A Complex-Former Tracker With Dynamic Polar Spatio-Temporal Encoding.

Recently, the excellent performance of transformer has attracted the attention of the visual community. Visual transformer models usually reshape images into sequence format and encode them sequentially. However, it is difficult to explicitly represent the relative relationship in distance and direction of visual data with typical 2-D spatial structures. Also, the temporal motion properties of consecutive frames are hardly exploited when it comes to dynamic video tasks like tracking. Therefore, we propose a novel dynamic polar spatio-temporal encoding for video scenes. We use spiral functions in polar space to fully exploit the spatial dependences of distance and direction in real scenes. We then design a dynamic relative encoding mode for continuous frames to capture the continuous spatio-temporal motion characteristics among video frames. Finally, we construct a complex-former framework with the proposed encoding applied to video-tracking tasks, where the complex fusion mode (CFM) realizes the effective fusion of scenes and positions for consecutive frames. The theoretical analysis demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed method. The experimental results on multiple datasets validate that our method can improve tracker performance in various video scenarios.

Effects of instantaneous changes in temperature, light, and salinity on the dynamics of dissolved organic carbon release by Sargassum thunbergii.

Although macroalgae are regarded as the emerging fourth category of "blue carbon", few studies are available on the dynamics of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) release. Sargassum thunbergii is a typical intertidal macroalgae; and tidal action usually triggers instantaneous changes in temperature, light and salinity. Therefore, we investigated the mechanism of short-term changes in temperature, light and salinity on DOC release by S. thunbergii. As well as these factors coupled with desiccation, the combined effect of DOC release was revealed. The results showed the DOC release rate of S. thunbergii was from 0.028 to 0.037 mg C g -1(FW) h-1 under different photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 0-1500 µmol photons m-2 s-1). The DOC release rate of S. thunbergii was from 0.008 to 0.208 mg C g -1(FW) h-1 under different salinity (5-40). The DOC release rate of S. thunbergii was from 0.031 to 0.034 mg C g -1(FW) h-1 under different temperature (10-30 °C). Either the increase in intracellular organic matter concentration due to increased photosynthesis (change in PAR and temperature, active), cell dehydration due to dry-out process (passive) or the decrease in extracellular salt concentration (passive) would lead to an increase in the difference in osmotic pressure and promote DOC release.

Risk Factors Associated with Postoperative Obesity in Childhood-Onset Craniopharyngioma Patients: A Case-Control Study.

OBJECTIVE: Identifying risk factors associated with obesity after craniopharyngioma (CP) resection is pivotal for the prediction and prevention of postoperative obesity. Although multiple elegant studies have investigated this issue, studies focusing on Asian pediatric patients are missing. Herein, we retrospectively analyzed the risk factors associated with obesity after childhood-onset CP surgery in our center, aiming to provide insights into approaches reducing the occurrence of postoperative obesity. METHODS: The clinical data of 53 children with CP who met the inclusion criteria from July 2011 to August 2020 in our center were collected for retrospective analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic retrospective analyses were used to identify independent risk factors contributing to postoperative obesity. A review of the available literature reporting the risk factors associated with obesity after CP surgery over the past two decades was performed for comparison. RESULTS: The median age at diagnosis of this cohort was 11.0 years, with a median follow-up of 44.0 months (range = 8-119 months). Eighteen (34.0%) experienced obesity at the last follow-up. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed preoperative body mass index standard deviation score (odds ratio [OR], 1.71; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-2.90; P = 0.046), preoperative hypothalamic involvement (OR, 29.38; 95% CI: 1.76-490.66; P = 0.019), and age at diagnosis (OR, 0.76; 95% CI: 0.61-0.95; P = 0.016) were independent risk factors for obesity after childhood-onset CP resection. CONCLUSIONS: Our results combined with previous literature support preoperative body mass index standard deviation score, preoperative hypothalamic involvement, and age at diagnosis are the independent risk factors associated with obesity after childhood-onset CP resection.

Exploring the pathological relationships between adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma and contiguous structures with tumor origin.

PURPOSE: Identifying relationships between craniopharyngiomas (CPs) and contiguous structures, and tumor origin are crucial for treatments. This study attempted to explore the relationships and tumor origin. METHODS: CPs that underwent endoscopic surgeries were enrolled. The interfacial specimens of CPs attaching the hypothalamus, pituitary stalk (PS), pituitary grand (PG), optic chiasma (OC) and brain tissue (BT) were pathologically examined. Boundaries between CPs and these structures were observed during operations. Expression of ß-catenin and stem cell markers were analyzed to explore the tumor origin. Outcomes of patients were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 34 CPs were categorized into two groups based on the locations of finger-like protrusions (FP). Group A comprised 18 CPs with FP only present in the specimens attaching to hypothalamus. The surface of these CPs was fused with hypothalamus under endoscopic videos. However, the specimens attaching to the PS, PG, OC, and BT showed no FP. Clear boundaries was observed between these CPs and these structures. Group B comprised 16 CPs with FP only present in the specimens attaching to PS. The tumor surface was fused with PS. Specimens attaching to the hypothalamus, PG, OC and BT showed no FP. Clear boundary was observed among these CPs with these structures. These results implied CPs only invaded a certain part of hypothalamic-pituitary axis. ß-catenin and stem cells markers mainly distributed in the FP tissues of both groups. Patients in group B achieved better outcomes than group A. CONCLUSIONS: CPs only invade the hypothalamic-pituitary axis with FP and the FP would be the tumor origin.

Novel duplication remnant in the first complete mitogenome of Hemitriakis japanica and the unique phylogenetic position of family Triakidae.

In this study, we firstly determined the complete mitogenome of the Japanese topeshark (Hemitriakis japonica), which belong to the family Triakidae and was assessed as Endangered A2d on the IUCN Red List in 2021. The mitogenome is 17,301 bp long, has a high AT content (60.0%), and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, a control region and specially a 594 bp-long non-coding region between Cytb gene and tRNA-Thr gene. The novel non-coding region share high sequence similarity with segments of the former and latter genes, so it was recognized as a duplication remnant. In addition, the Cytb gene and tRNA-Thr gene tandemly duplicated twice while accompanied by being deleted once at least. This is the first report of mitogenomic gene-arrangement in Triakidae. The phylogenetic trees were constructed using Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods based on the mitogenomic data of 51 shark species and two outgroups. In summary, basing on a novel type of gene rearrangements in houndshark mitogenome, the possibly rearranged process was analyzed and contributed further insight of shark mitogenomes evolution and phylogeny.