Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3D Pictorial Structures on RGB-D Data for Articulated Human Detection in Operating Rooms

Reliable human pose estimation (HPE) is essential to many clinical applications, such as surgical workflow analysis, radiation safety monitoring and human-robot cooperation. Proposed methods for the operating room (OR) rely either on foreground estimation using a multi-camera system, which is a challenge in real ORs due to color similarities and frequent illumination changes, or on wearable sensors or markers, which are invasive and therefore difficult to introduce in the room. Instead, we propose a novel approach based on Pictorial Structures (PS) and on RGB-D data, which can be easily deployed in real ORs. We extend the PS framework in two ways. First, we build robust and discriminative part detectors using both color and depth images. We also present a novel descriptor for depth images, called histogram of depth differences (HDD). Second, we extend PS to 3D by proposing 3D pairwise constraints and a new method for exact and tractable inference. Our approach is evaluated for pose estimation and clinician detection on a challenging RGB-D dataset recorded in a busy operating room during live surgeries. We conduct series of experiments to study the different part detectors in conjunction with the various 2D or 3D pairwise constraints. Our comparisons demonstrate that 3D PS with RGB-D part detectors significantly improves the results in a visually challenging operating environment.
Mitochondria and Mitochondrial ROS in Cancer: Novel Targets for Anticancer Therapy

Mitochondria are indispensable for energy metabolism, apoptosis regulation, and cell signaling. Mitochondria in malignant cells differ structurally and functionally from those in normal cells and participate actively in metabolic reprogramming. Mitochondria in cancer cells are characterized by reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction, which promotes cancer development by inducing genomic instability, modifying gene expression, and participating in signaling pathways. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA mutations caused by oxidative damage that impair the oxidative phosphorylation process will result in further mitochondrial ROS production, completing the “vicious cycle” between mitochondria, ROS, genomic instability, and cancer development. The multiple essential roles of mitochondria have been utilized for designing novel mitochondria‐targeted anticancer agents. Selective drug delivery to mitochondria helps to increase specificity and reduce toxicity of these agents. In order to reduce mitochondrial ROS production, mitochondria‐targeted antioxidants can specifically accumulate in mitochondria by affiliating to a lipophilic penetrating cation and prevent mitochondria from oxidative damage. In consistence with the oncogenic role of ROS, mitochondria‐targeted antioxidants are found to be effective in cancer prevention and anticancer therapy. A better understanding of the role played by mitochondria in cancer development will help to reveal more therapeutic targets, and will help to increase the activity and selectivity of mitochondria‐targeted anticancer drugs. In this review we summarized the impact of mitochondria on cancer and gave summary about the possibilities to target mitochondria for anticancer therapies. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 2570–2581, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Inference of Population Splits and Mixtures from Genome-Wide Allele Frequency Data

Many aspects of the historical relationships between populations in a species are reflected in genetic data. Inferring these relationships from genetic data, however, remains a challenging task. In this paper, we present a statistical model for inferring the patterns of population splits and mixtures in multiple populations. In our model, the sampled populations in a species are related to their common ancestor through a graph of ancestral populations. Using genome-wide allele frequency data and a Gaussian approximation to genetic drift, we infer the structure of this graph. We applied this method to a set of 55 human populations and a set of 82 dog breeds and wild canids. In both species, we show that a simple bifurcating tree does not fully describe the data; in contrast, we infer many migration events. While some of the migration events that we find have been detected previously, many have not. For example, in the human data, we infer that Cambodians trace approximately 16% of their ancestry to a population ancestral to other extant East Asian populations. In the dog data, we infer that both the boxer and basenji trace a considerable fraction of their ancestry (9% and 25%, respectively) to wolves subsequent to domestication and that East Asian toy breeds (the Shih Tzu and the Pekingese) result from admixture between modern toy breeds and “ancient” Asian breeds. Software implementing the model described here, called TreeMix, is available at http://treemix.googlecode. com.
A Policy-Based School Intervention to Prevent Overweight and Obesity

BACKGROUND. The prevalence and seriousness of childhood obesity has prompted calls for broad public health solutions that reach beyond clinic settings. Schools are ideal settings for population-based interventions to address obesity. OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this work was to examine the effects of a multicomponent, School Nutrition Policy Initiative on the prevention of overweight (85.0th to 94.9th percentile) and obesity (>95.0th percentile) among children in grades 4 through 6 over a 2-year period. METHODS. Participants were 1349 students in grades 4 through 6 from 10 schools in a US city in the Mid-Atlantic region with ≥50% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Schools were matched on school size and type of food service and randomly assigned to intervention or control. Students were assessed at baseline and again after 2 years. The School Nutrition Policy Initiative included the following components: school self-assessment, nutrition education, nutrition policy, social marketing, and parent outreach. RESULTS. The incidences of overweight and obesity after 2 years were primary outcomes. The prevalence and remission of overweight and obesity, BMI z score, total energy and fat intake, fruit and vegetable consumption, body dissatisfaction, and hours of activity and inactivity were secondary outcomes. The intervention resulted in a 50% reduction in the incidence of overweight. Significantly fewer children in the intervention schools (7.5%) than in the control schools (14.9%) became overweight after 2 years. The prevalence of overweight was lower in the intervention schools. No differences were observed in the incidence or prevalence of obesity or in the remission of overweight or obesity at 2 years. CONCLUSION. A multicomponent school-based intervention can be effective in preventing the development of overweight among children in grades 4 through 6 in urban public schools with a high proportion of children eligible for free and reduced-priced school meals.
Retrieval Success is Accompanied by Enhanced Activation in Anterior Prefrontal Cortex During Recognition Memory: An Event-Related fMRI Study

Neural regions associated with retrieval success were identified using event-related fMRI procedures and randomly ordered trials on a recognition memory test. Differences between hits and correct rejections (CRs) occurred in multiple regions, including bilateral anterior and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral inferior parietal cortex, and right superior parietal cortex (all hits > CRs), and right occipital cortex (CRs > hits). The hit > CR pattern is not compromised by time-on-task explanations because response latencies for correctly rejected words exceeded those for hits. Converging evidence for the claim that the hit > CR pattern identified neural correlates of retrieval success was obtained by unconfounding item history and retrieval success. That is, we implemented a third condition in which nonstudied words were presented, yet retrieval success was hypothesized to facilitate CRs of these lures. Specifically, when confronted with a familiar, yet nonstudied word, (e.g., nosedive after studying nosebleed and skydive), subjects might adopt a strategy whereby they recall the studied word(s) that gave rise to the familiarity (nosebleed, skydive) and thereby reject the lure. This method of instantiating retrieval success under conditions in which the target word had not been studied offers converging evidence for the claim that anterior-prefrontal cortex (among other regions) demonstrates enhanced activation during retrieval success.
Optimization of SVM MultiClass by Particle Swarm (PSO-SVM)

In many problems of classification, the performances of a classifier are often evaluated by a factor (rate of error). the factor is not well adapted for the complex real problems, in particular the problems multiclass. Our contribution consists in adapting an evolutionary method for optimization of this factor. Among the methods of optimization used we chose the method PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) which makes it possible to optimize the performance of classifier SVM (Separating with Vast Margin). The experiments are carried out on corpus TIMIT. The results obtained show that approach PSO-SVM gives a better classification in terms of accuracy even though the execution time is increased.
The impact of radio feedback from active galactic nuclei in cosmological simulations: formation of disc galaxies

In this paper, we present a new implementation of feedback due to active galactic nuclei (AGN) in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. We assume that a fraction of jet energy, which is generated by an AGN, is transferred to the surrounding gas as thermal energy. Combining a theoretical model of mass accretion onto black holes with a multiphase description of star-forming gas, we self-consistently fol low evolution of both galaxies and their central black holes. The novelty in our model is that we consider two distinct accretion modes: standard radiatively efficient thin accretion disks and radiatively inefficient accretion flows which we will generically refer to as RIAFs; motivated b y theoretical models for jet production in accretion disks, we assume that only the RIAF is responsible for the AGN feedback. The focus of this paper is to investigate the interplay betwe en galaxies and their central black holes during the formation of a disc galaxy. We find that, afte r an initial episode of bursting star formation, the accretion rate onto the central black ho le drops so that the accretion disk switches to a RIAF structure. At this point, the feedback from the AGN becomes efficient and slightly suppresses star formation in the galactic disk and almost completely halts star formation in the bulge. This suppression of the star formation regulates mass accretion onto the black hole and associated AGN feedback. As a result, the nucleus becomes a stochastically fuelled low-luminosity AGN (Seyfert galaxy) with recurrent short-lived episodes of activity after the star bursts. During the “on” events the AGN produces reasonably powerful jets (radio-loud state) and is less luminous than the hos t galaxy, while in the “off” phase the nucleus is inactive and “radio-quiet”. Our model predicts several properties of the lowluminosity AGN including the bolometric luminosity, jet powers, the effect on kpc-scale of the radio jet and the AGN lifetime, which are in broad agreement with observations of Seyfert galaxies and their radio activity. We also find that the ratio s between the central black hole mass and the mass of the host spheroid at z = 0 are � 10 3 regardless of the strength of either supernova feedback or AGN feedback because the radiation drag model directly relates the star formation activity in the galactic centre and the ma ss accretion rate onto the central black hole.
Inflammation Biomarkers of Advanced Disease in Nongingival Tissues of Chronic Periodontitis Patients

Chronic periodontitis is a multifactorial inflammatory disease that affects supporting structures of the teeth. Although the gingival response is largely described, little is known about the immune changes in the alveolar bone and neighboring tissues that could indicate periodontal disease (PD) activity. Then, in this study we identified the ongoing inflammatory changes and novel biomarkers for periodontitis in the tissues directly affected by the destructive disease in PD patients. Samples were collected by osteotomy in 17 control subjects during extraction of third molars and 18 patients with advanced PD, in which alveoloplasty was necessary after extraction of teeth with previous extensive periodontal damage. Patients presented mononuclear cells infiltration in the connective tissue next to the bone and higher fibrosis area, along with increased accumulation of IL-17+ and TRAP+ cells. The levels of TNF-α and MMP-2 mRNA were also elevated compared to controls and a positive and significant correlation was observed between TNF-α and MMP-2 mRNA expression, considering all samples evaluated. In conclusion, nongingival tissues neighboring large periodontal pockets present inflammatory markers that could predict ongoing bone resorption and disease spreading. Therefore, we suggested that the detailed evaluation of these regions could be of great importance to the assessment of disease progression.
Evolution of Microstructure and Residual Stress under Various Vibration Modes in 304 Stainless Steel Welds

Simultaneous vibration welding of 304 stainless steel was carried out with an eccentric circulating vibrator and a magnetic telescopic vibrator at subresonant (362 Hz and 59.3 Hz) and resonant (376 Hz and 60.9 Hz) frequencies. The experimental results indicate that the temperature gradient can be increased, accelerating nucleation and causing grain refinement during this process. During simultaneous vibration welding primary δ-ferrite can be refined and the morphologies of retained δ-ferrite become discontinuous so that δ-ferrite contents decrease. The smallest content of δ-ferrite (5.5%) occurred using the eccentric circulating vibrator. The diffraction intensities decreased and the FWHM widened with both vibration and no vibration. A residual stress can obviously be increased, producing an excellent effect on stress relief at a resonant frequency. The stress relief effect with an eccentric circulating vibrator was better than that obtained using a magnetic telescopic vibrator.
BMI, Waist Circumference Reference Values for Chinese School-Aged Children and Adolescents

Background: Childhood obesity has become one of the most serious public health challenges in the 21st century in most developing countries. The percentile curve tool is useful for monitoring and screening obesity at population level, however, in China, no official recommendations on childhood body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) reference percentiles have been made in practice. Aims: to construct the percentile reference values for BMI and WC, and then to calculate the prevalence of overall and abdominal obesity for Chinese children and adolescents. Methods: A total of 5062 anthropometric records for children and adolescents aged from 7 to 18 years (2679 boys and 2383 girls) were included for analysis. The participants were recruited as part of the national representative “China Health and Nutrition Survey” (CHNS). Age, gender, weight, height, and WC were assessed. Smoothed BMI and WC percentile curves and values for the 3rd, 5th, 10th, 15th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 85th, 90th, 95th and 97th percentiles were constructed by using the Lambda-Mu-Sigma (LMS) method. The prevalence estimates of the overall and abdominal obesity were calculated by using the cut-offs from our CHNS study and the previous “Chinese National Survey on Students’ Constitution and Health” (CNSSCH) study, respectively. The difference between prevalence estimates was tested by a McNemar test, and the agreement between these prevalence estimates was calculated by using the Cohen’s kappa coefficient. Results: The prevalence values of overall obesity based on the cut-offs from CHNS and CNSSCH studies were at an almost perfect agreement level in boys (κ = 0.93). However, among girls, the overall obesity prevalence differed between the studies (p < 0.001) and the agreement was weaker (κ = 0.76). The abdominal obesity prevalence estimates were significant different according to the two systems both in boys and girls, although the agreement reached to 0.88, which represented an almost perfect agreement level. Conclusions: This study provided new BMI and WC percentile curves and reference values for Chinese children and adolescents aged 7–18 years, which can be adopted in future researches. Large longitudinal study is still needed to reveal the childhood growth pattern and validate the inconsistence between different percentile studies.
Extragalactic Jets: Theory and Observation from Radio to Gamma Ray Asp Conference Series, Vol. **volume**, **year of Publication** the Continuing Saga of the Explosive Event(s) in the M87 Jet: Is M87 a Blazar?

We review the recent data on the knot HST-1 in the M87 jet in the context of typical blazar behavior. In particular we discuss the wide-band flare of 2005 which peaked at a factor of 50 to 80 times the intensity observed in 2000; the superluminal radio features; and the arguments that support the hypothesis that HST-1 was the source of the excess TeV emission found by H.E. S.S. in 2005. To the extent that M87 can be classified as a blazar, perhaps observed at a somewhat larger angle to the line of sight compared to most blazars, all of these blazar properties originate at a distance greater than 100 pc from the nucleus, and thus cannot be associated with the location of the 'launching of the jet'.
Nitric Oxide–Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase–Cyclic GMP Signaling in the Striatum: New Targets for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease?

Striatal nitric oxide (NO)-producing interneurons play an important role in the regulation of corticostriatal synaptic transmission and motor behavior. Striatal NO synthesis is driven by concurrent activation of NMDA and dopamine (DA) D1 receptors. NO diffuses into the dendrites of medium-sized spiny neurons which contain high levels of NO receptors called soluble guanylyl cyclases (sGC). NO-mediated activation of sGC leads to the synthesis of the second messenger cGMP. In the intact striatum, transient elevations in intracellular cGMP primarily act to increase neuronal excitability and to facilitate glutamatergic corticostriatal transmission. NO–cGMP signaling also functionally opposes the inhibitory effects of DA D2 receptor activation on corticostriatal transmission. Not surprisingly, abnormal striatal NO–sGC–cGMP signaling becomes apparent following striatal DA depletion, an alteration thought to contribute to pathophysiological changes observed in basal ganglia circuits in Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we discuss recent developments in the field which have shed light on the role of NO–sGC–cGMP signaling pathways in basal ganglia dysfunction and motor symptoms associated with PD and l-DOPA-induced dyskinesias.
Molecular Cancer Epigenetic Crbp Downregulation Appears to Be an Evolutionarily Conserved (human and Mouse) and Oncogene-specific Phenomenon in Breast Cancer

Background: The cellular retinol binding protein I gene (CRBP) is downregulated in a subset of human breast cancers and in MMTV-Myc induced mouse mammary tumors. Functional studies suggest that CRBP downregulation contributes to breast tumor progression. What is the mechanism underlying CRBP downregulation in cancer? Here we investigated the hypothesis that CRBP is epigenetically silenced through DNA hypermethylation in human and mouse breast cancer.
Guttman Scale Analysis and its use to explain Cultural Evolution and Social Change

Guttman scale analysis is a very useful tool to understand the evolution of societies. It shows the accumulation of cultural traits throughout history in various societies and that those cultural traits were usually accumulated in the same order. The results of studies, by Robert Carneiro and others, shows the accumulation of cultural traits is not random and indicates a universal pattern in cultural evolution. The universal pattern is caused by increasing human knowledge of the environment we live in. Human societies usually acquire this knowledge in the same order, with easier discoveries concerning the natural world being made earlier than more complex discoveries. This means human social and cultural history, usually follows a particular course, a course that is determined by the structure of the human environment.
Environmental transfers against global warming: a credit-based program

This paper investigates the impacts of institutionalising a credit-based transfer program between developing and developed countries. Such a program is expected to become an essence of the Clean Development Mechanism in the Kyoto protocol. The provisions of financial and technological transfers are incorporated simultaneously into a dynamic game model of global stock pollution, where the efficiency in emission abatement is also described as a stock variable. Our numerical simulation indicates that a credit-based transfer program can be more beneficial for a recipient country as well as for a donor country, than a non-credit-based transfer program.
Stationary perturbation configurations in a composite system of stellar and coplanarly magnetized gaseous singular isothermal discs

We construct aligned and unaligned stationary perturbation configurations in a composite system of stellar and coplanarly magnetized gaseous singular isothermal discs (SIDs) coupled by gravity. This study extends recent analyses on (magnetized) SIDs by Shu et al., Lou and Lou & Shen. By this model, we intend to provide a conceptual framework to gain insights for multiwavelength large-scale structural observations of disc galaxies. Both SIDs are approximated to be razor thin and are in a self-consistent axisymmetric background equilibrium with power-law surface mass densities and flat rotation curves. The gaseous SID is embedded with a coplanar azimuthal magnetic field B θ (r) of a radial scaling r -1/2 that is not force-free. In comparison with the SID problems studied earlier, there are three possible classes of stationary solutions allowed by more dynamic freedoms. To identify physical solutions, we explore parameter space involving three dimensionless parameters: ratio λ of Alfven speed to sound speed in the magnetized gaseous SID; ratio β of the square of the stellar velocity dispersion to the gas sound speed; and ratio δ of the surface mass densities of the two SIDs. For both aligned and unaligned spiral cases with azimuthal periodicities |m| ≥ 2, one of the three solution branches is always physical, while the other two branches might become invalid when β exceeds certain critical values. For the onset criteria from an axisymmetric equilibrium to aligned secular bar-like instabilities, the corresponding T/|W - M| ratio, which varies with λ, β and δ, may be considerably lower than the oft-quoted value of T/|W| ∼ 0.14, where T is the total kinetic energy, W is the total gravitational potential energy and M is the total magnetic energy. For unaligned spiral cases, we examine marginal instabilities for axisymmetric (|m| = 0) and non-axisymmetric (|m| > 0) disturbances. The resulting marginal stability curves differ from the previous ones. The case of a composite partial magnetized SID system is also investigated to include the gravitational effect of an axisymmetric dark matter halo on the SID equilibrium. We further examine the phase relationship among the mass densities of the two SIDs and azimuthal magnetic field perturbation. Our exact global perturbation solutions and critical points are valuable for testing numerical magnetohydrodynamic codes. For galactic applications, our model analysis contains more realistic elements and offers useful insights into the structures and dynamics of disc galaxies consisting of stars and magnetized gas.