146 research outputs found
Cross-sectional study of the use of antimicrobials following common infections by rural residents in Anhui, China
PoSynDA: Multi-Hypothesis Pose Synthesis Domain Adaptation for Robust 3D Human Pose Estimation
Existing 3D human pose estimators face challenges in adapting to new datasets
due to the lack of 2D-3D pose pairs in training sets. To overcome this issue,
we propose \textit{Multi-Hypothesis \textbf{P}ose \textbf{Syn}thesis
\textbf{D}omain \textbf{A}daptation} (\textbf{PoSynDA}) framework to bridge
this data disparity gap in target domain. Typically, PoSynDA uses a
diffusion-inspired structure to simulate 3D pose distribution in the target
domain. By incorporating a multi-hypothesis network, PoSynDA generates diverse
pose hypotheses and aligns them with the target domain. To do this, it first
utilizes target-specific source augmentation to obtain the target domain
distribution data from the source domain by decoupling the scale and position
parameters. The process is then further refined through the teacher-student
paradigm and low-rank adaptation. With extensive comparison of benchmarks such
as Human3.6M and MPI-INF-3DHP, PoSynDA demonstrates competitive performance,
even comparable to the target-trained MixSTE model\cite{zhang2022mixste}. This
work paves the way for the practical application of 3D human pose estimation in
unseen domains. The code is available at https://github.com/hbing-l/PoSynDA.Comment: Accepted to ACM Multimedia 2023; 10 pages, 4 figures, 8 tables; the
code is at https://github.com/hbing-l/PoSynD
Protective Effects of Sheng-Mai-San on Right Ventricular Dysfunction during Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia in Mice
Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction and failure contribute to the increasing morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases; however, current treatment strategies are grossly inadequate. Sheng-Mai-San (SMS) has been used to treat heart diseases for hundreds of years in China, and its protective effects on RV have not been observed. The present study was to investigate the protective effects of SMS aqueous extract on RV dysfunction in chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) mice model. The results showed that CIH mice model presented RV dysfunction and maladaptive compensation after 28-day-CIH and SMS treatment significantly reversed these changes. Diastolic function of RV was restored and systolic dysfunction was attenuated, including elevation of RV stroke volume and fractional shortening, as well as pulmonary circulation. Structurally, SMS treatment inhibited RV dilation, cardiomyocytes vacuolization, ultrastructure abnormalities, and the expression of cleaved caspase-3. Of importance, SMS showed remarkable antioxidant activity by decreasing the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), increasing the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), as well as inhibiting the overexpression of 3-NT in RV. Our results indicate that SMS preserve RV structure and function in CIH-exposed mice by involving regulation in both ROS and Reactive Nitrogen Species (RNS) production
Induction of defense-related enzymes in patchouli inoculated with virulent Ralstonia solanacearum
Background: Defense-related anti-oxidative response is a vital defense
mechanism of plants against pathogen invasion. Ralstonia solanacearum
is an important phytopathogen. Bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum
is the most destructive disease and causes severe losses in patchouli,
an important aromatic and medicinal plant in Southeast Asia. The
present study evaluated the defense response of patchouli inoculated
with virulent R. solanacearum. Results: Results showed that the basic
enzymatic activities differed not only between the leaves and stems but
also between the upper and lower parts of the same organ of patchouli.
POD, SOD, PPO, and PAL enzymatic activities were significantly elevated
in leaves and stems from patchouli inoculated with R. solanacearum
compared to those in control. The variation magnitude and rate of POD,
PPO, and PAL activities were more obvious than those of SOD in
patchouli inoculated with R. solanacearum. PAGE isoenzymatic analysis
showed that there were one new POD band and two new SOD bands elicited,
and at least two isoformic POD bands and two SOD bands were observably
intensified compared to the corresponding control. Conclusion: Our
results suggest that not only defense-related enzymatic activitieswere
elevated but also the new isoenzymatic isoforms were induced in
patchouli inoculated with R. solanacearum
Terpenoids from the Octocorals Menella sp. (Plexauridae) and Lobophytum crassum (Alcyonacea)
A new germacrane-type sesquiterpenoid, menelloide E (1), and a new cembrane-type diterpenoid, lobocrassin F (2), were isolated from the octocorals Menella sp. and Lobophytum crassum, respectively. The structures of terpenoids 1 and 2 were determined by spectroscopic and chemical methods and compound 2 was found to display a significant inhibitory effect on the release of elastase by human neutrophils
Superconductivity emerged from density-wave order in a kagome bad metal
Unconventional superconductivity (USC) in a highly correlated kagome system
has been theoretically proposed for years, yet the experimental realization is
hard to achieve. The recently discovered vanadium-based kagome materials, which
exhibit both superconductivity and charge density wave (CDW) orders, are
nonmagnetic and weakly correlated, thus unlikely host USC as theories proposed.
Here we report the discovery of a chromium-based kagome bad metal,
CsCrSb, which is contrastingly characterised by significant electron
correlations and frustrated magnetism. Successive phase transitions at 54
K with stripe-like structural modulations are observed, probably
associated with CDW and antiferromagnetic spin-density-wave (SDW) orderings.
Under moderately high pressures of 4-8 GPa, these density-wave orders are
suppressed and, remarkably, superconductivity emerges with a maximum
of 6.4 K. A quantum critical point at 4
GPa is revealed, by which non-Fermi-liquid behaviours show up, reminiscent of
USC in iron-based superconductors. The electronic structure calculations
indicate that the electron filling is close to the characteristic flat bands of
the kagome lattice. Our work offers an unprecedented platform for investigating
the mechanism of USC in a correlated kagome system.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure
Genome-wide association meta-analyses and fine-mapping elucidate pathways influencing albuminuria
Abstract: Increased levels of the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) are associated with higher risk of kidney disease progression and cardiovascular events, but underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we conduct trans-ethnic (n = 564,257) and European-ancestry specific meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies of UACR, including ancestry- and diabetes-specific analyses, and identify 68 UACR-associated loci. Genetic correlation analyses and risk score associations in an independent electronic medical records database (n = 192,868) reveal connections with proteinuria, hyperlipidemia, gout, and hypertension. Fine-mapping and trans-Omics analyses with gene expression in 47 tissues and plasma protein levels implicate genes potentially operating through differential expression in kidney (including TGFB1, MUC1, PRKCI, and OAF), and allow coupling of UACR associations to altered plasma OAF concentrations. Knockdown of OAF and PRKCI orthologs in Drosophila nephrocytes reduces albumin endocytosis. Silencing fly PRKCI further impairs slit diaphragm formation. These results generate a priority list of genes and pathways for translational research to reduce albuminuria
Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data
Observation of a structure in at from 2.05 to 3.08 GeV
The process has been studied for the
first time in detail using data sample collected with the BESIII detector at
the BEPCII collider at center of mass energies from 2.05 to 3.08 GeV. A
resonance with quantum numbers is observed with mass =
(2177.5 4.8 (stat) 19.5 (syst)) MeV/ and
width = (149.0 15.6 (stat) 8.9 (syst)) MeV with a
statistical significance larger than 10. The observed structure could
be identified with the , then the ratio of partial width between
the by BESIII and by BABAR is
( = 0.23 0.10 (stat) 0.18 (syst),
which is smaller than the prediction of the hybrid models by
several orders of magnitude
Carbon Nanotube Fabrication at Industrial Scale: Opportunities and Challenges
Careful research on different materials reveals that the material properties
are mostly affected by the size of it. Material size down to nanometer scale
exhibits some remarkable properties, resulting in unique physical and chemical
characteristics. In todays world of nanotechnology, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)
have become a high priority material because of their exclusive structure,
novel characteristics with enormous potential in many technological
applications. Till date chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is the preferred and
widely used technique among different CNT growth methods, because of its
potential advantage to produce CNTs of high purity, large yield with ease of
scale up and low setup cost. This article provides an overview of different CVD
methods for industrial scale fabrication of CNTs. The influence of material
aspect, viz. catalyst type, catalyst support, and growth control aspect, viz.
process temperature, pressure, catalyst concentration, are discussed.
Additionally, possible growth mechanisms concerning CNT formation are
described. Finally, the key challenges of the process are addressed with future
perspective.Comment: carbon nanotubes, chemical vapor depositio
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