We propose a novel computational framework for modeling and simulating origami structures. In this framework, bilinear solid-shell elements are employed to model the origami panels while crease folding is considered through the angle between the director vectors of the adjacent panels. The director vector is the vector normal to the mid-surface before displacement/deformation comes in. To mitigate locking issues in the solid-shell element, we introduce the assumed natural strain method. To validate the effectiveness of our framework, we conduct origami simulations involving both straight- and curved-creases. The accuracy and efficacy of the framework are demonstrated through quantitative and qualitative analyses.
We introduce a novel method for directional-field design on meshes, enabling users to specify singularities at any location on a mesh. Our method uses a piecewise power-linear representation for phase and scale, offering precise control over field topology. The resulting fields are smooth and accommodate any singularity index and field symmetry. With this representation, we mitigate the artifacts caused by coarse or uneven meshes. We showcase our approach on meshes with diverse topologies and triangle qualities.
We derive closed-form expressions of biharmonic coordinates for 2D high-order cages, enabling the transformation of the input polynomial curves into polynomial curves of any order. Central to our derivation is the use of the high-order boundary element method. We demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of our method on various 2D deformations. In practice, users can easily manipulate the Bezier control points to perform the desired intuitive deformation, as the biharmonic coordinates provide an enriched deformation space and encourage the alignment between the boundary cage and its interior geometry.
In this pilot project, we teamed up with artists to develop new workflows for 2D animation while producing a short educational cartoon. We identified several workflows to streamline the animation process, bringing the artists' vision to the screen more effectively.
Mohammad Ashraful Islam, Mahfuzur Rahman, Md. Fakhar Uddin
et al.
Abstract Background Despite recent progress in rural economic development and food production, the prevalence of household food insecurity (FI) and use of unimproved toilet facilities are widespread in Bangladesh. Evidence regarding the consequencs of household FI and poor sanitation on child morbidity is scarce. This study aimed to understand the association of FI and unimproved toilet facility with morbidity status of under-5 children in Bangladesh. Methods We used data from a cross-sectional survey that was conducted as part of an evaluation of the Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) Program in 9 districts of Bangladesh. The study population included children aged 6–59 months and their caregivers, identified using a two-stage cluster-sampling procedure. Child morbidity status was the outcome variable, and household FI status and type of toilet used were considered the main exposure variables in this study. We performed logistic regression, calculated adjusted odds ratios (AOR) to assess the association of child morbidity with household FI and unimproved toilet facility after adjusting for potential confounders. Results A total of 1,728 households were eligible for this analysis. About 23% of the households were food-insecure, and a large number of households had improved toilet facilities (93.4%). In the multivariable logistic regression model, we found that children in food-insecure households with unimproved toilet facility had 5.88 (AOR: 5.88; 95% CI 2.52, 13.70) times more chance, of being morbid compared to the children of food-secure households with improved toilet facility. A similar association of FI and toilet facilities with each of the morbidity components was observed, including diarrhea (AOR:3.6; 95% CI 1.79, 7.89), fever (AOR:3.47; 95% CI 1.72, 6.99), difficult or fast breathing with cough (AOR:3.88; 95% CI 1.99, 7.59), and difficult or fast breathing with blocked or running nose (AOR:1.29; 95% CI 0.56, 2.95). Conclusions Our study shows that household FI and unimproved toilet facility jointly have more deteriorative effects on child morbidity than either of these conditions alone. Therefore, it is recommended to consider these two critical factors while designing a public health intervention for reducing morbidity among under-five children.
The effective prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases is a major task for health systems since these pathological conditions are still major causes of mortality, morbidity, and disability worldwide [...]
In some entertainment and virtual reality applications, it is necessary to model and draw the real world realistically, so as to improve the fidelity of natural scenes and make users have a better sense of immersion. However, due to the morphological structure of trees The complexity and variety present many challenges for photorealistic modeling and rendering of trees. This paper reviews the progress achieved in photorealistic modeling and rendering of tree branches, leaves, and bark over the past few decades. The main achievement is mainly a rule-based procedural tree modeling method.
Francesco Moroni, Enrico Ammirati, Giuseppe Danilo Norata
et al.
Atherosclerosis is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. It is a complex disease characterized by lipid accumulation within the arterial wall, inflammation, local neoangiogenesis, and apoptosis. Innate immune effectors, in particular monocytes and macrophages, play a pivotal role in atherosclerosis initiation and progression. Although most of available evidence on the role of monocytes and macrophages in atherosclerosis is derived from animal studies, a growing body of evidence elucidating the role of these mononuclear cell subtypes in human atherosclerosis is currently accumulating. A novel pathogenic role of monocytes and macrophages in terms of atherosclerosis initiation and progression, in particular concerning the role of these cell subsets in neovascularization, has been discovered. The aim of the present article is to review currently available evidence on the role of monocytes and macrophages in human atherosclerosis and in relation to plaque characteristics, such as plaque neoangiogenesis, and patients’ prognosis and their potential role as biomarkers.
We present a physics-based framework to simulate porous, deformable materials and interactive tools with haptic feedback that can reshape it. In order to allow the material to be moulded non-homogeneously, we propose an algorithm to change the material properties of the object depending on its water content. We present a multi-resolution, multi-timescale simulation framework to enable stable visual and haptic feedback at interactive rates. We test our model for physical consistency, accuracy, interactivity and appeal through a user study and quantitative performance evaluation.
Abstract Hsp90 is a conserved and essential molecular chaperone responsible for the folding and activation of hundreds of ‘client’ proteins. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is a model client that constantly depends on Hsp90 for activity. Previously, we revealed GR ligand binding is inhibited by Hsp70 and restored by Hsp90, aided by the cochaperone p23. However, a molecular understanding of the chaperone-induced transformations that occur between the inactive Hsp70:Hsp90 ‘client-loading complex’ and an activated Hsp90:p23 ‘client-maturation complex’ is lacking for GR, or for any client. Here, we present a 2.56Å cryo-EM structure of the GR-maturation complex (GR:Hsp90:p23), revealing that the GR ligand binding domain is, surprisingly, restored to a folded, ligand-bound conformation, while simultaneously threaded through the Hsp90 lumen. Also, unexpectedly, p23 directly stabilizes native GR using a previously uncharacterized C-terminal helix, resulting in enhanced ligand-binding. This is the highest resolution Hsp90 structure to date and the first atomic resolution structure of a client bound to Hsp90 in a native conformation, sharply contrasting with the unfolded kinase:Hsp90 structure. Thus, aided by direct cochaperone:client interactions, Hsp90 dictates client-specific folding outcomes. Together with the GR-loading complex structure (Wang et al. 2020), we present the molecular mechanism of chaperone-mediated GR remodeling, establishing the first complete chaperone cycle for any client.
We present a new scale-free geometric modelling environment designed by the author of the paper. It allows one to consistently treat geometric objects of arbitrary size and offers extensive analytic and computational support for visualization of both real and artificial sceneries.
We present a generalization of Schlick's bias and gain functions -- simple parametric curve-shaped functions for inputs in [0, 1]. Our single function includes both bias and gain as special cases, and is able to describe other smooth and monotonic curves with variable degrees of asymmetry.
This paper takes on the problem of transferring the style of cartoon images to real-life photographic images by implementing previous work done by CartoonGAN. We trained a Generative Adversial Network(GAN) on over 60 000 images from works by Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli. To evaluate our results, we conducted a qualitative survey comparing our results with two state-of-the-art methods. 117 survey results indicated that our model on average outranked state-of-the-art methods on cartoon-likeness.
Yong Zhi Foo, Antonina Loncarevic, Leigh W. Simmons
et al.
We routinely make judgements of trustworthiness from the faces of others. However, the accuracy of such judgements remains contentious. An important context for trustworthiness judgements is sexual unfaithfulness. Accuracy in sexual unfaithfulness judgements may be adaptive for avoiding reproductive costs associated with having an unfaithful partner. Indeed, emerging studies suggest that women, and to a lesser degree, men, show above-chance accuracy in judging sexual unfaithfulness from opposite-sex faces. In the context of mate guarding, it is important not only to assess the likelihood of a partner defecting, but also to detect same-sex poachers. Therefore, here, we examine whether individuals can also judge sexual unfaithfulness (self-reported cheating and poaching behaviour) from same-sex faces. We found above-chance accuracy in judgements of unfaithfulness from same-sex faces in men but not women. Conversely, we found above-chance accuracy for opposite-sex faces in women but not men. Therefore, both men and women showed above-chance accuracy, but only for men's, and not women's, faces. Raters were making accurate (above-chance) judgements of unfaithfulness from men's faces using facial masculinity, a well-established signal of propensity to adopt short-term mating strategies. In summary, we found above-chance accuracy in impressions of unfaithfulness from men's faces. Although very modest, the level of accuracy could nevertheless have biological significance as an evolved adaptation for identifying potential cheaters/poachers.
We present a general sample reweighting scheme and its underlying theory for the integration of an unknown function with low dimensionality. Our method produces better results than standard weighting schemes for common sampling strategies, while avoiding bias. Our main insight is to link the weight derivation to the function reconstruction process during integration. The implementation of our solution is simple and results in an improved convergence behavior. We illustrate its benefit by applying our method to multiple Monte Carlo rendering problems.
In this manuscript, we introduce a novel technique for sampling and integrating direct illumination in the presence of many lights. Unlike previous work, the presented technique importance samples the product distribution of radiance and visibility while using bounded memory footprint and very low sampling overhead. This is achieved by learning a compact approximation of the target distributions over both space and time, allowing to reuse and adapt the learnt distributions both spatially, within a frame, and temporally, across multiple frames. Finally, the technique is amenable to massive parallelization on GPUs and suitable for both offline and real-time rendering.
This article describes a method of getting a harmonious combination of colors, developed by us on the basis of the relationship of color and acoustic waves. Presents a parallel between harmoniously matched colors and the concept of harmony in music theory (consonance). Describes the physical assumption of the essence of the phenomenon of harmony (consonance). The article also provides algorithm of implementation wave method for the sRGB color model.
In this paper we address the issue of designing developable surfaces with Bezier patches. We show that developable surfaces with a polynomial edge of regression are the set of developable surfaces which can be constructed with Aumann's algorithm. We also obtain the set of polynomial developable surfaces which can be constructed using general polynomial curves. The conclusions can be extended to spline surfaces as well.