Delving into Multimodal Prompting for Fine-grained Visual Classification

Fine-grained visual classification (FGVC) involves categorizing fine subdivisions within a broader category, which poses challenges due to subtle inter-class discrepancies and large intra-class variations. However, prevailing approaches primarily focus on uni-modal visual concepts. Recent advancements in pre-trained vision-language models have demonstrated remarkable performance in various high-level vision tasks, yet the applicability of such models to FGVC tasks remains uncertain. In this paper, we aim to fully exploit the capabilities of cross-modal description to tackle FGVC tasks and propose a novel multimodal prompting solution, denoted as MP-FGVC, based on the contrastive language-image pertaining (CLIP) model. Our MP-FGVC comprises a multimodal prompts scheme and a multimodal adaptation scheme. The former includes Subcategory-specific Vision Prompt (SsVP) and Discrepancy-aware Text Prompt (DaTP), which explicitly highlights the subcategory-specific discrepancies from the perspectives of both vision and language. The latter aligns the vision and text prompting elements in a common semantic space, facilitating cross-modal collaborative reasoning through a Vision-Language Fusion Module (VLFM) for further improvement on FGVC. Moreover, we tailor a two-stage optimization strategy for MP-FGVC to fully leverage the pre-trained CLIP model and expedite efficient adaptation for FGVC. Extensive experiments conducted on four FGVC datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our MP-FGVC.Comment: The first two authors contributed equally to this wor

Measuring social network influence on power relations in collaborative planning: A case study of Beijing City, China

Social media has recently become a networked public sphere for social interactions and power struggles in planning practice. However, little research has been done to understand the impact of social media on power relations in collaborative planning. This study uses the Bell and Drum Tower planning practice in Beijing as a case study to elaborate on whether and how social media empowers citizens, experts, and third parties to influence decision-making and promote a communicative planning process. It develops a mixed-methods approach that combines web scraping, social network analysis, and interviews to examine networked power generated by social media. It applies the three dimensions of a network (structure, symmetry, and strength) to measure new forms of power imbalances. The findings show that experts and journalists hold a significant amount of networked power and that social actors can enhance their influence by managing and controlling information flows. Power inequalities exist in the networked public sphere but shift away from governments to other actors, yet without jeopardizing the ultimate decision-making on the ground by the government. This study bridges the gap between network power theory and network science, turning the metaphor of network power into an evidence-based analysis based on a quantitative approach

Comparative study of MCe0.75Zr0.25Oy (M = Cu, Mn, Fe) catalysts for selective reduction of NO by CO: Activity and reaction pathways

Basic oxygen furnace steelmaking leads to the production of CO-rich off-gas. When CO and NO are combined in off-gas, selective catalytic reduction by CO (CO-SCR) effectively achieves the synergistic removal of both pollutants. In this paper, CuCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y, MnCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y, and FeCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y catalysts are prepared and evaluated for their CO-SCR activity, and the results show that the reaction system needs to be anaerobic; thus, the CO-SCR reaction can be dominant. The T 90 values of CuCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y and FeCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y are 200 °C and 223 °C, respectively. The activities of these two catalysts are higher than that of MnCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y (T 90 = 375 °C). Linear nitrate and bridged bidentate nitrate are the main intermediate species involved in NO conversion on the catalyst surface, and bidentate CO 3 2− coordination is the main intermediate species involved in CO conversion on the catalyst surface. CuCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y has high lattice oxygen mobility and is more likely to react with NO and CO. In the presence of oxygen, most CO is oxidized by O 2, which increases continuously to 100%, 100%, and 98% for CuCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y, FeCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y, and MnCe 0.75Zr 0.25O y, respectively; additionally, CO is oxidized by O 2, and the CO-SCR reaction cannot be carried out

Transient behavior and reaction mechanism of CO catalytic ignition over a CuO–CeO2 mixed oxide

As a key heterogeneous process, the catalytic oxidation of CO is essential not only for practical applications such as automotive exhaust purification and fuel cells but also as a model reaction to study the reaction mechanism and structure-reactivity correlation of catalysts. In this study, the variation in activity-controlling factors during CO catalytic ignition over a CuO-CeO 2 catalyst was investigated. The activity for CO combustion follows the decreasing order of CuO-CeO 2 > CuO > CeO 2. Except for inactive CeO 2, increasing temperature induces CO ignition to achieve self-sustained combustion over CuO and CuO-CeO 2. However, CuO provides enough copper sites to adsorb CO, and abundant active lattice oxygen, thus obtaining a higher hot zone temperature (208.3 °C) than that of CuO-CeO 2 (197.3 °C). Catalytic ignition triggers a kinetic transition from the low-rate steady-state regime to a high-rate steady-state regime. During the induction process, Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, CO temperature-programmed desorption and IR spectroscopy results indicated that CO is preferentially adsorbed on oxygen vacancies (Cu +-[Ov]-Ce 3+) to yield Cu +-[C≡O]-Ce 3+ complexes. Because of the self-poisoning of CO, the adsorbed CO and traces of adsorbed oxygen react at a relative rate, which is entirely governed by the kinetics on the CO-covered surface and the heat transport until the pre-ignition regime. The Cu +-[C≡O]-Ce 3+ complex is a major contributor to CO ignition. The step-response runs and kinetic models showed that after ignition, a kinetic phase transition occurs from a CO-covered surface to an active lattice oxygen-covered surface. During CO self-sustained combustion, the rapid gas diffusivity and mass transfer is beneficial for handling the low coverage of CO. The active lattice oxygen of CuO takes part in CO oxidation

Echinococcus multilocularis and Echinococcus shiquicus in a small mammal community on the eastern Tibetan Plateau : host species composition, molecular prevalence, and epidemiological implications

Background The eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau is now recognized as an endemic region with the highest reported human infection rates in the world of human alveolar echinococcosis (AE) caused by Echinococcus multilocularis. Existing epidemiological studies on AE have mainly focused on the synanthropic environment, while basic parasitological and ecological aspects in wildlife host species remain largely unknown, especially for small mammal hosts. Therefore, we examined small mammal host species composition, occurrence, and the prevalence of both E. multilocularis and E. shiquicus in Shiqu County (Sichuan Province, China), eastern Tibetan Plateau. Results In total, 346 small mammals from five rodent and one pika species were trapped from four randomly set 0.25 ha square plots. Two vole species, Lasiopodomys fuscus (n = 144) and Microtus limnophilus (n = 44), and the plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) (n = 135), were the three most-dominant species trapped. Although protoscoleces of E. multilocularis and E. shiquicus were only observed in L. fuscus and O. curzoniae, respectively, cox1 and nad1 gene DNA of E. shiquicus was detected in all the small mammal species except for Neodon irene, whereas E. multilocularis was detected in the three most-dominant species. The overall molecular prevalence of Echinococcus species was 5.8 (95% CI: 3.3–8.2%) ~ 10.7% (95% CI: 7.4–14.0%) (the conservative prevalence to the maximum prevalence with 95% CI in parentheses), whereas for E. multilocularis it was 4.3 (95% CI: 2.2–6.5%) ~ 6.7% (95% CI: 4.0–9.3%), and 1.5 (95% CI: 0.2–2.7%) ~ 4.1% (95% CI: 2.0–6.1%) for E. shiquicus. The prevalence of both E. multilocularis and E. shiquicus, was significantly higher in rodents (mainly voles) than in pikas. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that Echinococcus haplotypes of cox1 from small mammal hosts were actively involved in the sylvatic and anthropogenic transmission cycles of E. multilocularis in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Conclusions In contrast to previous studies, the current results indicated that rodent species, rather than pikas, are probably more important natural intermediate hosts of E. multilocularis and E. shiquicus in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Thus, understanding interspecific dynamics between rodents and pikas is essential to studies of the echinococcosis transmission mechanism and human echinococcosis prevention in local communities. Keywords: Echinococcus multilocularis, E. shiquicus, Small mammal Prevalence, Tibetan Platea

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

Virus-like Particles as Nanocarriers for Intracellular Delivery of Biomolecules and Compounds

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are nanostructures assemble from viral proteins. Besides widely used for vaccine development, VLPs have also been explored as nanocarriers for cargo delivery as they combine the key advantages of viral and non-viral vectors. While it protects cargo molecules from degradation, the VLP has good cell penetrating property to mediate cargo passing the cell membrane and released into cells, making the VLP an ideal tool for intracellular delivery of biomolecules and drugs. Great progresses have been achieved and multiple challenges are still on the way for broad applications of VLP as delivery vectors. Here we summarize current advances and applications in VLP as a delivery vector. Progresses on delivery of different types of biomolecules as well as drugs by VLPs are introduced, and the strategies for cargo packaging are highlighted which is one of the key steps for VLP mediated intracellular delivery. Production and applications of VLPs are also briefly reviewed, with a discussion on future challenges in this rapidly developing field