Redistributing the Precision and Content in 3D-LUT-based Inverse Tone-mapping for HDR/WCG Display

ITM(inverse tone-mapping) converts SDR (standard dynamic range) footage to HDR/WCG (high dynamic range /wide color gamut) for media production. It happens not only when remastering legacy SDR footage in front-end content provider, but also adapting on-theair SDR service on user-end HDR display. The latter requires more efficiency, thus the pre-calculated LUT (look-up table) has become a popular solution. Yet, conventional fixed LUT lacks adaptability, so we learn from research community and combine it with AI. Meanwhile, higher-bit-depth HDR/WCG requires larger LUT than SDR, so we consult traditional ITM for an efficiency-performance trade-off: We use 3 smaller LUTs, each has a non-uniform packing (precision) respectively denser in dark, middle and bright luma range. In this case, their results will have less error only in their own range, so we use a contribution map to combine their best parts to final result. With the guidance of this map, the elements (content) of 3 LUTs will also be redistributed during training. We conduct ablation studies to verify method's effectiveness, and subjective and objective experiments to show its practicability. Code is available at: https://github.com/AndreGuo/ITMLUT.Comment: Accepted in CVMP2023 (the 20th ACM SIGGRAPH European Conference on Visual Media Production

Perception of food and locality among Chinese tourist experiences in Finland

The study applies qualitative methods to reach a more in-depth understanding of Chinese tourists’ relations to food during their visit to Finland. The main interest is to find out how they perceive food and tourism, local food, environmentally friendly food and organic food during their trip. The preliminary results show that the Finnish food and food culture is not familiar among Chinese tourists and they have difficulties to identify the local food in holiday destinations. Concept of organic food was better understood than environmentally friendly food. Attributes like healthy, safer, natural, green, expensive and luxury were associated to the organic food. Additionally, organic food was considered to fulfill high quality standards

Impact of commuting mode on obesity among a working population in Beijing, China: Adjusting for air pollution

© 2020 Liu et al. Background: Few studies have considered the interplay between commuting mode and air pollution on obesity. The aim of this study was to examine whether workplace air pollutants exposure modifying the associations between different commuting mode and obesity. Methods: A cross-sectional study of workers in Beijing was conducted in 2016. The study sample comprised 10,524 participants aged 18 to 65 years old. Outcomes were defined as overall obesity (BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2) and abdominal obesity (WC ≥ 85 cm in men and WC ≥ 80 cm in women). Commuting modes were divided into walking, cycling, bus, subway, and car or taxi. Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios relating commuting mode to overall and abdominal obesity and stratified by gender, controlling for covariates. Results: The association between commuting mode and obesity was more strongly in men than women. In the fully adjusted models, compared with car or taxi commuters, cycling (men: OR=0.37, 95% CI=0.20 to 0.68) or bus (men: OR=0.58, 95% CI=0.36 to 0.94) counterparts had a lower risk of overall obesity. Compared with car or taxi commuters, walking (men: OR=0.57, 95% CI=0.36 to 0.91), bus (men: OR=0.59, 95% CI=0.39 to 0.89), or subway (men: OR=0.59, 95% CI=0.39 to 0.89) counterparts had a lower risk of abdominal obesity. We observed significant interactions between exposure PM10 and cycling on overall obesity in men. After adjusting for air pollutants, the association between commuting mode and obesity was slightly strengthened. Conclusion: This study findings indicate that active (walking or cycling) or public (bus or subway) commuting modes were protected factors for overall and abdominal obesity among men. Air pollutants do not obscure the benefits of active or public commuting for obesity. These associations support the policy for increasing active or public commuting as a strategy to reduce the prevalence of obesity

Geographic Distribution and Risk Factors of the Initial Adult Hospitalized Cases of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection in Mainland China

Background: As of 31st March 2010, more than 127,000 confirmed cases of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1), including 800 deaths, were reported in mainland China. The distribution and characteristics of the confirmed cases in the initial phase of this pandemic in this country are largely unknown. The present study aimed to characterize the geographic distribution and patient characteristics of H1N1 infection in the 2009 pandemic as well as to identify potential risk factors associated with adverse patient outcome in China, through retrospective analyses of 885 hospitalized cases with confirmed H1N1 infection. Methodology/Principal Findings: The proportional hazards model was employed to detect risk factors for adverse outcome; the geo-statistical maps were used to characterize the distribution of all 2668 confirmed H1N1 patients throughout mainland China. The number of new cases increased slowly in May, 2009, but rapidly between June and August of the year. Confirmed cases were reported in 26 provinces; Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian were the top five regions of the incidence of the virus infection. After being adjusted for gender, age, chronic pulmonary disease and other general symptoms, delay for more than two days before hospital admission (HR: 0.6; 95%CI: 0.5–0.7) and delayed onset of the H1N1-specific respiratory symptoms (HR: 0.3; 95%CI: 0.2–0.4) were associated with adverse patient outcome. Conclusions/Significance: The 2009 pandemic influenza A affected east and southeast coastal provinces and most populous cities more severely than other regions in mainland China due to higher risk of high level traffic-, high population density-, and high population mobility-associated H1N1 transmission.The clinical symptoms were mild in the initial phase of infection. Delayed hospital admission and delayed appearance of respiratory symptoms were among the major risk factors for poor patient outcome. These findings may have significant implications in the future pandemic preparedness and response

Moderate increase of serum uric acid within a normal range is associated with improved cognitive function in a non-normotensive population: A nationally representative cohort study

Background: Associations between serum uric acid (SUA) and changes in cognitive function are understudied in non-normotensive populations, and many previous studies only considered the baseline SUA at a single time point. We aimed to examine the effects of baseline SUA and 4-year changes in SUA on cognitive changes in the non-normotensive population. Materials and methods : In the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), cognitive function was measured based on executive function and episodic memory in four visits (years: 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018). We identified two study cohorts from CHARLS. The first cohort included 3,905 non-normotensive participants. Group-based single-trajectory and multi-trajectory models were applied to identify 7-year cognitive trajectories. Adjusted ordinal logistics models were performed to assess the association between baseline SUA and 7-year cognitive trajectories, and subgroup analyses were conducted according to the presence of hyperuricemia or SUA levels. The second cohort included 2,077 eligible participants. Multiple linear regression was used to explore the effect of a 4-year change in SUA on cognitive change during the subsequent 3-year follow-up. Results: Four distinct single-trajectories of global cognitive performance and four multi-trajectories of executive function and episodic memory were identified. Higher baseline SUA levels were significantly associated with more favorable cognitive single-trajectories (ORQ4 vs. Q1 : 0.755; 95 % CI: 0.643, 0.900) and multi-trajectories (ORQ4 vs. Q1: 0.784; 95 % CI: 0.659, 0.933). Subgroup analyses revealed that the protective effect of SUA was significant in the non-hyperuricemia groups or the low-level SUA groups. Additionally, changes in SUA could influence future cognitive changes. Compared with non-hyperuricemia participants with elevated SUA, non-hyperuricemia participants with decreased SUA and patients with persistent hyperuricemia had a higher risk for cognitive decline. Furthermore, only the Q3 group of changes in SUA could enhance global cognitive function compared with the Q1 group (β: 0.449; 95 % CI: 0.073, 0.826). Conclusion: Our study indicates that the maintenance of normal SUA levels and a moderate increase of SUA were advantageous in improving cognitive function or trajectories in a non-normotensive population. Conversely, SUA may impair cognitive function in patients with persistent hyperuricemia

Prediction of the 20-year incidence of diabetes in older Chinese: Application of the competing risk method in a longitudinal study

The competing risk method has become more acceptable for time-to-event data analysis because of its advantage over the standard Cox model in accounting for competing events in the risk set. This study aimed to construct a prediction model for diabetes using a subdistribution hazards model

Bidirectional associations between daytime napping duration and metabolic syndrome: A nationally representative cohort study

Background: We aimed to examine the bidirectional associations between daytime napping duration and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Methods: Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study from 2011 to 2015, modified Poisson regression models were performed to explore the longitudinal associations of baseline napping duration with the occurrence and remission of MetS. Generalized estimating equation was conducted to explore the association between baseline MetS status with subsequent changes in daytime napping duration. Cross-lagged panel analysis was performed to further verify their bidirectional relationships. Results: During the four-year follow-up, among 5041 participants without MetS at baseline, extended naps were significantly associated with MetS occurrence, compared with non-napping. This association was only significant in individuals with adequate night-time sleep duration or good sleep quality of the 2898 participants with MetS at baseline. Excessive napping duration may be not favorable for MetS remission especially for adequate night-time sleepers. With respect to reverse associations, baseline MetS status significantly increased the napping duration during the subsequent follow-up period. Finally, there were significant bidirectional cross-lagged associations between napping duration and MetS severity score after adjusting for all covariates. Conclusions: Our study indicates bidirectional relationships exist between daytime napping duration and MetS. Interestingly, longer napping duration was detrimental to cardiometabolic health only in those with sufficient night-time sleep duration or good sleep quality

Glycated hemoglobin and risk of arterial stiffness in a Chinese Han population: A longitudinal study

Background and Aims: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) associates with the risk of arterial stiffness, and such association can be found between fasting blood glucose (FBG), postprandial blood glucose (PBG), triglyceride-glucose index (TyG index), and arterial stiffness. However, the results were inconsistent, longitudinal studies were sparse, and comparison of these glycemic parameters was less conducted. We aimed to explore the longitudinal relationship between HbA1c and arterial stiffness and compare the effect of the parameters. Methods: Data were collected from 2011 to 2019 in Beijing Health Management Cohort (BHMC) study. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted to investigate the association between the parameters and arterial stiffness. A generalized estimation equation (GEE) analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of repeated measurements of glycemic parameters. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to compare the predictive value of glycemic parameters for arterial stiffness. Results: Among 3,048 subjects, 591 were diagnosed as arterial stiffness during the follow-up. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for arterial stiffness of the highest quartile group of HbA1c was 1.63 (1.22–2.18), which was higher than those of FBG, PBG, and TyG index. The nonlinear association of arterial stiffness with HbA1c and PBG was proved. The robust results of the sensitivity analysis were obtained. Conclusions: HbA1c is an important risk factor of arterial stiffness compared with PBG, FBG, and TyG index, and has a strong predictive ability for arterial stiffness among non-diabetics and the general population