Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative biological activities of α-MSH antagonists in vertebrate pigment cells

We have previously reported that melatonin was an effective lightening agonist in the teleostSynbranchus marmoratus,the amphibiansRana pipiensandBufo ictericus,and in the lizardAnolis carolinensis.The hormone, previously applied to the preparations, effectively inhibited α-MSH darkening activity in a dose-independent manner, and was also able to reverse MSH-induced darkening. We presently describe the inhibitory effect of the indoleamine on the murine melanoma cell proliferation. Interestingly, the hormone also stimulated tyrosinase activity, with a correlated increase in melanin content. We also demonstrate that in a diverse lizard species,Urosaurus ornatus,the indoleamine was totally ineffective. The competitive MSH antagonistic activity of H-His-d-Arg-Ala-Trp-d-Phe-Lys-NH2has been demonstrated previously inR. pipiensandU. ornatus.Herein, its inhibitory activity is also reported in another lizard species,A. carolinensis.However, this MSH analogue was inactive inS. marmoratus,and in murine melanoma cells. On the other hand, the 7 thru 10 α-MSH fragment, Ac-Phe-Arg-Trp-Gly-NH2, although ineffective inS. marmoratusandR. pipiens,was an α-MSH antagonist inA. carolinensis.Surprisingly, in the melanoma cell line, the MSH fragment exhibited no agonist or antagonist activity, but dramatically potentiated the MSH-induced increase in tyrosinase activity. These data might suggest that the fragment is participating either in the process of facilitation or in positive cooperativity. The present results, taken together with our previously reported data, demonstrate a major interspecies diversity of the MC1 subtype of melanocortin receptor, and point out the relevance of the membrane microenvironment for the final receptor configuration.
Semina Aeternitatis: Using Bacteria for Tangible Interaction with Data

We explore the potential of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules to enable new ways for humans to interact with their stories and memories via a physical interface that engages senses such as touch, smell and taste. Specifically, we embed the memories of an elderly woman inside a micro-organism by means of computing and genetic engineering. To do so, we first encoded the stories into a string of nucleotides. We next designed and fabricated a circular string by appending restriction enzymes and backbone genes. We developed specific bio-protocols to insert the fabricated molecule inside Komagataeibacter rhaeticus bacteria. The transformed bacteria were presented in an exhibition as a sculpture - Semina Aeternitatis, containing billions of copies of the original stories that people could see, touch, smell and taste. Our work is a first step towards a future where the interaction with our past will go beyond words, and take a more tangible format.
Sketching in HCI: Research Practice & Publication (Advanced)

Sketching in Human Computer Interaction is a valuable tool for subjective practice, but also a tool for engagement with collaborators, stakeholders, and participants. This hands-on practice can be utilised in a variety of contexts. The course enables those already in possession of sketching skills the confidence to take their work to the next level. Drawing from expertise gained by working in both academia and industry, the instructors will lead course attendees on a journey through practical applications of sketching in HCI, from subjective sketching to participant engagement and publishing, using hands on tasks and group activities.
Conversational Technology and Natural Language Visualization for Children's Learning

This research investigates the combination of Natural Language Visualization and Conversational Technology to support children enhancing linguistic and communication abilities. In particular, I refer to those skills related to self-description that are fundamental in the process of self-knowledge, self-awareness, and self-acceptance. The challenge of this project is to design, develop, and evaluate a dialogue system able to stimulate children to describe themselves with questions and hints; besides, it must be capable of drawing their avatar consistently with what they say and with how they look like.
Global effect of PEG-IFN-α and ribavirin on gene expression in PBMC in vitro

Using oligonucleotide microarrays, we have examined the expression of 22,000 genes in peripheral blood cells treated with pegylated interferon-alpha2b (PEG-IFN-alpha) and ribavirin. Treatment with ribavirin had very little effect on gene expression, whereas treatment with PEG-IFN-alpha had a dramatic effect, modulating the expression of approximately 1000 genes (at p < 0.001). In addition to genes previously reported to be induced by type I or type II IFNs, many novel genes were found to be upregulated, including transcription factors, such as ATF3, ATF4, properdin, a key regulator of the complement pathway, a homeobox gene (HESX1), and an RNA editing enzyme (apobec3). Chemokines CXCL10 and CXCL11 were upregulated, whereas CXCL5 was downregulated. Cytokines interleukin-15 (IL-15) and IL-18 were also significantly induced, whereas IL-1alpha and IL-1beta were downregulated. Most other interleukins were not affected. The results of the microarrays were confirmed by kinetic real-time PCR. These data indicate that IFN treatment causes upregulation of genes associated with the stress response, apoptosis, and signaling, and an equal number of genes are downregulated, including those associated with protein synthesis, specific cytokines and chemokines and other biosynthetic functions.
Head-Coupled Kinematic Template Matching for Target Selection in Hangry Piggos

We demonstrate Head-Coupled Kinematic Template Matching (HC-KTM) - a new technique to predict a ray pointer's landing position (end-position and angle) for selection movements in virtual reality (VR) environments. The technique adapts and extends a prior 2D kinematic template matching method to VR environments where ray pointers are used for selection. It builds on the insight that the kinematics of a controller and Head-Mounted Display (HMD) can be used to predict the ray's final landing position and angle. In our VR game, Hangry Piggos, we leverage HC-KTM to generate target predictions within a scene, and we apply pointing visualization techniques on top of them to accelerate a player's selection.
Chasm: A Screw Based Expressive Compact Haptic Actuator

We present a compact broadband linear actuator, Chasm, that renders expressive haptic feedback on wearable and handheld devices. Unlike typical motor-based haptic devices with integrated gearheads, Chasm utilizes a miniature leadscrew coupled to a motor shaft, thereby directly translating the high-speed rotation of the motor to the linear motion of a nut carriage without an additional transmission. Due to this simplicity, Chasm can render low-frequency skin-stretch and high-frequency vibrations, simultaneously and independently. We present the design of the actuator assembly and validate its electromechanical and perceptual performance. We then explore use cases and show design solutions for embedding Chasm in device prototypes. Finally, we report investigations with Chasm in two VR embodiments, i.e., in a headgear band to induce locomotion cues and in a handheld pointer to enhance dynamic manual interactions. Our explorations show wide use for Chasm in enhancing user interactions and experience in virtual and augmented settings.
Exploring Human-Robot Interaction with the Elderly: Results from a Ten-Week Case Study in a Care Home

Ageing societies and the associated pressure on the care systems are major drivers for new developments in socially assistive robotics. To understand better the real-world potential of robot-based assistance, we undertook a 10-week case study in a care home involving groups of residents, caregivers and managers as stakeholders. We identified both, enablers and barriers to the potential implementation of robot systems. The study employed the robot platform Pepper, which was deployed with a view to understanding better multi-domain interventions with a robot supporting physical activation, cognitive training and social facilitation. We employed the robot in a group setting in a care facility over the course of 10 weeks and 20 sessions, observing how stakeholders, including residents and caregivers, appropriated, adapted to, and perceived the robot. We also conducted interviews with 11 residents and caregivers. Our results indicate that the residents were positively engaged in the training sessions that were moderated by the robot. The study revealed that such humanoid robots can work in a care home but that there is a moderating person needed, that is in control of the robot.
Emotion Recognition based BCI using Channel-wise Features

Electroencephalogram (EEG) based emotion recognition has received significant research attention since it allows the direct reflection of the inner state of the brain activity. However, it is difficult to improve the performance of recognizing cross-subject emotion due to subjectivity and the noise associated with EEG data collection. In this paper, we propose a novel cross-subject EEG-based emotion recognition method with combination of channel-wise features and LSTM. The channel-wise feature is defined by the symmetric matrix, the element of which is calculated by the Pearson correlation coefficient between two-pair channels to consider the spatial interaction among all channels. Then, the channel-wise features are fed to the 2-layer stacked Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), which can extract temporal features and learns an emotional model that can complementarily handle subjectivity and noise. The experiments on two publicly available datasets DEAP and SEED demonstrate the effectiveness of the combined use of channel-wise features and LSTM. Experimental results achieve state-of-the-art classification rate of 98.93% and 99.10% over 2-classes valence and arousal on DEAP respectively and show the accuracy of 99.63% over 3-classes classification on SEED.
Urban Mosaic: Visual Exploration of Streetscapes Using Large-Scale Image Data

Urban planning is increasingly data driven, yet the challenge of designing with data at a city scale and remaining sensitive to the impact at a human scale is as important today as it was for Jane Jacobs. We address this challenge with Urban Mosaic, a tool for exploring the urban fabric through a spatially and temporally dense data set of 7.7 million street-level images from New York City, captured over the period of a year. Working in collaboration with professional practitioners, we use Urban Mosaic to investigate questions of accessibility and mobility, and preservation and retrofitting. In doing so, we demonstrate how tools such as this might provide a bridge between the city and the street, by supporting activities such as visual comparison of geographically distant neighborhoods, and temporal analysis of unfolding urban development.
Spatio-temporal Pattern Analysis for EEG Classification in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Task

This study will explore an algorithm of spatio-temporal pattern analysis for electroencephalographic (EEG) classification in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. In this algorithm, the spatial low-rank and temporal-frequency sparse priors are exploited to train the supervised spatial and temporal filters. The discriminant features are extracted by the supervised spatio-temporal filters and classified by support vector machine. The EEG signals were recorded from a total of 12 subjects under RSVP task and were used as training and testing data. The average true positive rate of classification is 79%, and the average false positive rate is only 3.4%. The classification results show that the proposed algorithm has better performance in the target detection than HDCA and SWFP.
Stock Origins of Chinook Salmon in the Area of the Japanese Mothership Salmon Fishery

Abstract The record catch of 704,000 chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha by the Japanese mothership salmon fishery in 1980 intensified concern about the effect of high seas interceptions of salmon reared in North America. The goal of this study was to update and refine estimates of the relative proportions of Asian and North American chinook salmon stocks in the mothership fishery area in the Bering Sea and north Pacific Ocean. Linear discriminant analysis of scale pattern data was used to classify samples of immature chinook salmon aged 1.2 (one winter in fresh water, two winters at sea) from the area 46-62°N, 160°E-175°W in June and July 1975-1981 to four regions: Asia, western Alaska, central Alaska, and southeastern Alaska-British Columbia. Western Alaska, which included Canadian Yukon stocks, was further subdivided into three subregions: Yukon River, Kuskokwim district, and Bristol Bay. Overall classification accuracies averaged 74, 79, and 86%, respectively, in four-, three-, and two-category re.
How to Trick AI: Users' Strategies for Protecting Themselves from Automatic Personality Assessment

Psychological targeting tries to influence and manipulate users' behaviour. We investigated whether users can protect themselves from being profiled by a chatbot, which automatically assesses users' personality. Participants interacted twice with the chatbot: (1) They chatted for 45 minutes in customer service scenarios and received their actual profile (baseline). (2) They then were asked to repeat the interaction and to disguise their personality by strategically tricking the chatbot into calculating a falsified profile. In interviews, participants mentioned 41 different strategies but could only apply a subset of them in the interaction. They were able to manipulate all Big Five personality dimensions by nearly 10%. Participants regarded personality as very sensitive data. As they found tricking the AI too exhaustive for everyday use, we reflect on opportunities for privacy protective designs in the context of personality-aware systems.
Squeeze the Ball: Designing an Interactive Playground towards Aiding Social Activities of Children with Low-Function Autism

Most intervention methods used for social skills training in children with autism are dedicated to high-functioning autism (HFA). However, extensive neurological and developmental disorders of low-functioning autism (LFA) have hampered their adoption. In this study, we observed and interviewed children with LFA, and their teachers, from a local educational institution, to better understand the children's social needs and barriers. Then, with the aim of aiding the children with their social activities, we illustrate the design process of SqueeBall, an interactive playground equipment. We evaluated the design with 18 children (16 with LFA and 2 with HFA) between 2.5 and 7 years of age. Results showed that these children had a pleasant game experience when the group bonded, and the equipment had a positive effect on aiding them in various ways. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of multimedia interaction techniques in aiding children with LFA.
Bridging the Virtual and Real Worlds: A Preliminary Study of Messaging Notifications in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) platforms provide their users with immersive virtual environments, but disconnect them from real-world events. The increasing length of VR sessions can therefore be expected to boost users' needs to obtain information about external occurrences such as message arrival. Yet, how and when to present these real-world notifications to users engaged in VR activities remains underexplored. We conducted an experiment to investigate individuals' receptivity during four VR activities (Loading, 360 Video, Treasure Hunt, Rhythm Game) to message notifications delivered using three types of displays (head-mounted, controller, and movable panel). While higher engagement generally led to higher perceptions that notifications were ill-timed and/or disruptive, the suitability of notification displays to VR activities was influenced by the time-sensitiveness of VR content, overlapping use of modalities for delivering alerts, the display locations, and a requirement that the display be moved for notifications to be seen. Specific design suggestions are also provided.
Autocomplete Element Fields

Aggregate elements are ubiquitous in natural and man-made objects. Interactively authoring these elements with varying anisotropy and deformability can require high artistic skills and manual labor. To reduce input workload and enhance output quality, we present an autocomplete system that can help users distribute and align such elements over different domains. Through a brushing interface, users can place and mix a few elements, and let our system automatically populate more elements for the remaining output. Furthermore, aggregate elements often require proper direction/scalar fields for proper arrangements, but fully specifying such fields across entire domains can be difficult or inconvenient for ordinary users. To address this usability challenge, we formulate element fields that can smoothly orient all the elements based on partial user specifications without requiring full input fields in any step. We validate our prototype system with a pilot user study and show applications in design, collage, and modeling.
The risk of viral transmission in feed: What do we know, what do we do?

Abstract The role of animal feed as a vehicle for the transport and transmission of viral diseases was first identified in 2014 during the porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus epidemic in North America. Since the identification of this novel risk factor, scientists have conducted numerous studies to understand its relevance. Over the past few years, the body of scientific evidence supporting the reality of this risk has grown substantially. In addition, numerous papers describing actions and interventions designed to mitigate this risk have been published. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the risk of feed (what do we know) and the protocols developed to reduce this risk (what do we do) in an effort to develop a comprehensive document to raise awareness, facilitate learning, improve the accuracy of risk assessments and to identify knowledge gaps for future studies.
Face validity evaluation of screening tools for gaming disorder: Scope, language, and overpathologizing issues

Abstract Aim Critics of gaming disorder (GD; i.e., Internet gaming disorder in the DSM-5; Gaming disorder in the ICD-11) have expressed concerns about the potential risks of misclassification (e.g., false positives). An important consideration of relevance to this discussion is the extent to which commonly used screening instruments contain appropriate, sensible, and relevant items. The aim of this review was to evaluate the face validity of items within current tools for GD. Methods A systematic review of databases identified 29 instruments. An item bank (n = 417 items) was independently evaluated by three professional raters (i.e., a senior academic in clinical psychology, a senior psychometrician, and an academic/clinical psychologist) according to guidelines for defining and measuring addiction and gaming disorder. Findings Evaluation of the item bank identified issues related to: scope (i.e., “scope creep” or items of questionable relevance); language (i.e., confusing language, unusual wording or syntax); and overpathologizing (i.e., pathologizing typical and/or beneficial aspects or consequences of gaming). A total of 71 items across 23 tools had at least one face validity issue. Conclusions Most items (83%) demonstrated satisfactory face validity and were consistent with either the DSM-5 or ICD-11 GD classification. However, many tests contain at least one item that may pathologize normal gaming behaviors. Such items refer to basic changes in mood when gaming, a desire to play or continue playing games, and experiencing immersion when gaming. This analysis highlights the challenges of screening for problematic behaviors that are thought to arise within the context of normal recreational activities.
Smartphone use motivation and problematic smartphone use in a national representative sample of Chinese adolescents: The mediating roles of smartphone use time for various activities

Abstract Background and aims Previous studies on smartphone use motivation (SUM) and problematic smartphone use (PSU) have been limited in the utilization of regional samples of emerging adults (e.g., college students) and also in the foci on the direct association between SUM and PSU. To address such gaps, using data from a large, national representative sample of Chinese young adolescents and their parents this study examined the associations between adolescents' various types of SUM and their PSU, and also tested the potential mediating roles of smartphone use time (SUT) that adolescents spent on various activities in such associations. Methods A nationwide representative sample of 8,261 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 12.86 years old, SD = 1.76; 42.6% females) and their parents (49% mothers) participated in this survey study. Results Instrumental SUM (i.e., to expand knowledge or acquire information) was associated negatively with PSU via longer SUT spent on learning and shorter SUT spent on entertainment and communication. Self-expression SUM (i.e., to gain acceptance and recognition of others by maintaining or improving self-images) was associated with longer SUT spent on both learning and entertainment, which, in turn, predicted lower and higher levels of PSU, respectively. Last, hedonic SUM (i.e., to gain pleasure) was associated positively with PSU via longer SUT spent on entertainment and communication. Discussion These findings contribute to the literature by adding greater specificity in our understanding of the implications of SUM and SUT in the etiology of PSU during the critical life stage of adolescence in a Chinese cultural context.
The first instar larva of Megascelis puella Lacordaire (Coleoptera: Chrysomedidae: Megascelinae) and its value in the placement of the Megascelinae

Of all of the chrysomelid subfamilies, only the larvae of the Megascelinae, along with those of the Aulacoscelinae remain undescribed. The first instar larva of Megascelis puella Lacordaire from Panama is described, as well as the eggs. Larval characters, eggs and oviposition behaviour are used to relate the Megascelinae with the Eumolpinae in support of what is known to date concerning adult morphology.