Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
"Off Script:" Design Opportunities Emerging from Long-Term Social Robot Interactions In-the-Wild

Social robots are becoming increasingly prevalent in the real world. Unsupervised user interactions in a natural and familiar setting, such as the home, can reveal novel design insights and opportunities. This paper presents an analysis and key design insights from family-robot interactions, captured via on-robot recordings during an unsupervised four-week in-home deployment of an autonomous reading companion robot for children. We analyzed interviews and 160 interaction videos involving six families who regularly interacted with a robot for four weeks. Throughout these interactions, we observed how the robot's expressions facilitated unique interactions with the child, as well as how family members interacted with the robot. In conclusion, we discuss five design opportunities derived from our analysis of natural interactions in the wild.
On Using Social Signals to Enable Flexible Error-Aware HRI

Prior error management techniques often do not possess the versatility to appropriately address robot errors across tasks and scenarios. Their fundamental framework involves explicit, manual error management and implicit domain-specific information driven error management, tailoring their response for specific interaction contexts. We present a framework for approaching error-aware systems by adding implicit social signals as another information channel to create more flexibility in application. To support this notion, we introduce a novel dataset (composed of three data collections) with a focus on understanding natural facial action unit (AU) responses to robot errors during physical-based human-robot interactions---varying across task, error, people, and scenario. Analysis of the dataset reveals that, through the lens of error detection, using AUs as input into error management affords flexibility to the system and has the potential to improve error detection response rate. In addition, we provide an example real-time interactive robot error management system using the error-aware framework.
Neighborhood Weighted Voting-Based Noise Correction for Crowdsourcing

In crowdsourcing scenarios, we can obtain each instance’s multiple noisy labels set from different crowd workers and then use a ground truth inference algorithm to infer its integrated label. Despite the effectiveness of ground truth inference algorithms, a certain level of noise still remains in the integrated labels. To reduce the impact of noise, many noise correction algorithms have been proposed in recent years. To the best of our knowledge, however, nearly all existing noise correction algorithms only exploit each instance’s own multiple noisy label sets but ignore the multiple noisy label sets of its neighbors. Here neighbors refer to the nearest instances found in the feature space based on the distance metric learning. In this article, we propose neighborhood weighted voting-based noise correction (NWVNC). In NWVNC, we at first take advantage of the multiple noisy label sets of each instance’s neighbors (including itself) to estimate the probability that it belongs to its integrated label. Then, we use the estimated probability to identify and filter noise instances and thus obtain a clean set and a noise set. Finally, we train three heterogeneous classifiers on the clean set and correct the noise instances by the consensus voting of three trained classifiers. The experimental results on 34 simulated and two real-world crowdsourced datasets show that NWVNC significantly outperforms all the other state-of-the-art noise correction algorithms used for comparison.
Robotic Mental Well-being Coaches for the Workplace: An In-the-Wild Study on Form

The World Health Organization recommends that employers take action to protect and promote mental well-being at work. However, the extent to which these recommended practices can be implemented in the workplace is limited by the lack of resources and personnel availability. Robots have been shown to have great potential for promoting mental well-being, and the gradual adoption of such assistive technology may allow employers to overcome the aforementioned resource barriers. This paper presents the first study that investigates the deployment and use of two different forms of robotic well-being coaches in the workplace in collaboration with a tech company whose employees (26 coachees) interacted with either a QTrobot (QT ) or a Misty robot (M). We endowed the robots with a coaching personality to deliver positive psychology exercises over four weeks (one exercise per week). Our results show that the robot form significantly impacts coachees' perceptions of the robotic coach in the workplace. Coachees perceived the robotic coach in M more positively than in QT (both in terms of behaviour appropriateness and perceived personality), and they felt more connection with the robotic coach in M. Our study provides valuable insights for robotic well-being coach design and deployment, and contributes to the vision of taking robotic coaches into the real world.
Momentum transfer at the high-latitude magnetopause and boundary layers

How and where momentum is transferred from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and ionosphere is one of the key problems of space physics. Much of this transfer occurs through direct reconnection on the dayside, particularly when the IMF is southward. However, momentum transfer also occurs at higher latitudes via Alfven waves on old open field lines, even for southward IMF. This momentum is transferred to the ionosphere via field-aligned currents (FACs), and the flow channel associated with these FACs produces a Hall current which causes magnetic variations at high latitude (the Svalgaard-Mansurov effect). We show examples where such momentum transfer is observed with multiple spacecraft and ground-based instruments.
Greek : an essential grammar

1. The alphabet and pronunciation 2. The writing system 3. The noun and the noun phrase 4. Pronouns and determiners 5. Numerals 6. The verb and the verb phrase 7. The adverb and the adverbial phrase 8. The preposition and the prepositional phrase 9. Conjunctions and particles 10. The clause 11. Word formation 12. Conversational features Appendices Glossary of grammatical terms. Recommended books for further study. Index of grammatical categories and concepts. Index of Greek words
Fumigant toxicity of some essential oils and eucalyptol on different life stages of Tribolium confusum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

ABSTRACT Essential oils of aromatic plants have a high potential for the development of alternative insect pest management strategies. Especially for the control of stored product pests, alternative methods to replace synthetic insecticides are urgently needed. We evaluate the fumigant toxicity of Myrtus communis, Eucalyptus globulus, Syzygium aromaticum, Thymus saturejoides essential oils, and the main natural compound of two of them, eucalyptol, on different life stages of the confused flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) under laboratory conditions. Whereas eucalyptol and the essential oils of M. communis and E. globulus have rather strong toxic effects on all developmental stages, apart from the eggs of T. confusum, the essential oil of S. aromaticum caused the highest egg toxicity. Our results indicate that eucalyptol or essential oils containing large amounts of this compound might be efficient as potential alternative control agents for T. confusum, but tests under more natural conditions need to be performed.
The Role of Social and Psychological Factors in Radiation Protection after Accidents

The inclusion of social and psychological factors in the justification and optimisation of intervention after an accident requires identification of the relevant factors and their appropriate quantification. Recent studies suggest a possible approach. Some social and psychological factors either influence the consequences of radiation protection countermeasures, or are direct consequences of those measures. Such factors can be grouped into those that alter the dose-effectiveness of a countermeasure, those that extend the need for countermeasures in time or space, and those that fall into neither of the first two categories. Factors of the first two types can be quantified in terms of changes to the anticipated averted dose and monetary cost of a countermeasure. Quantification of the third type is currently difficult, but the existence of structural models for applications in social psychology suggests that such models could be developed for radiation protection in the future.
Relationship between Noncausal Linear Periodically Time-Varying Scaling and Causal Linear Time-Invariant Scaling for Discrete-Time Systems

Abstract In this paper, we discuss the relationship between noncausal linear periodically time-varying (LPTV) scaling and causal linear time-invariant (LTI) scaling against discrete-time LTI closed-loop system. Noncausal LPTV scaling is naturally introduced via lifting technique, and can induce some frequency-dependent scaling in the lifting-free (i.e., usual) framework. However, it has not been clear what classes of noncausal LPTV scaling and causal LTI scaling have equivalent abilities in their respective frameworks. It is an important issue for sophisticating the theoretical base of noncausal LPTV scaling, and this paper studies such a relationship.
Laminar Specificity of the Auditory Perceptual Awareness Negativity: A Biophysical Modeling Study

How perception of sensory stimuli emerges from brain activity is a fundamental question of neuroscience. To date, two disparate lines of research have examined this question. On one hand, human neuroimaging studies have helped us understand the large-scale brain dynamics of perception. On the other hand, work in animal models (mice, typically) has led to fundamental insight into the micro-scale neural circuits underlying perception. However, translating such fundamental insight from animal models to humans has been challenging. Here, using biophysical modeling, we show that the auditory awareness negativity (AAN), an evoked response associated with perception of target sounds in noise, can be accounted for by synaptic input to the supragranular layers of auditory cortex (AC) that is present when target sounds are heard but absent when they are missed. This additional input likely arises from cortico-cortical feedback and/or non-lemniscal thalamic projections and targets the apical dendrites of layer-V pyramidal neurons (PNs). In turn, this leads to increased local field potential activity, increased spiking activity in layer-V PNs, and the AAN. The results are consistent with current cellular models of conscious processing and help bridge the gap between the macro and micro levels of perception-related brain activity. Author Summary To date, our understanding of the brain basis of conscious perception has mostly been restricted to large-scale, network-level activity that can be measured non-invasively in human subjects. However, we lack understanding of how such network-level activity is supported by individual neurons and neural circuits. This is at least partially because conscious perception is difficult to study in experimental animals, where such detailed characterization of neural activity is possible. To address this gap, we used biophysical modeling to gain circuit-level insight into an auditory brain response known as the auditory awareness negativity (AAN). This response can be recorded non-invasively in humans and is associated with perceptual awareness of sounds of interest. Our model shows that the AAN likely arises from specific cortical layers and cell types. These data help bridge the gap between circuit- and network-level theories of consciousness, and could lead to new, targeted treatments for perceptual dysfunction and disorders of consciousness.
Genomic evidence reveals three sequential W-autosome fusions in Heliconius butterflies

Sex chromosomes are evolutionarily labile in many animals and sometimes fuse with autosomes, creating so-called neo-sex chromosomes. Fusions between sex chromosomes and autosomes have been proposed to reduce sexual conflict and to promote adaptation and reproductive isolation among species. Recently, advances in genomics have fuelled the discovery of such fusions across the tree of life. Here, we discovered multiple fusions leading to neo-sex chromosomes in the sara/sapho clade of the classical adaptive radiation of Heliconius butterflies. Heliconius butterflies generally have 21 chromosomes with very high synteny. However, the five species in the sapho subclade show large variation in chromosome number ranging from 21 to 60. We found that the W chromosome is fused with chromosome 4 in all of them. Two sister species pairs showed subsequent fusions between the W and chromosomes 9 or 14, respectively. These sequential fusions between autosomes and sex chromosomes make Heliconius butterflies an ideal system for studying the role of neo-sex chromosomes in adaptive radiations and the degeneration of sex chromosomes over time. Our findings emphasize the capability of WGS technology to detect neo-sex chromosomes even when sex chromosomes are not explicitly assembled. Author Summary Fusions between sex chromosomes and autosomes are thought to have the potential to resolve sexual conflict and enhance local adaptation or reproductive isolation between species. Here, we discovered such fusions in Heliconius butterflies. Heliconius butterflies mostly have a very stable karyotype with 21 chromosomes and high synteny across species. However, the five species in the sapho subclade have up to 60 chromosomes, suggesting that they have undergone many chromosomal fissions. We document that in addition to the fissions, the sapho subclade also showed multiple fusions between the female-specific sex chromosome (W) and autosomes. We found a W-4 fusion shared by all five species and additional W fusions with chromosomes 9 and 14 shared by two species each. Even though in many sapho subclade species the autosomes have undergone fissions, the chromosomes fused with the W represent the full-length autosomes, as seen in other Heliconius species, suggesting that fusing to the W protected them from fissions. Our study reveals the power of short-read sequencing to discover neo-sex chromosomes and showcases Heliconius butterflies as a promising system for studying the causes and consequences of sex chromosome evolution.
The commensal protist Tritrichomonas musculus exhibits a dynamic life cycle that induces extensive remodeling of the gut microbiota

Commensal protists and gut bacterial communities exhibit complex relationships, mediated at least in part through host immunity. To improve our understanding of this tripartite interplay, we investigated community and functional dynamics between the murine protist Tritrichomonas musculus (T. mu) and intestinal bacteria in healthy and B cell-deficient mice. We identified dramatic, protist-driven remodeling of resident microbiome growth and activities, in parallel with T. mu functional changes, accelerated in the absence of B cells. Metatranscriptomic data revealed nutrient-based competition between bacteria and the protist. Single cell transcriptomics identified distinct T. mu life stages, providing new evidence for trichomonad sexual replication and the formation of pseudocysts. Unique cell states were validated in situ through microscopy and flow cytometry. Our results reveal complex microbial dynamics during the establishment of a commensal protist in the gut, and provide valuable datasets to drive future mechanistic studies.
Uracil Repair - A Source of DNA Glycosylase Dependent Genome Instability

Uracil DNA glycosylases (UDGs) excise uracil from DNA arising from dUMP misincorporation during replication or from cytosine deamination. Besides functioning in canonical uracil repair, UDGs cooperate with DNA base modifying enzymes to effect mutagenesis or DNA demethylation. Mammalian cells express four UDGs, the functional dissection of which represents a challenge. Here, we used Schizosaccharomyces pombe with only two UDGs, Ung1 and Thp1, as a simpler model to study functional interactions in uracil repair. We show that despite a predominance of Ung1 activity in cell extracts, both UDGs act redundantly against genomic uracil accumulation and mutations from cytosine deamination in cells. Notably, Thp1 but not Ung1-dependent repair is cytotoxic under genomic uracil stress induced by 5-fluorouracil exposure or AID expression. Also, Thp1-but not Ung1-mediated base excision is recombinogenic, accounting for more than 60% of spontaneous mitotic recombination events in a recombination assay. Hence, the qualitative outcome of uracil repair depends on the initiating UDG; while Ung1 shows expected features of a bona-fide DNA repair enzyme, Thp1-initiated repair appears slow and rather non-productive, suggesting a function beyond canonical DNA repair. Given the epigenetic role of TDGs, the mammalian orthologs of Thp1, we performed transcriptome analyses and identified a possible function of Thp1 in stabilizing gene expression.
Loss of Gasdermin D is protective against influenza virus-induced inflammation and mortality

Influenza A virus activates cellular inflammasome pathways, though it remains unknown whether many of the effector proteins downstream of inflammasome activation promote virus clearance or instead promote pathological inflammation. We investigated the role of gasdermin D (GSDMD), a pore-forming inflammasome effector protein that allows cellular release of inflammatory molecules and eventual pyroptotic lysis of cells. GSDMD knockout (KO) mice infected with influenza virus exhibited reduced weight loss and mortality compared to infected wild type (WT) mice. Lung viral titers were similar between genotypes, indicating that GSDMD does not directly affect virus replication. Instead, we observed that GSDMD KO mice had less severe lung inflammation, histopathology, and immune cell infiltration, suggesting that GSDMD promotes tissue-damaging immune responses following infection. Global transcriptomic analysis revealed significant decreases in specific inflammatory gene programs in GSDMD KO lungs, including decreased neutrophil chemotaxis and activation gene signatures, which were confirmed by decreased neutrophil elastase measurements and decreased neutrophil numbers in the lung. Indeed, exogenous depletion of neutrophils starting at day 3 post infection in WT mice recapitulated the protective phenotype observed in GSDMD KO mice, implicating neutrophils as central players in the GSDMD-dependent pathological response to influenza virus. Overall, these findings reveal an important role for GSDMD during influenza virus-induced lung inflammation, pathogenesis, and neutrophil accumulation. Therapeutic interventions targeting the GSDMD/neutrophil axis may provide an effective means to treat severe influenza virus infection.
Vaccination with mycobacterial lipid loaded nanoparticle leads to lipid antigen persistence and memory differentiation of antigen-specific T cells

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection elicits both protein and lipid antigen-specific T cell responses. However, the incorporation of lipid antigens into subunit vaccine strategies and formulations has been underexplored, and the characteristics of vaccine-induced Mtb lipid-specific memory T cells have remained elusive. Mycolic acid (MA), a major lipid component of the Mtb cell wall, is presented by human CD1b molecules to unconventional T cell subsets. These MA-specific CD1b-restricted T cells have been detected in the blood and disease sites of Mtb-infected individuals, suggesting that MA is a promising lipid antigen for incorporation into multicomponent subunit vaccines. In this study, we utilized the enhanced stability of bicontinuous nanospheres (BCN) to efficiently encapsulate MA for in vivo delivery to MA-specific T cells, both alone and in combination with an immunodominant Mtb protein antigen (Ag85B). Pulmonary administration of MA-loaded BCN (MA-BCN) elicited MA-specific T cell responses in humanized CD1 transgenic mice. Simultaneous delivery of MA and Ag85B within BCN activated both MA- and Ag85B-specific T cells. Notably, pulmonary vaccination with MA-Ag85B-BCN resulted in the persistence of MA, but not Ag85B, within alveolar macrophages in the lung. Vaccination of MA-BCN through intravenous or subcutaneous route, or with attenuated Mtb likewise reproduced MA persistence. Moreover, MA-specific T cells in MA-BCN-vaccinated mice differentiated into a T follicular helper-like phenotype. Overall, the BCN platform allows for the dual encapsulation and in vivo activation of lipid and protein antigen-specific T cells and leads to persistent lipid depots that could offer long-lasting immune responses.
MeC3HDZ1/MeCNA is a strong candidate for cassava storage root productivity improvement

The storage root (SR) of cassava is the main staple food in sub-Saharan Africa, where it feeds over 500 million people. However, little is known about the genetic and molecular regulation underlying its development. Unraveling such regulation would pave the way for biotechnology approaches aimed at enhancing cassava productivity. Anatomical studies indicate that SR development relies on the massive accumulation of xylem parenchyma, a cell-type derived from the vascular cambium. The C3HDZ family of transcription factors regulate cambial cells proliferation and xylem differentiation in Arabidopsis and other species. We thus aimed at identifying C3HDZ proteins in cassava and determining whether any of them shows preferential activity in the SR cambium and/or xylem. Using phylogeny and synteny studies, we identified eight C3HDZ proteins in cassava, namely MeCH3DZ1-8. We observed that the expression of MeC3HDZ1 in SR cambium and xylem is higher than that of any other MeC3HDZ gene in any of the SR vascular tissues or any of the other vegetative organs. We established an in-silico pipeline which revealed the existence of a number of theoretical C3HDZ targets displaying significant preferential expression in the SR. Subsequent Y1H analyses proved that MeC3HDZ1 can bind canonical C3HDZ binding sites in the promoters of these targets. Transactivation assays demonstrated that MeC3HDZ1 can regulate the expression of genes downstream of promoters harboring such binding sites, thereby demonstrating that MeC3HDZ1 is a C3HDZ transcription factor which constitutes a strong candidate for future biotechnology strategies directed at increasing cassava productivity.
Revealing unexpected complex encoding but simple decoding mechanisms in motor cortex via separating behaviorally relevant neural signals

In motor cortex, behaviorally-relevant neural responses are entangled with irrelevant signals, which complicates the study of encoding and decoding mechanisms. It remains unclear whether behaviorally-irrelevant signals could conceal some critical truth. One solution is to accurately separate behaviorally-relevant and irrelevant signals, but this approach remains elusive due to the unknown ground truth of behaviorally-relevant signals. Therefore, we propose a framework to define, extract, and validate behaviorally-relevant signals. Analyzing separated signals in three monkeys performing different reaching tasks, we found neural responses previously considered useless encode rich behavioral information in complex nonlinear ways. These responses are critical for neuronal redundancy and reveal movement behaviors occupy a higher-dimensional neural space than previously expected. Surprisingly, when incorporating often-ignored neural dimensions, behavioral information can be decoded linearly as accurately as nonlinear decoding, suggesting linear readout is performed in motor cortex. Our findings prompt that separating behaviorally-relevant signals may help uncover more hidden cortical mechanisms.