Rethinking Rendering in Generalizable Neural Surface Reconstruction: A Learning-based Solution

Generalizable neural surface reconstruction techniques have attracted great attention in recent years. However, they encounter limitations of low confidence depth distribution and inaccurate surface reasoning due to the oversimplified volume rendering process employed. In this paper, we present Reconstruction TRansformer (ReTR), a novel framework that leverages the transformer architecture to redesign the rendering process, enabling complex photon-particle interaction modeling. It introduces a learnable meta-ray token and utilizes the cross-attention mechanism to simulate the interaction of photons with sampled points and render the observed color. Meanwhile, by operating within a high-dimensional feature space rather than the color space, ReTR mitigates sensitivity to projected colors in source views. Such improvements result in accurate surface assessment with high confidence. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on various datasets, showcasing how our method outperforms the current state-of-the-art approaches in terms of reconstruction quality and generalization ability.Comment: 18 pages, 11 Figures, Our code will be released at https://github.com/YixunLiang/ReT

LucidDreamer: Towards High-Fidelity Text-to-3D Generation via Interval Score Matching

The recent advancements in text-to-3D generation mark a significant milestone in generative models, unlocking new possibilities for creating imaginative 3D assets across various real-world scenarios. While recent advancements in text-to-3D generation have shown promise, they often fall short in rendering detailed and high-quality 3D models. This problem is especially prevalent as many methods base themselves on Score Distillation Sampling (SDS). This paper identifies a notable deficiency in SDS, that it brings inconsistent and low-quality updating direction for the 3D model, causing the over-smoothing effect. To address this, we propose a novel approach called Interval Score Matching (ISM). ISM employs deterministic diffusing trajectories and utilizes interval-based score matching to counteract over-smoothing. Furthermore, we incorporate 3D Gaussian Splatting into our text-to-3D generation pipeline. Extensive experiments show that our model largely outperforms the state-of-the-art in quality and training efficiency.Comment: The first two authors contributed equally to this work. Our code will be available at: https://github.com/EnVision-Research/LucidDreame

Effects of harvest time and added molasses on nutritional content, ensiling characteristics and degradation of whole crop wheat

Objective Wheat is an alternative to corn silage for ruminant feeding in northern China. This study examined the effects of harvest time and added molasses on nutritional content, ensiling characteristics and in vitro degradation of whole crop wheat (WCW). Methods Fresh WCW at the milk-ripe stage was harvested at 0700 h (i.e., in the morning [Mo]) and 1700 h (i.e., in the afternoon [Af]), and then immediately used to prepare silage and make hay. Commercial molasses was added to Af WCW at 0%, 2%, 4%, and 6% (fresh weight) proportions. The WCW treated with molasses was mixed thoroughly prior to ensiling. Results Dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fiber, water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) content (p<0.01), accumulative gas production in 72 h (GP72h, 77.46 mL/g vs 95.15 mL/g) and dry matter disappearance in vitro (69.15% vs 76.77%) were lower (p<0.05), while crude protein (CP) content was higher for WCW silage (WCWS) compared to WCW (p<0.01). The propionic acid and butyric acid concentrations in WCWS from Mo WCW were 1.47% and 0.26%, respectively. However, the propionic and butyric acid concentrations were negligible, while the ammonia nitrogen/total nitrogen (NH3-N/TN, p<0.01) concentration was lower and the rate of gas production at 50% of the maximum (17.05 mL/h vs 13.94 mL/h, p<0.05) was higher for Af WCWS compared to Mo WCWS. The incubation fluid’s NH3-N concentration was lower in WCWS and Af WCW compared to Mo WCW (p<0.05). The CP and WSC content increased with increasing molasses levels (p<0.05). Furthermore, the pH (p<0.01) and time when gas production was 50% of the maximum (2.78 h vs 3.05 h, p<0.05) were lower in silage treated with 4% molasses than silage without molasses. Conclusion Harvesting wheat crops in the afternoon and adding molasses at 4% level to WCW optimally improved ensiling characteristics, leading to well-preserved silage

Astrocyte endfoot formation controls the termination of oligodendrocyte precursor cell perivascular migration during development.

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) undergo an extensive and coordinated migration in the developing CNS, using the pre-formed scaffold of developed blood vessels as their physical substrate for migration. While OPC association with vasculature is critical for dispersal, equally important for permitting differentiation and proper myelination of target axons is their appropriate and timely detachment, but regulation of this process remains unclear. Here we demonstrate a correlation between the developmental formation of astrocytic endfeet on vessels and the termination of OPC perivascular migration. Ex&nbsp;vivo and in&nbsp;vivo live imaging shows that astrocyte endfeet physically displace OPCs from vasculature, and genetic abrogation of endfoot formation hinders both OPC detachment from vessels and subsequent differentiation. Astrocyte-derived semaphorins 3a and 6a act to repel OPCs from blood vessels at the cessation of their perivascular migration and, in so doing, permit subsequent OPC differentiation by insulating them from a maturation inhibitory endothelial niche

Astrocyte endfoot formation controls the termination of oligodendrocyte precursor cell perivascular migration during development

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) undergo an extensive and coordinated migration in the developing CNS, using the pre-formed scaffold of developed blood vessels as their physical substrate for migration. While OPC association with vasculature is critical for dispersal, equally important for permitting differentiation and proper myelination of target axons is their appropriate and timely detachment, but regulation of this process remains unclear. Here we demonstrate a correlation between the developmental formation of astrocytic endfeet on vessels and the termination of OPC perivascular migration. Ex vivo and in vivo live imaging shows that astrocyte endfeet physically displace OPCs from vasculature, and genetic abrogation of endfoot formation hinders both OPC detachment from vessels and subsequent differentiation. Astrocyte-derived semaphorins 3a and 6a act to repel OPCs from blood vessels at the cessation of their perivascular migration and, in so doing, permit subsequent OPC differentiation by insulating them from a maturation inhibitory endothelial niche.</p