Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Cell Surface Expression and Linker Sequence on the Recruitment of Arrestin to the GIP Receptor

The glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor are important targets in the treatment of both type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity. Originally identified for their role in desensitization, internalization and recycling of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), arrestins have since been shown to act as scaffolding proteins that allow GPCRs to signal in a G protein-independent manner. While GLP-1R has been reported to interact with arrestins, this aspect of cell signaling remains controversial for GIPR. Using a (FRET)-based assay we have previously shown that yellow fluorescent protein (YFP)-labeled GIPR does not recruit arrestin. This GIPR-YFP construct contained a 10 amino acid linker between the receptor and a XbaI restriction site upstream of the YFP. This linker was not present in the modified GIPR-SYFP2 used in subsequent FRET and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) assays. However, its removal results in the introduction of a serine residue adjacent to the end of GIPR’s C-terminal tail which could potentially be a phosphorylation site. The resulting receptor was indeed able to recruit arrestin. To find out whether the serine/arginine (SR) coded by the XbaI site was indeed the source of the problem, it was substituted with glycine/glycine (GG) by site-directed mutagenesis. This substitution abolished arrestin recruitment in the BRET assay but only significantly reduced it in the FRET assay. In addition, we show that the presence of a N-terminal FLAG epitope and influenza hemagglutinin signal peptide were also required to detect arrestin recruitment to the GIPR, most likely by increasing receptor cell surface expression. These results demonstrate how arrestin recruitment assay configuration can dramatically alter the result. This becomes relevant when drug discovery programs aim to identify ligands with “biased agonist” properties.
High-Speed Focal Tracking Projection Based on Liquid Lens

A high-speed projection system with a dynamic focal tracking technology based on a variable focus lens will be illustrated. The traditional projection was limited on 2D space, due to their narrow depth-of-field projection range. The proposed system included a high-speed variable focus lens, a high-speed camera, and a high-speed projector, so that the depth information would be detected and then served as feedback to correct the focal length and update the projection information in high-speed. As a result, the information would be well-focused projected even on a 3D dynamic moving object.
A New Land-hopper Genus, Mizuhorchestia, from Japan (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Talitridae)

Mizuhorchestia urospina gen. et sp. nov. is described from terrestrial habitats in Japan. It is characterized by elongate antenna 1, 4-dentate left mandible, maxilliped palp article 2 lacking mediodistal lobe, strongly subchelate gnathopod 1 in both sexes, cuspidactylate pereopods, moder- ately reduced pleopods, and weakly armed outer ramus of uropod 1. These features distinguish the new genus from allied genera: Agilestia Friend, 1982, Orchestiella Friend, 1987, Paciforchestia Bousfield, 1982, Neorchestia Friend, 1987, and Waematau Duncan, 1994.
A systematic list of Pyraustinae of northeastern India (Pyralidae: Lepidoptera)

Introduction Intensive and extensive collection-cum-survey tours conducted in the far-flung localities of northeastern India between August 1981 to September 1984 by the first author resulted in the collection of 102 species referable to 54 genera of subfamily Pyraustinae. The identification of various taxa has been based on the works of Hampson (1896-1918). The examples have also been compared with the reference collections of Forest Research Institute (FRI) Dehra Dun, Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) Kolkata and Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) New Delhi. Besides identifying six new genera and 13 new species, Genus Toxobotys Munroe and Mutuura has been reported for the first time from the Oriental region (Kirti & Rose, 1989) and many new combinations have been formulated. A complete systematic list of 102 species of subfamily Pyraustinae is given in the present manuscript. This list is a consolidation of data generated as the Pyraustinae of northeastern India.
Online Climate Change Polarization: Interactional Framing Analysis of Climate Change Blog Comments

While increasingly more is known about how to reframe the relevance of climate change, much less is known about how people deal with situations in which they are confronted with frames that are incompatible with their own frames. The current research conducts an interactional framing analysis to investigate how users in climate change blog comments interactively construct the meaning of issues, identities and relationships, and their interactions. Results show that most framing differences start with issue framing but thereafter shift to identity and relationship or process framing. Finally, users mostly deploy polarizing interaction strategies to deal with these framing differences.
2 The Family Alicyclobacillaceae

The family Alicyclobacillaceae comprises the genera Alicyclobacillus, Kyrpidia, and Tumebacillus. The family is phylogenetically monophyletic, branching next to Bacillaceae, Paenibacillaceae, Listeriaceae, and Planococcaceae. In contrast to its genus affiliation, Alicyclobacillus pohliae branches outside the radiation of other Alicyclobacillus species between members of Kyrpidia and Tumebacillus. The inclusion of Kyrpidia into the family led to the emendation of Alicyclobacillaceae in that acid may or may not be produced from carbohydrates (Klenk et al. 2011 Stand Genomic Sci 5:121‐134, 2011).
Robust motion in-betweening

In this work we present a novel, robust transition generation technique that can serve as a new tool for 3D animators, based on adversarial recurrent neural networks. The system synthesises high-quality motions that use temporally-sparse keyframes as animation constraints. This is reminiscent of the job of in-betweening in traditional animation pipelines, in which an animator draws motion frames between provided keyframes. We first show that a state-of-the-art motion prediction model cannot be easily converted into a robust transition generator when only adding conditioning information about future keyframes. To solve this problem, we then propose two novel additive embedding modifiers that are applied at each timestep to latent representations encoded inside the network's architecture. One modifier is a time-to-arrival embedding that allows variations of the transition length with a single model. The other is a scheduled target noise vector that allows the system to be robust to target distortions and to sample different transitions given fixed keyframes. To qualitatively evaluate our method, we present a custom MotionBuilder plugin that uses our trained model to perform in-betweening in production scenarios. To quantitatively evaluate performance on transitions and generalizations to longer time horizons, we present well-defined in-betweening benchmarks on a subset of the widely used Human3.6M dataset and on LaFAN1, a novel high quality motion capture dataset that is more appropriate for transition generation. We are releasing this new dataset along with this work, with accompanying code for reproducing our baseline results.
Robust eulerian-on-lagrangian rods

This paper introduces a method to simulate complex rod assemblies and stacked layers with implicit contact handling, through Eulerian-on-Lagrangian (EoL) discretizations. Previous EoL methods fail to handle such complex situations, due to ubiquitous and intrinsic degeneracies in the contact geometry, which prevent the use of remeshing and make simulations unstable. We propose a novel mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian discretization that supports accurate and efficient contact as in EoL methods, but is transparent to internal rod forces, and hence insensitive to degeneracies. By combining the standard and novel EoL discretizations as appropriate, we derive mixed statics-dynamics equations of motion that can be solved in a unified manner with standard solvers. Our solution is simple and elegant in practice, and produces robust simulations on large-scale scenarios with complex rod arrangements and pervasive degeneracies. We demonstrate our method on multi-layer yarn-level cloth simulations, with implicit handling of both intra-and inter-layer contacts.
Wave curves

We propose a method to enhance the visual detail of a water surface simulation. Our method works as a post-processing step which takes a simulation as input and increases its apparent resolution by simulating many detailed Lagrangian water waves on top of it. We extend linear water wave theory to work in non-planar domains which deform over time, and we discretize the theory using Lagrangian wave packets attached to spline curves. The method is numerically stable and trivially parallelizable, and it produces high frequency ripples with dispersive wave-like behaviors customized to the underlying fluid simulation.
Current Status, Diagnosis, and Treatment Recommendation for Tic Disorders in China

Tic disorders (TD) are a group neuropsychiatric disorders with childhood onset characterized by tics, i.e. repetitive, sudden, and involuntary movements or vocalizations; and Tourette syndrome (TS) is the most severe form of TD. Their clinical manifestations are diverse; and are often associated with various psychopathological and/or behavioral comorbidities, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders. Individual severity and response to treatment are highly variable, and there are some refractory cases, which are less responsive to conventional TD treatment. TD/TS are also common in the Chinese pediatric population. To help improve the understanding of TD for pediatricians and other health professionals, and to improve its diagnosis and treatment in China, the Chinese Child Neurology Society (CCNS) has developed an Expert Consensus on Diagnosis and Treatment of TD in China, which is based on our clinical experience and the availability therapeutic avenues. It is focused on clinical diagnosis and evaluation of TD and its comorbidities, psychological and educational intervention, nonpharmacological therapy, pharmacological treatment, including traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, as well as prognosis in children with TD in China. A summary of the current status of TD and up-to-date diagnosis and treatment recommendations for TD in China is presented here.
Regional Cerebral Associations Between Psychometric Tests and Imaging Biomarkers in Alzheimer’s Disease

Recently, imaging biomarkers have gained importance for the characterization of patients with Alzheimer’s disease; however, the relationship between regional biomarker expression and cognitive function remains unclear. In our study, we investigated associations between scores on CERAD neuropsychological assessment battery (CERAD-NAB) subtests with regional glucose metabolism, cortical thickness and amyloid deposition in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), structural MRI, and 11C-Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB) positron emission tomography (PET), respectively. A total of 76 patients (mean age 68.4 ± 8.5 years, 57.9% male) with early AD (median global clinical dementia rating (CDR) score = 0.5, range: 0.5–2.0) were studied. Associations were investigated by correlation and multiple regression analyses. Scores on cognitive subtests were most closely predicted by regional glucose metabolism with explained variance up to a corrected R² of 0.518, followed by cortical thickness and amyloid deposition. Prediction of cognitive subtest performance was increased up to a corrected R² of 0.622 for Word List—Delayed Recall, when biomarker information from multiple regions and multiple modalities were included. For verbal, visuoconstructive and mnestic domains the closest associations with FDG-PET imaging were found in the left lateral temporal lobe, right parietal lobe, and posterior cingulate cortex, respectively. Decreased cortical thickness in parietal regions was most predictive of impaired subtest performance. Remarkably, cerebral amyloid deposition significantly predicted cognitive function in about half of the subtests but with smaller extent of variance explained (corrected R² ≤ 0.220). We conclude that brain metabolism and atrophy affect cognitive performance in a regionally distinct way. Significant predictions of cognitive function by PiB-PET in half of CERAD-NAB subtests suggest functional relevance even in symptomatic patients with AD, challenging the concept of plateauing cortical amyloid deposition early in the disease course. Our results underscore the complex spatial relationship between different imaging biomarkers.
Character controllers using motion VAEs

A fundamental problem in computer animation is that of realizing purposeful and realistic human movement given a sufficiently-rich set of motion capture clips. We learn data-driven generative models of human movement using autoregressive conditional variational autoencoders, or Motion VAEs. The latent variables of the learned autoencoder define the action space for the movement and thereby govern its evolution over time. Planning or control algorithms can then use this action space to generate desired motions. In particular, we use deep reinforcement learning to learn controllers that achieve goal-directed movements. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach on multiple tasks. We further evaluate system-design choices and describe the current limitations of Motion VAEs.
Are juvenile grass snakes, Natrix natrix, aposematically coloured?

Most grass snakes have a yellow black bordered collar just behind the head. In neonates the contrast between the collar and the body colour is more distinct than in adults which makes the young snakes particularly conspicuous. Seventy-five normal (with a yellow collar) and 75 melanistic models of neonate grass snakes were manufactured from black plasticine and exposed in the study area. Ten experiments were carried out. The melanistic models were more subjected to avian predation than the normal models. I suggest that the yellow head collar could be a form of mimicry of aposematically coloured unpalatable insects. The lower bird predation on the normal models could thus be due to the birds interpreting these as being unpalatable.
Two-stage nonlinear site amplification modeling for Japan with VS30 and fundamental frequency dependency

We describe a two-stage nonlinear site amplification model that considers both the sediment depth and the fundamental frequency of the soil. Adopting a non-reference site approach, empirical site amplification ratios for 1591 Kyoshin and Kiban Kyoshin network sites are developed. This process involves analyzing 92,025 surface ground motion recordings from 305 earthquakes between 1997 and 2012. The model is developed in two stages: first, we regress the total empirical site effects in terms of VS30; second, we fit a functional form to the residuals from the first stage using the fundamental period of the site. We validate the model through residual analyses and statistical methods. This study shows that the peak soil period increases with the equivalent shear strain (Iγ), while the peak amplitude decreases with Iγ. The first-stage site term reduces the error at mid-to-long period ranges (>0.1 s) by 0.11 from the error of the initial site term without any constraints. The second-stage site term reduces the error further as 0.06. Finally, we discuss the model limitations and the applicability range of the predictor variables.
Robot Telekinesis: An Interactive Showcase

Unlike large and dangerous industrial robots on production lines in factories that are strictly fenced off, collaborative robots are smaller and safer, and can be installed adjacent to human workers and collaborate with them. However, controlling and teaching new moves to collaborative robots can be difficult and time-consuming when using existing methods such as pressing buttons on a teaching pendant or directly grabbing and moving the robot by force (direct teaching). We present Robot Telekinesis, a novel robot-interaction technique that allows the user to remotely control the movement of the end effector of a robot arm with unimanual and bimanual hand gestures that closely resemble handling a physical object. Robot Telekinesis is as intuitive and fast as direct teaching, without the physical demands of direct teaching.
Study on Evolution and Interaction of Service Industry Agglomeration and Efficiency of Hebei Province China

Using data from 2008 to 2017 regarding the service sector in 11 cities of the Hebei Province, this study measures the degree of agglomeration and efficiency of service subsectors, analyzes their spatiotemporal evolution, and discusses the interactive relationship between them using panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) models and GMM dynamic panel model. The findings are summarized as follows: (1) from 2008 to 2017, service subsectors in Hebei’s cities have a high degree of agglomeration and benefit significantly from specialization; (2) the service in Hebei’s cities is severely inefficient (i.e., efficiency loss is grave). The empirical results of PVAR models reveal that service sector agglomeration is primarily reliant on its own development momentum and while that can improve technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency, it can also inhibit technical change efficiency. The variance decomposition results reveal that service sector efficiency is influenced more significantly by itself than by service sector agglomeration. With the passage of time, the self-influence of efficiency decreases and the influence of service sector agglomeration on efficiency increases.
The Penn Vet Working Dog Center Fit to Work Program: A Formalized Method for Assessing and Developing Foundational Canine Physical Fitness

Fit to Work is a formalized working dog foundational physical fitness assessment and development program. The Penn Vet Working Dog Center developed this program to address the needs of working dog handlers, trainers, and programs for simple, effective, and efficient methods to develop and assess working dog physical fitness. Fit to Work focuses on the foundational fitness modalities of strength, stability, mobility, and proprioception. The Penn Vet Working Dog Center piloted and refined this program over 3 months in a closed population of 31 working dogs in training. Fit to Work consists of posture development and maintenance, warm-up and cool-down routines, training exercises, and assessment methods. To simplify implementation for dogs and personnel, the foundational training program incorporates a discrete number of exercises, standardized progression steps, defined criteria for progression, and a reduced emphasis on learned behaviors. Fit to Work also enables safe and progressive assessment of foundational fitness through a tiered and inexpensive process. Future research will focus on validation of training and assessment methods, development of assessment standards, and correlation of physical fitness with operational performance.
Nanomedicine-based Synthetic Biology

Understanding the disease mechanisms of complex biological systems is still a significant challenge. Biological systems consist of hundreds of thousands of genes and proteins which are very hard to identify and whose behavior is difficult to correlate, understand and predict. The traditional hypothesis-driven basic research aims to study a certain gene/protein or a certain signalling pathway by taking a biological system apart in such a way that is strictly dependent on the scientific method applied. However, this approach cannot provide a systemic information broad enough to predict the complex dynamic consequences of altered gene and protein expression and, ultimately, drug effectiveness. Synthetic biology, in combination to classical methods, is recently emerging as an alternative method.
Where We Stand: Lung Organotypic Living Systems That Emulate Human-Relevant Host–Environment/Pathogen Interactions

Lung disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are leading causes of death in humans globally. Cigarette smoking is the principal risk factor for the development of COPD, and LRTIs are caused by inhaling respiratory pathogens. Thus, a thorough understanding of host–environment/pathogen interactions is crucial to developing effective preventive and therapeutic modalities against these disorders. While animal models of human pulmonary conditions have been widely utilized, they suffer major drawbacks due to inter-species differences, hindering clinical translation. Here we summarize recent advances in generating complex 3D culture systems that emulate the microarchitecture and pathophysiology of the human lung, and how these platforms have been implemented for studying exposure to environmental factors, airborne pathogens, and therapeutic agents.
Plant regeneration from immature seed-derived callus of Cypripedium macranthos swartz var. taiwanianum (Masamune) F. Maekawa

To obtain basic information for the micropropagation and future breeding of endangered Cypripedium species, plant regeneration from immature seed-derived callus of Cypripedium macranthas var. taiwanianum was studied. Calli, induced from immature seeds on T medium (Tsutsui and Tomita 1990) supplernented with 200 mg/l yeast extract, 10 g/l sucrose and 2 g/l gellan gum, were used for the plant regeneration test. The regeneration was observed in three lines of callus on media containing 10-5M NAA with or without the addition of 10-6M BAP. After vernalization, regenerated plants were established.
A Case-based Approach for introducing Testing Tools and Principles

We present, in this paper, teaching material and experience report on teaching software testing to 3rd year bachelor’s degree students. Our approach covers a wide range of techniques from unit testing, to functional testing, through test-first design and black-box testing. To motivate students, we rely on the use of a running case study, that is developed and tested all the way through. This paper presents both teaching material and experience report based on the feedback that we get from the students, and the observations we made regarding the discovery of the software testing aspects.