JSENet: Joint Semantic Segmentation and Edge Detection Network for 3D Point Clouds

Semantic segmentation and semantic edge detection can be seen as two dual problems with close relationships in computer vision. Despite the fast evolution of learning-based 3D semantic segmentation methods, little attention has been drawn to the learning of 3D semantic edge detectors, even less to a joint learning method for the two tasks. In this paper, we tackle the 3D semantic edge detection task for the first time and present a new two-stream fully-convolutional network that jointly performs the two tasks. In particular, we design a joint refinement module that explicitly wires region information and edge information to improve the performances of both tasks. Further, we propose a novel loss function that encourages the network to produce semantic segmentation results with better boundaries. Extensive evaluations on S3DIS and ScanNet datasets show that our method achieves on par or better performance than the state-of-the-art methods for semantic segmentation and outperforms the baseline methods for semantic edge detection. Code release: https://github.com/hzykent/JSENetComment: Accepted to ECCV 2020, supplementary materials include

Irreducible triangulations of surfaces with boundary

A triangulation of a surface is irreducible if no edge can be contracted to produce a triangulation of the same surface. In this paper, we investigate irreducible triangulations of surfaces with boundary. We prove that the number of vertices of an irreducible triangulation of a (possibly non-orientable) surface of genus g>=0 with b>=0 boundaries is O(g+b). So far, the result was known only for surfaces without boundary (b=0). While our technique yields a worse constant in the O(.) notation, the present proof is elementary, and simpler than the previous ones in the case of surfaces without boundary

Can we identify response markers to antihypertensive drugs? First results from the Ideal Trial

Current antihypertensive strategies do not take into account that individual characteristics may influence the magnitude of blood pressure (BP) reduction. Guidelines promote trial-and-error approaches with many different drugs. We conducted the Identification of the Determinants of the Efficacy of Arterial blood pressure Lowering drugs (IDEAL) Trial to identify factors associated with BP responses to perindopril and indapamide. IDEAL was a cross-over, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, involving four 4-week periods: indapamide, perindopril and two placebo. Eligible patients were untreated, hypertensive and aged 25-70 years. The main outcome was systolic BP (SBP) response to drugs. The 112 participants with good compliance had a mean age of 52. One in every three participants was a woman. In middle-aged women, the SBP reduction from drugs was -11.5 mm Hg (indapamide) and -8.3 mm Hg (perindopril). In men, the response was significantly smaller: -4.8 mm Hg (indapamide) and -4.3 (perindopril) (P for sex differences 0.001 and 0.015, respectively). SBP response to perindopril decreased by 2 mm Hg every 10 years of age in both sexes (P=0.01). The response to indapamide increased by 3 mm Hg every 10 years of age gradient in women (P=0.02). Age and sex were important determinants of BP response for antihypertensive drugs in the IDEAL population. This should be taken into account when choosing drugs a priori.Journal of Human Hypertension advance online publication, 17 April 2014; doi:10.1038/jhh.2014.29

Intervenção psicomotora em crianças de nível socioeconômico baixo

Visou-se identificar o perfil psicomotor de crianças de baixo nível socioeconômico e verificar o efeito nelas de um programa de intervenção psicomotora. Participaram do estudo seis crianças do sexo masculino, na faixa de 10 a 12 anos (11,5±0,92). Os participantes foram avaliados utilizando-se uma bateria psicomotora que avalia sete fatores psicomotores: tonicidade, equilibração, lateralização, noção do corpo, estruturação espaço-temporal, praxia global e fina; de acordo com o desempenho da criança, os fatores são pontuados de 1 a 4; o escore 1 refere-se ao perfil apráxico, 2 ao dispráxico, 3 ao eupráxico e 4 ao hiperpráxico. Com base nas dificuldades detectadas foi elaborado um programa de intervenção psicomotora, aplicado durante três meses, em 16 sessões de uma hora de duração, duas vezes por semana. Ao término da intervenção os participantes foram reavaliados. Pela avaliação inicial, o perfil dos participantes foi predominantemente eupráxico nos fatores equilibração, lateralização, noção do corpo, praxia global e praxia fina; nos fatores tonicidade e estruturação espaço-temporal o perfil foi predominantemente dispráxico. Após o programa de intervenção houve aumento estatisticamente significativo (pThis study aimed at outlining the psychomotor profile of socioeconomically disadvantaged children and at verifying the effect on them of an assessment-based psychomotor training program. Participants were six 10-to-12 year-old children (mean age 11.5±0.92), who were evaluated before and after the program by means of a psychomotor battery which assesses seven categories: tonus, equilibrium, lateralisation, body perception, time-space orientation, gross and fine praxis; scores range from 1 to 4, determining the following profiles: 1, apraxic; 2, dyspraxic; 3, eupraxic; 4, hyperpraxic. By drawing on children's difficulties, a psychomotor playing program was applied during 3 months, in 16 one-hour sessions, twice a week. The initial evaluation showed participants profile to be predominantly eupraxic in equilibrium, lateralisation, body perception, gross and fine praxis; profile was mostly dyspraxic as to tonus and time-space orientation. After the program, scores significantly improved in tonus, equilibration, time-space orientation, gross, and fine praxis (p<0.05), thus suggesting that the program applied was able to benefit psychomotor performance of low socioeconomic status children

Cell cycle and aging, morphogenesis, and response to stimuli genes are individualized biomarkers of glioblastoma progression and survival

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glioblastoma is a complex multifactorial disorder that has swift and devastating consequences. Few genes have been consistently identified as prognostic biomarkers of glioblastoma survival. The goal of this study was to identify general and clinical-dependent biomarker genes and biological processes of three complementary events: lifetime, overall and progression-free glioblastoma survival.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A novel analytical strategy was developed to identify general associations between the biomarkers and glioblastoma, and associations that depend on cohort groups, such as race, gender, and therapy. Gene network inference, cross-validation and functional analyses further supported the identified biomarkers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 61, 47 and 60 gene expression profiles were significantly associated with lifetime, overall, and progression-free survival, respectively. The vast majority of these genes have been previously reported to be associated with glioblastoma (35, 24, and 35 genes, respectively) or with other cancers (10, 19, and 15 genes, respectively) and the rest (16, 4, and 10 genes, respectively) are novel associations. <it>Pik3r1</it>, <it>E2f3, Akr1c3</it>, <it>Csf1</it>, <it>Jag2</it>, <it>Plcg1</it>, <it>Rpl37a</it>, <it>Sod2</it>, <it>Topors</it>, <it>Hras</it>, <it>Mdm2, Camk2g</it>, <it>Fstl1</it>, <it>Il13ra1</it>, <it>Mtap </it>and <it>Tp53 </it>were associated with multiple survival events.</p> <p>Most genes (from 90 to 96%) were associated with survival in a general or cohort-independent manner and thus the same trend is observed across all clinical levels studied. The most extreme associations between profiles and survival were observed for <it>Syne1</it>, <it>Pdcd4</it>, <it>Ighg1</it>, <it>Tgfa</it>, <it>Pla2g7</it>, and <it>Paics</it>. Several genes were found to have a cohort-dependent association with survival and these associations are the basis for individualized prognostic and gene-based therapies. <it>C2</it>, <it>Egfr</it>, <it>Prkcb</it>, <it>Igf2bp3</it>, and <it>Gdf10 </it>had gender-dependent associations; <it>Sox10</it>, <it>Rps20</it>, <it>Rab31</it>, and <it>Vav3 </it>had race-dependent associations; <it>Chi3l1</it>, <it>Prkcb</it>, <it>Polr2d</it>, and <it>Apool </it>had therapy-dependent associations. Biological processes associated glioblastoma survival included morphogenesis, cell cycle, aging, response to stimuli, and programmed cell death.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Known biomarkers of glioblastoma survival were confirmed, and new general and clinical-dependent gene profiles were uncovered. The comparison of biomarkers across glioblastoma phases and functional analyses offered insights into the role of genes. These findings support the development of more accurate and personalized prognostic tools and gene-based therapies that improve the survival and quality of life of individuals afflicted by glioblastoma multiforme.</p

Developmental delay in early childhood is associated with visual-constructive skills at school age in a Brazilian cohort

Abstract We investigated differences in IQ and visual-constructive skills in school-age children evaluated as developmentally delayed or typically developed in early childhood. Sixty-four participants from a Brazilian cohort were evaluated in IQ (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence) and tasks of visual-spatial memory and visual-constructive skills through the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) at school age. Neuropsychomotor development at 4 years of age was measured by Denver II. Developmentally delayed children showed lower IQs, lower scores, and more errors in copy and memory BVRT tasks when compared to typically developed children. Delay in neuropsychomotor development in early childhood may affect the subsequent cognitive development of children

CROCO: CROSS-MODAL CONTRASTIVE LEARNING FOR LOCALIZATION OF EARTH OBSERVATION DATA

Abstract. It is of interest to localize a ground-based LiDAR point cloud on remote sensing imagery. In this work, we tackle a subtask of this problem, i.e. to map a digital elevation model (DEM) rasterized from aerial LiDAR point cloud on the aerial imagery. We proposed a contrastive learning-based method that trains on DEM and high-resolution optical imagery and experiment the framework on different data sampling strategies and hyperparameters. In the best scenario, the Top-1 score of 0.71 and Top-5 score of 0.81 are obtained. The proposed method is promising for feature learning from RGB and DEM for localization and is potentially applicable to other data sources too. Source code is released at https://github.com/wtseng530/AVLocalization

Fever of unknown origin in the 2000s: Evaluation of 103 cases over eleven years

International audienc