OccFormer: Dual-path Transformer for Vision-based 3D Semantic Occupancy Prediction

The vision-based perception for autonomous driving has undergone a transformation from the bird-eye-view (BEV) representations to the 3D semantic occupancy. Compared with the BEV planes, the 3D semantic occupancy further provides structural information along the vertical direction. This paper presents OccFormer, a dual-path transformer network to effectively process the 3D volume for semantic occupancy prediction. OccFormer achieves a long-range, dynamic, and efficient encoding of the camera-generated 3D voxel features. It is obtained by decomposing the heavy 3D processing into the local and global transformer pathways along the horizontal plane. For the occupancy decoder, we adapt the vanilla Mask2Former for 3D semantic occupancy by proposing preserve-pooling and class-guided sampling, which notably mitigate the sparsity and class imbalance. Experimental results demonstrate that OccFormer significantly outperforms existing methods for semantic scene completion on SemanticKITTI dataset and for LiDAR semantic segmentation on nuScenes dataset. Code is available at \url{https://github.com/zhangyp15/OccFormer}.Comment: Code is available at https://github.com/zhangyp15/OccForme

Cardiovascular Autonomic Neuropathy Is an Independent Risk Factor for Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Aim. This study aimed to evaluate the association between cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) in type 2 diabetes patients. Methods. 315 type 2 diabetes patients from inpatients of Drum Tower Hospital were included and classified into no CAN (NCAN), possible CAN (PCAN), and definite CAN (DCAN) based on cardiovascular autonomic reflex tests. The left ventricular diastolic function was assessed by tissue Doppler imaging echocardiography. Results. The distribution of NCAN, PCAN, and DCAN was 11.4%, 51.1%, and 37.5%, respectively. The proportion of LVDD increased among the groups of NCAN, PCAN, and DCAN (39.4%, 45.3%, and 68.0%, = 0.001). Patients with DCAN had higher filling pressure ( / ratio) (10.9 ± 2.7 versus 9.4 ± 2.8, = 0.013) and impaired diastolic performance ( ) (6.8 ± 1.7 versus 8.6±2.4, = 0.004) compared with NCAN. CAN was found to be an independent risk factor for LVDD from the multivariate regression analysis (OR = 1.628, = 0.009, 95% CI 1.131-2.344). Conclusions. Our results indicated that CAN was an independent risk marker for the presence of LVDD in patients with diabetes. Early diagnosis and treatment of CAN are advocated for preventing LVDD in type 2 diabetes

Picturing Electron Capture to the Continuum in the Transfer Ionization of Intermediate-Energy He²⁺ Collisions with Argon

Electron emission occurring in transfer ionization for He2+ collisions with argon has been investigated using cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy. The double differential cross sections for electron capture to the continuum of the projectile (cusp-shaped electrons) are presented for collision energies from 17.5 to 75 keV/u. For an energy of 30 keV/u, we find a maximum in the experimental ratio of the cusp-shaped electron yield to the total electron yield. This result is explained in terms of the velocity matching between the projectile ion and the electron initially bound to the target. One of the important issues for double electron transitions is the role of electron-electron correlation. If this correlation is weak, then the transfer-ionization process can be viewed as two separate sequential processes. If this correlation is strong, then the transfer-ionization process would happen simultaneously and not sequentially. Our experimental and theoretical results indicate that correlation is weak and that the first step is target ionization followed by charge capture

Finerenone in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease and Type 2 Diabetes: FIDELIO-DKD subgroup from China

Background: This prespecified subgroup analysis of the FIDELIO-DKD trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of finerenone in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in China. Methods: Three hundred and seventy-two participants were recruited from 67 centers in China and randomized 1:1 to oral finerenone or placebo with standard therapy for T2DM. The primary composite outcome included kidney failure, sustained decrease of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥ 40% from baseline over at least 4 weeks, or renal death. The key secondary composite outcome included death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Results: After a median follow-up of 30 months, the finerenone group showed a relative risk reduction (RRR) of 41% (hazard ratio [HR]=0.59, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.39 to 0.88; p=0.009) for the primary composite outcome compared with placebo, consistent across its components with treatment benefits with finerenone. Based on an absolute between-group difference of 12.2% after 30 months, the number of patients who needed to be treated (NNT) with finerenone to prevent one primary outcome event was eight (95%CI: 4 to 84). For the key secondary composite outcome, the finerenone group showed a RRR of 25% (HR=0.75, 95% CI, 0.38 to 1.48; p=0.408). Adverse events were similar between the two groups. The effects of finerenone on blood pressure were modest. No gynecomastia events were reported in the study. Hyperkalemia leading to discontinuation occurred in eight (4.3%) and two (1.1%) participants in the finerenone and control groups, respectively. The incidence of acute kidney injury was comparable between the two groups (1.6% vs. 1.6%). Conclusions: Finerenone resulted in lower risks of CKD progression than placebo and a balanced safety profile in Chinese patients with CKD and T2DM