Browse Articles
Discover research articles across all indexed journals
PoseNet++: A multi-scale and optimized feature extraction network for high-precision human pose estimation
Human pose estimation (HPE) has made significant progress with deep learning; however, it still faces challenges in handling occlusions, complex poses, and complex multi-person scenarios. To address these issues, we propose PoseNet++, a novel approach based on a 3-stacked hourglass architecture, incorporating three key innovations: the multi-scale spatial pyramid attention hourglass module (MSPAHM), coordinate-channel prior convolutional attention (C-CPCA), and the PinSK Bottleneck Residual Module (PBRM). MSPAHM enhances long-range channel dependencies, enabling the model to better capture structural relationships between limb joints, particularly under occlusion. C-CPCA combines coordinate attention (CA) and channel prior convolutional attention (CPCA) to prioritize keypoints’ regions and reduce the confusion in complex multi-person scenarios. The PBRM improves pose estimation accuracy by optimizing the receptive field and convolutional kernel selection, thus enhancing the network’s feature extraction capabilities in multi-scale and complex poses. On the MPII validation set, PoseNet++ improves the PCKh score by 3.3% relative to the baseline 3-stacked hourglass network, while reducing the number of model parameters and the number of floating-point operations by 60.3% and 53.1%, respectively. Compared with other mainstream human pose estimation models in recent years, PoseNet++ achieves the state-of-the-art performance on the MPII, LSP, COCO and CrowdPose datasets. At the same time, the model complexity of PoseNet++ is much lower than that of methods with similar accuracy.
Modulating Solid-State Photocycloaddition Kinetics via Ligand Substituents and Crystal Structures in One-Dimensional Coordination Polymers
Optimizing genomic diversity assessments for conservation of Bromus auleticus (Trinius ex Nees) using individual and pooled sequencing
Bromus auleticus, a valuable forage grass native to the Pampa biome, is currently undergoing genetic erosion. Therefore, it is essential to assess appropriate methodologies for developing population genomic studies that will contribute to the conservation of this genetic resource. In this study, we evaluated five accessions using two genotyping strategies: individual sequencing (ind-seq) and pooled sequencing (pool-seq). To assess methodologies effectiveness, the correlation between allele frequencies calculated using each approach was investigated, as well as genetic diversity and population structure. These comparisons explicitly accounted for the potential effects of factors such as sample size, missing data, sequencing depth, and minor allele frequencies. The highest values of frequencies concordance and percentage of SNPs in common between ind-seq and pool-seq were achieved using a sample size of 30–60 plants per accession. These values were obtained with a maximum missing data threshold of 10% and a less strict minimum allele frequency threshold for pool-seq (0.01) compared to ind-seq (0.05). Pool-seq required a higher sequencing depth per accession (4.8 million reads) compared to ind-seq (0.9 million reads) to achieve similar allele frequencies. Pools of 50 individuals yielded the highest number of polymorphic sites, averaging over 9,000 per accession at a sequencing depth of 4.8 Mr. Under these conditions, pool-seq consistently resulted in an average of 0.09 higher expected heterozygosity and a 0.24 lower allelic richness compared to ind-seq in all accessions. Population structure inferred with both methodologies confirmed the outcrossing nature of B. auleticus and aligned with the geographical origin of each accession. The average inbreeding coefficient of 0.2 evidence inbreeding, which highlights the importance of conservation efforts for this valuable plant genetic resource. Based on these findings, we propose two workflows for conducting population genomics studies on Bromus auleticus.
Study protocol of group antenatal care implementation at a public women’s hospital in Brazil
The antenatal care is an important service offered to women during pregnancy that aims to guarantee the mother and fetus’s health. In Brazil, although the coverage of this service is high, the outcomes need to be improved. This study aims to implement a pilot study of a group antenatal care among pregnant women in follow up at a Woman´s Hospital of Universidade Estadual de Campinas, a public teaching hospital referral in women’s health. This randomized clinical trial will be conducted. The study group will be composed of a maximum of 15 women that will be followed in a group antenatal care with 11 meetings every 4 weeks or earlier, during all pregnancy period, while control group will receive the individual antenatal care. Sociodemographic data, quality of life, anxiety and depression will be assessed in women from both groups and women’s satisfaction and experience among the intervention group will be evaluated. A 5% significance level was adopted for quantitative analysis and the sample size was calculated based on ambulatory’s flow. A positive result among the intervention group is expected, mainly in providing a better antenatal experience for women and their knowledge of maternal and child health. This study was approved by the Ethics and Research Commission of UNICAMP number of approval: 25333119.2.0000.5404 and the Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials (REBEC): RBR-8xcjmf UTN code: U1111-1243–6241. Date: jan.2025, version 1.
Ultrastable Copper Carboxylate Metal–Organic Frameworks
Cooperation is not rewarded by friendship, but generous and selfish students repel each other in social networks
Humans cooperate across various contexts, despite the individual costs involved. Cooperation and prosocial behavior may persist because these costs are offset by reputation and other social benefits. Specifically, cooperators and prosocial individuals may receive more friendship nominations and be less likely to face exclusion or avoidance. We test whether such beneficial network dynamics are present in a unique dataset of twenty primary school classes in northern Italy. Cooperation and social preferences of 420 students in grades 4 and 5 were measured with incentivized social dilemma games, and the social network of the entire classroom was traced on two subsequent occasions. We modeled the dynamics of friendship and negative ties with Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models, and conducted a meta-analysis of the results. Our key finding is that, while we do not observe evidence of homophily based on social preferences in friendship nominations - and being prosocial does not lead to receiving more friendship nominations, individuals are significantly more likely to direct negative tie nominations toward peers who made different offers in the dictator game. These results suggest that social network dynamics support cooperation not by rewarding prosocial behavior with friendship, but through repulsion between prosocial and selfish students.
Bis(trifluoromethyl)carborhodamines: Highly Fluorogenic, Far-Red to Near-Infrared Dyes for Live Cell Fluorescence Microscopy, Activity-Based Sensing, and Single-Molecule Microscopy
Evaluation of sugar meal administered anti-Leishmania compounds on the vectorial capacity of the vector, Lutzomyia longipalpis
Multiple strategies involving the parasite-host-vector triad are necessary to control leishmaniasis. One option is to prevent or reduce transmission of the pathogen by the phlebotomine sand fly vectors. In this sense, it is essential to explore compounds that may influence the vectorial capacity of the insect and reduce its longevity. We investigated the effect of anti-Leishmania drugs administered via the sugar meal on longevity, blood feeding, oviposition, and parasite load on the third day of infection of the sand flies, to identify the most promising candidates for vector infection tests. We identified compounds that affected the longevity of sand flies (three pterocarpanquinones – LQB-475, LQB-181, and LQ-03; one hydroxyethylpiperazine, PMIC-4, and Pentamidine), reduced oviposition of females after blood feeding (LQB-181 and PMIC-4), but did not decrease infection rates or parasite loads. The results provide the effect of antiparasitic drugs from the perspective of the insect vector.