Walking-by-Logic: Signal Temporal Logic-Guided Model Predictive Control for Bipedal Locomotion Resilient to External Perturbations

This study proposes a novel planning framework based on a model predictive control formulation that incorporates signal temporal logic (STL) specifications for task completion guarantees and robustness quantification. This marks the first-ever study to apply STL-guided trajectory optimization for bipedal locomotion push recovery, where the robot experiences unexpected disturbances. Existing recovery strategies often struggle with complex task logic reasoning and locomotion robustness evaluation, making them susceptible to failures caused by inappropriate recovery strategies or insufficient robustness. To address this issue, the STL-guided framework generates optimal and safe recovery trajectories that simultaneously satisfy the task specification and maximize the locomotion robustness. Our framework outperforms a state-of-the-art locomotion controller in a high-fidelity dynamic simulation, especially in scenarios involving crossed-leg maneuvers. Furthermore, it demonstrates versatility in tasks such as locomotion on stepping stones, where the robot must select from a set of disjointed footholds to maneuver successfully

The relationship between depressive mood and non-suicidal self-injury among secondary vocational school students: the moderating role of borderline personality disorder tendencies

BackgroundNon-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has become an important public health issue of global concern, often occurring in adolescents, and depressive mood is closely related to NSSI. In addition, NSSI is considered a symptom of borderline personality disorder. It has been found that adolescents in secondary vocational schools are more vulnerable to behavior and emotional disorders than those in general high schools. This study investigated the risk factors associated with NSSI affecting secondary vocational school students and analyzed the role of borderline personality disorder tendencies in promoting the occurrence of NSSI among students with depressive moods.MethodsA total of 1,848 Chinese secondary vocational students completed a self-report questionnaire. The homemade NSSI behavior questionnaire, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 were used in this survey. Binary logistic regression and PROCESS software analysis were used to explore the influencing factors associated with NSSI and to test for moderating effects.ResultsFemale (OR = 3.412, 95% CI 2.301–5.060), drinking history (OR = 2.007, 95% CI 1.383–2.911), history of suicidal death exposure (OR = 3.161, 95% CI 1.999–4.999), depressive mood (OR = 2.436, 95% CI 1.668–3.558) and borderline personality disorder tendencies (OR = 2.558, 95% CI = 1.764–3.711) were independent risk factors for NSSI. Borderline personality disorder tendencies (B = 0.047, p = 0.000) moderated the relationship between depressive mood and NSSI. The stronger the borderline personality tendencies, the more NSSI behavior occurred when they were depressive.ConclusionsBorderline personality disorder tendencies in secondary vocational school adolescents significantly enhance the association of depressive mood with NSSI. There is a moderating role for borderline personality disorder tendencies in depressive mood and NSSI

Technological Innovation Research: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

The paper explores the relationship among technological innovation, technological trajectory transition, and firms’ innovation performance. Technological innovation is studied from the perspectives of innovation novelty and innovation openness. Technological trajectory transition is categorized into creative cumulative technological trajectory transition and creative disruptive technological trajectory transition. A structural equation model is developed and tested with data collected by surveying 366 Chinese firms. The results indicate that both innovation novelty and innovation openness positively affects creative cumulative technological trajectory transition as well as creative disruptive technological trajectory transition. Innovation openness and creative disruptive technological trajectory transition both positively affect firms’ innovation performance. However, neither innovation novelty nor creative cumulative technological trajectory transition positively affects firms’ innovation performance. Implications for managers and directions for future studies are discussed

Sharing Economy in Local Energy Markets

With an increase in the electrification of end-use sectors, various resources on the demand side provide great flexibility potential for system operation, which also leads to problems such as the strong randomness of power consumption behavior, the low utilization rate of flexible resources, and difficulties in cost recovery. With the core idea of 'access over ownership', the concept of the sharing economy has gained substantial popularity in the local energy market in recent years. Thus, we provide an overview of the potential market design for the sharing economy in local energy markets (LEMs) and conduct a detailed review of research related to local energy sharing, enabling technologies, and potential practices. This paper can provide a useful reference and insights for the activation of demand-side flexibility potential. Hopefully, this paper can also provide novel insights into the development and further integration of the sharing economy in LEMs.</p

Integrated analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics of peach under cold stress

Low temperature is one of the environmental factors that restrict the growth and geographical distribution of peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch). To explore the molecular mechanisms of peach brunches in response to cold, we analyzed the metabolomics and transcriptomics of ‘Donghe No.1’ (cold-tolerant, CT) and ‘21st Century’ (cold-sensitive, CS) treated by different temperatures (-5 to -30°C) for 12 h. Some cold-responsive metabolites (e.g., saccharides, phenolic acids and flavones) were identified with upregulation only in CT. Further, we identified 1991 cold tolerance associated genes in these samples and they were significantly enriched in the pathways of ‘galactose metabolism’, ‘phenylpropanoid biosynthesis’ and ‘flavonoids biosynthesis’. Weighted gene correlation network analysis showed that soluble sugar, flavone, and lignin biosynthetic associated genes might play a key role in the cold tolerance of peach. In addition, several key genes (e.g., COMT, CCR, CAD, PER and F3’H) were substantially expressed more in CT than CS under cold stress, indicating that they might be major factors during the adaptation of peach to low temperature. This study will not only improve our understanding towards the molecular mechanisms of peach trees under cold stress but also contribute to the screening and breeding program of peach in the future

Transdifferentiation of lung adenocarcinoma in mice with Lkb1 deficiency to squamous cell carcinoma

Lineage transition in adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of non-small cell lung cancer, as implicated by clinical observation of mixed ADC and SCC pathologies in adenosquamous cell carcinoma, remains a fundamental yet unsolved question. Here we provide in vivo evidence showing the transdifferentiation of lung cancer from ADC to SCC in mice: Lkb1-deficient lung ADC progressively transdifferentiates into SCC, via a pathologically mixed mAd-SCC intermediate. We find that reduction of lysyl oxidase (Lox) in Lkb1-deficient lung ADC decreases collagen disposition and triggers extracellular matrix remodelling and upregulates p63 expression, a SCC lineage survival oncogene. Pharmacological Lox inhibition promotes the transdifferentiation, whereas ectopic Lox expression significantly inhibits this process. Notably, ADC and SCC show differential responses to Lox inhibition. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the de novo transdifferentiation of lung ADC to SCC in mice and provide mechanistic insight that may have important implications for lung cancer treatment

Iris Liveness Detection Competition (LivDet-Iris) -- The 2020 Edition

Launched in 2013, LivDet-Iris is an international competition series open to academia and industry with the aim to assess and report advances in iris Presentation Attack Detection (PAD). This paper presents results from the fourth competition of the series: LivDet-Iris 2020. This year's competition introduced several novel elements: (a) incorporated new types of attacks (samples displayed on a screen, cadaver eyes and prosthetic eyes), (b) initiated LivDet-Iris as an on-going effort, with a testing protocol available now to everyone via the Biometrics Evaluation and Testing (BEAT)(https://www.idiap.ch/software/beat/) open-source platform to facilitate reproducibility and benchmarking of new algorithms continuously, and (c) performance comparison of the submitted entries with three baseline methods (offered by the University of Notre Dame and Michigan State University), and three open-source iris PAD methods available in the public domain. The best performing entry to the competition reported a weighted average APCER of 59.10\% and a BPCER of 0.46\% over all five attack types. This paper serves as the latest evaluation of iris PAD on a large spectrum of presentation attack instruments.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, Accepted for presentation at International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB 2020

Marginal increase of sunitinib exposure by grapefruit juice

Clinical Oncolog

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure