Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unsupervised Learning of Depth and Ego-Motion from Monocular Video in 3 D

We present a novel approach for unsupervised learning of depth and ego-motion from monocular video. The idea is to explicitly consider the inferred 3D geometry of the scene, enforcing consistency of the estimated 3D point clouds and ego-motion across consecutive frames. This is a challenging task and is solved by a novel (approximate) backpropagation algorithm for aligning 3D structures. Because we only require a simple video, learning depth and ego-motion on large and varied datasets becomes possible. We demonstrate this by training on the low quality uncalibrated video dataset and evaluating on KITTI, ranking among top performing prior methods which are trained on KITTI itself. A detailed version of this abstract will appear in [5]. See also http://sites.google.com/view/vid2depth. Introduction. This paper considers unsupervised learning of depth and ego-motion from monocular RGB-only videos [6]. The only form of supervision that we use comes from assumptions about consistency and temporal coherence between consecutive frames in a monocular video. While, most supervised methods for learning depth and ego-motion require carefully calibrated setups [4], here the only required input is video and the camera focal length. Method. In order to learn depth in a completely unsupervised fashion, we rely on existence of ego-motion in the video. Given two consecutive frames from the video, a neural network produces single-view depth estimates from each frame, and an ego-motion estimate from the frame pair. Requiring that the depth and ego-motion estimates from adjacent frames are consistent serves as supervision for training the model. We propose a loss which directly penalizes inconsistencies in the estimated depth by directly comparing 3D point clouds in a common reference frame. Intuitively, assuming there is no significant object motion in the scene, one can transform the estimated point cloud for each frame into the predicted point cloud for the other frame by applying ego-motion or its inverse (Fig. 1). Unlike 2D losses that enforce local photometric consistency, the 3D loss considers the entire scene and its geometry. We show how to efficiently backpropagate through this loss [5]. Problem setup. At training time, the goal is to learn depth and ego-motion from a single monocular video stream. This problem can be formalized as follows: Given a pair of consecutive frames Xt−1 and Xt, estimate depth Dt−1 at time t−1, depth Dt at time t, and the ego-motion Tt representing the camera’s movement (position and orientation) from time t − 1 to t. Once a depth estimate Dt is available, it can be projected into a point cloud Qt (using the camera intrinsic matrix K). *This work was done while at Google Brain 1Reza Mahjourian is also with the University of Texas at Austin 2Contact author is anelia@google.com ^ ^ Frame Xt-1 Frame Xt Estimate Cloud Align with ICP Estimate Ego-motion Qt-1 Qt
The role of estrogen receptor α in the regulation of bone mass

Estrogens are major regulators of skeletal growth and maintenance in both females and males. Estrogen receptor α (ERα) is the main mediator of estrogenic effects in bone. Thus, estrogen signaling via ERα is a target for treatment of estrogen-related bone diseases including osteoporosis. However, treatment with estrogen leads to side effects in both genders. The aim of this thesis was to characterize different ERα signaling pathways in order to increase the knowledge regarding the mechanisms behind the protective effects of estrogen on bone mass versus adverse effects in other organs. We have evaluated the role of ERα expression in two distinct hypothalamic nuclei. Female mice lacking ERα expression in proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons, mainly found in the arcuate nucleus, displayed substantially enhanced estrogenic response on cortical bone mass while lack of ERα in the ventromedial nucleus revealed no effects on bone mass. We therefore propose that the balance between inhibitory effects of central ERα activity in hypothalamic POMC neurons and stimulatory peripheral ERαmediated effects in bone determines cortical bone mass in female mice. We have also evaluated the role of ERα signaling pathways in males. We found that the ERα activation function (AF)-2 was required for the estrogenic effects on all evaluated parameters. In contrast, the role of ERαAF-1 was tissue specific, where trabecular bone was dependent on ERαAF-1, while effects on cortical bone did not require ERαAF-1. In addition, all evaluated effects of the selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) were dependent on a functional ERαAF-1. In addition to nucleus, ERα is also located at the plasma membrane, where it can initiate extra-nuclear signaling. We found that extra-nuclear ERα signaling affects cortical bone mass in males and that this effect is dependent on a functional ERαAF-1. To further determine the role of membraneinitiated ERα signaling, we used a mouse model lacking an ERα palmitoylation site, which is crucial for membrane localization of ERα. We showed that membrane ERα signaling is essential for normal development and maintenance of trabecular and cortical bone, and is crucial for normal estrogen response in both trabecular and cortical bone in male mice. The studies presented in this thesis have increased our knowledge regarding estrogen signaling pathways in both females and males and may contribute to the design of new, bone-specific treatment strategies that maintain the protective effects of estrogen but minimize the adverse effects.
Microtensile Bond Strength of Zirconia Ceramics with Different Surface Treatments

Objectives: The aim of this in-vitro study was to evaluate the hydrolytic stability of different surface treatments on the bond strength of yttrium-oxide-partially-stabilized zirconia ceramics. Materials and Methods: InCoris TZI C (Sirona Dental Systems GmbH, Germany) zirconia blocks were sintered according to the manufacturer's instructions and randomly divided into three groups according to the surface treatment methods as follow;Group I: Air particle abrasion, Group II: Air particle abrasion followed by piranha acid etch solution, and Group III: Air particle abrasion followed by hot acid etching solution. Zirconia blocks were bonded to the pre-constructed composite blocks using Panavia SA cement Plus. Microbars from each subgroups were randomly selected, half of them were subjected to the testing procedures without thermalcycling, while the other half were subjected to 10,000 thermalcycles. Microtensile bond strength testwas performed using a universal testing machine (0.5 mm/min). Results:There was, a significant difference (P<0.05) between the three main surface treatment. Conclusion: The bond strength was influenced by the different surface treatment methods, and aging process.
Low night temperatures during the early growth phase enhance flowering in primocane shoots of red raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.)

BACKGROUND: In red raspberries, two fruiting traits are distinguished, and classified as primocane and floricane fruiting. Primocane cultivars represent greater economic relevance; they are adapted to warm climate zones and have an elongated production period. However, this classification can be complicated since fruiting is affected by both environmental and genetic factors. In ‘Heritage’, the main cultivar used in Chile, flowering is inhibited in shoots produced the first season when grown in temperate zones with low thermal oscillation. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the effect of cold temperature during shoot growth on fruiting parameters in different genotypes. METHODS: Plants of the cultivars ‘Autumn Bliss’, ‘Heritage’, ‘Meeker’ and ‘Tulameen’ were tested at low night temperatures. We evaluated these growing characteristics for each cultivar; days until to first visible floral button, number of floral laterals and meristematic bud differentiation. We also analysed the variations associated with expression of the gene RiTFL1, on flowering inhibition. RESULTS: There is an effect of temperature on flowering, growth and RiTFL1 expression, mainly in cvs. ‘Heritage’ and ‘Meeker’. Flowering was enhanced in ‘Heritage’, while ‘Meeker’ exhibited an intermediate behaviour, since seasonal shoots managed to flower with a 60-night cold treatment. In both cultivars, growth was reduced, and RiTFL1 was repressed in cold treated plants. CONCLUSIONS: Genotypes with intermediate behaviour require low temperatures for floral induction, which could be associated with RiTFL1 gene repression with low-temperature treatments.
Sociological Approaches to Predicting Risk of Conflict

Mitigating conflict between humans and large carnivores is one of the most pressing and intractable concerns in conservation. Yet, there has been surprisingly little effort devoted to incorporating risk assessments of conflict in carnivore conservation and landuse planning. Because human-carnivore conflict can have far-reaching societal and environmental impacts, attention to the ‘conflict–conservation nexus’ should become integrated into national and global environmental policy-making. However, how ‘the nexus’ is defined, elucidated, and ultimately utilized to forecast and mitigate conflict remains under-explored. Here, we discuss the limitations of current knowledge and methodologies available to forecast human–carnivore conflict and suggest a novel heuristic framework that integrates ecological and sociological data to better predict and mitigate conflict, and optimize conservation planning. We illustrate the utility of our approach using a case study of carnivore connectivity planning in the southwestern United States. Our approach holds promise as an effective tool for use in carnivore conservation by allowing decision-makers to prioritize planning efforts by integrating biological suitability, threat of conflict, and societal acceptance.
A Novel Method of Corrosion Damage Monitoring of Porous Aluminum Alloy Structure Based on Piezoelectric Sensor

This study presents a novel monitoring method for multiple hole-edge corrosion damage in porous aluminum alloy plate structures based on Lamb wave tomographic imaging technique. An experimental procedure with a layout using 16 piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) was designed. The iterative algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) method was used to locate and quantify the corrosion damage at the edge of the hole. The hydrofluoric acid with the concentration of 8% was used to corrode the specimen artificially. To estimate the effectiveness of the proposed method, singlehole and double-hole corrosion monitoring were both conducted on multi-hole plate. The results show that the Lamb-wave-based tomographic method can be used to monitor the porous aluminum alloy plate with multiple hole-edge corrosion damage accurately.
Enhancing the thermoelectric properties of Sr1−xPr2x/3□x/3TiO3±δ through control of crystal structure and microstructure

A-site deficient perovskites are among the most important n-type thermoelectric oxides. Ceramics of Sr1−xPr2x/3□x/3TiO3 (x = 0.1–1.0) were prepared by solid-state reaction at 1700–1723 K using highly reducing atmospheres. Samples with the highest Sr content had a cubic crystal structure (Pm3¯m); incorporating Pr with A-site vacancies led to a reduction in symmetry to tetragonal (I4/mcm) and then orthorhombic (Cmmm) crystal structures. HRTEM showed Pr2/3TiO3 had a layered structure with alternating fully and partially occupied A-sites and a short-range order along the (100) direction. Electrical conductivity was highest in samples of high symmetry (x ≤ 0.40), where the microstructures featured core-shell and domain structures. This enabled a very high power factor of approximately 1.75 × 10−3 W m−1 K−2 at 425 K. By contrast, at high Pr content, structural distortion led to reduced electron transport; enhanced phonon scattering (from mass contrast, local strain and cation–vacancy ordering) led to reduced, glass-like, thermal conductivity. Carbon burial sintering increased the oxygen deficiency leading to increased carrier concentration, a maximum power factor of approximately 1.80 × 10−3 W m−1 K−2 at 350 K and thermoelectric figure of merit of 0.26 at 865 K. The paper demonstrates the importance of controlling both crystal structure and microstructure to enhance thermoelectric performance. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Energy materials for a low carbon future’.
Diminished Value Discrimination in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Prospect Theory Model of Decision-Making Under Risk

Introduction: It has been hypothesized that people diagnosed with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibit behavioral aberrations when faced with the potential for negative outcomes, but the specific cognitive aspects of decision-making that may be altered have not been systematically studied in clinical populations. Here, we studied decision-making in a clinical cohort using a task that allows for examination of the decision weights and values associated with different choice outcomes. Methods: Patients diagnosed with OCD (n = 10), generalized anxiety disorder (n = 15), social anxiety disorder (n = 14), and healthy controls (n = 20) were given a decision-making task and choices were modeled using a cumulative prospect theory framework. Results: We found OCD patients to have lower value discrimination than controls, as well as less optimal performance on the task, an effect that was mostly driven by trials with only positive outcomes. Discussion: Our results shed light on the cognitive processes that drive altered decision-making under risk in OCD. Specifically, they demonstrate that OCD patients have diminished sensitivity to positive outcomes, which might be associated with risk aversion and altered learning of gain. These findings also extend prior reports, suggesting that altered cognitive processing during decision-making is linked to altered perception of value, but not probability, in these patients.
Solving Multiple TSP Problem by K-Means and Crossover based Modified ACO Algorithm

— The travelling salesman problem (TSP) is a famous combinatorial optimization problem where a salesman must find the shortest route to n cities and return to a home base city. While the TSP restricts itself to one salesman, the mTSP generalizes the problem to account for more than one salesman. A natural approach for solving this kind of problems is to group the cities in clusters where each cluster represent a set of adjacent cities then to use one of the well know optimization approaches for finding the optimal path route for each cluster we have. In this paper we introduce a modified Ant colony optimization algorithm for solving the mTSP problem. We used the standard TSPLIB data set to compare the performance of the proposed algorithm with both basic ACO and genetic algorithm approaches and our algorithm showed effective results compared by the basic ACO algorithm and competitive results to the genetic algorithm approach.
Longer Breastfeeding Associated with Childhood Anemia in Rural South-Eastern Nigeria

Introduction Child mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa is 29 times higher than that in industrialized countries. Anemia is one of the preventable causes of child morbidity. During a humanitarian medical mission in rural South-Eastern Nigeria, the prevalence and risk factors of anemia were determined in the region in order to identify strategies for reduction. Methods A cross-sectional study was done on 96 children aged 1-7 years from 50 randomly selected families. A study questionnaire was used to collect information regarding socioeconomic status, family health practices, and nutrition. Anemia was diagnosed clinically or by point of care testing of hemoglobin (Hb) levels. Results 96 children were selected for the study; 90 completed surveys were analyzed (43% male and 57% females). Anemia was the most prevalent clinical morbidity (69%), followed by intestinal worm infection (53%) and malnutrition (29%). Mean age (months) at which breastfeeding was stopped was 11.8 (±2.2) in children with Hb <11mg/dl (severe anemia), 10.5±2.8 in those with Hb = 11-11.9mg/dl (mild-moderate anemia), and 9.4±3.9 in children with Hb >12mg/dl (no anemia) (P=0.0445). Conclusions The longer the infant was breastfed, the worse the severity of childhood anemia was. Childhood anemia was likely influenced by the low iron content of breast milk in addition to maternal anemia and poor nutrition. A family-centered preventive intervention for both maternal and infant nutrition may be more effective in reducing childhood anemia and child mortality rate in the community.
SIRT7 Regulates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammatory Injury by Suppressing the NF-κB Signaling Pathway

Mastitis has severely affected the cattle industry worldwide and has resulted in decreased dairy production and cattle reproduction. Although prevention and treatment methods have been implemented for decades, cattle mastitis is still an intractable disease. Sirtuin 7 (SIRT7) is an NAD+-dependent deacetylase that is involved in various biological processes, including ribosomal RNA synthesis and protein synthesis, DNA damage response, metabolism, and tumorigenesis. However, whether SIRT7 participates in inflammation remains unknown. Our results revealed that SIRT7 is downregulated in tissue samples from mastitic cattle. Therefore, we isolated dairy cow mammary epithelial cells (DCMECs) from breast tissues and developed an in vitro model of lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced inflammation to examine SIRT7 function and its potential role in inflammation. We showed that SIRT7 was significantly downregulated in LPS-treated DCMECs. SIRT7 knockdown significantly increased the LPS-stimulated production of inflammatory mediators, like reactive oxygen and nitric oxide, and upregulated TAB1 and TLR4. In addition, SIRT7 knockdown significantly increased the phosphorylation of TAK1 and NF-κBp65 in LPS-treated DCMECs. Moreover, SIRT7 knockdown promoted the translocation of NF-κBp-p65 to the cell nucleus and then increased the secretion of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6). In contrast, SIRT7 overexpression had the opposite effects when compared to SIRT7 knockdown in LPS-treated DCMECs. In addition, SIRT7 overexpression attenuated LPS-induced DCMEC apoptosis. Taken together, our results indicate that SIRT7 can suppress LPS-induced inflammation and apoptosis via the NF-κB signaling pathway. Therefore, SIRT7 may be considered as a potential pharmacological target for clinical mastitis therapy.
Monitoring the Early Response of Fulvestrant Plus Tanshinone IIA Combination Therapy to Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer by Longitudinal 18F-FES PET/CT

Endocrine monotherapy of breast cancers is generally hampered by the primary/acquired resistance and adverse sides in clinical settings. Herein, advantaging the multitargeting antitumor effects and normal organ-protecting roles of Chinese herbal medicine, the aim of this study was to investigate the enhanced synergistic efficacy of fulvestrant plus Tan IIA combination therapy in ER-positive breast cancers and to monitor the early response by longitudinal 18F-FES PET/CT imaging. The experimental results showed FUL + Tan IIA combination therapy significantly inhibited tumor growth of ER-positive ZR-75-1 tumor xenografts and exhibited distinct antitumor effects at an earlier time point after treatment than did the monotherapy of FUL or Tan IIA. Moreover, 18F-FES PET/CT imaging competently monitored the early response of FUL + Tan IIA combination therapy. The quantitative 18F-FES %ID/gmax in vivo was further confirmed by and correlated well with ERα expression ex vivo. In conclusion, the synergic effect of FUL + Tan IIA combination therapy to ER-positive breast cancers was verified in the preclinical tumor models and the early treatment response could be monitored by 18F-FES PET/CT.
Antioxidant Potential, Subacute Toxicity, and Beneficiary Effects of Methanolic Extract of Pomelo (Citrus grandis L. Osbeck) in Long Evan Rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant potentials, subacute toxicity, and beneficiary effects of methanolic extract of pomelo (Citrus grandis L. Osbeck) in rats. Long Evans rats were divided into four groups of eight animals each. The rats were orally treated with three doses of pomelo (250, 500, and 1000 mg/kg) once daily for 21 days. Pomelo extract contained high concentrations of polyphenols, flavonoids, and ascorbic acid while exhibiting high 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power values. There was no significant change in the body weight, percentage water content, and relative organ weight at any administered doses. In addition, no significant alterations in the hematological parameters were also observed. However, rats which received 1000 mg/kg dose had a significant reduction in some serum parameters, including alanine transaminase (15.29%), alkaline phosphatase (2.5%), lactate dehydrogenase (15.5%), γ-glutamyltransferase (20%), creatinine (14.47%), urea (18.50%), uric acid (27.14%), total cholesterol (5.78%), triglyceride (21.44%), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (40.74%), glucose (2.48%), and all atherogenic indices including cardiac risk ratio (24.30%), Castelli's risk index-2 (45.71%), atherogenic coefficient (42%), and atherogenic index of plasma (25%) compared to control. In addition, the highest dose (1000 mg/kg) caused a significant increase in iron (12.07%) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (8.87%) levels. Histopathological findings of the vital organs did not indicate any pathological changes indicating that pomelo is nontoxic, safe, and serves as an important source of natural antioxidants. In addition, the fruit extract has the potential to ameliorate hepato- and nephrotoxicities and cardiovascular diseases as well as iron deficiency anemia.
Using Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Seroclearance

Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance during treatment is associated with a better prognosis among patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Significant gaps remain in our understanding on how to predict HBsAg seroclearance accurately and efficiently based on obtainable clinical information. This study aimed to identify the optimal model to predict HBsAg seroclearance. We obtained the laboratory and demographic information for 2,235 patients with CHB from the South China Hepatitis Monitoring and Administration (SCHEMA) cohort. HBsAg seroclearance occurred in 106 patients in total. We developed models based on four algorithms, including the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), decision tree (DCT), and logistic regression (LR). The optimal model was identified by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The AUCs for XGBoost, RF, DCT, and LR models were 0.891, 0.829, 0.619, and 0.680, respectively, with XGBoost showing the best predictive performance. The variable importance plot of the XGBoost model indicated that the level of HBsAg was of high importance followed by age and the level of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA. Machine learning algorithms, especially XGBoost, have appropriate performance in predicting HBsAg seroclearance. The results showed the potential of machine learning algorithms for predicting HBsAg seroclearance utilizing obtainable clinical data.