A Single Multi-Task Deep Neural Network with a Multi-Scale Feature Aggregation Mechanism for Manipulation Relationship Reasoning in Robotic Grasping

Grasping specific objects in complex and irregularly stacked scenes is still challenging for robotics. Because the robot is not only required to identify the object's grasping posture but also needs to reason the manipulation relationship between the objects. In this paper, we propose a manipulation relationship reasoning network with a multi-scale feature aggregation (MSFA) mechanism for robot grasping tasks. MSFA aggregates high-level semantic information and low-level spatial information in a cross-scale connection way to improve the generalization ability of the model. Furthermore, to improve the accuracy, we propose to use intersection features with rich location priors for manipulation relationship reasoning. Experiments are validated in VMRD datasets and real environments, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method can accurately predict the manipulation relationship between objects in the scene of multi-object stacking. Compared with previous methods, it significantly improves reasoning speed and accuracy

Tuberous Sclerosis complex protein 2-independent activation of mTORC1 by human cytomegalovirus pUL38

The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) controls cell growth and anabolic metabolism and is a critical host factor activated by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) for successful infection. The multifunctional HCMV protein pUL38 previously has been reported to activate mTORC1 by binding to and antagonizing tuberous sclerosis complex protein 2 (TSC2) (J. N. Moorman et al., Cell Host Microbe 3:253–262, 2008, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2008.03.002). pUL38 also plays a role in blocking endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced cell death during HCMV infection. In this study, we showed that a mutant pUL38 lacking the N-terminal 24 amino acids (pHA-UL38(25–331)) was fully functional in suppressing cell death during infection. Interestingly, pHA-UL38(25–331) lost the ability to interact with TSC2 but retained the ability to activate mTORC1, although to a lesser extent than full-length pHA-UL38. Recombinant virus expressing pHA-UL38(25–331) replicated with ∼10-fold less efficiency than the wild-type virus at a low multiplicity of infection (MOI), but it grew similarly well at a high MOI, suggesting an MOI-dependent importance of pUL38-TSC2 interaction in supporting virus propagation. Site-directed mutational analysis identified a TQ motif at amino acid residues 23 and 24 as critical for pUL38 interaction with TSC2. Importantly, when expressed in isolation, the TQ/AA substitution mutant pHA-UL38 TQ/AA was capable of activating mTORC1 just like pHA-UL38(25–331). We also created TSC2-null U373-MG cell lines by CRISPR genome editing and showed that pUL38 was capable of further increasing mTORC1 activity in TSC2-null cells. Therefore, this study identified the residues important for pUL38-TSC2 interaction and demonstrated that pUL38 can activate mTORC1 in both TSC2-dependent and -independent manners. IMPORTANCE HCMV, like other viruses, depends exclusively on its host cell to propagate. Therefore, it has developed methods to protect against host stress responses and to usurp cellular processes to complete its life cycle. mTORC1 is believed to be important for virus replication, and HCMV maintains high mTORC1 activity despite the stressful cellular environment associated with infection. mTORC1 inhibitors suppressed HCMV replication in vitro and reduced the incidence of HCMV reactivation in transplant recipients. We demonstrated that mTORC1 was activated by HCMV protein pUL38 in both TSC2-dependent and TSC2-independent manners. The pUL38-independent mode of mTORC1 activation also has been reported. These novel findings suggest the evolution of sophisticated approaches whereby HCMV activates mTORC1, indicating its importance in the biology and pathogenesis of HCMV

Evaluation of genetic diversity in the golden apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck), from different geographical populations in China by inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR)

The genetic diversity of Pomacea canaliculata, collected from Los Banos (LB) in Philippines and Yuyao (YY), Taizhou (TZ), Fuzhou (FZ), Guangzhou (GZ), Nanning (NN), Kunming (KM) in China, was studied by using the inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) technique. A total of 498 loci from 140 individuals were amplified with four selected ISSR primers and the percentage of polymorphic loci was 87.35%. At the species level, the Nei's gene diversity (H) was 0.3805 and the Shannon information diversity index (I) was 0.5607. A relatively high level of genetic differentiation among populations was detected based on Nei’s gene diversity analysis (Gst = 0.2001) and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) analysis (Φst = 0.0824), indicating the vast majority of genetic variation that occur within the populations. The limited genetic distance (0.0793) and correlation between genetic distance and geographic distance matrices (r = 0.5638, P > 0.5) indicated that, there was no significant geographic heterogeneity among these populations.Key words: Pomacea canaliculata, inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR), genetic diversity, geographical populations

{3,3′-Bis[(anthracen-9-yl)meth­yl]-1,1′-[(ethane-1,2-diyldi­oxy)bis­(ethane-1,2-di­yl)]bis­(imidazol-2-yl­idene)}mercury(II) bis­(hexa­fluoridophosphate) acetonitrile disolvate

In the title compound, [Hg(C42H38N4O2)](PF6)2·2CH3CN, the HgII cation lies on a twofold axis which is also the inter­nal symmetry element of the complete cationic complex. The HgII cation is coordinated by two symmetry-related C(carbene) atoms [Hg—C = 2.058 (9) Å] in a nearly linear geometry, with a C—Hg—C angle of 175.8 (5)°. There are weak inter­molecular C—H⋯F inter­actions in the crystal packing between an F atom of a hexa­fluoridophosphate anion and a –CH2– group of the bis-N-heterocyclic carbene ligand

Design and Application of Exclusive Service App for Rural Elderly

With the further advancement of rural development and the rapid development of mobile Internet, rural service apps have gradually become an important means of promoting rural economic development and improving farmers’ production and living standards. At present, a number of service-type apps with wide applications in the field of rural services have emerged, such as “Planting Master”, “Farming Network”, “Rural Taobao”, etc. However, these apps do not pay special attention to special groups, but only target the majority of young people and office workers. However, these apps do not pay special attention to special groups, but only target the majority of young people and office workers. In order to fill this gap, we have designed a software called Nong’e Tong, which is specially designed for the elderly and other special groups. The software has a simple and beautiful interface, and is easy to use. It not only provides a lot of special functions, but also can link the elderly’s cell phone with their children’s cell phones to check the health and safety of the elderly at any time. Compared to other software, the application has special features for seniors to ensure that they can use the application easily and quickly