Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Gesture Recognition from Depth Data through Key Poses Learning and Decision Forests

Human gesture recognition is a challenging task with many applications. The popularization of real time depth sensors even diversifies potential applications to end-user natural user interface (NUI). The quality of such NUI highly depends on the robustness and execution speed of the gesture recognition. This work introduces a method for real-time gesture recognition from a noisy skeleton stream, such as the ones extracted from Kinect depth sensors. Each pose is described using a tailored angular representation of the skeleton joints. Those descriptors serve to identify key poses through a multi-class classifier derived from Support Vector learning machines. The gesture is labeled on-the-fly from the key pose sequence through a decision forest, that naturally performs the gesture time warping and avoids the requirement for an initial or neutral pose. The proposed method runs in real time and shows robustness in several experiments.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient to Discriminate Autism Spectrum Disorder from ADHD in Adult Patients With and Without Comorbid Substance Use Disorder

It is unknown whether the Autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) can discriminate between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with or without comorbid Substance Use Disorder (SUD). ANOVA’s were used to analyse the mean AQ (sub)scores of 129 adults with ASD or ADHD. We applied receiver operating characteristic (ROC) computations to assess discriminant power. All but one of the mean AQ (sub)scores were significantly higher for adults with ASD compared to those with ADHD. The SUD status in general was not significantly associated with AQ (sub)scores. On the Social Skills subscale patients with ASD and comorbid SUD showed less impairment than those without SUD. The cut-off score 26 yielded 73% correct classifications. The clinical use of the AQ in differentiating between ASD and ADHD is limited.
Characterization of freshly isolated and cultured cells derived from the fatty and fluid portions of liposuction aspirates

Liposuction aspirates (primarily saline solution, blood, and adipose tissue fragments) separate into fatty and fluid portions. Cells isolated from the fatty portion are termed processed lipoaspirate (PLA) cells and contain adipose‐derived adherent stromal cells (ASCs). Here we define cells isolated from the fluid portion of liposuction aspirates as liposuction aspirate fluid (LAF) cells. Stromal vascular fractions (SVF) were isolated separately from both portions and characterized under cultured and non‐cultured conditions. A comparable number of LAF and PLA cells were freshly isolated, but fewer LAF cells were adherent. CD34+CD45− cells from fresh LAF isolates were expanded by adherent culture, suggesting that LAF cells contain ASCs. Although freshly isolated PLA and LAF cells have distinct cell surface marker profiles, adherent PLA and LAF cells have quite similar characteristics with regard to growth kinetics, morphology, capacity for differentiation, and surface marker profiles. After plating, both PLA and LAF cells showed significant increased expression of CD29, CD44, CD49d, CD73, CD90, CD105, and CD151 and decreased expression of CD31 and CD45. Multicolor FACS analysis revealed that SVF are composed of heterogeneous cell populations including blood‐derived cells (CD45+), ASCs (CD31−CD34+CD45−CD90+CD105−CD146−), endothelial (progenitor) cells (CD31+CD34+CD45−CD90+CD105lowCD146+), pericytes (CD31−CD34−CD45−CD90+CD105−CD146+), and other cells. After plating, ASCs showed a dramatic increase in CD105 expression. Although some adherent ASCs lost CD34 expression with increasing culture time, our culture method maintained CD34 expression in ASCs for at least 10–20 weeks. These results suggest that liposuction‐derived cells may be useful and valuable for cell‐based therapies. J. Cell. Physiol. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Travel Diary

WAS THERE A PRIVATE COMPONENT TO THE TRAVEL COMPLETED? In the travel completed, was there a component that was private or domestic in nature? YES NO If YES please detail (number of nights that were private, costs associated with private component which were paid for or reimbursed by your employer attach any relevant information CERTIFICATION BY EMPLOYEE INTENDED NATURE OF TRAVEL I certify that this travel diary truly and fairly represents the intended nature of my travel, and upon my return, I will make any amendments to it if my actual travel changes Print Name: _______________________________________ Contact Number: __________________________________
Structure and Activity of Streptococcus pyogenes SipA: A Signal Peptidase-Like Protein Essential for Pilus Polymerisation

The pili expressed on the surface of the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes play an important role in host cell attachment, colonisation and pathogenesis. These pili are built from two or three components, an adhesin subunit at the tip, a major pilin that forms a polymeric shaft, and a basal pilin that is attached to the cell wall. Assembly is carried out by specific sortase (cysteine transpeptidase) enzyme. These components are encoded in a small gene cluster within the S. pyogenes genome, often together with another protein, SipA, whose function is unknown. We show through functional assays, carried out by expressing the S. pyogenes pilus components in Lactococcus lactis, SipA from the clinically important M1T1 strain is essential for pilus assembly, and that SipA function is likely to be conserved in all S. pyogenes. From the crystal structure of SipA we confirm that SipA belongs to the family of bacterial signal peptidases (SPases), which process the signal-peptides of secreted proteins. In contrast to a previous arm-swapped SipA dimer, this present structure shows that its principal domain closely resembles the catalytic domain of SPases and has a very similar peptide-binding cleft, but it lacks the catalytic Ser and Lys residues characteristic of SPases. In SipA these are replaced by Asp and Gly residues, which play no part in activity. We propose that SipA functions by binding a key component at the bacterial cell surface, in a conformation that facilitates pilus assembly.
A VLSI design of singular value decomposition processor for portable continuous-wave diffusion optical tomography systems

In recent years, developments in diffuse optical tomography (DOT) technology have rapidly progressed in biomedical applications such as functional brain imaging. Furthermore, during the last decade, singular value decomposition has increasingly found many applications in the engineering field. Our goal is to develop a truly portable DOT system by utilizing system-on-chip design technique. In our DOT system, designing the SVD processor using VLSI technique is very efficient for solving the inverse problem in the DOT algorithm. In this paper, we focus on the hardware architecture design of the Jacobi singular value decomposition (JSVD) for applications in continuous wave diffusion optical tomography (CW-DOT) systems. The design is implemented using 90nm CMOS process technology and simulation results verify the functionality of the JSVD design within the developed CW-DOT system.
Polyaniline–Prussian blue hybrid: synthesis and magnetic behaviour

We report the synthesis of an organic–inorganic hybrid material composed of a conducting polyaniline (PANI) matrix and Prussian blue (PB) network, the latter formed in situ in the polymer matrix. The hybrid was prepared by treating FeCl4 −-doped PANI with K3Fe(CN)6 unlike the previously reported method of potential cycling to obtain alternate layers of PANI and PB. Cyclic voltammetry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy investigations confirmed the formation of a network typical of PB inside the PANI matrix. Infrared spectroscopy points to the formation of an extended network between Fe in PANI matrix and Fe from K3Fe(CN)6. Magnetization studies of the hybrid material showed ferromagnetic ordering with a T c of about 6 K.
A Semantic Network Approach to Measuring Relatedness

Humans are very good at judging the strength of relationships between two terms, a task which, if it can be automated, would be useful in a range of applications. Systems attempting to solve this problem automatically have traditionally either used relative positioning in lexical resources such as WordNet, or distributional relationships in large corpora. This paper proposes a new approach, whereby relationships are derived from natural language text by using existing NLP tools, then integrated into a large scale semantic network. Spreading activation is then used on this network in order to judge the strengths of all relationships connecting the terms. In comparisons with human measurements, this approach was able to obtain results on par with the best purpose built systems, using only a relatively small corpus extracted from the web. This is particularly impressive, as the network creation system is a general tool for information collection and integration, and is not specifically designed for tasks of this type.
Future risk of labour market marginalization in young suicide attempters--a population-based prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND Research on future labour market marginalization following suicide attempt at young age is scarce. We investigated the effects of suicide attempts on three labour market outcomes: unemployment, sickness absence and disability pension. METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study based on register linkage of 1,613,816 individuals who in 1994 were 16-30 years old and lived in Sweden. Suicide attempters treated in inpatient care during the 3 years preceding study entry, i.e. 1992-94 (N=5649) were compared with the general population of the same age without suicide attempt between 1973 and 2010 (n=1,608,167). Hazard ratios (HRs) for long-term unemployment (>180 days), sickness absence (>90 days) and disability pension in 1995-2010 were calculated by Cox regression models, adjusted for a number of parental and individual risk markers, and stratified for previous psychiatric inpatient care not due to suicide attempt. RESULTS The risks for unemployment [HR 1.58; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52-1.64], sickness absence (HR 2.16; 2.08-2.24) and disability pension (HR 4.57; 4.34-4.81) were considerably increased among suicide attempters. There was a dose-response relationship between number of suicide attempts and the risk of disability pension, for individuals both with or without previous psychiatric hospitalizations not due to suicide attempts. No such relationship was present with regard to unemployment. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the strong association of suicide attempts with future marginalization from the labour market, particularly for outcomes that are based on a medical assessment. Studies that focus only on unemployment may largely underestimate the true detrimental impact of suicide attempt on labour market marginalization.
Impact of High PV Penetration on the Inter-Area Oscillations in the U.S. Eastern Interconnection

This study explores the impact of high-photovoltaic (PV) penetration on the inter-area oscillation modes of large-scale power grids. A series of dynamic models with various PV penetration levels are developed based on a detailed model representing the U.S. Eastern Interconnection (EI). Transient simulations are performed to investigate the change of inter-area oscillation modes with PV penetration. The impact of PV control strategies and parameter settings on inter-area oscillations is studied. This paper finds that as PV increases, the damping of the dominant oscillation mode decreases monotonically. It is also observed that the mode shape varies with the PV control strategy and new oscillation modes may emerge under inappropriate parameter settings in PV plant controls.
Multifocus image fusion algorithm using iterative segmentation based on edge information and adaptive threshold

This paper presents algorithm for multifocus image fusion in spatial domain based on iterative segmentation and edge information of the source images. The basic idea is to divide the images into smaller blocks, gather edge information for each block and then select the region with greater edge information to construct the resultant `all-in-focus' fused image. To improve the fusion quality further, an iterative approach is proposed. Each iteration selects the regions in focus with the help of an adaptive threshold while leaving the remaining regions for analysis in the next iteration. A further enhancement in the technique is achieved by making the number of blocks and size of blocks adaptive in each iteration. The pixels which remain unselected till the last iteration are then selected from the source images by comparison of the edge activities in the corresponding segments of the source images. The performance of the method have been extensively tested on several pairs of multifocus images and compared quantitatively with existing methods. Experimental results show that the proposed method improves fusion quality by reducing loss of information by almost 50% and noise by more than 99%.
Comparison of Flexural Performance of Lightweight Fibre-reinforced Concrete and Normalweight Fibre-reinforced Concrete

Current study encompasses comparison of flexural tests results of Normalweight Fibre-reinforced Concrete (NWFC) and Lightweight Fibre-reinforced Concrete (LWFC) beam specimens. Fibres are known for their positive effect on crack control, better post-cracking behaviour under flexure and for enhancing toughness. These improvements, however, come at the expense of degraded workability. Using lightweight aggregates of regular shape instead of heavier, irregular and rough textured normalweight aggregates can address the issue of poor workability of concrete besides other advantages that it will bring along with. Replacing normalweight aggregate with lightweight aggregate also has its demerits and in most cases under similar testing environments lightweight concrete has lower strength results. This paper covers evaluation of flexural performance for both LWFC and NWFC having similar compressive strength class. For this purpose 24 beams 150 × 150 × 700 mm in dimensions were tested under flexure. For a fair comparison, it was made sure that both the concretes (LWFC and NWFC) at every fibre volume fraction (0, 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75%) fell under the same strength class.
Stefan problem solved by Adomian decomposition method

The solution of the one-phase Stefan problem is presented. This problem consists of finding the distribution of temperature in the domain and the position of the moving interface (freezing front). The proposed solution is based on the Adomian decomposition method and optimalization. The validity of the approach is verified by comparing the results obtained with the analytical solution.
Hyperinsulinemia Is Characterized by Jointly Disturbed Plasma VLDL, LDL, and HDL Levels: A Population‐Based Study

Plasma very low density llpoproteln (VLDL) cholesterol and trlglycerlde, low density llpoproteln (LDL) cholesterol and trlglycerldea, high density llpoproteln (HDL) cholesterol, glucose and Insulin response (sums of 1- and 2-hour postload oral glucose levels), body mass Index (BMI), and blood pressure were determined In a representative sample (n = 542) of the adult Israeli Jewish population. Persons with diabetes or on antlhypertenslve medications were excluded. Total VLDL and LDL fractions were estimated from their cholesterol and trlglyceride subtraction levels that were standardized relative to the mean of the reference group (participants free of glucose Intolerance, obesity, and hypertension – the GOH conditions). Hyperinsulinemia and disturbed levels of VLDL and LDL were defined as levels equal to or greater than the 75th percentile and those of HDL, equal to or less than the 25th percent Me of their respective reference group distributions. When VLDL was disturbed jointly with LDL and HDL, the mean Insulin response adjusted for age, gender, glucose response, BMI, blood pressure, and smoking was high compared to the reference group (166.0 vs.122.5, p < 0.001). With Isolated disturbed VLDL, or disturbed LDL and HDL but normal VLDL, the mean Insulin response resembled the reference group. The adjusted risk ratio for this jointly disturbed llpoproteln profile among hyperinsullnemlc Individuals was 3.4 (95% confidence limits 2.6 to 4.4, p < 0.001) with no further association with the GOH conditions. We conclude that hyperlnsullnemia is characterized by an atherogenlc llpoproteln profile.
Efficacy of paroxetine in the treatment of adolescent major depression: a randomized, controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To compare paroxetine with placebo and imipramine with placebo for the treatment of adolescent depression. METHOD After a 7- to 14-day screening period, 275 adolescents with major depression began 8 weeks of double-blind paroxetine (20-40 mg), imipramine (gradual upward titration to 200-300 mg), or placebo. The two primary outcome measures were endpoint response (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression [HAM-D] score < or = 8 or > or = 50% reduction in baseline HAM-D) and change from baseline HAM-D score. Other depression-related variables were (1) HAM-D depressed mood item; (2) depression item of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for Adolescents-Lifetime version (K-SADS-L); (3) Clinical Global Impression (CGI) improvement scores of 1 or 2; (4) nine-item depression subscale of K-SADS-L; and (5) mean CGI improvement scores. RESULTS Paroxetine demonstrated significantly greater improvement compared with placebo in HAM-D total score < or = 8, HAM-D depressed mood item, K-SADS-L depressed mood item, and CGI score of 1 or 2. The response to imipramine was not significantly different from placebo for any measure. Neither paroxetine nor imipramine differed significantly from placebo on parent- or self-rating measures. Withdrawal rates for adverse effects were 9.7% and 6.9% for paroxetine and placebo, respectively. Of 31.5% of subjects stopping imipramine therapy because of adverse effects, nearly one third did so because of adverse cardiovascular effects. CONCLUSIONS Paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents.
Integration of SNP and mRNA Arrays with MicroRNA Profiling Reveals That MiR-370 Is Upregulated and Targets NF1 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Background Deregulated miRNA expression plays a crucial role in carcinogenesis. Recent studies show different mechanisms leading to miRNA deregulation in cancer; however, alterations affecting miRNAs by DNA copy number variations (CNV) remain poorly studied. Results Our integrative analysis including data from high resolution SNPs arrays, mRNA expression arrays, and miRNAs expression profiles in 16 myeloid cell lines highlights that CNV are alternative mechanisms to deregulate the expression of miRNAs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and represent a novel approach to identify novel candidate genes involved in AML. We found association between the expression levels of 19 miRNAs and CNVs affecting their loci. Functional analysis showed that NF1 is a direct target of miR-370, and that overexpression of miR-370 has similar effects that NF1 inactivation, increasing proliferation and colony formation in AML cells. Moreover, real time RT-PCR showed that NF1 downregulation is a recurrent event in AML (30.8%), and western blot analysis confirmed this result. MiR-370 overexpression and deletions affecting the NF1 locus were identified as alternative mechanisms to downregulate NF1. Conclusions NF1 downregulation is a common event in AML, and both deletions in the NF1 locus and overexpression of miR-370 are alternative mechanisms to downregulate NF1 in this disease. Our results suggest a leukemogenic role of miR-370 through NF1 downregulation in AML cells. Since NF1 deficiency leads to RAS activation, patients with AML and overexpression of miR-370 may potentially benefit from additional treatment with either RAS or mTOR inhibitors.
Intravascular ultrasound-guided percutaneous coronary interventions: an ongoing Odyssey?

Coronary angiography falls short in accurately delineating anatomy of epicardial vessels as it provides only a two-dimensional visualization of the lumen. 1 Moreover, angiographic lesion assessment is impeded in cases of diffuse disease of reference vessels, lesion foreshortening and eccentricity as well as overlap of several arterial branches. Conversely, intravascular ultrasound - a sound wave based technology - provides superior spatial resolution of 80-150 μm and extends diagnostic information enabling more precise assessment of lumen and vessel wall dimensions including atheroma burden and vessel remodeling.
Sinus augmentation analysis revised: the gradient of graft consolidation.

OBJECTIVE Graft consolidation follows a gradient that reflects the properties of bone substitutes at sites of sinus augmentation. Here we present an analytical method to investigate the process of graft consolidation taking the distance from the maxillary host bone into account. MATERIAL AND METHODS We therefore evaluated histological specimens, 6 and 12 weeks after the sinus of minipigs was augmented with Bio-Oss((R)), a deproteinized bovine bone mineral, and Ostim((R)), an aqueous paste of synthetic nanoparticular hydroxyapatite. A curve was drawn that represents the changes in histomorphometric parameters within a given distance from the maxillary host bone. RESULTS Based on this curve, three regions of interest were defined: R1 (0-1 mm) the bridging distance where new bone is laid onto the host bone, R2 (2-3 mm) a region of osteoconduction where new bone exclusively grows on the biomaterial, R3 (4-5 mm) and a region of osteoconduction where bone formation has reached its maximal extension. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the three regions can reveal differences in graft consolidation, depending on the bone substitutes and the observation period [Bone volume (BV) per tissue volume after 6 weeks: R1: 19+/-8.4% for Bio-Oss((R)) and 42.9+/-13.2% for Ostim((R)) (P=0.03), R2: 3+/-2.4% for Bio-Oss((R)) and 14.7+/-9.5% for Ostim((R)) (P=0.03), R3: 5+/-4.1% for Bio-Oss((R)) and 5.3+/-5.3% for Ostim((R)) (P=0.86). BV per tissue volume after 12 weeks: R1: 38.0+/-13.3% for Bio-Oss((R)) and 53.3+/-6.6 for Ostim((R)) (P=0.04), R2: 14+/-12.2 for Bio-Oss((R)) and 26.4+/-11 for Ostim((R)) (P=0.18), R3: 6.6+/-7 for Bio-Oss((R)) and 10.7+/-5.8 for Ostim((R)) (P=0.32) after 12 weeks]. CONCLUSION Based on the graft consolidation gradient, the impact of bone substitutes to modulate the process of bone formation and the kinetic of degradation within a distinct region of the augmented sinus can be investigated.
How Contents Influence Clustering Features in the Web

In World Wide Web, contents of web documents play important roles in the evolution process because of their effects on linking preference. A majority of topological properties are content-related, and among them the clustering features are sensitive to contents of Web documents. In this paper, we first observe the impacts of content similarity on web links by introducing a metric called Linkage Probability. Then we investigate how contents influence the formation mechanism of the most basic cluster, triangle, with a metric named Triangularization Probability. Experimental results indicate that content similarity has a positive function in the process of cluster formation in theWeb. Theoretical analysis predicts the contents influence on the clustering features in the Web very well.