Mining Point Cloud Local Structures by Kernel Correlation and Graph Pooling

Unlike on images, semantic learning on 3D point clouds using a deep network is challenging due to the naturally unordered data structure. Among existing works, PointNet has achieved promising results by directly learning on point sets. However, it does not take full advantage of a point's local neighborhood that contains fine-grained structural information which turns out to be helpful towards better semantic learning. In this regard, we present two new operations to improve PointNet with a more efficient exploitation of local structures. The first one focuses on local 3D geometric structures. In analogy to a convolution kernel for images, we define a point-set kernel as a set of learnable 3D points that jointly respond to a set of neighboring data points according to their geometric affinities measured by kernel correlation, adapted from a similar technique for point cloud registration. The second one exploits local high-dimensional feature structures by recursive feature aggregation on a nearest-neighbor-graph computed from 3D positions. Experiments show that our network can efficiently capture local information and robustly achieve better performances on major datasets. Our code is available at http://www.merl.com/research/license#KCNetComment: Accepted in CVPR'18. *indicates equal contributio

Site-directed mutagenesis of CD38 in cho tet-off cells

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Investigation and characterization of splice variations of L-Type Ca2+ channel, Cav 1.3, in chick basilar papilla and rat cochlea hair cells: Iimplications in hearing

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Role of Notch signaling pathway in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell therapy for phosgene inhalationinduced lung injury in rats

Purpose: To determining the expression and role of the Notch signaling pathway (NSP) in phosgene inhalation-induced lung injury in rats, and the therapeutic effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) on the lung lesions.Methods: Wistar rats (220 - 280 g) were randomly assigned to air inhalation group, phosgene inhalation group, and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) intervention group. Each group had 8 rats. Directional flow phosgene inhalation device was used to produce phosgene inhalation-induced lung injury in the rats. Serum inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-6) were determined using ELISA assay kits. The expressions of proteins related to the NSP (Notch1, Notch2, Hes1, Hes5) were quantified using Western blot.Results: Phosgene inhalation brought about significant increase in TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-6 levels (p < 0.01), but MSC intervention significantly reduced the expressions of these inflammatory factors to varying degrees (p < 0.05), although their levels were still significantly high, relative to the air inhalation group. Results from western blot showed that the Notch1, Notch2, Hes1 and Hes5 were upregulated in the phosgene inhalation group, when relative to the air inhalation group (p < 0.01). Protein expressions in the MSC intervention group were lower than those in the non-intervention groups (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Phosgene inhalation activates Notch signaling pathway, while MSC intervention inhibits this signaling pathway. Thus, inhibition of NSP may be implicated in the protective effect of MSC therapy against phosgene-induced lung injury.Keywords: Phosgene, Lung injury, Notch signalling pathway, Mesenchymal stem cell

Cognitive Representation Learning of Self-Media Online Article Quality

The automatic quality assessment of self-media online articles is an urgent and new issue, which is of great value to the online recommendation and search. Different from traditional and well-formed articles, self-media online articles are mainly created by users, which have the appearance characteristics of different text levels and multi-modal hybrid editing, along with the potential characteristics of diverse content, different styles, large semantic spans and good interactive experience requirements. To solve these challenges, we establish a joint model CoQAN in combination with the layout organization, writing characteristics and text semantics, designing different representation learning subnetworks, especially for the feature learning process and interactive reading habits on mobile terminals. It is more consistent with the cognitive style of expressing an expert's evaluation of articles. We have also constructed a large scale real-world assessment dataset. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed framework significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods, and effectively learns and integrates different factors of the online article quality assessment.Comment: Accepted at the Proceedings of the 28th ACM International Conference on Multimedi

Correction: Surface Vulnerability of Cerebral Cortex to Major Depressive Disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is accompanied by atypical brain structure. This study first presents the alterations in the cortical surface of patients with MDD using multidimensional structural patterns that reflect different neurodevelopment. Sixteen first-episode, untreated patients with MDD and 16 matched healthy controls underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The cortical maps of thickness, surface area, and gyrification were examined using the surface-based morphometry (SBM) approach. Increase of cortical thickness was observed in the right posterior cingulate region and the parietal cortex involving the bilateral inferior, left superior parietal and right paracentral regions, while decreased thickness was noted in the parietal cortex including bilateral pars opercularis and left precentral region, as well as the left rostral-middle frontal regions in patients with MDD. Likewise, increased or decreased surface area was found in five sub-regions of the cingulate gyrus, parietal and frontal cortices (e.g., bilateral inferior parietal and superior frontal regions). In addition, MDD patients exhibited a significant hypergyrification in the right precentral and supramarginal region. This integrated structural assessment of cortical surface suggests that MDD patients have cortical alterations of the frontal, parietal and cingulate regions, indicating a vulnerability to MDD during earlier neurodevelopmental process