Human in Events: A Large-Scale Benchmark for Human-centric Video Analysis in Complex Events

Along with the development of modern smart cities, human-centric video analysis has been encountering the challenge of analyzing diverse and complex events in real scenes. A complex event relates to dense crowds, anomalous, or collective behaviors. However, limited by the scale of existing video datasets, few human analysis approaches have reported their performance on such complex events. To this end, we present a new large-scale dataset, named Human-in-Events or HiEve (Human-centric video analysis in complex Events), for the understanding of human motions, poses, and actions in a variety of realistic events, especially in crowd and complex events. It contains a record number of poses (>1M), the largest number of action instances (>56k) under complex events, as well as one of the largest numbers of trajectories lasting for longer time (with an average trajectory length of >480 frames). Based on this dataset, we present an enhanced pose estimation baseline by utilizing the potential of action information to guide the learning of more powerful 2D pose features. We demonstrate that the proposed method is able to boost the performance of existing pose estimation pipelines on our HiEve dataset. Furthermore, we conduct extensive experiments to benchmark recent video analysis approaches together with our baseline methods, demonstrating that HiEve is a challenging dataset for human-centric video analysis. We expect that the dataset will advance the development of cutting-edge techniques in human-centric analysis and the understanding of complex events. The dataset is available at http://humaninevents.orgComment: Dataset for Large-scale Human-centric Video Analysis in Complex Events (http://humaninevents.org

Parametric Updating of Steel Strand Stay Cable Force Calculation Model Based on Response Surface Method

In order to solve the problem that the calculation result of cable force deviates from the measured value because the parameters of steel strand stay cable are not exactly equal to the designed value in practical engineering, a model updating method selecting the steel strand stay cable parameters as the updating parameters and using more measured data as the objective function was proposed. This method selects the central composite design in the response surface method. In the fine-fitting model affected by the cross-term and high-order terms between parameters, the value of the parameter to be corrected is optimized according to the measured data. Using the above method, taking a cable-stayed bridge without a backstay as the engineering background, the model updating is carried out by using the cable force monitoring data during the construction monitoring process. The results show that using this method, the updated values of the parameters of the cable can be obtained according to the measured data, and the updated values of the parameters are consistent with the reality. The deviation between the calculated value of cable force and the actual cable tension obtained according to the parameter updating decreases significantly, and most of the deviation is reduced from 30% to 50% before the updating to less than 5%. The updating effect is obvious and meets the engineering requirements

Structural system design and earthquake response analysis of prefabricated pile-plate bridge

With the advancement of building technology, the pile-plate structure, which originated in railway engineering, has been adopted into highway engineering. This study presents a new pile-plate structure connecting node. The addition of energy-dissipating components at the nodes and the use of non-shrinkage concrete at the joints demonstrate its novelty. The node’s ability to enter the plastic stage is enhanced, resulting in increased seismic performance. In this study, the seismic performance and energy consumption capacity of the pile plate joint were studied by numerical model, and the results showed that the stagnation curve of the pipe pile under low cycle reciprocating load was full and had good energy consumption capacity. Under the action of random seismic vibration, the displacement of the pile plate structure in one direction is up to 0.023 m, which meets the requirements of the specification. The innovative pile-plate joints are used in a nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis of the constructed bridge structure

Analysis of Laser Cell Response Characteristics under Different Irradiation Conditions

Although the application of laser wireless energy transmission technology in many fields such as UAV power supply is increasing, the laser incidence angle and beam shift remain the key factors limiting the efficiency of long-range laser wireless energy transmission. In this study, a laser cell response test platform was built to measure and analyze the response characteristics of a laser cell under different laser incidence angles and beam shifts. The results show that the increase in the incident angle intensifies the reflection on the irradiated surface, resulting in a linear decrease in the power density received by the laser cell, which eventually leads to a significant decrease in the output power, and the output power tends to be close to 0 when the incident angle exceeds 75°. The increase in the beam offset distance increases the reverse bias of the cell, which is the main reason for the significant decrease in the output power. The local irradiation also leads to an increase in the heat generation power; when the beam coverage is below 50%, the overall output power tends to be close to 0. This study provides a reference for improving the laser wireless energy transmission efficiency and laser cell optimization

Numerical Analysis of the Influence of Prestressed Steel Wires on Vehicle-Bridge Coupling Vibration of Simply Supported Beams on High-Speed Railway

By the theory of vehicle-bridge coupled vibration analysis in railways, the dynamic analysis model for space of the train-track-bridge-steel wires coupled system was established. Moreover, a corresponding program was compiled based on the train-track-bridge-steel wires coupling vibration analysis method. Taking a 32 m simple beam which is in high-speed railways as the subject of study, the influence of effective prestress, steel wires eccentricity and vehicle speed on the dynamic response of the vehicle-bridge coupled vibration was analysed. The results show that the bridge dynamic response is remarkably influenced by prestressed steel wires. With the prestress increasing, the crest of the vertical dynamic response at the midspan decreased first, then increased. Moreover, the minimum peak value appeared when the prestress was 1300 MPa. When the steel wires were deflected downward relative to the design position, the vertical displacement of the bridge decreased by more than when the downshift occurred. The extreme values of the bridge lateral dynamic response and the train body acceleration response appeared when the train ran at 300 km/h. Prestressed steel wires had little effect on the dynamic response in the transverse direction of the bridge and train body

Analysis of Laser Cell Response Characteristics under Different Irradiation Conditions

Although the application of laser wireless energy transmission technology in many fields such as UAV power supply is increasing, the laser incidence angle and beam shift remain the key factors limiting the efficiency of long-range laser wireless energy transmission. In this study, a laser cell response test platform was built to measure and analyze the response characteristics of a laser cell under different laser incidence angles and beam shifts. The results show that the increase in the incident angle intensifies the reflection on the irradiated surface, resulting in a linear decrease in the power density received by the laser cell, which eventually leads to a significant decrease in the output power, and the output power tends to be close to 0 when the incident angle exceeds 75°. The increase in the beam offset distance increases the reverse bias of the cell, which is the main reason for the significant decrease in the output power. The local irradiation also leads to an increase in the heat generation power; when the beam coverage is below 50%, the overall output power tends to be close to 0. This study provides a reference for improving the laser wireless energy transmission efficiency and laser cell optimization

ATGL expression in visceral adipose tissues of Tshr-/- mice increased compared to that of Tshr+/+ mice.

<p>The epididymal adipose tissue was frozen in liquid nitrogen. Protein and mRNA were extracted according to the methods described before. (A) The protein expression levels of ATGL in the white adipose tissues of the <i>Tshr-/-</i> mice and <i>Tshr+/+</i> mice were detected by Western blotting. The relative ATGL protein levels were quantified by densitometry and normalized with β-actin. (B) The mRNA levels of ATGL in the white adipose tissue of the two types of mice were determined by real-time PCR and normalized with actin. The relative values representing the ATGL mRNA levels in the <i>Tshr-/-</i> mice are reported as fold changes relative to those of the <i>Tshr+/+</i> mice. The data are from 4 independent experiments and are presented as the mean ± SD. ** p < 0.01 <i>versus Tshr+/+</i> mice. * p < 0.05 <i>versus Tshr+/+</i> mice.</p

TSH stimulated ATGL protein expression in 3T3-L1 during the process of differentiation.

<p>Proteins were extracted from 3T3-L1 cells during the differentiation process every other day. Solubilized proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotted for ATGL and β-actin as indicated. Representative Western blot results are shown. The relative ATGL protein levels were quantified by densitometry and normalized with β-actin. The data are presented as the mean ± SD. ** p < 0.01 <i>versus</i> control group. Original magnification: 400×.</p

Amelioration of hepatic steatosis is associated with modulation of gut microbiota and suppression of hepatic miR-34a in Gynostemma pentaphylla (Thunb.) Makino treated mice

Abstract Background Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic and progressive liver disease with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. However, so far no specific pharmacotherapy has been approved. Gynostemma pentaphylla (Thunb.) Makino (GP) is a traditional Chinese medicine that is widely used against hyperlipemia as well as hyperglycemia. This study aims to evaluate the effect of GP on NAFLD and explore the possible mechanism. Methods High-fat-diet induced NAFLD mice model were orally administrated with GP at dose of 11.7 g/kg or equivalent volume of distilled water once a day for 16 weeks. Body weight, food intake and energy expenditure were assessed to evaluate the general condition of mice. The triglycerides, total cholesterol content in the liver and liver histopathology, serum lipid profile and serum insulin level, fecal microbiome, hepatic microRNAs and relative target genes were analyzed. Results Mice in GP treatment group displayed improved hepatic triglycerides content with lower lipid droplet in hepatocyte and NAFLD activity score. Besides, GP treatment altered the composition of gut microbiota and the relative abundance of some of the key components that are implicated in metabolic disorders, especially phylum Firmicutes (Eubacterium, Blautia, Clostridium and Lactobacillus). Several hepatic microRNAs were downregulated by GP treatment such as miR-130a, miR-34a, miR-29a, miR-199a, among which the expression miR-34a was altered by more than four-fold compared to that of HFD group (3:14). The correlation analysis showed that miR-34a was strongly related to the change of gut microbiota especially phylum Firmicutes (R = 0.796). Additionally, the target genes of miR-34a (HNF4α, PPARα and PPARα) were restored by GP both in mRNA and protein levels. Conclusion Our results suggested that GP modulated the gut microbiota and suppressed hepatic miR-34a, which was associated with the amelioration of hepatic steatosis

TSH decreased ATGL expression in mature differentiated cells.

<p>(A) On D12, the cells were treated with 0.1 μM bTSH, 1 μM bTSH or 2 μM bTSH for 24 h or 48 h in serum-starved DMEM. Proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotted for ATGL and GAPDH. Values are quantified by densitometry and normalized with GAPDH. Representative Western blot results are shown. (B) Total RNA was extracted from differentiated cells treated with 2 μM bTSH for 48 h in serum-free DMEM. ATGL mRNA levels were determined by real-time PCR and normalized with β-actin. Values are reported as the fold change relative to the control group. The data are from 3 independent experiments and are presented as the mean ± SD. ** p < 0.01 <i>versus</i> the control group. Original magnification: 400×.</p