The Visual Object Tracking challenge VOT2019 is the seventh annual tracker benchmarking activity organized by the VOT initiative. Results of 81 trackers are presented; many are state-of-the-art trackers published at major computer vision conferences or in journals in the recent years. The evaluation included the standard VOT and other popular methodologies for short-term tracking analysis as well as the standard VOT methodology for long-term tracking analysis. The VOT2019 challenge was composed of five challenges focusing on different tracking domains: (i) VOT-ST2019 challenge focused on short-term tracking in RGB, (ii) VOT-RT2019 challenge focused on "real-time" shortterm tracking in RGB, (iii) VOT-LT2019 focused on longterm tracking namely coping with target disappearance and reappearance. Two new challenges have been introduced: (iv) VOT-RGBT2019 challenge focused on short-term tracking in RGB and thermal imagery and (v) VOT-RGBD2019 challenge focused on long-term tracking in RGB and depth imagery. The VOT-ST2019, VOT-RT2019 and VOT-LT2019 datasets were refreshed while new datasets were introduced for VOT-RGBT2019 and VOT-RGBD2019. The VOT toolkit has been updated to support both standard shortterm, long-term tracking and tracking with multi-channel imagery. Performance of the tested trackers typically by far exceeds standard baselines. The source code for most of the trackers is publicly available from the VOT page. The dataset, the evaluation kit and the results are publicly available at the challenge website 1 .

Starting from our previous finding of 14 known drugs as inhibitors of the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, we have redesigned the weak hit perampanel to yield multiple noncovalent, nonpeptidic inhibitors with ca. 20 nM IC50 values in a kinetic assay. Free-energy perturbation (FEP) calculations for Mpro-ligand complexes provided valuable guidance on beneficial modifications that rapidly delivered the potent analogues. The design efforts were confirmed and augmented by determination of high-resolution X-ray crystal structures for five analogues bound to Mpro. Results of cell-based antiviral assays further demonstrated the potential of the compounds for treatment of COVID-19. In addition to the possible therapeutic significance, the work clearly demonstrates the power of computational chemistry for drug discovery, especially FEP-guided lead optimization.

A consensus virtual screening protocol has been applied to ca. 2000 approved drugs to seek inhibitors of the main protease (M pro ) of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. 42 drugs emerged as top candidates, and after visual analyses of the predicted structures of their complexes with M pro , 17 were chosen for evaluation in a kinetic assay for M pro inhibition. Remarkably 14 of the compounds at 100-μM concentration were found to reduce the enzymatic activity and 5 provided IC 50 values below 40 μM: manidipine (4.8 μM), boceprevir (5.4 μM), lercanidipine (16.2 μM), bedaquiline (18.7 μM), and efonidipine (38.5 μM). Structural analyses reveal a common cloverleaf pattern for the binding of the active compounds to the P1, P1′, and P2 pockets of M pro . Further study of the most active compounds in the context of COVID-19 therapy is warranted, while all of the active compounds may provide a foundation for lead optimization to deliver valuable chemotherapeutics to combat the pandemic.

Several issues of butyric acid production with bacteria through fermentation are presented in this review. The current progress including the utilization of butyric acid, the production strains, the metabolic pathway, and regulation are presented in the paper. Process operation modes such as batch, fed-batch, and continuous fermentation are being discussed. Genetic engineering technologies for microbial strain improvement are also being discussed and fermentation systems have been recommended.

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Transverse momentum (p T ) spectra of pions, kaons, and protons up to p T = 20 GeV/c have been measured in Pb-Pb collisions at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV using the ALICE detector for six different centrality classes covering 0%-80%. The proton-to-pion and the kaon-to-pion ratios both show a distinct peak at p T ≈ 3 GeV/c in central Pb-Pb collisions that decreases for more peripheral collisions. For p T > 10 GeV/c, the nuclear modification factor is found to be the same for all three particle species in each centrality interval within systematic uncertainties of 10%-20%. This suggests there is no direct interplay between the energy loss in the medium and the particle species composition in the hard core of the quenched jet.

Developing molecular fluorophores with high brightness is of considerable importance to achieve superior biological imaging quality in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window. It has been demonstrated that the improved fluorescence quantum yield (QY) can be obtained for NIR-II molecular fluorophores with S−D−A−D−S (S, shielding unit; D, donor; A, acceptor)structures. However, their absorption coefficient is relatively low, limiting their brightness for imaging. Here, 3,4-propylenedioxy thiophene (PDOT) is introduced as a donor unit to construct NIR-II fluorophores with better protection of the conjugated backbone and decreased backbone distortion, eventually leading to simultaneously improved QY and absorption coefficient. Thus, the new fluorophore IR-FP8P shows fluorescence emission with a peak of 1040 nm, a QY of 0.6% (with reference to IR-26 with a QY of 0.05% in dichloroethane), and a peak absorption coefficient of 1.3 × 10 4 M −1 •cm −1 in aqueous solutions. The higher brightness at 808 nm excitation endows IR-FP8P with superior imaging quality in the NIR-II window. When conjugated with a specific hormone, the targeting probe FSH@FP8 enables fast and unambiguous ovary imaging in mice, revealing the potential of this bright fluorophore for visualizing complicated biological systems in the NIR-II window.

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