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In recent years, although research on person re-identification (ReID) has made significant progress, occluded person ReID remains a major challenge. In real-world scenes, persons are often occluded by various obstacles such as vehicles, umbrellas, and other persons. This leads to the noisy interference and the loss of visual information, which result in poor ReID performance of occluded persons. To address this issue, we propose an end-to-end Mask-guided Discriminative Feature Network (MDFNet). First, MDFNet adopts a dual-branch architecture with a shared encoder as the Feature Extraction module for paired images. Each pair of images consist of one image from the training set and its corresponding occluded image generated through an occlusion augmentation strategy. Second, MDFNet utilizes a Mask-guided Discriminative Feature Enhancement and Fusion (MDFEF) module to achieve the fusion and enhancement of global and local features for high-quality person representations. MDFEF module effectively suppresses the interference of occlusion, enriches the representation capacity of person features, and enables the model to focus more on the important features in non-occluded regions. Furthermore, MDFNet introduces a sparse pairwise loss for enabling the model to dynamically adapt to intra-class variations and reduce the negative impact of complex occlusions. The experimental results on four challenging person ReID datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. • Designed Mask-guided Discriminative Feature Enhancement and Fusion (MDFEF) module to balance global and local information, suppressing occlusion noise. • Proposed end-to-end Mask-guided Discriminative Feature Network (MDFNet) for occluded person re-identification (ReID) without pre-training, enhancing feature discriminability and alignment. • Evaluated MDFNet and state-of-the-art methods on four challenging person ReID datasets, demonstrating superior performance in occluded person ReID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Solution-processed Cu-doped NiO x nanoparticles is an efficient hole transport layer in polymer solar cells. The Cu doping enhances the electrical conductivity and improves the interface contacts with the active layer, thereby improving the device efficiency. Abstract Polymer solar cells (PSCs) are considered promising energy power suppliers due to their light weight, printability, low-energy fabrication and roll-to-roll processability. Recently, the solution-processed NiO x nanoparticles have been a desirable interfacial material for hole transport in the PSCs, instead of organic semiconductors. However, pure NiO x films restrain the high performance of PSCs due to their poor electrical characteristics caused by the localized orbital distribution at the top of valence band. Therefore, metal ion doping has been explored as a method to endow NiO x nanoparticles with the appropriate electrical characteristics. Herein, we applied solution-processed Cu-doped NiO x (Cu:NiO x) nanoparticles as an efficient hole transport layer (HTL) in PSCs. The Cu-doped NiO x enhanced the electrical conductivity of the material and improved the interface contact with the active layer, which remarkably facilitated the hole extraction and effectively suppressed the carrier recombination at the interface. Thus, a higher power conversion efficiency of 7.05%, corresponding to an approximately 30% efficiency improvement compared with that of a pristine NiO x interlayer (5.44%) in poly[N- 9′'-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazolealt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-ben-zothiadiazole)]:[6,6]-phenyl-C 71 -butyric acid methyl ester (PCDTBT:PC 71 BM)-based PSCs, was achieved by the proposed device. The developed solution-processed Cu:NiO x nanoparticles may be an excellent alternative for interfacial materials in PSCs or other optoelectronic devices requiring HTLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gradual withdraw of several broadly used nematicides from market has enhanced the need to develop sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives with nematicidal properties. Furfural is one of the promising alternatives to fill this need. Baseline information about the impact of furfural on egg hatch, penetration potential and ultrastructure of nematode is lacking. In this study, the reagent-grade (purity ≥ 99.0%) of furfural was applied against Meloidogyne incognita . In vitro tests showed gradual reduction in either the rate of egg hatch or second stage juvenile (J 2 ) viability of M. incognita when immersed in concentrations ranging from 0 to 10.0 μl/ml furfural. The mean EC 50 for J 2 and egg hatch was 0.37 and 0.27 μl/ml furfural, respectively. Furfural, even at low concentrations, resulted in a considerable suppression in egg hatch. Hatch was <5% after 8 days at 0.63 μl/ml furfural. The same furfural concentrations after 12 h caused 57.25% loss of viability in J 2 . Moreover, the penetration rate of juveniles to pea roots was suppressed when furfural was even applied at low rates. In pot experiments, furfural was applied as liquid (direct) or vapor (indirect) treatments at rates of 0–1.5 ml/kg soil. Significant reduction in galling, egg production and population density of M. incognita observed when furfural was applied at rates >0.2 ml/kg soil. No adverse effect was detected on plants or free-living nematodes as a result of furfural application. Liquid furfural proved to have superior juvenile-suppressive effect whereas its vapor has such superiority against eggs. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) study showed irregular appearance of the body surface accompanied with some cuticle disfigurement of furfural-treated juveniles. These results indicated that furfural can adversely affect egg hatch, juvenile viability, penetration potential and ultrastructure of M. incognita . Furfural may therefore be of a considerable potential as an appropriate alternative for class I nematicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]