Paint and Distill: Boosting 3D Object Detection with Semantic Passing Network

3D object detection task from lidar or camera sensors is essential for autonomous driving. Pioneer attempts at multi-modality fusion complement the sparse lidar point clouds with rich semantic texture information from images at the cost of extra network designs and overhead. In this work, we propose a novel semantic passing framework, named SPNet, to boost the performance of existing lidar-based 3D detection models with the guidance of rich context painting, with no extra computation cost during inference. Our key design is to first exploit the potential instructive semantic knowledge within the ground-truth labels by training a semantic-painted teacher model and then guide the pure-lidar network to learn the semantic-painted representation via knowledge passing modules at different granularities: class-wise passing, pixel-wise passing and instance-wise passing. Experimental results show that the proposed SPNet can seamlessly cooperate with most existing 3D detection frameworks with 1~5% AP gain and even achieve new state-of-the-art 3D detection performance on the KITTI test benchmark. Code is available at: https://github.com/jb892/SPNet.Comment: Accepted by ACMMM202

Methylation levels at IGF2 and GNAS DMRs in infants born to preeclamptic pregnancies

BACKGROUND: Offspring of pregnancy complicated with preeclampsia are at high risk for hypertension, stroke and possibly obesity. The mechanisms behind the association of intrauterine exposure to preeclampsia and high risk of health problems in the later life remain largely unknown. The aims of the current investigation were to determine the changes in DNA methylation at IGF2 and GNAS DMR in offspring of preeclamptic pregnancy and to explore the possible mechanisms underlying the association between maternal preeclampsia and high risk for health problems in the later life of their offspring. RESULTS: Umbilical cord blood was taken from infants born to women of preeclampsia (n=56), gestational hypertension (n=23) and normal pregnancy (n=81). DNA methylation levels of IGF2 and GNAS DMR were determined by Massarray quantitative methylation analysis. Methylation levels at IGF2 DMR were significantly lower in preeclampsia than normal pregnancy. The average methylation level at IGF2 DMR was significantly correlated with preeclampsia even after birth weight, maternal age, gestational age at delivery and fetal gender were adjusted. The difference in methylation level was not significantly different between mild and severe preeclampsia. The methylation level at GNAS DMR was not significantly correlated with birth weight, maternal age, gestational age at delivery, fetal gender, preeclampsia or gestational hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded preeclampsia induced a decrease in methylation level at IGF 2 DMR, and this might be among the mechanisms behind the association between intrauterine exposure to preeclampsia and high risk for metabolic diseases in the later life of the infants

Transplanted Human Amniotic Membrane-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Ameliorate Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Liver Cirrhosis in Mouse

BACKGROUND: Human amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMCs) have the potential to reduce heart and lung fibrosis, but whether could reduce liver fibrosis remains largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Hepatic cirrhosis model was established by infusion of CCl₄ (1 ml/kg body weight twice a week for 8 weeks) in immunocompetent C57Bl/6J mice. hAMCs, isolated from term delivered placenta, were infused into the spleen at 4 weeks after mice were challenged with CCl₄. Control mice received only saline infusion. Animals were sacrificed at 4 weeks post-transplantation. Blood analysis was performed to evaluate alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Histological analysis of the livers for fibrosis, hepatic stellate cells activation, hepatocyte apoptosis, proliferation and senescence were performed. The donor cell engraftment was assessed using immunofluorescence and polymerase chain reaction. The areas of hepatic fibrosis were reduced (6.2%±2.1 vs. control 9.6%±1.7, p<0.05) and liver function parameters (ALT 539.6±545.1 U/dl, AST 589.7±342.8 U/dl,vs. control ALT 139.1±138.3 U/dl, p<0.05 and AST 212.3±110.7 U/dl, p<0.01) were markedly ameliorated in the hAMCs group compared to control group. The transplantation of hAMCs into liver-fibrotic mice suppressed activation of hepatic stellate cells, decreased hepatocyte apoptosis and promoted liver regeneration. More interesting, hepatocyte senescence was depressed significantly in hAMCs group compared to control group. Immunofluorescence and polymerase chain reaction revealed that hAMCs engraftment into host livers and expressed the hepatocyte-specific markers, human albumin and α-fetoproteinran. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The transplantation of hAMCs significantly decreased the fibrosis formation and progression of CCl₄-induced cirrhosis, providing a new approach for the treatment of fibrotic liver disease

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Flooding Resilience Future for the ABC Mega Region: Applying Nature Based Solutions as a Systematic Approach

The frequency of flooding events is estimated to increase in the Rhine Basin. Cities are becoming increasingly sensitive to climate change, and urban sprawl and urban population growth are bringing more and more people and areas into the risk. The thesis project is about the flooding resilience future in the lower Rhine River basin. The lack of systematic and scientific spatial planning and flood management tools has resulted in the mega region not having complex flooding issues. In addition, the natural landscape is fragmented by the urban sprawl in the past few years, and the connection of nature landscape and the value of the ecosystems needs to be utilized and demonstrated in future flood management in the face of the new paradigm. In the cross sections and different levels and countries of governance, it is important to investigate the local capacity of adaptation and transformation towards flood resilience. Nature- based solutions are thus chosen as which not only recognize the dynamics of the bio-physical systems but also activate the capacity of local conditions. Nature- based solutions not only enhance the green and blue infrastructure, but also creating added values of social benefits. By investigating the opportunity, suitability, availability and applicability of applying the nature- based solutions, the thesis try to explore a systematic approach to accelerate the transformation towards a flood resilience future in the ABC mega region by the local adaptations.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Transitional Territorie

hAMCs transplantation reduced CCl₄-induced hepatic stellate cells activation.

<p>(A) Micrographs of liver frozen sections from control group and hAMCs group stained with immunofluorescence for Desmin (left panel), DAPI (middle panel) and merged (right panel). (B) Micrographs of liver frozen sections from control group and hAMCs group stained with immunofluorescence forα-SMA (left panel), DAPI (middle panel) and merged (right panel). (C) Micrographs of liver frozen sections from control group and hAMCs group stained with immunofluorescence for GFAP (left panel), DAPI (middle panel) and merged (right panel). (D) Representative Western blots of liver extracts from control group and hAMCs group for expression of α-SMA. β-actin was used as an invariant control. (E) α-SMA protein levels relative to β-actin protein level were assessed by densitometric analysis. Each value is the mean±SEM of determinations in 5 mice of each group. ** p<0.01 compared with control group.</p

hAMCs transplantation suppressed hepatocyte apoptosis and promoted hepatocyte regeneration.

<p>(A) Micrographs of liver paraffin sections from control group and hAMCs group stained immunohistochemically for TUNEL and PCNA. (B) Representative Western blots of liver extracts from two groups for expression of HGF and bcl-2. β-actin was used as an invariant control. HGF and bcl-2 protein levels relative to β-actin protein level were assessed by densitometric analysis. Each value is the mean±SEM of determinations in 8 mice of each group. *p<0.05 compared with control group.</p

Characterization of human amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

<p>(A) Human amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMCs) display fibroblastic morphology in cultures. (B) and (C) The differentiation of hAMCs into adipocytos and osteoblasts in cultures. Cells were incubated in adipogenic or osteogenic medium and then analyzed by cytochemical staining with Oil Red-O (B) and Alizarin red (C), respectively.</p

hAMCs engraft in CCl₄ injured livers.

<p>(A) Micrographs of liver frozen sections stained with immunofluorescence for DiI (left panel), α-fetoprotein (middle panel) and merged (right panel). (B) Micrographs of liver frozen sections stained with immunofluorescence for DiI (left panel), albumin (middle panel) and merged (right panel). Bars = 100 µm.</p