Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autonomous Marker-Less Rapid Aerial Grasping

In a future with autonomous robots, visual and spatial perception is of utmost importance for robotic systems. Particularly for aerial robotics, there are many applications where utilizing visual perception is necessary for any real-world scenarios. Robotic aerial grasping using drones promises fast pick-and-place solutions with a large increase in mobility over other robotic solutions. Utilizing Mask R-CNN scene segmentation (detectron2), we propose a vision-based system for autonomous rapid aerial grasping which does not rely on mark-ers for object localization and does not require the appearance of the object to be previously known. Combining segmented images with spatial information from a depth camera, we generate a dense point cloud of the detected objects and perform geometry - based grasp planning to determine grasping points on the objects. In real-world experiments on a dynamically grasping aerial platform, we show that our system can replicate the performance of a motion capture system for object local-ization up to 94.5 % of the baseline grasping success rate. With our results, we show the first use of geometry-based grasping techniques with a flying platform and aim to increase the autonomy of existing aerial manipulation platforms, bringing them further towards real-world applications in warehouses and similar environments. ††Code: https://github.com/srl-ethz/detectron-realsense
Measuring solar spectral and angle-of-incidence effects on photovoltaic modules and solar irradiance sensors

Historically, two time-of-day dependent factors have complicated the characterization of photovoltaic module and array performance; namely, changes in the solar spectrum over the day and optical effects in the module that vary with the solar angle-of-incidence. This paper describes straightforward methods for directly measuring the effects of these two factors. Measured results for commercial modules, as well as for typical solar irradiance sensors (pyranometers) are provided. The empirical relationships obtained from the measurements can be used to improve the methods used for system design, verification of performance after installation, and diagnostic monitoring of performance during operation.
Non‐interventional, prospective, observational study on spasticity‐associated symptom control with nabiximols as add‐on therapy in patients with multiple sclerosis spasticity in Austria

Randomized controlled trials and observational studies of nabiximols oromucosal spray in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) spasticity have shown improvement in a range of associated symptoms (pain, spasms, fatigue, bladder dysfunction, and sleep disturbances). This study evaluated the effectiveness and tolerability of add‐on nabiximols in the routine management of patients with MS spasticity in Austria, with a focus on spasticity‐associated symptoms.
Long‐term outcomes in Hodgkin lymphoma survivors. Temporary trends and comparison with general population

The high cure rates of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) make this oncological disease among those with the greatest number of long‐term survivors. This single‐institution study including 383 HL patients with up to 45 years of follow‐up, analyses the morbidity and mortality of this population after treatments in comparison with the overall Spanish population, and investigates whether it has changed over time stratifying by periods of time, as a consequence of therapeutic optimization. The median age was 34.8 years (range 15–87) with median overall survival of 30 years, significantly higher in women (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.42–0.79) (p = 0.0002). 185 late‐stage diseases were noted (35% patients), cardiovascular disease (CVD) being the most frequent (23.2%). 30% of patients developed at least one second malignant neoplasm (SMN) to give a total of 174 SMNs. 20.9% of the patients died from HL and 67.0% died from non‐HL causes (32.2% from SMN, 17% from CVD). The overall standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was 3.57 (95% CI: 3.0–4.2), with striking values of 7.73 (95% CI: 5.02–8.69) and of 14.75 (95% CI: 11.38–19.12) for women and patients <30 years at diagnosis, respectively. Excluding HL as the cause of death, the SMRs of those diagnosed before 2000 and from 2000 were proved to be similar (3.88 vs 2.73), maintaining in this last period an unacceptable excess of mortality due to secondary toxicity in patients cured of HL. Our study confirm that HL treatment substantially reduces the life expectancy of patients cured of HL. In recent periods, despite therapeutic optimization, deaths from toxicity continue to occur, mainly from CVD and SMN. Risk‐factor monitoring should be intensified, prevention programs developed, and therapeutic optimization of LH investigated, especially in two vulnerable groups: those aged <30 years at diagnosis, and women.
A single‐cell gene expression atlas of human follicular aspirates: Identification of leukocyte subpopulations and their paracrine factors

Leukocytes are in situ regulators critical for ovarian function. However, little is known about leukocyte subpopulations and their interaction with follicular cells in ovulatory follicles, especially in humans. Single‐cell RNA sequencing (scRNA‐seq) was performed using follicular aspirates obtained from four IVF patients and identified 13 cell groups: one granulosa cell group, one thecal cell group, 10 subsets of leukocytes, and one group of RBC/platelet. RNA velocity analyses on five granulosa cell populations predicted developmental dynamics denoting two projections of differentiation states. The cell type‐specific transcriptomic profiling analyses revealed the presence of a diverse array of leukocyte‐derived factors that can directly impact granulosa cell function by activating their receptors (e.g., cytokines and secretory ligands) and are involved in tissue remodeling (e.g., MMPs, ADAMs, ADAMTSs, and TIMPs) and angiogenesis (e.g., VEGFs, PGF, FGF, IGF, and THBS1) in ovulatory follicles. Consistent with the findings from the scRNA‐seq data, the leukocyte‐specific expression of CD68, IL1B, and MMP9 was verified in follicle tissues collected before and at defined hours after hCG administration from regularly cycling women. Collectively, this study demonstrates that this data can be used as an invaluable resource for identifying important leukocyte‐derived factors that promote follicular cell function, thereby facilitating ovulation and luteinization in women.
Misunderstandings and misinterpretations: Antimicrobial use and resistance in salmon aquaculture

Abstract The exponential growth of aquaculture over the past 30 years has been accompanied by a parallel increase in the use of antimicrobials. This widespread use has had negative effects on animal, human and environmental health and affected the biodiversity of the environments where aquaculture takes place. Results showing these harmful effects have been resisted and made light of by the aquaculture industry and their scientific supporters through introduction of misunderstandings and misinterpretations of concepts developed in the evolution, genetics, and molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance. We focus on a few of the most obvious scientific shortcomings and biases of two recent attempts to minimise the negative impacts of excessive antimicrobial use in Chilean salmon aquaculture on human and piscine health and on the environment. Such open debate is critical to timely implementation of effective regulation of antimicrobial usage in salmon aquaculture in Chile, if the negative local and worldwide impacts of this usage are to be avoided.
Direct evidence for a bar at the Galactic center

The bar at the center of the Milky Way, long postulated from a number of different studies, is unambiguously detected in the 2.4 μm observations of the Galactic center of Matsumoto et al. We model the emission from a triaxial stellar bar and describe its distinctive signature. This signature is found in the data. The near side of the bar is in the first Galactic quadrant and the bar is tilted with respect to the Galactic plane in a sense consistent with the work of Sinha and of Liszt and Burton, who first proposed a tilted bar to explain the kinematics of the HI and CO at the Galactic center.
Unraveling the connection between calreticulin and myeloproliferative neoplasms via calcium signaling

Mutations in the form of insertions and deletions (INDEL) in the calreticulin gene lead to essential thrombocythemia (ET) which is characterized by the formation of thrombosis. However, the connection between calreticulin INDEL and ET remains largely elusive. Through combined molecular dynamics simulation, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and calcium imaging studies on the wild type and mutated isoforms of calreticulin, the mechanism underlying the calreticulin INDEL induced ET was investigated at the molecular level. Our results demonstrate that mutations in exon‐9 could lead to significant conformational variations of calreticulin structure and thereby reducing its interaction with calcium ions due to decreased electrostatic contributions. The consequence of mutations on calreticulin's structural integrity was revealed by identifying the key residues and their roles in calcium binding. Furthermore, mutations implemented by CRISPR‐Cas9 in exon‐9 showed diminished calcium signaling in HEK‐293T cells, which agree well with our in‐silico findings. The current study might help in understanding the variations of molecular interactions between calreticulin's exon‐9 and calcium ions during physiological and pathological conditions. The results might also provide useful information for designing novel therapeutic approaches targeting ET.
Identification of a homozygous frameshift mutation in the FGF3 gene in a consanguineous Iranian family: First report of labyrinthine aplasia, microtia, and microdontia syndrome in Iran and literature review

To date, over 400 syndromes with hearing impairment have been identified which altogether constitute almost 30% of hereditary hearing loss (HL) cases around the globe. Manifested as complete or partial labyrinthine aplasia (severe malformations of the inner ear structure), type I microtia (smaller outer ear with shortened auricles), and microdontia (small and widely spaced teeth), labyrinthine aplasia, microtia, and microdontia (LAMM) syndrome (OMIM 610706) is an extremely rare autosomal recessive condition caused by bi‐allelic mutations in the FGF3 gene.
RNA-seq analysis of skeletal muscle in motor neurone disease cases and controls

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most predominant form of Motor Neuron Disease (MND), is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative condition that spreads throughout the neuromotor system by afflicting upper and lower motor neurons. Lower motor neurons project from the central nervous system and innervate muscle fibres at motor endplates, which degrade over the course of the disease leading to muscle weakness. The direction of neurodegeration from or to the point of neuromuscular junctions and the role of muscle itself in pathogenesis has continued to be a topic of debate in ALS research. Methods: To assess the variation in gene expression between affected and nonaffected muscle tissue that might lead to this local degeneration of motor units, we generated RNA-seq skeletal muscle transcriptomes from 28 MND cases and 18 healthy controls and conducted differential expression analyses on gene-level counts, as well as an isoform switching analysis on isoform-level counts. Results: We identified 52 differentially-expressed genes (Benjamini-Hochberg-adjusted p<0.05) within this comparison, including 38 protein coding, 9 long non-coding RNA, and 5 pseudogenes. Of protein-coding genes, 31 were upregulated in cases including with notable genes including the collagenic COL25A1 (p=3.1x10-10), SAA1 which is released in response to tissue injury (p=3.6x10-5) as well as others of the SAA family, and the actin-encoding ACTC1 (p=2.3x10-5). Additionally, we identified 17 genes which exhibited a functional isoform switch with likely functional consequences between cases and controls. Conclusions: Our analyses provide evidence of increased tissue generation in MND cases, which likely serve to compensate for the degeneration of motor units and skeletal muscle.
Evolutionary game theory and the adaptive dynamics approach: adaptation where individuals interact

Evolutionary game theory and the adaptive dynamics approach have made invaluable contributions to understanding how gradual evolution leads to adaptation when individuals interact. Here, we review some of the basic tools that have come out of these contributions to model the evolution of quantitative traits in complex populations. We collect together mathematical expressions that describe directional and disruptive selection in class- and group-structured populations in terms of individual fitness, with the aims of bridging different models and interpreting selection. In particular, our review of disruptive selection suggests there are two main paths that can lead to diversity: (i) when individual fitness increases more than linearly with trait expression; (ii) when trait expression simultaneously increases the probability that an individual is in a certain context (e.g. a given age, sex, habitat, size or social environment) and fitness in that context. We provide various examples of these and more broadly argue that population structure lays the ground for the emergence of polymorphism with unique characteristics. Beyond this, we hope that the descriptions of selection we present here help see the tight links among fundamental branches of evolutionary biology, from life history to social evolution through evolutionary ecology, and thus favour further their integration. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Half a century of evolutionary games: a synthesis of theory, application and future directions’.
Evolutionary game theory of continuous traits from a causal perspective

Modern evolutionary game theory typically deals with the evolution of continuous, quantitative traits under weak selection, allowing the incorporation of rich biological detail and complicated nonlinear interactions. While these models are commonly used to find candidates for evolutionary endpoints and to approximate evolutionary trajectories, a less appreciated property is their potential to expose and clarify the causal structure of evolutionary processes. The mathematical step of differentiation breaks a nonlinear model into additive components which are more intuitive to interpret, and when combined with a proper causal hypothesis, partial derivatives in such models have a causal meaning. Such an approach has been used in the causal analysis of game-theoretical models in an informal manner. Here we formalize this approach by linking evolutionary game theory to concepts developed in causal modelling over the past century, from path coefficients to the recently proposed causal derivative. There is a direct correspondence between the causal derivative and the derivative used in evolutionary game theory. Some game theoretical models (e.g. kin selection) consist of multiple causal derivatives. Components of these derivatives correspond to components of the causal derivative, to path coefficients, and to edges on a causal graph, formally linking evolutionary game theory to causal modelling. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Half a century of evolutionary games: a synthesis of theory, application and future directions’.
Nocturnal activity and behaviour of the elusive bushy-tailed opossum (Glironia Venusta)

Abstract The bushy-tailed opossum (Glironia venusta) is a small arboreal marsupial found in the Amazon basin. G. venusta is rarely seen and has few published sightings throughout its range. Videos (N = 79) were obtained from arboreal camera traps located in the Las Piedras Amazon Center near the Las Piedras River (SE Peru) from April 2017 until November 2017. Our new records, the first for the Las Piedras River, demonstrate that the species is nocturnal with activity peaks at 3:00 h and 20:00 h in the hours of complete darkness. The abundance of camera trap footage of such a rarely observed species further demonstrates the effectiveness of arboreal camera trapping to conduct species assessments.
Inclusive Community Aquatics Programming for Children with Developmental Challenges: A Community Participatory Action Research

Abstract:Background: Children who are neurodiverse have traditionally been segregated from their peers in community-based programs, despite evidence of health benefits of inclusive education.Objectives: This community-initiated project aims to explore barriers and facilitators to inclusive aquatics programming for children with developmental and/or mental health challenges.Methods: Using a participatory-action research methodology, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 14 participants from various stakeholder groups, including parents of children who are neurodiverse, helping professionals, and community programmers.Results: Participants described unique definitions of inclusion, from integration with neurotypical peers, to individualized goal-setting and achievement. Major facilitators include adequate resources, flexibility around accommodations, and motivated staff. Major barriers include social stigma, financial limitations, and lack of communication between caregivers and service providers.Conclusions: Participants felt strongly about the need to improve inclusion practices within aquatics—and other community-based—programs. Increased collaboration between families, community programmers, and helping professionals can foster better inclusion and outcomes for children who are neurodiverse. By incorporating various perspectives into the design of future programs, program administrators can ensure more equitable access such that all children are able to participate.
Mechanical properties of weak optical fibers

Strength measurements with a broad spectrum (from less than 2 GPa to more than 5 GPa), at different stress-rates have been analyzed. The number of samples for each stress-rate was large (200). For each stress-rate, two straight lines, one for high and the other for low fracture strength can fit the strength data in a Weibull diagram. Intersection of both lines depends strongly on stress-rate. In order to obtain the strength and fatigue behavior for several strengths, the data for each stress-rate were divided in six group of data points by considering different ranges of probability (i.e., inert strength). Good linear fittings are obtained in Weibull diagrams for most groups. The fatigue parameter n is larger for the lowest and highest strength groups (n equals 22) and decreases for the middle groups (lowest n equals 15). In the lowest strength group, a large deviation from the linear fitting is observed, mainly for the lowest strength points. This behavior suggests the operation of some random mechanism.
MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS IN THE NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTAL MATRIX AROUND A SPHERICAL COLLOID PARTICLE

We use a Monte Carlo algorithm to simulate the director field around a spherical inclusion in a uniform nematic liquid crystal matrix. The resulting structure crucially depends on the relative strength of the nematic bulk elasticity and the director anchoring on the particle surface. When this anchoring is weak, the director field perturbations are small and have quadrupolar symmetry. With increasing strength of anchoring two topologically nontrivial situations are possible: a dipolar configuration with a satellite point defect ~hedgehog ! near the particle pole, or a quadrupolar configuration with a ‘‘Saturn ring’’ of disclination around the particle equator. @S1063-651X~97! 01311-1#
Root system growth and function response to soil temperature in maize (Zea mays L.)

Crop adaptation to the mixture of environments that defines the target population of environments is the result from a balanced resource allocation between roots, shoots and reproductive organs. Root growth places a critical role in the determination of this balance. Root growth and function responses to temperature can determine the strength of roots as sinks but also influence the crop’s ability to uptake water and nutrients. Surprisingly, this behavior has not been studied in maize since the middle of the last century, and the genetic determinants are unknown. Low temperatures often recorded in deep soil layers limit root growth and soil exploration and may constitute a bottleneck towards increasing drought tolerance, nitrogen recovery, sequestration of carbon and productivity in maize. High throughput phenotyping (HTP) systems were developed to investigate these responses and to examine genetic variability therein across diverse maize germplasm. Here we show that there is: 1) genetic variation of root growth under low temperature and below 10°C, and 2) genotypic variation in water transport under low temperature. Using simulation, we demonstrate that the measured variation for both traits contribute to drought tolerance and explain important components of yield variation in the US corn-belt. The trait set examined herein and HTP platform developed for its characterization reveal a unique opportunity to remove a major bottleneck for crop improvement, and adaptation to climate change.
A micromachined optical double well for thermo-optic switching via resonant tunneling effect

This letter presents the thermo-optic switching characteristics of an optical double-well structure, which has a high-low-high-low-high refractive index construct formed by micromachined silicon prisms and air gaps. Analysis shows such structure features full transmission (i.e., on state) and requires low refractive index change for switching function. The device is fabricated on silicon-on-isolator wafer using deep etching process. In experiment, it measures a switching speed of 1μs and an extinction ratio of 30dB. Compared with the other micromachined switches, this device utilizes different physical principle and processes various merits such as fast switching speed and low power consumption.
Division of labor promotes the entrenchment of multicellularity

Simple multicellularity evolves readily in diverse unicellular species, but nascent multicellular groups are prone to reversion to unicellularity. Successful transitions to multicellularity therefore require subsequent mutations that promote the entrenchment of the higher-level unit, stabilizing it through time. Here we explore the causes of entrenchment using digital evolution. When faced with a trade-off between cellular metabolic productivity and information fidelity, digital “multicells” often evolve reproductive division of labor. Because digital “unicells” cannot circumvent this trade-off, unicellular revertants tend to exhibit low fitness relative to their differentiated multicellular ancestors. Thus, division of labor can drive the entrenchment of multicellularity. More generally, division of labor may play a crucial role in major transitions, enriching the complexity and functionality of higher-level units while enhancing their evolutionary stability.