Common magnitude representation of fractions and decimals is task dependent.

Although several studies have compared the representation of fractions and decimals, no study has investigated whether fractions and decimals, as two types of rational numbers, share a common representation of magnitude. The current study aimed to answer the question of whether fractions and decimals share a common representation of magnitude and whether the answer is influenced by task paradigms. We included two different number pairs, which were presented sequentially: fraction-decimal mixed pairs and decimal-fraction mixed pairs in all four experiments. Results showed that when the mixed pairs were very close numerically with the distance 0.1 or 0.3, there was a significant distance effect in the comparison task but not in the matching task. However, when the mixed pairs were further apart numerically with the distance 0.3 or 1.3, the distance effect appeared in the matching task regardless of the specific stimuli. We conclude that magnitudes of fractions and decimals can be represented in a common manner, but how they are represented is dependent on the given task. Fractions and decimals could be translated into a common representation of magnitude in the numerical comparison task. In the numerical matching task, fractions and decimals also shared a common representation. However, both of them were represented coarsely, leading to a weak distance effect. Specifically, fractions and decimals produced a significant distance effect only when the numerical distance was larger

Ssams2, a Gene Encoding GATA Transcription Factor, Is Required for Appressoria Formation and Chromosome Segregation in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

AMS2, amulticopy suppressor for the cpn1 (SpCENP-A) mutant, functions to specifically regulate histone genes transcription and chromosome segregation. As a cell-cycle-regulated GATA transcription factor in eukaryotic organisms, little research has been done on the role of AMS2 protein in pathogenic fungi. In Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Ssams2 (SS1G_03252) encodes a protein which has been predicted to contain GATA-box domain. Here, Ssams2-silenced strains with significantly reduced Ssams2 gene expression levels exhibited defect in hyphal growth, hyphal branching patterns, compound appressoria differentiation and the oxalic acid production compared to the wild-type (WT) strain. By common bean leaves infection assays, we identified the role of Ssams2 in full virulence. Furthermore, the numbers of cell nucleus in the same length of mycelium in Ssams2-silenced transformants were significantly less than that in the WT strain. The expression levels of histone genes and cell cycle genes in transformants were down-regulated significantly in the RNAi strains. Taken together, our work suggests that the TF SsAMS2 is required for growth, appressoria formation, virulence, and chromosome segregation in S. sclerotiorum

Multispectral Imaging for Microchip Electrophoresis Enables Point-of-Care Newborn Hemoglobin Variant Screening

Hemoglobin (Hb) disorders affect nearly 7% of the world\u27s population. Globally, around 400,000 babies are born annually with sickle cell disease (SCD), primarily in sub-Saharan Africa where morbidity and mortality rates are high. Screening, early diagnosis, and monitoring are not widely accessible due to technical challenges and cost. We hypothesized that multispectral imaging will allow sensitive hemoglobin variant identification in existing affordable paper-based Hb electrophoresis. To test this hypothesis, we developed the first integrated point-of-care multispectral Hb variant test: Gazelle-Multispectral. Here, we evaluated the accuracy of Gazelle-Multispectral for Hb variant newborn screening in 265 newborns with known hemoglobin variants including hemoglobin A (Hb A), hemoglobin F (Hb F), hemoglobin S (Hb S) and hemoglobin C (Hb C). Gazelle-Multispectral detected levels of Hb A, Hb F, Hb S, and Hb C/E/A2, demonstrated high correlations with the results reported by laboratory gold standard high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) at Pearson Correlation Coefficient = 0.97, 0.97, 0.93, and 0.95. Gazelle-Multispectral demonstrated accuracy of 96.8% in subjects of 0–3 days, and 96.9% in newborns. The ability to obtain accurate results on newborn samples suggest that Gazelle-Multispectral can be suitable for large-scale newborn screening and for diagnosis of SCD in low resource settings

Identifying degradation patterns of lithium ion batteries from impedance spectroscopy using machine learning

Abstract: Forecasting the state of health and remaining useful life of Li-ion batteries is an unsolved challenge that limits technologies such as consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Here, we build an accurate battery forecasting system by combining electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)—a real-time, non-invasive and information-rich measurement that is hitherto underused in battery diagnosis—with Gaussian process machine learning. Over 20,000 EIS spectra of commercial Li-ion batteries are collected at different states of health, states of charge and temperatures—the largest dataset to our knowledge of its kind. Our Gaussian process model takes the entire spectrum as input, without further feature engineering, and automatically determines which spectral features predict degradation. Our model accurately predicts the remaining useful life, even without complete knowledge of past operating conditions of the battery. Our results demonstrate the value of EIS signals in battery management systems

Identifying degradation patterns of lithium ion batteries from impedance spectroscopy using machine learning

Abstract: Forecasting the state of health and remaining useful life of Li-ion batteries is an unsolved challenge that limits technologies such as consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Here, we build an accurate battery forecasting system by combining electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)—a real-time, non-invasive and information-rich measurement that is hitherto underused in battery diagnosis—with Gaussian process machine learning. Over 20,000 EIS spectra of commercial Li-ion batteries are collected at different states of health, states of charge and temperatures—the largest dataset to our knowledge of its kind. Our Gaussian process model takes the entire spectrum as input, without further feature engineering, and automatically determines which spectral features predict degradation. Our model accurately predicts the remaining useful life, even without complete knowledge of past operating conditions of the battery. Our results demonstrate the value of EIS signals in battery management systems

UnifiedGesture: A Unified Gesture Synthesis Model for Multiple Skeletons

The automatic co-speech gesture generation draws much attention in computer animation. Previous works designed network structures on individual datasets, which resulted in a lack of data volume and generalizability across different motion capture standards. In addition, it is a challenging task due to the weak correlation between speech and gestures. To address these problems, we present UnifiedGesture, a novel diffusion model-based speech-driven gesture synthesis approach, trained on multiple gesture datasets with different skeletons. Specifically, we first present a retargeting network to learn latent homeomorphic graphs for different motion capture standards, unifying the representations of various gestures while extending the dataset. We then capture the correlation between speech and gestures based on a diffusion model architecture using cross-local attention and self-attention to generate better speech-matched and realistic gestures. To further align speech and gesture and increase diversity, we incorporate reinforcement learning on the discrete gesture units with a learned reward function. Extensive experiments show that UnifiedGesture outperforms recent approaches on speech-driven gesture generation in terms of CCA, FGD, and human-likeness. All code, pre-trained models, databases, and demos are available to the public at https://github.com/YoungSeng/UnifiedGesture.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, ACM MM 202

Study on ultrasound-guided thyroid fine needle puncture assisted by rapid on-side evaluation

Objective·To explore the clinical effect of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology assisted by rapid on-side evaluation (ROSE).Methods·The data of patients with thyroid nodules diagnosed in Gongli Hospital of Shanghai Pudong New Area from January 2019 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed (n=874). According to cytological detection methods, they were divided into ROSE+thinprep cytologic test (TCT) group (n=469) and cell smear (CS)+TCT group (n=405). In the ROSE+TCT group, the tissue and cell samples of ROSE were detected by Diff-Quik staining and continue puncturing until the specimen was satisfied. In the CS+TCT group, the tissue and cell samples were detected by hematoxylin-eosin staining (H-E staining) + Pap staining. Cytologic diagnosis was made according to The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBSRTC) cytologic classification criteria, and the cell dissatisfaction rates and clinical outcomes of the 2 methods were compared.Results·The dissatisfaction rates of the ROSE+TCT group and CS+TCT group were 2.4% and 14.1%, respectively, with statistical significance (P=0.000). The smear cells of the ROSE+TCT group were concentrated, and the structure was clear and easy to observe. The samples with a cytologic diagnosis of grade Ⅲ and above were prepared as cell wax blocks to improve the efficiency of subsequent diagnosis. The cells of the CS+TCT group could not produce wax blocks due to the small numbers of cells. The puncture times of the ROSE+TCT group were significantly different from that of the CS+TCT group (P=0.011).Conclusion·The ultrasound-guided thyroid fine needle aspiration assisted by rapid on-site assessment method can assess the effective number of cells in the specimen on the spot, give feedback to the puncturing doctors on the spot, meet the diagnostic accuracy requirements of pathologists by collecting a sufficient number of cells, reduce the number of punctures and treatment time, and play a good auxiliary role in the diagnosis and follow-up examination of clinicians

Sssfh1, a Gene Encoding a Putative Component of the RSC Chromatin Remodeling Complex, Is Involved in Hyphal Growth, Reactive Oxygen Species Accumulation, and Pathogenicity in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

SFH1 (for Snf5 homolog) protein, comprised in the RSC (Remodels Structure of Chromatin) chromatin remodeling complex, functions as a transcription factor (TF) to specifically regulate gene transcription and chromatin remodeling. As one of the well-conserved TFs in eukaryotic organisms, little is known about the roles of SFH1 protein in the filamentous fungi. In Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, one of the notorious plant fungal pathogens, there are nine proteins predicted to contain GATA-box domain according to GATA family TF classification, among which Sssfh1 (SS1G_01151) encodes a protein including a GATA-box domain and a SNF5 domain. Here, we characterized the roles of Sssfh1 in the developmental process and fungal pathogenicity by using RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene silencing in S. sclerotiorum. RNA-silenced strains with significantly reduced Sssfh1 RNA levels exhibited slower hyphal growth and decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in hyphae compared to the wild-type (WT) strain. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays demonstrated that SsSFH1 interacts with SsMSG5, a MAPK phosphatase in S. sclerotiorum. Furthermore, Sssfh1-silenced strains exhibited enhanced tolerance to NaCl and H2O2. Results of infection assays on soybean and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) leaves indicated that Sssfh1 is required for full virulence of S. sclerotiorum during infection in the susceptible host plants. Collectively, our results suggest that the TF SsSFH1 is involved in growth, ROS accumulation and virulence in S. sclerotiorum

Reconfigurable thermo-optic polymer switch based true-time-delay network utilizing imprinting and inkjet printing

Abstract: Reconfigurable true-time-delay lines, comprising of 2x2 thermo-optic polymer switches and rib waveguides are fabricated utilizing a combination of roll-to-roll (R2R) compatible UV imprinting and ink-jet printing, which promises high throughput and low cost photonic devices