VGSG: Vision-Guided Semantic-Group Network for Text-based Person Search

Text-based Person Search (TBPS) aims to retrieve images of target pedestrian indicated by textual descriptions. It is essential for TBPS to extract fine-grained local features and align them crossing modality. Existing methods utilize external tools or heavy cross-modal interaction to achieve explicit alignment of cross-modal fine-grained features, which is inefficient and time-consuming. In this work, we propose a Vision-Guided Semantic-Group Network (VGSG) for text-based person search to extract well-aligned fine-grained visual and textual features. In the proposed VGSG, we develop a Semantic-Group Textual Learning (SGTL) module and a Vision-guided Knowledge Transfer (VGKT) module to extract textual local features under the guidance of visual local clues. In SGTL, in order to obtain the local textual representation, we group textual features from the channel dimension based on the semantic cues of language expression, which encourages similar semantic patterns to be grouped implicitly without external tools. In VGKT, a vision-guided attention is employed to extract visual-related textual features, which are inherently aligned with visual cues and termed vision-guided textual features. Furthermore, we design a relational knowledge transfer, including a vision-language similarity transfer and a class probability transfer, to adaptively propagate information of the vision-guided textual features to semantic-group textual features. With the help of relational knowledge transfer, VGKT is capable of aligning semantic-group textual features with corresponding visual features without external tools and complex pairwise interaction. Experimental results on two challenging benchmarks demonstrate its superiority over state-of-the-art methods.Comment: Accepted to IEEE TI

MeViS: A Large-scale Benchmark for Video Segmentation with Motion Expressions

This paper strives for motion expressions guided video segmentation, which focuses on segmenting objects in video content based on a sentence describing the motion of the objects. Existing referring video object datasets typically focus on salient objects and use language expressions that contain excessive static attributes that could potentially enable the target object to be identified in a single frame. These datasets downplay the importance of motion in video content for language-guided video object segmentation. To investigate the feasibility of using motion expressions to ground and segment objects in videos, we propose a large-scale dataset called MeViS, which contains numerous motion expressions to indicate target objects in complex environments. We benchmarked 5 existing referring video object segmentation (RVOS) methods and conducted a comprehensive comparison on the MeViS dataset. The results show that current RVOS methods cannot effectively address motion expression-guided video segmentation. We further analyze the challenges and propose a baseline approach for the proposed MeViS dataset. The goal of our benchmark is to provide a platform that enables the development of effective language-guided video segmentation algorithms that leverage motion expressions as a primary cue for object segmentation in complex video scenes. The proposed MeViS dataset has been released at https://henghuiding.github.io/MeViS.Comment: ICCV 2023, Project Page: https://henghuiding.github.io/MeViS

MOSE: A New Dataset for Video Object Segmentation in Complex Scenes

Video object segmentation (VOS) aims at segmenting a particular object throughout the entire video clip sequence. The state-of-the-art VOS methods have achieved excellent performance (e.g., 90+% J&F) on existing datasets. However, since the target objects in these existing datasets are usually relatively salient, dominant, and isolated, VOS under complex scenes has rarely been studied. To revisit VOS and make it more applicable in the real world, we collect a new VOS dataset called coMplex video Object SEgmentation (MOSE) to study the tracking and segmenting objects in complex environments. MOSE contains 2,149 video clips and 5,200 objects from 36 categories, with 431,725 high-quality object segmentation masks. The most notable feature of MOSE dataset is complex scenes with crowded and occluded objects. The target objects in the videos are commonly occluded by others and disappear in some frames. To analyze the proposed MOSE dataset, we benchmark 18 existing VOS methods under 4 different settings on the proposed MOSE dataset and conduct comprehensive comparisons. The experiments show that current VOS algorithms cannot well perceive objects in complex scenes. For example, under the semi-supervised VOS setting, the highest J&F by existing state-of-the-art VOS methods is only 59.4% on MOSE, much lower than their ~90% J&F performance on DAVIS. The results reveal that although excellent performance has been achieved on existing benchmarks, there are unresolved challenges under complex scenes and more efforts are desired to explore these challenges in the future. The proposed MOSE dataset has been released at https://henghuiding.github.io/MOSE.Comment: MOSE Dataset Repor

Retrospective analysis of 217 fatal intoxication autopsy cases from 2009 to 2021: temporal trends in fatal intoxication at Tongji center for medicolegal expertise, Hubei, China

This retrospective analysis of fatal intoxication case autopsies was performed at Tongji Center for Medicolegal Expertise in Hubei (TCMEH) from 2009 to 2021 to obtain up-to-date information on intoxication cases. The objective was to describe important data about evolving patterns in intoxication occurrences, enhance public safety policies, and assist forensic examiners and police in more efficient handling of such cases. Analyses based on sex, age, topical exposure routes, toxic agents, and mode of death were performed using 217 records of intoxication cases collected from TCMEH as a sample, and the results were compared with reports previously published (from 1999 to 2008) from this institution. Deaths from intoxications occurred at a higher rate in males than in females and were most common among individuals aged 30–39 years. The most frequent method of exposure was oral ingestion. The causative agents of deadly intoxications have changed when compared to the data from the previous 10 years. For instance, deaths from amphetamine overdoses are becoming more prevalent gradually, whereas deaths due to carbon monoxide and rodenticide intoxication have declined dramatically. In 72 cases, pesticides continued to be the most frequent intoxication cause. A total of 60.4% of the deaths were accidental exposure. Men died from accidents at a higher rate than women, although women were more likely to commit suicide. Particular focus is needed on the use of succinylcholine, cyanide, and paraquat in homicides

Optimization of Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Perilla Meal Protein for Hydrolysate with High Hydrolysis Degree and Antioxidant Activity

Botanical oils are staple consumer goods globally, but as a by-product of oil crops, meal is of low utilization value and prone to causing environmental problems. The development of proteins in meal into bioactive peptides, such as Perilla peptide, through biotechnology can not only solve environmental problems, but also create more valuable nutritional additives. In the present work, the hydrolysis process of Perilla meal protein suitable for industrial application was optimized with the response surface methodology (RSM) on the basis of single-factor experiments. Alcalase was firstly selected as the best-performing among four proteases. Then, based on Alcalase, the optimal hydrolysis conditions were as follows: enzyme concentration of 7%, hydrolysis temperature of 61.4 °C, liquid-solid ratio of 22.33:1 (mL/g) and hydrolysis time of 4 h. Under these conditions, the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of Perilla meal protein was 26.23 ± 0.83% and the DPPH scavenging capacity of hydrolysate was 94.15 ± 1.12%. The soluble peptide or protein concentration of Perilla meal protein hydrolysate rose up to 5.24 ± 0.05 mg/mL, the ideal yield of which was estimated to be 17.9%. SDS-PAGE indicated that a large proportion of new bands in hydrolysate with small molecular weights appeared, which was different from the original Perilla meal protein. The present data contributed to further, more specific research on the separation, purification and identification of antioxidant peptide from the hydrolysate of Perilla meal protein. The results showed that the hydrolysis of Perilla meal protein could yield peptides with high antioxidant activity and potential applications as natural antioxidants in the food industry

Optimization of Flavonoid Extraction from Xanthoceras sorbifolia Bunge Flowers, and the Antioxidant and Antibacterial Capacity of the Extract

In the present work, the extraction process of total flavonoids (TFs) from X. sorbifolia flowers by ultrasound-assisted extraction was optimized under the response surface methodology (RSM) on the basis of single-factor experiments. The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: ethanol concentration of 80%, solid–liquid ratio of 1:37 (g/mL), temperature of 84 °C, and extraction time of 1 h. Under the optimized conditions, the extraction yield of the TFs was 3.956 ± 0.04%. The radical scavenging capacities of TFs against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) were much greater than that of rutin. The results of antibacterial experiments indicated that the TFs displayed strong inhibitory activities on E. coli, S. aureus and Bacillus subtilis. Therefore, X. sorbifolia flowers can be used as a novel source of natural flavonoids, and the TFs have potential applications as natural antioxidants or antibacterial agents in the food and pharmaceutical industries

Microphase Separation and High Ionic Conductivity at High Temperatures of Lithium Salt-Doped Amphiphilic Alternating Copolymer Brush with Rigid Side Chains

An amphiphilic alternating copolymer brush (AACPB), poly­{(styrene-<i>g</i>-poly­(ethylene oxide))-<i>alt</i>-(maleimide-<i>g</i>-poly­{2,5-bis­[(4-methoxy­phenyl)­oxycarbonyl]­styrene})}­(P­{(St-<i>g</i>-PEO)-<i>alt</i>-(MI-<i>g</i>-PMPCS)}), was synthesized by alternating copolymerization of styrene-terminated poly­(ethylene oxide) (St-PEO) and maleimide-terminated poly­{2,5-bis­[(4-methoxy­phenyl)-oxy­carbonyl]­styrene} (MI-PMPCS) macromonomers using the “grafting through” strategy. ¹H NMR and gel permeation chromatography coupled with multiangle laser light scattering were used to determine the molecular characteristics of AACPBs. Although these AACPBs cannot microphase separate with thermal and solvent annealing methods, they can form lamellar structures by doping a lithium salt. This is a first report on lithium salt-induced microphase separation of AACPBs, and the lithium salt-doped AACPBs can serve as solid electrolytes for the transport of lithium ion. For the same AACPB, the ionic conductivity (σ) increases with increasing doping ratio. In addition, σ values of different AACPBs with the same doping ratio become higher for shorter PMPCS side chains. The σ value of the lithium salt-doped AACPB increases with increasing temperature in the range of 25–240 °C, and σ is 1.79 × 10^–4 S/cm at 240 °C. The relatively high σ values of the lithium-doped AACPBs at high temperatures benefit from the rigid PMPCS side chain and the AACPB architecture. The lithium salt-doped AACPBs have the potential to serve as solid electrolytes in high-temperature lithium ion batteries

CARD9 deficiency promotes pancreatic cancer growth by blocking dendritic cell maturation via SLC6A8-mediated creatine transport

ABSTRACTPancreatic cancer (PC) is featured with low survival rate and poor outcomes. Herein, we found that the expression of caspase-recruitment domain-containing protein 9 (CARD9), predominantly expressed in innate immune cells, was positively related to the prognosis of PC patients. CARD9-deficient PC mice exhibited rapider cancer progression and poorer survival rate. CARD9 knockout decreased dendritic cell (DC) maturation and impaired DC ability to activate T cells in vivo and in vitro. Adoptive DC transfer confirmed that the role of CARD9 deficiency in PC relied on DCs. Creatine was identified as the most significant differential metabolite between WT DCs and CARD9−/− DCs wherein it played an essential role in maintaining DC maturation and function. CARD9 deficiency led to decreased creatine levels in DCs by inhibiting the transcription of the creatine-specific transporter, solute carrier family 6 member 8 (SLC6A8). Furtherly, CARD9 deletion blocked p65 activation by abolishing the formation of CARD9-BCL10-MALT1 complex, which prevented the binding between p65 and SLC6A8 promoter. These events decreased the creatine transport into DCs, and led to DC immaturity and impairment in antitumor immunity, consequently promoting PC progression

Biomass-Assisted Reductive Leaching in H2SO4 Medium for the Recovery of Valuable Metals from Spent Mixed-Type Lithium-Ion Batteries

The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03775-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.A hydrometallurgical method involving natural biomass waste as reductant was proposed for the treatment of spent mixed-type lithium-ion batteries. Results showed that almost complete dissolution of Li, Ni, Mn and nearly 90% dissolution of Co were achieved under the optimal conditions of H2SO4 concentration of 2 M, waste tea biomass dosage of 0.3 g/g, solid/ratio of 50 g L¯1, temperature of 90ºC and time of 120 min. The leaching kinetics was further investigated, and the activation energies were determined to be 1.7 kJ mol¯1, 10.3 kJ mol¯1, 10.1 kJ mol¯1 and 10.9 kJ mol¯1 for Li, Ni, Mn and Co, respectively. The cathode materials before leaching and the leaching residue were characterized with different analytical methods. The characterization results confirmed that the addition of the waste tea acted as reductant and resulted in better dissolution of the metals, supporting the principles of sustainable processes by decreasing the chemical consumption and integrating waste into a secondary use.Peer reviewe