MeMaHand: Exploiting Mesh-Mano Interaction for Single Image Two-Hand Reconstruction

Existing methods proposed for hand reconstruction tasks usually parameterize a generic 3D hand model or predict hand mesh positions directly. The parametric representations consisting of hand shapes and rotational poses are more stable, while the non-parametric methods can predict more accurate mesh positions. In this paper, we propose to reconstruct meshes and estimate MANO parameters of two hands from a single RGB image simultaneously to utilize the merits of two kinds of hand representations. To fulfill this target, we propose novel Mesh-Mano interaction blocks (MMIBs), which take mesh vertices positions and MANO parameters as two kinds of query tokens. MMIB consists of one graph residual block to aggregate local information and two transformer encoders to model long-range dependencies. The transformer encoders are equipped with different asymmetric attention masks to model the intra-hand and inter-hand attention, respectively. Moreover, we introduce the mesh alignment refinement module to further enhance the mesh-image alignment. Extensive experiments on the InterHand2.6M benchmark demonstrate promising results over the state-of-the-art hand reconstruction methods

Binaural Rendering of Ambisonic Signals by Neural Networks

Binaural rendering of ambisonic signals is of broad interest to virtual reality and immersive media. Conventional methods often require manually measured Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). To address this issue, we collect a paired ambisonic-binaural dataset and propose a deep learning framework in an end-to-end manner. Experimental results show that neural networks outperform the conventional method in objective metrics and achieve comparable subjective metrics. To validate the proposed framework, we experimentally explore different settings of the input features, model structures, output features, and loss functions. Our proposed system achieves an SDR of 7.32 and MOSs of 3.83, 3.58, 3.87, 3.58 in quality, timbre, localization, and immersion dimensions

BODIPY-based fluorescent probes for sensing protein surface-hydrophobicity

Mapping surface hydrophobic interactions in proteins is key to understanding molecular recognition, biological functions, and is central to many protein misfolding diseases. Herein, we report synthesis and application of new BODIPY-based hydrophobic sensors (HPsensors) that are stable and highly fluorescent for pH values ranging from 7.0 to 9.0. Surface hydrophobic measurements of proteins (BSA, apomyoglobin, and myoglobin) by these HPsensors display much stronger signal compared to 8-anilino-1-naphthalene sulfonic acid (ANS), a commonly used hydrophobic probe; HPsensors show a 10- to 60-fold increase in signal strength for the BSA protein with affinity in the nanomolar range. This suggests that these HPsensors can be used as a sensitive indicator of protein surface hydrophobicity. A first principle approach is used to identify the molecular level mechanism for the substantial increase in the fluorescence signal strength. Our results show that conformational change and increased molecular rigidity of the dye due to its hydrophobic interaction with protein lead to fluorescence enhancement

Controlled Knoevenagel reactions of methyl groups of 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl BODIPY dyes for unique BODIPY dyes

Formyl groups at 6- and 2,6-positions initiated Knoevenagel reactions of the methyl groups at the 7, and 1,7-positions of 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl BODIPY dyes with aromatic aldehydes. Formation of vinyl bonds at the 7-, and 1,7-positions facilitates further Knoevenagel reactions of the methyl groups at the 3,5-positions. This approach offers fast, facile and versatile ways to prepare potential novel building blocks of BODIPY dyes for conjugated oligomers, dendrimers, and highly water-soluble, near-infrared emissive sensing materials

Impact of riding posture and regenerative braking on electric motorcycle energy consumption

In this paper, the impact of riding posture and regenerative braking on electric motorcycle energy economy is described. The motorcycle longitudinal dynamic model is first built to describe the motorcycle acceleration, tyre load transfer and energy consumption. Through energy consumption analysis based on the world motorcycle test cycle-class 3-2 (WMTC 3-2), the low riding posture can save up to 22.65% of energy consumption than the high riding posture, and regenerative braking can help to save up to 7.65% of energy consumption, which demonstrates the benefit of riding posture control and regenerative braking on energy saving. It is also demonstrated that riding posture has an impact on the rear tyre load and the available rear tyre longitudinal force. At low tyre road friction conditions, higher riding posture can provide more rear tyre longitudinal force for accelerating and regenerative braking, which improves the motorcycle dynamic performance and energy economy

Efficacy and safety of low-dose IL-2 in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Objectives Open-labelled clinical trials suggested that low-dose IL-2 might be effective in treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A double-blind and placebocontrolled trial is required to formally evaluate the safety and efficacy of low-dose IL-2 therapy. Methods A randomised, double-blind and placebocontrolled clinical trial was designed to treat 60 patients with active SLE. These patients received either IL-2 (n=30) or placebo (n=30) with standard treatment for 12 weeks, and were followed up for additional 12 weeks. IL-2 at a dose of 1 million IU or placebo was administered subcutaneously every other day for 2 weeks and followed by a 2-week break as one treatment cycle. The primary endpoint was the SLE Responder Index-4 (SRI-4) at week 12. The secondary endpoints were other clinical responses, safety and dynamics of immune cell subsets. Results At week 12, the SRI-4 response rates were 55.17% and 30.00% for IL-2 and placebo, respectively (p=0.052). At week 24, the SRI-4 response rate of IL-2 group was 65.52%, compared with 36.67% of the placebo group (p=0.027). The primary endpoint was not met at week 12. Low-dose IL-2 treatment resulted in 53.85% (7/13) complete remission in patients with lupus nephritis, compared with 16.67% (2/12) in the placebo group (p=0.036). No serious infection was observed in the IL-2 group, but two in placebo group. Besides expansion of regulatory T cells, low-dose IL-2 may also sustain cellular immunity with enhanced natural killer cells. Conclusions Low-dose IL-2 might be effective and tolerated in treatment of SThe work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31530020,31570880,81471601,81601417 and 81701598), Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences to ZG LI, Beijing Sci-Tech Committee Z171100000417007,Clinical Medicine Plus X-Young Scholars Project of Peking University (PKU2019LCXQ013) supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Beijing Nova Program Z171100001117025, National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0909003 to DY), BellberryViertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship to DY and Beijing SL PHARM

熱エネルギー貯蔵のためのSn系相変化材料のマイクロおよびナノスケール構造設計

Phase change materials (PCMs) are the materials that use phase transition process to achieve certain designed functions. In terms of thermal energy storage (TES), PCMs can be used to store and release thermal energy at a constant temperature through reversible phase transition. This feature makes them suitable storage medium in TES and the heat sink in thermal management of electronic devices. Compared to the common PCMs, like organic compounds and inorganic salts, metals exhibit high volumetric TES density which is helpful for a compact system, and high thermal conductivity which enable the fast charge and discharge of thermal energy. However, the metal PCMs should be encapsulated to avoid corrosion to container, morphology changes and deterioration of micro and nano scale metal PCMs. This thesis focuses on the nanostructure design of micro and nano scale Sn-based PCMs on the purpose of encapsulation of metal PCMs for long-term cyclic stability and morphology control. In Chapter 1, the research background and objectives of this research are introduced. In Chapter 2, silica was selected as the material of the protection shell for Sn PCM. A facile method was proposed for preparing a silica (SiO2)-based material containing Sn nanoparticles (NPs) distributed inside for enhancing the thermal cyclic stability of the inserted Sn NPs. Absorption of a Sn precursor into a mesoporous SiO2 matrix resulted in confinement of the Sn precursor in a mesoporous SiO2 matrix. Hydrogen thermal reduction of the above composite yielded Sn nanoparticles with a diameter of ca. 30 nm uniformly distributed inside porous SiO2 (p-SiO2) spheres: Sn NPs@p-SiO2. The transformation of the porous SiO2 structure for supporting Sn NPs revealed that the process was closely related to the transformation of the amorphous hydrolyzed Sn precursor into Sn oxides followed by, probably, the rearrangement of the SiO2 matrix via its interaction with the melting Sn. This led to the formation of stable Sn NPs@p-SiO2. The SiO2 matrix effectively prevented the coalescence of the Sn NPs, and the obtained product exhibited negligible changes in melting behavior during the second to 100th cycle of a freeze-melt cycle test. In Chapter 3, alumina with higher thermal conductivity compared to silica was selected as the material of the protection shell. In this part, for the first time, alumina-encapsulated metallic Sn-based PCMs, named Sn@Al2O3, were successfully fabricated with tunable size (60 nm-2 μm) and core-shell structure by a facile process from low-cost chemicals. The robust fabrication process consists of a surfactant-free solvothermal synthesis of SnO2 spheres, boehmite treatment on SnO2 spheres, calcination in the air, and the final hydrogen reduction to transform SnO2 to metallic Sn. The boehmite treatment, in which the penetration of aluminum species into SnO2 spheres played an important role, was found to be responsible for the unique structure formation of final Sn@Al2O3. The understanding of structure formation mechanism gives the possibilities of a new facile way for the synthesis of metal NPs and particle-distributed nanostructures. The obtained Sn@Al2O3 particles not only have high PCM content (92.37 wt%) but also show a stable thermal behavior and morphology during 100 melt- freeze cycles in the air atmosphere, exhibiting the potential of fast thermal energy storage within the range of 100-300°C. In Chapter 4, the formation of SnO2@SiO2 hollow nanostructures was demonstrated, for the first time, by diffusion of liquid state Sn cores in Sn@SiO2 core-shell NPs and further interaction with SiO2 with real-time observation via in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Based on the in-situ results, a designed transformation of nanoparticle structure from core-shell Sn@SiO2 to yolk-shell Sn@SiO2 and hollow SnO2@SiO2 is demonstrated, showing the controllable structure from starting core-shell Sn@SiO2 NPs via liquid state Sn diffusion in SiO2 shell and further fixing of Sn by interaction with the dangling bond of SiO2. The proposed approach expands the toolbox for the design and preparation of yolk-shell and hollow nanostructure, thus provides us a new strategy in fabrication of more complicated nanostructures, which can not only be applied in PCMs design but also in catalyst, batteries, etc. Finally, Chapter 5 is a summary of all the results obtained in each chapter and prospective for future research in the above areas