ContactGen: Contact-Guided Interactive 3D Human Generation for Partners

Among various interactions between humans, such as eye contact and gestures, physical interactions by contact can act as an essential moment in understanding human behaviors. Inspired by this fact, given a 3D partner human with the desired interaction label, we introduce a new task of 3D human generation in terms of physical contact. Unlike previous works of interacting with static objects or scenes, a given partner human can have diverse poses and different contact regions according to the type of interaction. To handle this challenge, we propose a novel method of generating interactive 3D humans for a given partner human based on a guided diffusion framework. Specifically, we newly present a contact prediction module that adaptively estimates potential contact regions between two input humans according to the interaction label. Using the estimated potential contact regions as complementary guidances, we dynamically enforce ContactGen to generate interactive 3D humans for a given partner human within a guided diffusion model. We demonstrate ContactGen on the CHI3D dataset, where our method generates physically plausible and diverse poses compared to comparison methods.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 202

PSR J1926-0652: A Pulsar with Interesting Emission Properties Discovered at FAST

We describe PSR J1926-0652, a pulsar recently discovered with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). Using sensitive single-pulse detections from FAST and long-term timing observations from the Parkes 64-m radio telescope, we probed phenomena on both long and short time scales. The FAST observations covered a wide frequency range from 270 to 800 MHz, enabling individual pulses to be studied in detail. The pulsar exhibits at least four profile components, short-term nulling lasting from 4 to 450 pulses, complex subpulse drifting behaviours and intermittency on scales of tens of minutes. While the average band spacing P3 is relatively constant across different bursts and components, significant variations in the separation of adjacent bands are seen, especially near the beginning and end of a burst. Band shapes and slopes are quite variable, especially for the trailing components and for the shorter bursts. We show that for each burst the last detectable pulse prior to emission ceasing has different properties compared to other pulses. These complexities pose challenges for the classic carousel-type models.Comment: 13pages with 12 figure

Discovering Transcription Factor Binding Sites in Highly Repetitive Regions of Genomes with Multi-Read Analysis of ChIP-Seq Data

Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) is rapidly replacing chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with genome-wide tiling array analysis (ChIP-chip) as the preferred approach for mapping transcription-factor binding sites and chromatin modifications. The state of the art for analyzing ChIP-seq data relies on using only reads that map uniquely to a relevant reference genome (uni-reads). This can lead to the omission of up to 30% of alignable reads. We describe a general approach for utilizing reads that map to multiple locations on the reference genome (multi-reads). Our approach is based on allocating multi-reads as fractional counts using a weighted alignment scheme. Using human STAT1 and mouse GATA1 ChIP-seq datasets, we illustrate that incorporation of multi-reads significantly increases sequencing depths, leads to detection of novel peaks that are not otherwise identifiable with uni-reads, and improves detection of peaks in mappable regions. We investigate various genome-wide characteristics of peaks detected only by utilization of multi-reads via computational experiments. Overall, peaks from multi-read analysis have similar characteristics to peaks that are identified by uni-reads except that the majority of them reside in segmental duplications. We further validate a number of GATA1 multi-read only peaks by independent quantitative real-time ChIP analysis and identify novel target genes of GATA1. These computational and experimental results establish that multi-reads can be of critical importance for studying transcription factor binding in highly repetitive regions of genomes with ChIP-seq experiments

What is the optimized cost for a used battery?: Economic analysis in case of energy storage system as 2nd life of battery

An electric vehicle is considered as one of the promising alternative transport due to its eco-friendly zero CO2 emissions. This trend causes a new environmental issue, Li-ion battery waste, and diverse plans for the used battery are suggested for preventing it. A stationary energy system connected to 1 MW photovoltaic was proposed as a repurposing strategy for the used battery. In addition, techno-economic analysis including itemized cost estimation, profitability analysis, and uncertainty analysis, was carried out to provide economic guidelines on what we need for the upcoming used battery era. Further, the optimized purchase cost for the used battery was figured out via a genetic algorithm. A levelized cost of electricity of 0.31 USD kWh-1 was obtained showing the PV cost as the most influential factor. The range of optimized purchase costs was 2,679-70,927, 3,786-100,234, and 5,747-152,162 USD according to 5, 10, and 20 years of the remaining lifetime of the used battery, respectively, and this cost varied depending on the target discounted payback period and subsidy. Finally, the repurposing of the used battery was still infeasible in terms of economic profit since 98.1%, 88.2%, and 75.2% were presented indicating a probability of negative purchase cost for the used battery. Our results show the needs of capital cost expenditure reduction via technological advancement to encourage the repurposing of the used battery

Effects of Low Concentrations of NaCl and EG on Hydrate Formation Kinetics and Morphology in the Presence of SDS

The research on gas hydrates can be divided into two subfields: risk prevention and control of pipeline blockage by hydrates and industrial applications of solidified natural gas (SNG) in gas storage and transportation, seawater desalination, and gas recovery. The two opposing properties of hydrates have stimulated research into promoting and inhibiting methods. A considerable number of studies have reported that the same type of additive can play a promoting or inhibiting effect at different concentrations. This study evaluated the kinetic effects of low concentrations of ethylene glycol (EG) and sodium chloride (NaCl) on methane hydrate production in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution. The results showed that both NaCl and EG had kinetic inhibitory effects on the hydrate reaction in SDS solution, and the inhibitory effects gradually increased with the increase of the concentration. Among them, the inhibitory effect of NaCl was stronger than that of EG at the same content. 5 wt % NaCl can reduce the reaction rate of hydrate in SDS solution by 81%, but 0.1 wt % NaCl helped SDS to act on hydrate growth, and the rate of hydrate growth stage was increased by 100%. When 0.1 wt % NaCl or 5 wt % EG existed in the SDS solution, the hydrate mainly grew in the bulk solution and on the inner wall surface of the container, forming a peak-like structure below the interface, and 5 wt % EG also formed a ridge-like structure above the interface. Exploring the macroscopic formation characteristics of hydrate is helpful to industrial process optimization and predicting the additive concentration in the pipeline. This work emphasizes that the selection of substances can be broadened and the rational use of resources can be achieved as much as possible when selecting promoters that are conducive to hydrate formation kinetics or inhibitors that control hydrate growth

Perspectives on ENCODE

The Encylopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project launched in 2003 with the long-term goal of developing a comprehensive map of functional elements in the human genome. These included genes, biochemical regions associated with gene regulation (for example, transcription factor binding sites, open chromatin, and histone marks) and transcript isoforms. The marks serve as sites for candidate cis-regulatory elements (cCREs) that may serve functional roles in regulating gene expression1. The project has been extended to model organisms, particularly the mouse. In the third phase of ENCODE, nearly a million and more than 300,000 cCRE annotations have been generated for human and mouse, respectively, and these have provided a valuable resource for the scientific community.11Nsciescopu

Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes

AbstractThe human and mouse genomes contain instructions that specify RNAs and proteins and govern the timing, magnitude, and cellular context of their production. To better delineate these elements, phase III of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project has expanded analysis of the cell and tissue repertoires of RNA transcription, chromatin structure and modification, DNA methylation, chromatin looping, and occupancy by transcription factors and RNA-binding proteins. Here we summarize these efforts, which have produced 5,992 new experimental datasets, including systematic determinations across mouse fetal development. All data are available through the ENCODE data portal (https://www.encodeproject.org), including phase II ENCODE1 and Roadmap Epigenomics2 data. We have developed a registry of 926,535 human and 339,815 mouse candidate cis-regulatory elements, covering 7.9 and 3.4% of their respective genomes, by integrating selected datatypes associated with gene regulation, and constructed a web-based server (SCREEN; http://screen.encodeproject.org) to provide flexible, user-defined access to this resource. Collectively, the ENCODE data and registry provide an expansive resource for the scientific community to build a better understanding of the organization and function of the human and mouse genomes.11Nsciescopu