Coping with Change: Learning Invariant and Minimum Sufficient Representations for Fine-Grained Visual Categorization

Fine-grained visual categorization (FGVC) is a challenging task due to similar visual appearances between various species. Previous studies always implicitly assume that the training and test data have the same underlying distributions, and that features extracted by modern backbone architectures remain discriminative and generalize well to unseen test data. However, we empirically justify that these conditions are not always true on benchmark datasets. To this end, we combine the merits of invariant risk minimization (IRM) and information bottleneck (IB) principle to learn invariant and minimum sufficient (IMS) representations for FGVC, such that the overall model can always discover the most succinct and consistent fine-grained features. We apply the matrix-based R{\'e}nyi's $\alpha$-order entropy to simplify and stabilize the training of IB; we also design a ``soft" environment partition scheme to make IRM applicable to FGVC task. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to address the problem of FGVC from a generalization perspective and develop a new information-theoretic solution accordingly. Extensive experiments demonstrate the consistent performance gain offered by our IMS.Comment: Manuscript accepted by CVIU, code is available at Githu

Diethyl 2,2-bis­(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hy­droxy­benz­yl)malonate

The title mol­ecule, C37H56O6, possesses twofold symmetry, with the twofold axis passing through the quaternary C atom. In the crystal, neighbouring mol­ecules are linked via O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving the phenol OH group and the carbonyl O atom, forming chains propagating in [101]. Within these chains, rings are formed with an R 2 2(20) motif. There are also C—H⋯O inter­actions present within the rings

Pronounced photorefractive effect at wavelength over 1000 nm in monolithic organic materials

Two monolithic organic materials exhibiting high photorefractive (PR) performances at a wavelength of 1064 nm were prepared and characterized. It was found that thiophene-based molecule T6 demonstrated better PR properties than benzene based molecule B6. A net optical gain of 139.1 cm-1 at a low applied field of 43.7 Vμm and a diffraction efficiency of 45.6% at 35.3 Vμm were observed for materials made from T6. Net optical gain at 1300 nm was also observed for T6. The differences in PR behavior between two materials with similar structures were explained based on dipole moment and photoconductivity differences

Electroweak radiative corrections to e+e−→ttˉhe^+e^- \to t \bar{t} h at linear colliders

We calculate the ${\cal O}(\alpha_{{\rm ew}})$ electroweak radiative corrections to $e^+ e^- \to t \bar{t} h$ at a electron-positron linear collider (LC) in the standard model. We analyze the dependence of the ${\cal O}(\alpha_{{\rm ew}})$ corrections on the Higgs boson mass $m_{h}$ and colliding energy $\sqrt{s}$, and find that the corrections significantly decrease or increase the Born cross section depending on the colliding energy. The numerical results show that the ${\cal O}(\alpha_{{\rm ew}})$ relative correction is strongly related to the Higgs boson mass when $\sqrt{s}=500 GeV$, and for $m_h = 150 GeV$ the relative correction ranges from -31.3% to 2.3% as the increment of the colliding energy from 500 GeV to 2 TeV.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Region- or state-related differences in expression and activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) in naïve and pain-experiencing rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), one member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, has been suggested to regulate a diverse array of cellular functions, including cell growth, differentiation, survival, as well as neuronal plasticity. Recent evidence indicates a role for ERKs in nociceptive processing in both dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord. However, little literature has been reported to examine the differential distribution and activation of ERK isoforms, ERK1 and ERK2, at different levels of pain-related pathways under both normal and pain states. In the present study, quantitative blot immunolabeling technique was used to determine the spatial and temporal expression of ERK1 and ERK2, as well as their activated forms, in the spinal cord, primary somatosensory cortex (SI area of cortex), and hippocampus under normal, transient pain and persistent pain states.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In naïve rats, we detected regional differences in total expression of ERK1 and ERK2 across different areas. In the spinal cord, ERK1 was expressed more abundantly than ERK2, while in the SI area of cortex and hippocampus, there was a larger amount of ERK2 than ERK1. Moreover, phosphorylated ERK2 (pERK2), not phosphorylated ERK1 (pERK1), was normally expressed with a high level in the SI area and hippocampus, but both pERK1 and pERK2 were barely detectable in normal spinal cord. Intraplantar saline or bee venom injection, mimicking transient or persistent pain respectively, can equally initiate an intense and long-lasting activation of ERKs in all three areas examined. However, isoform-dependent differences existed among these areas, that is, pERK2 exhibited stronger response than pERK1 in the spinal cord, whereas ERK1 was more remarkably activated than ERK2 in the S1 area and hippocampus.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken these results together, we conclude that: (1) under normal state, while ERK immunoreactivity is broadly distributed in the rat central nervous system in general, the relative abundance of ERK1 and ERK2 differs greatly among specific regions; (2) under pain state, either ERK1 or ERK2 can be effectively phosphorylated with a long-term duration by both transient and persistent pain, but their response patterns differ from each other across distinct regions; (3) The long-lasting ERKs activation induced by bee venom injection is highly correlated with our previous behavioral, electrophysiological, morphological and pharmacological observations, lending further support to the functional importance of ERKs-mediated signaling pathways in the processing of negative consequences of pain associated with sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions.</p

Response Surface Methodology to Optimize Enzymatic Preparation of Deapio-Platycodin D and Platycodin D from Radix Platycodi

In the present work, we reported the enzymatic preparation of deapio-platycodin D (dPD) and platycodin D (PD) optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) from Radix Platycodi. During investigation of the hydrolysis of crude platycosides by various glycoside hydrolases, snailase showed a strong ability to transform deapio-platycoside E (dPE) and platycoside E (PE) into dPD and PD with 100% conversion. RSM was used to optimize the effects of the reaction temperature (35–45 °C), enzyme load (5–20%), and reaction time (4–24 h) on the conversion process. Validation of the RSM model was verified by the good agreement between the experimental and the predicted values of dPD and PD conversion yield. The optimum preparation conditions were as follows: temperature, 43 °C; enzyme load, 15%; reaction time, 22 h. The biotransformation pathways were dPE→dPD3→dPD and PE→PD3→PD, respectively. The determined method may be highly applicable for the enzymatic preparation of dPD and PD for medicinal purposes and also for commercial use