Investigating the Effects of Robot Engagement Communication on Learning from Demonstration

Robot Learning from Demonstration (RLfD) is a technique for robots to derive policies from instructors' examples. Although the reciprocal effects of student engagement on teacher behavior are widely recognized in the educational community, it is unclear whether the same phenomenon holds true for RLfD. To fill this gap, we first design three types of robot engagement behavior (attention, imitation, and a hybrid of the two) based on the learning literature. We then conduct, in a simulation environment, a within-subject user study to investigate the impact of different robot engagement cues on humans compared to a "without-engagement" condition. Results suggest that engagement communication significantly changes the human's estimation of the robots' capability and significantly raises their expectation towards the learning outcomes, even though we do not run actual learning algorithms in the experiments. Moreover, imitation behavior affects humans more than attention does in all metrics, while their combination has the most profound influences on humans. We also find that communicating engagement via imitation or the combined behavior significantly improve humans' perception towards the quality of demonstrations, even if all demonstrations are of the same quality.Comment: Under revie

Weakly Supervised Point Clouds Transformer for 3D Object Detection

The annotation of 3D datasets is required for semantic-segmentation and object detection in scene understanding. In this paper we present a framework for the weakly supervision of a point clouds transformer that is used for 3D object detection. The aim is to decrease the required amount of supervision needed for training, as a result of the high cost of annotating a 3D datasets. We propose an Unsupervised Voting Proposal Module, which learns randomly preset anchor points and uses voting network to select prepared anchor points of high quality. Then it distills information into student and teacher network. In terms of student network, we apply ResNet network to efficiently extract local characteristics. However, it also can lose much global information. To provide the input which incorporates the global and local information as the input of student networks, we adopt the self-attention mechanism of transformer to extract global features, and the ResNet layers to extract region proposals. The teacher network supervises the classification and regression of the student network using the pre-trained model on ImageNet. On the challenging KITTI datasets, the experimental results have achieved the highest level of average precision compared with the most recent weakly supervised 3D object detectors.Comment: International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 202

Clinical report about the effectiveness of andriol, tamoxifen, vitamin A and lecithin on low acrosome

BackgroundAcrosin is the most important proteolytic enzyme in fertilization, acrosome dysfunction affects fertilization. Recently, our group found that the treatment of andriol, tamoxifen, vitamin A and lecithin helped to improve acrosome function.AimsTo assess the effectiveness of andriol, tamoxifen, vitamin A and lecithin on low acrosome.MethodsSeventy-eight infertility males in my hospital were enrolled. Kenedy test was used to test acrosome function. Andriol, tamoxifen, vitamin A and lecithin were used for one to four months.ResultsSperm concentration (t=5.05, P=0.000) raised while seminal volume (t=1.93, P=0.057), normal morphology (t=0.24, P=0.811) and progressive sperm (t=2.14, P=0.036) did not show statistical difference after treatment. Acrosin was (37.62±11.07)μIU/106 sperm before treatment and raised to (52.68±15.68)μIU/106 sperm after treatment and showed statistical difference (t=8.18, P=0.00). In all the 78 males, the acrosin of seven men (11 per cent) bellowed after treatment while the acrosin of 71 males (91 per cent) raised and ten couples (13 per cent) got pregnant.ConclusionThe combined treatment of andriol, tamoxifen, vitamin A and lecithin were effective on low acrosin

Effectiveness of two kind of medicine on non-obstructive azoospermia

ObjectiveTo assess the effectiveness of medicine on non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). Cases32 male patients were enrolled from March 2012 to March 2016, with age range of 23–41 years old and infertility time of 1–3 years.Methods According to “WHO Human Semen Detection and Processing Experiment Manual";;;;;; fifth edition, semen routine was based on manual detection and serum hormones based on chemiluminescence detection, semen volume, sperm density, forward moving sperm ratio. If sperm was detected in semen for more than two consecutive times, the treatment was considered effective and was included into the statistical analysis. The detection parameters took the first test data and the last test data. Treatment Andriol and tamoxifen were used for idiopathic NOA while aescuven forte and aspirin used for NOA with varicocele (including two varicocelectomy). The time was four months.ResultsOf the 32 patients, 13 underwent testicular biopsy, pathological results showed six patients (46 per cent) with hypospermatogenesis, five patients (39 per cent) with maturation arrest, and two patients (15 per cent) with sertoli cell syndrome. Nine patients (28 per cent) had varicocele; two patients (6 per cent) underwent surgical treatment. After treatment, sperm was detected in 20 patients (63 per cent), seven of them (22 per cent) had detectable sperm in semen after one month of treatment; five (19 per cent) had sperm after two months of treatment; eight (25 per cent) had sperm after three months of treatment. Among the 23 patients with idiopathic azoospermia, 13 patients had detectable sperm in semen after treatment (56 per cent). The level of hormone gradually increased in 15 patients, rapidly increased in four patients, but four patients had no obvious change of hormone level. Among the nine patients with varicocele, three persons (including one patient undergoing surgery) had normal sperm density after 3–4 months of treatment, continuing the treatment for another 2–3 months, wife of the patients gained pregnancies. After treatment, seven patients had gradually decreasing serum level of FSH, LH and T while two patients had increased serum level of hormones. Excluding the three pregnancy patients, it was showed that the sperm density increased (t=-3.342, p=0.004) after treatment, so did the forward moving sperm ratio (t=-4.037, p=0.001), but semen volume had no significant changes (t=-1.698, p=0.109). ConclusionThe treatment of varococele is important for the NOA with varicocele while andriol and tamoxifen is other method for the treatment of idiopathic NOA

Amplifying the Music Listening Experience through Song Comments on Music Streaming Platforms

Music streaming services are increasingly popular among younger generations who seek social experiences through personal expression and sharing of subjective feelings in comments. However, such emotional aspects are often ignored by current platforms, which affects the listeners' ability to find music that triggers specific personal feelings. To address this gap, this study proposes a novel approach that leverages deep learning methods to capture contextual keywords, sentiments, and induced mechanisms from song comments. The study augments a current music app with two features, including the presentation of tags that best represent song comments and a novel map metaphor that reorganizes song comments based on chronological order, content, and sentiment. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated through a usage scenario and a user study that demonstrate its capability to improve the user experience of exploring songs and browsing comments of interest. This study contributes to the advancement of music streaming services by providing a more personalized and emotionally rich music experience for younger generations.Comment: In the Proceedings of ChinaVis 202

Comparative Genomic Analysis of Functional Genomics of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum ST

In this study, the functional genomic characteristics of Lactiplantibilus plantarum ST were analyzed. Comparative genomic analysis was performed on the whole genome sequences of L. plantarum ST and the type strain L. plantarum ATCC 14197T as well as those of 152 L. plantarum strains published in the NCBI GenBank. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on 1 262 core genes of these 154 L. plantarum strains, and the genetic distance between ST and the intestinal isolate BCC9546 was found to be the closest. The isolates originated from milk and meat products were concentrated in the upper part and the lower part of the second branch, respectively, and they were different due to different sources and could be aggregated. Meanwhile, Drosophila isolates showed a significant aggregation trend. Functional annotation analysis suggested that the ST genome contained genes related to the phosphotransferase system (PTS) as a major carbohydrate transport system. Genes related to the immune regulatory pathway were also annotated. There were many genes related to the hydrolysis or rearrangement of glycosidic bonds, but no virulence factors or antibiotics resistance genes found in ST. Compared with the other L. plantarum isolates, ST carried the unique functional gene ecfT related to energy transport function. In addition, ST had functional genes involved in the synthesis of the quorum-sensing signaling molecule AI-2, glutathione, and adhesion molecules. The results of API 50 CHL carbohydrate metabolism showed that L. plantarum ST could utilize a wide range of carbon sources and metabolize 29 carbon sources including monosaccharides, glycosides, disaccharides and polysaccharides. This study provides a genetic basis for the development and utilization of L. plantarum ST as a safe probiotic strain

Investigation of MIMO Channel Characteristics in a Two-Section Tunnel at 1.4725 GHz

This paper presents results from a wide band single-input–single-output (SISO) and 16 × 16 virtual multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) measurement campaign at a center frequency of 1.4725 GHz in a 100-meter long tunnel laboratory which is terminated by a vertical wall with a metallic door. The path loss, root-mean-square delay spread (RMS-DS) characteristics, and power delay profiles (PDPs) are described. In addition, we provide results for the MIMO channel amplitude matrix, which offers a new perspective in understanding MIMO characteristics in tunnel scenarios. Our measurement results are analyzed and compared to ray tracing simulations. The relationships among the angle spread, channel matrix singular values, and MIMO capacity at various link distances are illustrated, and these provide insights into MIMO system deployment

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus causes diarrhea by activating EGFR to regulates NHE3 activity and mobility on plasma membrane

As part of the genus Enteropathogenic Coronaviruses, Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) is an important cause of early diarrhea and death in piglets, and one of the most difficult swine diseases to prevent and control in the pig industry. Previously, we found that PEDV can block Na+ absorption and induce diarrhea in piglets by inhibiting the activity of the sodium-hydrogen ion transporter NHE3 in pig intestinal epithelial cells, but the mechanism needs to be further explored. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been proved to be one of the co-receptors involved in many viral infections and a key protein involved in the regulation of NHE3 activity in response to various pathological stimuli. Based on this, our study used porcine intestinal epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) as an infection model to investigate the role of EGFR in regulating NHE3 activity after PEDV infection. The results showed that EGFR mediated viral invasion by interacting with PEDV S1, and activated EGFR regulated the downstream EGFR/ERK signaling pathway, resulting in decreased expression of NHE3 and reduced NHE3 mobility at the plasma membrane, which ultimately led to decreased NHE3 activity. The low level of NHE3 expression in intestinal epithelial cells may be a key factor leading to PEDV-induced diarrhea in newborn piglets. This study reveals the importance of EGFR in the regulation of NHE3 activity by PEDV and provides new targets and clues for the prevention and treatment of PEDV-induced diarrhea in piglets

VaBUS: Edge-Cloud Real-Time Video Analytics via Background Understanding and Subtraction

Edge-cloud collaborative video analytics is transforming the way data is being handled, processed, and transmitted from the ever-growing number of surveillance cameras around the world. To avoid wasting limited bandwidth on unrelated content transmission, existing video analytics solutions usually perform temporal or spatial filtering to realize aggressive compression of irrelevant pixels. However, most of them work in a context-agnostic way while being oblivious to the circumstances where the video content is happening and the context-dependent characteristics under the hood. In this work, we propose VaBUS, a real-time video analytics system that leverages the rich contextual information of surveillance cameras to reduce bandwidth consumption for semantic compression. As a task-oriented communication system, VaBUS dynamically maintains the background image of the video on the edge with minimal system overhead and sends only highly confident Region of Interests (RoIs) to the cloud through adaptive weighting and encoding. With a lightweight experience-driven learning module, VaBUS is able to achieve high offline inference accuracy even when network congestion occurs. Experimental results show that VaBUS reduces bandwidth consumption by 25.0%-76.9% while achieving 90.7% accuracy for both the object detection and human keypoint detection tasks

A Novel Dnmt3a1 Transcript Inhibits Adipogenesis

DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase 3a (Dnmt3a) is an enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of methyl groups to specific CpG forms in DNA. In mammals, two variant transcripts of Dnmt3a have been successfully identified. To the best of our knowledge, no Dnmt3a transcripts in an avian have been successfully identified. This study was performed to detect different transcripts of Dnmt3a in chickens and to examine whether a novel Dnmt3a transcript named Dnmt3a1 may regulate adipogenesis. In addition to cloning, sequencing, transcript detection, and expression studies, a novel Dnmt3a1 transcript overexpression and knockdown were conducted to explore the potential role of Dnmt3a1 in preadipocyte proliferation and the early stage of adipocyte differentiation. In chicken abdominal fat tissue, we detected a novel Dnmt3a1 transcript that differs from Dnmt3a by lacking 23 amino acids at the exon-1/exon-2 border. Dnmt3a1 mRNA was ubiquitously expressed in a variety of tissues or cells and highly expressed in chicken adipose tissue/cells. The expression of Dnmt3a1 was regulated under different physiological conditions including aging, fasting, and high-fat diet. In addition, overexpression of Dnmt3a1 significantly decreased preadipocyte proliferation and induced cell-cycle arrest while its inhibition increased cell proliferation and S-phase cells. Furthermore, the overexpression of Dnmt3a1 significantly upregulated the mRNA level of cell-cycle-related genes, such as CDKN1A, CDKN1B, CCNB3, CCND2, CCNG2, CDKN2B, and CDK9, or the protein level of CDKN1A, CDKN1B, and CCNG2. Conversely, the knockdown of Dnmt3a1 by siRNA had the opposite effects. Moreover, during early adipocyte differentiation, the overexpression of Dnmt3a1 significantly decreased the mRNA and the protein levels of PPAR-γ, C/EBP-α, ADIPOR1, and STAT3, and the mRNA levels of FAS, LEPR, LPL, PRKAB2, and ATGL. In contrast, their expression was significantly increased after the knockdown of Dnmt3a1. Taken together, we identified a novel transcript of Dnmt3a, and it played a potential role in adipogenesis