Coil-to-globule transition by dissipative particle dynamics simulation

The dynamics of a collapsing polymer under a temperature quench in dilute solution is investigated by dissipative particles dynamics. Hydrodynamic interactions and many-body interaction are preserved naturally by incorporating explicit solvent particles in this approach. Our simulation suggests a four-stage collapse pathway: localized clusters formation, cluster coarsening in situ, coarsening involving global backbone conformation change into a crumpled globule, and compaction of the globule. For all the quench depths and chain lengths used in our study, collapse proceeds without the chain getting trapped in a metastable “sausage” configuration, as reported in some earlier studies. We obtain the time scales for each of the first three stages, as well as its scaling with the quench depths ξ and chain lengths N. The total collapse time scales as τ_c ~ ξ^(−0.46 ± 0.04)N^(0.98 ± 0.09), with the quench depth and degree of polymerization

Endless construction : occupant activism and authorship

Though we don’t think of it this way, “Adaptive Reuse” often happens naturally, guided by users who modify their physical environment to satisfy urgent living needs. While these modifications may appear haphazard, they show the user’s individualism and life philosophy. We, as designers, should embrace these interventions to explore how to participate with the occupants’ adaptive reuse process over time. Given the richness of adaptation within the old residences in the ancient Chinese city of Suzhou, it is an appropriate place to explore both the skill of self–modification and the potential for interaction of designers in this process. The old residences in Suzhou have two fates ultimately, either being destroyed for new construction or being restored for tourism and commercial space. I suggest a third option: introducing occupant activism and authorship to acknowledge the ignored history of these places, as a demonstration of how people adapt to these buildings and how these buildings have survived over time. The old buildings cannot quickly adapt to shifting life habits caused by the industrial revolution and housing policy. However, through my observations of the sites, people are designing their living space spontaneously, incorporating household appliances, building technology, and customs within a limited cost. Thus, I ascribe value to the organic change that has been crafted over time to align with larger societal shifts and acknowledging the user’s actions as adaptive reuse design. Assuming the role of curator, without any intent to disturb the existing condition, this thesis proposes a speculative reality where I live in the site and encourage continued change. Setting Mr. Shen’s house as a container to implement my reinterpretations of the modifications, I’m using photos, hand drawings, plans, and creating categories through programs, building elements, and technologies to envision the fiction scenario. In 2042, children grow up and become masters of adaptive reuse. Come 2062, old families move out and new families come in, the spirit of adaptive reuse will be inherited, and the site will become a mecca for spreading self-design. What’s the boundary between everyday life and design? I try to use the untrained version of adaptive reuse to push design more to the side of everyday life. We, as designers, should practice our perspective of seeing the space and reconsider our role in design. And I encourage residents who live in the old residences to recognize and celebrate what they have done together wisely and carefully

Popular Music and Gender Equity: Integrating Popular Music into Gender Studies in Grade 9-12

Equity studies has been indicated in Ontario’s social sciences curriculum, and gender equity is included in the grade 11 course “Gender Studies.” Popular music, a crucial part of popular culture, is one of the favourite pastimes among adolescents. The relationship between popular music and gender equity as well as the educational value of popular music has been discussed extensively in both the music and sociology areas. Connecting to gender equity education in schools, this paper demonstrates how gender topics are displayed in popular music and the implications of using 21st-century popular music to discuss gender equity in grades 9-12. In addition, the paper explores the relationship between popular songs and gender equity by critically analyzing redundant popular songs. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the relationship between 21st-century popular music and gender equity, and the benefits of integrating popular music into introducing gender equity studies in grades 9-12

3D Hand reconstruction from monocular camera with model-based priors

As virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technology gains popularity, facilitating intuitive digital interactions in 3D is of crucial importance. Tools such as VR controllers exist, but such devices support only a limited range of interactions, mapped onto complex sequences of button presses that can be intimidating to learn. In contrast, users already have an instinctive understanding of manual interactions in the real world, which is readily transferable to the virtual world. This makes hands the ideal mode of interaction for down-stream applications such as robotic teleoperation, sign-language translation, and computer-aided design. Existing hand-tracking systems come with several inconvenient limitations. Wearable solutions such as gloves and markers unnaturally limit the range of articulation. Multi-camera systems are not trivial to calibrate and have specialized hardware requirements which make them cumbersome to use. Given these drawbacks, recent research tends to focus on monocular inputs, as these do not constrain articulation and suitable devices are pervasive in everyday life. 3D reconstruction in this setting is severely under-constrained, however, due to occlusions and depth ambiguities. The majority of state-of-the-art works rely on a learning framework to resolve these ambiguities statistically; as a result they have several limitations in common. For example, they require a vast amount of annotated 3D data that is labor intensive to obtain and prone to systematic error. Additionally, traits that are hard to quantify with annotations - the details of individual hand appearance - are difficult to reconstruct in such a framework. Existing methods also make the simplifying assumption that only a single hand is present in the scene. Two-hand interactions introduce additional challenges, however, in the form of inter-hand occlusion, left-right confusion, and collision constraints, that single hand methods cannot address. To tackle the aforementioned shortcomings of previous methods, this thesis advances the state-of-the-art through the novel use of model-based priors to incorporate hand-specific knowledge. In particular, this thesis presents a training method that reduces the amount of annotations required and is robust to systemic biases; it presents the first tracking method that addresses the challenging two-hand-interaction scenario using monocular RGB video, and also the first probabilistic method to model image ambiguity for two-hand interactions. Additionally, this thesis also contributes the first parametric hand texture model with example applications in hand personalization.Virtual- und Augmented-Reality-Technologien (VR/AR) gewinnen rapide an Beliebtheit und Einfluss, und so ist die Erleichterung intuitiver digitaler Interaktionen in 3D von wachsender Bedeutung. Zwar gibt es Tools wie VR-Controller, doch solche Geräte unterstützen nur ein begrenztes Spektrum an Interaktionen, oftmals abgebildet auf komplexe Sequenzen von Tastendrücken, deren Erlernen einschüchternd sein kann. Im Gegensatz dazu haben Nutzer bereits ein instinktives Verständnis für manuelle Interaktionen in der realen Welt, das sich leicht auf die virtuelle Welt übertragen lässt. Dies macht Hände zum idealen Werkzeug der Interaktion für nachgelagerte Anwendungen wie robotergestützte Teleoperation, Übersetzung von Gebärdensprache und computergestütztes Design. Existierende Hand-Tracking Systeme leiden unter mehreren unbequemen Einschränkungen. Tragbare Lösungen wie Handschuhe und aufgesetzte Marker schränken den Bewegungsspielraum auf unnatürliche Weise ein. Systeme mit mehreren Kameras erfordern genaue Kalibrierung und haben spezielle Hardwareanforderungen, die ihre Anwendung umständlich gestalten. Angesichts dieser Nachteile konzentriert sich die neuere Forschung tendenziell auf monokularen Input, da so Bewegungsabläufe nicht gestört werden und geeignete Geräte im Alltag allgegenwärtig sind. Die 3D-Rekonstruktion in diesem Kontext stößt jedoch aufgrund von Okklusionen und Tiefenmehrdeutigkeiten schnell an ihre Grenzen. Die Mehrheit der Arbeiten auf dem neuesten Stand der Technik setzt hierbei auf ein ML-Framework, um diese Mehrdeutigkeiten statistisch aufzulösen; infolgedessen haben all diese mehrere Einschränkungen gemein. Beispielsweise benötigen sie eine große Menge annotierter 3D-Daten, deren Beschaffung arbeitsintensiv und anfällig für systematische Fehler ist. Darüber hinaus sind Merkmale, die mit Anmerkungen nur schwer zu quantifizieren sind – die Details des individuellen Erscheinungsbildes – in einem solchen Rahmen schwer zu rekonstruieren. Bestehende Verfahren gehen auch vereinfachend davon aus, dass nur eine einzige Hand in der Szene vorhanden ist. Zweihand-Interaktionen bringen jedoch zusätzliche Herausforderungen in Form von Okklusion der Hände untereinander, Links-Rechts-Verwirrung und Kollisionsbeschränkungen mit sich, die Einhand-Methoden nicht bewältigen können. Um die oben genannten Mängel früherer Methoden anzugehen, bringt diese Arbeit den Stand der Technik durch die neuartige Verwendung modellbasierter Priors voran, um Hand-spezifisches Wissen zu integrieren. Insbesondere stellt diese Arbeit eine Trainingsmethode vor, die die Menge der erforderlichen Annotationen reduziert und robust gegenüber systemischen Verzerrungen ist; es wird die erste Tracking-Methode vorgestellt, die das herausfordernde Zweihand-Interaktionsszenario mit monokularem RGB-Video angeht, und auch die erste probabilistische Methode zur Modellierung der Bildmehrdeutigkeit für Zweihand-Interaktionen. Darüber hinaus trägt diese Arbeit auch das erste parametrische Handtexturmodell mit Beispielanwendungen in der Hand-Personalisierung bei

How and why people are impolite in danmu?

This study explores how and why people are impolite in danmu. Danmu refers to anonymous comments overlaid on videos uploaded to videosharing sites. Although there is wide recognition that impoliteness prevails in danmu, the questions of how and why people are impolite in this context have rarely been investigated. This study addresses this lacuna of research. Using both an analysis of comments identified as impolite by participants and an analysis of focus group interview data, this research identified seven impoliteness strategies, covering both conventionalised formulae and implicational impoliteness. By applying uses and gratifications theory, this study identified five uses and gratifications for performing impoliteness in danmu: social interaction, entertainment, relaxation, expression of (usually differing) opinions and finding connections. The dialectic of resonance and opposition that emerged from the data helped explain why impolite comments tended not to be perceived as inappropriate in danmu. Thus, this study contributes to the emerging research on impoliteness in social media