Pixel2Brick:constructing brick sculptures from Pixel Art

LEGO®, a popular brick-based toy construction system, provides an affordable and convenient way of fabricating geometric shapes. However, building arbitrary shapes using LEGO bricks with restrictive colors and sizes is not trivial. It requires careful design process to produce appealing, stable and constructable brick sculptures. In this work, we investigate the novel problem of constructing brick sculptures from pixel art images. In contrast to previous efforts that focus on 3D models, pixel art contains rich visual contents for generating engaging LEGO designs. On the other hand, the characteristics of pixel art and corresponding brick sculpture pose new challenges to the design process. We present Pixel2Brick, a novel computational framework to automatically construct brick sculptures from pixel art. This is based on implementing a set of design guidelines concerning the visual quality as well as the structural stability of built sculptures. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework with various brick sculptures (both real and virtual) generated from a variety of pixel art images. Experimental results show that our framework is efficient and gains significant improvements over state-of-the-arts

Pixel2Brick:constructing brick sculptures from Pixel Art

LEGO®, a popular brick-based toy construction system, provides an affordable and convenient way of fabricating geometric shapes. However, building arbitrary shapes using LEGO bricks with restrictive colors and sizes is not trivial. It requires careful design process to produce appealing, stable and constructable brick sculptures. In this work, we investigate the novel problem of constructing brick sculptures from pixel art images. In contrast to previous efforts that focus on 3D models, pixel art contains rich visual contents for generating engaging LEGO designs. On the other hand, the characteristics of pixel art and corresponding brick sculpture pose new challenges to the design process. We present Pixel2Brick, a novel computational framework to automatically construct brick sculptures from pixel art. This is based on implementing a set of design guidelines concerning the visual quality as well as the structural stability of built sculptures. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework with various brick sculptures (both real and virtual) generated from a variety of pixel art images. Experimental results show that our framework is efficient and gains significant improvements over state-of-the-arts

Case of coexisting<i>Nocardia cyriacigeorgica</i>and<i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i>lung infection with metastatic disease of the central nervous system

Nocardiosis is a rare opportunistic gram-positive bacterial infection. The genusNocardiaconsists of non-motile, aerobic, non-spore-forming, catalase-positive, filamentous-branching bacteria with fragmentation into coccoid or bacillary forms. Opportunistic infections due toNocardiaare reported in immunocompromised patients.Aspergillus fumigatusis a conidia forming fungus that can be found in soil, plant matter and dust, causing invasive pulmonary and disseminated infection in immunocompromised patients. BothNocardia cyriacigeorgicaandA. fumigatusare known to cause pulmonary infection with metastatic dissemination to the central nervous system. We present a case ofNocardiaandAspergillusco-infection in a patient who presented within a few days of initiation of immunosuppressants for suspected systemic lupus erythematosus.</jats:p

Rapid Diagnosis of Invasive Aspergillosis and Active Hepatitis-B Virus Co-Infection in a HIV-1 Infected Patient Using Cell Free DNA Sequencing

Multiple simultaneous opportunistic infections in Human Immunodeficiency virus-1/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-1/AIDS) is a known and dreaded occurrence that often leads to poor outcomes. We present a case of disseminated aspergillosis and active Hepatitis-B virus (HBV) infection in such a host, where cell free DNA (cfDNA) next generation sequencing (NGS) of plasma was used to expedite diagnosis. Bronchoscopy was avoided and treatment was started expeditiously. In this case report we discuss the interpretation of the cfDNA NGS, and its potential role for early diagnosis and avoidance of invasive testing. </jats:p