PGformer: Proxy-Bridged Game Transformer for Multi-Person Extremely Interactive Motion Prediction

Multi-person motion prediction is a challenging task, especially for real-world scenarios of densely interacted persons. Most previous works have been devoted to studying the case of weak interactions (e.g., hand-shaking), which typically forecast each human pose in isolation. In this paper, we focus on motion prediction for multiple persons with extreme collaborations and attempt to explore the relationships between the highly interactive persons' motion trajectories. Specifically, a novel cross-query attention (XQA) module is proposed to bilaterally learn the cross-dependencies between the two pose sequences tailored for this situation. Additionally, we introduce and build a proxy entity to bridge the involved persons, which cooperates with our proposed XQA module and subtly controls the bidirectional information flows, acting as a motion intermediary. We then adapt these designs to a Transformer-based architecture and devise a simple yet effective end-to-end framework called proxy-bridged game Transformer (PGformer) for multi-person interactive motion prediction. The effectiveness of our method has been evaluated on the challenging ExPI dataset, which involves highly interactive actions. We show that our PGformer consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in both short- and long-term predictions by a large margin. Besides, our approach can also be compatible with the weakly interacted CMU-Mocap and MuPoTS-3D datasets and achieve encouraging results. Our code will become publicly available upon acceptance

Clinical application of Kirschner wires combined with 5-Ethibond fixation for patella fractures

BackgroundPatella fractures that require surgery are conventionally treated using Kirschner wires (K-wires) and stainless steel wires. In recent years, the nonabsorbable polyester has been reported to have excellent outcomes clinically. Therefore, the goal of our study was to evaluate the effects of Kirschner wires combined with 5-Ethibond on treating patellar fractures.MethodsFrom July 2018 to January 2022, 22 patella fracture patients were treated with Kirschner wires combined with 5-Ethibond. Radiographs of the knees were used to evaluate fracture healing and hardware complications. The clinical results were evaluated through the functional score, knee joint range of motion (ROM), and Bostman patella fracture functional score.ResultsThe average age of patients was 57.4 ± 11.9 (range 33–74) years. The mean follow-up time was 15.2 ± 7.6 (range 4–36) months. The mean operation time was 56.8 ± 8.7 (range 45–80) min. The entire patients had bony union at an average of 10.5 ± 1.9 (range 8–14) weeks. At the final follow-up, the mean range of postoperative ROM was 123.4° ± 14.6° (range 95°–140°), and the functional score was 28.7 ± 1.2 (range 26–30) points. No patient exhibited internal fixation failure, and no symptomatic implants or skin complications were recorded.ConclusionsThe fixation approach using K-wires combined with 5-Ethibond has a lower complication rate and delivers superior clinical results. This research reveals that such technology is a safe and prospective substitute for conventional metal fixation approaches

Rapid alcoholysis of PET enhanced by its swelling under high temperature

The development of catalysts with high thermal stability, high catalytic activity and high cycling performance has been an important challenge in PET alcoholysis research. PET degradation is a surface interface controlled process, but PET as a dense solid with lower specific surface area severely reduces its degradation rate. Here, the high specific surface area (0.4-3.3 m(2)/g) and the large number of pores (0-17.5 nm) formed by the swelling of PET at high temperature were used to break the interfacial confinement between the reactants; then the rapid and complete degradation of PET was achieved under the multi-hydrogen bonding microenvironment formed by the multi-active site polyoxometalate (POM) catalysts K-10[M-4(H2O)(2)(PW9O34)(2)]-H2O (M = Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, Co) and EG. Finally, accompanied by the attack of the transition metal active site on C= O of PET, 1.0 g of PET could be completely degraded in 5 min under the optimal reaction conditions (2.0 wt% of catalyst to PET, 240 C) and the bis(hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) yield of 92.8% was achieved within 8 min. Moreover, the catalyst could be recycled more than 30 times, which is very meaningful. In the same time, the mechanism of PET alcoholysis was investigated and proposed a mechanism of PET alcoholysis

Rapid alcoholysis of PET enhanced by its swelling under high temperature

The development of catalysts with high thermal stability, high catalytic activity and high cycling performance has been an important challenge in PET alcoholysis research. PET degradation is a surface interface controlled process, but PET as a dense solid with lower specific surface area severely reduces its degradation rate. Here, the high specific surface area (0.4-3.3 m(2)/g) and the large number of pores (0-17.5 nm) formed by the swelling of PET at high temperature were used to break the interfacial confinement between the reactants; then the rapid and complete degradation of PET was achieved under the multi-hydrogen bonding microenvironment formed by the multi-active site polyoxometalate (POM) catalysts K-10[M-4(H2O)(2)(PW9O34)(2)]-H2O (M = Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, Co) and EG. Finally, accompanied by the attack of the transition metal active site on C= O of PET, 1.0 g of PET could be completely degraded in 5 min under the optimal reaction conditions (2.0 wt% of catalyst to PET, 240 C) and the bis(hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) yield of 92.8% was achieved within 8 min. Moreover, the catalyst could be recycled more than 30 times, which is very meaningful. In the same time, the mechanism of PET alcoholysis was investigated and proposed a mechanism of PET alcoholysis

Fast and effective glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) catalyzed by polyoxometalate

Transition-metal-substituted polyoxometalates (POMs) K6SiW11MO39(H2O) (M = Zn2+, Mn2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Ni2+) show excellent catalytic activities in the glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) under mild conditions. The effects of temperature, catalyst amount and reaction time on PET degradation are investigated. The PET could be fast and completely degraded at low catalyst/PET molar ratio (0.13%) and high PET/EG weight ratio (1:4). The yield of bis(hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) exceeds 84% with the SiW11Zn as the catalyst under atmospheric pressure at 185 degrees C for 30 min. The catalyst and ethylene glycol (EG) can be easily separated from the products by filtration and can be reused together. After recycling eight times, the conversion of PET and the yield of BHET can still reach 100% and 83%, respectively. The possible nucleophilic substitution mechanism for PET glycolysis using the K6SiW11ZnO39(H2O) as the catalyst is proposed. The POM catalysts are hopeful to provide the possibility for other polymer degradation. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p

A systematic review of suture-button versus syndesmotic screw in the treatment of distal tibiofibular syndesmosis injury

Abstract Background Now, using a suture-button device to treat distal tibiofibular syndesmotic injuries is overwhelming due to its advantages over screw fixation. Current systematic review was conducted to make a comparison between suture-button fixation and traditionally screw fixation in the treatment of syndesmotic injuries. The outcomes included functional outcomes, implant removal, implant failure, malreduction, post-operative complications (except implant failure and malreduction), and cost-effectiveness aspects. Method A literature search in the electronic databases of Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science was conducted to identify studies until March 2017. The references of the included articles were also checked for potentially relevant studies. Only English articles were included. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematics reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines in this review. Results Finally, 10 studies were identified, encompassing a total of 390 patients. The mean American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society ankle score (AOFAS) score of 150 patients treated with the suture-button device was 91.06 points, with an average follow-up of 17.58 months, and the mean AOFAS score of 150 patients treated with syndesmotic screws was 87.78 points, with an average follow-up of 17.73 months. Implant removal was reported in 5 of 134 (3.7%) patients treated with the suture-button device, and in 54 of 134 (40.2%) patients treated with the syndesmotic screw. No patient in the suture-button fixation group had implant failure, however the rate of implant failure in the screw fixation group was 30.9%. Malreduction was reported in 1 of 93 (1.0%) patients treated with the suture-button device, and in 12 of 95 (12.6%) patients treated with the syndesmotic screw. The rate of post-operative complications in the suture-button fixation group was 12.0% and 16.4% in the screw fixation group. There was only one publication demonstrated about cost-effectiveness aspects, it showed that patients treated with the suture-button device spent on average $1482 less and had a higher quality of life by 0.058 quality-adjusted life-year compared with patients who received fixation with 2 syndesmotic screws in supination-external rotation type 4 injuries. Conclusion Based on our research, though the suture-button fixation group had similar functional outcome (measured on the AOFAS score) and post-operative complication rate compared with the syndesmotic screw fixation group, the suture-button device could lead to better objective range of motion (ROM) measurements and earlier return to work. Besides, the suture-button fixation group had lower rate of implant removal, implant failure, and malreduction. However, high-quality randomized controlled trials with more uniformity in outcome reporting are desirable to determine the long-term effects and cost-effectiveness of the suture-button device

High-efficiency glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) by sandwich-structure polyoxometalate catalyst with two active sites

Catalyst in the process on glycolysis of poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) wastes is a significant critical factor, which determine the efficiency and the cost of PET degradation. In this study, a kind of transition- metal-substituted polyoxometalates (POMs) Na-12 [WZnM2(H2O)(2)(ZnW9O34)(2)] =(M = Zn2+, Mn2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Ni2+) which have a sandwich-structure and more than two transition metal active sites show excellent catalytic performance in the glycolysis of PET under mild conditions. We investigated the effects of temperature, reaction time and catalyst amount on PET degradation and obtained the glycolysis optimal conditions. The PET could be fast and completely degraded at 190 degrees C for 40 min with low catalyst/PET molar ratio (0.018%) and high PET/Ethylene Glycol (EG) weight ratio (1:4), and the yield of bis(hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) is higher than 84.5%. After four-times recycling, the conversion of PET and the yield of BHET can still reach 100% and 84.5%. The exact structure of POMs Na-12 [WZnM2(H2O)(2)(ZnW9O34)(2)] is confirmed by Single Crystal X-ray Diffraction (SC-XRD). Compared with traditional heteropolyacid catalysts, this catalyst possessed of at least two transition metal active sites, which lead to its an excellent catalytic capacity. The possible coordination activates mechanism for PET glycolysis is also proposed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p