Rotation-invariant features for multi-oriented text detection in natural images.

Texts in natural scenes carry rich semantic information, which can be used to assist a wide range of applications, such as object recognition, image/video retrieval, mapping/navigation, and human computer interaction. However, most existing systems are designed to detect and recognize horizontal (or near-horizontal) texts. Due to the increasing popularity of mobile-computing devices and applications, detecting texts of varying orientations from natural images under less controlled conditions has become an important but challenging task. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to detect texts of varying orientations. Our algorithm is based on a two-level classification scheme and two sets of features specially designed for capturing the intrinsic characteristics of texts. To better evaluate the proposed method and compare it with the competing algorithms, we generate a comprehensive dataset with various types of texts in diverse real-world scenes. We also propose a new evaluation protocol, which is more suitable for benchmarking algorithms for detecting texts in varying orientations. Experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our system compares favorably with the state-of-the-art algorithms when handling horizontal texts and achieves significantly enhanced performance on variant texts in complex natural scenes

Multifunctional Lightweight Aggregate Containing Phase Change Material and Water for Damage Mitigation of Concrete

This paper presents an innovative concept of multifunctional lightweight aggregate, which is produced by loading phase change material (PCM) into the interior of lightweight sand (LWS) and sealing the surface pores using water. The PCM loaded in the LWS functionalizes it as a temperature management agent in concrete, and the water in surface pores enables internal curing. It has been found that the particle shape and pore structure of crushed expanded shale LWS makes it an ideal carrier for PCM, loading sufficient PCM and maintaining better (compared to natural sand) mechanical interlocking. When coupled with the internal curing effect, the LWS yields an interpenetrated interfacial transition zone with the cement paste, leading to a compressive strength comparable to natural sand mortar. The hydration products penetrated into the surface pores also helps stabilizing PCM in the LWS. However, any PCM residuum non-stabilized in LWS tends to compromise the strength. Under an optimized scenario, the LWS-PCM composite aggregate is produced by grading, PCM impregnation, rinsing, and water saturation. A mortar proportioned with this aggregate yields comparable 28-day strength to the reference mortar and a 63% lower autogenous shrinkage (because of internal curing). Furthermore, it shows a 7 ⁰C lower semi-adiabatic temperature rise, delayed appearance of peak temperature and gentled cooling curve. These results indicate that the functional aggregate can effectively mitigate the risk of thermal cracking in early-age mass concrete. In addition, PCM remained in aged concrete has a potential to improve its adaptivity to temperature fluctuations in the service environment

Development And Characterization Of Coal-Based Thermoplastic Composite Material For Sustainable Construction

The exploitation of coal and the disposal of waste plastic present significant environmental and economic challenges that require sustainable and profitable solutions. In response, we propose a renewable construction composite material of coal-based thermoplastic composite (CTC) that can be made from low-grade coal and plastic waste. We developed and tested the hot-press fabrication method for this CTC, using coal with a maximum particle size of 4.75 mm and recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The effects of the coal fraction (50–80 wt.%) on compressive properties, thermal properties, microstructure, and ecological and economic efficiencies of the CTC were investigated. Test results revealed that the compressive strength and modulus decrease as the coal fraction increases. However, the thermal properties, including thermal conductivity and specific heat, increase with higher coal contents. Compared to concrete, the CTC has about half the thermal conductivity and twice the specific heat, making it a more energy-efficient construction material. Microstructure testing helped to reveal the mechanisms behind the above behaviors of CTC from the observation of binder volume, bonding quality between coal and HDPE, and porosity variation. The life cycle analysis indicated that the CTC production reduced embodied energy, carbon footprint, and cost by up to 84%, 73%, and 14%, respectively. Therefore, we recommend the CTC with 50–70% coal fraction as an innovative construction material with satisfied mechanical and thermal properties, better cost efficiency, and a reduced ecological impact

Identification of a mutated BHK-21 cell line that became less susceptible to Japanese encephalitis virus infection

The pathogenesis of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is not definitely elucidated as the initial interaction between virus and host cell receptors required for JEV infection is not clearly defined yet. Here, in order to discover those membrane proteins that may be involved in JEV attachment to or entry into virus permissive BHK-21 cells, a chemically mutated cell line (designated 3A10-3F) that became less susceptible to JEV infection was preliminarily established and selected by repeated low moi JEV challenges and RT-PCR detection for viral RNA E gene fragment. The susceptibility to JEV of 3A10-3F cells was significantly weakened compared with parental BHK-21 cells, verified by indirect immunofluorescence assay, virus plague formation assay, and flow cytometry. Finally, two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) coupled with LC-MS/MS was utilized to recognize the most differentially expressed proteins from membrane protein extracts of 3A10-3F and BHK-21 cells respectively. The noted discrepancy of membrane proteins included calcium binding proteins (annexin A1, annexin A2), and voltage-dependent anion channels proteins (VDAC 1, VDAC 2), suggesting that these molecules may affect JEV attachment to and/or entry into BHK-21 cells and worthy of further investigation

In Situ Monitoring Of The Hydration Of Calcium Silicate Minerals In Cement With A Remote Fiber-optic Raman Probe

This study utilized a novel in situ fiber-optic Raman probe to continuously monitor the hydration progress of tricalcium silicate (C3S) and dicalcium silicate (C2S) without the need for sampling, from early hydration stage to later stages, and from fresh to hardened states of paste samples. By virtue of the remarkable ability of this technique in characterizing either dry or wet and crystalline or amorphous samples, the hydration processes of C3S and C2S pastes with different water-to-solid (w/s) ratios could be monitored from the start of the hydration reaction. The main hydration products, calcium silicate hydrate (C–S–H) and portlandite/calcium hydroxide (CH), have been successfully identified and continuously monitored for variations in their respective amounts in situ. The effect of w/s ratio on the hydration processes of C3S and C2S pastes was also considered. Meanwhile, the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results showed a great correlation with the in situ Raman test results about hydration products, which demonstrated the reliability of this technology. Moreover, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of this Raman probe is significantly superior to existing technologies for in situ fiber-optic Raman spectroscopy. This remote fiber-optic Raman probe enables the use of Raman spectroscopy in future construction projects for on-site monitoring and evaluation of health conditions and performance of concrete structures

Characterization Of Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) Products And C-S-H Using SWIR Spectroscopy For Nondestructive Detection Of ASR

This study explores the feasibility of characterizing alkali-silica reaction (ASR) products and calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H) from short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectroscopy. ASR products and C-S-H samples with different Ca/Si ratios were synthesized and analyzed through XRD, 29Si nuclei magnetic resonance (NMR) and SWIR spectroscopy. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was collected to help interpret the results from the SWIR spectroscopy. The obtained spectroscopic features were applied to quantify the ASR product abundance denoted by the length expansion of mortar bars after an accelerated ASR test. The results show that the SWIR spectra of the synthetic ASR gels are similar regardless of the crystallization status but differ from C-S-H samples. ASR products show only one major absorption at 5210 cm-1 in SWIR while C-S-H samples yield two significant bands at 5820 cm-1 and 4370 cm-1. Shoulders around 6865 cm-1 and 5102 cm-1 are two unique features for ASR products. The length change of mortar bars after the accelerated ASR test logarithmically increases the shoulder absorptance around 6865 cm-1 irrespective of the alkali environment. The disappearance of the shoulder 5102 cm-1 is exclusively observed in the K dominated ASR environment. However, this shoulder absorptance is approximately linear to the ASR expansion of the mortar bars cultivated in Na thriving environment

Pixel-wise Graph Attention Networks for Person Re-identification

Graph convolutional networks (GCN) is widely used to handle irregular data since it updates node features by using the structure information of graph. With the help of iterated GCN, high-order information can be obtained to further enhance the representation of nodes. However, how to apply GCN to structured data (such as pictures) has not been deeply studied. In this paper, we explore the application of graph attention networks (GAT) in image feature extraction. First of all, we propose a novel graph generation algorithm to convert images into graphs through matrix transformation. It is one magnitude faster than the algorithm based on K Nearest Neighbors (KNN). Then, GAT is used on the generated graph to update the node features. Thus, a more robust representation is obtained. These two steps are combined into a module called pixel-wise graph attention module (PGA). Since the graph obtained by our graph generation algorithm can still be transformed into a picture after processing, PGA can be well combined with CNN. Based on these two modules, we consulted the ResNet and design a pixel-wise graph attention network (PGANet). The PGANet is applied to the task of person re-identification in the datasets Market1501, DukeMTMC-reID and Occluded-DukeMTMC (outperforms state-of-the-art by 0.8\%, 1.1\% and 11\% respectively, in mAP scores). Experiment results show that it achieves the state-of-the-art performance. \href{https://github.com/wenyu1009/PGANet}{The code is available here}

Does Japanese encephalitis virus share the same cellular receptor with other mosquito-borne flaviviruses on the C6/36 mosquito cells?

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a member of mosquito-borne Flaviviridae. To date, the mechanisms of the early events of JEV infection remain poorly understood, and the cellular receptors are unidentified. There are evidences that the structure of the virus attachment proteins (VAP), envelope glycoprotein of mosquito-borne flaviviruses is very similar, and the vector-virus interaction of mosquito-borne flaviviruses is also very similar. Based on the studies previously demonstrated that the similar molecules present on the mosquito cells involved in the uptake process of JEV, West Nile virus (WNV) and Dengue virus (DV), it is proposed that the same receptor molecules for mosquito-borne flaviviruses (JEV, WNV and DV) may present on the surface of C6/36 mosquito cells. By co-immunoprecipitation assay, we investigated a 74-KDa protein on the C6/36 cells binds JEV, and the mass spectrometry results indicated it may be heat shock cognate protein 70(HSC70) from Aedes aegypti. Based upon some other viruses use of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family proteins as cell receptors, its possible HSC70's involvement in the fusion of the JEV E protein with the C6/36 cells membrane, and known form of cation channels in the interaction of HSC70 with the lipid bilayer, it will further be proposed that HSC70 as a penetration receptor mediates JEV entry into C6/36 cells