Target-Grounded Graph-Aware Transformer for Aerial Vision-and-Dialog Navigation

This report details the method of the winning entry of the AVDN Challenge in ICCV 2023. The competition addresses the Aerial Navigation from Dialog History (ANDH) task, which requires a drone agent to associate dialog history with aerial observations to reach the destination. For better cross-modal grounding abilities of the drone agent, we propose a Target-Grounded Graph-Aware Transformer (TG-GAT) framework. Concretely, TG-GAT first leverages a graph-aware transformer to capture spatiotemporal dependency, which is beneficial for navigation state tracking and robust action planning. TG-GAT first leverages a graph-aware transformer to capture spatiotemporal dependencies for more robust action planning. In addition, an auxiliary visual grounding task is devised to boost the agent's awareness of referred landmarks. Moreover, a hybrid augmentation strategy based on large language models is utilized to mitigate data scarcity limitations. Our TG-GAT framework won the AVDN Challenge 2023, with 2.2% and 3.0% absolute improvements over the baseline on SPL and SR metrics, respectively. The code is available at https://github.com/yifeisu/avdn-challenge

Utility of 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Cholesterol Guidelines in HIV-Infected Adults With Carotid Atherosclerosis.

BackgroundAlthough HIV is associated with increased atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, it is unknown whether guidelines can identify HIV-infected adults who may benefit from statins. We compared the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and 2004 Adult Treatment Panel III recommendations in HIV-infected adults and evaluated associations with carotid artery intima-media thickness and plaque.Methods and resultsCarotid artery intima-media thickness was measured at baseline and 3 years later in 352 HIV-infected adults without clinical atherosclerotic CVD and not on statins. Plaque was defined as IMT >1.5 mm in any segment. At baseline, the median age was 43 (interquartile range, 39-49), 85% were men, 74% were on antiretroviral medication, and 50% had plaque. The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines were more likely to recommend statins compared with the Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines, both overall (26% versus 14%; P<0.001), in those with plaque (32% versus 17%; P=0.0002), and in those without plaque (16% versus 7%; P=0.025). In multivariable analysis, older age, higher low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, pack per year of smoking, and history of opportunistic infection were associated with baseline plaque. Baseline IMT (hazard ratio, 1.18 per 10% increment; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.33; P=0.005) and plaque (hazard ratio, 2.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-4.08; P=0.037) were each associated with all-cause mortality, independent of traditional CVD risk factors.ConclusionsAlthough the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommended statins to a greater number of HIV-infected adults compared with the Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines, both failed to recommend therapy in the majority of HIV-affected adults with carotid plaque. Baseline carotid atherosclerosis but not atherosclerotic CVD risk scores was an independent predictor of mortality. HIV-specific guidelines that include detection of subclinical atherosclerosis may help to identify HIV-infected adults who are at increased atherosclerotic CVD risk and may be considered for statins

CD274 (PD-L1) negatively regulates M1 macrophage polarization in ALI/ARDS

BackgroundAcute lung injury (ALI)/severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a serious clinical syndrome characterized by a high mortality rate. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying ALI/ARDS remain incompletely understood. Considering the crucial role of immune infiltration and macrophage polarization in the pathogenesis of ALI/ARDS, this study aims to identify key genes associated with both ALI/ARDS and M1 macrophage polarization, employing a combination of bioinformatics and experimental approaches. The findings could potentially reveal novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and management of ALI/ARDS.MethodsGene expression profiles relevant to ALI were retrieved from the GEO database to identify co-upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs). GO and KEGG analyses facilitated functional annotation and pathway elucidation. PPI networks were constructed to identify hub genes, and differences in immune cell infiltration were subsequently examined. The expression of hub genes in M1 versus M2 macrophages was evaluated using macrophage polarization datasets. The diagnostic utility of CD274 (PD-L1) for ARDS was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis in a validation dataset. Experimental confirmation was conducted using two LPS-induced M1 macrophage models and an ALI mouse model. The role of CD274 (PD-L1) in M1 macrophage polarization and associated proinflammatory cytokine production was further investigated by siRNA-mediated silencing.ResultsA total of 99 co-upregulated DEGs were identified in two ALI-linked datasets. Enrichment analysis revealed that these DEGs were mainly involved in immune-inflammatory pathways. The following top 10 hub genes were identified from the PPI network: IL-6, IL-1β, CXCL10, CD274, CCL2, TLR2, CXCL1, CCL3, IFIT1, and IFIT3. Immune infiltration analysis revealed a significantly increased abundance of M1 and M2 macrophages in lung tissue from the ALI group compared to the control group. Subsequent analysis confirmed that CD274 (PD-L1), a key immunological checkpoint molecule, was highly expressed within M1 macrophages. ROC analysis validated CD274 (PD-L1) as a promising biomarker for the diagnosis of ARDS. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments supported the bioinformatics analysis and confirmed that the JAK-STAT3 pathway promotes CD274 (PD-L1) expression on M1 macrophages. Importantly, knockdown of CD274 (PD-L1) expression potentiated M1 macrophage polarization and enhanced proinflammatory cytokines production.ConclusionThis study demonstrates a significant correlation between CD274 (PD-L1) and M1 macrophages in ALI/ARDS. CD274 (PD-L1) functions as a negative regulator of M1 polarization and the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines in macrophages. These findings suggest potential new targets for the diagnosis and treatment of ALI/ARDS

Stress background and rock fractures revealed by ultrasonic borehole television in the Fankou Lead-Zinc Mine

The stress background and rock fractures are essential factors affecting the stability of mines. In order to better understand the in situ stress background and rock fractures in the Guangdong Fankou Mine, we use ultrasonic borehole television scanning to measure rock fractures. The results indicate that rock fractures are intensively distributed at depths of −360 m to −450 m below the surface, suggesting the effect of intensive mining activities. The present maximum horizontal principal stress direction is NWW, which is consistent with the regional tectonic stress field direction. Systematic measurement of rock fractures is fundamental for further three-dimensional geological modeling and is significant for mining engineering

A universal optical modulator for synthetic topologically tuneable structured matter

Topologically structured matter, such as metasurfaces and metamaterials, have given rise to impressive photonic functionality, fuelling diverse applications from microscopy and holography to encryption and communication. Presently these solutions are limited by their largely static nature and preset functionality, hindering applications that demand dynamic photonic systems with reconfigurable topologies. Here we demonstrate a universal optical modulator that implements topologically tuneable structured matter as virtual pixels derived from cascading low functionality tuneable devices, altering the paradigm of phase and amplitude control to encompass arbitrary spatially varying retarders in a synthetic structured matter device. Our approach opens unprecedented functionality that is user-defined with high flexibility, allowing our synthetic structured matter to act as an information carrier, beam generator, analyser, and corrector, opening an exciting path to tuneable topologies of light and matter

The Sihailongwan Maar Lake, northeastern China as a candidate Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene Series

Sihailongwan Maar Lake, located in Northeast China, is a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for demarcation of the Anthropocene. The lake’s varved sediments are formed by alternating allogenic atmospheric inputs and authigenic lake processes and store a record of environmental and human impacts at a continental-global scale. Varve counting and radiometric dating provided a precise annual-resolution sediment chronology for the site. Time series records of radioactive (239,240Pu, 129I and soot 14C), chemical (spheroidal carbonaceous particles, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, soot, heavy metals, δ13C, etc), physical (magnetic susceptibility and grayscale) and biological (environmental DNA) indicators all show rapid changes in the mid-20th century, coincident with clear lithological changes of the sediments. Statistical analyses of these proxies show a tipping point in 1954 CE. 239,240Pu activities follow a typical unimodal globally-distributed profile, and are proposed as the primary marker for the Anthropocene. A rapid increase in 239,240Pu activities at 88 mm depth in core SHLW21-Fr-13 (1953 CE) is synchronous with rapid changes of other anthropogenic proxies and the Great Acceleration, marking the onset of the Anthropocene. The results indicate that Sihailongwan Maar Lake is an ideal site for the Anthropocene GSSP