Image Fusion Based on Bioinspired Rattlesnake Visual Mechanism Under Lighting Environments of Day and Night Two Levels

This study,grounded in Waxman fusion method,introduces an algorithm for the fusion of visible and infrared images,tailored to a two-level lighting environment,inspired by the mathematical model of the visual receptive field of rattlesnakes and the two-mode cells'mechanism.The research presented here is segmented into three components.In the first segment,we design a preprocessing module to judge the ambient light intensity and divide the lighting environment into two levels:day and night.The second segment proposes two distinct network structures designed specifically for these daytime and nighttime images.For the daytime images,where visible light information is predominant,we feed the ON-VIS signal and the IR-enhanced visual signal into the central excitation and surrounding suppression regions of the ON-center receptive field in the B channel,respectively.Conversely,for nighttime images where infrared information takes precedence,the ON-IR signal and the Visual-enhanced IR signal are separately input into the central excitation and surrounding suppression regions of the ON-center receptive field in the B channel.The outcome is a pseudo-color fused image.The third segment employs five different no-reference image quality assessment methods to evaluate the quality of thirteen sets of pseudo-color images produced by fusing infrared and visible information.These images are then compared with those obtained by six other methods cited in the relevant reference.The empirical results indicate that this study's outcomes surpass the comparative results in terms of average gradient and spatial frequency.Only one or two sets of fused images underperformed in terms of standard deviation and entropy when compared to the control results.Four sets of fused images did not perform as well as the comparison in the QAB/F index.In conclusion,the fused images generated through the proposed method show superior performance in terms of scene detail,visual perception,and image sharpness when compared with their counterparts from other methods.

Pseudo Color Fusion of Infrared and Visible Images Based on the Rattlesnake Vision Imaging System

Image fusion is a key technology in the field of digital image processing.In the present study,an effect-based pseudo color fusion model of infrared and visible images based on the rattlesnake vision imaging system(the rattlesnake bimodal cell fusion mechanism and the visual receptive field model)is proposed.The innovation point of the proposed model lies in the following three features:first,the introduction of a simple mathematical model of the visual receptive field reduce computational complexity;second,the enhanced image is obtained by extracting the common information and unique information of source images,which improves fusion image quality;and third,the Waxman typical fusion structure is improved for the pseudo color image fusion model.The performance of the image fusion model is verified through comparative experiments.In the subjective visual evaluation,we find that the color of the fusion image obtained through the proposed model is natural and can highlight the target and scene details.In the objective quantitative evaluation,we observe that the best values on the four indicators,namely standard deviation,average gradient,entropy,and spatial frequency,accounts for 90%,100%,90%,and 100%,respectively,indicating that the fusion image exhibits superior contrast,image clarity,information content,and overall activity.Experimental results reveal that the performance of the proposed model is superior to that of other models and thus verified the validity and reliability of the model.

Expression of bcl-2 gene increases in apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells induced by rattlesnake venom

Apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells (VEC) has been induced by deprivation of survival factors (aFGF and serum) and by rattlesnake venom. The expression of bcl-2 gene has been examined by Northern blotting in the two apoptosis inducing systems. Our results show that the expression of bcl-2 has not been detected in normal culture cells and in apoptotic cells induced by deprivation of survival factors. But in apoptotic cells induced by rattlesnake venom (10 μg/mL), the expression of bcl-2 increases, and its mRNA exhibits two bands. The data first suggest that increasing expression and splitting of bcl-2 mRNA may play an important role in apoptosis of VEC induced by rattlesnake venom, and this finding is helpful to understanding the role of bcl-2 in regulation of apoptosis.