RGB-Only Reconstruction of Tabletop Scenes for Collision-Free Manipulator Control

We present a system for collision-free control of a robot manipulator that uses only RGB views of the world. Perceptual input of a tabletop scene is provided by multiple images of an RGB camera (without depth) that is either handheld or mounted on the robot end effector. A NeRF-like process is used to reconstruct the 3D geometry of the scene, from which the Euclidean full signed distance function (ESDF) is computed. A model predictive control algorithm is then used to control the manipulator to reach a desired pose while avoiding obstacles in the ESDF. We show results on a real dataset collected and annotated in our lab.Comment: ICRA 2023. Project page at https://ngp-mpc.github.io

Geographic Variation Did Not Affect the Predictive Power of Salivary Microbiota for Caries in Children With Mixed Dentition

Dental caries is one of the most prevalent chronic oral diseases, affecting approximately half of children worldwide. The microbial composition of dental caries may depend on age, oral health, diet, and geography, yet the effect of geography on these microbiomes is largely underexplored. Here, we profiled and compared saliva microbiota from 130 individuals aged 6 to 8 years old, representing both healthy children (H group) and children with caries-affected (C group) from two geographical regions of China: a northern city (Qingdao group) and a southern city (Guangzhou group). First, the saliva microbiota exhibited profound differences in diversity and composition between the C and H groups. The caries microbiota featured a lower alpha diversity and more variable community structure than the healthy microbiota. Furthermore, the relative abundance of several genera (e.g., Lactobacillus, Gemella, Cryptobacterium and Mitsuokella) was significantly higher in the C group than in the H group (p<0.05). Next, geography dominated over disease status in shaping salivary microbiota, and a wide array of salivary bacteria was highly predictive of the individuals’ city of origin. Finally, we built a universal diagnostic model based on 14 bacterial species, which can diagnose caries with 87% (AUC=86.00%) and 85% (AUC=91.02%) accuracy within each city and 83% accuracy across cities (AUC=92.17%). Although the detection rate of Streptococcus mutans in populations is not very high, it could be regarded as a single biomarker to diagnose caries with decent accuracy. These findings demonstrated that despite the large effect size of geography, a universal model based on salivary microbiota has the potential to diagnose caries across the Chinese child population

Enhanced Properties of Tailored Alumina–Magnesia-Based Dry Ramming Mixes by Calcium Magnesium Aluminate (CMA)

To achieve the goal of “dual-carbon”, induction furnaces with high efficiency and energy-saving advantages are paid more attention in the foundry and metallurgy industries. The service life and safety of induction furnaces strongly depended on the lining because expansion and forward sintering could result in the erosion and slag resistance of the lining. Focusing on the tailoring properties of alumina–magnesia-based dry ramming mixes, calcined magnesia particles were replaced with the novel multi-component materials of calcium magnesium aluminate (CaO-MgO-Al2O3, CMA) with a size of 200 mesh. Properties such as the bulk density, apparent porosity, strength, and slag corrosion resistance of alumina–magnesia-based dry ramming mix containing CMA were evaluated contrastively. The results demonstrate that the penetration index of manganese-bearing slag in dry ramming mixes first decreased and then slightly increased with the addition of CMA. Meanwhile, the permanent linear change in dry ramming mixes was gradually reduced. When the addition of CMA reached 4 wt%, the strength of the dry ramming mixes was slightly greater than the reference, and the slag penetration index was just 75% of the latter

Study on condition prediction and influencing factors of manganese carbonate recovery by high gradient pulse magnetic separation

Manganese carbonate ore belongs to weakly magnetic minerals, and its co-associated minerals are mainly non-magnetic minerals, which can be separated from gangue minerals at high magnetic field intensity. However, manganese grade and recovery of magnetic separation concentrate of manganese carbonate ore are low in actual production. Therefore, the influences of manganese carbonate particle size, magnetic field intensity, volume susceptibility, pulse stroke, pH, and other factors were studied. The optimal test conditions for manganese carbonate ore recovery by high-gradient magnetic separation were predicted through the calculation results. The results show that the particle radius of manganese carbonate is 0.020 mm, the pulse impulse time is 200 r/min, and the magnetic field intensity is 0.9 T. The optimum condition test was carried out with Qianbei manganese carbonate ore as the material. The test results show that the optimum conditions are the particle radius of 0.074-0.019 mm, pulse impulse time of 200 r/min, and magnetic field intensity of 1.2 T. The reason for the deviation is that the actual ore has a fine distribution particle size, many associative bodies, complex composition, and serious agglomeration, resulting in variable particle volume susceptibility. The capture yield increases with the increase of magnetic field intensity and volume susceptibility but decreases with the increase of pulse. The lower the surface potential of manganese carbonate, the higher the recovery of manganese carbonate. The grade of manganese concentrate was 19.06% and the recovery was 76.85%. Mixed manganese concentrate with a grade of 18.04% and recovery of 87.14% was obtained by adding drugs and changing the grinding method

Hair-Inspired Crystal Growth of HOA in Cavities of Cellulose Matrix via Hydrophobic-Hydrophilic Interface Interaction

As one of the most ordinary phenomena in nature, numerous pores on animal skins induce the growth of abundant hairs. In this study, cavities of a cellulose matrix were used as hard templates to lead the hair-inspired crystal growth of 12-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (HOA) through hydrophobic hydrophilic interface interaction, and short hair-like HOA crystals with a smooth surface were formed on cellulose films. In our findings, by using solvent evaporation induced crystallization, hydrophobic HOA grew along the hydrophilic cellulose pore wall to form regular vertical worm-like and pillar-like crystals with an average diameter of about 200 nm, depending on the experimental conditions and HOA concentration. The formation mechanism of the short hair-like HOA crystals as well as the structure and properties of the cellulose/HOA submicrometer composite films were studied. The pores of the cellulose matrix supplied not only cavities for the HOA crystals fixation but also hydrophilic shells to favor the vertical growth of the relatively hydrophobic HOA crystals. The cellulose/HOA submicrometer composite films exhibited high hydrophobicity, as a result of the formation of the solid/air composite surface. Furthermore, 4-(1,2,2-triphenylethenyl) benzoic acid, an aggregationinduced emission luminogen, was used to aggregate on the cellulose surface with HOA to emit and monitor the HOA crystal growth, showing bifunctional photoluminscence and self-cleaning properties. This work opens up a novel one-step pathway to design bio-inspired submicrometer materials by utilizing natural products, showing potential applications in self-cleaning optical devices

C19-Norditerpenoid Alkaloids from Aconitum szechenyianum and Their Effects on LPS-Activated NO Production

Three new C19-norditerpenoid alkaloids (1–3), along with two known C19-norditerpenoid alkaloids (4–5) have been isolated from Aconitum szechenyianum. Their structures were established by extensive spectroscopic techniques and chemical methods as szechenyianine A (1), szechenyianine B (2), szechenyianine C (3), N-deethyl-3-acetylaconitine (4), and N-deethyldeoxyaconitine (5). Additionally, compounds 1–5 were tested for the inhibition of NO production on LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells with IC50 values of 36.62 ± 6.86, 3.30 ± 0.11, 7.46 ± 0.89, 8.09 ± 1.31, and 11.73 ± 1.94 μM, respectively, while the positive control drug dexamethasone showed inhibitory activity with IC50 value of 8.32 ± 1.45 μM. The structure-activity relationship of aconitine alkaloids were discussed

Osteopontin Splice Variants Differentially Exert Clinicopathological Features and Biological Functions in Gastric Cancer

<p><b>Purpose: </b> Gastric cancer (GC) remains a leading cause of death worldwide, and an elevated expression of osteopontin (OPN) may correlate with its poor survival. Alternative splicing of OPN can result in three isoforms, OPN-a, OPN-b and OPN-c. The aim of our current study is to examine the expression pattern and biological functions of OPN splice variants in GC.</p><p><b>Methods:</b> Firstly, we evaluated the expression of OPN splice variants in 7 gastric cell lines, 101 pairs of GC tissues and their adjacent non-tumor tissues by Quantative real-time PCR (QT-PCR). Gain-of-function experiments were subsequently performed to determine their diverse roles in malignant behaviors of GC. Besides, their differential effects on the regulation of crucial downstream molecules were further explored in the anti-apoptotic and pro-metastatic process.</p><p><b>Results:</b> We found that OPN-b is the dominant kind of OPN isoform in GC cell lines. Although the expression levels of three variants were all elevated in GC tissues, increased OPN-b or OPN-c expression could correlate with clinicopathological features. Functional analyses further showed that OPN-b most strongly promoted GC cell survival possibly by regulation of Bcl-2 family proteins and CD44v expressions. Moreover, OPN-c most effectively stimulated GC metastatic activity by increasing secretion of MMP-2, uPa, and IL-8.</p><p><b>Conclusions:</b> Our results suggest that OPN splice variants differentially exert clinicopathological features and biological functions in GC. Therefore, focusing on specific OPN isoform could be a novel direction for developing diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in GC.</p