Three-dimensional (3D) imaging, such as micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), is increasingly being used by organismal biologists for precise and comprehensive anatomical characterization. However, the segmentation of anatomical structures remains a bottleneck in research, often requiring tedious manual work. Here, we propose a pipeline for the fully-automated segmentation of anatomical structures in micro-CT images utilizing state-of-the-art deep learning methods, selecting the ant brain as a test case. We implemented the U-Net architecture for 2D image segmentation for our convolutional neural network (CNN), combined with pixel-island detection. For training and validation of the network, we assembled a dataset of semi-manually segmented brain images of 76 ant species. The trained network predicted the brain area in ant images fast and accurately; its performance tested on validation sets showed good agreement between the prediction and the target, scoring 80% Intersection over Union (IoU) and 90% Dice Coefficient (F1) accuracy. While manual segmentation usually takes many hours for each brain, the trained network takes only a few minutes. Furthermore, our network is generalizable for segmenting the whole neural system in full-body scans, and works in tests on distantly related and morphologically divergent insects (e.g., fruit flies). The latter suggests that methods like the one presented here generally apply across diverse taxa. Our method makes the construction of segmented maps and the morphological quantification of different species more efficient and scalable to large datasets, a step toward a big data approach to organismal anatomy.

Fuel-driven dissipative self-assembly, which is a well-established concept in recent years, refers to out-of-equilibrium molecular self-assembly initiated and supported by the addition of active molecules (chemical fuel). It widely exists in nature since many tempo-rary, active micro- or nanostructures in living bodies are generated by the dissipative self-assembly of biomolecules. Therefore, the study on dissipative self-assembly provides a good opportunity to have an insight into the microscopic mechanism of living organisms. In the meantime, dissipative assembly is thought to be a potential pathway to achieve dynamic, temporary supramolecular materials. Recently, a number of temporary materials have been developed with the aid of strategies for realizing dissipative self-assembly. Some of their properties, including solubility, stiffness, turbidity, color, or self-healing ability, change upon the addition of chemical fuel but spontaneously restore with chemical fuel consumption. The dynamic of these materials brings them various unprecedented functions. In this review, the principles of fabricating a fuel-driven temporary material are first reviewed and subsequently, recent examples of fuel-driven temporary materials are emphatically summarized, including gels, self-erased inks, nanoreactors, self-healing materials, and nanochannels. Finally, the challenges of developing fuel-driven temporary materials and some perspectives on the function and application of such kind of materials are discussed.

COVID-19 bivalent ancestral/Omicron mRNA booster vaccinations became available to boost and expand the immunity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infections. In a prospective cohort study including 59 healthcare workers, we assessed SARS-CoV-2 ancestral and Omicron BA.5-specific neutralizing antibody and T cell responses in previously infected and infection-naive individuals. Also, we assessed the effect of an ancestral/Omicron BA.1 bivalent mRNA booster vaccination on these immune responses. 10 months after previous monovalent mRNA vaccinations, ancestral SARS-CoV-2 S1-specific T cell and anti-RBD IgG responses remained detectable in most individuals and a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with increased T cell responses. T cell responses, anti-RBD IgG, and Omicron BA.5 neutralization activity increased after receiving an ancestral/Omicron BA.1 bivalent booster mRNA vaccination. An Omicron BA.5 infection in addition to bivalent vaccination led to a higher ratio of Omicron BA.5 to ancestral strain neutralization activity compared to bivalent vaccination without a recent SARS-CoV-2 infection. In conclusion, SARS-CoV-2 T cell and antibody responses persist for up to 10 months after a monovalent booster mRNA vaccination. An ancestral/Omicron BA.1 bivalent booster mRNA vaccination increases these immune responses and also induces Omicron BA.5 cross-neutralization antibody activity. Finally, our data indicate that hybrid immunity is associated with improved preservation of T cell immunity.

A document by Samuel May. Click on the document to view its contents.

The streambed is the critical interface between the aquatic and terrestrial systems and hosts important biogeochemical hot spots within river corridors. Although the streambed characteristics are significantly different from those of its surrounding soil, the streambed itself has not been explicitly represented in watershed models. We developed an integrated hydrologic model that explicitly incorporated a streambed layer to examine the hydrological effects of streambed characteristics including hydraulic conductivity (K), layer thickness, and width on the exchange fluxes across the streambed as well as the streamflow at the watershed outlet. The numerical experiments were performed in the American River Watershed, a headwater, mountainous watershed within the Yakima River Basin in central Washington. Despite having a negligible effect on the watershed streamflow, an explicit representation of the streambed with distinctive properties dramatically changed the magnitude and variability of the exchange flux. In general, larger streambed K along with a thicker streambed layer induced larger exchange fluxes. The exchange flux was most sensitive to the streambed width or the mesh resolution of the streambed. A smaller streambed width (or a finer streambed resolution) increases exchange fluxes per unit area while reducing the overall exchange volumes across the entire streambed. The amount of baseflow decreased by 6% as the streambed width decreased from 250 m to 50 m. This finding is important because these hydrological changes may in turn affect the exchange of nutrients and contaminants between surface water and groundwater and the associated biogeochemical processes. Our work demonstrated the importance of representing streambed in fully distributed, process-based watershed models in better capturing the exchange flow dynamics in river corridors.

Background: Characterize indications for pediatric palliative-intent proton radiation therapy (PIPRT). Procedure: We retrospectively reviewed patients ≤21 years who received PIPRT. We defined PIPRT as radiotherapy (RT) aimed to improve cancer related symptoms/provide durable local control in the non-curative setting. Mixed proton/photon plans were included. Adjacent reirradiation (reRT) was defined as a reRT volume within the incidental dose cloud of a prior RT target, whereas direct reRT was defined as in-field overlap with prior RT target. Acute toxicity during RT until first inspection visit was graded according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. The Kaplan-Meier method, measured from last PIPRT fraction, was used to assess progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: 18 patients underwent PIPRT between 2014-2020. Median age at treatment start was 10 years (2-21). Median follow up was 8.2 months (0-48). Treatment sites included: brain/spine (10), abdomen/pelvis (3), thorax (3) and head/neck (2). Indications for palliation included: durable tumor control (18), neurologic symptoms (4), pain (3), airway compromise (2), and great vessel compression (1). Indications for protons included: reRT (15) (4 adjacent, 11 direct), craniospinal irradiation (4), reduction of dose to normal tissues (3). 16 experienced grade (G) 1-2 toxicity; 2 G3. There were no reports of radionecrosis. Median PFS was 5.3 months (95% CI 2.7-16.3). Median OS was 8.3 months (95% CI 5.5-26.3). Conclusions: The most common indication for PIPRT was reRT to provide durable tumor control. PIPRT appears to be safe, with no cases of high grade toxicity.

In order to be successfully executed, collaborative tasks performed by two agents often require a cooperative strategy to be learned. In this work, we propose a constraint-based multi-agent reinforcement learning approach called Constrained Multi-agent Soft Actor Critic (C-MSAC) to train control policies for simulated agents performing collaborative multi-phase tasks. Given a task with n phases, the first n-1 phases are treated as constraints for the final task phase objective, which is addressed with a centralized training and decentralized execution approach. We highlight our framework on a tray balancing task including two phases: tray lifting and cooperative tray control for target following. We evaluate our proposed approach and compare it against its unconstrained variant (MSAC). The performed comparisons show that C-MSAC leads to higher success rates, more robust control policies, and better generalization performance.

C4 is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in flowering plants. It evolved independently more than 61 times in multiple angiosperm lineages and consists of a series of anatomical and biochemical modifications to the ancestral C3 pathway increasing plant productivity under warm and light-rich conditions. The C4 lineages of eudicots belong to seven orders and 15 families, are phylogenetically less clustered than those of monocots, and entail an enormous structural and ecological diversity. Eudicot C4 lineages likely evolved the C4 syndrome along different evolutionary paths. Therefore, a better understanding of this diversity is key to understanding the evolution of this complex trait as a whole. Compiling 1,207 recognized C4 eudicots species described in the literature and presenting trait data among these species, we identify global centres of species richness and of high phylogenetic diversity. Furthermore, we discuss climatic preferences in the context of plant functional traits. We identify two hotspots of C4 eudicot diversity: arid regions of Mexico/Southern United States and Australia, where several C4 eudicot lineages diversified independently. Further eudicot C4 hotspots with many different families and genera represented are in South Africa, West Africa, Patagonia, Central Asia and the Mediterranean. In general, C4 eudicots were abundant in deserts and xeric shrublands, tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands. We found C4 eudicots to occur in areas with less annual precipitation than C4 grasses which can be explained by frequently associated adaptations to drought stress such as among others succulence and salt tolerance. We conclude that in most eudicot lineages C4 evolved in ancestrally drought adapted clades and enabled these to further spread in these habitats and colonise even drier areas.

Key clinical message:We described a type IIIb dens invaginatus, its root canal treatment and results on 3- and 12-months visits. Despite its significant challenges, proper endodontic therapy in such cases can cause positive prognoses and successful outcome.Keywords:Dens Invaginatus, Root Canal Therapy, Dens in Dente, Cone-beam Computed Tomographic Imaging1. IntroductionDens invaginatus (DI), also known as dens in dente, invaginated odontoma, dilated composite odontoma, dentoid in dente1, telescopic tooth and deluted compound odontoma2 is caused by an infolding of the enamel organ into the dental papilla prior to the calcification of the tooth.3 The invagination may be limited to the pulp chamber or be extended to the root and even the apex.1The prevalence of this developmental anomaly ranges 0.3-10%.4 DI can affect any primary or permanent tooth.5 Maxillary lateral incisors are the most affected teeth.2 The involvement of maxillary central incisors have been reported2 and it may rarely occur in canines and posterior teeth, though.4 DI may occur simultaneously with supernumerary teeth, but this is not a common phenomenon.4 Although environmental and genetic etiological factors have been reported, there is no consensus on its etiology.4 Oehlers described 3 types of DI based on its apically extension5 according to their radiographic features6 which is the most commonly used.3 The invaginatus in type I is limited to the crown;1 type II is defined as an invagination that goes beyond the cementoenamel junction making a blind sac through the root, communicating with the dental pulp or not;3 type III is referred to the enamel lined infolding that penetrates through the root, opening an independent lateral (also called type IIIa) or apical (also named type IIIb)6 foramen eventually and usually with no pulpal communication.3Increased risk of pulpal and periodontal diseases in associated with the progression of microorganism and their products through the coronal aspect of the invagination is the clinical significance of dens invaginatus.5 Although 2-dimensional images are used to diagnose DI,4 3-dimensional radiographies including cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is recommended for managing severe types of DI.7 Several approaches for clinical management of different types of DI including restorative management, non-surgical root canal therapy, surgical treatment, intentional replacement or extraction have been described.8In this case report, we described a non-surgical management of type IIIb DI occurred in maxillary central incisor with two root canals view in 2-dimensional radiography simultaneously with impacted supernumerary tooth.2. Case presentationAn 18-year-old Iranian male was referred with the chief complaint of correcting the shape of his anterior tooth.Medical history revealed that there was no history of systemic disease, medication and allergic reaction. The patient was categorized in ASA1 group with no evidence of hereditary dental anomalies and no history of dental trauma, sinus tract or swelling. No pain was reported in accordance with the mentioned tooth. The patient oral hygiene was fair.Objective findings revealed normal extra oral exam, normal facial appearance, conical shaped tooth #8 and periodontium probing within a normal limit.Clinical evaluation as reported in table 1, confirmed normal response of tooth no. #8 to percussion and palpation test with no response to cold, heat and electric pulp tests.Periapical radiographic findings revealed periapical radiolucency with impacted supernumerary tooth and fully developed (dens invagination) tooth no. #8 (figure 1). Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) was prescribed for treatment planning (figure 2).According to the given medical and dental history, radiographic evaluation, objective findings and clinical evidences, diagnosis of type IIIb dens invagination with chronic apical periodontitis in pulpless and infected tooth no. #8 was made.Recommended treatment plan including nonsurgical root canal treatment and follow up and possible surgical intervention in the future and alternative treatment plan consist of orthodontic replacement supernumerary tooth or extraction and replacement with fixed prosthesis or implant were explained.According to consultation with the senior orthodontist, extraction of the supernumerary tooth was suggested in accordance with its shape and position.Treatment procedure for tooth no. #8 was done with 4 recall visits in 12 months.At first session, after local anesthesia with lidocaine2% and epinephrine 1/100000 (Persocaine-E; Darou Pakhsh; Iran) and access cavity preparation and the tooth isolation using rubber dam, access the mesial canal was done troughing the mesial part of the root by mueller bur (figure 3A). Working lengths was determined with an electronic apex locator and was confirmed radiographically. Root canals were prepared with hand K file (Mani; Japan) up to #40 and rotary file up to F3 (denco blue; China) simultaneously with passively ultrasonic irrigation using 5/25% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). Creamy Calcium hydroxide (Golchai; Iran) paste was placed to the canals with a lentulo spiral (Mani; Japan) for 10 days and access cavity was sealed with temporary restoration.At the second session, tooth no. #8 was asymptomatic and no pain was reported. After local anesthesia with lidocaine2% and epinephrine 1/100000 (Persocaine-E; Darou Pakhsh; Iran), removal of temporary filling and isolation using rubber dam, intracanal medicament was removed by copious irrigation with NaOCl combined with hand instrumentation and a final rinse with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) (EDTA; Morvabon; Iran). Obturation was carried out using mineral trioxide aggregates (MTA) (MTA Angelus; Brazil), gutta-percha and sealer (AH-26; Dentsply Sirona; Germany). MTA was used as a plug at the apical of distal canal and the rest of distal and mesial canals were obturated using gutta-percha and sealer with warm vertical obturating technique. Access cavity was sealed with resin modified glass ionomer (RMGI) (GC Fuji II LC; Japan) (figure 3B).Recall visits were set to control the healing process. 3- and 12-month follow up evaluation revealed that the tooth no. #8 was asymptomatic and the periapical lesion was healed (figure 3C and 3D). It was permanently restored and supernumerary tooth was extracted.3. DiscussionDI is a developmental anomaly with the most prevalence of affected maxillary lateral incisors.8 Although, affected canines, premolars, molars and maxillary central incisors have also been reported.8 This malformation is classified into 3 groups6 and type III is more complicated compared to the others.9 A different treatment plan would be useful for each type of dens invagination.1 Despite uncommon communication with the pulp in type III,9pulpal disease or a periapical lesion has been reported in many cases.4 Thus, 3-dimensional radiography is essential to choose the best treatment plan.4In the present case, type IIIb dens invaginatus with necrotic pulp and periapical lesion was diagnosed in the right maxillary central incisor using CBCT.Non-surgical root canal therapy is the first line of clinical management in necrotic tooth affected with DI.2 According to the root canal morphology complexity and varieties including unreachable fines and intracanal communications, complex endodontic considerations, eradication of necrotic tissue using proper chemical and mechanical procedures for cleaning, shaping and obturation is mandatory in DI cases.1 Thus, the clinician should be well-informed regarding various techniques and materials.5 Although, the effect of mechanical and chemical root canal preparation on the reduction of the number of microbial organisms is significant, the use of a dressing between treatment sessions including calcium hydroxide as a popular and well-known intracanal medicament is mandatory to eliminate intracanal residual pathogens.10 Despite of its advantages, calcium hydroxide has negative effect on the sealing qualities during obturation.10 Thus, copious irrigation using NaOCl and EDTA prior to obturation is recommended to conquer the adverse effect of residual intracanal calcium hydroxide on the root canal filling.10 Moreover, for nonsurgical endodontic treatment of DI, the preferred approach is using MTA plug at the apical end and root canal obturation using lateral condensation or warm gutta-percha techniques.8 Various obturation materials including Biodentine, MTA and gutta-percha using different sealers have been suggested, though.2In the present case, scrolling the axial view of the tooth in CBCT revealed that the space between two roots had no connection to the canals. Thus, it had not been sealed with bioceramic material. MTA-Angelus was used for this purpose due to its short setting of 15 minutes.11A successful clinical and radiographic outcome was reported in the present case. Asymptomatic tooth with healed periapical lesion was reported in 3-month recall session.Despite its significant challenges, a proper endodontic therapy for DI cases may have positive long-term prognoses.1Conflict of interestsNoneDeclaration of patient consentThe patient has given his consent for his clinical information to be reported in the journal.AcknowledgmentNoneReferences1. Martins JNR, da Costa RP, Anderson C, Quaresma SA, Corte-Real LSM, Monroe AD. Endodontic management of dens invaginatus Type IIIb: Case series. Eur J Dent. 2016;10(4):561-5.2. Ghandi M, Ghorbani F, Jamshidi D. Nonsurgical management of a patient with multiple dens invaginatus affecting all maxillary incisors. Saudi Endodontic Journal. 2022;12(1):138-42.3. Alkadi M, Almohareb R, Mansour S, Mehanny M, Alsadhan R. Assessment of dens invaginatus and its characteristics in maxillary anterior teeth using cone-beam computed tomography. Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):19727.4. Zhu J, Wang X, Fang Y, Von den Hoff JW, Meng L. An update on the diagnosis and treatment of dens invaginatus. Aust Dent J. 2017;62(3):261-75.5. Pradhan B, Gao Y, He L, Li J. Non-surgical Removal of Dens Invaginatus in Maxillary Lateral Incisor Using CBCT: Two-year Follow-up Case Report. Open Med (Wars). 2019;14:767-71.6. González-Mancilla S, Montero-Miralles P, Saúco-Márquez JJ, Areal-Quecuty V, Cabanillas-Balsera D, Segura-Egea JJ. Prevalence of Dens Invaginatus assessed by CBCT: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Clin Exp Dent. 2022;14(11):e959-e66.7. Cho WC, Kim MS, Lee HS, Choi SC, Nam OH. Pulp revascularization of a severely malformed immature maxillary canine. J Oral Sci. 2016;58(2):295-8.8. Yalcin TY, Bektaş Kayhan K, Yilmaz A, Göksel S, Ozcan İ, Helvacioglu Yigit D. Prevalence, classification and dental treatment requirements of dens invaginatus by cone-beam computed tomography. PeerJ. 2022;10:e14450.9. Mary NSGP, Sangavi T, Venkatesh A, Prakash V. Dens Invaginatus clinical diagnosis and management: A Review. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine. 2020;7(5):2020.10. Raghu R, Pradeep G, Shetty A, Gautham PM, Puneetha PG, Reddy TVS. Retrievability of calcium hydroxide intracanal medicament with three calcium chelators, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, citric acid, and chitosan from root canals: An in vitro cone beam computed tomography volumetric analysis. J Conserv Dent. 2017;20(1):25-9.11. Hansen SW, Marshall JG, Sedgley CM. Comparison of intracanal EndoSequence Root Repair Material and ProRoot MTA to induce pH changes in simulated root resorption defects over 4 weeks in matched pairs of human teeth. J Endod. 2011;37(4):502-6.

Biological invasions are recognized as one of the factors causing biodiversity loss. Incomplete reproductive isolation with a closely related species can result in hybridization when a non-native species is introduced into a new habitat. Management of hybrids is essential for biodiversity conservation; however, the distinction between the two species becomes a challenge in cases of hybrids with similar characteristics to native species. Although image recognition technology can be a powerful tool for identifying hybrids, studies have yet to utilize deep learning approaches. Hence, this study aimed to identify hybrids between native Japanese giant salamanders (Andrias japonicus) and non-native Chinese giant salamanders (Andrias davidianus) using EfficientNet and smartphone images. We used smartphone images of 11 native individuals (with 5 training and 6 test images) and 20 hybrid individuals (with 5 training and 15 test images). In our experimental environment, an AI model constructed with efficientNet-V2 showed 100% accuracy in identifying hybrids. In addition, highlighting the regions that influenced the AI model’s predictions using Grad-CAM revealed that salamander head spots are responsible for correctly classifying native and hybrid species. The results of this study revealed that our approach is one of the methods that enable the identification of hybrids, which was previously considered difficult without identification by the experts. Furthermore, since this study achieved high-performance identification using smartphone images, it is expected to be applied to a wide range of low-cost identification using citizen science.

The WHO Unity Studies initiative engaged low- and middle-income countries in the implementation of standardized SARS-CoV-2 sero-epidemiological investigation protocols and timely sharing of comparable results for evidence-based action. To gain a deeper understanding of the methodological challenges faced when conducting seroprevalence studies in the Africa region, we conducted unstructured interviews with key study teams in five countries. We discuss the challenges identified: participant recruitment and retention, sample frame, sample and data management, data analysis and presentation to policy makers. Potential solutions to aid future implementation include preparedness actions such as the development of new tools, robust planning and practice.

Recent trends regarding GDM medication use have not been well described in prior literature. We identified pregnant patients enrolled in Tennessee Medicaid with a GDM diagnosis who a delivered in 2007 to 2019. We studied initial GDM medication use by delivery year (overall and by medication type). Over twenty percent of patients filled at least one prescription for GDM medication in the study period, with a significantly increasing prescribing trend over time. Starting in 2016, metformin replaced glyburide as the most common medication prescribed, which corresponds temporally with the emergence of evidence on the safety and effectiveness of different oral hypoglycemic medications and related changes in ACOG practice recommendations. These findings highlight how practice patterns have potential to shift quickly in response to evolving data.

Bilge and oily water (BOW) during vessel’s operation are the most large-tonnage type of waste and for their treatment all ships, in accordance with regulatory requirements [14], have to be equipped with special equipment – oily water separators. At sea vessel’s operating conditions three main directions of BOW cleaning are now used: physical, chemical and biological. The analysis of BOW separation methods based on these three directions has shown that it is very difficult to obtain secondary petrochemical products. In the article authors offer a new method for BOW separation which is based on the use of a hydrodynamic process of supercavitation with artificial ventilation of the cavitational cavern. With local origin in the flow of a supercavitating cavern, there will always be saturated water vapor inside of it. The process of permanent water vapor selection from the cavern will ultimately contribute to the production of highly concentrated mixture of secondary petroleum products from initial mixture of BOW. During the study of BOW separation process it was found that decreasing of the working pressure inside the working chamber of the cavitation separator have to be always compensated by an increase in the temperature of the processed multiphase flow.

To unlock the full potential of PSCs, machine learning (ML) was implemented in this research to predict the best combination of mesoporous-titanium dioxide (mp-TiO2) and weight percentage (wt%) of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), along with the current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (ff) and energy conversion efficiency (ECE). Then, the combination that yielded the highest predicted ECE was selected as a reference to fabricate PCBM-PSCs with nanopatterned TiO2 layer. Subsequently, the PCBM-PSCs with nanopatterned TiO2 layers were fabricated and characterized to further understand the dual effects of nanopatterning depth and wt% of PCBM on PSCs. Experimentally, the highest ECE of 17.336% is achieved at 127 nm nanopatterning depth and 0.10 wt% of PCBM, where the Jsc, Voc and ff are 22.877 mA/cm2, 0.963 V and 0.787, respectively. The measured Jsc, Voc, ff and ECE values show consistencies with the ML prediction. Hence, these findings not only revealed the potential of ML to be used as a preliminary investigation to navigate the research of PSCs, but also highlighted that nanopatterning depth has a significant impact on Jsc, and the incorporation of PCBM on perovskite layer influenced the Voc and ff, which further boosted the performance of PSCs.

The particular characteristics of deaf-mutes make them more likely to have mental health problems. Due to their particular way of communication, it is more difficult for them to deal with mental health problems than ordinary people. Nowadays, those psychologists who are good at sign language are in short supply, and remote assistance cannot achieve satisfactory results. Therefore, a library of virtual emotional gestures based on electroencephalogram(EEG) was established and a prototype system for mental health examination of deaf-mutes was proposed, which help deaf-mutes identify their psychological problems in time and assist medical staff to examine the psychological problems encountered by deaf-mutes. In addition, the virtual library of emotional gestures is established with the assistance of the chief physician from a 3A hospital in Henan Province. More importantly, the later experiments demonstrate the applicability of this virtual system.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications are becoming increasingly prevalent. However, constructing realistic 3D hands, especially when two hands are interacting, from a single RGB image remains a major challenge due to severe mutual occlusion and the enormous diversity of hand poses. In this paper, we propose a Disturbing Graph Contrastive Learning strategy for two-hand 3D reconstruction. This involves a graph disturbance network designed to generate graph feature pairs to enhance the consistency of the two-hand pose features. A contrastive learning module leverages high-quality generative features for a strong feature expression. We further propose a similarity distinguish method to divide positive and negative features for accelerating the model convergence. Additionally, a multi-term loss is designed to balance the relation among the hand pose, the visual scale and the viewpoint position. Our model has achieved State-of-the-Art results in the InterHand2.6M benchmark. Ablation studies show the model’s great ability to correct unreasonable hand movements. In subjective assessments, our Graph Disturbance Learning method significantly improves the construction of realistic 3D hands, especially when two hands are interacting.

Desiccation cracking of soil-like materials is a common phenomenon in natural dry environment, however, it remains a challenge to model and simulate complicated multi-physical processes inside the porous structure. With the goal of tracking such physical evolution accurately, we propose an MPM based method to simulate volumetric shrinkage and crack during moisture diffusion. At the physical level, we introduce Richards equations to evolve the dynamic moisture field to model evaporation and diffusion in unsaturated soils, with which a elastoplastic model is established to simulate strength changes and volumetric shrinkage via a novel saturation-based hardening strategy during plastic treatment. At the algorithmic level, we develop an MPM-fashion numerical solver for the proposed physical model and achieve stable yet efficient simulation towards delicate deformation and fracture. At the geometric level, we propose a correlating stretching criteria and a saturation-aware extrapolation scheme to extend existing surface reconstruction for MPM, producing visual compelling soil appearance. Finally, we manifest realistic simulation results based on the proposed method with several challenging scenarios, which demonstrates usability and efficiency of our method.

A great number of virtual museums exhibit archaeological artefacts in an interactive form using 3D digital models to disseminate them to as many users as possible. Currently, 3D models obtained as a result of scanning museum objects have gained a great popularity. This technique allows to faithfully reproduce objects and to expose artefacts too delicate and precious to be presented in the real world. The aim of this paper is to create a virtual museum in the VR world using 3D models obtained by 3D scanning with structured light.  The advantages of optimising mesh models for their use in virtual exhibitions are discussed. Unity and Unreal Engine, were used to create virtual museums in the VR world. Two twin test applications were prepared. This allowed to compare the performance of the developed applications (processor, graphics card and RAM load). A survey was also conducted among the users of the implemented virtual museum application. For immersion in the world of VR, a low-cost solution was used, involving the use of cheap VR frames, a smartphone and a computer. The frames together with the smartphone were used to display the image, while the entire rendering process was performed on the computer.