NeurSF: Neural Shading Field for Image Harmonization

Image harmonization aims at adjusting the appearance of the foreground to make it more compatible with the background. Due to a lack of understanding of the background illumination direction, existing works are incapable of generating a realistic foreground shading. In this paper, we decompose the image harmonization into two sub-problems: 1) illumination estimation of background images and 2) rendering of foreground objects. Before solving these two sub-problems, we first learn a direction-aware illumination descriptor via a neural rendering framework, of which the key is a Shading Module that decomposes the shading field into multiple shading components given depth information. Then we design a Background Illumination Estimation Module to extract the direction-aware illumination descriptor from the background. Finally, the illumination descriptor is used in conjunction with the neural rendering framework to generate the harmonized foreground image containing a novel harmonized shading. Moreover, we construct a photo-realistic synthetic image harmonization dataset that contains numerous shading variations by image-based lighting. Extensive experiments on this dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Our dataset and code will be made publicly available

Privet: A Privacy-Preserving Vertical Federated Learning Service for Gradient Boosted Decision Tables

Vertical federated learning (VFL) has recently emerged as an appealing distributed paradigm empowering multi-party collaboration for training high-quality models over vertically partitioned datasets. Gradient boosting has been popularly adopted in VFL, which builds an ensemble of weak learners (typically decision trees) to achieve promising prediction performance. Recently there have been growing interests in using decision table as an intriguing alternative weak learner in gradient boosting, due to its simpler structure, good interpretability, and promising performance. In the literature, there have been works on privacy-preserving VFL for gradient boosted decision trees, but no prior work has been devoted to the emerging case of decision tables. Training and inference on decision tables are different from that the case of generic decision trees, not to mention gradient boosting with decision tables in VFL. In light of this, we design, implement, and evaluate Privet, the first system framework enabling privacy-preserving VFL service for gradient boosted decision tables. Privet delicately builds on lightweight cryptography and allows an arbitrary number of participants holding vertically partitioned datasets to securely train gradient boosted decision tables. Extensive experiments over several real-world datasets and synthetic datasets demonstrate that Privet achieves promising performance, with utility comparable to plaintext centralized learning.Comment: Accepted in IEEE Transactions on Services Computing (TSC

Understanding Status Update in Microblog: A Perspective on Media Needs

Microblog has grown popularly as a seminal social medium for timely information seeking and sharing. However, the reason why individuals update real-time information in microblog has not been well understood, and empirical research to address this specific information behavior is hardly available. As a felt urge can be conceptualized as a precursor of real-time updating in the microblog, we attempt to capture the underlying mechanism in causing this less reflective behavior urge. We apply the media needs theory to investigate how the individuals’ media needs spark their urge to update personal status in the microblog. In particular, we conceptualize the cognitive needs as related to information uniqueness, personal integrative needs as related to connectivity, social integrative needs as a unidirectional relationship, affective needs as positive emotions and tension release needs as negative emotions. An online survey was employed to validate the proposed model within 523 microblog users in China. The results suggest that the users’ behavior urge is significantly influenced by information uniqueness, connectivity, unidirectional relationship and positive emotions. Furthermore, among the five media needs, the affective and social integrative related factors strongly determine the personal real-time status update in microblog. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this paper

Metformin ameliorates the mitochondrial damage induced by C9ORF72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/frontotemporal dementia-related poly-GR

Objective·To investigate the effect of C9ORF72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD)-related poly-glycine-arginine (poly-GR) on mitochondrial morphology and function, and analyze the rescue effect of metformin on mitochondrial damage induced by poly-GR and its underlying mechanism.Methods·SK-N-SH cells stably overexpressing 50 repeated glycine-arginine sequences [(GR)50] or green fluorescent protein (GFP) were constructed by lentivirus infection, which were respectively named as (GR)50-SK cell line and GFP CTRL-SK cell line. (GR)50 expression in (GR)50-SK cells was verified by Western blotting. GFP expression in GFP GTRL-SK cells was observed by fluorescence microscope. Propidium iodide (PI) staining was used to detect the apoptosis levels of (GR)50-SK and GFP CTRL-SK cells. Immunofluorescence (IF) staining was performed to determine the subcellular location of (GR)50. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) level of mitochondria was evaluated by staining cells with MitoSOX Red followed by observing the intensity of red fluorescence under fluorescence microscope. The mitochondrial morphology of (GR)50-SK and GFP CTRL-SK cells was observed by transmission electron microscopy. Western blotting was used to detect protein kinase B (PKB, also known as AKT) and its phosphorylation levels in (GR)50-SK and GFP CTRL-SK cells. SC79 was used to activate AKT in (GR)50-SK cells, and MitoSOX Red staining and PI staining were used to analyze mitochondrial ROS and apoptosis levels after phosphorylated AKT increased. Metformin was used to treat (GR)50-SK and GFP CTRL-SK cells, respectively, and the apoptosis levels, mitochondrial ROS levels, mitochondrial morphology, AKT and its phosphorylation levels, and ATP concentrations of the two cells were detected by the above methods and ATP detection kit, respectively.Results·Western blotting showed that the construction of (GR)50-SK cells was successful, and fluorescence microscopy showed that the construction of GFP CTRL-SK cells was also successful. PI staining results showed that the apoptosis level of (GR)50-SK cells was higher than that of the GFP CTRL-SK cells (P=0.016). IF staining results showed that there was partial co-localization of (GR)50 in the mitochondria of (GR)50-SK cells. Compared with GFP CTRL-SK cells, the mitochondrial morphology and structure of (GR)50-SK cells were significant abnormalities, with a significantly increased ROS levels. The AKT levels in (GR)50-SK cells were similar to those in the GFP CTRL-SK cells, but there was a significant decrease in phosphorylated AKT levels. After (GR)50-SK cells were treated with SC79, the AKT phosphorylation level was significantly upregulated, and ROS level and apoptosis level were significantly downregulated. Metformin could significantly up-regulate the phosphorylated AKT levels in (GR)50-SK cells, but had no effect on AKT levels; it could reshape the morphology and structure of some mitochondria, reduce ROS levels, increase ATP production (P=0.000), and down-regulate the level of cell apoptosis (P=0.000).Conclusion·(GR)50 can cause mitochondrial morphology and function abnormalities by down-regulating AKT phosphorylation, and promote cell apoptosis. Metformin can effectively reduce the occurrence of the above pathological events induced by (GR)50

Monodispersed FeS2 Electrocatalyst Anchored to Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Host for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Despite their high theoretical energy density, lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are hindered by practical challenges including sluggish conversion kinetics and shuttle effect of polysulfides. Here, a nitrogen-doped continuous porous carbon (CPC) host anchoring monodispersed sub-10\ua0nm FeS2 nanoclusters (CPC@FeS2) is reported as an efficient catalytic matrix for sulfur cathode. This host shows strong adsorption of polysulfides, promising the inhibition of polysulfide shuttle and the promoted initial stage of catalytic conversion process. Moreover, fast lithium ion (Li-ion) diffusion and accelerated solid–solid conversion kinetics of Li2S2 to Li2S on CPC@FeS2 host guarantee boosted electrochemical kinetics for conversion process of sulfur species in Li–S cell, which gives a high utilization of sulfur under practical conditions of high loading and low electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio. Therefore, the surfur cathode (S/CPC@FeS2) delivers a high specific capacity of 1459 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, a stable cycling over 900 cycles with ultralow fading rate of 0.043% per cycle, and an enhanced rate capability compared with cathode only using carbon host. Further demonstration of this cathode in Li–S pouch cell shows a practical energy density of 372\ua0Wh kg−1 with a sulfur loading of 7.1\ua0mg cm−2 and an E/S ratio of 4\ua0\ub5L mg−1

High-Pressure Die Casting: A Review of Progress from the EPSRC Future LiME Hub

This article provides an overview of high-pressure die casting (HPDC)-related research undertaken at the EPSRC Future LiME Hub between 2015–2022. The project aimed to identify the cause of variability in the tensile ductility of die-cast structures, and to develop novel processing techniques to address this issue. Variability in tensile ductility was related to the size of large pores and non-metallic inclusions. It was proposed that these non-metallic inclusions formed during the pyrolysis of commercial plunger lubricants in the shot sleeve, and that these large pores derived from dilatational strains introduced during semi-solid deformation. Processing parameters and die design were found to significantly influence the microstructure of die-cast products, and the subsequent variability in tensile ductility. To close, recent progress on the application of intensive melt shearing to HPDC is reviewed. Intensive melt shearing was found to induce significant grain refinement in both Al and Mg alloys due to the effective dispersion of native oxide particles, and the use of these particles as heterogeneous nucleation substrates. The presence of native oxide particles also enabled the use of novel heat treatment procedures that avoided conventional issues such as surface blistering and geometrical distortion

The value of [18F]FDG PET/CT in avoiding overtreatment of 131l avidity pulmonary metastasis of differentiated thyroid cancer

Introduction: We usually use 131I-whole body scan (131I-WBS) and serum thyroglobulin (Tg) values to determine whether differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients need to receive 131I treatment, but not all 131I-avid (functioning) patients have a good response to 131I therapy. Our study aims to assess the data of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography ([18F] FDG PET/CT) to research the status of 131I-avid pulmonary metastases (PMs) and the prognosis of the patients. Material and methods: The 131I-avid PMs of DTC patients who underwent [18F]FDG PET/CT scans were included. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumour volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were used to estimate [18F]FDG uptake. The mean follow-up period was 34.14 ± 18.64 months. Progression-free survival (PFS) was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The study was based on per-patient and per-lesion analyses. Results: Among the 42 included patients, 34 (34/42, 81%) showed [18F]FDG uptake, which was defined as abnormal foci (SUVmax > 1.0) in the lungs. SUVmax, MTV, TLG, and tumour size were the factors that influenced the outcome of 131I treatment based on Tg levels (p = 0.000, 0.016, 0.000, 0.000) in per-lesion analysis. The only independent factor was the size of the lesion. There was a significant difference in response to 131I therapy between PMs with F-I+ and F+/I+ according to both Tg levels and Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (RECIST) (version 1.1) (p = 0.044, 0.001), in the per-lesion analysis. When the changes in size or metabolism of some lesions are inconsistent the prognosis of these patients is poor (p = 0.003). Conclusions: We concluded that higher [18F]FDG uptake and larger tumour size predict poor therapeutic effects and a high risk of disease progression in 131I-avid PMs of DTC. For evaluating the efficiency of 131I treatment, per-lesion analyses and assessing the data of [18F] FDG PET/CT would be more reliable than per-patient evaluation only. And early focal treatment modalities may improve their life span

Tiny Medicine: Nanomaterial-Based Biosensors

Tiny medicine refers to the development of small easy to use devices that can help in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease. Early diagnosis is the key to successfully treating many diseases. Nanomaterial-based biosensors utilize the unique properties of biological and physical nanomaterials to recognize a target molecule and effect transduction of an electronic signal. In general, the advantages of nanomaterial-based biosensors are fast response, small size, high sensitivity, and portability compared to existing large electrodes and sensors. Systems integration is the core technology that enables tiny medicine. Integration of nanomaterials, microfluidics, automatic samplers, and transduction devices on a single chip provides many advantages for point of care devices such as biosensors. Biosensors are also being used as new analytical tools to study medicine. Thus this paper reviews how nanomaterials can be used to build biosensors and how these biosensors can help now and in the future to detect disease and monitor therapies