DWRSeg: Rethinking Efficient Acquisition of Multi-scale Contextual Information for Real-time Semantic Segmentation

Many current works directly adopt multi-rate depth-wise dilated convolutions to capture multi-scale contextual information simultaneously from one input feature map, thus improving the feature extraction efficiency for real-time semantic segmentation. However, this design may lead to difficult access to multi-scale contextual information because of the unreasonable structure and hyperparameters. To lower the difficulty of drawing multi-scale contextual information, we propose a highly efficient multi-scale feature extraction method, which decomposes the original single-step method into two steps, Region Residualization-Semantic Residualization. In this method, the multi-rate depth-wise dilated convolutions take a simpler role in feature extraction: performing simple semantic-based morphological filtering with one desired receptive field in the second step based on each concise feature map of region form provided by the first step, to improve their efficiency. Moreover, the dilation rates and the capacity of dilated convolutions for each network stage are elaborated to fully utilize all the feature maps of region form that can be achieved.Accordingly, we design a novel Dilation-wise Residual (DWR) module and a Simple Inverted Residual (SIR) module for the high and low level network, respectively, and form a powerful DWR Segmentation (DWRSeg) network. Extensive experiments on the Cityscapes and CamVid datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by achieving a state-of-the-art trade-off between accuracy and inference speed, in addition to being lighter weight. Without pretraining or resorting to any training trick, we achieve an mIoU of 72.7% on the Cityscapes test set at a speed of 319.5 FPS on one NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti card, which exceeds the latest methods of a speed of 69.5 FPS and 0.8% mIoU. The code and trained models are publicly available

Methylprednisolone as Adjunct to Endovascular Thrombectomy for Large-Vessel Occlusion Stroke

Importance It is uncertain whether intravenous methylprednisolone improves outcomes for patients with acute ischemic stroke due to large-vessel occlusion (LVO) undergoing endovascular thrombectomy. Objective To assess the efficacy and adverse events of adjunctive intravenous low-dose methylprednisolone to endovascular thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke secondary to LVO. Design, Setting, and Participants This investigator-initiated, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was implemented at 82 hospitals in China, enrolling 1680 patients with stroke and proximal intracranial LVO presenting within 24 hours of time last known to be well. Recruitment took place between February 9, 2022, and June 30, 2023, with a final follow-up on September 30, 2023.InterventionsEligible patients were randomly assigned to intravenous methylprednisolone (n = 839) at 2 mg/kg/d or placebo (n = 841) for 3 days adjunctive to endovascular thrombectomy. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary efficacy outcome was disability level at 90 days as measured by the overall distribution of the modified Rankin Scale scores (range, 0 [no symptoms] to 6 [death]). The primary safety outcomes included mortality at 90 days and the incidence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage within 48 hours. Results Among 1680 patients randomized (median age, 69 years; 727 female [43.3%]), 1673 (99.6%) completed the trial. The median 90-day modified Rankin Scale score was 3 (IQR, 1-5) in the methylprednisolone group vs 3 (IQR, 1-6) in the placebo group (adjusted generalized odds ratio for a lower level of disability, 1.10 [95% CI, 0.96-1.25]; P = .17). In the methylprednisolone group, there was a lower mortality rate (23.2% vs 28.5%; adjusted risk ratio, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.71-0.98]; P = .03) and a lower rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (8.6% vs 11.7%; adjusted risk ratio, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.55-0.99]; P = .04) compared with placebo. Conclusions and Relevance Among patients with acute ischemic stroke due to LVO undergoing endovascular thrombectomy, adjunctive methylprednisolone added to endovascular thrombectomy did not significantly improve the degree of overall disability.Trial RegistrationChiCTR.org.cn Identifier: ChiCTR210005172

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Piece-wise Linear Dynamic Adjustment for Gravity Network

Based on the status of the distribution and measurements in the national gravity network, a piece-wise linear dynamic adjustment model is introduced and applied to the analysis of the relative gravity observations in order to study the temporal gravity variations in mainland China. Compared with the traditional static adjustment model, more reliable temporal gravity variation characteristics can be given by the new model. To verify the validity of the model, it is processed that the gravity data from the national network and simulated data using the two methods, respectively. For the national gravity network, the mean difference of the rates of gravity changes obtained by the two adjustment methods is 13.4&#215;10^-8 m&#183;s^-2/a, with a maximum of 50&#215;10^-8 m&#183;s^-2/a. The precision of the dynamic adjustment is obviously better than the traditional static adjustment. For the simulated data, the rates of gravity change are compared with the theoretical ones at the same points. It is found that over 80% of the differences are less than 1&#215;10^-8 m&#183;s^-2/a from dynamic adjustment, and only two differences are larger than 2&#215;10^-8 m&#183;s^-2/a. In contrary, there are only 44.4% of the differences are less than 1&#215;10^-8 m&#183;s^-2/a from static adjustment, and 21% of the differences are larger than 2&#215;10^-8 m&#183;s^-2/a. Therefore, the piece-wise linear dynamic adjustment model can provide more reliable information of the temporal gravity changes compared with the traditional static adjustment model

Hydrocarbon formation and accumulation of the deep Paleogene of the Jiyang Depression, Shengli Oilfield

Using geochemistry, sedimentary and petroleum geology methods, and based on the analysis of spatial distribution of deep source rocks and sedimentary organic facies, the favorable exploration prospects in the Jiyang Depression, Shengli Oilfield are studieded. There are 4 types of sedimentary organic facies (including anoxic organic facies, anaerobic organic facies, dysaerobic organic facies and aerobic organic facies) in deep source rocks of Kongdian Formation - Sha-4 Member, Paleogene. The source rocks of Anoxic facies and anaerobic facies are discovered in the Sha-4 Member and are proved as excellent source rocks, while the Kongdian Formation source rocks compose mainly of the dysaerobic facies and aerobic facies and served as common source rocks. The whole hydrocarbon expulsion process is divided into 3 stages, including free water expulsion, hydrocarbon generation and energy accumulation, and hydrocarbon expulsion from microfractures. The hydrocarbon expulsion from deep source rocks mainly occurs in the stage of hydrocarbon expulsion from microfractures, during which there are three oil and gas migration modes with different geologic conditions, including vertical migration, lateral migration and downward migration. The studies indicated that the hydrocarbons in shallow and medium formations from the Sha-4 Member excellent source rocks of anoxic and anaerobic facies are mainly accumulated through vertical migration along the faults, while the reservoirs formed by lateral migration and downward migration are still waiting to be revealed. So there is great exporation potential for the deep Paleogene of the Jiyang Depression. Key words: Jiyang Depression, Paleogene, organic facies, hydrocarbon generation and expulsion mechanism, hydrocarbon migration, accumulatio

The morphological and molecular detection for the presence of toxic Cylindrospermopsis (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria) in Beijing city, China

Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii and its highly similar relatives Raphidiopsis species have been recognized as globally invasive and expansive filamentous cyanobacteria causing water blooms. Reports on C. raciborskii/Raphidiopsis species and their harmful metabolites such as hepatotoxic cylindrospermopsins (CYNs) in Chinese waters have been increasing, but mostly restricted to the southern regions of China. To further explore the existence and distribution of C. raciborskii in China, six water samples from Beijing city were morphologically and molecularly examined. Five samples of the six were shown to have Cylindrospermopsis filaments with straight and spiral morphotypes. PCR detection targeting on Cylindrospermopsis/Raphidiopsis specific 16S rRNA gene region also showed the positive amplification, and such amplifications were confirmed by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. As well, three of the five Cylindrospermopsis containing samples were shown to have cyrJ-a gene of CYN synthesis gene cluster. The results represented the presence of toxic Cylindrospermopsis at the most northern line in China so far, indicating rapid expansion of this harmful invasive cyanobacterium. It is strongly suggested that the monitoring on C. raciborskii/Raphidiopsis species and their production of cylindrospermopsin should be emphasized in Beijing and even more northern parts of China

Synthesis and optical properties of three novel functional polyurethanes bearing nonlinear optical chromophoric pendants with different pi electron conjugation bridge structure

High molecular weight functional polyurethanes bearing large pi electron conjugated chromophoric pendants with different conjugation bridge structure, poly(1a), poly(1b), and poly(1e), were synthesized and characterized by FTIR, H-1 NMR and UV-vis absorption spectra. Their optical properties were evaluated by optical limiting and nonlinear optical analyses. The results show that these polymers possess good optical limiting and large nonlinear optical properties, which are attributed to the long D-pi-A conjugated pi electron structure of the NLO-chromophoric segment. Poly(la) with C=C double bond as pi electron conjugation bridge shows better optical limiting property than poly(1b) and poly(1c) with C=N or N=N double bond as conjugation bridge structure under the same linear transmittance, while poly(le) with N=N double bond as pi electron conjugation bridge of the NLO-chromophoric segment is superior on nonlinear optical properties to poly(la) and poly(1b) with C=C and C=N double bonds as pi electron conjugation bridge structure, respectively. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Preparation and property of soluble azobenzene-containing substituted poly(1-alkyne)s optical limiting materials

Two novel poly(1-alkyne)s containing azobenzene nonlinear optical chromophoric group, poly(4-(4-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)phenylazophenyl]carbonyl)oxy-1-butyne) (P1) and poly(11-(4-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)phenylazophenyl]carbonyl)oxy-1-undecyne) (P2), were synthesized by [Rh(nbd)Cl](2)-Et3N catalysts and characterized by FTIR, H-1 NMR, GPC and UV-vis techniques. Their optical limiting and nonlinear optical properties were investigated using 8 ns pulse at 532 nm. The results show that these soluble functional poly(1-alkyne)s possess good optical limiting properties and large nonlinear optical properties. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Preparation and optical limiting properties of polyurethane containing long conjugated chromophores

Two functional polyurethanes (P1 and P2) bearing a large pi electron conjugated chromophoric pendant were synthesized and characterized by FT-IR, H-1-NMR and UV-Vis absorption spectra. Their optical limiting properties were evaluated. The results show that P1 and P2 show novel optical limiting properties, which are assigned to a long pi electron conjugated chromophoric pendant. It was found that their optical limiting properties were affected simultaneously by solution concentration and P2 displays a better optical limiting property than P1 at the same solution transmittance, although that P1 has larger chi((3)) (4.28 x 10(-11) esu) than P2 (0.87 x 10(-11) esu), and their optical limiting mechanism is investigated