KERMIT: Knowledge Graph Completion of Enhanced Relation Modeling with Inverse Transformation

Knowledge graph completion is a task that revolves around filling in missing triples based on the information available in a knowledge graph. Among the current studies, text-based methods complete the task by utilizing textual descriptions of triples. However, this modeling approach may encounter limitations, particularly when the description fails to accurately and adequately express the intended meaning. To overcome these challenges, we propose the augmentation of data through two additional mechanisms. Firstly, we employ ChatGPT as an external knowledge base to generate coherent descriptions to bridge the semantic gap between the queries and answers. Secondly, we leverage inverse relations to create a symmetric graph, thereby creating extra labeling and providing supplementary information for link prediction. This approach offers additional insights into the relationships between entities. Through these efforts, we have observed significant improvements in knowledge graph completion, as these mechanisms enhance the richness and diversity of the available data, leading to more accurate results

TeCH: Text-guided Reconstruction of Lifelike Clothed Humans

Despite recent research advancements in reconstructing clothed humans from a single image, accurately restoring the "unseen regions" with high-level details remains an unsolved challenge that lacks attention. Existing methods often generate overly smooth back-side surfaces with a blurry texture. But how to effectively capture all visual attributes of an individual from a single image, which are sufficient to reconstruct unseen areas (e.g., the back view)? Motivated by the power of foundation models, TeCH reconstructs the 3D human by leveraging 1) descriptive text prompts (e.g., garments, colors, hairstyles) which are automatically generated via a garment parsing model and Visual Question Answering (VQA), 2) a personalized fine-tuned Text-to-Image diffusion model (T2I) which learns the "indescribable" appearance. To represent high-resolution 3D clothed humans at an affordable cost, we propose a hybrid 3D representation based on DMTet, which consists of an explicit body shape grid and an implicit distance field. Guided by the descriptive prompts + personalized T2I diffusion model, the geometry and texture of the 3D humans are optimized through multi-view Score Distillation Sampling (SDS) and reconstruction losses based on the original observation. TeCH produces high-fidelity 3D clothed humans with consistent & delicate texture, and detailed full-body geometry. Quantitative and qualitative experiments demonstrate that TeCH outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of reconstruction accuracy and rendering quality. The code will be publicly available for research purposes at https://huangyangyi.github.io/TeCHComment: Project: https://huangyangyi.github.io/TeCH, Code: https://github.com/huangyangyi/TeC

TADA! Text to Animatable Digital Avatars

We introduce TADA, a simple-yet-effective approach that takes textual descriptions and produces expressive 3D avatars with high-quality geometry and lifelike textures, that can be animated and rendered with traditional graphics pipelines. Existing text-based character generation methods are limited in terms of geometry and texture quality, and cannot be realistically animated due to inconsistent alignment between the geometry and the texture, particularly in the face region. To overcome these limitations, TADA leverages the synergy of a 2D diffusion model and an animatable parametric body model. Specifically, we derive an optimizable high-resolution body model from SMPL-X with 3D displacements and a texture map, and use hierarchical rendering with score distillation sampling (SDS) to create high-quality, detailed, holistic 3D avatars from text. To ensure alignment between the geometry and texture, we render normals and RGB images of the generated character and exploit their latent embeddings in the SDS training process. We further introduce various expression parameters to deform the generated character during training, ensuring that the semantics of our generated character remain consistent with the original SMPL-X model, resulting in an animatable character. Comprehensive evaluations demonstrate that TADA significantly surpasses existing approaches on both qualitative and quantitative measures. TADA enables creation of large-scale digital character assets that are ready for animation and rendering, while also being easily editable through natural language. The code will be public for research purposes

The feasibility and safety of sharp recanalization for superior vena cava occlusion in hemodialysis patients: A retrospective cohort study

Introduction: Hemodialysis catheter‐related superior vena cava (SVC) occlusions can cause considerable morbidity for patients and be challenging to treat if refractory to conventional guide wire transversal. This pilot study assessed the feasibility and safety of sharp recanalization of SVC occlusion in hemodialysis patients.Methods: This study retrospectively enrolled hemodialysis patients treated in West China Hospital diagnosed with SVC occlusion who failed traditional guide wire transversal from January 2014 to November 2017. In brief, a guide wire from the femoral approach was advanced to the lower end of the obstructive lesion to act as a target, while the stiff end of hydrophilic wire was advanced though a jugular approach. Under fluoroscopic guidance in biplane imaging, the occlusive SVC lesion was penetrated with the stiff wire that was snared and pulled through. Graded dilation of the SVC and subsequent tunneled‐cuffed catheter implantation were performed. Demographic information and clinical outcomes were recorded and evaluated.Findings: Sixteen patients with a mean age of 62 ± 13 years (13 females and 3 males) who received SVC sharp recanalization were included in this study. The sharp recanalization procedure was successfully performed in 14 patients (87.5%). Two patients were complicated with SVC laceration and hemopericardium but remained asymptomatic and required no surgical repair. One patient suffered ventricular fibrillation during procedure. Despite the return of spontaneous circulation, the patient unfortunately died of gastrointestinal tract bleeding after 3 days in ICU. Follow‐up suggested the 6‐month catheter patency to be 92.85% and 12‐month catheter patency to be 58.33%. No long‐term procedure‐related complications were recorded.Discussion: Sharp recanalization might be a feasible strategy in managing SVC occlusion in hemodialysis patients. The potential life‐threatening complications (cardiac arrhythmia and SVC laceration) necessitate strict eligibility screening, skillful operation, and avoidance of over‐dilation of SVC.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153765/1/hdi12804.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153765/2/hdi12804_am.pd

High-Fidelity Clothed Avatar Reconstruction from a Single Image

This paper presents a framework for efficient 3D clothed avatar reconstruction. By combining the advantages of the high accuracy of optimization-based methods and the efficiency of learning-based methods, we propose a coarse-to-fine way to realize a high-fidelity clothed avatar reconstruction (CAR) from a single image. At the first stage, we use an implicit model to learn the general shape in the canonical space of a person in a learning-based way, and at the second stage, we refine the surface detail by estimating the non-rigid deformation in the posed space in an optimization way. A hyper-network is utilized to generate a good initialization so that the convergence o f the optimization process is greatly accelerated. Extensive experiments on various datasets show that the proposed CAR successfully produces high-fidelity avatars for arbitrarily clothed humans in real scenes

Prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis C among former blood donors in rural China

SummaryBackgroundIllegal commercial plasma and blood donation activities in the late 1980s and early 1990s caused a large number of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in rural areas of China.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was carried out in 2008, in which all residents in a former blood donation village in rural Hebei Province were invited for a questionnaire interview and testing for HCV antibodies. Questionnaires were administered to collect information about their personal status and commercial blood donation history, and HCV antibodies were tested by enzyme immunoassay.ResultsOf 520 villagers who participated in the interviews, 236 (45.4%) reported a history of selling whole blood or plasma. HCV seropositivity was confirmed in 148/520 (28.5%) interviewees and 101/236 (42.8%) former commercial plasma and blood donors. Selling plasma was the strongest independent predictor of HCV seropositivity (p=0.0037). Past history of an operation was also independently associated with HCV infection (p=0.0270).ConclusionsUnsafe practices during illegal plasma donation led to a high risk of HCV seropositivity for donors during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many infected people suffered chronic hepatitis from that time onwards and urgently needed treatment and care

Immunosuppressive landscape in hepatocellular carcinoma revealed by single-cell sequencing

Background/AimsHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), accounting for 75-85% of primary liver cancer cases, is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The purpose of this research was to examine the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) in HCC.MethodsWe investigated the HCC TIME by integrated analysis of single-cell and bulk-tissue sequencing data to reveal the landscape of major immune cell types.ResultsRegulatory T(Treg) cells were found to be specifically distributed in the TIME of HCC. Several immune checkpoints, including TNFRSF4, TIGIT and CTLA4, were found to be uniquely overexpressed in Treg cells, and the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway was enriched in Treg cells. We also discovered the presence of two NK-cell subsets with different cytotoxic capacities, one in an activated state with antitumor effects and another with an exhausted status. In addition, memory B cells in HCC were found to exist in a unique state, with high proliferation, low differentiation, and low activity, which was induced by overexpression of PRAP1 and activation of the MIF-CD74 axis.ConclusionsWe revealed the TIME landscape in HCC, highlighting the heterogeneity of major immune cell types and their potential mechanisms in the formation of an immunosuppressive environment. Hence, blocking the formation of the TIME could be a useful therapeutic strategy for HCC