Southwest University

About: Southwest University is a education organization based out in Chongqing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gene & Population. The organization has 29772 authors who have published 27755 publications receiving 409441 citations. The organization is also known as: Southwest University in Chongqing & SWU.

Image-Based 3D Object Reconstruction: State-of-the-Art and Trends in the Deep Learning Era

Abstract: 3D reconstruction is a longstanding ill-posed problem, which has been explored for decades by the computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning communities. Since 2015, image-based 3D reconstruction using convolutional neural networks (CNN) has attracted increasing interest and demonstrated an impressive performance. Given this new era of rapid evolution, this article provides a comprehensive survey of the recent developments in this field. We focus on the works which use deep learning techniques to estimate the 3D shape of generic objects either from a single or multiple RGB images. We organize the literature based on the shape representations, the network architectures, and the training mechanisms they use. While this survey is intended for methods which reconstruct generic objects, we also review some of the recent works which focus on specific object classes such as human body shapes and faces. We provide an analysis and comparison of the performance of some key papers, summarize some of the open problems in this field, and discuss promising directions for future research.

Synthesis of Ag nanocubes 18-32 nm in edge length: the effects of polyol on reduction kinetics, size control, and reproducibility.

Abstract: This article describes a robust method for the facile synthesis of small Ag nanocubes with edge lengths controlled in the range of 18–32 nm. The success of this new method relies on the substitution of ethylene glycol (EG)—the solvent most commonly used in a polyol synthesis—with diethylene glycol (DEG). Owing to the increase in hydrocarbon chain length, DEG possesses a higher viscosity and a lower reducing power relative to EG. As a result, we were able to achieve a nucleation burst in the early stage to generate a large number of seeds and a relatively slow growth rate thereafter; both factors were critical to the formation of Ag nanocubes with small sizes and in high purity (>95%). The edge length of the Ag nanocubes could be easily tailored in the range of 18–32 nm by quenching the reaction at different time points. For the first time, we were able to produce uniform sub-20 nm Ag nanocubes in a hydrophilic medium and on a scale of ∼20 mg per batch. It is also worth pointing out that the present protoc...

The Beijing version of the montreal cognitive assessment as a brief screening tool for mild cognitive impairment: a community-based study

Abstract: A cross-sectional validation study was conducted in several urban and rural communities in Beijing, China, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Beijing version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-BJ) as a screening tool to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among Chinese older adults. The MoCA-BJ and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were administered to 1001 Chinese elderly community dwellers recruited from three different regions (i.e., newly developed, old down-town, and rural areas) in Beijing. Twenty-one of these participants were diagnosed by experienced psychiatrists as having dementia, 115 participants were diagnosed as MCI, and 865 participants were considered to be cognitively normal. To analyze the effectiveness of the MoCA-BJ, we examined its psychometric properties, conducted item analyses, evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the scale, and compared the scale with the MMSE. Demographic and regional differences among our subjects were also taken into consideration. Under the recommended cut-off score of 26, the MoCA-BJ demonstrated an excellent sensitivity of 90.4%, and a fair specificity (31.3%). The MoCA-BJ showed optimal sensitivity (68.7%) and specificity (63.9%) when the cut-off score was lowered to 22. Among all the seven cognitive sub-domains, delayed recall was shown to be the best index to differentiate MCI from the normal controls. Regional differences disappeared when the confounding demographic variables (i.e., age and education) were controlled. Item analysis showed that the internal consistency was relatively low in both naming and sentence repetition tasks, and the diagnostic accuracy was similar between the MoCA-BJ and the MMSE. In general, the MoCA-BJ is an acceptable tool for MCI screening in both urban and rural regions of Beijing. However, presumably due to the linguistic and cultural differences between the original English version and the Chinese version of the scale, and the lower education level of Chinese older adults, the MoCA-BJ is not much better than the MMSE in detecting MCI, at least for this study sample. Further modifications to several test items of the MoCA-BJ are recommended in order to improve the applicability and effectiveness of the MoCA-BJ in MCI screening among the Chinese population.