Real-world Deep Local Motion Deblurring

Most existing deblurring methods focus on removing global blur caused by camera shake, while they cannot well handle local blur caused by object movements. To fill the vacancy of local deblurring in real scenes, we establish the first real local motion blur dataset (ReLoBlur), which is captured by a synchronized beam-splitting photographing system and corrected by a post-progressing pipeline. Based on ReLoBlur, we propose a Local Blur-Aware Gated network (LBAG) and several local blur-aware techniques to bridge the gap between global and local deblurring: 1) a blur detection approach based on background subtraction to localize blurred regions; 2) a gate mechanism to guide our network to focus on blurred regions; and 3) a blur-aware patch cropping strategy to address data imbalance problem. Extensive experiments prove the reliability of ReLoBlur dataset, and demonstrate that LBAG achieves better performance than state-of-the-art global deblurring methods without our proposed local blur-aware techniques

Servant leadership as a driver of employee service performance: Test of a trickle-down model and its boundary conditions

Previous research has demonstrated the role of servant leadership, a leadership style emphasizing serving others, in promoting frontline employees’ service performance. It is unclear, however, how servant leadership by leaders at different organizational levels would exert such an influence. Integrating insights from both social learning theory and the trickle-down paradigm of leadership, we develop a cross-level model in which we argue that servant leadership by high-level managers could cascade downward through the organizational hierarchy to influence frontline employees’ service performance and that this trickle-down effect is contingent on the extent to which subordinates identify their leaders as embodying the organization. Using a matched sample of 92 supervisors and 568 frontline employees across 92 sub-branches of a large banking company, we found that servant leadership by high-level managers could indeed promote employees’ in-role and extra-role service performance through its effect on low-level supervisors’ servant leadership. We also found that this trickle-down effect was stronger when high-level managers and low-level supervisors were perceived by their subordinates as more fully embodying the organization. Implications, limitations and future directions are discussed

Effect of progesterone concentration on hCG trigger day on clinical outcomes after high-quality single blastocyst transfer in GnRH antagonist cycles

ObjectiveTo investigate whether progesterone levels on the human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) trigger day are associated with clinical outcomes in fresh cycles and the first frozen–thawed cycles (the freeze-all strategy) following the transfer of a high-quality single blastocyst.MethodsThis single-center retrospective analysis was conducted on patients undergoing in vitro fertilization with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist protocol from January 2017 to December 2023. The study included the first and second oocyte retrieval cycles with progesterone levels ≤2 ng/ml on hCG trigger day. Clinical pregnancy rates and early miscarriage rates were compared among groups using curve fitting, threshold effect analysis, and multivariable regression.ResultsWhen progesterone levels were between 1 and 2 ng/ml, the pregnancy rate in fresh cycles was only 51% of that in cycles with progesterone levels ≤1 ng/ml (95% CI: 0.33, 0.79, p = 0.0028). And the pregnancy rate decreased by 25% (95% CI: 0.51, 1.09) for frozen cycles, although there was no statistically significant (p = 0.1273). When cycle types were used as a binary variable in multivariate regression analysis, it was found that the clinical pregnancy rate in frozen cycles was 1.84 times higher than in fresh cycles (OR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.38–2.47). For progesterone levels between 1 and 2 ng/ml, the clinical pregnancy rate in frozen cycles was 2.90 times that of fresh cycles (OR = 2.90, 95% CI: 1.59, 5.29, p = 0.0015). Progesterone levels on hCG day had no impact on the clinical pregnancy rate in thaw cycles, nor did they affect miscarriage rates in fresh or thaw cycles (p > 0.05).ConclusionWhen progesterone levels on hCG trigger day were between 1 and 2 ng/ml, the clinical pregnancy rate for frozen–thawed cycles of high-quality single blastocyst transfer using an GnRH antagonist protocol significantly surpasses that of fresh cycles, thus elective frozen embryo transfer after the freeze-all strategy is recommended

Gene therapy: an emerging therapy for hair cells regeneration in the cochlea

Sensorineural hearing loss is typically caused by damage to the cochlear hair cells (HCs) due to external stimuli or because of one’s genetic factors and the inability to convert sound mechanical energy into nerve impulses. Adult mammalian cochlear HCs cannot regenerate spontaneously; therefore, this type of deafness is usually considered irreversible. Studies on the developmental mechanisms of HC differentiation have revealed that nonsensory cells in the cochlea acquire the ability to differentiate into HCs after the overexpression of specific genes, such as Atoh1, which makes HC regeneration possible. Gene therapy, through in vitro selection and editing of target genes, transforms exogenous gene fragments into target cells and alters the expression of genes in target cells to activate the corresponding differentiation developmental program in target cells. This review summarizes the genes that have been associated with the growth and development of cochlear HCs in recent years and provides an overview of gene therapy approaches in the field of HC regeneration. It concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the current therapeutic approaches to facilitate the early implementation of this therapy in a clinical setting

A CBL4-CIPK6 module confers salt tolerance in cucumber

Soil salinization is a major threat to cucumbers grown under protected cultivation. Under stressful environments, calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) can sense and bind Ca2+ signals and regulate CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) to transmit signals and induce cellular responses. Although CBL-CIPK modules play central roles in plant development and response to various abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis, little is known about their functions in cucumber. In this study, we demonstrate that CsCBL4 interacts with CsCIPK6, which exhibited similar responses to salt stress in cucumber. Furthermore, salt stress resulted in greater accumulation of CsCBL4 and CsCIPK6. Comprehensive phenotype analysis demonstrated that silencing CsCBL4 or CsCIPK6 reduced the salt tolerance of cucumber, and overexpression of CsCBL4 increased the salt tolerance of Arabidopsis. Collectively, these results indicate that the CsCBL4-CsCIPK6 module plays an important role in the resistance of cucumber to salt stress. The information provides insights for the genetic breeding of salt tolerance in cucumber in the future

How does ethical leadership trickle down? Test of an integrative dual-process model

Although the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership has been documented in the literature, its underlying mechanism still remains largely unclear. To address this gap, we develop a cross-level dual-process model to explain how the effect occurs. Drawing on social learning theory, we hypothesize that the ethical leadership of high-level managers could cascade to middle-level supervisors via its impact on middle-level supervisors’ two ethical expectations. Using a sample of 69 middle-level supervisors and 381 subordinates across 69 sub-branches from a large banking firm in China, we found that middle-level supervisors’ ethical efficacy expectation and unethical behavior–punishment expectation (as one form of ethical outcome expectations) accounted for the trickle-down effect. The explanatory role of middle-level supervisors’ ethical behavior–reward expectation (as the other form of ethical outcome expectations), however, was not supported. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Jekyll and Hyde Leadership (Experimental Studies)

We have already had a field study that involved a sample where employees worked in a dual leader group context with their immediate supervisor, higher-level manager (i.e., the supervisor's boss, two levels above the employees), and other group members. Employees had the opportunity to observe the interactions between their supervisor and the higher-level manager . In the field study, we examined the following hypotheses, which are grounded in uncertainty management theory: Hypothesis 1. Supervisor ethical leadership moderates the positive effect of supervisor abusive supervision on employee emotional exhaustion such that the positive effect becomes stronger at higher levels of ethical leadership. Hypothesis 2. Manager ethical leadership moderates the positive effect of manager abusive supervision toward the supervisor on employees’ emotional exhaustion, such that the positive effect becomes stronger when manager ethical leadership is higher. Hypothesis 3a. Supervisor ethical leadership increases the negative effect of supervisor abusive supervision on task performance via emotional exhaustion. Hypothesis 3b. Manager ethical leadership increases the negative effect of manager abusive supervision toward the supervisor on task performance via emotional exhaustion. Hypothesis 4a. Supervisor ethical leadership increases the negative effect of supervisor abusive supervision on voice behavior via emotional exhaustion. Hypothesis 4b. Manager ethical leadership increases the negative effect of manager abusive supervision toward the supervisor on voice behavior via emotional exhaustion. Hypothesis 5a. Supervisor ethical leadership increases the positive effect of supervisor abusive supervision on deviance via emotional exhaustion. Hypothesis 5b. Manager ethical leadership increases the positive effect of manager abusive supervision toward the supervisor on deviance via emotional exhaustion. These hypotheses received full support from the field data. The two vignette-based experimental studies we are registering seek to directly test the distinct theoretical mechanisms (i.e., two forms of uncertainty) theorized in Hypotheses 1 and 2

III-V/Si device modeling and circuit simulation

The demand for high performance power electronics devices in electric vehicle, aerospace engineering, and renewable energy is increasing. Traditional silicon-based power devices are reaching their upper performance limit and fail to meet the requirements for higher switching frequency, power efficiency, and operating temperatures. Thus, power electronics industries have to explore for potential semiconductor materials whose performance can match today’s new systems. One of the potential materials is gallium nitride (GaN). Gallium nitride (GaN) based high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) have become the most promising for power electronics devices. They are able to provide high electron mobility, high power density, and exceptional wideband performance. Development of a compact model for generic HEMTs is becoming an urgent need for semiconductor industry. A developed process design kit (PDK) that is used for GaN HEMT tapeouts with the calibrated model card to a set of measured GaN HEMT has been provided to simulate static and dynamic characteristics of the given cell for this study. The developed compact model in the PDK is scripted in Verilog-A, and offers the GaN HEMT cell as a symbol under the commercial EDA tool, Cadence Virtuoso for circuit simulations.Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic Engineering