Rich Color Research Articles

Mirror complementary transformer network for RGB‐thermal salient object detection

AbstractConventional RGB‐T salient object detection treats RGB and thermal modalities equally to locate the common salient regions. However, the authors observed that the rich colour and texture information of the RGB modality makes the objects more prominent compared to the background; and the thermal modality records the temperature difference of the scene, so the objects usually contain clear and continuous edge information. In this work, a novel mirror‐complementary Transformer network (MCNet) is proposed for RGB‐T SOD, which supervise the two modalities separately with a complementary set of saliency labels under a symmetrical structure. Moreover, the attention‐based feature interaction and serial multiscale dilated convolution (SDC)‐based feature fusion modules are introduced to make the two modalities complement and adjust each other flexibly. When one modality fails, the proposed model can still accurately segment the salient regions. To demonstrate the robustness of the proposed model under challenging scenes in real world, the authors build a novel RGB‐T SOD dataset VT723 based on a large public semantic segmentation RGB‐T dataset used in the autonomous driving domain. Extensive experiments on benchmark and VT723 datasets show that the proposed method outperforms state‐of‐the‐art approaches, including CNN‐based and Transformer‐based methods. The code and dataset can be found at https://github.com/jxr326/SwinMCNet.

"Ethnographic Romanticism" in N.A. Durova’s Stories "Sulfur Key" and E.A. Gans’s (Gan`s) "Utballa"

The article considers N. A. Durova's novels "The Sulphur Key" and E.A. Gan's "Utballa". A. Gan's "Utballa" as an example of romantic prose and, at the same time, the presence of ethnographic elements in the novels gives grounds to speak of "ethnographic romanticism". Romantic poetics demonstrated a strong interest in national originality of the people. This explains the presence of ethnographic elements in the novels, which describe the way of life of foreign ethnic groups (Cheremis and Kalmyks), customs, rituals, traditions and their mythology, and which function in the novels in different ways: in "Sernyi Kluch" they help create a romantic twoworld and its "peak" - the main character's character, whereas in "Utballa" ethnographic elements create an image of a diverse world full of vicissitudes, in which a real man in the guise of a woman preserves her deep spirituality to the end. The novels of Durova and Gan investigate the similarities and differences in the representation of the image of a foreign ethnic group and the archetype of national consciousness. The stories have much in common, which is due to the gender peculiarities embodied through ethnographic images. Ethnographic elements allow one to see a people and its traditions in all their identity and beauty. In the novels, ethnography is used as a leading expressive medium, providing information on the mentality of the people, their moral norms and national history. In their everyday scenes and pictures, the authors saturate the narration with folk tales that are an integral part and essential element of the characterization of the hero. The description of everyday life is given in realistic tones (rituals of religious services, weddings) and filled with rich colours and vivid details. The life of the people, legends, nature and people's characters merge, conveying the uniqueness of everyday life and a vivid picture of life. Ethnography is a marker of national culture that develops under specific conditions that define its uniqueness: long-established customs and habits, moral notions, everyday life, etc., and it reflects and explains through fiction the realities of life and the characters of its characters as typical representatives of a particular nation. Understanding the life and culture of the people is always based on the writer's life experience and fiction.

Evaluation of melon varieties by valuable economic characteristics in the conditions of the Volgograd Volga Region

Relevance. The main direction of breeding melon Bikovskaya cucurbits breeding experimental station – branch of the FSBSI FSVC is the creation of varieties with valuable economic characteristics, especially with resistance to bioand abiotic environmental factors. To meet the needs of commodity producers and the population, varieties are needed not only with high yields, but also attractive appearance, good taste qualities. Very important: the rich color of the bark background, the proportional shape of the fruit and the sweet juicy pulp.Materials and methods. The research was carried out in 2020–2022 at the Bikovskaya cucurbits breeding experimental station – branch of the FSBSI FSVC. The object of research is melon varieties created over the past five years. The Osen variety was used as a standard. The main method of selection work with melon is intervarietal hybridization followed by individual selection.Results. Melon varieties were evaluated according to valuable economic characteristics, 6 best varieties were identified in comparison with the standard. In terms of yield, 2 varieties were distinguished (16.3 t/ha and 17.3 t/ha); in terms of dry matter content, 2 varieties (19%); in terms of large-fruited 1 variety (6.0 kg); in terms of the bright color of the bark background, 1 sample (bright yellow).

In‐situ technical study of contemporary painting from the heritage collection of the Universitat de València, Spain. Canvases and colorful landscapes by Manuel Moreno Gimeno

AbstractThe Universitat de València brings together artistic collections of great value that embrace more than five centuries of history (1499–2022). Among them, the collection of contemporary painting stands out for its diversity of artists, artistic techniques and themes. One of the aims of the Vice‐rectorate for Culture and Society of the Universitat de València is the study, conservation and dissemination of its art collection, implementing innovative methodologies that will place these artworks at the research and transfer frontline. To achieve this, the Laboratory for Analysis and Diagnosis of Works of Art of the Universitat de València: Conservation, Legacy, InnOvation has recently optimized a multi‐analytical artistic diagnosis approach that combines the use of multiband technical photography (MTP) with digital radiography, infrared reflectography (IRR) and hyperspectral camera. The noninvasive methodology developed for the studied paintings, belonging to different historical periods, is completed by using a portable X‐ray fluorescence. The final goal is to obtain useful information on the composition and execution technique, issues of great interest for developing preventive conservation plans for the collections and for the design of innovative exhibition proposals of an immersive and accessible nature. This article presents the results obtained for three paintings that were made by one of the most unknown Valencian painters of the early 20th century, despite the great quality of his work: Manuel Moreno Gimeno (1900–1982). These paintings are part of the aforementioned art collection of the Universitat de València, and are housed at the Faculty of Medicine. In this study, the use of MTP, IRR and hyperspectral imaging techniques were combined with the analysis of the pictorial surface using a portable optical microscope and a portable X‐ray fluorescence. The results obtained indicate that Manuel Moreno Gimeno developed a landscape painting technique that was very close to that of other Valencian painters of the early 20th century. The handling of light and color was achieved using a rich color palette that included numerous contemporary innovative pigment such as chrome or cadmium.

Surface Optics and Color Effects of Liquid Metal Materials.

Liquid metals (LMs) are emerging as new functional materials with rather unique physical or chemical behaviors. They are generally safe and nontoxic, have high boiling points, reflectivities, good thermal and electrical conductivities, flexibility, fluidity, self-healing capability and remain in liquid state at room temperature. However, the further applications of LMs are limited by their single-color physical appearance, such as working in the situations with imposed stringent requirements for color and aesthetics. Recently, the color and fluorescence functionalization of LMs have overcome many conventional technical bottlenecks and opened significant potential for emerging applications in numerous fields owing to their rich colors and unique liquid structure. In this review, the recent developments in the optical properties, color and fluorescence effects of LMs are comprehensively investigated. The synthesis, structures, properties, chromogenic mechanisms, and potential photoelectric applications of colorful LMs are systematically analyzed and compared. The effectiveness and characteristics of colorful LMs induced by coating, mixing, compounding, surface modification, external stimuli are provided, aiming to establish a potential system for the synthesis and practices of colorful LMs. Finally, the challenges and prospects in the field have also been identified and explained to preferably guide further scientific and technical research in the coming time.

Assessing the Impact of Roasting Temperatures on Biochemical and Sensory Quality of Macadamia Nuts (Macadamia integrifolia).

Depending on the temperature regime used during roasting, the biochemical and sensory characteristics of macadamia nuts can change. 'A4' and 'Beaumont' were used as model cultivars to examine how roasting temperatures affected the chemical and sensory quality of macadamia nuts. Using a hot air oven dryer, macadamia kernels were roasted at 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 °C for 15 min. The quantity of phenols, flavonoids, and antioxidants in kernels roasted at 50, 75, and 100 °C was significant (p < 0.001); however, these kernels also had high levels of moisture content, oxidation-sensitive unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs), and peroxide value (PV), and poor sensory quality. Low moisture content, flavonoids, phenols, antioxidants, fatty acid (FA) compositions, high PV, and poor sensory quality-i.e., excessive browning, an exceptionally crunchy texture, and a bitter flavor-were all characteristics of kernels roasted at 150 °C. With a perfect crispy texture, a rich brown color, and a strong nutty flavor, kernels roasted at 125 °C had lower PV; higher oxidation-resistant UFA compositions; considerable concentrations of flavonoids, phenols, and antioxidants; and good sensory quality. Therefore, 'A4' and 'Beaumont' kernels could be roasted at 125 °C for use in the industry to improve kernel quality and palatability.

Methyl red modified crystal violet lactone microcapsules for natural and composite fabrics producing a violet to orange-red effect at low temperature

Considering that crystal violet lactone has the characteristic of changing from blue to white in the field of thermochromic, in order to further develop rich color change products, the core material is modified with methyl red to make stable reversible microcapsules with the ability to change from blue-violet to orange-red at lower temperatures and successfully applied them to textiles in a simple way. A reversible color-change complex is synthesized using crystal violet lactone as a color former, bisphenol A as the developer and octadecanol as solvent, which is modified by methyl red. The microcapsules with excellent stability are prepared by an in situ coordination method using the reversible color change complex as core. When microcapsules are coated onto treated cotton and polyester fabrics, the composite fabrics show a significant color change at 30–40 °C and fatigue resistance. The above study results have potential application to the demand for color diversity in thermochromic textiles.

Colorimetric and visual sensing of ferrous ion by Fenton reaction-stimulated etching of triangular gold nanoplates

In this study, a method for ultrasensitive sensing of Fe2+ based on Fenton reaction mediated etching of triangular gold nanoplates (Au NPLs) was developed. In this assay, the etching of Au NPLs by H2O2 was accelerated in the presence of Fe2+ due to the generation of superoxide free radical (O2·-) via Fenton reaction. With the concentration of Fe2+ increased, the shape of Au NPLs changed from triangular to sphere with the blue shifted localized surface plasmon resonance, accompanying a series of consecutive color changes from blue, bluish purple, purple, reddish purple and finally to pink. The rich color variations enable rapid visual quantitative determination of Fe2+ within 10 min. A good linear relationship between the peak shifts and the concentration of Fe2+ was obtained in the range of 0.035 to 1.5 μM (R2 = 0.996). Favorable sensitivity and selectivity in the presence of other tested metal ions were achieved in the proposed colorimetric assay. The detection limits (3ơ/k) for Fe2+ was 26 nM by UV–vis spectroscopy, and the clearly discernible concentration of Fe2+ was as low as 0.07 μM by naked eyes. The recoveries of fortified samples in pond water and serum samples ranged from 96% to 106% with interday relative standard deviations <3.6% in all cases, demonstrating the applicability of the assay for measuring Fe2+ in real samples.

Tb3+-Based Off-On Fluorescent Platform for Multicolor and Dosage-Sensitive Visualization of Bacterial Spore Marker.

Developing a novel strategy for the sensitive and rapid detection of pathogenic bacterial spores in field or on-site settings will be helpful in minimizing their potential threats to human health, environmental safety, and food safety. In this study, Tb3+ was combined with glutathione (GSH)-modified copper nanoclusters (CuNCs), and an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorescent probe based on Tb-GSH-CuNCs was fabricated for dipicolinic acid (DPA, a pathogenic bacterial spore marker) sensing. Making use of the competitive binding of Tb3+ between GSH-CuNCs and DPA, a multicolor sensing of DPA was facilely realized without introducing fluorescent materials as the reference. Due to an "off-on" response mechanism of the AIE fluorescent probe, this multicolor response to DPA exhibited a feature of rich color gradients and highly discriminative color change, allowing a dosage-sensitive visual quantification of DPA. The DPA with a concentration even as low as 0.5 μM can still be identified by the naked eye. Moreover, together with a smartphone app, which can extract the R (red), G (green), and B (blue) values from the probe system, a portable platform can be established for sensitive DPA quantification in the range of 0.5-70 μM, showing great potential for the practical monitoring of DPA in field or on-site settings.

Night Vision Anti-Halation Algorithm of Different-Source Image Fusion Based on Low-Frequency Sequence Generation

The abuse of high beam lights dazzles the opposite drivers when the vehicles meet at night, which can easily cause traffic accidents. The existing night vision anti-halation algorithms based on different-source image fusion can eliminate halation and obtain fusion images with rich color and details. However, the algorithms mistakenly eliminate some high-brightness important information. In order to address the problem, a night vision anti-halation algorithm based on low-frequency sequence generation is proposed. The low-frequency sequence generation model is constructed to generate image sequences with different degrees of halation elimination. According to the estimated illuminance for image sequences, the proposed sequence synthesis based on visual information maximization assigns a large weight to the areas with good brightness so as to obtain the fusion image without halation and with rich details. In four typical halation scenes covering most cases of night driving, the proposed algorithm effectively eliminates halation while retaining useful high-brightness information and has better universality than the other seven advanced comparison algorithms. The experimental results show that the fusion image obtained by the proposed algorithm is more suitable for human visual perception and helps to improve night driving safety.

Low-power, fast response simplified electrochromic device based on functionalized gel electrolyte

Metallo-supramolecular polymer (MEPE)-based thin film electrochromic devices (ECDs) have been considered to be a promising platform for portable electronics as their low cost, excellent redox properties, high optical contrast, and rich colors. However, poor cycle stability and slow response speed are serious bottlenecks for widespread commercial devices. Here, a gel electrolyte functionalized by the anodic active species p-benzoquinone (p-BQ) (GET-BQ) was reported. It has outstanding conductivity (∼4.62 mS cm−1) and transparency. Fe(Ⅱ)-MEPE-based ECDs incorporating the GET-BQ electrolyte (ECD-BQ) showed lower voltage operation (∼1.1 V), higher optical contrast (ca. ΔT ∼ 35.7%), faster response rate (tb ∼ 2.5 s, tc ∼ 0.3 s), and superb cycling durability (<1.7% ΔT loss after 1440 cycles) than those without p-BQ. Moreover, the charge transport kinetics of ECD-BQ were explored by the CV curve, in situ infrared spectroelectrochemical analysis, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The charge transfer mechanism of electrochromic material and electrolytes in ECD-BQ offers a novel entry to design superior electrolytes for high-performance ECD.

Real to Me by Minh Lê

Reviewed by: Real to Me by Minh Lê Kate Quealy-Gainer Lê, Minh Real to Me; illus. by Raissa Figueroa. Knopf, 2023 [40p] Library ed. ISBN 9780593377505 $21.99 Trade ed. ISBN 9780593377499 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593377512 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* 3-6 yrs Two friends—one a giant, green, furry monster-like creature, the other a young child sporting a gorgeous afro and a rainbow T-shirt—spend their days having all sorts of fun (and getting into all sorts of mischief). Their relationship, however, isn't quite understood by the others in their lives: "Others tried to tell me that she wasn't real, that she was just imaginary. But what did they know?" But when the green creature wakes up to find their friend nowhere, they wonder if the others were right; regardless, they still desperately miss their friend's laugh, mischief, and affection: "She was real to me." It's a heartbreaking moment, made more emotional by the flipped script: it's the human girl who has walked away from the friendship, not the supposedly imaginary friend, so readers must then contend with the idea of a kid actively leaving a childhood experience and the following repercussions. Fortunately, the book isn't trying to guilt anyone into keeping a relationship they've outgrown, and we soon see the creature making friends with others, laughing, playing, and getting into plenty of trouble, despite still missing their former partner in crime. Whimsical art matches the story perfectly, saturating the pages with vibrant, rich colors, and placing the characters in fanciful settings as they float through the air on dandelion puffs, cross starry bridges, and quietly sit, pondering a honey-colored sky. Kids familiar with Bing Bong from Pixar's Inside Out will find echoes of that here, but any youngster who has felt the pain of putting away childish things will find this an emotionally palpable, thoughtful story. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

UEFSD: Unsupervised medical images fusion based on exclusive features and saliency detection for SPECT-MRI images of glioma

Background and ObjectiveTo address the key feature extraction problem in glioma image fusion due to blurred edge and texture features, with certain exclusive features entangled with noise, we propose an unsupervised fusion network based on exclusive feature unentanglement and saliency detection (UEFSD). Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are taken as examples. MethodsFirst, the SPECT image in RGB space is converted to YCbCr space. Then, Y-channel SPECT and MRI images are fed into the UEFSD-based network and the attribute and object encoders are respectively used to separate the attribute vector of exclusive information for each modality and object feature mapping based on this attribute vector. Subsequently, the attribute vector and object feature maps are fused through the fusion decoder to obtain the fused image. In the training phase, first, the image is reconstructed using the attribute vector and object feature maps of the other modalities. The feature displaying the largest difference between the source and reconstructed images is identified as the exclusive feature that cannot be obtained via reconstruction. We trained the encoders and decoders in an unsupervised manner using exclusive feature loss as a high-level constraint and introducing a saliency mask as a low-level constraint. The trained attribute encoders and object encoders feed information to the fusion decoder to generate fused images. ResultUEFSD-based network was trained on Harvard Medical School's public dataset and tested by fusing MRI-T2 glioma images with their SPECT-T1 and SPECT-Tc counterparts. The experimental results demonstrate that UEFSD performs optimally in both subjective and objective indices when compared with nine other existing networks. ConclusionThe proposed UEFSD-based network can obtain clear edge and texture glioma features, which can effectively improve the rich and natural colour information of medical images and has the potential for computer-aided diagnosis system application.

Dual enzyme induced colorimetric sensor for simultaneous identifying multiple pathogens

Rapid and accurate identification of foodborne pathogens improves public health. Currently employed methods are time-consuming, sensitive to environmental factors, and complex. This study develops a colorimetric sensor for detecting multiple bacteria with one probe using double-enzyme-induced colorimetry. Based on alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in bacteria decomposes L-ascorbic acid 2-magnesium phosphate salt hydrate into ascorbic acid (AA). Manganese dioxide flowers (MnO2 NFs) can oxidize TMB to etch gold nanorods (Au NRs), which can be inhibited by AA reduction to produce rich colors. Bacteria with varying ALP levels can be identified based on color changes and plasmon resonance wavelength signals produced from Au NRs. Furthermore, the conversion of RGB signals to digital signals and the use of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) allowed 99.57% accuracy in identifying multiple bacteria. It can simultaneously identify five foodborne pathogens across diverse environments (shrimp, meat, milk, etc.). This method may be useful for the rapid and simple identification of foodborne illnesses.

Origin and diversification of a Himalayan orchid genus Pleione

Pleione is an orchid endemically distributed in high mountain areas across the Hengduan Mountains (HDM), Himalayas, Southeast Asia and South of China. The unique flower shapes, rich colors and immense medicinal importance of Pleione are valuable ornamental and economic resources. However, the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the genus have not yet been comprehensively resolved. Here, the evolutionary history of Pleione was investigated using single-copy gene single nucleotide polymorphisms and chloroplast genome datasets. The data revealed that Pleione could be divided into five clades. Discordance in topology between the two phylogenetic trees and network and D-statistic analyses indicated the occurrence of reticulate evolution in the genus. The evolution could be attributed to introgression and incomplete lineage sorting. Ancestral area reconstruction suggested that Pleione was originated from the HDM. Uplifting of the HDM drove rapid diversification by creating conditions favoring rapid speciation. This coincided with two periods of consolidation of the Asian monsoon climate, which caused the first rapid diversification of Pleione from 8.87 to 7.83 Mya, and a second rapid diversification started at around 4.05 Mya to Pleistocene. The interaction between Pleione and climate changes, especially the monsoons, led to the current distribution pattern and shaped the dormancy characteristic of the different clades. In addition to revealing the evolutionary relationship of Pleione with orogeny and climate changes, the findings of this study provide insights into the speciation and diversification mechanisms of plants in the East Asian flora.

Structure and function of the periostracum in the bivalve Perna viridis

The periostracum is an outermost coating of all shelled-molluscs such as bivalves, corresponding to the interfacial layer separating the calcareous shells from the environment. It therefore plays a key role in the growth and survival of bivalves. Nevertheless, the periostracum has attracted little attention. Here, using the optical microscope (OM) and field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), we investigate the structure and variation of the periostracum in the green mussel Perna viridis. We find that this periostracum has a novel sandwich structure with an outer (ODL) and inner dense layer (IDL) interleaved with a middle fibrous layer (MFL). The latter consists of locally parallel fibers (57–112 nm wide) and exhibits rich iridescent colors with a reversible hydrochromic behavior. Moreover, we find that this periostracum shows a significant variation in individual shells. Impressively, its thickness varies continuously along the shell edge. In addition, the periostracum at the ventral region is not only the thickest in a shell but also reinforced with the inorganic phosphate. We assume that this unusual variation in a same shell probably originates form defensive adaptations to predation and abrasion. Although many questions remain unanswered, this work reveals a new structure model of the periostracum, which not only advances our understanding of the periostracal formation mechanism, but also provides a natural prototype for design and synthesis of biomimetic coating and photonic materials.

RTFusion: A Multimodal Fusion Network with Significant Information Enhancement.

Multimodal medical fusion images are important for clinical diagnosis because they can better reflect the location of disease and provide anatomically detailed information. Existing medical image fusion methods can cause significant information loss in fusion images to varying degrees. Therefore, we designed a residual transformer fusion network (RTFusion): a multimodal fusion network with significant information enhancement. We use the residual transformer to make the image information interact remotely to ensure the global information of the image and use the residual structure to enhance the feature information to prevent information loss. Then the channel attention and spatial attention module (CASAM) is added to the fusion process to enhance the significant information of the fusion image, and the feature interaction module is used to promote the interaction of specific information of the source image. Finally, the loss function of the block calculation is designed to drive the fusion network to retain rich texture details, structural information, and color information, to optimize the subjective visual effect of the image. Extensive experiments show that our method can better recover the significant information of the source image and outperform other advanced methods in subjective visual description and objective metric evaluation. In particular, the color information and texture information are balanced to enhance the visual effect of the fused image.

Thangka Sketch Colorization Based on Multi-Level Adaptive-Instance-Normalized Color Fusion and Skip Connection Attention

Thangka is an important intangible cultural heritage of Tibet. Due to the complexity, and time-consuming nature of the Thangka painting technique, this technique is currently facing the risk of being lost. It is important to preserve the art of Thangka through digital painting methods. Machine learning-based auto-sketch colorization is one of the vital steps for digital Thangka painting. However, existing learning-based sketch colorization methods face two challenges in solving the problem of colorizing Thangka: (1) the extremely rich colors of the Thangka make it difficult to color accurately with existing algorithms, and (2) the line density of the Thangka brings extreme challenges for algorithms to define what semantic information the lines imply. To resolve these problems, we propose a Thangka sketch colorization method based on multi-level adaptive-instance-normalized color fusion (MACF) and skip connection attention (SCA). The proposed method consists of two parts: (1) a multi-level adaptive-instance-normalized color fusion (MACF) to fuse sketch feature and color feature; and (2) a skip connection attention (SCA) mechanism to distinguish the semantic information implied by the sketch lines. Experiments on colorizing Thangka sketches show that our method works well on two small datasets—the Danbooru 2019 dataset and the Thangka dataset. Our approach can generate exquisite Thangka.

Research on Detection and Recognition Technology of a Visible and Infrared Dim and Small Target Based on Deep Learning

With the increasing trend towards informatization and intelligence in modern warfare, high-intensity and continuous reconnaissance activities are becoming increasingly common in battlefield environments via airborne, vehicle, UAV, satellite and other platforms. Visible and infrared images are preferred due to their high resolution, strong contrast, rich texture details and color features, and strong information expression ability. However, the quality of imaging is easily affected by environmental factors, making it crucial to quickly and accurately filter useful information from massive image data. To this end, super-resolution image preprocessing can improve the detection performance of UAV, and reduce false detection and missed detection of targets. Additionally, super-resolution reconstruction results in high-quality images that can be used to expand UAV datasets and enhance the UAV characteristics, thereby enabling the enhancement of small targets. In response to the challenge of “low-slow small” UAV targets at long distances, we propose a multi-scale fusion super-resolution reconstruction (MFSRCNN) algorithm based on the fast super-resolution reconstruction (FSRCNN) algorithm and multi-scale fusion. Our experiments confirm the feasibility of the algorithm in reconstructing detailed information of the UAV target. On average, the MFSRCNN reconstruction time is 0.028 s, with the average confidence before and after reconstruction being 80.73% and 86.59%, respectively, resulting in an average increase of 6.72%.

Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight by Shannon Gibney (review)

Reviewed by: Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight by Shannon Gibney Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Gibney, Shannon Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight; illus. by Charly Palmer. University of Minnesota Press, 2023 [48p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781517909659 $17.95 E-book ed. ISBN 9781452968957 $17.95 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-7 yrs The dinner table has become a battleground in Sam's house, with Mom prepping and serving standard American food, like pizza, and his aunt prepping and serving traditional Liberian food, like torbogee soup, and both women expecting him to choose their individual dish. Picking one meal over another, however, always leaves Sam feeling guilty, and while he tries to eat both dishes, his tummy "had only so much space." Things get so bad that one night Sam opts out of dinner altogether, but that obviously can't be a permanent solution; will he be able to negotiate a truce between the two sides of his family and bring peace to mealtime? In both the literal and metaphorical sense, Sam is being asked to choose between an American and Liberian identity, "stuck in-between'' with his younger sister when he wants to feel connected with all his loved ones; the joy of sitting down together to a delicious meal has been unfairly stripped away as he's used as a proxy for an adult argument. Palmer's illustrations artfully convey the stalemate, placing Mom and Auntie on opposite pages with a long table yawning between them. Painterly swoops, smudgy textures, and bold, rich colors lend the art a needed buoyancy, and the dishes offered by both parties look delectable. Any kid forced to take sides in an adult argument will recognize Sam's feelings of helplessness and guilt, and they'll be relieved when his efforts at peacemaking result in a communal victory. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois