Uni-ControlNet: All-in-One Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models

Text-to-Image diffusion models have made tremendous progress over the past two years, enabling the generation of highly realistic images based on open-domain text descriptions. However, despite their success, text descriptions often struggle to adequately convey detailed controls, even when composed of long and complex texts. Moreover, recent studies have also shown that these models face challenges in understanding such complex texts and generating the corresponding images. Therefore, there is a growing need to enable more control modes beyond text description. In this paper, we introduce Uni-ControlNet, a unified framework that allows for the simultaneous utilization of different local controls (e.g., edge maps, depth map, segmentation masks) and global controls (e.g., CLIP image embeddings) in a flexible and composable manner within one single model. Unlike existing methods, Uni-ControlNet only requires the fine-tuning of two additional adapters upon frozen pre-trained text-to-image diffusion models, eliminating the huge cost of training from scratch. Moreover, thanks to some dedicated adapter designs, Uni-ControlNet only necessitates a constant number (i.e., 2) of adapters, regardless of the number of local or global controls used. This not only reduces the fine-tuning costs and model size, making it more suitable for real-world deployment, but also facilitate composability of different conditions. Through both quantitative and qualitative comparisons, Uni-ControlNet demonstrates its superiority over existing methods in terms of controllability, generation quality and composability. Code is available at \url{https://github.com/ShihaoZhaoZSH/Uni-ControlNet}.Comment: Camera Ready, Code is available at https://github.com/ShihaoZhaoZSH/Uni-ControlNe

Study of behavior of plastic modified bitumen by incorporating carbon black

In recent years, the performance of polymer modified bitumen has been widely studied. This study reports a research carried out to investigate the properties of polymer modified bitumen (PMB) by using polypropylene as modifier, carbon black as additives, to examine the optimum ratio of polypropylene to carbon black. With this objective, sample preparation using wet mixing method combining high shear mix was firstly performed. Subsequently, 18 samples were developed for the study, of which the polypropylene (PP) contents 10%, 12%, 14%, 16%, 18% and 20% with 2%, 3%, 4% of carbon black content. Afterwards, samples were characterized by standard tests (Dynamic Shear Rheometer and Viscosity), and all the test results showed improved performance. Finally, the results concluded that the optimum binder-PP ratio PMB for applying is 14% PP with 3% carbon black

New D- A- A- - Configured Small Molecule Donors Employing Conjugation to Red- shift the Absorption for Photovoltaics

Four new donor- acceptor- acceptor- (D- A- A- )- configured donors, CPNT, DCPNT, CPNBT, and DCPNBT equipped with naphtho[1,2- c:5,6- c- ²]bis([1,2,5]- thiadiazole) (NT) or naphtho[2,3- c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (NBT) as the central acceptor (A) unit bridging triarylamine donor (D) and cyano or dicyanovinylene acceptor (A- ), were synthesized and characterized. All molecules exhibit bathochromic absorption shifts as compared to those of the benzothiadiazole (BT)- based analogues owing to improved electron- withdrawing and quinoidal character of NT and NBT cores that lead to stronger intramolecular charge transfer. Favorable energy level alignments with C70, together with the good thermal stability and the antiparallel dimeric packing render CPNT and DCPNT suitable donors for vacuum- processed organic photovoltaics (OPV)s. OPVs based on DCPNT- :- C70 active layers displayed the best power conversion efficiency (PCE)=8.3%, along with an open circuit voltage of 0.92- V, a short circuit current of 14.5- mA- cm- 2 and a fill factor of 62% under 1 sun intensity, simulated AM1.5G illumination. Importantly, continuous light- soaking with AM 1.5G illumination has verified the durability of the devices based on CPNT:C70 and DCPNT- :- C70 as the active blends. The devices were examined for their feasibility of indoor light harvesting under 500 lux illumination by a TLD- 840 fluorescent lamp, giving PCE=12.8% and 12.6%, respectively. These results indicate that the NT- based D- A- A- - type donors CPNT and DCPNT are potential candidates for high- stability vacuum- processed OPVs suitable for indoor energy harvesting.New donor- acceptor- acceptor- (D- A- A- )- configured small molecule donors with extended Ï - conjugation for red- shifting the absorption were characterized. The OPV comprising the donor DCPNT bearing naphtho[1,2- c:5,6- c- ²]bis([1,2,5]- thiadiazole) (NT) as A, cyano as A- , and acceptor C70 displayed the power conversion efficiency of 8.3% under AM 1.5G and 12.8% under 500 lux of TLD- 840 lamp, indicating the potential for indoor photovoltaics application.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156487/3/asia202000635.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156487/2/asia202000635-sup-0001-misc_information.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156487/1/asia202000635_am.pd

Proteomic profiling reveals α1-antitrypsin, α1-microglobulin, and clusterin as preeclampsia-related serum proteins in pregnant women

AbstractObjectivePreeclampsia is a major cause of mortality in pregnant women but the underlying mechanism remains unclear to date. In this study, we attempted to identify candidate proteins that might be associated with preeclampsia in pregnant women by means of proteomics tools.Materials and methodsDifferentially expressed proteins in serum samples obtained from pregnant women with severe preeclampsia (n = 8) and control participants (n = 8) were identified using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) followed by peptide mass fingerprinting using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS). Additional serum samples from 50 normal and 41 pregnant women with severe preeclampsia were analyzed by immunoassay for validation.ResultsTen protein spots were found to be upregulated significantly in women with severe preeclampsia. These protein spots had the peptide mass fingerprints matched to α1-antitrypsin, α1-microglobulin, clusterin, and haptoglobin. Immunoassays in an independent series of serum samples showed that serum α1-antitrypsin, α1-microglobulin, and clusterin levels of severe preeclampsia patients (n = 41) were significantly higher than those in the normal participants (n = 50; α1-antitrypsin 295.95 ± 50.94 mg/dL vs. 259.31 ± 33.90 mg/dL, p = 0.02; α1-microglobulin 0.029 ± 0.004 mg/mL vs. 0.020 ± 0.004 mg/mL, p < 0.0001; clusterin 77.6 ± 16.15 μg/dL vs. 67.6 ± 15.87 μg/dL, p < 0.05).ConclusionIdentification of these proteins by proteomics analysis enables further understanding of the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. Further studies are warranted to investigate the role of these biomarkers in prediction of this disease

Novel mutations support a role for Profilin 1 in the pathogenesis of ALS

AbstractMutations in the gene encoding profilin 1 (PFN1) have recently been shown to cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disorder. We sequenced the PFN1 gene in a cohort of ALS patients (n = 485) and detected 2 novel variants (A20T and Q139L), as well as 4 cases with the previously identified E117G rare variant (∼ 1.2%). A case-control meta-analysis of all published E117G ALS+/− frontotemporal dementia cases including those identified in this report was significant p = 0.001, odds ratio = 3.26 (95% confidence interval, 1.6–6.7), demonstrating this variant to be a susceptibility allele. Postmortem tissue from available patients displayed classic TAR DNA-binding protein 43 pathology. In both transient transfections and in fibroblasts from a patient with the A20T change, we showed that this novel PFN1 mutation causes protein aggregation and the formation of insoluble high molecular weight species which is a hallmark of ALS pathology. Our findings show that PFN1 is a rare cause of ALS and adds further weight to the underlying genetic heterogeneity of this disease