541 research outputs found
Algorithms to automatically quantify the geometric similarity of anatomical surfaces
We describe new approaches for distances between pairs of 2-dimensional
surfaces (embedded in 3-dimensional space) that use local structures and global
information contained in inter-structure geometric relationships. We present
algorithms to automatically determine these distances as well as geometric
correspondences. This is motivated by the aspiration of students of natural
science to understand the continuity of form that unites the diversity of life.
At present, scientists using physical traits to study evolutionary
relationships among living and extinct animals analyze data extracted from
carefully defined anatomical correspondence points (landmarks). Identifying and
recording these landmarks is time consuming and can be done accurately only by
trained morphologists. This renders these studies inaccessible to
non-morphologists, and causes phenomics to lag behind genomics in elucidating
evolutionary patterns. Unlike other algorithms presented for morphological
correspondences our approach does not require any preliminary marking of
special features or landmarks by the user. It also differs from other seminal
work in computational geometry in that our algorithms are polynomial in nature
and thus faster, making pairwise comparisons feasible for significantly larger
numbers of digitized surfaces. We illustrate our approach using three datasets
representing teeth and different bones of primates and humans, and show that it
leads to highly accurate results.Comment: Changes with respect to v1, v2: an Erratum was added, correcting the
references for one of the three datasets. Note that the datasets and code for
this paper can be obtained from the Data Conservancy (see Download column on
v1, v2
A scaling law for the cosmological constant from a stochastic model for cosmic structures
A set of scaling laws, based on the stochastic motions of the granular
components of astronomical systems, is applied to a cosmological model with a
positive cosmological constant. It follows that the mass of the dominant
particle in the observable universe must be proportional to the sixth root of
the cosmological constant and of the order of the nucleon mass, which is
consistent with the Zeldovich scaling law. The approach is a natural way to
solve the cosmic coincidence problem. On the other hand, the observed value of
the cosmological constant emerges as the result of a scaling law induced by the
stochastic mechanism which gives rise to the gravitationally bound systems.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Text2Shape: Generating Shapes from Natural Language by Learning Joint Embeddings
We present a method for generating colored 3D shapes from natural language.
To this end, we first learn joint embeddings of freeform text descriptions and
colored 3D shapes. Our model combines and extends learning by association and
metric learning approaches to learn implicit cross-modal connections, and
produces a joint representation that captures the many-to-many relations
between language and physical properties of 3D shapes such as color and shape.
To evaluate our approach, we collect a large dataset of natural language
descriptions for physical 3D objects in the ShapeNet dataset. With this learned
joint embedding we demonstrate text-to-shape retrieval that outperforms
baseline approaches. Using our embeddings with a novel conditional Wasserstein
GAN framework, we generate colored 3D shapes from text. Our method is the first
to connect natural language text with realistic 3D objects exhibiting rich
variations in color, texture, and shape detail. See video at
https://youtu.be/zraPvRdl13
Comparative Investigations of Social Context-Dependent Dominance in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Wild Tibetan Macaques (Macaca thibetana)
Theoretical definitions of dominance, how dominance is structured and organized in nature, and how dominance is measured have varied as investigators seek to classify and organize social systems in gregarious species. Given the variability in behavioral measures and statistical methods used to derive dominance rankings, we conducted a comparative analysis of dominance using existing statistical techniques to analyze dominance ranks, social context-dependent dominance structures, the reliability of statistical analyses, and rank predictability of dominance structures on other social behaviors. We investigated these topics using behavioral data from captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and wild Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana). We used a combination of all-occurrence, focal-animal, and instantaneous scan sampling to collect social, agonistic, and associative data from both species. We analyzed our data to derive dominance ranks, test rank reliability, and assess cross-context predictability using various statistical analyses. Our results indicate context-dependent dominance and individual social roles in the captive chimpanzee group, one broadly defined dominance structure in the Tibetan macaque group, and high within-context analysis reliability but little cross-context predictability. Overall, we suggest this approach is preferable over investigations of dominance where only a few behavioral metrics and statistical analyses are utilized with little consideration of rank reliability or cross-context predictability
A stem-cell-derived platform enables complete Cryptosporidium development in vitro and genetic tractability
Despite being a frequent cause of severe diarrheal disease in infants and an opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients, Cryptosporidium research has lagged due to a lack of facile experimental methods. Here, we describe a platform for complete life cycle development and long-term growth of C. parvum in vitro using air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures derived from intestinal epithelial stem cells. Transcriptomic profiling revealed that differentiating epithelial cells grown under ALI conditions undergo profound changes in metabolism and development that enable completion of the parasite life cycle in vitro. ALI cultures support parasite expansion \u3e 100-fold and generate viable oocysts that are transmissible in vitro and to mice, causing infection and animal death. Transgenic parasite lines created using CRISPR/Cas9 were used to complete a genetic cross in vitro, demonstrating Mendelian segregation of chromosomes during meiosis. ALI culture provides an accessible model that will enable innovative studies into Cryptosporidium biology and host interactions
The thermodynamic evolution of the cosmological event horizon
By manipulating the integral expression for the proper radius of the
cosmological event horizon (CEH) in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW)
universe, we obtain an analytical expression for the change \dd R_e in
response to a uniform fluctuation \dd\rho in the average cosmic background
density . We stipulate that the fluctuation arises within a vanishing
interval of proper time, during which the CEH is approximately stationary, and
evolves subsequently such that \dd\rho/\rho is constant. The respective
variations 2\pi R_e \dd R_e and \dd E_e in the horizon entropy and
enclosed energy should be therefore related through the cosmological
Clausius relation. In that manner we find that the temperature of the CEH
at an arbitrary time in a flat FRW universe is , which recovers
asymptotically the usual static de Sitter temperature. Furthermore, it is
proven that during radiation-dominance and in late times the CEH conforms to
the fully dynamical First Law T_e \drv S_e = P\drv V_e - \drv E_e, where
is the enclosed volume and is the average cosmic pressure.Comment: 6 page
Low-threshold analysis of CDMS shallow-site data
Data taken during the final shallow-site run of the first tower of the
Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) detectors have been reanalyzed with
improved sensitivity to small energy depositions. Four ~224 g germanium and two
~105 g silicon detectors were operated at the Stanford Underground Facility
(SUF) between December 2001 and June 2002, yielding 118 live days of raw
exposure. Three of the germanium and both silicon detectors were analyzed with
a new low-threshold technique, making it possible to lower the germanium and
silicon analysis thresholds down to the actual trigger thresholds of ~1 keV and
~2 keV, respectively. Limits on the spin-independent cross section for weakly
interacting massive particles (WIMPs) to elastically scatter from nuclei based
on these data exclude interesting parameter space for WIMPs with masses below 9
GeV/c^2. Under standard halo assumptions, these data partially exclude
parameter space favored by interpretations of the DAMA/LIBRA and CoGeNT
experiments' data as WIMP signals, and exclude new parameter space for WIMP
masses between 3 GeV/c^2 and 4 GeV/c^2.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 5 table
From Low-Cost Depth Sensors to CAD: Cross-Domain 3D Shape Retrieval via Regression Tree Fields
Exclusion Limits on the WIMP-Nucleon Cross-Section from the First Run of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search in the Soudan Underground Lab
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS-II) employs low-temperature Ge and Si
detectors to seek Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their
elastic scattering interactions with nuclei. Simultaneous measurements of both
ionization and phonon energy provide discrimination against interactions of
background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events due to
background photons are rejected with >99.99% efficiency. Electromagnetic events
very near the detector surface can mimic nuclear recoils because of reduced
charge collection, but these surface events are rejected with >96% efficiency
by using additional information from the phonon pulse shape. Efficient use of
active and passive shielding, combined with the the 2090 m.w.e. overburden at
the experimental site in the Soudan mine, makes the background from neutrons
negligible for this first exposure. All cuts are determined in a blind manner
from in situ calibrations with external radioactive sources without any prior
knowledge of the event distribution in the signal region. Resulting
efficiencies are known to ~10%. A single event with a recoil of 64 keV passes
all of the cuts and is consistent with the expected misidentification rate of
surface-electron recoils. Under the assumptions for a standard dark matter
halo, these data exclude previously unexplored parameter space for both
spin-independent and spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering. The
resulting limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering
cross-section has a minimum of 4x10^-43 cm^2 at a WIMP mass of 60 GeV/c^2. The
minimum of the limit for the spin-dependent WIMP-neutron elastic-scattering
cross-section is 2x10^-37 cm^2 at a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c^2.Comment: 37 pages, 42 figure
Exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross-section from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) employs low-temperature Ge and Si
detectors to search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their
elastic-scattering interactions with nuclei while discriminating against
interactions of background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events
due to background photons are rejected with >99.9% efficiency, and surface
events are rejected with >95% efficiency. The estimate of the background due to
neutrons is based primarily on the observation of multiple-scatter events that
should all be neutrons. Data selection is determined primarily by examining
calibration data and vetoed events. Resulting efficiencies should be accurate
to about 10%. Results of CDMS data from 1998 and 1999 with a relaxed
fiducial-volume cut (resulting in 15.8 kg-days exposure on Ge) are consistent
with an earlier analysis with a more restrictive fiducial-volume cut.
Twenty-three WIMP candidate events are observed, but these events are
consistent with a background from neutrons in all ways tested. Resulting limits
on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering cross-section exclude
unexplored parameter space for WIMPs with masses between 10-70 GeV c^{-2}.
These limits border, but do not exclude, parameter space allowed by
supersymmetry models and accelerator constraints. Results are compatible with
some regions reported as allowed at 3-sigma by the annual-modulation
measurement of the DAMA collaboration. However, under the assumptions of
standard WIMP interactions and a standard halo, the results are incompatible
with the DAMA most likely value at >99.9% CL, and are incompatible with the
model-independent annual-modulation signal of DAMA at 99.99% CL in the
asymptotic limit.Comment: 40 pages, 49 figures (4 in color), submitted to Phys. Rev. D;
v.2:clarified conclusions, added content and references based on referee's
and readers' comments; v.3: clarified introductory sections, added figure
based on referee's comment
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