PICNN: A Pathway towards Interpretable Convolutional Neural Networks

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have exhibited great performance in discriminative feature learning for complex visual tasks. Besides discrimination power, interpretability is another important yet under-explored property for CNNs. One difficulty in the CNN interpretability is that filters and image classes are entangled. In this paper, we introduce a novel pathway to alleviate the entanglement between filters and image classes. The proposed pathway groups the filters in a late conv-layer of CNN into class-specific clusters. Clusters and classes are in a one-to-one relationship. Specifically, we use the Bernoulli sampling to generate the filter-cluster assignment matrix from a learnable filter-class correspondence matrix. To enable end-to-end optimization, we develop a novel reparameterization trick for handling the non-differentiable Bernoulli sampling. We evaluate the effectiveness of our method on ten widely used network architectures (including nine CNNs and a ViT) and five benchmark datasets. Experimental results have demonstrated that our method PICNN (the combination of standard CNNs with our proposed pathway) exhibits greater interpretability than standard CNNs while achieving higher or comparable discrimination power

Magnifier or refractor? Exploring the impact of geographical indication on people’s perception of the value of cultural ecosystem services based on the SolVES model

Purpose/SignificanceTo a certain extent, geographical indication (GI) protects the ecosystem of product origin, but there is still a lack of quantitative evidence on its cultural spillover effect. The mechanism of the impact of geo-certified landscapes on people’s perceived value of cultural ecosystem services (CESs) should be explored.Methods/ProceduresIn this study, two urban forest parks, Changqing and Zhongshan, which differ mainly in terms of geo-certified landscapes, were selected in Beihai, Guangxi. Basically, homogeneous volunteers were recruited, and photos of value labels were collected from their independent visits to two parks. The SolVES model was used to explore the effect of the presence or absence of geo-certified landscapes in urban park ecosystems on people’s CESs needs and the relation to the spatial context of the landscape.Results/ConclusionsThe results show that GI significantly enhance people’s perception of human CESs value of landscape elements, and clarifies the correspondence perception relationship between CESs value types and each landscape element. In addition to the spillover effect on humanistic value perception, GI also attracts and transfers people’s esthetic attention to the natural landscape itself to a certain extent. And these two effects will also spread to the ecosystem that the landscape belongs to

Polyoxometalate-supported Pd nanoparticles as efficient catalysts for the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide in the absence of acid or halide promoters

A Keggin-type polyoxometalate (Cs1.5H1.5PW12O40)-supported Pd catalyst is efficient for the direct synthesis of H2O2 from H-2 and O-2 in the absence of any acid or halide additives under atmospheric pressure.NSFC [20625310, 20773099, 20873110]; National Basic Research Program of China [2005CB221408]; Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Fujian Provinc

Direct prediction of antimicrobial resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by metagenomic next-generation sequencing

ObjectivePseudomonas aeruginosa has strong drug resistance and can tolerate a variety of antibiotics, which is a major problem in the management of antibiotic-resistant infections. Direct prediction of multi-drug resistance (MDR) resistance phenotypes of P. aeruginosa isolates and clinical samples by genotype is helpful for timely antibiotic treatment.MethodsIn the study, whole genome sequencing (WGS) data of 494 P. aeruginosa isolates were used to screen key anti-microbial resistance (AMR)-associated genes related to imipenem (IPM), meropenem (MEM), piperacillin/tazobactam (TZP), and levofloxacin (LVFX) resistance in P. aeruginosa by comparing genes with copy number differences between resistance and sensitive strains. Subsequently, for the direct prediction of the resistance of P. aeruginosa to four antibiotics by the AMR-associated features screened, we collected 74 P. aeruginosa positive sputum samples to sequence by metagenomics next-generation sequencing (mNGS), of which 1 sample with low quality was eliminated. Then, we constructed the resistance prediction model.ResultsWe identified 93, 88, 80, 140 AMR-associated features for IPM, MEM, TZP, and LVFX resistance in P. aeruginosa. The relative abundance of AMR-associated genes was obtained by matching mNGS and WGS data. The top 20 features with importance degree for IPM, MEM, TZP, and LVFX resistance were used to model, respectively. Then, we used the random forest algorithm to construct resistance prediction models of P. aeruginosa, in which the areas under the curves of the IPM, MEM, TZP, and LVFX resistance prediction models were all greater than 0.8, suggesting these resistance prediction models had good performance.ConclusionIn summary, mNGS can predict the resistance of P. aeruginosa by directly detecting AMR-associated genes, which provides a reference for rapid clinical detection of drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria

Assembling forms of active phases confined within SBA-15 channels

The assembling forms of active phases in Pd/SBA-15(ad) and MoO3/SBA-15 catalyst samples, prepared via adsorption-reduction and impregnation-reduction, respectively, were characterized by N-2 physisorption measurement. Based on N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, it was speculated that the palladium,species in Pd/SBA-15(ad) exist as nanoparticles, whereas the MoO3 species in MoO3/SBA-15 are layered dispersed on the wall within the SBA-15 channels. These speculations were further confirmed by HR-TEM observation. The SBA-15 confined uniform Pd nanoparticles were efficient for solvent-free aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol

NiO-polyoxometalate nanocomposites as efficient catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane and isobutane

Novel nanocomposites of NiO and polyoxometalate (Cs2.5H0.5PMo12O40) with particle sizes in the range of 5-10 nm showed exceptional oxygen and ammonia adsorption capabilities, and the nanocomposites catalyzed the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane and isobutane efficiently under mild conditions.NSFC [20625310, 20773099, 20873110]; National Basic Research Program of China [2005CB221408]; Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Fujian Provinc

Chemical synthesis of lactic acid from cellulose catalysed by lead(II) ions in water

该工作是博士生王炎良（实验）和王斌举（理论）以及邓卫平博士紧密合作的成果。The direct transformation of cellulose, which is the main component of lignocellulosic biomass, into building-block chemicals is the key to establishing biomass-based sustainable chemical processes. Only limited successes have been achieved for such transformations under mild conditions. Here we report the simple and efficient chemocatalytic conversion of cellulose in water in the presence of dilute lead(II) ions, into lactic acid, which is a high-value chemical used for the production of fine chemicals and biodegradable plastics. The lactic acid yield from microcrystalline cellulose and several lignocellulose-based raw biomasses is >60% at 463 K. Both theoretical and experimental studies suggest that lead(II) in combination with water catalyses a series of cascading steps for lactic acid formation, including the isomerization of glucose formed via the hydrolysis of cellulose into fructose, the selective cleavage of the C3–C4 bond of fructose to trioses and the selective conversion of trioses into lactic acid.该项研究工作得到国家自然科学基金委、科技部和教育部创新研究团队项目的资助

Identification of Balanced Chromosomal Rearrangements Previously Unknown Among Participants in the 1000 Genomes Project: Implications for Interpretation of Structural Variation in Genomes and the Future of Clinical Cytogenetics

Purpose Recent studies demonstrate that whole-genome sequencing (WGS) enables detection of cryptic rearrangements in apparently balanced chromosomal rearrangements (also known as balanced chromosomal abnormalities, BCAs) previously identified by conventional cytogenetic methods. We aimed to assess our analytical tool for detecting BCAs in The 1000 Genomes Project without knowing affected bands. Methods: The 1000 Genomes Project provides an unprecedented integrated map of structural variants in phenotypically normal subjects, but there is no information on potential inclusion of subjects with apparently BCAs akin to those traditionally detected in diagnostic cytogenetics laboratories. We applied our analytical tool to 1,166 genomes from the 1000 Genomes Project with sufficient physical coverage (8.25-fold). Results: Our approach detected four reciprocal balanced translocations and four inversions ranging in size from 57.9 kb to 13.3 Mb, all of which were confirmed by cytogenetic methods and PCR studies. One of DNAs has a subtle translocation that is not readily identified by chromosome analysis due to similar banding patterns and size of exchanged segments, and another results in disruption of all transcripts of an OMIM gene. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the extension of utilizing low-coverage WGS for unbiased detection of BCAs including translocations and inversions previously unknown in the 1000 Genomes Project

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe