University of Providence

With the increasing popularity of LiDAR in autonomous driving, 3D object detection based on point cloud has become a research hotspot in both industry and academia. However, most methods are limited by the inherent challenges of point cloud representation and sparsity, which makes it difficult to balance computational efficiency and accuracy. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a multimodal 3D object detection method, termed PV-MM3D. Specifically, we design a Point-Voxel Parallel Dual-Stream Framework, which leverages independent point- and voxel-based dual-stream networks to process virtual and LiDAR point clouds in parallel. This design preserves the strengths of point-based methods in capturing the intricate 3D structures of objects while exploiting the computational speed advantage of voxel-based methods. To improve the sampling proportion of foreground points, we introduce a Dynamic Dual-Sampling Mechanism, which dynamically downsamples the point cloud in a learnable manner to reduce background points while retaining key foreground information. To maintain the independence of features while achieving cross-modal feature interaction, we present a Dual-Attention Region Adaptive Fusion Module, which utilizes the attention mechanism to guide the network in adaptively adjusting the importance between point-voxel multimodal features. Experiments on the KITTI dataset demonstrate that PV-MM3D achieves mAP of 83.99 % for 3D detection and 91.31 % for BEV detection in the car category. The code is available at https://github.com/BaotWang/PV-MM3D.

High-pressure processing (HPP) is a non-thermal technology that allows for targeted modifications of flour, the main carbohydrate polymer in wheat flour, thus enhancing the functional and textural properties of flour-based systems. This study evaluated the effects of HPP at 200, 400, and 600 MPa for 5 min on the structural, thermal, and rheological characteristics of wheat starch within flour and dough. The findings revealed pressure-dependent modifications, with moderate pressure (200 MPa) enhancing starch-protein interactions, preserving starch granule integrity, and improving dough elasticity and cohesion. These effects may be attributed to partial unfolding of gluten proteins and rearrangement of hydrogen bonds, which promote non-covalent interactions between starch and protein molecules. In contrast, higher pressures (400-600 MPa) caused extensive starch gelatinisation and protein aggregation, disrupting granular structure and weakening gluten networks, likely through irreversible denaturation and formation of aggregated protein structures. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed a rise in gelatinisation temperature at 200 MPa, while elevated pressures decreased enthalpy, indicating loss of crystalline order in starch. Rheological analysis further confirmed improved viscoelasticity at moderate pressure, while higher pressure weakened dough structure. Microscopic observations supported these results by showing progressive disruption of starch granules and gluten matrices. Overall, this study demonstrated that HPP can selectively tailor the structure and behaviour of wheat starch in flour and dough systems, offering an effective strategy for modulating textural quality in starch-based food products.

Activation of Sirtuin 1 (SIRT-1) is vital for axonogenesis and nerve regeneration. Caloric restriction (CR) has health benefits and protects against neurodegenerative disorders, largely through SIRT-1 regulation. This study investigates how diet control impacts peripheral nerve injury, focusing on SIRT-1 expression. We prepared nerve tissue cultures for a pharmacological analysis of SIRT-1's effects on nerve degeneration. After two weeks of 70

Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) are a promising direction in optoelectronic materials due to their simple structure, low turn-on voltage, and compatibility with solution-based processing. However, current highefficiency LECs often rely on noble metal complexes, raising production costs. To address this issue, this study explores Cu(I) complexes as cost-effective alternatives by designing and synthesizing four complexes with different ligands, including 5,5 '-difluoro-2,2 '-bipyridine (fbpy), 2,2 '-bibenzo[d]thiazole (bbtz), (9,9-dimethyl9H-xanthene-4,5-diyl)bis(diphenylphosphane) (xan), and [oxybis(2,1-phenylene)]bis(diphenylphosphane) (POP). Among them, Cu-xan-bbtz exhibited distinct pi-pi interactions between ligands, as confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. These interactions significantly enhanced molecular rigidity, resulting in a remarkably high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 79 %. Furthermore, under electroluminescence (EL) testing, Cu-xan-bbtz exhibited near-infrared (NIR) emission at 727 nm after device optimization, achieving an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 0.52 %. This represents the highest reported EQE to date for the LECs based on mononuclear Cu(I) complexes in the NIR region. These findings demonstrate that intermolecular interactions among the ligands play a pivotal role in enhancing the NIR emission efficiency of Cu-based LECs, thereby highlighting their significant potential for advanced applications in sensing, optical communication, and bioimaging.

Evidence from gut microbiota studies highlights the importance of probiotics in promoting human health alongside the market's demand. However, probiotics are particularly sensitive to unfavorable factors in a storage environment (e.g., humidity, temperature, oxygen, and light), frequently resulting in reduced viability during shelf life and a loss of original benefits. This study focused on the structure of multilayer embedding, with particular attention on enhancing the Lactobacillus plantarum thermal resistance, moisture permeability, and stability of probiotics for storage while considering high packaging efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The log values of viable bacteria in casein/pectin condensates cross-linked with transglutaminase (TGase) for 1 and 5 h, while heated at 80 degrees C for 5 min, were 5.33 and 5.25 CFU/g, respectively, with higher thermal tolerance than the control group (casein, 4.56 CFU/g). In addition, the storage stability results for 15 days at 37 degrees C with 51 % relative humidity (RH) showed the same trend. The groups cross-linked for 1 and 5 h had higher viability than the control group, implying that the powders performed satisfactorily regarding hygroscopicity. Similarly, after 5 min of heating at 80 degrees C, the viable bacteria were higher in groups with different ratios of canola oil to palm stearin (100:0, 70:30, and 50:50) than in the control group. Moreover, TGase cross-linked casein/pectin may enhance stability and improve probiotic powders' thermal tolerance, along with different emulsification oil embedding ratios. Hence, the findings of this study may be applied to encapsulating and preserving environmentally sensitive bioactive components, including probiotics.