Weakly-Supervised Video Anomaly Detection with Snippet Anomalous Attention

With a focus on abnormal events contained within untrimmed videos, there is increasing interest among researchers in video anomaly detection. Among different video anomaly detection scenarios, weakly-supervised video anomaly detection poses a significant challenge as it lacks frame-wise labels during the training stage, only relying on video-level labels as coarse supervision. Previous methods have made attempts to either learn discriminative features in an end-to-end manner or employ a twostage self-training strategy to generate snippet-level pseudo labels. However, both approaches have certain limitations. The former tends to overlook informative features at the snippet level, while the latter can be susceptible to noises. In this paper, we propose an Anomalous Attention mechanism for weakly-supervised anomaly detection to tackle the aforementioned problems. Our approach takes into account snippet-level encoded features without the supervision of pseudo labels. Specifically, our approach first generates snippet-level anomalous attention and then feeds it together with original anomaly scores into a Multi-branch Supervision Module. The module learns different areas of the video, including areas that are challenging to detect, and also assists the attention optimization. Experiments on benchmark datasets XDViolence and UCF-Crime verify the effectiveness of our method. Besides, thanks to the proposed snippet-level attention, we obtain a more precise anomaly localization

Truthful Auctions for Automated Bidding in Online Advertising

Automated bidding, an emerging intelligent decision making paradigm powered by machine learning, has become popular in online advertising. Advertisers in automated bidding evaluate the cumulative utilities and have private financial constraints over multiple ad auctions in a long-term period. Based on these distinct features, we consider a new ad auction model for automated bidding: the values of advertisers are public while the financial constraints, such as budget and return on investment (ROI) rate, are private types. We derive the truthfulness conditions with respect to private constraints for this multi-dimensional setting, and demonstrate any feasible allocation rule could be equivalently reduced to a series of non-decreasing functions on budget. However, the resulted allocation mapped from these non-decreasing functions generally follows an irregular shape, making it difficult to obtain a closed-form expression for the auction objective. To overcome this design difficulty, we propose a family of truthful automated bidding auction with personalized rank scores, similar to the Generalized Second-Price (GSP) auction. The intuition behind our design is to leverage personalized rank scores as the criteria to allocate items, and compute a critical ROI to transform the constraints on budget to the same dimension as ROI. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed auction mechanism outperforms the widely used ad auctions, such as first-price auction and second-price auction, in various automated bidding environments

Electroacupuncture at LI11 promotes jejunal motility via the parasympathetic pathway

Background: Gastrointestinal motility disorder has been demonstrated to be regulated by acupuncture treatment. The mechanisms underlying the effects of acupuncture stimulation of abdominal and lower limb acupoints on gastrointestinal motility have been thoroughly studied; however, the physiology underlying the effects of acupuncture on the forelimbs to mediate gastrointestinal motility requires further exploration. The aim of this study was to determine whether electroacupuncture (EA) at LI11 promotes jejunal motility, whether the parasympathetic pathway participates in this effect, and if so, which somatic afferent nerve fibres are involved.Methods: A manometric balloon was used to observe jejunal motility. The effects and mechanisms of EA at LI11 were explored in male Sprague-Dawley rats with or without drug administration (propranolol, clenbuterol, acetylcholine, and atropine) and with or without vagotomy. Three types of male mice (β1β2 receptor-knockout [β1β2 −/−] mice, M2M3 receptor-knockout [M2M3 −/−] mice and wild-type [WT] mice) were also studied by using different EA intensities (1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 mA). A total of 72 rats and 56 mice were included in the study.Results: EA at LI11 increased the contractile amplitude of jejunal motility in the majority of both rats and mice. However, EA at LI11 did not enhance jejunal motility in rats administered atropine, rats that underwent vagotomy, and M2M3 −‍‍/− mice (at all intensities). In WT mice, EA at LI11 significantly increased jejunal motility at all intensities except 1 mA, and a plateau was reached at intensities greater than 4 mA.Conclusion: Our results suggest that EA at LI11 promotes jejunal motility primarily by exciting the parasympathetic pathway, and that Aδ-fibres and C-fibres may play important roles in the process

Chloride Ion Penetration Resistance of Reactive Powder Concrete with Mineral Admixtures

This study employed the rapid chloride ion penetration test and the salt spray erosion method to examine electric flux changes in mineral-admixed reactive powder concrete (RPC). Variations in the chloride ion content and diffusion coefficient under different erosion durations and depths were also investigated. The impact of mineral admixtures on the chloride penetration resistance was explored. Notably, after mixing fly ash (FA) and granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), the electric flux values of RPC of each group were significantly reduced, and the electric flux values of RPC of the mixed group were significantly lower than those of the single mixed group and the reference group, in which the electric flux of FA10G10 was reduced by 85.2% compared to the control group; at the same erosion cycle and depth, the chloride ion content and diffusion coefficient of the mixed group were significantly lower than the control group. It shows that the reasonable compounding of mineral admixtures can better exert the "superposition effect", improve the compactness inside the matrix, and effectively reduce the chloride ion penetration rate. Considering comprehensively, the FA10G10 group has the best chloride penetration ion resistance effect

Lithospheric Conductivity Structure in the Middle Segment of the Jiangnan Orogenic Belt: Insights into Neoproterozoic Tectonic–Magmatic Processes

The Jiangnan Orogenic Belt (JOB) evolved from the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks through multi-stage oceanic-continental subduction, collisional orogeny, and intracontinental deformation, which is an important region to study the formation and evolution of the South China Continent (SCC). Magnetotelluric soundings were collected along a 520-km-long northwest (NW)-trending profile across the middle segment of the JOB to explore the possible remnants of ancient tectonic–magmatic processes beneath the central SCC by combining with the satellite gravity and magnetic data. The resistivity model reveals that the crust in the middle segment of the JOB and its adjacent area is characterized by high resistivity anomalies, while the uppermost mantle is characterized as medium resistivity anomalies and separated by several subvertical, lithospheric-scale conductors. Two trans-crust anomalies of high conductivity and low density beneath the Jiujiang–Shitai Buried fault (JSBF) and Jiangshan–Shaoxing fault (JSF) extend south-eastward to the lithosphere, which are attributed to the NW and southeast boundaries of the middle segment of the JOB. The imaged NW-trending of JSF reflects the tectonic process of the JOB subducting under the Cathaysia Block. Two lower-crustal conductors also imaged beneath the Jiuling area are interpreted as the partial melting of the lower crust, which may be related to the deep southeast subduction of the Paleo-south China Ocean during 970 to 860 Ma. In addition, the trans-lithosphere high conductivity adjacent to the ancient collisional zone of the Jinning period II (ACZII) is probably related to the asthenosphere upwelling caused by the soft collision between the Yangtze and Cathaysia Blocks, which triggered the contemporaneous magmatism in the Jiuling area. This work provides a new insight into the lithospheric evolution in SCC during the Neoproterozoic

Association Analysis and Identification of ZmHKT1;5 Variation With Salt-Stress Tolerance

The high-affinity potassium transporter (HKT) genes are essential for plant salt stress tolerance. However, there were limited studies on HKTs in maize (Zea mays), and it is basically unknown whether natural sequence variations in these genes are associated with the phenotypic variability of salt tolerance. Here, the characterization of ZmHKT1;5 was reported. Under salt stress, ZmHKT1;5 expression increased strongly in salt-tolerant inbred lines, which accompanied a better-balanced Na+/K+ ratio and preferable plant growth. The association between sequence variations in ZmHKT1;5 and salt tolerance was evaluated in a diverse population comprising 54 maize varieties from different maize production regions of China. Two SNPs (A134G and A511G) in the coding region of ZmHKT1;5 were significantly associated with different salt tolerance levels in maize varieties. In addition, the favorable allele of ZmHKT1; 5 identified in salt tolerant maize varieties effectively endowed plant salt tolerance. Transgenic tobacco plants of overexpressing the favorable allele displayed enhanced tolerance to salt stress better than overexpressing the wild type ZmHKT1;5. Our research showed that ZmHKT1;5 expression could effectively enhance salt tolerance by maintaining an optimal Na+/K+ balance and increasing the antioxidant activity that keeps reactive oxygen species (ROS) at a low accumulation level. Especially, the two SNPs in ZmHKT1;5 might be related with new amino acid residues to confer salt tolerance in maize.Key Message: Two SNPs of ZmHKT1;5 related with salt tolerance were identified by association analysis. Overexpressing ZmHKT1;5 in tobaccos showed that the SNPs might enhance its ability to regulating Na+/K+ homeostasis

Regulation of serotonin production by specific microbes from piglet gut

Abstract Background Serotonin is an important signaling molecule that regulates secretory and sensory functions in the gut. Gut microbiota has been demonstrated to affect serotonin synthesis in rodent models. However, how gut microbes regulate intestinal serotonin production in piglets remains vague. To investigate the relationship between microbiota and serotonin specifically in the colon, microbial composition and serotonin concentration were analyzed in ileum-cannulated piglets subjected to antibiotic infusion from the ileum when comparing with saline infusion. Microbes that correlated positively with serotonin production were isolated from piglet colon and were further used to investigate the regulation mechanisms on serotonin production in IPEC-J2 and a putative enterochromaffin cell line RIN-14B cells. Results Antibiotic infusion increased quantities of Lactobacillus amylovorus (LA) that positively correlated with increased serotonin concentrations in the colon, while no effects observed for Limosilactobacillus reuteri (LR). To understand how microbes regulate serotonin, representative strains of LA, LR, and Streptococcus alactolyticus (SA, enriched in feces from prior observation) were selected for cell culture studies. Compared to the control group, LA, LR and SA supernatants significantly up-regulated tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) expression and promoted serotonin production in IPEC-J2 cells, while in RIN-14B cells only LA exerted similar action. To investigate potential mechanisms mediated by microbe-derived molecules, microbial metabolites including lactate, acetate, glutamine, and γ-aminobutyric acid were selected for cell treatment based on computational and metabolite profiling in bacterial supernatant. Among these metabolites, acetate upregulated the expression of free fatty acid receptor 3 and TPH1 while downregulated indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1. Similar effects were also recapitulated when treating the cells with AR420626, an agonist targeting free fatty acid receptor 3. Conclusions Overall, these results suggest that Lactobacillus amylovorus showed a positive correlation with serotonin production in the pig gut and exhibited a remarkable ability to regulate serotonin production in cell cultures. These findings provide evidence that microbial metabolites mediate the dialogue between microbes and host, which reveals a potential approach using microbial manipulation to regulate intestinal serotonin biosynthesis