Panoramic Vision Transformer for Saliency Detection in 360{\deg} Videos

360$^\circ$ video saliency detection is one of the challenging benchmarks for 360$^\circ$ video understanding since non-negligible distortion and discontinuity occur in the projection of any format of 360$^\circ$ videos, and capture-worthy viewpoint in the omnidirectional sphere is ambiguous by nature. We present a new framework named Panoramic Vision Transformer (PAVER). We design the encoder using Vision Transformer with deformable convolution, which enables us not only to plug pretrained models from normal videos into our architecture without additional modules or finetuning but also to perform geometric approximation only once, unlike previous deep CNN-based approaches. Thanks to its powerful encoder, PAVER can learn the saliency from three simple relative relations among local patch features, outperforming state-of-the-art models for the Wild360 benchmark by large margins without supervision or auxiliary information like class activation. We demonstrate the utility of our saliency prediction model with the omnidirectional video quality assessment task in VQA-ODV, where we consistently improve performance without any form of supervision, including head movement.Comment: Published to ECCV202

Additional effect of magnesium sulfate and vitamin C in laparoscopic gynecologic surgery for postoperative pain management: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

Background This clinical trial was conducted to determine whether combined use of magnesium sulfate and vitamin C more significantly reduced postoperative fentanyl consumption and pain than magnesium sulfate or vitamin C alone. Methods The prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled study enrolled 132 patients scheduled for laparoscopic gynecologic surgery. The patients were randomly allocated to one of the four groups (n = 33 for each group; Group M [magnesium sulfate 40 mg/kg], Group V [vitamin C 50 mg/kg], Group MV [magnesium sulfate 40 mg/kg and vitamin C 50 mg/kg] and Group C [isotonic saline 40 ml]). Cumulative postoperative fentanyl consumption (primary endpoint measure), postoperative pain score by numeric rating scale, and postoperative nausea and vomiting were recorded at 1, 6, 24, and 48 h after discharge from the postanesthesia care unit. Results Cumulative postoperative fentanyl consumption was significantly less in Groups M, V, and MV than in Group C at all time points. Group MV showed significantly less cumulative postoperative fentanyl consumption than Group M at postoperative 24 h (mean ± standard deviation, 156.6 ± 67.5 vs. 235.6 ± 94.6 µg, P = 0.001), as well as significantly less consumption than Groups M and V at postoperative 48 h (190.8 ± 74.6 vs. 301.0 ± 114.8 or 284.1 ± 128.6 µg, P < 0.001, P = 0.003, respectively). Conclusions Combined use of magnesium sulfate and vitamin C provides an additional benefit in postoperative pain management after laparoscopic gynecologic surgery in comparison to single administration of magnesium sulfate or vitamin C

Bisphenol Analogues in Sediments from Industrialized Areas in the United States, Japan, and Korea: Spatial and Temporal Distributions

Bisphenol analogues are used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. Despite the widespread use of bisphenols, few studies have reported the occurrence of compounds other than bisphenol A (BPA) in sediment. In this study, concentrations and profiles of eight bisphenol analogues were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) in sediments collected from several industrialized areas in the United States (U.S.), Japan, and Korea. The total concentrations of bisphenols (ΣBPs; sum of eight bisphenols) in sediment ranged from below the limit of quantitation (LOQ) to 25 300 ng/g dry weight (dw), with a mean value of 201 ng/g dw. Sediment samples from Lake Shihwa, Korea, contained the highest concentrations of both individual and total bisphenols. Among individual bisphenols, BPA and bisphenol F (BPF) were the predominant compounds, accounting for 64% and 30% of the total bisphenol concentrations in sediment. We also examined vertical profiles of concentrations of bisphenol analogues in sediment cores from the U.S. and Japan. Sediment cores from the U.S. showed a gradual decline in the concentrations of bisphenols as compared to the past decade. BPA concentrations were found to decline in a sediment core from Tokyo Bay, but bisphenol S (BPS) was more frequently detected in core sections that represent the most recent decade, which is consistent with the replacement of BPA with BPS in some applications since 2001 in Japan

Preventive Effect of Anemarrhenae rhizome and Phellodendri cortex on Danazol-Induced in Precocious Puberty in Female Rats and Network Pharmacological Analysis of Active Compounds

Anemarrhenae rhizome and Phellodendri cortex have historically been used for the treatment of precocious puberty (PP) in oriental medicine. Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of APE, a mixture of the extracts from these herbs, against danazol-induced PP in female rats. The offspring were injected danazol to establish the PP model, and then treated with APE daily, and observed for vaginal opening. At the end of the study, the levels of gonadotropic hormones, such as estradiol, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone, were determined by ELISA. Moreover, the mRNA expression of GnRH, netrin-1, and UNC5C in hypothalamic tissues was determined by real-time PCR. Network pharmacological analysis was performed to predict the active compounds of APE and their potential actions. APE treatment delayed vaginal opening in rats with PP. In addition, APE treatment reduced LH levels and suppressed UNC5C expression. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that the targets of APE were significantly associated with GnRH signaling and ovarian steroidogenesis pathways. In conclusion, APE may be used as a therapeutic remedy to inhibit the activation of the hypothalamic&ndash;pituitary&ndash;gonadal axis

Direct In Situ Growth of Centimeter‐Scale Multi‐Heterojunction MoS2/WS2/WSe2 Thin‐Film Catalyst for Photo‐Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution

To date, the in situ fabrication of the large-scale van der Waals multi-heterojunction transition metal dichalcogenides (multi-TMDs) is significantly challenging using conventional deposition methods. In this study, vertically stacked centimeter-scale multi-TMD (MoS2/WS2/WSe2 and MoS2/WSe2) thin films are successfully fabricated via sequential pulsed laser deposition (PLD), which is an in situ growth process. The fabricated MoS2/WS2/WSe2 thin film on p-type silicon (p-Si) substrate is designed to form multistaggered gaps (type-II band structure) with p-Si, and this film exhibits excellent spatial and thickness uniformity, which is verified by Raman spectroscopy. Among various application fields, MoS2/WS2/WSe2 is applied to the thin-film catalyst of a p-Si photocathode, to effectively transfer the photogenerated electrons from p-Si to the electrolyte in the photo-electrochemical (PEC) hydrogen evolution. From a comparison between the PEC performances of the homostructure TMDs (homo-TMDs)/p-Si and multi-TMDs/p-Si, it is demonstrated that the multistaggered gap of multi-TMDs/p-Si improves the PEC performance significantly more than the homo-TMDs/p-Si and bare p-Si by effective charge transfer. The new in situ growth process for the fabrication of multi-TMD thin films offers a novel and innovative method for the application of multi-TMD thin films to various fields

Temporal Trends of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in the Blood of Newborns from New York State during 1997 through 2011: Analysis of Dried Blood Spots from the Newborn Screening Program

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants, and on a global basis, North American populations are exposed to the highest doses of PBDEs. In response to the exponential increase in human exposure to PBDEs during the late 1990s, some PBDE formulations were phased out from production in the early 2000s. The effectiveness of the phase-out of commercial penta-BDE and octa-BDE mixtures in 2004 in the U.S. on human exposure levels is not known. Dried blood spots (DBSs), collected for the newborn screening program (NSP) in the U.S., are a valuable resource for the elucidation of trends in exposure to environmental pollutants in newborns. In this study, seven PBDE congeners were determined by gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) in archived DBS samples (in total, 51 blood spot composites from 1224 newborns) collected from newborns in New York State (NYS) from 1997 to 2011. The most frequently detected PBDE congener was BDE-47, with a detection rate (DR) of 86%, followed by BDE-99 (DR: 45%) and BDE-100 (DR: 43%). The mean concentrations determined during 1997 through 2011 in the whole blood of newborns were 0.128, 0.040, and 0.012 ng/mL for BDE-47, -99, and -100, respectively. A significant correlation was found among the concentrations of three major congeners (<i>p</i> < 0.001). PBDE concentrations were similar during 1997 through 2002 and, thereafter, decreased significantly, which was similar to the trends observed for perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in DBS samples. Occurrence of PBDEs in the whole blood of newborns confirms that these compounds do cross the placental barrier

Plasmonic Silver Nanoparticle-Impregnated Nanocomposite BiVO₄ Photoanode for Plasmon-Enhanced Photocatalytic Water Splitting

Herein, we developed a fully solution-deposited nanocomposite photoanode based on silver nanoparticle (NP)-impregnated bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) films. The synthesized Ag NPs exhibit diameters of few nanometers and uniform matrix dispersion, which were confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The photoanode composed of the Ag NP-incorporated nanocomposite BiVO₄ showed a remarkable enhancement in both low potential and the saturated photocatalytic current densities in comparison with the pristine BiVO₄ film. The observed experimental results are attributed to the improved carrier generation and enhanced charge separation by the localized surface plasmon resonance-mediated effect as suggested by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and a numerical simulation