Dynamic Dense Graph Convolutional Network for Skeleton-based Human Motion Prediction

Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN) which typically follows a neural message passing framework to model dependencies among skeletal joints has achieved high success in skeleton-based human motion prediction task. Nevertheless, how to construct a graph from a skeleton sequence and how to perform message passing on the graph are still open problems, which severely affect the performance of GCN. To solve both problems, this paper presents a Dynamic Dense Graph Convolutional Network (DD-GCN), which constructs a dense graph and implements an integrated dynamic message passing. More specifically, we construct a dense graph with 4D adjacency modeling as a comprehensive representation of motion sequence at different levels of abstraction. Based on the dense graph, we propose a dynamic message passing framework that learns dynamically from data to generate distinctive messages reflecting sample-specific relevance among nodes in the graph. Extensive experiments on benchmark Human 3.6M and CMU Mocap datasets verify the effectiveness of our DD-GCN which obviously outperforms state-of-the-art GCN-based methods, especially when using long-term and our proposed extremely long-term protocol

A 7.4-Bit ENOB 600 MS/s FPGA-Based Online Calibrated Slope ADC without External Components

A slope analog-to-digital converter (ADC) amenable to be fully implemented on a digital field programmable gate array (FPGA) without requiring any external active or passive components is proposed in this paper. The amplitude information, encoded in the transition times of a standard LVDS differential input—driven by the analog input and by the reference slope generated by an FPGA output buffer—is retrieved by an FPGA time-to-digital converter. Along with the ADC, a new online calibration algorithm is developed to mitigate the influence of process, voltage, and temperature variations on its performance. Measurements on an ADC prototype reveal an analog input range from 0.3 V to 1.5 V, a least significant bit (LSB) of 2.6 mV, and an effective number of bits (ENOB) of 7.4-bit at 600 MS/s. The differential nonlinearity (DNL) is in the range between −0.78 and 0.70 LSB, and the integral nonlinearity (INL) is in the range from −0.72 to 0.78 LSB

Some observations on the effects of EGR, oxygen concentration, and engine speed on the homogeneous charge combustion of n-heptane

Paper presented at the 2004 SAE Fuels and Lubricants Meeting and Exhibition, June 2004, Toulouse, France. Retrieved 3/16/2006 from http://www.mem.drexel.edu/cnf/.NOx and soot emissions remain critical issues in diesel engines. One method to address these problems is to achieve homogeneous combustion at lower peak temperatures – the goal of research on controlled autoignition. In this paper n-heptane is used to represent a large hydrocarbon fuel and some of the effects of internal and external EGR, oxygen concentration, and engine speed on its combustion have been examined through simulation and experiment. Simulations were conducted using our existing skeletal chemical kinetic model, which combines the chemistry of the low, intermediate, and high temperature regimes. Experiments were carried out in a single cylinder, four-stroke, air cooled engine and a single cylinder, two stroke, water cooled engine. In the four-stroke engine experiments the effects of EGR were examined using heated N2 addition as a surrogate for external EGR and engine modifications to increase internal EGR. Two-stage ignition was observed in both the simulations and experiments. The modeling results indicate that the ignition times were sensitive to EGR through both thermal and chemical effects. High levels of EGR completely suppressed autoignition. The most apparent effect of oxygen concentration is a shortening of the time between the first stage and second stage ignition. The modeling shows that EGR or extra air are key factors in eliminating knock during mid-load conditions. For higher load operation knock is serious and the only way to avoid it is to control reaction timing through the use of spark ignition. The experimental and modeling results from the two-stroke engine show that autoignition can be avoided by increasing the engine speed. This appears to result from shortened reaction time at lower temperatures thereby reducing the extent of the low and intermediate temperature chemical reactivity. The two-stroke engine experiments indicate that high levels of internal EGR (obtained by increasing the engine back pressure) can enable spark ignition at lean/dilute conditions. Based on the similarity between two-stoke and four-stroke engines, spark ignition may be possible at higher load conditions using internal EGR (simultaneously keeping peak temperature lower) for four-stroke engines

Analysis of the IDS Gene in 38 Patients with Hunter Syndrome: The c.879G>A (p.Gln293Gln) Synonymous Variation in a Female Create Exonic Splicing

BACKGROUND: Hunter syndrome (mucopolysaccharidosis type II, MPS II) is a rare disease inherited in an X-linked autosomal recessive pattern. It is the prevailing form of the mucopolysaccharidoses in China. Here we investigated mutations of IDS (iduronate 2-sulfatase) gene in 38 unrelated Chinese patients, one of which is a female. METHODS: Peripheral leucocytes were collected from the patients and the IDS gene was amplified to looking for the variations. For a female patient, the X chromosome status was analyzed by androgen receptor X-inactivation assay and the mutation impact on RNA level was further performed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: We discovered that point mutations constituted the major form while mutations in codon p.R468 defined the largest number of patients in our cohort. Consistent with data from other ethnic groups, exons 9 and 3 had comparatively more mutations, while exon 2 had quite a few mutations unique to Chinese patients. Of the 30 different mutations identified, only 9 were novel: one was a premature termination mutation, i.e., c.196C>T (p.Gln66X); three were missense mutations, i.e., c.200T>C (p.Leu67Pro), c.215T>C (p.Leu72Pro), c.389C>T (p.Thr130Ile); one was a small deletion, i.e., c.1104_1122del19 (p.Ser369ArgfsX16); and one was a deletion that spanned both exons 8 and 9 deletion leading to gross structural changes in the IDS gene. In addition, a synonymous mutation c.879G>A (p.Gln293Gln) was identified in a female Hunter disease patient, which resulted in loss of the original splicing site, activated a cryptic splicing site upstream, leading to a 28 bp deletion and a premature termination at p. Tyr285GlufsX47. Together with concurrent skewed X-inactivation this was believed to facilitate the development of Hunter disease in this girl. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the molecular analysis of IDS gene in Chinese patients confirmed the Hunter disease diagnosis and expanded the mutation and clinical spectrum of this devastating disorder

Research on the Impact of Big Country Agent Strategy on the “the Belt and Road”

The major initiatives of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” have become the broadest platform for international cooperation in line with the trend of economic globalization, and an initiative in line with the world’s multipolar development, cultural diversity and social informatization. The proposal of the “the Belt and Road” has made the world economy more globalized, more efficient in allocating resources and more deeply integrated into the market. The principle of the “the Belt and Road” initiative is to discuss, build and share together, promote infrastructure construction and connectivity, strengthen economic policy coordination and development strategy docking, promote coordinated and interconnected development, achieve common prosperity, and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind. However, in the context of the implementation of the agent strategy by major countries, the “the Belt and Road” has been greatly affected in terms of economy, culture, resources, finance, security, etc. This paper comprehensively analyzes the profound impact of agent strategy on the “the Belt and Road” initiative worldwide, and it can be seen that the “the Belt and Road” is based on the position of China and countries along the Belt and Road, comprehensively strengthening economic cooperation among countries along the Belt and Road, and promoting high-quality economic and trade cooperation among countries along the Belt and Road

Fatigue failure mechanism analysis of 1Cr17Ni2 stainless steel blades ground by an abrasive belt

Fatigue failure, as the main failure form of aero-engine blades, has a direct impact on the reliability and service life of aviation equipment. In order to improve the service performance of machined blades, it is necessary to understand the failure process and failure mechanism of blades and then optimize the grinding process. This paper takes abrasive belt grinding of an 1Cr17Ni2 stainless steel blade as the research object and analyzes the fatigue failure mechanism by characterizing the surface morphology, cross-sectional microstructure, and cross-sectional characteristics of the fatigue failure blade. The results show that cracks are prone to propagate in carbon-rich areas with poor mechanical properties inside the material, and the accumulation of large-size carbon-rich areas leads to continuous cracks easily and accelerates crack growth. The grinding process promotes the migration and consumption of surface carbon elements and forms a carbon consumption layer on the surface of the material, which can inhibit the initiation of fatigue cracks. The point-like pits on the ground surface have an adverse effect on the fatigue life and play a role in the initiation of fatigue crack enhancement. The direction of material research and development to homogenize the structure of the material and the direction of anti-fatigue grinding to increase the thickness of the carbon consumption layer on the ground surface and avoid the damage of micro-pits are proposed. The research has important guiding significance for anti-fatigue machining of key components

Correction: Zhang et al. A 7.4-Bit ENOB 600 MS/s FPGA-Based Online Calibrated Slope ADC without External Components. <i>Sensors</i> 2022, <i>22</i>, 5852

The authors wish to correct the following errors in the original paper [...

Table_1_The causal effect of triglyceride and high blood pressure on IgA nephropathy: a Mendelian randomization study.XLSX

BackgroundIt has been reported that high blood pressure (HBP) and triglyceride (TG) are considered risk factors in immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). This study aimed to explore the causalities between HBP and TG, and IgAN on the basis of Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.MethodsFirstly, the genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data of IgAN (GCST90018866) and two exposure factors, TG (ukb-d-30870_raw) and HBP (ukb-a-437), were sourced from the GWAS Catalog and Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) OpenGWAS databases, respectively. In this study, five methods were utilized to perform MR analysis after picking out single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables, including MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, weighted mode, and inverse variance weighted (IVW), followed by the sensitivity analysis containing the heterogeneity, horizontal pleiotropy test and leave-one-out (LOO) analysis. Finally, the enrichment analysis and interaction network construction of genes corresponding to SNPs of HBP and TG were performed.ResultsThe univariate MR results revealed that HBP and TG regarded as risk factors were causally related to IgAN [TG: p = 0.046, odds ratio (OR) = 1.065, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.001–1.133; HBP: p = 7.09 × 10−7, OR = 1.970, 95% CI = 1.507–2.575] based on random-effect IVM method, of which TG had a weaker impact. The reliability of these univariate MR results was certified by the sensitivity analysis, in which there was no horizontal pleiotropy and exaggerated influence of each SNP. Furthermore, HBP was markedly causally related to IgAN (p = 0.000512) with the help of multivariate MR analysis, rather than TG (p = 0.332). Therefore, when HBP and TG occur simultaneously, HBP is a direct influencing factor on IgAN. Ultimately, a total of 208 and 153 genes separately corresponding to SNPs of TG and HBP were included in enrichment analysis, and thereinto, genes relevant to TG were mainly enriched in lipid homeostasis and cholesterol metabolism, while genes concerned with HBP played their roles in regulation of cell growth, aldosterone synthesis and secretion and so forth.ConclusionTG and HBP as risk factors were causally connected with IgAN, of which HBP was strongly related to the onset of IgAN, providing more reliable evidence for further exploring the relationship between TG and HBP and IgAN.</p

Data_Sheet_3_The causal effect of triglyceride and high blood pressure on IgA nephropathy: a Mendelian randomization study.CSV

BackgroundIt has been reported that high blood pressure (HBP) and triglyceride (TG) are considered risk factors in immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). This study aimed to explore the causalities between HBP and TG, and IgAN on the basis of Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.MethodsFirstly, the genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data of IgAN (GCST90018866) and two exposure factors, TG (ukb-d-30870_raw) and HBP (ukb-a-437), were sourced from the GWAS Catalog and Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) OpenGWAS databases, respectively. In this study, five methods were utilized to perform MR analysis after picking out single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables, including MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, weighted mode, and inverse variance weighted (IVW), followed by the sensitivity analysis containing the heterogeneity, horizontal pleiotropy test and leave-one-out (LOO) analysis. Finally, the enrichment analysis and interaction network construction of genes corresponding to SNPs of HBP and TG were performed.ResultsThe univariate MR results revealed that HBP and TG regarded as risk factors were causally related to IgAN [TG: p = 0.046, odds ratio (OR) = 1.065, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.001–1.133; HBP: p = 7.09 × 10−7, OR = 1.970, 95% CI = 1.507–2.575] based on random-effect IVM method, of which TG had a weaker impact. The reliability of these univariate MR results was certified by the sensitivity analysis, in which there was no horizontal pleiotropy and exaggerated influence of each SNP. Furthermore, HBP was markedly causally related to IgAN (p = 0.000512) with the help of multivariate MR analysis, rather than TG (p = 0.332). Therefore, when HBP and TG occur simultaneously, HBP is a direct influencing factor on IgAN. Ultimately, a total of 208 and 153 genes separately corresponding to SNPs of TG and HBP were included in enrichment analysis, and thereinto, genes relevant to TG were mainly enriched in lipid homeostasis and cholesterol metabolism, while genes concerned with HBP played their roles in regulation of cell growth, aldosterone synthesis and secretion and so forth.ConclusionTG and HBP as risk factors were causally connected with IgAN, of which HBP was strongly related to the onset of IgAN, providing more reliable evidence for further exploring the relationship between TG and HBP and IgAN.</p