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Image composition is a challenging image editing operation that targets the compositing of a new image by combining cropped regions from different images. A common application is background replacement of portrait images. Existing composition methods usually result in undesirable artifacts along the boundaries of pasted regions due to imprecise extraction. To address this problem, we propose a refined-mask guided multi-stream blending network (MGMB-Net), which consists of a multi-stream block (MSB), reconstructing the foreground boundary of composited image, mask-refine blocks (MRBs), providing better location information and refined-mask guided blocks (MGBs), guiding the reconstruction of composited image to eliminate boundary artifacts. MGMB-Net can generate more harmonious and realistic images by fusing multi-stream features and refining input coarse masks. We propose two data-generation methods to construct new datasets on image blending, and two evaluation metrics, PSNR (Peak signal-to-noise ratio)-Sobel and PSNR-Boundary, to decouple the performance of blending and harmonization. Compared with state-of-the-art methods, our method achieves the best performance on portrait images without additional refinements or prior information. Our code and model are available at https://github.com/Wekect/MGMB-Net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C. nudiflora is notably rich in flavonoids and phenylethanoid glycosides, making it a significant natural source of antioxidants. We examined the effects of C. nudiflora aqueous extract (CNE) on growth performance, antioxidant function, immunity, intestinal barrier function, nutrient transporters, and microbiota of broilers. A total of 360 one-day-old broilers were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: a basal diet with 0 (control, CON), 300 mg/kg (CNEL), 500 mg/kg (CNEM), and 700 mg/kg (CNEH) CNE for 42 days. CNEL and CNEM groups quadratically increased body weight and average daily gain but decreased feed-to-gain ratios during the starter and whole phases. Regarding the immune response of broilers, CNE treatment linearly down-regulated jejunal myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) expression and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interferon-γ expression in the liver (d 21), while decreasing jejunal IL-1β expression and the concentration of serum tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 (d 42). The CNEM and CNEH groups had lower MyD88 and nuclear factor kappa B expression in the liver (d 21) compared to the CON group. Broilers in the CNEL and CNEM groups had higher spleen index and thymus index (d 21) and interleukin-10 expression from the liver and jejunal mucosa (d 42) than that in the CON group. For the antioxidant capacity of broilers, CNE treatment linearly decreased the content of malonaldehyde and increased the activity of total antioxidant capacity in serum (d 42). CNEM and CNEH groups linearly increased the activity of superoxide dismutase in serum and heme oxygenase-1 expression in the liver, while increasing the activity of glutathione peroxidase in serum, jejunal nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 expression, and NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase 1 expression in the liver (d 42). As for the growth hormone of broilers, CNEM group increased the level of serum insulin-like growth factor 1 and up-regulated jejunal glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2) expression (d 21). Broilers in the CNEM and CNEH groups had higher jejunal GLP-2 expression and growth hormone (GH) expression in the liver and the level of serum GH (d 42) than that in the CON group. Additionally, the villus height and jejunal Occludin and Claudin-1 expression in the CNEM group increased. CNE-containing diets resulted in a linear increase in the expression of jejunal zonula occluden-1 (d 21), villus height to crypt depth ratio, jejunal Occludin, excitatory amino acid transporters-3, and peptide-transporter 1 (d 42). The regulation of Oscillospira, Ruminococcaceae_Ruminococcus, and Butyricicoccus genera indicated that CNEH altered the composition of the cecal microbiota. In general, supplementing broilers with C. nudiflora aqueous extract could boost hormones, immune and antioxidant function, and gut health, improving their growth performance. Hence, CNE was a promising poultry feed additive, with 500 mg/kg appearing to be the optimal dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, tube-model predictive control based on the sum of squares technique is developed for hypersonic vehicles with state-dependent input constraints. Firstly, the longitudinal non-linear model in the presence of uncertain parameters is transformed into the polytopic linear parameter varying model with bounded disturbance by feedback linearization. Then the actual input constraints are converted to the virtual state-dependent input constraints in linear multivariable polynomial. A composite feedback control law based on tube-model predictive control is designed into a convex combination of unconstrained and constrained control. The real control law can be obtained by inversion. The sum of squares technique is used to transform the polynomial constraints into the convex matrix sum of squares condition via linear matrix inequality. Finally, simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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