the first step,the damaged mural image is firstly utilized as the condition to generate the noise image,using the time,condition and noise image patch as the inputs to the noise prediction network,capturing the global dependencies in the input sequence through the multi-attentionmechanismof the input sequence and feedforward neural network processing,and designing a long skip connection between the shallow and deep layers in the Transformer blocks between the shallow and deep layers using long skip connections to fuse the feature information of global and local outputs to maintain the overall consistency of the restoration results;In the second step,taking the noisy image as a condition to direct the diffusion model to back sample to generate the restored image.Experiment results show that the PSNR and SSIM of the proposedmethod are improved by 2%to 9%and 1%to 3.3%,respectively,which are compared to the comparison methods.This study proposed synthesizes the advantages of the diffusionmodel and deep learningmodel to make themural restoration results more accurate.

Stamps of New China The Dunhuang Murals(Series V)

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Fascinating Murals of the Fahai Temple

The F8hai(Sea of Dharma)T6mple is locatedat the southern foot of the beautiful CuiweiMountain in the Shongshan District ofthewesternsuburb of Begng．With a history of over 500 years,the temp巨e was completed in 1143 and named

The Media Fusion and Digital Communication of Traditional Murals-Taking the Exhibition of the Series of Tomb Murals in Shanxi During the Northern Dynasty as an Example

Traditional murals and their image remains are an important art category and visual language,as well as a special architectural type.Traditional murals are roughly divided into temples,grottoes,tombs and other types according to space,function and function.No matter what type of traditional mural,its basic function is to convey information through visual images.With the development and application of information technology and digital technology,traditional mural paintings have undergone changes in space,material,and form in the exhibition-gradually transitioning from ancient rock murals to multi-sensory participation under digital screen display.Because of the intervention of digital media,in many digital mural exhibitions in recent years,not only the spatial presentation and viewing of murals have formed a multi-dimensional visual correspondence but also the exhibition language of murals is enriched or supplemented.

Mural Anomaly Region Detection Algorithm Based on Hyperspectral Multiscale Residual Attention Network

Mural paintings hold significant historical information and possess substantial artistic and cultural value.However,murals are inevitably damaged by natural environmental factors such as wind and sunlight,as well as by human activities.For this reason,the study of damaged areas is crucial for mural restoration.These damaged regions differ significantly from undamaged areas and can be considered abnormal targets.Traditional manual visual processing lacks strong characterization capabilities and is prone to omissions and false detections.Hyperspectral imaging can reflect the material properties more effectively than visual characterization methods.Thus,this study employs hyperspectral imaging to obtain mural information and proposes a mural anomaly detection algorithm based on a hyperspectral multi-scale residual attention network(HM-MRANet).The innovations of this paper include:(1)Constructing mural painting hyperspectral datasets.(2)Proposing a multi-scale residual spectral-spatial feature extraction module based on a 3D CNN(Convolutional Neural Networks)network to better capture multiscale information and improve performance on small-sample hyperspectral datasets.(3)Proposing the Enhanced Residual Attention Module(ERAM)to address the feature redundancy problem,enhance the network’s feature discrimination ability,and further improve abnormal area detection accuracy.The experimental results show that the AUC(Area Under Curve),Specificity,and Accuracy of this paper’s algorithm reach 85.42%,88.84%,and 87.65%,respectively,on this dataset.These results represent improvements of 3.07%,1.11%and 2.68%compared to the SSRN algorithm,demonstrating the effectiveness of this method for mural anomaly detection.

Aesthetic Visual Style Assessment on Dunhuang Murals

Dunhuang murals are gems of Chinese traditional art. This paper demonstrates a simple, yet powerful method to automatically identify the aesthetic visual style that lies in Dunhuang murals. Based on the art knowledge on Dunhuang murals, the method explicitly predicts some of possible image attributes that a human might use to understand the aesthetic visual style of a mural. These cues fall into three broad types: ① composition attributes related to mural layout or configuration; ② color attributes related to color types depicted; ③ brightness attributes related to bright conditions. We show that a classifier trained on these attributes can provide an efficient way to predict the aesthetic visual style of Dunhuang murals.

Back in time:digital restoration techniques for the millennium Dunhuang murals

In the long history of more than 1 500 years,Dunhuang murals suffered from various deteriorations causing irreversible damage such as falling off,fading,and so on.However,the existing Dunhuang mural restoration methods are time-consuming and not feasible to facilitate cultural dissemination and permanent inheritance.Inspired by cultural computing using artificial intelligence,gated-convolution-based dehaze net(GD-Net) was proposed for Dunhuang mural refurbishment and comprehensive protection.First,a neural network with gated convolution was applied to restore the falling off areas of the mural to ensure the integrity of the mural content.Second,a dehaze network was applied to enhance image quality to cope with the fading of the mural.Besides,a Dunhuang mural dataset was presented to meet the needs of deep learning approach,containing 1 180 images from the Cave 290 and Cave 112 of the Mogao Grottoes.The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of GD-Net.

Chinese Sources for AfterWards:From Premodern Poetry,Paintings,and Medical Texts to Modern Novels,Film,and Documentaries

This paper focuses on Chinese sources suggested for a narrative medicine(NM)program,called AfterWards.Dr Lauren Small established AfterWards in 2014 and has been coordinating it since out of the Pediatrics Department at Johns Hopkins Medicine.In early 2019,she started giving a series of lectures and workshops about AfterWards to Chinese medical educators and clinicians in Beijing and Shanghai.She created an AfterWards Facilitator’s Guide based on Western-language sources for workshop participants.She also started to organize with Jiang Yuhong(Peking Union Medical College)a workshop for Chinese colleagues to be held at Johns Hopkins Medicine in October 2019.They invited the author to participate.The idea was hatched then to develop Chinese source materials following the AfterWards structure for an updated Facilitator’s Guide that Dr Small had initially written.A typical one-hour AfterWards session consists of a specific five-part structure:a literary text or artwork,an associated theme,discussion topics,a writing exercise,and shared reflection.While the content of the program always changes from session to session,the basic structure remains the same.This paper summarizes the types of Chinese sources and their related narrative-medicine themes that were originally selected for inclusion in the updated AfterWards Facilitator’s Guide intended for Chinese colleagues.These sources about coping with sick family members,aging,and illness ranged from the textual(classical Chinese poems on aging and diagnostic forms for training students)and visual(premodern Chinese paintings and murals of medical encounters)to the fictive(novels)and performative(contemporary Asian-American film in English and Chinese-language film and documentaries).

Study on Futon Patterns in Mural of Buddhist Temple in Wutai Mountain under Digital Vision

Dao Xuan’s Gantonglu records:“About fifteen kilometers down from the southeast of the Wutai Mountain,there is the ancient Dafu Lingjiu Temple,and there are two Taoist temples in the east and west,where Buddhist matters are fulfilled.According to ancient legend,it was made by Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty”(Daoxuan,Tang Dynasty,p.257).It can be seen that Buddhism has been introduced into Wutai Mountain since the Eastern Han Dynasty,and Buddhist temple murals have been painted on the walls of temples with the introduction of Buddhism,playing the role of spreading scriptures and decorating the walls.The pattern of Buddha’s futon base in the murals reflects the worship and rank differences of Buddhist monks in different periods.As a medium of meditation and worship,futuan is also a ritual instrument in Buddhist legend,which is of great significance.The research on the style of futon from the perspective of the frescoes in the temple of Wutai Mountain mainly focuses on the historical evolution of the frescoes and futon,the research and analysis of the base shape,pattern,composition and color of the futon in the frescoes of the temple.Explore the religious significance and historical and cultural value behind the futon style.

Improvement of in vitro Cytoplasmic Maturation of Denuded Porcine Oocytes by Coculture with Follicular Mural Granulosa Cells

[Objective] This study aimed to improve the in vitro maturation quality of denuded porcine oocytes and provide scientific basis for establishing a stable and efficient denuded oocyte culture system. [Method] The first polar body extrusion rate, oocyte glutathione （GSH） content, positive rate of brilliant cresyl blue （BCB） staining and development potential of activated oocytes or fertilized oocytes were employed as main indicators to investigate the effects of follicular mural granulosa cell （MGC） coculture on cytoplasmic maturation of cumulus cell-removal oocytes （Denuded Oocyte, DO）. [Result] According to in vitro maturation results, compared with DO group, the first polar body extrusion rate of porcine oocytes in DO＋MGC group was not significantly different, but the nuclear maturation process was improved and was more similar to that in COC （cumulus-oocyte complex） group. Detection of GSH content in mature oocytes showed that there was no significant difference between DO＋ MGC group （optical density of 1 053.67） and COC group （optical density of 1 426.00） or between DO＋MGC group and COC＋GC group （optical density of 1 541.00）, however, GSH content in mature oocytes of DO group （optical density of 724.67） was significantly lower than that of COC group and COC＋GC group （P0.05）. Detection of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase （G6PDH） activity showed that there was no significant difference in BCB positive oocyte rate between DO ＋MGC group （88.26% ） and COC group （92.75%） or between DO＋MGC group and DO group （82.86% ）, however, BCB positive oocyte rate of DO group was significantly lower than that of COC group （P0.05）. Furthermore, the cleavage rate and blastocyst rate of activated mature oocytes derived from DO ＋MGC group （94.98% and 43.67% , respectively） were significantly higher than those from DO group （52.54% and 8.97%, respectively） （P0.05）, and were not significantly different compared with those from COC group （97.11% and 38.30%, respectively）. In addition, the cleavage rate of fertilized oocytes derived from DO＋MGC group （72.65%） showed no significant difference compared with that from DO group （63.59%）, but the blastocyst rate of DO＋MGC group was significantly higher than that of DO group （9.88%） （P0.05）. [Conclusion] MGC coculture can significantly improve the in vitro cytoplasmic maturation quality of denuded porcine oocytes, thereby enhancing the subsequent developmental potential.

Mural Defects Detection with Enhanced Terahertz Images

In mausoleum murals, existing bubbles are one kind of the most harmful defects for the repair and protection of relics. For this reason, it is necessary to detect bubbles, especially the ones with small size. A method to detect the small bubbles with enhanced terahertz （THz） images is proposed. To simulate the bubbles in the mausoleum murals, circular grooves have been hidden in the plaster and then measured by the THz reflected time domain spectroscopy imaging system. To observe the small bubbles in murals, a comprehensive enhancement algorithm is adopted to process the obtained THz images. With the enhanced method, the circular grooves in the murals can be observed clearly, even for the circular groove with a diameter of 1.5 mm. The results indicate that the proposed comprehensive method can be used to detect the tiny defects of murals.

Optimal Growth Conditions of Microorganisms Isolated from the Buyeo Royal Tomb No. 1 and Their Effects on Painting Layers

The Buyeo Royal Tomb No. 1 is an ancient tomb built in the late 6th and early 7th century. The four walls of the main room have murals of four guardian deities, and the ceiling has murals of lotus and cloud patterns. This study assessed the optimal growth conditions of two fungal (Fusarium oxysporum, Mortierella sp.) and four bacterial (Bacillus cereus, Cupriavidus campinensis, Streptomyces avidinii, Streptomyces cirratus) strains isolated from the Tomb No. 1, along with their effects on the painting layer. The two fungi showed optimal growth at 20°C - 30°C under both nutrient and non-nutrient conditions. These strains did not decompose or discolor the three pigments (cinnabar, hematite, oyster shell white);however, M. sp. showed slight decomposition of the media (starch paste, sea weed). The four bacterial strains showed the most active growth at 20°C - 25°C under nutrient conditions and did not grow under non-nutrient conditions. These bacteria commonly degraded animal glue and sea weed components. In addition, S. cirratus degraded starch. The genus Streptomyces discolored the pigment medium to brown and black, suggesting a possible risk of discoloration of the murals. The current environment in Tomb No. 1 was sufficient for microorganism growth, and the presence of strains such as soil bacteria and actinomycetes on the mural surface may damage the murals. The findings of this study could be helpful for preserving mural tombs against biological damage caused by microorganisms that are already present or may be present in the tombs in the future. These findings also provide guidelines for comprehensive conservation management.

Differential diagnosis of benign and malignant branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm using contrastenhanced endoscopic ultrasonography

AIM: To elucidate the role of contrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasonography(CE-EUS) in the diagnosis of branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm(BD-IPMN).METHODS: A total of 50 patients diagnosed with BDIPMN by computed tomography(CT) and endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS) at our institute were included in this study. CE-EUS was performed when mural lesions were detected by EUS. The diagnostic accuracy for identifying mural nodules(MNs) was evaluated by CT, EUS, and EUS combined with CE-EUS. In the patients who underwent resection, the accuracy of measuring MN height with each imaging modality was compared. The cut-off values to diagnose malignant BD-IPMNs based on MN height for each imaging modality were determined using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.RESULTS: Fifteen patients were diagnosed with BD-IPMN with MNs and underwent resection. The remaining 35 patients were diagnosed with BD-IPMN without MNs and underwent follow-up monitoring. The pathological findings revealed 14 cases with MNs and one case without. The accuracy for diagnosing MNs was 92% using CT and 72% using EUS; the diagnostic accuracy increased to 98% when EUS and CE-EUS were combined. The accuracy for measuring MN height significantly improved when using CE-EUS compared with using CT or EUS(median measurement error value, CT: 3.3 mm vs CE-EUS: 0.6 mm, P < 0.05; EUS: 2.1 mm vs CE-EUS: 0.6 mm, P < 0.01). A cut-off value of 8.8 mm for MN height as measured by CE-EUS improved the accuracy of diagnosing malignant BDIPMN to 93%. CONCLUSION: Using CE-EUS to measure MN height provides a highly accurate method for differentiating benign from malignant BD-IPMN.

Myocardial bridge-related coronary heart disease:Independent influencing factors and their predicting value

BACKGROUND Myocardial bridge(MB)will compress the mural coronary artery(MCA)during the systole and cause myocardial ischemia.In the diagnosis of coronary heart disease(CHD),because the structure of MB is difficult to be observed by coronary angiography(CAG),the clinical study of the influence of MB on CHD is lacking.With the advancement of computed tomography coronary angiography technology,detailed observations of the MB anatomy have realized.AIM To explore the main influencing factors of MB-related CHD and to find potential indicators for predicting MB-related CHD.METHODS A total of 1718 patients with suspected CHD due to the symptoms of myocardial ischemia were enrolled as subjects.Patients diagnosed with CHD were included in a CHD group,and patients with no significant abnormalities were included in a control group.In the CHD group,patients were divided into an MB-CHD subgroup if MB-related CHD was found.In the control group,patients were divided into a simple MB subgroup if MB was found.The patient's clinical data and MB-related indicators,including the branch of MB,MB type(superficial/deep type),MB length,MB thickness,systolic and diastolic compression of the MCA,and MCA systolic stenosis rate were recorded and compared.Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the independent influencing factors of MD-related CHD.ROC curve was used to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of potential indicators for MB-related CHD.RESULTS There were 1060 cases in the CHD group and 658 cases in the control group,and there were 236 cases in the MB-CHD subgroup and 52 cases in the simple MB subgroup.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the combined MB had a significant effect on the occurrence of CHD(P<0.05).MB thickness,systolic compression,diastolic compression,and MCA systolic stenosis rate had significant effects on the occurrence of MB-related CHD(P<0.05).The area under the curve(AUC)of the combination of these influencing factors for the diagnosis of MB-related CHD was 0.959,which was significantly higher than the AUCs of the four indicators separately(P<0.05).The sensitivity was 97.06%and the specificity was 87.63%.CONCLUSION MB thickness,systolic compression,diastolic compression,and MCA systolic stenosis are independent influencing factors for MB-related CHD.The combination of these factors has potential diagnostic value for MB-related CHD.