Vision-Enhanced Semantic Entity Recognition in Document Images via Visually-Asymmetric Consistency Learning

Extracting meaningful entities belonging to predefined categories from Visually-rich Form-like Documents (VFDs) is a challenging task. Visual and layout features such as font, background, color, and bounding box location and size provide important cues for identifying entities of the same type. However, existing models commonly train a visual encoder with weak cross-modal supervision signals, resulting in a limited capacity to capture these non-textual features and suboptimal performance. In this paper, we propose a novel \textbf{V}isually-\textbf{A}symmetric co\textbf{N}sisten\textbf{C}y \textbf{L}earning (\textsc{Vancl}) approach that addresses the above limitation by enhancing the model's ability to capture fine-grained visual and layout features through the incorporation of color priors. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that our approach substantially outperforms the strong LayoutLM series baseline, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach. Additionally, we investigate the effects of different color schemes on our approach, providing insights for optimizing model performance. We believe our work will inspire future research on multimodal information extraction.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, Accepted by EMNLP202

DocTrack: A Visually-Rich Document Dataset Really Aligned with Human Eye Movement for Machine Reading

The use of visually-rich documents (VRDs) in various fields has created a demand for Document AI models that can read and comprehend documents like humans, which requires the overcoming of technical, linguistic, and cognitive barriers. Unfortunately, the lack of appropriate datasets has significantly hindered advancements in the field. To address this issue, we introduce \textsc{DocTrack}, a VRD dataset really aligned with human eye-movement information using eye-tracking technology. This dataset can be used to investigate the challenges mentioned above. Additionally, we explore the impact of human reading order on document understanding tasks and examine what would happen if a machine reads in the same order as a human. Our results suggest that although Document AI models have made significant progress, they still have a long way to go before they can read VRDs as accurately, continuously, and flexibly as humans do. These findings have potential implications for future research and development of Document AI models. The data is available at \url{https://github.com/hint-lab/doctrack}.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Accepted by Findings of EMNLP202

Decentralized Vehicle Coordination: The Berkeley DeepDrive Drone Dataset

Decentralized multiagent planning has been an important field of research in robotics. An interesting and impactful application in the field is decentralized vehicle coordination in understructured road environments. For example, in an intersection, it is useful yet difficult to deconflict multiple vehicles of intersecting paths in absence of a central coordinator. We learn from common sense that, for a vehicle to navigate through such understructured environments, the driver must understand and conform to the implicit "social etiquette" observed by nearby drivers. To study this implicit driving protocol, we collect the Berkeley DeepDrive Drone dataset. The dataset contains 1) a set of aerial videos recording understructured driving, 2) a collection of images and annotations to train vehicle detection models, and 3) a kit of development scripts for illustrating typical usages. We believe that the dataset is of primary interest for studying decentralized multiagent planning employed by human drivers and, of secondary interest, for computer vision in remote sensing settings.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl

The fate of concomitant mild mitral regurgitation in aortic insufficiency: A neglected subject

ObjectivesMitral regurgitation (MR) is commonly experienced by patients with aortic insufficiency (AI), and in its mild form, it is considered benign. However, the progression of concomitant mild regurgitation after the aortic valve surgery (AVS) for AI is poorly characterized. The current study aimed to define the long-term outcomes of MR after surgery and identify the risk factors involved in deterioration.MethodsPatients presenting with moderate/severe AI and concomitant mild MR (n = 347) between January 2013 and December 2021 were enrolled. MR grade was assessed by transthoracic echocardiography during the follow-up, and deterioration is defined as an increase in grade to moderate or severe MR from the previous follow-up echocardiography. Analysis of risk factors for early mortality, MR deterioration, and long-term mortality was performed.ResultsA total of 278 patients (84.8%) among 328 survivors had at least one follow-up echocardiography, and complete follow-up occurred for 316 patients (96.3%). Mild MR improved to trivial or none in 194 patients (69.8%), progressed to persistent mild MR for 74 patients (26.6%), and deteriorated for 10 patients (3.6%). Preoperative atrial fibrillation [odds ratio (OR), 23.09; 95% confidence interval (CI), 4.35–122.54] and rheumatic AI (OR, 11.61; 95% CI, 1.26–106.85) were shown to be independent risk factors for MR deterioration by generalized linear mixed analysis.ConclusionProgression of concomitant mild MR is rare in patients with AI after AVS. However, rheumatic AI and preoperative atrial fibrillation increase the probability of MR deterioration. Careful follow-up for this cohort of patients is recommended

Electrohydraulic lithotripsy through endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography combined with SpyGlass in the treatment of complex pancreatic duct stones: A case report and literature review

The incidence of pancreatic duct stones (PDS) is less than 1%. After the formation of stones, the lumen of the pancreatic duct is blocked, and the pancreatic juice cannot be discharged smoothly, resulting in the impairment of the internal and external secretions of the pancreas. Several national guidelines now recommend endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) as the treatment for PDS. The emergence of SpyGlass makes it possible to visualize the ERCP blind area of the pancreatic system directly. Electrohydraulic lithotripsy (EHL) under SpyGlass can crush large and pressure-resistant stones into smaller fragments, significantly improving the success of the endoscopic treatment of large stones. Here, we report a patient presented with acute alcohol-associated pancreatitis, found to have PDS on imaging, who underwent ERCP combined with SpyGlass (EHL), avoiding surgery, reducing trauma, and being discharged from the hospital with a rapid recovery. Therefore, endoscopic therapy is effective and safe for PDS patients. The combination therapy of this patient is the first use of SpyGlass for PDS in our centre, which marks a new stage in the application of endoscopic therapy for pancreatic diseases

IKKα negatively regulates ASC-dependent inflammasome activation.

The inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes that activate caspase-1 in response to infections and stress, resulting in the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Here we report that IκB kinase α (IKKα) is a critical negative regulator of apoptosis-associated specklike protein containing a C-terminal caspase-activation-andrecruitment (CARD) domain (ASC)-dependent inflammasomes. IKKα controls the inflammasome at the level of the adaptor ASC, which interacts with IKKα in the nucleus of resting macrophages in an IKKα kinase-dependent manner. Loss of IKKα kinase activity results in inflammasome hyperactivation. Mechanistically, the downstream nuclear effector IKK-related kinase (IKKi) facilitates translocation of ASC from the nucleus to the perinuclear area during inflammasome activation. ASC remains under the control of IKKα in the perinuclear area following translocation of the ASC/IKKα complex. Signal 2 of NLRP3 activation leads to inhibition of IKKα kinase activity through the recruitment of PP2A, allowing ASC to participate in NLRP3 inflammasome assembly. Taken together, these findings reveal a IKKi-IKKα-ASC axis that serves as a common regulatory mechanism for ASC-dependent inflammasomes

A Fast Transient Backend to Detect FRBs with the Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array

The Tianlai Dish Pathfinder array is a radio interferometer array consisting of 16 six meter dish antennas. The original digital backend integration time is at the seconds level, designed for HI intensity mapping experiment. A new digital backend with millisecond response is added to enable it to search for fast radio burst (FRB) during its observations. The design and calibration of this backend, and the real time search pipeline for it are described in this paper. It is capable of forming 16 digital beams for each linear polarisation, covering an area of 19.6 square degrees. The search pipeline is capable of searching for, recording and classifying FRBs automatically in real time. In commissioning, we succeeded in capturing the signal pulses from the pulsars PSR B0329+54 and B2021+51.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, RAA accepte

Optimization of morphological parameters for mitigation pits on rear KDP surface : experiments and numerical modeling

In high power laser systems, precision micro-machining is an effective method to mitigate the laser-induced surface damage growth on potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal. Repaired surfaces with smooth spherical and Gaussian contours can alleviate the light field modulation caused by damage site. To obtain the optimal repairing structure parameters, finite element method (FEM) models for simulating the light intensification caused by the mitigation pits on rear KDP surface were established. The light intensity modulation of these repairing profiles was compared by changing the structure parameters. The results indicate the modulation is mainly caused by the mutual interference between the reflected and incident lights on the rear surface. Owing to the total reflection, the light intensity enhancement factors (LIEFs) of the spherical and Gaussian mitigation pits sharply increase when the width-depth ratios are near 5.28 and 3.88, respectively. To achieve the optimal mitigation effect, the width-depth ratios greater than 5.3 and 4.3 should be applied to the spherical and Gaussian repaired contours. Particularly, for the cases of width-depth ratios greater than 5.3, the spherical repaired contour is preferred to achieve lower light intensification. The laser damage test shows that when the width-depth ratios are larger than 5.3, the spherical repaired contour presents higher laser damage resistance than that of Gaussian repaired contour, which agrees well with the simulation results

Two-Dimensional Platinum Telluride with Ordered Te Vacancy Superlattice for Efficient and Robust Hydrogen Evolution

Defect engineering to activate the basal planes of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is critical for the development of TMD-based electrocatalysts as the chemical inertness of basal planes restrict their potential applications in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, we report the synthesis and evaluation of few-layer (7x7)-PtTe2-x with an ordered, well-defined and high-density Te vacancy superlattice. Compared with pristine PtTe2, (2x2)-PtTe2-x and Pt(111), (7x7)-PtTe2-x exhibits superior HER activities in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes due to its rich structures of undercoordinated Pt sites. Furthermore, the (7x7)-PtTe2-x sample features outstanding catalytic stability even compared to the state-of-the-art Pt/C catalyst. Theoretical calculations reveal that the interactions between various undercoordinated Pt sites due to proximity effect can provide superior undercoordinated Pt sites for hydrogen adsorption and water dissociation. This work will enrich the understanding of the relationship between defect structures and electrocatalytic activities and provide a promising route to develop efficient Pt-based TMD electrocatalysts