Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast and Intuitive Metamorphosis of 3D Polyhedral Models Using SMCC Mesh Merging Scheme

A very fast and intuitive approach to generate the metamorphosis of two genus 0 3D polyhedral models is presented. There are two levels of correspondence specified by animators to control morphs. The higher level requires the animators to specify scatter features to decompose the input models into several corresponding patches. The lower level optionally allows the animators to specify extra features on each corresponding patch for finer correspondence control. Once these two levels of correspondence are established, the proposed schemes automatically and efficiently establish a complete one-to-one correspondence between two models. We propose a novel technique called SMCC (Structures of Minimal Contour Coverage) to efficiently and robustly merge corresponding embeddings. The SMCC scheme can compute merging in linear time. The performance of the proposed methods is comparable to or better than state-of-the-art 3D polyhedral metamorphosis. We demonstrate several examples of aesthetically pleasing morphs, which can be created very quickly and intuitively.
Molecular Imaging of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Immunogenicity with In Vivo Development in Ischemic Myocardium

Whether differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in ischemic myocardium enhances their immunogenicity, thereby increasing their chance for rejection, is unclear. Here, we dynamically demonstrated the immunogenicity and rejection of iPSCs in ischemic myocardium using bioluminescent imaging (BLI). Murine iPSCs were transduced with a tri-fusion (TF) reporter gene consisting of firefly luciferase-red fluorescent protein-truncated thymidine kinase (fluc-mrfp-tTK). Ascorbic acid (Vc) were used to induce iPSCs to differentiate into cardiomyocytes (CM). iPSCs and iPS-CMs were intramyocardially injected into immunocompetent or immunosuppressed allogenic murine with myocardial infarction. BLI was performed to track transplanted cells. Immune cell infiltration was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Syngeneic iPSCs were also injected and evaluated. The results demonstrated that undifferentiated iPSCs survived and proliferated in allogenic immunocompetent recipients early post-transplantation, accompanying with mild immune cell infiltration. With in vivo differentiation, a progressive immune cell infiltration could be detected. While transplantation of allogenic iPSC-CMs were observed an acute rejection from receipts. In immune-suppressed recipients, the proliferation of iPSCs could be maintained and intramyocardial teratomas were formed. Transplantation of syngeneic iPSCs and iPSC-CMs were also observed progressive immune cell infiltration. This study demonstrated that iPSC immunogenicity increases with in vivo differentiation, which will increase their chance for rejection in iPSC-based therapy.
Introducing MantisBot: Hexapod robot controlled by a high-fidelity, real-time neural simulation

We present MantisBot, a 28 degree of freedom robot controlled by a high-fidelity neural simulation. It is modeled after the mantis, with many degrees of freedom, because we intend to study directed behaviors and leg multi-functionality, such as prey tracking and striking. As a first step, we present a distributed reflexive posture controller. MantisBot maintains posture through a series of reflexes observed in insects, specifically: strain measurements from a leg produce proportional torque commands (reflex A); large or rapidly decreasing leg strains produce a rapid, single “restep” (reflex B); a leg can only restep if its neighboring legs are all under strain (reflex C); and a leg will search for the ground if it does not reach it as expected (reflex D). All of these reflexes contribute to a hardware platform's posture, and are implemented in a highly distributed fashion. The two most distal joints in each leg each has its own central pattern generator (CPG, 12 total), upon which all of these behaviors depend. To achieve the desired dynamics, we implement a control network of conductance-based neurons with persistent sodium channels arranged in a network like the animal may possess in its thoracic ganglia. The result is a robot capable of actively maintaining posture without a centralized planner or body model. In addition, the network implementation is fast, calculating network dynamics 150 times faster than real time.
Rising Trade Costs? Agglomeration and Trade with Endogenous Transaction Costs

While transport costs have fallen, the empirical evidence also points at rising total trade costs. In a model of industry location with endogenous transaction costs that seeks to replicate features from the machinery industry, we show how and under which conditions a decline in transport costs can lead to an increase in the total cost of trade. The subtle relationship between (endogenous) transport costs and the sensitivity of trade
EDGE DISJOINT PATHS AND MULTICUT PROBLEMS IN GRAPHS GENERALIZING THE TREES

We generalize all the results obtained for trees in [N. Garg, V. Vazirani, M. Yannakakis. Primal-dual approximation algorithms for integral flow and multicut in trees. Algorithmica 18 (1997), pp. 3-20] to graphs with a fixed cyclomatic number. Moreover, we show that, for a fixed number of source-sink pairs, the minimum multicut problem is polynomial-time solvable in planar graphs and in bounded tree-width graphs. Eventually, we introduce the class of k-edge-outerplanar graphs and show that the integrality gap of the maximum edge-disjoint paths problem is bounded in these graphs.
On the evolution of the system of wind drift currents and Langmuir circulations in the ocean. Part 2. Structure of the Langmuir vortices

Numerical solutions are presented for the detailed characteristics of the drift current and Langmuir circulation system produced according to a theory described in part 1 of this paper. The motions that develop are traced from an initially quiescent state, and the results are compared with field observations of currents in Langmuir circulations. Qualitative features of the phenomenon appear to be reproduced by the theory and, with the appropriate choice of an empirical parameter, the solutions seem to be quantitatively consistent with field data.
Completeness of superintegrability in two-dimensional constant-curvature spaces

We classify the Hamiltonians H = px2 + py2 + V(x,y) of all classical superintegrable systems in two-dimensional complex Euclidean space with two additional second-order constants of the motion. We similarly classify the superintegrable Hamiltonians H = J12 + J22 + J32 + V(x, y, z) on the complex two-sphere where x2 + y2 + z2 = 1. This is achieved in all generality using properties of the complex Euclidean group and the complex orthogonal group.
Nouns and verbs in the brain: Grammatical class and task specific effects as revealed by fMRI

The wide variety of techniques and tasks used to study the neural correlates of noun and verb processing has resulted in a body of inconsistent evidence. We performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to detect grammatical class effects that generalize across tasks. A total of 12 participants undertook a grammatical-class switching task (GCST), in which they were presented with a noun (or a verb) and were asked to retrieve the corresponding verb (or noun), and a classical picture naming task (PNT) widely used in the previous aphasiological and imaging literature. The GCST was explicitly designed to ensure control over confounding variables, such as stimulus complexity or imageability. Conjunction analyses of the haemodynamic responses measured in the two tasks indicated a shared verb-related activation of a dorsal premotor and posterior parietal network, pointing to a strong relationship between verb representation and action-oriented (visuo-)spatial knowledge. On the other hand, no brain area was consistently associated with nouns in both tasks. Moreover, there were task-dependent differences between noun and verb retrieval both at behavioural and at physiological level; the grammatical class that elicited the longest reaction times in both tasks (i.e., verbs in the PNT and nouns in the GCST) triggered a greater activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus. Therefore, we suggest that this area reflects a general increase in task demand rather than verb processing per se.
The River of Learning: building relationships in a university, school and community Indigenous widening participation collaboration

ABSTRACT In this article, findings of a qualitative study of an Indigenous widening participation program are presented. The program, River of Learning, has been in existence since 2010 and represents a powerful collaboration between a rural high school in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, a metropolitan university, Indigenous Elders and non-Indigenous community members. An analysis of the narrative data generated through individual and group interviews with stakeholders provided findings with respect to the program including how it has contributed to the building and strengthening of university and community relationships and how important the interaction with Indigenous Elders and school and university staff is in development of confidence to engage in higher education in the Indigenous students. These findings are discussed and the article concludes with reflections on the learnings generated through such university, school and community collaborations and what these may mean in ensuring greater Indigenous representation in higher education in Australia in the future.
Gestalt Principles for Attention and Segmentation in Natural and Artificial Vision Systems

Gestalt psychology studies how the human visual system organizes the complex visual input into unitary elements. In this paper we show how the Gestalt principles for perceptual grouping and for figure-ground segregation can be used in computer vision. A number of studies will be shown that demonstrate the applicability of Gestalt principles for the prediction of human visual attention and for the automatic detection and segmentation of unknown objects by a robotic system.
Signed Domination in Regular Graphs and Set-Systems

Suppose G is a graph on n vertices with minimum degree r. Using standard random methods it is shown that there exists a two-coloring of the vertices of G with colors, +1 and ? 1, such that all closed neighborhoods contain more 1's than ? 1's, and all together the number of 1's does not exceed the number of ? 1's by more than (4logr/r+1/r)n. For large r this greatly improves earlier results and is almost optimal, since starting with an Hadamard matrix of order r, a bipartite r-regular graph is constructed on 4r vertices with signed domination number at least (1/2) r? O(1). The determination of limn? ∞? s(G)/n remains open and is conjectured to be ? (1/r).
How Much Trait Variance Is Captured by Measures of Academic State Emotions?: A Latent State-Trait Analysis

Although the popularity of research on academic emotions is on the rise, little is known about the extent to which these emotional experiences are due to stable (trait) versus situational (state) influences. In the present paper, we applied the latent state-trait approach (LST) to multiple state assessments of five frequently experienced discrete academic emotions (enjoyment, pride, anger, anxiety, boredom) to disentangle their trait versus state variance components. We had two main aims: (1) to identify the differential contributions of the person-specific (trait) and situation-specific (state) variance components of discrete academic emotions, and (2) to examine the relations between different discrete academic emotions with regard to their latent trait and latent state residual components. Eight hundred thirty-seven German students participated in this diary study that lasted 2–3 weeks. During this time, students responded to short (two items per emotion) questionnaires asking about their lesson-specific state emotions in mathematics. The results revealed that for each academic emotion the trait variance and state residual components were of about equal size. Further, while differently valenced (positive vs. negative) latent trait components of students’ emotions were mostly uncorrelated (with the exception of boredom), differently valenced latent state residual components of students’ emotions were negatively correlated. We discuss our findings in relation to the structure of current affect and highlight their implications for classroom practices.
Genome-Wide Transcriptional Profiles during Temperature and Oxidative Stress Reveal Coordinated Expression Patterns and Overlapping Regulons in Rice

Genome wide transcriptional changes by cold stress, heat stress and oxidative stress in rice seedlings were analyzed. Heat stress resulted in predominant changes in transcripts of heat shock protein and heat shock transcription factor genes, as well as genes associated with synthesis of scavengers of reactive oxygen species and genes that control the level of sugars, metabolites and auxins. Cold stress treatment caused differential expression of transcripts of various transcription factors including desiccation response element binding proteins and different kinases. Transcripts of genes that are part of calcium signaling, reactive oxygen scavenging and diverse metabolic reactions were differentially expressed during cold stress. Oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide treatment, resulted in significant up-regulation in transcript levels of genes related to redox homeostasis and down-regulation of transporter proteins. ROS homeostasis appeared to play central role in response to temperature extremes. The key transcription factors that may underlie the concerted transcriptional changes of specific components in various signal transduction networks involved are highlighted. Co-ordinated expression pattern and promoter architectures based analysis (promoter models and overrepresented transcription factor binding sites) suggested potential regulons involved in stress responses. A considerable overlap was noted at the level of transcription as well as in regulatory modules of differentially expressed genes.
Faster Algorithms for Frobenius Numbers

The Frobenius problem, also known as the postage-stamp problem or the moneychanging problem, is an integer programming problem that seeks nonnegative integer solutions to x1a1 + + xnan = M ,w hereai and M are positive integers. In particular, the Frobenius number f(A), where A =faig ,i s the largestM so that this equation fails to have a solution. A simple way to compute this number is to transform the problem to a shortest-path problem in a directed weighted graph; then Dijkstra’s algorithm can be used. We show how one can use the additional symmetry properties of the graph in question to design algorithms that are very fast. For example, on a standard desktop computer, our methods can handle cases where n =1 0 anda1 =1 0 7 . We have two main new methods, one based on breadthrst search and another that uses the number theory and combinatorial structure inherent in the problem to speed up the Dijkstra approach. For both methods we conjecture that the average-case complexity is O(a1 p n). The previous best method
Teacher support and math engagement: roles of academic self-efficacy and positive emotions

Abstract The current study assessed 869 elementary school students in China using self-report questionnaires, to examine the multiple mediating effects of academic self-efficacy and positive academic emotions (enjoyment and relief) in the relations between teacher support and academic engagement (cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects) within a math class. The results indicated that teacher support exerted a direct and significant impact on the three aspects of math engagement. Both academic self-efficacy and enjoyment mediated the relations between teacher support and the three aspects of math engagement, whereas relief did not mediate such relations. Moreover, teacher support affected math engagement through multiple paths from academic self-efficacy to both enjoyment and relief. Relief displayed a smaller effect on the three aspects of math engagement than enjoyment did. However, we did not find substantial difference in the underlying mechanisms of different aspects of engagement. Limitations and educational implications were also discussed.
Origins and dispersals of Pacific peoples: Evidence from mtDNA phylogenies of the Pacific rat

The human settlement of the Pacific in general, and the origin of the Polynesians in particular, have been topics of debate for over two centuries. Polynesian origins are most immediately traced to people who arrived in the Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa region ≈3,000 B.P. and are clearly associated with the Lapita Cultural Complex. Although this scenario of the immediate origins of the Polynesians is generally accepted, the debate on the ultimate origin of the Polynesians and the Lapita cultural complex continues. Our previous research has shown that analyses of mtDNA variation in the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), often transported as a food item in the colonizing canoes, are valuable for tracing prehistoric human migration within Polynesia. Here we present mtDNA phylogenies based on ≈240 base pairs of the d-loop from both archaeological and modern samples collected from Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. We identify three major haplogroups, two of which occur in the Pacific. Comparing our results with Lapita models of Oceanic settlement, we are able to reject two often cited but simplistic models, finding support instead for multifaceted models incorporating a more complex view of the Lapita intrusion. This study is unique and valuable in that R. exulans is the only organism associated with the Lapita dispersal for which there are sufficient ancient and extant populations available for genetic analysis. By tracking population changes through time, we can understand more fully the settlement process and population interactions in both Near and Remote Oceania.
A laboratory method for studying activity awareness

Many failures in long-term collaboration occur because of a lack of activity awareness. Activity awareness is a broad concept that involves awareness of synchronous and asynchronous interactions over extended time periods. We describe a procedure to evaluate activity awareness and collaborative activities in a controlled setting. The activities used are modeled on real-world collaborations documented earlier in a field study. We developed an experimental method to study these activity awareness problems in the laboratory. Participants worked on a simulated long-term project in the laboratory over multiple experimental sessions with a confederate, who partially scripted activities and probes. We present evidence showing that this method represents a valid model of real collaboration, based on participants' active engagement, lively negotiation, and awareness difficulties. We found that having the ability to define, reproduce, and systematically manipulate collaborative situations allowed us to assess the effect of realistic conditions on activity awareness in remote collaboration.
The capacity region of a class of deterministic interference channels

The capacity region of a class of deterministic discrete memoryless interference channels is established. In this class of channels the outputs Y_{1} and Y_{2} are (deterministic) functions of the inputs X_{1} and X_{2} such that H(Y_{1}|X_{1})=H(V_{2}) and H(Y_{2}|X_{2})=H(V_{l}) for all product probabiliW distributions on X_{1}X_{2} , where V_{1} is a function of X_{1} and V_{2} a function of X_{2} . The capacity, region for the case in which V_{2} \equiv 0 and Y_{1} depends randomly on X_{1} is also obtained and illustrated with an example.
Three-dimensional microsurgical and tractographic anatomy of the white matter of the human brain.

OBJECTIVE We sought to investigate the three-dimensional structure of the white matter of the brain by means of the fiber-dissection technique and diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging to assess the usefulness of the combination of both techniques, compare their results, and review the potential functional role of fiber tracts. METHODS Fifteen formalin-fixed human hemispheres were dissected according to Klingler's fiber-dissection technique with the aid of 36 to 340 magnification. Three-dimensional anatomic images were created with the use of specific software. Two hundred patients with neurological symptoms and five healthy volunteers were studied with diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging (3 T) and tractographic reconstruction. RESULTS The most important association, projection, and commissural fasciculi were identified anatomically and radiologically. Analysis of their localization, configuration, and trajectory was enhanced by the combination of both techniques. Three-dimensional anatomic reconstructions provided a better perception of the spatial relationships among the white matter tracts. Tractographic reconstructions allowed for inspection of the relationships between the tracts as well as between the tracts and the intracerebral lesions. The combination of topographical anatomic studies of human fiber tracts and neuroanatomic research in experimental animals, with data from the clinicoradiological analysis of human white matter lesions and intraoperative subcortical stimulation, aided in establishing the potential functional role of the tracts. CONCLUSION The fiber-dissection and diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging techniques are reciprocally enriched not only in their application to the study of the complex intrinsic architecture of the brain, but also in their practical use for diagnosis and surgical planning.
Prevalence and sensitization of atopic allergy and coeliac disease in the Northern Sweden Population Health Study

Background Atopic allergy is effected by a number of environmental exposures, such as dry air and time spent outdoors, but there are few estimates of the prevalence in populations from sub-arctic areas. Objective To determine the prevalence and severity of symptoms of food, inhalation and skin-related allergens and coeliac disease (CD) in the sub-arctic region of Sweden. To study the correlation between self-reported allergy and allergy test results. To estimate the heritability of these estimates. Study design The study was conducted in Karesuando and Soppero in Northern Sweden as part of the Northern Sweden Population Health Study (n=1,068). We used a questionnaire for self-reported allergy and CD status and measured inhalation-related allergens using Phadiatop, food-related allergens using the F×5 assay and IgA and IgG antibodies against tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) to indicate prevalence of CD. Results The prevalence of self-reported allergy was very high, with 42.3% reporting mild to severe allergy. Inhalation-related allergy was reported in 26.7%, food-related allergy in 24.9% and skin-related allergy in 2.4% of the participants. Of inhalation-related allergy, 11.0% reported reactions against fur and 14.6% against pollen/grass. Among food-related reactions, 14.9% reported milk (protein and lactose) as the cause. The IgE measurements showed that 18.4% had elevated values for inhalation allergens and 11.7% for food allergens. Self-reported allergies and symptoms were positively correlated (p<0.01) with age- and sex-corrected inhalation allergens. Allergy prevalence was inversely correlated with age and number of hours spent outdoors. High levels of IgA and IgG anti-tTG antibodies, CD-related allergens, were found in 1.4 and 0.6% of participants, respectively. All allergens were found to be significantly (p<3 e–10) heritable, with estimated heritabilities ranging from 0.34 (F×5) to 0.65 (IgA). Conclusions Self-reported allergy correlated well with the antibody measurements. The prevalence of allergy was highest in the young and those working inside. Heritability of atopy and sensitization was high. The prevalence of CD-related autoantibodies was high and did not coincide with the self-reported allergy.