Self-supervised Vision Transformers for 3D Pose Estimation of Novel Objects

Object pose estimation is important for object manipulation and scene understanding. In order to improve the general applicability of pose estimators, recent research focuses on providing estimates for novel objects, that is objects unseen during training. Such works use deep template matching strategies to retrieve the closest template connected to a query image. This template retrieval implicitly provides object class and pose. Despite the recent success and improvements of Vision Transformers over CNNs for many vision tasks, the state of the art uses CNN-based approaches for novel object pose estimation. This work evaluates and demonstrates the differences between self-supervised CNNs and Vision Transformers for deep template matching. In detail, both types of approaches are trained using contrastive learning to match training images against rendered templates of isolated objects. At test time, such templates are matched against query images of known and novel objects under challenging settings, such as clutter, occlusion and object symmetries, using masked cosine similarity. The presented results not only demonstrate that Vision Transformers improve in matching accuracy over CNNs, but also that for some cases pre-trained Vision Transformers do not need fine-tuning to do so. Furthermore, we highlight the differences in optimization and network architecture when comparing these two types of network for deep template matching

Self-supervised Vision Transformers for 3D pose estimation of novel objects

Object pose estimation is important for object manipulation and scene understanding. In order to improve the general applicability of pose estimators, recent research focuses on providing estimates for novel objects, that is, objects unseen during training. Such works use deep template matching strategies to retrieve the closest template connected to a query image, which implicitly provides object class and pose. Despite the recent success and improvements of Vision Transformers over CNNs for many vision tasks, the state of the art uses CNN-based approaches for novel object pose estimation. This work evaluates and demonstrates the differences between self-supervised CNNs and Vision Transformers for deep template matching. In detail, both types of approaches are trained using contrastive learning to match training images against rendered templates of isolated objects. At test time such templates are matched against query images of known and novel objects under challenging settings, such as clutter, occlusion and object symmetries, using masked cosine similarity. The presented results not only demonstrate that Vision Transformers improve matching accuracy over CNNs but also that for some cases pre-trained Vision Transformers do not need fine-tuning to achieve the improvement. Furthermore, we highlight the differences in optimization and network architecture when comparing these two types of networks for deep template matching.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the EU-program EC Horizon 2020 for Research and Innovation under grant agreement No. 101017089, project TraceBot and the NVIDIA Corporation for supporting this research by providing hardware resources

Involvement of UDP-Glucuronosyltransferases and Sulfotransferases in the Excretion and Tissue Distribution of Resveratrol in Mice.

Resveratrol is a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound with various pharmacological activities. It is unknown whether the expression of metabolizing enzymes correlates with resveratrol levels in organs and tissues. Therefore, we investigated the metabolism and tissue distribution of resveratrol in mice and assessed its association with the expression of UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (Ugt) and sulfotransferase (Sult) genes. Plasma, urine, feces, and various organs were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography at up to 8 h after intragastric resveratrol administration. The metabolism of resveratrol was pronounced, leading to the formation of resveratrol glucuronides and sulfates. Concentrations of resveratrol and its metabolites were high in the gastrointestinal organs, urine, and feces, but low in the liver and kidneys. In lung, heart, thymus, and brain tissues, parent resveratrol levels exceeded the sulfate and glucuronide concentrations. The formation of resveratrol conjugates correlated with the expression of certain Ugt and Sult genes. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis revealed high mRNA expression of Ugt1a1 and Ugt1a6a in the liver, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon, leading to high concentrations of resveratrol-3-O-glucuronide in these organs. Strong correlations of resveratrol-3-O-sulfate and resveratrol-3-O-4'-O-disulfate formation with Sult1a1 mRNA expression were also observed, particularly in the liver and colon. In summary, our data revealed organ-specific expression of Sults and Ugts in mice that strongly affects resveratrol concentrations; this may also be predictive in humans following oral uptake of dietary resveratrol

Long Distance Transport of Ultracold Atoms using a 1D optical lattice

We study the horizontal transport of ultracold atoms over macroscopic distances of up to 20 cm with a moving 1D optical lattice. By using an optical Bessel beam to form the optical lattice, we can achieve nearly homogeneous trapping conditions over the full transport length, which is crucial in order to hold the atoms against gravity for such a wide range. Fast transport velocities of up to 6 m/s (corresponding to about 1100 photon recoils) and accelerations of up to 2600 m/s2 are reached. Even at high velocities the momentum of the atoms is precisely defined with an uncertainty of less than one photon recoil. This allows for construction of an atom catapult with high kinetic energy resolution, which might have applications in novel collision experiments.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Challenges for Monocular 6D Object Pose Estimation in Robotics

Object pose estimation is a core perception task that enables, for example, object grasping and scene understanding. The widely available, inexpensive and high-resolution RGB sensors and CNNs that allow for fast inference based on this modality make monocular approaches especially well suited for robotics applications. We observe that previous surveys on object pose estimation establish the state of the art for varying modalities, single- and multi-view settings, and datasets and metrics that consider a multitude of applications. We argue, however, that those works' broad scope hinders the identification of open challenges that are specific to monocular approaches and the derivation of promising future challenges for their application in robotics. By providing a unified view on recent publications from both robotics and computer vision, we find that occlusion handling, novel pose representations, and formalizing and improving category-level pose estimation are still fundamental challenges that are highly relevant for robotics. Moreover, to further improve robotic performance, large object sets, novel objects, refractive materials, and uncertainty estimates are central, largely unsolved open challenges. In order to address them, ontological reasoning, deformability handling, scene-level reasoning, realistic datasets, and the ecological footprint of algorithms need to be improved.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2302.1182

GaN heterostructures as innovative x-ray imaging sensors — change of paradigm

Direct conversion of X-ray irradiation using a semiconductor material is an emerging technology in medical and material sciences. Existing technologies face problems, such as sensitivity or resilience. Here, we describe a novel class of X-ray sensors based on GaN thin film and GaN/AlGaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs), a promising enabling technology in the modern world of GaN devices for high power, high temperature, high frequency, optoelectronic, and military/space applications. The GaN/AlGaN HEMT-based X-ray sensors offer superior performance, as evidenced by higher sensitivity due to intensification of electrons in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), by ionizing radiation. This increase in detector sensitivity, by a factor of 104 compared to GaN thin film, now offers the opportunity to reduce health risks associated with the steady increase in CT scans in today’s medicine, and the associated increase in exposure to harmful ionizing radiation, by introducing GaN/AlGaN sensors into X-ray imaging devices, for the benefit of the patient

673. Study of Prescribing patterns and Effectiveness of Ceftolozane/Tazobactam Real-world Analysis (SPECTRA): Results from a multi-national, multicenter observational study

Abstract Background Ceftolozane/tazobactam (C/T) has demonstrated efficacy to treat complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI), complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI) and hospital acquired bacterial and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia. However, physicians, providers, and other stakeholders including payers want broader real-world evidence to inform clinical decisions and optimize healthcare resource use. Methods SPECTRA is a multi-national, multicenter, retrospective, inpatient, observational study of patients treated with C/T in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and The United Kingdom. Adult inpatients treated with ≥48 hours of C/T were included. Demographics, clinical characteristics, treatment management patterns, and outcomes were analyzed. Results There were 687 patients from 38 participating hospitals in 7 countries. The average age was 57.6 years (±17.3 [SD]) and most were male 456 (66.4%). The majority had at least one comorbidity 563 (82.0%), with the most common being heart disease 208 (30.3%), immunocompromised state 207 (30.1%) and chronic pulmonary disease 195 (28.4%). The most common indications were pneumonia 204 (29.7%), sepsis 147 (21.4%), and cIAI 106 (15.4%); 162 (23.6%) had multiple sites of infection and 245 (35.7%) were polymicrobial infections. Median C/T treatment was 12.0 days (11.0 [IQR]). Half of the patients were admitted to the ICU 343 (49.9%), 43.4% of which was related to the infection. Clinical success was 66.1%. All-cause in-hospital mortality was 22.0% with 8.7% being infection related. 30-day all-cause readmission was 9.8% and 4.7% were infection related. Conclusion C/T was used to treat infections among critically ill patients and for multi-source, polymicrobial infections. Despite the complexity of the patients in this real-world analysis, most C/T patients had beneficial outcomes that are similar to results of controlled clinical trials. Disclosures Alex Soriano, MD, MSD, Pfizer, Shionogi, Angelini, Menarini, Gilead: Honoraria Laura A. Puzniak, MPH, PhD, Merck & Co., Inc.: former employee and stockholder David Paterson, MBBS, Accelerate: Honoraria|bioMerieux: Honoraria|Entasis: Advisor/Consultant|Janssen-Cilag: Grant/Research Support|MSD: Advisor/Consultant|MSD: Grant/Research Support|MSD: Honoraria|Pfizer: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer: Honoraria|PPD: Grant/Research Support|Shionogi: Grant/Research Support|VenatoRx: Advisor/Consultant Stefan Kluge, MD, Astrazeneca: Lecture fees|Biotest: Lecture fees|Cytosorbents: Grant/Research Support|Cytosorbents: Lecture fees|Daiichi Sankyo: Grant/Research Support|Daiichi Sankyo: Lecture fees|Fresenius Medical Care: Advisor/Consultant|Fresenius Medical Care: Lecture fees|Gilead: Advisor/Consultant|Gilead: Lecture fees|Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma: Lecture fees|MSD: Advisor/Consultant|MSD: Lecture fees|Pfizer: Advisor/Consultant|Pfizer: Lecture fees|Phillips: Lecture fees|Zoll: Lecture fees Alexandre H. Watanabe, PharmD, Merck & Co., Inc.: Employee Engels N. Obi, PhD, Merck & Co., Inc.: Employee|Merck & Co., Inc.: Stocks/Bonds Sunny Kaul, BSc, MBChB, PHD, FRCP, FFICM, Chiesi: Speaker fees|Gilead: Speaker fees|GlaxoSmithKline: Speaker fees|MSD: Grant/Research Support|MSD: Speaker fees|Shionogi: Speaker fees|Vifor Pharma: Grant/Research Support

Organic ISFET Based on Poly (3-hexylthiophene)

We have fabricated organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) operable at low-voltages in liquid solutions, suitable for in vitro biosensing applications. Measurements in electrolytes have shown that the performance of the transistors did not deteriorate and they can be directly used as ion-sensitive transducers. Furthermore, more complex media have been tested, with the perspective of cell analysis. Degradation effects acting on the device operating in liquid could be partly compensated by adopting an alternate current measuring mode

Resveratrol Inhibits Key Steps of Steroid Metabolism in a Human Estrogen-Receptor Positive Breast Cancer Model: Impact on Cellular Proliferation

The role of resveratrol (RES) in preventing breast cancer is controversial, as low concentrations may stimulate the proliferation of estrogen-receptor alpha positive (ERα+) breast cancer cells. As metabolism is the key factor in altering cellular estrogens, thereby influencing breast tumor growth, we investigated the effects of RES on the formation of estrogen metabolites, namely 4-androstene-3,17-dione (AD), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), dehydroepiandrosterone-3-O-sulfate (DHEA-S), estrone (E1), estrone-3-sulfate (E1-S), 17β-estradiol (E2), 17β-estradiol-3-O-(β-D-glucuronide) (E2-G), 17β-estradiol-3-O-sulfate (E2-S), 16α-hydroxy-17β-estradiol (estriol, E3), and testosterone (T) in ERα- MDA-MB-231 and ERα+ MCF-7 cells. Incubation of both of the cell lines with the hormone precursors DHEA and E1 revealed that sulfation and glucuronidation were preferred metabolic pathways for DHEA, E1 and E2 in MCF-7 cells, compared with in MDA-MB-231 cells, as the Vmax values were significantly higher (DHEA-S: 2873.0 ± 327.4 fmol/106 cells/h, E1-S: 30.4 ± 2.5 fmol/106 cells/h, E2-S: 24.7 ± 4.9 fmol/106 cells/h, E2-G: 7.29 ± 1.36 fmol/106 cells/h). RES therefore significantly inhibited DHEA-S, E1-S, E2-S and E2-G formation in MCF-7, but not in MDA-MB-231 cells (Kis: E2-S, 0.73 ± 0.07 μM < E1-S, 0.94 ± 0.03 μM < E2-G, 7.92 ± 0.24 μM < DHEA-S, 13.2 ± 0.2 μM). Suppression of these metabolites subsequently revealed twofold higher levels of active E2, concomitant with an almost twofold increase in MCF-7 cell proliferation, which was the most pronounced upon the addition of 5 μM RES. As the content of RES in food is relatively low, an increased risk of breast cancer progression in women is likely to only be observed following the continuous consumption of high-dose RES supplements. Further long-term human studies simultaneously monitoring free estrogens and their conjugates are therefore highly warranted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of RES supplementation, particularly in patients diagnosed with ERα+ breast cancer