Target acquisition performance in the presence of JPEG image compression

This paper presents an investigation on the effect of JPEG compression on the similarity between the target image and the background,where the similarity is further used to determine the degree of clutter in the image.Four new clutter metrics based on image quality assessment are introduced,among which the Haar wavelet-based perceptual similarity index,known as HaarPSI,provides the best target acquisition prediction results.It is shown that the similarity between the target and the background at the boundary between visually lossless and visually lossy compression does not change significantly compared to the case when an uncompressed image is used.In future work,through subjective tests,it is necessary to check whether this presence of compression at the threshold of just noticeable differences will affect the human target acquisition performance.Similarity values are compared with the results of subjective tests of the well-known target Search_2 database,where the degree of agreement between objective and subjective scores,measured through linear correlation,reached a value of 90%.

Distinct molecular targets of ProEGCG from EGCG and superior inhibition of angiogenesis signaling pathways for treatment of endometriosis

Endometriosis is a common chronic gynecological disease with endometrial cell implantation outside the uterus.Angiogenesis is a major pathophysiology in endometriosis.Our previous studies have demonstrated that the prodrug of epigallocatechin gallate(ProEGCG)exhibits superior anti-endometriotic and anti-angiogenic effects compared to epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG).However,their direct binding targets and underlying mechanisms for the differential effects remain unknown.In this study,we demonstrated that oral ProEGCG can be effective in preventing and treating endometriosis.Additionally,1D and 2D Proteome Integral Solubility Alteration assay-based chemical proteomics identified metadherin(MTDH)and PX domain containing serine/threonine kinase-like(PXK)as novel binding targets of EGCG and ProEGCG,respectively.Computational simulation and BioLayer interferometry were used to confirm their binding affinity.Our results showed that MTDH-EGCG inhibited protein kinase B(Akt)-mediated angiogenesis,while PXK-ProEGCG inhibited epidermal growth factor(EGF)-mediated angiogenesis via the EGF/hypoxia-inducible factor(HIF-1a)/vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)pathway.In vitro and in vivo knockdown assays and microvascular network imaging further confirmed the involvement of these signaling pathways.Moreover,our study demonstrated that ProEGCG has superior therapeutic effects than EGCG by targeting distinct signal transduction pathways and may act as a novel antiangiogenic therapy for endometriosis.

Target Detection Algorithm in Foggy Scenes Based on Dual Subnets

Under the influence of air humidity,dust,aerosols,etc.,in real scenes,haze presents an uneven state.In this way,the image quality and contrast will decrease.In this case,It is difficult to detect the target in the image by the universal detection network.Thus,a dual subnet based on multi-task collaborative training(DSMCT)is proposed in this paper.Firstly,in the training phase,the Gated Context Aggregation Network(GCANet)is used as the supervisory network of YOLOX to promote the extraction of clean information in foggy scenes.In the test phase,only the YOLOX branch needs to be activated to ensure the detection speed of the model.Secondly,the deformable convolution module is used to improve GCANet to enhance the model’s ability to capture details of non-homogeneous fog.Finally,the Coordinate Attention mechanism is introduced into the Vision Transformer and the backbone network of YOLOX is redesigned.In this way,the feature extraction ability of the network for deep-level information can be enhanced.The experimental results on artificial fog data set FOG_VOC and real fog data set RTTS show that the map value of DSMCT reached 86.56%and 62.39%,respectively,which was 2.27%and 4.41%higher than the current most advanced detection model.The DSMCT network has high practicality and effectiveness for target detection in real foggy scenes.

The functions of exosomes targeting astrocytes and astrocyte-derived exosomes targeting other cell types

Astrocytes are the most abundant glial cells in the central nervous system;they participate in crucial biological processes,maintain brain structure,and regulate nervous system function.Exosomes are cell-derived extracellular vesicles containing various bioactive molecules including proteins,peptides,nucleotides,and lipids secreted from their cellular sources.Increasing evidence shows that exosomes participate in a communication network in the nervous system,in which astrocyte-derived exosomes play important roles.In this review,we have summarized the effects of exosomes targeting astrocytes and the astrocyte-derived exosomes targeting other cell types in the central nervous system.We also discuss the potential research directions of the exosome-based communication network in the nervous system.The exosome-based intercellular communication focused on astrocytes is of great significance to the biological and/or pathological processes in different conditions in the brain.New strategies may be developed for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders by focusing on astrocytes as the central cells and utilizing exosomes as communication mediators.

Electromagnetic pulses produced by a picosecond laser interacting with solid targets

A high-power laser ablating solid targets induces giant electromagnetic pulses(EMPs),which are intimately pertinent to laser parameters,such as energy and pulse width.In this study,we reveal the features of EMPs generated from a picosecond(ps)laser irradiating solid targets at the SG-Ⅱpicosecond petawatt(PSPW)laser facility.The laser energy and pulse,as well as target material and thickness,show determinative effects on the EMPs’amplitude.More intense EMPs are detected behind targets compared to those at the other three positions,and the EMP amplitude decreases from 90.09 kV/m to 17.8 kV/m with the gold target thickness increasing from 10μm to 20μm,which is suppressed when the laser pulse width is enlarged.The results are expected to provide more insight into EMPs produced by ps lasers coupling with targets and lay the foundation for an effective EMP shielding design in high-power laser infrastructures.

Treat to target in Crohn’s disease:A practical guide for clinicians

A treat-to-target(T2T)approach applies the principles of early intervention and tight disease control to optimise long-term outcomes in Crohn's disease.The Selecting Therapeutic Targets in Inflammatory Bowel Disease(STRIDE)-II guidelines specify short,intermediate,and long-term treatment goals,documenting specific treatment targets to be achieved at each of these timepoints.Scheduled appraisal of Crohn’s disease activity against pre-defined treatment targets at these timepoints remains central to determining whether current therapy should be continued or modified.Consensus treatment targets in Crohn’s disease comprise combination clinical and patient-reported outcome remission,in conjunction with biomarker normalisation and endoscopic healing.Although the STRIDE-II guidelines endorse the pursuit of endoscopic healing,clinicians must consider that this may not always be appropriate,acceptable,or achievable in all patients.This underscores the need to engage patients at the outset in an effort to personalise care and individualise treatment targets.The use of non-invasive biomarkers such as faecal calprotectin in conjunction with cross-sectional imaging techniques,particularly intestinal ultrasound,holds great promise;as do emerging treatment targets such as transmural healing.Two randomised clinical trials,namely,CALM and STARDUST,have evaluated the efficacy of a T2T approach in achieving endoscopic endpoints in patients with Crohn’s disease.Findings from these studies reflect that patient subgroups and Crohn’s disease characteristics likely to benefit most from a T2T approach,remain to be clarified.Moreover,outside of clinical trials,data pertaining to the real-world effectiveness of a T2T approach remains scare,highlighting the need for pragmatic real-world studies.Despite the obvious promise of a T2T approach,a lack of guidance to support its integration into real-world clinical practice has the potential to limit its uptake.This highlights the need to describe strategies,processes,and models of care capable of supporting the integration and execution of a T2T approach in real-world clinical practice.Hence,this review seeks to examine the current and emerging literature to provide clinicians with practical guidance on how to incorporate the principles of T2T into routine clinical practice for the management of Crohn’s disease.

Overview of radar detection methods for low altitude targets in marine environments

In this paper,a comprehensive overview of radar detection methods for low-altitude targets in maritime environments is presented,focusing on the challenges posed by sea clutter and multipath scattering.The performance of the radar detection methods under sea clutter,multipath,and combined conditions is categorized and summarized,and future research directions are outlined to enhance radar detection performance for low-altitude targets in maritime environments.

Targeted regeneration and upcycling of spent graphite by defect‐driven tin nucleation

The recycling of spent batteries has become increasingly important owing to their wide applications,abundant raw material supply,and sustainable development.Compared with the degraded cathode,spent anode graphite often has a relatively intact structure with few defects after long cycling.Yet,most spent graphite is simply burned or discarded due to its limited value and inferior performance on using conventional recycling methods that are complex,have low efficiency,and fail in performance restoration.Herein,we propose a fast,efficient,and“intelligent”strategy to regenerate and upcycle spent graphite based on defect‐driven targeted remediation.Using Sn as a nanoscale healant,we used rapid heating(~50 ms)to enable dynamic Sn droplets to automatically nucleate around the surface defects on the graphite upon cooling owing to strong binding to the defects(~5.84 eV/atom),thus simultaneously achieving Sn dispersion and graphite remediation.As a result,the regenerated graphite showed enhanced capacity and cycle stability(458.9 mAh g^(−1) at 0.2 A g^(−1) after 100 cycles),superior to those of commercial graphite.Benefiting from the self‐adaption of Sn dispersion,spent graphite with different degrees of defects can be regenerated to similar structures and performance.EverBatt analysis indicates that targeted regeneration and upcycling have significantly lower energy consumption(~99%reduction)and near‐zero CO2 emission,and yield much higher profit than hydrometallurgy,which opens a new avenue for direct upcycling of spend graphite in an efficient,green,and profitable manner for sustainable battery manufacture.

Dependence of impact regime boundaries on the initial temperatures of projectiles and targets

Towards higher impact velocities,ballistic events are increasingly determined by the material temperatures.Related effects might range from moderate thermal softening to full phase transition.In particular,it is of great interest to quantify the conditions for incipient or full melting of metals during impact interactions,which result in a transition from still strength-affected to hydrodynamic material behavior.In this work,we investigate to which extent the respective melting thresholds are also dependent on the initial,and generally elevated,temperatures of projectiles and targets before impact.This is studied through the application of a model developed recently by the authors to characterize the transition regime between high-velocity and hypervelocity impact,for which the melting thresholds of materials were used as the defining quantities.The obtained results are expected to be of general interest for ballistic application cases where projectiles or targets are preheated.Such conditions might result,for example,from aerodynamic forces acting onto a projectile during atmospheric flight,explosive shapedcharge-jet formation or armor exposure to environmental conditions.The performed analyses also broaden the scientific understanding of the relevance of temperature in penetration events,generally known since the 1960s,but often not considered thoroughly in impact studies.

Mitophagy in intracerebral hemorrhage:a new target for therapeutic intervention

Intracerebral hemorrhage is a life-threatening condition with a high fatality rate and severe sequelae.However,there is currently no treatment available for intracerebral hemorrhage,unlike for other stroke subtypes.Recent studies have indicated that mitochondrial dysfunction and mitophagy likely relate to the pathophysiology of intracerebral hemorrhage.Mitophagy,or selective autophagy of mitochondria,is an essential pathway to preserve mitochondrial homeostasis by clearing up damaged mitochondria.Mitophagy markedly contributes to the reduction of secondary brain injury caused by mitochondrial dysfunction after intracerebral hemorrhage.This review provides an overview of the mitochondrial dysfunction that occurs after intracerebral hemorrhage and the underlying mechanisms regarding how mitophagy regulates it,and discusses the new direction of therapeutic strategies targeting mitophagy for intracerebral hemorrhage,aiming to determine the close connection between mitophagy and intracerebral hemorrhage and identify new therapies to modulate mitophagy after intracerebral hemorrhage.In conclusion,although only a small number of drugs modulating mitophagy in intracerebral hemorrhage have been found thus far,most of which are in the preclinical stage and require further investigation,mitophagy is still a very valid and promising therapeutic target for intracerebral hemorrhage in the long run.

A food-grade and senescent cell-targeted fisetin delivery system based on whey protein isolate-galactooligosaccharides Maillard conjugate

Cellular senescence is the results of aging and age-related diseases,and the development of anti-aging methods may improve health and extend longevity.The natural flavonol fisetin has been shown to antagonize senescence in vitro and increases longevity in vivo,but has poor water solubility and limited bioavailability.In this study,a food-grade and senescent cell-targeted delivery system for fisetin was developed based on whey protein isolate-galactooligosaccharides(WPI-GOS)Maillard conjugate,which could recognize senescence associatedβ-galactosidase in senescent cells.The fisetin nanoparticles possessed a high encapsulation efficiency,excellent dispersibility in water,good storage stability and well biocompatibility.Moreover,they could effectively accumulate and retain in senescent cells with excellent senescent cell-targeting efficacy,and inhibit the oxidative stress-induced cellular senescence in vitro.Thus,this novel nanoparticle system based on WPI-GOS Maillard conjugate showed promise to deliver hydrophobic bioactive ingredients like fisetin to senescent cells to improve their bioavailability and anti-senescence effect.

Improved Weighted Local Contrast Method for Infrared Small Target Detection

In order to address the problem of high false alarm rate and low probabilities of infrared small target detection in complex low-altitude background,an infrared small target detection method based on improved weighted local contrast is proposed in this paper.First,the ratio information between the target and local background is utilized as an enhancement factor.The local contrast is calculated by incorporating the heterogeneity between the target and local background.Then,a local product weighted method is designed based on the spatial dissimilarity between target and background to further enhance target while suppressing background.Finally,the location of target is obtained by adaptive threshold segmentation.As experimental results demonstrate,the method shows superior performance in several evaluation metrics compared with six existing algorithms on different datasets containing targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV).

Highly Differentiated Target Detection under Extremely Low-Light Conditions Based on Improved YOLOX Model

This paper expounds upon a novel target detection methodology distinguished by its elevated discriminatory efficacy,specifically tailored for environments characterized by markedly low luminance levels.Conventional methodologies struggle with the challenges posed by luminosity fluctuations,especially in settings characterized by diminished radiance,further exacerbated by the utilization of suboptimal imaging instrumentation.The envisioned approach mandates a departure from the conventional YOLOX model,which exhibits inadequacies in mitigating these challenges.To enhance the efficacy of this approach in low-light conditions,the dehazing algorithm undergoes refinement,effecting a discerning regulation of the transmission rate at the pixel level,reducing it to values below 0.5,thereby resulting in an augmentation of image contrast.Subsequently,the coiflet wavelet transform is employed to discern and isolate high-discriminatory attributes by dismantling low-frequency image attributes and extracting high-frequency attributes across divergent axes.The utilization of CycleGAN serves to elevate the features of low-light imagery across an array of stylistic variances.Advanced computational methodologies are then employed to amalgamate and conflate intricate attributes originating from images characterized by distinct stylistic orientations,thereby augmenting the model’s erudition potential.Empirical validation conducted on the PASCAL VOC and MS COCO 2017 datasets substantiates pronounced advancements.The refined low-light enhancement algorithm yields a discernible 5.9%augmentation in the target detection evaluation index when compared to the original imagery.Mean Average Precision(mAP)undergoes enhancements of 9.45%and 0.052%in low-light visual renditions relative to conventional YOLOX outcomes.The envisaged approach presents a myriad of advantages over prevailing benchmark methodologies in the realm of target detection within environments marked by an acute scarcity of luminosity.

Short-time maritime target detection based on polarization scattering characteristics

In this paper,a detection method combining Cameron decomposition based on polarization scattering characteristics in sea clutter background is proposed.Firstly,the Cameron decomposition is exploited to fuse the radar echoes of full polarization channels at the data level.Due to the artificial material structure on the surface of the target,it can be shown that the non-reciprocity of the target cell is stronger than that of the clutter cell.Then,based on the analysis of the decomposition results,a new feature with scattering geometry characteristics in polarization domain,denoted as Cameron polarization decomposition scattering weight(CPD-SW),is extracted as the test statistic,which can achieve more detailed descriptions of the clutter scattering characteristics utilizing the difference between their scattering types.Finally,the superiority of the proposed CPD-SW detector over traditional detectors in improving detection performance is verified by the IPIX measured dataset,which has strong stability under short-time observation in threshold detection and can also improve the separability of feature space zin anomaly detection.

High-speed penetration of ogive-nose projectiles into thick concrete targets:Tests and a projectile nose evolution model

The majority of the projectiles used in the hypersonic penetration study are solid flat-nosed cylindrical projectiles with a diameter of less than 20 mm.This study aims to fill the gap in the experimental and analytical study of the evolution of the nose shape of larger hollow projectiles under hypersonic penetration.In the hypersonic penetration test,eight ogive-nose AerMet100 steel projectiles with a diameter of 40 mm were launched to hit concrete targets with impact velocities that ranged from 1351 to 1877 m/s.Severe erosion of the projectiles was observed during high-speed penetration of heterogeneous targets,and apparent localized mushrooming occurred in the front nose of recovered projectiles.By examining the damage to projectiles,a linear relationship was found between the relative length reduction rate and the initial kinetic energy of projectiles in different penetration tests.Furthermore,microscopic analysis revealed the forming mechanism of the localized mushrooming phenomenon for eroding penetration,i.e.,material spall erosion abrasion mechanism,material flow and redistribution abrasion mechanism and localized radial upsetting deformation mechanism.Finally,a model of highspeed penetration that included erosion was established on the basis of a model of the evolution of the projectile nose that considers radial upsetting;the model was validated by test data from the literature and the present study.Depending upon the impact velocity,v0,the projectile nose may behave as undistorted,radially distorted or hemispherical.Due to the effects of abrasion of the projectile and enhancement of radial upsetting on the duration and amplitude of the secondary rising segment in the pulse shape of projectile deceleration,the predicted DOP had an upper limit.

Spatial and temporal evolution of electromagnetic pulses from solid target irradiated with multi-hundred-terawatt laser pulse inside target chamber

Giant electromagnetic pulses(EMPs) induced by high-power laser irradiating solid targets interfere with various experimental diagnoses and even damage equipment,so unveiling the evolution of EMPs inside the laser chamber is crucial for designing effective EMP shielding.In this work,the transmission characteristics of EMPs as a function of distances from the target chamber center(TCC) are studied using B-dot probes.The mean EMP amplitude generated by picosecond laser-target interaction reaches 561 kV m^(-1),357 kV m^(-1),395 kV m^(-1),and 341 kV m^(-1)at 0.32 m,0.53 m,0.76 m,and 1 m from TCC,which decreases dramatically from 0.32 m to 0.53 m.However,it shows a fluctuation from 0.53 m to 1 m.The temporal features of EMPs indicate that time-domain EMP signals near the target chamber wall have a wider full width at half maximum compared to that close to TCC,mainly due to the echo oscillation of electromagnetic waves inside the target chamber based on simulation and experimentation.The conclusions of this study will provide a new approach to mitigate strong electromagnetic pulses by decreasing the echo oscillation of electromagnetic waves inside the target chamber during laser coupling with targets.

Ballistic performance of spherical fragments penetrating PCrNi3MoV target plates

PCrNi3MoV steel is a medium-carbon,low-alloy quenched and tempered steel that finds its applications in military gun barrels due to the high wear resistance and ablation resistance.To study the penetration and failure modes of PCrNi3MoV plates impacted by tungsten spheres,tungsten spheres of various diameters(5 mm,8 mm,and 10 mm)were used to impact PCrNi3MoV steel plates with thicknesses of 6 mm,9 mm,and 14 mm.The penetration performance of the spheres was analyzed for different velocities,and the ultimate penetration velocity of the plate was obtained.It was found that the primary failure modes of the PCrNi3MoV plate were compression pitting failure and shear failure.Using the dimensional analysis method,a relationship between the bulge height of the steel plate and the fragment velocity,an equation for the ultimate penetration velocity,and a relationship between the target penetration energy and the fragment velocity were obtained.Then,a projectile-target action index was proposed to describe the process of tungsten spheres with different velocities impacting target plates.The results suggested that under the same thickness of the target plate,a larger-diameter fragment required more kinetic energy to obtain the same ultimate penetration effect as a smaller-diameter fragment.The equations obtained through dimensional analysis predicted values that agreed well with experimental values,indicating that these equations can be applied to engineering applications.

MTTSNet:Military time-sensitive targets stealth network via real-time mask generation

The automatic stealth task of military time-sensitive targets plays a crucial role in maintaining national military security and mastering battlefield dynamics in military applications.We propose a novel Military Time-sensitive Targets Stealth Network via Real-time Mask Generation(MTTSNet).According to our knowledge,this is the first technology to automatically remove military targets in real-time from videos.The critical steps of MTTSNet are as follows:First,we designed a real-time mask generation network based on the encoder-decoder framework,combined with the domain expansion structure,to effectively extract mask images.Specifically,the ASPP structure in the encoder could achieve advanced semantic feature fusion.The decoder stacked high-dimensional information with low-dimensional information to obtain an effective mask layer.Subsequently,the domain expansion module guided the adaptive expansion of mask images.Second,a context adversarial generation network based on gated convolution was constructed to achieve background restoration of mask positions in the original image.In addition,our method worked in an end-to-end manner.A particular semantic segmentation dataset for military time-sensitive targets has been constructed,called the Military Time-sensitive Target Masking Dataset(MTMD).The MTMD dataset experiment successfully demonstrated that this method could create a mask that completely occludes the target and that the target could be hidden in real time using this mask.We demonstrated the concealment performance of our proposed method by comparing it to a number of well-known and highly optimized baselines.

WSN Mobile Target Tracking Based on Improved Snake-Extended Kalman Filtering Algorithm

A wireless sensor network mobile target tracking algorithm(ISO-EKF)based on improved snake optimization algorithm(ISO)is proposed to address the difficulty of estimating initial values when using extended Kalman filtering to solve the state of nonlinear mobile target tracking.First,the steps of extended Kalman filtering(EKF)are introduced.Second,the ISO is used to adjust the parameters of the EKF in real time to adapt to the current motion state of the mobile target.Finally,the effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated through filtering and tracking using the constant velocity circular motion model(CM).Under the specified conditions,the position and velocity mean square error curves are compared among the snake optimizer(SO)-EKF algorithm,EKF algorithm,and the proposed algorithm.The comparison shows that the proposed algorithm reduces the root mean square error of position by 52%and 41%compared to the SOEKF algorithm and EKF algorithm,respectively.

Targeting therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma by delivering microRNAs as exosomal cargo

Exosomes,the smallest extracellular vesicles,have gained significant attention as key mediators in intercellular communication,influencing both physiological and pathological processes,particularly in cancer progression.A recent review article by Wang et al was published in a timely manner to stimulate future research and facilitate practical developments for targeted treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma using exosomes,with a focus on the origin from which exosomes derive.If information about the mechanisms for delivering exosomes to specific cells is incorporated,the concept of targeted therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma using exosomes could be more comprehensively understood.