This paper presents the first semi-supervised transductive algorithm for real-time articulated hand pose estimation. Noisy data and occlusions are the major challenges of articulated hand pose ...estimation. In addition, the discrepancies among realistic and synthetic pose data undermine the performances of existing approaches that use synthetic data extensively in training. We therefore propose the Semi-supervised Transductive Regression (STR) forest which learns the relationship between a small, sparsely labelled realistic dataset and a large synthetic dataset. We also design a novel data-driven, pseudo-kinematic technique to refine noisy or occluded joints. Our contributions include: (i) capturing the benefits of both realistic and synthetic data via transductive learning, (ii) showing accuracies can be improved by considering unlabelled data, and (iii) introducing a pseudo-kinematic technique to refine articulations efficiently. Experimental results show not only the promising performance of our method with respect to noise and occlusions, but also its superiority over state-of-the-arts in accuracy, robustness and speed.
We present a system for real-time hand-tracking to drive virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) experiences. Using four fisheye monochrome cameras, our system generates accurate and low-jitter 3D hand ...motion across a large working volume for a diverse set of users. We achieve this by proposing neural network architectures for detecting hands and estimating hand keypoint locations. Our hand detection network robustly handles a variety of real world environments. The keypoint estimation network leverages tracking history to produce spatially and temporally consistent poses. We design scalable, semi-automated mechanisms to collect a large and diverse set of ground truth data using a combination of manual annotation and automated tracking. Additionally, we introduce a detection-by-tracking method that increases smoothness while reducing the computational cost; the optimized system runs at 60Hz on PC and 30Hz on a mobile processor. Together, these contributions yield a practical system for capturing a user's hands and is the default feature on the Oculus Quest VR headset powering input and social presence.
Passive radiative cooling using nanophotonic structures is limited by its high cost and poor compatibility with existing end uses, whereas polymeric photonic alternatives lack weather resistance and ...effective solar reflection. We developed a cellular ceramic that can achieve highly efficient light scattering and a near-perfect solar reflectivity of 99.6%. These qualities, coupled with high thermal emissivity, allow the ceramic to provide continuous subambient cooling in an outdoor setting with a cooling power of >130 watts per square meter at noon, demonstrating energy-saving potential on a worldwide scale. The color, weather resistance, mechanical robustness, and ability to depress the Leidenfrost effect are key features ensuring the durable and versatile nature of the cooling ceramic, thereby facilitating its commercialization in various applications, particularly building construction.
Editor’s summary
Passive radiative cooling materials emit heat through the atmospheric window and into outer space, providing an attractive way to reduce temperatures in buildings. Zhao
et al
. created a passive cooling glass and Lin
et al
. developed a passive cooling ceramic, both of which are mechanically strong and relatively easy to scale (see the Perspective by Zhao and Tang). Unlike strategies that rely on polymers, these hard materials should be more robust to long-term weathering, which may make them far more useful for outdoor applications. —Brent Grocholski
Passive radiative cooling ceramics and glasses have attractive weathering properties.
Background
Long-term data pertaining to rituximab as add-on therapy in childhood-onset lupus nephritis (cLN) is scarce.
Methods
A retrospective cohort study was conducted on all patients with ...proliferative cLN, diagnosed ≤ 18 years and between 2005 and 2021, who received rituximab for LN episodes that were life/organ threatening and/or treatment resistant to standard immunosuppression.
Results
Fourteen patients with cLN (female,
n
= 10) were included, with median follow-up period of 6.9 years. LN episodes (class III,
n
= 1; class IV,
n
= 11; class IV + V,
n
= 2) requiring rituximab occurred at 15.6 years (
IQR
12.8–17.3), urine protein:creatinine ratio was 8.2 mg/mg (
IQR
3.4–10.1) and eGFR was 28 mL/min/1.73 m
2
(
IQR
24–69) prior to rituximab treatment. Ten and four patients received rituximab at 1500 mg/m
2
and 750 mg/m
2
, which were given at 46.5 days (
IQR
19–69) after commencement of standard therapies. Treatment with rituximab resulted in improvements in proteinuria (
ps
< 0.001), eGFR (
ps
< 0.01) and serological parameters, including haemoglobin levels, complement 3 levels and anti-dsDNA antibodies, compared with baseline. Rates of complete/partial remission at 6-, 12- and 24-month post-rituximab were 28.6/42.8%, 64.2/21.4% and 69.2/15.3%. All three patients who required acute kidney replacement therapy became dialysis-free after rituximab. Relapse rate following rituximab was 0.11 episodes/patient-year. There was no lethal complication or severe infusion reaction. Hypogammaglobulinaemia was the most frequent complication (45%) but was mostly asymptomatic. Neutropenia and infections were observed in 20% and 25% of treatments. Upon last follow-up, three (21%) and two (14%) patients developed chronic kidney disease (stage 2,
n
= 2; stage 4;
n
= 1) and kidney failure, respectively.
Conclusion
Add-on rituximab is an effective and safe rescue therapy for cLN patients with life-/organ-threatening manifestations or treatment-resistance.
Graphical abstract
A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as
Supplementary information
Background
We tested the hypothesis that myocardial stiffness is altered in paediatric patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and explored its association with clinical parameters of chronic ...kidney disease (CKD).
Methods
Thirty-five patients with ESKD (16 males) aged 17.5 ± 3 years old, 18/35 of whom were receiving dialysis and 17 post kidney transplant, were studied. Left ventricular (LV) myocardial stiffness was determined by measurement of diastolic wall strain (DWS) and stiffness index (SI), while LV diastolic function was interrogated by pulsed-wave and tissue Doppler echocardiography.
Results
Compared with available literature data, both dialysis and transplanted patients had significantly lower DWS and greater SI, reduced transmitral early (E) to late diastolic velocity ratio and septal and lateral mitral annular early (e′) diastolic velocities, and greater septal and lateral E/e′ ratios (all
p
< 0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that
z
score of diastolic blood pressure (
β
= 0.43,
p
= 0.004) and the duration of renal replacement therapy (
β
= 0.55,
p
< 0.001) were significant determinants of LV SI. Subgroup analysis in post-transplant patients showed
z
score of diastolic blood pressure (
β
= 0.54,
p
= 0.025) remained as a significant determinant of LV SI.
Conclusion
Increased LV myocardial stiffness is evident in paediatric dialysis and transplanted patients with ESKD, and is associated with blood pressure and duration of renal replacement therapy.
This paper presents the first performance evaluation of interest points on scalar volumetric data. Such data encodes 3D shape, a fundamental property of objects. The use of another such property, ...texture (i.e. 2D surface colouration), or appearance, for object detection, recognition and registration has been well studied; 3D shape less so. However, the increasing prevalence of 3D shape acquisition techniques and the diminishing returns to be had from appearance alone have seen a surge in 3D shape-based methods. In this work, we investigate the performance of several state of the art interest points detectors in volumetric data, in terms of repeatability, number and nature of interest points. Such methods form the first step in many shape-based applications. Our detailed comparison, with both quantitative and qualitative measures on synthetic and real 3D data, both point-based and volumetric, aids readers in selecting a method suitable for their application.
There is little data on renal relapse in childhood-onset LN (cLN). We investigate the incidence, predictive factors and outcomes related to renal relapse.
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of ...all cLN diagnosed at ≤18 years between 2001-2021 to investigate the incidence and outcomes related to renal relapse.
Ninety-five Chinese cLN patients (91% proliferative LN) were included. Induction immunosuppression was prednisolone and CYC n = 36 (38%) or MMF n = 33 (35%). Maintenance immunosuppression was prednisolone and MMF n = 53 (54%) or AZA n = 29 (31%). The rates of complete remission/partial remission (CR/PR) at 12 months were 78.9%/7.4%. Seventy renal relapses occurred in 39 patients over a follow-up of 10.2 years (s.d. 5.9) (0.07 episode/patient-year). Relapse-free survival was 94.7, 86.0, 80.1, 71.2, 68.3, 50.3 and 44.5% at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 20 years, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that LN diagnosis <13.1 years adjusted hazard ratio (HRadj) 2.59 995% CI 1.27, 5.29), P = 0.01, AZA maintenance HRadj 2.20 (95% CI 1.01, 4.79), P = 0.05, PR HRadj 3.9 (95% CI 1.03, 9.19), P = 0.01 and non-remission HRadj 3.08 (95% CI 1.35, 11.3), P = 0.04 at 12 months were predictive of renal relapse. Renal relapse was significantly associated with advanced chronic kidney disease (stages 3-5) and end-stage kidney disease (17.9% vs 1.8%, P < 0.01). Furthermore, patients with renal relapse showed an increased incidence of infections (30.8% vs 10.7%, P = 0.02), osteopenia (38.5% vs 17.9%, P = 0.04) and hypertension (30.8% vs 7.1%, P < 0.01).
Renal relapse is common among cLN, especially among young patients, and is associated with an increased incidence of morbidity and mortality. Attaining CR and the use of MMF appear to decrease the incidence of renal relapse.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with TP53 mutation is one of the most lethal cancers and portends an extremely poor prognosis. Based on in silico analyses of druggable genes and differential gene ...expression in TP53-mutated AML, we identified pololike kinase 4 (PLK4) as a novel therapeutic target and examined its expression, regulation, pathogenetic mechanisms, and therapeutic potential in TP53-mutated AML. PLK4 expression was suppressed by activated p53 signaling in TP53 wild-type AML and was increased in TP53-mutated AML cell lines and primary samples. Short-term PLK4 inhibition induced DNA damage and apoptosis in TP53 wild-type AML. Prolonged PLK4 inhibition suppressed the growth of TP53-mutated AML and was associated with DNA damage, apoptosis, senescence, polyploidy, and defective cytokinesis. A hitherto undescribed PLK4/PRMT5/EZH2/H3K27me3 axis was demonstrated in both TP53 wild-type and mutated AML, resulting in histone modification through PLK4-induced PRMT5 phosphorylation. In TP53-mutated AML, combined effects of histone modification and polyploidy activated the cGAS-STING pathway, leading to secretion of cytokines and chemokines and activation of macrophages and T cells upon coculture with AML cells. In vivo, PLK4 inhibition also induced cytokine and chemokine expression in mouse recipients, and its combination with anti-CD47 antibody, which inhibited the "don't-eat-me" signal in macrophages, synergistically reduced leukemic burden and prolonged animal survival. The study shed important light on the pathogenetic role of PLK4 and might lead to novel therapeutic strategies in TP53-mutated AML.
Diabetic vasculopathy is a major health problem worldwide. Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and in its severe form, critical limb ischemia is a major form of diabetic vasculopathy with limited ...treatment options. Existing literature suggested an important role of PPARδ in vascular homeostasis. It remains elusive for using PPARδ as a potential therapeutic target due to mostly the side effects of PPARδ agonists. To explore the roles of PPARδ in endothelial homeostasis, endothelial cell (EC) selective Ppard knockout and controlled mice were subjected to hindlimb ischemia (HLI) injury. The muscle ECs were sorted for single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis. HLI was also performed in high fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice to examine the function of PPARδ in obese mice with delayed vascular repair. Adeno-associated virus type 1 (AAV1) carrying ICAM2 promoter to target endothelium for overexpressing PPARδ was injected into the injured muscles of normal chow- and HFD-fed obese mice before HLI surgery was performed. scRNA-seq analysis of ECs in ischemic muscles revealed a pivotal role of PPARδ in endothelial homeostasis. PPARδ expression was diminished both after HLI injury, and also in obese mice, which showed further delayed vascular repair. Endothelium-targeted delivery of PPARδ by AAV1 improved perfusion recovery, increased capillary density, restored endothelial integrity, suppressed vascular inflammation, and promoted muscle regeneration in ischemic hindlimbs of both lean and obese mice. Our study indicated the effectiveness of endothelium-targeted PPARδ overexpression for restoring functional vasculature after ischemic injury, which might be a promising option of gene therapy to treat PAD and CLI.
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•Single cell RNA-seq unravels a critical role of endothelial PPARδ during the recovery after ischemia injury.•PPARδ expression is downregulated in ECs after HLI and is further suppressed in ECs in HFD-induced diabetic and obese mice.•Intramuscular delivery of endothelium-targeted AAV1 to over-express PPARδ attenuates vascular injury and muscle damage.
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