Semantic Lens: Instance-Centric Semantic Alignment for Video Super-Resolution

As a critical clue of video super-resolution (VSR), inter-frame alignment significantly impacts overall performance. However, accurate pixel-level alignment is a challenging task due to the intricate motion interweaving in the video. In response to this issue, we introduce a novel paradigm for VSR named Semantic Lens, predicated on semantic priors drawn from degraded videos. Specifically, video is modeled as instances, events, and scenes via a Semantic Extractor. Those semantics assist the Pixel Enhancer in understanding the recovered contents and generating more realistic visual results. The distilled global semantics embody the scene information of each frame, while the instance-specific semantics assemble the spatial-temporal contexts related to each instance. Furthermore, we devise a Semantics-Powered Attention Cross-Embedding (SPACE) block to bridge the pixel-level features with semantic knowledge, composed of a Global Perspective Shifter (GPS) and an Instance-Specific Semantic Embedding Encoder (ISEE). Concretely, the GPS module generates pairs of affine transformation parameters for pixel-level feature modulation conditioned on global semantics. After that, the ISEE module harnesses the attention mechanism to align the adjacent frames in the instance-centric semantic space. In addition, we incorporate a simple yet effective pre-alignment module to alleviate the difficulty of model training. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our model over existing state-of-the-art VSR methods.Comment: Accepted to AAAI 202

Distributed Target Tracking with Fading Channels over Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper investigates the problem of distributed target tracking via underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) with fading channels. The degradation of signal quality due to wireless channel fading can significantly impact network reliability and subsequently reduce the tracking accuracy. To address this issue, we propose a modified distributed unscented Kalman filter (DUKF) named DUKF-Fc, which takes into account the effects of measurement fluctuation and transmission failure induced by channel fading. The channel estimation error is also considered when designing the estimator and a sufficient condition is established to ensure the stochastic boundedness of the estimation error. The proposed filtering scheme is versatile and possesses wide applicability to numerous real-world scenarios, e.g., tracking a maneuvering underwater target with acoustic sensors. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed filtering algorithm. In addition, considering the constraints of network energy resources, the issue of investigating a trade-off between tracking performance and energy consumption is discussed accordingly.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 6 table

Joint Power and Multiple Access Control for Wireless Mesh Network with Rose Projection Method

This paper investigates the utility maximization problem for the downlink of the multi-interface multichannel wireless mesh network with orthogonal frequency division multiple access. A cross-layer joint power and multiple access control algorithm are proposed. Rosen projection matrix is combined with Solodov projection techniques to build a three-memory gradient Rosen projection method, which is applied to solve this optimization problem. The convergence analysis is given and simulations show that the proposed solution achieves significant throughput compared with existing approaches

Synthesis of thiolated chitosan and preparation nanoparticles with sodium alginate for ocular drug delivery

Purpose: The goal of the present study was to synthesize mucoadhesive polymer -thiolated chitosan (TCS) from chitosan (CS), then prepared CS/TCS-sodium alginate nanoparticles (CS/TCS-SA NPs), determined which was more potential for ocular drug delivery. Methods: A new method for preparing TCS was developed, and the characteristics were determined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and the degree of thiol immobilized was measured by Ellman's reagent. Human corneal epithelium (HCE) cells were incubated with different concentrations of TCS for 48 h to determine the cell viabilities. CS/ TCS-SA NPs were prepared and optimized by a modified ionic gelation method. The particle sizes, zeta potentials, Scanning electron microscopy images, mucoadhesion, in vitro cell uptake and in vivo studies of the two types of NP were compared. Results: The new method enabled a high degree of thiol substitution of TCS, up to 1,411.01±4.02 μmol/g. In vitro cytocompatibility results suggest that TCS is nontoxic. Compared to CS-SA NPs, TCS-SA NPs were more stable, with higher mucoadhesive properties and could deliver greater amounts of drugs into HCE cells in vitro and cornea in vivo. Conclusions: TCS-SA NPs have better delivery capability, suggesting they have good potential for ocular drug delivery applications

Distributed Optimal Power and Rate Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

With the rapid development of wireless sensor networks, reducing energy consumption is becoming one of the important factors to extend node lifetime, and it is necessary to adjust the launching power of each node because of the limited energy available to the sensor nodes in the networks. This paper proposes a power and rate control model based on the network utility maximization (NUM) framework, where a weighting factor is used to reflect the influence degree of the sending power and transmission rate to the utility function. In real networks, nodes interfere with each other in the procedure of transmitting signal, which may lead to signal transmission failure and may negatively have impacts on networks throughput. Using dual decomposition techniques, the NUM problem is decomposed into two distributed subproblems, and then the conjugate gradient method is applied to solve the optimization problem with the calculation of the Hessian matrix and its inverse in order to guarantee fast convergence of the algorithm. The convergence proof is also provided in this paper. Numerical examples show that the proposed solution achieves significant throughput compared with exiting approaches

Semantic Lens: Instance-Centric Semantic Alignment for Video Super-resolution

As a critical clue of video super-resolution (VSR), inter-frame alignment significantly impacts overall performance. However, accurate pixel-level alignment is a challenging task due to the intricate motion interweaving in the video. In response to this issue, we introduce a novel paradigm for VSR named Semantic Lens, predicated on semantic priors drawn from degraded videos. Specifically, video is modeled as instances, events, and scenes via a Semantic Extractor. Those semantics assist the Pixel Enhancer in understanding the recovered contents and generating more realistic visual results. The distilled global semantics embody the scene information of each frame, while the instance-specific semantics assemble the spatial-temporal contexts related to each instance. Furthermore, we devise a Semantics-Powered Attention Cross-Embedding (SPACE) block to bridge the pixel-level features with semantic knowledge, composed of a Global Perspective Shifter (GPS) and an Instance-Specific Semantic Embedding Encoder (ISEE). Concretely, the GPS module generates pairs of affine transformation parameters for pixel-level feature modulation conditioned on global semantics. After that the ISEE module harnesses the attention mechanism to align the adjacent frames in the instance-centric semantic space. In addition, we incorporate a simple yet effective pre-alignment module to alleviate the difficulty of model training. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our model over existing state-of-the-art VSR methods

Association of Genotyping of Bacillus cereus with Clinical Features of Post-Traumatic Endophthalmitis.

Bacillus cereus is the second most frequent cause of post-traumatic bacterial endophthalmitis. Although genotyping of B. cereus associated with gastrointestinal infections has been reported, little is known about the B. cereus clinical isolates associated with post-traumatic endophthalmitis. This is largely due to the limited number of clinical strains available isolated from infected tissues of patients with post-traumatic endophthalmitis. In this study, we report successful isolation of twenty-four B. cereus strains from individual patients with different disease severity of post-traumatic endophthalmitis. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all strains could be categorized into three genotypes (GTI, GTII and GTIII) and the clinical score showed significant differences among these groups. We then further performed genotyping using the vrrA gene, and evaluated possible correlation of genotype with the clinical features of B. cereus-caused post-traumatic endophthalmitis, and with the prognosis of infection by conducting follow-up with patients for up to 2 months. We found that the disease of onset and final vision acuity were significantly different among the three groups. These results suggested that the vrrA gene may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of endophthalmitis, and genotyping of B. cereus has the potential for predicting clinical manifestation and prognosis of endophthalmitis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of isolation of large numbers of clinical isolates of B. cereus from patients with endophthalmitis. This work sets the foundation for future investigation of the pathogenesis endophthalmitis caused by B. cereus infection

Identification and Dissipation of Chlorpyrifos and Its Main Metabolite 3,5,6-TCP during Wheat Growth with UPLC-QTOF/MS

Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography system coupled to a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (UPLC-QTOF/MS) technology was used to investigate the degradation and metabolism of chlorpyrifos during wheat growth by spraying plants with different doses of chlorpyrifos 7 days after the flowering and filling stage. We analyzed and identified chlorpyrifos metabolites in different parts of wheat in full-scan MSE mode, and established a chlorpyrifos metabolite screening library using UNIFI software. The results show that the residues of chlorpyrifos in wheat ears, leaves, and stems exhibited a decreasing trend with the prolongation of application time, and the degradation kinetics could be fitted with the first-order kinetic equation Ct = C0 e−kt. The initial residues of chlorpyrifos in different parts of the wheat were different, in the order of leaves > wheat ears > stems. The degradation rate of chlorpyrifos under field conditions is relatively fast, and the half-life value is 2.33–5.05 days. Chlorpyrifos can undergo a nucleophilic addition substitution reaction under the action of hydrolase to generate secondary metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (3,5,6-TCP). The residual amount of 3,5,6-TCP in each part of wheat first showed an increasing trend and then decreased over time. It reached the maximum on the 3rd, 7th, or 11th day after application, and then gradually degraded. Considering that 3,5,6-TCP is a biomarker with potential threats to humans and animals, it is recommended that 3,5,6-TCP be included in the relevant regulations for dietary exposure risk assessment