Self-Ordering Point Clouds

In this paper we address the task of finding representative subsets of points in a 3D point cloud by means of a point-wise ordering. Only a few works have tried to address this challenging vision problem, all with the help of hard to obtain point and cloud labels. Different from these works, we introduce the task of point-wise ordering in 3D point clouds through self-supervision, which we call selfordering. We further contribute the first end-to-end trainable network that learns a point-wise ordering in a selfsupervised fashion. It utilizes a novel differentiable point scoring-sorting strategy and it constructs an hierarchical contrastive scheme to obtain self-supervision signals. We extensively ablate the method and show its scalability and superior performance even compared to supervised ordering methods on multiple datasets and tasks including zeroshot ordering of point clouds from unseen categories

Anti-glycan antibody responses during infection with Schistosoma: Searching for the sweet spots

During a schistosome infection, the host generates a plethora of antibodies against schistosome glycans. This thesis looks into the anti-schistosome-glycan antibody dynamics in different hosts with the aim of identifying targets that are relevant in the context of infection and protection.LUMC / Geneeskund

Tibetan sheep are better able to cope with low energy intake than Small-tailed Han sheep due to lower maintenance energy requirements and higher nutrient digestibilities

Tibetan sheep are indigenous to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and are well-adapted to and even thrive under the harsh alpine conditions. Small-tailed Han sheep were introduced to the plateau because of their high prolificacy and are maintained mainly in feedlots. Because of their different backgrounds, we hypothesised that Tibetan and Small-tailed Han sheep would differ in their utilization of energy intake and predicted that Tibetan sheep would cope better with low energy intake than Small-tailed Han sheep. To test this prediction, we determined nutrient digestibilities, energy requirements for maintenance and blood metabolite and hormone concentrations involved in energy metabolism in these breeds. Sheep of each breed (n = 24 of each, all wethers and 1.5 years of age) were distributed randomly into one of four groups and offered ad libitum diets of different digestible energy (DE) densities: 8.21, 9.33, 10.45 and 11.57 MJ DE/kg Dry matter (DM). Following 42 d of measuring feed intake, a 1-week digestion and metabolism experiment was done. DM intakes did not differ between breeds nor among treatments but, by design, DE intake increased linearly in both breeds as dietary energy level increased (P < 0.001). The average daily gain (ADG) was significantly greater in the Tibetan than Small-tailed Han sheep (P = 0.003) and increased linearly in both breeds (P < 0.001). In addition, from the regression analysis of ADG on DE intake, daily DE maintenance requirements were lower for Tibetan than for Small-tailed Han sheep (0.41 vs 0.50 MJ/BW0.75, P < 0.05). The DE and metabolizable energy (ME) digestibilities were higher in the Tibetan than Small-tailed Han sheep (P < 0.001) and increased linearly as the energy level increased in the diet (P < 0.001). At the lowest energy treatment, Tibetan sheep when compared with Small-tailed Han sheep, had: 1) higher serum glucose and glucagon, but lower insulin concentrations (P < 0.05), which indicated a higher capacity for gluconeogenesis and ability to regulate glucose metabolism; and 2) higher non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and lower very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglyceride (TG) concentrations (P < 0.05), which indicated a higher capacity for NEFA oxidation but lower ability for triglyceride (TG) synthesis. We concluded that our prediction was supported as these differences between breeds conferred an advantage for Tibetan over Small-tailed Han sheep to cope better with low energy diets

Discussion: "Radial strain behaviors and stress state interpretation of soil under direct simple shear" by X. Kang, Y. Cheng, and L. Ge.

Two methods were used in determining the stress state of simple shear tests in the discussed paper. The authors stated that the second method was proposed by Oda and Konishi, based on the distribution law of contact force (Oda, M. and Konishi, J., “Rotation of Principal Stresses in Granular Material During Simple,” Soils and Foundations., Vol. 14, No. 4, 1974, pp. 39–53.). However, the relation used in the method was found by Roscoe et al. from experimental results (Roscoe, K. H., Bassett, R. H., and Cole, E. R. L., “Principal Axes Observed During Simple Shear of a Sand,” Proceedings of the Geotechnical Conference on Shear Strength Properties of Natural Soils and Rocks, Vol. 1, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Oslo, 1967, pp. 231–237.). In addition, the determination of the constant k, which used k = 1 − K0, was problematic in the discussed paper. First, the equation could only be deduced after some assumptions were made. Second, the value of k was not a constant if the K0 changed

Modeling and Optimization of the Dilute Sulfuric Acid Treatment on Corn Stover at Low Temperature

Corn stover was hydrolyzed using dilute sulfuric acid at concentrations of 2, 4, and 6% over reaction times up to 300 minutes at 80oC. The concentrations of sugars (xylose and glucose) and degradation product (furfural) were determined and the kinetic parameters of mathematical models for predicting them in the hydrolysates were obtained. According to the models, an optimal condition for hydrolysis was achieved which was 5% H2SO4 at 80°C for 240min and the liquor contained up to 13.21g/l xylose, 5.07g /l glucose and 0.80g/l furfural. The hydrolysates obtained from corn stover can be used to produce hydrogen and methane by anaerobic fermentation process. The models could be used successfully to predict the concentrations of xylose, glucose and furfural within 0-300min under experimental acid concentration

Ca/Al of plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions as an indicator for post-entrapment processes at mid-ocean ridges?

The composition of melt inclusions in basalts erupted at mid-ocean ridges may be modified by post-entrapment processes, so the present composition of melt inclusions may not represent their original composition at the time of entrapment. By combining the melt inclusion composition in samples from the South Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 19ºS analyzed in this study, and from the Petrological Database, we found that post-entrapment crystallization processes resulted in higher Ca/Al, Mg#[100°—atomic Mg2+/(Mg2++Fe2+)], MgO and FeO contents, and lower CaO and Al2O3 contents of plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions relative to those hosted in olivine. In addition, melt inclusions hosted in plagioclase with anorthite content larger than 80mol.% had been modified more readily than others. By discussing the relationships between Ca/Al and fractional crystallization, post-entrapment crystallization, and the original melt composition, we propose that Ca/Al can be regarded as an indicator of the effect of post-entrapment processes on melt inclusion composition. Specifically, i) when Ca/Al&lt;0.78, melt inclusion compositions corrected for fractional crystallization to Mg#=72 can represent the primary magma at mid-ocean ridges; ii) when 0.78&lt;Ca/Al&lt;1.0, melt inclusions are mainly modified by post-entrapment crystallization effects, and can reveal the original melt composition after correcting for these effects; iii) when Ca/Al&gt;1.0, the compositions of melt inclusions do not reflect the original melt composition nor preserve information about the mantle source. According to these criteria, plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions with Ca/Al&gt;1.0 in basalts from the South Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 19ºS cannot represent the composition of the melt at the moment of their entrapment

A Statistical Study on Photospheric Magnetic Nonpotentiality of Active Regions and Its Relationship with Flares during Solar Cycles 22-23

A statistical study is carried out on the photospheric magnetic nonpotentiality in solar active regions and its relationship with associated flares. We select 2173 photospheric vector magnetograms from 1106 active regions observed by the Solar Magnetic Field Telescope at Huairou Solar Observing Station, National Astronomical Observatories of China, in the period of 1988-2008, which covers most of the 22nd and 23rd solar cycles. We have computed the mean planar magnetic shear angle (\bar{\Delta\phi}), mean shear angle of the vector magnetic field (\bar{\Delta\psi}), mean absolute vertical current density (\bar{|J_{z}|}), mean absolute current helicity density (\bar{|h_{c}|}), absolute twist parameter (|\alpha_{av}|), mean free magnetic energy density (\bar{\rho_{free}}), effective distance of the longitudinal magnetic field (d_{E}), and modified effective distance (d_{Em}) of each photospheric vector magnetogram. Parameters \bar{|h_{c}|}, \bar{\rho_{free}}, and d_{Em} show higher correlation with the evolution of the solar cycle. The Pearson linear correlation coefficients between these three parameters and the yearly mean sunspot number are all larger than 0.59. Parameters \bar{\Delta\phi}, \bar{\Delta\psi}, \bar{|J_{z}|}, |\alpha_{av}|, and d_{E} show only weak correlations with the solar cycle, though the nonpotentiality and the complexity of active regions are greater in the activity maximum periods than in the minimum periods. All of the eight parameters show positive correlations with the flare productivity of active regions, and the combination of different nonpotentiality parameters may be effective in predicting the flaring probability of active regions.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Solar Physic

Franck-Condon Effect in Central Spin System

We study the quantum transitions of a central spin surrounded by a collective-spin environment. It is found that the influence of the environmental spins on the absorption spectrum of the central spin can be explained with the analog of the Franck-Condon (FC) effect in conventional electron-phonon interaction system. Here, the collective spins of the environment behave as the vibrational mode, which makes the electron to be transitioned mainly with the so-called "vertical transitions" in the conventional FC effect. The "vertical transition" for the central spin in the spin environment manifests as, the certain collective spin states of the environment is favored, which corresponds to the minimal change in the average of the total spin angular momentum.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure