CVRecon: Rethinking 3D Geometric Feature Learning For Neural Reconstruction

Recent advances in neural reconstruction using posed image sequences have made remarkable progress. However, due to the lack of depth information, existing volumetric-based techniques simply duplicate 2D image features of the object surface along the entire camera ray. We contend this duplication introduces noise in empty and occluded spaces, posing challenges for producing high-quality 3D geometry. Drawing inspiration from traditional multi-view stereo methods, we propose an end-to-end 3D neural reconstruction framework CVRecon, designed to exploit the rich geometric embedding in the cost volumes to facilitate 3D geometric feature learning. Furthermore, we present Ray-contextual Compensated Cost Volume (RCCV), a novel 3D geometric feature representation that encodes view-dependent information with improved integrity and robustness. Through comprehensive experiments, we demonstrate that our approach significantly improves the reconstruction quality in various metrics and recovers clear fine details of the 3D geometries. Our extensive ablation studies provide insights into the development of effective 3D geometric feature learning schemes. Project page: https://cvrecon.ziyue.cool

Gripper design and implementation for small parts sorting and assembling of a dual-arm industrial robot

Collaborative robots have become a new trend in the robotics industry. It is shown that the collaboration between human and robot would improve the productivity for small or medium-sized manufacturers. Moreover, vision-enhanced robots have stood out compared to the old-style ones in accomplishing more flexible and diversified jobs in real-life working scenarios. This project aims to develop simulated industrial applications for a dual-arm collaborative robot, named Nextage, with visual enhancement by integrating Kinect device. The contributions of this report include a complete robot system design and a general guide for vision-enabled robot control algorithm. A system design comprises the mechanical structure of manipulators for both hands, electrical control of air suction, and simulated industrial working scenario. Moreover, the rationale behind the material selection and manufacturing method of gripper are also discussed. As for software development, essential packages required are proposed in order to communicate with Kinect device and robot in ROS environment. The report emphases the working principles for two core modules including object recognition and robot motion control. In order to achieve high accuracy of assembly process, the team has developed several calibration algorithms. At the end, states flow of two demos demonstrating result-based sorting based on color recognition and dual-arm cooperation based on contour recognition are illustrated. The implementation of this project hinges on connections between real-life industrial applications and novel vision-enhanced cooperation robot.Bachelor of Engineerin

Chinese Sexual Minority Male Adolescents’ Suicidality and Body Mass Index

Excess weight status may increase the risk of suicidality among sexual minority females, but few studies have examined this suicidality disparity in sexual minority males. This study examined the association between sexual minority status and suicide attempts in Chinese male adolescents and tested whether body mass index (BMI) had a moderating effect on that association. Data were collected from 7th to 12th graders from seven randomly selected provinces of China in the 2015 School-Based Chinese Adolescents Health Survey. In total, 72,409 male students completed the questionnaires regarding sexual attraction, self-reported weight and height, and suicide attempts. After adjustment for covariates, sexual minority status was associated with suicide attempts among male students (AOR = 1.74, 95% CI = 1.57⁻1.93). Stratification analyses showed that BMI category moderated this association; compared with the results before stratification analyses, sexual minority males who were obese had increased risk of suicide attempts (AOR = 2.15, 95% CI = 1.09⁻4.24), sexual minority males who were overweight had reduced odds of suicide attempts (AOR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.01⁻1.92), and no significant association change was found in sexual minority males who were underweight (AOR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.43⁻2.33). Our study indicated that BMI moderated the risk of suicide attempts in sexual minority males. Suicide prevention targeting sexual minority males should be focused on weight status disparity and the creation of a positive climate to reduce minority stressors due to body image

Gut bacterial consortium enriched in a biofloc system protects shrimp against Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection

Abstract Background Shrimp cultured in a biofloc system (BFS) have a lower disease incidence than those farmed in a water exchange system (WES). Although a number of studies have reported that the gut bacterial community induced by BFS is highly associated with shrimp disease resistance, the causal relationship remains unknown. Here, the promotive roles of gut bacterial community induced by BFS in pathogenic Vibrio infection resistance and its potential micro-ecological and physiological mechanisms were investigated by gut bacterial consortium transplantation and synthetic community (SynCom) construction. Results The BFS induced a more stable and resistant gut bacterial community, and significantly enriched some beneficial bacterial taxa, such as Paracoccus, Ruegeria, Microbacterium, Demequina, and Tenacibaculum. Transplantation of a gut bacterial consortium from BFS shrimp (EnrichBFS) greatly enhanced the stability of the bacterial community and resistance against pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus infection in WES shrimp, while transplantation of a gut bacterial consortium from WES shrimp significantly disrupted the bacterial community and increased pathogen susceptibility in both WES and BFS shrimp. The addition of EnrichBFS in shrimp postlarvae also improved the pathogen resistance through increasing the relative abundances of beneficial bacterial taxa and stability of bacterial community. The corresponding strains of five beneficial bacterial taxa enriched in BFS shrimp were isolated to construct a SynComBFS. The addition of SynComBFS could not only suppress disease development, but also improve shrimp growth, boost the digestive and immune activities, and restore health in diseased shrimp. Furthermore, the strains of SynComBFS well colonized shrimp gut to maintain a high stability of bacterial community. Conclusions Our study reveals an important role for native microbiota in protecting shrimp from bacterial pathogens and provides a micro-ecological regulation strategy towards the development of probiotics to ameliorate aquatic animal diseases. Video Abstrac

Additional file 1 of Association between gut microbiota and preeclampsia-eclampsia: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

Additional file 1: Table S1. Instrumental variables used in MR analysis of the association between gut microbiota and PE. Table S2. Full result of MR estimates for the association between gut microbiota and PE. Table S3. The heterogeneity of gut microbiota instrumental variables. Table S4. Directional horizontal pleiotropy assessed by intercept term in MR Egger regression of the association between gut microbiota and PE. Table S5. MR-PRESSO analysis for the association between gut microbiota and PE. Table S6. Instrumental variables used in the MR analysis of the association between PE and gut microbiota. Table S7. Full result of MR estimates for the association between PE and gut microbiota. Table S8. The heterogeneity of gut microbiota instrumental variables. Table S9. Directional horizontal pleiotropy assessed by intercept term in MR Egger regression of the association between PE and gut microbiota. Table S10. MR-PRESSO analysis for the association between PE and gut microbiota

Is sexual minority status associated with poor sleep quality among adolescents? Analysis of a national cross-sectional survey in Chinese adolescents

Objectives: Recent studies have suggested that sexual minorities are more likely to have poor sleep quality. This study aims to explore sleep quality among sexual minority adolescents and examines the association between sexual minority status and sleep quality. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: A total of 506 high schools in seven Chinese provinces. Participants: A total of 150 822 students in grades 7-12 completed the questionnaires, and 123 459 students who reported being aware of their sexual orientation were included in analyses. Main outcome measures The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, sexual attraction and school bullying victimisation. Results: Of the 123 459 students who were analysed, 5.00% self-reported as sexual minorities. Only 26.67% of sexual minority students slept 8 or more hours/day, which is less than their heterosexual peers (35.70%; χ2 =130.04, P<0.001). Of the total sample, 22.41% of the students reported poor sleep quality, and this prevalence was significantly higher in sexual minority students than in heterosexual students (32.56% vs 21.87%; χ2 =281.70, P<0.001). After controlling for social demographics, lifestyle and depressive symptoms, sexual minority students had higher odds of poor sleep quality (adjusted OR=1.41, 95% CI 1.31 to 1.51) than their heterosexual peers. The indirect effect of school bullying victimisation (standardised β estimate=0.007, 95% CI 0.006 to 0.009) was significant, indicating that school bullying victimisation partially mediated the association between sexual minority status and sleep quality. Conclusions: Our study suggested that poor sleep quality was common in sexual minority adolescents, and more attention should be paid to sleep problems in this population. Conducting interventions to reduce school bullying behaviours is an important step to improving sleep quality in sexual minority adolescents. Further, studies are warranted that focus on the risk factors and mechanisms of and interventions for sleep problems in sexual minority adolescents.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Sexual attraction and the nonmedical use of opioids and sedative drugs among Chinese adolescents

Objective: The nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) is attracting public attention. We aimed to explore the association between sexual attraction and NMUPD among Chinese adolescents. Method: A school-based survey was conducted in seven Chinese provinces, and a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method was used in this study. A total of 150,822 students from seven Chinese provinces completed the questionnaire; the response rate was 95.93%. All data were collected between November 2014 and January 2015. Results: Overall, 8.8%, 4.4%, and 2.2% of the students reported lifetime, past-year, and past-month NMUPD, respectively. Compared with heterosexual students (8.2%), sexual minority and unsure students were more likely to report lifetime NMUPD (14.4% and 10.0%, respectively; chi(2) = 244.34, P < 0.001). In addition, sexual minority and unsure students were more likely to admit past-year and past-month use of NMUPD. After adjusting for social demographics and lifestyle covariates, sexual minority and unsure students were at an increased risk of lifetime NMUPD (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.54-1.83 and AOR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.26-1.41, respectively). Conclusions: Our study suggested that sexual minority and unsure adolescents have a higher risk of NMUPD. Moreover, our study suggested that sexual minority and unsure students are more likely to both try and continue to use prescription drugs. Further studies focusing on the mechanism of substance abuse and appropriate interventions among sexual minority and unsure adolescents are warranted

Association between sleep duration, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts among Chinese adolescents: The moderating role of depressive symptoms

Background Suicidal ideation and attempts are still currently serious problems among adolescents worldwide, and there is evidence that sleep problem may be associated with increased rates of mental disorder. This study aimed to examine the associations between sleep duration and suicidal ideation and attempts among adolescents and to test whether depressive symptoms have moderating effects on the associations. Methods A 3-stage, stratified cluster, random sampling method was used to collect data from 20,130 high school students in southeast China. Results The weighted prevalence of short sleep among Chinese adolescents was 5.6% (95% CI, 5.3–6.0%), and the weighted prevalence of long sleep was 2.7% (95% CI, 2.5–3.0%). The final results demonstrated that short sleep was positively associated with suicidal ideation (AOR=2.28, 95% CI=1.96–2.66) and suicidal attempts (AOR=3.20, 95% CI=2.46–4.16), and long sleep was only significantly associated with suicidal attempts (AOR=2.47, 95% CI=1.70–3.58). Stratification analyses conducted separately for students with and without depressive symptoms demonstrated that depressive symptoms may have moderating effects on the associations between sleep duration and suicidality. Limitations Our study sample only included school students, and causal inference could not be examined due to the cross-sectional design. Conclusions Sleep duration was associated with suicidal ideation and attempts, and the association between sleep duration and suicidal attempts was U-shaped. These findings support that proper treatments services with the potential to restore adolescent normal sleep would be helpful in preventing suicidality among adolescents.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Role of breastfeeding on maternal and childhood cancers: An umbrella review of meta-analyses

Background: Multiple studies and meta-analyses have claimed that breastfeeding is inversely correlated with maternal and childhood cancers. These results could either be causal or confounded by shared risk factors. By conducting an umbrella review, we aimed to consolidate the relationship between breastfeeding and maternal and childhood cancers. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Elsevier ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to December 2022. Two reviewers independently extracted the data and assessed the quality of the studies using standardised forms. We considered two types of breastfeeding comparisons (“ever” vs “never” breastfeeding; and “longest” vs “shortest” duration). We estimated the pooled risk and 95% confidence interval (CI) for each meta-analysis. Results: We included seventeen meta-analyses with 55 comparisons. There was an inverse correlation between breastfeeding and childhood leukaemia (pooled risk = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.81-0.99), neuroblastoma (pooled risk = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.71-0.93), maternal ovarian cancer (pooled risk = 0.76, CI = 0.71-0.81), breast cancer (pooled risk = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.82-0.88), and oesophageal cancer (pooled risk = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.54-0.81) for “ever” vs “never” breastfeeding; and with childhood leukaemia (pooled risk = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.89-0.98), and maternal ovarian cancer (pooled risk = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.78-0.90) and breast cancer (pooled risk = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.89-0.96) for “longest” vs “shortest” breastfeeding duration. Conclusions: We found evidence that breastfeeding may reduce the risk of maternal breast cancer, ovarian cancers, and childhood leukaemia, suggesting positive implications for influencing women’s decision in breastfeeding. Registration: PROSPERO (CRD42021255608).</p