UV-SAM: Adapting Segment Anything Model for Urban Village Identification

Urban villages, defined as informal residential areas in or around urban centers, are characterized by inadequate infrastructures and poor living conditions, closely related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on poverty, adequate housing, and sustainable cities. Traditionally, governments heavily depend on field survey methods to monitor the urban villages, which however are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and possibly delayed. Thanks to widely available and timely updated satellite images, recent studies develop computer vision techniques to detect urban villages efficiently. However, existing studies either focus on simple urban village image classification or fail to provide accurate boundary information. To accurately identify urban village boundaries from satellite images, we harness the power of the vision foundation model and adapt the Segment Anything Model (SAM) to urban village segmentation, named UV-SAM. Specifically, UV-SAM first leverages a small-sized semantic segmentation model to produce mixed prompts for urban villages, including mask, bounding box, and image representations, which are then fed into SAM for fine-grained boundary identification. Extensive experimental results on two datasets in China demonstrate that UV-SAM outperforms existing baselines, and identification results over multiple years show that both the number and area of urban villages are decreasing over time, providing deeper insights into the development trends of urban villages and sheds light on the vision foundation models for sustainable cities. The dataset and codes of this study are available at https://github.com/tsinghua-fib-lab/UV-SAM.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 202

Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Insecticidal Activities of Essential Oils of Discarded Perfume Lemon and Leaves (Citrus Limon (L.) Burm. F.) as Possible Sources of Functional Botanical Agents

Two essential oils were isolated from discarded perfume lemon and leaves (Citrus limon (L.) Burm. F.) by hydro-distillation with good yield (0.044% for perfume lemon and 0.338% for leaves). Their biological activities were evaluated against five selected bacterial strains and Aedes albopictus (Ae. albopictus, Diptera: Culicidae). Chemical composition indicated that both essential oils were rich in essential phytochemicals including hydrocarbons, monoterpenes and sesquiterpene. These constituents revealed some variability among the oils displaying interesting chemotypes (R)-(+)-limonene (12.29–49.63%), citronellal (5.37–78.70%) and citronellol (2.98–7.18%). The biological assessments proved that the two essential oils had similar effect against bacterial (inhibition zones diameter ranging from 7.27 ± 0.06 to 10.37 ± 0.15 mm; MICs and MBCs ranging from 1.6 to 6.4 mg/mL); against Ae. albopictus larvae (LC(50) ranging from 384.81 to 395.09 ppm) and adult mosquito (LD(50) ranging from 133.059 to 218.962 μg/cm(2)); the activity of the two chemotypes ((R)-(+)-limonene and citronellal): larvae (LC(50) ranging from 267.08 to 295.28 ppm), which were all presented in dose-dependent manners. Through this work, we have showcased that recycling and reusing of agriculture by-products, such as discarded perfume lemon and leaves can produce eco-friendly alternatives in bacterial disinfectants and mosquito control product

Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions

钙钛矿材料由于其高量子产率、载流子迁移率和独特的光致发光特性而在光电材料领域存在诸多潜在的重要应用。研究钙钛矿材料在纳米尺度下电荷输运的独特尺寸效应对钙钛矿光电器件的设计和开发具有重要的指导意义。洪文晶教授课题组基于机械可控裂结技术自主研发了具有皮米级位移调控灵敏度和飞安级电学测量精度的精密科学仪器，对南开大学李跃龙副教授团队合成的钙钛矿量子点进行了深入表征，研究工作成功将量子干涉的研究体系拓展至在光电领域具有重要应用的钙钛矿材料领域，为未来制备基于量子干涉效应的新型钙钛矿器件提供了一种全新的思路。 这一跨学科国际合作研究工作是在化学化工学院洪文晶教授、英国Lancaster 大学物理系Colin J. Lambert教授以及南开大学电子信息与光电工程学院李跃龙副教授的共同指导下完成的。化工系硕士研究生郑海宁、Lancaster University大学Songjun Hou博士、南开大学硕士研究生辛晨光为论文第一作者。博士后林禄春，博士研究生谭志冰、郑珏婷，硕士研究生蒋枫、张珑漪，本科生何文翔、李庆民等参与了论文的研究工作。刘俊扬特任副研究员、师佳副教授和萨本栋微纳米研究院杨扬副教授也参与了部分指导工作。The studies of quantum interference effects through bulk perovskite materials at the Ångstrom scale still remain as a major challenge. Herein, we provide the observation of roomtemperature quantum interference effects in metal halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. Single-QD conductance measurements reveal that there are multiple conductance peaks for the CH3NH3PbBr3 and CH3NH3PbBr2.15Cl0.85 QDs, whose displacement distributions match the lattice constant of QDs, suggesting that the gold electrodes slide through different lattice sites of the QD via Auhalogen coupling. We also observe a distinct conductance ‘jump’ at the end of the sliding process, which is further evidence that quantum interference effects dominate charge transport in these single-QD junctions. This conductance ‘jump’ is also confirmed by our theoretical calculations utilizing density functional theory combined with quantum transport theory. Our measurements and theory create a pathway to exploit quantum interference effects in quantum-controlled perovskite materials.This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0204902, 2014DFE60170, 2018YFB1500105), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21673195, 21503179, 21490573, 61674084, 61874167), the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Optical Information Science & Technology (Nankai University) of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (63181321, 63191414, 96173224), and the 111 Project (B16027), the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (17JCYBJC41400), FET Open project 767187—QuIET, the EU project BAC-TO-FUEL and the UK EPSRC projects EP/N017188/1, EP/M014452/1. 该工作得到国家重点研发计划课题（2017YFA0204902）、国家自然科学基金（21673195、21503179、21490573）、厦门大学“人工智能分析引擎”双一流重大专项等项目的资助，也得到了固体表面物理化学国家重点实验室、能源材料化学协同创新中心的支持

Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions

The studies of quantum interference effects through bulk perovskite materials at the Ångstrom scale still remain as a major challenge. Herein, we provide the observation of room-temperature quantum interference effects in metal halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. Single-QD conductance measurements reveal that there are multiple conductance peaks for the CH3NH3PbBr3 and CH3NH3PbBr2.15Cl0.85 QDs, whose displacement distributions match the lattice constant of QDs, suggesting that the gold electrodes slide through different lattice sites of the QD via Au-halogen coupling. We also observe a distinct conductance ‘jump’ at the end of the sliding process, which is further evidence that quantum interference effects dominate charge transport in these single-QD junctions. This conductance ‘jump’ is also confirmed by our theoretical calculations utilizing density functional theory combined with quantum transport theory. Our measurements and theory create a pathway to exploit quantum interference effects in quantum-controlled perovskite materials

Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions.

The studies of quantum interference effects through bulk perovskite materials at the Ångstrom scale still remain as a major challenge. Herein, we provide the observation of room-temperature quantum interference effects in metal halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. Single-QD conductance measurements reveal that there are multiple conductance peaks for the CH3NH3PbBr3 and CH3NH3PbBr2.15Cl0.85 QDs, whose displacement distributions match the lattice constant of QDs, suggesting that the gold electrodes slide through different lattice sites of the QD via Au-halogen coupling. We also observe a distinct conductance ’jump’ at the end of the sliding process, which is further evidence that quantum interference effects dominate charge transport in these single-QD junctions. This conductance ’jump’ is also confirmed by our theoretical calculations utilizing density functional theory combined with quantum transport theory. Our measurements and theory create a pathway to exploit quantum interference effects in quantum-controlled perovskite materials

Neutrino Physics with JUNO

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purposeunderground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determinationof the neutrino mass hierarchy as a primary physics goal. It is also capable ofobserving neutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, includingsupernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos,atmospheric neutrinos, solar neutrinos, as well as exotic searches such asnucleon decays, dark matter, sterile neutrinos, etc. We present the physicsmotivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for variousproposed measurements. By detecting reactor antineutrinos from two power plantsat 53-km distance, JUNO will determine the neutrino mass hierarchy at a 3-4sigma significance with six years of running. The measurement of antineutrinospectrum will also lead to the precise determination of three out of the sixoscillation parameters to an accuracy of better than 1\%. Neutrino burst from atypical core-collapse supernova at 10 kpc would lead to ~5000inverse-beta-decay events and ~2000 all-flavor neutrino-proton elasticscattering events in JUNO. Detection of DSNB would provide valuable informationon the cosmic star-formation rate and the average core-collapsed neutrinoenergy spectrum. Geo-neutrinos can be detected in JUNO with a rate of ~400events per year, significantly improving the statistics of existing geoneutrinosamples. The JUNO detector is sensitive to several exotic searches, e.g. protondecay via the $p\to K^++\bar\nu$ decay channel. The JUNO detector will providea unique facility to address many outstanding crucial questions in particle andastrophysics. It holds the great potential for further advancing our quest tounderstanding the fundamental properties of neutrinos, one of the buildingblocks of our Universe

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO