In this paper, we address the problem of video rain removal by constructing deep recurrent convolutional networks. We visit the rain removal case by considering rain occlusion regions, i.e. the light ...transmittance of rain streaks is low. Different from additive rain streaks, in such rain occlusion regions, the details of background images are completely lost. Therefore, we propose a hybrid rain model to depict both rain streaks and occlusions. With the wealth of temporal redundancy, we build a Joint Recurrent Rain Removal and Reconstruction Network (J4R-Net) that seamlessly integrates rain degradation classification, spatial texture appearances based rain removal and temporal coherence based background details reconstruction. The rain degradation classification provides a binary map that reveals whether a location is degraded by linear additive streaks or occlusions. With this side information, the gate of the recurrent unit learns to make a trade-off between rain streak removal and background details reconstruction. Extensive experiments on a series of synthetic and real videos with rain streaks verify the superiority of the proposed method over previous state-of-the-art methods.
In this paper we investigate the impact of institutional ownership on UK mergers and acquisitions. We employ a comprehensive sample of M&As conducted by UK acquirers from 2000 to 2010, thus including ...a full cycle of peak and trough in M&A waves. We find that institutional investors increase the likelihood of an M&A to be a large, cross-border deal, opting for full control. Moreover, institutional ownership concentration and foreign institutional ownership increase the likelihood of cross-border M&As. In addition, we assess the influence of institutional shareholders’ investment horizon and find that while investment horizon have a negative influence in encouraging cross-border M&As, the presence of long-term investors encourages larger M&As. Finally, even after controlling for the 2007–08 financial crisis the market reacts negatively to the announcement of cross-border M&As.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Abstract
Polymer-ceramic piezoelectric composites, combining high piezoelectricity and mechanical flexibility, have attracted increasing interest in both academia and industry. However, their ...piezoelectric activity is largely limited by intrinsically low crystallinity and weak spontaneous polarization. Here, we propose a Ti
3
C
2
T
x
MXene anchoring method to manipulate the intermolecular interactions within the all-
trans
conformation of a polymer matrix. Employing phase-field simulation and molecular dynamics calculations, we show that OH surface terminations on the Ti
3
C
2
T
x
nanosheets offer hydrogen bonding with the fluoropolymer matrix, leading to dipole alignment and enhanced net spontaneous polarization of the polymer-ceramic composites. We then translated this interfacial bonding strategy into electrospinning to boost the piezoelectric response of samarium doped Pb (Mg
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
-PbTiO
3
/polyvinylidene fluoride composite nanofibers by 160% via Ti
3
C
2
T
x
nanosheets inclusion. With excellent piezoelectric and mechanical attributes, the as-electrospun piezoelectric nanofibers can be easily integrated into the conventional shoe insoles to form a foot sensor network for all-around gait patterns monitoring, walking habits identification and Metatarsalgi prognosis. This work utilizes the interfacial coupling mechanism of intermolecular anchoring as a strategy to develop high-performance piezoelectric composites for wearable electronics.
Temperature‐driven switching of water adhesion is realized on a novel n‐paraffinswollen organogel by thermally controlling the transition of air/liquid/solid (ALS/ALLS) systems via the phasechange ...process of n‐paraffin. The thermal control of both the water‐drop sliding motion and the switching of the optical transparency shows potential applications in scientific research and daily life.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The Zn(
ii
) MOF with a tripyridinium-based hexacarboxylate shows direct color change on exposure to small primary amines and UV-assisted color response on exposure to small alcohols. The reversible, ...group-specific and size-selective chemochromic/chemophotochromic behaviours are ascribed to spontaneous/photoinduced guest-to-host electron transfer within the unique confined space furnished with electron-deficient sites.
The MOF provides unique confined space furnished with electron acceptor sites, and exposure to amines/alcohols causes specific and size-selective direct/UV-assisted color change owing to spontaneous/photoinduced electron transfer.
This brief addresses the leader-follower (L-F) tracking control problem for multiple nonholonomic mobile robots in unknown obstacle environments. Unlike most of the existing approaches investigating ...similar problems, a series of practical issues is considered and tackled in the proposed scheme. For leader tracking, a class of bounded barrier functions are employed to formulate distance and bearing angle constraints introduced by sensor limitations and L-F collision avoidance requirement. To ensure robot safety in unknown environments, a multiregion obstacle avoidance algorithm is proposed which prioritizes different control objectives in different regions. This brief also studies the leader-loss situation, which may be caused by illumination variation, motion blurring, or visual occlusion by obstacles. To deal with this case, a fault-tolerant strategy is designed to drive <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">F </tex-math></inline-formula> to the place where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">L </tex-math></inline-formula> was lost immediately. The control scheme proposed in the brief is primarily designed for a communication-free environment where only local state measurements are available. Furthermore, it has control input constraints explicitly taken into account. Real robot experiment has been performed to validate the proposed method.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), acutely or slowly progressing into irreversible pulmonary disease, causes severe damage to patients' lung functions, as well as death. In China, Chinese medicine ...injections (CMIs) have been generally combined with Western medicine (WM) to treat IPF, which are safe and effective. This study aimed to systematically compare the efficacy of 14 CMIs combined with WM in the treatment of IPF based on a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA). PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, and Chinese databases, including the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, Scientific Journal Database, and China Biology Medicine Database were searched from inception to October 31, 2021. The inclusion criterion was randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on CMIs with WM for treating IPF. Reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies. RevMan 5.4 software and Stata software (version 16.0) were used for the data analysis. NMA were carried out for calculating the odd ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), the surface under cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) and the probabilities of being the best. A total of 63 eligible RCTs involving 14 CMIs were included in this NMA. More CMIs can significantly improve the clinical effectiveness rate (CER); Shuxuening injection (SXN)+WM (OR 8.91, 95% CI 3.81-20.83), Shuxuetong injection (SXT)+WM (OR 7.36, 95% CI 3.30-16.00), Shenxiong injection (SX)+WM (OR 5.42, 95% CI 2.90-10.13), Danhong injection (DH)+WM (OR 4.06, 95% CI 2.62-6.29), and Huangqi injection (HQ)+WM (OR 3.47, 95% CI 1.55-7.77) were the top five treatment strategies. Furthermore, DH +WM ranked relatively high in the SUCRA value of the nine outcome indicators, oxygen partial pressure (PaO2) (OR -13.39; 95% CI -14.90,-11.89; SUCRA 83.7%), carbon dioxide partial pressure (PaCO2) (OR -4.77; 95% CI -5.55,-3.99; SUCRA 83.3), orced vital capacity (FVC) (OR -1.42; 95% CI -2.47,-0.36; SUCRA 73.5%), total lung capacity (TLC) (OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.51,1.36; SUCRA 89.0%), forced expiratory volume 1/ forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC%) (OR -10.30; 95% CI -12.98,-7.62; SUCRA 72.7%), type III collagen (IIIC) (OR 13.08; 95% CI 5.11,21.05; SUCRA 54.9%), and transforming growth factor (TGF) (OR -4.22; 95% CI -6.06,-2.37; SUCRA 85.7%) respectively, which seems to indicate that DH+WM had the highest likelihood of being the best treatment. This review specified several CMIs combined with WM in the treatment of IPF in China. In contrast to glucocorticoids or antioxidants, CMIs combined with WM delayed the decline in lung function, maintained oxygenation and quality of life in patients with IPF. The combined use of DH, SXN, SX, and safflower yellow sodium chloride injection (HHS) with WM exerted a more positive effect in treating IPF than WM alone. However, there were limitations to the conclusions of this study due to quality control differences in the included trials.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Due to its great relevance to environmental, biological, and chemical processes, the precise detection of pH or acidic/basic species is an ongoing and imperative need. In this context, pH-sensitive ...luminescent systems are highly desired. We reported a three-dimensional Zn(II) MOF synthesized from a bipyridyl-tetracarboxylic ligand and composed of 4-fold interpenetrated diamond frameworks. Because the steric hindrance in the ligand prevents metal coordination with the pyridyl group, the MOF features free basic N sites accessible to the small H
ions, which renders pH responsivity. The aqueous dispersion exhibits an abrupt, high-contrast, and reversible on-off fluorescence transition in the narrow pH range of 5.4-6.2. The sensitive bistable system can be used for the precise monitoring of pH within the range and for use as a pH-triggered optical switch. The responsive mechanism through pyridyl protonation is collaboratively supported by data fitting, absorption spectra, and molecular orbital calculations. In particular, spectral and theoretical analyses reveal the destruction of n → π* transitions and the appearance of intramolecular charge-transfer transitions upon pyridyl protonation. Moreover, by virtue of the pH-responsive fluorescence, the MOF shows appealing sensing performance for the detection of 3-nitropropionic acid, a major mycotoxin in moldy sugar cane.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
DDX58/RIG-I, is a critical pattern recognition receptor for viral RNA, which plays an essential role in antiviral immunity. Its posttranslational modifications and stability are tightly regulated to ...mediate the moderate production of type I IFN to maintain the immune homeostasis. Recently, we reported that macroautophagy/autophagy balances type I IFN signaling through selective degradation of ISG15-associated DDX58 via LRRC25. However, the regulatory mechanism about the autophagic degradation of DDX58 remains largely undefined. Here, we identified LRRC59 as a vital positive regulator of DDX58-mediated type I IFN signaling. Upon virus infection, LRRC59 specifically interacted with ISG15-associated DDX58 and blocked its association with LRRC25, the secondary receptor to deliver DDX58 to autophagosomes for SQSTM1/p62-dependent degradation, leading to the stronger antiviral immune responses. Thus, our study reveals a novel regulatory role of selective autophagy in innate antiviral responses mediated by the cross-regulation of LRRC family members. These data further provide insights into the crosstalk between autophagy and innate immune responses.
ATG: Autophagy-related; Baf A
1
: Bafilomycin A
1
; DDX58/RIG-I: DEAD Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp box polypeptide 58; EV: Empty vector; IC polyI:C: Intracellular polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid; IFIH1/MDA5: Interferon induced with helicase C domain 1; IFN: Interferon; ISG15: ISG15 ubiquitin like modifier; IKBKE: Inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa B kinase subunit epsilon; IRF3: Interferon regulatory factor 3; KO: Knockout; LRRC: Leucine rich repeat containing; MAVS: Mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein; CGAS/MB21D1: Cyclic GMP-AMP synthase; SeV: Sendai virus; siRNA: small interfering RNA; SQSTM1/p62: Sequestosome 1; TBK1: TANK binding kinase 1; TLR: Toll like receptor; TMEM173/STING: Transmembrane protein 173; VSV: Vesicular stomatitis virus; WT: Wild type
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Adhesion G protein-coupled receptors (aGPCRs) constitute an evolutionarily ancient family of receptors that often undergo autoproteolysis to produce α and β subunits
. A tethered agonism mediated by ...the 'Stachel sequence' of the β subunit has been proposed to have central roles in aGPCR activation
. Here we present three cryo-electron microscopy structures of aGPCRs coupled to the G
heterotrimer. Two of these aGPCRs are activated by tethered Stachel sequences-the ADGRG2-β-G
complex and the ADGRG4-β-G
complex (in which β indicates the β subunit of the aGPCR)-and the other is the full-length ADGRG2 in complex with the exogenous ADGRG2 Stachel-sequence-derived peptide agonist IP15 (ADGRG2(FL)-IP15-G
). The Stachel sequences of both ADGRG2-β and ADGRG4-β assume a U shape and insert deeply into the seven-transmembrane bundles. Constituting the FXφφφXφ motif (in which φ represents a hydrophobic residue), five residues of ADGRG2-β or ADGRG4-β extend like fingers to mediate binding to the seven-transmembrane domain and activation of the receptor. The structure of the ADGRG2(FL)-IP15-G
complex reveals the structural basis for the improved binding affinity of IP15 compared with VPM-p15 and indicates that rational design of peptidic agonists could be achieved by exploiting aGPCR-β structures. By converting the 'finger residues' to acidic residues, we develop a method to generate peptidic antagonists towards several aGPCRs. Collectively, our study provides structural and biochemical insights into the tethered activation mechanism of aGPCRs.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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