BEV-LaneDet: a Simple and Effective 3D Lane Detection Baseline

3D lane detection which plays a crucial role in vehicle routing, has recently been a rapidly developing topic in autonomous driving. Previous works struggle with practicality due to their complicated spatial transformations and inflexible representations of 3D lanes. Faced with the issues, our work proposes an efficient and robust monocular 3D lane detection called BEV-LaneDet with three main contributions. First, we introduce the Virtual Camera that unifies the in/extrinsic parameters of cameras mounted on different vehicles to guarantee the consistency of the spatial relationship among cameras. It can effectively promote the learning procedure due to the unified visual space. We secondly propose a simple but efficient 3D lane representation called Key-Points Representation. This module is more suitable to represent the complicated and diverse 3D lane structures. At last, we present a light-weight and chip-friendly spatial transformation module named Spatial Transformation Pyramid to transform multiscale front-view features into BEV features. Experimental results demonstrate that our work outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of F-Score, being 10.6% higher on the OpenLane dataset and 5.9% higher on the Apollo 3D synthetic dataset, with a speed of 185 FPS. The source code will released at https://github.com/gigo-team/bev_lane_det.Comment: Accepted by CVPR202

Optimal channel selection of remanufacturing firms with considering asymmetric information in platform economy

With the rapid development of e-commerce platforms, and considering that online return rate is relatively high and third-party stores on e-commerce platforms need to adopt third-party logistics, thus remanufacturing firms face the challenge of deciding whether to enter e-commerce platforms. To address this challenge, our paper considers a remanufacturing firm, an e-commerce platform, and a third-party logistics provider. Moreover, according to whether the remanufacturing firm enters the platform and whether the information is symmetrical, we develop three theoretical models: Model NP (the firm doesn’t enter platform), Model YP (the firm enters platform with symmetric information) and Model YA (the firm enters platform with asymmetric information). Some main insights are obtained. We find that whether remanufacturing firms should enter the platform depends not only on the annual service fee charged by the platform but also on the carbon tax price set by the government. Interestingly, improved consumers’ satisfaction with online remanufactured products is not necessarily conducive to enhancing the willingness of remanufacturing firms to enter e-commerce platforms. Finally, we find that when the production quantity constraint of the remanufactured products is not binding, if the actual production cost of remanufactured products is high and consumers’ satisfaction with offline remanufactured products is relatively low, information disclosure will benefit remanufacturing firms, however, when the production quantity constraint of the remanufactured products is binding, information disclosure has no impact on the remanufacturing firms’ profits and operational decisions

Regional Disparities in Emissions of Rural Household Energy Consumption: A Case Study of Northwest China

The purpose of this paper is to present the emissions status of multiple rural areas from the perspective of a field survey and make up for the defects of the traditional emission cognition of single type of area. The basic data in the lower reaches of the Weihe River of Northwest China were collected through household questionnaire surveys, and emissions from rural household energy consumption were calculated in the paper. In addition, the grey relational analysis method was used to identify influential factors of emission disparities. The results show that the total emissions of the plain, loess tableland, and Qinling piedmont areas are 1863.20, 1850.43, and 2556.68 kg, respectively. Regional disparities in emissions of rural household energy consumption vary greatly. CO2 emissions are highest in the Qinling piedmont area, followed by the loess tableland area. For other emissions, there is no fixed order of the three areas, which suggests that disparities in emissions are connected with the dominant type of energy consumption. Diversification of energy use might not necessarily produce higher emissions, but the traditional biomass energy pattern does generate more emissions. The regional supply capacity of household energy is the original influence factor of disparities in emissions, and factors that influence these disparities are directly related to differences among farmers, followed by the age structure, educational background, income level, occupation, and so on

Nitrogen-Doped Nanoporous Anodic Stainless Steel Foils towards Flexible Supercapacitors

In this work, we report the fabrication and enhanced supercapacitive performance of nitrogen-doped nanoporous stainless steel foils, which have been prepared by electrochemical anodization and subsequent thermal annealing in ammonia atmosphere. The nanoporous oxide layers are grown on type-304 stainless steel foil with optimal thickness ~11.9 μm. The N-doped sample exhibits high average areal capacitance of 321.3 mF·cm−2 at a current density of 1.0 mA·cm−2, 3.6 times of increment compared with untreated one. Structural and electrochemical characterizations indicate that the significant enhancement is correlated to the high charge transfer efficiency from nitriding nanosheet products Fe3N. Our report here may provide new insight on the development of high-performance, low-cost and binder-free supercapacitor electrodes for flexible and portable electronic device applications with multiple anions

Learning curve of laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy for biliary atresia: report of 100 cases

Abstract Background Laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy (LKPE) is performed for biliary atresia (BA). As LKPE is a technically demanding operation, a learning curve should be defined to guide training. The aim of this study was to identify the learning curve of LKPE for BA. Methods Metrics of perioperative safety and efficiency for 100 cases of LKPE were evaluated. Outcomes were followed to 67.2 ± 12.1 months. Cumulative sum (CUSUM) analysis was used to identify inflexion point corresponding to the learning curve. Outcome measures included operative time (ORT), rate of clearance of jaundice (CJ) and survival with native liver (SNL). Results Between May 2009 and May 2013, 100 consecutive patients with BA underwent LKPE. The rate of conversion from LKPE to open Kasai portoenterostomy (OKPE), intraoperative transfusion and any perioperative complications was 11, 26 and 16%, respectively. There was no perioperative mortality. The CUSUM analysis revealed a learning curve of 50 for LKPE. Precipitous ORT reductions from an initial mean operative time of 316.3 min that was observed in the first 50 to 232.2 min of the late 50 cases (P 0.05). Conclusions In this experience, improved perioperative and postoperative parameters for LKPE were observed in the last 50 patients when compared with the first 50 patients. The dedicated training is likely to contribute to significantly shorter learning curves in future adopters

Efficient Nanocrystal Photovoltaics with PTAA as Hole Transport Layer

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of solution-processed CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) solar cells has been significantly promoted in recent years due to the optimization of device design by advanced interface engineering techniques. However, further development of CdTe NC solar cells is still limited by the low open-circuit voltage (Voc) (mostly in range of 0.5–0.7 V), which is mainly attributed to the charge recombination at the CdTe/electrode interface. Herein, we demonstrate a high-efficiency CdTe NCs solar cell by using organic polymer poly[bis(4–phenyl)(2,4,6–trimethylphenyl)amine] (PTAA) as the hole transport layer (HTL) to decrease the interface recombination and enhance the Voc. The solar cell with the architecture of ITO/ZnO/CdS/CdSe/CdTe/PTAA/Au was fabricated via a layer-by-layer solution process. Experimental results show that PTAA offers better back contact for reducing interface resistance than the device without HTL. It is found that a dipole layer is produced between the CdTe NC thin film and the back contact electrode; thus the built–in electric field (Vbi) is reinforced, allowing more efficient carrier separation. By introducing the PTAA HTL in the device, the open–circuit voltage, short-circuit current density and the fill factor are simultaneously improved, leading to a high PCE of 6.95%, which is increased by 30% compared to that of the control device without HTL (5.3%). This work suggests that the widely used PTAA is preferred as the excellent HTL for achieving highly efficient CdTe NC solar cells

Perspective Chapter: Essentials of Lobectomy under Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

The morbidity and mortality of lung cancer rank second and first respectively in malignant solid tumors worldwide. As we all know, surgical resection is the cornerstone of comprehensive treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The current National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for NSCLC suggest that for medically operable disease, resection is the preferred local treatment modality, anatomic pulmonary resection is preferred for the majority of patients with NSCLC, and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) or minimally invasive surgery should be strongly considered for patients with no anatomic or surgical contraindications. With many advantages, uniportal VATS (u-VATS) has been widely accepted and used. Therefore, in this article, we attempted to review the essentials of lobectomy under u-VATS for NSCLC