An Adaptive Orthogonal Basis Method for Computing Multiple Solutions of Differential Equations with polynomial nonlinearities

This paper presents an innovative approach, the Adaptive Orthogonal Basis Method, tailored for computing multiple solutions to differential equations characterized by polynomial nonlinearities. Departing from conventional practices of predefining candidate basis pools, our novel method adaptively computes bases, considering the equation's nature and structural characteristics of the solution. It further leverages companion matrix techniques to generate initial guesses for subsequent computations. Thus this approach not only yields numerous initial guesses for solving such equations but also adapts orthogonal basis functions to effectively address discretized nonlinear systems. Through a series of numerical experiments, this paper demonstrates the method's effectiveness and robustness. By reducing computational costs in various applications, this novel approach opens new avenues for uncovering multiple solutions to differential equations with polynomial nonlinearities

GAvatar: Animatable 3D Gaussian Avatars with Implicit Mesh Learning

Gaussian splatting has emerged as a powerful 3D representation that harnesses the advantages of both explicit (mesh) and implicit (NeRF) 3D representations. In this paper, we seek to leverage Gaussian splatting to generate realistic animatable avatars from textual descriptions, addressing the limitations (e.g., flexibility and efficiency) imposed by mesh or NeRF-based representations. However, a naive application of Gaussian splatting cannot generate high-quality animatable avatars and suffers from learning instability; it also cannot capture fine avatar geometries and often leads to degenerate body parts. To tackle these problems, we first propose a primitive-based 3D Gaussian representation where Gaussians are defined inside pose-driven primitives to facilitate animation. Second, to stabilize and amortize the learning of millions of Gaussians, we propose to use neural implicit fields to predict the Gaussian attributes (e.g., colors). Finally, to capture fine avatar geometries and extract detailed meshes, we propose a novel SDF-based implicit mesh learning approach for 3D Gaussians that regularizes the underlying geometries and extracts highly detailed textured meshes. Our proposed method, GAvatar, enables the large-scale generation of diverse animatable avatars using only text prompts. GAvatar significantly surpasses existing methods in terms of both appearance and geometry quality, and achieves extremely fast rendering (100 fps) at 1K resolution.Comment: CVPR 2024. Project website: https://nvlabs.github.io/GAvata

Algorithmic and sensor-based research on Chinese children’s and adolescents’ screen use behavior and light environment

BackgroundMyopia poses a global health concern and is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. The incidence of myopia tends to increase during infectious outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the screen-time behaviors among Chinese children and adolescents and investigated the efficacy of artificial intelligence (AI)-based alerts in modifying screen-time practices.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis was performed using data from 6,716 children and adolescents with AI-enhanced tablets that monitored and recorded their behavior and environmental light during screen time.ResultsThe median daily screen time of all participants was 58.82 min. Among all age groups, elementary-school students had the longest median daily screen time, which was 87.25 min and exceeded 4 h per week. Children younger than 2 years engaged with tablets for a median of 41.84 min per day. Learning accounted for 54.88% of participants’ screen time, and 51.03% (3,390/6,643) of the participants used tablets for 1 h at an average distance <50 cm. The distance and posture alarms were triggered 807,355 and 509,199 times, respectively. In the study, 70.65% of the participants used the tablet under an illuminance of <300 lux during the day and 61.11% under an illuminance of <100 lux at night. The ambient light of 85.19% of the participants exceeded 4,000 K color temperature during night. Most incorrect viewing habits (65.49% in viewing distance; 86.48% in viewing posture) were rectified swiftly following AI notifications (all p < 0.05).ConclusionYoung children are increasingly using digital screens, with school-age children and adolescents showing longer screen time than preschoolers. The study highlighted inadequate lighting conditions during screen use. AI alerts proved effective in prompting users to correct their screen-related behavior promptly

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Comparison of long-term changes in the effective optical zone following SMILE and FS-LASIK for moderate and high myopia

Abstract Background Visual quality after corneal refractive surgery is linked to the postoperative effective optical zone (EOZ). This study aims to compare long-term changes in the EOZ following small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) and femtosecond laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis (FS-LASIK) for moderate and high myopia. Methods This study included 42 patients (72 eyes) who underwent either SMILE (36 eyes) or FS-LASIK (36 eyes). A custom software program based on the tangential curvature difference map of the Pentacam HR (Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH) was used to define the EOZ at 3 and 7 years postoperatively. The EOZ, its chronological changes compared to the programmed optical zone (POZ), and the corneal wavefront aberrations following SMILE and FS-LASIK were analyzed. Correlations between the EOZ changes and relevant parameters were evaluated. Results Three years postoperatively, EOZ following SMILE and FS-LASIK were 5.13 ± 0.27 mm and 4.70 ± 0.24 mm (P < 0.001), respectively. Seven years postoperatively, EOZ following SMILE and FS-LASIK decreased to 5.03 ± 0.28 mm and 4.63 ± 0.23 mm (P < 0.001), respectively. At postoperative 7 years, the percentages of EOZ/POZ were negatively correlated with Q-value changes (β = -5.120, P = 0.009) following SMILE and positively correlated with the cylinder correction (β = 1.184, P = 0.004) following FS-LASIK. The induced spherical aberrations in the SMILE group were less than those in the FS-LASIK group (P < 0.05) and were negatively correlated with the EOZ/POZ (β = -16.653, P < 0.001). Conclusions The EOZ following SMILE was larger than that following FS-LASIK in the long postoperative term for moderate and high myopia. Furthermore, a continual reduction in the EOZ was noted after both surgical modalities

Evaluation of Three-Dimensional Silver-Doped Borate Bioactive Glass Scaffolds for Bone Repair: Biodegradability, Biocompatibility, and Antibacterial Activity

The development of synthetic scaffolds with a desirable combination of properties, such as bioactivity, the ability to locally deliver antibacterial agents and high osteogenic capacity, is a challenging but promising approach in bone tissue engineering. In this study, scaffolds of a borosilicate bioactive glass (composition: 6Na2O, 8K2O, 8MgO, 22CaO, 36B2O3, 18SiO2, 2P2O5; mol%) with controllable antibacterial activity were developed by doping the parent glass with varying amounts of Ag2O (0.05, 0.5, and 1.0 wt%). The addition of the Ag2O lowered the compressive strength and degradation of the bioactive glass scaffolds but it did not affect the formation of hydroxyapatite on the surface of the glass as determined by energy dispersive x-ray analysis, x-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared analysis. The Ag2O-doped scaffolds showed a sustained release of Ag ions over more than 8 weeks in simulated body fluid and resistance against colonization by the bacterial strains Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. In vitro cell culture showed better adhesion, proliferation, and alkaline phosphatase activity of murine osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells on the Ag2O-doped bioactive glass scaffolds than on the undoped scaffolds. The results indicate that these Ag-doped borosilicate bioactive glass scaffolds may have potential in repairing bone coupled with providing a lower risk of bacterial infection

The role of signaling crosstalk of microglia in hippocampus on progression of ageing and Alzheimer's disease

Based on single-cell sequencing of the hippocampi of 5× familiar Alzheimer's disease (5× FAD) and wild type mice at 2-, 12-, and 24-month of age, we found an increased percentage of microglia in aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) mice. Blood brain barrier injury may also have contributed to this increase. Immune regulation by microglia plays a major role in the progression of aging and AD, according to the functions of 41 intersecting differentially expressed genes in microglia. Signaling crosstalk between C−C motif chemokine ligand (CCL) and major histocompatibility complex-1 bridges intercellular communication in the hippocampus during aging and AD. The amyloid precursor protein (APP) and colony stimulating factor (CSF) signals drive 5× FAD to deviate from aging track to AD occurrence among intercellular communication in hippocampus. Microglia are involved in the progression of aging and AD can be divided into 10 functional types. The strength of the interaction among microglial subtypes weakened with aging, and the CCL and CSF signaling pathways were the fundamental bridge of communication among microglial subtypes

Obesity-Associated Anxiety Is Prevalent among College Students and Alleviated by Calorie Restriction

Anxiety is a common disorder among college students, especially those with obesity. Obesity contributes to metabolic disorders and disturbs the neural functions, further leading to anxiety. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to determine the association between obesity and anxiety among college students and identified the potential factors for obesity-associated anxiety. We evaluated the intervention effects of calorie restriction on anxiety. Self-reported questionnaires were distributed to 1381 college students from January to March in 2021. Anxiety was measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Participants were classified into anxiety and non-anxiety groups according to their STAI scores. Chi-squared test and logistic regression were used to analyze the potential factors. We found that 383 college students exhibited anxiety, accounting for 30.1% among all included college students, which was higher than the global average. The association between anxiety and obesity was observed among college students (p = 0.009), especially in males (p = 0.007). We identified that pre-obesity (p = 0.012), unhealthy calorie intake (p = 0.001), dieting (p = 0.003) and high academic year (p = 0.006) as the risk factors for anxiety and found that the long sleep duration was a protective factor for anxiety (p &lt; 0.001). We found that more obese students showed an improvement of anxiety than the underweight students after calorie restriction (p &lt; 0.001). Collectively, our findings suggest that obesity-associated anxiety is prevalent among the college students and could be alleviated by moderate calorie restriction. It is necessary for students to receive anxiety management in their college life. Additionally, the proper calorie restriction should be promoted to help students protect against obesity and obesity-associated anxiety