Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classify 3D voxel based point-cloud using convolutional neural network on a neural compute stick

With the recent surge in popularity of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), motivated by their significant performance in many classification and related tasks, a new challenge now needs to be addressed: how to accommodate CNNs in mobile devices, such as drones, smartphones, and similar low-power devices? In order to tackle this challenge we exploit the Vision Processing Unit (VPU) that combines dedicated CNN hardware blocks and very high power efficiency. The lack of readily available training data and memory requirements are two of the factors hindering the training and accuracy performance of 3D CNNs. In this paper, we propose a method for generating synthetic 3D point-clouds from realistic CAD scene models (based on the ModelNet10 dataset), in order to enrich the training process for volumetric CNNs. Furthermore, an efficient 3D volumetric object representation (VOLA) is employed. VOLA (Volumetric Accelerator) is a sexaquaternary (power-of-four subdivision) tree-based representation which allows for significant memory saving for volumetric data. Multiple CNN models were trained and the top performing model was ported to the Fathom Neural Compute Stick (NCS). Among the trained CNN models, the maximum test accuracy achieved is 91.3%. After deployment on the Fathom NCS, it takes 11ms (∼ 90 frames per second) to perform inference on each input volume, with a reported power requirement of 1.2W which leads to 75.75 inference per second per Watt.
Comparative health assessment of urban and non-urban free-ranging mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in southeastern British Columbia, Canada

Background The provincial wildlife management agency, British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, performed a translocation to control the urban mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus; uMD) overpopulation and supplement the declining non-urban mule deer (nuMD) population in the Kootenay region, British Columbia, Canada. The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to evaluate the health of the urban and nuMD populations by comparing pathogen exposure, body condition scores (BCS) and pregnancy rates, to characterize the health risks associated with the translocation and to investigate the role of infectious diseases in the decline of the nuMD deer population. Methods Two hundred free-ranging mule deer were captured in urban and non-urban environments in the Kootenay region from 2014 to 2017. BCS and morphometric examinations were performed for each deer. Blood samples collected from each deer were tested for exposure to selected pathogens and pregnancy status. Results Body condition scores averaged 3.4 on a five-point scale, was greater in nuMD, and significantly differed between years. Antibodies were detected for adenovirus hemorrhagic disease virus (38.4% (uMD 43.7%, nuMD 33.3%)), bluetongue virus (0.6% (uMD 1.2%, nuMD 0%)), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (8.4% (uMD 4.6%, nuMD 12.1%)), bovine viral diarrhea virus (1.1% (uMD 0%, nuMD 2.2%)), bovine parainfluenza-3 virus (27.0% (uMD 27.6%, nuMD 26.4%)), Neospora caninum (22.1% (uMD 24.4%, nuMD 19.7%)) and Toxoplasma gondii (8.2% (uMD 12.3%, nuMD 3.9%)). No antibodies against epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus were detected. Pregnancy rates did not differ between the two deer populations (90.7% (uMD 90.6%, nuMD 90.9%)). Exposure to N. caninum was associated with a reduced probability of being pregnant. uMD were more likely to be exposed to T. gondii than nuMD. Discussion Comparison of BCS, pregnancy rates and pathogen exposure of uMD and nuMD showed that the health of the two populations did not significantly differ, suggesting uMD translocations do not pose a severe risk of pathogen transmission between mule deer populations and that these selected pathogens do not factor in the decline of the nuMD population. However, inclusion of additional health indicators and creation of a robust predictive disease model are warranted to further characterize the health of mule deer and the health risks associated with uMD translocations. These results should be considered as part of a formal risk assessment for future uMD translocations in southeastern British Columbia.
Emotion Representation Mapping for Automatic Lexicon Construction (Mostly) Performs on Human Level

Emotion Representation Mapping (ERM) has the goal to convert existing emotion ratings from one representation format into another one, e.g., mapping Valence-Arousal-Dominance annotations for words or sentences into Ekman’s Basic Emotions and vice versa. ERM can thus not only be considered as an alternative to Word Emotion Induction (WEI) techniques for automatic emotion lexicon construction but may also help mitigate problems that come from the proliferation of emotion representation formats in recent years. We propose a new neural network approach to ERM that not only outperforms the previous state-of-the-art. Equally important, we present a refined evaluation methodology and gather strong evidence that our model yields results which are (almost) as reliable as human annotations, even in cross-lingual settings. Based on these results we generate new emotion ratings for 13 typologically diverse languages and claim that they have near-gold quality, at least.
Melatonin significantly influences seed germination and seedling growth of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni

Background Melatonin (MEL) is a signaling molecule in plants that affects developmental processes during vegetative and reproductive growth. Investigations have proved that exogenously applied MEL also has the potential to improve seed germination and plant development. Methods In the present study, seeds of stevia, a species with a very low germination rate, were germinated on an agar gel (AG) containing MEL at various concentrations (5, 20, 100, and 500 µM) in light. Seeds germinated on AG without MEL were used as controls. For the first 24 or 48 h of germination, the seeds were maintained in darkness as a pre-incubation step. Some seeds were not exposed to this pre-incubation step. Results At concentrations of 20 and 5 µM, MEL significantly improved germination, but only in seeds pre-incubated in darkness for 24 h (p < 0.001). At concentrations of 100 and 500 µM, MEL had an inhibitory effect on germination, regardless of the pre-incubation time. Melatonin also affected plantlet properties. At a concentration of 20 µM, MEL increased plantlet fresh weight and leaf numbers. At a concentration of 5 µM, it promoted plantlet height. Regarding root development, the most favorable MEL concentration was 500 µM. Biochemical analysis revealed that MEL promoted higher pigment concentrations but hampered superoxide dismutase activity. On the other hand, the concentrations of sugars and phenolics, as well as the activities of catalase and peroxidase, increased at a MEL concentration of 500 µM. Discussion The results suggest that MEL can improve germination of positively photoblastic stevia seeds and that it can play a role in plantlet development. However, the effects observed in the present study depended on the quantity of MEL that was applied.
Unsticking the Wi-Fi Client: Smarter Decisions Using a Software Defined Wireless Solution

This paper presents a novel software-defined wireless network architecture that integrates coordination mechanisms to enhance the capabilities of a set of central managed Wi-Fi access points (APs). The global architecture is presented in detail, where the handoff mechanism is integrated with a set of active and passive monitoring tools and other functionalities, resulting in a solution that is able to provide smart functionalities using low-cost commercial APs. The framework includes a central controller that has all the information available, and is therefore able to make smart decisions about the assignment of clients to APs. This avoids the problem of the “sticky client” that remains connected to the original AP it is associated with, rather than moving to a nearby AP, which would be a better choice. Two different test scenarios are used to compare a proactive and a reactive handoff mechanism in realistic conditions, with different walking speeds. The results illustrate the advantage of the proactive handoff, as it is more scalable and allows a better integration with other functionalities such as load balancing. The delay incurred by the handoff between APs in different channels is measured with three wireless devices, using five values for the inter-beacon time, proving that fast and seamless handoffs are possible in the scenario. The paper shows that these advanced functionalities, usually available in proprietary solutions, can also be achieved using off-the-shelf equipment.
Extracting Tree-structures in CT data by Tracking Multiple Statistically Ranked Hypotheses

PURPOSE In this work, we adapt a method based on multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) that has been shown to give state-of-the-art vessel segmentation results in interactive settings, for the purpose of extracting trees. METHODS Regularly spaced tubular templates are fit to image data forming local hypotheses. These local hypotheses are then used to construct the MHT tree, which is then traversed to make segmentation decisions. Some critical parameters in the method, we base ours on, are scale-dependent and have an adverse effect when tracking structures of varying dimensions. We propose to use statistical ranking of local hypotheses in constructing the MHT tree which yields a probabilistic interpretation of scores across scales and helps alleviate the scale-dependence of MHT parameters. This enables our method to track trees starting from a single seed point. RESULTS The proposed method is evaluated on chest CT data to extract airway trees and coronary arteries and compared to relevant baselines. In both cases, we show that our method performs significantly better than the Original MHT method in semi-automatic setting. CONCLUSIONS The statistical ranking of local hypotheses introduced allows the MHT method to be used in non-interactive settings yielding competitive results for segmenting tree-structures. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
A review of design characteristics of cognitive behavioral therapy-informed behavioral intervention technologies for youth with depression and anxiety

Objective Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has the strongest evidence base for the prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety in youth. Behavioral intervention technologies (BITs) provide an opportunity to overcome access barriers to traditional delivery of CBT. The present review evaluates the design characteristics of CBT-informed BITs for depression and anxiety designed for and tested with youth. Methods A state-of-the-art review of three library databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) was conducted to identify papers that evaluated the use of CBT-informed BITs for the prevention and/or treatment of depression and anxiety among youth. Narrative results of design characteristics were organized using the BIT model, which provides a framework for design and evaluation. Results 219 unique results were retrieved through the search. After review, 14 papers (4 prevention and 10 treatment) met the selection criteria. A broad diversity occurred in reporting the design and methodology of CBT delivered to youth through BITs. Psychoeducation was overwhelmingly utilized as the primary change strategy throughout the interventions, with a heavy use of content delivery elements and linear workflows. The reporting of sample characteristics was minimal and varied. Conclusions Providing psychoeducation via content delivery was the most utilized BIT change strategy in the interventions, likely limiting the use of multiple BIT elements or flexible workflows. While characterizations could be inferred from the current reports, the high level of variability in reporting is problematic. Generalizability becomes increasingly more difficult to carry out effectively without clear descriptions of the design for evaluated BITs.
Regulatory Dendritic Cells Induced by Mesenchymal Stem Cells Ameliorate Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Chronic Colitis in Mice

Background/Aims Regulatory dendritic cells (rDCs), which can be induced by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), play an important role in inducing and maintaining homeostasis of regulatory T cells and exhibit anti-inflammatory functions. In this study, we investigated whether MSCs could differentiate DCs into rDCs and compared the therapeutic effects of rDCs and MSCs on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced chronic colitis mice. Methods Immature DCs (imDCs) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated mature DCs (mDCs) were co-cultured with MSCs for 48 hours, and then the profiles of surface markers and cytokines and regulatory roles of these DCs for primary splenocytes were analyzed. In addition, the therapeutic effects of MSCs and DCs co-cultured with MSCs were compared in chronic colitis mice. Results After co-culture of imDCs (MSC-DCs) or LPS-treated mDCs (LPS+MSC-DCs) with MSCs, the expression of CD11c, CD80, CD86, interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ), was decreased, but that of CD11b, IL-10, and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) was increased. Furthermore, MSC-DCs and LPS+MSC-DCs induced the expression of CD4, CD25, and Foxp3 in primary splenocytes isolated from mice. In DSS-induced colitis mice, MSCs and MSC-DCs increased colon length, body weight, and survival rate and induced histological improvement. Moreover, in the colon tissues, the expression of IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-γ decreased, but that of IL-10, TGF-β, and Foxp3 increased in the MSC- and MSC-DC-injected groups. Conclusions Our data suggest that MSCs differentiate DCs into rDCs, which ameliorate chronic colitis. Thus, rDCs stimulated by MSCs may be therapeutically useful for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.
Physicians’ real-world experience with IDegLira: results of a European survey

Objective This study aimed to build on the current clinical findings and investigate physicians’ experiences and level of satisfaction in using insulin degludec/liraglutide (IDegLira) to treat patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Research design and methods This multicountry, European online survey included respondents from primary (n=132) and secondary (n=103) care and examined physicians’ use, confidence and satisfaction with IDegLira. To standardize responses, 24 of 28 questions pertained to an ‘average patient’ with T2D who has no major comorbidities, aged 35–70 years, with average cognitive ability/normal mental status and body mass index ≥25 kg/m2. Results The majority (70%) of respondents prescribe IDegLira in the same visit they first mention it, with uncontrolled glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (44%) and weight gain (22%) being the most common reasons. On average, physicians reported that patients weighed 95 kg and the HbA1c level was 9.0% at initiation. Physicians also reported the average HbA1c target set was 7.1%; 76% of patients achieved their target. On average, patients achieved their HbA1c target in <6 months, and the average dose of IDegLira in patients in glycemic control was 28 dose steps. Respondents were more satisfied with IDegLira than basal-bolus therapy across all parameters assessed, including reaching HbA1c targets (59%), number of injections (77%) and avoiding weight gain (84%). Correspondingly, 77% of physicians reported that IDegLira had more potential to improve patient motivation compared with basal-bolus to reach target blood glucose levels. Conclusions Real-world experience of IDegLira is consistent with previous trials/studies, with no major differences between primary and secondary care. Importantly, the majority of respondents were more/much more satisfied with IDegLira than with basal-bolus therapy.
Phosphatases control PKA-dependent functional microdomains at the outer mitochondrial membrane

Significance The selective phosphorylation of spatially distinct PKA targets is key for the pleiotropy of the cAMP cascade. This characteristic of the pathway is currently attributed to the ability of phosphodiesterases or adenylate cyclases to create subcellular sites (microdomains) where the concentration of cAMP is distinct from that of the surrounding areas. The role of phosphatases in this process has not been tested. Here we show that limited access of phosphatases to the PKA targets present at the outer mitochondrial membrane generates distinct microdomains of PKA phosphorylated proteins despite there being no differences in the local cAMP levels. These results describe an alternative mechanism capable of generating functional cAMP/PKA-dependent microdomains and may be extrapolated to the compartmentalization of other kinase-dependent events. Evidence supporting the heterogeneity in cAMP and PKA signaling is rapidly accumulating and has been largely attributed to the localization or activity of adenylate cyclases, phosphodiesterases, and A-kinase–anchoring proteins in different cellular subcompartments. However, little attention has been paid to the possibility that, despite homogeneous cAMP levels, a major heterogeneity in cAMP/PKA signaling could be generated by the spatial distribution of the final terminators of this cascade, i.e., the phosphatases. Using FRET-based sensors to monitor cAMP and PKA-dependent phosphorylation in the cytosol and outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) of primary rat cardiomyocytes, we demonstrate that comparable cAMP increases in these two compartments evoke higher levels of PKA-dependent phosphorylation in the OMM. This difference is most evident for small, physiological increases of cAMP levels and with both OMM-located probes and endogenous OMM proteins. We demonstrate that this disparity depends on differences in the rates of phosphatase-dependent dephosphorylation of PKA targets in the two compartments. Furthermore, we show that the activity of soluble phosphatases attenuates PKA-driven activation of the cAMP response element-binding protein while concurrently enhancing PKA-dependent mitochondrial elongation. We conclude that phosphatases can sculpt functionally distinct cAMP/PKA domains even in the absence of gradients or microdomains of this messenger. We present a model that accounts for these unexpected results in which the degree of PKA-dependent phosphorylation is dictated by both the subcellular distribution of the phosphatases and the different accessibility of membrane-bound and soluble phosphorylated substrates to the cytosolic enzymes.
The potential dangers of neck manipulation & risk for dissection and devastating stroke: An illustrative case & review of the literature

Chiropractic cervical manipulation is a common practice utilized around the world. Most patients are never cleared medically for manipulation, which can be devastating for those few who are at increased risk for dissections. The high velocity thrust used in cervical manipulation can produce significant strain on carotid and vertebral vessels. Once a dissection has occurred, the risk of thrombus formation, ischemic stroke, paralysis, and even death is drastically increased. In this case report, we highlight a case of a 32-year-old woman who underwent chiropractic manipulation and had vertebral artery dissection with subsequent brainstem infarct. She quickly deteriorated and passed away shortly after arrival to the hospital. Although rare, one in 48 chiropractors have experienced such an event. We utilize this case to highlight the risk associated with cervical manipulation and urge open dialogue between chiropractors and physicians. Receiving medical clearance prior to cervical manipulation in potential at risk patients would drastically reduce morbidity and mortality.
Analyzing healthcare big data for patient satisfaction

Healthcare Big Data (HBD) is more complex than Big Data (BD) arising from any other critical sector because a variety of data sources and procedures are followed in traditional hospital settings and in healthcare network (e-Health). In order to achieve their primary goal, which is to enhance patient experience while sustaining dependable care within financial viability and respect for government regulations, the HBD should be analyzed to determine patent satisfaction level. In general, there exists no accepted method yet in measuring patient satisfaction. The traditional approach for evaluating hospital-based healthcare is through a statistical analysis of responses of clients to a survey, often conducted by a third party. Such methods are often infected with incomplete information, inaccurate hypothesis, and error-prone analysis. Analyzing data generated through automated healthcare networks for assessing the effectiveness of service provision and patient satisfaction are more challenging. It is in this context that we discuss in this paper factors that contribute to patient satisfaction, and propose an algorithmic method to assess it from HBD analysis.
"Quality" vs. "Readability" in Document Images: Statistical Analysis of Human Perception

Based on the hypothesis that a good / poor quality document image is most probably a readable / unreadable document, document image quality and readability have interchangeably been used in the literature. These two terms, however, have different meanings implying two different perspectives of looking at document images by human being. In document images, the level of quality and the degree of readability may have a relation / correlation considering human perception. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no specific study to characterise this relation and also validate the abovementioned hypothesis. In this work, at first, we created a dataset composed of mostly camera-based document images with various distortion levels. Each document image has then been assessed with regard to two different measures, the level of quality and the degree of readability, by different individuals. A detailed Normalised Cross Correlation analysis along with different statistical analysis based on Shapiro-Wilks and Wilcoxon tests has further been provided to demonstrate how document image quality and readability are linked. Our findings indicate that the quality and readability were somewhat different in terms of the population distributions. However, the correlation between quality and readability was 0.99, which implies document quality and readability are highly correlated based on human perception.