Sora Generates Videos with Stunning Geometrical Consistency

The recently developed Sora model [1] has exhibited remarkable capabilities in video generation, sparking intense discussions regarding its ability to simulate real-world phenomena. Despite its growing popularity, there is a lack of established metrics to evaluate its fidelity to real-world physics quantitatively. In this paper, we introduce a new benchmark that assesses the quality of the generated videos based on their adherence to real-world physics principles. We employ a method that transforms the generated videos into 3D models, leveraging the premise that the accuracy of 3D reconstruction is heavily contingent on the video quality. From the perspective of 3D reconstruction, we use the fidelity of the geometric constraints satisfied by the constructed 3D models as a proxy to gauge the extent to which the generated videos conform to real-world physics rules. Project page: https://sora-geometrical-consistency.github.io/Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Direct Conversion of Methane to Propylene

Nonoxidative coupling of methane exhibits promising prospect in that it affords value-added hydrocarbons and hydrogen with high atom economy. However, challenge remains in direct, selective conversion of methane to more valuable hydrocarbons like olefins. The current work presents a catalyst with well-dispersed Ta atoms anchored by graphitic C3N4-supported phthalocyanine. Such a catalyst is able to convert methane selectively to ethylene and propylene at a relatively low temperature (350 °C). The conception of the active center and construction of the catalyst have been described, and the origins of the catalytic performance are discussed

The Combination of Transformer and You Only Look Once for Automatic Concrete Pavement Crack Detection

The real-time detection of cracks is an important part of road maintenance and an important initiative to reduce traffic accidents caused by road cracks. In response to the lack of efficiency of current research results for the real-time detection of road cracks and the low storage and computational capacity of edge devices, a new automatic crack detection algorithm is proposed: BT–YOLO. We combined Bottleneck Transformer with You Only Look Once (YOLO), which is more conducive to extracting the features of small cracks than YOLOv5s. The introduction of DWConv to the feature extraction network reduced the number of parameters and improved the inference speed of the network. We embedded the SimAM (Simple, Parameter-Free Attention Module) non-parametric attention mechanism to make the crack features more prominent. The experimental results showed that the accuracy of BT–YOLO in crack detection was increased by 4.5%, the mapped value was increased by 8%, and the parameter amount was decreased by 24.9%. Eventually, we deployed edge devices for testing. The frame rate reached 89, which satisfied the requirements of real-time crack detection

Kinetic Study of Hydroxyl and Sulfate Radical-Mediated Oxidation of Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater Effluents

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), such as hydroxyl radical (HO^•)- and sulfate radical (SO₄^•–)-mediated oxidation, are alternatives for the attenuation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in wastewater effluents. However, the kinetics of these reactions needs to be investigated. In this study, kinetic models for 15 PPCPs were built to predict the degradation of PPCPs in both HO^•- and SO₄^•‑-mediated oxidation. In the UV/H₂O₂ process, a simplified kinetic model involving only steady state concentrations of HO^• and its biomolecular reaction rate constants is suitable for predicting the removal of PPCPs, indicating the dominant role of HO^• in the removal of PPCPs. In the UV/K₂S₂O₈ process, the calculated steady state concentrations of CO₃^•– and bromine radicals (Br^•, Br₂^•– and BrCl^•–) were 600-fold and 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than the concentrations of SO₄^•–, respectively. The kinetic model, involving both SO₄^•– and CO₃^•– as reactive species, was more accurate for predicting the removal of the 9 PPCPs, except for salbutamol and nitroimidazoles. The steric and ionic effects of organic matter toward SO₄^•– could lead to overestimations of the removal efficiencies of the SO₄^•–-mediated oxidation of nitroimidazoles in wastewater effluents

Selective Adsorption and Electrocatalysis of Polysulfides through Hexatomic Nickel Clusters Embedded in N-Doped Graphene toward High-Performance Li-S Batteries

The shuttle effect hinders the practical application of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries due to the poor affinity between a substrate and Li polysulfides (LiPSs) and the sluggish transition of soluble LiPSs to insoluble Li2S or elemental S. Here, we report that Ni hexatomic clusters embedded in a nitrogen-doped three-dimensional (3D) graphene framework (Ni-N/G) possess stronger interaction with soluble polysulfides than that with insoluble polysulfides. The synthetic electrocatalyst deployed in the sulfur cathode plays a multifunctional role: (i) selectively adsorbing the polysulfides dissolved in the electrolyte, (ii) expediting the sluggish liquid-solid phase transformations at the active sites as electrocatalysts, and (iii) accelerating the kinetics of the electrochemical reaction of multielectron sulfur, thereby inhibiting the dissolution of LiPSs. The constructed S@Ni-N/G cathode delivers an areal capacity of 9.43 mAh cm-2 at 0.1 C at S loading of 6.8 mg cm-2, and it exhibits a gravimetric capacity of 1104 mAh g-1 with a capacity fading rate of 0.045% per cycle over 50 cycles at 0.2 C at S loading of 2.0 mg cm-2. This work opens a rational approach to achieve the selective adsorption and expediting of polysulfide transition for the performance enhancement of Li-S batteries

Immune-checkpoint inhibitor plus chemotherapy versus conventional chemotherapy for first-line treatment in advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Background Immune-checkpoint inhibitors plus chemotherapy are emerging as effective first-line treatment in advanced non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), but little is known about the magnitude of benefits and potential clinical predictors. Methods We performed a meta-analysis of randomized trials that compared PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy with chemotherapy in first line of treatment for advanced NSCLC. The outcomes included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR) and treatment-related adverse events (AEs). A fixed-effect or random-effects model was adopted depending on between-study heterogeneity. Results Six trials involving 3144 patients were included. PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy was significantly associated with improvement of PFS (hazards ratio [HR], 0.62; 95% CI 0.57–0.67; P < .001), OS (HR, 0.68; 95% CI 0.53–0.87; P = .002) and ORR (relative ratio [RR], 1.56; 95% CI 1.29–1.89; P < .001), irrespective of PD-L1 expression level. The significant predictor(s) for treatment benefit with combination therapy versus chemotherapy alone were PD-L1 expression level for PFS (P < .001); types of checkpoint inhibitor for ORR (P < .001); histology (P = .025), age (P = .038), gender (P < .001), and types of checkpoint inhibitor (P < .001) for OS. In safety analyses, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy had significantly higher incidence of adverse events (AEs) of grade 3 or higher (RR, 1.14; P = .007), AEs leading to treatment discontinuation (RR, 1.29; P = .022), serious AEs (RR 1.70; P = .006), immune mediated AEs of any grade (RR, 2.37; P < .001), and immune mediated AEs of grade 3 or higher (RR, 3.71; P < .001). Conclusions PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy, compared with chemotherapy, is associated with significantly improved PFS, ORR, and OS in first-line therapy in NSCLC, at the expense of increased treatment-related AEs

Radical Chemistry and Structural Relationships of PPCP Degradation by UV/Chlorine Treatment in Simulated Drinking Water

The UV/chlorine process is an emerging advanced oxidation process (AOP) used for the degradation of micropollutants. However, the radical chemistry of this AOP is largely unknown for the degradation of numerous structurally diverse micropollutants in water matrices of varying quality. These issues were addressed by grouping 34 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) according to the radical chemistry of their degradation in the UV/chlorine process at practical PPCP concentrations (1 μg L^–1) and in different water matrices. The contributions of HO^• and reactive chlorine species (RCS), including Cl^•, Cl₂^•–, and ClO^•, to the degradation of different PPCPs were compound specific. RCS showed considerable reactivity with olefins and benzene derivatives, such as phenols, anilines, and alkyl-/alkoxybenzenes. A good linear relationship was found between the RCS reactivity and negative values of the Hammett ∑σ_p⁺ constant for aromatic PPCPs, indicating that electron-donating groups promote the attack of benzene derivatives by RCS. The contribution of HO^•, but not necessarily RCS, to PPCP removal decreased with increasing pH. ClO^• showed high reactivity with some PPCPs, such as carbamazepine, caffeine, and gemfibrozil, with second-order rate constants of 9.2 × 10⁷, 1.03 × 10⁸, and 4.16 × 10⁸ M^–1 s^–1, respectively, which contributed to their degradation. Natural organic matter (NOM) induced significant scavenging of ClO^• and greatly decreased the degradation of PPCPs that was attributable to ClO^•, with a second-order rate constant of 4.5 × 10⁴ (mg L^–1)⁻¹ s^–1. Alkalinity inhibited the degradation of PPCPs that was primarily attacked by HO^• and Cl^• but had negligible effects on the degradation of PPCPs by ClO^•. This is the first study on the reactivity of RCS, particularly ClO^•, with structurally diverse PPCPs under simulated drinking water condition

Chlorate Formation Mechanism in the Presence of Sulfate Radical, Chloride, Bromide and Natural Organic Matter

Halides and natural organic matter (NOM) are inevitable in aquatic environment and influence the degradation of contaminants in sulfate radical (SO₄^•–)-based advanced oxidation processes. This study investigated the formation of chlorate in the coexposure of SO₄^•–, chloride (Cl^–), bromide (Br^–) and/or NOM in UV/persulfate (UV/PDS) and cobalt­(II)/peroxymonosulfate (Co/PMS) systems. The formation of chlorate increased with increasing Cl^– concentration in the UV/PDS system, however, in the Co/PMS system, it initially increased and then decreased. The chlorate formation involved the formation of hypochlorous acid/hypochlorite (HOCl/OCl^–) as an intermediate in both systems. The formation was primarily attributable to SO₄^•– in the UV/PDS system, whereas Co­(III) played a significant role in the oxidation of Cl^– to HOCl/OCl^– and SO₄^•– was important for the oxidation of HOCl/OCl^– to chlorate in the Co/PMS system. The pseudo-first-order rate constants (<i>k′</i>) of the transformation from Cl^– to HOCl/OCl^– were 3.32 × 10^–6 s^–1 and 9.23 × 10^–3 s^–1 in UV/PDS and Co/PMS, respectively. Meanwhile, <i>k′</i> of HOCl/OCl^– to chlorate in UV/PDS and Co/PMS were 2.43 × 10^–3 s^–1 and 2.70 × 10^–4 s^–1, respectively. Br^– completely inhibited the chlorate formation in UV/PDS, but inhibited it by 45.2% in Co/PMS. The <i>k′</i> of SO₄^•– reacting with Br^– to form hypobromous acid/hypobromite (HOBr/OBr^–) was calculated to be 378 times higher than that of Cl^– to HOCl/OCl^–, but the <i>k′</i> of Co­(III) reacting with Br^– to form HOBr/OBr^– was comparable to that of Cl^– to HOCl/OCl^–. NOM also significantly inhibited the chlorate formation, due to the consumption of SO₄^•– and reactive chlorine species (RCS, such as Cl<b>·</b>, ClO<b>·</b> and HOCl/OCl^–). This study demonstrated the formation of chlorate in SO₄^•–-based AOPs, which should to be considered in their application in water treatment