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Synthetic images facilitate stereo matching. However, synthetic images may suffer from image distortion, domain bias, and stereo mismatch, which would significantly restrict the widespread use of stereo matching models in the real world. The first goal in this paper is to synthesize real‐looking images for minimizing the domain bias between the synthesized and real images. For this purpose, sharpened disparity maps are produced from a mono real image. Then, stereo image pairs are synthesized using these imperfect disparity maps and the single real image in the proposed pipeline. Although the synthesized images are as realistic as possible, the domain styles of the synthesized images are always very different from the real images. Thus, the second goal is to enhance the domain generalization ability of the stereo matching network. For that, the feature extraction layer is replaced with a teacher–student model. Then, a constraint of binocular contrast features is imposed on the output of the model. When tested on the KITTI, ETH3D, and Middlebury datasets, the accuracy of the method outperforms traditional methods by at least 30%. Experiments demonstrate that the approaches are general and can be conveniently embedded into existing stereo networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genomes and annotated genes of allotetraploid cotton Gossypium hirsutum have been extensively studied in recent years. However, the expression, regulation, and evolution of intergenic genes (ITGs) have not been completely deciphered. In this study, we identified a novel set of actively expressed ITGs in G. hirsutum cotton, through transcriptome profiling based on deep sequencing data, as well as chromatin immunoprecipitation, followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) of histone modifications and how the ITGs evolved. Totals of 17,567 and 8249 ITGs were identified in G. hirsutum and Gossypium arboreum, respectively. The expression of ITGs in G. hirsutum was significantly higher than that in G. arboreum. Moreover, longer exons were observed in G. hirsutum ITGs. Notably, 42.3% of the ITGs from G. hirsutum were generated by the long terminal repeat (LTR) insertions, while their proportion in genic genes was 19.9%. The H3K27ac and H3K4me3 modification proportions and intensities of ITGs were equivalent to genic genes. The H3K4me1 modifications were lower in ITGs. Additionally, evolution analyses revealed that the ITGs from G. hirsutum were mainly produced around 6.6 and 1.6 million years ago (Mya), later than the pegged time for genic genes, which is 7.0 Mya. The characterization of ITGs helps to elucidate the evolution of cotton genomes and shed more light on their biological functions in the transcriptional regulation of eukaryotic genes, along with the roles of histone modifications in speciation and diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal nanomaterials possess excellent physical properties, which can be used as catalysts, storage carriers, and nonlinear photonic devices. Nickel nanoparticles have become increasingly crucial for ultrafast applications due to their broadband saturable absorption properties. Herein, nickel nanoparticles are prepared through an oil-phase method, followed by integration with nitrocellulose to form a composite film. Microscopic images, linear transmission, and nonlinear absorption properties of the film are presented to investigate the characteristics of nickel nanoparticles. Furthermore, Yb-, Er-, and Tm-doped fiber lasers are built based on a nickel-based saturable absorber, where Q-switched pulses are realized at 1, 1.5, and 2 μm. These results prove that nickel nanoparticles exhibit broad-band saturable absorption, showing promise for facilitating high-performance pulsed lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular diseases, such as venous insufficiency and coronary artery diseases, have been threatening the health of people. Efficient treatment with proper postoperative care is required to relieve the pain of the patients. Traditionally, venous insufficiency is treated with ligation and stripping, an open surgery whose complication rate cannot be ignored. Coronary artery disease is often treated with balloon angioplasty during which undilatable lesions may be encountered, limiting the efficacy of this approach. With advances in laser photonics and percutaneous coronary intervention procedure, laser ablation is emerging as an alternative and adjunctive therapy for these diseases. Endovenous laser ablation has the advantages of high success rate, low complication risk, and fast postoperative recovery. Laser ablation in arteries can handle uncrossable or undilatable lesions with a low incidence of serious complications. In this review, previously published research concerning vascular diseases and their therapies are analyzed in order to provide a clear explanation of the mechanisms and merits of laser ablation. For endovenous laser ablation, the main mechanisms are steam bubbles, heat conduction, and heat pipe, and three main influencing factors are wavelength, fiber types, and laser energy density. For excimer laser coronary atherectomy, the main mechanisms are photochemical, photothermal, and photomechanical effects, and three main influencing factors are catheter, medium, and laser parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]