Object-based attention mechanism for color calibration of UAV remote sensing images in precision agriculture.

Color calibration is a critical step for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing, especially in precision agriculture, which relies mainly on correlating color changes to specific quality attributes, e.g. plant health, disease, and pest stresses. In UAV remote sensing, the exemplar-based color transfer is popularly used for color calibration, where the automatic search for the semantic correspondences is the key to ensuring the color transfer accuracy. However, the existing attention mechanisms encounter difficulties in building the precise semantic correspondences between the reference image and the target one, in which the normalized cross correlation is often computed for feature reassembling. As a result, the color transfer accuracy is inevitably decreased by the disturbance from the semantically unrelated pixels, leading to semantic mismatch due to the absence of semantic correspondences. In this article, we proposed an unsupervised object-based attention mechanism (OBAM) to suppress the disturbance of the semantically unrelated pixels, along with a further introduced weight-adjusted Adaptive Instance Normalization (AdaIN) (WAA) method to tackle the challenges caused by the absence of semantic correspondences. By embedding the proposed modules into a photorealistic style transfer method with progressive stylization, the color transfer accuracy can be improved while better preserving the structural details. We evaluated our approach on the UAV data of different crop types including rice, beans, and cotton. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms several state-of-the-art methods. As our approach requires no annotated labels, it can be easily embedded into the off-the-shelf color transfer approaches. Relevant codes and configurations will be available at https://github.com/huanghsheng/object-based-attention-mechanis

Effects of Reheating Methods on the Quality of Prepared Pork Rib Soup with Carrot and Corn

In order to investigate the effects of different reheating methods (microwave, steam, water bath, and open flame) on the quality of quick-frozen prepared pork rib soup with carrot and corn, heating characteristics, texture, soup color, taste substances, volatile components, and sensory quality were determined. The results demonstrated that microwave reheating was the most efficient, providing uniform heating. In terms of texture, microwave and water bath reheating had less effects on the hardness, stickiness, and meat firmness of pork ribs, while microwave and open-flame reheating maintained the hardness and stickiness of corn and carrot significantly better (P < 0.05). The steam reheated soup was golden and clear in color, whereas the open-flame reheat soup became thick and milky white due to oil emulsification. The steam reheated soup exhibited a good combination of umami amino acids and nucleotides, presenting the strongest umami taste with an equivalent umami concentration (EUC) of 178.4 g/100 g, followed by those reheated by microwave, open flame, and water bath (EUC of 109.9, 100.2, and 56.5 g/100 g, respectively). A total of 61 volatile components were identified across all samples. In total, 29, 33 and 32 volatile components were found in the microwave, steam and open-flame reheated samples, respectively, with aromatic substances being the major ones; 31 volatile components in the water bath reheated sample, alcohols being the major ones. There were significant differences in the contents of some volatile components (P < 0.05). Sensory evaluation showed that the microwave and steam reheated soups were more favored by consumers in terms of color and taste (P < 0.05), with the highest overall sensory score. In summary, steam and microwave reheating are ideal reheating methods for frozen pork rib soup with carrot and corn

Diagnostic value of multi-tumor-associated autoantibody expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and correlation of clinical features

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of 7-tumor associated autoantibodies (7-TAAB) and to evaluate the relationship between 7-TAAB and clinical features in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), which can be used to guide clinical diagnosis and treatment and achieve its clinical value.Methods(1) Blood specimens were collected from patients with ESCC who had not previously received antitumor therapy (ESCC group) and those who had normal medical check-ups in the hospital during the same period (control group). The concentrations of 7-TAAB (P53, PGP9.5, SOX2, GAGE7, GBU4-5, MAGE A1, and CAGE) in serum were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The concentrations of 7-TAAB were compared between the ESCC and control groups, and the positive rate of 7-TAAB was calculated to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 7-TAAB. The diagnostic value of 7-TAAB was analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. (2) The clinical data of patients with ESCC were collected and the correlation between the rate of 7-TAAB and clinical features was analyzed.Results(1) The serum levels and positivity rates of five antibodies (PGP9.5, SOX2, GBU4-5, MAGE-A1, and CAGE) were higher in the ESCC group than in the control group (P &lt; 0.05) and the positive expression rate of the combined serum 7-TAAB in the ESCC group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P &lt; 0.05). (2) The sensitivity of single antibody detection was 4.20%–17.65%, with a specificity of 96.49%–100%, and accuracy of 51.07%–57.94%. The sensitivity of 7-TAAB combined detection was 49.58%, the specificity was 92.98%, and the accuracy was 70.81%. (3) The ROC curve showed that the 7-TAAB combined test had a certain diagnostic value for ESCC and that its diagnostic efficacy was significantly higher than that of the single autoantibody tests. The diagnostic efficacy of the combined test with the remaining five antibodies (PGP9.5, SOX2, GBU4-5, MAGE-A1, and CAGE) was similar to that of the 7-TAAB combined test after eliminating the two antibodies with low expression rates. (4) Univariate analysis revealed significant differences in the positive expression rates of the 7-TAAB combination test in terms of age, hemoglobin level, albumin level, tumor location, tumor length, lymph node stage, and tumor clinical stage (P &lt; 0.05), and multivariate analysis revealed that age and lymph node stage were independent factors affecting antibody expression.ConclusionThe multi-tumor-associated autoantibody combination test not only has a good auxiliary diagnostic value but also closely correlates with the clinical features of ESCC

How destination brand experience influences tourist citizenship behavior: Testing mediation of brand relationship quality and moderation effects on commitment

This study examines the potential predictors of tourist citizenship behavior based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework. The studies were conducted in China. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys. Structural equation path modeling and mediation as well as moderation role were used for data analyses. This model was used to test the hypotheses using a sample of 325 individuals with tourism experience in Guangzhou city. The results reveal that tourism destination brand experience and brand relationship quality significantly affect tourist citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the results show that brand relationship quality significantly mediates the relationship between tourism destination brand experience and tourist citizenship behavior and demonstrate that commitment plays a significant moderating role between brand relationship quality and tourist citizenship behavior. This study clearly shows the relationship between tourism destination brand experience, brand relationship quality, and tourist citizenship behavior. Thus, this study contributes to existing tourism studies by identifying gaps and proposing a holistic view to understand tourist citizenship behavior in the tourism industry.</jats:p

The Role of Paxillin Aberrant Expression in Cancer and Its Potential as a Target for Cancer Therapy

Paxillin is a multi-domain adaptor protein. As an important member of focal adhesion (FA) and a participant in regulating cell movement, paxillin plays an important role in physiological processes such as nervous system development, embryonic development, and vascular development. However, increasing evidence suggests that paxillin is aberrantly expressed in many cancers. Many scholars have also recognized that the abnormal expression of paxillin is related to the prognosis, metastases, invasion, survival, angiogenesis, and other aspects of malignant tumors, suggesting that paxillin may be a potential cancer therapeutic target. Therefore, the study of how aberrant paxillin expression affects the process of tumorigenesis and metastasis will help to develop more efficacious antitumor drugs. Herein, we review the structure of paxillin and its function and expression in tumors, paying special attention to the multifaceted effects of paxillin on tumors, the mechanism of tumorigenesis and progression, and its potential role in tumor therapy. We also hope to provide a reference for the clinical prognosis and development of new tumor therapeutic targets