Enhanced Boundary Learning for Glass-like Object Segmentation

Glass-like objects such as windows, bottles, and mirrors exist widely in the real world. Sensing these objects has many applications, including robot navigation and grasping. However, this task is very challenging due to the arbitrary scenes behind glass-like objects. This paper aims to solve the glass-like object segmentation problem via enhanced boundary learning. In particular, we first propose a novel refined differential module that outputs finer boundary cues. We then introduce an edge-aware point-based graph convolution network module to model the global shape along the boundary. We use these two modules to design a decoder that generates accurate and clean segmentation results, especially on the object contours. Both modules are lightweight and effective: they can be embedded into various segmentation models. In extensive experiments on three recent glass-like object segmentation datasets, including Trans10k, MSD, and GDD, our approach establishes new state-of-the-art results. We also illustrate the strong generalization properties of our method on three generic segmentation datasets, including Cityscapes, BDD, and COCO Stuff. Code and models is available at \url{https://github.com/hehao13/EBLNet}.Comment: ICCV-2021 Code is availabe at https://github.com/hehao13/EBLNe

Synthesis of Dibenzothiophene and 1,4-Dihydrodibenzothiophene Derivatives via Allylic Phosphonium Salt Initiated Domino Reactions

Two efficient synthetic protocols were developed for the synthesis of dibenzothiophene and 1,4-dihydrodibenzothiophene using thioaurones and allylic phosphonium salt. Mild reaction conditions, a one-pot procedure, and easily accessible starting materials make these protocols powerful tools for the synthesis of these compounds, which are often used in material and pharmaceutical sciences

Phosphine-Catalyzed Domino Reaction of Thioaurones and Allenoate: Synthesis of Benzothiophene-Fused Dioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane Derivatives

The reaction of thioaurone derivatives with allenoate catalyzed by tris­(4-methoxyphenyl)­phosphane (P­(4-MeOC₆H₄)₃) resulted in a domino annulation reaction to produce a benzothiophene-fused bridged bicyclic ring, with 40–91% yields. The advantages of the methodology include diastereoselective formation of a bridged bicyclic ring in a single step, very mild reaction conditions, and success resulting from a broad functional group. The proposed mechanism was tested and supported by DFT calculations

Evaluation of the Antifungal Activity of Polysubstituted Cyclic 1,2-Diketones against <i>Colletotrichum gloeosporioides</i>

(1) Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum damages crops, ornamentals, and forest trees severely, resulting in enormous economic losses to agricultural and forestry systems. Overusing traditional chemical fungicides leads to fungicide resistance, environmental pollution, and potential risks to public health. Therefore, priorities should be given to developing efficient and environmentally friendly approaches to phytopathogens management, including anthracnose. (2) In this study, the antifungal activity of botanical derivative polysubstituted cyclic 1,2-diketones (FPL001) against C. gloeosporioides was examined. (3) FPL001 significantly inhibited the vegetative growth of C. gloeosporioides with an EC50 of 160.23 µg/mL. When the concentration of FPL001 reached 30 µg/mL, the conidial germination and appressorium formation of C. gloeosporioides were completely inhibited. FPL001 also significantly suppressed the invasive hyphae development and plant infection of C. gloeosporioides. FPL001 did not exhibit toxicity to model organisms such as alfalfa and silkworm larvae. (4) These results indicate that compound FPL001 is a potential and efficient agent for green control of C. gloeosporioides

Phosphine-Catalyzed Domino Reaction of Thioaurones and Allenoate: Synthesis of Benzothiophene-Fused Dioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane Derivatives

The reaction of thioaurone derivatives with allenoate catalyzed by tris­(4-methoxyphenyl)­phosphane (P­(4-MeOC₆H₄)₃) resulted in a domino annulation reaction to produce a benzothiophene-fused bridged bicyclic ring, with 40–91% yields. The advantages of the methodology include diastereoselective formation of a bridged bicyclic ring in a single step, very mild reaction conditions, and success resulting from a broad functional group. The proposed mechanism was tested and supported by DFT calculations

Direct and indirect facilitation affect community productivity through changes in functional diversity in an alpine system

International audienceAbstract Background and Aims Facilitation is an important ecological process for plant community structure and functional composition. Although direct facilitation has accrued most of the evidence so far, indirect facilitation is ubiquitous in nature and it has an enormous potential to explain community structuring. In this study, we assess the effect of direct and indirect facilitation on community productivity via taxonomic and functional diversity. Methods In an alpine community on the Tibetan Plateau, we manipulated the presence of the shrub Dasiphora fruticosa and graminoids in a fenced meadow and a grazed meadow to quantify the effects of direct and indirect facilitation. We measured four plant traits: height, lateral spread, specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) of forbs; calculated two metrics of functional diversity [range of trait and community-weighted mean (CWM) of trait]; and assessed the responses of functional diversity to shrub facilitation. We used structural equation modelling to explore how shrubs directly and indirectly drove community productivity via taxonomic diversity and functional diversity. Key Results We found stronger effects from herbivore-mediated indirect facilitation than direct facilitation on productivity and taxonomic diversity, regardless of the presence of graminoids. For functional diversity, the range and CWM of height and SLA, rather than lateral spread and LDMC, generally increased due to direct and indirect facilitation. Moreover, we found that the range of traits played a primary role over taxonomic diversity and CWM of traits in terms of shrub effects on community productivity. Conclusions Our study reveals that the mechanism of shrub direct and indirect facilitation of community productivity in this alpine community is expanding the realized niche (i.e. expanding range of traits). Our findings indicate that facilitators might increase trait dispersion in the local community, which could alleviate the effect of environmental filters on trait values in harsh environments, thereby contributing to ecosystem functioning

Self-Assembly 2D Ti3C2/g-C3N4 MXene Heterojunction for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline in Visible Wavelength Range

An ultrathin 2D Ti3C2/g-C3N4 MXene (2D-TC/CN) heterojunction was synthesized, using a facile self-assembly method; the perfect microscopic-morphology and the lattice structure presented in the sample with a 2 wt% content of Ti3C2 were observed by the field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The optimized sample (2-TC/CN) exhibited excellent performance in degrading the tetracycline (TC), and the degradation rate reached 93.93% in the conditions of 20 mg/L, 50 mL of tetracycline within 60 min. Except for the increased specific-surface area, investigated by UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-vis DRS) and X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS) valence spectra, the significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity of the 2-TC/CN could also be ascribed to the formation of Ti-N bonds between Ti3C2 and g-C3N4 nanosheets, which reduced the width of the band gap through adjusting the position of the valence band, thus resulting in the broadened light-absorption. Furthermore, the facilitated electron transmission was also proved by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), which is effective in improving the quantum efficiency of photo-generated electrons. In addition, the resulting radical-capture experiment suggested that superoxide radicals have the greatest influence on photodegradation performance, with the photodegradation rate of TC reducing from 93.16% to 32.08% after the capture of superoxide radicals, which can be attributed to the production of superoxide radicals only, by the 2-TC/CN composites with a high conduction-band value (&minus;0.62 eV). These facilely designed 2D Ti3C2/g-C3N4 composites possess great application potential for the photodegradation of tetracycline and other antibiotics

Hyperspectral Estimation of Chlorophyll Content in Grape Leaves Based on Fractional-Order Differentiation and Random Forest Algorithm

Chlorophyll, as a key component of crop leaves for photosynthesis, is one significant indicator for evaluating the photosynthetic efficiency and developmental status of crops. Fractional-order differentiation (FOD) enhances the feature spectral information and reduces the background noise. In this study, we analyzed hyperspectral data from grape leaves of different varieties and fertility periods with FOD to monitor the leaves’ chlorophyll content (LCC). Firstly, through sensitive analysis, the fractional-order differential character bands were identified, which was used to construct the typical vegetation index (VI). Then, the grape LCC prediction model was built based on the random forest regression algorithm (RFR). The results showed the following: (1) FOD differential spectra had a higher sensitivity to LCC compared with the original spectra, and the constructed VIs had the best estimation performance at the 1.2th-order differential. (2) The accuracy of the FOD-RFR model was better than that of the conventional integer-order model at different fertility periods, but there were differences in the number of optimal orders. (3) The LCC prediction model for whole fertility periods achieved good prediction at order 1.3, R2 = 0.778, RMSE = 2.1, and NRMSE = 4.7%. As compared to the original reflectance spectra, R2 improved by 0.173; RMSE and NRMSE decreased, respectively, by 0.699 and 1.5%. This indicates that the combination of FOD and RFR based on hyperspectral data has great potential for the efficient monitoring of grape LCC. It can provide technical support for the rapid quantitative estimation of grape LCC and methodological reference for other physiological and biochemical indicators in hyperspectral monitoring